The skeleton lying position explained: face down, head neutral, chin just above the ice. With safe build-up, typical mistakes and risks. Only with a coach.
The honest answer: the skeleton lying position means face down, head first, chin only a few centimetres above the ice, head in a neutral position, steered only with light pressure of the upper body against the sled frame [1]. There is no steering wheel. Everything you do in the run is posture.
Why so flat and so calm? After the push and the jump-on you can add hardly any speed to the sled. What counts is losing as little as possible, and an aerodynamic posture helps [3][4]. You are the bodywork.
The flip side is the price: in this position your head is the front of the machine, millimetres above the ice. At the Olympics, skeleton injury rates were 8 to 18 % of athletes [1], and head-related complaints are part of everyday life in sliding sports: a review reports concussions in 13 to 18 % of athletes in these sports [5].
So, up front: this guide explains what the lying position is and how to prepare. It does not replace supervised training or runs with a coach on a track cleared for it. And you do not learn head-first sliding from video.
After the sprint of about 50 metres you load: you dive on face down in a streamlined posture and grip the lower saddle [1][2]. From there it is about keeping speed: after loading there is hardly any chance to add speed [3], and your posture helps decide the air drag [4]. Milestone: you can explain in two sentences why calm is faster than correcting.
On the floor or a bench, arms forward on a saddle substitute: trunk straight, head neutral in line with the spine [1]. This is a tension hold, not a feat of strength. Practice guideline: 3 × 60 seconds without trembling in neck and shoulders before you think about the next level.
After the dive you grip the lower part of the saddle [1]. Your coach shows you on a standing sled how hand, shoulder and trunk relate. Milestone: you find the position blind, without looking.
Steering is done with fine pressure of the upper body against the frame [1]. That is all there is, and more is not better. Do not copy anything you see on video at this point; you learn the fine-tuning with your coach on the track.
Usual (practice, not documented) are first runs from low start points. Your coach decides when you start higher (see our guide on the first runs). A low start also means lower speed, less load on head and neck.
After each run you look together at head position, trunk tension and calm legs. The goal is not "lying faster" but "lying the same", every run identical.
Film your dry lying drill from the side. Do your prone exercise so that someone films you in profile and check: is the head in line with the back, or does the neck kink? Neutral head position is the specification [1]; your video shows where you deviate long before you see a sled. This is practical knowledge and a self-check; the coach decides on clearance.
Face down and head first, chin only a few centimetres above the ice, head neutral. Steering is done with light pressure of the upper body against the sled frame. There is no steering mechanism [1].
That depends on track and start. The sources read here give no reliable speed figure, so we name none. What is documented: up to five g act on the body in corners, five times your body weight [1].
At the Olympics the injury rate was 8 to 18 % in skeleton, 14 to 18 % in bobsleigh and 5 to 11 % in luge [1]. Skeleton sits in the range of bobsleigh; figures vary by Games and track.
Only partly: sprint, trunk tension and the prone position can be trained dry. Head-first sliding is learned only on a cleared track with a coach, never from video alone.
The Staggered Start Stance in Skeleton: One Foot on the Block, the Other on the Ice