practice thread

[fan]

And on a completely different note.... does anyone know how to do a cross foot spin? I was messing about with them today but couldn't quite decide where I should have my weight in the blade or the angle I should have between my feet. I got a few turns by going into it like a backspin and being over the ball of my right foot and the heel of my left foot. I didn't quite get my weight equally spread though and it slowed down fairly quickly. I'm guessing I should be on the ball of both feet with my feet at right angles?

what's a cross foot spin?

[FigureSpins]

Balls of both feet , opposite edges, heels open, toes together. It can be a backspin or a forward spin, crossed in front or behind. Do you have Carol Schulman's book "The Complete Book of Figure Skating?" In it, she lists the three types of cross-foot spins and has a good graphic to show the position.

LINK TO GOOGLE BOOKS SEARCH

[C_T_T_]

Balls of both feet , opposite edges, heels open, toes together. It can be a backspin or a forward spin, crossed in front or behind. Do you have Carol Schulman's book "The Complete Book of Figure Skating?" In it, she lists the three types of cross-foot spins and has a good graphic to show the position.

LINK TO GOOGLE BOOKS SEARCH

Thank you! That was interesting. I knew it could be entered in different ways but didn't know they had different names. Next time I'll try to get over the ball of my left foot.

[FigureSpins]

Thank you! That was interesting. I knew it could be entered in different ways but didn't know they had different names. Next time I'll try to get over the ball of my left foot.

To be honest, I never knew that there were different versions up until a few years ago. As an ISI skater, I learned it as a forward spin done on flats, per their rulebook description. I thought I was clever to be able to do it with a backspin entrance, but alas, no one named it after me, lol. At a coaching conference on Long Island a few years ago, a very nice woman taught me how to do the "two-footed" version with a grapevine-like entrance when they reviewed the ISI FS6 requirements. It's complicated, but very cool to watch.

I really like the Carol Schulman book as a reference guide. I own two copies, one for my office, one for my skate bag. It makes a great gift for a low-level figure skater.

[Bunny_Hop]

The day before yesterday (Saturday) I fell hard on my hip and had to be dragged to my feet by two coaches. My hip only has a small bruise, but my knee was really sore and I could barely walk most of Saturday (even hopping hurt because it jolted the joint), but oddly it's back to normal now except for a surface bruise. I was doing a bunny hop.

I hadn't skated since about three weeks ago, when I was doing backward crossovers and fell over someone who'd fallen (thankfully didn't hurt him) and hit my leg so hard it started cramping.

Yeah, I'm not having a good time at the moment. :S

[Hedwig]

Bunny Hop, how is your leg/hip?

I hope you are not afraid of the ice now!!

I witnessed a bad fall this morning during my ice-dancing lesson. The feet just went away under this woman and she fell on her spine.
Luckily nothing happened but I was a bit shaken afterwards.

I still have a love-hate thing going on with skating. I am thankful that I can take the ice-dance time to train a bit but I hate that the coach tries to teach me a bit. Normally I am thankful for each tipp but she is crap. Complete crap. I try to do some of the things she tells me but she is not good at communicating and afterwards all the elements that worked fine for me are worse afterwards.
I know this sounds snobby and bad because I normally roll my eyes at people who cannot do a particular thing very well (like me, I don't skate that well) and then dismiss tipps. But she is really just disruptive.

Luckily, in the last 15 minutes of the session, another coach came over to me (she is a friend of mine and teaching the small children on the other end of the rink) after she was finished with her lesson and gave me some tipps. Therefore, my one legged spin improved a bit. And I did a salchow out of a mohawk and out of the loop stop (is that the English word?) for the very first time. Normally I do the salchow out of a three turn. But it is good to try some variety.

[gkelly]

And I did a salchow out of a mohawk and out of the loop stop (is that the English word?) for the very first time. Normally I do the salchow out of a three turn. But it is good to try some variety.

I don't know what a loop stop is. Can you describe it?

I can't do a salchow from a mohawk. Or, I can, but it's a very bad salchow, all muscled and not taking advantage of the edge at all.

In my program, I do back power pulls on the right foot then change feet to the LBI edge and do a salchow without a preceding turn.

[Hedwig]

I meant loop step (not stop).
gliding backwards with the inner edge on an outside edge and then doing a halfturn onto the forward inward egde and doing a mohawk afterwards. The sort of step skaters often do before a loop.

What is a power pull? That sounds interesting.

I like the salchow from a three turn better as well. But I think that is also because my three turn is more secure than my mohawk.

[gkelly]

I meant loop step (not stop).
gliding backwards with the inner edge on an outside edge and then doing a halfturn onto the forward inward egde and doing a mohawk afterwards. The sort of step skaters often do before a loop.

Not exactly sure what you mean here. Is it the step that the skater here is doing (repeatedly, in both directions) starting at about 3:02?

What is a power pull? That sounds interesting.

Check out the last move at the end of this video

[Hedwig]

Not exactly sure what you mean here. Is it the step that the skater here is doing (repeatedly, in both directions) starting at about 3:02?

Yes!
Is there a name for it?

Check out the last move at the end of this video

Thanks! I am working on those too. On one foot I can even generate speed doing it but on the other I get slower and slower and slllooowwwerrr.
Good to know a new English word!

[gkelly]

Yes!
Is there a name for it?

On that US test they're called back power threes.

[Doubletoe]

For the back power 3-turn, it helps a lot if you try keep the 3-turn as straight and flat as possible instead of round and curly. It also helps a LOT to keep the toes of your free leg really pointed. I think that's the best tip anyone ever gave me, because somehow it just keeps my whole body under control! This is a good salchow setup because it forces you to check your rotation before taking off on the salchow. When you do a salchow from a LFO 3-turn, it's too tempting to just take off on the jump like it's part of the turn instead of controlling that LBI edge first.

[Hedwig]

On that US test they're called back power threes.

ah, I heard the name before but never knew what was meant by it.

I like the test videos you posted. It is interesting to get some new ideas what to practice on, seeing that I almost never have anyone giving me tipps!!

For the back power 3-turn, it helps a lot if you try keep the 3-turn as straight and flat as possible instead of round and curly. It also helps a LOT to keep the toes of your free leg really pointed. I think that's the best tip anyone ever gave me, because somehow it just keeps my whole body under control! This is a good salchow setup because it forces you to check your rotation before taking off on the salchow. When you do a salchow from a LFO 3-turn, it's too tempting to just take off on the jump like it's part of the turn instead of controlling that LBI edge first.

Good, I will try that with the pointed toes. It makes sense - I notice in many other positions that it helps to have everything under stretch and that it helps to point ones toes as it helps to keep the leg under suspense.