Edge of Excellence

4. Legs Across Centre of Gravity

n general, when standing erect, our centre of gravity is located in the area of our naval. If you draw an imaginary line down from the naval to the ice, this is the line I want a player’s retracting leg to cross when he pulls it back into the body before the next stride. Many players wide track. On retracting their leg, it never crosses their centre of gravity. Players that wide track have a shorter stride because they don’t bring the retracting leg back in underneath them and across the centre of gravity.

Wide Tracking No Leg Returning Crosses

Players that wide track also are less efficient in their skating. If you watch on slow motion video you see that as soon as the retracting leg lifts off the ice to return, the opposite supporting leg starts to extend out on the other side. If part way through the extension of the other leg, the retracting leg plants its skate blade on the ice, then we have a situation where part of the body is being pulled one way, and another part is pulled another way. Consequently, the body uses a lot of energy fighting itself, so to speak.

When a player retracts his leg across the centre of gravity, all the energy he uses to pull that leg back in is used to help drive the other leg out when the retracting leg comes across the centre of gravity, almost touching the heel of the other skate (see photo).

We work on applying this principle in game situations. If speed is the issue, i.e. a sprint for the puck, then the legs should be retracted across the centre of gravity. However, players are not as stable skating with the legs crossing the centre of gravity as they are wide tracking. Consequently, in tight situations where contact is imminent, players are trained to widen there stance to adjust for these situations in a game. European skaters tend to skate more with their legs coming across the centre of gravity and there seems to be a greater tendency for North American skaters to wide track. This may be a result of a greater emphasis in North America on hitting in the game. Regardless, we try to make our players aware of the game situations in which their skating stride should adjust.

Leg Recovery Crosses Illustration

Leg Crosses Recovery Illustration

When the need for speed increases in a game I often see players move to a more wide tracking style of skating. Players are so anxious to move their feet quickly they shorten their stride in two ways. They do not complete a full extension of their stride but, also, they don’t fully retract their legs. Thus they resort to wide tracking. We use a number of drills and techniques to help players break those habits which result in the short, choppy wide tracking stride.