The Olympic Effect

The winter session (generally starting somewhere late December to early February) always has the highest enrollment at most skating schools.

In an Olympic year, it's even more heavily enrolled, and this year in the Chicago area it's on steroids because of all the press about Jason Brown and Gracie Gold.

If you're feeling the Olympic Effect (that is, if you've caught the bug and signed yourself or your child up for skating), here's some basic information for skaters and parents:

What to wear to lessons
Dress for “sweater weather”: gloves, t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt and sweater (but no bulky parka-like jackets), tights and pants or leggings. Dress to respect the sport—you wouldn’t send your child to music lessons in muddy and torn blue jeans; don’t send them skating like this either. I don’t recommend skating dresses for children under Freestyle Two, as they don’t move very fast and may get cold.  Don’t wear large bulky coats, as it gets too hot, and the coach can’t see what the skater’s body positions are. Highly recommended for beginners to wear a helmet; flat-backed skateboard helmets are the best, followed by the “Ice Halo.”

Skates and blades
Fitting skates is not like fitting shoes.  A correctly fitted skate will feel snug, which children may characterize as “too tight.”  You need to know if it is merely uncomfortable when compared, for instance, to sneakers.  Skates may feel uncomfortable; if they actually hurt, try a different pair.  To put the skates on, unlace the boot as low as it will go, and pull up on the tongue to create the widest possible opening (Do the same when removing the skates).  When the skate is open like this, the foot should slide in with just a little pressure.  If it slides in extremely easily or must be forced, it may be the wrong size. You will almost never need a skate larger than your street shoe (although a knowledgeable dealer can help you buy a skate with some grow room).

Rental skates are usually perfectly fine for skaters through the Alpha or even Beta level.  Rentals are always the best choice for children in the Tot classes, due to cost and foot growth. Ask a pro (not the office personnel) to check the boot and blade condition.  At Robert Crown Center, if you find a rental skate that you particularly like, note the shelf number (as opposed to the size) and always ask for that pair of skates by number.

Used skates can be purchased at many pro shops and used goods stores.  Get a good fit—never buy a skate that is too big; some growth room is fine, but seldom more than a half size.  The ankle should not be too creased and the interior padding not too compressed. Don’t buy more skate than you need.  Beginning skaters need to learn to bend their ankles, which they cannot do in a skate that is too heavily constructed.  Buy a leather boot—molded plastic boots are not flexible enough and may lead to injury. Watch out for rusty or heavily nicked blades.  It is a good idea to get fitted at a reputable figure skate dealer; fitting does not obligate you to buy from him.

New skates are often the last choice for beginning skaters.  Children’s feet grow so fast that they often don’t get to the broken-in stage before they need a new size.  Some brands are so stiff that it interferes with learning.  The new “comfort skates” (Sof-Tec or other brands) that look like sneakers are a wonderful first skate for a beginner. Always go to a knowledgeable dealer to get fitted for new skates, even if you end up buying them at Sportmart.  The dealer can help you learn what to look for and will be happy to do so, as he’ll figure you’ll be back for accessories and future pairs of skates!  Be honest about your child’s skating level—don’t say you have a freestyle skater if you have a Gamma skater—it will make a huge difference in what the dealer recommends you buy.

Are you new to skating (and to Xanboni?) Tell us why you decided to start. All my fans-- tell your friends who've jumped in the deep end about the community here and on Facebook!

I'm supposed to watch the edge. Um, what's an edge?

Forget the edges. Forget the toe picks. Forget flutzing.

If you're watching the Olympics and can't tell what jump they're doing, here's some advice:

Don't worry about it.

Seriously, unless you're planning to become a fan, and watch all the time, and look at the protocols (never mind), it literally doesn't matter what jump they're going to do. They all look alike in the air. This is because they all ARE alike in the air. Once the skater has achieved orbit, the position and rotation and landing are identical for every jump.

Okay, incipient geeks, yes I hear you-- some skaters rotate to the left, some skaters rotate to the right. This changes the dominant side, but not the basic position. 'K? Can I get back to my post now?

Ditto the footwork-- 3-turns, choctaws, counters, rockers, brackets, walleys, twizzles, I could start making up words at this point and you'd have no clue.

But it doesn't matter. Just enjoy.

Now, that said, if you really want to know what's going on, forget about edges and toe picks. You have to watch a lot of skating to be able to pick up on this in the fraction of a second in which it occurs. You want to watch the entrance.

Axel
We'll start with the easy one. Everyone recognizes the axel because it takes off forwards. (Skating geeks shut up-- I know that all jumps take off more or less forwards. You're just confusing the issue.) The axel has no backwards set up. In fact, doing a challenging backwards pattern before entering the forward take-off edge will earn you points. (Listen for comments about "difficult entry to that axel.")

And this is the secret of recognizing jumps. You'll often notice that the commentators know what the athlete is going to do before they do it. This is partly because they have a cheat sheet, but also because they know the set ups-- they are primed to watch for a certain jump because the set up is part of the skill. Skaters who don't "telegraph" their jumps (Yuna Kim, Jason Brown, Patrick Chan, and Michelle Kwan come to mind) are a lot of fun to watch because of this; it is also one of the things that makes their programs flow so beautifully.

