BLOG #6 - Dman Stop Shooting LOW

“Keep the puck low” - Every coach at one point in their career

How many times have you heard this as a player? Coaches, how many times have you’ve said this? This is an all too common occurrence. Understandable, at young ages because players tend to shoot high too much. Even with college and pro players, you see this preached by coaches.

Context is everything so let’s examine further. If you have a tendency to shoot too high then it makes sense to work on keeping pucks down. You don’t want to hit players in the face which will deter them from going to the net. Also, the focus on keeping pucks down forces players at the point to get their head up while shooting.

All good things, but as players move up, specifically defenders, this can become detrimental to their ability to produce offense at the next level. Defenders get ridiculed for attempting high, waist high shots and end up resorting to really low or along the ice shots. These shots are sub-optimal for tips and easy for goalies to save.

I never get mad at defenders for shots that hit me from the point. (Unless it’s at my head haha) I tell them that I want to score and if that means getting hit by a couple pucks I’m completely fine with that. Scoring isn’t easy especially around the net. It requires sacrifice. Stop complaining that defenders shoot to high and focus on tipping those pucks.

From a goalie perspective, it’s a nightmare to have a puck tipped that’s waist height. As you see from the clip above, those shots force goalies to reach, opening the net below their hands. Low shots rarely do that.

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

Start by grabbing a forward who wants to score more goals.

1- Practice catch releases and half slap shots at waist height

2- Progress to doing this while moving along the blue line

3- Progress to moving and shooting around obstacles at waist height

Want to create more offense defenders from the point? Get pucks through at this height and watch your offensive production skyrocket. Forwards, stop complaining, get to the dirty areas and tip those pucks! Finally, coaches, explain the context to your defenders so they aren’t handcuffed as they progress.

Thanks for reading!