Anaheim Ducks Show Kids Science Behind Hockey

Members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Redlands-Riverside, along with the Boys & Girls Club of Garden Grove, learned about the science behind the game of hockey from the Anaheim Ducks recently. The Anaheim Ducks hosted about 100 youth from the Clubs at the Honda Center as part of Time Warner Cable’s STEM in Sports program, which aims to demonstrate the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in various sports. Youth learned the mechanics of a wrist shot, shooting angles and reaction time from former Ducks right wing George Parros and Ducks TV analyst Brian Hayward. They also got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Honda Center. Parros, who retired last year after nine seasons in the NHL, demonstrated shots into a net outside the Honda Center while Hayward, a former NHL goaltender, explained the STEM principles behind what hockey players do. “You’re going to learn STEM has lots of applications to the game I love – hockey,” Hayward said. Parros said he liked the technology element of hockey because “that’s the fun part.” “Technology is certainly influential. You see guys who played in the sport back in the day using wooden sticks that weighed 50 pounds...guys nowadays use such lighter composite materials. They’re shooting the puck way faster, skating much faster, and that equals faster force on the ice,” he said. Hayward, who has also coached goal-tending, said goaltenders used to play in different styles. Now, they play mostly the same way, and are taught using geometry. “All of it is technique, which is science,” he said. After Hayward and Parros spoke, Boys & Girls Club members tried their hands at shooting rubber balls, foam pucks and rubber pucks into nets. Volunteers also tested their reaction times by dropping a ruler, and watching them catch it. Angel, 13, who played goaltender, said the gloves reminded him of baseball mitts. Kyle, 15, said he had fun and made a few shots. Diquarius, 16, said he “didn’t know science was really used in hockey.” Matt, 16, said he learned to put weight on the hockey stick because it’s “spring loaded, if you will,” and used wrist shot techniques that were demonstrated. “It actually made (the shot) a lot more powerful,” he said. After the youth did the activities, Joe Barrett, operations manager at the Honda Center, gave them a tour of the building. He let them guess the temperature inside (62 degrees) and showed them the pipes filled with the chemical that cools the building and keeps the ice chilled. “This is the heart of the building,” he said. The chemical, which is kept at 17 degrees, is pumped into pipes under the ice. Barrett showed the Boys & Girls Club members the video control room, the nerve center for video feeds throughout the Honda Center, and the Zamboni machines that resurface the ice. Between periods in a hockey game, they cut, clean and put down water for a fresh coat of ice, and pick up whatever has fallen on the ice – blood, sweat, “sometimes teeth.” He took the youth to the edge of the ice, where they could look at the surface where the Ducks and their opponents play, and up at the seats and screens hanging from the center of the roof. He answered questions at the end of the tour. Hayward said he hopes the STEM principles in hockey “turn the lightbulb on when they’re sitting in class.”