hello! I've got a bit of a silly question, I just started taking skating classes about a month ago and I recently got to the stage of learning how to do a (forward) crossover. while learning how to do a crossover, my coach pointed out that I have incorrect arm positioning.
what I thought was the correct arm position:
- chest opened towards the centre of the circle
- arms up by my side, sort of like the tangent to the practice circle I skate around to practice crossovers
what he said was the correct arm position:
- leading arm is stretched diagonally in front of me and slightly towards my other shoulder
- lagging arm is almost parallel to the radius of the circle (basically the hand on the lagging arm is pointing towards the centre of the circle)
I see many skaters in my rink who join international competitions and their coaches follow the arm positioning which I assume is correct (the ones professional skaters on TV use) however my coach insists that his way of doing it is correct. since I am still learning the fundamental parts of the forward crossover (forward stroking, crossing outside leg over inside leg and lifting inside foot and putting it in front and repeating the stroking again) being put together and not the full cohesive stroking, I do wonder if the arm position he taught me is some kind of fundamental building block of the positioning other people use? although it does hinder my direction as I always end up going in a somewhat straight line instead of a curve but that could be attributed to my inexperience on the ice.
what I thought was the correct arm position:
- chest opened towards the centre of the circle
- arms up by my side, sort of like the tangent to the practice circle I skate around to practice crossovers
what he said was the correct arm position:
- leading arm is stretched diagonally in front of me and slightly towards my other shoulder
- lagging arm is almost parallel to the radius of the circle (basically the hand on the lagging arm is pointing towards the centre of the circle)
I see many skaters in my rink who join international competitions and their coaches follow the arm positioning which I assume is correct (the ones professional skaters on TV use) however my coach insists that his way of doing it is correct. since I am still learning the fundamental parts of the forward crossover (forward stroking, crossing outside leg over inside leg and lifting inside foot and putting it in front and repeating the stroking again) being put together and not the full cohesive stroking, I do wonder if the arm position he taught me is some kind of fundamental building block of the positioning other people use? although it does hinder my direction as I always end up going in a somewhat straight line instead of a curve but that could be attributed to my inexperience on the ice.