In this video, Karen Olson discusses the importance of the entire kinetic chain of joint and muscle usage for powerful jumping. As she notes, it is common, especially for lower level skaters, to struggle with properly engaging the glutes and hips. She begins off-the ice by demonstrating and discussing how we stand up from a seated position, and how we sit back down. There is a natural sequence of events and movements starting with leaning forward with the body an properly using the ankles, knees and hips.
Karen thinks of it as being initiated from the glutes, followed by the quads (knees) and then the ankles. She shows the process and demonstrates two-legged squats from a seated position, and then jump squats from the seated position. Again, she initially wants the focus on the glutes and hips. She explains that skaters who do not properly fire the hips through the take-off typically struggle with landings since the hips are often set back.
On the ice and at the boards, Karen has skaters do similar standstill jumping off two feet to really master the proper sequence of events and start generating the desired power. Karen shows how this progression works with swizzle hops, both forward and backward. Finally, she has skaters do repeated hops from one foot to the other using only back inside edges, focusing the entire time on the timing and chain of events.
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