Skating – How To Hockey

Understanding Your Edges: 6 Edge Work drills to Improve Balance and Control

Coach Jeremy — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 16:28:53 +0000

In order to be a great skater you need good balance. New hockey players are usually off balance, bow-legged, stutter stepping and some look like they just finished riding a horse for 6 hours. Why do new hockey players look so out of place on the ice? Because they don’t have good edge control. Learning how to control your edges will help you a lot with balance, control, and a smoother stride. Edge drills will help players from beginner right up to pro players continue to improve and feel comfortable in their skates. In fact in one of the videos below Sidney Crosby begins his practice with edge drills.

If you are a true beginner you may want to practice some balance drills (the next video I will be uploading) but don’t be afraid to try out these edge work drills as well. The only way you will get better is if you keep challenging yourself.

If you are an experienced player these drills can also challenge you.

Do them first correctly
Next correctly and with more power
Next correctly with power and speed
Now correctly with power, speed and a puck

By using this progression you can continue to use the same drills, and the same routine and continue to improve as a player.

Get to Know Your Edges – With 6 Edgework Drills

Edges 101

Each skate has two edges, an inside edge and an outside edge. See the picture below for a better idea.

How to use your edges

When you are accelerating you want to use your inside edges. You will be leaning slightly forward, with your feet turned and your skates on an angle to the ice. You want to really dig your blades in with each stride, bite those edges into the ice and go!

When you are turning you will be using an inside edge, and an outside edge (depending on which way you turn). If you are new you might not trust your edges and keep a very wide stance while turning. You need to trust your edges and let them grip into the ice while you make sharp turns.

When you are stopping you are also using one inside edge and one outside edge, you achieve this by bending your knees, getting lower and having your skates at an angle. In this case you don’t want your weight right over your feet though as that will cause your edges to dig in, you want to “slide” a bit on your edges.

When you are gliding you are not really using either edge. They will both be in contact with the ice, but you will be gliding on the hollow between the edges. If you are gliding with a wide stance it can slow you down because your inside edges will be digging too much into the ice.

Pro’s Use Edgework Drills

In the videos below you can see Crosby using the inside edge drill that I describe in the video above.
21 seconds in Crosby warms up with the inside edge drills

Here is another video of Crosby using the mohawk drill that I show in my video on how to do the Mohawk turn. This drill uses the inside edges. Crosby is pretty good so he uses a puck at the same time.

Why should you work on your edges?

In my opinion edge work drills are the best way for hockey players to push their limits and become more comfortable in their skates. A good hockey player will feel just as comfortable in their hockey skates as they do with running shoes on.

I really like drills that force players to balance on one leg because it teaches them how to balance their weight over their skates and pushes them outside their comfort zone. Now once they are using both legs they will be feel a lot more comfortable and be able to perform the task much better. Also, during a hockey game players will need to balance on one leg very briefly over and over, every stride, crossover, or pivot requires brief one leg balance. With balance comes power and control

Edge control will help you with speed, balance and agility
Good edge control will help you get more scoring chances
Good edge control will help you with turning, stopping, and shaking defenders
Good edge control will make you more like Crosby and less like Mackinnon (in the video below)

Want more skating tips?

We have a full series on skating called the fundamentals of skating. Visit this link if you want to learn to skate, or become a better skater.

If you’re looking for more ways to improve all of your hockey skills, check out The Pond. The Pond is our all in one hockey training platform designed to continually challenge you. We provide you with the most efficient path to improve the skills you will use the most in game. Use coupon code TRYOUTS to get your first month 100% free!

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The Crosby Move – Summer Skills Session: Episode 3

Coach Jeremy — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 14:45:00 +0000

While there is now significant debate as to who the best player in the NHL is (thanks, McDavid), there is still things that set Sidney Crosby apart from the pack. Sid has always had amazing leg strength, and as you’ll see in this video, he uses his skates to their maximum potential. If you want to learn how to do, what I have dubbed, The Crosby Move, take a look at the video below.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iDsCMM2Auk[/embedyt]

Before you toss your rollerblades on and hit the pavement, give this a try in your regular running shoes first. It’s going to feel uncomfortable, but what you need to try and do is put your heels together, point your toes out, and bend your knees so that they are in a nice big diamond shape. If you can push your heels forward, that’s good too. You’ll want to do this in regular running shoes a number of times first, so that you don’t lose balance, or have one of your feet fly out from underneath you. You want to make sure your muscles can handle this position on solid ground, before putting your rollerblades on.

