Professional choreographer Douglas Webster teaches a class of skaters a warm-up sequence. He begins with some breathing exercises, followed by a simple relaxation exercise that includes an exhale and bending of the ankles, knees, and hips. Next he does a series of squats or dips and holds the last in the down position, and then reaches for toes, straightens the knees and rolls back up to standing upright.
Doug reminds that class that you should always bend before you push, and that means bending the knees, ankles, AND hips. Next he does a short exercise to focus on these three bend points, and then bounces in place to warm up the joints. Next he does a series of in-place jumps up off the toe picks.
Next, Doug has the class do swizzles and he stresses the need to bend first before pushing. He also wants the class to keep the hips under, rather than bending excessively from the waist. For the next drill, Doug has the class do repeating and alternating lobes of hockey glides (hockey lunges) into forward power pulls. The skaters in the class struggle with the power pull which Doug is referring to here as the “second push” in the exercise. As he notes, many of the skaters also struggled with proper bend before pushing into the hockey glide on two feet.
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