Power pulls down the rink

Also called Power pull lengths

A run of power pulls on one foot, a crossover onto the other, and the same again down the length of the ice.

Down the long axis

Not checked yet. The drill details on this page are a first draft by a non-expert, and no coach has seen them yet. Read them as a starting point and check them with a coach. Corrections are very welcome.

The run Power pulls on one foot · crossover · power pulls on the other foot

The pattern on the ice, one line for the blade on the ice, coloured by edge.

Not drawn in the body frame yet: the pulls are drawn on their own page; the crossover between feet is not.

Three or four pulls on one foot, a crossover to change foot, then the same on the other, all the way down the ice. Some coaches add the arms held above the head, which takes them away as a source of speed and leaves the knee and ankle to do it all.

Each pull is a change of edge on one foot: the knee bends into the curve and rises as the edge changes, and the drive comes from that rise and fall pressing into the ice. A pull that does not gain speed is a wiggle.

It is done forwards and backwards, and it builds the leg strength and edge pressure that spins and jump entries draw on.

This drill trains

Power pullsRepeated changes of edge on one backward foot down the rink's diagonal, broken by quick rockers.

Built from

Left forward outside crossoverLFO to RFI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling forwards.

Found in 5 independent sources: coaches' public teaching and published skating-skills tests, taken as base guidance and written for the guide.