Enhancing Change of Direction Efficiency: Tackling a Key Transition Skating Challenge
Squatting into the transitional skating moment
As coaches, our goal is to develop a more efficient movement that translates into improved performance. Players with poor footwork often take unnecessary steps and produce weaker strides, which hinders their overall effectiveness. By applying better movement principles, we can eliminate excess steps and maximize power.
While the primary focus will be on transitioning from backward to forward skating, these principles can be applied across all aspects of skating.
Missing “Pop”
Too often you’ll see players without ‘pop’ or acceleration. This is often a result of moving with ‘high hips’ or ‘locked legs’. This is an unproductive movement within their skating technique.
The most common side effect is extra little choppy steps coming out of a change of direction.
One’s own body weight should be transferred into the bent leg when moving/turning. This is the leg that is used for pushing and producing that pop/acceleration.
Adding “Pop” via the Power Position
Lowering the hips, often through an ankle bend, is crucial for achieving a power position during directional changes. This technique enhances both deceleration and acceleration, giving athletes the explosive "pop" that makes their movements dynamic.
Effective change of direction involves "sitting into your hips" in a squat-like position, allowing athletes to engage their glutes and feel grounded.
To stop momentum and accelerate quickly, athletes must enter the transition movement with precision, ensuring they get into the power position. It’s all about slowing down efficiently to speed back up with control and power.
Here is NFL superstar (and former hockey player!) Travis Kelce talking about this concept from Tight End University (Source).
Bending at the hips and throwing your body weight too far forward is a common issue. I would know, because this is something I tend to do instead of sitting in my base/lower body. Additional reading: Skating: Posture & Weight Distribution
High vs Power Position Example
Let’s take a look at an ice hockey example. Pay attention to the shorter right-handed player in the white jersey.
High/Locked outside leg
The first example has him in a high/locked leg. He goes from right leg to left leg where the left leg should be bent and pushing. Since the leg isn’t absorbing his body weight by bending, he has no push and adds a quick extra step (two crossovers) to gain speed out of the backward-to-forward transition.
Low/Bent power position
The second example has the same skater in a low/bent leg. He goes from the right leg to the left leg where the left leg is loaded, then pushes to create the power out of his transition/change of direction. You’ll notice how magically the crossovers have disappeared despite no instruction to stop doing that.
Better Weight Transfer via Feel-Based Learning
To have more acceleration/‘pop’ and cleaner feet, a weight transfer must occur from one leg to the other while also being able to absorb and then spring out/back in the new direction.
In the gym, you may also notice where players simply do not control/absorb weight on the way down to the bottom of their squats. The ability to control their weight is critical to creating acceleration and ‘pop’.
When there are extra steps in a player’s skating, it’s almost always a weight transfer issue. Slowing down the movement and feeling the weight transfer is the best way I’ve found to improve a player’s feet.
Further Reading