Coach Rox Fundamentals: Hockey Position

Hockey Position is the ultimate foundation for a player. It not only allows for a player to skate faster, stronger and more efficiently, but it also allows for better stick control, ice awareness, and readiness to make a play.

The hardest part about Hockey Position is that a player should nearly always be in it. That is very tiring and taxing on the legs, but the leg strength will be built over time. It is the best habit that you can develop as a young player - always be in hockey postion.

Standing on edges

The blades on your skates have two edges - the inside edge and the outside edge. These edges are what dig into the ice and give the skater the ability to push off and create a force on the ice (this is basic physics which I won't get into).

But there are three ways to stand:

On your inside edges
On your outside edges
On a neutral edge (this is basically standing right on top of your skate and on both inside and outside edges at the same time)

In hockey position, you should stand on an inside-edge that is very close to a neutral edge.

Many young players will crank their ankles inward and stand on the inside edges of their skates. There is then a distinct bending of the ankles inward rather than having a straight line from their feet up to their knee and hips. The zig zag of the bone structure takes away from a players ability to use their muscles and be strong. You're using your bones for stability, not your muscles. Therefore, you cannot generate power.

A good way to check if you are on your inside edges too much is to see if your knees are touching each other or there is little to no room between your knees. If the knees are close to touching that means your ankles are turned inward and you are trying to use your bone structure to hold up your body. As a general indicator, you should be able to nearly fit both gloves between your knees.

Distance Between Feet

For the new skater, the distance between each feet can be the hardest part to learn. Part if this is that young players, usually less than 7 years old, are still working on their balance.

And the easiest stance to stand in is the tri-pod. It looks just like a camera tripod: both legs are spread out further than shoulder width apart and with straight legs. This naturally puts the player on their inside edges but tilted very distinctly to the inside. So much so that if they lift up one foot, they will immediately start to fall over. By doing this with both feet, the forces counter-balance each other giving the player a stable base.

The problem with this is that when skating, the player will have to balance on one foot while the other pushes. That is nearly impossible in the tri-pod. The tri-pod makes the player so stable that they do not want to have their body weight on one foot.

The hardest stance to stand in is the tooth pick. This is when both feet are so close that they are nearly touch each other. Your body weight is essentially on one foot in this position, and there is very little stopping you from falling over. The tooth pick also makes it difficult for a player to push off their inside edge. There is little available room to turn your ankle inwards and then push off from.

The correct stance is to have the feet shoulder width apart. This allows the player to easily transfer their body weight between each foot while maintaining a solid base.