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The Physics of Hockey

Skate Backwards With Balanced, Powerful C-Cuts

Master backward skating by building a low stance, carving one-foot C-cuts, alternating smoothly and learning a controlled backward V-stop on ice.

Dan Okafor

To skate backwards on ice skates, stay low and balanced while carving a C-shaped cut with one inside edge at a time. Learn the push with each foot separately, then alternate feet. Keep the support skate beneath your body, your head up and your eyes checking the direction of travel.

The key is to push the blade outward against the ice so the ice pushes you backward. Wiggling your heels with flat, unweighted blades does not create the same effective push.

Choose the statement that matches your current ability; the tool will identify your next drill.

Find Your Next Backward-Skating Drill

Next drill: Two-foot glide

Push gently away from the boards and hold a low stance. Advance when you can glide without leaning behind your blades.

Complete Progression

  1. 1. Two-foot glideHold the low backward stance without leaning back.
  2. 2. C-cuts at the boardsUse the boards only for balance and practise each foot separately.
  3. 3. One-foot propulsionTravel with repeated right-foot cuts, then repeated left-foot cuts.
  4. 4. Alternating cutsUse a steady right-left rhythm with the support skate beneath you.
  5. 5. Push and glideGlide briefly after each cut to check that your weight is centred.
  6. 6. Scan and stopAt low speed, add shoulder checks and finish with a controlled stop.

Progression and coaching cues: Hockey Canada U7 and U9 materials cited in the article.

Start in a Stable Backward Stance

Practise in an open section of ice with a helmet on and plenty of stopping room behind you.

  1. Place your skates about shoulder-width apart.
  2. Bend your knees and ankles, lowering your hips as though beginning to sit in a chair.
  3. Keep your chest up, back fairly straight and head up.
  4. Hold your hands in front of you.
  5. Keep your weight along the blades rather than leaning back onto the heels.

Do not lean in the direction of travel. That moves your body behind its base of support and makes a backward fall more likely. Hockey Canada describes the backward stance with bent knees, lowered hips, a straight back and weight distributed along each blade (Hockey Canada).

If a two-foot glide still feels uncertain, first work on knee bends, glides and edge control in this beginner hockey skating progression.

Learn the C-Cut One Foot at a Time

Stand facing the boards and rest your hands lightly on them for balance. Do not pull on the boards to create motion.

Keep the left skate beneath your body as the support skate. With the right skate:

  1. Start with your feet fairly close together.
  2. Turn the right toe slightly inward, sending the heel outward.
  3. Bend the right knee and shift weight onto that skate.
  4. Press its inside edge into the ice and sweep the foot outward in a semicircle.
  5. Extend through the leg and ankle as the cut finishes.
  6. Bring the right skate back beside the left without standing up.

Repeat slowly, then switch feet. Hockey Canada teaches beginners to practise left- and right-foot C-cuts at the boards before using one foot to travel and then alternating. Its coaching points keep the glide foot under the centre of gravity while the pushing foot extends sideways on the front portion of the blade (Hockey Canada U7 practice plans).

Aim for a smooth, curved mark in the ice. If the blade travels straight sideways or both heels merely open and close, the cut is not yet producing an effective push.

The Ice Pushes Back Against the Edge

A skate blade moves with relatively little resistance along its length but resists sliding sideways when an edge bites the ice. During a C-cut, your leg pushes the angled blade outward and into the ice. The ice exerts an opposing force on the blade.

That reaction force is not purely sideways. Because the blade changes angle around the C, part of the force accelerates you backwards. When you alternate feet, much of the side-to-side effect cancels while the backward components continue to add.

Three technique details follow from that mechanism:

  • Use an edge. A flat blade is useful for gliding but provides little sideways purchase for the push.
  • Stay bent. Knee and ankle flexion give you room to extend through the cut instead of bobbing up and down.
  • Shift your weight. Loading the pushing skate lets its edge move your body; an unweighted blade mostly scrapes the surface.

The glide between pushes depends on ice’s low friction, but propulsion comes from applying force through the edge. The surface physics is explained in why ice is slippery.

Alternate C-Cuts Without Swivelling Your Upper Body

Once both legs can make a controlled C, move away from the boards at low speed:

  1. Make a right-foot C-cut while the left skate tracks beneath you.
  2. Recover the right foot toward the centre.
  3. Shift your weight and make a left-foot C-cut.
  4. Continue right-left-right-left without rising out of the stance.

Keep your hips and shoulders square. The feet create the motion; large arm swings and hip swivels make the path wander. Ice Hockey Systems similarly advises carving in front of the body, returning the heel beneath the body, keeping the glide foot on a straight line and limiting upper-body movement (Ice Hockey Systems).

Begin with short, deliberate cuts. Make them wider only when you can recover each skate under your hip and continue on a straight path.

Build From a Glide to Scanning and Stopping

Move to the next drill only when the previous one feels controlled:

  1. Two-foot glide: Push gently away from the boards and hold the low stance for a short glide.
  2. C-cuts at the boards: Practise one foot at a time while using the boards only for balance.
  3. One-foot propulsion: Travel using repeated right-foot cuts, then repeated left-foot cuts.
  4. Alternating cuts: Use a steady right-left rhythm while keeping the support skate beneath you.
  5. Push and glide: After each cut, briefly glide on the other skate. This reveals whether your weight is centred.
  6. Scan and stop: At low speed, make brief shoulder checks into your direction of travel and finish with a controlled stop.

For a basic two-foot backward stop, spread the feet to about shoulder width, turn both toes outward and bring the heels inward. Lean slightly forward and apply the inside edges progressively. Hockey Canada calls this the backward V-stop and advises finishing back in the basic stance (Hockey Canada). Learn the stop before adding speed.

Correct the Fault That Blocks the Push

You Do Not Move

Turn the pushing toe slightly inward, load that leg and carve a curved path. Do not wiggle two flat blades. A useful C-cut leaves a curved mark rather than a straight sideways scrape.

Your Feet Keep Spreading Apart

Complete the C and recover the pushing skate beneath your hip before starting the next cut. Shorten the cut until you can make that recovery without standing up.

You Fall Backwards

Bend your knees and ankles while keeping your chest up. Do not lean behind the blades. Your hips should stay over your base of support rather than drifting in the direction of travel.

You Sway From Side to Side

Shorten the cuts and quiet your shoulders. Let the legs produce the force while your hips and upper body remain square.

One Side Is Weaker

Return to one-foot C-cuts on that side. Slow practice makes it easier to feel whether you are loading and holding the inside edge before recovering the skate.

As speed builds, use four checkpoints: hips low, head up, one skate beneath you and one skate carving.