Are you thinking of improving your skating skill through exercising slide boarding? “Yes”, a Slide board improves your skating. In ice hockey, the NHL player’s average speed is up to 30km/hour, and a player in one game skates up to 5 miles with carries up to 15 pounds of hockey gear, so they have to gain more stamina. Just every day your Half hours of exercise on a slide board can be developing your skating speed, flexibility, change of direction balance, Leg muscles, and agility even if you get injured it helps you to recover faster.
There are different types of skates. But one common feature among all kinds of skating is that all require acquiring different techniques to balance between speed and postures. Many people want to improve their skating skills. Most people often want to use skating slide boards to upgrade their skating. But some of them are doubtful about the usefulness of slide board exercises in skating. Therefore, they keep questioning, “Do slide boards improve skating?”
So, this article will mainly focus on the usefulness of slide boards in developing one’s skating skills. Besides, the readers can learn some additional information, facts, and answers to some FAQs. So let’s start.
What Is A Slide Board?
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Before addressing the question if slide boards can develop skating skills, it is necessary to know what slide boards are since some may not be familiar with the term.
A slide board is a type of rectangular exercise tool that athletes use for various fitness training through sliding. The name “Slide board” has derived from the fact that one can adjust the length of the equipment depending on one’s weight and what type of exercise one is doing.
One may find a variety of slide boards that can perhaps confuse one. While most of them are commercially manufactured, one can also make a customized one. Generally, the length of a slide board is between 7 and 10 feet, and the width is typically between 18″ and 24.” The standard thickness of the skating slide board is between 0.635cm and 1.27cm.
Regarding material, the mainframe of the board is made of durable materials such as plywood. But the material of the upper part of a slide board is slick PVC for sliding convenience.
Do slide boards improve skating?
Slide boards will not directly upgrade one’s skating skills. But it can make your body fitness appropriate for various skating such as hockey skating, speed skating, figure skating, etc. Click here to find out the best Youth Hockey skate. I have mentioned some benefits of slide board exercises from where one can easily understand how slide boards can passively enhance skating skills. So, let’s begin.
- Low-impact exercise: While beginners start preparing their bodies for skating through running, jogging, or riding, it often causes extreme muscle pain. But slide board exercise is low-impactful, meaning a person will not face intense muscle pain from their initial training.
- Total exercise system: Any type of skating requires a lot of strength and physical fitness. That’s why many people prefer the gym for maintaining physical fitness. But they may not know that slide board exercise is a complete exercise package.
Generally, players have to skate for a long time which requires maintaining an average speed with greater endurance. The lateral movement during slide boarding will enhance your agility and endurance.
- Enhancing balance through speed: Skaters must have a strong balance capability while maintaining speed, especially while taking quick turns. Slide boards are an excellent option for practicing this habit. The frequent lateral movement in Slide boarding is highly efficient for enhancing balancing capability.
Moreover, a player needs to concentrate on speed while moving forward. So, regular slide boarding will improve one’s agility, arm flexibility, and balancing capacity. Besides, it is also an excellent exercise for aerobics.
- Strength core: The core is a set of muscles that regulate and stabilize the pelvis area and backbone. If a person wants to be a great Hockey skater, strengthening the core is the secret to delivering powerful shots. Click here to find out the Best Hockey Slide Board.
Slide board exercise can be an incredible medicine in this regard. It will strengthen your core. The stronger the core, the more capability to counter the competitor. Furthermore, a strong core leads to a higher manipulating capacity of pucks.
- SKATING TECHNIQUE AND POSTURE: Do you know who first designed a slide board? Speed skaters invented the very first slide board. Initially, they made a slide board with wood while covering the upper layer with wax. So, now one can understand the significance of slide boards for improving skating. Skating requires a lot of short yet detailed and tricky techniques.
Moreover, players have to practice these techniques during the off-season to master them. A skating slide board can provide skaters with a significant advantage in practicing various skating techniques.
- Sliding on any surface: If one has a busy schedule, a person can easily carry out training with a slide board in any place, such as the backyard, driveway or deck. One will just need a few feet of space.
- Cost-effective equipment: While trade mills and bikes are lucrative options for maintaining physical fitness, they are pretty expensive. But a person can easily carry out the exercise on a slide board with the same benefits at a lower price. Moreover, slide boards are durable. One can easily use it for several years. Furthermore, you don’t have to take care of it that much.
Based on the points mentioned above, now the readers can relate that slide boarding exercises can passively burnish one’s skating capability.
How to use a slide board?
One can use a slide board by following the below steps:
- Put on shoes. But make sure your shoes or booties are comfortable enough since you have to slide the board. Don’t wear too many tight shoes.
- First, stand at one end of the board, adjacent to the bumper. Then, the person needs to take lateral slides from one end to the other. That means one has to push off a foot towards the opposite bumper while keeping balance with the other foot.
- In the second step, one has to do the reverse process of the previous one. For example, if you had a slide with the right foot in the first step, now you have to slide with the left foot while keeping balance with the right foot.
- Carry out the exercise in a moderately bent posture similar to that of a skater to enhance skating capabilities.
Tips:
- Hockey lovers can utilize the sliding board with a hockey stick and gloves to get a more natural sensation.
- If a person does not feel comfortable with the speed of the slide board, they should modify it since exercising for an extended period with the incorrect slide board might affect muscles.
How to take care of Slide Boards?
Slide boards don’t require that much care. They are durable enough to withstand the effects of regular usage for several years. However, one can take care of a slide board by following the below-mentioned super easy steps:
- Take a soft cotton cloth or microfiber and warm water
- Firstly, wipe up the upper surface with just the micro-fiber.
- Then dump the fabric into warm water and wipe the upper surface again
- wipe up the excess water with another dry cloth
- Let it dry
- Some slide boards come with surface conditioners. So, one may use a surface conditioner after cleaning the board. It will make the board like the brand new one. Moreover, one can slide super easily.
FAQ:
- Do slide boards improve skating?
Slide boards are an excellent option for exercise. Slide boards will not cause severe joint pain after exercise. Besides, slide board exercises improve one’s agility, arms flexibility, balance capability, muscle building, and coordination which are crucial components for skaters and hockey players.
- Is a slide board suitable for hockey players?
The slide board is an outstanding piece of equipment for the hockey players to burnish their skills required for Hockey. The slide board exercise is beneficial for practicing agility and physical conditioning training. But it would be more useful if the players do the exercise by maintaining a bent position since the players have to play Hockey in this manner.
Final Verdict:
Indeed slide boards are cost-efficient, simple exercise tools that can significantly improve one’s skating performance by improving agility, balance, coordination, and arm flexibility. Besides, regular slide board exercise can strengthen the core, hamstring muscles, and joint ligaments. Furthermore, it will help players to recover soon while they are injured.
