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z1ggy

Drills to improve balance during pregame warm up

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Short version: Can you please recommend me skating drills to do prior to a men's league game to improve balance and overall skating? Something that can be done while everybody on the team is skating around you, in a relatively short time (5mins or so). Video links or descriptions welcome.

For example, I'll probably start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPrerhyHllA and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6eFT0_jBJY  <-- some may not be possible with this one but you get the gist. 

Longer version, optional read if you're bored: I began playing when I was around 16 years old. I had skated a little bit prior to this, but never grew up skating, was never coached, etc, totally self taught. Fast forward 15 years and I play either on a C or B level team (A is highest, meant for very skilled players) and I can keep up fine. However, when people body me a bit I easy get knocked over, and just in general I want to be a better skater. I've been watching some old videos from How to Hockey (linked above) and seeing various coaches do skating drills with kids... Stuff I've never even imaged to attempt. Probably not all things I should be doing pre-game, but I would like stuff to help me get better balanced on my edges and improve my overall performance. 

Bonus question to anybody applicable: If you're in NJ, specifically near where Rutgers is...Do you know of any adult skills clinics near this area? I took one a few years ago when I lived in CT from a local U16 coach and it was super helpful.

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Right now I'm headed out the door, but:

First I'd say hit your inside edges with wide C-cuts (180 degree turns) and make sure you stay nice and low. You can do those as a warmup power-skating drill easily (most here do): example

 

Then go for your shuffle stride, and make sure you dig your heels into the ice to generate power: exampleexample

I do both of those skating drills at warmup before every game to activate my legs for about 5 minutes. While this doesn't include outside-edge / transition / cross-over drills, I don't think there is too much you can do in 5 minutes.

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Max has excellent edge control, this is what you want to work towards. Agility, speed, balance and overall skating ability will naturally improve as your edges get better. As Gosinger said, you can't do much in 5 minutes but I'd warm up with one foot balance drills and work on both edges with c cuts. Fact is either you are good enough when you step on the ice or you need to do more practice. Itrain video series are good to watch and then put into practice. When you practice try dropping eyelets until you find it hard to skate then work on your edges until you can eventually skate with your laces undone. Watch this if you don't believe me: 

 

Edited by Vet88

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58 minutes ago, gosinger said:

Right now I'm headed out the door, but:

First I'd say hit your inside edges with wide C-cuts (180 degree turns) and make sure you stay nice and low. You can do those as a warmup power-skating drill easily (most here do): example

 

Then go for your shuffle stride, and make sure you dig your heels into the ice to generate power: exampleexample

I do both of those skating drills at warmup before every game to activate my legs for about 5 minutes. While this doesn't include outside-edge / transition / cross-over drills, I don't think there is too much you can do in 5 minutes.

Thanks! I'll watch these today.

46 minutes ago, Vet88 said:

Max has excellent edge control, this is what you want to work towards. Agility, speed, balance and overall skating ability will naturally improve as your edges get better. As Gosinger said, you can't do much in 5 minutes but I'd warm up with one foot balance drills and work on both edges with c cuts. Fact is either you are good enough when you step on the ice or you need to do more practice. Itrain video series are good to watch and then put into practice. When you practice try dropping eyelets until you find it hard to skate then work on your edges until you can eventually skate with your laces undone. Watch this if you don't believe me: 

 

Wow I'd love to see how his skating looked once he tightened them back up.

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Here are a couple of my favorite basic balance drills.

This first video is full of drills you can try, but the video will start on my favorite one in the video, a one foot glide while bending the knee up and down. 


The second video drill I find helps me with balance in my stride. It helps to make sure I'm transferring my weight properly and that I'm getting a real good knee bend.

 

A lot of imbalance stems from standing too tall. If you have a proper knee bend, the tougher it will be for your opponent to knock you over.

If you want to be a better skater, start with the basics. I know how tempting it can be to want to start with some of those more fancy drills, but IMHO, it's better to spend the time strengthening your basics before jumping ahead. Why? I see a lot of people at the rink try to do advanced drills before they are ready. I mean they can barely do a forward cross over without falling, but suddenly, they want to start trying backwards scissor kicks like Pk Subban. 

