need advice

[Team Arthritis]

I am very embarrased to admit that I have a terrible time doing successive front to back to front to back to front 2 foot turns without completely grinding to a halt!:oops: my wife and I do them in our little progam, each time turning towards the audience (i.e. CW front to back and CCW back to front) with a deep forewards bend/ with cutsy postures on each glide.
Coach wants me to keep my feet together - well then how do you push?
The more I bend at the waist the more I dig in my toepicks.
When I rise up quickly as I make my turns I banana peel, if I don't rise up I can't make the turns.
To make matters worse, these start from an almost dead stop!
helllpppp:giveup:
Lyle

[Mrs Redboots]

Kneebend, I'm afraid - or rather, ankle bend. Push your ankles forwards so that you get lace-bite from the front of your skates, it's the only way. And you do have to rise up a little in the knee, or you'll never do it. It's a sort of down-up-down motion.

And you do need to be on edges - outside edge for inside foot, inside edge for outside foot, otherwise it doesn't work.

But I can see that it's not easy. Will have to have a go myself next time I skate!

[lovepairs]

Team,

Try this: When you turn forward (going down ice) be more towards your heal, when you turn backwards (going down ice) be more towards the ball of your foot. This action will keep you more in the rocker throughout the turning and keep you away from the toepic, which is bringing you to a grinding halt.

[Mrs Redboots]

I am very embarrased to admit that I have a terrible time doing successive front to back to front to back to front 2 foot turns without completely grinding to a halt!:oops: my wife and I do them in our little progam, each time turning towards the audience (i.e. CW front to back and CCW back to front) with a deep forewards bend/ with cutsy postures on each glide.
Coach wants me to keep my feet together - well then how do you push?
The more I bend at the waist the more I dig in my toepicks.
When I rise up quickly as I make my turns I banana peel, if I don't rise up I can't make the turns.
To make matters worse, these start from an almost dead stop!
helllpppp:giveup:
LyleHad a play with these today, thinking about you. I'm not totally sure what you are trying to do - are these 2-footed 3-bracket-3s, or more like 2-footed rocker slaloms (which are one of our field moves). If it's the 3-bracket-3s, you need to think heel-toe-heel, so when you are turning from forward to backwards you are more on the front of your blades, when back to forwards, on the back of them. I can do these on one foot, but only on my right foot, can't do them at all on my left foot. On two feet, the idea is you and your wife face each other, perhaps clasping your hands at shoulder height, and work your way up the rink without moving your upper bodies - seriously good for one's waist and hips!

If they are more like rocker-slaloms, then you will need to practice your 2-footed slalom, and make sure you can gain speed on that (this is all in the kneebend - you bend as you approach the edge change, then rise up very slightly in the middle, then bend again for the next change-of-edge). And when you want to turn, you just move your shoulders round and deepen the edges, then quickly unweight your blades and you should turn. Sorry, can't describe it better than that.... then of course, you have to do the backwards slaloms, which are far less easy, at least, I find them so!

[Team Arthritis]

Thanks for your suggestions - I've incorporated both and it helps. These are supposed to perfectly flat and straight so the bracket , 3 is how I think about them. So to improve them I've put in a little cheat by adding a bit of edge and 2 foot slalom to gain a little speed - big help but hard to keep feet together. Also, we are supposed to bend at the waist after each turn and gesture. This tends to stick me on my picks so I've tried to bend more with the knees and less with the waist. The #1 major predictor of how well I can do these is the rise up in the knee right before the turn - they work if I can get my chest up and shoulders back and stay tight over my feet. However since I come up from a bent waist this is difficult.
Thanks
Lyle