46. Skating Essentials: Backward Crossovers

We're Xenia and Oleg, three-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. Today, we're going to be showing you a new skating exercise. What are we showing him today, Xenia? He will show you how to do backwards crossovers. Alright, let's do it. Backward crossovers, while relatively easy to learn, are very difficult to do well. Stay down by pressing into your ankles. Maintain a constant pressure into your knees and ankles. The bends and rises in your knees and ankles should be smooth, constant, and fluid. A common mistake is to lock your knees. Another common mistake is to pop up in your knees. Press into the knee and ankle of the pushing foot before pushing onto the other foot, and rise laterally as you are finishing the push. Repeat on the new skating foot. A common mistake is to not press enough into your ankles. Practice the knee action with a slow tempo at first so you get the right knee action. Skate through your heels with the majority of your weight concentrated there. However, your push finishes through the ball of your foot. Finish the push with a straight leg as it lifts off the ice. Accent the point. You have to really push the pushing foot, otherwise it will look like you're walking your crossovers. A common mistake is to skate on your toes. If you hear scratching, you're skating on your toes. Power is generated from 1. smooth transfer of weight from pushing foot to pushing foot, 2. keeping your body weight concentrated over the heel of the pushing foot, 3. keeping your pushes long and strong, 4. finishing your pushes, 5. bringing your free foot next to your skating foot. This applies to the inner foot. 6. pressing on the skating foot through the ankle before pushing. Feel your heels when doing backward crossovers. Check to make sure the blade near the heel stays on the ice. Lean forward but bend back your upper back so that you have an arch through your back. Think of it as opening the shoulders and lifting the chest up. Also extend your neck. Don't do the turtle. There should be a line running from the index finger of your left hand across your back to the index finger of your right hand. Arms should be as high as the shoulders, so don't lift your shoulders or drop your hands. As always, keep a strong hold, skate on deep edges and make deep lobes. Don't tense up your upper body. Work on your basics a lot. Crossovers, edges and turns are the core of your skating ability. Keep your body weight over your skating foot. This will increase your strength of push. Turn out your free foot so the toe doesn't point down. Don't toe push. Press and bend the knee and ankle of the skating foot before you stroke onto the free foot. Keep your shoulders down and back and extend your neck but don't be stiff. Skate through your hips. And finally, don't look down. The ice isn't going anywhere. One of the difficulties in making these corrections while skating is having to correct multiple things simultaneously. But if you apply yourself, practice consistently, push your limits, resist fear and doubt and work hard, your skating will improve significantly. Hey guys, we really hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, hit the like button and click on the subscribe to subscribe to our channel. Alright, see you next time.