Edge Class – Part 1 (Chris Conte)

Choreographer Chris Conte teaches a class on edges and power generation. This class was in Korea on one of Chris’s visits and you’ll notice Eun Hee Lee translating for her Korean skaters. Please excuse the audio on this video as it was taken during the class with no wireless microphones so it can be difficult to hear. Nevertheless, the ideas demonstrated in the video are important and worth observing even without quality audio.

At the very beginning of class, Chris has the skaters do one of his classic full blade exercises as a warm-up. Next Chris demonstrates a series of side lunges on two feet. Chris wants the skaters to keep their back up strong and he encourages this by having the skaters hold their hands behind their backs. He also wants them to bend their knees absolutely as far as they can. He discusses the need to tie the skates properly in order to allow the ankle to bend properly for these drills (and all skating).

Next, he explains the hip position with respect to the skating foot when truly pressing on the edge. He changes the drill to remain on the same circle to focus on getting lower and improving the position. The common mistake with this kind of two foot drill is for the skater to not use the outside edge on the inner skate. To use that edge properly, the hips must be inside the foot on the circle. The drill should be done in both directions and Chris draws the general shape on the ice. At the end of the video, Chris shows that the skater’s weight must not come forward too much.