Freestyle 4 Requirements

Hello everyone, and happy skating, today I am going to show you the freestyle 4 requirements, you are now at one of the biggest sprout outs at ice skating at a level because you are now going from half rotation jumps to single rotation jumps. The required spin can only get harder to but, I think you are ready to take one the challenge. The required moves

1. Loop jump
2. Flip jump
3. Half loop
4. Sit spin
5. Dance sequence

For the loop remember take advantage of this jump because you are simply just popping up and back down, there is know need to worry about changing positions or transferring your weight like in the axel. This jump is one of the easiest jumps in my opinion, so don't be to scared. The sit spin can take awhile to learn, it took me a few months to get it down in a progress about 2 hours per time I skate which on average I skated one or two times a week.  Yet once you get this spin you will realize it is actually simpler then the scratch and change foot at least in my opinion. I have not learned the dance sequence of this level or most of the levels, so can't really help you there, I have not even learned a half loop!

Important Ice Skating Vocab Words

Hello ice skaters and welcome back to another post, today I am going to show you a bunch of important and common vocab ice skaters use, that you should definitely know as a beginner or if you decide to start ice skating. So lets get started

1. Edges- edges are not just a move but, edges are used all the time in skating. In skating there are two kinds of edges, your inside and outside. Picture this put your feet shoulder with apart then with your feet lean in, this is called your inside, now put your feet shoulder with apart again and lean to your outside, this is your outside edge. Edges are commonly used in moves in the field and dance sequences where you will be going from an inside to an outside back and forth in one kind of move, or there are moves practicing one of the edges.
2. Rotation-rotation is used for jumping in ice skating, NOT revolutions, which is used for something else! Rotations is the amount of time in the air such as a waltz jump is half of a rotation which means the skater takes off and jumps half of a full rotation, if you watch ice skating on TV, you will notice that most of them are doing triples if not quads also depending on gender, when they are doing triple they are doing three rotations.
3. Revolutions-revolutions are used in spinning, when you see someone spin each time they complete one full circle in a spin that counts as one revolution. Yet spins are hard to count by revolution unless you got a slow spinner at your rink, some spins like the scratch spin as soon as you wind up and start spinning 3-5 revolutions are pretty automatic. Some skaters even try to count how many revolutions they make it in a spin!
4.  Moves in the Field- moves in the field is a king of test referring to the USFS company, this test looks at your ability to do certain kind of moves involving edges (explained above). They look at your edge quality mostly, in moves in the field you are able to move up if you pass but note when taking the test you have judges and they are tougher on you as you go up in levels. There is also a freeskate which they look at your jumps and spins through out a program, you must pass the moves test before the freeskate.
5. Jumps/spins- jumps and spins may seem like an obvious vocab, but people who skate ask a figure skater can you do tricks once they see that the figure skater can do jumps and spins. Of course as the figure skater is thinking what tricks?, I am not a dog. So think of jumps as if you were just trying to to touch your roof from the ground well you got to jump to reach it unless you are tall or your roof is short. Same with spins if you see people turning around really fast in a centered position they are probably spinning of some sort. 
6. Traveling- traveling is defined as a spin that does not finish where it started, you can usually spot on ice because it leaves a trace that looks like a tornado, the opposite of traveling would be centered (defined below). When a skater travels you can see that they are moving away from their circle. Imagine standing right next to someone spinning if you notice they are moving away from you they are traveling. Even if you were a distance from someone spinning and they are getting close to you they are traveling. 
7. Centered/centering- centering is used as a term in spinning. A centered spin you can easily spot looking at the marks on ice. If you look closely, a centered spin should leave the marking looking like circles over lapping circles creating one big circle. You can also say that a centered spin is a spin that starts in one place and finishes where it started. You can see through person, if you watch someone spin, look carefully know where they start do they finish where they started or are they traveling? 

All right now that you have learned some of the most important vocab words in iceskating and the most commonly used/talked about, you are all prepared, so next time a coach says one of these words you know exactly what he/she means. So happy skating.

Freestyle 3 Requirements

Hello welcome back to the ice skating blog and today I am going to go over the freestyle 3 requirements, now you are getting into more complex things such as harder elements, and harder dance sequences, unfortunately I do not know these dance sequences or forgot them so I can't really help you there. You will need

1. Salchow
2. Change foot spin
3. Dance Sequence 
4. Back Spiral
5. Toe loop
6. Back pivot

For the salchow you want to make sure when doing the three turn you check check take off and when doing it try not to make the three turn swingy, like keep your free leg (the one your not standing on) close to your other leg. For the toe loop make sure you don't pre rotate which is when your shoulders rotate before your whole body does. This can be tricky especially when you get to double and triple toe. The back spiral and forward ones, make sure you back is arched, you leg is at least at the waist and you hold it 4 times your body length. The change foot spin is quite tricky at first and some skaters like, my sister can agree. When doing a change foot you are doing three revolutions for the one foot, three for the back, and three again for the forward. An exercise my coach in LA taught me is to do it from forward to back ward to forward pivots, this really helps so I would recommend doing this if you are having trouble.  Pivots are quite easy to learn so the back one you should have down quickly and likely before the change foot.

