Speed Skating 101: Equipment (2024)

FAQs

How do speed skaters go so fast? ›

By getting so low around turns and throughout their races, speed skaters are much more aerodynamic, allowing for tighter turns and faster speeds. The proximity to the ground also allows speed skaters to get longer pushes in their strides to go even faster.

Aerodynamics: Tight-fitting clothing reduces drag, allowing athletes to move more efficiently through the air or water. This is particularly important in sports like cycling, swimming, and speed skating, where even small reductions in drag can lead to significant performance improvements.

Lunges, stairs, jumps, jump-roping, diagonal drills, hops, and similar moves are aimed at building speed and power. They also build agility. Strength training. Speed skates essentially squat their way around the ice, so they are busy building thigh, hamstring and back strength.

Speed skaters need to be able to run, roll, throw, jump, glide, and kick. They also need to develop agility, balance, coordination, and speed (as in explosive “quickness” of muscles). But before a child can even think about racing, they need to be confident on the ice.

While short-track speed skaters usually reach speeds exceeding 30 mph, long-track speed skaters can typically hit over 35 mph. What makes speed in the sport so difficult is that athletes have to make sharp, quick turns while flying around the oval.

Skaters wear clothes that are durable to cope with regular wear and tear. Baggy shirts and hoodies are comfortable and don't restrict motion. Hardwearing trousers will last and offer protection from minor injuries. Skate shoes need tough uppers and grippy soles.

Skaters cuff their pants to avoid interference with the skateboard or wheels. Cuffing is rolling or folding up the hem of your trousers to make them shorter.

If you're initially rotating with your arms outstretched, then when you draw your arms inward, your moment of inertia decreases. This means that your angular velocity must increase, and you spin faster.

Gym Training

Most speed skater will workout year round and you can assume that they are doing the same movements that most others athletes are performing like front squats, single leg movements and plyometrics.

Core training for speed skating should focus on the abdominals including rectus abdominus, internal and external obliques, transverse abdominus and intercostals, upper and lower back (deltoids, rhomboids, lats), hips (gluteals, hip flexors, psoas), outer and inner thighs (abductors and adductors), hamstrings, even some ...

How do figure skaters turn so fast? ›

The principle of the conservation of angular momentum holds that an object's angular momentum will stay the same unless acted upon by an outside force. This explains why a figure skater spins faster when she tucks her arms in close to her body.