Crossover Skating Technique Tips
Crossover Skating Technique
Major Concepts
- Make sure you are pushing through the balls of your feet, with both the outside and inside leg. This will allow for explosive crossovers and great glide!
- When crossing with your outside leg your knee and toe should come through first, not the heal! This will help insure you are pushing off the balls of your feet and have proper balance.
- Your inside push through leg is the a crucial piece to generating speed. Make sure to push all the way through. Your flexibility is key here so work on stationary extensions. Check out this article for a great drill to practice this. Crossover walks
- Don’t hop when crossing over. Make sure to have fluid long crossovers to generate the most speed with the least amount of energy. Challenge yourself to push with your outside and then your inside legs to generate power. IMPORTANT NOTE not all crossovers are the same, some will be longer and more fluid to create speed on an arc, for ex. crossovers when angling an opponent or dipping to be an passing option. Below is an example of Patrick Kane using quicker crossovers to attack an open seam, these types of crossovers won’t be quite as long. These crossovers are more about quickness and frequency to attack.
- Sometimes the best way to learn is by watching the best. Watch old videos of Paul Coffey, Pavel Bure, Sergei Federov or some of today’s star skaters like Patrick Kane (below), Erik Karlson of Ottawa and Marian Gaborik of the New York Rangers