Preliminary Freeskate Test Requirements

Hey guys and welcome back to another post, in todays post I will be talking about preliminary freeskate test requirements, this test is overall quite simple and is all the basic jumps and spins you learn through out the following ISI levels, freestyle 1-4. Here are the list of moves you will need

1. Waltz Jump
2. Salchow
3. Loop
4. Flip
5. Waltz Jump-toe loop combo
6. One foot (can do Scratch, three revs.)
7. Sit spine (three revs.)
8. Through out the program you should have some of the moves

In this test you will need to create a program and skate to a piece of music. This I believe has to be one minute and 30 seconds, note that the test is short and they want to see that you are able to do all the requirements so don't spend the time doing a bunch of other stuff. A tip that my coach suggested is that you should have one gap where when you skate the piece if you mess up on a element then use that gap to do that element you messed up, this gives you a second chance before you get a retest on it, unless you mess it up again. Of course to get more credit you want to demonstrate a clean spin with more then required as you may hear from teacher more is better, meaning that doing more then the minimum is good. Remember you only have one retake on one element take advantage of a little gap to do any messed up elements if you mess up. If you still mess up after that make sure thats the only one and they will give you one retake. If you do not mess up and have a gap just do what ever of the required stuff again to fill it in. Good luck and hope for all skaters to pass this test!

Freestyle 2 Requirments

Hello and welcome back to another post! Today I am going talk about freestyle 2 requirements, in this level there is more to learn you will need to know

1. Ballet jump
2. Half toe wally
3. One foot spin
4. Dance sequence
5. Half lutz

In this level for the half lutz, it's important to take off from the outside, if you take off from the wrong edge it is considered a flutz which is bad. The one foot spin you will need to bring the arms in front of you pull it in as if you were hugging a beach ball and to your chest down and out. At the same time as soon as you did your wind up you will want to bring the leg next to your heel. The ballet jump is a little hop from I believe an inside three turn. That is quite easy to learn once you know how to jump.

Freestyle 1 Requirements

Hey guys me here again, today I am going to talk about the freestyle 1 requirements. This is a pretty big step up, first of all this is your first real jump, and spin you will be learning! Wow you are getting so advanced now, anyway here are the requirements you will need for this level.

1. Waltz Jump
2. Two foot spin
3. Back edges
4. Pivot
5. Spiral
6. Half Flip

For the waltz jump you want to make sure your leg when you are doing the take goes up and forms the figure of a stair case, transfer your weight, this can be hard even I have trouble so don't worry if you can't do it at first, don't also expect to land it fully the first time, it doesn't just automatically come. For the spin when teaching I noticed one thing about the arms, when you go into it after the wind up you want to have your arms out in front of you then pull them in like your hugging a beach ball, then pull them into your chest and down, this will help for scratch spin. everything else should be pretty easy to learn, the spin and the jump is the trickiest that many people have trouble with.

Introduction to Iceskating

Hello ice skaters and welcome back to another post, today I am going to teach the basics of iceskating such as the levels you will go through (ISI) and explain the basics into (USFS). In this post I will also  be explaining what moves, jumps, and spins for each level, and most of all the life of an ice skater, for my next post i will be talking about what it takes to be an ice skater, so don't forget to check that out! So lets get started.
First of all ice skating is one of those sports that take a lot commitment, remember ice skating is not an easy sport, of course as a person who does not skate you don't think about the edges, the strength, and the balance you need for that sport, but guess what you can learn the tricks ice skaters use them selves at your local rink, now heres what I recommend as a beginner, depending on your age you may want to consider wearing a helmet if you are 3-5. Definitely as a beginner and you are not comfortable on ice then I would recommend elbow and knee pads, even I sometimes wear them when working on jumps and trust me they are life savers if you take a hard fall. One thing you absolutely  need is a pair of skates. Maybe if you are starting in the first few lower levels but heading towards around freestyle one you will want to buy your own pair of skates. This is because when you reach about that level you start jumps and you will need the support in your feet, and the rentals are not very well made and do not support your feet very well. I would suggest start with the very beginner kind of skates, usually the skate shop guys who are in charge will ask what level you are at or what kind of stuff your working on, and they will know what kind of pair is right for you. Now lets look at the levels you will go through before you start besides the pads and maybe the helmet you will want to get a pair of gloves, and SOCKS VIP, and of course wear warm things.
The first level if you are about 5 or under you will start at tots. This class may be divided into different kinds for example you may be going from tot A to tot B or something like that. In that class you will learn the basics such as how to fall and get up, learn swizzles which is moving your feet in a diamond like shape across the ice, imagine seeing a line of diamond like shapes all lined up across the ice. Anyway you will learn forward marches, and they may ask you just to do a tiny hop right in place, and lastly you will learn dips/tea pots which is just gliding on two feet in a imaginary chair position..
The next level or you may start at this level is pre alpha, in this level you review and practice somethings you did in tots such as the falling and the swizzles but you will learn how to go backwards. You will learn a one foot glide which is when you glide on one foot. You will learn wiggles forwards and backward you may even learn them in tots any way to. Finally you will learn or do exercises that teach you how to do a crossover!
This level is alpha, in alpha, you learn how to do forwards stroking, crossovers, and snow plow stops. A crossover looks like someone who crosses one foot over another while the stroking is just when people push of a leg and extend there leg out back and forth. The snow plow stops are stopping with one foot doing the stop. You may also do exercises for doing back crossovers. Which leads to our next level.
The next level you will complete is beta, in this level everything is basically the same as alpha but backwards. You will learn how to do backward crossovers, t stops which is stopping in a t position. You are going to learn backward stroking but this time you are basically doing half backward swizzles the same leg you used for the half swizzle.  Now you are ready to attempt your first real mini jump.
In this level most people at least at my rink have their own pairs of skates. In this level you will learn how to do a bunny hop your first jump which is almost like practicing the take off for waltz jump. you learn how to do a mohawk, three turn and in delta edges. But in gamma and delta is almost the same thing. Now you are entering the freestyle mode! Yes all these levels it's self is hard and a lot of work but if you stay committed and keep working you will get it. Check back for my individual posts for the freestyle levels!