Crossover help.

[Vulcan7905 88]

I even added videos to get some tips, just because I'm always trying to get better. Now, I think I'm focusing WAY to much when I'm just practicing. In a game situation, I have no problem at all because I'm so focused on the play. Any more advice fellas? I also know better knee bend as well.

https://youtu.be/Q29i0trM15k

https://youtu.be/_kXcEe-lh5c

https://youtu.be/i06avs3rwJ0

Thank you in advance for the tips and help!!

[Leif 161]

Yes you need lots more knee bend, take it slowly, practice practice practice. A common problem is to go too fast, and lose control. Use your stick as a support. You need to learn to ride your edges, which feels unnatural. Can you do one foot inside and outside edge drills? If not, I suggest you practice them, lots. It takes many many hours of hard work. There are many good YouTube videos. 

[puckpilot 312]

A while back I decided to focus on improving my crossovers, and below are some of the youtube videos I used. I'd watch them over and over, and I think I gleaned a lot of insight on mechanics and what I needed to work on. 

IMHO, you should pay attention to the first one because it describes in part what I think is an issue you have.

There's a lot of repetition in what they're saying in the videos, but sometimes all it takes is the same thing being said by someone else to get things to click. For example, there's a video done by figureskaters that I found very helpful in my visualization of the mechanics of the cross over. The most in-depth video is by the iTrainhockey channel. It's super long, but it's packed with lots of useful info. It breaks down a lot of the edging work building up to crossovers and stuff. 

I also included a couple of videos on dryland drills you can do to help with your cross overs.

Any way's hope some of this helps. 

 

First, here are the basic ones. 

 

Here are some more in-depth ones

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some Dryland training exercises you can try.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2018 by puckpilot

[psulion22 402]

In a practice like this, the tendency is to stand more upright and relaxed.  Without knee bend, you can't crossover, period.  So when you find yourself struggling to crossover in stick and puck, it's because you're standing up.  All of the videos posted above are spot on for advancing in your technique.  Keep you shoulders parallel to the ice (the tendency is to lean the inside shoulder down) because the centrifugal force drives the edges into the ice.  Get some ankle roll to engage the edges and use the profile to help in the turn.  Remember that there are two strides in every crossover, and that the outside edge push is as important as the inside edge (or maybe even more so).

With that all said, You have a big open sheet of ice to work with, and it seems like you're just messing around and wasting the time.  Work on those crossovers.  Work on your skating.  Push yourself out of your comfort zone.  The only way to improve is to push the boundary past where it is now.  You've paid for that ice and bothered to put on all your gear, use it.  

[Vulcan7905 88]

Thank you all for the videos and advice!! I decided to really push my self tonight at the pick up. Boy, what a difference a good knee bend makes. The knee bend really helped me tonight with the crossovers. So smooth and no slipping at all!!

Thank you everybody!! 

[Vet88 674]

On 12/22/2018 at 5:40 PM, Vulcan7905 said:

Thank you all for the videos and advice!! I decided to really push my self tonight at the pick up. Boy, what a difference a good knee bend makes. The knee bend really helped me tonight with the crossovers. So smooth and no slipping at all!!

Thank you everybody!! 

imho your biggest issue is you have no control of your outside edge. Watch how when you transfer weight onto it during the crossover you shorten your stride. This is because you have no confidence in the edge and if you spend any longer on it you will become unbalanced so you instinctively shorten the stride to spend as little time as possible on the edge. If you want a couple of simple drills to help improve and reinforce your outside edge control send me a pm.

You will never be able to crossover properly until you have outside edge control.

[chippa13 1844]

Remember, crossovers can't be done at very slow speeds.

[Vet88 674]

On 12/24/2018 at 5:32 AM, chippa13 said:

Remember, crossovers can't be done at very slow speeds.

Not so, doing crossovers at slow speed is a basic training drill for them. Slowing it down forces you to spend more time on your edge and therefore to have more control and balance on the edge. If you can't do them slowly it's just a basic sign that your technique is poor.

[chippa13 1844]

Now we're splitting hairs on slowly and "very slow". There is a minimum speed where balance is impossible to maintain. Physics doesn't lie.

[Vet88 674]

Huh? there is no "minimum" speed to maintain balance. You can start a cross over from a standing start, you can cross over whilst barely moving and you can cross over at full speed. These are the extremes but they are all possible if your balance and edge control is good enough. Yes, you can't lean in and maintain a deep edge when crossing over very slowly but that isn't the purpose of the drill. As most players find, it is much harder to maintain correct form and balance when doing things very slow as opposed to normal speed. 

[BenBreeg 493]

I get what both Vet88 and chippa13 are saying.  Yes, you can do crossovers at different speeds, and doing them slowly can be beneficial.   But the physics chamges as speed increases, centrifugal forces increase, and angles then correspondingly change so the forces of the blade/edge against the ice and the foot in the boot, etc., change.