As effective athletic development is based upon the principle of the development of fundamental movement skills before specific sport skills, we wanted to determine if fundamental movement skills learned in other sports, as well as age and technical levels within the sport contributed to the success of developing speed skaters. Analysis of young male and female skaters determined that increases in technical and speed levels were characterized for females by previous experience in skating or participating in other sports and attendance. Increases in technical levels and speed for males were characterized by age, participating in other sports and attendance. By identifying and quantifying previous experience levels with development of sport-specific technical skill sets, a link to long term athletic development programs already initiated for speed skating in Canada is possible.
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