HOCKEY MADE EASY - Skating Tips for Young Players
Learning
to skate is a lot like learning to ride a bicycle
- Skating requires a fine sense of balance,
understanding your body’s center of gravity and it’s tipping
point is key. Once this is learned,
it will help you stay in an up-right position, whether on 2 wheels or
on 2 very thin skate blades. The
good thing is, once you’ve achieved them, they are never forgotten.
- Practice your skating technique and balance
exercises at home by standing on one leg in your shoes,
or in your bare feet. Try to keep
your balance, but experiment to see how far you can bend forward,
backward and side to side without
falling. Discover your range of balance.
- Skating stance, feet shoulder width
apart, knees flexed, now lift one foot off the floor and shift your
body weigh from one leg to your other leg and try to kep your
balance by standing in a semi up-right
position on one leg. N.B.
Parents should be close by to prevent child from falling.
-
Practice this every few seconds for a couple of minutes to get the idea of
skating, balance and the
shifting of your body weight from one leg to the other
without falling. It will take some practice to
keep your balance.
- That’s all
Skating is, basically shifting your weight from one leg to your other leg while
taking short
strides or steps at the beginning,
then increasing them to longer strides or steps as you start moving
forward or backward.
- Push one skate blade into the ice, pushing
it outward and backward like the letter C, power coming
from your leg and through the
ball of your foot.
-
Your other skate, the one supporting your body weight glides smoothly
forward.
-
This stroke and glide movement while balancing your weight creates
forward or backward motion.
- Practice and more skating practice will help
develop your stops, starts, strides, turns, 180-degree
pivots and breakaway speed. To get
better, go general skating every chance you get.
- And should you fall, and most beginners do,
shake it off and get right up and start over again.
- I highly recommended you wear a
hockey helmet and gloves for added safety.
- Most Coaches
consider Skating to be the single most important skill to learn and master for
all
young hockey players.
Fit - Skates must fit snug/tight but not cramp
your toes and they must provide good ankle support.
- They must have stiff/solid ankle support
so they don’t bend inside or outside but will still flex forward.
- Skate sizes are usually1/2 to 1 size
smaller than your street/running shoe size.
- Socks, wear only 1 pair of thin 100%
breathable cotton socks when skating, not 2 or 3 pair.
- Lacing
of the skates-use the criss-cross, X method, as this provides even comfort and
good support.
- The
bottom 3 eyelets are generally semi-loose to allow blood circulation so your
toes won’t freeze.
- The middle
3 eyelets are semi-tight to allow the top part of your foot to move up and down
when
flexing the foot and
contracting your toes in all stopping and starting situations.
- The
top 3 eyelets are tight to provide good ankle support and prevent bending
inside or outside.
- Don’t
wrap the laces around your ankle as this restricts your forward flex motion
when striding.
- N.B. Tie
your skates with a bowknot at the front of your skates, not on the side of your
ankle.
Sharpening
- A medium hollow ground, u shaped, sharpening is all that is required.
- Not
razor sharp or the blades will dig deeper into the ice and you won’t be able to
stop or turn easily.
- Not too
dull or you won’t have any grip or bite in the blades to dig into the ice and
you will slip and
fall when starting and stopping.
- N.B.
Parents, if your child is continually falling, this indicates the skates may
need sharpening.
- Sharpen
your skates about every 10-12 hours of use or as required if you get a nick or
burr on the
blades edge.
- Once you find a good skate sharpener stick
with him because a good skate sharpening can mean the
difference between playing a great hockey game or a not
so great game.
Edges-
If you hold the skate blade up to a light and look down the length of it, you
will notice each blade
has 2 edges, an inside edge and an
outside edge. The “U” hollow ground sharpening makes these.
- Different edges, “inside edge” and
“outside edge” are used throughout the game for stops, starts, turns,
to generate speed and will help
provide balance & stability to keep you in a standing up right position.
- If
you loose an edge, get a nick or burr on the blade get them sharpened ASAP or you will likely fall
Rockering
or Profiling of the Blades
- Skate blades are not flat but are
slightly rockered or rounded like the rungs of a rocking chair.
- Only
between 1 and 3 inches of blade is actually in contact with the ice while
skating.
- The more rocker, the
less blade is on the ice, this helps for sharper turns by having less grip
- The
less rocker, the more blade is on the ice, this helps for faster
straight away speed by more grip.
- Many Bantam and Midget aged players get
their skates rockered by their skate sharpening pro to
provide quicker
turns with less friction/blade on the ice. To see what rocker your current
blades
have, just set them on a
flat surface and shine a light from behind, you will see how much blade is
actually in contact with the ice. Rock the blade forward
and backward and the same amount of
blade should be in
contact with/on the ice.
- N.B. I recommend all Beginners,
Novice/Mite, Atom/Squirt and Peewee players should stick with
the rocker/profile the
skate manufacturer provided when the skates were bought.
After
Skating- Remove the snow from the blades with a dry cloth, this will
prevent them from rusting.
If any of
these skating tips proved helpful, please consider sharing them with other
hockey parents
as word of mouth is our only form of advertising.
Have a safe
and Merry Christmas and continued good luck to all coaches, players and parents
during
the hockey season.
Yours in
hockey
John Shorey
Author-
Hockey Made Easy- www.HockeyMadeEasy.com