For all of us that started playing at 18 or later

[Chadd 916]

What do you think the best way to learn them is? I got excited enough learning forwards, I'd be ready to throw myself a party when I get backwards haha

This is how I used to teach kids.

Go outside and find somewhere with open space, and hopefully some grass. While facing forward, take your right leg and step over your left. Then take your left leg and step to the left with it. Do this for 40 or 50 feet, then reverse and walk the other way. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When you get on the ice, do the same thing along the blue line or the boards. Face forward, feet forward and step to one side, then the other. Once you are comfortable with the movement, start skating around a circle and work on crossing the outside leg over the inside leg. When going backwards, think of it more as a cross-under with the back (or inside if you're circling) leg taking the lead.

The key thought for me was that my inside leg, was more of a "plant and pull" motion going backwards. I would plant my leg in the ice and then pull against the ice to bring my body over that leg.

[Jarick 5]

My progression has been a series of "aha!" moments. Stopping on both sides, forward crossovers, backward crossovers, wrist snaps while shooting, learning to make dekes, etc. Even this summer, I've been working on power turns, a longer stride, my slapshot, and passing.

[TeamHonda401 54]

For me it's been a lot like Jarick's route. I picked one or two things I really want to improve on, and keep at it until I had it locked down. As Chadd said above, once you get to the point where you don't have to think about anything on the ice, you become a much better player.

[Xuno 14]

This is how I used to teach kids.

Go outside and find somewhere with open space, and hopefully some grass. While facing forward, take your right leg and step over your left. Then take your left leg and step to the left with it. Do this for 40 or 50 feet, then reverse and walk the other way. Lather, rinse, repeat.

When you get on the ice, do the same thing along the blue line or the boards. Face forward, feet forward and step to one side, then the other. Once you are comfortable with the movement, start skating around a circle and work on crossing the outside leg over the inside leg. When going backwards, think of it more as a cross-under with the back (or inside if you're circling) leg taking the lead.

The key thought for me was that my inside leg, was more of a "plant and pull" motion going backwards. I would plant my leg in the ice and then pull against the ice to bring my body over that leg.

Thanks, I'm definitely going to try this out.

[kr580 2]

It took me forever to realize I ALWAYS have more time than I think I have with the puck. The moment came during the last game of 3-game for-fun tournament where we (a new team) got absolutely destroyed in every game. It was the final 20 seconds or so of the game and our team had lost hope and just resorted to screaming to get people to do something, anything. I have the puck in my defensive corner, forecheckers racing at me and my manager is SCREAMING at me to pass it up. I felt like defying him as to not encourage screaming and i managed to actually scan the ice for the right outlet. Before that I always got rid of it ASAP because i was afraid i'd screw up. Now it's so easy to take a second to look around first.

[snuzzo24 0]

I have been skating for less than a year and backwards was always really tough for me. Started taking a hockey class and one day in the class the backwards stride came to me. I still cant skate backwards all that great but I can at least get going and gain some speed now. Need to work on backwards crossovers now.

Forward crossovers to the left came pretty easy for me but to the right is tough. As for stopping I can stop on the right foot pretty good but stopping on the left foot puts me on the ice.

[Quasitd 1]

Forward crossovers to the left came pretty easy for me but to the right is tough.

A friend of mine brought this up with amusement. Almost everyone is stronger on a left side turn/crossover. Every open rink skate goes in that direction. So it ends up just feeling a bit more natural due to the repetition of it while growing up.

[Bimmer 0]

HAHA!! The dreaded public skate crossover..I was in a clinic last week and everyone was great at the left hand but everyone was falling all over the place on the right..

One of our instructors told us that learning to skate is alot of aha moments and that once you have that aha moment you'll get it forever..I am waiting for my aha moment on the right hand crossover (forward) and getting over on one edge (for tighter turns)...

[Jarick 5]

When am I going to get my a-ha moment of waking up and being 30 pounds lighter? :)

[bostonjuniorblackhawks 1]

When am I going to get my a-ha moment of waking up and being 30 pounds lighter? :)

exactly my problem lol

[farhanshak 1]

I had a few of those moments actually...

learning to use/feel my edges, with the help of powerskating classes taught by figure skaters out here in the GTA, really helped me alot with stopping both ways, and crossovers and skating in general. Once I learned what the "edges" were it all made sense. I have been doing the classes now for 2 years, and every few monhts I pick something I want to work on. at one point it was crossovers, and I can now crossover backwards and forward while handling a puck and not think about it (still working on making it look pretty but you get my drift )

Another moment as someone touched on earlier, was realizing I have alot more time and space on the ice than I think. I had my GF tape me on the ice and I just watched myself play (which was alot slower than I anticipated it being and I still swear she had the slow mo capture on).

