Coaches I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. I believe in the side to side motion.

Quote by: TomM

Peter, thanks for posting this. I was hoping someone else would comment but I agree with the author in the article you posted. The stride is sideways and because 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction', the arm swing must be sideways to maximize the tension between the skate blade and the ice.

"Skilled and fast skating is essential for a young player to be
successful at ice sports such as hockey and ringette. Fast skaters are
characterized by a long sideways push off, forward trunk flexion, greater
knee flexion and hip flexion during push off, faster recovery following the
push off and a sideways arm swing. A wide skating stride using a large
range of hip abduction should be accompanied by a wide arm swing
using sideways arm movements. The shoulders should rapidly abduct
and adduct in a smooth movement pattern coordinated with the
abduction and adduction of the hips. Hockey coaches should teach the
arm swing in a sideways direction rather than in the forward backward
direction, in order to produce more skilled and faster skaters. The arm
swing sideways produces higher ground reaction forces on the driving
skate so the push off will produce higher ground reaction forces.
Coaches will also find that this sideways motion is a more natural
movement for most skaters, this arm swing will be easier to learn and
that it will improve the power and smoothness of the skating stride."

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Thank you Tom