Signature Move

3Turn asked (and Tiger did, too, I think) about the forward lunge-->3-turn-->back lunge. This is a very fun move I picked up from some of the kids at the rink, and it's the closest thing I have to a signature move. I noticed when watching my video of the 2002 Olympics exhibitions that Timothy Goebel did one in his "American Pie" exhibition.

It's pretty straightforward: Do a forward lunge (in my case the left foot, i.e. dragging the right foot); while in the lunge do an LFO3 so you are going backward; then get up from the backward lunge and continue skating. The two particular things to remember is that 1) you have to have a good, low lunge, otherwise, when you turn backward you will catch your edge and that is NOT good; 2) on the LFO3 all you really need to do is turn your shoulders a bit. When I was first learning this I had a lot of problems because I was trying too hard to do the turn. It really doesn't take much if you have some speed.

It really helps to have good, smooth ice for this. If the ice is rough it will be rather hard to maintain speed and to make the turn. Also, you really have to concentrate after the turn when first learning this move as the sensation of the backward lunge is a bit unsettling at first.

That's it -- give it a try! The nice thing about lunges in general is that if you fall doing them you are unlikely to hurt yourself since you're already practically on the ice.