Stride Length Versus Stride Frequency
A recent question submitted to our friendly Professor Bee asked, “What can I do to increase my stride?” Our mascot did his best to answer that query — and he went to some lengths to do so, but he kinda missed sharing the most important advice when it comes to hockey skating.
As an aside here, Professor Bee is programmed to only grab his answers from my writings — or from this site, but on occasion he misbehaves and wanders outside CoachChic.com to quote some coaches without scientific backgrounds. And, don’t you know, a big part of what I try to do here is to dispel longstanding wive’s tales and unfounded rumors that especially plague new coaches, parents and players.
Okay, about hockey skating… As you already know, our game is a rather complex one when it comes to moving around the ice. I mean, there are times when we can go slowly and conserve energy, there are times when we can at least coast for awhile, and there are also times when a player has to go nuts — either in a race, or when needing to move helter-skelter in reaction to other players’ movements. So, while lots of us coaches at the highest levels attempt to analyze the hockey skater’s stride, I think most of us — including yours truly — get stuck on only one phase of that skill.
With that, let me first offer a segment of an old video that mainly shows a nice, rhythmical skating stride aimed at travelling the ice with minimum energy expenditure. As you watch this (as often as you’d like), please try to appreciate the benefits of such a movement, while at the same time noticing some parts of that movement that aren’t really conducive to all-out speed…
Then, if you’d like to see the original video and post from way back when, go here: Reflecting Back on Balance in the Forward Stride
Now, I’m hoping you’re familiar with Dr Michael Bracko, from his many segments within our CCC-TV Hockey Show. Mike is noted for his scientific approach to skating for hockey, and in the following video he’ll help draw a distinction between my video above and those that will follow…
Now, before moving on, can you also see the difference in the stride frequency — between the skater in my video and Mike’s demo skaters? And that, to me, is far more important in skating speed than the length of a player’s stride. Where do I place the blame? It would be on the heads of those who have gone overboard with the term “powerskating” — thereby suggesting to less informed or new hockey folks, that skating power is somehow the key to skating speed.
Okay, about that “wide stride”. If you need to see an elite level player demonstrate his speed with a wide stride, here you go…
Then, here’s a simple drill Dr Bracko uses to get players used to using their wide stride…
Now, to dock the Professor some pay for his recent blunder!
