Coach Jeremy
Latest posts by Coach Jeremy (see all)
- Try These Shooting Drills with The Extreme Passing Kit - April 24, 2014
- Stickhandling Drills with the Dangler - March 5, 2014
- 5 Shooting Drills With the Extreme Passer Pro - January 26, 2014
If you visit any hockey store they will probably have a rack with hockey training aids that were developed to help you with your shooting, speed, or stickhandling. The stickhandling balls are one of the items that you can find in almost any hockey store. The balls started in Sweden when pro players noticed the Swedish hockey players using wooden balls to practice stickhandling. Since then, the product has become very popular among many hockey players around the world. The wooden stickhandling balls have even evolved into the Smart Hockey stickhandling balls, but we will save that for another review.
In this review, we test out a wooden stickhandling ball, also known as a Swedish stickhandling ball. In the review, we compared it to a regular hockey puck and talk about the advantages and disadvantages of a wood stickhandling ball.
Wooden Stickhandling ball Compared to a Puck
One of the biggest problems with practicing your hockey skills off of the ice is learning the proper movements, and then using them on the ice. This is why it is important to create an environment off the ice that is very similar to what you experience on the ice. We look at some of the variables that come into play when you stickhandle with a puck, and how they compare with a wooden stickhandling ball.
Contact Point
The contact point is similar to the contact point of a puck, this means that the blade will contact the ball at almost the same height as it will contact a puck. Having a similar contact point will help train your muscles and build your muscle memory.
Weight
The wood stickhandling balls have a similar feel to how a puck feels on the ice. The biggest difference is the weight. The wooden balls are very light, they weighed in at 1.6 ounces ounces, which is about 4 ounces lighter than a puck. If you want a ball with a similar weight to a puck than you would need a Smart Hockey stickhandling ball, but I like the lighter weight because it allows hockey players to practice quick movements, and repetition. We suggest buying a Smart Hockey ball and a wooden ball if you want to practice a variety of moves.
Slide and Bounce
The slide is hard to measure because the balls do not actually slide, they roll. The idea is that the balls are supposed to move and react at the rate of speed as a hockey puck would. If you use golf balls to stickhandle you will notice that they bounce all over the place, and are hard to control. The wooden stickhandling balls are very nice to use because the wood really cushions each impact, making them easy to control. For an even better slide you can pick up a hockey shooting board. These work great with pucks as well and will protect the bottom of your blade.
Price
The one big advantage of the wood stickhandling ball is the price. These balls usually sell for around $3. This is nice because they work great, and do not cost that much. I like to buy about five at a time. This way, I will have back up in case I lose or misplace one.
Overall Thoughts
Here I will discuss the pros and cons to purchasing a swedish stickhandling ball
Penalty Box
There was only one downfall that I could find with the wood stickhandling ball, and that is with durability. The wood is not very durable, and if it gets wet the balls will warp. I have a few warped balls, and suprisingly they work almost as good as a perfectly round ball, they just look a bit funny!
Score Sheet
There are a bunch of things that I liked about the wooden swedish stickhandling ball:
- Light weight is great for repetition, and practicing quick moves and dekes
- Wood feels very nice to stickhandle with and is easy to control
- With a ball, you can practice your stickhandling anywhere
- The balls are cheap so you can buy a few all at once and do not have to worry about misplacing them
Wood Stickhandling Ball Video Review
In this video we show you how a wooden stickhandling ball works, we do a bit of stickhandling, talk about durability and compare it to a regular puck.
Where to Buy a Wood Stickhandling Ball
To pick up a stickhandling ball visit Hockey Shot today.
SWEET STICKHANDLING WITH A SWEDISH STICKHANDLING BALL | FLORIDA PANTHERS CARE
October 19, 2010 at 2:39 pm
[…] contact point, weight, slide, bounce and more compare to working with a puck. Read the full review here and sign up to be notified when other reviews are […]
SWEET STICKHANDLING WITH A SWEDISH STICKHANDLING BALL : BLUES YOUTH SPORTS SCENE
October 19, 2010 at 2:39 pm
[…] contact point, weight, slide, bounce and more compare to working with a puck. Read the full review here and sign up to be notified when other reviews are […]
AUSTIN
January 30, 2011 at 4:04 am
Can you shoot with the sweedish stick handling ball, i might of missed it when I was reading your post about it but I didn’t read anything about you being able to shoot it.
HOCKEY REVIEW HQ
January 30, 2011 at 8:07 pm
You can shoot with them as long as you hit the net. If you hit the post lightly then I don’t think there will be a problem, but I think with extended shooting the could break.
AUSTIN
January 30, 2011 at 9:20 pm
I got another question for you Jeremy, I just put my question on this review for no reason. What is your favorite product that increases your skill the most for everything: passing, shooting, and stick handling.
HOCKEY REVIEW HQ
January 31, 2011 at 2:01 am
Hey Austin, I would say the best product you can get (if you could only buy one) would be the Extreme passing kit. It gives you a nice big smooth surface to practice on, and you can use it to practice stickhandling, shooting and passing (the pass rebounder is more of a novelty, but still fun to play around with) Also having a shooting surface will motivate you to practice more, it did for me atleast
AUSTIN
January 31, 2011 at 3:56 am
K, thank you very much for the advice, but is the super stick handling package good too because I had to get that one cause that was my first purchase off that site, and my dad (who bought it since I’m only 12) only let me get a package deal that was under 100$
HOCKEY REVIEW HQ
January 31, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Definitely. That package will set you up with a bunch of different stickhandling tools. I use the Green Biscuit, Smart Hockey ball, and the wooden ball all the time. The Flypucks are cool because they are different weights so it gives you a lot to train with. Just try to find a nice smooth surface so it is more like being on the ice.
SARA
June 18, 2012 at 5:27 am
can you tell me from what sort of wood is made?
CAITLIN
May 6, 2015 at 7:20 pm
So which would you prefer? The wooden ball, or the hockeyshot extreme stickhandling ball? I know you’ve done a review on both, but which is better overall if the price didn’t matter?