How do you learn to skate fast? After I do my crossovers at the beginning of my lesson my coach makes me hold his hands and keep up with him. And it scares me, really really scares me! Especially backwards But the thing is, I keep up- so I know I can skate that fast. I know I need to work on stamina because I am completely out of breath after 2 minutes of the super fast crossovers on a figure 8. But how do I work on being able to do it without holding on? Without the support, I'm terrified to go more than a snails pace. I still click my blades quite regularly going backwards, and slip off my edge going forward- and that's going slow. But I don't want to be a snail. I want to be a good skater. I want to be able to pass tests that show I have "power".

I know fear is a good part of the problem. I am scared of hurting myself, but maybe even more than that, because I skate on public sessions, I'm scared of hurting someone else. But I don't think I'm good enough to be on freestyle yet. We don't have any senior level skaters, and freestyles aren't crowded- but the one I skated on, it felt as though I shouldn't be there yet.

Any tips?

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

First of all, falls when you are going fast hurt A LOT LESS than when you are going slow - I KNOW that for a fact!

Being fast is 50% technique (the RIGHT technique) and 50% strength - both of those you build with practice. I am a novice and am way faster than I have any right to be - it's about the right push and having the leg strength to put power behind it.

Yes, backwards can be scary - most all of my falls these days are going off the back of the blade while skating backwards so I wear a butt pad (that doesn't even show) and always remember to bring your chin to your chest QUICK when you loose it going backwards.

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Think power and not speed. Focus on making each push (each stroke is a push) in the crossover count. Once you have this, speed will follow.

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

And don't forget to finish off your edges. Properly done, you can get a lot of speed from edges, and it's somehow a lot less scary than getting speed from pushes (don't ask me why, my coach and my husband think I'm silly!).

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Use deep edges.....Listen for the rip in the ice. If you have a good edge...that creates a powerful "push" and the more speed you will gain.

__________________
Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

AMEN, dont be too scared, we all fall on them when the least we expect it.

__________________
Tim David's Website

I think you might gain a lot from working on two very important pre-requisites: practice falling, and practice your stops.

Practice falling to get over your fear, and also to learn how to "give-in" to the fall and sit yourself down on the ice rather than fighting it, stiffening up, and completely going heels-over-head. If you watch Nationals tonight or this weekend, you're likely to see a few falls from skaters who went full-speed into a jump. Notice that they barely loose a beat, and bounce right back up with a smile. Yes, they are in competition, but it's a nice habit that I try to emulate myself in practice. Falling isn't a mistake -- it's learning. It's not scary [most of the time] -- it's fun. It's not embarassing -- laugh, smile, enjoy it.

Practice to get a good hockey-stop. Start with one-foot snow-plows, which are really good for slowing down for traffic. It will take a while to get fluid, sharp hockey-stops. Probably harder than back-crossovers, and unfortunately, the falls you will take while learing them can be quite hard (you catch the wrong edge).

Once you don't care about falling, and once you can stop hard at will, I think you'll be able to effect the speed that you already seem to have but are afraid to use. *THEN*, you can start spending a lifetime finessing your technique to really milk speed out of the ice!

I found a nice blog the other day by a figure-skater who's now coached by a hockey coach, and who's really working on power-skating. Might be helpful to you. http://mygorramden.typepad.com/my_go...ing/index.html

GO JESSI!
be afraid- that's how you know you are pushing it.
forget form - just skate fast, work form going slow. Doing it right is just an excuse for not going fast.
wear your pads- they are your armor and make you brave
warm up first- going fast on warmup you are more likely to fall, get your legs under you as this is something you are trying to work on.

now all I have to do is take my own advice
Lyle

"Forget form: Doing it right is just an excuse for not going fast"

Hmm Lyle, not sure I agree with this one! By all means keep trying to improve, and "go for it". But if you can't control your speed, take care for yourself as well as others around you. If you are interested in progressing in skating, learning to do basic stroking the correct way is the building block of everything. Also this is why so many coaches spend all that time on crossovers and getting them "right", and why at whatever level you are, the first thing a new coach (or any judge for that matter) looks at is your crossovers. My first coach told me that the quality of the crossovers and basic stroking is what seperates the skaters from the "Sunday" skaters.

If form, control and progressing are something you are not interested in, then the fs sessions would probably not be the best place to practice.

