USFS Moves In The Field Tips: Power Pulls – Pre Juvenile (Karen Heng Olson)

Karen Heng Olson explains how she teaches the Power Pulls from the Pre-Juvenile USFS Moves in the Field Test.  Power pulls are a very important skill for all skaters so this discussion applies to all skaters, whether they are working on the USFS Moves or not.

Karen has her skaters start with the two-foot slalom on two feet.  She’s looking for good knee and ankle bend and proper rhythm.  She also talks about where the skater should be on their blade.  She keeps it on two feet for quite a while so the skater can start to create, feel and hear the “rip” of the edge.

Karen then addresses one of the most common errors that skaters have with power pulls, and that’s the tendency to pull harder with the inside edge than the outside edge.  Karen offers a fabulous exercise that helps eliminate this problem.  (And she offers a bonus for the Junior and Senior power pull patterns.)

Karen then explains how she transitions from two feet to one foot.  She discusses free foot position in detail.  Notice that she says you shouldn’t use the free leg to do the power pulls.  Instead, the power comes from the skating foot and leg only.  You use the knee and ankle of the skating foot to generate power.

Karen also talks about the upper body.  In particular, she goes back to two feet to get the arm motion correct.  Reversing the arms and hips helps get on better edges and generate power and rhythm.

Please leave a comment for Karen or other members below.

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6 responses to “USFS Moves In The Field Tips: Power Pulls – Pre Juvenile (Karen Heng Olson)”

  1. Nancy

    Thanks for the great drills Karen! I love the 3 power pulls and hold on the circle drill the best!

  2. Debi

    Love your drills, but when testing this moves in the field, I was under the impression the arms had to stay still and press the hands down in a “V”.

  3. srswift

    Execellent hints and drills. I love Field Moves and anything new I can learn is wonderful. Thank you

  4. Coach Dori

    Great excercises!

  5. monikajanek

    Is it possible to see the diagrams from all the Moves In the Field tests somewhere? Thanks for any info! These videos are great. 🙂

  6. Trevor

    Monika, you can find all the moves in the field patterns in the US Figure Skating Rulebook. Just do an internet search for “US figure skating online rulebook” or use this: https://www.usfigureskating.org/about/rules There is a clickable link at the end of the table of contents for the moves patterns and the dance patterns.