If you wanted to decide whether or not a shot was “good” how would you go about it?  One way is to say that if it was “good enough” to beat a goalie, then it was good (of course that depends on the level of Hockey you are playing). With that said, good shots fail to score all of the time and that is something to keep in mind when evaluating one’s own shooting, their son’s or daughter’s shooting, or the shooting of a player that they are coaching.

But, to really get at the keys to quality shooting, we should ask, “What goes into a good shot?”  Another way to ask this is, “What makes a shot hard to stop?”  Even if you don’t know hockey very well, two answers to this question are pretty obvious.  Those answers are accuracy and velocity.  In order to score you want to put the puck where the goalie isn’t and get it there before he can react.

As we learn to shoot, players typically focus on accuracy and velocity first and, as a result, have a “wind up” that is so long that it is like mailing the goalie a memo stating that you are going to shoot.  You can rest assured that the goalie will be ready for this type of shot.

As players get older, this type of a long wind up is more and more problematic when trying to score.  First, opposing skaters contest your shot and prevent you from even getting a shot off.  Second, the goalie gets a great read on your shot and has a much higher save percentage as a result.  Developing a quick release is key in shooting as you play at higher levels of the game, but most Hockey players, parents, coaches, etc. are aware of this.  Developing a quick-release shot is definitely not a secret.

What may be the “secret sauce” in shooting, or more accurately, “goal scoring” is deception.  It is an often-overlooked aspect of one’s shot release.  Essentially it means confusing the goalie by shooting outside of his expectations.  We can do this by shooting either from a different location than the goalie expects, at a different time than he expects, or to a different target than he expects.

In Part 2 of this article, we will consider some techniques and methods to put the goalie at a disadvantage by adding deception to your already (hopefully!) high velocity, accurate, and quickly-released shot!