Re why it's called surfing, just intuitively as someone who's tried learning to surf, I don't think it's talking about surfing perpendicular or parallel to the wave, but rather the part where you anticipate a swell approaching and start paddling your surf board like your life depends on it toward shore. If you don't get moving fast enough the swell goes under you and you miss the wave, sliding down the back side. That's speed, but there's also gap, i.e. timing when the wave reaches you. If you paddle the right speed but your timing is wrong you get left behind by the swell or eaten by the curling/breaking wave. I see a lot of similarities with the challenges of swinging alongside an opposing player at the right time and speed.

Love this technique. Do it so often, both as a winger...and as a defenseman. Whether I can knock that puck off the player rushing....or simply keep them against the boards, it's very effective. I will often do it when that player just beats another player...and I come in to be that second person that catches them as they just clear the last player. I usually try to get in either right beside them...or even slightly ahead of them, if there is a previous checker behind them. Players sometimes bitch about it in non-contact hockey, but it's really fair game to squeeze someone on the boards. Not a body check. It's just good hard defensive checking. Stick on stick mostly....but squeezing with the body.

Always great to get a new video from this channel. Not a lot of flash, just good info and examples.

Great to have you back! You are the best. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

glad to see you back!

Great videos. Really awesome stuff.

Amazing! thank you for the video and detailed explanation.

Great video! Thanks for putting it together

Love it! Only thing is where I'm from we call it angling. I wonder if it is just semantics? Like back checking as it was referred to back in the day is now often called tracking back. As far as I can see it is the same thing lol. Or as I often say to players "Get your ass back up the ice!"

Thanks, Mike. Have been teaching this since your first video on this subject a couple of years back, but I like your example choices and the clarity aspect of this submission.

Love the videos and the in depth explanation. I was wondering if you ever though about taking your highlights and creating a video with only the highlights. I often find myself watching the first time, then just re-watching the clips over and over again while skipping the explanation. It is helpful to watch the clips often to really see what you are talking about.

I think about it as the the wave is the puck possession and the surfer is the defender. You identify, read, prepare, anticipate, creep on, position yourself, and time the wave (or interchangeably) the play.

Great breakdown with examples. To recap, what are some of the ways a defender can be burned here? 1)swinging too low and losing a race (as illustrated in the Kassian ex.) 2)”drifting into the ditch” and giving up the middle 3) angling too perpendicularly and only getting one check attempt (Jones ex.) 4) anything else to watch out for? Also, are you Alberta based? Lots of clips from the Edm area.

The thing i can think of when using the term surfing in hockey is the cut you do as a surfer coming from the top of the wave [carving] and getting back up to the lip to do your thing or adjust yourself before getting iside the barrel. That C shape move, i like the term swing better for hockey!

Solid. Apricate the breakdown....thanks

Nice video.

I have a little experience surfing, and a little experience playing and coaching (Midget) hockey. The term surfing is new to me as a reference to hockey but I can see what they mean. In two words Surfing is, Harnessing Power. Being in control of your body's movements even when your surrounded by complete chaos. In one word, efficiency. While wasting the least amount of your own Energy you want to change direction or travel as far or as fast as possible. Surfing is not one thing or one move or one shape, It's many of those things combined. Surfing has; matching your speed, controlling your balance (upper and lower body), feeling the power\energy\flow around you and reacting to it, time and space. Many things in hockey are similar, but I think the main difference is the position of the feet. When you're surfing your pushing pulling lifting and pumping your feet, to twist or create tension in between the feet. But the feet are usually not moving on the board. They use wax and sand to keep the feet from moving once they're in place. In Hockey we do the same things but instead of pivoting on a board we have to transfer that energy up into our legs, sometime it looks as if there is an invisible board connecting the feet. My best effort to describe surfing in hockey would be; when a player mimics the motion of a surfer on a wave. Notably, leading and trailing positioned arms, to change direction with minimal effort, by tucking the body low (sometimes with legs locked). Including pumping locked legs to increase speed or to reduce speed by cutting back to a new route. Kale Brock has a good surfing channel If you want to see some similarity of the surfers body positions. I recommend these two; How To Surf From Beginner To Intermediate In 20 Minutes | Step by Step Tutorial How To Surf From Intermediate To Advanced In 15 Minutes | Step by Step Tutorial Love the channel, Glad to see you back.

Great video. Found this (and many other norcan videos) very helpful as an older guy switching positions. Trying to creat some good habits and muscle memory from the defensive position. This will help. Thanks!

When I was a boy my coach always talked about defensemen “matching speed” (not waiting too late or skating back too early and going forward fast so that you can turn and carry that speed in reverse) and “flow” to creative multiple opportunities to make defensive plays. Honestly, I just remember him being genuinely mad at us every second we were not doing crossovers (it got to the point where we would do them in the hallway in school every time he was around.) You call it “surfing” and it makes for a better analogy.

I would imagine a better term would be “harassing” the puck carrier like a pissed off hornet. Footage of pipeline and hockey! Fave video ever Sincerely, A surfer who likes the La Kings

Love this video and all the content you put out; helps a lot as a young defenseman. Question for you though: I use this technique occasionally, and I've found that it's awesome to kill rushes early on lower-level players, but I have (several times unfortunately) gotten beat to the middle of the ice trying to "surf" high-level players to the boards. Usually it's once my toes turn to face my own end, and they'll quickly decelerate and cut across my heels to the inside--not a good luck for a d man. I know it's situational, but do you have any advice for me on how to surf well and prevent this from happening?

Love your videos, man. Question here though: This seems like it'd work as a surprise tactic, but if you do it too much, it seems like the forward would start reading it and look to set you up for a quick fake outside and then cut to the inside. Or even just a short back/diagonal pass to a supporting/trailing forward. Then you're flying by, stuck along the boards, and have given up the middle, no?

If nothing else, this play so often gets players to stop their momentum forward....and try to regroup, which disrupts any kind of a fast rush.

Love these vids. But the audio quality makes me laugh. Sounds like the mic is in an interrogation room for the murder of someone documentary

"why its called surfing" : because somebody thought it sounded cooler than saying "angling"

Getter goin Ehh

Ｐｒⓞм𝕠𝕤𝐌 😒