By Derek M. Hansen, CSCS @derekmhansen RunningMechanics.com SprintCoach.com

It doesn’t take many steps for an athlete to approach top-speed as illustrated in Figure 1.  Horizontal speed is achieved not by first-step quickness, but a well-coordinated array of successive steps.  Over-striding, stumbling or standing up too quickly can all significantly impact acceleration rate.  This information does allow us to understand that short sprints and accelerations of even three to seven steps can contribute toward overall speed abilities of an athlete.  In ice-hockey players, this plays an even more significant role, as more than three to five skating strides are required in game-specific scenarios before a bilateral glide phase is employed.  While ice-hockey athletes do not accelerate at the same rate as sprinters in the early phase of a sprint – primarily due to the ice surface itself – a steady rate of acceleration is similarly experience by on-ice athletes.

Examination of athlete ground contact times during a maximal acceleration in an elite sprinter reveals that the amount of time on the ground quickly diminishes as velocity is increased.  Figure 2 illustrates the fact that world-class sprinters can quickly achieve ground contact times of no more than 1/10^th of a second.  While ice-hockey players do not utilize the stretch-reflex in the lower leg complex as much as a dry-land sprinter, the initial steps in an on-ice acceleration will display similarly short ground contact times until the athlete begins to enter a unilateral glide phase.  As mentioned previously, this may happen as quickly as the fourth or fifth skating stride.

Once we start to look at the stride/step frequency element of sprinting, we see that consistency is imperative.  There are no sweeping variations in stride frequency.  Sprint athletes quickly achieve their optimal stride frequency from step one and continue that pattern for their entire race.  This is important to realize for dry-land sprinting applications, as athletes must be taught to relax and maintain fast and consistent strides.  Athletes that can rapidly cycle through strides will often have better acceleration abilities whether on the track or on the ice.  While excessive stride frequency can diminish power, much like a car spinning its wheels without moving, it is recommended that training sessions focus on attaining maximal frequency with a measured amount of relaxation to allow for optimal stride length.  Once again, the ice skating athlete will peak in stride frequency much earlier than the sprinting athlete due to the nature of skating mechanics.   However, hitting a high frequency as soon as possible should still remain one of the goals of acceleration training regardless of the training environment.   Higher stride frequencies also allows for more accessible direction change abilities due to the fact that a step is always ready for force application on the ice.

We have always been taught that good sprinting is the result of the optimal combination of stride frequency and stride length.  This is no different for the skating athlete.  The only difference is in how the stride length is attained in sprinting versus skating.  In sprinting, athletes drive more force into the ground for shorter instances of time to take advantage of elasticity so that the athlete is vaulted further and faster forward on each stride as shown in Figure 4.  In skating, athletes modify their stride mechanics to push laterally to essentially move up to larger ‘gears’ to create higher velocities of movement.  While stride frequency remains constant in sprinters over a six to seven second duration, stride frequency is skaters will actually slow down to accommodate a modified and more efficient stride mechanic.  Pushing laterally and crossing-over substitute bigger gears for high stride frequencies as proven by both science and practice.

Application

So how do we modify sprinting to fit the parameters of ice skating?  Fortunately we don’t have to answer that question.  When on solid ground, sprint!  When on the ice, skate!  This may sound all too easy, but it works perfectly.  When athletes enter the initial start and early acceleration phase, they assume the same positions.  Figures 5a and 5b are of former Canadian Olympic speed skaters (500m distance) in their initial acceleration for both dry-land (inset) and on-ice scenarios.

In both cases, the off-ice posture and limb placements closely resemble the on-ice positions.  While these similarities may only last for three to four strides, sprinting still represents a more than suitable means of simulating the positions and stresses of on-ice early acceleration from a pure specificity point of view.  Skating will typically have a lower heel recovery position – during the swing phase of the stride – due to a lower elastic contribution from the foot at toe-off and the weight of the skate versus a sprint spike or running shoe.  As was mentioned previously, off-ice errors will typically manifest themselves as on-ice errors.  This reinforces the concept of ‘fixing’ mechanical errors in dry-land training sessions where more reps are possible, less equipment is required and facility accessibility is not an issue.  If you can fix it on dry land, you may not have to fix it once you hit the ice.  I believe this is one of the more compelling specificity arguments for dry-land sprinting.  And, I would argue that the stretch-reflex throughout all musculo-tendo structures in the lower extremities play a larger role in skating speed than most people would like to admit.

