Coming soon to YouTube - In response to tests by hockey pros at a Toronto dryland training centre, the Slidewinder skate machine has undergone these modifications:
Mechanical re-calibration to enable a full wide-angled stride in accordance with modern power skating technique; a seven foot wide "skating" surface; omni-directional foot platens lower, better balanced, more "skate-like".
This device was recently awarded a patent by the US Patent Office.
Some viewers have commented that the stride angle could be wider. Easily done - just a reconfiguration of certain elements. Basic concept remains sound. Today, the wide stride is emphasized in dryland training, but watch NHL players when exploding from a slow glide - they routinely push back to 5 and 7 o'clock. In the past, slideboards were thought to harm skating technique by over developing the muscles associated with such a wide stride.
I know my skating technique could be better, but that's not the fault of the machine. I'm a mechanical designer, not an athlete. The user's stride geometry is infinitely variable, with full adjustment capability of stride length, range of lateral movement, and skating resistance. With no fixed tracks to dictate the user's stride, unprecedented fidelity to the actual kinetics of skating is obtained. The user, not the machine, determines the stride path. It's beyond anything currently available.
In a skating exercise machine, it is essential that a flywheel be used for resistance. Skating machines that use elastic cords, weight stacks, or hydraulic pistons, are misguided efforts, and are hated for good reason. Without inertia, and the sensation of momentum, the experience is more like slogging through mud than skating. On the Slidewinder, the spinning flywheel stores the user's energy, replicating the momentum build up experienced during actual skating. The difference is incomparable.
Skating treadmills have their use as stride analysis tools, but are not practical exercise machines. A nearby arena has one. It fills an entire room, cost over $100,000, and requires two technicians to operate it. This is not something that is ever going to be found in the local gym. What the world needs is a compact, affordable, non-motorized machine that anyone, wearing normal athletic shoes can climb on and "skate". Athletes from many sports, not just hockey, could then benefit from its use.
Balance, co-ordination, strength - the Slidewinder develops all three. Young tough guys get on the machine and think that strength alone will make up for lack of balance and co-ordination.They thrash and struggle and sweat. In less than 5 minutes they are totally whipped. Did they think they were going to beat the flywheel into submission? I tell them,"You don't fight the machine, you dance with it. Without grace and rhythm to your movements, you're toast.Strength alone doesn't make an athlete."
The passion for ice hockey in N. America exceeds every other sport. Why then is there no exercise machine available that enables a decent replication of skating? The video proves it is an engineering problem with a simple solution. The Slidewinder utilizes mechanical principles that have been understood and used for centuries. It's not an anti-gravity device. Except for advances in bearing technology, there is no reason Shakespeare couldn't have had a machine just like it set up in his home gym.
Skating Simulation Exercise Device
U.S. Patent #7,713,178 B2
Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
Inventor: Robert Edmondson
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ironoarsman 1 year ago
Coming soon to YouTube - In response to tests by hockey pros at a Toronto dryland training centre, the Slidewinder skate machine has undergone these modifications:
Mechanical re-calibration to enable a full wide-angled stride in accordance with modern power skating technique; a seven foot wide "skating" surface; omni-directional foot platens lower, better balanced, more "skate-like".
This device was recently awarded a patent by the US Patent Office.
MrRobertEdmondson 1 year ago
Some viewers have commented that the stride angle could be wider. Easily done - just a reconfiguration of certain elements. Basic concept remains sound. Today, the wide stride is emphasized in dryland training, but watch NHL players when exploding from a slow glide - they routinely push back to 5 and 7 o'clock. In the past, slideboards were thought to harm skating technique by over developing the muscles associated with such a wide stride.
MrRobertEdmondson 1 year ago
I know my skating technique could be better, but that's not the fault of the machine. I'm a mechanical designer, not an athlete. The user's stride geometry is infinitely variable, with full adjustment capability of stride length, range of lateral movement, and skating resistance. With no fixed tracks to dictate the user's stride, unprecedented fidelity to the actual kinetics of skating is obtained. The user, not the machine, determines the stride path. It's beyond anything currently available.
MrRobertEdmondson 2 years ago
In a skating exercise machine, it is essential that a flywheel be used for resistance. Skating machines that use elastic cords, weight stacks, or hydraulic pistons, are misguided efforts, and are hated for good reason. Without inertia, and the sensation of momentum, the experience is more like slogging through mud than skating. On the Slidewinder, the spinning flywheel stores the user's energy, replicating the momentum build up experienced during actual skating. The difference is incomparable.
MrRobertEdmondson 2 years ago
Skating treadmills have their use as stride analysis tools, but are not practical exercise machines. A nearby arena has one. It fills an entire room, cost over $100,000, and requires two technicians to operate it. This is not something that is ever going to be found in the local gym. What the world needs is a compact, affordable, non-motorized machine that anyone, wearing normal athletic shoes can climb on and "skate". Athletes from many sports, not just hockey, could then benefit from its use.
MrRobertEdmondson 2 years ago
Balance, co-ordination, strength - the Slidewinder develops all three. Young tough guys get on the machine and think that strength alone will make up for lack of balance and co-ordination.They thrash and struggle and sweat. In less than 5 minutes they are totally whipped. Did they think they were going to beat the flywheel into submission? I tell them,"You don't fight the machine, you dance with it. Without grace and rhythm to your movements, you're toast.Strength alone doesn't make an athlete."
MrRobertEdmondson 2 years ago
The passion for ice hockey in N. America exceeds every other sport. Why then is there no exercise machine available that enables a decent replication of skating? The video proves it is an engineering problem with a simple solution. The Slidewinder utilizes mechanical principles that have been understood and used for centuries. It's not an anti-gravity device. Except for advances in bearing technology, there is no reason Shakespeare couldn't have had a machine just like it set up in his home gym.
MrRobertEdmondson 2 years ago