I was down at Guildford last night, and Gosport today, practising forwards crossovers and tight turns. Guildford ice was beautiful, slightly soft and milky. The ice at Gosport was very hard, although well prepared, but hard, not very nice as my blades just weren’t gripping properly. But despite the rink being the size of a dustbin lid, there weren’t too many people around, at least not for the first hour and a half, so it was good for practicing.
I have figured out my problem with forward CW crossovers, I was turning my right foot into the turn, but it should be perpendicular to the circle, so the edge was doing a sort of snow plough rather than digging into the ice correctly. I’ve also learnt to turn my body into the turn, which helps.
Tight turns are fun. I can do CW easily, even with a stick and puck where I have to hold both hands on my left, but ACW are hard. I spent today placing my feet almost inline, left foot in front, then leaning to the left, dropping my body, and turning my head and shoulders to the left. The hard part is riding the edges, left foot outside and right foot inside. Give it a month or two and I’ll crack this wee beastie.
As an aside, there was a middle aged chap teaching three women, maybe wife and daughters. He taught them to stop by dragging the rear foot along at eight angles. Is that really a good stop? I know inline skaters do it ...