During a typical Inzell Training camp, we try to work on every separate aspect of the speedskating technique. After assessing every participant individually, we are able to coach on an individual basis. This sounds more complicated than it is in reality, everyone gets individualised cues, but the theme of a trainingsession is still the same.
In the first trainingsession we always focus on establishing a stable base position, the bending of the ankle, getting the ankle in closed back position. This is the same for everyone on every skill level. Allthough for every skater we have to focus on a different depth of exercising and feedback.
After establishing a good baseposition we focus on getting the body weight on top of the pushing leg and building pressure into the ice from there. Therefore the second session is mostly focussed on working the recovery leg and hip, which gives the drive in the speedskating movement.
For practising or learning corner technique, we follow the same strategy. From experience we like to prepare a cornering technique training in a dryland session, the day before. By teaching the corner movement pattern on dryland using cornerbelts and elastic cables, the transfer to ice is much easier.
A typical trainingsession consists of short individual warm-up, followed by some technique exercises. To lock in the new technique, into everyones individual style, we finish a training session by doing actual training exercises, like 100/200/300m accelerations and tempo laps, focussing especially on moving at higher cadans. This way we do gradually faster repetitions, to transfer the newly acquired movement patterns into your own technique.
The general themes during a trainingweek are:
• basic posture
• balance
• rhytm
• placement of the skate
• push
• recoveryleg
• timing
These themes apply as well to straights as to corners.
Checkout the YouTube channel to see what we accomplish during a trainingcamp, there are several videos available of participants last summer. Also checkout the technique training videos to get a feel with my approach to speedskating technique.
