How To Do Figure Skating Spirals - On An Edge

Hey skaters, welcome back. I'm so glad you're here. I am coach Julia and today's video is going to be about doing spirals on an edge, on a curve. I have done a tutorial on forward spirals and backward spirals. So I will put those links down below and you can work on those. But if you already have nice, strong forward spirals or backward spirals or both, then we can do this video. So today we are gonna have some strong edges. You're also gonna wanna have work on your forward edges and backward edges. And I'll put those links down below. But if you're ready, let's get started. So I've moved over here to the center circles. It's a little bit easier for you to see. So I'm gonna be skating forward in a counterclockwise direction. So my left leg is gonna be on the inside of this circle. Now, like any spiral, you're gonna wanna have your back strong before you lift up your leg. So we're gonna get some speed and we're gonna start with that strong back, okay? Think about your muscles making a Y from your shoulders down to your waist. Now, as I lift, I'm actually gonna open up my right hip a little bit and the right shoulder. So you can see that I'm open towards the outside of the circle. So when we do this, a normal spiral, we're trying to be very square. We're going straight, so we're very square. So when we lift, instead of being square, I want you to open up the side to the outside of the circle and that pitches your whole body to your outside edge on the opposite leg. So since we're lifting with this side, it makes our body lean to the left. I'm lifting my right side and that makes me lean to the left, all right? You still have to have all your muscles engaged just as strong as a straight spiral. So that really strong shoulders, really strong back, you know, engaged all your muscles in your legs and your glutes, but we're lifting that outside hip, pitching us onto the inside of the circle. So once again, we get a little bit of speed, all right? And we're gonna engage our back, strong arms, and then we're gonna open up that out, the hip on the outside of the circle. So for me, that's my right hip and lift that right shoulder and that leans me onto my left outside edge, all right? So you can see it's causing me to curve around that circle so I'm slightly on that left outside edge. All right, so that does take some practice. It's very common for people to turn too much sideways. All right, we don't want that. We want just a little lift, just enough lift to pitch us over onto that outside edge on the other foot. We also don't wanna turn our shoulders. So your body is still, your shoulders are still straight in front of your hips. They're just tipped. So we don't wanna turn them around the circle. We're not steering a car here. So we're not turning our body. We're just opening up that outside a little bit, okay? So it's a pretty simple process other than that. You just gotta come out here and practice it and find that balance point. How much lift to make you tip onto that outside edge on the other foot, okay? So I want you to practice this both feet, left outside and right outside because we wanna be balanced in all of our skills but let's give this another try. So for most people, our forward outside edge spirals are the easiest spiral to do on a circle, all right? So where you lift the hip going to the outside, it pitches you onto the outside foot, outside edge of the opposite foot, all right? So that outside edge spiral is usually the easiest one but I still want you to practice your inside edge spiral as well. So for this, we're taking the same concept and reversing it. We're just doing it on the other foot, okay? So for this one, where we normally would be square, we're going to lift to the inside, okay? So we're gonna look to the inside of the circle. So I'm gonna get that speed going again, have that strong back and then I'm lifting my hip and my shoulder on the inside of this circle, all right? So right now, I'm on my right inside edge and I'm lifting my left hip and my left shoulder, all right? Again, we don't wanna get twisted. We still wanna keep the shoulders and the hips, the shoulders in front of the hips. We're just rotating, we're opening up, all right? So we're not turning our body, we're just rotating it, all right? Strong shoulders and back first, lift that leg all the way from the hip, push your hips back a little bit and open up to the inside of your circle and that will put you on the inside edge on your skating leg. So we have our forward outside edge spiral and our forward inside edge spiral and again, practice both of those on both legs. Whatever your harder leg is, I want you to practice it twice as much, all right? Cause you want that to be your little secret, which one's harder? We wanna be able, they wanna be visually very similar so you practice that hard one a little extra. Now we're gonna try them going backwards, all right? So if you've practiced those backwards spirals, this is the next step, backward spiral on an edge. So it's gonna be those same principles as forward. I'm gonna start with a right back outside edge spiral. So I'm gonna start with a couple of back crossovers, get my speed going and again, at the beginning of every spiral, you have to start with a strong engaged back. That's your foundation for a spiral. Now I'm gonna lift my left leg and I'm going to open to the outside of the circle. That is putting me on my outside edge on my right leg. All right? So I'm lifting my left shoulder, my left hip and it's putting me on my outside edge on my right leg. All right? So for this, again, we don't wanna get twisted, okay? You don't wanna have your shoulders twisted from your hips. They always need to stay in line. They're simply rotating, all right? Imagine if you have a cardboard box and you're putting it up on its corner, okay? That's what we're doing. We're just tipping up towards the corner. Strong back, engaged arms and open your outside hip up. So that's my left hip, left shoulder and it's putting my mind on my right back outside edge. All right, so now we have come down to the last edge spiral. That's gonna be the backward inside edge spiral. And most people would consider this the hardest of the edge spirals, but don't let that deter you. You still need to work on it. All right, so I am going to be doing some backward crossovers again. That same idea, we're gonna get some speed. We're gonna engage our back and shoulders like those muscles are pulling down into a Y. This time I'm gonna lift my right leg. So now I'm on my left inside edge and I'm lifting my right hip and my right shoulder, all right? So now I'm leaning to the inside of the circle. Now, most people think that this is the most challenging simply because it feels the scariest. You are leaning into the circle and you're going backwards. So you're leaning towards the leg that's elevated and that feels pretty precarious. So to help you feel more stable, I want you to think again about engaging your core, engaging your back, engaging your glutes, but also pushing your hips back into the spiral. It kind of locks your position in. So if you lean straight forward, it feels kind of tippy. But if you lean those hips back into the spiral as you lift your leg, it feels more secure. Like you can kind of lock your hip in there. All right, so we're gonna do our crossovers. Strong back and arms. Lift that inside edge. Lift that inside leg. And we're gonna open our inside hip and our inside shoulder. And that helps put us on the inside edge, this time on my left foot. And there is your backward inside edge spiral. This one. And I am really looking forward to seeing all your spirals on Instagram. So make sure you tag me at skatingcoachjulia so that we can share each other on. If you enjoyed this, please do give us that thumbs up. And as always, I look forward to reading all your comments in this section down below. If you haven't done so yet, then hit that subscribe button and the little notification bell down in the corner so you can see all my videos when they come out. Happy skating, and I'll see you next time.