The main skills that you need to begin "dance skating" are an effective forward stroke, the ability to hold inside and outside edges (meaning you can glide around turns on one foot) and a reasonably good posture. If you haven't mastered these yet, a lot of your "dance" time will be spent working on basics.
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earthJumps and spins cannot be mastered without good edges and upper body control since it is this that sets the stage for what follows. The approach to a jump is as important as the jump itself, since it is the approaching footwork that gets your entire body into the right position to jump.
And danced the skies on laughter silvered wings
-- from High Flight, by John Gillespie Magee Jr.
The main reason to jump and spin in the same direction is that you use the spins to safely practice jumping technique. The back spin in particular is used as a preliminary to the loop, which is in turn used as a preliminary to the Axel. Ultimately the rotation, air-position, landing, and exit for all the major jumps are the same, and are all developed from the backspin.
Several single jumps are described below, roughly in order of difficulty. They are first defined in terms of the take-off edge, whether or not a toepick is used, and the amount of rotation. For the sake of brevity, all the jumps are explained for counter-clockwise rotation.
The Salchow is an incredibly easy jump to cheat, and the easiest way to cheat is not to have or hold any check following the introductory 3-turn. Since cheating is bad, reduces power and control, and is hard to unlearn, start out by learning the jump without the cheat.
First, practice the approach WITHOUT the jump. From a RBO edge, step forward and turn a LFO 3. HOLD IT. HOLD IT. HOLD IT. Practice holding the entry edge on the 3 turn, right leg extended back, body strongly checked. This is the position that you want to have before the jump. Practice this a lot, until you get familiar with what is involved in holding the edge ... where your shoulders are, how open your free hip is, where your free leg is, etc. A LOT of the power for the jump comes from creating momentary rotational tension by initially checking the rotation of the 3 turn.
Remember that virtually all of skating is done as a series of down up down up down up down movements. The introductory 3-turn requires a DOWN to prepare, an UP to turn the 3, a DOWN to finish the 3, an UP to do the jump, and a DOWN to land it. Don't forget any of the "downs", because if you don't go down there is nothing to come up from.
The Salchow has a 1, 2, and 3 cadence. 1 - turn, 2 -check, and - let the free leg and arm move from behind to inside the circle, 3 - jump.
There are two primary sources of rotation: the edge you are on (should be deep), and having the arm in back come forward during takeoff (which rotates your shoulders). The jump comes when you progressively deepen the back edge by releasing the free side, closing the free hip, throwing/pulling the free leg forward and up, and by scooping your arms in/down and up.
When you put your pick in, put it in BEHIND you; make sure that your free leg does not cross behind the skating leg before picking. Also, make sure that both your torso and free leg are facing backwards to the direction of travel as you pick. If you let your shoulders turn around before you pick or turn out your free leg (so that your toepick is facing forwards as you pick) you will do what is known as a TOE-WALTZ. Once you learn this "cheat" it is hard to undo and it will make it harder to achieve a double toe-loop further along the road.
If you are having trouble getting up the nerve to actually jump this jump, try the following: do a RFI 3-turn, put your pick in the ice far behind you, but don't jump, instead, use the pick to pivot around on the RBO edge about one quarter of a turn; then push off the pick and do another RFI 3 turn, pivot around the pick again, etc...This is basically a series of "toe-assisted" RBO threes. One of these times, though, when you put in the pick, don't to the 3 -- jump instead. The series of 3s will get you used to how much rotation you need, and will serve as a stepping stone. for the jump.
Here are a few tips to watch for:
The loop jump is an "edge" jump, starting from a RBO edge and finishing on an RBO edge after one rotation.
Here is an exercise that can help you get a feeling for what the jump feels like. Start either from backward CCW crossovers or a RFI 3 turn (the 3 turn is easier for most people). Either way, the position for entering the jump is a RBO edge, left (free) leg in front, left arm strongly checked in front, right arm strongly checked behind, head facing forward.
