05/31/2021 Private lesson recap: Two-foot pivot spin and spin entry, backward outside edges and hops
1Two-foot spin from pivot position:
1. Start in pivot position, keep arms wide.
2. During spin, ensure feet are apart and roughly in line with your hips. Any wider and you will likely lose balance or struggle to transition to a one-foot spin later. Try to keep feet pigeon-toed and slightly pointed inward.
3. Your legs should be bent at the beginning of the spin. Once you feel you are centered (not traveling), straighten legs and pull arms in. Make sure you are not leaning forward - try to straighten up as if you are a puppet and something is pulling your string up.
4. To exit, bend knees first! Then push with free leg and transition to landing position.
Two-foot spin with entry:
1. Imagine a half-heart shape on the ice. This will be your path.
2. Push from a T-position and do a one-foot glide with free leg trailing on ice. Free leg can touch the ice, but there should be almost no weight on it.
3. During the glide, the arm over your skating leg will be forward, but during the glide it will move to the outside so that it is sideways by the time you are at the top of the half-heart when you enter the spin.
4. Your free leg will also swing forward at the top of the half-heart so you can enter the two-foot spin position. You should enter the two foot spin position with both arms to the side and both legs parallel, roughly hips-length apart.
5. Start the two-foot spin with bent legs. Once you feel you are centered, straighten legs and pull in arms. Straighten upper body as if you are a puppet and something is pulling your string up.
6. When you are ready to exit, bend both knees, then push with free leg to transition to landing position.
Two-foot to one-foot spin from pivot position:
1. Start in pivot position, keep arms wide.
2. During spin, ensure feet are apart and roughly in line with your hips. Any wider and you will likely lose balance or struggle to transition to a one-foot spin later. Try to keep feet pigeon-toed and slightly pointed inward.
3. Your legs should be bent at the beginning of the spin. Once you feel you are centered (not traveling), shift weight to one leg as you lift up free leg. Keep arms apart! Do not pull in (or at all) until you feel you are centered over the skating leg.
4. To exit, bend skating leg as you put down free leg, then push and transition to landing position.
(In the video I fail to demonstrate a proper exit as I do not feel comfortable doing it yet.)
Backward outside edges:
- Correction on my technique: Make sure hip never opens up! Free leg hip should be slightly in front of the skating hip during each push, then both hips should be parallel when tucking the leg.
- Tuck leg, then turn head, then switch arms, in that order.
Backward hops on a circle:
- This is used to get used to takeoffs.
- Make sure to not lean back, as this will cause you to fall backward.
1. Skate backward along a circle. This will force you to be on an outside edge for one leg.
2. To hop, make sure knees, shoulders, and toes are in a line (in the video, my shoulders are not lined up), then dig the toe picks into the ice to launch yourself upward.
3. Land on your bottom toe pick and transition into a backward two-foot glide.