Reply To: Morris Lukowich on how to receive a pass

[Tom Molloy]

Kai, Darryl Belfry·has excellent skill videos.

The theme of lot of his material is how to get one skill to immediately flow into another. We tend to teach skills as segments of the game. So skating is one skill, shooting another, passing another. The soft catch is moving into a deke or puck protection mode as you take the pass instead of taking the pass, pause and then protect the puck or make a move. Instead the stick is square to the puck for a brief moment and right away the puck is moved to a better position. His video on shooting while moving is the same idea.

You can take the concept farther by thinking about transition between roles. You make pass and immediately become a passing option by breaking into open ice instead of coasting and watching your pass.

These are the skills and habits that separate elite players from good players and teams who transition roles right away become elite teams.

I am leaving the hotel soon to have breakfast in Grand Central Station with Dennis Freed who started the hockeycoach.com site which became this site. I haven't seen him in over ten years.

'The Game is the Greatest Coach'
'Enjoy the Game'