As a skating instructor I often come across coaches and parents who they think have identified the problem in a certain skater’s stride.  Among some other good explanations that I often hear, there is one that comes up more often than I think it should.  Arm motion is this too commonly-used explanation for why a skater isn’t as fast as they should be. To be fair, arm motion can be a major problem and hindrance to a player’s skating development.  However, in Hockey, understanding arm motion as part of our skating technique is a complicated question because there are many factors at play. Further, when we consider all of these factors it becomes clear that the advantage gained by perfecting arm motion is not worth a whole lot in Hockey.

As a result, the technique of arm motion within our stride does not really need to be perfect.  Sometimes “good enough” really is good enough.  How then do we know what good enough is?  We will return to that question as we conclude.  For now, lets consider why arm motion is indeed a technique that has this “good enough” threshold. There are other sports where arm motion is key to technique optimization.  Yet, the word “optimization” really becomes the crucial consideration here.  In order to optimize, we need to know what we are optimizing for.  Many sports where arm motion is highly scrutinized are running-based sports, but lets set that aside and stick to a skating sport. In speed skating, the goal is to minimize the time over the distance of the event.  The longer the distance the more time that efficiency gains have the chance to have an effect.  And energy must be used mostly evenly throughout the event.  As a result, tiny fractions of a percent efficiency can make the difference between first place and a non-noteworthy result.  So, it is absolutely worth optimizing arm motion technique to help get every ounce of forward motion out of each stride as possible.

In Hockey, the game rarely if ever really “measures” a player’s ability to be efficient at a non-maximum speed.  If we need maximum speed then we use it and we either win the “race” to the puck or into an advantageous position or we don’t.  The value of winning that race by far trumps any energy-saving concerns we may have so efficiency with respect to energy is not a concern in Hockey.

Executing the maximum top speed absolutely is a concern.  Arm motion can definitely be a factor there.  But, what can the arms do to produce speed?  Essentially in a skating stride, the arms help us to stay balanced as our legs violently move to propel our body in the direction we want to go.  As long as the arms are moving in time with the legs and generally opposite the pushing leg, they are supporting that process.  In speed skating it is valuable to support the legs “perfectly”.  In Hockey, close enough works.

One reason why close enough is good enough is because of the need to be agile.  You never really know when you will have to rapidly change direction and/or re-position your body for a purpose other than maximum speed, so it is actually good to subdue arm motion to some degree so it is easy to use your arms to re-position your body any time you want.

Also, if your team has the puck and may pass to you or if the other team may pass in your area, you should have two hands on your stick anyway.  In this case, your stride with one on the stick has to change anyway.  Beyond that, the most important times of the game for you to use skating to your advantage are when you actually have the puck.  Let's say we have some super-well-refined skating habit for when we have one hand on the stick. Then this habit could actually hurt us when we have the puck, because our arm motion habit could easily interfere with how we need to skate now that we have the puck.

Putting this all together, the best arm motion for hockey is non-specific such that it can be easily adapted to a very wide variety of skating situations, yet is within a range such that it is “good enough” at supporting the motion of the legs by acting as a counter weight.

As a result, the question of whether or not arm motion is “good enough” comes down to that very idea.  Is arm motion supporting the rest of our skating motion?  Yes?  Well, then for Hockey, it is good enough.