Why Use a Toe Drag
To become great at stickhandling and controlling the puck in a game, you need to be able to move the puck around your entire body, not just side to side in front of you. You also need to develop the ability to move the back in any direction at any time (front to back, side to side, away from the body and back) Perfecting the toe drag will give you the ability to move the puck quickly backwards and forwards, and side to side no matter where it is, giving you a bigger range of control and making your stickhandling that much more unpredictable.
Fake Or Deke With A Toe Drag
One of the other advantages to the toe drag is using it to fake or “Deke” the goalie or opposition. There are a number of situations where a quick toe drag can be the most unpredictable way to get around the defence. This is just another way to break away from a situation where the opposition may think your cornered in with nowhere to move the puck to, by using the toe of the stick to pull the puck back or forth you give yourself more room maneuver the puck around the opposition and blow past them.
How To Toe Drag
One of the biggest problems with practicing the toe drag from home is the equipment you use, if you practice your toe drags with a stickhandling ball (as many of us do) you may find that it is a totally different feeling and motion on the ice. The stickhandling balls will have a lot of friction, the problem with that is a puck on ice has very little friction. You need to create the closest “On Ice” practice environment to give you the best form of off ice training, I would recommend using the Green Biscuit off ice training puck and the Hockeytutorial shooting pads for the best possible off ice training.
The Green Biscuit is a great puck to use to practice and perfect your toe drag off-ice.
The toe drag can be pretty tough to learn (using the proper technique) practice, practice.
- Roll your wrists away from your body to roll the blade of the stick over the puck, so the toe of the blade of the stick is pointing down
- Catch the puck with the centre area of the toe (of the sticks blade), and pull the puck backwards, using your top hand to pull the stick back, while allowing the shaft of your stick to slide through your lower hand.
- As the puck is coming backwards, roll your wrist back towards your body and catch the puck.
This is a basic toe drag, once you perfect it you can use the toe drag to move the puck straight back or even in a “U” shape using the toe drag to drive the puck around objects (or players).
