Renae Sundgren works with a skater she hasn’t seen in a while, so her goal is to evaluate his stride. She begins by videoing him doing “drag-toe” lunges into the fastest strides he can do. In the video review, Renae points out the length of his stride and the “box” that is his torso. She tells him “when his shoulders move, you start twisting and you lose speed.” Comparing his inertia to crash test dummies, she talks about how his shoulders need to stop his arms from making them turn.
A quick exercise to get the shoulders in the correct position, the skater is instructed to “shine” his shoulders up. The position is compared to a house where the knees lines up with the toes, and the ribs lead. Renae then has the skater jump up and clap his feet while trying to land in the same position he started with.
To reiterate the shoulder position one more time, the skater holds the stick above his head while lunging down the ice. This keeps the shoulders back and the back engaged.
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