BALANCING IN SOLO ICE-DANCE

[FSWer]

Say, I have been watching Solo Ice-Dance, and one thing I have noticed is that Solo Ice-Dancers don't keep they're arms out for balance the whole time. Sometimes they put them down to the side. So I was wondering, when they do this, how are they balancing? Does anyone know? Thanks.

 

[purple skates]

The balancing comes from engaging the core muscles in the abdomen.

Think about it this way. Stand up and lean to the right. The muscles that keep you from falling over are the core muscles.

Keeping the arms out help your core muscles keep you upright. The skaters train their bodies to give more strength to the core muscles so they don’t need their arms to help. This is a sign of a higher level/elite skater - dance, freestyle - that they can skate without their arms being up.

 

[FSWer]

I'm not sure were that part of the body is...but does that mean in lame terms to balance by leaning to the right?

 

[purple skates]

@FSWer - Stand up and squeeze your stomach in. Those are your core muscles. Elite and competitive skaters have strong core muscles. You can still be a skater without strong core muscles (mine are not great) but an elite competitive skater can’t.

 

[FSWer]

Ok thanks.