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Basic Skating - Striding Correct striding makes skating more efficient - you can go faster with less effort. You are also in a better position for performing other techniques like turning, passing, shooting and body checking. This section will discuss the hockey stride - it does not yet cover sprinting starts. In the previous skating discussion the 'T' push was discussed. This techniques is useful for introducing players to the feel of gliding on the ice, balancing on one foot, and beginning to understand the correct hockey stance. The 'T' push, however, should not be used as an example of correct striding technique. Correct striding is not a push straight back. A player standing in correct hockey stance, who tries to skate by simply pushing behind them, will find that they need to take many short steps and will tire quickly. The correct stride, instead, pushes out to the side of the player, with the foot ending up at the outside rear due to the forward motion gained from this push. It is necessary to use all three leg joints (hip, knee, ankle) to their maximum, using as much of the blade of the skate as possible. As you will see below, pushing sideways from the body is an effective way of making these maximisations happen. The hockey stride begins with both feet closer together than in the hockey stance, the striding foot is pushed sideways, using the extension of the hip. At this point the push is made using the heel section of the skate blade. As the hip extension is nearing its end, the foot is pushed, still sideways using extension of the knee. The push is now made using the middle section of the skate blade, and the leg is positioned slightly behind the body. Finally, as the knee extension is ending, the ankle is used to give the final part of the push, with the toe section of the skate blade, until the leg is fully extended behind and out to the side (about 45 degrees) from the body. The skate is the lifted slightly off the ice, and brought back in to join the other skate, under the body of the skater. It is important that all joints are extended fully to get the maximim power from the stride. The process now repeats on the other side. One point that needs to be made is that the joint extensions do overlap - the above discussion only mentions the joint that is most active at the particular point in the stride. One very important aspect of the hockey stride is the interaction between the upper and lower body. When striding, the upper body should not 'bounce' up and down, but should remaing still - the playes head should not move. The arms may be used to assist with the stride, by pumping backwards and forwards, NOT side to side. The overall motion of the skating stride needs to be forwards. If the arms move side to side, such that the elbows cross the centerline of the players body, the payers body will twist in the direction that the arm is swinging, pulling the whole body's movement that same way. Now, you might say "but what about the legs, they are pushing sideways?". The answer to this is yes, and no. The stride begins sideways, but as mentioned above, the front leg moves forwards, so the overall effect is an arc - the push still drives the body forwards. As you will learn in the discussion on turning, it is the upper body that is crucial in making the body turn and so you need to minimise upper body twisting if you want to go forwards.
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