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Need some skating advice or help?
Maybe you need:
 Sharper blades Info about basic technique
Help switching from inline to ice
A list of required speed skating equipment so you can try it,
too
Well read on! Ice speed skating coach
Bruce Guthrie has kindly allowed the reprinting of the below articles so that you too, can learn to ice speed skate.
So get reading, then get out on the ice! It's so fun, you'll forget that you're getting excercise! And you can
even write to Bruce yourself if you have any questions you need answered by a certified coach. Have fun, and please
. . . wear your helmet and knee pads!!!
 
(or...How to be on the Cutting
Edge of Fashion)
 Mandatory Equipment
 Helmet: All
skaters must wear some kind of helmet. Hard shelled helmets with
the smallest vent holes are best, but bicycle helmets are just fine for
practices. Hockey
helmets also work. When you're ready for the Olympic trials, get
an LAS brand Mistral helmet for about $50.00.
Knee
pads:
Knee
pads such as those used for in-line skating or volleyball are mandatory at practices and meets. Trace is a fashionable
brand. The Olympians have knee pads and shin guards built into their
skin suits.
Gloves:
All
skaters must wear some kind of gloves. These prevent abrasion from the ice
and cuts from contact with blades. Knit winter gloves are fine for practices. For races, a non-knit glove is required
for cut resistance. Baseball batters' gloves or all-leather work gloves are quite fashionable. Olympians
modify the fingertips of the left glove so they can drag them on the
ice in the corners.
Long
Sleeves:
All
skaters must wear long-sleeved shirts & long pants or lycra tights for protection from rough ice. Sweatshirts
are fine for practices.
Ice
Skates:
You'll
need some kind of skates. For your first few sessions, you may use whatever
you already have. Figure skates have a better shape for speed skating
than hockey skates because the blades have more of a flat "tail" at the back and the boots have a more flexible ankle. But some people say you
run the risk of snagging a toe pick when you lean over in a turn with figure skates. This might cause a nasty crash.
Hockey skates don't suffer from this problem but the shape of the blade can promote poor technique. They make you rock
forward on to your toes and you don't feel comfortable with your weight
on the backs of the blades as you're supposed to. You can learn the basics of speed skating on either figure or hockey
skates, but you'll soon find you want the glass-smooth ride of speed skates. Once you decide you are serious about the sport, you'll want to invest in a fiberglass and
leather short track speed skate. The boots start at around $200.00 USD (the Bont Sharkie
or Shark is an excellent value) and the blades will set you back another $170.00. The prices of custom boots (boots
molded to your feet) can go as high as $1,500 per pair, and high-end blades can be around $350. It just depends on your
skating goals, how much you want to spend, and how much you will be skating. [Note from the webmistress: Jonathan's brand of boots is RAMskate and his
blades are Maple Golds.] If you start out with the lower
end in pricing, think of skates just as you would an inexpensive bicycle. Buy some five-wheel in-line racing "frames"
(about $250.00) and you can in-line skate with Team Rollerblade in the summer! They bolt right onto most ice speed skating
boots. There is a great used market for speed skating boots, and they last forever. Attend any meet and you'll
find them for sale. Be thankful you don't need to buy hockey pads! For
some excellent sources of
new and used skates and equipment, visit my club's website at and see the links page there.
Click Here to visit Whatcom Speed Skating Club's Links Page
Optional Equipment
Optional
Safety Apparel:
Safety or sports glasses (sometimes
called protective eyewear) prevent your eyes from getting watery from the wind
if you skate really fast. I think clear is best, but Kim Dong-Sung looked really cool in his sunglasses at
the 2002 Olympics! Also, some skaters slip a thin, soccer style shin protector inside the front of their lycra running
tights to guard the shins against errant blades. Shin protectors
are required for races and for out-of-town meets, but some clubs require them at practices as well. Elbow guards aren't
necessary. Neck guards with breast protectors are required for races in North America, and pants should allow for lots of flexibility at the knee and
waist, yet not be so loose that they flap in the wind or snag a skate. Jeans are a bad idea because they're constricting
and they chafe. Sweat pants are good for practices, and lycra running tights are the choice of the fast and the fashion
conscious. They cut down on wind resistance! Wear long underwear under them if you get cold. Sweatshirts,
sweaters or long-sleeved T-shirts and turtlenecks are good for the top. Use layers and dress for sweating in a cool
rink. Try not to pick something that is so loose-fitting that it's wind resistance slows you down. Skin suits are for races.
