Backward skating and pivots

Setup

1. Full equipment for everyone: helmet with full cage, mouthguard, neck guard, gloves, pads and skates.
2. Two lines on the goal line, one in line with each set of faceoff circles. Skaters start facing their own net, ready to skate backwards up the ice.
3. Pivot marks: the top of the circles, the far side of the blue line and the red line.

How it runs

1. On the whistle the front pair skate backwards with C-cuts to the top of the circles.
2. They open their hips and pivot to skating forwards, then accelerate through the blue line.
3. At the neutral-zone dot they pivot back to backwards, keeping their eyes up the ice, and skate backwards to the red line.
4. A last pivot to forwards and they sprint through the far blue line, then glide down the boards to rejoin the line.
5. The next pair goes when the pair in front reaches the red line. Four or five trips, then water.

Coaching points

• Backwards: sit as if on a chair, chest up, stick on the ice in front.
• C-cuts push out from under the body and come back to the middle.
• Pivot on the balls of the feet in one quick step; don't stop to turn.
• Open each pivot towards the middle of the ice so the eyes never leave the play, as a defender must.

Common mistakes

• Bending at the waist so the weight tips forward and the skates stall.
• Turning the back to the play during a pivot instead of opening up to it.
• Taking several small steps to turn round, which loses speed.