Sled Stars

Your Eyes are Lying 👀👀

You ever make a pass only for it to result in a turnover and the only thing you can think was, “They were open.”
You aren’t alone, it’s one of the most common things you’ll hear after a turnover. And even as you replay the whole shift in your mind you keep saying “They were open!”

But were they?
Maybe…or maybe it was just for a moment.

Sometimes, the problem’s got nothing to do with the pass itself, but rather the timing behind the pass. Maybe they were open…but maybe their momentum moved them out of the open position and your eyes deceived you. All you saw was the open teammate.
You failed to see where they were going…

Here’s the thing, Hockey is a game of not just skill, but prediction as well. It’s why we always refer back to the chess metaphor.
In checkers, you make moves quickly, but with chess, you’re strategic. If you move a piece you are thinking ahead not just in the moment. Every piece moved has a purpose. Has a reason to be moved when and how you moved it.
That’s the same for hockey. You’re setting up for what is going to happen NEXT, ✨not✨just what’s happening in the moment.

To put that into perspective of the original opener, the puck takes time to travel…and if you pass to the player open in the MOMENT you fail to put together that
🥅 your teammate is moving, there’s no magic brakes in hockey, if they’ve got momentum they’re missing that puck
🏒 the defense aren’t statues, they’re also going to be moving and if they see a loose puck you can bet your bottom dollar they’re going to go after it
🥅 passing lanes inevitably shift because of the constant movements you’re doing as well as your teammates
🏒 stick and body angles change meaning that while they looked perfectly wide open their movement has changed the angle and they’re now the last option anyone should be passing too.

The bottom line is simple: the picture your eyes saw one second prior, is already outdated. Which is why you have to train your brain to think forward not laterally.
You can’t rely on your eyes to be correct every time (we just proved that) instead you have to rely on your teammates. You have to have trust not in what you see, but in what they CAN get to.
What do we mean? �Watch experienced players. Watch how they pass.
VERY rarely will you see them look up and pass to where a player was, but often you will see a pass towards what looks like empty ice…it’s not. They’re passing to the place their teammate is ABOUT to be.

They’re passing to movement…not to people 👈🏼a skill that when done properly can be a deadly threat on the ice.

See, instead of trusting their eyes, and seeing a teammate, they look at where that teammate is aimed for.
🏒 are they crashing the net
🥅 are they moving towards the middle
🏒 are they pulling a defender away
🥅 are they using the boards to their advantage
They’re not passing to a jersey. They’re passing to a developing play. They’re trusting their teammates to continue the play rather their own skills/what they see.

And that’s what creates goals.
The trust.
The pass ahead.
Trusting in the movement not the jersey.

When you trust your eyes however, you’re gonna notice an increase in turnovers.
Why?
Well, because even though it looks like your teammate is open, that doesn’t mean they’re ready for a split second pass.
Think about your practices, how you work on breakouts and you work on building plays, but if you pass directly to a player, you’re destroying all that practice time.
Because now instead of moving with the play that player has to
🥅 stop their movement (already complicated)
🏒 reach behind themselves
🥅 make wonky turns to get to the puck
🏒 hopefully recover a puck or at least put themselves in the defense’s way
🥅 stay balanced in the heat of the changes based off the pass
They’re doing all this while the defense is coming in like a bullet train. And that pass that LOOKED accurate actually put your teammate in a worse position.
Sometimes the best pass isn’t the one that reaches them the fastest, it’s the one that they can receive while continually moving.

The good news is, like most things, you can work on seeing movement and not jerseys. You can train yourself not to believe your eyes. Next time you're at practice, try this:
Before making a pass, don't ask: "Who's open?" 👈🏼sounds wild but let us explain.
Ask:
🏒 Who is becoming open?
🥅 Which defender is about to commit?
🏒 Where will my teammate be by the time the puck gets there?
🥅 If I wait one more second, does the lane disappear?
🏒 If I pass now, can my teammate keep moving?
Those questions train your brain to play in the future instead of reacting to the present. For one scrimmage or practice, make this your only focus:
Don't count completed passes. Count how many passes allow your teammate to stay in motion. If your pass forces them to stop, reach, turn around, or fight the puck, ask yourself: "Did I pass to the player... or did I pass to the play?" That subtle difference is often what separates a routine pass from one that creates offense.

Here’s the Takeaway, the lesson, the thing to remember.
The best passers aren't always the ones with the strongest arms or the quickest release. They're the ones who understand that hockey is constantly changing. The player you see isn't the player you'll be passing to. By the time the puck arrives, the game has already moved on.
Learn to pass to where the play is going, not where it happens to be right now.

Love to see it! Grow the game!

The more you know

🌟MEET THE STARS🌟

NUMBER 1: Victoria Ceballos

The Sled Stars do a few different outreach events each year, and it was at one of these events that Victoria found Sled and decided to finally give it a go.
She participated in the Rookies program and discovered in her words, “it’s a lot more physical than AB hockey. It uses more core and upper strength” and it was something she definitely wanted to continue.

She’s one of our rookies, but don’t let that fool you! She’s a fast learner, and has worked hard all season learning and growing in this sport! She started as a Forward and casually asked about defense only to blow everyone out of the water with her determination on D. She’s taken more than a few pucks to the chest, arms, or body, but it doesn’t stop her! She’s all smiles every time she blocks a puck. In fact, it’s her favorite part of the game. (She’s a wild one for sure 🤣)

🥅 Along the way she’s had to learn to adapt how she moves and what helps her get the stride she’s after. Being flexible to the critiques and comments from her teammates has helped her along the way and overall improved her game

🏒 BUT like every new player she’s found that patients with the fundamentals is what truly has shaped how she plays in games or at practice. Which is very on brand for someone who’s favorite quote is “Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is best."
Truth be told, every practice and every game she lives that quote to the best of her ability too. By asking questions or listening and understanding that feedback is because others see that potential within her.

🥅 That’s why her best reset after a hard game, shift, or practice is simply to take a breath and focus on the next play rather than worrying about every tiny detail that went wrong. She lives that quote on and off the ice, and she works hard to push herself because like us, she knows what she can achieve.

Victoria is a great example of how those small things truly do matter. She saw a booth at an event and decided to try something new. And now, it’s the love of the game that brings her back to her “fun family” on the hard days.
She found a new skill, a fun family, and learned something new about herself thanks to Sled.
And us? Well, we gained a solid defensive player who’s learning more and more each day and we couldn’t’ be prouder to have her on the ice wearing Dallas Green!

Hockey in the South means you’re gonna be traveling QUITE a bit to find teams and players.
Sled Hockey in the South? Means travel is required and expected.

So to have the ability to come to Houston and play another team is incredible for us!
Both because of the community and because our game is growing.
Houston will always be welcome with Dallas, we’ll always be buddies (off the ice 🤣) but to see them growing and thriving is pretty epic!
We love to see it and we LOVED being a part of this epic event.

This is how you grow the game!
Thank you Houston for including us and playing with us.
Keep skating! Y’all got this 😉

Ya win some. Ya lose some. Really we won all weekend. We had ice time. We were with friends. We showed off. Yeah. We’ll take it ☺️