What is the importance of skating practice to hockey players – who should practice skating technique and why?
Today’s hockey is all about speed. Players fly down the ice at speeds not conceived of in years past. Competitive players who aspire to play hockey at a high level must master balance, agility, and maneuverability (BAM). Recreational players inevitably find the game of hockey more fun as their skating improves. Skating is not comprised of a series of natural motions. In fact, the opposite is true; it involves some of the most un-natural motions and maneuvers of the human body. Therefore they must first be taught correctly. Then these motions and maneuvers must be practiced correctly, consistently and repetitively until they become ingrained and natural. Maneuvers should first be practiced without the puck, and as they improve, with the puck.
