Knee slides | Golden Skate

Knee slides

skatingfantasy

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
I love those knee slides that Oksana does in her Color of the night program and her Absolutely Everybody program and I've never seen any one at my rink do it, anyone here know how to do it or know where I can get some advice on it, it looks so cool!
 

cborsky

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Knee slides can look very elegant and add a lot of drama to a program. Beware though, the ice feels much more rough when sliding across it on your thinly padded knee caps! Try it first on freshly resurfaced, dry ice... or invest in some knee pads to get you started.

To actually do a knee slide... go through these motions on the ice first at a standstill, then moving.
Start by doing a lunge, but bend the dragging leg bringing it underneath you.
Shift your weight from the skating leg to your knee that should now be touching the ice.
With all of your weight on your knee, bring your skating leg down next to the other so you're now sliding across the ice on both knees.
The only tricky part is maintaining your balance - keep those tummy muscles tight!

After this is mastered, you can add arm movements and body lean.

~Cassie
 

skatingfantasy

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 30, 2003
Oksanas knee slides

From studying the tape I have of Oksana doing them, yes I can see that she keeps her body straight and upright and is using her stomach muscles to keep her in place. I thought that she had gone into an ina bauer first to get into the slide but after i watched the tape again I could see that she just skates forward on her left leg and bends down onto the right knee with her right arm in front of her torso close to the body and her left arm in back. But what I'm wondering if how is she whipping herself around into the rotation. Maybe the arms. I tried it myself at the rink and I can tell you that yes, you have to be able to do those lunges first before trying any type of knee slide, I'm not very good at the lunges but it's something to work at.
 
Top