Training Articles

The best way to work on corner technique is on the ice. That, of course, would be the most specific training; train on ice for performance on ice. So if you have any access to either long or short track ice in the summer, take advantage of it and use the ice time to do the technical drills for the corners that you sometimes don’t have enough time for during the season.

For most skaters, however, ice time in the summer is a rare commodity. So how to work on corner technique in this situation? Well, the principle of specificity should guide you choice of activities here too. The next most specific activity you can do is roller skating (in-line skating). Find a good, clean, safe area for skating and you might even want to take a tape measure with you to scribe out a circle similar to the radius we skate on the ice (long track 25m, short track 11m). Then do interval type training on the circle working on all the components of good corner technique: good leg bed, whole body lean to the left, left hip to the inside, shoulders and trunk in line with the hips, push directly to the side with both legs, and trunk in line with the hips, push directly to the side with both legs, push through the middle of the skate, keep the skates low during recovery, keep an even rhythm with equal time on each skate, and time the push so that you spend as little time as possible on two skates. Video is easy to do with roller skating and you will learn a lot from watching yourself, as long as you know what good corner technique looks like and how to correct any errors you might be making. Suggest to your coach that you do video every month or six weeks so that you can monitor your improvement. Remember that with roller skates, all skaters have a tendency to skate a little bit higher, so try to concentrate on staying as low as possible.

No roller skates (In-line)? Well, now the choice of training activities becomes a little more limited, and a little less specific. Nevertheless, you can still find some activities that should help. Corner imitations are your best bet. These can be done on flat ground, up hill, or either of the above using surgical tubing for extra resistance. Whatever method you use, remember to concentrate on the key points of good corner technique. Leg bend is always so important on turns. So is keeping the shoulders and trunk in line with the hips during all phases of the stride. And when you push, it should be directly out to the side, and through the middle of your foot. It is hard to simulate a body lean on flat ground, and for that reason, working up a hill, or against the resistance of surgical tubing is a good idea. Remember with the lean through, that it is a lean of the whole body, not just with the shoulders. Think of a tree falling in the forest, or the Leaning Tower of Pisa. No shoulders sticking out first in those two examples!

To help with the lean, do the drill coaches use on the ice. Start in basic skating position with the feet together. You will need to do this by a wall, or with a friend who can catch you. Just close your eyes to help visualize yourself falling, and without moving your shoulders first, shift your centre of gravity (your hips!) to the left. If you have a good wall, or a trustworthy friend, you should only fall about six inches at first, but you can gradually increase the leaning distance as you get more confident (pick you friends carefully!). And as you fall, imagine yourself leaning around the corner at high speed, keeping you body in line and under control, and pushing directly to the side.

Once you have the start of a good lean, try to start all your corner imitations with that concept. Shift you hips to start the step, keep you shoulders in line with the hips, and push as you start to fall to the side. Do this with both right and left leg pushes, remembering, of course, that on the turns, both legs push to the right.

Imitations are good for learning corner technique because you can work as slowly as you need to in order to practice some part of technique you are having trouble with You have a good stable base of support on you big flat feet, so balance is less of a problem. You can also really concentrate on keeping a good leg bend and on pushing to the side. But remember that the best transfer to skating comes from the most specific training activities. A good progression for the summer may then be to start working on corner technique during imitations to get the basic building blocks of good technique in place. Then you might try to move your new technique to either rollers or ice to see if you can maintain the improvements. Video is very helpful with this process, and you should use it if you can. Whatever method you use, most skaters will benefit from concentrated corner technique work in the off-season. Don’t feel you have to do too much of if, but what your body is doing, and try to think/feel your way through your problems as you correct them. When you realize you aren’t concentration any more, stop, rest and try again. And enjoy the sunshine!

I’m sure almost every reader of Bicycle Ontario is familiar with the concept of “spinning”, which is the use of high pedaling rates of 80 to 120 leg revolutions per minute (r.p.m.). The first advice a novice rider is likely to receive from a coach or experienced cyclist is to pedal “about 100 r.p.m.”. The usual argument given for this practice is that the use of “big gears” which the rider is not ready for will lead to strain and injury, especially of the knees, while the use of smaller gears at high pedaling rates allows one to go just as fast. The CCA Racing Rules ensure that this tradition is observed by limiting the maximum gears young racers may use.

What accounts for this fundamental piece of cycling wisdom? Usually one hears that “this is the way the best cyclists (i.e. top racers) do it”. In other words there must be advantages or these riders would not have learned to “spin”. Surprisingly, however, the bulk of scientific research on untrained cyclists shows the most efficient pedaling rate is between 40 and 60 r.p.m. Is it possible millions of cyclists are wrong?

