Skating backwards! | Golden Skate

Skating backwards!

Happygirl123

Rinkside
Joined
Oct 19, 2017
Hi guys!
I hope you are all well and had a great Christmas/ New Year :)

I'm working my way through my levels in Skate UK - yay! I've just started learning how to skate backwards this week, and was wondering if anyone has any tips. I'm reading online about pushing your skates into a "C" shape - is this like a 1/2 backwards lemon? Anyway, any tips and advice on skating backwards is appreciated! Anything, blade positioning, weight distribution absolutely anything you guys can think of that helped you learn how to skate backwards :) Thanks so much everyone! x
 

silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
Hi Happygirl,

If you're just starting out with backwards, I'd recommend starting by getting comfortable moving backwards first. You can practice gliding by pushing off the boards straight back to learn the proper balance point.

For the skating, start by walking. You want to have your toes together and your heels wide so your feet look like this: ^. The more you bend your knees, the more speed you'll get. This teaches you to get comfortable with the basic edge used when skating backwards. It is important that your feet always stay in front or under you. When going backwards, your feet should never be pushing backwards.

From there, I like to teach backwards as a series of lunges. It's hard to explain in words, but place your feet just wider than shoulder width apart. Shift your weight back and forth between your two legs. You should start with one knee bent and the other straight. As you shift your weight through the middle of your body, keep your knees bent until you've transferred the weight to the other leg. As you do this movement, you want to add a push off your inside edge of the foot that is bent. This is the beginning of the C push.

The final stage is the C push. I don't know what a backwards lemon is. Is it the same as a bubble, scully, or swizzle? If so, then that is exactly what a C push is. The C push is exactly what it sounds like. You trace a half circle on the ice, which pushes you backwards. It is super important when trying the C push that you keep the pushing foot in front of your skating foot. Otherwise, you end up pivoting around the skating foot and lose all your flow. The best way to think of this is to make the C in front of your skating foot. The pushing foot's heel should never pass the skating foot's instep. It's also important that the skating foot keeps gliding while you push. Keeping most of your weight on the skating foot will help with that. The skating foot needs to be on a flat or slight outside edge. If it flips to an inside, you'll come to a halt or start to pivot.
 

treesprite

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
You can practice gliding by pushing off the boards straight back to learn the proper balance point.

This in an absolutely horrible idea if you are on a public session and not with a coach. As a skate guard, I have seen too many people get hurt from skaters who do this tripping other people or running into them. In fact, workers comp got to pay my doctor and physical therapist for a couple of months because of the kid who's mother made her do it right as I was passing her. The kid was lucky I arched up my back and butt, because I fell over her and would have crushed her. We no longer allow skaters to do it in public sessions because it is too dangerous.
 

silver.blades

Medalist
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Country
Canada
This in an absolutely horrible idea if you are on a public session and not with a coach. As a skate guard, I have seen too many people get hurt from skaters who do this tripping other people or running into them. In fact, workers comp got to pay my doctor and physical therapist for a couple of months because of the kid who's mother made her do it right as I was passing her. The kid was lucky I arched up my back and butt, because I fell over her and would have crushed her. We no longer allow skaters to do it in public sessions because it is too dangerous.

Obviously this needs to be done with caution to avoid hurting anyone. It depends on how busy the rink is. The original poster asked for tips on backwards skating and the push backwards off the boads is something I do with my skaters all the time when trying to learn the glide, which is very difficult to figure out for the beginner. I agree that it needs to be done with caution and the environment in mind, but it doesn't need coach supervision. If done properly, it is no different that practicing a backwards glide from skating, particularly if you use the end boards to maintain the flow around the rink of all the other skaters.
 

