Speed skating is a combination of speed, power, endurance and technique, demanding peak performance from every muscle. So how do athletes train for the complex demands of speed skating? The answer is a carefully crafted program that blends a number of training methods, each offering unique benefits.
Let me explain the 4 ways speed skaters train to achieve world-class speed, produce dramatic acceleration and make it all look so effortless.
1. Weight training for strength
Benefits: increased strength and power, improved muscle recruitment and coordination, reduced risk of injury
Speed skaters aren’t just fast, they’re also incredibly strong. Weight training is a key building block of their training, focusing on compound exercises like the squat, deadlift and lunge to build lower body strength and power. This translates to stronger pushes on skates, the ability to accelerate explosively, and to reach and sustain higher speeds.
However, it’s not just about force production. Weight training also improves muscle coordination, which gives skaters more power through the full range of each movement. This allows them to be smooth and more efficient. Weight training can also highlight and address muscle imbalances that can help prevent injury.
2. Plyometric training for power
Benefits: enhanced explosiveness, improved power output, faster acceleration, improved movement coordination
Plyometrics or ‘jump training’ involves rapid, repeated stretching and contracting of muscle groups. It is designed to increase the rate at which those muscle groups can produce force. Jump, bound and hop-type exercises develop the spring-like capability of muscles that enhance athletic performance.
Speed skaters need to explode off the starting line, produce rapid changes of speed and almost leap from skate to skate as they accelerate down straights and through corners. Plyometric training helps put the power into these complex movements.
Plyometric exercises with horizontal, vertical and lateral components train muscles to exert maximal force in a short time; for example, box or hurdle jumps, skate jumps, depth jumps and single-leg hops. Increasing the rate of force production is crucial for explosive starts, powerful pushes and faster overall skating speed.
3. Cycling for the endurance engine
Benefits: improved leg muscle endurance, development of aerobic and anaerobic capacity
Cycling and speed skating share biomechanical and physiological characteristics, making cycling a valuable cross-training tool for speed skaters.
Both sports rely heavily on the uptake of oxygen for sustained efforts. Cycling, particularly long distances, improves VO2 max (maximal oxygen uptake), which translates to better endurance in longer speed skating events.
Intervals and sprints in cycling challenge the anaerobic energy system (ATP-PC and lactic acid), which is crucial for short bursts that characterise the decisive moments in speed skating races. Cycling intervals can improve both anaerobic power and capacity (how fast and for how long you can sprint), translating to powerful accelerations and strong finishes.
Cycling recruits the leg muscles in a similar pattern to speed skating and allows skaters to train for extended durations or at extremely high outputs without compromising skating technique.
4. On-skate training for technique and tactics
Benefits: development of sport-specific technique and skills, improved balance, coordination and agility
No training program is complete without sport-specific practice. While resistance, plyometric and cycling training are used to develop important athletic capacities, on-skate sessions are where the skater harnesses the benefits of those other methods.
Skaters are continually refining technique, postural control, skate alignment and stroke mechanics, and the timing of movements for maximum efficiency. Mastering speed skating technique is a career-long journey. The elite speed skater puts as much or more of their training time into technique refinement as the beginner or intermediate skater.
On their skates, speed skaters practise:
- drills to develop on-skate agility and balance
- repetition of specific skating movements and timing
- efforts that mimic the decisive moments in races
- competitive simulations to develop tactical skills.
Putting it all together
The training week of a speed skater is a crafted program of multiple, complementary training methods. A coach designs a program to get the most out of each method, making sure there is enough rest and recovery for the body to adapt, so fatigue does not affect training quality.
Elite speed skaters are complete athletes who don’t just train on skates. They use a diverse toolbox of training methods. Weight training builds strength, plyometrics enhance explosive power, cycling boosts endurance capacities, and on-skate sessions perfect technique and tactics. By integrating these methods into their training, speed skaters can maximise their performance potential.
What methods will you introduce into your training?
I’m Mick Byrne, a six-time medallist at the Inline Speed Skating World Championships. I have competed against and coached some of the most successful speed skating athletes, like Chad Hedrick, Joey Mantia and Bart Swings. I’ve been the Australian National Coach eight times since 2012, and I have coached more than 20 athletes who have competed in world-level competition. About me.
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