Doodads:
Bring
a rag or small towel to dry your blades, walking guards to protect them 'til you're on the ice and a water bottle to keep
you hydrated. A stopwatch can be fun to use to measure your lap times. You'll need a sports bag or small duffel
to carry it all. Once you get more serious, you may want to invest in a speed skate sharpening
jig, a sharpening stone, a burrstone and some honing oil. Until you do, check with your local speed skating club because
someone there might sharpen speed skates for a small fee or a batch of cookies if you drop them off. Don't take
them to a hockey skate shop unless you know that they know how to sharpen speed skates! Most don't.
Reprinted
with permission from the author
 or
The Fundamentals That Even Olympic Team Members Still
Spend Most of Their Time On
Push
Almost Directly to the Side
Human beings evolved a natural gait consisting of front-to-back leg motions. But skating is unnatural. Animals and proto-humans seldom, if ever, skated!
If you try walking on skates while on the ice, you'll find it pretty inefficient. The skates are designed to slide from front to back! You must push almost directly sideways to get efficient transfer of power
with the skating stroke. Try the "swizzle step" as an exercise.
(Think: "toes out, toes in, toes out, toes in . . .")
The
lateral pushing motion of the regular skating stroke also requires getting comfortable with gliding on ONE skate. So,
as an exercise, glide the length of the rink on one skate. While doing this, keep your ankles straight in line with
your lower leg. While skating, you need to transfer ALL of your weight to
the gliding skate just as you finish your power stroke. The skating motion is a continuous process of completely
shifting your weight from one skate to the other and back. This allows you to take advantage of a rest period as you
glide on one skate. Remember to push almost directly to the side.
 TECHNICAL NOTE
The skating motion
works in a similar way to the motion of a screw thread. The screw thread slides easily along its length as the screw
advances in the hole. This is like the skate sliding on the ice. But notice that the thread doesn't point straight
into the hole (in the same direction that the screw advances) like a slot or a spline on a shaft, it
runs around the screw, nearly perpendicular to the long axis of the hole, like a ring or a washer. The slight angle
of the thread converts the rotation of the screw into the linear motion of the screw into the hole. With skating, the
slight angle of the blade converts the side-to-side motion of the skate
into forward motion of the skater.
Keep
Your Weight Back, On Your Heels
When we evolved to run, we developed the instinct to rock forward on
our toes when we sprint. This makes sense if you're pushing to the back because you need to keep your body weight in
front of your feet while accelerating. But the skating motion is different. Once
you've attained cruising speed on skates, leaning forward creates problems. For efficient power transfer in skating,
you must push to the side against the long, flat edge of the skate. But if you're leaning forward, you end up pushing
against the tightly curved front or toe of the blade. Now instead of sliding on the ice and applying power all along
the way, the tip of your blade is digging into and pushing against one fixed point in the ice. The ice, unfortunately,
is stationary and so you have limited your speed. With a backward-directed toe-push, you won't be able to go any faster
than you can flick your leg back, and as it turns out, this isn't really very fast. You just can't go as fast while
pushing off of stationary points in the ice as you can by applying power
smoothly while gliding. So, if you concentrate on keeping your weight back, on your heels, you will compensate for your
body's natural tendency to rock forward and you will apply your weight and your propulsive force right where it should be: just behind the center of your blade and directed to the side.
Bend
Your Knees and Get Low
Long strokes allow you to take better advantage of the efficiencies of
gliding than do short strokes. The more knee bend you have, the more leg extension you can get before you lock your
knee at the end of the stroke. Hence you will have a longer power stroke and more glide, the more you bend your knees.
Try for a 90-degree (a right angle) between your calf and your thigh at
the start of the stroke. This is hard! Your thighs will burn. You may want to try hopping up stairs at home
to build your quads. Try squatting for 60 seconds. In general, the lower you can get, the faster you can skate.
The longer you are able to maintain this low body position, the longer you will be able to go fast!
Bring
Your Feet Close Together Between Strokes
This
forces you to have a longer gliding phase. As an exercise, try making your ankles touch each other between each stroke. Feel yourself launching off on to the gliding skate as you drive with the
pushing skate. Feel yourself fall on to the new support skate. Feels
nice, eh?
Get
Comfortable Gliding on the Outside (Left) Edge of Your Left Skate
This is the key to the left turn crossover. Practice gliding on
your left skate, without taking any strokes. See how long you can hold it. Now make a LEFT TURN while gliding
on your left skate. See how long you can hold this. Notice how you have to tip your skate over to the left so
it is on an outside edge? Notice how you have to lean your body
out over and beyond (left) of your left skate? Now as your right skate slides in front of your left skate in a crossover,
feel the push of your left skate's left edge as you drive it behind your right leg. Keep your skates close to the ice.