treesprite

Final Flight
Joined
Feb 16, 2010
Using the end boards doesn't make it any better unless you are right against the perpendicular wall, rather than pushing out perpendicular to traffic. Even if there are only 30 skaters on a session, it isn't possible to predict the speed and location of all the other skaters well enough for a wall-pushing skater to know when a sudden push perpendicular to the correct direction will cause a collision. If you have never seen people getting hurt because of skaters who do it, you may not realize how risky it is. I have seen at least a dozen people get knocked down, some injured enough to need medical care. If people want to do things that are only risky to themselves, fine. But doing something that endangers other skaters is reckless endangerment. If a coach is standing there making sure there is a clear path, that is different. Most beginners are not used to looking over their shoulders, and I have never seen a wall-pusher looking backwards first. Also, the harder the push is, and the further out the skater cuts perpendicular to traffic, the more risk there is; pushing backwards only enough to go one or two feet is not enough distance to straighten up properly to feel the way the glide is supposed to feel.
 

tstop4me

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Country
United-States
Anyway, any tips and advice on skating backwards is appreciated! Anything, blade positioning, weight distribution absolutely anything you guys can think of that helped you learn how to skate backwards [SUB]ā€‹[/SUB]
Doing maneuvers backwards as well as forwards is one of the most thrilling aspects of skating. Initially, however, learning to skate backwards is a bit scary. Ideally, when skating backward, your weight should be somewhere over the back half of the blade, you should be leaning backwards, and your head should be turned to the side or to the back (so you can see in the direction in which you are skating). In the beginning, however, your weight will probably be somewhere over the front half of the blade, you probably will be leaning forward (because you're afraid of falling backward), and your head will probably be facing forward (because your balance is initially thrown out of wack if you twist your head around). So it takes a fair amount of practice to ease your body into the right position.

Two recommendations at this point:

(a) If you aren't currently wearing protective gear (helmet, pads, and guards), you should. A lot of skittishness arises from fear of getting hurt (especially when you can't see where you're going), and proper protective gear will help allay that fear.

(b) If at all possible, have a skating buddy who will skate forward along side of you. Do not hold onto the skating buddy or count on the skating buddy as a crutch. The skating buddy is there strictly to make sure the path behind you is clear until you're advanced enough to turn your head and look for yourself.
 

gkelly

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Initially, however, learning to skate backwards is a bit scary. Ideally, when skating backward, your weight should be somewhere over the back half of the blade, you should be leaning backwards, and your head should be turned to the side or to the back (so you can see in the direction in which you are skating).

I would disagree with this.

It may feel like that when you're new to skating backward and, as tstop4me mentions, it feels like you want to skate toward the toepicks and break forward at the waist for fear of falling backward.

But don't overdo the corrections so much that you actually put yourself in danger of falling backward.

My understanding is that when you're skating backward the weight is further forward on the blade than when skating forward. Over the ball of the foot -- not on the toe picks. And don't think of "leaning back" to avoid breaking forward. Think of bending your knees and sitting down while keeping your upper body upright.

If it feels like you're skating on the back half of the blade and you're leaning backward while a coach or other trusted observer says you're not, then you're OK. If you're actually skating on the back of the blade and actually leaning backward, you could have a bad fall. You might want to wear a helmet.

So I'll second the suggestion to have someone run interference for you and make sure the path behind you is clear before you feel comfortable looking over your shoulder. Or if you're wearing a helmet that limits your peripheral vision.

Once you do get comfortable with the concept of backward skating, you'll start doing more of it on curves than in straight lines: half swizzle pumps, back crossovers, back outside edges. At that point, start making it a habit to look over your inside shoulder to the inside of the circle, to look in the direction that you're headed. That should become second nature until you get to moves where it makes more sense to look outside the circle (e.g., half lutzes).
 

artika

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 31, 2017
According to my ice dance coach, skating forward you should have your weight on the point on your blade corresponding to the back part of your foot arch, when you skate backward on your front part of your arch (not ball of your foot, that's for spinning, maybe you can think of it as immediately back of the ball of you foot). When I was first relearning to go backwards with correct technique my coach was going forward and was holding my hands while I was doing backward swizzles with straight posture, so I can find the spot on my blade. I think going backwards is very important not to look down, that will throw your balance forward...
 

tstop4me

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Country
United-States
I would disagree with this.

