Coach Kate Charbonneau continues a lesson for a skater working on her US Figure Skating Novice Moves in the Field test. The skater already knows the patterns, so this is an opportunity for Kate to help the skater improve them and get them ready to test. In Part 1, Kate worked on the Inside Three Turns/Rocker Choctaws pattern and started the Forward and Backward Outside Counters pattern. In Part 2, she continued with a discussion of the outside counters and then addressed the inside counters. In Part 3 they focused on forward loops, and in Part 4 they worked on the Backward Rocker Choctaw sequence. The video below is all about the Backward Twizzles.
Kate begins with back outside twizzles, and she has the skater start with the weaker or “bad side” (usually left foot) twizzle. The axis line Kate recommends is the long axis line down the rink through the red dots in the center of the hockey circles. Skaters typically struggle with stopping the twizzle rotation in a controlled position, and that is true for this skater. Notice the focus on patience and keeping the speed down. The goal is to get 6 twizzle sets down the length of the ice, with two full turns for each twizzle. Sometimes it just takes practice rather than a lot of technical instruction.
As a tip for setting up the second side of the pattern into the back inside twizzles, Kate emphasizes going really slow across the end. Again, she has the skater set up the back inside twizzles on the “bad foot” first (usually left). Kate says, “And I don’t mind at first when you’re learning this if these (twizzle turns) are all just three turns at the moment, and then as you get better you’re going to turn them faster and faster.” Getting a clear sense of the pattern and stopping the rotation is important, even in the beginning. A common error Kate mentions is over-rotating the upper body on the twizzles and leaning and twisting the upper body. To minimize this error, Kate wants the hands in a hoop position with the hands slightly to the inside, with the heels together as well. This can dramatically help with balance once the rotation speed increases.
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