We all have watched in awe as the highlight reel replays are played on the TV, teammates zinging the puck back and forth to each other, like a game of tic-tac-toe, until they tap the puck into the net with such ease, such grace. The objective of hockey is simple. Score more goals than the other team, and you’ll win. A goal happens when the puck slides across the goal line, into the net. It’s a natural game, created in the winter, on the frozen lakes, across the great white north, with a rubber disk, blades on the feet to slide across ice, and wooden sticks crafted to have a blade, perfect for slinging the disk around. The disk became known as a puck, and the blades became skates. Naturally, as time progressed, the game has advanced through the development of technology and infrastructure. The game has moved indoors, into climate controlled, refrigerated rinks. Skate blades have become made of titanium and carbon, and sticks made of lightweight fiberglass, all to excel the players. All to help feel the puck better, grab the ice better, play better. The technology is so complicated, with the mission to simplify the game for the players. Companies promising to provide the next best and greatest piece of gear that will elevate your game to the next level. Greed and profit drive new products into the market all the time. Sometimes, I wish we could go back to the simple pleasure of the ice on lakes. To the ice cracking under your feet ever so slightly, to wooden sticks, to the love of the game. To a time where it had nothing to do with money or greed, just the simplicity of the game, the ultimate reason we play any sport, for fun.
The Sniper’s Edge Pass Master Rebounder is ranked the #1 hockey rebounder with multiple sides. Built in a triangle shape, the passer is versatile and sturdy to allow for simultaneous use on all sides. It has a shorter rebound area, meaning that it will come back a shorter distance, so you can learn to have touch, skill, and precision with your passes. The pass rebounder can also be used on ice, and it is heavy duty enough to withstand the cold, stay in place, and the band will still perform every time. According to the website Rookie Road, rebounders serve a multitude of purposes for every part of the game. For players, the rebounder can have endless benefits:
- Can practice passing on your own
- Can work on one-timers without the need for teammate or parent to pass it to you
- Creates more challenging drills
- Challenges your reaction speed and agility
- Gives you the repetition that you won’t get during a team practice
There is no greater peace than sliding across the ice on a pond, with your best friends, with not a care in the world. The way the puck moves across the ice, the natural cracks and noises the ice makes, the natural music of the world. Laughing echoes off the surroundings, the pure joy bouncing into the space, like a bouncy ball falling from the hand of a toddler. The art of pond hockey is the most beautiful and lovely experience. The game played in nature is the truest form of the game. It seems like time moves at a different pace, frozen like the lake below, suspended in the beauty of the moment, the game, the energy. When I was little, my grandma had a pond in her front yard. When the first snowfall would come in the late fall, the anticipation would rise. We would eagerly prepare while the temperature dropped, and ice began to fold and then the best part of the year would commence. Playing outdoors is something that can’t be duplicated.
The game has become a year-round obsession for many families. The game has moved indoors, into garages, backyards, in the summer, even floating on lakes. Hockey is quickly becoming more accessible, and more weather-proof. Gone are the days of waiting for the season to begin until the ice is ready on the pond. So many companies have grown from creating the tools to help translate off-season work, into on-ice success. One of the most interesting and unique challenges for the game of hockey, is that a puck sliding across ice is very hard to replicate. The other is that it is very hard to practice our passing and on our own. For example, a soccer ball can bounce back and roll to a person, they can spend hours and hours on end getting extra touches. A puck, however, doesn’t come back as effortlessly. If only there was a product that could get the puck to rebound back to you…. (Que the music and the idea bulb)
A player during a team practice gets a significantly less amount of the repetition that you can get at home, by yourself training. The empty garage becomes a beacon for the players that want to elevate their game. It becomes an epic playhouse for those dedicated enough to commit to working on their own game, on their own time. The pass rebounder promises to be as dedicated and last as long as you can.
We’ve all heard the stories of Serena and Venus Williams’ dad turning up the heat in the gym and making them play tennis for hours and hours. While intense, it has proven on many levels that no one becomes a master by just doing enough.
I had a coach say that the word that kills championships is “just”. The mentality that it’s just practice, that it’s just one game, it’s just one bad shift. Her belief was that it was a slippery slope, and in order to be the best and most successful person, we MUST make the most of every opportunity. We MUST put in the work, we MUST make the most of every drill, every practice, every game, every shift. It took me a long time to learn that her intensity was truly for our benefit and we could all learn to do more. It became embedded in the team culture to do the extra work. It became embedded in us all, as individuals, to do everything we can, to never do just enough. The amazing thing about training products and tools is that they allow you to focus on the things you never could in a team practice. They allow you to make as many passes as YOU want, take as many one-timers as YOU want, to shoot as many pucks as YOU want. An at-home hockey passer removes excuses, it removes questions, it removes doubt. It will always be there for you, ready to send the puck back whenever you need. Sniper’s Edge Pass Master will make it even easier to become a better passer, because:
- Forces you to have precision and touch
- Allows you to practice passing and accuracy on your own
- The three-sides make the band tighter and more effective, as well as allowing multiple athletes to use it at once
- Made with heavy duty steel and high-quality rubber, built to last for a long time
The game is no longer played strictly in the winter, on the frozen lakes. Now, we have Winter Classics and Heritage games to reconnect with the beginning of the sport. Playing an outdoor game is the highlight of the year, it’s the most exciting and fun game. It’s played in giant arenas, with the rinks made with giant hoses, and a giant audience comes to watch. It’s played on TV, and the whole world can watch.
The game has become more than pond hockey. It’s become such a science, such a statistical and analytical art. The competitive advantage has become at people’s homes, in their garages. It has become about the willingness to invest the time to learn the skills of the game. Every player at the highest level is a master of stickhandling, skating, passing, shooting. They got there by practice, and so can you.
