Learn the “Uh-Oh” Turn, quick starts & acceleration, plus how to skate correctly and confidently.

Recently, when evaluating our team’s abilities, we recognized that our skating was falling behind other clubs. This isn’t because we don’t practice skating, in fact we work on skating at every practice we have. But are we working on the right things?

This is why we brought in an expert. Someone whose resume speaks for itself, but more importantly, someone who can come in and give our kids (and us as coaches) the tools we need to continue developing our power skating and edge work. 

We brought in Cathy Andrade, along with her son Cameron. Many of you will know Cathy from her presentation at the Global Skills Showcase in which she highlighted the 3-turn alongside Carolina Hurricanes defenseman, Brent Burns. 

The presentation made such an impact on my coaching staff that we started teaching the skill almost immediately. We continue working on it to this day to ensure they are progressing in their edgework and confidence on their skates.

Cathy and Cameron spent an hour with our team working on edges, stance, stride, and most importantly, undoing some bad habits on quick-starts taught by an older generation of skating coaches. Especially when it comes to acceleration.

What made this session standout was that it brought in so many quick, game translatable elements the kids grasped on to, and the fact they showed us coaches exactly what they are teaching so we’re able to continue on after the leave.

The “Uh-Oh” Turn

“When is a defenseman going from backwards to forwards?” asked Cameron. Hands shot up. A few wrong answers and then finally one voice spoke up, “when you’re getting beat?”

That was the answer. We’ve all seen it, the defender is skating backwards and then suddenly the forward with the puck just blasts into another level and the defender is left playing catch up. 

This video, Seattle makes a rush into the zone and the San Jose defender is left having to do a quick transition and is able to hold off the shooter to the outside to ensure he’s not able to get off a strong shot.

In the drill, the focus is on how to make that cut from backwards to forwards without losing too much speed. Cameron draws out a pizza shape and explains how the push, and your posture can help in that quick transition.

As a team, we’ve adopted the “uh oh” in our terminology to mean just this and use it on the bench. Being aware when you’re in an “uh oh moment” and using this skill to stay in the play.

To ensure the players are turning backwards properly to have the speed to avoid the “uh oh turn” they also focused on finding that proper footing to make that forward to backwards transition much more smooth.

This focused on making sure you don’t miss that half-second chance to get an extra push in on the transition. Another easy thing to bring into practice regularly when they are working on backwards skating. 

Skating Correctly and Confidently

After a few skates up and down, Cathy introduced the players to more edgework by asking them how many edges they skate on. Explaining in the video below that they have eight edges, and began showing them how to use them. 

Many struggled at first, but eventually started to understand at least the basics, and showed us coaches how to continue to work on these drills after she’s gone. Something we have continued to do.

From there, it got more complicated and allowed the kids to really understand how to use their edges.

She introduced the kids to the Barrel Roll, which combines the edgework elements, a mohawk, and some of the same concepts as the 3-Turn she introduced at the Skills Showcase. 

After explaining and some easy walkthroughs, the kids gave it a go.

One question the kids did have was when to use this skill in a game. Cathy let them know, they won’t ever use the barrel roll in a game, but they will use those edges and mastering this will give them the ability and confidence to utilize all eight edges in a game and be better skaters because of it. 

Now, it was time to give the kids some speed.

Quick Starts & Acceleration

If you’re anything like my players, you learned a lot about acceleration from starting in the standing position with your feet in a V-shape, balancing on your toes. This is not a position you’d ever start from in a game, so why do we still teach it that way?

Cathy wants you to throw all of that out the window… Well, not really. It may seem wild to take something taught by so many power skating coaches and dismiss it, but there’s a solid logic behind her reasoning. 

If you’re going to start in a V-shape balancing on your toes, you first need to get there. If you’re on a faceoff line, you don’t want to be balancing on your toes waiting for the puck to drop, and if you’re in the middle of a game, you’re not going to waste time first making sure you’re in a V-shape before you take off.

Instead, as you’ll see in this video, Cathy draws a ladder of acceleration that shows the kids just where and how their feet should move to gain speed and a quick start. This process starts with you being properly balanced and stable before starting your acceleration. 

Not only does this start you from a better position, it’s more game-like and realistic to the player learning it. 

What started as a so-called controversial statement turned into our kids seeing increased speed and a better understanding of how to skate. The V-shape has its place in the learning of acceleration, and Cathy even notes that you can see the V form in her method, but you don’t want to start there. 

In the end, the session with Cathy and Cameron was incredible. It reinforced just how important pushing skating to another level really is if you’re trying to develop high-end, elite skaters, but also just for your everyday skater.

Hockey is played on the ice in our skates, so it reasons that the most important skill you need before all else is skating. 

Many have feared and even balked at bringing in coaches like Cathy who take this to a whole new level, and those coaches are doing a massive disservice to their teams and players.

Simply having the ability to skate back and forth doesn’t cut it in today’s game and it most certainly won’t fly in the next generation.

This is why players like Brent Burns take their skating so seriously. They are bringing their game to the next level by pushing themselves out of their comfort levels on their skates and exploring the new possibilities of what they can accomplish on all eight edges.