Figure Skating Moves In The Field – Forward Outside Loops (Karen Heng Olson)

Karen Heng Olson teaches forward outside loops. As Karen notes in her introductory comments in this video, “as freestyle coaches, without taking as much time as they did for figures, it’s still a process to teach loops. It’s going to take a while. You have to be patient.” She explains how she only teaches one aspect of the loop in any given lesson when introducing it so it takes many lessons to put all the pieces together.

Karen says, “The first thing I think is the most important to get a loop done is the upper body.” On the forward outside loop the shoulders are rotated into the circle. Karen continues, “We’re going to rotate in and we’re going to reverse the arms to come out.” Notice how Karen assists the skater to develop the correct motion and feeling of the upper body.

Next Karen addresses the free leg. She offers a great drill where the skater puts the free foot down during the fast part of the loop while keeping the free foot motion and rhythm correct. The free foot is behind on the entrance, then parallel to the skating foot in the loop (and touching the ice for this drill), and finally presses forward on the exit. Karen notes that in this “two-foot” drill, the feet should not be close together (common error) until the exit.

The last thing Karen addresses with the skater is where they need to be on the blade. She says, “You need to stay pressed forward onto the ball of your foot.” She also says, “Loops don’t rise, and they don’t accelerate.” She means the skater shouldn’t yank out of the loop but simply draw out.

Compare this presentation on forward outside loops to that of Amy Brolsma here.