Figure Skating Footwork – The Choctaw Part 4 (Amy Brolsma)

In this figure skating video, Amy Brolsma continues her explanation of choctaws. In Part 1, she introduced an exercise at the wall and then showed how she works with a skater to develop the step away from the wall. In Part 2, she shared a simple standstill drill and suggested using a hockey stick. In Part 3, Amy worked on the forward inside to back outside choctaw and began building the series of repeated choctaws.

In this video, Amy shows a great drill for developing power and flow when performing choctaws. It focuses on the transition from backward outside edge to backward outside edge. This transition is essential in maintaining flow and power in the USFS Junior Moves In The Field test but is a valuable transition that all higher level skaters should master. Amy discusses the progression of the drill starting with backward cross strokes with a cross in front, emphasizing muscle loading and pushing from the outside edge. She also talks about body lean for these cross strokes. From here, she adds a step to a forward inside edge that can be repeated over and over to develop a rhythm with lots of flow and power. This exercise is fun and Amy says, “This is a really really fun one. The skaters like to get going.” Again, Amy emphasizes the importance of knee and ankle loading through bending the ankle and knee, and the importance of equal lobe size. Notice the use of the blue line for helping the skater maintain an axis and consistent lobe size.