A coaching manual and/or playbook for youth ice-hockey describing the strategies, tactics, plays and drills used in teaching a system utilizing Russian Hybrid Forechecking (aka 2-1-2). by: Keith L. Kloock
Skating Skills Robby Glantz, power skating coach for the Los Angeles Kings, Swedish champions Malmö, and the German National Teams, conducts skating programs throughout North America and Europe. The Snow Cone drill By Robby Glantz Director, Robby Glantz International Power Skating Working with professional players is always a challenging and rewarding experience. However, in many ways it is the same as working with youth hockey players. The fundamentals we teach for how to skate faster are the same at all skill levels even for those in the professional ranks. Believe it or not, most of the pros I have worked with do not know why they are such gifted skaters, and, in turn, have an incredible desire to learn the fundamentals so they can get even faster. In December, with the Los Angeles Kings at home for most of the month, I had the opportunity to work quite a bit with most of the players on their skating. I also worked recently with the great NHL forward Kirk Muller, during his unfortunate situation with the New York Islanders. The following is a synopsis of one of the drills which I use with pro and youth players alike over and over to improve the forward stride. With repetitious practice, this exercise will really help you with your skating technique. The Snow-Cone Drill Also called Scrape the Toe, Slam the Heels, the Snow-Cone drill is an excellent exercise for the forward stride and is one that should be repeated at the start of every practice. Repetition, combined with proper technique, is the key to improving in any sport and especially in skating. This drill gets its name because you should scrape so much ice with the toe of your skate that it creates what looks like a snow-cone under your body (your feet act as the cone because they come together in the middle). 12
Some of the fundamentals which are targeted by this drill include: helping you to bend the knees more; giving you a better understanding of bodyweight transfer; teaching how to get to full extension, and keeping your feet low to the ice. To perform the drill, bend the knees so they are 2 out over the toes of your skates. Start at a slow pace and as you improve do it faster and faster. Begin the drill in the start position, with your heels in and touching, and your toes out, forming what looks like an arrow-tip (we call this the Arrow Position ). Use 100% of your bodyweight, centered over an inside edge, to thrust your pushing foot out to the side to full extension; the other foot is gliding perpendicular to the pushing foot (also to the side), but your hips must remain straight with the direction you are traveling. When you get to full extension, scrape only the toe (last 1-2 ) of your skate all the way back under your body. Be sure to only drag the toe of your skate in the drill as that is where the last push in the forward stride comes from. Scrape the ice with your toe (keep your knee turned outward) all the way back in under your body until you are able to literally click your heels in the middle. If you are unable to scrape ice because your knee and/or toe are turned downward, then you are performing the drill improperly, and are most likely also finishing your push incorrectly when skating. Make sure to hit your heels together in the middle, in the arrow position, with only one skate on the ice, then transfer all your bodyweight to the next push and repeat the drill with the other leg. Continue doing the drill around the ice, and add more tempo as it becomes more comfortable to you. Only an exercise In a game situation, you obviously do not skate around the ice scraping your toes and slamming your heels: this is only an exercise. So why do it in practice? First off, while you do not drag your toe when skating full speed, the toe of the skate should and must stay extremely low to the ice (about a half-inch above). Secondly, while you shouldn t hit your heels in a game, they should return under your body to where they almost touch so you are able to get all your bodyweight on each push. 13
Thus, the drill reminds you, among other things, to keep your feet low and how to improve your weight transfer. In essence, it is an excellent, slow, and exaggerated simulation of what the forward stride should look like. Generating Speed with the Puck Robby Glantz Director, Robby Glantz International Power Skating One of the most frequently asked questions that we receive in regards to our Power Skating Program is, do you guys utilize pucks at your camps? My standard answer is in the form of another question, do they use pucks in the game? Of course, then we most definitely use pucks at ALL of our camps! I can only speak for what we do at our Power Skating Schools and Clinics, but I think there is a common misconception about Power Skating and our use of pucks and/or game situation drills. Coming from a hockey background, I always felt (and still feel this way) that there had to be more in the way of simulating game situations and tempo in our training, while still teaching proper techniques for more speed and overall better hockey skating. Therefore, we instituted the more up-tempo, overspeed and resistance drills that I prefer at all of our programs, as well, we show the proper techniques for HOW to perform EVERY skating maneuver we teach, WITH THE PUCK. In this month's article we will focus on these techniques for better skating while carrying the puck. ONE HAND VS. TWO HANDS ON THE STICK THEY ARE BOTH IMPORTANT: Having one hand on the stick allows your arms to free up and stretch more (make sure the stretching motion of the arms is to the front, where you want your speed to go and not across your body or side to side), which in turn, allows your legs to stretch more as well (stretching the legs fully to the side is vital for gaining more speed). However, we also teach how to generate speed with two hands on the stick as well. With two hands on the stick the arm swing will be more side-to-side, but this should not take away from your speed if the hands are kept low (along with the knee bend) down by the knees and stretching in control in a straight across motion. 14
