Drills to improve skating stride off ice?

[hockeyfalcons456 0]

Does anyone know any exercises or drills to do off ice ,and help my on ice hockey stride?

[biff44 0]

Have you thoroughly analyzed your stride? Maybe had someone video tape you?

I will give you a few thoughts to help, but they may not all apply to you.

Basic technique is a big deal. Are you bringing your pushing skate all the way back to almost touch the other skate at the start of the stride, or are you only bringing it to within 1 foot away? May be losing a few inches of stride right there.

Are you fully extending your pushing leg, almost locking it out in a straight line? Probably not, but why not? Many people can not because they do not have enough hip flexor or hamstring flexibility. Search around online for some stretches for these areas, and start off slowly and well warmed-up (you do not want to snap anything the first time stretcing it, it may be very tight).

Are you flicking the tip of the pushing skate at the end of your stride to get that little extra push?

Are you skating with your knees bent a lot, and back upright. If not, you will not get the right mechanics to give a good stride.

Are you balancing all of your weight onto the pushing blade? If not, the pushing skate will not bite into the ice enough.

Can you balance on the gliding blade for, say, 30 seconds without touching down with the other blade. If not, maybe you are cheating and not able to balance long enough to get a good stride in. One-legged body weight squats are the answer to building up your balance and anke strength. In fact, any balancing exercise will help. One good tip, everytime you put on your sneakers, stand on one foot while tying the other one. In no time you will have better balance.

I would say that, off ice, the Hockey Lunge and hip flexor/hamstring stretching are the big things to do to specifically improve your stride.

[hockechamp14 0]

If you lift weights, one excercize that's good to do on leg day would be jump squats without weights. Start with below a 90 degree knee bend, then jump up, and really push with your legs and calves.

[AtlantaThrashers01 0]

standing on a ball like one those big arobic balls....there good for balance, and just life weight

[Thockey17 1]

Lateral lunges work wonders

[lee92 2]

best thing i can say is rollerblading. i'd do about 10 laps in my subdivision a day one summer till i had my stride perfected. the key is long, smooth strides with a good knee bend, as well as bringing your legs right below you when taking strides

[Norm 0]

Lateral lunges work wonders

Could you explain what that is? Can it be done in gym?

Thanks!

[jbyun04 7]

look at epuck's 2 drills for skating

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...rocketfeet.html

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...ral_lunges.html

lateral lunges that are described there worked pretty good for me

[Vapor#42 0]

Lateral lunges work wonders

I agree, Lateral lunges are great, really strengthen your legs for more explosive power strides, and also bar squats, start lite and work your way to a heavier weight every 2 to 3 weeks..

[biff44 0]

Atlanta, every since a player in Florida broke his neck trying to stand on an exercise ball, virtually everyone has decided that that exercise should be banned! If you feel the need to do so, you can balance on one of those Bosu balance balls upside down or a wooden balance board--a little safer.

[Bruin88 0]

stretching helps quite a bit ,especially hip flexors and groins. the more flexable the more length you'll get in your stride. and theres something else ,not sure what its called ,but anyways ,you get these special elastics(probably from any fitness store) and you put one around the bottom half of you legs(middle of shin) and one around your wrists and you drive your left foot forward and your right hand and same with the other side and it adds resistance so when you do the real thing you get more power

[lee92 2]

a lot are still forgetting that all this conditioning and leg strength is pointless if you don't have a correct stride. you work on technique first, then build up strength. similar to how you need a frame before you can build a house

[ladystorm3 0]

i saw a slider board type thing somewhere, i heard that they were good for strengtining leg muscels.

we have a place here that is high intensity training it does wonders for leg strength, i know a guy that can run 24 mph, he is very fast runn9ing bases in baseball and man he is one of the fastest skaters i know.

the hit center here is very helpful....maybe your local gym will have some equipment u can use for ur stride

[Bruin88 0]

thats true but he might already have a good technique but he wants to still get better ,we dont know. if he doesnt have good technique then get in a 90 deegree angle with your knees ,back as straight as possible ,hands on a wall and then do a stride by kicking your leg out and getting a full extension ,in a little while he should be able to do it with no hands on the wall.

[hockechamp14 0]

as far as drills for form, some broad jumps would be usefull if you pushed off similarly to the way you skate. Also, I do under 10 yard sprints to work on starts where you should be low and get three quick steps.

[Norm 0]

look at epuck's 2 drills for skating

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...rocketfeet.html

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...ral_lunges.html

lateral lunges that are described there worked pretty good for me

Thanks for the links.

Any opinions on Slider boards ?

[EndBoards 0]

a lot are still forgetting that all this conditioning and leg strength is pointless if you don't have a correct stride. you work on technique first, then build up strength. similar to how you need a frame before you can build a house

I will be the first to agree that technique is more important than strength, but there's a bit of chicken vs. egg to think about..

Proper technique includes a good knee bend and full extension, right?

If player doesn't have enough strength in his legs to do a one-legged squat, then how can you expect him to have a proper knee bend on his glide-leg while his pushing leg recovers? If he doesn't have enough flexibility in his hips, how can he achieve full extension?

My point is that a proper skating stride requires a level of baseline fitness that most new players do not have. So from that perspective, fitness comes first, then you work on technique, then you go back and add strength & power to get faster & better..

[ladystorm3 0]

look at epuck's 2 drills for skating

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...rocketfeet.html

http://www.epuck.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...ral_lunges.html

lateral lunges that are described there worked pretty good for me

Thanks for the links.

Any opinions on Slider boards ?

i have only heard good things about them. theyre good for all sports wich use leg endurance and strenght...wich i guess is all of them.

[Edge 0]

If you've ever used the thing that velcroes to your ankles/right above your foot with the bungee cords attached, that's a great excersise. Just look in the mirror and immitate your stride on the ice. The bungee cords will give you resistance to build your stride muscles. Here is a picture of mine. It's really difficult with all three bungees, but they are removable for less resistance(you can use one or two instead)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/edge27/bungees.jpg

[TMD#89 0]

two years ago i was not the best skater on my team but during the sumer i did about 60-100 30 foot sprints every day it helped me out so much and now i am way faster, it is very intense but suck it up and run as hard as u can every sprint

you sprint 30 feet then walk back to the starting point, this lets your legs get a small rest and then they are shocked on the next sprint

MAKE SURE U STRETCH!

it is even better if u race somebody on each sprint, it pushes u way harder

[sonsplayhockey 0]

couple comments:

Its hard to maintain technique on the ice if you are tired or fatigued. Its when you are tired that your technique goes to pot.

So endurance is a big deal!

Sprinting is supposed to help but with any muscle mass increase exercise you need rest afterwards. If you do it every day, your muscles can not recover and you don't get as strong as say training every 2 days. There is lots of info out there about how you eat before and after exercise affects muscle recovery. (I use amino acid pills and calorie replenishment)

I had problems with my forward stride earlier this year because in a game as I got tired, I would not bring my stride leg all the way back. So endurance plays a role in how technique gets used.

They say that you have to drill 200 times to have a technique be automatic. So Public sessions of just working on stride technique can be important.

Sit ups can strenghthen hip flexors. Without strength and endurance, you may find yourself not bringing the stride leg back up far enough.

Ankle weights to simulate the weight of the skates and shin pads while jogging can strengthen hip flexors.

When you stretch, don't bounce and stretch for at least 15 seconds at a time or the stretch is inefective.

Stretching after a very short warm up(first sweat) is known to be very effective for avoiding injury and pulling of muscles. Pulled muscles slow your recovery down tremendously.