The Hockey Powerturn

Eileen Peerless: I am Eileen Peerless, hockey power skating instructor and coach. I have two of my students with me who will demonstrate the power turn. This is Melvin John Nichols and this is Michael Desau (ph). They are going to help me demonstrate the power turn. I am going to ask Melvin John to skate out. He is going to do the power turn and when you do the power turn your weight is on the back leg, not the front leg; both legs are bent at a 90 degree angle; your shoulders rotate in the direction you want to travel; you come back and you sit on that back leg, the weight is on the back half of the blade on both legs, but most of the weight is on the back leg.

I am going to ask Michael to go down and do the same thing. You go around where you weight on the back leg, back half on the blade, both legs stay advanced, the shoulder rotates in the direction you want to go. The faster you go, the more important it is that the weight stays on the back leg. It does not gravitate to the front leg. If you have too much weight forward you are going to fall out of that. That blade is going to slip out. You do not want a straight leg on that back leg. It should not be loft; the knee should not be loft. You want it bent in a sitting position. The faster you go, the more important is that you are going to keep this position on the ice, which is a very low position to the ice. Edge is very deep; the front edge must drop to a 45 degree angle. The faster you go the closer you feel you are going to go.

I am going to ask Melvin John to skate down to the blue line as fast as he can and do a power turn and come back. His feet will stay fairly close together because he is going to go fast, the feet should be underneath the body. You have to support that body. If you do not, you are asking for a fall and what turns him are the shoulders. He is going to turn in the direction that he wants to go -- very good. So always make sure that the body is over the two feet, not just one and it should not be forward. You want to make sure that the back knee is bent and you are sitting on that and the blade, the back half of the blade is what is into the ice and that is the technique involved in the power turn. We want to thank the Capital Clubhouse at Waldorf, Maryland for letting us come here and demonstrate my skating techniques and we hope that you have enjoyed this and that you have learned something from it and you will take these tips to the ice and practice.