transistion from ball to puck

[hockey66]

Hello,

I've been playing ball hockey for about eight years. Recently I joined a team to play indoors with a puck. I have never played with a puck before. What can I expect? The facility I'll be playing at is in Wallington, NJ.

[umroller]

A few major things to expect:

1) It will feel heavier
2) It will be tougher to stickhandle at first (especially stickhandling quickly).
3) Until you get good it'll be harder to drag or flip the puck than it was with a ball.
4) It won't bounce like a ball does, but will go on it's edge, which is something to get used to.
5) Obviously shooting will be somewhat different
6) But mainly, you will just have to get used to playing with a puck. Practice with it a lot. One thing I did was get a big piece of plexiglass at home and I stickhandled on it in the basement and even took it outside to take shots off of in the yard.

Hope I could help.



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[hockey66]

Do you know where I can get plexiglass? I'm thinking Home Depot...

Thanks

[umroller]

Exactly. Any store like Home Depot should have it. Try to get a piece of plexi glass big and thick enough to be able to move around on a bit. I don't think it's very expensive at all.



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[hockey66]

Played an open game with a puck for the first time today. It was great. All of what you told me earlier all was entirely true. Stickhandling with confidence was the most difficult transistion for me. The hardest part about shooting was getting the puck to sit where I wanted it to. Everything I found difficult had something to do with stickhandling. And on top of never playing with a puck before, I was wearing new skates. I bought a peice of plexiglass 32"x72"; not huge but good to learn on I guess. Thanks for the advice.