You know the names Jeff Skinner and Joe Corvo, but you may not know Tammie Wilson. However, you should know this power skating coach as she is developing our talented youth…possibly a future Jeff Skinner. Tammie competed as a figure skating medalist contender in regional, sectional, and national competitions across the U.S. Since leaving active competition, she has focused on coaching power skating for hockey players. Tammie bases her coaching philosophy around the idea that, in order to excel, skaters must master the use of their edges.
So kiddies, that is exactly what we are going to discuss today…how to improve your skating through utilizing your edges according to Coach Tammie Wilson…with a little help from Mr. Skinner and Mr. Corvo.
Whether you are a beginning or seasoned skater, everyone can afford more practice on their inside and outside edges. Don’t think so? Let’s test your knowledge. Here’s a pop quiz courtesy of Ms. Wilson:
How many edges are on your hockey blades?
- 2
- 4
- 6
- 8
The correct answer is D. When skating in hockey, players have 8 edges. OK, let’s break this down Count Von Count style from Sesame Street…
You use an inside edge, “One, one edge!”
You use an outside edge, “Two, two edges!”
You use the middle-to-front part of your blade, “Three, three edges!”
You use a middle-to-back part of the blade, “Four, four edges!”
Finally, you have two feet with four edges each, “Eight, eight edges!”
How do you use each edge to benefit your skate and play? Tammie gives us three important tips.
1. Equipment
“Poorly fit equipment is a common problem for beginners,” Tammie tells OET. She often sees people wearing skates too large for their feet which causes them to skate inward, or on their inside edges. Also, lacing up is often an important step performed incorrectly. Once you find a skate that’s the correct fit, you should make sure your heel is inside the heel cup and you lace up tight enough so there isn’t a lot of ankle movement.
Helmets are also a concern for Tammie, “With all the concussions happening around the league, I am going to make more of an effort to ensure helmets are properly fitted.” The chin cup should be…guess where…firmly secured around the chin. She also notices helmets coming down below the eyebrows, an indication it’s too big.
“Make sure you go to a professional for your equipment. Ask them how long they have been in the business and who they trained under,” says Coach Wilson.
2. Edge Power
This is Tammie’s specialty, “If you don’t use your edges properly, you aren’t going to have that explosive power to get down the ice quickly and weave between traffic confidently.” She explains hockey is mostly spent playing on a curve, meaning your inside and outside edges.
“Your inside edges are for pushing, and your outside edges are for steering,” explains Wilson. Distributing your weight properly is going to play a large role in your success. For example, another common error she notes is a skater not pushing completely through their strides. “It is suppose to be a thrust,” she states. “Ankle pressure should be against the ice, heel pushing into the ice, and pushing through with the toe. When you return, the knee should come forward, and the ankle should roll back under your hip.”
One of her favorite drills for edge work is swizzles. Swizzles are great for inside edges, and she adds crossovers to work the outside of the blade. These are referred to as grapevines in figure skating. You can check out videos of Tammie’s drills on her Facebook.
3. Watch the Big Dogs
“Jeff Skinner is tremendous on his edges because of his figure skating background. Joe Corvo is also solid on his skates,” declares Wilson. She instructs her students to watch more than the hockey game, rather watch their feet, hips, and shoulders. What should you be watching for exactly? Here’s what Tammie’s notices about Carolina Hurricanes’ Jeff Skinner, “When doing his 10 and 2, or his ‘Skinner moves’ as the kids are calling it, he is doing a forward to backward transition on his forward inside edge to his backward inside edge as he is going around the goal crease.”
Tammie works with many defensemen, so she uses Bruins’ D-man, Joe Corvo, as an example often, “He can lean on an inside edge with one foot and turn to accelerate out. His weight is perfectly distributed over his skating foot.”
A good drill for this move is to practice quick crossovers, stops, and transitions from blue line to blue line. Tammie coaches her students to step out wide and keep that wide stance on the ice as she took note of a study from Wisconsin which proved a wide stance provided quicker take-off time compared to other starting positions.
Currently, Tammie offers private and group instruction to developing hockey players and figure skaters in Raleigh, North Carolina. She also provides power skating instruction to the Carolina Lightning youth hockey team. Tammie’s wide range of skills and talents on the ice have steered several of her clients to competitive play in the Junior Hurricanes’ prestigious Squirt AA and Midget AA teams. Recently, her student, Josh Wesley, was selected to tryout for the US National Development Team. You can also find Tammie acting as an Assistant Coach for the Jr. Hurricanes girls U14 youth travel team. Tryouts are this June. For more information, please visit the RYHA website.
You may learn more about Tammie’s coaching at www.tammiespowerskating.com. Also, be sure to catch her on Twitter.
Thanks Tammie and we’ll see you on the ice! Keep up with OET as we prepare to launch in May on Twitter and Facebook.
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