As you finish driving your left skate, pick up the toe first and then the heel. This will prevent you from pushing off
with your toe and will encourage you to push with the center or back portion of your blade. A lot of scratching and
dragging of your blades on the ice is a symptom of inefficiencies in your stroke. Work to make your blades carve silently
by pushing off with your heels and not with your toes.
Keep
Your Shoulders Square with Your Torso & Lean Into Turns
with Your Hips
Don't
twist into the turn at the waist, but keep your body in a line when viewed from the front. Do this by thinking about
leaning into a turn with your hips. Keep your shoulders perpendicular to your upper body and parallel with your hips.
Skating is unnatural, and therefore requires lots of work to learn. Olympians spend a lot of their time getting these basics right. Start slowly, focus on good technique instead of flailing in order to go fast. Speed comes from technique as much as from strength and endurance.
Master the techniques above and you will soon be skating faster than you ever thought possible!
Reprinted
with permission from the author
Edited by: Lori J. Bayne 5/03
 Here's a formula for Perfectly Sharp Blades:
Ingredients:
Speed
skate sharpening jig
A small, de-burring stone
A
combination stone at least 9" long (11 - 1/2" is best)
Paper towels
Newspaper
Honing oil
(Alternatively, you could use a diamond stone and a spray bottle of water instead of a combination
stone and honing oil.)
Jigs can only be purchased through speed skate retailers or purchased used from other
skaters. Often, clubs have jigs for lending.
Stones and honing oil can be purchased through these same retailers or through your local hardware store. Look for an 11 - 1/2 Norton (Brand) Combination stone. This
is pretty standard. Burr stones are basically fine pocketknife sharpening stones
about 1 x 2 x 3/16. These dimensions are not critical.
First, a warning: even dull skate edges can cut you.
Be very careful because skate sharpening is kind of hazardous, especially de-burring and checking for a burr. You will probably cut yourself a few times as you learn. Supervise kids. Keep Band-Aids or some kind of disposable
bandages on hand!
Lay the newspaper out on the floor and put the jig on it. Keep some paper towels handy. Before you start, you'll want to check the blades for bend, dents and
flat spots in the rocker. Eyeball it from one end and look for these imperfections. Straighten out any kinks and bends if you can, and note any flat spots where uneven
pressure during sharpening has flattened out the rocker. Use a blade-bender and
a dial gauge or rocker-bar to check and correct the rocker and bend. Look for
especially dull spots or areas where the edge has been stripped.
Next,
check the skates for sharpness by lightly drawing the back of a fingernail down, moving perpendicular to the edge. If the edge is sharp, you'll see a tiny pile of fingernail shavings on the edge. If you don't, the edge is dull. You shouldn't have to press
your fingernail hard against the blade as you draw it across (and it's not wise to do so, in case the edge is still very sharp). If it's sharp, the edge will want to shave and cut into your fingernail, shaving off
a neat little pile. Be careful not to
cut yourself! You'll probably notice that the inside edges and the left outside edge are dull, but
that the right outside edge is still quite sharp. This is because in speed skating,
we turn left a lot more than we turn right.
Place the skates
in the jig. Make sure the blades are as vertical and parallel as possible. Push
the ends of the blades the long way against the stop in the jig if it has one. Tighten
the jig's thumbscrews so the clamps hold the blades tightly. Grab your big stone
and VERY LIGHTLY draw one of its long edges (corner edges, not flat faces) perpendicularly across both edges to make a very
fine scratch across the bottom of both blades. Look at the thin, flat surface
of the upward facing blades and look for the tiny, lateral scratches you just made in each blade. If each scratch goes from one side (edge) of the bottom of the blade to the other edge, then the blades
are ready to sharpen. Make a scratch at each end of the blades and one in the
middle. If the scratches only
go part way across the bottom of the blade, then you can save yourself some time by removing the blades from the jig and putting
them in some other orientation. Try flipping the heels and toes around in the
jig or switching left for right skates. Always have the toes of the skates pointing
in the same direction as each other, though.
When you find a configuration where the test scratches make it all the way (or at
least most of the way) across both edges, you are ready to start sharpening. After
the first time you sharpen a pair of skates in a particular jig, you wont have to look for test scratches again in that jig,
with that pair of skates. Each jig should set the same pair of blades up in approximately
the same way. This is a good reason to always try to sharpen your skates in the
same jig. It saves you time.
Drizzle
some honing oil on the big stone or mist some water on a big diamond stone with a spray bottle. Place the stone flat on both blades so that the long axis of the stone is perpendicular to both blades. The long axis of the stone must always be perpendicular (90 degree angle) to the blades
at all times during your stroke. Now, if you just go back and forth, you will
eventually wear grooves in your stone or just wear out the middle of your diamond stone.
