What skating moves do you have trouble with?

[night-timer]

For me it's backwards crossovers, pivots and flat-out speed.

I also have trouble with one-footed stops on my weak side. I think I need to dig my foot/leg into the ice harder.

I prefer having my skates a little blunt, but someone tells me that sharper skates will improve my speed. Any tips on good backward crossovers?

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[Blackjack]

For me it's backwards crossovers, pivots and flat-out speed.

I also have trouble with one-footed stops on my weak side. I think I need to dig my foot/leg into the ice harder.

I prefer having my skates a little blunt, but someone tells me that sharper skates will improve my speed. Any tips on good backward crossovers?

To improve my backwards crossovers I've worked very hard on balancing on my outside edges (skating backwards in circles). Another thing that I think helps is to force yourself to do it faster than your balance will allow. You'll feel out of control, and may fall a few times, but it will force your body to adapt, and as you gain muscle memory, you will be able to acheive those high speeds in controlled skating.

I'm with you on pivots, with the exception of the basic inside-edge to inside-edge stuff I can't really do them. I'm trying to teach myself to pivot from an ouside edge on a backward crossover to an outside edge on a frontward crossover (I believe this is a standard pivot when playing defense and the winger tries to beat you to the outside.) But I have not been able to do this even at very low speeds.

As far as flat out speed, I would guess that it's simply an issue of leg speed... Maybe some plyometric stuff would help I've found that absolute top end speed is not really that easy to increase.


If anyone feels like helping me out. My two biggest issues are the pivoting issue I mentioned above, and acceleration from zero. I don't feel like I'm explosive enough on my starts, and I'd like to know what I can do to improve it.

EDIT: Great topic BTW

 

[night-timer]

Are you familiar with a drill called the Iron Cross? (It seems that drills have different names wherever you go.) Anyway, I've heard that the Iron Cross is good for face-offs. It can be very hard to get going from a standing start - and face-offs are where you notice it.

I also need to work on the 'three short steps', running rather than skating, to improve acceleration. (I'm not too good at getting up on the toes of my skates. It feels like my heel lifts out of the back of the skate.)

 

[Heat McManus]

For me it's backwards crossovers, pivots and flat-out speed.

I also have trouble with one-footed stops on my weak side. I think I need to dig my foot/leg into the ice harder.

I prefer having my skates a little blunt, but someone tells me that sharper skates will improve my speed. Any tips on good backward crossovers?

Actually, duller skates are faster. The sharper the skate the more it digs in, thus creating drag. Dull skates glide over the ice, creating no drag to slow you down.

But, you can't push off as well when your blades are too dull, so it will effect the power you generate with your extensions. Finding the right hollow for your skates is paramount.

For speed, try doing the above mentioned drill, as well as working on your form. The more power you generate from each stride the faster you will be, but having an explosive acceleration is a powerful tool as well.