Body Posture while skating

[Storm 0]

Lack of flexibility and strength may be a cause of bad posture.

One thing that works for me besides having the right pitch on my skates, is to keep my knees bent at all times.

[hockechamp14 0]

Are their any great Dmen that also skate hunched over, or does the need to skate forward and backward make them skate standing up more?

Can't find videos a the moment of them because my youtube isn't working... I don't know for sure, but see if paul coffey, bobby orr, and ray bourque skate further forward.

[hockechamp14 0]

These players are not hunched over they are skating over there toes.

Can you explain that to me? Sounds good...Perhaps I can use it for my excuse :lol:

Check out good football players, sprinters etc... they all come off thier toes on the acceleration like hockey players should. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

[xMenace 0]

BTW, physics dictates that you simply can not skate with balance if you are hunched over!

Gretzky was pretty hunched over.

So are most of the modern Europeans. It gives you more freedom of motion for stickhandling.

But what about lateral mobility? As I understand it, you'd have to "pick up" your upper body to get your balance point under you, and THEN be able to make a lateral move.

I think maybe you're understanding of the skating stride is a bit off. You want to be low to the ground. This lets you get maximum coil. If you are standing straight up, you have to first bend before you can push. Being lower also gives you more leg extension which means a more powerful and efficient stride.

Unless your kid is falling on his face all the time, don't worry about it.

[chk hrd 164]

BTW, physics dictates that you simply can not skate with balance if you are hunched over!

Gretzky was pretty hunched over.

So are most of the modern Europeans. It gives you more freedom of motion for stickhandling.

But what about lateral mobility? As I understand it, you'd have to "pick up" your upper body to get your balance point under you, and THEN be able to make a lateral move.

I think maybe you're understanding of the skating stride is a bit off. You want to be low to the ground. This lets you get maximum coil. If you are standing straight up, you have to first bend before you can push. Being lower also gives you more leg extension which means a more powerful and efficient stride.

Unless your kid is falling on his face all the time, don't worry about it.

you want to be lower but the bend should be from the knees, not the back. with bent knees you can get a stronger and longer leg extention for power plus it lowers your center of gravity better for balance. you have to be leaning somewhat forward to go forward fast, you just have to do it correctly.

[biff44 0]

Sorry--bad choice of words. You are right, you need a deep knee bend to skate properly, or you would have no room to push off!

I meant to say something like "skate with a deep knee bend, and your back fairly vertical", as opposed to skating hunched over.

[Dante2004 0]

Get him to hold his stick out in front of his chest, with both hands, almost like he is going to cross check someone. Then raise the stick to about eye level. Now have him skate, keeping the stick up in the air. He won't be able to skate hunched over AND keep the stick up like this. Sometimes it is something as simple as the player not realizing he is doing something. EVEN when you point it out. This excercise will PROVE that he is skating hunched over and how much he is hunched over.

[hockechamp14 0]

These players are not hunched over they are skating over there toes.

Can you explain that to me? Sounds good...Perhaps I can use it for my excuse :lol:

Check out good football players, sprinters etc... they all come off thier toes on the acceleration like hockey players should. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Yeah, but players like Gretz and Jagr still had it in their all out stride. Not just when accelerating. You can clearly see their lower back bending forward as they skate whether they are accelerating or in mid stride

I'm not sure if you were agreeing or disagreeing with me, but the mechanics of skating is different than full speed sprinting on the track or football field.

In sprinting, they start from the "hunched" position, and as they hit full speed they go completely upright. In hockey, even at top speed, the movement is still similar to the acceleration of anything off skates, thus the good players staying hunched. In football, they tend to stay lower, unless the player has broken away on a run.

here's a pic of Paul Kariya with his weight forward skating... (the link says steve, but they're wrong, he's 9 and wearing the C...):

http://www.jatkoaika.com/albumit/album37/S...Anaheim_300.jpg

Archuleta with his weight forward, and knees bent, ready to explode into an acceleration:

http://media.stlouisrams.com/2004/10/18/14...ction_46493.jpg

Note that both archuleta and the player with the ball are forward on thier toes:

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/55990353.j...DEB67E5928C1E2A

Sprinters way forward on the acceleration (large image):

http://www.janepan.com/mvhstf/pictures/Sprinting.JPG

Sprinters once they've hit top speed in a race:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3927900...nson300x200.jpg

The ironic part is that when looking for pictures of athletes (kariya, jagr, Archuleta, Owens-- I don't know that many football playes by name) is that the mcfarline/mcfarline style figurines always had the exact position I was looking for! The ones that have the little bases on them are the ones I'm talking about... like here's one of Jags... I couldn't find a good real pic:

http://www.infinitybeyond.com/nhl10jj.jpg

Hope that helps.

[oldtrainerguy28 478]

From one of the other posts his gives you an idea of what over the toes means watch the video although that last post with the pictures is great!

https://www.elitepowerskating.com/video_dvd.asp

[yvan12 0]

These players are not hunched over they are skating over there toes.

Can you explain that to me? Sounds good...Perhaps I can use it for my excuse :lol:

Check out good football players, sprinters etc... they all come off thier toes on the acceleration like hockey players should. I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Yeah, but players like Gretz and Jagr still had it in their all out stride. Not just when accelerating. You can clearly see their lower back bending forward as they skate whether they are accelerating or in mid stride

I'm not sure if you were agreeing or disagreeing with me, but the mechanics of skating is different than full speed sprinting on the track or football field.

In sprinting, they start from the "hunched" position, and as they hit full speed they go completely upright. In hockey, even at top speed, the movement is still similar to the acceleration of anything off skates, thus the good players staying hunched. In football, they tend to stay lower, unless the player has broken away on a run.

here's a pic of Paul Kariya with his weight forward skating... (the link says steve, but they're wrong, he's 9 and wearing the C...):

http://www.jatkoaika.com/albumit/album37/S...Anaheim_300.jpg

Archuleta with his weight forward, and knees bent, ready to explode into an acceleration:

http://media.stlouisrams.com/2004/10/18/14...ction_46493.jpg

Note that both archuleta and the player with the ball are forward on thier toes:

http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/55990353.j...DEB67E5928C1E2A

Sprinters way forward on the acceleration (large image):

http://www.janepan.com/mvhstf/pictures/Sprinting.JPG

Sprinters once they've hit top speed in a race:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/3927900...nson300x200.jpg

The ironic part is that when looking for pictures of athletes (kariya, jagr, Archuleta, Owens-- I don't know that many football playes by name) is that the mcfarline/mcfarline style figurines always had the exact position I was looking for! The ones that have the little bases on them are the ones I'm talking about... like here's one of Jags... I couldn't find a good real pic:

http://www.infinitybeyond.com/nhl10jj.jpg

Hope that helps.

Great pics. When I hear 'hunched' it means to me that the back is bent, which is not conducive to any sport. All of these athletes are bent at the hip and their backs are straight and their heads are up. This means all of the power must come from the legs. Have you ever seen a skinny-legged running back, lineman, sprinter, or hockey player? They all have legs like tree trunks. My suggestion is to get your son to do leg strengthening exercises (half squats, wall sit, kangaroo jumps, etc.) without extra weight (his body weight will be enough and he can't hurt himself. I also agree with the fella who suggested doing ab strengthening exercises as well to help him keep his back straight.