Many hockey players are looking for ways to improve their game. Here are five ways to help guide you to becoming that great player that you want to be.

Step One - Knowledge. Study up on hockey by watching as many games as you can whether it be in person or on television. Dont always watch the person with the puck. Find out who is playing your position and focus on their movements, watch how they study the developing play and step in to either stop a shot or score a goal.

Step Two - Conditioning. Skate as often as possible. Use some of the conditioning techniques posted on the web site to help you out. Go to the gym or work out as much as possible at home. Work on lots of cardio exercises to help build up and endurance to the hard skating used in each game. Be sure during practice you are pushing yourself as hard as you can.

Step Three - Shot Accuracy. Go to the rink when there is open skate and just shoot on net. Each shot you take try to set a goal for your self. As your skating toward the goal think in your head, this one is going top right or this one is going just above the pad on left side. Another way to help this is to do sharp shooting like in the all star game. Take four foam plates and duct tape them to the corners. Set up a line as far away as you want and see how many pucks it takes to destroy them all!

Step Four - Stick Handling. Go to your local sporting goods store and buy the cheap little plastic cones. Set them up in any way you want to. Be sure to skate around each of the cones while heading toward the net and practice holding the puck away from your body. While your going from cone to cone, throw in a toe drag or toss it in your skates and kick it back to your stick. These will all help you get used to handling the puck with out actually looking at it.

Step Five - Teamwork. There is no better offense then chemistry. A team that knows each others style and how each player skates will be hard to beat. In each practice be sure to know who your line mates are. If there are no set lines then try to find someone to just focus on and try to pair up with them on lines. If you are a playmaker, meaning you would rather take the hit and get the assist, then be sure to pair up with a scorer, meaning you most of the time park your self right in front of the net instead of fighting battles in the corners.

Follow these steps and you can become a better hockey player. But remember, I can only tell you how to improve your game, it takes dedication to actually become the player you want to be!

Jake Johannesen of http://www.personalhockeycoach.com

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