[interpathway 9]

I've been thinking of taking a camera on the top of my head during a pick-up game while also having someone film the game from a tripod outside the glass perspective. I think the two clashing video feeds would bring to light all the "extra time" that everyone on this thread seems to be afraid of/unaware it exists.

At worst it'd be a stark reminder of how fast the game is played when you're on the ice.

[maxamillion 3]

The last year has been full of aha moments. I think the biggest was figuring out how to bounce back up when I get taken down. I used to slide it out, but I figured out how to plant my foot and use my momentum to pop right back up with out losing much in the way of speed or ground.

[pittu 15]

The last year has been full of aha moments. I think the biggest was figuring out how to bounce back up when I get taken down. I used to slide it out, but I figured out how to plant my foot and use my momentum to pop right back up with out losing much in the way of speed or ground.

I guess my "aha" moment was the opposite of yours. I started playing again at the age of 40 after 20 years of not playing. I used to be able to pop back up and be sprinting immediately. Now when I go down I need to get to a knee, plant a foot, plant my stick, and pull myself up slowly....that and my hips are sore the next day after playing.....aha, I'm old now!!!

[Quasitd 1]

Just wanted to post a quick a-ha moment for me. My friend and I started back in Feb, found a class for adult beginners in the area. It's been fantastic since we can usually watch each other and give our non-helpful non-professional feedback to each other.

I had been having trouble with a wrist shot on the run, early in the summer the class was coming to an end and we did a full game. One time when I had a nice breakaway he was on the bench and able to watch what I was doing.

It turns out that when I shoot on the run I was trying to shoot from both my dominate foot and hand, right and right, which would have been fine except I was unconsciously moving my foot to get it out of the way of the shot which then would cause me to just wipe out constantly in the hash-marks with no one around me.

That observation and a couple stick and shoot practices and I can now shoot from either foot on the run reasonably well. Sometimes that ah-ha moment is just figuring out what you did do wrong rather than suddenly doing it right.

[technophile 0]

One thing that's helped me a lot is a local drop-in. There's a lot more ice time available around here than there was in Austin, for a lot less money, so I've been going to a weekly drop-in. Most of the regulars there, at least in the summer, are high school/college/travel players, so the skill level is a lot higher than I've been used to. Getting used to the faster pace took a few weeks, but I think it's done really good things for my decision making -- mostly in just helping firm up the idea that I have more time and space than I think (except when I don't ). And 90 minutes of 3 on 3 or 4 on 4 with very few subs is great cardio. ;)

A couple of weeks ago there were only 3 of us that showed up, which was helpful in a different way. I haven't typically gone to stick & pucks (mostly due to lack of time), but spending almost 2 hours working on everything was great. I spent so much time practicing passing and shooting that I could hardly lift my arms up by the end of it, but the next drop-in I went to I could feel a difference in how much snap I got on my passes/shots, and they were already more accurate. It was a good reminder than games, even drop-ins, aren't the same as practice.

I've been thinking of taking a camera on the top of my head during a pick-up game while also having someone film the game from a tripod outside the glass perspective. I think the two clashing video feeds would bring to light all the "extra time" that everyone on this thread seems to be afraid of/unaware it exists.

At worst it'd be a stark reminder of how fast the game is played when you're on the ice.

My dad came to a game with his camcorder a few years back and recorded it. I have ordered all copies of that video destroyed with extreme prejudice.

As fast as it feels on the ice, it looks (at least my C-league rec game did) as if everyone is moving in slow motion. Things that feel fluid and fast on the ice look slow, awkward, and flaily on video. It's a humbling thing to do, for sure.

[regularjoe 1]

If you are playing rec league at the beginner to intermediate level, the game is -a lot- slower than you see it in your mind's eye when you play. That's why I don't encourage anyone to come watch me play. I've seen the video tape and it is not pretty....

[TheBert 0]

There's this guy on my team that picked up hockey at 22 and joined us this season.

He's very likely the weakest player on the team but keeps trying to draw up plays when he really needs to worry about his own skating and ability to handle a pass, but gets angry when we ignore him.

Anyone ever deal with a guy like this?

[Steve_v3 289]

I didn't skate in a rink until I was 19. It always makes me feel good when someone says they can't believe it.

Although I usually follow that with a shift where I look like I just learned to skate the week before.