Muse back!
February 07, 2009 / Saturday
Skate Skate Skate!
Robby Glantz power skating camp #2 is now complete. I learned a ton. I hope I can document it all here.
Forward Skating
We worked on this all three sessions. I'd hoped for radar gun plus video on both the first and final sessions like we had last time, but all we got this time was video on the first night. Still, I got a lot out of it. Here's what I learned (some of it is a repeat from last time):
- Head:
- Keep your head still. It should not move side to side.
- Front arm swing:
- Don't go across body with arms.
- Hands shouldn't rise past knees.
- Stop while you can still see your palm.
- Legs:
- Push out to the side.
- Really finish off the stride with the toes. Extend! Push!
- Bend those knees more.
- Body:
- Don't lean forward too much or your feet will slide out from under you.
- Keep the upper body loose.
In the video at the end of the first session, I learned that I've been wasting a lot of energy on side to side arm swing. My legs, on the other hand, weren't pushing much to the side at all. I was also leaning forward too far, which is probably what's been causing my feet to slide out from under me on occasion. On the upside, my head looked pretty still, and my skates returned to center after each stride.
The second night, I worked hard on not swinging my arms across my body and on pushing sideways more with my legs. Brad, the instructor who had helped me with my video, came by and gave me some good feedback and tips. One good way to keep my arms from swinging too far up or over: make sure I can see my palm when my hand is in front of me.
We did the bungee drill at the end of the second session. I got pulled once, and volunteered to pull three times. Why? Because the wee bit of added resistance slowed me down *just* enough to give me a good feel of what I should be doing, and also to give me time to think about proper form. It was hard work, but such good practice.
The third night, I worked on really digging my toes in to finish off the push at the end of each stride. It took me a few trips down the ice to get the left toe to dig instead of slip, but once I did, it felt great. We skated without our sticks to get the feel of keeping our upper body loose, and toward the end of the forward skating drills, I could actually feel and hear my skates crunching the ice. Me, crunching! I really thought that would never happen. I had figured I was too small to ever crunch.
Crunch!! :-D
Forward Crossovers
In the second session, we learned a bit about crossovers by doing them left and right going down the ice. The session after that, we spent a good amount of time doing crossovers in circles, over, and over, and over. Here are some notes:
- Head up. Don't lean it into the turn.
- Shoulders square and centered.
- Shoulders level with ice.
- Legs and feet are leaned into the turn.
- Upper body is leaned AWAY from the turn for counterbalance. (Really, this just squares you.)
- Outside hip is "tucked" in. Legs and body make a crease here.
- The more the outside hip is tucked, the more power you can drive through that leg.
I had two epiphanies, one in the second session and one in the third. The first one answered something that had been bugging me for years: my trouble with right crossovers. My right skate would always catch on the ice as it pushed under me, and I could never figure out why. Now I know.
Here's the idea behind crossovers. Your legs and feet are leaned in the direction you're turning. To maintain balance, your upper body needs to lean the other way. In my head, I'd always imagined needing to lean my body into the turn to counteract the push. As it turns out, all that did was throw off my center of gravity and screw up my "grip" on the ice. Once I got the upper body leaned in the proper direction, no more tripping over myself turning right.
Why only right and not left also? Because I shoot right-handed, which means when I turn left, my body naturally wants to lean right to hold my stick in a comfortable forehand position. For some reason I want to lean into the turn on my backhand.
There are a couple pictures of me from the MLK tournament last month that highlight this tendency pretty well. In the picture on the left, I'm turning left (and probably about to do a crossover) and my legs are leaned left while my body is upright. In the picture on the right, I'm turning right, and my entire body is leaned in that direction. Knowing me, in that picture on the right, I *should* have done a crossover to power of there but didn't, because I didn't want my skate to catch on the ice. And now I know why.
Yes, I need to bend my knees more and keep my head up.
In the third session, we did a bazillion circles, which was a good opportunity for me to really work on getting my feet solidly under me. We took turns, and I did extra circles at center ice on my own when it wasn't my turn. It was during one of these extra circles that Robby came by and told me to really tuck that outer hip in and drive with that leg. I did, and just like that, I went a heck of a lot faster. It's funny; I remember hearing him talk about it before the drill, but I had to hear it again during the drill for it to really click.
