Sonic Hockey Tactics
Let's define Sonic Hockey Techniques as the skills of Skating, Passing, Shooting, Stickhandling, and Puck Acquisition.
Let's define Sonic Hockey Tactics as "the decisions you make in the game about where to go and what to do." For training purposes, we declare that our team is the Black Team, and all our tactics are as the Black Team. You would say, "White," instead of "Black," if you were on that team,
Coach Danny's Disclaimer:
This entire section of the website is kind of a misnomer...there is really no such thing as "Sonic Hockey Tactics." There are hockey tactics...period. Hockey tactics -how do the players move about the rink, how do they decide what plays to make- are the same whether you are playing blind or sighted. We specially note this only because most people hold the belief that there is no way that blind persons can possibly move about the rink, intelligently creating hockey plays.
Well, blind persons can indeed do these things, and do them very well. In other sections, we discuss the sounding equipment, the tactile blue lines, the player and referee communication. All the information that a sighted player receives through their vision, a blind person can receive through their hearing, and sense of touch, from their skates, hands, and hockey stick. Let's look at a description of a play involving four players, from the view of one of the players in action:
The Six Principles of Play are (note 1-3 are offensive principes, 4-6 are defensive principles):
1. Continuous movement toward the puck,
2. the puck and the players must change lanes,
3. get rid of the puck as early as possible,
4. recover,
5. match up,
6. protect the slot.
A Sonic Hockey Play:
To start each play, somebody sends the puck back into your defensive zone, so you turn from the attack and head back toward your goal. You call out, "Black moving... Black coming back..." You cross the attacking zone blue line and feel it under your skates. You know you are regressing through the neutral zone. You veer over to the right wing wall, calling in a fifteen-foot-voice, "Black coming back one, black coming back one..." You use your stick out ahead of you to find the dasher wall, and proceed back over the defensive blue line, so you are now at the right-wing point. You hear your teammate, back in the right-wing corner, calling out, "Go three!" as he passes the puck on the crossing diagonal, up to the neutral zone left wing. You hear your teammate on the opposite rink side calling, "Black looking!" You call in return, "You go, you go!" To set up for the next play, you turn again and head up floor to hold a little into the attacking zone. Your teammate acquires the puck, calling "Black, where are you?" You call out to her, "Black One, Black one!" She sends the puck across the rink ahead of you into the attacking zone. The referee calls "White zone, white zone!" You hear the puck strike the wall ahead of you on the wing. You skate for it, calling, "Black looking!" As you hear yourself coming closer to the puck, you try to skate slightly to the right of it, so you can find the puck quickly with your left-handed stick blade in forehand position. As you contact the puck, you quickly one-two, stickhandle it to get the feel of it, then call out "Black, Center!" sending the puck to the slot for a teammate to acquire. You then head for the side of the goal, listening to the goal beeper, and the echo off the end wall to alert you that you are even with the net. You strike the post with your stick loudly, calling to your center teammate, "Right post! Right post!" Your teammate fires the puck on goal, and it clanks loudly against the back rail of the goal frame. That's a rink-long, offensive play with the puck going through possession by four players in sequence. That's how it happens.
Let's discuss Offensive Tactics:
Sonic Hockey Offensive Tactics:
The Baseline Sonic Hockey Play:
There is but one play in Sonic Hockey. Here are the parts:
1. Acquire the puck.
2. Move the puck into the neutral zone.
3. Move the puck into the attacking zone.
4. Move the puck into the slot.
5. Shoot the puck on goal.
While this might seem to be a listing of the obvious, it is worth memorizing this sequence, and keeping it in mind as you go about playing the game.
