| In ice hockey, skating can make or break you. | | | | place your foot on the ice, you get full |
| Here are the 4 fundamentals to becoming a | | | | muscle power when the knee straightens. |
| top performing ice hockey skater, plus 4 | | | | |
| extra techniques to push you right over the | | | | Top athletes, especially outstanding track |
| edge! | | | | stars, recognize the importance of leg power |
| | | | and do something about it. They use a |
| 1. A solid, well-balanced stance is basic to | | | | principle of training known as over-load. And |
| any degree of speed you want to attain. If | | | | you can use your own form of it, too. Here |
| you will work on your starts, stops, and | | | | are some methods of over- loading: |
| turns as described, you will be well on your | | | | |
| way to good balance. | | | | 1. Drive yourself all out as long as you are |
| | | | on the ice during scrimmage. Do not just |
| 2. In striding, you have better balance if | | | | coast around the rink on skates; they will do |
| you skate with your feet about shoulder width | | | | most of the work for you if you let them. |
| apart. If your feet are too close together, | | | | |
| you are more easily knocked off-balance in | | | | 2. Skate in short, hard bursts, gradually |
| the heavy going of a game. | | | | building up the number of lengths of ice you |
| | | | can do successively. |
| 3. The faster you skate, the more you should | | | | |
| bend forward from the waist. The comparison | | | | 3. Get a buddy to let you push him up and |
| here is to the body-lean of a sprinter doing | | | | down the ice. You are over-loading by the |
| the 100-yard dash and the striding form of a | | | | amount he weighs. |
| two-miler. During the course of a hockey | | | | |
| game, you will be both a sprinter and a | | | | 4. In testing yourself at top speed, keep up |
| strider as the play dictates. But when you | | | | a continual refrain in your mind: "I can go |
| really want to dig fast, with or without the | | | | faster yet!" Be sure to warm up well before |
| puck, you should lean well into it. | | | | any all-out test. |
| | | | |
| 4. For straight-ahead speed, your power comes | | | | If you study these 4 fundamentals and |
| from the thrust you get when the knee of the | | | | over-load with the 4 techniques above, you |
| digging foot straightens. To get maximum | | | | will improve your skating skills |
| thrust, the knee of the leg coming forward | | | | dramatically. And that in turn will improve |
| should be well bent. Be sure you carry this | | | | your overall ice hockey performance. |
| knee forward ahead of the foot. Then when you | | | | |