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Taking a Check 1) KEEP YOUR HEAD UP! At all times when receiving a check you want to keep your head up. Especially if checked from behind and going into the boards head first. 2) Keep you feet moving. The players that are throwing the check have to according to the rules of hockey, stop moving their feet. Therefore if you keep your feet moving you may have more momentum and the player may bounce off of you. 3) Do not duck. When you duck or dive on the ice. The first thought is that the player will go over the top of me. However, the player can also spear you with the stick in the ribs, get stepped on, get kneed in the head, or just checked in the head. Too many bad things can happen to you. Most of them are not penalties, because you are the one diving at the last second and making yourself open to injury. 4) Widen your stance. triangles and arches are more stable than a stick standing straight up and down. The same thing applies. as you are receiving the check, widen your stance to give you more balance. 5) Hit back. No one said that you have to just take a check. Lean into the player or check them back with your shoulder as they hit you. 6) Use the boards. If you are near the boards, then when you receive the check, lean against them. The shock of the hit will go through you and will go to the boards which have flex in them. The force of the hit will then go back through you and the player throwing the check will actually bounce off of you and may fall down. 7) Push the puck ahead two feet. The first thing a player is supposed to do when checking you is to go for the stick. Keeping that in mind, if you are definitely going to be hit then push the puck ahead a few feet to allow yourself to skate through the check and continue to get the puck. Try not to push it too far in front because the other team may get it.
Written by: Todd Drevitch of Hockey Techniques www.hockey-techniques.com or (888) 568-8451 or (908)453-2436
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