Learn The ISI Freestyle 2 Dance Step Sequence

Hey skaters, welcome back. I'm coach Julia and today I am gonna be teaching you another footwork sequence. I've been having so much fun teaching you guys footwork lately. So today we're gonna be doing the ISI Freestyle 2 level footwork sequence. Now I know not all of you are members of ISI, but this is still a great challenge no matter where you are in the world. So the Freestyle 2 footwork sequence is done in a circle. It is a total of 10 steps. You are going to want to know how to do a power pole going forward, so I'll put a link to the power pole video down below. You're gonna wanna be able to do a forward inside mohawk, so I'll put a link to my mohawk tutorial down below as well. You're gonna do a little tiny grapevine step and then you're going to do a backward to forward mohawk at the very end. Let me show you what this sequence looks like. Again, if any of these steps are confusing, I'll post tutorials to as many of the individual footwork elements as I can in the description down below. Now we do not need to learn this both directions. Everybody learns it going counterclockwise. It doesn't matter whether you're right-handed or left-handed, this sequence is done one way. Okay, so we are gonna start with a right over left crossover and that counts for two of the 10 steps. So we're talking about individual times you place your foot on the ice, counts as a step rather than a movement. So a crossover counts as two steps, not one movement. So that's gonna be a left outside edge and a right inside edge for our crossover. That's steps one and two. Now we're gonna step back to our left outside edge and this is where our power pull comes in. Now we want one strong power pull. I often see students who are learning this turn it into a little snakey wiggle that goes all the way around. They're like wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. We do not want wiggles. We want one really nice deep power pull. So think about starting on the outside. I'm gonna move to a different area. This is a little confusing. So I'm gonna start on the outside of this circle. So we're using this hockey circle as a frame of reference. It does not have to be done on a circle or a pattern like this on the ice. It can be done anywhere as long as it's in a circular shape. But we're using this so you can visualize it. So I'm starting my power pull on the outside of this red circle. So on the top, we're gonna dip down into the circle and then come back up to the top of the circle and that completes one power pull. So we go up, dip, up, one time. So that's the first three steps of this 10-step sequence. We have our crossover, right over left. Then we're gonna do that left, outside to inside to outside power pull. And that gives us our first three steps. So number three is long, that power pull. After we've come back out of the circle with our power pull, we're gonna step into a mohawk. So this is gonna be a right forward inside mohawk. So I'm gonna step on my right foot going forward on my inside edge, shift my upper body, look behind, and step to my left back inside edge. That counts as another two steps. So that's step number four and five. So from the top, we have one, two, big long three. And then we have mohawk four, five. We're halfway through. I'm gonna have you drop your right foot down behind you, that's six. Cross the left behind, that's seven. Drop the right, that's eight. Cross the left in front, that's nine. Step into the circle, 10, and there's your complete footwork sequence. So for the second half, we have something I call a grapevine step. We did a grapevine in dance when I was younger, and so this, to me, feels like a grapevine step. So we can practice this knot on the circle to get comfortable and familiar with how this step goes. I want you to step out on your right, cross the left behind. Step out on the right, cross the left in front. So every time, the right's job is to step out, okay? The right puts you back parallel, okay? The left foot's job goes behind, in front, behind, in front. So left foot gets to do the fancy work. The right foot is resetting, the left foot gets fancy. So we step on the right, get fancy with the left, behind. Step on the right, left goes in front. Right, left, behind. Right, left, in front. Right, left, behind. Right, left, in front. Now we don't need that many of them for the footwork sequence. We're doing one complete step. But you can practice that grapevine step to get comfortable, get familiar, so that when we're doing it traveling backwards, it's not quite as scary. So after our mohawk, we're gonna put that little grapevine in the middle of our grapevine. One complete set, and we're almost gonna be done. So that counts as four full steps. So we have done our mohawk, and we're going backward on our right back inside edge. Then our grapevine comes in. We step down on the right, cross behind first with the left. Step down on the right, step in front with the left. So we wanna make sure we don't turn these into proper crossovers that slide. I see that often with students. They want to go to something that they know, something that's familiar. And then you start sliding across like crossovers. And that's really gonna throw you off. So we're gonna go right, step behind with the left. Right, step across with the left. So it's not a slide. So right behind, right in front. That's four steps. And now we're gonna turn open and do a mohawk, stepping in towards the circle. And that's our final 10th step. Let's do the whole thing through, all 10 steps. So we're gonna go left, right with the crossover. That's one, two. Big, single power pull. That's three. Right forward inside mohawk. That's four, five. Step down, cross behind. Step down, cross in front. Mohawk to the front. And you're finished with your freestyle two 10 step footwork sequence. As with any footwork, you want your feet to be quiet, smooth, clean, and no toe pick grinding when you're going backwards. And so this is one of the, since this is one of the first footwork sequences you're doing in ISI, it's very common to have students getting really toe pick scratchy on this. So we want to have our weight through the middle of our feet for most of this. So think about the shoulder, through the hip, through the center of your skate. This is gonna keep you from going up onto those toe picks when you're going backwards. And that's when our toes get scratchy and our footwork starts sounding really unpleasant. So the whole time we want to think about using our knees, not our hips, to keep us centered, keep us balanced, and keep those toe picks from scratching on the ice. So let's do this one more time, really thinking about our posture. Okay, so keep that nice posture, slightly low hand. Cross over, keep that weight right in the middle of your feet. We're gonna check nicely for our Mohawk, but especially here, weight right through the center. So you're probably going on to bend your knees a little bit extra to keep you from grabbing those toe picks into the ice. All right, skaters, I hope you enjoyed that Freestyle 2 footwork tutorial. I know not all of you are members of ISI, but all the different footwork tutorials that I put on this channel can be learned by anyone, anywhere in the world, and they're still gonna be a great challenge. If you enjoyed this video, please do give us that thumbs up and as always, I'm looking forward to reading all your comments in that section down below. If you haven't done so yet, then hit that subscribe button and the little notification bell so you can see all my videos when they come out. Happy skating, and I'll see you next time.