Picking Technique

Well... a new season a new sled. Being old, heavy but still strong, I'm pretty tough on my sled. They usually lasts me about a season before something needs replacing. What is the correct balance point, height and how does it effect picking technique.

This year I have a little empirical evidence to quantify my sled setup since we are doing time trials at weekly at practices. Also I have my, now powerfully built, son to compare against.

Efficiency is the key. You don't want to have wasted movement that could otherwise be used to move you forward.

One item of technique is clear in my mind. If your sled rocks back and forth you're scrubbing off speed. A good rule of thumb is that if you can hear your blades on the ice you're wasting energy and it's slowing you down. This includes when you're pumping your arms during picking or carving a turn. If you can hear your blades crunching the ice or slipping around a corner, energy is gone that could have moved you down the ice faster.

Seat/blade position is key in eliminating the back and forth rocking motion of the sled. When you watch the national team skating, their sleds are dead level. Competing with my son I found that I brought my blades forward so that my head had to be over my knees before the toe of my sled touched down narrowed his lead, in a lap time from 3 seconds to 0.10 seconds. It was a little uncomfortable having to sit more forward, to prevent tipping, but well worth the speed increase.

Another hint is that if you're stabbing the ice too hard with your picks, you're again wasting energy. It's, of course, a fine line between having your picks skip, because you didn't stab hard enough and wasting energy driving them too hard into the ice but it's worth exploring where that line is. Save the power for the stroke.

Keep the sticks as parallel to the ice as possible. There is a limit since if you go too low your picks will skip (loose grip) but again it's worth exploring where this limit is.

The next parameter I intend to explore is seat height. Last year's sled had me sitting quite high. This year's sled I'm lower. I appreciate how easy it is to right my self when I fall over but I'm going to go higher again to see if I'm giving up speed.

All this being said, remember I'm an able bodied individual and not all hints may apply to all players. Still, it pays to experiment a bit and try to make yourself faster with a few tricks and some good technique!

Please comment and let me know if you have any other tips that you might want to share.

More on Sledge Hockey Sticks

Now into my 4th year of sledge hockey I've had more experience with sled hockey sticks (see http://sledgehockeydad.blogspot.com/2008/08/some-answers-to-previous-questions-and.html and http://sledgehockeydad.blogspot.com/2007/12/sledge-hockey-stick-care-taping-this-is.html). We've been trying out some blade/composite shaft combination's.
Obtaining composite shafts can be quite a chore even for someone who plays with 3 different sets of AB players on a weekly basis throughout the year. I work across from a 4 pad arena and even though the guys who work there seemed to have their hearts in the right place there is big pressure for these broken stick to build everything from ball hockey stick to chairs to rec room bars... Finally I lucked out and while dumpster diving at another arena close by (you can't throw a rock without hitting one here in Ottawa) and caught a young Zamboni driver going to his truck. He had a great cache.
We've be running with woven textured shafts for the last year but now we've had the opportunity to use the soft hydrophilic shafts you see on Easton's Vapour line. They're great. I was worried about the shafts not sliding through my gloves as you transition from pumping for speed, receiving a pass and shooting but this was not a problem. When you squeeze your glove around it you get a more postive feel with no slip.
I used my table saw to cut a bunch of 2 inch plugs to fit in the end of the shafts where you need to bolt in the picks. The corners needed to be beveled to get a good fit. Also, some sticks have a ridge on one inside narrow side so I cut a small table saw blade wide dado cut down one of the narrow sides of my plugs.
Be careful when cutting the shaft. Epoxy, carbon fibre and Kevlar are probably a bit of a health hazard in power form. Note that these shafts often taper near the blade end and are not suitable to use for picks or inserting blades.
Plugs and blades are glued into the shafts. Hot glue sticks seemed to work for the most part but I'm not convinced that all sticks are created equal. Being a larger individual the blades seem to break the glue loose after a few games. They seem to stay in the shafts but you can feel some play (maybe someone can suggest a better glue). Don't heat the shafts to melt the glue. I used a heat gun to heat the end of the glue stick and rubbed the melting end onto the plugs and blade insert end which were held in a vise. When it came time to insert the plugs and blades I heated them individually and pushed them in. Probably best to clean up the oozing excess glue while it's still warm.
We had been using some nice Easton carbon fiber blades for a year and they worked quite well. Good control of the puck. We also purchased a pair of thin wood blades that many on Team Canada uses. Now I understand why they can shoot so hard! These blades do flex! You can take some ice and store energy in the blade without destroying the muscle in your fore arms. Now, I doubt most junior players would benifit but if you can get the blade to flex you will notice a difference.