Discussion of each part:
1. Acquire the puck.
The techniques for gaining possession of the puck are described in the Sonic Hockey Techniques Section. As you are acquiring the puck, you might call out to your teammates, "Black, where are you?" so you know a little ahead of time to where you might pass the puck when you get it. When you first acquire the puck, we recommend that you move it at least five feet as quickly as possible, either passing it directly, or stickhandling it into open space. This will free you to move the puck yourself, or pass it. We note that, state-of-the-art at the moment, this game is a passing game. While the first player who does learn to stickhandle up the rink at speed will change the game, after our play of twelve years, we don't have that guy yet. Pass the puck. Ask your teammates where they are, or if you actually are sure of your position, tell them where you are passing it and fire away. You can pass to a teammate, or into space that you are pretty sure a teammate can control (i.e., get to the puck first).
2. Move the puck into the neutral zone.
Pass the puck into the neutral zone as quickly as possible, best to or toward where you know a teammate is. Sometimes that will be straight up through the same wing or center that you are in, other times, your best pass will be cross-floor, to a wing. Most plays will alternate between the three lanes, to get the puck out of your defensive end, and into the neutral zone.
3. Move the puck into the attacking zone.
Likewise, send the puck into the attacking zone next, varying the target area of your pass:
a. to a teammate waiting at the offensive blue line, who can then take it into the zone,
b. ahead of a teammate into the slot, or wing, for a teammate to run onto,
c. to the back wall, for a teammate to run onto (works well only if you have a skater that can ably perform the "Chase" part of the Dump and Chase scenario).
4. Move the puck into the slot.
If you have the puck anywhere you can shoot it, or pass the puck into the slot. All the forwards and maybe an extra defender can/should be in the front of the goal somewhere and alert to your shooting/passing the puck into the front/center area.
5. Shoot the puck on goal.
Shoot the puck! Forehand, backhand, whatever, just get it on goal. Be alert for referee calling "Loose," "Side of the net," "Behind the net," "Corner," or some such. We encourage referees to provide information of puck location as long as it is information general in nature, and the same information to both teams. Keep fighting for puck possession in the slot, and shoot as much as possible. We also teach our players to skate away from the goal a few strides, turn and shoot. This is a move that usually frees the player for a good shot.
Communicating
Communicating is discussed at length in its own section. We want all payers to be vocal, and informative to their teammates at all times during the game...which is very much like regular, sighted hockey, eh?
Zones
Your defensive zone is the Black zone, the attacking zone is the White zone, the neutral zone is the Neutral zone. As the puck moves across a blue line the Referee will call out, "Neutral zone, the puck's in the neutral zone," Black zone, the puck's in the Black zone, White is good," (I.e., not offside).
The referee might also call out "Loose!" puck in front of the goal, or note a puck "Behind the net," "Side of the net," as pucks around the goal can be tricky for both teams in the usual crowd in front of the net.
Player movement about the rink:
Just like sighted hockey, we note that new, learning players develop an affinity to play a certain position/area of the rink. Some gravitate to offense, some defense. Some want to play strictly in the center of the game with the action swirling around them. Others would rather use the side wall as a home base, thus keeping themselves oriented to direction.
We want to encourage every player to learn to play anywhere on the rink. Fact is, each player must learn to make tactical decisions in the back, up front, at the blue line, on the wings, in the corners, behind the net, and so on. All three lanes should be filled on offense. In the white zone (the attacking zone), one player should be on the puck, the other two should be in the slot, ready for a centering pass, or a shot on goal and a rebound. The off-wing defender might also move up the wing to back up any errant centering pass that would go all the way through the slot untouched.
While it is of value to have a "Center, Left wing, Right wing, Defense" mentality, we do not want to glue any player to a defined spot on the floor Players should feel free to interchange as situations arise. Players must communicate, so if a teammate takes a certain place in the formation, you can move to a supporting one effectively. Doesn't do any good to have three players on the puck all at once! It is extremely important not to feel that a blind player can only play a certain way, or a certain place on the rink! Encourage every player to learn the roles of every position!
We encourage players to constantly change positions on the rink, but communicate such religiously!
Sonic Hockey Defensive Tactics:
Sonic Hockey defense can be summed up with six words embodied in three concepts:
Recover.
