This is a sequence of Kayla receiving and then sending the puck. This is not hard to do, but it is certainly hard to do as well as she does. In this video, the puck even rolls up on edge, but she handles it perfectly:
1. She calls out to her teammate, letting her teammate know where she is.
2. She places her stick shaft on the floor.
3. She feels where on the shaft the puck has hit.
4. She listens to where the puck has come to a stop in front of her.
5. She places her stick blade to the puck, giving it a "one-touch" to confirm the puck location.
6. She sends the puck into the attack zone, in this case with a straight-up pass.
Mickayla did this in a single, "first-take" for this video, and she makes finding the puck look as easy as a sighted person doing so.
Mickayla's apparent perfection in this video sequence aside,
Catching and sending the puck is almost never this easy!
Catching the puck is one skill that our players perform hundreds of times in practice each week. Like most hockey skills, it is one where you can always get better.
Sonic Hockey Skills are Skating, Passing, Shooting, Stickhandling, and Puck Acquisition. Looking at each of these skills...
Puck Acquisition
The most important individual skill in Sonic Hockey is Finding the Puck , also known as "Acquiring the Puck." Of course, since players can easily see the puck in sighted hockey, this skill is taken for granted in sighted hockey.
Hearing the puck is probably the most important physical ability of the Sonic Hockey player. This ability (to hear the puck) manifests itself in a variety of ways:
General Direction; is the puck on the rink to this side of me, or the other side of me. Is the puck in front of me or behind me.
Specific direction; as I skate toward the puck, I hear myself approaching it.
Focus location; as I arrive within playing distance, is the puck in front, left, right, how far to reach it with my stick. Sometimes when a player has "arrived" at the puck: that is, the player has followed his general direction hearing and then his specific direction hearing to the place where the puck is sitting, and he now "has it" within playing distance, the player will then abandon further use of his hearing, and simply search for the puck with the stick blade. The player should bend down, lowering his ears as close as possible to the playing surface, which will help him to pinpoint the exact location of the puck. The player that simply uses the stick blade to contact the puck might find it directly...or not. We caution players: if you do not find the puck with the stick right away, stop swinging aimlessly for the puck with the stick and re-focus your hearing to find the exact location of the puck. Do not abandon your focus location hearing. Keep hearing the puck until you have definitively pin-pointed its position.
Redundancy recognition; did I just go past the puck? Do I need to turn left or right and turn 90-180 degrees to reacquire a focus position on the puck?
Differentiation; During the attempt to find the puck, the player's hearing is focused on the puck's specific sound to the exclusion of all other sounds. As the stick comes into contact with the puck, Touch takes over from Hearing, and the player now re-focuses hearing to a teammate's voice or the goal.
A player can gain possession of the puck in one of three situations:
1. Skating to a loose puck that is motionless on the rink,
2. Catching a pass from a teammate, or intercepting the pass of an opponent,
3. Contesting for possession with an opponent, or dispossessing an opponent.
Special note on communicating!
In all instances, whenever you decide to make a play for the puck, you must call out loud your color "Black," or "White", followed by "going," or "looking," or "on the puck," or some such...the rule book dictates that you must identify yourself and declare your intent to go for the puck.
These are the two things that our rule book requires a player to do when verbally communicating:
1) Any verbal communication must immediately include your declaration of what color you are; you must identify which team you are to avoid unfair confusion,
2) any attempt for the puck, you must declare your intent by calling out "Going," or "Looking."
There are literally dozens of other things that teammates communicate to each other. You want to learn all of them. Many of these items are discussed in the Communications Section/Page. For now, remember that you must declare your color with any communication, and if you are trying for the puck in any way, you must say so.
There are several situations that happen when you are trying to take the puck into your possession:
Situation number 1: The Loose-Still Puck (the puck is stopped, somewhere on the rink)
Hearing the puck:
You need to get used to hearing the sound of the puck, and determining the puck's location. With the puck on the playing surface, you can practice hearing the puck by skating back and forth past it, circling it, skating to it while reaching to touch it with your stick. You should hear how the sound changes intensity as you move by and around it. Become familiar with how the puck sounds as you change position relative to it. If you are right there with the puck, but still seem unable to locate it, try bending your head down as close to the playing surface as possible, this will give you a new angle to hear the puck, and is usually successful.
Finding/Touching the puck with your stick:
Practice sweeping your stick side-to-side to locate the puck with your stick blade. You can also experiment with bending down to place your stick shaft flat on the playing surface, and then sweeping back and forth. Pay attention to how the puck feels when the stick shaft contacts it. You should be able to determine where along the shaft the puck contacts the stick. Slightly more difficult, but you can also familiarize yourself with where along the blade of your stick the puck is in contact (toe, middle, or heel). Feel the puck against the blade of your stick, perhaps stickhandling it back and forth a few times.
