How To Do A Forward Outside Three-Turn In Figure Skates

[Music] hey skaters welcome back i'm so glad you're here i'm coach julia and today we are going to be working on three

turns now three turns are a kind of footwork they're a turn and what makes them unique is that they stay on the same circle while they're done but they switch edge so

if you're going to go in on a forward outside edge you're going to end on a backward inside edge all right so they always change edge change direction but stay on the same

circle so these can easily be practiced on a circle for today i'm using this little black line and i've actually drawn the shape of the three turn on the ice now to practice this we're actually going to start with just a little two

foot turn on a three turn you always well i should say on a forward three turn you always want your body to face in towards whatever circle you're creating

so that means i'm going to put my right hand in front and my left hand in back as if i'm looking at a small circle right here for now since we're practicing that two foot turn i'm going to push

put my feet together i'm going to twist go over my toes and my hands keep facing that circle let me break that down for you a little more slowly so as you do the

turn when you get to the apex of the turn your upper body is going to go from your left hand and back and your right hand in front

to switching so now you're facing you're facing your left side and your right hand it's still leading you're just looking away from it okay so

switch okay push and those shoulders rotate between your hands okay so think about your hands staying the same and your body rotating between

your hands like this okay look at a little dance okay so keep those hands strong and practicing rotating your body between your hands we call this movement checking

checking the arms or checking the shoulders and it's something you're going to hear a lot when learning various different kinds of turns for the two foot turn or the one foot turn you want this check to happen at the exact same time

as you are making the turn with your feet so your upper body checks as your feet turn for the feet on this two foot turn you're gonna lift your

heels as you turn you're using your rocker and a little bit of your toe picks to create this turn so we push you bend

you lift up those heels go on to your toe picks rotate and then go back down so we push bend lift up your heels go onto your toe

picks rotate and go back down it's very important to really use the rocker of your blade and the utilize that topic so you don't accidentally do a dreaded

u-turn so that two-foot turn exercise is crucial to mastering before you try a three one-foot so let me do it really smoothly all together we

get that upper body facing the circle you're gonna push off that the right leg put your feet together bend up over the toes rotate the torso

and go back to your starting position so put now we're going to push off the left foot push bend those knees lift up over the toes rotate the torso and back to our starting position once you have mastered that two foot

turn we can move on to the one foot three turn so it's going to be the exact same mechanics with the upper body that's why we work on it so hard with a two foot turn so we're going to use that same mechanics our upper body is going to

face that circle we're going to do our three turn and our body is going to rotate and still face that circle all right so we can just do the upper body exactly the same

way we did the last one so let's focus on the feet the lower half so as i said earlier with the left forward outside three turn we're going to put our left foot on the ice

going forward on our outside edge doesn't need to be really steep outside edge just a little bit so you get that curve okay so i'm going to give myself a little push off of my right foot

when i get to the zenith of my turn the point where i want to do my three turn i'm going to lift that heel up rock over my toe and then immediately flatten back out so that i can go backwards so i

push rock over lift the toe and then flatten back out and now i'm on my left back inside edge let's try that again i push lift up the toe

flatten the foot back out sinking onto that left back inside edge all right so let's talk about the ending position so we know what the beginning position is that upper body facing in the circle

pushing off the right leg giving that nice extension once we've turned your body is still facing this circle you have a nice pressure down onto the inside edge of your foot

traveling backwards but your extended leg your free leg you want to extend out at a slight diagonal you don't want it straight behind that's too hard to control you certainly don't want it to the side

just think about opening your foot turning your foot open to the side and extending it out at a slight diagonal like this so we go three turn open that foot out

to a diagonal

and that's your ending position [Music]

so that was your left forward outside three turn now we're going to try some right forward outside three turns it's really exactly the same thing just on the other foot and you need to learn these whether you're right-handed

or left-handed so don't think because you're right-handed you don't have to learn one side of your left hand you don't have to learn one side we all have to learn all the turns okay so we're going to put our right forward

outside edge in front of us so just a little slightly towards that outside edge our left foot goes into t position behind us i'm going to put that left hand in front right hand and back so again i'm kind of

facing that circle remember how i said that on the other side we're facing the circle we're just gonna give ourselves a nice little push rise up in the heel go back flat down onto that inside edge

and hit that nice extended ending position when you're doing footwork especially when you're just learning footwork it's important after the turn

after a three turn or maybe a bracket to find a low extended position so you get stability by bending that knee and using all those muscles and also by extending those arms giving

yourself nice posture and engaging all those muscles through your core and engaging that leg out to the side that's a very stable position so if you're a little wobbly press out extend and that'll help you

get a nice solid three turn at the end make sure you're using your arms and shoulders properly so you have that nice check through the turn you wanna make sure you're staying right

up on the top of your circle so your three turn doesn't dip in really deep and create like an m shape this often causes you to whip through the three turn and have a wild

uncontrolled turn and your free foot is going to give yourself a push extend out behind you and then as you approach the apex of the turn it will slide just past your body not a

big swing but just move right past move in front of you so that once you do your turn is already extended out behind you into

your nice checked position [Music] all right skaters we have learned two of

those four forward three turns today our outside three turns the right forward outside three turn and the left forward outside three turn now make sure you check back in two weeks because we're gonna be learning

the inside three turns and you're gonna want all four of those forward three turns i hope you enjoyed this one if you did give us a thumbs up and of course i always look forward to reading all your

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next time [Music] [Music] you