Minor and Youth Hockey coaches, executives, webmasters and other e-mail recipients, if you have players or parents who might benefit from these skating tips, feel free to post them on your hockey website, forward it to them, and please consider adding our site as a Hockey link. Our URL is
http://www.hockeymadeeasy.com/links.htmThank you, John Shorey- Hockey Canada Award winner and Author “Hockey Made Easy” - Canada’s Best Youth and Minor Hockey Instruction Book
Learning to skate is a lot like learning to ride a bicycle
- Skating requires a fine sense of balance, understanding your body’s center of gravity and it’s tipping point is key. Once this is learned, it will help you stay in an up-right position, whether on 2 wheels or on 2 very thin skate blades. The good thing is, once you’ve achieved them, they are never forgotten.
- Practice your skating technique and balance exercises at home by standing on one leg in your shoes, or in your bare feet. Try to keep your balance, but experiment to see how far you can bend forward, backward and side to side without falling. Discover your range of balance.
- Skating stance, feet shoulder width apart, knees flexed, now lift one foot off the floor and shift your
body weigh from one leg to your other leg and try to kep your balance by standing in a semi up-right
position on one leg. N.B. Parents should be close by to prevent child from falling.
- Practice this every few seconds for a couple of minutes to get the idea of skating, balance and the shifting of your body weight from one leg to the other without falling. It will take some practice to keep your balance.
- That’s all Skating is, basically shifting your weight from one leg to your other leg while taking short strides or steps at the beginning, then increasing them to longer strides or steps as you start moving forward or backward.
- Push one skate blade into the ice, pushing it outward and backward like the letter C, power coming from your leg and through the ball of your foot.
- Your other skate, the one supporting your body weight glides smoothly forward.
- This stroke and glide movement while balancing your weight creates forward or backward motion.
- Practice and more skating practice will help develop your stops, starts, strides, turns, 180-degree pivots and breakaway speed. To get better, go general skating every chance you get.
- And should you fall, and most beginners do, shake it off and get right up and start over again. - I highly recommended you wear a hockey helmet and gloves for added safety.
- Most Coaches consider Skating to be the single most important skill to learn and master for all young hockey players.
Fit - Skates must fit snug/tight but not cramp your toes and they must provide good ankle support.
- They must have stiff/solid ankle support so they don’t bend inside or outside but will still flex forward.
- Skate sizes are usually1/2 to 1 size smaller than your street/running shoe size.
- Socks, wear only 1 pair of thin 100% breathable cotton socks when skating, not 2 or 3 pair.
- Lacing of the skates-use the criss-cross, X method, as this provides even comfort and good support.
- The bottom 3 eyelets are generally semi-loose to allow blood circulation so your toes won’t freeze.
- The middle 3 eyelets are semi-tight to allow the top part of your foot to move up and down when flexing the foot and contracting your toes in all stopping and starting situations.
- The top 3 eyelets are tight to provide good ankle support and prevent bending inside or outside.
- Don’t wrap the laces around your ankle as this restricts your forward flex motion when striding.
- N.B. Tie your skates with a bowknot at the front of your skates, not on the side of your ankle.
Sharpening - A medium hollow ground, u shaped, sharpening is all that is required.
- Not razor sharp or the blades will dig deeper into the ice and you won’t be able to stop or turn easily.
- Not too dull or you won’t have any grip or bite in the blades to dig into the ice and you will slip and fall when starting and stopping.
- N.B. Parents, if your child is continually falling, this indicates the skates may need sharpening.
- Sharpen your skates about every 10-12 hours of use or as required if you get a nick or burr on the blades edge.
- Once you find a good skate sharpener stick with him because a good skate sharpening can mean the difference between playing a great hockey game or a not so great game.
Edges- If you hold the skate blade up to a light and look down the length of it, you will notice each blade has 2 edges, an inside edge and an outside edge. The “U” hollow ground sharpening makes these.
- Different edges, “inside edge” and “outside edge” are used throughout the game for stops, starts, turns, to generate speed and will help provide balance & stability to keep you in a standing up right position.
- If you loose an edge, get a nick or burr on the blade get them sharpened ASAP or you will likely fall
Rockering or Profiling of the Blades
- Skate blades are not flat but are slightly rockered or rounded like the rungs of a rocking chair.
- Only between 1 and 3 inches of blade is actually in contact with the ice while skating.
- The more rocker, the less blade is on the ice, this helps for sharper turns by having less grip
- The less rocker, the more blade is on the ice, this helps for faster straight away speed by more grip.
- Many Bantam and Midget aged players get their skates rockered by their skate sharpening pro to provide quicker turns with less friction/blade on the ice. To see what rocker your current blades have, just set them on a flat surface and shine a light from behind, you will see how much blade is actually in contact with the ice. Rock the blade forward and backward and the same amount of blade should be in contact with/on the ice.
- N.B. I recommend all Beginners, Novice/Mite, Atom/Squirt and Peewee players should stick with the rocker/profile the skate manufacturer provided when the skates were bought.
After Skating- Remove the snow from the blades with a dry cloth, this will prevent them from rusting.
If any of these skating tips proved helpful, please consider sharing them with other hockey parents as word of mouth is our only form of advertising.
In next months Tips we will offer more specific skating skills including: Forward and Backward skating,Rhythm, Starts, Stops, Strides, Angling, 180-degree pivots, Crossovers, and Change of Pace.
For more Learn to Play Hockey Tips go to
http://www.hockeymadeeasy.com/ and consider purchasinga copy of our 200 page, 2000 tip, 200 diagram “Hockey Made Easy” Instruction Manual for Youth andMinor Hockey coaches, parents and players.
The “Hockey Made Easy” Instruction Manual is now available in print book and e-book formats and we now have a newly developed CD for your computer.
As a Christmas Bonus we are offering Free of charge, the $19.95 Hockey Made Easy Instruction CD which includes the Parent’s and Coaches Teaching Guide. This offer is only available until Dec. 24th with the purchase of the Hockey Made Easy print manual.
Visit our website at
http://www.hockeymadeeasy.com/ for full details.
This Hockey Made Easy Instruction CD makes a great stocking stuffer and I guarantee it will improve the hockey skills and knowledge of every Youth and Minor Hockey coach, parent or player who reads it.
If you are no longer involved with Minor or Youth Hockey programs and would like your e-mail addressremoved from our data base, simply e-mail
jshorey@hockeymadeeasy.com with the e-mail address thesetips were sent to and it will be dealt with immediately.
Have a safe and Merry Christmas and continued good luck to all coaches, players and parents duringthe hockey season.
Yours in hockey
John Shorey
Author- Hockey Made Easy-
http://www.hockeymadeeasy.com/
