Option 2:

The other day, I had a teammate come to me looking for advice on improving hand-eye coordination. Now, as a defenceman, I'm not using my hand-eye in the same way as a forward, but it still comes in handy to disrupt break outs and cycles in the defensive zone. So, of course, I decided to share a couple of drills that could help them out.

One of the drills I like looks silly, but it works. I try to play ping pong with my hockey stick. I'll lift up one half of the table and use my stick to hit the ping pong ball back and forth. Slowly, I'll move further away from the table and ramp up the power and speed.

The other drill I like is on the ice. I ask a couple of coaches to run 2 on 1 drills and try to saucer pass across the ice. I need to knock the puck down and gain control and then try to knock the puck down the ice into the corner. I alternate each one and try to teach my eyes to focus on the puck.

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