For the exercise, scoop a pot of gold up from the ice with your right hand as you rotate crossing the free leg across the ankle. Do a single rotation backspin on the ice and check out with the free leg in back.
The jump is the same, only at the same time that you scoop the pot of gold up off the ice with the right hand, DEEPLY bend the right knee. Just before you'd pop into your backspin for the exercise, pop into the air instead.
Things to remember are:
The flip jump is a toe-assisted jump starting from a shallow LBI edge (usually after a LFO 3-turn). The toe-pick of the right (free) leg is planted in the ice behind the direction of travel and the skater vaults from the right leg, rotating one full rotation and landing on a RBO edge.
The flip doesn't have quite as nice a stepping-stone as the loop jump, so that might make them seem harder -- there's no easy way to get the feel for them as a full-rotation jump. However, here are a few tips:
The Lutz is named after the Austrian skater Alois Lutz. The Lutz is similar to the flip, but it takes off from a BO edge instead of a BI. This means that the jump turns in the counter direction to the entry edge. This "counter"character of the jump makes it one of the hardest single jumps, since it is not possible to take advantage of the intrinsic rotation provided by the edge to start turning.
One of the most common mistakes in the Lutz is doing a change before the take off, so that the skater is technically doing a flip instead of a Lutz. This is what is usually referred to as a "flutz". Although an incidental change of edge just before the takeoff is tolerated, the best looking Lutzes are achieved by taking off a pure outside edge
The standard preparation for the CCW Lutz consists in CW back crossovers followed by a sustained shallow left back outside edge. The hips and shoulders should be perfectly square while riding the edge.
After settling on a stable outside edge, pass the right arm back to get a serious check on that shoulder. Look straight ahead down your left arm. Bend the skating knee, extend back the right leg and plant the pick on a straight line behind the left skating foot - it may feel like the pick is slightly inside the BO circle described by the skating foot.
Make sure that you don't raise the free leg and kick the ice with the pick. This is not only a waste of energy, but it also makes you bend too much at the waist, which slows down the rotation (not to mention that it will hurt your toe!)
During the picking, concentrate on holding that right shoulder check. If you let the right shoulder come around before picking you will very likely "flutz".
As you jump, draw the free arm into, not around, the body.
An alternative entry: Instead of riding the long back outside edge, some skaters do CCW crossovers or a left foot mohawk, ride briefly on a right back outside edge (or flat), cross the left foot over the right onto the left outside back edge and then pick and jump. This entry is sometimes recommended to get rid of a flutz, because the right shoulder tends to move naturally backwards during the crossover step prior to the jump. The secret is not to linger on the LBO edge and pick and jump immediately after the crossover.
The Axel jump takes off from a forwards outside edge is landed on the backwards outside edge of the opposite leg, after one and a half revolutions.
The usual approach to the Axel is a RBO edge (for counterclockwise jumpers). On the approach, make sure that your body is very upright, your feet are closer together and you are facing outside the circle. From this position, push strongly onto a LFO edge on a deeply bent knee, leaving the free leg far behind you. At the same time throw both arms behind you, with slightly bent elbows. Your upper body should remain upright and over your hips. The following bit of clip-art illustrates what you are supposed to look like on the entry to the Axel:
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The lift-off for the Axel comes both from pushing off the skating leg and from swinging forwards the arms and the free leg. The more forceful the swing, the higher the jump will be. As you raise on the jumping leg, roll your weight forwards onto the toepick. The toepick will be the last thing to leave the ice.
IMPORTANT: When the free leg overtakes the jumping leg, do not kick forwards with the free foot, but instead drive the knee upwards. This is what some people means by "stepping up" into the Axel. The movement of the free leg resembles climbing up a steep staircase. The purpose of this "stepping up" is to keep the free leg as close to your body as possible during the lift-off stage. This facilitates the snap into a fast rotation and the weight transfer from the left to the right leg, required for a stable landing on a strong back edge.
