Why is it called that? Three turns, Mohawks, and Choctaws

Three Turns

We all know this, right? It's because when you skate a three turn, it looks like a figure three drawn on the ice.

However, not everyone does know this. When a coach said in a group class "We call it a three turn because it draws the pattern on the ice of a 3." a woman next to me gasped. We all instantly knew she'd just had a revelation. I said "Don't be surprised when you get to figure 8's."

So one reason things get their name is because of the shape the skate draws on the ice. 

Mohawk and Choctaws

In the "History of Figure Skating" it says the names of the mohawk and choctaw to skating steps came when London skaters watching Mohawk and Choctaw dancers in a local theater observed that some of the dances or steps reminded them of skating steps.

I researched Google Books and looked at skating books from 1869 forward. In the 1869 book--no mention of mohawk or choctaw. By the 1880's mohawks and choctaws were mentioned. So those names were put on the skating moves sometime in the 1870s. (I've actually seen a book where the man who named them is named, sadly I can no longer find it).

 Well, I'm going to do some speculation and see if I can make a reasonable guess of what dances or steps the skaters of the 1870's may have seen by looking at videos of Mohawk and Choctaw dances on youTube.

 Choctaw

 

First, the skating choctaws of the 1870's were big, sweepy moves skated on pond ice. They may have resembled a choctaw as demonstrated by Maya Usova. It's a large serpentine move.

I couldn't find a step like that, but I could find a traditional Choctaw dance that had a serpentine shape so perhaps this dance form inspired the name of the choctaw step.

Mohawks

  

Everyone learns a mohawk early on in their skating life so we all know what it looks like. There's a shift from one foot to the other, and a shift from forward moving to back motion.

In this demo we see a skating mohawk. I coudn't find an exact match to that. But there  are  lots of mohawk 'tricks' including mohawk barrel rolls (thank you Coach Bianca for your mohawk obsession).

 

So let's look at a mohawk barrel roll (sorry about the hockey skates).

And now we're getting somewhere. I can't match the big sweepy mohawk, but a step like a mohawk barrel roll does appear in several Mohawk dances. 

Below follow the dancer in the large white head dress to see the use of the step that reminds me of a skating mohawk barrel roll.

So there's your figure skating history speculation for the day!

Adventures in Recreational Figure Skating : You and Your Music

Trying to figure out the rink's music system the first time

What it's like in the announcer's box

What your music sounds like when you 
play it through headphones

What your music sounds like on the rink speakers

When your coach has to follow you around on public 

with a boombox and other people dance to the music

 

Wearing Eyeglasses While Skating

I took a lesson from a guest coach at Lake Placid and after watching me she recommended that I try skating without my glasses.

I wear tri-focals (Hello, old age and death) and the coach told me that they caused me to unconsciously hold my head in an awkward position. Now I know that  looking down at the ice has the power to pull you off-balance, so I was willing to give it a try.

Did I have a miraculous fix to my skating? Hard to tell. My stroking did improve, and my head position and posture got better and some of my skills I have difficulty with did get incrementally better. But was it, "Take off your glasses and you get an axel?" No.

Is it worth a try? Well, if you're not Velma in Scooby-doo and you have a reasonable degree of vision, I'd say yes. You certainly don't want to skate in a competion with glasses on, so why not train without them?

The only problem was that I now have to keep my glasses, a pen, and my skating card in my bra. It's a little crowded in there when I need something.