In summary: Fixed the right crossover and came away with a lot of good details to work on.
Backward Skating
We worked a bit on backward skating in the first session. I'm still not great at it, but I'm considerably more comfortable with it now than I was before the clinic.
Skating straight, I made three round-trip passes down the ice, with some coaching in between.
Trip 1 - I railroaded my way down the ice. Pathetic!
Trip 2 - I ignored what Brad said and C-Cut my way down the ice. It still felt pathetic.
Trip 3 - I finally processed what Brad said pushed my leg out sideways hard. Success!
By success, I don't mean I'm a great backward skater now, but for the first time ever, I actually felt stable skating backward. Why? Because I need to get low in order to push sideways. Also, it's a lot easier to think about pushing out than drawing a C. The C happens naturally when your leg comes back in. C-Cut, most confusing term ever! I am never teaching anyone that. Just push out, and let the C draw itself.
Backward Crossovers
We worked a lot on backward crossovers in session three. This is, by far, my weakest event. I dread the backward circles drill at NCWHL evals every season; it's embarrassing!
Let's see how things go after some more practice with the following:
- Feet wide apart.
- Lean forward enough so your head is past your toes.
- Keep low. Don't stand up.
- Really pull that leg in sideways. Don't cheat by pulling back or stepping over with the other foot.
The first three items on that list are for stability. Feet wide apart gives side to side stability. Leaning forward enough gives front back stability. And keeping low is pretty much always more stable than standing up straight. I wasn't doing any of those before.
The last item really highlighted what I was doing wrong. When I first tried to learn backward crossovers, I cheated by stepping over with my outer foot. I eventually fixed that, but still had no power because I was merely sliding my inner foot behind me. I think that was partly because I didn't have my feet wide enough apart, and thus had no room to pull my leg in sideways.
I'm still not great at this, but I'm a lot better than when I started. I feel as if I have the start of what could eventually be a productive backward crossover; I'm not pretending anymore!
Stopping
We worked on stopping in the second session. I feel we could have dissected this one a little more, but I did get one really good tip out of it (it's the first one):
- Don't rise right before stopping. It tells your opponent what you're about to do.
- Feet are staggered and turned out in a V.
- Feet are staggered and parallel if you want to turn that stop into backward motion.
Gonna have to work to break that habit of rising before I stop.
Power Turns
We really briefly covered power turns at the end of the third session. Too bad we didn't have time to really get into it, but fortunately, the power turn is what finally clicked for me in Vegas a week and a half ago. Here's what I remember:
- Feet and body position are really similar to what you do for stopping.
- You may stop a little, if you're going really fast and need to do a really tight turn.
Wrap-Up
So am I faster now? Maybe. I actually think I'm slower than I was before the clinic, but that's because I purposely slowed down to focus on doing things right. I feel a lot more balanced now. I feel I can really push against the ice more. The first step is to do it right. The speed will come once I get used to doing it this way. I have no doubt about that.
Since I don't have any games this weekend, I'll be heading to skills class at Ice Oasis on Sunday. I have long list of things to work on:
- Forward Skating: (1) legs pushing to the side (2) arm swing to the front, not high, and NOT to the side
- Forward Crossovers: (1) tucking outer hip in (2) really driving through with the outer leg
- Backward Skating: (1) pushing to the side
- Backward Crossovers: (1) wide low forward stance (2) really pull that inside leg in sideways
- Stopping: (1) don't rise (2) try to get more out of that front foot
Why I Did This
The last time I did this clinic, it was because I wanted to improve enough to make it into Maroon. I worked on a lot that season; I played on two teams and went to a clinic almost every week.
Now I'm in Blue. I wanted to be in Blue so I would have more people to learn from. I got what I wanted; I'm surrounded by them. When I see them play, I realize how much more I have to learn in every part of my game. Skating is just a small part of that, but I think it's one of the most fundamental parts. I found that I was still spending brain cycles thinking about skating when I really wanted to be spending them on a different skill. I want to get to the point where good, solid skating is second nature.
Given everything I've learned, I think this clinic will help a considerable amount on that front.