Wide Sweeps



Which player would you rather have to stop on a one-on-one:
A player who keeps the puck in tight, never varying a quick back-and-forth with their blade and the puck?

- or -

A player who plays the puck in tight, makes a head-fake and then leaves you spinning with with a toe drag and a then a wide-sweep?

Lets face it, the quick back-and-forth stickhandling maneuver is a great foundation, but now it's time to take off the training wheels and fly. It'll still be an essential skill for you to practice but by learning sweeps, toe-drags and incorporating your skates it'll be part of a much bigger and dangerous (and fun) bag-of-tricks. These are the kind of puck-handling skills you have to learn and master to take yourself to the next level and a couple of hours at the rink every week isn't going to cut it. It's time to take matters into your own hands and learning the Wide Sweep on your own time will make you more confident with the puck and more dangerous and unpredictable to your opponents.

You'll need a stick and a ball or puck. Don't use a tennis ball, the felt skin will stick to your blade and to the ground. Instead, cut that sucker into 8ths and stuff it into a whiffle ball to create a great ball to practice with that has a slick outside and dampened innards. Or use a street puck, or any of the great stickhandling balls we have here at epuck. But all you really need is a street puck or ball with slick sides and the determination to master a new skill.

To start stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your top-hand strong on the stick and your bottom hand slightly looser. The ball/puck should be centered between your feet and in front of you near the middle of your stickblade.

First we're gonna take it to the backhand side.
Shift your weight to the backhand side and sweep the ball/puck with your forehand blade and let go with the bottom hand. Extend as far as your top-hand can reach, coming over the top of the ball/puck to stop it, cupping the blade over the ball/puck and keeping your top-hand strong. Pull the ball/puck back with the backhand blade, returning your weight to the center and your bottom hand to stickhandling position on the shaft of the stick.

Forehand side.
Take a small back-and-forth stickhandling maneuver and then sweep the ball/puck and your weight to your forehand side. Use the backside of the stickblade, this time keep both hands on the stick the whole way. Sweep as far out as you can and then cup and stop the ball/puck with the forehand side of your stickblade and bring it back to center and take another small back-and-forth maneuver.

Repeat.
See how smooth you can get it. Go to the very edge of your reach and don't be discouraged if you keep losing the ball/puck. If you keep at it it will come and you'll wonder how you ever did without this skill in your game.

After you're reasonably comfortable with it try to keep your head up so you can pay attention to what's going on in the game. Maybe just keep the ball/puck sighted in the lower corner of your eye or go back-and-forth between looking and not looking until you‚ve developed a solid feel. Hockey is a heads-up game where if your head is down you will end up down too.

Variations
Shift the length of your reach, take it halfway or fully one way and then halfway to the other side. Make it shifty.

Pull the ball puck into your feet and then out.

Combine with Toe Dragons.
After pulling back from one side keep going to the other and pull the ball/puck around in back of you until you pivot 360º and back to starting position. Be sure and cup the ball/puck solidly to keep control and keep your knees well bent while your spinning, then launch into the opposite sweep.
Use your imagination, make your own variations and never give up the dream.