Another Season Starts

Last Tuesday Jeremy and I started our season with a pre-selection camp practice with the some of the national teams guys. Jeremy has been at the gym all year 3-5 times a week, 2 hour minimum a session and is shows. Jean took one look at him and jokingly said, "Here comes steroid man" but believe me it's all natural hard work and being that magic age of 18. The team all looked in very good shape too. Even Mark has filled out some. Kind of made this old guy feel a little bit inadequate. Oh well, I'm like a moose and as the season starts I'll start packing on muscle. Besides, I've been playing AB hockey all summer and when I stepped out on the ice for the first corporate shinny game I actually looked pretty good (I'm sure that'll change too when the rust comes off the other guys).

My buddy Lou the sledge builder was out too, trying out his new "Maple Leaf" sled and some material changes to his sticks. He's getting a little slower but he still knows all the tricks and is a very good puck handler.

Can't wait for the "Sled Head" movie to come out on Canadian Television, Oct 4th. They will play the 44 minute version (1 hr with commercials) but the grapevine has it that Gordie (Todd Nicholson's brother) will be arranging an extended length feature in Renfrew on October 6th!

As for the rest of you... tape your sticks, tighten the bolts on your sled, get some Neats Foot Oil on your gloves, don't forget to stretch and we'll see you on the ice!

Dot Drill

-X1 passes puck to Y1 and starts skating to position X2

-Y1 passes puck to X at X2 and X takes puck to X3 and shoots and then returns to their dot of origin

-As soon as Y1 passes the puck to X at X2 they pass a puck to the next X at the dot and proceed to Y2

-The next X passes the puck to Y at Y2 and takes the puck to Y3 and shoots and returns to their dot of origin

-The same thing happens on the other half of the ice except that B should give the first pass.

-This continues indefinitely.

Goalies end up guarding the net from alternate sides.
Skaters give and take passes and cover a lot of ice.

Corner Drills

Drill:

Great for practicing giving/getting a pass, turning, shooting and working as a team.

1) X skates beyond the blue line and turns toward the net (X1-X2).

2) Z get ready for their pass (Z1-Z2)

3) Y (Y1) passes the puck to X (X2) and immediately starts skating beyond the blue line and turns toward the net (Y2).

4) X shoots on the net (X3) and lines up on the opposite side they started (X4).

5) Z (Z2) passes the puck to Y (Y2) and immediately starts skating beyond the blue line and turns toward the net.

6) Y shoots on the net (Y3) and lines up on the opposite side they start (Y4).

Repeat indefinitely.

Hints:

-For safety try not to have players lined up directly behind the net.

-While it’s tempting watch your pretty pass, skate immediately after initiating the pass.

Bench Setup

*All players on bench must be against boards in neutral zone (between Blue and Centre line)

*Spare Goalie should be closest to the centre line so they are not likely to interfere with, on the fly, line changes.

*Defense, on the bench, should be positioned closest to their own Goalie.Forwards, on the bench, should be positioned closest to the oppositions goalie.

Legend:
Case of letter used to differentiate teams
G or g = Goalie
D or d = Defense
F or f = Forward

Click on picture for a larger view

Some Answers to Previous Questions and Other Odds and Sods

In the past I've posted questions at the end of my posts hoping that I had hoped readers may have answered though comments. So here are some of the answers I have found.

-One Piece composite sledge hockey sticks? ***Could be done for $600 to $800 dollars per pair.
-In AB hockey, one can lean on their stick and get it to bend, storing extra energy, before the puck is released. Is anyone doing this in sledge hockey? ***No known cases. The shafts are relatively short (less that half of an AB hockey stick) and so extremely stiff and considering that you are effectively sitting, the lie of the stick and using one hand very difficult to lean hard enough on the stick to get it to flex.
-Getting palms of hockey gloves to last?*** Use Pure (not prime) Neatsfoot Oil. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neatsfoot_oil for more info. I re-palmed my gloves for about $50 (the shells were very good quality already) and this oil is keeping them hole free and supple so far. I find I need to reapply every 3 or 4 games.

FUTURE SITE PLANS

I've been taking a bit of a break but hope to be posting more soon. Summer is not too busy for sledge hockey so the urgency is not there. I'm hoping to take a lead from http://www.cssha.org/coachs_corner.htm and publish drills we use here in Ottawa and others I've seen. I'll now be publishing local schedules and results on the www.sheo.ca site and not boring you too much with those details.

SUMMER ACTIVITIES

My son and I took club equipment to his high school and for a week taught his AB class to play sledge hockey.

My son and I (for the third year in a row) spent a day with the "Active Living Alliance" http://www.ala.ca/content/home.asp at the "Ice House" introducing disabled kids to sledge hockey.

We also went to Long Island to play in the RoughRider's tournament http://www.lisledhockey.org/ for the 4th year in a row. We love this opportunity and they are most excellent hosts.