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N O V / D E C 2 0 2 1 | M H J ON L I N E . C O M 15 "For kids, it's just getting a feel of it—what it feels like to be on the toe of your stick, what it feels like to be on the heel of your stick. Keep your head up while you're doing it because that's a struggle for most players." Knott also believes in playing mul- tiple sports and being an all-around athlete: "I don't care if that's baseball, golf, tennis where you're working on your hand skills." DIG FOR DRILLS Wondering what kind of drills you can do? The good news, Knott says, is that all kinds of them are right at your fingertips online. "It's so great right now. You can go on USA Hockey where, I think, they do a really good job. And it's not just USA Hockey, but you can take 3 minutes and go look at 25 different drills." The great part about that, he added, is that it costs virtually nothing to find some high-quality hockey training. DON'T BE A ROBOT When you are on the ice, there's always time to work on puck skills. Knott says he and the other Maverick coach- es make sure players aren't just going through the motions during pre-practice warmups and passing and shooting drills. "We are very hard on our guys, even with drills to start practice, where you might think it's robotic, where it's a shooting drill. Even in those drills, you can show a little deception in passing and shooting, we remind guys to work on something specific and get better today with that." A little repetition can go a long way. Don't stare down the teammate you're passing to or the goal you're shooting at. Work on no-look passes and no-look shots. Work on quickening your release and tim - ing to keep defenders and goalies guessing. "That takes vision; that takes stick skill. It's in those moments where, if you do it over and over and over, and you get more comfortable with it, again, you're playing fast, you're not overthinking the game." DON'T FORGET THE D While puck-handling skills always come in handy in the offensive zone, they're just as valuable at the other end of the rink, especially in breaking out pucks. "Without a doubt, deception can help lose a forechecker one-on-one. That's nonstop repetitive throughout a game. We had a guy, Riese Zmolek, who was really, really good at that, whether that meant he was going to reverse a puck, eat a puck or put it inside his big body until he got help." Knott also recommends watching hock - ey games—and not just the highlights of great goals. "Watch for deception and creativity. Whether it's the NHL, college hockey, high school hockey, watch the game live. It's incredible what you'll pick up. … Whether it's breaking pucks out, neutral zone, all the individual skills that a player needs to play at a high level, watching it over and over will help." Always try to keep your head up while working on puck skills.