Once you throw your rollerblades on, you want to be able to have it look something like this. Again, this will feel unnatural because you’re not used to standing like this on skates, or rollerblades. Do your best to understand your own weight distribution, and balance during this time. It’s going to be tough to make this transition, but you can get it with some practice. There’s a fairly detailed breakdown in the video of how to begin this stance, while moving.
You’ll also want to give this a try while going into a turn, or coming out of one. You can throw some pucks, or pylons down as markers to try and turn around on your driveway. The reason this works so well for Crosby in a turn, is body position. If the puck is in front of him, he still has eyes on the puck, while putting his body between the puck, and the defender. It offers Crosby total control of the situation. This works even better if you can continue your speed through the turn, by pumping your legs. Check out the video for a visual of how to achieve that.
This move is all about body position. When you’re in the right position, you can protect the puck, and when you can protect the puck, that means you’re in control of it more. When you’re in control of the puck more, you give yourself more chances to score. Obviously Crosby is the best in the world at this, so if you want a 9 minute demonstration of Crosby doing this move himself, check out this video that a fan put together.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqrMeXTuz7U[/embedyt]

All in all, to be a complete hockey player, you need to do more than score goals. This Crosby Move will give you the ability to hang onto the puck better, thus giving yourself more chances to put the biscuit in the basket.

Mohawk Dangles – Summer Skills Session: Episode 4

Coach Jeremy — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 14:45:00 +0000

In the last episode of Summer Skills Session, I taught you how to use The Crosby Move. Now, obviously I dubbed this The Crosby Move because Sidney Crosby does it so often, and does it so well. In reality, this move has other names: the Spread Eagle, or the Mohawk; for this video’s purposes, we’ll be calling it the Mohawk. To check out the fundamentals of the Mohawk, check out last week’s video here. This week, we’re going to be adding some skill to the already very effective Mohawk move. Once you’ve got your skating down, be sure to check out this week’s video on how to add in stick handling.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBSAkHiKlxo[/embedyt]
The first variation is super simple. You’ll get into the Mohawk position, and stick handle in front of you. As simple as it is, it may take a few tries to figure it out, especially while keeping your head up. Next, you’re going to want to stick handle, and turn, through obstacles. In the video, I just used other hockey sticks to create a slalom pattern. As you can see, the Mohawk position actually makes my turns quite sharp, all while keeping the puck in front of me, and putting my body in front of the defender. As happens in a lot of puck protection, you’re also going to want to try this drill one handed. Quite often on the ice, forwards use their free hand to keep their balance, or keep a defender off of them, so make sure you get the hang of stick handling (or simply protecting the puck) once handed while you use the Mohawk position.

Next up, you’ll want to do your best to use the Mohawk to skate circles around a stick. This forces you to keep focused on what’s in front of you, all the while keeping a defender on your backside. Be sure to keep your head up, and keep moving. You’ll want to do this going both clockwise, and counter clockwise around the circle to best train yourself for the Mohawk. You want to be able to slide into this position seamlessly in a game situation. To add some variance to this drill, try flipping the puck over the stick when you make a circle. Do this on your forehand, and your backhand, and get used to the feel of lifting that puck off the ground. For all the times to lift that puck too high, or too far, it’ll also help you train to retrieve the puck from the Mohawk stance.
Lastly, you’ll want to combine all of the drills we’ve done today, but use two sticks on the ground, and go in a figure eight motion. This last version of the drill really helps you put all of today’s training into place, and do it in a way that is actually game specific.

Recap of Today’s Drills

Side to side Mohawk, stick handle
Slalom Mohawk, stick handle
Circle Mohawk, stick handle around the stick
Circle Mohawk, flip the puck over the stick
Figure Eight Mohawk, flip the puck over both sticks

There you have it folks, this is how you add some serious skill development to an already useful move, the Mohawk.

