Coach Jeremy5 Tips That Will Help You Score More Goals This Season
One thing every player, coach and parent likes is more goals. Every hockey player loves to score goals, especially in clinch situations like the playoffs and overtime. The moments that are created when a hockey player scores a game changing, or game winning goal are the moments that will last a life time. This is why it is important to learn how to score goals. Practicing your shooting and stick handling is a great way to score more goals, however by learning new tricks and techniques you will be able to learn faster and improve faster. This is why it is important to not only practice hockey, but also research and learn how to be better at hockey, and that is why I wrote this article, to help you become a better hockey player. So here is the list I have compiled
- Shoot the Puck
- This is nothing new but still a point that should be driven home. It is no coincidence that 10 out of the 10 forwards in the NHL with the most shots ever all have over 600 goals. Don’t try to make every goal a pretty one, every goal counts whether it is a beautiful dangle or a fluke shot that goes in. If you see a shot, take it. Even if you don’t score your team mates can pick up rebounds making more scoring opportunities.
- Be Creative
- Shoot for different spot, you don’t have to shoot top shelf every time, if you do the goalie will be expecting this and your shot will be even easier to stop. Do something different, I found (a little to late) that a lot of good goalies love to make glove saves, you make them really mad when you slide a hard, low shot right in one of the bottom corners. Goalies expect good players to score flashy goals, try taking a quick shot down low, some goalies cannot get into the butterfly quick enough to stop it.
- Shoot five hole – This is great if you are in close and the goalie does not have time to close his legs in time, when you are in close and you see the legs open hammer the puck through.
- Know the Goalie
- Watching the goalie can be a great advantage to you and your team. When I was younger I would take a minute (or ask my coach or parent) to watch the other teams goalie during the warm up. The other teams goaltender will be trying to stop a lot of shots, so if you see where most of them go in then you know the goalies weak spots and you can shoot there during the game. Also a lot of the players on the other team will know their goalies weak spot and shoot for it during warm-up because they like to score goals even in the warm up.
- Read Your Players
- Knowing your team mates is a great way to get more goals. If you know when to go to the net, when to set up for a give and go, and when to hang back for a drop pass you will definitely get more scoring opportunities.
- Use your brain – Hockey is a team sport, don’t just go out on the ice and turn your brain off. You should ALWAYS be thinking when you play, believe it or not if you make an effort to think, you will get more goals thinking about where you should be, where your team mates are going, where the puck is going, and how the goalie will react, will help you make decisions that will lead to more goals.
- Don’t Telegraph Your Shot
- I think this is one of the most important tips to know and practice. Many players, without knowing it, tell the goalie or defensemen exactly when they are going to shoot, or deke, or pass. Good goalies pick up on these subtle (sometimes not so subtle) hints allowing them to stop your shot, robbing you of more goals. Here are some tips that will help keep the goalie thinking
- Don’t approach the net with the puck in front of you. If you are on a breakaway and you have the puck in front of you then the goalie will know you are going to deke, once you bring the puck to your shooting side then the goalie knows you are going to shoot. If you come in on the goalie stickhandling on your shooting side you can deke, pass, drop pass, or shoot. Giving the goalie more to think about
- Don’t break your stride. Here is a neat little trick that many pure goal scorers possess. A lot of players come in skating, pause, draw the puck back, and then shoot. You can still score goals like this, but it gives the goalie that much more time to react. The best goal scorers can put the puck in the back of the net before the goalie can blink, this is because they do not break their stride when they skate (I will have a video demonstrating this later)
- Try not to stare at where you are shooting. Believe it or not goalies will notice this. Take a look at where you are shooting, but don’t make it really obvious, many times this is why backhand shots go in. The player and the goalie do not know where it is going!
I hope these tips will help you score more goals in hockey. Keep an eye out for my next article called – 5 Traits Every Pure Goal Scorer Possesses. If you would like to get more articles like this when I post them you can enter your email address in the box to the left. You will get tips like this sent right to your inbox whenever they are posted on the site.
