3. First Period

Let's Don The Blades

Skating is to hockey as running is to football. Starting fast, changing pace and direction, bursting into top speed, and keeping good balance are common to both games. The blades on hockey skates and the cleats on football shoes provide gripping and braking surfaces which allow short, digging, breakaway steps and sure-footed, sudden stops.

But there is a great difference between the two sports, which is noticed particularly by the beginner. Running is natural - something you have done since you could first walk; skating, which requires a push-glide-push-glide succession of moves, is at first unnatural.

Once balance has been mastered, you can skate with much less effort than you can run. And you can skate at about twice your running speed, too. National Hockey League players have been clocked at 29 miles per hour. Compare this with the 15 miles per hour that a four-minute miler runs.

Being a strong, fast, well-balanced skater is the first requirement for a hockey player. Whether you are an offensive man (center, left wing, or right wing) or a defensive man (goalkeeper, left defenseman, or right defenseman), you must master skating before you learn stick handling, passing, shooting, and body checking. If you are a goalie, do not think that you do not need a great deal of practice in skating. Although you may have started out in this position because you were the worst skater on the team, remember that goaltending requires a special kind of skill and is a very vital part of hockey.

You and Your Skates

When you first learn to skate, the skates will not want to remain firmly under your feet. Your feet wobble, and your ankles cave in so that you stand on your ankles instead of on your feet. This "going over on the ankles" is caused by two things: lack of strength in your ankles and feet, and the condition of your skate boots.

In skating, your feet must bear the full weight of your body on two blades about nine to eleven inches long and one-quarter of an inch wide. This will bring into play many foot and ankle muscles, working in ways they have never worked before. These muscles will become strong enough to bear this strain only through work, and the best work is, of course, skating. If you think your ankles are weak, do not use an ankle support inside your skate boot. Go to work with exercises and build up your ankles instead.

Before each hockey season starts, check your skates before going on the ice. The fit of the skate boot is all-important for good, strong skating. If you wear a size eight street shoe, try on a size eight or eight and one-half skate boot, wearing wool socks for the fitting.

HOCKEY SKATES are a player's most important piece of equipment, and he should use the utmost care in selecting and caring for them.

You will probably need a new pair of skates each year for as long as your feet keep growing. It is a real mistake for both your feet and your skating to buy skates two sizes too large, in order to grow into them two years from now.

You are better off going to a skate exchange, or using a big brother's hand-me-down, to make sure of an exact fit. In buying used boots, be sure the leather tops provide good, stiff support and have not been stretched too much.

Use 72-inch laces in tying up your boots, making sure to pull tightly at the eyelets in the ankle joint. This is where support is needed most. The top two eyelets need not be pulled too closely together, nor the lace wound too tightly around the boot tops. Early in the season, the front of your ankle may become quite sore from tight lacing. It will help to put a small piece of sponge rubber or cotton under the tongue of your boot as a cushion.

If you are going to stop and turn "on a dime," your skate blades will need sharp edges. The "hollow-ground" method of sharpening ground to give a curved surface behind the cutting edge gives the blades an inner and outer biting edge, and is the most desirable sharpening method.

You soon will lose these edges, however, if you walk carelessly on concrete or asphalt. And it takes just one tiny burr, or nick, to send you into one swan dive after another. To protect your blades' sharp edges, use skate guards to get you from the dressing room to the ice, if rubber mats are not provided. Or in a pinch, walk high on the toes of your skates. Usually it is best to have your skates sharpened every two or three games, depending upon ice conditions. That is, the harder the ice is, the more frequently your skates will need sharpening.

You should have your skate blades rockered. This is the term for rounding off the toes and heels of skate blades, which you can have done when getting your skates sharpened. Actually, if you hold your skates up to the light with edge meeting edge, only about one inch of the blades should contact each other. This shaping of the blades is most important for quick weight shifts and maintenance of speed when making tight turns.

By contrast, the goalkeeper's skates should be perfectly flat when tested as just described. This is to give him as secure a footing as possible.

Besides blade guards, two other useful guards are available for your skates. One is a plastic or rubber tip which covers the top of the tube at the heel. This guard is a wise precaution against nasty cuts when pile ups occur. The other is the tendon guard which attaches to the top and back of the boot. This guard protects the thin, tough, cord-like tendon that you feel at the back of your leg just above the heel.

Every time you use your skates they will need to be wiped dry to keep rust from forming on them. The boots can be covered with shoe polish or shellac to protect the leather and the stitching from moisture and to keep them from getting too brittle.

All this may sound like "the old guff" to you, but many good hockey players have performed poorly or suffered unnecessary injuries because of dull blades and ill-fitting or unprotected boots. They did not get the message.

A hockey player's skates are his most important personal equipment, and they must be given "tender, loving care."

