Question about backward skating.

[brucen32]

New skater here using bauer hockey skates. I have a question regarding tips for improving backward skating. When I was learning forward skating someone on these boards very helpfully recommended that I first pick up enough speed and just glide on both skates close together and then slowly lift one skate off the ice and try gliding for as long as possible on one skate. This helped tremendously with developing the balance I needed for forward skating. I would like to do the same for backward skating, but the problem is I just can't build up enough speed going backwards to lift one leg off the ice. Any sage tips on improving backward skating from veterans?

Thanks in advance for any comments,

Bruce

[Skittl1321]

I'm certainly no expert, but when I first learned backwards skating, I did two things.

First, wiggles. Exactly what they sound like. Wiggly your hips (and bottom) which will cause momentum in your feet to go backwards in a sqiggly motion. This can get quite fast as you get good at it.


Second, backwards swizzles. The opposite of forward ones. Start with your knees bent and toes together and trace an arc with each foot until your heels are together, then repeat. These swizzles will help lead to backwards stroking.

[dbny]

You can even give yourself a push off the boards to get started. Bend your knees, but keep your back straight (don't bend at the waist). Put your fists on the boards (don't hold on). and give a gentle shove. Keep your knees down and let your hands stay in front naturally. Do that a few times and when you feel comfortable, give a real push. Since you are in hockey skates, if you bend at the waist, you are going to smack your knees onto the ice really hard, so be very careful with that.

BTW, getting enough speed for the one foot backward glide is a very common problem.

[Award]

Just as the skittl mentioned above.... start off with wiggles, and later to swizzles.

Basically, begin with snow plough stance with toes pointed together. Keep head facing forward and back relatively straight up and down, and knees bent. Then just relax the feet and allow the skates to move outwards on their inside edges. Try to have the weight toward the front part of the blades. As your skates move outwards, this translates to backwards movement. And then later, you allow the skates to come inwards again. The power is generated from the skates going outwards, obviously. So after the skates have come in again, you then allow the skates to move outwards again. So that's how you start to learn to go backwards...in the most basic (and important) way.

Once you get good at all that, you can then try a different exercise. You can then try to develop a feel for keeping one skate relatively straight, while your other skate moves outwards on the ice. It doesn't 'just' move outwards, but the blade will carve out a semi-circle as you'd expect a curved/rockered blade to do. And when that skate comes back in again, you then can use the other skate to do the same thing. Once you get good at these exercises, you'll find out that lifting a skate right off the ice is not essential to generating a lot of speed. But also, once you get good at doing these exercises, and the feel of going backwards, you'll probably develop a natural feel for balancing on one skate while going backwards anyway. It's a body development, and getting-used-to-the-feeling kind of thing.....which takes time.

[Team Arthritis]

This sounds a little out of the ordinary but while I was struggling to learn backwards 1 foot and backwards XO's I was coached to just try backward swizzles then glide then dig in toepicks and stop. This also took a while to learn but developed the fore and aft ankle/foot control needed to go backwards and gave me the security of knowing that I could grab with my toepick whenever I was in trouble.

IMHO you can't progress in your skating until you can expand you comfort zone to encompass the moves necessary for that new skill.
Lyle

[Petlover]

My coach gave me a great tip when I started skating backwards (years ago!!!!). When you are at home, walk backwards around the house. Going backwards can be scary because we never do it, but if you practice walking backwards at home, you will get a comfort level with it. My dogs, however, thought it was a new way to play and trip over them.......

[Isk8NYC]

I never thought about the off-ice backwards practices - great tip!

Your problem is in building up enough speed for a glide, right? The push start followed by backward wiggles or swizzles will help with that. I teach the push start by having the student stand facing the glass. Find your nose. Now, make fists and place them on the glass at chest height. Now, BEND YOUR KNEES and use your fists to push backward. Don't try and stay in contact with the wall - lunging will make you fall forward. Keep your knees bent and your feet parallel. Do NOT let your arms drop below your waist, in fact, use your hands to point (literally) at your nose in your reflection. That'll buy you a decent starting push for a two-foot glide. When it starts to lose momentum, do the wiggles or swizzles that were mentioned above.

To do a BACKWARD one-foot glide, get up some speed, keep your feet close together and parallel to each other. Now, bend your knees and lift one knee up, as if you were making a table with your thigh. Keep your arms up and to the front of you. (No lower than your waist, no higher than your chest - think of a 10-and-2 position in front.)

Before you start working on crossovers, master a two-foot glide with your feet uneven, like this:

L: |
R:: |

You'll need that to learn how to cross properly.

brucen32 said he wears Bauer hockey skates in the OP. Backward crossovers for figure skaters are different from hockey skaters'. Where we do a half-swizzle with an underpush, hockey skaters use a lift-and-cross with a c-cut push. When they're really moving, they do it with one foot on the ice at a time.

[frvanilla]

Hi brucen32,

Just want to clarify a bit before I answer you question, by backward skating do you mean marching backward or backward C-push?

Yes, wiggling would give you a sense of how moving backward is like and most people would start off this way. HOWEVER, when skating backward, hips should always be squared with your shoulders, which means you should not wiggle (even if you are a hockey player).

This is the way I teach marching backward for beginners (I'm assuming it's marching because you mentioned lifting up one foot):
First, put your hands out in front of you as if you are holding on to a table. Point you toes toward yourself like a "^" at the starting point. Now, you want to bend your knees and lift your knees up in front, and toward your hands. (It doesn't need to be big.)

The point is, you need to reach UP AND IN FRONT of your body instead of WALKING/REACHING backward. It should be the same as a knee-to-hand exercise at standstill. Always point your toes because this will help you to lean on your inside edges. Keep you knees close to each other -- I would say for the first few times, do not let your knees separate the whole way back. It will help to keep your steps in control. AND, keep you body upright!

The gliding momentum comes from transfering weight from hip to hip, or "rocking side-to-side". Speed does not come from how fast you push yourself into a backward glide or walking backward. Backward skating should be started from a stand still position. When you pick up your right foot, rock/sit down on your left hip. Put the foot down and centre your balance. Pick up the left foot and rock to the right. Once you feel yourself is gliding, you will be able to build up the speed with flow.

The shift of balance is very important for backward skating (meaning C-push) and backward crossovers.

Hope this will help!

[Isk8NYC]

Hi brucen32,
Just want to clarify a bit before I answer you question, by backward skating do you mean marching backward or backward C-push?His question was about backward gliding on hockey skates. He can't get up enough speed to glide and lift his foot. He already knows how to stroke and glide on one foot forward - he wants to do a two-foot to one-foot glide backward. I pointed out that we shouldn't try to teach him figure skating crossovers since he's a hockey skate wearer and, well, he can't glide backwards yet! ;)

Backward wiggles are a learning step in both ISI and USFSA LTS programs, isn't it also in the CanSkate curriculum? You actually use your shoulders opposite your hips to progress backwards. We don't teach C-pushes until the skater can glide and perform swizzles/sculls backward. The USFSA calls that "backward stroking."

[brucen32]

His question was about backward gliding on hockey skates. He can't get up enough speed to glide and lift his foot. He already knows how to stroke and glide on one foot forward - he wants to do a two-foot to one-foot glide backward. I pointed out that we shouldn't try to teach him figure skating crossovers since he's a hockey skate wearer and, well, he can't glide backwards yet! ;)

Yes this is exactly right! Thanks for all of the tips everyone, I will try and incorporate them.