Weight on outside edge foot (Help!)

[makoskater 0]

Sorry if this has been beat to death in other threads. Maybe someone else has faced a similar thing. Background is I'm 40 and just took up skating 6 months ago in hopes of playing some low level hockey down the road. I have been skating 3 to 5 times a week consistently for 6 months with a one hour lesson each week for the past 10 weeks. I'm making great progress, can skate forwards, backwards, crossovers, stop on both sides etc. However, my nemesis is getting weight on my inside foot while doing backwards crossovers or power turns. For example when I cross my outside foot over I cannot keep my weight on the under push (outside edge) leg to save my life. It has to be a mental issue, I just cannot seem to break it. Also, going into a power turn getting weight on inside leading leg is a monumental effort. It's like I'm afraid to go too far over to the outside edge, I get a sensation like my ankle is going to flop right onto its side (with me whipping out).

Any advise would help.

[Chadd 916]

The reason kids learn and progress faster is their lack of fear. Ignore yours and just do it. Carrying more speed usually makes it easier than going slow, too. Are your skates giving you enough support, or is your ankle breaking down in the crossover?

[Speedz98 15]

Keep your butt down and hips back, pull your shoulders to the opposite direction you're leaning. When you're making a sharp turn you have to sit on your heels.

[AntsSheffield 0]

It's all about leg strength, specifically the muscles that control knee bend and ankle strength. As you turn on an outside edge you're multiplying the force on your body, so that your legs need to support up to effectively double your weight. For that reason it takes time to build the strength to trust those outside edges.

This guy has loads of interesting articles on the mechanics of skating for hockey http://www.letsplayhockey.com/online-edition/blatherwick.html

[smcgreg 81]

Sorry if this has been beat to death in other threads. Maybe someone else has faced a similar thing. Background is I'm 40 and just took up skating 6 months ago in hopes of playing some low level hockey down the road. I have been skating 3 to 5 times a week consistently for 6 months with a one hour lesson each week for the past 10 weeks. I'm making great progress, can skate forwards, backwards, crossovers, stop on both sides etc. However, my nemesis is getting weight on my inside foot while doing backwards crossovers or power turns. For example when I cross my outside foot over I cannot keep my weight on the under push (outside edge) leg to save my life. It has to be a mental issue, I just cannot seem to break it. Also, going into a power turn getting weight on inside leading leg is a monumental effort. It's like I'm afraid to go too far over to the outside edge, I get a sensation like my ankle is going to flop right onto its side (with me whipping out).

Any advise would help.

What Chadd said. My wife is trying to learn to figure skate since everybody else in the family (me and the two kids) skate and the kids skate really well. She takes lessons and goes to public with us. I bought her some roller derby pads for her hip and butt because if you're learning to use your edges, you're going to go down. That's all there is to it. If you're skating with pads, don't even worry about going down, that's how you'll find the edges and the limits, but often you'll find that your "fear" of going down was unwarranted. You'll find your edges. I couldn't imagine trying to learn to skate as an adult without wearing pads. A painfull process.

[AntsSheffield 0]

I have a theory that skate fit is pretty important to being confident on your edges too. I recently went from skates that just had that slight little bit of lateral wobble/lack of ankle support to ones that fit me like a glove. It's like going round bends on rails since I switched.

[smcgreg 81]

It's all about leg strength, specifically the muscles that control knee bend and ankle strength. As you turn on an outside edge you're multiplying the force on your body, so that your legs need to support up to effectively double your weight. For that reason it takes time to build the strength to trust those outside edges.

This guy has loads of interesting articles on the mechanics of skating for hockey http://www.letsplayhockey.com/online-edition/blatherwick.html

I don't agree with your statement about "it's all about leg strength", but I do agree that Blatherwick has a lot of good stuff. He's very insightful about the usefullness and application of strength training for hockey.

About the edges, for a beginner, what they think is an edge and what an experience skater thinks is an edge are like night and day. So, the physics that you present really aren't relevent. For the beginner, it's almost entirely about confidence and "feel". Once you're really pushing limits, then some muscular strength specific to holding the edges might be important, but that is way down the road. Again though, kudos for bringing up Blatherwick.

[AntsSheffield 0]

for a beginner, what they think is an edge and what an experience skater thinks is an edge are like night and day. So, the physics that you present really aren't relevent.

Maybe. Just being on an edge in a fairly upright stance takes no great muscle power for sure. But I'd argue being on the inside leg/outside edge, for eg, crossing over round a curve is a different feel altogether and takes good knee bend and muscle control.

I've been skating only a year and this is how it feels to me.

[smcgreg 81]

Maybe. Just being on an edge in a fairly upright stance takes no great muscle power for sure. But I'd argue being on the inside leg/outside edge, for eg, crossing over round a curve is a different feel altogether and takes good knee bend and muscle control.

I've been skating only a year and this is how it feels to me.

If you've only been skating for a year and you're pushing your edges like that, good for you! It's hard to say about the OP, but I'm guessing it's more of a confidence/feel issue.

[AntsSheffield 0]

If you've only been skating for a year and you're pushing your edges like that, good for you! It's hard to say about the OP, but I'm guessing it's more of a confidence/feel issue.

I wouldn't say I'm really 'pushing' my edges yet. I'm barely over onto my outside edges, like leaning maybe 10 degrees. How do I know? Me and my wife videoed each other at the rink today. It's amazing how it can feel you've really got a lean on and you;re hardly over at all.

So, next job is to start to push those edges for me. Get a grind going on those bends.

[makoskater 0]

Thanks for all the responses. I think I found the fix for my edge problem. My coach lined up 4 cones about 10 feet apart and started having me weave between them on one foot. At first I could hardly do it on my weak foot, we found the issue was too much weight toward the front of my skate. After I focused on getting the weight to my heel things got better. To make the drill harder we started to stagger the cones. You have to make bigger and bigger turns on both edges as you keep staggering the cones. I'm still pretty weak at it but, after an hour doing this I can see instant progress getting onto my edges. I can now do an outside 3 turn which I couldn't do before. If you cannot get on your outside edge you cannot do a 3-turn. We agreed to focus on this drill for the next 3 sessions. I'll report back. Thanks...