The Torture Edge

For the last two weeks Coach Cruella has had us working on edges inside and outside, forward and back, facing out of the circle!

The first week is forwards facing out of the circle. I'm not adverse to skating forwards facing out of the circle. I had a Czech national champion coach once, who taught me to do crossovers facing out of the circle. I like to use it as a kind of warmup to get my edges and body position neatly in place. The challenge is to put your back solidly on the circle, with your arms on the circle--yes, while facing away from the center.

Then Cruella adds a special twist, she has us look along the back arm while going forwards. Well, this opens your chest more to the outside, and makes the whole thing immensely harder!

What good is facing out of the circle?, you ask. It's not on any tests as far as I know, and seldom gets exercised. (Edit) As was pointed out by commenters, it appears in tests as part of more complex steps. Let me rephrase. As a stand alone element, it doesn't get tested, it is a developmental skill for the hard stuff to come. (Stand by for further edits if that sentence is wrong too. Sigh. I hate being a beginner.End Sigh.)

Skating on edges facing out of the circle is a good way to do two things:

a. Build upper body, lower body independence. This helps you learn to keep your legs operating independently of what your upper body is doing.
b. Improve your edges.  If you can get on an edge and glide there, the hard way, you'll find your edges facing in the circle are much much easier.

(edit) c. Get ready for back 3's and the evil 8 step mohawk! (Thanks Anonymous 1 and 2!)

I'm actually doing the forwards stuff pretty well. I've done it before, and sometimes if he's feeling generous Dance Coach will let me do forward crossovers facing out of the circle in foxtrot hold (although I don't know if there are any dances where the girl takes this position).

The next week, we do backwards edges in Cruella's class facing out of the circle.

Let's just say there were a couple of occasions where I skittered backwards across the ice completely out of control, but on the other hand,  after half the lesson was over, I could get my back solid to the circle and glide along backwards. As long as I can see myself in the boards, I seem to be able to do it. Once I'm relying on muscle cues: no clue.

This is where Coach Cruella introduces the "torture step".

Face out of the circle. Glide backwards on two feet. Take a back inside edge and extend the free leg behind the skating leg and out of the circle. Keep gliding.

Think of doing  a back crossover, hold the inside edge, extend the free leg under the skating leg and hold. Now do that facing out of the circle.

Facing backwards. With your back solid to the circle


Congratulations. You've just done a "torture edge".

My feet still hurt too.

The Circle

This is a post about skating terminology a lot of coaches use. I thought I'd introduce it for the skater who may hear something in a group or private lesson and not understand it.

Most of skating is on curves. Very little is on straight lines. It's a convention that the curve you skate on is called 'the circle'. It doesn't matter if you're not actually completely skating in a circle. What counts is that you're skating on a curve that is part of a larger imaginary circle. The term 'the circle' for curves originates with compulsory figures, where skating was done on large joined circles.

Sometimes your coach may say something like, "Face into the circle," or, "Put your free leg in the circle in that turn." What does the coach mean?

Fortunately, I was able to find a photo that can help illustrate that point.

Here's what facing 'into the circle' looks like.

This picture of a synchro team shows the circle, and it shows each girl facing 'inside the circle.' It doesn't matter if they're skating clockwise or counter clockwise, when they skate with their chest towards the center of the circle, that's 'facing inside the circle'.

If you were to see this picture with the girl's backs to the circle, that's called 'facing out of the circle.'

Note that their arms are 'on the circle'.

Suppose your coach wants you to put your forward arm 'inside the circle'? If you're skating clockwise as the girls are in the picture above (I think they're skating forward, though the more I look at it they may be skating backwards--just assume for argument they're going forward), you'll move your left arm so it points at an angle away from the 'line of the circle,' but towards the center. Most times coaches don't want you to point directly at the center of the circle, but just to put your arm inside the circle a little.

What about 'outside the circle'?

One of the prominent places where 'outside the circle' becomes most obvious is when a skater does an 'outside spread eagle'. They will actually appear to be leaning into the circle, but facing out of the circle.

So, there's your little skating terminology tip for the day.