Customer Reviews

Hockey...Here's Howe! Defense [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been playing rollerhockey competitively for two years now and am drooling for some good instruction videos. The Howe: Defense one was the second I've seen. Although kind of cheesey and produced in 1987, the content is solid and useful. A few more examples would have been nice, but that's what rewind is for... There are some great tips and standard strategies in here that I just did not know (and I'm captain of two adult rollerhockey teams!). Almost all of it can be applied to rollerhockey.

Offense is the glory position with the goal scoring, but it's harder to find anything on keeping the biscuit out of your own basket. Gordie Howe's Defense is actually a pretty good instructional video for those who are looking to improve their defensive ability on the ice. Howe's son teaches the concepts within the video and does a fairly decent job in front of the camera.

A lot of time is spent on how to defend a one-on-one, two-on-one, three-on-one and two-on-two. The example that the Howe's give is very good, as (to be expected) they are great skaters. After the initial example and explanation, the situation is repeated twice with kids. This was the only thing I disliked about the video as the kids only gave me a perspective of how it is done wrong. Some of the kids were great skaters, but I would have rather spent this time to have deeper explanations of some of the other types of situations.

Because of the time wasted with watching the kids perform the drills, the areas of blocking shots, defending and clearing out the crease, and being an offensive defenseman were very short. I felt that a little more time could have been spent on clearing the slot of opposing players instead of just the brief bit of tying up their stick, as well as positioning in the offensive zone.

The best thing about this video is the recap at the end. It is a combination of all the examples back-to-back with the basic reminders for each situation, so you basically can watch the entire video in five minutes. The main thing I took away from this video is to stay in the middle of the ice, regardless of the number of people you're facing, and force them to the outside where they have less of a shot. Also, rely on your goalie as he's really the third defenseman.

it was good for starting defenseme