yeh me too! Had a little one who kept cutting me off while I was doing power 3's in warmup this week. I started saying "don't jump in front of the TRAIN" on each pass. That made her laugh AND she started paying attention.
Lyle

I really learned how to skate fast after I started taking ice dance. Find less crowded sessions at least once in a while, if possible so you can really open up. I hate to keep harping on this but the results for me were incredible. Spend some time on roller skates. Get some inlines. Pics in a rink (IMO) are best. You will push like you never have before and when you step on the ice, you will feel like you are flying. Once you get good at the picskates, you will be amazed by how much faster you skate on ice. It worked absolute wonders for me. i was not the same skater.

Kay

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Ok, so that crunchy rip sound is a good thing?

Yes. I'm addicted to it.

My coach has me practicing "push-unders" rather than "cross-overs".

To increase power, try this:

On a circle, do a cross-over. Do not remove the crossed-under foot from the ice. Instead, keep sculling it under & always in back of the front (outside) foot. Seek power and increased momentum from that foot and let the front foot go along for the ride.

That depends! The better your technique, the quieter your stroking will be. My first coach was a real stickler for technique - proper knee-bend, extension, push with the heel of the blade - it took me a month to get all the "toe pick rip" out of my forward stroking - now I am really aware of the difference in sound and certainly notice it with other skaters to. Another thing about good technique is that there is much less "extraneous body movement" - it looks much different, more effortless. When I encounter another skater who was taught stroking in "the old school" it is readily obvious in both appearance and sound (and it is amazing how few of the youngsters do good stroking).

Though I was fast before learning good technique, I am faster now and with less effort, both on cross-overs and forward stroking - so much so that my coach says it is one of my strong points and insists on having one "flat out" segment in my program.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

There's a difference, though, between the scrapy scratch of a toe-rake (which you don't want to hear and it slows you down) and the wonderful "grunch" sound of a seriously good edge (which you do, and it speeds you up!).

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Mrs Redboots
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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Just skate fast more - push yourself and it becomes fun. Maybe make friends with some of the kids at your rink and engage in games of tag or races.

If your edges are slippery, try a deeper ROH on your next sharpening (I like 3/8"). You can always change back if it doesn't work for you. Only change 1/16" at a time so it's not too much of a change at once... Also a good sharpener makes all the difference in the world so if you have several available, use the best you can.

If you fall while going fast, more of the force of your fall is directed outwards, so it will hurt less. My worst falls have been while standing still or moving very slowly. While the fast falls look dramatic, they're painless.

Work on deep edges, push them a bit more and more in everything you do. Do simple things fast to start with, like just crossovers, forward skating, and then toss in a waltz jump and then go look at your tracing to see how far you got and push yourself to get a longer one.

Make sure you can stop fast - that'll make skating faster easier as you'll be more comfortable with handling close calls.

I have my own opinions about warming up - I tend to warm up with fast skating...it may look pooey before it's warmed up but I don't care. I find that if I start fast, I tend to skate faster overall rather than piddling along as much throughout the rest of the session.

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that's me, pushing it but "pooey" for the first 15min
Lyle

Well I found a way to practice going fast. I had 20 minutes of ice with only 1 other person and 10 minutes of ice all to myself! With no one to get in the way of, I really took off.

On my strong side, both back and forward- I can generate a lot of power. I get a lot faster backwards.

On my weak side, it's really scary- but I tried. I clicked my blades going backwards, and went flying into the wall. A good fall is enough to freak me out and just cause continual falls- I get so shaky, it's ridiculous-, so I stopped the "speed" drills- but I got 10 minutes in.

I took my private sheet of ice and just skated around pretending I was in the olympics- it was quite fun. I love skating to music, interpreting etc. Of course anyone in the food court watch were probably wondering when I was going to do somethign cool, because I was skating as if I'd be going into triple jumps soon.

Then I practiced lots of backward spirals, including on edges- which is new.

Private ice is nice.

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OK this thread got me determined to also end each skate with something fast, so yesterday was fast FXO's into half rink FIedge Spirals - YIKES do I hate these
Lyle

One thing I noticed yesterday is that sometimes when I push "slower," I sometimes go faster than when I'm trying to push "faster." That is, if I have only a little time between pushes, I sometimes don't go as fast as when I leave a longer time between pushes. This must mean that I'm getting a harder/more forceful push when I concentrate on long, powerful pushes with good use of the entire leg for each push (more time between pushes, but more force built up on every push).

This finally explained to me why there was one section in an old version of my program where I'd always try to go fast and think, I'm moving my feet fast but I'm going so slow--I was getting no power from those pushes.