Free sample lessons from our off-ice skating course on The Pond

If you’re looking for more ways to improve your hockey skills, check out The Pond. The Pond is our all in one hockey training platform designed to continually challenge players. We provide you with the most efficient path to improve the skills you will use the most in game. Use coupon code TRYOUTS to get your first month 100% free!

Off Ice Speed Drills – Summer Skills Session: Episode 7

Coach Jeremy — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 14:45:00 +0000

Speed kills in the new NHL. One of the (many) reasons that Connor McDavid took the NHL by storm is his blinding speed. No matter where he is on the ice, he can seemingly out skate anyone to any location. In this week’s video, I’m going to show you some drills that you can do off ice to actually improve your one ice speed. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get McDavid-like speed, but we can certainly do our best to try. This video comes to you from the LA Kings practice facility in California.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLuZkR9yqZ0[/embedyt]
These are going to be very basic ways to improve your speed, so I’d actually suggest for you to continue your research after you’ve gotten the hang of these drills. Keep looking into ways to improve your overall on ice speed.

Cardio Isn’t The Whole Deal

Lots of people will tell you that all you need to do to improve your speed is to run, or hit the bike. Those exercises are cardiovascular, meaning they work on exerting energy over long periods of time. Those kinds of exercises are great for improving your conditioning, and making sure you can play an entire game of hockey. They are helpful, but not for building speed. Hockey shifts are different than a full 60 minute game, however. In a shift, you want to go all out for 60 seconds, and then rest, so, we want to do some exercises that reflect that desire. We’re going to try and engage the fast twitch muscles, rather than the slow twitch muscles.

3 Things to Consider While Building Speed

Coordination
Balance
Speed

They are important, in that order. Without coordination, your body won’t be moving in one fluid motion, therefore, you’ll be losing speed, and balance. Without balance, you’ll be skating, and fall over. That’s no way to be fast. After you nail the first two, you can move onto actually building your speed. Let’s look at the drills that do just that.

Sprint
Not your average sprint; you’re going to place your foot angled, like you would in a skate, and sprint as fast as you can for 10 seconds, then, jog back to where you started. Repeat.
Keeling Sprint
Start on both your knees, jump to one knee, and go. This trains you to get speed from a deep knee-bend position, much like you would on the ice.
Backwards Kneeling Sprint
Same drill, but you start facing the other direction, spin around, and go.
Falling Sprint
Start from a standing position, feet less than shoulder width apart. Lean forward, until it feels like you’re about to fall on your face, and then sprint.
Lateral Sprint
Starting from a slightly sideways position, sprint to a marker, bend over, touch the marker, run back. Feels like a beep test.
High Knee Skip
A slow run, but with every step, you’re driving your knees into the air, and jumping.

You can watch me demonstrate all these drills in the video above. Once you’ve got these ones down, contact a strength coach, or a skating coach, to more completely develop your speed.

Create Space like Patrick Kane – Adam Nicholas

Coach Jeremy — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 16:31:23 +0000

Feature Friday is something I like to do where I bring you some of the coolest hockey content on the internet that I’ve found. This week, I’m bringing you a video by my friend Adam Nicholas. He trains hockey players all the way from minor levels, to pro levels.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJsLHkcbNBw[/embedyt]

In this video, he’s on the ice with Patrick Kane, showing you how to train like, and use some of the same skills that Kane uses. I went down to Boston to shoot some videos with Adam and created an instructor feature that I’ll embed at the bottom of this article.

In this video, Adam breaks down three things that Kane does really well:

Creates a trap door
Shifts his weight
Cuts back

The first thing Kane does is skate just far enough away from the boards that he leaves space for him to cut back in that direction eventually. That’s where the trap door is. Next, he puts all his weight on his inside foot, and the defender thinks that Kane will cut to the middle of the ice, when in fact, he wont’. The defender has to respect that look that Kane gives because, well, he’s Patrick Kane, and if the defender doesn’t respect it, he could get torched for a signature Patrick Kane goal against.

