LATERAL SPEED / COD – CROSSOVER EMPHASIS

Lateral Speed or Change oof Direction (COD) drills are also commonly described as quickness or agility. Occasionally you’ll get that rare opportunity to showcase Linear Speed. We focus half your speed training program on linear speed because of the huge crossover and benefits in improving skating mechanics. But more often than not, and this is true for a lot of sports, speed is defined as your ability to get one step ahead of your opponent on a 10 yd distance. Positioning and combative strength are also relative, but the ability of an athlete to efficiently stop, change direction, and explode in another direction, is critical to athletic success.

Because skating is specific in nature requiring an athlete’s ability to utilize either inside or outside part of the foot (inside or outside edge of their skate) to generate power, we separate our Lateral Speed training into two separate categories based on two specific ways to start. An Open Hip Start, or a Crossover Start. How to apply force and footwork for each of these starts is very important.

CROSSOVER STARTS

A Crossover Start can be defined by an athlete, from an athletic position, crossing their Trail Leg in front of their Lead Leg to start in a specific direction. Your lead hip need to internally rotate during the crossover and quickly externally rotate as you transition for forward skating. The skater also needs to learn to land on the inside part of their crossover foot, as well as push off with the outside edge with the underside leg. Our Crossover Step mechanics will teach how to properly stop and load the hip to change direction, how to transfer weight and energy rapidly and efficiently in a different direction, and the foot work necessary to accomplish both actions.

Crossover Starts: Single Leg (Lead Leg) 3 Bound Start to Sprint

• Start in Single Leg Position, Weight on Lead Leg, Lateral to path of intent
• Posture is leaning slightly forward, in line with lead leg and foot
• Arms bent at 90°, Lead arm is swung back, Trail arm slightly forward. This is the Load Phase
• From this Starting position, explode aggressively pushing off the outside edge of the lead foot, attempting to cover as much distance as possible off the initial push
• This is accomplished by also internally rotating the lead hip getting full leg extension on the initial start
• At the same time, High knee stepover with the trail leg
• The underside leg will then externally rotate 90° in an open hip fashion to prepare for the landing of the next forward stride.
• Follow taking three powerful bounds to start your sprint, attempting to cover as much ground as possible in the shortest amount of time