Mechanics Matching — The Next Evolution of Hockey Training?

Hey Hockey Hacks Community

One of my favorite tools is video. I’ve used it for years, primarily to put my footage next to that of an expert model. And it’s been an absolute gamechanger!

For over 10 years of practicing, I never once looked at my own footage of how I played, how I moved, and how I trained. Using video to aid my training was never a thought that opened up to me.

But it makes sense, does it not? You look at the TV screen and see your favorite team through video. And it’s well documented that teams have video coaches to detail out where exactly the players are in relation to what systems they want to use and when to potentially read plays.

Video is everywhere. Fully accessible. No barrier to entry. If people have more phones than have toilets, then it’s hard to not have access to video. It’s one of the best tools to come out in recent human history.

The first time I can remember watching myself in my games was GoPro footage of the corner of the rink. One of my teammate’s parents uploaded the game footage to a Dropbox folder for our team to see. The coaches didn’t have time (or didn’t make the time) to look at the game after it was done. I watched a few plays, mostly goals and times I or one of my teammates was hit hard. When I moved to South Jersey for Junior Hockey, we had more access to better quality game footage that had your classic hockey-game view. Like many other teams, we talked over systems and positioning.

Even at the time I knew video had its high value. But I had no idea it would become an integral part of my training.

Now let’s jump to the first time I saw someone intentionally match the movements of an elite NHLer, and used video as feedback to correct any movement errors.

They would perform the drill, look back at their footage aligned with the expert model (the NHLer), notice any differences, and go back to the drill again.

Using video to analyze your movement? That was new to me.

Jason Yee posted this video comparing his shot to Nikita Kucherov’s shot. And it was eye-opening to say the least.

I had many questions, one of the first thoughts was, “Why this shot specifically? Why copy a lazy, warmup shot unlikely to show up in a game setting? Why copy Kucherov?” Nikita Kucherov is just under 190lbs and can shoot consistently, any type of shot between 80–90 miles per hour. He is also one of the smaller, skinnier, lankier players in the league. Then it hit me: How can this guy shoot as hard as this with a “lazy” shot? I’ve been told for so long that hard shots takes hard effort, but this guy is shooting hard with ease.

I had to try this out.

The first time I set up my phone and tripod to watch myself and my movements, I realized one of the greatest benefits —

I CAN COACH MYSELF!

For over 10 years, I had to rely on other coaches to tell me how I was moving and where I was positionally. Never once did I look at my own movement, nor could I.

Video Feedback gave me what I was looking for: proof that I was or wasn’t moving the same as what I was aiming to do.

It’s one thing to identify yourself as a visual learner, an auditory learner, a learner by reading, and the many other ways people have found effective. But when learning better movement, like hockey mechanics, you can’t identify with any of those. What I’ve seen work is you align the visual with the kinesthetic; does the feel match the real? And Video allows for this to happen much quicker.

Video is wayyy more reliable than a coach’s eye or a player’s eye. You can’t argue with what happens on video. All parties involved can see the same things happening. It removes a lot of possibilities for interpretation errors.

It was one thing to look at how a player moves. It’s game-changing to look at your own movements next to an expert model and pick out what you are doing differently.

I credit many of my biggest transformations in my hockey abilities to video feedback. It has made me a better player, a better coach, and a better learner. I don’t just use it for hockey now; I use it for any skill I want to learn and that I’m interested in. What took me more than 10 years to learn can now take me a couple weeks because of video.

Obviously, it helps to have other coaches and communities who can give you the movement cues needed in addition to showing the video. But if you want to cut down on the learning process, taking someone else’s 10,000 hours as a hockey player, use video to analyze your movements.

I use video to support my coaching to create quicker transformations than any other system. You can get that exact support and feedback through any of my programs at hackelhockeyhacks.com. And for more in-depth analysis with a video feedback system, schedule a free consult for 1-1 coaching with me.

Yours in Hockey Hacks,
Mason