Top 5 Things You Need to Know to Skate Fast

1. Knowing what is " a good skating position" is critical for performance in skating.  Legs should be bent around 100 degrees.  Chest should be up but in a comfortable position nothing forced.  Arms should hang relaxed and be swinging freely.
2. Push to the side.  Great top end speed comes from pushing your skates as much to the side as possible.  To check this when finish your push look to the side and see if your toebox of the pushing leg is within 8-12 inches of the heel of the skate that just came down onto the ice - if it's not then you need to work on this.  It's the physics of skating.  Try moving your feet directly forward and backwards on the ice and you find out real quickly you don't go anywhere.  The quicker you can get your skates to push to the side the quicker you will accelerate.
3. Weight shift.  When you are looking for maximum speed on ice it is essential that all your body weight be over your pushing leg.  What that means is that before you start to push to the side you should be able to look down and see that your chin or head is lined up directly over your pushing foot.  From there you will generate a tremendous amount of  pressure into the ice which will translate into SPEED.
4. Forget the weights and improve you flexibility.  Quit worrying about how much you can lift and start working hard on your flexibility.  I have never met a dynamic skater that doesn't have some level of flexibility.  Do your weights but concentrate more on getting flexibility in your hip and mid section so that you can get better separation between your lower body and upper body.
5. Keep your feet straight.  This is the quickest way to find yourself traveling down the ice with speed.  You can overcome a lot of issues if you just get both feet moving in the direction of travel.  Even if you don't get your feet all the way together this skill still outweighs that factor.  You do want to get your feet together but lots can go wrong even when you do get your feet together.  Keep those feet both going in the direction of travel and your find yourself fixing a lot of problems. 

David Cruikshank