Build a Balanced, Game-Ready Stick Position

To hold a hockey stick in a beginner-ready position, place both hands on the stick and stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart. Flex your knees and ankles, lean slightly forward while remaining balanced, and keep your head up. Relax your shoulders and arms, with the blade flat, close to the ice, and slightly beside your body.

This is a basic ready stance for situations such as passing, shooting, checking, face-offs, screening, and waiting for rebounds. It is a starting position, not a rule that must remain unchanged throughout play.

Related: Hockey Stick and Puck: Gear or Open-Ice Practice?.

The quick setup: hold the stick in a ready position

Build the stance in six steps:

1. Put both hands on the stick.
2. Set your feet approximately shoulder-width apart.
3. Flex your knees and ankles.
4. Lean slightly forward while maintaining your balance.
5. Keep your head up.
6. Place the blade flat and close to the ice, slightly beside your body.

These cues follow the basic stance described in Hockey Canada’s Coach 1 – Intro to Coach: Skills and Key Teaching Points. Together, they create a neutral position from which a player can prepare to handle the puck, pass, or shoot.

Treat the setup as a reset position. Hand use and blade location may change as the player begins skating or responds to a specific task.

Position your whole body, not just your hands

Holding a hockey stick involves more than placing two hands on the shaft. The stick should be part of a balanced athletic posture.

Start with the feet about shoulder-width apart, then flex the knees and ankles and angle the body slightly forward. The player should remain balanced in that position rather than feeling as though they are falling forward or need to stand upright before moving.

Keep the head up. This is one of the observable features of the ready stance, along with bent lower-body joints and a controlled forward lean. Hockey Canada identifies balance as foundational to puckhandling, passing, and shooting.

Do not force the toes into a single prescribed direction. Instead, check whether the player has a stable stance and can maintain the supported posture comfortably.

Keep the blade flat, low, and available

In the basic ready stance, the blade should rest flat and close to the ice, slightly beside the body. The practical visual cue is simple: while preparing for a pass, shot, face-off, or rebound, the player should not be holding the blade unnecessarily high.

“Beside the body” is a baseline position rather than a universal rule. Some drills and tasks place the stick farther out in front. The appropriate location therefore depends on what the player is preparing to do.

When checking the blade, look at it together with the player’s posture. The blade should be in the intended position while the player maintains the balanced stance instead of changing the entire body position simply to place the stick.

When to use two hands and when one hand may be appropriate

Two hands are the default for the basic ready stance, but that does not mean both hands must remain on the stick during every skating action. Hockey Canada’s forward-skating guidance allows either one or two hands depending on the game situation.

Situation	Hand use	Beginner cue
Basic ready stance	Two hands	Use this when practicing or resetting the standard stance
Forward skating	One or two hands	Adapt hand use to the game situation

This distinction keeps the ready-stance cue from becoming an inflexible rule. When learning the basic setup, begin with both hands on the stick. Once skating and play begin, hand use can change with the situation.

Stay relaxed while keeping the stick ready

The shoulders and arms should remain relaxed rather than rigid. Relaxation is an observable coaching cue that accompanies the balanced stance; it does not mean allowing the stick to drift out of position.

A coach, parent, or player can check for visible upper-body tension. If the shoulders and arms appear stiff, pause and reset them while keeping the head up, lower body flexed, and stick in the ready position.

Avoid turning this cue into an unsupported formula for grip pressure, finger placement, or how control should be divided between the hands. The useful beginner check is whether the upper body remains relaxed while the player maintains the intended posture and blade position.

A five-point self-check for beginners

Pause in the starting position and check five things:

• Two hands: Both hands are on the stick while practicing the basic ready stance.
• Flexed lower body: The knees and ankles are bent rather than straight or locked.
• Balanced lean: The body angles slightly forward without losing balance.
• Relaxed awareness: The head is up, and the shoulders and arms are relaxed.
• Available blade: The blade is flat and close to the ice.

Use one correction at a time. For an upright stance or straight legs, restore flexion in the knees and ankles. For tense shoulders, relax the upper body. If the gaze remains down, bring the head up. If the blade is raised, return it close to the ice.

Remember that this check applies to the basic ready position. Forward skating may call for one or two hands, while particular drills or game tasks may move the blade from beside the body to farther out in front.

Use the checklist to evaluate ready posture and blade availability—not to decide handedness, top-hand selection, hand spacing, or grip pressure.