Karen Heng Olson teaches backward inside loops.  At the beginning of the video, Karen references the back outside loops, but she generally teaches the back inside loops first because they are easier to learn for most skaters.  Karen shows how she uses a hands-on approach for getting a skater to build initial awareness of the movements required.  Notice the focus on arm and upper body rotation to initiate the loop and the focus on reversing the arms to exit the loop.  Karen wants the skater to do these slowly while staying down in their knees.

Karen explains where the skater’s weight should be on the blade.  She shows a two-foot drill to work on the proper feeling of the free leg.  This “pigeon-toe drill” is extremely valuable and helpful for skaters to develop the proper internal rotation of the hips which helps keep the free hip from dropping.  It’s helpful to see a skater’s first exposure to this drill in the video.  Karen explains the free leg motion in detail.  (In the video Karen, references the forward inside loops.  These videos will be published at a later time.)  Karen offers a simplified drill to help a skater feel the foot motion without all the movement and rotation of the loop itself.

Karen says, “Your upper body is reversing as your foot is drawing through.”  Notice the focus on “slow” and how much just slowing it down helps the demonstrator.

Compare this presentation on backward inside loops to that of Amy Brolsma here.

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