One of the things I immediatly forgot during my lesson was which arm is in front of me when. I figured I could google and find the answer, but was unable to.

In Basic 3-4, while doing things on hockey circles, I remember her telling me for edges you lift the same hand as leg, easy enough.

Doing forward crossovers, which arm is in front if you are crossing over with the right leg (CCW)? I think it is left (opposite arm as leg- or arm inside of the circle is front.)
Doing forward crossovers, which arm is in front if you are crossing over with the left leg (CW)? I think it is right (opposite arm as leg- arm inside the circle)

Same question for backwards swizzles.
CCW and CW. Here, I think it is arm inside the circle is back, because that's the one you are looking over.

I really appreciate the help! A bunch of my friends decided they wanted to go skating tonight, so I get to go two days in a row! I hope to practice a little bit, but don't want to practice wrong.

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

for forward and backward crossovers-

right foot over left- right arm in front
left foot over right- left arm in front.

hope that helps

__________________
~Dreams Can Come True~

To help with remembering, my rink teaches the little ones to 'hug the circle' - essentially, just stretch both arms out as if you were attempting to embrace the circle you're skating on (your chest will face into the curve). Hope that makes sense!

Now if I could just find something like that for three turns...

Thank you both! The hug the circle thing works great!

(I was wrong, I thought it was the other way... glad I asked)

I also realized I typed wiggles, and I meant backward swizzles on a circle- does "hug the circle" apply to that too?

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

do you mean almost the half-slalom pattern,because for that it would be same as back crossovers-you hug the circle. Basically if your arms are in the right place, it will feel like your moves are pulling you into the circle.

Yes - hug the circle, and look over your back shoulder and across the circle. Those are back half swizzle pumps on a circle and are preparation for B crossovers.

__________________

Thanks
Sorry I have the terminology wrong and called them swizzles, instead of half swizzle pumps. In my head I was thinking half because it was on the circle- it made sense to me... I'm glad you all are mind readers

I'm not looking forward to back crossovers My back half-swizzle pumps are reasonalbly good on my right side but just horrible on my left- and my arms are always wrong. Even now that I was thinking "hug the circle" I always had to switch them when I realized I wasn't.

I'm going to have to stick with morning adult sessions for practicing- tonights open session was extremely uncrowded but with people whooshing around in hockey skates I couldn't really practice anything other than a few one footed spins and about 3 crossovers in a row while going through curves. It was nice to skate though.

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

don't worry about back crossovers, after you've learned them you'll wonder why you ever did half swizzle pumps before. best time to skate is when kids are in school or early mornings. Evening sessions are always seriously crowded.

good luck with everything

Three turns have the toe turn INTO the circle, so think about "hugging the pole" in the middle of the circle.

You'll get it. For backwards skating, most people watch where they've been. Look behind you, down your INSIDE-the-circle arm, which will force you to keep your shoulders turned in to hug the circle. (Think of having YOUR heart face the heart of the circle!)

Once you get the half-swizzle pumps going, start doing them without letting the "swizzle" (outside) foot pass your skating (inside) foot. That's vital for good crossovers.

__________________

Hug the circle but remember to keep your hips parallel to the circle.....

What do you mean by "hips parallel to the circle?"

Your belly button should point at the line, not towards the center of the circle.

__________________

Right. I was wondering how I was going to explain that. Your belly button points straight ahead, but your upper body hugs the circle. It's like you are squeezing your left hip towards your right shoulder. It helps me to think of it that way.

I often help my students get into the correct position, and then ask if they can feel the twist in their torso, and tell them to maintain that feeling. I also ask them to look in the mirror at home to correlate the correct position with the feeling.

__________________

What transformed it for me was during a master-class when the coach said "Turn your ribcage into the circle". I discovered I had muscles I didn't know I had, down the sides of my ribcage, but it really works, far better than "turn your shoulders", which can over-exaggerate the turn at the waist.

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

dbny or anyone: have you ever walked up the stairs in the crossover position? It also gives the feeling similar to doing xo's on the circle. Do you know what I mean?