Does your hockey team ever get stuck in the defensive zone with the puck on the half wall?
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This short video, cut from How to Play Hockey Module 1.2: Tactical Terminology, cites an example of poor timing in the hockey defensive zone by the centerman. How often do you see the centerman blow past the winger on the wall with the puck long before the winger is ready to pass it? I see this time and again at many levels of hockey. For some reason, it’s often not until the pro level that players realize you can’t go 100 miles per hour all the time!
Timing (noun): The choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done (Google).
Good to Great:
- Good players know when to control their skating, cruising patiently waiting for the right time to jump.
- Great players take that one step further and have an innate (although learnable) knack for changing speeds frequently throughout a shift.
I love Google’s definition of timing because it states clearly that a choice/judgement controls when something should happen. In the video example, the centerman watches the play develop, reads the body position and preparedness of teammates, and picks the chooses the right time to accelerate and call for the puck. Too often young centerman try to dictate the speed of the play, even though it is obvious the passer is clearly not ready to advance the puck. Key phrase for your players, “Read the play, and TIME it!”
The complete video in the module explores many more examples that demonstrate the importance of ‘Timing.’
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