September
GETTING THE WEIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PUSH!Eureka! OK, there I was lying in bed, thinking of a way to explain to a young skater at our Ellis Edge Summer Camp all the reasons why it was important to compress the ankle and bring the weight forward to the back part of the ball of the foot before pushing. We had talked that day about the advantages of pushing from a closed ankle position, in terms of locking the ankle in a stable position from which to push, the increased feeling of pressure under the ball of the foot before the push, the advantage of having the body act as a pendulum in creating forward momentum going in to the push. and the age old expression “GETTING THE WEIGHT BEHIND THE PUSH’.
Well, I darn near jumped out of bed! Heck, we don’t want the weight behind the push at all! We want the WEIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PUSH! If the weight were in back of the push you’d be completely on your heels and not able to use the body weight in accelerating your mass forward.
Just try to push against something heavy with your weight in back of your feet. Now try it with the weight in front of your feet and leaning in towards the object. For sure it moved easier with your weight in front of the push.
In skating the weight must transfer forward as well as to the side. Transferring only to the side gives the body sideways momentum, allowing the push to the side, but no forward momentum. To push to the side and effectively use the acceleration of mass in a forward direction the body must fall forward, as well as to the side, almost to the point of instability before pushing. The weight lands on the middle of the heel and the push is delayed until the weight has accelerated forward and to the side part to the back of the ball of the foot. In other words the weight travels diagonally across the foot.
Try standing on one foot in a basic position (100 degree knee bend) with the weight on the heel and the other leg in a recovery position. Can you propel your body forward from this position? Likely you could, to a certain degree.
Now move your weight forward to the ball of the foot by bending the ankle and moving the front part of the knee to a position past the toes. (Be careful not to drop the hips during this – the knee angle should remain at 100 degrees). Now can you propel your body forward? No doubt you went forward faster than when you were on your heel and, likely, you almost fell forward. This is getting the weight in front of the push and using the acceleration of body mass in increasing forward momentum.
So for those of you who have traditionally been taught to push from the heel, or even the mid part of the blade, you may want to rethink that theory and GET THE WEIGHT IN FRONT OF THE PUSH!