As you lift the ice your free knee will be pointing upwards, your arms extended in front of you and your jumping leg fully stretched. Now comes the tricky bit: To generate the fast rotation, quickly pull in your arms towards your chest, point down the soon to be landing leg and cross the left over the right leg. This will look as if you were doing a backspin in the air.Although achieving this air backspin position quickly is not strictly required to be able to do an Axel, it is the key to complete successfully more advanced multi-revolution jumps and it is generally considered better form than jumping with your legs hanging side to side ,so you might as well learn it!
When you land, unwrap the legs by lifting the left knee and roll onto the RBO edge in the usual landing position.
The Axel can be a difficult jump to learn. Although mastering this jump will inevitably take some time and quite a few falls, there are several skills and exercises which can be used as stepping stones for the Axel. Practicing them will provide you with some ingrained knowledge of the correct technique for the different phases of the jump and reduce the risk of injuries resulting from clumsy attempts.
The hardest part about learning spins is to get the feel of it. It's a bit like balancing a broom on your hand...
Do you work in an office with a swivel chair? Or can you find one? If so, sit square on the seat and twist your upper body opposite to the direction you want to spin. HOLD YOUR ARMS OUT UNTIL you have the chair turning just a bit. Then pull them in SLOWLY.
You'll probably find you start whizzing around. If you don't, oil the chair or keep fiddling until you get it. Once you've got it, practice it until you get fired or you can do it every time.
As in the chair analogy, the preparation for a 2-foot spin is a wind-up and release. Start by bending your left (skating) knee. Also bend the ankle, and just sink your hip toward your heel, keeping your torso upright. Your shoulders and hips should be lined up over your skating foot. In order to do this, you have to allow the non-skating (right) foot to slide/glide a long way out from your skating foot -- BUT without any weight on it. Your weight should be ALL over the skating foot. "Wind up" your upper body. Your left arm should be forward and a bit across your body and your right arm should be well back. When you release this tension by bringing your upper body (shoulders, torso, arms) to neutral, you create some rotational energy.
NOW, you are ready for the *real* trick: As you release the free side (i.e.: release the wind-up), and begin to straighten the spinning leg, PULL IN with your thighs. You don't just *let* your legs come together, you PULL them together. Your inner thighs have very powerful muscles in them and you will be amazed at the energy they can generate.
Keep your shoulders level. Don't bend at the waist. Don't look down at the ice.
An alternative standing start is with a pivot. Cock your left knee to stick the left toepick in the ice, and start your spin with the same windup you would use if you were standing on both blades. Put your weight over the pivoting toe. As you release the free side and straighten the skating knee, roll the left skate back off the pick and onto the blade.
Try a moving start: glide forward on 2 feet held parallel. Wind up your upper body. Cock your left knee to stick your pick in the ice and turn out the left hip. Commit your weight to the left foot. By sticking the pick in the ice, you translate your momentum, which was forward on BOTH feet to forward only on one, but that one has to go in circles around the left toe, which is now stationary. When the pick catches, release the windup, begin straightening the left leg, rocking back from the pick, and pulling in with your thighs. In other words, once you have begun the pivot, this is identical to a standing start, but you have the added momentum from your forward motion.
The crux of all spins is that you have more time than you think. Don't yank your arms or legs in quickly; use the twist in your body to get a little bit of rotation first, and then pull in. As you get faster you'll start to feel the centrifugal force trying to pull your arms back out. Balance that pull so that you keep on pulling in slowly, and you'll have joined the Scott Hamiltons of the world!
Good luck. And remember -- spinning is like riding a bike. It's a knack, not a talent.
On a 1-foot spin, both the arms and the free leg are drawn in to the body to increase your speed. The slower and more controlled you bring in the leg and arms the faster and more controlled the spin will be (and it will look better!). A 1-foot spin is done standing up straight on the "sweet spot" of the skate, just behind the picks. Learning how to spin is largely learning how to get into and hold this position with no residual linear motion.
The following definitive description of a forward scratch spin, covering the basics of one foot spins, is included (with minor modifications) with permission from Janet Swan-Hill.
Remember, a spin is just a 3-turn that you set free.
Problems with centering spins can be caused by lots of things, usually during the spin entry. Don't step too wide. When you are going into a spin, you will be transferring your weight from the right foot (for counterclockwise spinners) to directly over the spinning (left) foot. If your step into the spin (which is a Choctaw, by the way) is too wide, your body weight has to bridge the distance between your feet and end up directly over the left foot ... and it usually won't make it. Instead, your center of gravity will be somewhere to the right of the skating foot, which will make it impossible to center the spin ... if you don't fall out of the spin completely.
Traveling refers to linear motion across the ice during the spin. Traveling is the result of not having your upper body above your center of gravity. There are 3 places in a spin from which you can start traveling:
However, if the turn is a prolonged and constant one, the motion of the fluid catches up to the canal walls, the sensors are no longer bent, and the brain receives the incorrect message that the turning has stopped. If the turn does then indeed stop, the movement of the fluid and the displacement of the sensors will indicate a turn in the opposite direction (which is the sensation of dizziness).
Problems with dizziness seem to be worse if the spin is not well centered or travels, probably because the movement of the fluid in the inner ear canals is not symmetrical. Looking down while spinning is a great way to get really dizzy.
Mild dizziness after a spin can be quickly overcome if you skate off or do one or two turns in the opposite direction. This is better than just standing still because motion in a new direction will help redirect the flow of the inner ear liquid.
If you get very, very dizzy, it helps to go to the boards and hang onto something solid. Stand still, relax, and place your right index finger between your eyebrows and press gently for about 10 seconds. Focus on something still. Try not to throw up. The Zamboni driver will hate you!
The good news is that the longer you train spins, the more tolerant you become to dizziness. The reason for this is that, as the brain continues to receive contradictory sensory input over and over, it just learns to ignore the confusing information. Therefore, practicing spins on the floor or with a spin trainer can be beneficial if you have problems with dizziness on ice.
This spin is done in the same direction as the forward scratch spin, but a counter-clockwise forward spin is done on an LBI edge and a counter-clockwise backspin on a RBO edge. Mentally the backspin can be tough, tough because you are probably well used to spinning on the other leg and your reflexes tell you to put your weight there.
The standard method to learning a backspin is starting from a standstill. For the CCW backspin:
Like in the normal spin, you accelerate the rotation by bringing in your free foot to the skating leg, and then pulling down your free foot as you pull in your arms.
Now, to get out of the spin. Easier said than done! Start by pull out your arms slightly and raising the free knee (this will slow down the spin). Then, bend the skating (right) knee deeply, rocking back onto the center of your skate. Unwrap the free leg, extending it behind you forcefully, making sure that your upper body remains upright. This will translate your rotational motion into backward motion on an RBO edge.
Here are a few more tips:
Start the spin in the sit position. When stepping into the spin (on a LFO edge), bend the knee deeply and lean forward trying to place your chest on your thigh, only keeping your back straight and head up. This is to get you to enter the spin in a lower than usual position, so that you don't start spinning in a one foot spin and then have to bring your leg around AND lower your body at the same time.
It has been suggested that you should try to look over your right shoulder (left shoulder for CW spinners) and see the heel of your free leg as you enter the spin. Get your balance in the spin before bring the free leg around -- about 1/2 a revolution. Once in position, sweep the free leg immediately around to the front. You want the right leg and right arm go come around at the exact same time so timing is critical. Place your arms in front as if you were water skiing.
Here are a few tips:
The Camel spin is done in the spiral position, with the free leg extended straight behind, turned out and raised to a position parallel to the ice, the back arched and the head raised, arms held out to the sides. The Camel spin is the most demanding of the basic spins in terms of timing, the lack of which causes a very slow spin and poor centering of the spin. Here are the basics.
When stepping into the spin (on a strong LFO edge), bend the knee deeply and lean forward trying to place your chest on your thigh, only keeping your back straight and head up, as in the sit-spin. Don't step too wide. Then, all at the same time, sweep your left arm as if clearing a table, rise up on your skating leg while raising your free leg and ride the LFO edge until you are in position. This is where the "snap" comes from to give you the rotation. Maintain the stretch throughout the spin.
Here are a few tips:
Synchronized skating (also known as precision skating), when done well, can be intensely exciting to watch. Once having been to a major synchronized skating competition, you can find that singles may pall. As a participant, it's an excellent way of honing your skating skills.
Synchronized skating is a choreographed routine of complex footwork and formations, a lot like synchronized swimming (except that you are on top of the ice and it's frozen), or like low flying jets doing acrobatics. It is an intensely cooperative sport, with each skater skating an assigned spot, and no substitutions allowed during the course of the routine. In the best routines, no one skater "draws the eye". The aim is for exact synchronization, and perfect formations performed at speed. The greater the complexity, the greater the difficulty, and the greater the number of skaters, the higher the score.
Examples of greater difficulty would include clockwise rotation and footwork (against the natural rotation and using the "weak" side of 90% of skaters); backwards work, especially involving blind or semi-blind intersections; formations that rotate while also having the center of rotation travel from one point to another on the rink; changes in direction; especially complex footwork; changes in holds and orientation; effective and "invisible" transitions from one formation to another (such that cause the spectator to say "How did they get there?")
The number of skaters depends on the division in which they skate (Junior, Senior, Masters etc.) and is usually from 12 to about 24. The divisions are based on age and range from maximum 12 years for Juvenile to minimum 25 years for Masters.
Routines have a specified duration, depending on the division, and must (except for technical programs) have at least two changes of music, with one piece being in a distinctly different rhythm or style. Junior and Senior divisions perform both a technical program, with a prescribed list of moves, and a free skating program.
There is no featured or solo work permitted. Jumps of more than one rotation are forbidden, and must be performed in formation. Spins of more than two rotations are forbidden and must be performed in formation. Lifts and carries of all sorts are prohibited.
Synchronized skating is a sport that can be pursued by (1) people who don't particularly enjoy skating alone, (2) people who may never get a double jump, (3) people who can't find a pair or dance partner. (4) people who started skating late, (5) people returning to skating, (6) gold medalists who never stopped skating, (7) people who can't get enough of various types of skating, (8) people who are too nervous to compete alone, (9) anyone with appropriate skating skills, and a willingness to work as part of a team.
Synchronized skating is a great spectator sport and a wonderful participant sport for men and women of all ages. There are a few teams with waiting lists and 50 people trying out for a single spot, but there are many more teams that have room for qualified skaters ... if not immediately on the line, then as alternates. Most will let you "try them out" to see if synchronized skating suits your style and talents. Most are eager to see the sport grow, and will welcome prospective skaters.
It is a great sport for kids! All skaters in a synchronized team have to learn a lot about the obligations that an individual has to the group, and of the consequences of not holding up your end of a bargain. They learn that in order for the group to succeed, they must work for the success of every individual in the group. And do they EVER learn about dealing with people!
Synchronized Figure Skating is a competitive discipline, recognized by the National Governing associations, ISIA, and ISU. In 1994 the ISU formed a Synchronized Skating Technical Committee, which is an important step toward development of an official world championships. National championships have been held for the last 11 years.
While figures clearly addresses skating fundamentals, there was much controversy about whether working on school figures is the best or most expeditious way for the dance or freestyle skaters to learn these elements. In the end, figures were officially abandoned (the high cost of figure sessions probably also played a part) and few instructors teach them now (although some will be pleased to if you want to learn them!)
In the US, the current "Moves in the Field" for freestyle skaters are an attempt to combine the discipline and emphasis on quality of figures, with moves and sequences more like those encountered in freestyle or dance skating. In Canada, "Skating Skills", have replaced figures. Skating Skills involves performing certain edges and turns to music (sort of a combination of ice dancing and figures). Skating Skills tests correspond with the figures so that those who have passed figure tests can skip the first few Skating Skills.