...So, if "skate faster" isn't working, then think "push harder" or "push longer."

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Same here, except, my one major fall was on the side of my head

That is holding me back more than anything, well except maybe the crappy skates. I find that I feel more secure and can go faster doing backward crossovers and the forward ones are more challenging for me. I also have a problem neck and since everyone skates CCW in the rink, of course I end up getting more practice on that side and my neck gets all stiff from constantly turning it to the right to look behind me. I just hate that.

Indeed. That's why it's a good speed drill to skate as fast as you can down one side of the rink and round the end, and then on the second side, try to manage with just one push!

Alternatively, try to get round the rink with a maximum of 4 pushes each side (this can be done, even an in Olympic-sized rink, as long as the ice is fairly good - on rather used ice it is harder).

Husband and I do this, and now we are focussing on really finishing our edges when we skate together in waltz hold (or in Kilian hold, come to that), and our speed over the ice has seriously increased.

Sometimes, if we are doing something we have trouble with, our coach makes us go slowly until we reach the half-way line, and then increase speed. We were doing this on Tuesday with skating backwards in Kilian hold (something we both find tricky, especially me), and actually got something that might even have been called a back outside edge, if you squinted at it in a dim light!

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

That's it! That's the phrase I was looking for Annabel! THAT'S the key part of technique that produces speed and why a "quiet skater" can be so fast.

Personally I can feel the difference immediately - on forward stroking, I am very aware of the pushing foot finishing on the heel of the blade with good toe-turn-out and all the energy has been transferred (therefore no "rip"). On forward XO's the weight transfer is complete an instant before the free foot comes of the ice so they are quiet to. (Ok, on XOs I often get a "crackling" sound but that's on the skating foot and because I am going too fast and just barely hanging on to that edge!)

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Dianne
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IMHO it's important to try and get technique as good as possible before worrying about speed.

Up until a few days ago, I'd never attempted back crossovers at speed, because I was concerned about doing them properly first, and I think that has paid off. This morning my coach had me doing them at speed, and the CW ones felt great, strong, fast, and a nice 'crunch' sound. The CCW were weaker, and slower and there were some occasional but distinct toe-scraping sounds coming out.

My point is: I've worked harder on the CW ones because they were intially weaker, and because the technique's correct the speed wasn't being hampered by scraping toe picks.

S xxx

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What people are saying about fewer strokes with more glide per stroke is absolutely right! I often forget that more quick strokes will not get me down the ice as fast as fewer deep strokes, so I have to play this game with myself. . . I tell myself the objective is to get from point A to point B in my program using the fewest strokes possible (I tell myself I have a limited number of strokes I'm allowed to use or that the skater who uses the fewest strokes wins). Then I just bend my knees deeper before each push-off, really extend on the push-off, keep my skating knee bent and wait until the edge is done. Then I do the same for the next one. It's just amazing how well it works!

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What does that mean, "finishing" them? Does it refer to extension on the ice? Extension of the free foot *off* the ice? Or something else?

Knee bend makes a huge difference (and for me requires a bit of warmup time).

I'm confused about "rip" vs. skidding. There's a crunchy feel and I guess "rip" sound that's fun to get when I push hard into the ice, or lean deeply into a static edge. But yesterday I noticed that some of the rip I *thought* I was getting during forward stroking was actually due to my blade skidding at the end of my on-ice extension. It's easy for me to get sloppy there because I'm used to inline, which has different grip characteristics (basically, I think, inlines will skid no matter what as you approach full extension, while proper technique on ice can avoid it).

When I put my focus on avoiding that end-of-stroke skid, and on deep kneebend, I think it helped my speed.

Arms. Here's what I'm uncomfortable with. When I hold my arms out statically infront of me at around hiplevel for forward stroking, I feel like a dork. Doing it helps a bit with stabilizing my body and core, which of course promotes power, but I miss the armswing that you learn to use while accelerating or sprinting in speedskating. Not so much when *maintaining* speed, but definitely when getting going from a standstill or slow glide!

For forward crossovers, either the static arms held along the circle or the speedskater swing seems comfortable to me, so that's not an issue. For back xs, I don't think I'd even feel stable if I didn't hold my arms nice and strongly in place along the circle.

Comments on arm usage for power?

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As I understand it, "finishing the edge" means making sure you stay on an edge until the very last possible moment, not allowing yourself to flatten off at the end of the lobe.

If you are going to make a wonderful "rip" noise with your edge, it will be in the middle of the lobe, not at the end.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!