For those of you that are not speed skating aficionados, fortunately, this tendency can also be seen in some of the faster ice hockey players.  Fast skaters have to produce adequate force into the ice at a high enough frequency to produce fast locomotion in a limited amount of space in game scenarios.  Figure 6 depicts one of the faster NHL players executing a powerful acceleration at an All-Star event competition that looks very similar to the positions of a dry-land sprinter.  I superimpose my proprietary “Be the Hashtag” symbol on sprinters and skater videos and photos to show how the posture and limbs should line up during acceleration and maximum velocity sprinting.  All good sprinters and accelerating skaters exhibit this posture, and it is a very simple way to convey optimal positions to athletes – particularly younger athletes – with a simple smartphone camera and app such as Dartfish Express.

Figures 7 and 8 show examples of former NHL athletes accelerating maximally on a rubberized track.   In both cases, their off-season dry-land preparation was comprised of no less than two sessions per week on the track focusing on starts, accelerations and – in some instances – maximum velocity sprinting.  It is also important to note that both athletes readily enjoyed the training sessions, as it was a significant departure from the higher volumes of on-ice work that they were accustomed to during the off-season period.  There were no instances of muscle strains or other injuries during the course of the training periods and, if anything, the athletes exhibited a much lower incidence of injury once they resumed their on-ice activities and regular season commitments.

While maximal upright sprinting may not specifically address the requirements of ice skating, hitting higher velocities beyond 20 meters of sprint distance allows athletes to benefit from the greater forces required to run fast.  In Figure 9, you can see this former NHL player hitting top speed with maximal velocity mechanics over 40 meters with relatively good technique.  This approach is supported by the research of Nagahara et al. in Figure 10 demonstrating that ground reaction forces increase dramatically as athletes hit higher running speeds.

Return-to-Play Protocols

Another one of the benefits of employing a dry-land, sprint-based approach to training is that you also create another means of strengthening the athletes should they have the misfortune of getting injured.  Most of my lower body rehabilitation protocols involve the significant integration of sprint drills and accelerations on a daily basis.   I have presented on two occasions in the last five years at the NFL Combine for PFATS on the subject of a sprint-based approach to hamstring injury prevention and rehabilitation, and my methods have been adopted by a majority of teams. 

The same approach can easily be adopted for ice hockey players as part of a transitional ‘step’ between the clinical rehabilitation phase and return to on-ice activities.  Sprint drills and dry-land acceleration work will safely strengthen the muscles and connective tissues to the demands of on-ice locomotion.  We even use sprint accelerations for upper extremity injuries to maintain the strength of the upper body, as many athletes comment on how sore they are in the shoulders, biceps, traps and upper back, with some even commenting on hypertrophy gains after as little as three weeks of sprint work.

Concluding Remarks

One of the symptoms of presenting this type of information is that you will get the hecklers from the back row chiming in with, “Well, you can’t take a sprinter and put him in skates expecting him to be an NHL level player!”  I would never assert that this is the case, just as I wouldn’t suggest that sprinters would make great basketball, football or tennis players.  We all understand that sport specific skill is critical to success in every sport.  However, integrating some of the valuable qualities that dry-land sprinting brings to the table for most athletes in various sports – without creating significant over-use issues – is a compelling option for players and teams looking for easy-to-implement solutions for off-season preparation, in-season maintenance and year round return-to-play protocols. 

I am not proposing a massive shift towards excessive dry-land training, but simply a subtle re-orientation to some very effective off-ice solutions that don’t require significant equipment or training to implement on a consistent basis.  Once all professionals attain a level of comfort and competence around this modality, significant benefits can be made available to all players from the development levels all the way up to the elite performers.

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Derek M. Hansen is an International Sport Performance Consultant that has been working with athletes all ages and abilities in speed, strength and power sports since 1988.  He has worked closely with some of the top performers in the world as a coach and a consultant – including Olympic medalists, world record holders, Canadian National team athletes, and professional athletes from numerous sports. Most recently, he worked progressively over the last five years on speed development and sprint integration with the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.  He worked as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Simon Fraser University for 14 years, the first non-US member of the NCAA.  He also serves as a performance consultant to numerous professional teams in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS, as well as NCAA Division 1 programs throughout North America, specializing in speed development, strategic performance planning, return-to-competition protocols and neuromuscular electrical stimulation programming.  Derek also offers continuing education courses around sprint-based solutions via his Running Mechanics Professional curriculum at RunningMechanics.com.