Ice Skating Edge Training: The Crab Walk Drill

Ice Skating Edge Training: The Crab Walk Drill – Inside (Nick Perna)

Nick Perna continues a series of videos covering drills and exercises he uses to help his skaters develop power, agility, coordination, and edge control and awareness. In the first two videos in this series, Nick taught the Bread Drill and the Banana Drill. In this video, Nick explains and demonstrates the Crab Walk Drill. Nick says, “I call it the crab walk because you’re going to be looking like a crab as you do it.”

As Nick notes, this drill applies to skaters at all levels, including beginners. He starts by drawing a “peanut” shape on the ice with an “X” in the middle. He then show how to step and move to do the backward inside crab walk drill. He says, “So the move when it’s done correctly has kind of like a moon-walking effect.” The idea is that the skater is standing in basically one spot but moving continuously on back inside edges.

The trick is to turn the skates in each time when taking a new step. This internal rotation is important for jumping and is rarely taught in figure skating. The upper body remains fixed in place, facing straight ahead. Nick wants the skater to step onto the blade itself (stomping spot) and not the toe pick. It’s important to keep the hips under during the drill.

The most common errors are scratching the toe picks and sticking the hips out behind. The skater should keep the hips under them and use the middle of the blade.

Nick notes you can do this to a rhythm or music (see end of video). And once a skater can do it comfortably in one spot, Nick has them move forward and backward. When moving forward, the edges are still skating backward, creating a fun and counterintuitive effect. The blade is still skating backward, but the skater is taking a step forward after each edge. After the skater has mastered forward and backward, Nick adds side to side motion and even diagonal movement.

Near the end of the video, Nick demonstrates forward inside crab walks. Again, the skater can move forward or backward while skating forward in this drill.

Another great drill!!