In this article I’ll be showing you how to do one of the most essential skating skills any skater or hockey player should learn, the pivot!. This skill can be used to get around a player (deke) or to change the direction you’re skating in without loosing to much speed.
How To Pivot
The pivot can be thought of as a half hockey stop. The idea is to use the angle and direction you place your skates in while hockey stopping, to quickly change the direction your going in without losing much speed. As I’m sure you may have guessed, you need to know how to hockey stop before learning the pivot.
In order to pivot, you need to turn your skates 90 degrees from the direction of travel. Keeping in mind all of the basic hockey stopping key points:
- Good knee bend
- Correct use of edges (pivoting with your toes pointing right – You should be on your left skates inside edge and right skates outside edge)
- Shoulders parallel chest up
The idea is not to come to a complete stop, you need to maintain your momentum while performing this.
At this point you can either skate north (or up the rink) pivot and the come back on yourself skating backwards.
Example – skating north forwards, pivoting and coming back on yourself skating backwards
Example – skating forwards, pivoting and adding a mohawk turn then coming back on yourself skating forwards.
This is an incredible versatile skill that can be applied to many aspects of skating and hockey.
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