Learn when and why step fakes are effective for both forwards and defensemen, plus Fast demonstrates practice drills to use.
If you’re skating down the ice with the puck and are on the attack, a good defender will begin to angle you immediately to take away time and space. To take control of that situation, Brad Fast teaches step fakes. They’re quick, they’re deceptive and they can give you the six inches you need to make a pass or take a shot.
During TCS Live in 2022, Fast, the Director of Player Development with Michigan State University (formerly the Director of Athlete Development with HoneyBaked Hockey Club), explained the premise behind step fakes. His 20-minute on-ice presentation was an attendee favourite because of the effectiveness of this relatively unknown move.
Learn when and why step fakes are effective for both forwards and defensemen, plus Fast demonstrates a handful of practice drills he uses to teach this move.
“It’s a simple move. It looks like a deke to start. But as one progresses, it becomes clear it’s not an overhanding situation. It’s simply a step towards a defender or sometimes into a space where you want to draw a defender into, without overhandling the puck, without stickhandling into their space.”
Fast joined HoneyBaked in 2021 and serves as the primary conduit between the athletes, their coaches and the off ice coaches in the realms of strength and conditioning and mental performance.
Fact fact about Fast: he was drafted by the Carolina Hurricanes 84th overall in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. He only played one game in his career, but he’s in the record books because of it. Fast played the final game of the 2003-04 season, tying the game 6-6 by scoring on Roberto Luongo late in the 3rd.
Only four players in NHL history have played one career game and scored during that game and Fast is one of them. Very cool.
But wait, there’s more!
What makes this story even cooler is that Fast’s goal was the last ever scored that resulted in a tie game in the NHL. The league moved to a shootout the following season.
