Adult 3 Learn to Skate (journeybacktotheice) #adultsskatetoo

Hi guys! Welcome back to my adult learn to skate series. If you are new here, my name is Ava. I'm a competitive adult figure skater and I am sharing the adult 1 through 6 learn to skate series. I will leave the entire playlist linked in the description box below. I post new videos every week and I post the adult learn to skate series every Saturday, so make sure you subscribe to stay up to date. And with all that being said, let's get started with adult 3. First, a really quick disclaimer. I am not a certified coach. I do have experience teaching learn to skate, but I am just another skater sharing some tips for the adult 1 through 6 levels. This is not meant to replace lessons or coaching of any kind. I highly encourage you to go sign up for a learn to skate class, so I'll leave that information in the description box below. Now we can get into the video. Last week in adult 2, we talked about forward skating, which is different than forward marching, and today we will be talking about forward stroking. You will see forward stroking as part of the adult pre-bronze moves test, so if you are thinking about testing in adult track, this is a great starting point. However, for adult 3, this is just an introduction into forward stroking, so you are not expected to skate as well as you would in the adult pre-bronze moves test. This is just a great foundational piece to start getting comfortable with that. For adult 3, the main things you want to start looking at when it comes to forward stroking is just understanding the correct use of your blade, talking about edges, and also starting to begin that repetitive one foot push. The best way to get into our forward stroking is by starting in a T position. At first, this position might be a little bit challenging, but trust me, it will get a lot better and it will make your forward stroking a lot easier. For this, we're going to start with one foot in front facing forward and one foot behind facing out to the side. The shape we are making should resemble a T, which is why it's called a T position. Your body should also be in a T position, standing up nice and tall with your arms out to the side. When we do this, we are going to shift our weight from that back foot to the front foot, making sure that we can have a nice strong push into our forward stroking. I will make a full video in the future going over forward stroking in a little bit more detail and talking about this T push, but for now, I am just going to move on. The main thing I want to focus on this is our body position for our forward stroking. Instead of picking our foot straight up and down for our forward stroking, we are going to have our foot out to the side and slightly behind us. As you can see here, my skating leg has a nice bend in the knee while my free leg is straight. For adult 3, you do not need to have super high extension, you just need to show that you understand the basics of the forward stroking position and the side to side motion. So you don't need to pick your leg up super high off the ground, it doesn't have to be fancy and pointed just yet, you just need to show that you understand the basic knowledge of this. Once you get comfortable with the basics of forward stroking, I highly recommend starting to work on that extension and getting more confident with your pushes. From my T position, I'm going to have a nice strong push onto one foot, I'm going to have the leg slightly extended out to the side behind me, and as that free leg slowly comes down and both feet come together, I will push my weight onto the other foot. For this, you will have the same body position and extension all the way down the ice, you are just going from your left foot to your right foot. Next, we are going to talk about forward half swizzle pumps on the circle. Your goal is to do 6-8 in a row, both clockwise and counterclockwise. These half swizzle pumps are going to be the building blocks for our forward crossovers. We are going to start on the circle in this slight V position I have here. One foot is going to be on the circle, and the other foot is going to be off the circle. If you are going clockwise, your left foot will be off the circle, and if you are going counterclockwise, your right foot will be off the circle. To start, we are going to bend our knees just like we would in a forward swizzle or a rocking horse. Instead of making the full bubble shape with both of our feet, we are going to keep one foot glued to the red circle, while the other one is going to make a half circle or a half bubble. After each push, our feet will come together. Let's take a moment to talk about our body position. So our arms should be facing the circle like we want to give the circle a big hug. This is going to help stabilize us and keep us over the leg that is glued to the red circle. When you are doing these half swizzle pumps, you want to think about leaning your weight into the circle like you are pushing up against an invisible wall. This will allow our free leg to continue making those half circles or half swizzles without having any issues. Similar to many other elements that I discussed in adult 1 and adult 2, you want to have that rhythmic up and down knee bend, which will help you gain momentum and speed in your half swizzles. When you push into your half swizzle, you want to make sure that the leg glued to the red circle has a nice knee bend. Like I mentioned earlier, we are going to be creating this rhythmic up and down motion. So when you push out, you go down. When your feet come together, you go up. Half swizzles might be a little bit difficult at first, but the more you practice it, the easier it will get. Just make sure that you are leaning into the circle and taking your weight off of that outside foot and you will have a much easier time. The next item is a moving two foot turn. And before we get into it, I'd like to apologize. I have somehow deleted the clip of me doing it on the circle, which is the requirement for adult 3. Because of this, I am just going to go ahead and make a completely separate video for this one item. So once it is finished and uploaded, I will link it somewhere here in the video. But for now, I will show you the moving two foot turn in a straight line. Before you start working on your moving two foot turn, you want to make sure that you're comfortable with doing it in place both directions. So I highly recommend going and checking out the adult 2 video that I posted if you haven't already. Here