Coach Kate Charbonneau gives a lesson to a skater working on her US Figure Skating Novice Moves in the Field test. The skater already knows the patterns, so this is an opportunity for Kate to help the skater improve them and get them ready to test.
They begin with the Inside Three-Turns/Rocker Choctaws which is the first pattern on the Novice test. After the skater skates the pattern, Kate acknowledges the tempo (pace) is good but the skater needs to have more speed and power for the pattern. Kate recommends adding power to the intro steps and to the transition steps between the major lobes (big pushes towards the barrier). The goal is to stretch out the pattern and go faster. Kate also makes the point that skaters should keep the same number of turns on the second half lobes as the first half.
Next, they work on Forward and Backward Outside Counters and this skater makes pretty common errors. Kate wants the free leg to remain in front (rather than starting in front, being pulled back for the turn, and then pressed in front again) throughout the forward outside rocker. This keeps the desired edge pressure and reduces the likelihood of an undesirable edge change on the counter entry. Kate also wants the skater to slow the overall timing down to help with completing full lobes and showing control of the turns themselves. Learning to perform the turns directly on the short axis of the rink (rather than a diagonal) is very helpful for developing a full pattern.
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