You can have a Head Coach in hockey, assistant coach, defense coach, goalie trainer and other coaching or support functions around the hockey team, but who is the hockey goal scoring coach or trainer?

This subject was discussed during the International Hockey Coaching Symposium I attended during the World Championships in ice hockey in Sweden / Finland, together with all the Swedish Elite hockey coaches.

Torgny Bendelin, a famous Swedish hockey coach talked about this topic. Hockey on elite level is changing, the game is faster, harder, quicker and the time players have to make their decissions is reduced to a minimum.

In hockey a lot of time has been put in to develop the defensive systems the teams are using both on National and International level and of course a lot of efforts to improve the skills of the goalies, with help from special goalie trainers. The goalies are good in positioning and working with different angles towards the shooter.

Therefore the hockey players need to:
– Shoot quickly or quicker than before
– Shoot with precision
– Shoot hard/fast
– “Hide” the shot
– Shoot unannounced

These are the areas you also need to practice if you want to be a good future goal scorer in hockey.

This topic will continue in later posts…