Backward Skating Is Dead

If your kid is still learning defence by skating long backward laps, he’s being trained for a game that no longer exists.

So we counted how the best players in the world actually do it. We went through a full NHL game — Leafs at Islanders, January 3, 2026 — and froze play every 20 seconds. In each window, we classified every skater on the ice: 1,432 observations in all. And we used one strict rule: a player only counted as skating backward if he stayed backward for more than a second without changing direction.

The three numbers

2.8%

Defencemen skating truly backward — 16 of 567 observations.

0

Forwards skating truly backward, in 865 observations.

16

True backward cases in the entire game; 14 were a defenceman defending a rush or zone entry at speed.

Count the three borderline cases that measured almost exactly one second and the number is 3.4%; count every backward touch of any length and it is 7.9%. The full caveats are on page 9 of the report, in big print.

We prepare kids for where the game is going. Not where it was.

Modern Hockey Training. The Ultimate School Experience for grades 4–8 kids.

GRIT Hockey · grit-hockey.ca