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This is a description of the sequence of all the leg movements available
to effectively help skate forward to go somewhere, along with analysis
of the physics of how some of the less-obvious moves are able to
contribute to propulsion -- and some hints for how to perform some of
the moves more effectively.
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Some of the moves are surprising, and some of the
physics is not intuitive.
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This description is more detailed and more
carefully rooted in physics than anything I've found so far in
English. I suspect there are some elite racing coaches who know this
stuff (and more accurately), but I haven't yet found where any of
them have written it down.
?? [ this might need to be revised somewhat ]
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There's a large number of muscle moves available to
add to forward-propulsion power (see
Muscle Moves page). Some of these muscles are small, but put a
bunch of them together and the gain in speed is significant.
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The sequence of moves available is way more
complicated than I ever expected. Skating is at least twice as
complicated as running or bicycling.
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Timing and pre-configuration and sequence are
critical for gaining the effectiveness of many of these moves (see
Sequence of Phases page).
?? see more specific findings: normal-push moves
implications
?? [ this might need to be revised somewhat ]
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There's lots of opportunities for improving speed
(or taking some load off from the obvious major muscles) thru better
techniques.
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A key puzzle is how to coordinate and manage the
complexity: in performance, in learning, in coaching. Few skaters
could be expected to understand this complexity. The mission of the
gifted coach (or of the "trainer of coaches") is to somehow distill
and transform it into helpful and fun.
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Trying to figure out what works best by rational
systematic trial-and-error search is unlikely to succeed -- because
lots of different moves work if done in the right context and timing
with other moves, but lots of those moves are ineffective or
counter-productive if done in a different combination or sequence or
timing.
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If you don't get too worried about arriving at the
true "best", there's lots of fun to be had with the learning process
-- just trying out different moves and combinations and feeling new
rhythms.
story
Several years ago I started trying to figure out how skating worked. I
read articles and books. I tried things out in my own skating, how
different moves felt to me, sometimes even measured difference in my
speed. I took lessons from good coaches. I analyzed videos of elite
racers using slow motion and pause and single-frame-advance. I analyzed
videos of my own skating. I analyzed the physics and biomechanics, even
made some numerical models. It's been fun.
Every six months or a year, I would think I had reached the
understanding of how skating worked. But then somebody would point out
something new, or I would get bothered by a new question. Then I'd see
that I didn't really understand skating and it was actually more
complicated than I'd thought. And each new level of understanding led me
to experience new magical fun feeling in my own skating.
Now I'm convinced that the motions of skating are very sophisticated and
surprising. I'm thinking that skating is the most complicated
human-powered propulsive movement on land (or water? perhaps more
complicated than freestyle swimming?)
Here I'm writing down what I've learned, to share the sophistication and
surprises with other skaters and investigators -- and to get responses
that will drive me to a yet deeper level of understanding, and a higher
level of fun in my own skating.
What this understanding offers:
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a framework for trying to make sense of the amazing complexity
of skating propulsion.
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a complete set of options of the muscular moves which are
available for the human body to use for skating propulsion.
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principles that explain why (sometimes surprising) each move is
effective. These principles can lead to ideas for how to make it
more effective, and a sense of how to feel its effectiveness.
Not -- this is:
- Not the "right" way to skate. Rather it shows why there
must be several "right" ways, for different skaters with different
goals in different situations.
- Not something which most skaters need to understand -- or even
read. Skaters will get much more help from taking a lesson
(and some help from reading the
Secrets).
- Not something every good instructor and coach needs to
understand. (though I think it's good for any instructor to try to
at least read, to get a sense of big the magic can get, and a sense
of how things can get confusing for their students).
- Not the right set of moves. Rather it's a set of
options for moves -- from which each skater can select to form
their individual style (likely with a different selection for
different situations).
- Not a manual for learning. This understanding is missing
two pieces critical for learning by a skating human: (a) the
subjective non-rational images which the conscious human mind needs
to handle the complexity of the physics; (b) the experience by our
unconscious untra-sophisticated neuro-muscular control centers of
new possibilities of propulsion, through being exposed to new moves
in cleverly-designed bodily exercises. For some attempts on filling
in those pieces, see some of the notes in the
Secrets.
- Not about tricks, or dance, or jumps, or slalom. The focus
is on propulsion: getting from one place to another by skating.
- Not about slowing or stopping. The understanding of those
is very important, but the focus here is on accelerating and
maintaining speed while skating.
