Mike Bracko – Power Skating Coach Calgary

Dr. Mike is a skating coach & sports physiologist who has specialized in hockey as a player, skating coach, researcher, and strength & conditioning coach for 35 years. Dr. Mike works with approximately 300 hockey players and conducts 200 skating clinics each year.

Power Skating

Custom Programs for Players, Teams, and Coaches

All Power Skating clinics are “custom ordered” to the advantage of players and parents. Clients can determine how many sessions they want, and when and where they want them. We can accommodate any request for skating clinics.

Handle @DrMichaelBracko

Skating Coach Certification Program

The Skating Coach Certification Program includes Classroom lecture/PowerPoint and On-Ice Clinics:

Understand the 4 skating characteristics of fast hockey players
Identify research showing objectively what are the skating characteristics of fast hockey players.
Watch videos of NHL players (or fast females) to see how players skate during a game.
Apply the research to teach biomechanically correct skating.
Develop the ability to analyze skating skills and give feedback to players for skill development/improvement.

Hows the pros skate

To get an idea of the biomechanics of a high-performance hockey skater, you can watch certain players and understand their characteristics. Watch these players in these videos to see how they skate. You will notice they all have the 5 characteristics of fast skaters:

Arms move side-to-side.
Wide Stride with lots of space between their skates.
Low Recovery after pushing off.
Quickly getting the skate on the ice after pushing off.
Their skates land in-line with their shoulder-hip-knee so they can get on the inside edge to push-off.

references

I just wanted to send you a note to thank you for the great instruction - Molly just skated in her first novice (first year) evaluation. She has only been on skates for one season (and is only 6 yrs old) of timbits and one set of your sessions in the spring. While she (surprisingly to me) did not move up - she absolutely rocked it!

First let me say that I can't thank you enough for bringing some sanity into performance hockey skating. Your videos and, more importantly, your knowledge were fantastic, As someone who learnt how to skate on ice as an adult (I'm from Argentina where I played quad roller hockey as a child).

Love your DVD! I have taught both my children the wide stride and had them in power skating last year and the instructor didn't stop telling them to get their feet closer together. I have been researching the skating stride for a few years and it's great to finally find clear evidence that the wide stride is the correct one for speed.

For your interest, my son was at hockey camp this past week and yesterday they had their blue vs. grey game. I was pleasantly surprised to see him, a dyed in the wool stay-at-home defenseman, use his new found speed to rush the puck into the offensive zone. He positioned himself well in front of the net.

When I picked him up today he got into the car and said "That was awesome, I had so much fun. I really learned a lot because when I did not do something the right way Mike told me and gave me a chance to do it again." He really had a great time and I truly appreciate your inviting him - it was a great experience.

As a 30-something adult looking for ways to stay in shape beyond mind-numbing gym routines I decided to start playing rec league hockey around 9 months ago. "Ankle-bender", "wall-crawler", and "pylon" were pretty common ways of describing my skating & hockey skills when I started out.

The step up from the NAHL to the USHL was significant. The speed and intensity of the game in the USHL are both noticeably higher. The improvements I made to my skating technique following Dr. Bracko's analysis and suggestions really helped me make a quick transition to the faster pace of the USHL.

Dr. Mike is a skating coach & sports physiologist who has specialized in hockey as a player, skating coach, researcher, and strength & conditioning coach for 35 years. Dr. Mike works with approximately 300 hockey players and conducts 200 skating clinics each year.

Power Skating

Skating Coach Certification Program

Hows the pros skate

references

Dr. Mike Bracko

contact

newsletter