Lastly, what Kane does is actually lift his outside foot off the ice, and brings it farther inside his body to make a very, very tight turn. Then he shifts his weight all to that outside foot, that is now his inside foot, which allows him to make an incredibly tight turn on his edge.

You can see some evidence of Kane doing this as far back as seven years ago.

The video may be old, but you can see how those tight turns have helped Kane throughout his career.

More coaching from Adam Nicholas

I got on the ice with Adam with a few different age groups and skill levels.

5 Hockey Drills to Improve Acceleration

Coach Jeremy — Sun, 25 Dec 2016 01:31:05 +0000

Speed is important in hockey, but too often players see speed as only going straight down the ice. In hockey you have to be fast in many areas. We need speed in acceleration, crossovers, lateral speed, stopping, turning and transitions. As you can see, there are many areas of your game that you can work on, and in this video I show you 5 drills that will help you improve your acceleration on the ice.

From this video

Before we can get into the drills, it’s important to understand how the blades work. As I explained in the forward stride video the stride evolves as speed increases. The first few pushes are behind the body, but as speed increase the angle of the blade and angle of the push changes. When accelerating you want your blade to be turned so you can grip the ice and get the most from each push

Acceleration Drills

T Start
- We start with this simple drill to get used to having the body and skate blade in the right position for maximum power. Push and then see how long you can glide. This also works on balance
T Start with a stop
- With this drill we are also working on our hockey stops, big push, short glide, then stop
Mountain Climber
- This drill forces the players to turn their feet, get low, use their edges, and have a quick recovery. These are all very important for good acceleration
Net Push
- This drill provides resistance. The weight of the net forces you to really dig in with your edges.
Gliding start
- This is a great drill that replicates game situations. In a game most players don’t stop moving, so we need to practice accelerating from a glide.
Crossover starts
- We don’t always accelerate straight forwards, a lot of acceleration happens laterally, so in this drill we work on our crossover starts.

For more help with your game you can follow me using the links in the author bio box below

How to Skate like Sidney Crosby

Coach Jeremy — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 05:18:25 +0000

In my last article I shared some stickhandling drills used by the pro’s. In this post I wanted to share some great skating compilations that I feel will help you get an edge over your opponent (if you practice them)

In hockey there are a lot of ways to skate. Your most common are the forward stride, backwards skating, and crossovers. Then we can get into using your edges more with turns, spread eagle (heel to heel), shuffle strides, and more. Most instructors and hockey camps focus on the fundamentals above, but once you play high level hockey EVERYONE is skilled at performing the fundamental skating skills. So how do you set yourself apart? Take a page out of Sidney Crosby’s book and learn to skate very well in tight quarters while constantly blending many skills.

I’ve embedded two videos below that I hope will inspire you to practice some new moves on the ice.

Sidney Crosby Edges

Whenever I’m teaching at a hockey camp I stress the importance of speed in transitions, crossovers, turns, and lateral movement. It’s great if you can skate in a straight line, but the real advantages can be made in quick changes of direction.

Sidney Crosby Puck Protection

Another very important skill in hockey is the ability to protect the puck. Most players spend countless hours on toe drags and fancy dekes, but if you want to keep the puck on your blade you should spend more time practicing puck protection. If you want some inspiration, watch Crosby below

Both of these videos were made by Daniel Laflamme, check out is Youtube channel here.

For more tips to improve your hockey skills you can follow me on social media through any of the links in my author box below.

5 exercises to improve skating without ice

Coach Jeremy — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 03:47:43 +0000

When you start playing hockey, almost anything you can do that is related to skating can improve your skills on the ice. A big issue for any hockey player is that ice time is either expensive, or hard to get, or both. So how can we improve skating, without actually skating?

In this article I’ve compiled a few videos that I believe will help players on the ice. Some require roller blades, while others can be done in the living room.

Start With Balance

Most players don’t realize how much single leg balance is required in skating. In fact during a game you will be required to balance on one foot hundreds of times. Every stride, crossover, and transition requires that we lift one leg and glide, rotate, or shift our weight while balancing on a thin piece of steel on the ice. For this reason I highly suggest improving single leg balance and strength at home.