Match up.
Protect the slot.
Recover.
When the other team acquires the puck and sends it out of the White Zone to the Neutral or Black zone, everybody must retreat to a position goal side of the puck. The fastest, best, and easiest way to do this is to find your goalkeeper ("Black goalie, where are you?!"), and skate straight to him (or her). Keep going until you are sure you are past the puck toward your goalkeeper. Communicate your movement to the other payers with a quieter, "ten-foot voice," (in other words, the entire rink does not need to hear you in this communication, only those nearby) "Black coming back , black moving, black moving , black coming..." When you are back "behind" the puck, you then turn and look to be your team's player on the puck, "Black going! Black looking!" Or you find a bad guy and get between him and the goal. "Black, got this guy, black point!"
Match up.
Once you are on the puck, or are attached to a bad guy without the puck, you are "matched up." Most of the time, you want to be "goal-side," that is, between the bad guy and your own goalkeeper. However, you can also experiment with positioning yourself "puck side," that is between the bad guy and the position of the puck. You could then intercept a pass if his teammate were to try to pass it to him. Be prepared, however, to scurry back to a goal-side position if such a pass does occur and you don't intercept it!
Protect the slot.
If you are correctly matched up, you are already in the position to defend against the bad guy who may get the puck and want to take a shot at your goal. You then need to decide to:
1. dispossess the bad guy from the puck,
2. intercept the pass/shot and clear it out of your defensive zone onto the neutral zone,
3. send the puck out of the slot into the back corner or wing just to get it out from in front of your goal (the slot) immediately.
At any rate, with any decision you make, you must think, "If the puck is in the slot in front of my goal, that is the ultimate danger, I must do anything I can to remove that danger."
As short as that is, that's defensive tactics in a nutshell! Note that your skating ability, your ability to correctly hear the puck, your stick touch ability, and your offensive skills all play a part in your being a good defender. And the best you are at offensive teamwork, the more your team has the puck, the less the bad guys have it, and the more opportunities for success for your team.
Let's define Sonic Hockey Tactics as "the decisions you make in the game about where to go and what to do." For training purposes, we declare that our team is the Black Team, and all our tactics are as the Black Team. You would say, "White," instead of "Black," if you were on that team,
Coach Danny's Disclaimer:
This entire section of the website is kind of a misnomer...there is really no such thing as "Sonic Hockey Tactics." There are hockey tactics...period. Hockey tactics -how do the players move about the rink, how do they decide what plays to make- are the same whether you are playing blind or sighted. We specially note this only because most people hold the belief that there is no way that blind persons can possibly move about the rink, intelligently creating hockey plays.
Well, blind persons can indeed do these things, and do them very well. In other sections, we discuss the sounding equipment, the tactile blue lines, the player and referee communication. All the information that a sighted player receives through their vision, a blind person can receive through their hearing, and sense of touch, from their skates, hands, and hockey stick. Let's look at a description of a play involving four players, from the view of one of the players in action:
The Six Principles of Play are (note 1-3 are offensive principes, 4-6 are defensive principles):
1. Continuous movement toward the puck,
2. the puck and the players must change lanes,
3. get rid of the puck as early as possible,
4. recover,
5. match up,
6. protect the slot.
