One of the most crucial yet overlooked skills in hockey is passing. Unless you are an NHL player playing against a bunch of Mites, you and your teammates will need to learn to pass effectively. Practicing daily will improve your ability to pass and help your team score more goals, therefore win more games! A few of today's great passers include Nicklas Backstrom, Sidney Crosby, and Joe Thornton. Although it does take some God-given ability like great hand-eye coordination, these players had to work very hard on it to get where they are today. Here are a few tips to help you improve your passing.
1. If the player receiving the pass is standing still:
Make a firm, solid pass directly to his stick.
2. If the player is moving fast:
Make a lighter pass and make sure to get it out ahead of him so he can skate out to it.
3. Don't watch your pass:
It can be difficult to make a pass and skate away not seeing if your teammate received your pass but you have to do it! Standing there watching can leave you vulnerable to a hard check and definitely gives you a disadvantage as you could/should be moving down the ice looking to get open and receive a pass.
4. Call the persons' name to get him to notice you are open:
If your line mate is in trouble and you are open, call out his name. On most occasions, he will look up and pass you the puck giving you the opportunity to shoot or pass the puck to another open teammate. Hearing your name called will make you automatically respond by looking towards the person who called it. By doing this you will receive more passes which will lead to more shots on net for yourself and your teammates.
* Be careful the other team doesn't know your name and tries to trick you into passing it to them. Always look up at the player to make sure he's wearing the same jersey as you are.
5. Practice, Practice, Practice!
You need to work on your passing skills while standing still and moving just like you would in a game. Training equipment like the Passmaster or the Hockey Passing Trainer. By using these hockey training aids you can work on your passing and receiving skills on your own time and not have to find someone to practice with. These are all great tools that are becoming more and more popular as players and coaches are seeing how scoring more goals starts with passing.
http://hockeytrain.blogspot.com/2010/07/tips-on-passing.html
