Coach JeremySpeed is important in hockey, but too often players see speed as only going straight down the ice. In hockey you have to be fast in many areas. We need speed in acceleration, crossovers, lateral speed, stopping, turning and transitions. As you can see, there are many areas of your game that you can work on, and in this video I show you 5 drills that will help you improve your acceleration on the ice.
From this video
Before we can get into the drills, it’s important to understand how the blades work. As I explained in the forward stride video the stride evolves as speed increases. The first few pushes are behind the body, but as speed increase the angle of the blade and angle of the push changes. When accelerating you want your blade to be turned so you can grip the ice and get the most from each push
Acceleration Drills
- T Start
- We start with this simple drill to get used to having the body and skate blade in the right position for maximum power. Push and then see how long you can glide. This also works on balance
- T Start with a stop
- With this drill we are also working on our hockey stops, big push, short glide, then stop
- Mountain Climber
- This drill forces the players to turn their feet, get low, use their edges, and have a quick recovery. These are all very important for good acceleration
- Net Push
- This drill provides resistance. The weight of the net forces you to really dig in with your edges.
- Gliding start
- This is a great drill that replicates game situations. In a game most players don’t stop moving, so we need to practice accelerating from a glide.
- Crossover starts
- We don’t always accelerate straight forwards, a lot of acceleration happens laterally, so in this drill we work on our crossover starts.
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