The best skaters have these things in common.

If you were asked what the characteristics of fast hockey players are, what would you say?

Some coaches might say “edge work,” “deep knee bend,” or “balance on one skate.”

Interestingly, we have known what the skating characteristics of fast hockey players are since 1975. Former NHL coach Pierre Page did a research study for his master’s thesis at Dalhousie University to compare the differences in skating biomechanics between fast and slow hockey players. It is a brilliant study and has direct practical application to this day.

Since 1975, many researchers have done similar research as Page and found the same, plus other characteristics that can be used to design drills to improve skating performance. Don’t get freaked out by the suggestion we use research to improve the skating performance. When training athletes, we want to be objective to eliminate guessing about our work.

What The Research Says

Since Page’s research, many people have found similar results.

In the last 45 years, we have found that when comparing fast to slow hockey players, the fast skaters have the following characteristics:

• Wider strides
• Quicker recovery after push-off
• Quickly getting on the inside edge of the skate blade to start the next push-off
• High stride rate: more strides (push-off forces) over a given distance
• A lot of knee flexion prior to push-off
• Significant forward lean when skating fast
• Arms moving side-to-side in equal and opposite action/reaction to the movement of the legs

Practical Application

For practical application, let’s look at how fast players skate. We will start with Mathew Barzal, winner of the NHL’s Fastest Skater Competition at the 2020 All Star Game:

Watch the video in slow-motion to get a clear idea of how Barzal moves his legs and arms. Pay attention to the movement of his skates/legs/arms at 9-11 second mark and the 15-16 second mark in the video.

Notice the following:

• Barzal pushes to the side with a wide stride
• He recovers quickly and does not have a long sweeping recovery where his skate goes under the mid-line of his body
• His recovery skate lands under his shoulder
• His arms move side-to-side in equal and opposite action/reaction to the movement of his legs

Now watch McDavid in a game:

First, watch McDavid’s arm movement.

In slow-motion watch 0:04 to 0:08 and see how his arms move side-to-side across his body (not forward and backward). Next, watch 0:27 to 0:30 to see:

• Arms moving side-to-side
• He has a wide stride with lots of space between his skates
• Although he has a high recovery, watch to see his skates land under his shoulders to start the next push-off
• Stop the video at 0:30 when McDavid’s left skate lands on the ice and you can draw a line through his shoulder-hip-knee-toe
• Watch how his skate quickly gets on the inside edge to start the next push-off

Myths Of Power Skating

There are many myths of skating that are subjective of someone’s philosophy of skating. These myths, and different skating techniques, are judgments not founded on proof or certainty.

Trying to find alternative methods of skating (long sweeping recovery, balancing on one skate, or moving arms forward-backward) may suggest a skating coach is hidebound and refuses to understand how fast hockey players skate. Even if a coach has limited understanding of the physics, biomechanics, and skating characteristics of fast hockey players, there is no need to invent different skating techniques when we have research to prove how fast players skate, and YouTube to watch almost any player skate.

Two of the most common myths of skating are:

• There must be a long “sweeping” recovery where the skate lands under the mid-line of the body so that the skater can get a longer push-off
• Arms should move forward-and-backward to coincide with the direction of travel

The first skating technique (long recovery) will cause players to skate slower because when the recovery skate does not get back on the ice quickly, it does not land under the shoulder, and does not start the next push-off quickly. It will increase the glide phase of the stride, which will slow down a player, instead of focusing on a quick next push-off.

Five research studies, combined with visual evidence of fast skaters, have shown that all fast players have a quick recovery and do not have a long recovery. The second technique of moving the arms forward-and-backward contradicts the third law of physics: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That is to say, when the legs push to the side (like all fast players do) the arms have to move side-to-side in equal and opposite action/reaction of the legs.

Drills To Improve Stride

We have established that fast players have a wide stride and quick recovery, therefore we need to do drills to improve these characteristics.

One of the most effective drills the author has used with youth to pro players to improve stride width, recovery speed, and prevent a long recovery is to get players to skate over long, and short lines, of cones on the ice.

The first drill was a pro player in the KHL, while the second video shows midget players, who have a higher stride rate which will make them faster.

The coaching cues for these drills are as follows:

• Push to the side
• Quick recovery
• Inside edge