The Mental Game & Stickhandling: Peewee Skills

Here is a link to a great article The Art of Stickhandling: by Diane Romano

I wasn't even sure if stickhandling was one or two words before searching the web. I am always researching what my kids need to learn as a way to give them the opportunity to improve. Alec's coach last year, said something along the line of "the kids have the puck on their stick maybe a minute or two a game." If you think about how important stickhandling is to a player and watch how much time the puck is on their stick at practice and during a game... you have to wonder. What do you have to wonder? - why isn't more time spent on the stickhandling skill.

My answer is a lot of emphasis is put on scoring and winning. Too much. Yes, the kids need to learn how to skate before the can move on to stickhandling but winning and scoring tend to be the focus of many leagues, coaches and yes - us, the parents.  In the day of 3-5 coaches on the ice and 20 coaching parents behind the glass... think about stickhandling next time. How many times do you hear parents yelling for more stickhandling or more mental development? At the Peewee travel level, you might notice speed and breakaways tend to be less unbalanced and less frequent then at the lower levels. The players and team that develops the ability to move the puck with their stick, mentally understands the game and uses stickhandling skills to beat players are the players and teams that begin to dominate the ice and game.

A lot can be said on what is the mental game of ice hockey. My opinion, the answer is something like learning to be where you need to be before you know where the play is going. Check out Gretzky on the mental aspect of the game. He said it much more eloquently and backed it up.  Hockey is a game of seconds. The player that not only knows their position but knows where the other players are on the ice is beginning to develop a mental picture of the game. The player that knows a play is forming and anticipates the progression of the play is well on their way to developing the mental aspects of ice hockey. Can you imagine watching an hour of practice of just stickhandling with a discussion about the mental aspect of the game? I can.  Below is clip from the above article. Imagine a week of practice being dedicated to feeling the vibration of the puck on the stick. How many parents would flip out? Especially if the team isn't scoring and is losing.


From: The Art of Stickhandling: by Diane Romano

"To excel at stickhandling, a player has to develop what Turcotte refers to as “educated hands.” That means being able to feel the puck and its position on your stick without looking down. Then, rather than skating around like a moving target with your head down, you can look up to see what’s happening around you—the openings, the players who can be fed, the scoring opportunities.


How do you get educated hands? Try dribbling—rolling your stick blade back and forth across the puck using short strokes, tapping the puck alternately once on the forehand side of the blade and once on the backhand side. The slight vibrations generated by dribbling travel through the shaft of the stick and convey to the player the position of the puck on the blade. The vibrations connected with each of the three puck positions—toe, middle, and heel of the blade—are totally different. Once learned, the skillful player will be able to identify the location of the puck on his stick blade by feel. "