The most basic skill in hockey is obviously the ability to move around on the ice quickly and efficiently. During a race for a loose puck or a breakaway scoring chance, a player like Maurice Richard, with great speed and agility, always has an edge over his competitors. Avoiding body checks (or boarding) and reacting quickly to a play demand good skating skills. Although not all good skaters are good hockey players, it's safe to say that every good hockey player is, above all, a good skater. It comes as no surprise that the fastest skaters in the NHL-those players who compete in the sprint event during the All Star competitions, like Pavel Bure of the Florida Panthers and Peter Bondra of the Washington Capitals-are also among the top scorers.
When watching the effortless grace of Paul Kariya as he sprints across the ice at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, it might be hard to remember that, at least from a scientist's point of view, skating is a very complex set of actions. The science and biomechanics of skating have already been extensively studied, not so much in the realm of hockey but rather for speed skating, a winter sport in which every millisecond counts. Understanding the physics and the underlying mechanics can help coaches and players improve their skating tech- nique. There are, of course, some major differences between speed skating and hockey, such as the shape of the blade and clothing, but the basic principles are the same, as is the ultimate goal: greater speed, acceleration, and agility. To start things off, let's take a look at the most important piece of equipment, the skate.
The skate is a uniquely designed piece of footgear that was only re-cently invented. Skis, in contrast, appeared thousands of years ago, and snowshoes could even be older. Archeologists uncovered ski frag-ments and pictographs of skiers in Norway dating from at least 2000 B.C. We know that the Carthaginian soldiers and their leader, the implacable Hannibal, faced avalanche hazards in the Alps on their way to attack Rome during the war of 218-20 1 B.C. It is almost cer-tain that they used skis or snowshoes to cross the dangerous snowy moun tains.
Early skates, meanwhile, began to resemble the ones we have today only around the mid-nineteenth century. An American named E. W Bushnell invented a skate with a steel blade in 1850, a date that, not surprisingly, roughly coincides with the beginnings of hockey. Prior to that, no one used a specialized shoe to move on ice-you simply strapped some type of contraption, usually made of metal or wood, to the bottom of your regular footwear. Over the ages, skating-or, more accurately perhaps, gliding-had become a standard mode of locomotion in Nordic countries with long winter seasons. The earliest skates were discovered in Sweden and date back to the ninth century. Primitive skates dating from the same period were also uncovered at Viking settlements in Britain, giving Scandinavia a legitimate claim as the birthplace of skating. 2 However, these ancient artifacts have little in common with the Bauer and CCM skates worn by today's hockey players: the "blades" were made of ground and flattened bones from the foreleg of a reindeer or a cow.
The modern hockey skate has a number of important character-istics worth mentioning. First, the rounded shape at the front and the back of the stainless steel blade permits greater skating flexibility. Players often need to make sharp turns or lean forward to grab a puck. This would be awkward if the blade were flat from end to end. During a turn, the skate is inclined to its side, so a rounded blade helps the skater follow a circular path. Flat blades, like those on speed skates, tend to keep a straight line. (To convince yourself, try to slide and rotate a plastic credit card on a carpet. Then do the same with a large coin.) This is why speed skaters must constantly shift their feet to the inside when they are on a curved stretch. Flat blades are not appropriate for figure skating either: Elvis Stojko could never spin or perform his triple-axels without slightly rounded blades.
The blade is firmly attached to the sole of the boot with plastic or metallic fixtures. The boot itself is usually made of leather or, more commonly these days, nylon and other hardy synthetic materials. En- gineers in the skating industry are continually looking to improve the design by using materials that are more resistant, durable, and com-fortable to wear. Recently, special gel-like substances were introduced in the inside padding of the boot; this gel molds to the shape of the ankle and provides a better grip on the foot.
The boot, as every hockey player knows, is very stiff and has a hard toe area to protect from the impact of an oncoming puck. Players need to lace their boots up tightly above the ankle in order to prevent ankle motion, especially lateral (side-to-side) movement, which may cause injuries. Loose skates put an unnecessary amount of stress on the ankle and create instability. The ankle shouldn't be allowed to move sideways in order for the leg to push consistently with each stroke. However, the boot permits a limited amount of medial (front-back) ankle motion, to allow the calf muscle to push forward and to ease knee-bending when the player crouches.
One drawback to a stiff and tightly laced skate is that it tends to cut offblood circulation to the foot-and without blood flow, the body's extremities cannot keep warm. Sometimes kids learn this the hard way when they unlace at the end of the game on a cold day. As the normal blood flow returns to the feet, it is a very painful experience to realize that your feet have been freezing the whole game!
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