Skating Simulation

By Jack Blatherwick

Is rollerblading a good way to train for hockey? What about other forms of training designed specifically to simulate ice skating: slide boards and 'skating machines.'

The answer may not be simple when we consider a question that is even more basic: is ice skating practice a good way to improve ice skating? To this last question we must answer: it depends on the quality of the practice. To improve skills like skating, passing, stick-handling, and shooting, or athletic attributes like coordination, quickness, and agility we must repeat the skill over and over with as much quality in each repetition as possible. Those repetitions with poor quality are memorized by the central nervous system as readily as the perfect ones and eventually become a finely tuned neuromuscular habit.

The split screen picture (coming soon) shows the difference in technique as a skater builds up lactic acid during a 45 second stop-and-start skating test. On the left, the skater is starting the second of six lengths. On the right, he is starting his last length. This demonstrates how fatigue (and lactic acid buildup) can ruin the skating stride, causing us to skate with stiff knees and slow feet. Repetitions after the point of fatigue are bound to program slowness and poor technique. Remember:

Repetition does not make perfect - only permanent!

A 45 second all-out stop-and-start skating drill can be done with quick feet and good technique for about 15-20 seconds. Then, for the remainder of the drill, we are programming slowness in an effort to gain endurance.

Returning to the question of skating simulation, it seems appropriate to ask why someone would want to invent a machine that simulates the skating stride. Is the goal to find a way to train for endurance or strength in a skating range of motion? Or, are we trying to teach a skill by modifying everyone's skating motion to approximate that of the machine's?

The closer any training device approximates the skating stride, the more chance that its prolonged use will modify skating technique - in a positive or negative way. For young athletes this becomes the most significant factor when we are deciding whether or not to train in this way.

Suppose a young player plans to build aerobic endurance by rollerblading around the lake for an hour, four times per week for the entire summer. After several weeks, like jogging or bicycling, about 50% of the increased aerobic endurance capacity can be attributed to improvements in the heart, lungs, and blood. The other half of the improvement can be seen as chemical and anatomical changes in the specific muscles exercised. In this regard, rollerblading has an advantage over jogging and bicycling, because the muscles that have been trained in rollerblading are the same as those used in ice skating.

However, no skater can maintain good technique and quick feet throughout an hour workout on rollerblades. In fact, 59 1/2 minutes of the hour will be devoted to programming neuromuscular patterns of slow feet and stiff knees.

So, while endurance is gained, and the endurance is in those specific muscle groups used in skating, the cost is too great. Again we are practicing bad skating habits.

If we use slide boards, rollerblades, or skating simulation machines with intervals short enough to allow quality repetitions, they might have some training value. Perhaps a skating machine can be built to help us improve leg strength in a skating range of motion. To use the machine for strength building, we would probably do sets of about 10-20 reps against very high resistance. It is possible this improved strength would more readily transfer to the skating stride than strength developed in a more generic way. Furthermore, a workout with as many as 10 of these sets, is not likely to bring the total number of repetitions to a high enough number to develop poor skating habits.

When we decrease the resistance and continue repetitions for a half hour or more, and train for months, we are probably going to acquire some permanent habits. This can be a positive training tool if the device is used properly. First, the objective must be clearly defined. Secondly, the work intervals must be short enough, and the rest intervals long enough to maintain quality for the entire workout (up to 40 minutes).

For example, the slide board and roller blades can be used to develop greater knee bend in a skater who has acquired a stiff-legged style. This player should keep his knees bent more than usual throughout a 40 second interval, rest for 80 seconds, and repeat. In order to keep this up, he must be instructed not to attempt maximal effort. The only goal is greater knee bend.

Training in this way can develop muscular endurance, and therefore, comfort in this position of greater knee bend.

It is important to keep in mind that no training modality, by itself can be 'the ultimate answer' to improved skating. Even skating itself is best supplemented with other types of training. On the ice, we cannot overload the factors of strength and endurance as much as we can off ice. Therefore, the best advice is to use each type of training for what it can best contribute.

1. Training on-ice should be limited to quality repetitions designed to improve skill and quickness;

2. Overload training for leg strength can be done in the weight room. Squats are a great exercise, but a very dangerous one; so these should be done with lighter weights and perfect technique. Intense sets for leg strength are more safely done on a hip sled machine.

3. Abdominal muscles, back muscles, hip flexors, and adductors should also be a training priority for every hockey player. This can be accomplished in or out of the weight room.

4. To train for explosive power we should utilize many of the plyometric exercises of track athletes. We might also adapt some of these to be more specific to skating.

5. Short off-ice sprints up or down hills or on a level track might have tremendous value in helping us improve explosiveness on skates.

6. Roller blades and slide boards do not improve power, because the effort does not approach maximum. Therefore, skating simulation is best used to improve muscular endurance and greater knee bend when proper intervals are used. I have yet to see a machine where great force can be applied comfortably in a "skating range of motion;" therefore, at present, strength and power will not be enhanced in this way.

7. Endurance is improved in several ways. Running, bicycling, and interval training on hills can supplement the year-long effort to enhance skating quickness and leg power. Endurance is not the top priority, but is a by-product of a consistent, long range program of quality intervals designed to improve skating skill and quickness.

No single skating interval should ever be done for endurance; but the sum of many quality intervals over long workouts will increase our ability to repeat (and recover from) short bursts of high speed skills and all-out effort for entire games. Simplistic as it sounds, this might be the most useful definition of endurance for hockey, even though scientists attempt to characterize the game with terms like aerobic and anaerobic metabolism. The one thing we do know is that we must train specifically like the way we intend to play.

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