The Quick Start and Stop

During the course of the hockey game, there will be times when you find yourself at a standstill on the ice or circling at slow speed. It may be a face-off, or you may be watching for the play to develop. In a flash, you break for the puck or race to take a pass.

To be able to do this - to get into high gear in the shortest possible time - is a tremendous asset in hockey. As with the good halfback in football, the speed you generate in the first five yards or so is often what pays off most. This starting speed is a combination of reaction time and leg power, both of which can be developed.

To be able to stop "on a dime" is equally important. And with practice, both these skills soon become automatic - you do not think about them; you just do them.

The Quick Start

1. You are standing still on the ice. Turn one foot to very nearly a right angle to your body, bending the knee of that leg as you do so.
2. Push hard from the ball of the turned foot, "digging ice" as you glide onto the other foot. The power is furnished by straightening the knee and the ankle with a strong thrust or push.
3. The lead, or gliding, foot begins to turn as it glides, getting ready for the next driving stride.
4. Your upper body leans forward very much like a sprinter's as he comes off the starting blocks. Your shoulders and arms should assist by a lifting action in the first few strides, but try not to swing your stick above shoulder height.
   When you practice quick starts, do so sometimes with your stick in two hands, and at other times hold it in one hand with the blade on the ice. In this latter position, your other arm is free to pump and to aid your drive.
5. As you gain top speed, your rear foot will naturally reduce the extreme angle of push used in the first few strides. This is because it will not remain on the ice long enough be fore the next stride begins.
6. Remember, dig hard with short, driving strides to get yourself back into the play or to make a quick breakaway that will trap opposing players behind you.

The Fast Stop

1. The first move in stopping fast is to turn your body sideways to the direction in which you are moving. As you do this, turn both skates sideways to act as brakes.
2. Instinctively, your body will lean back to help keep your balance. Of course, the greater your speed, the more pronounced your body-lean will have to be.
3. The braking action is done chiefly with the leading foot, which carries most of the body weight. And here again it is the ball of the foot which does most of the work.
4. If you are stopping fast to reverse direction, you should bend the knee of your front leg. This gets you ready for your first hard push in the opposite direction. Be sure to lift your shoulders and arms as you push back onto your rear foot.
5. If your stop does not call for a fast reverse, the stop can be made by braking with your rear foot. Here, as before, your body turns and leans well back. But you do not make the quick getaway as described before.
6. Be sure to practice stopping with either foot forward.

IN THE QUICK START (right), the player turns one skate and pushes hard. Then (above) his other foot begins to turn and dig the ice.

IN THE FAST STOP, the player brakes by turning both skates sideways, bending his knees, and leaning his body back. His right leg jams the ice hard, as his left foot starts to make the first stride in the opposite direction.

For a real workout on stops and starts, try this drill. Starting on the goal line, skate fast to the center red line; stop. Return to the blue line; stop. Skate to the far blue line; stop. Return to the center red line; stop. Now skate to the goal line opposite the one from which you started. Three to six of these daily, stopping to your left and right sides alternately, are just the ticket!

The Fast Turns

Starting and stopping are tough on a player because he loses momentum. If he can preserve his momentum as much as possible, he can keep abreast of the flow of play up and down the ice - and use up less energy. A good player does this by his ability to turn sharply and by gaining momentum on the turn, without "going for a little skate" to do so.

You should work hard to master two methods of turning, which we will call the tight turn and the running turn. In doing both of these, the rocker and the sharp skate edge mentioned earlier are really necessary.

The Tight Turn

1. This turn is really quite simple. You skate forward and coast into a turn, which takes you back the way you started. Of course, the circle may be a large, gradual one, or it may be a very sharp, tight one.
2. In a turn to the right, turn your right skate so that your weight is on the outer edge of that blade.

IN THE TIGHT TURN, the player bends his knees and leans his body to the back and inside of the turn in order to maintain good balance.

3. Bend your right knee as you lean back and in. This makes your right foot lead you around the turn; the left foot follows naturally.
4. Your speed, of course, has been cut down, but you do retain momentum to start you in the opposite direction.

A very good drill to use for practice on turns is the one previously described for starts and stops. Instead of stopping at each line, however, make a tight turn at top speed. Start down one side of the rink, with each turn taking you closer to the other side. Do three non-stop lengths for a workout.

The Running Turn

1. As you may guess, you "run" throughout this turn, gathering speed as you go. You cover more ice in this move; in some cases, you may cover almost the width of the rink.
2. As you stride into this turn, one foot actually crosses over the other. In this way, each foot provides some dig to push you forward faster.
3. Again, lean your body well to the inside of the turn to keep your balance. Relax your elbows and shoulders, so that you get a lift from them with each stride.

IN THE RUNNING TURN, the player breaks into a run in order to gain speed. He leans to the inside of the turn for balance and relaxes his elbows and shoulders to gain a lifting action as he strides.

4. If you find your skates hitting the ice with a jar or a thud, you are probably lifting your feet too high, or your knees may not be "giving" when your skates hit the ice.

