TOPIC: Free Speed: Use Your Glide to Gain Speed
A specialist in skating and edgework, Joachim Ahlgren Bloom is regarded as one of Sweden’s top skills coaches and teaches his techniques to players as young as eight years old, all the way to NHL stars like William Nylander and Joel Eriksson Ek. At TCS Live, Joachim and the JRM Skates & Skills team executed a series of drills designed to enhance how players use their glide to gain speed. With an emphasis on posture and body positioning, these drills are designed to push players to trust their edges and become more efficient on their skates.
Warm Up
DESCRIPTION:
Players do a series of long striding skates from end to end to warm up.
Mix in different movements after each repetition. Cross overs, quick pivots, etc.
KEY POINTS:
• Make sure players are warmed up before doing sprint exercises at full speed.
Gliding with Free Speed
DESCRIPTION:
Players sprint towards the obstacle then make a quick, gliding turn around it before sprinting to the next obstacle.
KEY POINTS:
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Work both inside and outside edges on gliding turns.
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Quick acceleration out of the turns
Keep Your Head Up
DESCRIPTION:
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Five players start at same time from both zones with pucks and skate evasively in neutral zone between the blue lines.
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Each player must find their own ice with heads up skating in the middle.
- After a short time, the coach whistles and the players come out of the central zone to shoot alternatively on the goalie.
KEY POINTS:
- Heads up stickhandling.
- Left and right turns.
- Try to maintain speed.