How to Build a Slideboard

Paul Ware, Goaliedad (pware at unispheresolutions dot com) writes...

I made a slideboard using a 7 ft x 3 ft wide piece of laminated wood (stuff used for countertops). I am currently alternating between using Armorall spray and bowling ally wax to make the surface slippery. At either end of the board I bolted a 2 x 4 bumper to the surface for the push off bumper. I then attached some thick rubber foam padding to the bumper by way of double sided sticky tape.

In order to slide on this thing I took some old nylon hockey camp jersys and cut off the sleeves to fashion a pair of booties. The kids put these over their socks and if their not careful when the get on the board they end up doing splits. Both my sons use the slide board to build endurance and stride. It’s a good hard workout. My goalie son sometimes uses his gloves and stick, while my older son sometimes stickhandles while on the board. The surface for the stickhandling is an old white board (the kind they use in offices with washable markers).

My suggestion for anyone doing this with kids is to stand in front of them while they are on the board and move with then in a mirror fashion to pace them. This way you can keep them moving smoothly with an even tempo. You could use a mirror to pace yourself. About 15 minutes a day is a great workout for a kid while 30 is good for an adult. Now here’s the best part. My goalie son has used the board for around 3 months and he can out skate the forwards during drills. He is also now able to cross over in pads while skating both backwards and forwards. His skating has become so strong that he now comes out of the net regularly to field the puck, which is something you never see in Mites. His latest trick is this: during warmups he skates around the rink and lets his legs open up and then just glides down into a full split.

The other component of this is the balance board which really works the balance. We try to spend at least 10 minutes a day on this with gloves and stick or stick handling on it. It leaves your legs wobbley. People laugh at me but my kids have moved 2 years ahead in their hockey skills.

Kathy Eike writes,

I just built a slideboard. I was going to use a whiteboard, but couldn’t find one, so I went to Home Depot. I got sidetracked on the way to the kitchen department and found a really low cost base for the slideboard. In the bathroom fixture department, they have 4'x8' sheets of “tileboard.” It’s melamine coated fiberboard with a really smooth, acrylic finish. I’m still waxing it, but it really looks promising. The best part is that the stuff only costs $12 per sheet.