Andy & Diane Ness 2014

Being an explosive skater is so important in today’s game. Your first 3-5 steps are the key to winning small races all over the ice. Getting to the puck first, getting up to a full stride quicker, and beating opponents to areas on the ice is a result of an explosive quick start.

Lately, core strength has become a buzzword when talking about training for any sport. As I stated in an earlier article, core strength is one of the four pillars of skating. So just to review, why is core strength so important? 

Stopping is one of the first real challenging skills that any young hockey player will learn. Actually, every skater should learn a snow plow stop first before they can tackle the much more difficult hockey stop. Most young skaters will always favor one side over another – in other words, they will have their “favorite side.” 

As most teams are up and running right now, finding good warm-up drills are key to setting the tone for a good practice. Obviously, the fact that I focus on skating, the warm-up drills I do are always done to repeat skating skills that we have already learned.

As defined by the dictionary, “agility” is a rapid, whole body movement with change of velocity or direction in response to a stimulus. To put it in hockey terms, it’s the ability to change the body’s position efficiently and to move quickly in any direction. 

When examining skating, one needs to understand how a skate blade works, as well as the blade positioning. If I were to ask any skater how much blade is in contact with the ice, most would answer “the whole blade.”

After a good summer of training, players that prepared themselves properly should feel confident going into camp.  In the photo of Ryan McDonagh, you will notice him executing a stride. This photo was taken as a screen shot from videos. 

As I am finishing up my four-week stay in New Jersey, I got to pop in to one of the players’ workouts after a power skating session. It was great to see all the exercises and movements and how they are very specific to skating and hockey in general. 

As hockey camps are in full swing, I have seen many younger skaters who are in need of a different pair of skates. Buying the proper fitting skate for every skater is essential.

When looking at what makes a good skater, sometimes attributes we see may be subjective. After all, if we sink a putt or make a basket, we get the immediate feedback of doing something correctly. How do we tell a good skater from a weak skater?

So the offseason is coming, now what? We know we need to skate and train, but what should we do? What should focus on? The first thing that we have to understand is that after a long season, certain things start to happen in our skating

At the end of a long season, you may notice that most players’ skating technique begins to suffer. Minor things like a skater’s stride getting choppy or a skater not bending his/her knees are most evident. While most teams work on power play, penalty kill, breakouts and forechecks during the season, there leaves little room for skating and skill development.

Throughout a great weekend in high school hockey, you may have noticed how many times skaters are able to use a heel-to-heel skill, specifically the Edina team. For this article, I will give you drills that can be practiced to help acquire this skill.

Developing a great quick start takes power, quickness, explosiveness and a lot of practice. How does a skater become more explosive? There are certain on ice drills that can help any skater improve just this. I will explain a few drills that will help any skater become more explosive.

Throughout the Olympics you are able to see many athletes from different sports and the skills that they possess to be successful in their specific sport. Throughout the games, there seems to be general attributes from every sport  that can be seen when we are talking about skating in general.

Turning around a cone seems like such an easy concept, but again it should be done with purpose. Is the skater doing it for a skating drill, a hockey drill or protecting the puck?  Skaters should be aware what they are doing each time they execute a turn.

Recently one of the areas that I have noticed that is a real struggle for young skaters is backward skating. I always tell my students anything you can do forward you should be able to do backward.

This time of year sometimes seems the hardest (especially at the Mite level) for coaches and players alike. It is really the tough part of the season at any level.  When skating and skill work becomes monotonous, kids tend to go through the motion. When kids become skating drones, improvement becomes stagnant.  

We all know how important it is to have strong outside edges while skating. For this article, I would like to make sure everyone really has an understanding and an awareness of an outside edge.  

I have come across some great photos of young Minnesota Wild skaters while we were working on their stride during a summer session. While looking at the pictures, it should give you a better understanding of the three main elements that go into a stride. 

Footwork is one of the most important skills that a player can practice and try to improve upon (especially for defensemen). Footwork is the ability to move the feet independently of each other. It is the ability to go forward to backward, backward to forward, and side to side while maintaining speed and control.