Yep,
I can not take my eyes off the ice.
Particularly during turns and jumps.
I keep looking at my feet.
Does anyone else have this problem?

Yes, I'm guilty of that. I think my primary coach joked about my "losing loose change" or something once too...

Cheers,
jazzpants

I do it a lot during footwork. Footwork is not my strong suit and I have had many scary trips. Dance is helping me to avoid this b/c I have to maintain better posture.

Kay

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I have taught myself to almost never do it in spirals, look down= fall down. I have a bad habit of doing it in my flip and lutz and am trying to unlearn it. I remember I was still a relative beginner and I was stroking around the rink and this really good skater skates by and gives me this big smile and said, "Look up" I didn't even realize I was looking down. I had to re-teach myself 3 turns without looking down. There are ways to look at the ice without actually titling your head down and I am slowly learning those. :-)

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

I look at the ice about 3 feet in front of my skates. Even though the ice I skate on is usually in good shape, I don't trust doing an element without making sure there are no gouges, potholes, debris, small children, or other things that might cause me to go splaaat!!!

I don't like splaaat!!!!!

Something to remember that will help. Where your eyes go, the audience (judges included) will follow. When we are watching a skater we focus on their eyes. If you do a waltz jump with your eyes down looking at the ice, and then the same jump with your eyes up, the second will seem higher - not only to you but those watching.
So keep your chin and eyes up. It will improve your positions, and presentation.

I had a roller skating coach who always told us "you go wherever you are looking." I repeated that to a kids Basic 2 class last week and one little smarty asked if he would go up "there" if he looked up

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I had a coach who told me to look upward as I jumped, especially for forward take-offs. He did not mean to look at the ceiling, but to keep my head up and my posture straight. It did help. The same coach always teased me about looking down after lutzes. I was struggling to make my lutz cover more ice. It got to the point that I was looking at my tracing while I was still in the air. The coach had a field day teasing me about this.

Kay

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eyes up, eyes up , eyes up!!!

That's all I hear from my coaches! They also have to remind their other students as well!

Am as guity as sin on this. But I am improving.

Even competitive novice skaters are seen to be quity of this. One novice skater last night was trying to get her triple toe loop and didn't get it until my coach told her to get her chin up on the take off and in the air.

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Yes, very guilty. One of my many bad habits. My coach would never believe it, but I am trying on this.

Chico

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"I truly believe, when God created skating, he patted himself on the back."

Yep! Guilty of that too....all i hear is..."Look up!!! There's no gold on the ice for you to pick up"

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Gina

I am guilty of looking down. Having been off the ice for a year right now I having a tough time not looking at the ice. I had to learn to look at my hands while doing a three turn so I would not look at the ice. When I catch myself looking at the ice I hear a friend saying "If you look at the ice you'll end up on the ice!"

Yes I'm afraid I'm guilty of looking down a lot too., particularly during foot work. My coach often reminds me to look up as the ice isn't going anywhere!!

Nicki

Oh, this reminds me so much of a wonderful man I used to skate with several years ago. He used to say he had a "fascination with his feet!" It made me laugh. Unfortunately, he passed away suddenly last year and I miss him dreadfully, but whenever I hear any discussion about looking down, I think of him. The only time I look down on purpose is when I try to do a two foot sit spin and look down. Makes me so dizzy!

Hee hee, this reminds me of a modern dance teacher I had in college. She would always say "Stop looking at the ground! In my 24 years of teaching, I've never had a student whose feet have fallen off! Your feet will still be there."

geez, my coaches are having caniptions right now!! "She who looks down, falls down"... ya think???

*patt99*

Another guilty one here! I don't actually look down in the sense that my head is bent over, but I keep my eyes on the ice. This means that all the judges can see (or anybody else who happens to be watching) is my eyelids... not a good idea!

One gentleman on the course had a variety of hand-printed sweatshirts, including one that read: "Coached at X rink by WW, XX, YY and ZZ". To which one of the coaches on the course commented: "All those coaches, and not one of them has taught you to look up?!"

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

I am so guilty. My coach says "look up, look up, look up!" at least 3-4 times during my lessons. It annoys her *so* much but it is something I just haven't been able to correct.

Coach believes that adults look down more then kids.

I have severe astigmatism in my left eye. And though I try so very hard not to focus on the ice, my eyes need a "spot" and unfortunately, the spot is often the ice.

At one point, I tried to focus on my hands, but I would end up forgetting to pull my arms in. Sigh.

Oddly enough, when I'm competing, I look up. Perhaps that is because I'm on autopilot and I don't think about my lack of depth perception.

—Diva, who can play golf only when she places a red ball next to the white ball.

I have had this problem for some time now and I am trying very hard to correct it. It's so bad that Peter Burrows once said to me "nobody's going to come along and steal the ice away from you, you don't have to watch it".

The only thing I can say is that you just have to keep reminding yourself everytime you skate. It's a hard habit to break but it looks soooo much better to see a skater looking up!

Lara

When I was working on my program for my one competition (Skate SF 2001), I had a bad habit of looking down. Jay tells me to look out to the audience and SMILE!!! Act like you're saying "Look at me!!!") I still had a hard time with it.

Then he said "Act like ME then!!!" I did another runthrough of the program acting like Jay during his Interpretative program, including the flashy "look at me" gesture and the big "whitening toothpast commercial" smile. It worked!!! Jay didn't seemed to mind that I was "making fun of him."

I did the same thing at Skate SF... it was probably the only thing that kept me sane on the ice!!!

Cheers,
jazzpants

Yep, I'm guilty. Who knows, the ice might have moved........and I certainly wouldn't want to run over a little person. I've got excuses galore, believe me!

Thanks for the tip Flo. I'll try thinking of that. "If you look at your toes, you'll fall on your nose" just isn't working for me.

I remember one day when I, and some others, were watching another adult skater run through her programme. Her coach watched, and then, without saying anything, got a five pound note out of his purse. We were all intrigued - until he said, "well, I think she must have dropped some money, she's looking for it so hard!"

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

Anne, too funny. Unfortunately, we all can't get paid to look at the ice. LOL

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Yes, I'm guilty of the same. I didn't realize how much so until I was skating on Friday. An instructor giving private lessons across the rink, who I had just met, gave a big huge wave with two hands as I was practicing back edges. I turned to look to see who she was waving at before I realized she was waving at me, to keep me from looking at the ice, LOL!