The competitiveness of speed skating means that athletes must work on their technique and physical attributes all year long. The best athlete does not always win an event, as hard workers can often overcome their more skilled opponents. By learning the proper skating techniques and improving your functional abilities during the off-season, you can give yourself the best chance at success.
Skating Technique
Stay as low as possible when skating. Bend your knees about 100 degrees when pushing off. Most skaters have difficulty staying low over long distances, but bend your knees as much as possible. Keep your feet shoulder width apart and flex the trunk of your body forward to an angle of about 60 degrees. Have your weight on the middle of your feet, as putting the weight on your toes hinders your balance. Push from side to side, rather than from front to back, as this movement helps you to generate more speed.
Strides
When you push off with your legs, do everything possible to keep your blade on the ice for longer. As your push concludes, contract your calf muscles and push the strength from your calves into your ankle joints. This action causes your ankle joints to snap forward, which transmits additional power to your skates. Try to keep this additional pressure smooth by pushing the skate forward from the middle of your foot to the ball of your foot. Focus on creating explosive power with every movement.
Running and Resistance Training
During the off-season, work on your leg speed and power by running and doing resistance exercises. Resistance exercises allow you to work on your body position and weight transfer, which remain critical to your speed skating success. Your running should cover many different distances, since most speed skaters compete at a few different distances. Even if you compete only in sprint races, running longer distances improves your endurance over shorter races.
Power
The best speed skaters in the world have explosive power in their legs, which gives them better starts and more speed at the end of a race. To improve explosiveness, advanced skaters should stand on an object about one meter above the ground and step off the object. The instant your feet touch the ground, jump into the air and do a tuck jump. Doing this increases your explosive power, since you do not take any time between landing and jumping.
References
- "Speed on Skates: A Complete Technique, Training and Racing Guide for In-Line and Ice Skaters"; Barry Publow; 1998
- Mid-America Speed Skating: Summer and Fall Dry Training
- Bont Skates; Land Training; Alexander Bont; 2000
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