Edge To Edge

Edge To Edge

Go Edge to Edge.

Has anyone out there ever waterskied, snowboarded, cross country or downhill skied?  Have you felt that need for speed?  Stay on the flat of the ski and look like you’re in slow motion.  Shift your weight and find the edge and you start to fly.  Start shifting you’re weight laterally side to side in a coordinated synchronized pattern and it’s like adding Jet Fuel.  Full throttle.  Max velocity baby!

It’s the same thing on the ice.  Only the patterns and weight shift coordination are more complex.  When working with struggling players at the NHL level, the first thing we look at is their movement patterns.  100% of the time, we notice an increased pattern on their inside edge.  AKA, slow.  Linear.  Unless you’re loaded with type 2b muscle fibres.  Most players using these patterns just can’t get there.  The other issue, it’s fatiguing.  Firing the big muscles of the glute, hamstring and adductors requires a tremendous amount of energy.  This effects lactate production in the musculature and normally results in shorter shift length and certainly a lack of jam at the end of a shift. That little poke of the puck at your defensive blue line that could spring you on a 2-1 break?  Don’t have the legs for it.  Missed opportunities to help your TEAM win games, all because of a movement pattern choice.  Really interesting.

Buzzing edge to edge facilitates the production of movement.  The first thing that comes to mind is a concept that we call “Free Speed”.  It’s a movement concept of the force coupling when producing a calibrated eccentric to concentric contraction.  Tons of force for less effort because of the “Free Speed” generated.  Ever witness that bounce in a fluid boxer or MMA fighter?  How about a graceful skater?  There is this flow, this bounce in their step.  We call it cadence of movement.  It’s beautiful.  Super-fast and tremendously efficient.  Just check out guys like Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, this is the biggest keys to their game.

In this clip McDavid picks this puck up at the end of a long shift but is still able to blow by everyone because of how efficiently he can move!

So how to go Edge to Edge?  Like most of life it’s all about working on the patterns.  Coordination in the body is trained with repetitive coordinated movement. When training patterns, don’t focus too much on the biomechanical asymmetry.  That won’t help the macro pattern.  It will refine it.  Coaches all over the world get really confused about this concept and when skating Edge to Edge the need is for pattern training and recognition, not biomechanics.  We’ve worked with so many NHL players that if we didn’t focus on pattern training, we’d still be stuck in the mud and skating slow by queuing biomechanical targets.  It’s actually quite amazing the number of athletes with weak biomechanical data but who have huge Edge to Edge pattern recognition or other patterns for that matter.  That coordination is the equalizer.  The other thing to recognize about the battle between biomechanics and movement pattern recognition is that not all brains are wired the same.  Some of us have an ability to learn more of one over the other.  Great athletes have an easier time controlling both.  That’s what makes them so special.  Now start to add all of the skill complexes, mapping of situations out on the ice and you really begin to understand the complexity and ultimately multi-faceted talents of great hockey players.  It’s spectacular.

One other last thing about moving Edge to Edge that we think is also really important.  Angles.  For the young players out there, this geometry lesson will strike a chord, just like the puck bounces off the boards or a pad at a predictable angle based on the location of the shot/pass attempt, the same is true when moving on the ice.  Going Edge to Edge allows this phenomenon to occur.  And again, it’s free.  Moving in angles produces opportunities to move in adjacent angles, it also dictates movement from your opponent so he/she is reacting to you.  Coupled with the sheer speed that these patterns produce and we’ve to 3 words for you.  Tough to contain.  Just what we are looking for.  Perfect.

So, next time you’re looking to add some speed to your game.  Go Edge to Edge.  Next time your trying to have that extra jam at the end of your shift.  Go Edge to Edge.  And next time you’re looking to dust that D-man by attacking the angles.  Go Edge to Edge.  It will be the best thing you do to your game, Free Speed baby, go get it!

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