Power Slide Board

I went to physical therapy tonight and Rapunzel the Cruel upped my therapy to include the Power Slide  Board. This is used in off-ice training for hockey and speed skating. I've never seen any reference to it being used for figure skating.

So, you wear booties over your shoes and step (carefully) onto the board. It's very slick. Then you slide back and forth.

It's scarily slick. Be careful.

Imagine you're stepping on the ice in a pair of broken down rental skates that haven't been sharpened since the last Olympics. That's what it's like.

I looked at it, and I did not think, "Oh, this looks easy." I thought, "This thing is going to kill me."

When I got on, my skating muscle memory kept trying to get an edge. Even though I was consciously sending messages to my leg, knee, and ankle muscles, I kept unconsciously falling back into skating techniques with my feet.

Rapuzel the Cruel had to hold my hands, even though I had deep knee bend and was nicely balanced. Maybe someone with quicker reflexes (mine are old) could have adapted quickly; I couldn't.

Still, I guess it's a nice muscle and stride builder for certain kinds of skating when no ice is available.

Rapunzel the Cruel delights in upping the challenge to my muscles and joints, I think I'll see this again.

Here's what it looks like when you know what you're doing. This is basic stroking:

Here's a speedskater working on his crossover technique. NOT sliding on the board takes a lot of control of upper body and lower leg strength.

This is me:

My destination is good knee health!