Ouch.

Those are some evil, no-warning falls.

I keep doing it...not the outside, just the inside. Do you think I'm straightening my leg too soon? I'm not sure how to stop doing it!

Thanks

Apparently Ive been doing my 3 turns wrong for the last 4 levels... hee hee... oops, My coach, told me to eliminate the scraping sound, that I needed to lean more towards my heel, on my sweet spot. Im not sure why you keep falling, but back inside turns are tricky at first. Maybe your skates need to be sharpened?

~Best of luck in Skating~
Lauren

Those are nasty turns to get - make sure you are really on an inside edge (rather than flat) and don't straighten your knee all the way on the "up" part of down-up-down (and make sure you bend your knee on the "down" parts).

Bring your free foot to the ankle of your skating foot, bend the knee deeply for control, then wait until you reach the top of the circle. While waiting for the top of the circle, make sure your chest is over your knee so your center of balance is correct before you do the turn. After you've reached the top of the circle, focus on the ball of your foot, do the turn, then bend deeply again as you exit (free foot still at the ankle).

It sounds like your falling into the circle. Keep your weight over your skating side.

Chico

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I regularly used to fall on these and even now sometimes I catch my blade and fall. Like you say, they are evil falls and usually hurt somewhat. My problem is that I forget to rotate my upper body because I'm focussing so much on the turn, then I end up catching my blade because I'm not turning on the right point. I have to really pysche myself up to do any sort of back three turn. I'm really not a lover of any of them!

Nicki

I don't fall on these but do stumble sometimes - am currently working on alternating 3/bracket things (the ones that go back and forth) and the ones that require back inside 3's are significantly harder than the ones that require back outside 3's. The trick seems to be in the upper body position and it's something I have to concentrate on to get right. As Joan said, make sure you really get onto the right edge. Make sure you're comfortably in the position before you try to do the 3...sometimes that takes a few seconds for me when I'd really just like to do one without delay.

Best wishes,

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Antoher tip that helped me, make your toes touch the top of your boot.

Steven

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Make sure you are doing the correct shoulder checking throughout the turn. My initial issue with the BI3's was that I was stopping the turn too soon, which made me catch the outside edge & go tumbling down.

Also, make sure you lift your free hip & do the turn on the back part of the blade.

That's true. If you are doing the back inside 3's on a lobe, like the Intermediate or Adult Gold MIF test, then you need to start at the top of the lobe ("12:00") with your chest facing into the circle and the arms "hugging the circle" (i.e., left arm in front if you're doing a left back inside 3-turn). At the 11:00 point on the circle (or 1:00 for the right foot), start turning your head to face outside the circle and passing your arms low and close to your body so that the opposite arm is now in front when you reach the midpoint of the circle, or 9:00 (3:00 for the right foot). Don't turn until you feel like you have just passed the midpoint of the circle.

Practice them as double threes. They are much easier coming out of a FO3 on than BI edge. The first turn gives your some momentum and fluidity. Continue to follow the circle. This method really helped me. You can also do them after a back xover from the resultant BI edge. That makes them easier too and keeps you off the flat.

Kay

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thanks all! I was practicing them tonight, the coach said I'd been straightening my leg too early and I also wasn't looking in the skating direction...eek

tonight they were slow, but worked

As long as I can pass the FS4 test tomorrow. I can make them pretty later!