This would not be groovy. For this reason, we grind diagonally instead
of straight out and back.
Start with the stone at the end of
the blades nearest you, and with the stone offset to the left or right so that it overhangs one of the blades by about an
inch. Now push the stone away from you diagonally across the blades so that it
winds up overhanging the other blade by only about an inch. Keep the stone perpendicular
to the blades all through the stroke. It helps me to visualize that I'm sweeping
out a parallelogram with my stone. Next, bring the stone back along the same
path until you are back where you started.
It is very important
that you only use the weight of the stone to sharpen the skates and not press down on the stone with your fingers. This is because at different parts of the stroke, you would push down with different amounts of force. The result would be that you would push harder at the beginning or middle of your
stroke and you would flatten the rocker of your blades. It can cost about $50
to re-rocker blades so you don't want to wreck your rocker prematurely. All blades
should be re-rockered after about four or six seasons of hard use. Some people feel that they can press down lightly on the stone as long as they sense
the pressure with their fingers instead of with their arms and not wreck their rocker.
Others say the stone doesn't cut significantly faster under greater pressure anyway.
I haven't done the experiment.
Repeat this motion five
or ten times and then start grinding along the opposite diagonal. When it feels
like the oil or water is gone from the stone, pick up the stone, wipe off the dirty oil or water, apply new oil or water and
keep grinding. Every once in a while, check to see how far the burr has formed
along the edge of the blades. Do this by drawing the pointed end of a fingernail
straight up along the side of the blade until your fingernail falls past the edge. If
your fingernail hangs up briefly as it goes past the edge, then, congratulations! You've
got a burr. That's good. It's a
sign you've removed enough material at this point in the blade. If you check all along the blade, youll find that the ends will develop a burr before
the middle, except for the right outside edge which will form a burr pretty quickly along its entire length. Continue until there is a burr all the way along all four edges.
A small burr is all that it necessary. Don't waste a lot of time and energy
developing a really big burr.
The last dozen or so strokes should be made with the fine side of the combination
stone or a fine diamond stone. Make the very last few passes with the stone non-diagonally.
This leaves the final micro-scratches in the blades running the long way, the same way the ice moves past the blade. Just
a few passes this way probably won't put too much extra wear in the center of your stone.
Polish the blades with a really fine stone or other blade-polishing device if you like.
Now
it's time to remove the burr. Without removing the skates from the jig, take
your burrstone and put it flat against side of the steel part of the blade. Never
run the burr stone along the aluminum rail or steel tube of the blades frame. The
burr stone must lie flat on the steel of the side of the blade and it should slightly overhang the edge. Run it back and forth along the length of the blade a few times while pressing with moderate force and
you'll grind down the burr. You'll also be turning up the burr slightly. So get your big stone out again and make another few light, non-diagonal passes. Repeat the de-burring motion until you
have 95% of the burr removed and then make the last, light passes with the big stone.
This makes sure that you leave no up-burr. Now you can take the skates
out of the jig. Check the edges for any remaining burrs and remove the last few
with the burrstone. Finally, run
the back of a fingernail perpendicular to the edge again, and see if you shave a little bit of fingernail easily. If the blade shaves or pulls nicely and the blade
feels sharp all along the edge, then you're done!
Now put on the
storage guards. Never store skates in the walking guards. They hold moisture
next to the blade and cause rust. If you are going to store the blades over the
summer, coat them with a light layer of light household oil like 3-in-1 or sewing
machine oil or blade sharpening oil and store them in a dry closet, not in a moist garage or basement.
Finally, make sure to always use the walking guards while walking and not on the ice,
and only step on the blades while they're on clean ice. Don't do hockey stops
or snowplow stops unless it's an emergency. Do the "Ugly Speed Skater Stop" (basically
a backward stroke) or learn to do a T-stop using only the right outside edge. (Stand
on your right skate and twist sideways while releasing the right skates outside edge.
You should skid sideways on that edge.) Keep a clean, spare rag in your
skate bag and as soon as you get off the ice, dry your blades until they are bone-dry.
Don't put the wet walking guards back on again and remember to remove the skates from your skate bag as soon as you
get home.
Follow this formula and you'll have
sharp blades that will hold their rocker longer, help you go as fast as possible, and have a good, long life. In the long and the short run (no pun intended), it
will save you time and money; time you can spend on the ice and money you can spend on things other than re-rockering
blades.
Reprinted
with permission from the author
Edited By Lori
J. Bayne 05/02
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