It seems to be the custom during pleasure skating to circle the rink counter-clockwise most of the time. This may cause you to develop a preference for turning this way. You may feel quite awkward doing turns in a clockwise direction. Work on your weaker turns by constant practice. Many coaches have players skate a large figure of eight around the rink to develop skill in turning both ways.

Developing Skating Speed

If there is one question hockey coaches are asked more than any other by young hockey players, it is this: "How can I learn to skate faster?" The answer to this question involves two important factors - your skating style and the degree of effort you are willing to put into developing leg power.

Your style of skating is partly determined by your body build, about which you can do little or nothing. Let us analyze a few important ingredients of fast skating which should help you whether you are the tall, gangling type or have a short thickset body.

The Fundamentals

1. A solid, well-balanced stance is basic to any degree of speed you want to attain. If you will work on your starts, stops, and turns as described, you will be well on your way to good balance.
2. In striding, you have better balance if you skate with your feet about shoulder width apart. If your feet are too close together, you are more easily knocked off-balance in the heavy going of a game.
3. The faster you skate, the more you should bend for ward from the waist. The comparison here is to the body-lean of a sprinter doing the 100-yard dash and the striding form of a two-miler. During the course of a hockey game, you will be both a sprinter and a strider as the play dictates. But when you really want to dig fast, with or without the puck, you should lean well into it.
4. For straight-ahead speed, your power comes from the thrust you get when the knee of the digging foot straightens. To get maximum thrust, the knee of the leg coming forward should be well bent. Be sure you carry this knee forward ahead of the foot. Then when you place your foot on the ice, you get full muscle power when the knee straightens.

Top athletes, especially outstanding track stars, recognize the importance of leg power and do something about it. They use a principle of training known as over-load. And you can use your own form of it, too. Here are some methods of over-loading:

1. Drive yourself all out as long as you are on the ice during scrimmage. Do not just coast around the rink on skates; they will do most of the work for you if you let them.
2. Skate in short, hard bursts, gradually building up the number of lengths of ice you can do successively.
3. Get a buddy to let you push him up and down the ice. You are over-loading by the amount he weighs.
4. In testing yourself at top speed, keep up a continual refrain in your mind: "I can go faster yet!" Be sure to warm up well before any all-out test.

FOR TOP SKATING SPEED, a player brings the knee of his leading foot forward ahead of his skate. This gives him stronger leg thrust. He also leans well forward for good balance.

Skating Backwards

It is good for all hockey players to do a great deal of skating backwards, even though only the defensemen use this skill much during a game. Skating backwards, turning from forward to backward to forward skating, and making jump turns on the ice all contribute a great deal to the development of that all-important component - balance.

Players with good balance get a better "feel" for the ice, and confidence results from that feel. Often an opposing player hits a part of a man, spinning him around or to the side.

If the hit player can regain his balance quickly, he can carry on the play. If not, it is pretty hard for him to score while he is flat on his back.

When you first were learning to skate, you probably had a hard time getting yourself into motion going backwards. And if you did get started, it was hard to pick up any speed. A few pointers on skating backwards may help you.

The Fundamentals

1. Stand on your skates with feet shoulder width apart. Shift your weight slightly back onto the back part of your blades. As you do so, bend forward at your waist and knees, as though you were beginning to sit down. Due to the rockered blades, you will slowly begin to coast backwards.
2. To pick up speed, swing both skates to the right and push off from the ball of the right foot.
3. Now transfer your weight to the left foot and swing your hips to the left, repeating the above move. Then it is push-swing-push-swing, and so on. Your skates need not leave the ice during this weight transfer.
4. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet once you get under way. Also lean forward from your waist. Hold your stick in one hand, letting the blade trail on the ice.
5. The best way to get good skating speed backwards is to skate forward a few strides and then jump turn into it. In making this jump, your skates should barely skim the ice. Then pick up the push-swing-push-swing action.
6. Your knees are the shock absorbers of your body. Keep them bent throughout this move to cushion the shock of jumping from front to back and from back to front.

TO SKATE BACKWARDS, a player bends at his waist and knees as though to sit down. At the same time, he pushes back with one skate, then with the other. Swinging hips from side to side also helps him to skate backwards.

In addition to circling the rink while changing from forward to backward skating, try this drill. Starting at one end of the rink, skate forward fast, jump turning as you cross each of the blue and the red lines. Work on jump turns to both the right and the left as you do this drill.

As we go into the dressing room at the end of this first period, let us review. Upon your skating skill depends the success of your other fundamentals in hockey. Practice each of the phases of skating that has been described every time you are out on the ice. Identify your weaknesses and work on them, first by understanding how you should be doing them, then by repeatedly drilling on them.

Remember that, though progress may be slow, the skills of skating once learned will never leave you. You can build on them from season to season, until you are really "flying" with the best of them.

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