__________________
Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

That's good to know!

I think you are right on both accounts. I had great stops on my rec skates, but weak ones in my figure skates. I need to relearn them.

I think part of my issue with falling is when I did the basics, I never fell. I think I can count the falls of my first 8 months of skating on one hand, and the past 2 months on the other. So now that I'm advancing I'm scared to let myself fall because I didn't do it then. However, I am falling more than I was before- and I don't mind the bumps, bruises and soreness, I'm just scared of the "bad one"- I've already done the horrible injury thing, and don't want to again. I'm not embarassed to fall- I just need to get used to it, and don't really want to get used to it while flying through backwards crossovers. But maybe Rusty Blades is right- it won't be as bad going fast? Not to mention, now that I help teach tots, I'm spending a lot of time going over the right way to fall. So i'll get it stuck in my head.

Lyle- I think you are right about the warm up. Crossovers are part of my warmup routine, and that's why it's so difficult. I need to put them back in at the end too. Oh- and I think it was your post about "keeping up" from awhile back that i thought about while I was skating so fast I thought I was driving down a freeway. I'm sure the look on my face was priceless.

__________________
-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

A good way to warm up knee action quickly on the ice is to do a couple passes of really quick 2-foot slaloms concentrating on a combination of both knee bend and quickness. Try to keep the knees between a light bend and a medium bend on the knee action, and keep a fast tempo on the actual edge changes.

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Join a synchro team

I never practise crossovers until I've skated a lap or two and warmed up my basic edges, maybe some swing rolls or cross rolls, too. Then I work on the crossovers using the forward and backward power circles (Adult Gold MITF test). I don't concentrate on form, but on rhythm and speed. Then, once I'm warmed up, I work on form going more slowly and concentrating on the edges. I also work on crossovers every time I'm out there.

And, as often happens on the satruday AM freestyle, there is a lull before group lessons start and I take the center circle and fo ALL OUT, balls to the walls, especially backwards. There's only one ot two other skaters on the ice and I can really hear the rip that way. A couple of weeks ago, I was skating fast enough that I went from dead center on the ice to out past the circle in six crossovers. Whee!!! Of course, no one was there to se it

These are great but I'm having trouble graduating to the next step: 2footed bracket - back 3's -bracket etc. I can do them but lose power on each step so I have to scull between each one to get back some speed. Any ideas on how to get push on these while keeping the feet together??? I can't figure out why these are so much harder than the slaloms, arrrggghhhhh
Lyle

You're both right! My coach makes me work on technique 90% of the time, but usually towards the end of a lesson he'll say "Just go for speed" and require me to skate round faster than I find comfortable, usually backwards (helllllp!). You need to spend at least part of each session skating outside your comfort zone, with or without your coach propping you up, and the rest of the time really focussing on good form.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I'm slowing down on the 2-footed br-3-br also. I think it's a combination of not timing the knee action with the unweighting of the blade, so even though I'm not on the toe picks, I still scrape a bit. Also I don't tend to keep my head pointing down rink, staring at a spot on the wall, and I still have movement in my shoulders (or at least too much movement in shoulders for my new coach).

Hmmm. Maybe I will try not tensing up on these so much and think about making the turn quicker. Dmitry (new coach) said something to me the other week about not halting momentarily at the top of the rise before doing the turn. I knew conceptually what he meant but was having trouble with the translation from words to body. Now I have a feeling of a way that I could possibly do what he's asking (or at least be a bit closer).

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

OK here's what I really want to know - what was your longest fall after a blade click trying to go fast????

I can't score on distance but I did get a rebound off the side AND end boards once
Lyle

New coach divides up skills by lesson (I normally work with him 2-3 days a week). This is all dependent on how my troublesome knee is behaving on any given day of course.

1 day is usually all basic stroking and power, focusing on improving basic stroking and flow, and making me move quicker (quicker and faster are not necessarily the same thing).

1 day is a mix, usually drills incorporating skills worked on in previous lessons (testing body memory)

1 day is all technical stuff like turns etc.

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Agreed w/Mrs Redboots here!

There is a time and a place to have proper techniques vs. actually just go full blown "skating with abandonment."

The proper technique, as I see it, are the tools you need to skate at faster speeds with minimal effort. But for someone who need to deal with the fear of speed and getting used to going faster, you occasionally need to "feed the (coaches' ) need for speed" to see where you are in the process and to build confidence for when you do need to go faster. That means you sometimes need to "screw the technique" and just GO FOR IT!!!

