When teaching my Hockey Academy class today, we learned to keep our body in alignment in hockey position. This includes toes, hips, shoulders and head all facing in the same direction and on the same plane. There were a few kids that had one foot behind another. This in turn rotates their body slightly in one direction which will affect their balance.

Being able to notice your body position when standing still is a simple way to understand your body awareness. Standing still will be more simple than knowing your body awareness when in motion, so pay attention! Even the most simple requests from your coach are building blocks for your skating foundation.

For learn to play hockey - the stationary passing drill - it's important to keep a solid base with your feet. I saw many new players trying to rotate their feet while stationary passing. Now, this was an ad hoc, 'hey - let's pass while we we're waiting for our shift in the scrimmmage,' activity, and it was evident that the young players were trying to pass with their feet. There was soooo much movement below the waist when they were trying to pass in place.

What's wrong with this There was a clear lack of separation between the upper body and lower body. And this is bad because the balance and weight transfer for the player was affecting the passing accuracy. The hands do not need the feet in order to drive power or accuracy. They can independently work fast enough. So keep the legs out of the passing game. The legs should provide a steady base from which to pass from.