Use Your Body to Shield the Puck from Defenders

This one seems obvious. It almost never happens.

Watch most battle drills and you'll see players go shoulder to shoulder the whole way. Side by side, racing to the puck, matching stride for stride. That's the least effective way to win a puck battle and most players do it by default.

Higher level players think differently. Their first instinct isn't to race. It's to position.

If you start next to an opponent and you make it your mission to get in front of them off the line rather than staying shoulder to shoulder, you've already changed the equation. You're not competing with them anymore. You're between them and the puck, and now they have to go through you instead of around you.

That's not the same as blocking them. It's just geometry. You get there first, you angle your body, and now the puck is on the other side of you from the defender. They can't reach it without going through you first.

You don't need to be bigger or stronger. You just have to get there first and make them go around you.

Here's the part players miss. When a defender tries to go through you from behind with a crosscheck, they're not winning. They're slowing themselves down. You get a little boost, they lose ground, and now you're even more separated. Their aggression works against them.

Your main objective when you have the puck isn't skating fast. It's making it harder for your opponent to take it. Putting your body between them and the puck is the most physical and legal thing you can do to accomplish that. You don't need to be bigger or stronger. You just have to get there first and make them go around you.