Coach JeremyEveryone wants better hands, and what better place to look for the best drills than the NHL. The problem is you can’t really call up Pavel Datsyuk or Patrick Kane and ask “Hey bud, what drills are you doing to improve?” (The 2nd problem is the best drills for a pro aren’t necessarily the best drills for YOU, but we’ll get to that later)
Luckily for you I’ve found some stickhandling drills that are commonly used by professional hockey players. Will you be able to do them? Maybe not right away, but I’d bet that with 30 minutes of deliberate practice for about a month straight you’d get pretty good at some of these drills. Enough talk, lets get to the videos!
Darryl Belfry – Worked with Crosby, Tavares, Kane and many more
In this video Belfry shares a stickhandling and shooting sequence. His reasoning behind these drills is that they “shock the nervous system” which is basically “over training”. We do something that far exceeds what we are asked to do in a game in order to force our body to react and improve. If we can control 3 hockey pucks, 1 should be a breeze!
Belfry is one of the leaders in skill development in the hockey industry. He’s shared a lot of great knowledge on his Youtube channel, and you can learn a little more about him on his website.
The Sedin’s Stickhandling Drills
https://youtu.be/396Hbe1iYgo
In this video Glenn Carnegie takes Daniel Sedin through some off ice stickhandling drills. A lot of these drills require a friend to pass to, so call up a team mate and work on those skills! If you’d like to see part two of this video, check out Sedin stickhandling Drills
Connor McDavid Drills
I just posted a Connor McDavid drills article that has the video above, and an on-ice video with some shooting and skating drills. These clips are from McDavid when he was 13 years old. I like these because they are fairly easy to recreate at home without much equipment. Connor is incorporating movement into the drills so they will translate to the game. Thanks to Dan from BTNL for the footage, he runs one of the best facilities in the GTA for hockey.
Sidney Crosby Stickhandling Drills
GoPro has done a great series showcasing some of the best players in the NHL. Their first video featured Sidney Crosby. These aren’t exactly drills that Crosby does to stay sharp, but it gives you an idea of how he can perform no matter what drill is thrown at him. The first series from GoPro is called “On the ice” which doesn’t have a playlist, and the second series is “after dark”
If you’d like more drills that you can do at home, you can download my Dangle Time app, it’s free to download and comes with a number of free drills to help you improve your skills.
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