I'm 52 years old and taking beginning figure skating lessons. Today was my 5th lesson and we started crossovers. I thought OK no big deal I used to do those on roller blades. I was totally hopeless I could not lift my right foot over the left. I was sweating bullets! Any ideas to make this easier? My instructor told me to practice before next week that I had good balance and that there was no reason I couldn't do this but I felt like I had a mental block! I always practice before each lesson so any ideas would really be appreciated!

I always encourage skaters to "hug" the circle they are skating on and keep their arm directly in front of their belly button. Remember why you learn swizzles on the circle first...because they are the first part of your crossover. Then say for example that you are doing counter clockwise crossovers. Be patient. Don't go too fast! Slow steps are the key! Keep your weight over your left leg through the swizzle and step over. Then keep the weight even over both feet. At this point, slowly allow yourself to transfer over to the right foot as you bring you left foot behind your right. And then begin again! You will get the hang of it soon! As I said, slow crossovers and "hugging" your circle are the key! Good luck!

Counterclockwise forward crossovers will be the most commonly used if this is your natural direction. Even if it’s not, it’s usually the way the skaters in the rink move. When doing crossovers, it’s imperative that you BEND YOUR KNEES. First, however, align your body so that your feet are almost together and your hips and shoulders squared. Lift your right arm so it’s stretched out nicely in front, a couple of inches lower than shoulder height. Your left arm will be the same height, but extended behind you. Relax your shoulders. Now, really bend those knees and push off with the inside edge of your right blade. DON’T USE THE TOEPICK TO PUSH OFF! This is a very bad habit to break, so don’t even start. The toepicks are designed primarily for jumping—they’re certainly not used to push off on any type of crossover.



As a beginner, you might be hesitant about the crossing over part of the crossover. This is natural and you’ll probably end up overcompensating by really lifting your right boot higher than necessary so you don’t trip or get it caught in your left boot. You can go slowly when doing crossovers, but not too much or you’ll lose any kind of momentum. You cross the right boot in front of the left boot.



Its important to LEAN to the left [towards the inner part of the circle] as well as to look left. Some experts argue that you shouldn’t look into the circle but up and away. If you’re more comfortable at this point looking into the circle then go ahead. Once your right foot has crossed over, you’re now on two skates again but that won’t last! Time to PUSH with your left outside edge to the side, feeling the transfer of weight. Now that you’ve picked up some speed, don’t panic! Put your left foot back down next to the right skate. There it is—your first official crossover! Now repeat the process. First you’ll work on form, then you’ll work on speed.

Wow. Who kidnapped Justine? No teenspeak to be found anywhere!

Good advice, too.

My mom helped me write that , only correcting the spelling though!

OK, how about backward crossovers. I just started them and I picked up counter-clockwise pretty quick and had a feel for it. But clockwise isn't working. I figured when I "felt" how it worked counter-clockwise, that the other way would be OK. But nope! Any sugestions?

As for forward, I found when I was learning them that I initally wanted to lean forward a lot. Once I straightened up and looked at the top of the rink boards instead of my feet it got much better!

Crossover/crosscut Tips not mentioned.

When going in either clockwise or counterclockwise direction, make sure to have the arm which is out of your circle you are travelling infront of you and the arm which is in the circle behind you. Keep your hips traveling in the direction you wish to go but slightly twist at the waist into the circle. This will help you to stay travelling in the circle and not to leave the circle.

PS: I teach pre-hockey, learn to skate and CanSkate (all levels).

singerskates

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I want to add my kudos to Justine as well! Great job!

Thanks everybody. I'm practicing Wednesday. I was intriqued with swizzles on the circle. I was not trained that way, we just did swizzles. I'll try that on the circle first. I can see how that makes you get on a edge. I'll let you know how I do. As for backwards crossovers-as much as I want to I know I am not nearly ready! I have 3 lessons left and will probably sign up again.

Ditto!!!!

Justine is growing up right in front of us.

Too cool!!!

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For both forward and backward crossovers, try half-swizzles on the circle. Swizzle with only the blade away from the circle center swizzling while keeping the other blade on the circle.

Something that helped me a lot when I was learning crossovers was NOT to use the hockey circle. Use a smaller imaginary circle about three feet inside of the hockey circle. It will give you the natural "lean" more easily. You can expand to the hockey circle when you get the "feel".

And remember to turn your chest, not just your head, as far as possible toward the center of the circle. It always amazes me when people try to go in a circle while their chest is pointing straight ahead.

