Knee bend tips

[Marrick66 0]

For the last season, it seems like my speed has really diminished, and I'm using too much energy to not go very far. So, I had someone tape myself during a practice, and of course my knees weren't nearly bent as they should be. So, I've been trying to work on and emphasize that lately. I taped myself again, and it's still not enough. Plus the fact is that I look like I'm very stiff and upright with my skating. So my question you guys/gals, is, you have any tips for keeping the knees bent while skating?

[biff44 0]

You are supposed to be pretty upright when skating. If you skate all hunched over, you would have no balance! But you do want a really deep knee bend.

A lot of speed is in the mechanics of the stride. Watch your tape again. Are your two skates coming together and almost touching at the start of the stride, or are you only bringing them within 2 feet of each other? Getting them together means a longer stide.

At the end of the stide is your leg fully extended, or is you knee still pretty bent? Once again, if you are not fully extending, you are not getting a full efficient stride. Some players are simply not able to fully extend because they have poor hip flexor or hamstring fexibility (start stretching).

Finally, at the end of the stride are you getting a little "flick" from the front part of the blade? That gives you another 5% power.

Some tips on web sites:

http://www.robbyglantz.com

http://www.laurastamm.com/

[Fletch 219]

I highly recommend the Robby Glantz videos, especially part II.

[Deerok 3]

Just wondering, but how old are your skates and how much do you weigh?

I am only asking because I had a similiar situation, until I realized that after 2.5 years of hard use my skates were no longer offering me sufficient support.

This may or may not be the case, but it is worth a look.

[biff44 0]

The other obvious question is, have you gained a lot of weight over the last season? If you are now heavier, you may need to change the hollow on your skate blades to something flatter. If you are heavier, you do not need quite so small a hollow radius to do the tight turns, but you need a flatter blade to give you less friction with the ice for speed.