What ends up happening is they end up learning how to do a bastardized version of the drill, and all it does is reinforce improper technique and bad fundamentals. The more solid your fundamentals are, the easier it will be for you to pick up on those more advanced drills and the less they'll feel like they're out of reach.

A couple of years ago, I noticed a new guy at my local stick and puck. He could barely skate. It was obvious he was just starting out, and he was flopping everywhere. One of the guys that frequents the stick and puck session is a coach and gave him some basic tips on skating and later on shooting. The guy just worked on those basics over and over. In a year he was executing nasty slide turns and snapping shots bar down. Now this isn't saying he doesn't still have stuff to learn, but if I didn't know better, I would have thought he'd been skating for years, not just one year. 

 

Any way, my 2 cents. It's worth what you paid.

 

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Thanks for all the videos everybody. I have watched them and I'm going to start attending stick and puck every weekend this entire winter. I think I am a decent skater for never really having ever done drills or being coached, so I'm sure this stuff will help a ton. Maybe I'll try and get some video of my skate doing various things to see if anybody here has some advice. Thanks. 

Edited by z1ggy

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What puckpilot said is so true, basics basics basics. Edge control is key, just because you can do a c cut doesn't mean you have control of your edge. If you do any vids I'll have a look, there are a couple of others I help here also. And I'll mention this again, try dropping eyelets. You don't need someone to review how you skate when you do this, if you have any technical issues at all your feet will tell you immediately as you fall off the edge.

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IMHO, If you want to learn better edge control and balance take lessons from a figure skating coach. The problem with watching videos or having someone who is inexperienced at teaching helping you is you don't know if you are doing things correctly. They may feel like you are doing it right and you may not be falling over but the technique could be bad. Good skating has a lot to do with conservation of motion. 

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Well I know my technique is bad for cross overs, especially when I do right foot over left (I'm a LH shooter). I don't actively 'push' and under cross with my left skate, it just kind of goes along for the ride. I feel like I undercross and push with my left over right crossovers... thus why I feel like I'm much better at generating speed while crossing over that way. It's the opposite with backwards.... Much better and undercross with going left over right, but not right over left.

 

Depending on prices, I'll see if I can find a hockey oriented coach. I'm going to the stick and puck with a buddy who's on my team, I'll see if he can film me and get some feed back here first.

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So went to a stick and puck last night and worked on edge work. I could feel mid way through how much better in control I was. I do have a question though, and it requires me to post a photo, which I will try to do tonight. I noticed the feeling of on my left skate... not being able to really balance flat on the foot, ie not on either edge. I looked at my holder and I noticed that it's actually riveted in ever so slightly crooked, with a bias toward the outside of the boot.

Is that normal? Would it have an effect on my skating and give me a bit more bias to lean on the inside edge more? I could balance on one foot and go straight on the blade on the right foot, but the left I felt like I just couldn't put all my weight perfectly flat over the middle of the blade, if that makes any sense. In Mako II's if that matters at all.

 

Edit: Here's the pics. Left skate holder is definitely different than the right. It's riveted in closer to the toe, and not shown in this picture but I measured and it's about 1/8'' closer to the outside of the boot than the holder on the right skate is. 

qrsOHoxl.jpgrqFbszil.jpgMrpkR5Yl.jpg

Edited by z1ggy

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Unfortunately, it's not atypical at all, because a perfect match between left and right on retail skates is probably more the exception than the rule. At least when they're both straight relative to the longitudinal axis of each boot, your body usually adapts to a slight mismatch in the distance to the boot edges the same way it does when you make other slight changes that don't necessarily affect one foot or the other individually. When they're not even even straight relative to the longitudinal axis of the boot they're on, I think that's much more of a problem that requires a fix, especially if you notice that it makes a difference and causes you issues on one skate that you don't have on the other. In that case, you might be lucky that they're also mismatched relative to the edges of the boot because that leaves the shop a little more room to work with if you have one holder moved to match the other. If they're already perfectly matched in the distances to the edges of the boot except for one being crooked, it's a lot harder to shift it over because there isn't enough room for brand new holes in the bottom of the boot that aren't so close to the original holes that they create larger misshaped holes when they drill new ones. There probably is a way to fix it that one of the skate-repair experts will explain, but it's probably a lot of work.

