hi,
when doing a spiral, i manage to put my leg high enough but my foot never turns out like its meant to its always pointing down towards the ice. My coach keeps pulling me up on this, along with my landing position where my toe is also pointing down. whenever i try to turn my foot out i get quite a lot of pain in my lower back. my dream would be to do a spread eagle but there isn't a hope if i can't turn my foot out. does anyone know of any exercises or anything that would help? i would be very greatful!

thanx!
icy-cool

I have no idea how to help, but I wanted to tell you I have exactly the same thing


One thing that's helped a little is trying to turn out from just above the hips, rather than just trying to turn the foot. Also, when you're going into the spiral, stand in the t-position, and THEN bring the free leg up - the foot should already be turned out.

I practice it a lot off ice - hold on to something, so you don't have to worry about balancing - just concentrate on the turn out. I generally record myself with my phone sitting on my bookcase, to make sure it's not just dropping down.

Hope that helped a bit

First thing is first...work on your stroking...and really extending your leg and pointing your toe (and turning the toe out)...from there, you should be able to point your toe and maintain turnout to do a spiral and that will also translate to your landing position....my advice, go back to the basics and really focus on pointing and extending....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

The turnout should come from your hip. Practice opening out your hip rather than just trying to turn your foot!

Nicki

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www.myspace.com/insatiableskater

That's a great point! If you can stand in a T position on the ice, your foot/leg must be able to turn out. So try standing in a T position while holding onto the boards and lifting the back leg up into spiral position while keeping it turned out. It's like the ballet barre exercises you always see dancers doing.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I agree fully here. the turn out does come from the hip, like you are banking your body around the curve of the bend like an aeroplane

And to throw a few cents in about appearance here - I used to be appalled at how large my bum looked when doing a spiral, until my coach corrected it by having me turn out at the hip. Voila - bum looks smaller, I guess because the muscle lies more flat. A nice side effect of proper position!

Practice off ice, without skates. Hold each one for 30 seconds.
Always stretch first.

Try to think about turning the knee of the free leg out and pointing the toe of that leg "up to the ceiling."

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Try holding your free foot in T position before lifting into the spiral. That way you already have the turnout in place.

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Squeeze your butt.