From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: rec.skate
Subject: Re: Practicing Back Crossovers, Flips, and Squats
Date: 31 Jul 92 06:18:47 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Jul30.190621.17003@cc.gatech.edu> gn@cc.gatech.edu writes:
> 
>   There's a subject line cornucopia for you, eh?  I've been working on
> the above moves for a week or so, but I'm having some problems with
> each.  Apologies for the long descriptions, but they're necessary.
> 
>   For backward crossovers, I try not to let one skate leave the
> ground.  This skate (say the left) is on its inside edge, going into a
> turn.  The problem is with the other skate.  I'll pick it up and place
> it out to the right, and use its outside edge to push (hard) the skate
> back behind the left so that both are in-line and turning.  When I
> want to do this again, I pick up the right skate and loose balance
> when I try to bring it over the left.  Are there techniques that could
> help maintain balance here, or other ideas to improve back crossovers?

This sounds a trifle backwards.  The usual backwards crossover involves
letting the inside skate slide over behind the heel of the outside skate
so that your legs are "crossed", the "inside" skate is now further out
than the "outside" skate.  At this point, you step onto or transfer you
weight onto the original outside skate, while crossed skate swings back
to the inside again.  It's the push onto the original outside skate that
gives you a powerful thrust.

Note that neither foot really has to leave the ground for this version,
though if you give it a good push, that foot returing to the inside is
either just sliding along the ground or swinging through the air, but
it is not a pick up and step motion.

Note that it is also possible to do a backwards crossover that is more
like a fowards one, where you start with a step to crossover and then
recover, but this is not what people are expecting when you say backwards
crossovers.  (both forward and backwards crossovers come in "cross in front"
and "cross behind" flavors, but the odd cases  are are used more often
in dance than normal skating)

As far as tips, you need to work on stroking backwards and getting a
good comfortable balance on both inside and outside edges while rolling
backwards.  Once you are comfortable with your balance, you can pick up
your feet and do all kind of silly stuff, if not you will try to jump
through the move before you get your feet tangled and it'll be slow and
hard.  You also want body position where you are looking back over your
inside shoulder and that shoulder is pointed in the direction of travel.

Sorry if this makes absolutely no sense, I was just out doing such things
a couple hours ago, but they're much easier to do (once learned) than
to describe.  Find someone to show you what to do or watch someone
closely who is taking their time.

>   Next, on forward to backward flips (say turning to left), I tend to
> let the front wheel of the left skate touch when brought back.  This
> sends me into a short spin which I break out of to start moving
> backwards.  For my wheel's sake, I'd like to step on all the wheels,
> but again, a balance problem.  Any suggestions?  Also, I usually have
> to start turning to the left, if I want to do a left-to-right,
> forward-to-backward flip.  Any ideas for keeping a straight course?

What's a flip?  To me that when you spring up and flip head over heels.
It sound like you're talking about sort of a jump turn from forwards
to backwards or just a both-feet on the ground sort of turn (there's
no proper name for such).

It sound like you have the right general idea, work on staying erect,
looking up and balanced and as you do more and more of them, it will
smooth out and feel more natural.  A key is to make the turn with your
body and your legs will follow (they have no choice 8-).  You will find
eventually that the extra foot isn't really needed to initiate things
and then transition to proper mohawks and 3-turns.

>   Lastly, about squats -- the most frustrating move I've been trying
> to get down.  First q'tion: when doing this, should the heels be
> nearly touching, or apart from one another (knees at 90 deg. or so)?
> Second: when I bring a leg back to place the skate, is it better to
> lean on the inside (going into turn) or outside edge of the other
> skate?  Third: general plea for any other advice on this ;-)

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by a squat, so I can't say much.
Are you talk about just bending your knees so that you could drag
your knuckles on the ground, a shoot-the-duck where you roll on one
skate and extend the other leg forward or something completely
different?

Most classical skating involves keeping the feet under the body
at the point of balance and doing turns and such with both skates
close together.  Obviously, there are exceptions to this and then
there are street moves like rolling heel and toe that are quite
the opposite.

By the way, I don't mean to harp on terminology, but there are names
for many of these things that are commonly undertood across all forms
of skating.  If you get a chance, wander by a library and see if they
have any books or either roller or ice-skating...  It may not be
"all the same thing", but there's far more in common than not...

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
but no way officially representing:   domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Commodore, Engineering Department     phone:  215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)