Everything I Did Wrong in Forward Crossovers and How to Fix It

Friday, a beginner adult skater I see around the rink got to talking to me about her progress. She's having problems with  beginner forwards crossovers in which you step over the skating foot and she's on her third session.

I commiserated. "Almost all adult beginners have crossover issues."

(Legal disclaimer) I AM NOT A COACH, If none of this stuff works for you, fuggedaboutit.

Everything I Did Wrong in Forward Crossovers and How to Fix It

1. I didn't bend my knees enough. I bet you think you are but you're probably not.

 Source

2. My arms weren't on the circle OR I tried to do crossovers  with my arms square to the circle. This means I felt like I couldn't do a stepover.
 
 It feels unnatural to twist your upper body to face inside the circle, but it's what you have to do. Your coaches will badger you until you do.

3.  I rolled my shoulders forwards, which made me hunch. (okay this is a real personal thing for me, I've never had a coach give me this particular tip, they just say, "Open that shoulder." With what? A can opener?) I am now going to give my 'beginner's open shoulder tip'.

     I made sure that I rotate my arms so my thumbs are pointed to the ceiling, which slightly rolls the shoulders back. It also opens my chest, and can help reduce hunching. AND! it makes it easier to twist to face into the circle!  I'm going to call this 'the open shoulder.'

For 3 and 4

Open shoulders, and facing inside the circle with good arms
Be a ballerina

You will see more experienced skaters do crossovers with different arm positions, but this is what worked for me when I started. I mean, with open shoulders it felt it was a lot easier than skating with a rolled shoulder. When my trailing shoulder is rolled forward, it makes it hard to twist to face inside the circle (the shoulder compresses the chest), and puts me in a natural hunch position that your beginner anxiety only makes worse. Open shoulders--Thumbs up!

4. I started my crossovers with the crossing foot too far away from the skating foot. Let's call it a wide stance. What happens when I did this?
My unconscious brain told me 'I'll fall if I step over',  and I  LEANED AWAY from the crossover! And once you're leaning out of the circle, doing that stepover is like stepping across a ditch. Of course I felt uncomfortable.

   Get my stepover foot close to the skating foot before I raise it to step over.

  5. I hunched. I was not comfortable with my balance, my blade position,  and my toepick scared me. Hunching makes all those fears worse. Not hunching is the solution. It helps me get on the right part of the blade, supports good balance and helps keeps me off my toepick.

This image illustrates 3, 4, and 5

Here's an illustration of a well trained skater starting
a crossover (1) with feet close together,  arms on the circle, and
not hunching (note she's holding a different trailing arm position,
but she's an experienced skater)

So there is a list of all my bad crossover habits and how I fixed them,

Back 3's Now and Forever

My coach and I were working on back threes this weekend. So maybe I've been working on these for several years? We don't work on these every lesson, but often enough that I've made slow (if timid progress). I'm now in the position were I can see the top off the mountain.

I'm a little concerned about this metaphor

I'm doing the back 3's on two feet, and doing solid one foot back edges with correct shoulder, head and arm movements, but that turn on the back of the blade on one foot just ain't happening.

She lets me rest one hand lightly on her arm to do the one foot back three. "I always worry about this." I say." I'm afraid if I fall, I'll snap you like a twig." I tell her.

She laughs, "I move much faster than you, you'll never take me down."

I imagine it like this!

Stoning

Coach Challenge sat down after Group to join the Freeskate Circle of Fire. "I've been learning how to stone." He added solemnly, "I'm a stoner."

In case you're new here, 'stoning' is what skaters call 'professional level bedazzling'. It's part of the 'crafty' side of skating.

"Going to be another Brad Griffies?" I asked.  Brad is a famous skating costume designer, who does beautiful and striking designs in stones on costumes. I don't think I've ever seen stoned men's pants even on his custom costume site.

"No, no. Just trying it out. " he smiled at everyone. "I want to put some stoning on my skating pants."

"Bunnies!"  someone said.

"I was thinking of a pony." Coach Challenge joked back. Who knew Coach Challenge was a Brony?

"Oh much better," Miss Bun said, "UNICORNS!!"

Almost everyone agreed on unicorns, except I'm still holding out for ......

Dragons!

 But, it will probably turn out to be a diamond stone stripe down the side.  We'll see how it turns out.