Charlie White & Tanith Belbin White
Skating Skills Drills & Exercises By Terri Milner Tarquini
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aying the groundwork of solid, controlled edgework and the ability to generate and maintain speed may not be flashy work, but it is crucial in building great figure skaters. To this end, PSA TV, the online coaching resource, makes learning from anywhere, anytime hugely beneficial. There are many presentations from previous PSA conferences for coaches to access, such as the informationally-packed demonstration, “Skating Skills: Drills and Exercises,” by Charlie White and Tanith Belbin White from the 2018 Orlando conference. “It’s good to remember that the ability to have a chance to succeed as a figure skater comes so much from their control and their own body,” White said, “and an understanding of how they can use the ice as a platform.” White, with dance partner Meryl Davis, is an Olympic gold medalist, a two-time world champion and a six-time U.S. champion. Belbin White, with dance partner Ben Agosto, is an Olympic silver medalist, a four-time world medalist and a five-time U.S. champion. “Jumps are fun, twizzles are fun, circular step sequences are fun,” White said. “This stuff might not be quite as much fun, but if you want to be able to really succeed and to do well in competition consistently, so much of that comes from breaking down all of the basic drills.” In the 45-minute presentation, the married couple talks tons of specific exercises and the how’s and why’s behind them, including: Precision Drills Forward Power Pulls (with arms stretched overhead) The problem: “A lot of skaters just kind of squat on this,” Belbin White said, demonstrating small squiggles, rather than sweeping power pulls. “You need to focus on the development of the flow from the bend and as you rise… that you’re actually gaining speed with every edge pull.” The fix: “Have the skater move down the ice, keeping the free leg in so it’s not manipulating the edge for them,” Belbin White said. “This would be where I would start every single lesson… feeling what muscles engage when you rise up out of your knee and you actually have the flow moment in the edge.”
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Backward Power Pulls (hands clasped behind back – pulled away from the body and not resting on the buttocks) The problem: “A lot of what we see when we do this exercise is a fight forward,” Belbin White said, demonstrating backward power pulls with her shoulders slumped forward and attempting to jerk the shoulders to gain momentum. “You don’t want it to feel like you’re choking it at the top by hiccupping out of that knee; you don’t want to have that jerky knee action. You want to have that fluid up and over, wave-like motion.” The fix: “(With the arms behind the back) the idea is that the back of your head is pulling and drawing back down the ice with every pull,” Belbin White said. “It really hits home the idea that you’re drawing back with every pull, so the posture is engaged…all of your weight and all of your effort is pulling back in the direction you’re going. It’s really working against you if you’re leaning forward and going backward.” Inside Double 3-Turns (arms overhead; on a large circle) The problem: “The momentum and the centrifugal force has more control than you do, so you have to really check… and that check allows me to use my knee to gain speed,” White said. “If you’re not checked, then you’re forced to turn and then you’re not in control. When you’re not in control, that’s when bad things happen.” The fix: “Even though we’re not actually pushing (after each turn), every edge is an opportunity to gain speed,” Belbin White said. “To have the control, particularly at the end, to sit, to rise, to pre-bend and to start the next turn.” “You also really have to think about checking before you get to the position because, if I get there and then I try to check, it’s too late,” White added. “That’s something a lot of kids don’t understand.” Cross Rolls (down the ice; two regular cross rolls and hold the third edge for a complete circle and then continue down ice with two more regular cross rolls followed by the full circle hold, which will now be on the opposite foot) The problem: “The most common mistake is steering the shoulders around the corner in an attempt to start getting that edge going,” Belbin White said.