are the three things you need to know before doing a moving two foot turn. You want to make sure that you can do a forward two foot glide, a backwards two foot glide, and you want to make sure that you are comfortable with that two foot turn in place. This will be slightly different when you do it on a circle, but just in a straight line, you're going to want to take a few pushes into a forward two foot glide. You're going to want to bend your knees and brace yourself for the two foot turn in the direction you would like to go. And you will exit in a backwards two foot glide, which I will mention later in this level. I highly recommend trying this on a straight line first, before you move to the circle, just so you can get used to the feeling of doing the two foot turn while you're moving. The one thing you really want to make sure you focus on when it comes to the moving two foot turn is that you are not digging your toe picks into the ice and letting your rocker move freely. I talk about this process in more detail in my adult 2 video, so make sure you go look at that. But essentially, staying off of your toe picks will help you complete the two foot turn and not fall out of it early, which is a very common mistake that a lot of beginners make. Now we are going to move on to our backwards two foot glide. This is exactly like our forwards two foot glide, except it is going backwards. For this, you are going to take a few backwards pushes, and then you're going to bring your feet together and glide. For all of this, you want to make sure that you're putting your weight on the ball of your foot, or as I talked about many times before, the rocker. For our body position, we are standing up nice and tall in that T position with our arms straight out. We are not leaning forward or digging our toe picks into the ice. When you are doing your backwards two foot glide, you want to make sure that you are not locking your knees. You want to make sure that you have a nice slight knee bend. Just remember, a lot of skating takes time and practice, so just keep working on this till you feel comfortable. The next item is something I've always found slightly strange for the adult learned to skate series, but this is forward chassés on a circle going counterclockwise and clockwise. Now you may be asking yourself, what is a chassé, or wondering why we are doing this skating, and forward chassés come from ice dance. You will find this both in pattern dance and solo free dance. Typically in the regular dance levels for learned to skate, you will work on these on the line, alternating. I suspect the reason why they put these on the adult learned to skate level is to help you with balance coordination and working towards the forward crossovers. Now I will say this, I am definitely not a dancer, I am more of a freestyle skater, so my body position for the forward chassés might not be the best, so I highly recommend looking into other ice dancer specific videos here on YouTube, but let's get into the basics of how to do a forward chassé. We are going to start with that same push from our forward stroking. You want to make sure that leg on the circle has a nice knee bend while our free leg is extended out to the side and slightly behind us. After that push, you are going to bring your feet together and do a two foot glide. From our two foot glide, we are now going to trade off and pick up the foot that is touching the red circle. This is the same as our one foot glide we talked about in adult two. Now I'll show you what it looks like from a different angle. First we have our forward stroking push, then our feet come together two foot glide, and then we pick up our foot on the inside of the circle and put it back down, and we will repeat the process all over again. Practice this a few times off the circle by the boards and once you feel comfortable with it, bring it over to the circle and you will repeat this pattern over and over again. The goal of these forward chassés is not to go fast, it's more to focus on the edge quality. I strongly suggest thinking of a rhythmic beat in your head while you are doing these. The two I often suggest is doing one and two and or doing one two three. Either way, whatever you think of in your head, you want to make sure that you are just focusing on both pushes. Now let's move on to talking about our upper body position and where to put your weight. Your weight for the most part should be leaning towards the inside of the circle. Even though I am switching off which leg is skating on the ice, you can actually see in this clip that I'm still leaning towards the inside of my circle the entire time. This is very similar to the weight transfer you will see in forward crossovers. Same position as the half swizzles, you'll be hugging the direction of the circle you are going. Forward chassés on the circle can definitely feel a little awkward at first, but just keep practicing this because this is a great exercise to get you ready for forward crossovers. The last item on this level is a backwards snowplow stop. This is very similar to our forward snowplow stop, except we are putting the weight more on the back of our blade than the front of our blade. Now I will say I might teach this a little bit differently than you are used to, mostly because the learn to skate program that I taught in, this was not an emphasis that we really worked on that much. So if you're curious, just make sure you double check with your coach or your learn to skate instructor. The main purpose of learning a backwards snowplow stop or any stop going backwards is just to make sure that if you are in a situation where you need to stop while you're skating backwards, you're able to. For this, we are going to start with our backwards skating and when we are ready to stop, we're going to have our feet a shoulder's width apart while applying pressure to the middle to back part of our blade. Very similar to the forward snowplow stop, the bend in our knees is what is going to help us come to a full stop. You want to make sure that you're applying pressure to both your inner thighs and your knees to come to a full stop. While you're coming to a stop, make sure you lean forwards over the front of your blade instead of leaning backwards or else you might fall over. Well, that is it for adult three. I'll see you next Saturday for adult four. Don't forget to like and subscribe. I post new skating related videos every week and every Saturday I will be uploading a video for the adult one through six learn to skate series.