Power Skating Drills for Hockey
- When coaching a practice, you must emphasize the single most important rule of all drills and especially power skating drills: players must skate outside of their comfort zones. Players who skate beyond their comfort zones will undoubtedly fall, but with each fall they come to recognize their limits far better. Skating outside of their comfort zones allows players to expand their skating and general talent by pushing them to attempt maneuvers they would otherwise avoid.
- Line your players up on the goal line. For the entire length of the ice have them keep their left legs still, using them as gliding legs. Have your players bend into the hockey stance with only one hand on their sticks and backs at 60-degree angles and then push with their right legs into a full stride. Their right legs should extend from beside their left legs in a bent position to a fully extended position behind them. Have your players repeat the drill coming back down the ice gliding on their right legs and striding with their left legs.
- This drill causes a higher number of falls; you might have only half of your team perform it at one time. Line your players up on the goal line. For their inner edges they will stand on one leg at a time with their other skate lifted about six inches off the ice. After a stride or two for momentum they will make large C cuts in the ice with their gliding skate at a 45-degree angle while turning only on their inside edges. After each C cut they should switch gliding skates. Have them continue for the length of the ice. For their outer edges use the same drill but have them turn on their outer edges for the C cuts, then cross their legs to switch between skates.
- Sculling is a simple yet effective strength-focused power skating drill. It is often used as one of the warmup drills during practices. Have your players perform this drill while skating around the entire ice along the boards. Bending their knees deeply, out of their comfort zones, have your players take shorter horizontal strides without picking their skates up off the ice. This is a quickly tiring drill that strengthens your players' legs and at the same time demonstrates the importance of a complete stride behind the body as opposed to a sloppy stride to the side.
- Your power skating drills repertoire should include several that target explosive skating skills. Such drills strengthen your players' legs while also preparing them for game-like situations that require sudden stops and quick starts. Line your team up on the net side of a blue line. Have only a third to a half of your team perform this drill at once. At the whistle they should explode out of the hockey stance into a hard stride heading toward the opposite blue line. At the far blue line they should stop completely (do not allow any turns), then explode again into a hard stride back to the first blue line. Again, they should stop completely, explode into a hard stride, and return to the far blue line while the rest of their teammates perform the same drill. Increase the number of times your players skate back and forth to work on conditioning.
