Skate Excellence Level 2 Help!

[noviceskater]

Hi everyone,

I am on the Skate Excellence Level 2 programme, however am finding the moves within this grade extremely difficult, especially moves that require the feet to do 2 different things at once such as:
• Half Lemons
• Maintaining Star feet while gliding
• Pushing feet into star (star is like a side lunge)

It’s getting a bit overwhelming as I’m trailing behind while other skaters are zooming past and completing everything in Level 2 so quickly! It took me a while to even stand on the ice freestanding so I am a slow learner, however lessons like these has left me a bit hopeless to be honest. 

Any tips welcome! (Especially on half lemons!)

[transmissionoftheflame]

I think it's very hard to give useful technical tips for basic moves over the internet for someone you've never seen skate - certainly beyond my capabilities.


What I would say is that there are people who are slower learners than you, and others who are faster.  Most of us are on a spectrum somewhere in between chump and champion, and thinking too much about where you fit in isn't that helpful IMO.


Try to enjoy the process (yes I know it doesn't come naturally if you see others mastering things where you are stuck) and focus on that and on developing a feel for the ice, for where your weight is.  Observe yourself, be patient.


A less waffly suggestion would be to book yourself some 1-1 lessons with whoever seems like the coach that would suit you best/works best with adult beginners (I'm assuming you're an adult).  The coach can look at what you are doing in detail and give some things to practice.  They can stop you developing bad habits.


I'm a slow learner.  17 years and really just trying to do basics well.  But still loving it.  The body and mind take a while to develop the muscle memory and confidence to be on slidy things.


Hope you manage to move forward and have fun.

[Badass]

Hi,

Someone making slower progress at one or two elements doesn’t necessarily mean their progress will be slower at everything.

You can practice any skating moves off ice, practice getting your body into the skating positions to develop and discipline the muscle memory, so it feels natural. Just a few minutes two or three times a day will be all you need to see an improvement by next week. You’ll need to break moves down into stages and practice each position, visualise the rink and approach this as you would on ice, knee bend, arms out, head up etc. When it gets too easy, level up by doing it with a book balanced or your head, with eyes closed, or adding a resistance band.

[black]

Re: half lemons - just a thought, you might find this easier when you are already moving, rather than from standstill to start with. Basically shift your weight to the skate that will be doing the straight line; this leg will be doing some knee bends too. The other foot, the skate doing the wiggley pattern; like a one foot slalom, you need to angle away from you. The motion comes from your weight pushing down and partly doing the splits; the first half is easy since it's gravity; when you draw the wiggley skate back towards you and rise up on the straightline leg <- this requires some legs muscles. You can do small, or deep tracings; keep your arms out to balance throughout. Also try it in the backwards direction too. It's a move that you need edges for, so if your blades are blunt it will be difficult.

[noviceskater]

Thank you all for your suggestions! Will definitely take the advice on board 

[transmissionoftheflame]

Thank you all for your suggestions! Will definitely take the advice on board 

Do let us know how you get on, and happy skating.

[VisuallyImpairedOnIce]

Disclaimer: I'm not a qualified coach but am training (albeit via Inclusive Skating, so not Skate Excellence)


Everything you're struggling with, are things where your weight needs to transfer from two feet to one side or the other. I'm not familiar with the levels but I think this is quite a common issue for people as the first things you learn are how to balance on two feet, so please don't worry. Everyone is different, and particularly if you're an adult learning alongside younger skaters, it can feel especially frustrating.


We don't all learn the same way, and that's what I find frustrating about group lessons - they cater to the majority, anyone massively ahead or behind can sometimes feel left out and get frustrated. Good coaches can make it work, but if the group is large, it's not easy. How big is your group, and do you have any assistant coaches on the ice? How do you prefer learning in other situations? Are you someone who can learn by watching, do you need a verbal explanation or do you just need to give it a go?


Off ice, stand with your feet slightly apart, like you would in your skates. Practice shifting your weight from one foot to the other, and then back to the centre. Also, it's a cliche but bend those knees, and keep your core muscles engaged. Hopefully this will help you get the feeling, and then it'll translate onto the ice.

[bikerwally]

There is one technical modification you could do to make skating more easy.
Most likely the groove (hollow) at the bottom of your blade is too deep.
When you buy new skates, they have already a preset factory hollow which is too deep for beginners and intermediate skaters.
Most of the skate sharpening services are not very helpful as well, if you don’t tell them your preferred RoH (Radius of Hollow), mostly they will grind a 13mm (1/2”) into your blades.
Being a skater and a skate sharpener, I offer free sharpening service in Singapore.
Beginners and intermediate skaters don’t need a deep hollow.
The edges are cutting deep into the ice and beginners don’t have the speed and the skills to overcome this friction effectively. That’s why skating is so difficult for some, the skates are controlling the skater instead of the opposite.
I’m grinding a 25mm (1”) hollow into their blades, figure and hockey skates alike.
This results in less friction, more glide and faster progress in learning.
Once they reach a certain level, they can try out other radii if they want to (for free again).
A small RoH (13mm and smaller) yields crisp and fast 3-turns, ability to hold a very deep edge when landing jumps, and allows for fast spins IF you have the edges centered.
A larger RoH (19 till 25mm) will allow you to sense how a proper edge should feel, and at the same time be forgiving in things like T-stops.

[transmissionoftheflame]

I was thinking about the exercises listed in the original post.  While they might sound "easy" and be fairly basic moves you need to master if you're ever going to skate well, they are actually not that easy IMO.  I reckon if you asked a lot of "intermediate" level skaters to do them you would find the standard very variable indeed.  Maybe the others in the class are an usually talented bunch, but I doubt that.


I do half lemons on a line and really focus on feeling my weight over the foot that is staying straight, and making sure I do not deviate from the line.  You could try pressing down on the knee over that foot.  Start by just doing one side and when that is really dialled in, alternate.  Also experiment with lifting the pushing foot off the ground a little, which is a good way of telling where your weight is.  Be strict about getting the feet back to parallel and close together after each stride.  This exercise would be in my top 2 or 3 things to work on if you want to be able to skate well.  It can be done backwards too.

[Littlelou]

Please tell me that this got better for you. I am now in exactly this situation ! Although tightropes are my biggest issue and the half lemons. ☹️

[transmissionoftheflame]

What's a tightrope?