Personal Training - Midday Shoot

Just after midday today I grabbed my pucks'n'stick and casually slalomed down to the primary school for some shooting practice.  I didn't push it hard at all, nor did I spend anytime on preliminary skating when I got there (this was my 'morning skate' before my game with the Wheelers later in the day).

So, it was off with the wrist protectors (street skating) and on with the gloves (hockey) and into it.  I began with almost a lap each way with the puck on my backhand, then moved into one of the previous days' skating drills (splay footed turns, one after the other on alternating feet) but this time with a puck moving up in a straight line and being handled and tapped further on its course during each semicircle I made around it.  I found myself lucky to make two repitions, and always somehow seemed to lose the puck by dropping it off my stick out of reach by the third.  Rather than get too frustrated once I'd worked out where/when the problem was, I switched up and free skated around between scattered pucks, with the emphasis being on protecting the puck (by rotating around it with splayed feet) before doing anything with it.  As a warm up, maybe 10 mins.

I then gathered my pucks and headed upcourt to the site of yesterday's shooting practice.  Today I did four sets of 25 from the 15' mark, a few minutes of freeskate shooting, 50 shots from the 30' line, 2 sets of 25 back at the 15' circle, and finished with maybe another 25 where I started at centre, skated in and pick up the puck at 30', shooting around the 15' line.

From 15' circle: 9/25 forehand wrist snaps hit the pole, 16/25 full wrist shots, 8/25 forward facing stance wrist shots, 8/25 Backhands.  From 30' line:14/50 full wrist shots.  From 15' again: 6/25 backhands, 9/25 wrist shots.  Didn't count the 'freeskate' sessions. I got a lot of my structure and 'things to concentrate on' from watching M2.Hockey's playlist on 'shooting' before I'd set out.

I finished the session with a successful rendition of my snaking splay foot turns around the moving puck as I tapped it upcourt.  Happy with this, I closed off by shooting four slapshots to my bag, packed up my gear, skated home.

Had been gone almost an hour and a half!  15'C, 50% hum, scattered cloud, light breeze.  Perfect day.