Hockey: Tip on Grounder shots.
 

Just something I want to work on. Generally, I'm a top corner shooter because growing up it was deemed the flashier goal; and I guess easier. What I want to know is, do you guys have any advice in how to shoot grounder shots with velocity. And by Grounder Shot, I mean flat on the ice.

Basically, I want to learn 2 things:

1. Shoot Grounder shots with the same velocity as my fully loaded wrist shot. I can do grounders but rather slow. Any time I put some weight on it for velocity, it gains altitude.

and to add to 1.

2. Shoot Grounder shots with high velocity, but only a good 2" off the ground. Basically just enough to clear a goalie stick in the 5 hole, but still a lot lower than a butterfly goalie's knees.


Again, I can do these shots but weak. I need to know how to get velocity without altitude.


TIA

For me, I aim low and change the angle

By changing the angle do you mean, less follow through? Because I tried that but it was resulting in low velocity.

When I try to put a 2" altitude on it, it turns out like a saucer pass to the goalie.

I find that the type of curve you have really affects your shots. For me, closed faces on the curve really restricts any shots that go up. Therefore, I always shot low and it just stayed there. If I tried shooting high, it would be more difficult. I have different curves and with the open face curves, its easy to shoot high with the heel of the blade. GL.

Lower your shaft hand about 2-3 inches. Guaranteed increase in velocity.

can you get good velocity when you shoot high? just lower your follow through

or don't do wrist shots at all, switch to snap shots and raise your stick just slightly before you connect so that you hit the top half of the puck. That will take a lot of practice to get right of course

I think you just need to learn better form in shooting.
It's a lot easier to shoot harder low shots but your "top corner" shots are probably pretty weak too.
Try snap shots and work on your position when shooting. Hard to describe on a forum and without seeing how you actually shoot though. Gluck!

btw, if you got some drop in hockey, maybe I can see how you're shooting.

With time and space, yes. During game situations, I can only get velocity if I have the space behind me to wind my shot and the space in front for a good follow through; but not when I have defensemens & backcheckers limiting my space (which is a lot of the time).

Thx for the suggestions and I'll to play around with a lot of the above suggestions the next pick up I play.

What flex stick are you using? A couple of the really good guys that I played with this year had wicked wrist shots and they were able to get them off in tight with people checking them.

From what I could see, they used pretty whippy sticks.

Don't know if stick flex is gonna make that much of a difference for him....hes only like 130 lbs.

He weighs that much? Noir, you're FAT.

LOL. Maybe he needs a JUNIOR stick?

Follow through low, use the closer part of the blade to the shaft.
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Raybot is half right :)

I don't really get a lot of flex advantage mainly because I cut my sticks short; and considering my height, that's pretty low.


Thanks, I'll give it a try next pick up. But a follow up question to your tip is, isn't accuracy based on how you utilize the toe of the blade?

So by releasing my wristers near the heel of the blade, it'll be hurting accuracy?

The follow through will affect the diection the puck will go. I have a friend that always "flicks" his wrist on the follow through and he can't figure out why all his wrist shots are knuckle balls.

A wrist shot should be a nice fluid motion so where you release the puck on the blade and the follow through will both affect where the puck goes.

As for flex, if your sticks are very short, then try using an intermediate stick. There is some advantage to using a whippy stick.

oh what? I thought we were talking about slap shots. sorry lol

what helped me was taking snap shots and hitting the puck closer to the heal than the mid of the blade. sorta like a harder saucer pass you dont expect anyone to receive. also try closing your blade like almost down. and where your hands end up in terms of height makes a difference too. so if your stick points down your puck will go down.

sorta amazed me how much a follow through makes a difference.