Mohawk turns for Hockey
HockeyplayerWannabee
power skating class last night and for the life of me could not get
the jist of a Mohawk turn. He had us do the mohawk turn facing the
boards. Any plain languges explainations would be greatly appreciated.
Roy A. Fletcher
with editing...
: Can anyone explain how to do a Mohawk turn front to back. I took my
: power skating class last night and for the life of me could not get
: the jist of a Mohawk turn. He had us do the mohawk turn facing the
: boards. Any plain languges explainations would be greatly appreciated.
Don't know what a mohawk front to back is.
A mohawk/eagle is a turn where the skates are in line and the skates
are heel to heel.
The mohawk is a turn to the inside; the radius is in front of the skater.
An eagle is a turn to the outside; the radius is to the back of the
skater.
Neither turn is used much in hockey, as both leave the skater very
vulnerable to a bodycheck. The mohawk is used by a defenceman as
a cycling move to evade a forward, but only when there is clear ice.
The main reason for learning either one is so a skater can shift
between skating forward and skating backward with total ease.
The less a skater needs to "hop" to change, the less vulnerable
they will be and the faster they can switch from forward to backward.
All you can learn hanging onto the boards is the correct position
of the skates. You won't learn much by doing that. The way to learn
is to skate on one skate, then shift the weight to the inside edge
and place the rear skate heel to heel with the front and let the
inside edge of the rear skate bear some weight. The more you lean
forward, the tighter the turn.
If you want an exercise, try skating in a straight line in the
mohawk position, but alternately placing all the weight on the
front then the rear then back to the front skate etc.
And don't give up your day job there at BCSC.
Regards. RAF