Two foot turns, t-stops, stepping back to forward, teapots and lunges

[Hedwig]

I have no solid advice as I am a beginner myself but one thing that really helped me as a tip when skating backwards was to REALLY want to skate backwards and think of the place where I want to skate to.

That sounds like something that is taken for granted but after I payed attention to it I noticed that I skated backwards but my whole body was trying not to. :lol: After I tried to convince my mind that I really wanted to move in that direction and backwards(!) I suddenly could do all the backward glides after moves.

Don't know if that helps.

[Bunny_Hop]

I have no solid advice as I am a beginner myself but one thing that really helped me as a tip when skating backwards was to REALLY want to skate backwards and think of the place where I want to skate to.

I get this! On my two foot turns, as they've been slowly improving, it helps a little for me to think of moving after the turn; what I would look and feel like doing it right, and how this would look as a tracing*.

For backward skating and crossovers, though, it sometimes helped me to think less! The day when I started to do crossovers moving (CCW), I was doing my typical thing, gliding until I stopped then crossing, and talking to some friends. Suddenly I realised I was doing it right! Well, not right, but I was moving at the same time as crossing. :lol:

Also for backward skating (the thing between backward swizzles and proper backward stroking), it never worked as I thought about it -- moved super slowly -- but when I was talking to the instructor, I noticed I was moving backward with some speed, albeit with my feet about a foot and a half apart.

I guess I sometimes overthink things, and either not thinking, or thinking about what I want to do instead of the how (as Hedwig was saying), seems to help.

*At least one of my feet makes a tracing that looks like a three turn now when I do two foot turns. Is that good?

Thanks again for all the help! Skating tomorrow, so no doubt I will have another load of questions soon!

:)

[vesperholly]

*At least one of my feet makes a tracing that looks like a three turn now when I do two foot turns. Is that good?

Yes, that's good. If it looks like a candy cane, you're doing it wrong. :)

[viennese]

Lunges.
One side, a happy lunge in a straight line
Other side, a frown, curved lunge. The blade wants to catch the ice. I get it about 25 percent of the time.

[Bunny_Hop]

I love lunges now, although I too can only do them on one side. I have also decided to really work on teapots, because I saw someone learning a sit spin, only getting about half the way down into the spin before splatting. So I figure if I learn a teapot, I might be able to get further down when I learn sit spins, and fall from a lower height = less ouch.