Hey does anyone have any good tips on doing loops, not the jump kind?
Thx

uhm well my only advice to you is keep practicing them, i had a hard time with them those skills i tried them 7 times but it was right before they switched them to the new ones so my only advice is keep practicing them and an easy way to start out is keeping 2 feet on the ice and tracing ur mark with your back foot. i hope i helped thts the best advice i can give you on them.

I am working on outside loops, first I do the circle for size then I do them on two feet to get the rhythm of them. Then I do them for real, arms checked knee slightly bent, then when I get in range of the loop part I bend my skating leg more and lean forward slightly w/ only my hips. My left is much better than my right. I also work on them being smooth and trying to keep the timing the same on both legs.

That's how I do them you would be best advised to get a coach who did figures preferrable through their 8th test my coach shows me these very easily because she went through her 8th test.

la

Which edge and which direction? If you're doing forward, either outside or inside, make sure to keep your skating knee bent, but don't start out with it so bent they you can't bend anymore for the loop itself. Keep the knee relaxed so that you can adjust your bend throughout the figure.

Also, keep your free leg behind you until you reach the beginning of the loop, then slowly draw it through. The free leg should not surpass the skating leg until after the top of the loop. A mistake a lot of skaters make is to bring their free foot through too soon or to have it dangling on the side. It needs to be directly behind you, and don't let it swing to far the other way either.

When you're first learning the FO, it's OK to drag your free foot on the ice as you get the feeling of how to do the loop itself. Eventually you will have enough confidence to keep that free leg off the ice.

Backwards is a whole different story, but bending is still key.

This is key. I had a tendency to rush my free leg, and really didn't get it right until I was very patient and waited as long as possible to bring my free leg through. You want to ride the edge as long as possible, until you reach that point where you are force to do the loop.

Really press into the edge, and keep your weight on the ball of your foot.

Press into the edge harder when you reach the top of the loop, to generate the speed to come out.

We can all offer you lots of tips, but with loops you really just have to be patient and practice them a million times on every edge. I did loops every day, twice a day last July to pass my skills.

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I can't really explain what I do but I was stuck on that skill for so long that I just quit skills in total but then I come back this year and i can do them so i might come back to skills.

This is so funny -- last night, after reading this post, I drempt that I was doing loops -- first on two feet and then on one -- I'm even dreaming about figures these days!!

So am I to take it that in the Candian "Skills" you have to do loops? That is awesome!!!!!

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They aren't in the UK Moves as far as I know, but my coach still likes us to do them. I can do BI ones, almost.... but not with my free leg in the right place yet. But working on them has helped my twizzles, and now my BI twizzles are better than my FI ones, and I can reliably do a 1.5 BI twizzle, but only a single FI one, go figure....

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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

My coach suggested I keep the outside shoulder back when starting the forward loop.
I've found the back inside easier, as I had been doing these after a spin or jump landing (rock over to the inside edge and do a loop).

IMO, back insides are very easy. I am not talking baout controlled figures here, just BI figure-style loops used as footwork. They are basically just a single rotation of a basic forward spin. Control comes from the free leg and being able to stop the "spin" after one turn.

BOs are not too bad either. IMO, the FOs and FIs are the most difficult.

Kay

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Not awesome, they're killer. They're on Jr. Silver skills, the dreaded "snakes and ladders". They're not laid out like figure loops, they're actually harder because you step from one to another so are changing lean and direction. Down one side of the rink, in loops, LFO, RFO, powerpulls, RFI, LFI, pulls + a 3 turn, LBI, RBI, pulls, RBO, LBO. Then do back steps/rolls across the end, a length of alternating spirals and then bracket-3-brackets across the other end. And, do it on time to a piece of proscribed music. You fail if you put a foot down. The kids that do well on these are the kids whose coaches did figures, and they teach the kids the loop figure as the foundation.

I definitely find back inside the easiest. LFO would be next on the list, because it's similar to a spin entry. I FINALLY got BO like a week before my test, and I struggled with FI for a long time, too. My BI are still good because I've had to work on them for the gold skills.

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