Therefore, it is fair to say that they are both vital in hockey and players would be wise not to ignore either. Practice both one hand on the stick (especially when building up speed) and two hands on the stick (especially when you approach the offensive zone). FORWARD STRIDE WITH THE PUCK (ONE HAND ON THE STICK): As I discuss above, try to maintain one hand on the stick when trying to get to top speed in the forward stride with or without the puck. In order to maintain your same speed that you get without the puck, you need to follow a couple of very important techniques that are the same no matter what your level of play: As always you must maintain excellent kneebend, remember to bend the knees to about 2 out over the toes of your skates, with your back straight (try to keep your chest equal with your front or gliding knee, so you do lean slightly forward but with the back straight) and your head up. It is vital that you learn to skate with and without the puck with your head up, so that you can see the play. And remember, that you can not only see the puck with your eyes up (using peripheral vision to see out of the corners of your eyes), but that should be able to feel the puck at the end of your stick as well so there is no need to stare at the puck or the ice. Try to keep your hands above your knees. When your hands get below the knees you will have a tendency to bend too much at the waist which will mess up your forward stride technique by throwing your balance too far forward. Keep your stick (which should be cut below your chin when on skates) in your top hand on the backhand side, with your palms facing directly up to the sky. Keeping the palms up will help to maintain the stick in the proper position, flat on the backhand, throughout. Have the stick stay on the side of you almost a full stick length away from your body, perpendicular to the direction you are traveling, even while your hands stay under your body. This way you are able to push the puck along the side of you, rather than in the middle (when the puck comes to the middle of your body, you will most likely have to straighten up or begin to stickhandle with two hands). 15
Naturally, it is impossible to be perfect, so if the puck does come to the middle, it is of course okay to stickhandle, or since we are talking pure speed here, you should try to forehand it (by snapping your wrist outward), back over to the backhand side so you are able to maintain your stride. Even though you have the stick and the puck off to the side of your body, you still should fully stretch the arms in a forward and back motion (do not pass your bellybutton). To do this with the puck, practice pushing or punching your fingers in front of your stickblade so that the blade can drag slightly behind as it contacts the puck. Try to push the puck each time your stick hits it a couple of feet along the side of you, rather than trying to drag or carry the puck. Remember that the puck can move faster than you can, so let it do the work for you by getting it out there so you do not need to slow down for it. BE PATIENT AND PRACTICE: To get a better idea of these techniques, simply watch a Paul Kariya, Peter Forsberg or Jeremy Roenick, just to name a few of the best, as they break out of the zone with the puck. You will see how they get that puck on the side of them and maintain the same stride and speed when they have it. If you look closely, you will see that even though it looks like these great players have the puck attached to there stick, that in fact, they are actually pushing the puck and letting it go to work for them, and that there technique with puck is exactly the same (even while their strides and styles of playing the game are all different). Finally, I would be remiss to mention that these techniques described above definitely do not come overnight. In fact, all of my Instructors (myself included) struggled for months and months with these techniques until we finally felt comfortable to perform them at top speed. It simply took an understanding the proper techniques described above and then lots of repetition and practice to implement them. So, don t get discouraged, be aware that the stars mentioned above make it look so easy because they have a great understanding of proper fundamentals and then they work tirelessly at improving them. 16
3 Common Skating Errors Robby Glantz Director, Robby Glantz International Power Skating 2-1-2 Forechecking With our summer power skating schools having come and gone, my instructors and I have tried to reconstruct for you the three most common mistakes our students made (with respect to their overall skating techniques) while they were attending our camps. These include: not enough kneebend, using two hands on the stick, and poor edge-control. Correcting one or all of these common errors will automatically improve your skating ability. KNEEBEND We often remind our students that if they can remember only one aspect of our camps that will definitely make them better skaters, that fundamental would be to bend the knees more than what feels comfortable. You will find that your balance immediately improves, as well as your stride length, mobility and speed. Tips: * Bend your knees deeply so that they are covering or about 2" out in front of the toes of your skates. * The knee should always be out in front of the toes of your skates (except for in the tight turn, where the outside edge skate should lead you into the turn). * If your legs are not burning (especially the thigh area) after a shift or at the end of practice, than you know you are not bending the knees to the optimal position. STICK CONTROL Obviously, when you shoot, pass, catch a pass, etc. you should use two hands on the stick. However, when you are attempting to gain top speed in open ice you should have one hand (your top hand) on the stick (even with the puck). Be sure to stretch your arms fully to the 17
front, rather than side to side, so that you are able to keep all your momentum and speed going in the direction you are traveling. Tips: * Use one hand on the stick whenever you are in open ice situations. * Keeping one hand on the stick will dramatically improve your balance, especially when skating backwards. * Remember to turn the palm of your stickhand up once the arm has fully extended to the front, this will flatten your stick out on the ice, allowing you to maintain top speed while pushing the puck on your backhand side. EDGEWORK You have to be able to grip the ice with the edges of your skates in order for you to get maximum power and control. The proper angle of an edge rolling to the ice should be maintained at 45 (halfway to the ice). Too many players we see never roll the ankles of their skates which means they are standing mostly on the flats of the blades. This causes your grip against the ice to be lessened. In other words, shoddy edgework causes you to slide on top of the ice, rather than digging into it. This mistake will severely hamper your power, turns, starts, etc. Tips: * Make sure your edges roll at least halfway to the ice. * Be sure to center all of your bodyweight directly over your edge to create a counterbalancing effect. * Try loosening the top two eyelids on your skates, which will immediately give you more ankle flexibility and allow you to roll your edges further to the ice. 18