freezing the puck

netcoach55 · Peewee Joined: 27 Sep 2007 Posts: 7

My 10 year old protege is giving up too many easy goals when he fails to freeze the puck soon enough. He watches the puck into his equipment fiarly well for a young guy, but some do get away. I want to address this problem. Can anyone out there sugest a drill or anything else to help me out?

FutureSuperstar93 · Posted: Thu Sep 27, 2007 11:11 pm Post subject:

He should be leading with his stick, you don't want to have pucks hitting your pads, although it will happen. When he leads with his stick he can direct it into the corner or ramp it into his chest and hold it. When its shots at his pads he should direct it with his stick, when shot at his chest he should smother it, at his glove he should catch it, and at his blocker he should direct it into the corner.

canadian_man_44 · Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:20 am Post subject:

I've been experimenting with getting someone to throw indian rubber balls at me, bouncing them off the floor so they're coming in at an angle that will make them hit me anywhere from the shins to the shoulders. The ones on my left side I catch, the ones that hit me in the body, legs or right arm, I try to cover up as quickly as possible. It may sound a bit crazy, but, those balls bounce around pretty badly, so, if you're not on it quick you're not going to get it.
It seems to be working. Over the last few games I've not allowed too many rebounds and the other team is getting a lot less second chances from pucks in the crease.
On top of that, it's great for the reflexes.

If you're going to try something like this, I would start out with a regular indian rubber ball. The ones that are a little bigger then a tennis ball, then I'd move on to the smaller "crazy" balls. The one I'm using would be about 2.5 inches in diameter.

I do it without gear on too so you really have to focus to make sure you stop it.
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