- Not my final correct analysis. For a human activity this
rich, there's plenty of room for building more -- and surely
corrections to be made to what's here.
The most effective moves for skating are both tricky to figure out and tricky to learn
to perform. And perhaps even tricky to keep on performing all of them
consistently after learning them.
The number of moves that can be used for propulsion in skating is way
more than in walking, running, or bicycling -- like twice as many. Some
of these moves for skating feel natural and obvious because they're like
running and walking, but many are unexpected because they push more
sideways than forward.
Timing is important for many of the moves of skating. A move which is
helpful in one phase of the leg-push sequence might be
counter-productive in another phase. One move is helpful in the early
phase, and then the opposite move is helpful in a later phase of the
leg-push sequence. Almost any interesting tip or idea about what works
for skating is true and helpful for some phase -- and false or at least
misleading for some other phase.
What this website offers is a "framework" for navigating the overall
complexity (see sequence of phases),
and some principles for grasping the different kinds of strangeness of
some the individual moves (see underyling principles).
?? [ this might need to be revised somewhat ]
The phases available in the leg-move sequence are:
For lots more detail on the sequence of phases and moves, see
sequence of Phases.
There's also a sequence for Double-push technique.
variations and overlaps
In some person's actual skating, some of these phases might be omitted. Many
people skip parts of phases 1 and 3. Some phases often overlap with others:
especially phase 2 gets blended or submerged into phase 1 and/or phase 3.
Two legs: Of course there is overlap between the phases of one
leg with those of the other. Obviously phase R of one leg overlaps with
at least phase 2 of the other leg, and it's not surprising that phase 0
could overlap with some pushing phase 3 (or perhaps 2) of the other leg.
What really surprised me is that in videos of elite racers there can be
some
overlap of Phase 1 with Phase 3 -- both legs are delivering
forward-propulsion power at the same time.
?? [ this might need to be revised somewhat ]
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Phase 1 just after set-down is already directly
propulsive, not just passive preparation.
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Set-down phase 0 can already be propulsive. And
even the Recovery phase R can add propulsive work.
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Having it both ways: When skating, some
joints can deliver net power in both directions: e.g. flexion and
extension are both effective for forward propulsion -- but
only if done in the right timing and configuration.
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Skating is half natural and instinctive, and half
magical and counter-intuitive. Some of the effective moves in
skating are similar to what we do instinctively from walking and
running -- but lots of the other effective moves are completely
different from walking or running, and require a whole different
unexpected set of feelings and concepts.
For lots more detail on the sequence of phases and moves, see
sequence of Phases.
implications for learning
knowing
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Understanding rationally all these moves and phases and
principles is not important (or likely) for most skaters. The
details are intended mainly for scientists and a few advanced
coaches -- and for a few skaters who just love playing with the
feelings and ideas of different moves.
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Most skaters will learn these moves by various
non-rational feelings and images -- because our rational conscious
mind is simply not designed to grasp and handle this degree of
physics/biomechanics complexity.
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It's not surprising that a skater will hear different and
apparently contradictory concepts from different coaches, or
contradictory reports from their skating friends about "what
worked".
performing
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Few skaters are going to learn to perform all these moves. Fewer
are going to be able to effectively coordinate them together.
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Selecting a subset is a key step in the learning process. What
is a good subset will be different for each skater -- depending on
goals, athletic abilities, history, current stage in development.
There are many "right" ways to skate.
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A gifted and experienced instructor/coach is very valuable for
helping each skater find a good subset of moves to focus on, and to
experience the feelings and images that will enable learning them
and coordinating them.
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Only a few instructor/coaches will both understand the full
complexity of the moves and be good at helping each human skater to
find their individual feeling and performance of their individual
subset.
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Lots of other instructors will provide helpful learning
situations and fun experiences even without understanding most of
this.
racing at the elite level requires
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learning most of these individual moves, and the basic timing of each
move in the sequence of phases.
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coordinating fluidly combinations of the moves (while the required
complexity of this coordination might exceed what the capacity of
the neuromuscular control centers of the normal human brain).
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muscular development: developing the appropriate profile of
speed, endurance, and strength of each muscle used in these moves.
(not that each muscle gets its own exercise).
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optimizing the selected subset and proportional emphasis on
different moves for specific terrain and race-strategy situations.
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But isn't V02max capacity the critical limitation
on athletic power, so how can adding more muscles really help? --
see Questions.
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