Hockey shooting pads are one of the most popular hockey training aids on the market today. Skating, shooting, and stick handling are the most important skills for a hockey player to learn, and you can practice and perfect two of those three skills with a hockey shooting pad. This page gives you some information about hockey shooting boards, we also have a hockey shooting pad review
Material
Many people want to know what material is used in hockey shooting pads. Most pads are made out of High-density polyethylene or HDPE, which is a special type of slippery plastic. HDPE is also used to make milk jugs, hockey dasher boards, and rails / boxes used for snowboarding and skiing. While some hockey shooting pad alternatives offer a smooth surface, only a real hockey shooting pad can offer a smooth and slippery surface.
The hockey shooting pads come in a variety of sizes the most common sizes are
What shooting pad size should you choose?
The smaller sizes are very affordable and good for younger players or as something to start with. My first shooting pad was a junior size and I used it purely for shooting. If you will be doing mostly shooting than a small size will be good for you If you are older and will be using your shooting pad a lot I strongly recommend a larger shooting pad.
The larger shooting pads are great because you have enough room to practice a variety of stickhandling moves. Large hockey shooting boards also provide enough room for a full wrist shot and room to line up a few pucks for slapshots. Another great benefit of the pads are that they last a very long time
Durability
These boards are great when it comes to durability, we tested the pro shooting pad which is 3/16 of an inch thick, sounds thin but we hammered about shots off of this board and there were no signs of wear (just a lot of tape marks) During the slapshot challenge I have been taking about – shots every week and there is absolutely no wear on the plastic (once again, just tape marks)
Research shows that HDPE piping is expected to last up to 100 years, this is the same material that the hockey shooting pads are made from. Shooting pads are thinner, but my first pad lasted 3 years with no signs of wear (it went missing after that)
Shooting pads usually range from $35 – $110 depending on what size you get, quality, and thickness. My shooting pad of preference is the pro hockey shooting pad because it provides a lot of room for stickhandling and passing, and I can even hook up a passmaster to the end and practice one timers.
Hockey shooting boards (also known as shooting pads) are geared towards hockey players who want a smooth, flat surface to shoot off of. The idea behind these boards is to give you a surface that is as close to ice as possible. Any hockey player will tell you that nothing will ever match the feel of ice, but in this review we test how close a hockey shooting board comes to giving you that ice-like feel at home.
When you purchase a hockey shooting board, you have a few options. There are roll-up shooting pads and solid hockey shooting boards. With the solid hockey shooting boards you have the choice of sizes.
Sizes of Hockey Shooting Boards
Here are the three sizes available from HockeyShot
When it comes to selecting a size, we always encourage people to pick the biggest size. The more room you have, the more you can do. For example with a junior shooting pad you can basically just take slapshots. There is not enough room to for most people to take a full wrist shot and definitely not enough room for practicing stickhandling.
With a pro-sized shooting pad you have enough room for stickhandling, toe drags, and any type of shot.
Material of Hockey Shooting Board
The material used to make the shooting pads is HDPE or High-density polyethylene. This material is known to be very durable (lasting over 100 years in some cases) and also be very slippery. HDPE is used in snowboarding and skiing to construct boxes and rails, and also in the boards that are used in hockey arenas.
For more information, please visit Flytoo.
We tested out the pro sized hockey shooting pad from Hockey Shot. We tested it for how well the puck slides, how durable the material is, and if we think it is worth the money!
How do the pucks slide?
The pucks slide great on the shooting pads, the material has to be the best we have used as far as replicating the feel of ice. We have tested a lot of do-it-yourself methods like plexiglass and dry erase boards, but the HDPE material used in the hockey shooting board beats them all.
Shooting on the hockey shooting board
Shooting is really easy, with the pro-size we have enough room to take a full wrist shot, snapshots, and slapshots. We can even turn the shooting board sideways and line up a few pucks for rapid fire shots.
Portability
Moving the pro-sized shooting board is pretty easy, it comes with a handle built in, so the board is really easy to pick up and store away. If you are looking to take it to a friends place though you might have some problems. The board is pretty big, flexes a bit and it can be a bit challenging to fit into a car. The board will easily fit into a truck, SUV, or van though.
Benefits of the shooting board
The hockey shooting board has quite a few benefits. The first one is that it gives you a nice smooth surface to shoot off of, so it brings you closer to the feeling of shooting and stickhandling on ice. The next big advantage is the fact that the board is so smooth. This smooth surface will protect the blade of your hockey stick. If you shoot and stickhandle on pavement, or a rough surface then your blade will wear down very quickly. And anything that will help protect your blade will save you money in the long run.
The hockey shooting board is one of those must-haves for hockey players. If you want to practice shooting and stickhandling on a regular basis you need a good surface that the pucks can slide on. Having a smooth surface helps you build muscle memory. If you practice on a surface with a lot of friction, then when you go on the ice and try the same move, it will not be the same.
We definitely recommend a hockey shooting board, or a roll up shooting pad for any hockey player who wants to practice stickhandling and shooting.
In this video we show you how well the pucks slide on the hockey shooting pad, the durability of the board, and test it out on the streets.