Kathleen Gazich, Videos

Forward Crossover Power Lesson (Kathleen Gazich)

In Kathleen’s lesson, she breaks down forward crossovers for a student who already knows how to do them, but not efficiently.

Beginning with powerturns while holding a stick out wide in front of him, the skater must rotate his shoulders while turning, then step into a crossover. Kathleen is trying to have her athlete feel the shoulder rotation at the same time as feeling the push. While the skater is getting the shoulder rotation objective, the push isn’t as strong as Kathleen would like to see. His goal should be to press down into the ice before he pushes out.

He tries the drill again while she reminds him to let it glide and feel his weight on his inside foot.

The next layer Kathleen adds in is to feel the undercut. For this, she wants him to stay on two feet and ‘push it under’ while holding the edge. Usually Kathleen will teach crossovers on one foot, but having the skater stay on two feet ‘keeps them honest’ for this drill. Players often kick their inside foot up during crossovers, and keeping both feet down helps them to feel which direction their foot should be pushing in.

As the athlete performs the drill again, Kathleen reminds us that the shoulders not only assist in tightening the turn, but give the athlete a chance to look down the ice to see where they’re going.

To wrap up the lesson, the athlete does the drill while gliding on one foot and trying to implement all the positioning and shoulder leans he just practiced. We can see that his technique is much better, but Kathleen still has to remind him to hold the edges, rotate the shoulders and avoid the blade slipping on the ice. “Push and power” with each one to be efficient is what she’s looking for.

Of course, small modifications need to be made when in a backhand position, especially with a puck because the player won’t be rotating the shoulders as much.

This type of detail is more difficult to achieve in a group setting, and this clip demonstrates the benefit of a private power skating lesson with individualized feedback.