If you want to hone your skills with a hockey shooting pad prepare to be amazed at how good you become if you stay consistent. Using a shooting pad to practice shots is almost as good as practicing on real ice, or high-grade synthetic ice. When your shooting mat is from Sniper’s Edge, you will have a high-quality, rugged, and long-lasting training aid that will sharpen your skills for years to come. If you want to be the best, here are some of the best ways to practice with your pad.
Long Distance Shots
Many of the one-timers that win games come from long ways across the rink. Being able to see where you want to put the puck, and put it there is a great skill. By practicing this, you can bring that skill to life. The first thing you will need to practice your shots in addition to your shooting mat is a shooting tarp. A high-quality shooting tarp will allow you to pinpoint where you want to shoot your puck within the targets that surround the goaltender. When you practice your shots always remember to get yourself a big pile of pucks to shoot from so that you don’t have to chase every one that you shoot. When you practice it is best to keep your attention focused on the task at hand, so get prepared. When you practice long-distance shots, place your shooting pad 20 feet or so back from the shooting tarp. Pick one of the hole targets around the goaltender to shoot at. Take your aim and shoot for that target over and over again until your puck pile is gone.
Midway Shots
With this type of practice, you will place your shooting pad about 10 feet from the shooting tarp. As before, you really want to keep your attention focused on building your shot up, so make sure that you have plenty of pucks ready to go. At this distance it is good to go for the higher shots, so pick the upper left or right side above the goaltender’s shoulder and shoot for them. There are a couple of ways that you can train yourself to hit the puck off of the ground in an upward motion, so pick the one that is best for you and go for it. Keep your eye on the target, and hold your body at an angle that will allow you for a good swing and snipe that shot as best as you can. If you miss it, just try again and again until you run out of pucks.
Pass and Shoot
For this exercise, you will need a high-quality hockey passer to help you. Puck rebounders can help you to build up your hand-eye coordination so that you can score points on the fly without wasting any time. For this one, you will need plenty of pucks and a lot of patience. You can keep your shooting pad around 10 or 15 feet from the shooting tarp. Place the puck rebounder about 5 or 6 feet away from you so that you can shoot pucks at it and have them bounce straight back at you without having to slap them too hard. Shoot a puck at the rebounder and allow the puck to come back to you. As soon as it comes into reach, shoot for a specific target on the shooting tarp. Aim for the one that gives you the most trouble to hit. Keep on hitting the pucks until you run out of them, then gather them back up and do it again. This is how you learn to score points and win games.