Lutz
Technically a toe-assisted counter jump off a back outside edge. Forget it. Watch for a long shallow edge, usually the longest entry edge of all the jumps, and skaters tend not to precede it with footwork. This is because it is a "counter" jump-- the rotation is in the opposite curve of the entry edge (for people who jump to the left, it will be a clockwise entry edge and a ccw rotation). This is changing, because any difficult entry gets you points. Again, listen for the comment about difficult entry.

Skaters often put the lutz in a corner, to give them the maximum entry distance. One of the things that used to make Yuna Kim's lutzes difficult to spot were short entry edges, and she would place them in the middle of the ice, where no one ever does lutzes.

The lutz is the jump where skaters put one or both arms over their heads, the "Tano" or "Rippon" positions. I've also seen this done with the axel.

This is the jump with the most "edge calls"-- taking off from the wrong edge-- because the counter rotation can force the foot onto the wrong edge at the last minute if you don't time it just right.

Flip
The flip is a toe assisted jump from a back inside edge, but watch for a long forward edge and/or a short (two-three moves) footwork sequence before the skater does a quick turn for the back take off.  Ironically, after judges starting really hammering skaters for "flutzing" their lutzes (flipping to an inside edge at the last moment, which makes it a flip), skaters fixed that and started "flupping" their flips-- turning to an outside edge, making it a lutz. The only reason you care, is because a take off from the wrong edge is one of the things that mysteriously lowers the scores.

Loop
Outside edge jump with no toe assist. However, you want to watch for another longish entry, on a much tighter curve than either the Lutz or the Flip. Skaters will often cross their feet and appear to be lifting off a crossed two-foot glide. This is also a common second or third jump in a combination.

Toe loop
Same entry as the loop, but with a toe assist. This is one of the hardest jumps to spot, as most skaters find it easy, so they throw it in willy nilly, especially if they've missed an earlier jump and need to add points. It's a common first quad jump, and also common in the "bonus"-- the second half of the program where you get extra points for every jump. Another common jump in combination.

Salchow
A common "warm up" jump (the other is the double axel), that is, a jump in the first few seconds of the program to get the feel of the ice. This is another "edge" jump, with no toe assist, often telegraphed by a very curvy entry edge and an upper body wind up. This and the toe loop are generally the only quads you'll see (this has to do with the actual number of rotations in the air, which is fewer than four, trust me.) Matthew Savoie used to do a triple (quad?) salchow out of a back hydroblade position. Amazing.

Footwork sequence: jumps
Walleys, bunny hops, albrights (also called scissor and mazurka), splits, falling leafs (falling leaves?), Russian splits (Jason Brown anyone?), and this year one of the women has a one-foot axel in her footwork. (Can't remember who it was, but I almost dropped my coffee.) These generally don't count as jumps; they're calculated in the necessary turns and changes of direction for the footwork.

Footwork sequence: turns
WHO CARES. This is the part of the program where the skaters generally have the chance to create some art, to connect with the audience, to sell the program, to tell a story. If they aren't doing this, if they're just "technical" skaters with the requisite number of turns, edges, changes, etc. then they are doing it wrong.

Any questions?

Triples at 9

You'll see me complaining a lot on this blog about pushing kids too hard, too young.

To a large extent that's because I like to focus on what ordinary kids can get out of the wonderful sport of figure skating, and also to help parents keep in perspective exactly how extraordinary their kids are (or, ahem, are not).

But some kids are extraordinary. We've seen the phenomenon over the past few years of elite boys pushing the age envelope downward, with younger and younger kids winning at Intermediate and Novice before they run up against minimum age restrictions at Junior.

As an email I received queried,

"What if you're talking about a reasonably talented 6 y/o with solid single jumps and axel and there seems a bit of time yet to worry about triples but they've been bitten by the competition bug. ... Do you go with that and delay and possibly limit progress or do you pull them away from competing so they make hastier progress but barely compete for the next few years?"

In fact, I had this exact question from my Alpha students this week. They all claimed to "be really good" at cross overs. And y'know, they are really good at cross overs.

But their cross overs can be better-- more confident, more advanced.

And that's really the crux of the matter.

Whatever skill you're working on right now-- whether it's simple cross overs or a double axel-- it can be better.

So the first answer to "why not move on to the next thing" is actually another question, namely, are you properly identifying what the next thing is? If you've got all the doubles, is the next thing really the triples? Or is it consistently landing all jumps in competition, or improving your GOE, or landing more difficult combinations, or improving the technique?

I like to point out the brilliantly managed career of Jason Brown, a skating phenomenon who was one of those 9 year-olds with all his doubles. But, knowing that he had tons of time because of his young age, his coach has parsed out his milestones. The goal was not "national champ by 17" which he arguably might have pushed for, but rather to hit specific measures-- land the triple axel in competition, then land it in a major competition, then skate a clean program that includes a triple axel, etc. Jason's going to have a long, injury-free career because his coach understood that his youth was not a goal in itself, but rather a gift that allows them time to develop a brilliant skater.

Skating skills in and of themselves are not the goal. They are sign posts along the way. A child with doubles at 9 is certainly going to be landing triples by the time they're done with high school.

The reader asks, essentially, "do you delay their progress or do you have them compete with their age group."

I ask, in return, what, exactly, do you consider "progress?"

What choice have you made, or would you make, with a skater who pulls ahead of their age restrictions in competition?