The Porsche Cayenne is a large SUV (sports utility vehicle) from German car manufacturer, Porsche. It is available with a choice of petrol engines and has five seats, five doors and four-wheel drive. The Cayenne is available with both manual and automatic (tiptronic) gearboxes. Its four-wheel system can send 100 per cent of the engine's power, in any mix, between the front and rear axles. A low-range gearbox is also standard. The Porsche Cayenne concept was announced in 1998 and came into production in 2002. It was the first large family-type vehicle that Porsche had made after having a long history of just producing roadsters and sports cars. The Cayenne was co-developed with Volkswagen, who was keen to add a sports utility vehicle to their extensive line-up as a cost-sharing initiative. The Porsche Cayenne is available in five different variants. The entry level model is the standard Porsche Cayenne. Next is the Cayenne S. This is followed by the Cayenne GTS and then there are the two top-of-the-range models; the Cayenne Turbo and Cayenne Turbo S. All of the Cayenne vehicles are powered by petrol engines. The entry level model has a 3.6-litre V6 (232 PS) unit. The S and GTS models use 4.8-litre V8 units (385 and 405 PS). The Cayenne Turbo and Turbo S models use 4.8-litre twin-turbo charged V8 units (500 PS and 550 PS respectively). Critics originally thought that the Cayenne would be unsuccessful as buyers would not want to buy a vehicle of that nature from a manufacturer with such an extensive sports car heritage. Porsche made a prediction that they would sell around 80,000 Porsche Cayennes, but in actual fact they have sold over 150,000 to date. The Cayenne is the first V8-engined vehicle built by Porsche since 1995, when the Porsche 928 was discontinued. Porsche are set to introduce a diesel engine into the Cayenne line-up from March 2009. This engine is to be sourced from VW and will be a 300 PS 3.2-litre V6.
One suggestion that I do have, similar to that of Coach Bombay in the Disney film "The Mighty Ducks", is to focus on sailing the puck, instead of whacking at it. So many times I watch players in effect "shoot" the puck at teammates, when what they really needed was a smooth and crisp pass. Pay special attention to keeping the puck on the ice when you're delivering a normal pass, as opposed to watching it bouncing to your teammate. Think about receiving a pass - do you want it to come bouncing on edge? I don't think so. I'd much rather take a pass that is firm and flat on the ice. All the same goes for shooting, obviously. A good shot can change a player, and more importantly maybe, change a game. The best coaches often have the same philosophy when it comes to offense - get the puck to the net.
Shooting, in effect, is getting the puck to the net, sometimes with more velocity than other times. Hitting the net, of course, is a very important part of shooting. That being said, I don't encourage coaches to penalize players for missing the net every once in a while. Now, don't get me wrong, if a player continually misses the net, being irresponsible with his or her shots, they shouldn't be encouraged to continue. However, I'll reference something that I once heard that I liked a lot at the time, which applies here perfectly. Goal scorers aren't made "trying" to hit the net. Goal scorers are made trying to pick the corners, sometimes failing, but nevertheless trying to hit the spots where the goalie is not. Let's be honest, if there's a concerted effort, mostly anyone can hit the net. I can hit the net every time, in fact. But, there's a problem. In a game, the part of the net that I'm accustomed to hitting is guarded by a large moving barrier - the goalie.
So, hit the net, but hit the right spots - the spots where the goalie is not. Oh, and don't get discouraged if you miss now a then. These are just some suggestions to get you started. This is by no means the collection of all hockey skills that you should work on, just some of the fundamentals. It's always fun to try hockey tricks, hockey moves, and fancy dangles, but I urge you to first come to terms with the fundamentals of the game. Like I previously mentioned, look at the best players, the guys in professional leagues like the NHL; they are the best because they do the "simple" things the best. They have mastered the abilities that are mundane to the game of hockey, giving them time to throw in the fancy stuff. As I'm just as guilty of trying tricks and dangles as you are, I'll take heed of my own advice and start to focus more on making the fundamentals second nature. Hard work, that's what it takes. Good old hard work. Have fun out there.
