Before we go into the 3 tips to skate faster, there are two things you need to know. Firstly, you need to have a decent skating stride. If you don’t, get out there and find some coaching or practice on your own as often as possible. Technique is key, so focus on that before you start focusing on speed.
Secondly, to skate fast you need to have powerful legs. You can work on your leg power and explosion by downloading our e-book here. It’s packed with all the best hockey-specific exercises to help you develop a strong set of legs to take your skating to the next level.
Now that that’s out of the way, here are 3 tips that you can practice to skate faster:
1 – Bend your knees. This is the easiest tip, yet so many players remain erect when they skate. You have to understand that by bending your knees, you elongate your stride enormously. Bending your knees allows you to reach out and push much farther during your stride than standing up does. The rule here is to bend down just enough so that you’re comfortable. Many hockey schools and coaches teach what they call the chair position. This isn’t right. You don’t want to be bending your knees so much that you’re sitting at the 90 degree level. A little less bend is where you want to be.
Next time you go out for a skate, just keep this in mind. You’ll see how much farther you can push out. More push means more speed. Plain and simple.
2 – Bring your feet back to the middle. A lot of players think that the faster they move their feet and pump their legs, the faster they will go. This might be true for your explosive starts ( the first 3-4 steps from a standstill), but not during the rest of your skating. After your explosive start, you want to start taking long, powerful strides. By bringing your feet back to the middle after every time you push out, you make sure to not lose out on any power.
When we teach this, we make the players practice their stride in slow motion. We make them exagerate by always bring their skates back to the middle, and even go as far as hitting their other skate. This way, they get used to bringing their feet all the way back so as to not lose out on any power.
Think about it. If you’re moving your feet quick but you’re not taking full strides, you’ll get tired quickly without gaining any ground. By relaxing, pushing out hard and bringing your skates back to the middle, you get to push out a full powerful stride while consuming less energy. Think of long, strong, and powerful rather than short, weak, and quick.
3- Your arm movements are key. You need to know how to carry your upper body when skating. If you’re swinging your arms left right and center, you not only waste energy but it slows you down too. It’s like anything to do with speed; you want to be as aerodynamic as possible. This means getting low, having a controlled stride, and also a controlled arm movement. When you run, your arms aren’t flying around everywhere; they’re always in sync with your legs. When your left leg is forward, your right arm is forward and vice versa. The same thing goes when you skate on ice.
Your arms go forward and back, not side to side. It should just feel natural, not forced. If you can picture this in your mind, you want to be giving someone a handshake. Your arms go slightly across your body, and then come back to your side.
Your arms are there to propel you and move you forward, not slow you down. Make sure you work on this aspect of your skating, as it can really make a difference on your speed.
That’s it for our 3 easy tips to skate faster. We’ll be putting videos up soon, so if any of you have questions, comments, or want us to cover something you need help with, leave us a comment! We still have a few T-shirts to give away to those who spread the word about BuiltForHockey, so keep it coming!
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