**You are now ready to send or carry the puck and make the next play.
Receiving a Pass (either from a teammate or intercepting a pass from the bad guys)
Face your teammate (and the sound of the puck) at all times. Tell your teammate where you are. Your teammate wants to know both where you are in relation to himself, and also in what part of the floor you are. The communication for this is explained in the Sonic Hockey Communication Section. Bend down, knees bent, perhaps one foot slightly behind the other, even with one knee on the surface. Hold your stick shaft flat on the surface in front of you, or toward either side, presenting the shaft to receive the puck. This gives your teammate a 4-6 foot target to hit when passing to you. Listen to the puck advancing toward you, position your stick to catch the pass. Feel where the puck contacts your stick shaft. Stand up, position both hands on the stick, and feel the puck with the stick blade, you are now ready to play the puck.
Fighting for the Puck (you and a bad guy get to the puck at the same time)
There is no actual "fighting" involved, it's all positioning. Stay low, knees bent (whoever's lowest wins!). Attempt to move your body between your opponent and the puck. Try to move so to keep the opponent behind you. Feel the blade of your stick contact the puck. If the opponent gets there first, and sets up in position between you and the puck, back off, quickly try to go around and knock the puck off his stick. Remember, if you try to push against him, you may move him off the puck, but if you are in contact with his body, he can feel where you are.
In any situation where you acquire the puck, once you have it, you must quickly do something with it. You might have time and space to make a pass, or skate forward with it. If the bad guys are trying to dispossess you of the puck, you may want to "escape," quickly pushing the puck away from the bad guy's position, into open space, before making a play. As you develop stickhandling ability, you can incorporate that better touch on the puck into your acquisition and movement of the puck.
Skill #2: Touch and Control of the puck with the stick
Stickhandling:
Now you have the puck on your stick. Quickly touching it back and forth enables you to learn to hold the puck in the center of the blade as much as possible. You can practice skating while keeping possession of the puck. This is done exactly like a sighted player, but you want to begin learning while on your forehand. Contacting and pushing the puck ahead with the stick blade, feeling each time the blade contacts the puck, As you develop the ability to move the puck at some speed, you can experiment with tacking the puck ahead of yourself, and "catching" it on the backhand side of the blade to keep the puck from getting too far ahead of you. You can practice "pulling the puck," while changing the direction your are skating. Practice pushing and pulling the puck in different directions, all the while maintaining the feel of it on your stick blade.
Passing:
Most Visually Impaired Hockey rule sets forbid slapshots, which are, frankly, largely useless in blind play anyway. Passing (or shooting) the puck works best by placing your stick blade against the back of the puck, and shoving it as hard as you can forward, without losing contact on the puck until the pass is away. Experienced hockey players will recognize this as describing a wrist shot or pass. Works well for either forehand or backhand, and you want to practice both. Please check the Communication section for how to communicate your passing and shooting to your teammates. Lifting the puck up abut a foot in the air is also helpful to shoot over a prone goalkeeper, or the goalkeepers leg pads, or over the bad guys' sticks to get the puck to a teammate.
Shooting:
Please consider shooting as simply making a pass at the goal, rather than the goalkeeper, the technique is therefor the same as for passing!
Skill#3: Skating
Ok, probably should have listed Skating as the first skill, 'cause you can't play hockey without it. Please note that every single one of our blind players had never been on skates before they bravely decided to try to play hockey with us! We keep the learning sequence simple, with the objective to incorporate the learning player into functional (at least minimally) game play as early as possible. I will list the steps of progressive learning as:
1. Standing up and balancing steady (sometimes is automatic for a player, sometimes needs to work at it for a few minutes).
2. Stepping forward. Rather like marching, emphasis on lifting each skate up and putting it down. Deliberately not encouraging gliding yet, although this is maybe what the player thinks should be happening. Marching in a step, step, step cadence creates the muscle memory to balance on one foot at a time, crucial to the skating technique.
3. Walking (stepping!) on the floor, first along the wall (if needed), then out and about the playing surface in random fashion, returning to the wall if needed.
4. Introducing the stick (two hands on the stick!) to be used as a tripod if necessary for a while. Somewhere along this point, the player will usually begin pushing and gliding on their own. Encourage this, using both skates in sequence to push, and coasting as they come about.
5. Once off the wall, and with the stick, go whack a puck or two. You are now playing hockey.
We usually get any player through (at least minimally) these five steps in their first hour of participation. Of course, we note to the player to maintain a reasonably wide stance, knees bent, lean slightly forward, all the normal skating posture. If they start off with the right fundamental movements, it will be easier, but certainly applaud any success, and encourage the player to not worry about form, and "just go skate."
