During the winter, I always want someone to play hockey with on my outdoor rink. It is a struggle because not a lot of people skate these days. Wanting to solve this problem, I looked up robotic goalies or targets, and nothing came up. I noticed that there are already nets that have targets on them but I wanted something new and fun. I started to consider the ideas of a rail on the bottom of the net with a goalie made out of wood that would move left to right. I also thought about having targets behind each hole on the net that fell down when hit by a puck. But Finn joined my group, we decided to make this design because it was fun, hard, fast, and it helped with accuracy way more than any of the other ideas.

My first step was to create the PVC pipe goal. It took many classes to make and it was a good first step because no matter what idea I went with, the net had to be made. It was also very confusing because I had to measure the right length of the pipe to cut because of the corner pieces that would shorten the height of the net. I had to take many things into consideration. Nothing went wrong with making the net, it just took precise cutting and measuring. I thank Mr. Delaney for helping me with the net. This was before Finn joined so I needed an extra set of hands.

After the net was made and Finn joined the group, we started to create our targets. We did not quite know what the thing would look like yet, but we had an idea of what it would look like. So, we made a cardboard goalie covering the whole net. Then, we cut holes into it and attached it to the net. There were many problems that we faced with this step because the cardboard weighed too much to be supported by the net, and the sizing was wrong. So after about two classes when we finally realized that this would not work, we decided to take the PVC net out of the picture and make our own wooden automatic shot-stopper.

The first thing we did was get a big piece of 1" thick wood. Then, we drew 3 big holes on it for us to cut. These holes were the targets. After we drew it out and measured it, Finn cut them with the jigsaw. The jigsaw was pretty hard to handle, but he got through it. Then, we had to take down an old project that Mr. Moody made a few years ago. It was the basketball hoop on the lazy susan. We needed the motor from it so that took about a class to take down. After we got the motor, we needed something to attach it to. So we got another piece of 1" thick wood and cut a circle out of it. The circle was used for the spinning aspect of the project. We then attached the circle and motor to the main wooden piece with the holes in it with screws. This project was a very loud one!  So after we mounted the circle with the motor on it to the main piece, we needed to add a battery pack for it to work. When we attached it, the project worked.

If there was one thing that we could have done better, it would be making the holes equidistant, because when the circle went around, it would only open up one hole at a time and it was very challenging. We would also change the speed of the circle going around. If we had more time, we would definitely make it more "pretty" as in painting it or make it look like it has something to do with hockey. Other than that, it was a pretty successful project.

Tuukka is a hockey shot practice device with rotating targets that help you develop timing and accuracy. He is a buddy that's there for you when you had an off day on the rink. Most people need a goalie to shoot on so they can get real in-game experience, but this device allows players to work on their dynamic shot alone.  Tuukka is made out of wood and a motor that spins a second circular piece of wood with target holes cut in it.  When the circular piece of wood goes over the thicker one a small hole will open up and that's when you shoot.  Tuukka challenges you to shoot just at the right time and just at the right spot, making it the perfect practice tool for solo hockey players.