A deep, soft knee
The bend skating lives on: strength to hold it, and an ankle that uses all the boot allows.
Not checked yet. The suggestions on this page are a first draft by a non-expert, and no coach has seen them yet. Read them as a starting point and check them with a coach. Corrections are very welcome.
Skating lives on a bent knee. The push comes from it, the edge deepens on it, a turn rises off it and comes back down onto it, and a sit spin is the same bend taken as far as it goes. A skater whose knee straightens when they tire loses the edge first.
Off the ice that means the strength to hold a bend for a long time and to go up and down through it smoothly, on one leg as well as two. The ankle matters as much as the knee: a boot lets the shin lean forward only so far, and the skater has to use all of it.
Ask a coach or a physiotherapist what depth to aim for. It is not the deepest bend you can reach but the one you can hold over an edge.
On the ice, this prepares
- DipA two-foot glide taken down into a deep knee bend and back up without a wobble.
- Forward strokingThe push itself: one blade drives against its inside edge while the other glides away, first out to the side, then from a T.
- Left forward outside crossoverLFO to RFI: the free foot crosses in front of the skating foot onto the same lobe, still travelling forwards.
- Sit spinA spin held with the skating thigh at least parallel to the ice and the free leg forward.
- Left forward outside three turnLFO to LBI: half a turn into the circle, changing edge and staying on the same lobe.
Written for the guide from what each element asks of the body. No governing body's material.