Do you want to be a fast skater?

 Our Philosophy at DC Hybrid Skating combines the physics of generating speed from the fastest skaters in the world (speed skaters) and joins them together with the elements of speed in the game of hockey. 

Learning to skate fast requires an understanding of where speed comes from and the patients to practice the elements of speed without rushing for instant results.  "If you can't do the skating skills off the ice you won't be able to do them on the ice".  It is important to build stability, strength, and improve flexibility if you want to be a fast skater.  If you want to be fast it starts off the ice with more than just lifting weights and other common strength training regimes.  Time must be spent training in the skating position where a fast skater will fire his leg extension to the side at over 500 degrees per second.  

Remember it is not what your style looks like it is how fast you get from point A to point B.  And, it's important to take out the variance in your stoke so that you can concentrate on the other skills that are necessary in a game without worrying about your skating.  By improving your skating technique and taking out the variance in your skating stride you will be able to repeat your puck handling, shooting, passing with more consistency and accuracy.

Over the fall and into the winter we will provide you with the exercises that we use to build a strong off ice skating base.  These exercises will give you stability and strength in the skating position.  Our first exercise is using a slideboard (if you do not have a slideboard you can imitate the skating stride in the grass by pushing out the side and landing on one leg imitating the slidebaord - we call this dryskating - no jumping though from side to side just stay low and push to the side landing about 3-4 feet from the push off leg).

This is a starter skating workout that we use in our gym all the time.  It is not meant to be a conditioning workout, it is meant to be a technical workout.  It begins to teach one of the most important elements of the DC Hybrid Skating Philosophy - Pushing to the side:  Remember you can be the strongest and best conditioned guy on the ice, but if you are not efficient and can't apply what you have (force) into the ice then you are at a huge disadvantage and will fatigue quickly.  So, focus on technique now and we will worry about conditioning once we can repeat the proper skating technique!

2 sets of 8x 30sec low technical skating 30-45 sec rest

Points of concentration are:

• Pushing directly to the side
• Keeping knees bent at 90 degrees
• Always keep your feet pointed straight ahead
• Your recovery leg should push out the side and then circle back around so that the recovery leg knee touches the pushing leg calf
• Don't overstride or push too hard - this is a technical workout
• Keep your shoulders and hips level to the ground

I hope you will enjoy our journey together as we begin to learn how to skate fast and efficiently!

David Cruikshank