When I arrived at the Kings game on Saturday night, my hockey buddy Scott was prepared and handed me these two images.
I had been whining earlier in the week that seven month into my grand learn-to-skate-and-play-hockey-experiment, I was having problems nailing a hockey stop and skating well on my outside edges. It's not a problem I entirely understand, as I'm a pretty decent skier and skis, of course, have inside and outside edges.
The photos, I think, show how similar skating and skiing are. Scott drew the lines on the top photo of him skating for the California Leafs; the bottom photo is from a book, "Anyone Can Be an Expert Skier."
Look at the body postioning in both photos. Shoulders are parallel to the surface and square to the direction the skater/skier are going. It's the legs that are swiveling out to the side -- not the whole body. The chin is up because both hockey players and skiers should be looking ahead for things trying to kill them -- and keeping the head up encourages the proper posture.
I'll let you know how much this helps. I'm taking the week off from hockey and skating to rest my legs for Sunday's half-marathon in Long Beach. But I'm going to print this blog entry out and stuff it in my hockey shorts next time I skate (yeah, I guess the cucumber is gonna have to go!).
I encourage you to do the same.
--Steve Hymon
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