Increase Your Shot Power With This Exercise

by author: Ben | Founder of BuiltForHockey.com on February 14, 2011 with 0 Comments in In The Gym

 

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A hard slap shot or wrist shot isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something that’s developed over countless hours and hours of practice, and thousands and thousands of shots. Every hockey player wants to have that killer slap shot, but unfortunately it doesn’t happen overnight.

While repetition will surely help you have a harder shot, there’s still another way you can increase your shot power without even touching a puck. We’re not saying you’ll have a BOMB of a shot like Weber, but these exercises will really help increase your shot power.

Now you’re going to say “but wait, you need stronger wrists for a stronger shot”. And you’re right; stronger wrists naturally do help you increase your shot power. BUT what some people often forget is that the rotator cuffs are needed in almost every upper body movement in hockey. Whether you’re pushing and shoving in the corners, making a cross-ice saucer pass, or walking in from the blue-line to take a clapper, your rotator cuffs are doing a lot of the work.

Without boring you, the rotator cuff is a group of muscles that basically protect and stabilize the shoulder, allowing it to carry out its natural movements. When you’re taking a shot, the rotator cuff is working hard to stabilize the shoulder so that it can rotate and give you that shooting motion. Not only does strengthening the rotator cuffs help your shot, but they are also very important to strengthen in order to prevent injuries. In hockey, many of the shoulder injuries have to do with the rotator cuffs tearing and this can be a career-ending injury. So even if you think your shot is hard enough, do these exercises anyways to prevent injuries!

Rotator cuff exercise with dumbells:

- Start with your arms above your head, palms facing away from you and bend them 90 degrees (just like you would for doing a normal shoulder press).
- Lower your arms, keeping them bent 90 degrees and bringing them parallel to the floor.
-Bring your arms back up and repeat.
This exercise isn’t easy as you won’t have your core shoulder strength helping out; it does a good job of isolating the rotator cuff. Use a light weight and progressively go heavier when you can complete 8 to 12 reps with both arms.  Also, Don’t sacrifice good form for heavier weights and do the reps slowly.

Rotator cuff exercises with elastic band:

There are several other rotator cuff exercises that can be done. Some of the best ones are done with elastic bands. Here is a good video demonstrating a few of them ( take note of the second exercise he demonstrates: it is essentially the dumbell rotator cuff exercise but with an elastic band):

These exercises will help you strengthen your shoulders and really help you increase your shot power in no time. Make sure your form is perfect before you increase the weight for the dumbbell exercise. Shoulders are fragile and even more so for hockey players. You don’t want to pull or tear something by going too heavy. It’s an isolation exercise and so using a light weight is fine and encouraged.