Interesting -- everyone I've seen starts the waltz 8 from 1 or 2 short intro strokes. Guess it depends on what is customary in your area and with your coach.

I don't understand this. After the first push you are going to come into all the other circles with some speed, so I don't understand why it would be different.

I asked my coach about this this morning and she said I could do it that way if I wanted to, but that yes it's pretty rare.

For me, the advantage would be that I would probably place the first 3 better if I had some speed going into it. I'll have to try it both ways and see.

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Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

My coach had me doing the waltz-8 pretty slow (to the point where he had me SLOW DOWN what I was doing) so the push I got from a standstill at the beginning was about the same as the push I got when I changed circles.

I think if I skated into it my first lobe would be much bigger than my others.

(I practiced mine so that if I stood on a hockey circle dot it would extend to the edges of the circle. I'm 5'0" though)

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-Jessi
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Congrats on passing! Doesn't it feel great?!!

Regarding waltz 8 - I did (and passed) mine with 2 short entry strokes. My coaches had me doing fairly large circles. My axis was between two hockey circles, and each circle came out past the center of the hockey circles - so even though they weren't done *on* the hockey circles, each circles was about the size of a hockey circle. According to my coaches (and my own experience) larger circles are more difficult and show better control, at least when it comes to 3 turns.

Regarding XOs on the axis - again I did these starting between the hockey circles and used each hockey circle as a guide. I tried to convince my coaches to let me do them along the long axis because I had a hard time fitting in enough XOs, but they refused, even though the rules say you can do it that way. According to them, doing XOs on a smaller circle shows better control and strength, which is especially important for a larger skater - due to the larger momentum we carry into our moves, we *must* deveop the strength to control it and fight centrifugal forces.

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

I did my waltz 8 from a stand still in between the 2 hockey circles. My lobes were big extending far outside the circles. Basically, I did the waltz 8 like a compulsory figure because that is how my coach was taught it. The size of the circle has something to do with your height.

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