The control of your chin in skating and in hockey in general is extremely important for the hockey player to be able to have a longer skating stride and to attain maximum speed in record time.

When hockey players started to skate they naturally extended their chin out (forward) in order to initiate their forward movement. The biggest reason that beginners have their chin out is because they've probably fell a few times backwards and thus hurting the back of their heads on the ice. Even the players that have a safety helmet won't like the fact of falling backwards so what they tend to do is to extend their chin out forward.

From that time on they developed a bad habit that will come to back to haunt you and prevent your from achieving a fast, smooth and fast skating stride.

Let me explain what I mean:

When you extend your chin out forward this action moves your center of gravity which is your hips to move backwards to counterbalance your body mechanics. If you didn't extend your chin out forward and push your hips out backwards then you would just fall forward on your face.

Here is the proper way to use your chin to achieve perfect skating strides:

1. Push your chin backwards as far as possible.

2. The above action will automatically push your hips and center of gravity forward and this is exactly what you want.

3. Then you just push with your hips and center of gravity forward and your skating stride will be smooth, powerful, and you will cover a longer ice distance by doing it that way.

To review:

- Just push your chin as far backwards as you can.

- Start your forward skating stride by pushing your hips and center of gravity forward.