Forward Outside Loop Made Simple: Step-by-Step Guide

Hey skaters, it's Stace here from Next Edge Tutorials and today's lesson I'm going to be showing you the easiest way to start learning a forward outside loop. So before I show you this really easy way to learn a forward outside loop, what does a loop look like? So I'm going to start here. I'm going to be doing a left forward outside loop. So I pull my arms up, I bend, I push, press the edge and through. So a forward outside loop remains on the forward outside edge the whole entire time. You go from a big circle to a smaller circle and this is what makes it really tricky, but I know we can do it. Now what are some mistakes that happen while doing a forward outside loop? Well the very first one that I'm going to show you, it actually turns backwards in between and then you turn forwards again. So it looks like this. Bend, push, backwards, forwards. So you actually don't remain going forwards the whole entire time. It has this pause where you flip backwards and then flip forwards again. Now the second mistake is that it never increases speed. So you just remain on a great forward outside edge all the way around and it looks like this. You bend, you push, you swing and nothing happens. So we're not increasing our speed to get that tight loop circle. All right now we are ready to learn this forward outside loop and I'm going to give you this method that I use all the time. It's called the big circle method. So we're going to start. The very first thing that we're going to start with is learning about our shoulders and our free leg. So I have this great exercise that you're going to do going down the ice. We're going to push on to our left leg, left arm back, right arm in front. We're going to go bend, push and hold. Bend and rise. Bend and rise. Bend and rise. So this is it. This is all that we're going to do on this very first step is get an understanding of how we're inside of our circle. The free leg and the arms do this swooshing movement through and hold. Then the other way. Here swoosh and hold and you feel it against your shoulders. You want to make sure that your weight is all the way over on that left leg or all the way over on the right leg here. Now let's go down the ice doing this exercise just focusing on the arms and free leg. And swoosh through. Bend and rise. Bend and rise. Bend. We're inside the circle and rise up. Bend and rise. So this is the very first step that you're going to do. Super simple. Just working on that swooshing movement through. Now the second thing that we're going to learn is the edge pressure. We want to get this ripping sound. So what we're going to take is that first step and we're going to add that pressure coming up. So we're going to take the swing roll. We're going to bend and we're going to add more pressure now. Push. Rip. And I'm pressing against the edge. Press. Push. Press. Bend. Push. Press. I am applying more pressure on that outside edge and then I rise up so it's less pressure. Then again. Bend. Apply the pressure. Rise up. And you should almost hear this ripping sound of the edge and then you know you are doing it correct. So let's go back down the ice doing the exact same thing. All right here we go. So we're going to bend. We're going to push. And we're going to rip the edge. Bend. Rip. Push. Rip. Bend. Rip the edge. Now this could look very similar to the first exercise but it's more intense. You are feeling that skating leg pressure with the blade. Now I'm going to challenge you even more with this exercise putting step one and step two together. So we have the barrier here. We're actually going to skate away from the barrier and then come back. So we know that we are getting that edge pressure. So we're going to push forward and then press the edge and come back. So we're working on that pressure around and coming back to the barrier. So we're going to do it one more time. Again pushing away and then coming back. So we're going to push forward and then rip it back around. Now once you get that step down we're going to start applying even more pressure and we're going to start making a loop all the way around skating forwards. And this third step can be a bit tricky because it's at this point that people want to flip backwards and do a three turn. But we want to remain forward. So that's why I call it the big circle method because we're on a bigger circle here. We haven't quite tightened it up to a loop yet. So we're going to take this same exercise but the difference is we're going to exit going the other way. So we're going to hold it all the way around and then exit towards the other barrier. So we're going to bend our knees. We're going to push. We're going to push. We're going to press the edge and then exit. And you can already see oh my goodness that's starting to look more like a loop. So let's do it one more time just to make sure that we have the understanding of pushing in all the way around and exiting towards the other barrier. Bend. Push. Here's that swooshing pressure of the blade coming out towards the other barrier. And then what you want to start doing is just start getting it tighter and tighter. And how I like to think about well how big should my loop be? It's about your waist size. That's how big your loop should be. It shouldn't be this massive loop. You want it to be nice and tight of the size of your waist. So if you're loving this lesson on the forward outside loop you're going to want to learn the four turns that we have in figure skating. I want you to click on the link below in the description for your free pdf guide on the four turns that we have in figure skating. This includes our three turns, brackets, counters, and rockers. Forward outside, forward inside, back outside, and back inside. It's going to give you more knowledge of our figure skating turns and help you out. So when you're ready give it a click. All right we're going to take that third step and we're going to move down the ice. And the goal is every single time to get tighter and tighter until it is waist big. So I'm going to set up. I'm going to bend my knees. I'm going to push. I'm going to focus on that pressure around. Hold it. Little pump. Pull up again. Press. A bit tighter. And then we're going to really try to tighten it up. And this is the easiest method that I have found that really works for skaters because it gets them comfortable on the bigger circle focusing on the arms and the free leg and then start adding the pressure and then tightening it up because what happens is we do tend to turn it into a three turn because it creates too much tightness too quick and then it just three turns backwards. So by learning the three steps it's really going to help you out. It's really going to help you get that forward outside loop that you've always wanted. So there you have it. That is our lesson today on the forward outside loop. But before I let you go let's recap on what we learned. So your very first step is going to be just getting the shoulders and the free leg moving. So we're gonna push and swoosh and hold. Push swoosh and hold. The second step it's about applying that pressure in the blade. That press and release. So we're combining that first step and we're adding the second one. So same thing bend and press. You can see that edge tighten up. Push and tighten up. And the third step is going to be where we push forward big circle around and then exit out. So we're gonna go push press around and hold. So it's not quite a loop because it's not nice and small but you're getting comfortable just holding on that forward outside edge. Now this is my way of teaching a loop. I want you to give it a go because it might help you out. Thanks for watching Next Edge Tutorials and looking forward to seeing you in our next lesson.