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One thing to check and undersrand first is your own leg strength and mechanics.  As is often the case, we tend to be stronger on one side or the other which may lead to mechanical differences.  For me, my left leg is stronger than my right from a stability standpoint.  So i am better at one legged squats on my left, i can hold one legged balance longer and more stable on my left, etc.  Once i started paying attention i realized that anytime i am just standing around and i shift my weight to one leg, it tends to be the left.  This also lent to knee valgus, where my right knee tracks inward if i do a one legged squat.  Translated to skating that put me on my right inside edge more easily and made my right outside more difficult.  This can be due to weaker hip muscles.  When i do a single right outside edge drill i can feel my hips working harder to maintain stability.  It is something that can be addressed through exercise and practice.

so that was long winded but understand your movement patterns first.

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On 11/3/2018 at 9:35 PM, YesLanges said:

Unfortunately, it's not atypical at all, because a perfect match between left and right on retail skates is probably more the exception than the rule. At least when they're both straight relative to the longitudinal axis of each boot, your body usually adapts to a slight mismatch in the distance to the boot edges the same way it does when you make other slight changes that don't necessarily affect one foot or the other individually. When they're not even even straight relative to the longitudinal axis of the boot they're on, I think that's much more of a problem that requires a fix, especially if you notice that it makes a difference and causes you issues on one skate that you don't have on the other. In that case, you might be lucky that they're also mismatched relative to the edges of the boot because that leaves the shop a little more room to work with if you have one holder moved to match the other. If they're already perfectly matched in the distances to the edges of the boot except for one being crooked, it's a lot harder to shift it over because there isn't enough room for brand new holes in the bottom of the boot that aren't so close to the original holes that they create larger misshaped holes when they drill new ones. There probably is a way to fix it that one of the skate-repair experts will explain, but it's probably a lot of work.

Thanks for reply. Yeah there has to be a way to fix it... Now that I've seen it with my eyes, every time I'm out there I feel like I notice it more. I never really noticed it I just always thought my left skate didn't fit as well (probably doesn't, foot size/shape differences) but now that I took out a tape measure, it's constantly a feeling.

On 11/4/2018 at 6:24 AM, BenBreeg said:

One thing to check and undersrand first is your own leg strength and mechanics.  As is often the case, we tend to be stronger on one side or the other which may lead to mechanical differences.  For me, my left leg is stronger than my right from a stability standpoint.  So i am better at one legged squats on my left, i can hold one legged balance longer and more stable on my left, etc.  Once i started paying attention i realized that anytime i am just standing around and i shift my weight to one leg, it tends to be the left.  This also lent to knee valgus, where my right knee tracks inward if i do a one legged squat.  Translated to skating that put me on my right inside edge more easily and made my right outside more difficult.  This can be due to weaker hip muscles.  When i do a single right outside edge drill i can feel my hips working harder to maintain stability.  It is something that can be addressed through exercise and practice.

so that was long winded but understand your movement patterns first.

Well I know for a fact my left leg is my dominant as one leg pistol squats are much easier on this leg compared to my right. I'd have to have my wife test my ankle mobility and strength but I'd have to believe years of baseball pitching (right handed) would leave that whole leg a bit better with balance and flexibility.

 

 

 

So to any skate experts: Can I get this fixed?? Mako's are the only thing that fit me very well due to my fairly narrow instep area and low foot volume. I've literally tried every skate on and nothing fits as well so changing boots isn't an option. True/VH could be, but I've seen meh reviews.

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Have you ever had an injury to your left foot / leg? Historical injuries may impact on how the leg works for ice skating (balance, direction and tracking) but be totally fine for normal walking and running. 

If you have any injury which gives you a slight pronation or have any natural pronation, when the holder is mounted to the outside it will make the problem worse. A good LHS could realign them and back fill the holes with epoxy. 

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