Open Hip
Carrying the Puck

For the “Open Hip Shot,” the weight can either be already on your front foot, or it can start on your back leg (Righty- Right Leg, Lefty- Left Leg), and shift forward to your front leg as you release the puck. In either case, an important characteristic of this shot, is that your front leg toe is pointing either at the net, or slightly sideways (Righty- to the left, Lefty- to the right). This allows for the majority of the power to come from the “snapping” motion of using the flex and torqueing the stick by pulling the top hand back. In general, the open hip shot is not quite as powerful as the load and shift, however, it allows for a quicker and more deceptive release, and more diversity in the changing of the angle on release.