Planning in March to get ready for April hockey tryouts is like remembering on Thursday after school that you have an exam in your 3rd period science class on Friday morning. True knowledge and skill development take time and consistency, it’s simply too late to make big lasting improvements to your skating. But just like cramming the night before an important exam, even at the eleventh hour there are a few things you can do that will put a little extra fire in your step and help you shine on tryout day.
You’ll need to start with a good solid back to basics tune-up to make sure your foundation is solid. I am fully aware that what I am about to say is going to sound like me asking you to eat a plate of broccoli topped with spinach and follow it up with a steamy bowl of Brussel sprouts. Hold your nose and get ready to swallow hard, cause here it comes…take a one hour private lesson on nothing but edge work. No sprinting, no stops, no power turns… commit your self to working on nothing but edges for a full 60 minutes. You don’t even need a hockey skating specialist for this lesson, a good figure skating coach will do. Find one that comes highly recommended and tell them that you’d like to work on all 8 of your edges. (Yes…. As a matter of fact there are 8 of them! RFO, RFI, RBO, RBI, LFO, LFI. LBO, LBI.) Why on earth would I ask you to start with this torturous task?! Punishment for not working harder on your skills all season? Because I get a kick out of pointing out to players how much they don’t know about their edges? Because the hockey and figure skating communities need to live harmoniously? NO!!! It’s because every single thing you do on the ice, every stop, every turn, every push, every transition, every thing you do on your skates in a game requires edge control, and when you work on your edges you are actually working toward improving all aspects of your skating.
Next up are some last minute tricks to get your muscles firing for explosive forward skating.
The following three statements are true:
- The higher you jump, the faster you skate.
- The quicker you jump, the faster you skate.
- The farther you jump, the faster you skate.
The muscles that are used when you jump are the exact same muscles, in the exact same order as the muscles that are used when you sprint down the ice. One of the best activities players can do to develop on ice speed is jumping; all kinds of jumping, jumping hurdles, jumping rope, even jumping over that pile of dirty laundry on your bedroom floor. Try this quick fix activity to get your muscles used to fast firing action: Place your hockey stick on the ground. Stand in your shoes on one leg next to the stick. Give a friend a stopwatch and ask him to time you for 30 seconds. When your friend says “go” jump over, and back over your hockey stick on that same leg as many times as you can. Repeat the exercise with the other leg. Train to increase the number of times you can jump over and back over your stick in 30 seconds on each foot. If one leg is significantly weaker, practice it twice as much.
Finally, to shorten your reaction time before tryouts and tighten your transitions balance is key. Literally any balance drill, on or off the ice, will improve your transitions. That is because often what slows skaters down in a reaction is aligning their bodies before they’re able to make a move in a new direction. A great on ice reaction drill is to grab a partner and a set of reflex belts and take turns trying to break away from each other while on a line.
Take care of your body with the time you have left. Eat healthy foods, get plenty of sleep, and stay hydrated. And this time, after tryouts are over, keep up the training all year so you don’t have to cram when tryouts come around next season!
With hundreds of students from mini-mites to the NHL, Wendy Marco is considered one of North America’s top hockey skating coaches. Her DVD is loaded with original skating drills and on-ice games and can be found at www.ColdRushHockey.com. Look for the caveman in this publication. |
