This morning, a dad shared his concerns with our coach about his kid’s running and skating stride. He didn’t think strength training was the answer…a running coach and a power skating coach would be the best place to start - strength training could wait until they were a teenager. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this & it’s a myth worth busting. Too often, parents or coaches zero in on what’s visible - like a short stride - but miss the underlying issues. Weak muscles, imbalances or tightness could be a contributing factor. One of our athletes comes to mind who came to us because he was the slowest skater on the team. We did work on developing lower body strength & power but we also found he had weak hip abductors which was causing an uneven distribution of force & affecting his stride efficiency. Some tweaks to his training program to correct the imbalance and his hockey coach was blown away by how quickly his skating improved. Whether your kid is an aspiring hockey ...