The Elite Hockey Science curriculum stresses how important it is for you to conceptualize hockey skills training as something that’s both interconnected and sequential.
So try to stop thinking of skills like skating, puck handling, passing, and shooting as being completely separate entities, and instead start thinking of them as being a part of a chain reaction:
If you have a poor forward stride it impedes your potential for fast, straightaway speed with our without the puck.
Without speed you lose your ability to skate deceptively.
To be a deceptive skater you must have the ability to quickly stop/start/tight-turn/decelerate in order to evade opponents and create space from them.
But if you have weak edge work (a weak outside edge in particular) you can’t perform most of these deceptive skating skills as they should be performed.
So you’ll have to decelerate unskillfully by digging your heels into the ice.
From your heels you’re off balance so it’s easier for an opponent to bump you out of the play or for you to take yourself out of position (falling, turning too wide).
Even if you hold onto your balance you’re now compromised so your upper body posture worsens.
And if you’re fortunate enough to have the puck with you…
without the correct upper body posture you cannot activate your top hand elbow so that it moves how it’s supposed to.
