I'm so excited--I have another new move I can add to my little bitty repertoire! I just decided to try the RFO and LFO 3-turns this morning and I'll be doggoned if I didn't turn right around with my check intact! Only had to cheat on the rail once.

Yay! I can't wait to show it to my coach--who will proceed to pick it apart...
But for now, I'm pretty psyched about it. Ignorance is bliss maybe...

Of course, I am still having tons of trouble with mohawks (closed hips, arms-a-swingin') but this sorta makes up for it. Just proves that not everything is hard.

Well, I always found mohawks to be so much easier than 3-turns (which scared me a little at first), so kudos to you!

I have a problem with mohawks I can't transfer to the other leg, 3 turns I got the inside ones shakily okay, but then I read somewhere in my skating books that 3 turns are done on a circluar path? Goodness knows about these brackets and chocktaws and things, I can't understand from my books what they are, I think my skate instructor should come in handy now!

I thought 3 turns are easier because its all on the same foot so its easier than transferring!

Its all confusing!

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starting at 28

Yay! It's always fun when you get something new, but be warned. It might be completely impossible to do when you try to show it to your coach. I learned this the hard way.

How many times have I been able to do things perfectly when I'm by myself and then I try to show him and fall flat on my face...figuratively if not literally!

I'm guessing that if you you have closed hips the 3-turn comes easier than the mohawk. One of the instructors at my rink says she has a student that can't CLOSE her hips, and can do mohawks like a dream but can't do a 3-turn. Anyone want to venture if that has anything to do with anything or not?

Open hips make F Mohawks a piece of cake, and closed hips (AKA poor turnout) make F Mohawks absolutely treacherous. I don't see why open hips would be a problem with three turns, or any of the one foot turns, but rotation should solve the problem if it does exist. The difficulty with rotation solving the hip problem in F Mohawks (because that is the solution), is that you also have to get that F moving blade off the ice in the split second before the B moving blade takes the ice. With open hips, there is more leeway in the timing because the F moving blade is at close to 180' relative to the B moving blade.

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Yeah, the other problem with closed hips on the forward open mohawks is that if you are solving the problem with rotation, it's hard to hold your check through the move. I think that is what I am struggling with right now. Ah well, I'm sure one day it will just come and it will be like, "why was that so hard??"

Well done Sandy! I had - and still do have - awful trouble with 3-turns, and have always found Mohawks easier to do at speed.

Someone said focus on picking your first leg up - the other leg will go down, it has to!

Well, all skating is done on a circle - there aren't any straight lines. Your instructor will, I'm sure, have shown you how one foot pushes away from the line of travel, and then you come back to it with the other foot. A 3-turn should leave something that looks like a figure 3 on the ice (hence the name) - a curved entry edge and a curved exit edge.

As for brackets and choctaws and things, there are 32 one-footed turns! Four different types of turn, each of which is done on all 4 edges (FO, FI, BO and BI) on both feet.

• A 3-turn turns into the circle, and the exit edge is different to the entry edge (so if you go in on an LFO edge, you exit on a LBI edge, and vice versa).
• A bracket turns out of the circle, and the exit edge is different to the entry edge, and leaves something that looks like } on the ice, hence the name.
• A rocker turns into the circle, and the exit edge is the same as the entry edge (so if you go in on an LBI edge, you exit on an LFI edge)
• A counter turn sout of the circle and the exit edge is the same as the entry edge.

Then there are two sorts of 2-footed turns, Mohawks and Choctaws. A mohawk is a turn involving a change of foot but not a change of edge (so if you go in on a RFI edge, you exit on a LBI edge), and a Choctaw involves and change of foot and a change of edge (RFI-LBO, for instance).

There are also Open Mohawks and Closed Mohawks, but as I can never remember which is which, I tend to refer to them by the dance in which they are done.....

Some folk find one-footed turns easier, others find the two-footed ones easier. I found it easier to "grok" one footed turns, but find the two-footed ones easier at speed.

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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 can do three turns (coach picks up apart though) but can I do a mohawk???? NO CHANCE! mine end up being a bit 2 footed. any advice???

OOOPPS< JUST READ THE ABOVE POST SORRY!!!!!!!!

I have had a bear of a time with mohawks. 3-turns were a bit easier (but not a cake walk). When I was taught the mohawk it wasn't explained anything about the edges or anything, which would have made it easier to understand. Also, the arm thing and bending the knees a bit more. Mine have been "mo-hops" instead of mohawks.

I have been re-learning them. I have closed hips (actually I have a defective hip) which makes turn-out and other things more difficult. The learning curve on this is very steep.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I'm very open-hipped and have never had too much troule with mohawks or choctaws, but cannot stand threes. Although I did do a RFO at speed in our circle footwork for Synchro last night -- shocked the snot out of me, LOL!

My issues with threes is that my hips are so flexibe they have a LOT of play going up and down, too. I drop my free hip chronically and turn out my knee to boot. Plus, because mohawks are easier, I struggle mentally to actually DO a one footed turn -- Someimtes I literally fight with my foot to not do a mohawk.

Congrats on the 3-turn! I also happened to get it from the first try. But I found mohwaks esier though.