A Sonic Hockey Play:
To start each play, somebody sends the puck back into your defensive zone, so you turn from the attack and head back toward your goal. You call out, "Black moving... Black coming back..." You cross the attacking zone blue line and feel it under your skates. You know you are regressing through the neutral zone. You veer over to the right wing wall, calling in a fifteen-foot-voice, "Black coming back one, black coming back one..." You use your stick out ahead of you to find the dasher wall, and proceed back over the defensive blue line, so you are now at the right-wing point. You hear your teammate, back in the right-wing corner, calling out, "Go three!" as he passes the puck on the crossing diagonal, up to the neutral zone left wing. You hear your teammate on the opposite rink side calling, "Black looking!" You call in return, "You go, you go!" To set up for the next play, you turn again and head up floor to hold a little into the attacking zone. Your teammate acquires the puck, calling "Black, where are you?" You call out to her, "Black One, Black one!" She sends the puck across the rink ahead of you into the attacking zone. The referee calls "White zone, white zone!" You hear the puck strike the wall ahead of you on the wing. You skate for it, calling, "Black looking!" As you hear yourself coming closer to the puck, you try to skate slightly to the right of it, so you can find the puck quickly with your left-handed stick blade in forehand position. As you contact the puck, you quickly one-two, stickhandle it to get the feel of it, then call out "Black, Center!" sending the puck to the slot for a teammate to acquire. You then head for the side of the goal, listening to the goal beeper, and the echo off the end wall to alert you that you are even with the net. You strike the post with your stick loudly, calling to your center teammate, "Right post! Right post!" Your teammate fires the puck on goal, and it clanks loudly against the back rail of the goal frame. That's a rink-long, offensive play with the puck going through possession by four players in sequence. That's how it happens.
Let's discuss Offensive Tactics:
Sonic Hockey Offensive Tactics:
The Baseline Sonic Hockey Play:
There is but one play in Sonic Hockey. Here are the parts:
1. Acquire the puck.
2. Move the puck into the neutral zone.
3. Move the puck into the attacking zone.
4. Move the puck into the slot.
5. Shoot the puck on goal.
While this might seem to be a listing of the obvious, it is worth memorizing this sequence, and keeping it in mind as you go about playing the game.
Discussion of each part:
1. Acquire the puck.
The techniques for gaining possession of the puck are described in the Sonic Hockey Techniques Section. As you are acquiring the puck, you might call out to your teammates, "Black, where are you?" so you know a little ahead of time to where you might pass the puck when you get it. When you first acquire the puck, we recommend that you move it at least five feet as quickly as possible, either passing it directly, or stickhandling it into open space. This will free you to move the puck yourself, or pass it. We note that, state-of-the-art at the moment, this game is a passing game. While the first player who does learn to stickhandle up the rink at speed will change the game, after our play of twelve years, we don't have that guy yet. Pass the puck. Ask your teammates where they are, or if you actually are sure of your position, tell them where you are passing it and fire away. You can pass to a teammate, or into space that you are pretty sure a teammate can control (i.e., get to the puck first).
2. Move the puck into the neutral zone.
Pass the puck into the neutral zone as quickly as possible, best to or toward where you know a teammate is. Sometimes that will be straight up through the same wing or center that you are in, other times, your best pass will be cross-floor, to a wing. Most plays will alternate between the three lanes, to get the puck out of your defensive end, and into the neutral zone.
3. Move the puck into the attacking zone.
Likewise, send the puck into the attacking zone next, varying the target area of your pass:
a. to a teammate waiting at the offensive blue line, who can then take it into the zone,
b. ahead of a teammate into the slot, or wing, for a teammate to run onto,
c. to the back wall, for a teammate to run onto (works well only if you have a skater that can ably perform the "Chase" part of the Dump and Chase scenario).
4. Move the puck into the slot.
If you have the puck anywhere you can shoot it, or pass the puck into the slot. All the forwards and maybe an extra defender can/should be in the front of the goal somewhere and alert to your shooting/passing the puck into the front/center area.
5. Shoot the puck on goal.
Shoot the puck! Forehand, backhand, whatever, just get it on goal. Be alert for referee calling "Loose," "Side of the net," "Behind the net," "Corner," or some such. We encourage referees to provide information of puck location as long as it is information general in nature, and the same information to both teams. Keep fighting for puck possession in the slot, and shoot as much as possible. We also teach our players to skate away from the goal a few strides, turn and shoot. This is a move that usually frees the player for a good shot.
