Skating skills and moves in the field specialist Karen Olson shares exercises and insights to improve power pulls. She begins by noting that many skaters don’t find working on power pulls interesting or enjoyable. One way to make them more interesting is to have skaters do them with both arms overhead, usually with hands clasped together. This is also great for improving posture and quieting excessive movements in the upper body, and it’s a great way to focus on what the knees and ankles are doing (or not doing). She uses arms overhead for both forward and backward pulls.
Karen then suggests another drill to keep power pull practice more interesting than just going down long axis of the rink doing the pulls. The exercise is essentially 3 power pulls across the ice, followed by a transition to reverse at the wall (typically a crossover but sometimes just a push or undercut). Using the concept, skaters can slowly work their way down the ice doing pulls that start on either foot and either edge.
Next, Karen discusses the down and up knee and ankle motion needed to create power, as well as the reversing shoulder movements. She explains the concept of bending at or prior to the apex of the lobe and pressing down (body rising up) to come across the axis. Done on two feet, this can help skaters get the desired timing and movements.
The name “power pulls” may be one reason some skaters struggle with these. They aren’t really “pulls” in the sense that the free leg does not pull the skater in the desired direction. For forward pulls Karen says, “Your free leg in front of you can help draw your hips underneath you so you that can get more back on your blade. It isn’t that your (free) leg is pulling. It’s more of a power push (by the skating leg).”
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