Reflecting Back on Balance in the Forward Stride
This question didn’t originate as most — from an individual, but instead it’s in response to about fifteen hockey enthusiasts who took exception to one of my videos. To explain…
Many, many years ago, my partner at CoachChic.com posted my video (“Balance in the Forward Stride”) on youtube.com. We pretty much forgot about it until some months later, when Rolly suddenly emailed me to suggest I take a look at the comments that had been left by some of the kzillion viewers of that clip.
Hmmmmm… For the most part, I was really being hammered! What caused the stir was a drastic difference of opinion when it comes to the correct arm motions required in a skater’s forward stride. So, with that…
Let me begin by suggesting that there are a lot of so-called “powerskating instructors” out there who haven’t done their homework. I mean, they’re either guessing, they think they’re seeing or feeling some things about thrusting and arm motions that aren’t really so, or they’re just following someone else who is equally misinformed.
Some of the confusion might be caused by a belief that the skates push to the rear (or at some sort of rearward angle). Not so. In reality, while the skates should push directly outward, this can look and feel otherwise, because each thrusting blade trails back a little as the skater shoots forward. And I can also appreciate how one might think that a forward to backward pump of the shoulders and arms can aid forward propulsion. But again, not so.
Now, perhaps owing to my scientific background — and my inquisitiveness, I don’t buy into wives’ tales or guesses. Naw, I want to know the science, and I’ll dig and dig until I get to the root of a problem. That said, my opinions now and a long time prior come from what the scientific research says, all of it garnered from a host of true skating authorities — each of these a PhD…..
As noted above, a skater’s blades must push perpendicularly to his or her direction of travel. From there, Newton’s Third Law governs the skater’s arm and shoulder motions. It’s about equal and opposite reactions, really. So, as the right skate pushes outward, that motion can only be aided by an equal and opposite thrust of the arms towards the left. And so it goes… Push left, pump right; thrust right, pump the arms and shoulders towards the left.
Finally, I could have put you to sleep here with a scientific paper that included all sorts of references and footnotes. Trust me, though: The above is gospel. And, if you want to check for yourself, just Google Dr. Gaston Shaeffer or Dr. Michael Bracko. And, before you leave, you might even check-out my very, very old video on this topic…