First, let’s examine the need for “efficiency”. For a cyclist, the object is to travel at an acceptable speed (higher in a race, lower when commuting to work with the minimum energy cost. This is especially important for a racer who must make the most of stored reserves of carbohydrate while simultaneously avoiding fatigue, the most common way to measure physical work output is by measuring the volume of oxygen consumed by the body for aerobic energy production, abbreviated VO2. Riding at 40 km/h at a pedaling rate requiring 4 litres of oxygen per minute is more efficient than riding at the same speed with a pedaling rate requiring 4.2 litres/minute. How is it, then, that untrained riders use the least oxygen at 50 r.p.m. when trained riders tend to use the least O2 pedaling at 80-90 r.p.m.? It’s not due to any difference in “fitness” between the two types of rider, because the efficiency of the body is relatively fixed. Fitter people can do more work, but doing a little work cost them just as much as it costs an “unfit” person.

Let’s examine some of the facts. First, we know that left to him- or her-self, a “beginner” will pedal much more slowly than a veteran cyclist, perhaps at 50-60 r.p.m. to the trained cyclists’ 90-100. Second, we know that when expert riders pedal at 50 r.p.m. in a “high” gear, compared to 100 r.p.m. in a “low” gear, so that they are maintaining a constant speed, the low r.p.m. pedaling feels uncomfortable or perhaps even painful. Third, we know that to maintain a racing speed of 40 km/h at 100 r.p.m. would require a gear of 53 x 17, while 60 r.p.m. a 62 x 12 gear would be needed. This means the cyclist would have to generate nearly twice as much force per pedal stroke at the lower r.p.m.

To the average recreational or commuting cyclist, there is no need to travel at 40 km/h, so the need for a 62 x 12 gear does not arise. That’s why a slow pedaling rate is adequate for these riders. For the racer or enthusiast who wants to travel at high speed, riding at a much slower pedal rate and a larger gear could lead to problems within the working muscles. It has long been known that powerful muscle contractions momentarily squeeze shut, preventing entry of oxygen-rich blood. At the high work rates needed to travel 40 km/h the muscle has a high demand for oxygen needed for aerobic energy production, so an interruption in blood supply forces the muscle to provide needed energy anaerobically, with consequent generation of lactic acid and increased likelihood of fatigue. Research bears this out: low r.p.m., high effort cycling is rated “more effortful” by trained and untrained cyclist alike, and the “most efficient” pedaling rate is higher at higher work loads (i.e. the most efficient pedaling rate could be 60 r.p.m. for someone traveling 40 km/h but 50 r.p.m. at 30 km/h). With this in mind, we can guess that “spinning” is a skill riders learn to avoid the fatigue associated with low r.p.m., high effort cycling.

What about studies showing that high r.p.m. pedaling is more efficient for experienced cyclists? If these findings were correct, trained riders would actually be pedaling differently and saving energy in the process. What if the equipment used by experienced cyclists, such as toe clips, straps, and cleated shoes, plus constant practice at higher r.p.m. made his type of pedaling more efficient? Studies have shown that non-cyclists are significantly more efficient with this equipment. This tends to indicate that practice with this equipment allows the cyclist to change the pedaling action. By holding the foot to the pedal, less energy would be needed to keep the feet in place, and the cleats can be used to pull up on the pedal. This could lead to more coordinated use of the leg muscles with less stress on any particular muscle at a given moment. At the same time, research not related to cycling has shown that practice of a movement can lead to changes in the “firing pattern” of the nerves activating the muscles. There are therefore reasons to believe that training and equipment could make experienced cyclists more efficient at high pedal rates.

Finally, it is worth noting that all research on pedaling speed seems to agree on one point: efficiency decreases slowly at pedaling rates less than the “most efficient” one, but it falls off very quickly at rates faster than the optimum. When a study finds 85 r.p.m. to be most efficient, it is much more wasteful to pedal at 105 r.p.m. compared to 65 r.p.m. All evidence suggests that cyclists should not pedal at more than 100 r.p.m. The exception would be the track sprint specialist who could not easily accelerate a gear high enough to avoid 100 plus r.p.m. pedaling when the sprint is “wound up”. For road riders, however, pedal rates of 80-95 r.p.m. are likely t give the best results.

In summary, we can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that there really is a point to “spinning”. It’s not just a myth passed down through the years. At the same time, we should remember that more of a good thing is not always better, and learning to pedal at over 100 r.p.m. may be a waste of time and energy.

An exclusive interview with Charles Poliquin, one of the most successful strength coaches for speed skating in the world.

American speed skaters will recognize the name of Canadian strength coach Charles Poliquin, but the athletes he has trained reads like a Who's Who of the sport: Kevin Scott, Christine Boudrias, Angela Cutrone, Isabelle Charest, Marc Gagnon, Sylvian Gagnon and Nathalie Lambert. Last year his Short Track athletes earned 14 medals in the World Championships. Charles Poliquin is, unquestionably, one of the greatest strength coaches in the world.

