In skating, what does the V position mean?

Question

i play hockeey and i read about how to improve my kating. people r always saying that you hould keep your feet in a V positon. what does tht mean? wouldnt you fall when you are skating? i thought that was a way to stop

Answer 1

The v position can mean a lot of things. But usually when my coach tells me to use the v position, she tells me to center myself in my scratch spin. To first hold the position, and then start "scratching yourself." You'll know what I mean when you start the spin. Or ask your coach about it.

Answer 2

That's how I skate, in a V position. This is kinda hard to explain but, what you would, is to push yourself forward with one leg (lets say it's your right) while keeping your left leg on the ground. Then you would push yourself forward using the other leg. And you just keep on alternating.

Hope this help. It's kinda hard to explain by using words.

Answer 3

You can skate on a flat (straight line) or on an edge.  An edge can be either your inside or your outside edge in stroking.

Any time you are on an edge you are going to have more power and you will be faster. You have more control on an edge, too.

The crucial part of stroking is the push, though.  You should push on an edge, an inside edge.  You don't want to be pushing on your toepick (well, I guess that probably isn't a problem for you in hockey skates!). But the push is what is taking you in that V formation.  Say you're pushing with your right foot and skating on your left.  Your right foot would push off at an angle to the left but behind a little so that it's more like

\

  /

Where the \ is the direction you're skating.  Then when you stroke with the opposite foot, it would be

   /

\

so the end result is sort of a V pattern down the ice.