Figure Skating Edges And Turns – Part 3 (Chris Conte)

Chris Conte continues with an edges and turns class in Korea. This is the third of a multi-part series. You can see the previous parts of this series here (Part 1, Part 2).We did not have wireless microphones for this class so at times the audio may be hard to hear. Throughout these videos, Korean coach “Grace” Eun He Lee is translating Chris’s comments for her skaters and this sometimes makes understanding Chris even more challenging on the video. However, the overall value of this information is so high that we decided to publish it anyway. We ask for your understanding regarding the audio and please leave a comment below if something is unclear.

In this video, Chris discusses turns. First he talks the theory of blade usage in turns. In forward turns, the skater enters the turn on the middle-back part of the blade (in line with eyelets on skate), then rocks forward on the blade to do the turn itself. Chris shows and explains where the turn should happen on the blade. Skaters that have trouble with turns usually lack control of the blade and rock forward too soon and to the toe pick (too far).

After exiting the forward turn, the skater needs to rock back again on the blade. Chris quizzes the skaters on where they should be on the blade when gliding backward. Most of the skater point to a spot way too far forward on the blade. Instead when gliding backwards, the skater should again be in the middle of the blade. Astonishingly, this is not common knowledge and US skaters make similar incorrect assumptions as the Korean skaters made in this class.

Editor’s note: It’s very common for grassroots coaches to tell their skaters to skate on the back of the blade when skating forward and on the front of the blade when skating backward. Unfortunately this is not exactly correct for simple gliding. Skaters should use the middle part of the blade when gliding forward or backward because it is stable (shallow blade curvature) and has less friction. The actual position may shift slightly depending on the direction of skating, but not so much that skaters need to focus on it. Skaters should focus on using the middle part of the blade for gliding.

Next Chris shows how a turn rocks on the blade and how this mimics the extreme full-blade drills covered earlier in this series. This leads to Chris’s “itsy bitsy spider” drill. The fun thing is that the itsy-bitsy-spider is universal so the Korean skaters knew this and could sing it (in Korean) and do the hand gestures. Chris starts them off at the wall for safety. Chris also shares some tips for skaters that may not be ready to do the drill on one foot, even at the wall.

This is more great information from Chris. Please leave a comment below.