National level coach Debbie Warne-Jacobsen begins a short series of videos where she shares ideas for a well-balanced warm-up intended to be skated to begin the first on-ice session of the day. The purpose of this kind of warm-up is to get the skaters’ bodies moving and to improve foundational skills.
Debbie begins with simply asking her skaters to skate forward around the rink as fast as they can for two laps. The purpose of this is simply to get going and get warmed up, and no focus is placed on pretty skating or arm position. Natural arm movements and powerful pushes through the toes are important here.
Next, Debbie has the skaters do backward power pulls down the ice on one foot and back on the other foot. The purpose of these at this stage of the warm-up is to activate more muscles and have the skaters feel their edges. It also works rhythm and timing, and it’s a great way for skaters to focus on creating power from edges. Regardless of the level of skater, Debbie likes to start the day with back power pulls.
As a way to increase the difficulty of back power pulls and start warming up jumping muscles, Debbie then has the skaters do back power pulls hopping from edge to edge. She has them do this exercise down the blue line, so they can hop across the line. Notice the focus on “accelerating up off of the edge.” It can take time for skaters to master the timing and balance of this exercise. As with basic back power pulls, the tempo is critical here.
The next exercise is ten back crossovers followed by a push back into the landing position. Debbie has the skaters do this exercise twice, performing the back crossovers in each direction, but always pushing back to the skater’s normal landing position. Notice the emphasis on quality back crossovers with full extension and holding the landing position as still and strong as possible for three seconds.
Debbie ends this video with a short lesson on arms for landing position. Keeping the arms slightly forward on landing can be very helpful for many skaters to help check the rotation on multi-rotation jumps.
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