Although he calls Calgary home, Coach Poliquin spends most of his time in Europe. He is trilingual, has a Master's degree in Human Kinetics from the University of Montreal, and bases many of his training protocols on research conducted in Germany and Norway. His programs are a result of his extensive international contacts, working not only with the finest athletes but also the most respected strength and conditioning scientists. In the following interview, Coach Poliquin discusses many of his revolutionary training methods.

RB: What are the primary differences between training Short Track and Long Track skaters?

CP: With Short Track a quicker start is more important, and because of that these athletes need more maximal strength. They also need to perform more plyometric drills because their stride frequency is greater.

RB: If maximal strength is more important for Short Track, can I assume your Short Track skaters are stronger than your Long Track skaters?

CP: On a pound-for-pound basis, yes. On absolute levels, no, because Long Track skaters tend to be bigger athletes. Although there are exceptions, the typical Short Track male champions are about 5 feet 10 inches and 160 pounds, whereas the Long Track skaters are about six feet tall and usually weigh no less than 185 pounds.

RB: What is the relationship between muscle mass and performance in speed skating?

CP: What we have found is that our results internationally have improved with increased levels of muscle mass, especially in the sprints. The effects of increased muscle mass are most significant on the start. But thers's an optimal amount of muscle mass for each event, and if you get too big it hinders your endurance.

RB: How much time do your speed skaters spend in the weight room?

CP: In the strength building phase they work out four times a week, and during the competitive phase once a week. There are also extra strength workouts during the Christmas period. Each workout usually lasts about one hour, not including warmup. Basically the philosophy is to get in, warm up, get the job done, and then make friends.

RB: What are the best training exercises for speed skaters?

CP: For the lower body I emphasize stepups, split squats, front squats and back squats. For the upper body, what's been shown to correlate best with performance is how much a skater can chin and how much they can incline press.

RB: Do you use resistance training machines or just free weights?

CP: I limit the use of machines to about 25 percent of the load.

RB: You've said that Kevin Scott can back squat, all the way down, 462 pounds. Do you also have any women doing impressive lifts?

CP: Angela Cutrone could incline press 165 pounds weighing 128 pounds - that's pretty impressive. Nathalie Lambert could do front split squats with 198 pounds for five reps. I remember this guy who desperately wanted to know when Nathalie trained. I asked if he wanted to meet her and he said no - he just didn't want to work out when she did because she intimidated him!

RB: In an article that appeared in the Skaters Edge about the Canadian Short Track program, it said you vary workouts every three weeks. Do all your athletes use this program?

CP: That model applies to probably 80 percent of my athletes.

RB: What is the major difference between your workouts and those designed by other strength coaches?

CP: My workouts tend to have more variation of the major training variables such as sets, reps and tempo.

RB: That article also said that exercises for speed skaters should be split 50-50 between the upper and lower body. Why is that?

CP: Acceleration begins from the upper body, hence the need for upper body maximal strength. Also, skaters are often limited in their lower body exercises by the amount of strength in the upper body to support the load, particularly the scapulae retractors. Skaters from other countries are known to have developed brachialis ten-donitis from supporting the bar in back squats.

RB: Which plyometric drills do your speed skaters perform?

CP: I try to make the plyometric drills specific to speed skating. Generally we do a lot of angular work, where you train at the 45-degree push off to imitate the stride component.

RB: What about complex training, the type in which you superset a weight training exercise with a plyometric exercise?

CP: I would like to do more of that - it's a very good system. Unfortunately, the way most weight rooms are set up it's usually not practical. Where my bobsledders train it's possible to do complex training, but if my speed skaters did it in the facility where they train they'd be landing on people doing leg curls and incline presses.

RB: Do you do anything special in regard to flexibility?

CP: Speed skaters have concentrate on flexibility of the pelvis. Because they skate primarily in one direction, most Short Trackers have a spine that seems to be oriented towards the curve - they look like a tree that's suffered from long term exposure to heavy winds! If we catch them early we can alleviate a lot of that with stretching.

RB: Do you supplement all your strength workouts with aerobic training?

CP: We do minimal aerobic work during the strength building phase.

RB: Why is that?

CP: For elite athletes it only takes about 6-8 weeks to build the aerobic system, so all that's necessary during the rest of the year is a maintenance program. Of course your lactate threshold can improve, but as far as the V02 max, it won't.

RB: Are you saying that speed skaters only need to emphasize aerobic training two months out of the year?

CP: That's correct, but remember we're talking about elite athletes.

RB: Do you use slideboards?

CP: No, they are damaging to the knee.

RB: Is insufficient resistance also a problem with slideboards?

CP: Even when there is enough overload it's not in the right force pattern. If you want to improve your skating stride you've got to do it "on ice" with resistive devices. Towing is good for this because the coach can effectively regulate the resistance with the angulation of their blades.

Reprinted with permission from the Racing Blade, October 1995.