Crossovers/Edges and young skaters?

[badger_14 601]

Forgive me if this has been done elsewhere, but I couldn't quite find an answer in the search.

So - I help out with a local learn to play program. The age range is 4 - 10, but they're split into two groups (4 - 7/8, and about 8 - 10, there's some fuzzy middle ground depending on size/experience). The other day the guy running it (a paid coach from a local hockey school, he assigns drills) had us running a crossover drill for the younger group, which was ... mostly an exercise in futility. The older (7/8) were catching on better, but the littler, younger (4-5) kids just couldn't physically manage the motion - between equipment and physical size, they just couldn't get one skate over the other, even from a stationary stance.

Though I don't want to undermine the paid coach and his practice plans, what are some other things we (the coaches) can try with the little kids to help them work on their balance and turning? We already usually do an obstacle course and a mini game like soccer or freeze tag, it's a station-based practice. One thing a coach had me do when I was learning was start by 'scootering' around the circle (glide on one foot, push with the other, as if on a skateboard or scooter), but what else?

tl;dr - preschoolers attempting crossovers is an exercise in futility, what are some other things we can have them try to build a foundation?

[farhanshak 1]

one thing that helped me with my edge work (that we still do regularly in our weekend powerskating classes which I attend), is to practice making turns on a single leg using inside edge, then repeat the same drill using the outside edge.

you can set up Pylons at each face off dot, and at the top of middle of the two faceoff dots (if that make sense).

you can have the kids use the entire ice surface or half the ice surface. once they get the single leg drill down, have them focus on doing a cross over to get out of it.

the idea is to hold the edge as long as possible to gain comfort. it forces you to have a good knee bend as well (or you wont turn much), and really lean into the edge.

hope this helps.

as a side note, there is a hockey canada series (the videos are also on youtube), where they go over edge work drills.

my apologies for the long post, and good luck.

[Vet88 674]

Until work got in the way, I took the beginners at our local rink. I also had a figure skating coach helping me, other coaches took the better skaters.

We didn't divide the class by age, it was solely by experience and how well they could skate. For the beginners, the "scootering" is about as far as you can go with them for advanced techniques. Until they can get the hang of correct posture, balancing and gliding on one foot then anything else is just a waste of time. I also got the best skaters to pair up with the very beginners (especially those that had never skated before or only one or twice), the good skaters would then slowly tow the other skater around (using 2 sticks) letting the beginner get used to the feeling of gliding across the ice.

Other things would be: basic circle and figure 8 skating drills (add a puck to make it harder), work on shaving the ice, VERY simple passing drills and play a lot of games.

Important thing is to make it fun and keep everything really short with lots of variety, technique doesn't matter, you just got to let them find their own way and have fun. Attention span isn't great for the littlies. The real buzz I got out of it was when the kids were starting to get good enough to move up to a more advanced group, they preferred to stay with us because we worked really hard on making sure they had fun.

Last, but not least, I have a real bug bear about teaching kids to look up from day one. Any puck work has them working on this eg in a simple passing drill, receive the puck, look up, pass to the blade. Impress this into them from the very beginning and half the battle is won towards them becoming a good player.

[badger_14 601]

Thanks for the informative replies. :) Another session again this morning and I'll remember this when I head over to the rink. The kids are divided into groups in their age level roughly based on skill/experience (the first few sessions it's been random assortment, things are a little disorganized this year, but that's alright). They do ice-shaving as part of the stopping station, but I agree it's a good idea for their edges in general. What I suspect is that the paid coach who assigns our drills doesn't have a lot of experience with very young kids (he's a great guy, but I think he usually coaches the tween set), so I might just ask him hey, can we do [x] instead of 'crossovers', I think they're a little too small/young for it.

Thanks :)

[farhanshak 1]

good luck, and I hope it works out. keep us posted. the key is to always work on the basics. if i remember correctly, crossovers consist of 2 pushes, and its important to be able to feel 2 edges.

for the little guys, it might be a good idea to just let them skate end to end, and focus on getting thier stride, and turns, and stops. maybe leave cross overs for later.

if they cant do the drill, as vet88 mentioned, you wont be able to keep it fun for them and they will probably lose interest.

[badger_14 601]

This past weekend we had a different paid coach from the same outfit, who had us do some different, more basic stuff for the younger kids - basically a bunch of games to get them used to their edges and not thinking too hard about being on the ice and the chance of falling. (you know, how new skaters will sort of freeze up and toddle along - even adults - because they're afraid of moving around too much and losing their balance. I know I did).

One of the stations was a snowplowing/lateral stepping between cones, and one was pushing nets, and I think there was an obstacle course (step over sticks/2x4s), and I had a bunch of kids dancing the hokey pokey which they thought was ridiculous and great fun. I think that ultimately went better for the kids (and hopefully we have the same paid coach again next weekend?).