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November 27, 2020
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Let’s Play Hockey
Teaching a crossover
Crossovers are one of the most important skating skills there is for many reasons. I always ask my students, “How many crossovers do you think you do in a Answers MN Wild Skating & game?” Skills Instructor will vary with the age of the student, but the fact of the matter is that you will use crossovers every shift. If you ever watch a specific player throughout the course of their shift, you will see and may be surprised at how many crossovers they will do. They may come in different forms such as tight corner crossovers, bigger loop crossovers, alternating crossovers, a crossover start, backwards crossovers, and many other forms as well. For this article we will break down the technique of a basic crossover. The first thing we must understand is why are we using a crossover. The answer is to move laterally or corner. We are not players in the CHEXX bubble hockey game just going straight up and down the ice, we need to move laterally and continue to build speed as we do so. So, what’s the first step? The first step is to understand that we turn our head, stick, and shoulders in the direction that we would like to go, much like turning your handlebars on your bike. The stick should lead out in front of you and not be dragging behind as you commit to your turn. If your stick is technically in a sound position to crossover, it will be in a perfect position to accept a pass or control the puck on a corner. Once we have our upper body and torso committed to corner, we must remember to get a body lean into our turn. If you watch speed skating, it is a perfect example to see how a skater can accelerate through a turn. By leaning into your turn, you are creating less of an angle to the ice and therefore creating more speed around the corner. All the great skaters in the NHL that can corner and build speed have an excellent body lean along with strong outside edges to keep a skater from losing control on their skates or falling.
Andy Ness
If you watch a skater like Nathan McKinnon you will understand why cornering is so important for his game. He is able to use his speed by picking up the puck behind the net during a power play breakout and beat the first two forecheckers. He is able to accelerate out of the zone on a center swing during a breakout. Finally, he can use his crossovers to beat a defenseman wide on a one on one or a line rush. The next step is to push your outside foot on an inside edge out to the side. If the push “kicks” back, you will be on the flat of your blade and lose power because you will not be pushing on an edge. After you push the foot out, the outside foot should come all the way over the inside foot and not just in front of it. This is an important concept to remember because bringing the foot all the way over is what makes the skater turn. That is the reason we are crossing over in the first place – to turn right or left. Once the outside skate is all the way over you should aim to have your toes lined up with one another, not staggered. This is very important because it leads right into our last step which is the under push. The under push is from the inside leg outside edge. It should feel as if you are “rolling” the foot under your other skate. You will hear the sound of an edge pushing in the ice if the under push is executed properly. As I stated earlier, it is important to try to line your toes up once the skate is completely crossed over. If not, you will get more of a running motion with ineffective pushes that will be “kicking” back rather than on our edge. “Head bobbing” is one of the biggest common mistakes that I see. We must understand that to create power we need to push against the ice with an edge. As a skater is head bobbing, all of his/her momentum is wasted by coming up instead of out in the direction one would want to go. Also, “head bobbing” is one of the main reasons why skaters will lose the puck when cornering. If a skater is going up and down, that will in turn bring their upper body (stick positioning) up and down. What happens next is the puck goes right under the skater’s stick or the skater will just
Jordan Schroeder crossover.
Nick Bjugstad crossover.
Teemu Kivihalme crossover. mishandle the puck. We are looking to keep a level and or “quiet” upper body as we perform our crossovers. Any wasted movement is unnecessary and makes it very difficult to control a puck. Also, when we move our feet quicker, we must remember to keep our good technique. As we go full speed, the technique stays the same, we just turn our feet over quicker. Depending on the situation in a game, our crossover speed may change but our technique should stay the same. As you can see, crossovers are a vital part of the game. This is a skill that can be worked at and improved upon. It takes repetition of good technique but
will be extremely beneficial to help a player’s game. I will break down more of the different types of crossovers that will be used in a hockey game in future articles. Continue to work on this skill and you will see a dramatic improvement if performed correctly. Andy Ness is the head skating and skill coach for the Minnesota Wild. He has also been an assistant skating instructor for the New Jersey Devils, the University of Minnesota men’s and women’s hockey teams and the U.S. Women’s Olympic Hockey Team.
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