Karen Heng Olson – Backward Outside Loops

Karen Heng Olson teaches backward outside loops. When beginning loops with a skater, Karen like to focus initially on the upper body movement. She shows the skater what she wants and holds the skaters arms. (Coaches, notice how she takes the skaters left hand and switches it from her right hand to her left hand on the right back outside loop.)

Next Karen addresses the free leg. The free leg starts in front, then comes next to and parallel during the loop itself (at the “top” of the loop), and then exits to the back. Since the demonstrator has never done these before, it gives us a chance to see possible errors and how Karen corrects them.

One common error is the tendency for skaters not to draw their free foot back with the right timing after the top of the loop. Karen shows a simple drill to help develop the proper feeling. Karen wants the skater to stay down in the knee throughout this exercise. The skater continues to have a timing problem on one side which Karen addresses near the end of the video.

Karen notes that all loops are done on the front of the blade. On the backward loops, Karen initially accepts loops that drag the toe pick since it means the skater is staying forward on the blade. She just corrects this over time to get clean edges with no toe scratching.

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