Again, absolute GOLD! Let you and I collaborate on a discussion of this, your second vid about the how to’s, and my expertise: how to set up a blade properly to execute these mechanics efficiently. Lean/Y Angle also has a variable that is correlated to angle of attack which is basically, blade height. As the height diminishes the vertical force exerted into the ice (friction or bite) gives way to the outward inertia force and the skater wipes out - often times “booting out” as their plastic rubs the ice. There’s obviously a point of diminishing returns in that aspect. However, I see so many players with woefully short blades and their turns suffer significantly. Further, many skates (especially junior skates) have backward pitch which puts the active blade too far back in the mid foot. While you didn’t directly discuss shin angle you often speak about shin angle in association with Y Angle. When the skate is pushing the player to their heels their shin is usually very poor and they fall a lot. They fall backward, for obvious reasons, but they also fall forward as they over compensate the other direction. To make matters worse, they’re skating on a low radius (usually 9+ - 10ft) and if they’ve had an aggressive hand sharpener work on their blades, they likely have little toe. Wow! It’s clear to me that McDavid has someone very good setting up his skates and I promise that absolutely zero of his “specs” are random.
Great insights! You make a very important point about heel pressure in the crossunder. If you don't have shin angle + heel pressure your crosses will suffer big time. I believe I still have your email, I'll get in touch for some sort of collaboration.
HI, what do you think about turning your chest to the center, lowering the shoulder farthest from the turn and raising the near shoulder? You can see Svechnikov doing that in fastest NHL skater competition this year. I tried this, it looks that it really helps gaining speed on crossovers.
Amazing observation. My money is on this being a stabilizer and probably countering some of that inertia. Makes sense cuz it was a larger arc and tough to rely on lean.
There’s a power skating coach in the NYC/CT area named Kurt Nichols who I know who teaching exactly this “counter balance” technique. I’ve seen it pay huge dividends with my daughter’s turns once she trusted it.
Good observation! I'll talk a little more about the shoulders in part 2. But from what I've seen with Mcdavid, his shoulders are sometimes level with his hips (tilted) like in the thumbnail and sometimes level(ish) with the ice (ex. on the fastest skater). In terms of how you do that? What I've found is to keep the shoulders "level to the ice" you want to bend at the torso/waist (look at a golfer at impact) vs shrugging the inside shoulder up. However, often times what I've noticed and felt, is that it looks like the shoulder are countering but it's more that the upper body remains neutral and the legs go out to the side, resulting in the hips being tilted while the shoulder are level to the ice. The question then becomes, should you keep your shoulders level to the ice or not? I think it's really based on feel. For me like Mcdavid I sometimes have them level sometimes not. Typically when I'm changing directions quickly like say in a punch turn my shoulders remain level to the ice, same with Mcdavid, but on crossunders it varies. I wouldn't worry too much about it on crossunders, as long as your not dipping your inside shoulder you should be fine! But also feel free to play with your upper body positioning and feel the difference in your own game. if you feel faster keep your shoulders level then that's great, but play with both so you can feel the difference. As per Svech opening up his chest, lots of players do that when turning to their forehand side, but it's not something that is done on the backhand side. My opinion is that it's largely based on stick positioning vs the "right or wrong way". So I wouldn't focus so much on turning your chest to the center but more where you're positioning your stick. I hope that somewhat answers your question. Long story short it depends
Thanks for watching! Leave your thoughts down below ⬇
Again, absolute GOLD!
Let you and I collaborate on a discussion of this, your second vid about the how to’s, and my expertise: how to set up a blade properly to execute these mechanics efficiently.
Lean/Y Angle also has a variable that is correlated to angle of attack which is basically, blade height. As the height diminishes the vertical force exerted into the ice (friction or bite) gives way to the outward inertia force and the skater wipes out - often times “booting out” as their plastic rubs the ice. There’s obviously a point of diminishing returns in that aspect.
However, I see so many players with woefully short blades and their turns suffer significantly. Further, many skates (especially junior skates) have backward pitch which puts the active blade too far back in the mid foot. While you didn’t directly discuss shin angle you often speak about shin angle in association with Y Angle. When the skate is pushing the player to their heels their shin is usually very poor and they fall a lot. They fall backward, for obvious reasons, but they also fall forward as they over compensate the other direction. To make matters worse, they’re skating on a low radius (usually 9+ - 10ft) and if they’ve had an aggressive hand sharpener work on their blades, they likely have little toe.
Wow! It’s clear to me that McDavid has someone very good setting up his skates and I promise that absolutely zero of his “specs” are random.
Great insights! You make a very important point about heel pressure in the crossunder. If you don't have shin angle + heel pressure your crosses will suffer big time.
I believe I still have your email, I'll get in touch for some sort of collaboration.
awesome. cant wait for part 2
Thanks for the vid
Any time!
so interesting keep it up
I thought so too hahaha. Thanks for watching!
HI, what do you think about turning your chest to the center, lowering the shoulder farthest from the turn and raising the near shoulder? You can see Svechnikov doing that in fastest NHL skater competition this year. I tried this, it looks that it really helps gaining speed on crossovers.
Amazing observation.
My money is on this being a stabilizer and probably countering some of that inertia. Makes sense cuz it was a larger arc and tough to rely on lean.
There’s a power skating coach in the NYC/CT area named Kurt Nichols who I know who teaching exactly this “counter balance” technique. I’ve seen it pay huge dividends with my daughter’s turns once she trusted it.
Good observation! I'll talk a little more about the shoulders in part 2.
But from what I've seen with Mcdavid, his shoulders are sometimes level with his hips (tilted) like in the thumbnail and sometimes level(ish) with the ice (ex. on the fastest skater).
In terms of how you do that? What I've found is to keep the shoulders "level to the ice" you want to bend at the torso/waist (look at a golfer at impact) vs shrugging the inside shoulder up.
However, often times what I've noticed and felt, is that it looks like the shoulder are countering but it's more that the upper body remains neutral and the legs go out to the side, resulting in the hips being tilted while the shoulder are level to the ice.
The question then becomes, should you keep your shoulders level to the ice or not?
I think it's really based on feel. For me like Mcdavid I sometimes have them level sometimes not.
Typically when I'm changing directions quickly like say in a punch turn my shoulders remain level to the ice, same with Mcdavid, but on crossunders it varies.
I wouldn't worry too much about it on crossunders, as long as your not dipping your inside shoulder you should be fine! But also feel free to play with your upper body positioning and feel the difference in your own game.
if you feel faster keep your shoulders level then that's great, but play with both so you can feel the difference.
As per Svech opening up his chest, lots of players do that when turning to their forehand side, but it's not something that is done on the backhand side. My opinion is that it's largely based on stick positioning vs the "right or wrong way". So I wouldn't focus so much on turning your chest to the center but more where you're positioning your stick.
I hope that somewhat answers your question. Long story short it depends
Would love to see some more videos of you doing the Pettersson dance pattern and the Mackinnon V pattern.
Ya those a good ones, I'll see what I can do!
@@TheDownhillSkater It takes Standing Still and weaponizes it bro.
Mind blown
Thank goodness your circular motion theory is squared away !
I didn’t know Blud was a science teacher
Good skater, but that's all he has.... no defense skills will always = no cups