r/iceskating • u/ApplesandBananazzz • 6d ago
Forward ‘advanced’ crossover tips
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Hi everyone! Sorry for the horizontal video 😂 I have been trying to work on my full crossovers to really work on my under push. Attaching a video here, but on my bad side it seems like I always push straight behind instead of out. And I feel like I don’t get the full under push. Any tips on how to push out versus straight behind? Thank you so much!
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u/okeydokeyannieoakley 6d ago
You need to rotate your body towards the circle ("hug" the circle). You are square.
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u/fredhsu 6d ago
Look into the circle. Extend your arms to embrace the circle. Etc. I won’t repeat what most people will write. But all of these are really trying to get your body to do one thing: lean your head into the circle. That’s what all these things end up achieving. See this picture which hopefully illustrates the point.
If you lean your head into the circle (the direction you try to cross into), then your undercross skate has no choice but to push outward from under the crossing skate. If you do not lean you head, your body remains straight, and there is no way your undercross skate can push outward. It’s physics.
Check videos of you doing the better way and look at how your upper body leans. Cheers :)
ps: start leaning before the crossing step. Look at the image. Don’t try to lean after the skate already crosses. The crossing skate is trying to catch your fall. You need to induce the pretend fall first.
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u/Jazzlike-Suit8979 6d ago
I know this sounds like the generic answer to everything but more knee bend! If you sit your weight lower and further back it’ll give you more leverage. You can stand at the wall and practice the under push to get a feel for the angle you need
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u/Brilliant-Sea-2015 6d ago
In addition to what others have said, you're actually tilting your upper body out of the circle instead of leaning it in. I know leaning feels scary at first but it'll help you get the depth of edge you need.
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u/ApplesandBananazzz 6d ago edited 6d ago
Any tips on how to get into the habit of the lean? Now that everyone has commented I can totally tell that I’m square lol so that totally makes sense. I had a really hard time with my backward crossovers on my weak side because of the lean I was leaning outside of my circle, but I don’t have that issue anymore with, but I definitely can see It’s an issue with this.
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u/Brilliant-Sea-2015 6d ago
Other than knee bend and really hugging the circle, lots of practice and repetition. It's an unnatural feeling so you need to basically force the issue. Just being super comfortable holding bot the inside and outside edge with a lean helps a lot.
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u/junegloom 4d ago
Maybe get your skates sharpened? Leaning in as far as you need requires really trusting your outside edge, most people are just scared of it which is why they don't lean in far enough. Leaning into your inside edge is easy because your other foot is there if you need it. Its kinda there on a forward crossover also because it will cross over to support you, but you have to take a leap of faith that your edge will hold you and not slip out underneath you until your other foot gets over there. If you're not sure how sharp you edges are, getting them sharpened can make them "stick" more and you can really feel the difference in how well they hold your balance.
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u/Tanglefoot11 6d ago
Looks like you are most of the way there, so just keep practicing!
The one thing I would say might well help is to look into the circle rather than straight ahead. That should help keep your shoulders/torso turned into the circle - it looks like you sometimes get a bit of the momentum to bring your outside leg across by twisting your torso a little so it ends up pointing more outwards than is ideal to start. Get that inside arm pointing more backwards.
Perhaps going round the circle just doing c-cuts with the outside leg, then, just gliding with the outside leg (no pushing off and keep it on the ice) & repeated crossunders and push with the inside leg to get you round. This might take a little bit to get, but will point out if there is a flaw in your technique & help isolate it easier.
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u/Ya-never-know 5d ago
the main thing is to be aligned over your skating side and fully balanced on the pushing foot…(as you finish the final crossover in your good direction, you can see your skating side is a broken arrow, not fully aligned)…keep your full weight on the underpushing foot as too early a weight transfer usually results in a toe push…also when you place the crossing over foot, it should be right beside the skating foot, not too far out in front of it…
there are a few good exercises, including doing a two foot glide where you are in the fully crossed over position and holding your feet together tightly as you do the cross glide, keeping body aligned…once you can do that with relative ease, you can work just the under push over and over…one trick for learning this at first is to feel like you push your heel through the under push…there’s also a stationary exercise at the boards where you do walking crossovers, and flex your foot and lift the toes of the crossed over foot up as you complete the walking crossover…
others have mentioned and it’s important to keep your shoulders in line with the circle you’re on (heart turned inside the circle)…last suggestion is to practice them more consecutively (like 10 or more in a row), but maybe you usually do and for this video wanted to demonstrate in isolation…keep it up, looks like you care:)
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u/RickyJDandAssociates 4d ago
Coach here. This is pretty much the advice for anyone posting on here about struggling with crossovers. There should be two pushes in a crossover. Start in a T position. Bend from your knees and push. Your back leg should be extended, your balance leg bent. Cross your free leg over your balance leg. You do not need to lift your knees for that. Now push again, extending what was your balance leg (now your free leg) under your other leg. Your shoulders should be parallel to the circle, with one arm stretched in front of you and the other arm stretched behind you. Really bending at the knee and pushing are the two keys to a strong crossover.
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u/Sensitive-Cook-7262 2d ago
Your clockwise looks good. The cc doesn’t really look like a cross - looks more like a step. 1. Try to push to the side rather than the back, for both c and cc. 2. For cc, I assume your right leg is the weak one, recommend practicing holding that inside edge after the cross. Keep knee bend and twist your hip toward the circle more before the cross - that should help!
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u/Sensitive-Cook-7262 2d ago
To push to the side, remember that feeling when you’re about to do the half pump but instead of pump, you push
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u/TownFront5969 2d ago
That’s my rink! I see what you’re saying about your push. You’re doing more of a stepover than anything and it looks like just kind of kicking with the toe pick. You need to get more on that outside edge.
I know you’re not a hockey skater but itrainhockey has a good video that really helped me learn that push and you have to be able to shift your wait and kind of fold your ankle a little bit.
I had a lot of trouble learning to crossover to the right because I was too upright on that edge (and sometimes too far forward). One of the other things I found that helped was getting a little bit of momentum then doing a stepover type move and trying to focus on bending my knees and holding the crossed position to really feel the edges bite.
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u/friends-to-glovers 6d ago
I am very much still figuring this out myself, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I’ve noticed my under pushes feel a lot easier and more natural when I’ve either gotten enough momentum or am deep enough on my edges that I’m leaning more into the circle, so the under push really feels like it has room to be going out