Below I have embedded a great routine that was designed for Henrik Zetterberg. You can adapt some of these exercises (less weight or less height) to practice at home

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D3u8ckfOuY

Simulate the Stride

You might not be able to get the glide feeling in your living room, but you can still replicate the motion. This exercise is called the lateral bound or a skater hop. This can be a great hockey specific plyometric exercise.

Stability and Balance

In the first set of exercises with Zetterberg most of the weight was carefully balanced over a single leg. In hockey we are constantly being pushed, hooked and shoved around which requires stability and strength. This exercise incorporates a moving weight while balancing on one leg

If you’re interested in more drills like this I highly recommend The Program from Nike. You should also print this PDF from Nike to help you follow the program

Weight Shift

The hockey stride evolves as we skate. We start by pushing almost straight back, and as speed increases, the legs push out more to the side. We can simulate this with the 360 lunge, or as Kevin Neeld calls it, the lunge matrix!

Another great exercise from Kevin Neeld involves a lateral squat and a slideboard. If you don’t have a slideboard you may be able to perform this on a smooth surface and a fluffy sock under your foot, or the slideez.

For more from Kevin Neeld visit his website or Youtube Channel.

Feel the Glide

One feeling that we can’t get at home is the feeling of gliding. Luckily, you don’t need to be on the ice for this motion either. Training on roller blades is a great way to target specific hockey movements. In the video below I teach a progression for transitions in hockey. In the video I’m using the Marsblade roller frame.

I hope this collection of videos will help you improve your skating, without actually skating. Once you get on the ice you may be interested in my Fundamentals of skating series.

If you love hockey and want to get more hockey training in your life you can follow me on social media (links in my author bio below) you can also subscribe to our newsletter (box is in the right sidebar)

Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel Skating Stride Analyzed

Coach Jeremy — Sat, 14 May 2016 16:24:50 +0000

Robby Glantz is one of the most respected skating instructors in hockey today. He’s been teaching for over 20 years, has released numerous instructional videos, and works with a number of pro players and teams. He currently has a segment running on the NHL network called Stride for Stride where he breaks down an exciting sequence of events and highlights the mechanics of the skating stride.

Analyzing Eichel and McDavid Skating Stride

What you’ll notice in these segments is a lot of crossover speed, and not a lot of skating in a straight line. As hockey players get bigger, and more skilled they take away a lot of space, so players need to develop great lateral movement and speed. For more from Glantz visit RobbyGlantz.com

Summer Inline Skating Drills with Marsblade

Coach Jeremy — Wed, 11 May 2016 17:35:16 +0000

As a young hockey players I was always looking for ways to work on my skills in the summer. One summer I bought a pair of roller blades and was excited at the similarities to skating on the ice (until I tried a full speed hockey stop, ouch). Besides not being able to stop, I slowly realized roller blades aren’t exactly like skates. I noticed my stride was a bit more upright, and my turns were not as sharp. I still loved rollerblading and accepted the minor differences and made it a part of every summer. Then came the Marsblade roller frame!

I tried the Marsblade roller frame and loved it. It’s such a simple concept, add a rocker. This means the chassis moves up and down at the heel and toe, depending on where the player distributes their weight. This small change really improves the experience of inline skating. I enjoy the extra challenge, and additional balance required.

Inline Skating Drills for Hockey Players

Marsblade offered to fly me to California to shoot some hockey videos. I took this opportunity to share some of my favourite on-ice drills (Adapted and inspired by the many on-ice drills done at Vital Hockey Skills with Jim Vitale) that I thought would work well with the Marsblade system.

These inline skating drills are meant to challenge your balance and agility in a similar manner to on-ice skating drills. The goal is to use these off the ice, and see an impact when you get back on the ice.

Pavel Barber Skating Drills

My friend Pavel Barber was also brought in to record some drills. He is an instructor at UBC and brought his own style of skating drills to the scene. You can see some of his drills below

If you’re interested in getting a pair you can visit their website here. The Marsblade roller frames must be mounted to a pair of hockey boots. I used the Vortex from Verbero Hockey.

For more hockey tips you can follow How To Hockey on social media using the links in my author bio below.