There are a variety of books and other resources on how to skate in the game of hockey. We encourage reference to any or all of them to advance any player's ability.
1. She calls out to her teammate, letting her teammate know where she is.
2. She places her stick shaft on the floor.
3. She feels where on the shaft the puck has hit.
4. She listens to where the puck has come to a stop in front of her.
5. She places her stick blade to the puck, giving it a "one-touch" to confirm the puck location.
6. She sends the puck into the attack zone, in this case with a straight-up pass.
Mickayla did this in a single, "first-take" for this video, and she makes finding the puck look as easy as a sighted person doing so.
Mickayla's apparent perfection in this video sequence aside,
Catching and sending the puck is almost never this easy!
Catching the puck is one skill that our players perform hundreds of times in practice each week. Like most hockey skills, it is one where you can always get better.
Sonic Hockey Skills are Skating, Passing, Shooting, Stickhandling, and Puck Acquisition. Looking at each of these skills...
Puck Acquisition
The most important individual skill in Sonic Hockey is Finding the Puck , also known as "Acquiring the Puck." Of course, since players can easily see the puck in sighted hockey, this skill is taken for granted in sighted hockey.
Hearing the puck is probably the most important physical ability of the Sonic Hockey player. This ability (to hear the puck) manifests itself in a variety of ways:
General Direction; is the puck on the rink to this side of me, or the other side of me. Is the puck in front of me or behind me.
Specific direction; as I skate toward the puck, I hear myself approaching it.
Focus location; as I arrive within playing distance, is the puck in front, left, right, how far to reach it with my stick. Sometimes when a player has "arrived" at the puck: that is, the player has followed his general direction hearing and then his specific direction hearing to the place where the puck is sitting, and he now "has it" within playing distance, the player will then abandon further use of his hearing, and simply search for the puck with the stick blade. The player should bend down, lowering his ears as close as possible to the playing surface, which will help him to pinpoint the exact location of the puck. The player that simply uses the stick blade to contact the puck might find it directly...or not. We caution players: if you do not find the puck with the stick right away, stop swinging aimlessly for the puck with the stick and re-focus your hearing to find the exact location of the puck. Do not abandon your focus location hearing. Keep hearing the puck until you have definitively pin-pointed its position.
Redundancy recognition; did I just go past the puck? Do I need to turn left or right and turn 90-180 degrees to reacquire a focus position on the puck?
Differentiation; During the attempt to find the puck, the player's hearing is focused on the puck's specific sound to the exclusion of all other sounds. As the stick comes into contact with the puck, Touch takes over from Hearing, and the player now re-focuses hearing to a teammate's voice or the goal.
A player can gain possession of the puck in one of three situations:
1. Skating to a loose puck that is motionless on the rink,
2. Catching a pass from a teammate, or intercepting the pass of an opponent,
3. Contesting for possession with an opponent, or dispossessing an opponent.
Special note on communicating!
In all instances, whenever you decide to make a play for the puck, you must call out loud your color "Black," or "White", followed by "going," or "looking," or "on the puck," or some such...the rule book dictates that you must identify yourself and declare your intent to go for the puck.
These are the two things that our rule book requires a player to do when verbally communicating:
1) Any verbal communication must immediately include your declaration of what color you are; you must identify which team you are to avoid unfair confusion,
2) any attempt for the puck, you must declare your intent by calling out "Going," or "Looking."
There are literally dozens of other things that teammates communicate to each other. You want to learn all of them. Many of these items are discussed in the Communications Section/Page. For now, remember that you must declare your color with any communication, and if you are trying for the puck in any way, you must say so.
There are several situations that happen when you are trying to take the puck into your possession:
Situation number 1: The Loose-Still Puck (the puck is stopped, somewhere on the rink)
Hearing the puck:
You need to get used to hearing the sound of the puck, and determining the puck's location. With the puck on the playing surface, you can practice hearing the puck by skating back and forth past it, circling it, skating to it while reaching to touch it with your stick. You should hear how the sound changes intensity as you move by and around it. Become familiar with how the puck sounds as you change position relative to it. If you are right there with the puck, but still seem unable to locate it, try bending your head down as close to the playing surface as possible, this will give you a new angle to hear the puck, and is usually successful.
Finding/Touching the puck with your stick:
Practice sweeping your stick side-to-side to locate the puck with your stick blade. You can also experiment with bending down to place your stick shaft flat on the playing surface, and then sweeping back and forth. Pay attention to how the puck feels when the stick shaft contacts it. You should be able to determine where along the shaft the puck contacts the stick. Slightly more difficult, but you can also familiarize yourself with where along the blade of your stick the puck is in contact (toe, middle, or heel). Feel the puck against the blade of your stick, perhaps stickhandling it back and forth a few times.
