How to turn faster? | Golden Skate

How to turn faster?

iceskating21

On the Ice
Joined
Jan 10, 2018
My skater has difficulty with 2S. She has been working on it for very long time. Her coach said she couldn’t turn fast enough. It means she always landed before she finished her turn.

So how to turn faster? Is it related to leg power? Is there any off-ice exercise for it?
 

sk8kirsty

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
My skater has difficulty with 2S. She has been working on it for very long time. Her coach said she couldn’t turn fast enough. It means she always landed before she finished her turn.

So how to turn faster? Is it related to leg power? Is there any off-ice exercise for it?
There are lots of off-ice exercises you can do to improve the speed of rotation. Basic body conditioning plays a big role in this, for example core exercises help a lot. These could be crunches, sit ups, v sits, etc. It is also very important to have strong leg muscles on these more difficult jumps in order to get the height needed. Things like squats, squat thrusts, pistol squats, wall sits etc. help a lot to improve this. Also something I've found is that jump rope has made a huge difference with my jumps. Try to practice jump roping, singles, doubles, whatever you can do should make a difference.
Arm strength also plays a big part in jumps as you need to be able to pull your arms in pretty tight during a double jump. Working on arm strength will help loads. I don't know how old your skater is but if you think that she is old enough to try this, weight lifting is helpful. She could also try press-ups to increase arm strength.
As for rotation specifically, just doing doubles off-ice is great practice. If she is training 2S, practice 1A, 2S, 2T and even try 2Lo. She needs to make sure she is achieving maximum height, and pulling into a tight back spin position in the jump. Make sure feet are crossed and arms are pulled in.
On the ice, she should practice back spins and try to get them as fast as possible. When jumping, entry is very important so on the take off, edge jumps should have a strong edge, and toe jumps should be checked in the correct place, not too far out to the side but not too far crossed behind. As she checks, she needs to try to boost herself into the air to achieve maximum height.
This is all I have for today, hope this helped : ))
Good luck!!
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
My skater has difficulty with 2S. She has been working on it for very long time. Her coach said she couldn’t turn fast enough. It means she always landed before she finished her turn.

So how to turn faster? Is it related to leg power? Is there any off-ice exercise for it?

Core conditioning. You need a very strong core to get the lift and snap for the jumps and all the fast rotations.

Have they tried using a harness?
 

kolyadafan2002

Fan of Kolyada
Final Flight
Joined
Jun 6, 2019
Sometimes people have the ability to turn fast, but just arent able to do it, until one day she "clicks".
I would give advice, however I would listen to what your coach says as it's likely s/he knows best for your child.
 

pp55

Spectator
Joined
Feb 28, 2005
Yes to what sk8kirsty wrote.
Just a bit more for on ice practice.
Yes, back spin. Very important. In different ways. Not just fast.
It could be another way, starting slower and then getting faster. And trying to control that acceleration in rotation.
Another exercise. Back spin, with crossed legs (like in a jump) and then jump up, rotate in the air and land (in landing position).
Again, if you learned the basic “jump up and land” in the back spin then go to the “acceleration” options. Try to accelerate the back spin rotation and then jump up and land.
Or start rotation then jump up and try to rotate very fast in the air and land.

For some skaters there is another thing, sometimes important.
I’m a counterclockwise rotation person, meaning I’m turning “naturally” to the left.
For skaters turning same way, sometimes it is important to focus on “bringing the right arm” to the body for rotation. And there are skaters who “prefer” to focus on “moving the left shoulder” back for rotation.
 
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