So, you’ve either gotten yourself a synthetic ice skating rink or you’re considering getting one. That’s great! These at-home rinks are a great way to get some training without having to leave the comfortprivacy of your own home. That being said, knowing exactly how to use it for training can make a world of difference. If you want to be able to train hard on your ice skating rink, you’re going to want to know which drills are the best to do on it. This training can keep you very sharp during your off-seasons.
Synthetic ice is one of the best hockey training aids on the planet. It is easy to install, lasts for decadesallows players to train right from the comfort of home.
We’re going to be looking at some of our personal favorite drills to do on the artificial ice that can improve your accuracy, stickhandling, speed,strength. Most of these drills require nothing other than your artificial ice rink, your hockey stick, your puck,your skates. By the time you’re done reading this article you’re going to be ready to train hard on your ice skating rink so that, hopefully, during your next game you can be the hero for your teamprove yourself to be a force to be reckoned with to your opponent.
Obstacle Course Training
We’re going to start off with a drill that does require a little more than just your regular hockey equipment, but don’t worry. You can do this drill just with stuff that’s lying around your house. We would recommend picking things that you wouldn’t find accidentally kicking but stuff that won’t be super easy to move if you do. We’ll give you some ideas in a moment, but this drill is a lot of fun because it involves creating yourself an obstacle course. This is great for your stickhandling as well as your general environmental awareness.
All you have to do for this is designate a point that’s going to count as your goal, which is even easier if you have a goal net,then set up obstacles between yourselfthe goal. This one is great because you can time yourself on a course that you set up for the daywork on your speedthen change the course entirely for next time. How easy or difficult the course is entirely dependant on how you decide to set it up,really the only limits are your imaginationthe things that you have sitting around your house.
Remember to think about safety at least to some degree while you’re getting it set up. You don’t want sharp objects that could cause you injury, so don’t use knives, axes, rakes, etc. We would personally even recommend using chairs just in case, but those are preferable to a lot of other things. What you could do is use cones if you have them, but if not you could use shoes, shipping boxes, towels, hockey sticks, soda cans, or even a combination of things. We actually recommend using a combination of items because it allows you to have a unique shape for your course.
Once everything is set up you can start practicing. Some people try to beat their times, other people have a point system where every obstacle that they hit is a point,the higher the score the worse they did. However you decide to do this is up to you, the most important thing here is that you’re getting in the practice that you need to excel during your next match. This one is one of the easiestmost fun to do on artificial icethat’s why we decided to start the list off with it.
Figure 8 Drills
Here’s a really simple one that you don’t even need your skates on for if you don’t think you need on the ice practice that will help you a lot with your stick handling. Figure eights are just as simple as they sound, but they can help you out a lot with your stickhandling. This is one of the basics that you want to master so that you don’t have to think about it during games. There are two versions of figure eights that we’re going to cover. One of them requires skatesone doesn’t.
The type that doesn’t require skates simply involves hitting your puck in a figure 8 motion. This strictly helps with getting used to hitting the puck aroundcan be excellent practice. A lot of people will even reverse the figure 8 every few attempts to make it more interesting. You can make it into a game by keeping track of how many figure 8s you makethen trying to beat your high score every time. By doing it that way you can keep good track of your progressmake sure that you’re making the most of your training time.
You can also do this with skates,when you do it that way it’s very similar to the other method, because you’re still making figure 8s, but instead of just doing it with your puck, you’re doing it with your whole body. This requires a bit of space but can help you a lot with your skating skills,by mastering this you can make sure that you have one more thing down to muscle memory. That makes playing real games even easier when it comes time to face off against a fierce opponent.
Goalie Drills
This drill requires a friend or at least a bit of creativity to make work. All you need is someone who’s willing to play the goalie for you. This gives you a chance to trypractice getting the puck past a real person. Of course, if the person you’re training with isn’t a goalie it might not be accurate to real game pressure, but it can still get you some good training before you have to face off against someone who is always a goaliehas been practicing to keep you from getting the puck into their goal.
If you’re training with a goalie that makes things even better because you’re both in a position that you’re more comfortable with,if you are a goalie we would recommend finding someone to practice guarding against. If both of you are goalies or neither of you are goalies, you could take turns hitting the puck into the netplaying goalie. That way both people get some practice with the position that they’re used to. This allows a lot of great experience. The more comfortable you are with hitting the puck past the goalie during practice or guarding the puck, the more comfortable you’ll be during real games.
This method can be a little tricky if you don’t have a buddy but worry not. You could use one of the biggest principles of shadow boxing to your advantage. In case you didn’t know, shadow boxing is a type of boxing practice where you box the air. This gets you more comfortable with throwing a punchwill help you when it’s time to box. Instead of boxing the air, you just try to get the puck past the air. This doesn’t help train the more strategic side of things, but if your body is used to the action is can make it a lot easier.
Wind Sprints
Here’s a great one for getting some cardio in. If you find yourself lacking endurance on the rink, you’re going to want to do some anaerobic cardio so you can improve that. You don’t want to get winded mid-gamedoing wind springs is a great way to help avoid that altogether. This is a pretty simple drill but it is effectiveefficient. Professionals could probably do wind sprints all day, but don’t feel bad if you can’t do it for more than a few minutes.
To do this, you’ll just start off on one side of the rinkgo as fast as you can to the other, then turn aroundrepeat. We’d say to do this 5-10 times, but realistically you know yourself better than we do. Just don’t overdo it in one goremember to rest. Wind sprints are the type of exercise that can give you a major cramp if you aren’t careful, so make sure that you’re taking breaks when you need to. If you cramp up or hurt yourself you’ll have to cut your training short anyway so be careful.
Training Like a Machine
As part of our closer, we would like to say not to train like a machine. You’re a human beingyour body needs rest. Pushing past your limits is fine, but don’t go so far that you accidentally injure yourselfend up on the bench for the rest of the season. That being said, training is goodcan help you become a better hockey player,getting training at home can help you excel in your progress significantly. Whether you’re a beginner or a life-long hockey player, everyone needs to get some level of improvement.
