Hi, well, i am still not jumping because of my ankle injury. It has healed to the point where I can run and jump without pain as long as I don't rotate my ankle when I land. So no on ice jumps yet. But in any case, I have plenty of time for off ice now.

So, inspired by another thread on laybacks. I remembered that my layback position is just awful... so what in the world can I do to practise it off ice?

I am doing two things.
1) put my leg up on the sofa to force it high and then lean back to get the position.
2) trying to hold the position without support.

my aim for 1) is to improve the flexibility my aim for 2) is to improve strength.

Well i have learn my layback for a quite some months to a year(i think not sure how long already) and this methods are not working extremely well. (has improved but i want better!!) Anyone have other suggestions?

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Tidesong

When you are doing Laybacks a good way to practice them off ice is to hold on to something and just go back and hold it longer each time.......you also might want to try to get your stomach stronger.

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~*SkYlA*~

Oo I was wondering about that too Are there any specific excercises to stretch your back or is practicing the layback position the only way?

um...well that's the only good one i know of......i wish i knew of more cause my back hurts all the time!

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~*SkYlA*~

i dunno if this would help....but possibly back bridges? if you have any idea what that is

oh yeah ....never thought about that! ....THANKS!

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~*SkYlA*~

hmm is the back bridge the one where you sort of form a turned over U shape with your body? with you hands and feet on the floor and your stomach to the sky?

Is there anything you look out for when practising that? Like is there a wrong area to feel the stretch in? This one should be basically for the back right?

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Tidesong

What I used to do for laybacks was backbends into back-walkovers. This was a while ago, because I cant do back walkovers anymore, but I still do backbends.

What REALLY helped me was stretching my back every day after I skated by leaning back into the position in front of a mirror (that way I could see where my back was and what my position was) and I could correct my position and feel the difference between both.

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Lisa

Wont it be great? Someone else in '08!

hmm what if you can't correct the position and realized its either the problem of no leg strength or not flexible in the back? so I dunno... i shall try the backbends...

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Tidesong

I used to do gymnastics, where we would practice bridges & crabs in the warm-ups (both have the body in a kind of upside down U shape, with hands and feet on the floor and stomach up. A bridge is with the legs straight and together, a crab has them slightly bent and open. The crab us more of a full body arc, the bridge's curve is mostly in the back). This is the way we did it - after getting warm and doing a lot of other stretches etc, you would do the back stretches where you stand with your feet hip distance apart and lean your upper body to the side (like a sideways-leaning spin position). Then the other side. (ALWAYS stretch tall in between every back stretch, i.e. stand up straight and reach up high.) Before doing a bridge/crab, you sit on the mat, have your knees right up to your chest/chin and your feet by your bum, hold onto your legs with your arms, and roll backwards and forwards slowly, from your neck to your bum. Only after doing this do you do the bridge, and you roll again between them. Try to hold the position for 5-10 seconds, but don't push your back to curve too much if it hurts. Make sure you stretch tall aswell. And another thing you should do is stand up with your feet together, let your upper body fall downwards in a swoop with your arms making swooping shapes (your head ends up by your knees, your hands going past your feet then back again). Then roll up slowly. That last one is from dance, not gymnastics though.

Hope that helps! Having said all that though, I'm nowhere near learning a layback yet! (Can't even get a good solid centered spin consistently).

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

thanks alot!... more stuff to do now!

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Tidesong