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Thanks

Well, I went to skate today. I tried crossovers 5 times and fell every time. I tried swizzles on the circle on both feet. one feet. I feel like I have a mental block. What really makes me mad is I can do it on rollerblades! I fell so many times one of the coaches working with another student came over to me and suggested I just try skating on one foot for awhile! Maybe when I have my lesson Saturday my instructor will see what I am doing wrong. I am so depressed. How many times can a grown woman fall?

How many times can a grown woman fall? Well....hundreds perhaps
I don't rollerblade. Last time I tried I feel in the middle of the street trying a mohawk. I think that perhaps the technique is different enough that there is something very specific you are doing causing problems. Definitely check with your coach. I'll bet it's something simple...always is for me! Many time you think it's your feet, when it's your upper body. Hang in there!

Do you know what it was that made you fall? If you are catching your toe pick (could be, since rollerblades don't have them) there is a simple fix.

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Yes. I do think I was getting the right foot stuck on the toe pick.

I have vague memories that when I was learning crossovers, the instructor started us from a standstill; you held on to the barrier, leant towards it, lifted your outside foot up and put it down over your inside foot. We may even have done it without holding on, I can't remember.

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This may not apply to you at all but just in case, how's your posture? Is your body straight and shoulders back and down or are you leaning at all forward? If you are leaning forward that will pitch your weight forward and that may be influencing the toe pick problem. It's one of my boo boos I lean forward during forward and back cross overs it's been something I constantly work on.

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Hm. That may be your problem!

Rollerblades and figure skates have very different balance points. The balance in rollerblades is more toward the heel--the balance in figure skates is more toward the ball of the foot. You may be pitching too far forward, not being 'familiar' with it, or you may be trying to overcompensate for the 'odd' balance point.

I've been figure skating for so long that I can't rollerblade anymore--last time I tried, I nearly killed myself falling off the back of the skates!

The cure for catching your toepick on crossovers is to lift the toe (and turn the ankle in) of the foot being crossed over when you take it off the ice. The outside of your ankle should be pointing downward and your blade should leave the ice with a sideways push off the outside edge. Don't try for the push yet, just lift the toe and get the ankle pointing down for now. You can get into crossover position at the boards and look down at your foot to see before you put it into practice. Watch some of the skaters with smooth forward crossovers and you will see that toe-lift, outside edge push now that you know what to look for.

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Thanks everybody. I'm going back Saturday and I don't feel like it is a mental block anymore after I heard you all tell the difference in balance points between rollerblades and figure skates. I am so sore today from all the times I fell! Going to the pool and hot tub tomorrow to work out the sore spots!

A simple little trick, but it helped me. At home, walk up the stairs sideways. Don't laugh! Keep your hips facing the wall in front of you and your upper body turned going up the steps. Good luck. Keep trying. You will get these before you know it. Just keep in mind that progress is slow and that is the norm. Jeanette

Well I had my class Saturday and my instructor knew immediately what I was doing wrong. I am keeping my rt leg straight and I am landing it on the wrong edge and down I go. So she has me practicing by the boards stepping one foot over the other until I can feel it. We don't have class this week because of Valentines so I have 2 weeks to practice! She also wants me to practice gliding on one foot more to increase my balance. I also have to practice backward swizzles as I have no power there. I can do forward ones perfectly. You would think it would be easy to just reverse what you are doing!

Ah. Having someone look at what you're doing is invaluable! We try, but... Remember the first rule of skating---BEND YOUR KNEES!! Especially on crossovers--take a good look at the elite skaters, you won't believe just how much they really do bend their knees and sit into crossovers, even the forward ones.

For the swizzles--BEND your knees, SIT into them, and DO NOT bend at the WAIST. Keep your upper body relatively straight (not so straight that you're off-balance backwards, but a 'natural' straight), and just let it 'ride' the up-and-down motion that the swizzles give you. If you're bending your knees and sitting enough (and don't forget the resulting flex in your ankle!), you won't pitch onto your toepicks and need to do that 'wild dance' to get your balance back. The more you practice these with proper form and balance, the more courage you'll have to press out and pull in harder, thus generating more power.

Have fun!

I helped a 5 year old with her backwards crossovers today. She was doing something I hadn't seen before. She was basically doing backwards crossovers while skating forwards! Has anyone else seen this before?

Hugs!
Danielle