So it really depends...

I went "bowling" for public session skaters once!!! Knocked one (male) pin...eh, skater down along the ride... Both parties came out shaken but not stirred. Primary coach had a good laugh about it!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

(sorry I can't help it I'm about to burst) Blond, James Blond!
Lyle

There is one answer that will give you more speed while also preventing you from clicking your blades: MAINTAIN A VERY DEEP KNEE BEND.

Why does this work?
Speed: Because you can't push off a straight leg, the deeper you bend your leg, the more you can push off with each stroke, which gives your more speed and distance per stroke.
No "Clink of Death": When you have deeply bent knees during crossovers, your feet are automatically farther apart on the ice, so it's impossible for them to come in contact with each other. I realized this after catching my blades once while stepping out from slow crossovers and ending up right on my chin. But it hasn't happened since I started bending deeper and keeping my feet farther apart on the ice!

Once you've become aware of your technique, start following a fast skater around the rink, trying to push as hard as she does and trying to keep up, while also imitating her technique. And don't worry about falling, because when you are skating fast, you just slide across the ice and it doesn't even hurt. It can actually be kind of fun. :p

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

What I have trouble with is staying down in the knee long enough. Husband is always complaining I push off too quickly, but if I try to slow myself down I overdo it.

__________________
Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

I dont know how long it was, but I was doing foward crossovers, going really fast, when I didn't click my blades exactly, but I think I leaned too much, lost my slid from the part of the circle closest to the corner of the rink all teh way until I was close to the nearest hockey line. Of course, I was also wearing those jogging pants that day and those tend to be really slippery. So of course, I got up, and decided to try again. And the same thing happened, I picked up speed, lost my footing, and fell over. Only htis time, my friend managed to trip over me as I was sliding and in doing so, stopped me from sliding. Luckily it was an empty public session, just me and my friend so nobody else saw my 2 consecutive wipeouts and I didn't have to avoid any other skaters as I was sliding.

Although personally, I never had a problem going fast. When I was little, my dad would take me skating, and he used to be one amazing skater. He was incredibly fast, I think we once timed him as being able to do one lap around the NHL size rink at around 16 seconds or so. So what he used to do was take me around with him. He would skate as fast as he could, pulling me along behind him, and I had to keep up. He also tried to teach me to stop this way. He'd skate fast, then stop near the boards. If I didn't stop in time, I'd go crashing into the boards. He's one of those "throw them in the deep end" dads. Although something must have worked because even after I got back into skating, I was never afraid of skating fast and once I fell a couple times my first itme out, I was pretty much OK with the falling bit as well.

Yep.

I found that when I was starting to feel like I was going 'too fast', what I think I was really feeling was the 'centrifugal force', if you will. That, and not having enough control to change direction as quickly as the speed required. What helped me was to learn how to do crossovers around the entire perimeter, weaving towards the center circle down the sides of the rink. (Is this 'russian stroking'? I'm never quite sure.)

Anyway, it helped because when I started to feel like the speed around the ends was flinging me out towards the boards, it was time to shift my weight back towards the center of the rink and do the 'other side' crossovers. That constant and rhythmic weight-shifting helped me learn to control the crossovers, and the speed kept increasing. (Of course, my knee-bend was getting better all the time, too, which also helps a great deal.)

__________________
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

Way to go "007"

LOL! The last time a coach pushed me for speed was my summer coach and I was learning forward cross-overs on the faceoff circle in the end zone. She was standing against the boards by the circle and it was my coach I nearly took out! She was hollering "Faster! Faster!". I was TRUCKIN' and leaning WAY into the circle when I lost my edge and was headed straight for my coach! She crossed her hands over her heart and the expression on her face said "I am going to DIE!" Fortunately I managed to catch an edge and was sliding fast enough to rise up to my feet and regain the circle but by then I was laughing so hard I couldn't sake. I would pay money to have a picture of the expression on her face in that instant!

I am fast enough now that my coach insists on having a "straight-away" in my Interpretive program to show off my speed/power. The problem is that I am going so darned fast at the end of that sequence that I have to throw in a one-foot stop to take off most of the speed. If I tried going into any other move at that point, I'd take MYSELF out!

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )