Audrey Weisiger shares some stroking exercises that she developed to help her skaters with their posture, alignment and control. This is the first video in a short series covering these exercises. All of the exercises are performed on a hockey circle.
Right from the beginning, Audrey puts a stuffed toy on the skater’s head in order to develop head stillness and overall good posture and alignment. As Audrey notes, skaters need to have “the graceful artistic development of a ballet dancer with the athleticism of a gymnast and the accuracy of a surgeon.”
In the first exercise in this series, the skater performs one forward cross-over, an inside mohawk, one backward cross-over, and a step forward (inside the circle), and then repeats the entire sequence several times. The head and arm placement and position are keys to the success of this exercise.
At the end Audrey notes that skaters should perform these exercises in both directions and aim for an equal performance level, regardless of direction.
Audrey is an Olympic coach and we are very lucky to have her contributions to iCoachSkating.com. Please leave a comment for Audrey or other members below.
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2 responses to “Circular Figure Skating Stroking and Step Sequences – Part 1 (Audrey Weisiger)”
Love the toy idea especially if they pick it out . More fun for younger skaters
My guess is that other warmups would have to include holding an axis. What a great drill here to work on this. Having never done figures or had a coach that taught me drills in the early days of my skating (say, before senior moves were passed), it’s great to be exposed to these fundamental ideas that I never even considered! Thanks!