Нападающий. Владение шайбой и силовая борьба TEAM PLAY SKILLS A proper attitude can help athletes develop other essential skills for the game, including team play skills. A single athlete does not make a winning team, hence the importance of developing strong team play skills such as the following. Puck Protection and Cycling Two offensive concepts that are critically important in today’s game are puck protection and cycling. Both allow teams to keep the puck for extended periods of time and help to establish control of the game and create scoring chances. For puck protection, players must keep their bodies between the puck and the defender. This skill that forwards use mostly in the offensive zone can draw penalties from an impatient defender and lead to scoring chances. Players who are good at puck protection usually are strong, have excellent balance, and aren’t afraid to play in traffic. Cycling involves two or three forwards at the offensive goal line and causes nightmares for defenders. In the basic concept, the first player cycles or skates up or down the boards and bumps or chips the puck to a new area while protecting the puck from an opponent (figure 9.3). The second forward retrieves the puck and can continue to cycle, spin back (figure 9.4), or bump the puck to a new corner. Some teams prefer the safety of a two-man cycle with a third forward in a defensive position, while other teams use all three forwards in an aggressive cycle to generate scoring chances. Ideally, you always have a player in a good scoring position to receive a pass or play a rebound on a successful cycle. Depending on how much of an advocate of cycling you are, you can begin to add moving screens and picks that don’t create enough interference for referees to call the penalty. Teams that master legal picking and screening can create more scoring chances. An unfortunate spin-off from puck protection and cycling is players turning their backs to defenders, leading to too many hits from behind and dangerous contact situations. It’s an issue every coach should be aware of. FIGURE 9.3 Cycle up. FIGURE 9.4 Spin back.
Contact Fans have always loved speed, scoring, and contact and always will. Hitting is disappearing from the game, especially big hits, but contact will always be part of hockey. The basic rules say a player can hit when the opponent is not in a vulnerable position, the player doesn’t take more than three steps, and the player keeps the stick and elbows down. In today’s game, contact to the head and big hits into the boards are automatic calls. Big open-ice hits are rare but still allowed under the rules. Angling Angling is an old concept being rediscovered. A player pursues the puck carrier in order to angle her to a position in which the pursuer has the advantage, to prevent the puck carrier from moving the puck up the ice, and to force a pass. The end result is to rub the puck carrier off into the boards or mirror her as she attempts to join the play. This is particularly necessary in girls’ and women’s hockey, where checking is forbidden. The women’s game still bans checking but prominently features angling the player off the puck. Even without checking, women’s hockey has become more physical as the speed and skill of the players have improved. |
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