I need a crash course in turns and steps!

Okay I know what all the turns are (mohawks, 3-turns, brackets etc.). I know what the tracings look like on the ice and how they change directions/edges, but I cannot recognize them when watching a skater, even in slow motion. The only one I can recognize is a 3 turn, but despite a thread I stared a few weeks ago I still get them confused with twizzles (they look the same to me). As far as steps go (progressives, etc) I don't know what they look like at all. I keep trying to evaluate skaters fw sequences, but its kinda hard when I can't recognize the steps and turns. Can someone give me a crash course. What should I look for when watching. Maybe take a few fw sequences from this year or last and list the steps and turns so I can go watch them and learn that way. I'd like to at least have a small grasp on it by worlds....I know i'm cutting it close But I know some people here are awesome with this stuff

Sounds as though you have a pretty good understanding of some of the basic moves of figure skating. It's pretty hard to describe exactly what to look for without being able to demonstrate, but here is a site that has diagrams and pictures that may help:

http://www.sk8stuff.com/m_recognize.htm

Hope this helps.

:agree:

They had a video of a footwork sequence for choctaws. Is that the move that looks like a hip wiggle when they change from forward to backward and back again?

Is there any way to see a video of the other footwork elements or someone who can tell me the specific point in a skater's program to see a good example of them?

well, mohawk and choctaws both involve change of feet. with a mohawk, you stay on the same edge, choctaw, you change edge. for example, if you were on a right foward inside edge, when you do a mohawk, you'd wind up on the left inside back edge. if you were doing a choctaw, you'd go to the left back outside edge.

three turns and twizzles are basically the same thing, except with twizzles, they're done in a sequence. usually, the skater is on a bent knee and comes up during the twizzle, kinda like a corkscrew. twizzles also occur in a sequence type thing. you see them a lot in dance.

I didn't see anything about the steps in there (progressives, etc) maybe I missed it? What do those look like?
Could someone tell me what the fw is that MK does before her 3f in the SP? Maybe that will help....at least I'll have something to look at.

Progressives look like forward crossovers, but the crossing foot hits the ice before it has crossed the body line, so both feet are momentarily on the ice & you get additional power from the double push of the feet going in opposite directions. Confused? Nevermind--to the untrained eye, they look like forward crossovers. Backward progressives look different, but only dancers do those.

Twizzles look like a moving spin--multiple rotations on one foot while travelling down the ice--with no check or stop of the rotation in between turns. You'll see the dancers doing these in unison--it's one of their requirements.

The main differentiation between a lot of these turns (3-turns, brackets, counters, rockers) is the edge going in & coming out of the turn, & the direction the body rotates relative to the entrance edge--these are things that aren't always discernable on a tv screen depending on the angle--so you may or may not be able to tell what type of turn it was.

Progressives look like forward crossovers, but the crossing foot hits the ice before it has crossed the body line, so both feet are momentarily on the ice & you get additional power from the double push of the feet going in opposite directions. Confused? Nevermind--to the untrained eye, they look like forward crossovers. Backward progressives look different, but only dancers do those.

Click to expand...

Wow that was confusing....who does these in thier program and where...I'd like to take a look. LOL Where are they on the difficulty scale?

Not that I pay much attention to a skater's crossovers, but I would think that all the top level skater are doing forward progressives as opposed to crossovers. I guess you could consider them more advanced than a crossover, although, IMO they aren't anymore difficult to perform.

Progressives are mainly used in ice dance. Watch for forward progressives in the free dances, especially when both skaters are skating forward together to set up for a lift.

It's a very basic step, but a little bit more difficult than regular crossovers and takes plenty of work to make them as smooth as possible.

crash course on turns and steps

I really saw a difference in the twizzles of the dance teams.{I think the twizzle looks like a one revolution back spin} The Russian team was the only one that did them both directions alternating equaly well. I found that really set them apart as well as the speed. If you watch that move closely you will see some teams do right really well and the left one they have the foot lower and in an odd position. I also saw the Men really seemed to use the dance moves and steps connecting jumps better than the ladies. The ladies do the dance step seq. but a lot of plain skating and crossovers between jumps. I think that is one reason E.L. got bronze. Michelle Q. did have the steps the first time she did her program and I think if she did that same program and did more competitions with it through the season she could have won with it. I think you will see the top ladies next year with it now that they have seen how the new system works. The progressives and chasses are in the basic skills freestyle 2 test {slide chasse swing roll FS-5} but the rockers brackets twizzles and choctaws are more difficult to do both directions full speed. I think they are trying to encourage skaters to do them after seeing the changes since they eliminated them with compulsory figures.

In the US Moves in the Field testing structure, you do:

3 turns in preliminary (forward only)
fwd. & bkwd. 3 turns in Pre-juvenile
double 3 turns (starting fwd) in Juvenile
double 3 turns (starting bkwd) in Intermediate
brackets (pretty slow & single) in Intermediate
fast, multiple brackets in Novice
Counters in Novice
Choctaws (single) in Novice
mulitple, fast choctaws in Junior
rockers in Junior
& in Senior you put it all together & try not to die in the process!

FS skaters never have to do twizzles (in a test). The first time a dancer has a twizzle in a compulsory dance is at gold. And some twizzles are harder than others. Starting a twizzle on a fwd inside edge is much easier than a fwd. outside edge. B & A have AWESOME fwd outside twizzles!

That will give you some overview of the relative difficulty of the various steps/turns. Though it's different for everyone, just like some jumps are harder than others for different people.