face offs

Question
Hi Guy,

I'm adult rec player who picked the game up four years . . I 've never had any formal training. My team has moved me to centre where I'm getting absolutely killed on the face offs. I've never taken face offs before in my life. I was hoping you give me some pointers. I need know starting right from the basics - like:

- where should my hands be on the stick
- weight distribution
- how tightly I should holding the stick
- tacits
- anything else you can think of

thanks for all your help!

Answer
Hi there,

Faceoffs are a crucial part of the game as it initiates who starts the play. Some pointers on how to help win the draw:

- I usually move my top hand on the stick a few inches down to get better leverage and allow me to lower my self to be stronger on the stick. My bottom hand is about 3/4 way down the shaft. Some players like to turn their hand over on the stick, but this only allows you to win the draw in 1 direction so its easy to defend, where as I like to keep my hand normal so I can win it with either backhand or forehand.

- For weight distribution, I tend to evenly distribute the weight on both skates, but I do lean forward on the toes so I can pivot quicker (I'll explain later the pivoting part).

- On tightness of grip on stick, I have come to find out it really doesn't effect much, but with that being said, you don't want to have too loose of a grip to where you can have your stick knocked out of your hands, so a natural strength grip or slightly tighter should be just fine.

- The most important thing to get a good jump on winning the draw is to keep your eye on the puck, even when its in the ref's hand. That way you know when it is dropping and get anticipate when it hits the ice to win the draw on pure quickness.

- Another tactic winning the draw is as soon as the puck is dropped your pivot/turn to your backhand side so your back is facing the other centremen preventing him from getting to puck, then use stick or skate to kick back to winger or defensemen.

- A different way on winning faceoffs is to push your stick forward to block his as the ref is dropping the puck (anticipation is key and getting to know the rhythms of the linesmen helps, as you can't jump the gun too much, otherwise can get kicked out of the draw)and then win the puck back with stick, or keep your stick forward and use your skate to kick it back.

These are just a few techniques, but are the main 3 I use and are quite effective. Hope this helps you improve in faceoffs and let me know if you have any other questions regarding faceoffs or anything else.

Thank you and good luck!

Guy