Skating: Posture & Weight Distribution
Posture is one of the foundations of great movement and skating.
First, two foundational pieces: Kinetic chain and Flexion points. These are the foundations of movement that every athlete must work with.
Kinetic Chain
There is a kinetic chain that must be honored. Here is a picture of your body’s kinetic chain:
Where the head leads, the body follows through the kinetic chain.
Flexion Points
There are three major posture flexion points when we are looking at movement and an athlete’s ability to shift their weight.
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Ankle
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Knee
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Hips
Related: Understanding planes of motion to add more power to your shot.
Weight Distribution
When looking at creating agility and better movement, we must look into an athlete’s ability to move their mass/weight around. The best way to think of this is:
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Stacked = Weight stack up and down
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Shifted = Weight shifted in the planes of motion (e.g. left and right)
Practical Applications
Increased Ankle & Knee Flexion
Tie looser skates or skip a few eyelets at the top. This allows further knee bend and deep strides.
Stacking Weight
To better move body weight/mess around, athletes should feel that their upper body is stacked on top of their lower body.
A well-stacked player will have quality posture like this due to a neutral spine: