The Crossover Second Push

My coach, Miss Bianca, was delighted to see me back in lesson for the first time in a couple of months. I was glad to be back and expected to be handled with kid gloves as a 'post injury skater'.

What I wanted

Miss Bianca seems to be of the philosophy that I shouldn't call up for a lesson unless I'm ready to be rode hard and put away wet. Yeah, she hit the hard stuff right away.

What I got :-) !

So we worked on the 'second push' in forward and back crossovers. 

Some of you don't find this hard, and some may have never heard of it. Here we go.

The first stroke in the forward crossover just the stroke onto the outside edge. Then there's the crossover, followed by the 'under leg' pushing out from the crossed leg. The movement of the 'under leg' is called 'the second push' or 'the underpush'. The picture below shows a textbook example of the second push.

Over leg, under leg, see the under leg pushing outwards
from the  over leg.
Voila! Second push

I

I knew the second push existed, but before my PT, I was only able to do it either occasionally or badly. Miss Bianca's technique is for me to do the crossover, hold the feet both on the ice in the crossed position, then push outward with the under leg by bending the knee of the over leg.

Then at the end there's a little tinkerbelle 'flick' of the toepick as the blade of the underleg is the last thing to leave the ice.

The 'flick' as the toepick leaves the ice

 "This will give you more power," Miss Bianca tells me.

So, good news, the PT on the hip means I can do the second push. AND the tinkerbelle maneuver.

Bad news, I'm not sure I want to go all that fast!