I see a lot of moms here skate and compete. I skate USFS Adult 3 right now. I got the spin alright (yeah!) but I have trouble with the mohawk. Instead of skating backwards I come to a full stop. I love to work on it though. And I do need a pair of better skates. Funny how for dd is never an issue but for myself I am so cheap....
I never thougth of competing though. Do they really have comps for such a low level? Do I also have to wear something tight? Just immagine myself in a skating dress ! That makes my day laughing........

There are Basic Skills competitions, where you can compete with others who are at your same level. They are very low key, a nice way to ease into the world of competition.

As of last year, ladies are allowed to wear pants to compete and test. You should wear something nice, fitted (so the judges can see your body line), and neat. No sloppy sweat pants! No baggy sweat shirts! Yoga pants and a fitted long sleeve t-shirt would be fine...something along those lines. (Note: "fitted" does not have to be "unflatteringly tight".)

I never could imagine myself in a skating dress, I'm very much a baggy casuals sort of person - and then I got talked into doing the lowest level compulsory dance (novice foxtrot, nothing harder than runs and swings) at the club competition, and I bought myself a second-hand dance dress. Plain black with a nice long skirt on it and a couple of sequins at the neck. I wore it, and didn't die. I had fun. I thought maybe next time I'd try a slightly harder dance.

And then I decided plain black was a bit boring, and went off and looked on ebay for something maybe just a little bit more colourful. And what I found was this gorgeous bright red tango dress with enough gold sequins on the top to double as emergency rink lighting. I'd never worn anything like it in my life (never did dance as a child) but I fell for it, and I decided hey, I could buy it without anyone knowing, try it at home, and if I couldn't face wearing it in public, either I could sell it again or I'd lost a whole $30.

I decided to wear it in public I don't feel half as selfconscious in it as I would in fitted trousers, because it's got a nice long skirt which hides my less than skinny thighs I'd say to any adult who's looking at the sort of things child figure skaters wear and thinking "no way", take a look at an adult dress with a dance skirt.

Very good point! A skating dress can cover a lot more sins than you'd think! Try a few on & see if you like any of them.

Can I just say that Cathrl's red dress is lovely! I've seen her wear it, and it really suits her.

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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!

If you're doing the sit spin, that's not low level! Don't talk yourself down, lady!

For the mowhak, it helps to stretch the inside of the thighs eh... whatever that's called. You know, inside of the hips or whatever.
Your mowhak trouble might be blade-related, or, maybe you shoud try like... pulling up your toes a little as you put down the skate? Not so much as to pick with the backside of the blade of course, but just enough to lift the toepicks a little off the ice and hit the ice with the center of your blade instead of with the toepicks? Keep in mind though that very very very cheap blades don't actually have a center of the blade, they just go flatflatflat-toepick, like this: ____v instead of like this: --____--v
Might also be that you're actually putting your heel down and grinding that way (the opposite of described above), in that case, try to bend your knees more and put down your toes.
Mind where your arms are. Keep them straight, up and tight, not soft like cooked spaghetti.

And take care not to confuse the inside mowhawks with the outside ones! They have a slightly different technique and I've seen a girl who was confusing them totally mess up both.

It sounds like you're not getting enough rotation to completely go backwards (1/2 turn) and are getting a quarter and putting your blade down on the flat.

When you do the mohawk, turn your head to the backwards foot as you change feet. For example, if you are doing RFI to LBI, turn your head to the left as you change feet. Also, turn your right foot to the left as you step to the left foot. This will point your body in the correct place to hold a LBI edge.