Budding young hockey players will have a tough time making it to the NHL if they don't pull up their socks and learn how to skate better, that according to Calgary's Institute for Hockey Research.
"We are teaching a generation of hockey players to skate wrong with current power skating instruction," says Dr. Mike Bracko, sports physiologist and director of the Institute for Hockey Research.
"Traditional power skating instruction is based on figure skating and speed skating techniques, but neither is similar to the way hockey players skate duringa game."
Bracko says traditional power skating lessons teach forward and backward arm movement and a narrow stride, both of which set player development back.
Bracko is a sports physiologist, who has specialized in hockey as a player, instructor and researcher for 30 years. The Calgarian is on the board of trustees for the American College of Sports Medicine and has worked with junior and NCAA hockey players, as well as members of the Canadian Women's Olympic Hockey Team and the University of Alberta Women's Hockey Team.
Top NHLers like Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, Steven Stamkos, Patrick Kane, Martin St. Louis and Nicklas Lidstrom all move their arms side-to-side and they all have wide strides and stances, notes Bracko.
"In order to improve skating, we need to teach young hockey players to skate like elite NHL players," he says. "And if we want to improve the way hockey players skate in a game, weneed to teach themgame-performance skating characteristics."
The Institute for Hockey Research is a non-profit organization dedicated to the scientific investigation of hockey. The IHR conducts skating clinics, videotape analysis of skating techniques and strength and conditioning programs.
