On behalf of DD:

Wide stepping on mohawks. Any drills/suggestions to overcome this? It's the consistent feedback on dance tests, and is becoming a "watchfor" by the judges, meaning that they are always looking for it to happen when she tests. Right now, it's blocking passing the Keats. Coach is working on it, but, any additional thoughts would be great.

I found thinking about touching my foot to my ankle before any new push to be helpful.

j

Dance or Synchro blades might help if she is scared she's going to step on the backs of her blades.

Otherwise I think it's just "practice, practice, practice"... I know, not helpful.

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I agree.

Perhaps your daughter can literally "walk through" the section(s) of the dance containing the mohawk on ice. Not the whole pattern, not at full speed, but slowly so that she's more aware of her feet, body positions, timing, etc. With enough practice, she should be able to feel when her mohawk is tight rather than wide-stepped. It's really all about muscle memory, which can take up to a month (roughly 27 or 28 days) to achieve.

Sometimes wide-stepping can come from the hips getting behind the body (or the butt sticking out), so maybe have her think of keeping her hips pushing forward. Again, this will take practice to get comfortable with this position.

Have you tried filming her? Seeing what one's doing looks can sometimes feel completely different than what one think he/she is doing. Maybe she's a visual learner and needs to see what wide-stepping looks like and then associate the feeling of correct mohawks with how they look.

What exercises does her coach currently have her working on to fix her mohawks?

This specific Foxtrot mohawk is left closed outside, and should be done toe to heel — right foot steps BEHIND the left foot, with the right toe touching the left heel. This one is a toughie because the edges are required to be deeper and held for two and four beats. The outside mohawks on the Fourteenstep and Ten Fox are only held for one beat apiece.

If she's stepping heel to heel, she's probably cheating the edges a little bit because of insecurity on the RBO edge. Lots of practice on a line is helpful. Do it very slowly and small, and get comfortable stepping with the right foot behind. A strong check with the left shoulder back will also help. This is a counter-rotated mohawk, so if you start turning to the right, it'll be nearly impossible to step onto a good RBO edge.

This all makes sense; she's going to work on the exercises ... part of the problem is that her one leg doesn't quite work properly (bad break as a kid) and she has real coordination problems, which makes ALL dance a problem. We really appreciate the suggestions. Video has been used throughout her skating, and it works well: both herself skating and exemplars.

Having access to a mirror works as well. Obviously there's lovely rinks with mirrors on the wall,(so I've heard ) but I've seen a coach put a wardrobe mirror sideways just leaning up against the boards and the skater skates to it doing the mohawk, I really saw it used for a choctaw step, but same thing just about. Same coach also uses a fun thing for brackets, puts her coffee cup on the ice, you have to do the bracket to the cup and away, knock over the cup, guess who is buying the next one, and dealing with the wrath of the zamboni man. It's an evil variation on the bracket to the glove exercise.

That reminds me of an exercise I've seen a coach give for FO counters--skate *through* a pair of skate guards laid down on the ice only a few inches apart and then do the counter. I think the object was to get the turn placed correctly, but oy vey, it looked hard!!

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