Ice skating in hockey skates can be very different from skating in figure skates or rink rental skates. Hockey skates have a unique blade shape without the familiar front toe pick. The skate boots are stiff and designed to help you maintain a good, low, hockey skating position by deeply bending your knees and ankles.
Knee Bend
You'll get the most out of ice skating on hockey skates if you develop a proper hockey stance. According to Robby Glantz in "Hockey Player" magazine, "the more you bend your knees ... the better your control, balance, speed and power." Glantz says a 90-degree knee bend is optimal, and recommends practicing skating with an exaggerated knee bend in order to get the feel for staying low on your skates.
Ankle Bend
Along with bending your knees, you also want to keep your ankles bent at about a 45-degree angle. The forward-leaning design of your hockey skates will help you hold this bend--if you are bending your knees properly. With this stance, your skate blades will have maximum contact with the ice, giving you greater edge control for accelerating, turning and stopping.
Edges
If you look closely at a hockey skate blade, you'll see that the surface that touches the ice isn't flat; instead, it is concave. This gives each of your skate blades two edges: an inside and an outside.
You can gain a feel for these edges by leaning your weight to the right or left and having the skates turn: When you lean to the right, both the outside edge of your right foot and the inside edge of your left foot are biting into the ice, causing the turn. Once your balance is improved, you can do this exercise on one foot at a time, transitioning between your outside and inside edges by shifting your weight. Practice doing long, wide turns and quick, short turns.
Accelerating
In order to accelerate on hockey skates, your strides must push out to the side, not just straight back. Pushing out to the side will allow the full length of your skate blade to dig into the ice, putting all of your leg strength into accelerating rather than slipping.
Glantz recommends practicing this sideways extension with a one-leg push drill: Glide on your right foot--knee and ankle properly bent--while pushing out to the side fully with the left foot. Travel one length of the rink on one leg, then switch for the way back. Work on form, not speed. According to Glantz, "Each push comes from an inside edge digging squarely into the ice. You will want to put 100 percent effort into each thrust to get the most benefit from this drill."
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