88. One Foot Turns: Backward Inside Counter + Skating Tip 2

We're Xenia and Oleg, four-time U.S. national competitors whose goal is to make Team USA and represent the U.S. at international competitions. We'll share with you what we learned along the way, so let's make this journey together. Hi everyone, today we're going to be showing you a new skating element. What are we showing today, Xenia? Today we will show you how to do a counter. But first I'd like to thank all of our anonymous supporters for their support of our skating. Thank you guys. All right, let's go show them. In order to be able to do counters properly, you have to be comfortable with your deep forward and backward, inside and outside edges. You also need to be comfortable with pressing and rising on edges. If you are struggling with any of this, check out our Skating Essentials playlist for presses. To do the backward inside counter, you press into a backward inside edge. As with all edges, don't stroke directly into the direction you want to end up. Instead, head about 45 degrees away from where you want to end up and come around on a lobe. This way you won't be flat and will be on a solid edge. You press deeper into the knee and ankle, then rise to make the turn happen. A common mistake is to weight with the knee bent the same amount the entire entry lobe. Notice that your skating knee and ankle should be in constant and fluid motion. If you pause your knee action or don't use your ankle, then you won't gain the flow necessary to do the counter properly. Here we see how the pressure is spread out throughout the turn. Notice that the pressure is least leading right into the turn through right out of the turn. However, you still have to maintain some pressure, otherwise you will jump it. Here is an approximation of where the pressure is in your foot. Both the entry and exit edges are skated through the heels. Rise and turn on the heel of the foot. If you skate the entry edge on the ball of the foot, you will not be able to do the turn. In order to do the counter, you have to have a cross twist with your upper body in relation to your hips. On the entry lobe, you twist your freeside back and you bring it forward and through as you rise to turn. After the turn, you twist it back again. A common mistake is to bring your freeside through too early or to try to do the turn with your hips and shoulders square the entire time. If you are struggling with this, practice your deep forward and backward edges and focus on doing the upper body twists correctly there. The twists you do in the turn are the same you do on the forward inside edge and the backward inside edge. Don't look down. This should be obvious, but it's probably the most common mistake in skating. Now, let's look at some counter tracings. Here we see a correct counter turn. Notice that both the entry and exit edges are on good edges and lobes. Also, there are no scratch marks. Here we see a three turn like counter. This is a very common mistake. Often, if a skater new to counters feels that they are easy to do, they are likely over skating the entry edge and changing edges, then doing a three turn. Here we see a flat entry edge. In this video, we talked about offsetting your direction by 45 degrees and coming around on a solid edge and lobe. Here's what happens if the skater strokes directly into their intended direction. Here is a flat exit edge. This tends to happen if the skater is uncomfortable with doing deep backward edges. Among other things, flat edges can also be the result of incorrect upper or lower body action, incorrectly timed action, forcing your turn, not keeping your upper body over your skating foot, pitching forward, not setting your skate on an edge right away after the turn, and lacking enough control over your edges. If even a portion of your entry edge or exit edge is flat, or looks flat from a distance to your observer, it's not a clean turn. The fastest way to improve your counter is to feel exactly what it is that you are doing, understand where the flaw is, and work on that flaw not just in the counter. For example, if you keep hitting your toe picks in the turn, odds are that you are doing it in other turns and are riding the ball of the foot in your skating. If you're having a problem with a turn, avoid finding an idiosyncratic way of doing it and not actually fixing the problem. So, for example, even if you find a way of doing a counter on stiff knees, you won't unlock your counter's full potential. Also, avoid overanalyzing and instead feel what your body is doing. Today's skating tip is to get to the rink early so that you have time to properly warm up off ice. We will discuss warming up on ice in a future video. Warming up could include active stretching, a light jog, crunches, push-ups, balance exercises like doing a spiral off ice, and walking out your programs or dances off ice. The key here is to prepare your body for on ice training. Skaters who warm up before getting on ice are able to be productive sooner and are less likely to get injured. A good off-ice warm-up lasts between 15 and 45 minutes, depending on the skater's goals. Warming up is especially important if you're getting on the ice for a very limited amount of time. So, for example, if a skater has a 30-minute lesson and shows up to the rink 5 minutes before their lesson, they won't be very productive the first 15 minutes of their lesson or longer. Understand that before you'll be able to make any progress, you will warm up one way or another. One mistake to avoid is a passive warm-up, where a skater does one or two things and calls it done, or when the skater is preoccupied with anything else during the warm-up. Warming up can't be treated as an afterthought. You have to plan for it in your schedule. Progress in skating is cumulative. It is the result of consistently and persistently doing things such as warming up off ice, then on ice, listening to your coaches, maintaining a good work ethic, handling setbacks well, training efficiently, pushing your limits, resisting fear and self-doubt, and not wasting time, to name a few. Hey everyone, we really hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, hit the like button and click on the subscribe to subscribe for more videos. Alright, see ya next time!