Compulsory Figures – Skating the 8 – Push Off, Alignment, Movement (Page Lipe)

Page Lipe continues her discussion of compulsory figures (also called school figures). In the previous video in this series, Page laid out a set of circles without using a scribe. In this video, Page demonstrates how to skate the basic 8. She explains when and how the arms and free leg move and you can see what proper alignment looks like as she demonstrates for us.

Page focuses a lot on the details of the push in this video, as well as where the skater’s weight should be on the blade for these forward figure 8’s. The details of hip placement are particularly important. Also, Page goes into detail about how the foot turns out and the weight stays back on the blade as the skater prepares for the push. She says, “One of the really big basic things that they learn by doing this is to keep their hips still and just move their femur in their pelvis.” The idea is that the hip itself doesn’t move.

Page notes that when preparing for the push, the back of the blade needs to get to the transition point before turning as many skaters turn the blade prematurely when the front of the blade reaches the transition point. Great close up video of this movement and weight on blade.