Learn Two Forward Catch Spirals! (Chinese Arabesque)

Hey skaters, welcome back. I'm so glad you're here. I am Coach Julia, and today we are gonna be working on catch spirals, also known as a Chinese arabesque. So you might hear your coach use either one of those terms in reference to this. Now we're gonna be learning two different versions, a same hand and leg, and a cross hand and leg, all right? So I would call that a cross catch. So you want to be working on flexibility for your spirals and flexibility for your back. With a catch spiral, you have to have really good back flexibility. So doing things like bridges, back bends, that kind of stuff is really gonna help. Now when I was younger, I used to be able to get my foot all the way up over my head, and I'm not gonna be doing that for you today. Unfortunately, I'm not as flexible as I used to be, but I can definitely show you how the handhold goes on this. So the first thing we're gonna do is head to the wall so I can show you the handhold for a same leg, same hand catch spiral. So here at the wall, I'm gonna use this just to help me balance so that I can show you this handhold more carefully. And I would really recommend you to do the same thing. Come over the wall and practice the handhold. You want to get it correct so you don't accidentally cut your hand and you don't end up with your elbow in a funny position while you do this catch spiral. So since we're using the same arm and leg, I'm gonna start with my right leg and use my right hand. Now it's very common when you're starting to grab from the top so that you're actually holding onto your blade. My blades are really dull right now, but if you had a sharp blade, that could cause some abrasion on your hand so you do not want to hold your hand that way. All right, so we actually want to imagine we're holding a cup, all right? Like a glass of water, an ice cream cone, something that you want to keep upright, okay? So my thumb is on the top, not on the bottom of my hand. Okay, you can see that, the thumb is at the top. And I'm gonna keep my hand in that position and insert my heel into, ooh, losing my balance, into, so here's my cup, my thumb's at the top and my heel goes in and I'm just gonna wrap my fingers around that bottom base of my skate. Now while you're over here on the wall practicing that hand position, I encourage you to do some stretching. I have gone over my spiral stretches a number of times in different videos and I'll post some links down below to some of those spiral videos so you can practice that stretching on the wall before you head out onto the ice and practice these catch spirals. So now that we have gone over that handhold, let's practice that catch spiral going down the ice. So what I'm gonna do is get into a traditional forward spiral. Just gonna do a straight line spiral with my right leg up and I'm gonna be skating on my left leg, okay? And since we're doing a same leg, I'm gonna be grabbing with my right hand, going down the ice. So let's get some speed. I'm gonna put my left hand out in front of me to help me balance, okay? If your hand comes back and you grab, you can easily tip forward. So we want our left hand out in front of us for balance. We have our spiral and you can see my thumb is prepping. My thumb is up. I'm gonna bend my knee, pop that heel into my thumb and lift, all right? So the first things first, you have to have your core really stable. If your core is loose, as soon as you grab that heel, you're gonna tip forward, trip on your toe pick, all of that bad stuff. So strong core and then we're gonna get that left hand or at least for me, I'm doing it with my left hand. The free hand strong in front of your body because that's gonna help you balance out the leg behind you. So again, strong core, free hand in front. We're gonna go into our spiral, get our thumb elevated. So our thumb is up like we're holding that glass of water. We're gonna bend our spiraling leg, pop it right into the palm of our hand. And then, cause this isn't super pretty, we're gonna try to lift that foot up above our head. So we're trying to think about our foot going straight up towards the ceiling. So this free arm is going to lift and it'll just go as high as you are flexible. All right, strong back, arm to the front, thumb up, heel in the palm and lift that foot up just as high as you can using your free hand to help counterweight your skating leg. Now it is time for that cross catch spiral. So for this one, we actually need even more back flexibility cause not only do we need to be able to bend it really strong for that catch, but it also has to rotate. So in addition to backbends, I really want you to work on rotational stretches for your spine, okay? So there's a number of warmups you can do out on ice that really limber up the rotation of your spine and that will help get this spiral higher. Now this spiral, I actually like better. I can't do it as well as I used to, but I really love the way this one looks. Let's go to the wall and practice the handhold. So the handhold for the cross catch is the same as for the same leg catch spiral. You still want that thumb up. The difficulty is you're actually gonna go across your body now. So you have your thumb up, you're holding that glass of water, right? You're not gonna pour that water out. You're gonna keep that water in your hand. Then you're gonna insert your heel into your handhold. Okay, so you've got that cup with the thumb on the top, not on the bottom, and that heel goes into that handhold. So just like the same hand catch spiral, we're gonna start with some speed, good core control, nice straight skating leg for that spiral, and we're gonna have the opposite hand out in front to help counterbalance our leg. For this one, I am gonna go ahead and switch which leg I'm doing. So I'm gonna do my left leg in my spiral, but still my right hand. All right, so I'm crisscrossing across my body. All right, let's go give this one a try. So that strong core, left hand in front to counterbalance me. I'm gonna go into a spiral with my left leg up, bend my knee, reach across my body with my hand, keeping that thumb facing up like we did with the other one. I'm gonna pop that heel into my palm and then lift. So again, we want to have that strong core and that strong free hand. Now, when you go to grab your foot, you're gonna have to take your hand that's doing the grabbing and twist it so that it's behind you. And this is where people like to drop their thumb down and then they are grabbing their leg backwards, but you can't lift up very high. Your shoulder mobility is gonna block you from lifting that leg very high in your catch spiral. So even though you're crossing your body, you still need to keep your thumb up because this way, theoretically, if you're flexible enough, you could bring your hand all the way up over your head. All right, let's give this another try. So you have that strong spiral, free arm in front, bend your knee, grab that heel with the thumb up, and then we're going to lift up. Now, you're not gonna be able to get your leg as high because your back kind of blocks you, but you wanna work on lifting it as high as you can. And that cross position, I think, is really pretty. All right, so one more time, let's put that all together. We're gonna have that really balanced core, straight skating knee, cross your body thumb to the ceiling, and then we're going to lift that leg up as high as we can go. You can let your torso drop forward. As long as you're balanced through the center of your skate, you should be fine. Nice. Okay, skaters, I hope you enjoyed this one. If you did, please do give us that thumbs up. And as always, I look forward to reading all your comments in that section down below. If you haven't done so yet, then hit the subscribe button and the little notification bell down in the corner so you can see all my videos when they come out. Happy skating, and I'll see you next time.