Stickhandling: carrying the puck with your head up.

Stickhandling, also called puckhandling, is controlling the puck with the stick. The teaching points below come from Hockey Canada's Coach 1 manual (Version 1.1, 2022) unless another source is named. Hockey Canada's 2020-21 skating guide adds a general order for practice that applies here too: learn the skating first, then add the puck, then add other players.

Start with the stick

Coach 1's points on stick fit:

• Length: standing on skates, the stick should reach somewhere between the collarbone and the chin. The manual's reason is that the top hand then has room to move freely in front of the body.
• Lie: the lie is right when the blade sits flat on the ice in the player's normal skating stance.
• Young players: the manual recommends junior sticks, which have narrower shafts and shorter blades.

The manual returns to length in its passing section, warning that a stick that is too long gets in the way of sweep passes. The sticks page covers flex, curves and sizing in more detail.

The grip

Coach 1's grip has three parts:

1. The top hand sits at the very end of the stick.
2. The bottom hand sits 20 to 30 cm down the shaft.
3. The V formed by the thumb and forefinger points straight up the shaft.

The hands move from this dribbling position for other skills. For the wrist shot, the manual places them slightly wider apart than for stickhandling; for a one-handed carry in open ice, only the top hand stays on the stick.

Head up

The manual asks players to keep the head up and follow the puck with peripheral vision. It allows younger players to look at and feel the puck while they are learning. Awareness matters for safety too. USA Hockey's 2009 checking manual teaches scanning and keeping the head "on a swivel", and tells a puck carrier heading for the boards not to look down at the puck. That side of it is covered on the checking page.

Puck control standing still

For stationary puckhandling, Coach 1 moves the puck side to side by rolling the wrists, so the blade cups the puck on the forehand and then on the backhand. The puck sits in the middle of the blade and the arms stay relaxed. The manual's description of good control is that it should be smooth, rhythmic and quiet.

Puck control on the move

• Open-ice carry: with the stick in the top hand only, the player pushes the puck slightly ahead and alternates the blade angle left and right.
• Using the skates: the manual teaches turning the toe of the skate out to control the puck, taking only a quick look down, and keeping the puck within about one metre of the skates.
• Stopping with the puck: both hands go back on the stick and the blade cups over the puck as the player stops.

The 2002 Canadian Hockey Association checking manual lists puck protection among the terms it defines.

Dekes

Coach 1 describes a deke as a way to beat an opponent while keeping the puck, or to disguise a pass or a shot. Its key points:

• The fake has to look real.
• Start it far enough away that the opponent cannot reach the puck with a stick check.
• Use changes of speed and direction.
• Give the opponent time to react to the fake.
• Accelerate after it.
• Where possible, aim it at a weakness you have already spotted in that opponent.

The manual groups dekes into three families:

Dekes as a scoring skill

Hockey Canada's 2020-21 shooting and scoring guide counts the deke as one of its seven basic scoring "shots", alongside wrist shots, backhands, flip shots, snap shots, slap shots, and tips and deflections. Its shooting concepts include forehand-to-backhand and backhand-to-forehand moves, changing the angle of the puck and faking. For breakaways, its key points are patience, a change of speed and moving the goaltender side to side. The shooting page covers that guide in more detail.

Practice formats

Hockey Canada's skating guide promotes small-area games: competitive drills in a reduced space such as cross-ice or a corner, with fewer players and many puck touches. USA Hockey's American Development Model uses cross-ice play for young players for the same reason, more touches of the puck for each child. Both approaches are described on the player development page.