How to enhance your hockey IQ

Hockey IQ is extremely important when playing hockey, you can have all the tools in the world but if you can't think the game, process it quickly and at a high level you will be held back because of it. Hockey IQ helps your playmaking, vision, and creativity on the ice. It also helps you anticipate what plays are going to evolve into during the game before they happen. If you start to work on your IQ this will make you more effective and intelligent on the ice. Below I will discuss some ways to enhance your hockey IQ.

The most important one is JUST WATCH HOCKEY! Pride yourself on watching and studying NHL hockey. Focus on all types of situations, power play, penalty kill, 4-4, over time, and much more. You can also focus on certain players, if you want to focus on certain players, don't watch the puck, watch where they skate, watch their positional play, and focus on their creativity. By watching hockey you will automatically learn more moves, plays, set ups, habits, and positional play.

The next one is very simple, ASK QUESTIONS! Ask coaches, teammates, and opponents. This is a very easy and good way to learn about new things and to add stuff into your own game. A in game example would be if your opponent is beating you a lot when it comes to faceoffs, pull him/her aside during or after the game, and ask him/her what he or she does differently, learn, listen and then add that into your game. As well, if you are injured or scratched and you are watching from the press box, watch the game in close detail, sometimes watching the game from a birds eye view gives you a different perspective. This could definitely help.

Lastly, watch your own game film. Study YOU, watch your shifts, shots, points, hits, etc... watch it all! This helps a ton and is very important in learning your habits, strengths, and weaknesses. Watching yourself helps breakdown the game of hockey much easier and your style of play! If you do what we said above you will improve your hockey IQ drastically and make you a better player overall.

-Ridin' Pine Company.