Communicating
Communicating is discussed at length in its own section. We want all payers to be vocal, and informative to their teammates at all times during the game...which is very much like regular, sighted hockey, eh?
Zones
Your defensive zone is the Black zone, the attacking zone is the White zone, the neutral zone is the Neutral zone. As the puck moves across a blue line the Referee will call out, "Neutral zone, the puck's in the neutral zone," Black zone, the puck's in the Black zone, White is good," (I.e., not offside).
The referee might also call out "Loose!" puck in front of the goal, or note a puck "Behind the net," "Side of the net," as pucks around the goal can be tricky for both teams in the usual crowd in front of the net.
Player movement about the rink:
Just like sighted hockey, we note that new, learning players develop an affinity to play a certain position/area of the rink. Some gravitate to offense, some defense. Some want to play strictly in the center of the game with the action swirling around them. Others would rather use the side wall as a home base, thus keeping themselves oriented to direction.
We want to encourage every player to learn to play anywhere on the rink. Fact is, each player must learn to make tactical decisions in the back, up front, at the blue line, on the wings, in the corners, behind the net, and so on. All three lanes should be filled on offense. In the white zone (the attacking zone), one player should be on the puck, the other two should be in the slot, ready for a centering pass, or a shot on goal and a rebound. The off-wing defender might also move up the wing to back up any errant centering pass that would go all the way through the slot untouched.
While it is of value to have a "Center, Left wing, Right wing, Defense" mentality, we do not want to glue any player to a defined spot on the floor Players should feel free to interchange as situations arise. Players must communicate, so if a teammate takes a certain place in the formation, you can move to a supporting one effectively. Doesn't do any good to have three players on the puck all at once! It is extremely important not to feel that a blind player can only play a certain way, or a certain place on the rink! Encourage every player to learn the roles of every position!
We encourage players to constantly change positions on the rink, but communicate such religiously!
Sonic Hockey Defensive Tactics:
Sonic Hockey defense can be summed up with six words embodied in three concepts:
Recover.
Match up.
Protect the slot.
Recover.
When the other team acquires the puck and sends it out of the White Zone to the Neutral or Black zone, everybody must retreat to a position goal side of the puck. The fastest, best, and easiest way to do this is to find your goalkeeper ("Black goalie, where are you?!"), and skate straight to him (or her). Keep going until you are sure you are past the puck toward your goalkeeper. Communicate your movement to the other payers with a quieter, "ten-foot voice," (in other words, the entire rink does not need to hear you in this communication, only those nearby) "Black coming back , black moving, black moving , black coming..." When you are back "behind" the puck, you then turn and look to be your team's player on the puck, "Black going! Black looking!" Or you find a bad guy and get between him and the goal. "Black, got this guy, black point!"
Match up.
Once you are on the puck, or are attached to a bad guy without the puck, you are "matched up." Most of the time, you want to be "goal-side," that is, between the bad guy and your own goalkeeper. However, you can also experiment with positioning yourself "puck side," that is between the bad guy and the position of the puck. You could then intercept a pass if his teammate were to try to pass it to him. Be prepared, however, to scurry back to a goal-side position if such a pass does occur and you don't intercept it!
Protect the slot.
If you are correctly matched up, you are already in the position to defend against the bad guy who may get the puck and want to take a shot at your goal. You then need to decide to:
1. dispossess the bad guy from the puck,
2. intercept the pass/shot and clear it out of your defensive zone onto the neutral zone,
3. send the puck out of the slot into the back corner or wing just to get it out from in front of your goal (the slot) immediately.
At any rate, with any decision you make, you must think, "If the puck is in the slot in front of my goal, that is the ultimate danger, I must do anything I can to remove that danger."
As short as that is, that's defensive tactics in a nutshell! Note that your skating ability, your ability to correctly hear the puck, your stick touch ability, and your offensive skills all play a part in your being a good defender. And the best you are at offensive teamwork, the more your team has the puck, the less the bad guys have it, and the more opportunities for success for your team.