Some Professors and their students at the McGill University in Canada have looked into the science of the wrist shot in hockey by having 25 hockey players take the shots. When it comes to sports, science can be really cool. So to all those hockey players out there working on the wrist shots, pay close attention:
Hockey players have a few different types of shots that they use when trying to score. The slap shot,
with its big wind-up and speed is a fan favorite, but the quick, on-the-fly wrist shot can be deadly accurate and accounts for 23-37 percent of shots taken at the professional level. To send the puck into one of the four corners of the goal (and avoid the goalie), a player must be able to control not only its horizontal direction but also its height when aiming at the top corners. This precision has to happen while the puck is sliding on the ice independently of the player and his stick.
Twenty five hockey players, ranging in skill from novice to varsity level players, were told to shoot pucks at targets located in the four corners of a goal until they had hit each target ten times. They were allowed 20 shots per target with their accuracy percentage recorded. Their stick and the pucks were marked with reflective stickers that could be seen by six 3-D motion capture cameras placed around the goal. Everything from the angle, pitch and yaw of the stick blade to the stick velocity and contact time between puck and stick were measured as possible variables for accuracy.
As expected, the successful shot percentages were evenly divided between the novices (as low as 27 percent) and the expert players (as high as 80 percent). When shooting at the bottom targets, the most significant variable that affected accuracy was the position of the puck on the blade when released. The novices tended to position the puck closer to the blade’s heel, while the better players put it closer to the center of the curve in the blade, closer to the toe.
Tags: education, hockey, science of hockey