SKILLS

Why angling is the most underrated skill in hockey

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Greg Revak
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It often gets overlooked.

I come before you today to talk about the most important unimportant skill. When asking a coach, player, parent, or scout what the most important skills are, this won’t come up.

This is a piece of the game that is the most utilized after skating, but rarely taught. It controls how the game is played and on what terms, like a general picking a battlefield. Being able to consistently do this well is a massive advantage and something that is often overlooked.

I’m talking about angling.

When people talk about skill they never say “this player takes great angles,” yet players that take great angles control the entire game. Those are the players that dictate the terms of play. It’s incredibly important for something that may seem unimportant to most.

Dictating the terms

Controlling the game without the puck starts by dictating the spaces and options available to the other team. This shapes the game in which all player must play. It’s subtle, but the smart players are always controlling the angles and what is available to opponents.. The elite players understand which areas of the ice are important and take those away.

On the forecheck, angling forces opponents to skate where you want them to go. The player first in on the forecheck (F1) in particular has a critical job to angle the puck carrier to one side of the ice where the rest of the team can then steal the puck away. Not only is the first player forechecking important, the other players are even more important. They are responsible for tracking their assignments and angling them into bad spots so if they do get the puck, it’s in a compromising position.

This is the way that players with limited physicality are able to be very difficult to play against — they are always controlling the space available to the opponent and dictate what is available to them.

Creating a mindset

Teaching proper angling at and away from the puck gives players a tool to become proactive rather than just waiting around for something to happen then reacting. This is empowering to players and as a team. As players get better and better at angling, the group then starts to hunt the puck and suffocates all the passing options and lanes. Players become active in forcing the opposition to bad ice.

This proactive mentality allows the defence to dictate the offence without ever having to touch the puck. What coach doesn’t want players to set gaps before the opponents get the puck? Angling is the most important tool in doing so. A great example would be when defenders are playing defence by skating forward, not backwards. They are cutting off the offence before it even gets going.

Body Contact

Concussions, shoulder injuries, and other areas that arise from the physical nature of hockey can often be mitigated with quality, safe body contact. A big part of that is how a hit is delivered.

When initiating contact, players should first force the opponent where they want them to go then eliminate them.

There’s no bodychecking in the women’s game, but female hockey players are often great at taking angles, resulting in more contact than most think. These finesse hitting skills are vital for suppressing much of the injuries that come from hitting and eliminate penalties when hitting.

Does your team take too many penalties when delivering hits? Better angling is likely the solution.

Playing on the defensive side

Most of great defence has the goal being to force the opposition away from the valuable ice into bad spots on the ice while staying between your goalie and the opposition. This usually means forcing the opponents away from the middle/inside of the ice to the outside where options are limited.

When angling, the angling player’s momentum is returning to their defensive net and onto the defensive side of the play. This way, the angling player can stay “above” the attacking player and help out in a defensive manner. The other great thing about angling is that if a player gets beat they are already skating forward with the play and can react from there. This eliminates many pivots that can cause issues on defence.

PHOTO

Necessary Skills

There are a few keys elements to note when teaching angling:

  • Stick awareness – Players should be using their stick to influence play. At first, players will take away passing lanes and influence puck carriers to take the ice where they want them to go. Sticks on the ice give the best chance of disrupting the attack by intercepting the puck or deflecting any potential passes. Second, when going for contact or stripping puck carriers of possession, they should lead with stick-on-puck. Players are giving up 4-6 feet of space to the opposition if they don’t lead stick-on-puck. Development of stick awareness is vital to great defence from all skaters.
  • Skating on arcs – Players that skate in straight lines are easy to get around. Those that arc their routes are highly effective. When done properly, players will pick up speed into the opponent. Players who have weak outside edges tend to struggle taking quality angles.
  • Aim at their back shoulder/butt – The aiming point for an angling player is the back shoulder/butt of the opposition. This is critical for stopping any cutbacks.

Practice plans

Do you ever have one of those practices where you see players getting better and the “ah-ha” moments click in their heads? Here is the practice plan I’ve run with two separate teams where the lightbulb went off in the players’ heads.

Pre-practice video

If you are familiar with psychology you’ll understand the concept of priming. Film study of concepts prior to practice is a perfect way to prime your players and give them a head start on skill acquisition. For this session we we showed them shorts videos from a defensive and offensive technique.

Here is a defensive example:

Then on the flip side, showing the ways to counteract angling by the opposition to create offence:

Angling/puck protection 

For this practice we wanted to work on angling and the puck protection that is needed from an offensive perspective.

Warm up:

  • Rondo (Full breakdown here)
  • Keep away/Puck Protect: Using only one offensive zone, there is a game of keep away with one puck per 2.5 skaters.

Concept introduction:

  • Neutral zone angling – Puck carrier at the red-line and angling player at the other side (top of circle). Puck carrier attempts to score while the angler tries to stop them. Angling player cannot skate backwards.
  • Forecheck angling – Puck carrier in the corner and angling player on the same side blue line. Puck carrier tries to escape the zone with possession while the angling player attempts to strip the puck and attack on a breakaway.
  • High cycle – Groups of three spread out across the ice and work a high cycle. This is often the part of the practice that is most hands on for coaching due to the fact the players need to time the play and properly execute passes/drop passes so they won’t be easily stolen.

Game application:

  • 2v2 angling small area game – The is a cross-ice game where the players are lined up across the blue line and the start of the line is on each boards. To start, a coach would pass a puck to one line. The puck carrying team must go behind the net and then attack. The opposing team then is to angle the other team into bad ice. Let this play out for about 10 seconds and repeat.
  • 2v2 continuous – Players are lined up on two lines on each end of the offensive blue line, facing into the zone. There are two players that start at the top of the circles playing defence. The defensive players attempt to take the puck away and make a direct pass to a line. If they are successful they leave the drill and the two players they stole the puck away from become the defensive players. The first player in each line are now on offence and must cross by touching the inside of the centre faceoff circle (not dot) before attacking. Only one puck is needed. If there is a goal then a player from the offensive line will grab a puck and continue the drill.

It’s amazing how far the player go in one practice. All the way from priming the skill, to struggling with the basics, to then being able to utilize the skills in game like situations.





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