It may feel like that when you're new to skating backward and, as tstop4me mentions, it feels like you want to skate toward the toepicks and break forward at the waist for fear of falling backward.

But don't overdo the corrections so much that you actually put yourself in danger of falling backward.

My understanding is that when you're skating backward the weight is further forward on the blade than when skating forward. Over the ball of the foot -- not on the toe picks. And don't think of "leaning back" to avoid breaking forward. Think of bending your knees and sitting down while keeping your upper body upright.

If it feels like you're skating on the back half of the blade and you're leaning backward while a coach or other trusted observer says you're not, then you're OK. If you're actually skating on the back of the blade and actually leaning backward, you could have a bad fall. You might want to wear a helmet.

So I'll second the suggestion to have someone run interference for you and make sure the path behind you is clear before you feel comfortable looking over your shoulder. Or if you're wearing a helmet that limits your peripheral vision.

Once you do get comfortable with the concept of backward skating, you'll start doing more of it on curves than in straight lines: half swizzle pumps, back crossovers, back outside edges. At that point, start making it a habit to look over your inside shoulder to the inside of the circle, to look in the direction that you're headed. That should become second nature until you get to moves where it makes more sense to look outside the circle (e.g., half lutzes).
I'd be interested in hearing from others. What I posted is not something I cooked up; it's something my coach (a very experienced coach) constantly drills into me. And she does mean literally skate with your weight over the back half of the blade and literally lean back. She demos this to me, and she constantly reminds me, "You have a long blade, use all of it!" Obviously, you don't take it to the extreme such that you catch the heel of the blade and trip. And how far back you shift your weight and how far back you lean depends on what you are doing, and how much control you've developed. She also points out that your head has substantial weight, and that turning your head to look in the direction in which you are skating (where appropriate) not only is safer but also shifts your center of gravity backwards, making it easier to lean backwards. Over the past couple of months, I've made a more concerted effort to follow her instructions (on backwards straight glides, consecutive outside and inside edges, cross-overs, waltz-8's, and other maneuvers), and she's been happy with the improvements.

As I noted in my first post, beginners don't start this way, and it takes considerable practice. But I would like to hear from coaches and students whether what my coach tells me to aim for is what they also aim for. I realize there is no one right way, and different coaches have different opinions.
 

cl2

Final Flight
Joined
Nov 9, 2014
I'd be interested in hearing from others. What I posted is not something I cooked up; it's something my coach (a very experienced coach) constantly drills into me. And she does mean literally skate with your weight over the back half of the blade and literally lean back. She demos this to me, and she constantly reminds me, "You have a long blade, use all of it!" Obviously, you don't take it to the extreme such that you catch the heel of the blade and trip. And how far back you shift your weight and how far back you lean depends on what you are doing, and how much control you've developed. She also points out that your head has substantial weight, and that turning your head to look in the direction in which you are skating (where appropriate) not only is safer but also shifts your center of gravity backwards, making it easier to lean backwards. Over the past couple of months, I've made a more concerted effort to follow her instructions (on backwards straight glides, consecutive outside and inside edges, cross-overs, waltz-8's, and other maneuvers), and she's been happy with the improvements.

As I noted in my first post, beginners don't start this way, and it takes considerable practice. But I would like to hear from coaches and students whether what my coach tells me to aim for is what they also aim for. I realize there is no one right way, and different coaches have different opinions.

Having had about half a dozen coaches in my half a dozen years of skating, I've heard the gamut of theories about blade positioning. The theory about being on the back half of the blade when skating forward and being a little fronter on the blade when skating backward seems quite prevalent. My current coach(es), whom I have now come to trust more than any of my previous coaches combined, don't bother with micromanaging details like that. Their only criterion is that you learn the correct positioning to be able to press the edge, hear the rip, and gain speed from edge pulls, be it forwards or backwards. Now, in theory, there's only a certain part of the blade that you can achieve that on, which is the back half of the blade, but in practice, I expend no energy thinking about which part of the blade I'm on, but instead focus on how to get the rip and the speed---which is by sitting down onto my heels.
 
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