Coach Amy Brolsma begins a series of videos on brackets, noting that good posture is imperative. She shows an exercise of simply gliding on a circle on two feet while leaning into that circle. Notice her alignment and posture. She shows a basic forward to backward bracket on two feet from this exercise, describing the blade usage as, “press on the back part of the blade, rock to the front (for the turn).” She notes, “The body lean is the key to keeping the correct edge.”
To develop better blade control and awareness, Amy uses a simply exercise of rocking forward and backward on the blade while stationary on two feet. She then does a straight line exercise with forward to backward and backward to forward turns, focusing on using the correct part of the blade when gliding and when turning. When gliding forward, the skater’s weight should be well back on the blade and Amy demonstrates this as just in front of the heel stanchion of the blade. When gliding backward, the skater’s weight should be more forward on the blade and Amy demonstrates this as near the middle stanchion of the blade (although she calls this the ball of the foot). And although the skater rocks forward on the blade to do a forward bracket, Amy says, “Your toe pick will never touch the ice when you turn.”
Next Amy demonstrates a backward two foot rocker and shows the desired body lean both prior to and after the turn. To emphasize this, she has her upper body facing into the circle with her head well inside the circle and she keeps it there throughout the exercise. She leans into the circle and keeps the nose pointed toward the center of the circle. A common error is pulling the upper body back outside the circle during the turn, creating an undesirable edge change or extended flat on the exit of the turn. Using a small circle is helpful for bracket development since it it easier for skaters to understand and feel the desired exit edge curvature.
Amy then explains, “Remind the skaters that the bracket is a smaller angle than a three turn. In a three turn you’re going to switch your heel almost 180 degrees. Brackets are much less. It’s just a small little change.”
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