**You are now ready to send or carry the puck and make the next play.
Receiving a Pass (either from a teammate or intercepting a pass from the bad guys)
Face your teammate (and the sound of the puck) at all times. Tell your teammate where you are. Your teammate wants to know both where you are in relation to himself, and also in what part of the floor you are. The communication for this is explained in the Sonic Hockey Communication Section. Bend down, knees bent, perhaps one foot slightly behind the other, even with one knee on the surface. Hold your stick shaft flat on the surface in front of you, or toward either side, presenting the shaft to receive the puck. This gives your teammate a 4-6 foot target to hit when passing to you. Listen to the puck advancing toward you, position your stick to catch the pass. Feel where the puck contacts your stick shaft. Stand up, position both hands on the stick, and feel the puck with the stick blade, you are now ready to play the puck.
Fighting for the Puck (you and a bad guy get to the puck at the same time)
There is no actual "fighting" involved, it's all positioning. Stay low, knees bent (whoever's lowest wins!). Attempt to move your body between your opponent and the puck. Try to move so to keep the opponent behind you. Feel the blade of your stick contact the puck. If the opponent gets there first, and sets up in position between you and the puck, back off, quickly try to go around and knock the puck off his stick. Remember, if you try to push against him, you may move him off the puck, but if you are in contact with his body, he can feel where you are.
In any situation where you acquire the puck, once you have it, you must quickly do something with it. You might have time and space to make a pass, or skate forward with it. If the bad guys are trying to dispossess you of the puck, you may want to "escape," quickly pushing the puck away from the bad guy's position, into open space, before making a play. As you develop stickhandling ability, you can incorporate that better touch on the puck into your acquisition and movement of the puck.
Skill #2: Touch and Control of the puck with the stick
Stickhandling:
Now you have the puck on your stick. Quickly touching it back and forth enables you to learn to hold the puck in the center of the blade as much as possible. You can practice skating while keeping possession of the puck. This is done exactly like a sighted player, but you want to begin learning while on your forehand. Contacting and pushing the puck ahead with the stick blade, feeling each time the blade contacts the puck, As you develop the ability to move the puck at some speed, you can experiment with tacking the puck ahead of yourself, and "catching" it on the backhand side of the blade to keep the puck from getting too far ahead of you. You can practice "pulling the puck," while changing the direction your are skating. Practice pushing and pulling the puck in different directions, all the while maintaining the feel of it on your stick blade.
Passing:
Most Visually Impaired Hockey rule sets forbid slapshots, which are, frankly, largely useless in blind play anyway. Passing (or shooting) the puck works best by placing your stick blade against the back of the puck, and shoving it as hard as you can forward, without losing contact on the puck until the pass is away. Experienced hockey players will recognize this as describing a wrist shot or pass. Works well for either forehand or backhand, and you want to practice both. Please check the Communication section for how to communicate your passing and shooting to your teammates. Lifting the puck up abut a foot in the air is also helpful to shoot over a prone goalkeeper, or the goalkeepers leg pads, or over the bad guys' sticks to get the puck to a teammate.
Shooting:
Please consider shooting as simply making a pass at the goal, rather than the goalkeeper, the technique is therefor the same as for passing!
Skill#3: Skating
Ok, probably should have listed Skating as the first skill, 'cause you can't play hockey without it. Please note that every single one of our blind players had never been on skates before they bravely decided to try to play hockey with us! We keep the learning sequence simple, with the objective to incorporate the learning player into functional (at least minimally) game play as early as possible. I will list the steps of progressive learning as:
1. Standing up and balancing steady (sometimes is automatic for a player, sometimes needs to work at it for a few minutes).
2. Stepping forward. Rather like marching, emphasis on lifting each skate up and putting it down. Deliberately not encouraging gliding yet, although this is maybe what the player thinks should be happening. Marching in a step, step, step cadence creates the muscle memory to balance on one foot at a time, crucial to the skating technique.
3. Walking (stepping!) on the floor, first along the wall (if needed), then out and about the playing surface in random fashion, returning to the wall if needed.
4. Introducing the stick (two hands on the stick!) to be used as a tripod if necessary for a while. Somewhere along this point, the player will usually begin pushing and gliding on their own. Encourage this, using both skates in sequence to push, and coasting as they come about.
5. Once off the wall, and with the stick, go whack a puck or two. You are now playing hockey.
We usually get any player through (at least minimally) these five steps in their first hour of participation. Of course, we note to the player to maintain a reasonably wide stance, knees bent, lean slightly forward, all the normal skating posture. If they start off with the right fundamental movements, it will be easier, but certainly applaud any success, and encourage the player to not worry about form, and "just go skate."
There are a variety of books and other resources on how to skate in the game of hockey. We encourage reference to any or all of them to advance any player's ability.