Also, even though she is skating backwards, she should really be looking where she is going - unless someone is spotting for her, it is really dangerous to go backwards 'blind', and she knows this, she's spooked by it! It's her common sense telling her it's not safe.

She should practice just standing at the boards and looking behind her, using a good, strong, solid core - straight back, square shoulders, and stretch that neck! Have her tell you what she sees behind her. (I know, that sounds odd - how can you see behind yourself? - but she'll get the idea) The brain needs to be trained to adjust to that wierd view. Just think about how hard it is to back a car up!

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blades, gary, Lucy, Emily, take care of Aiden and Sami. Sami is my sweetest heart, and always will be, forever. RIP Cubby Boy, my hero dog.

I'll do that. Thanks!

You could try a pair of prescription sports goggles if her vision's so weak.

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With glasses as opposed to contacts (I wear both) you still have some peripheral vision but it is blurred and you lose a large amount of depth perception. If there are other skaters near by she may be catching a flicker of movement but not be able to process just how far away the skater is. I have experience this myself and find it distracting. Also it does take time to gain confidence going backward and the only way to gain that confidence is to actually do it. That's where some of the simpler exercises like simple backward glide and backward bubbles help.

Again some skaters take longer to master some things than others, like many of the PP's here its not a race simply enjoy it and celebrate the gains you do make.

My dd stopped wearing her glasses while skating after they flew off her face in a spin and her friend skated over them!

I did something similar while teaching - I demonstrated a spin and wheee! went my glasses. (Didn't realize I had them on.) They have a missing sliver from the frames, but the lenses are okay. I still wear them because they're so nice, but I notice the missing piece every.single.time I take them out of the case.

I coached a swimmer who really didn't pay attention during practices. It turned out that she had severe vision problems. The parents picked up a pair of prescription goggles (not custom, just magnifying) and the improvement in her practicing was dramatic. I think she couldn't understand what I was saying from the deck without her glasses.

As for backwards skating, one great drill is to put a pair of sneakers on and have the skater walk/jog backwards for a while. How often do we really walk backwards - just the feel of it is enough to creep out kids.

BTW, dull rental skates are a problem for the backward gliding maneuvers like sculling (back swizzles) and one/two foot glides. If the skates are oversharpened, the skater can't find the ball of the foot and end up scratching with the toepicks, which makes them stop. The rental-user skater has to work much longer and harder than someone on good, sharp skates.

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I skated with (very thick) glasses for a couple decades. While peripheral vision is restricted, you compensate for it by turning your head a little bit more than non-glasses-wearers need to. Contacts help but wearing glasses isn't that much of a handicap at the beginning levels we're talking about here.

I agree- wearing glasses at the early levels shouldn't make any difference at all unless she is SEVERLY sight impaired. Then that little bit of periphreal (sorry, spelling) vision might matter.

I can't see much past arms length without glasses, and due to an infection can't wear contacts much, so I always skate in glasses, so far no problems, with 2 exceptions. On very very busy high level sessions I keep a set of daily contacts in my bag- when high level skaters are moving so fast, I need that extra bit of vision to feel safe. When it's just the kids (who move about the same speed as me), glasses are fine. The second instance is backwards passthroughs in synchro- I compensate there by turning my hips. A normal person could just turn their head, but I don't have full range of motion in my neck.

I think part of the problem is that for most kids backward skating is hard to grasp. A few things I've done to help this is to hold their hands and have them skate/glide as fast as they can backwards, while looking at my face and telling me if I'm smiling, frowning, sticking out my tongue, etc. The idea is that they DON'T get to look down at the ice and ruin their posture while I hold on. Another is the aforementioned push off the boards and glide, you just have to make sure they don't lean forward to push. Wiggles and backward swizzles will help get the backward motion, and that can turn into 2-foot and 1-foot glides.

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

I wore glasses for the first several years of ice-skating. To avoid any danger of their falling off, I would hold them on with Croakies - I recommend these!

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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!

Hi

I only picked up ice skating about 11 months ago. I stopped for 4 years due to professional academic exam commitments. Prior to that 4 years, I was somewhere in between Freestyle level 2 and 3. At that time, I was still struggling with scratch spin, and could not even manage a decent sit spin.

Now, I am starting to learn freestyle level 4 stuff. Well, working on sit spin and half loop now. Got decent scratch spin and change foot spin, still working on backspins.

Given that I only came back to ice skating less than a year, and that I have lessons 2 times a week, and devote an extra weekday for practise, I would have to say that I am kind of satisfied of my progress.

londonicechamp

Whilst wearing glasses in itself wasn't a problem for me,my fear of breaking them and my fear of not being able to see those bits round the edges was.

My daughter has just been prescribed glasses and the difference in her skating has been incredible (we are both long sighted) both the coach and optometrist thinks this is down to better depth perception in take off and landing jumps. My daughter uses a waterski neoprene band to hold her glasses on as it is less sweaty and itchy than other on the market.

My DD wears glasses. She is working on her axel and double salchow and has never had a problem with her glasses flying off. She did wear the croakies when she played soccer though.