Picking Technique

Well... a new season a new sled. Being old, heavy but still strong, I'm pretty tough on my sled. They usually lasts me about a season before something needs replacing. What is the correct balance point, height and how does it effect picking technique.

This year I have a little empirical evidence to quantify my sled setup since we are doing time trials at weekly at practices. Also I have my, now powerfully built, son to compare against.

Efficiency is the key. You don't want to have wasted movement that could otherwise be used to move you forward.

One item of technique is clear in my mind. If your sled rocks back and forth you're scrubbing off speed. A good rule of thumb is that if you can hear your blades on the ice you're wasting energy and it's slowing you down. This includes when you're pumping your arms during picking or carving a turn. If you can hear your blades crunching the ice or slipping around a corner, energy is gone that could have moved you down the ice faster.

Seat/blade position is key in eliminating the back and forth rocking motion of the sled. When you watch the national team skating, their sleds are dead level. Competing with my son I found that I brought my blades forward so that my head had to be over my knees before the toe of my sled touched down narrowed his lead, in a lap time from 3 seconds to 0.10 seconds. It was a little uncomfortable having to sit more forward, to prevent tipping, but well worth the speed increase.

Another hint is that if you're stabbing the ice too hard with your picks, you're again wasting energy. It's, of course, a fine line between having your picks skip, because you didn't stab hard enough and wasting energy driving them too hard into the ice but it's worth exploring where that line is. Save the power for the stroke.

Keep the sticks as parallel to the ice as possible. There is a limit since if you go too low your picks will skip (loose grip) but again it's worth exploring where this limit is.

The next parameter I intend to explore is seat height. Last year's sled had me sitting quite high. This year's sled I'm lower. I appreciate how easy it is to right my self when I fall over but I'm going to go higher again to see if I'm giving up speed.

All this being said, remember I'm an able bodied individual and not all hints may apply to all players. Still, it pays to experiment a bit and try to make yourself faster with a few tricks and some good technique!

Please comment and let me know if you have any other tips that you might want to share.