Yesterday I attended my first team practice sense worlds. It was nine days later. It was an indoor practice and it was the typical technique work: circles, half track, starts, duck walks, etc. I've come to the conclusion that I will still do these things while I'm taking my break.
Alright well I laced up the skates and got right to work. A few things I was trying but I won't know any type of result until I get to see myself on camera which will hopefully be sooner rather than later. First thing is simple it's one thing to bend your knees (you are always being told, bend your knees) but it is completely different to bend your knees correctly. What I mean is, most of the time when you 'bend your knees' your back goes with it. What this can do is cause your butt to come up and then you are bending over for practically no reason because when your butt comes up your feet slide back and then your feet are not under you. What I worked on was bending my knees but making sure my butt stayed lower then it probably should (exaggerate the motion) so that my feet stayed under me allowing me to put a lot more into each one of the steps. This I can tell is a great idea and will work tremendously if I can keep it going especially when going fast. One of my biggest problems (weaknesses) has been putting power into my pushes. For so long I could beat everyone just by moving my feet faster then well, everyone else. If I can get my feet under me 100% of the time then I will see a enormous improvement in the amount of power in each one of my pushes. Then it will just come down to what makes me go the fastest: 100% power, 100% foot speed, or the golden combination that will take me forever to find (the combination).
Another thing that I was working on (simultaneously) is properly distributing my weight on my skates. I have almost always been a heel pusher, by that I mean all of my weight has been resting on my heels and when I push, I normally push right through my heel. It's bad enough that you could probably take my toe wheel off, and there may not be any affect. So instead of focusing on the infamous 'push through with your whole skate' I focused on distributing my weight and push between my heel and the ball of my foot (the second and fourth wheels for the most part).
I fully understand why people don't skate technically sound, it's hard and it hurts.
1 comment:
A Technique comment for you to think about in a "Constructive" way.....IMHO when you learn to skate with your chest down, and your butt tucked, YOU will be unstoppable..Ask Liz D about getting her chest down...She used to skate like you with an upright torso and too much heel push. It took a while to break her, but when her chest was finally down, she became unstoppable indoors with MORE Speed and Stability going fast.
So try this with your dryland mirror technique work.
1)Chest down shoulders level with hips.
2)push knees forward until ankles lock.
3)NOW look for 90 degree knee bend only after 1 and 2 first.
4)IF your butt is "Out" and untucked, PULL your shoulders back and round your back until shoulders are above knees.
With all 4 correct (Body Position) "Feel" the weight under mid foot, by only changing the ankle bend and look at where your hips are at the same time...When your hips are above your ankles, you will be close to correct BP.
The "Fine Adjustements" after that are your "Skater Feel".
Be Patient with this and you will be very happy with the changes no matter how hard it seems at first.
Like foot speed, it will come easy to you in time.
Good Technique Always.
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