My progress after 10 weeks and 29 hours of skating!
Note: The Rink @ JCUBE has closed permanently and the class I review here is no longer available.
I am not a figure skating coach and will not be able to provide lessons. Please read the comments below for alternative options if you want to learn ice skating in Singapore.
Thank you for your understanding!
Skills Learnt
- Moving dip
- Two-foot backward glide
- Moving two-foot turns in a circle: Turn from Forwards to backwards and Backwards to forwards consecutively
- Clockwise (turn to the right)
- Anti-clockwise (turn to the left)
- One-foot glide in a circle
- Clockwise: Left inside edge and Right outside edge
- Anti-clockwise: Right inside edge and Left outside edge
- Forward single sculling in a circle (clockwise and anti-clockwise)
- Standing forward crossovers (right over left and left over right)
My Progress
Similar to LTS Basic Core 2, my class was made up of all adults. We were taught by two different coaches; one for the first two lessons and the other for the last three lessons. The first Basic 3 coach was more technical than the coach in my Basic 2 class, providing more explanations rather than just demonstrations. The second Basic 3 coach also had a different style to the previous two coaches. I like that with this last coach, I got more feedback about my skating for the first time. This gave me specific areas to work on during the free practice and bring my skating from “passable” to “good”.
Moving dip: Feet should be shoulder width apart and butt should reach the boots in the dip. When going into the dip, continue to maintain good posture. Look up and keep both arms in front and upwards at a more than 45 degree angle. This prevents slouching and reduces the chances of falling. I didn’t practice this move as much because it felt a bit strange doing it during the public session.
Two-foot backward glide: During the test, we had to use either 3 backward swizzles or 3 backward Cs to skate backwards. We then place both feet together and glide backward for at least 5 seconds.
This move was tough for me because I insisted on using backward Cs. My backward Cs were not as strong as my backward swizzles, but they could generate more power for a longer glide. For a more powerful backward C, I lean into the standing leg while using the ball of my other foot to carve a C with the inside edge. There’s also a sort of rhythm that helps create more power.
In the glide, I often lean over my skates. It’s as if I’m leaving my shoulders behind while my feet try to skate backwards, which is a perfect plan if I’m trying to fall on my face. I’m still working on this but I think opening up the chest and reaching the shoulders back with the arms in a T position will help.
Moving two-foot turns in a circle: This was the single biggest challenge in basic 3. It took a total of 4 sessions for me to understand how to do it. Before that, I just used my arms and hips to swing myself around and hoped I would keep going. It then took me another 2 sessions before I successfully completed two consecutive turns.
What changed was that I tried the move off-ice. I practiced the turn going both forwards to backwards and backwards to forwards, and in both directions. When going from forwards to backwards, I would tip toe and turn, putting my weight on the balls of my feet during the turn before putting my heels back down once I completed the turn. From backwards to forwards, I would do the same but lean on my heel and lift my toes off the floor instead of tip toeing.
A few other pointers which helped me on the ice were to “hug” the circle with my arms. My upper body would thus naturally be close to the final position after the turn. Thus, I only needed to get my feet to move my lower body to the final position. During the set up right before the turn, I would fix my eyes on something far away to maintain my upright posture. The direction of my head follows the direction of my feet throughout the move.
One-foot glide in a circle: It was harder to stay on my outside edges than my inside edges. I often ended up on a flat edge and going straight. Picking up speed definitely helped me get a deeper outside edge. On the other hand, I needed to control my inside edges so I didn’t curve too much.
Forward single sculling in a circle: This move is a precursor to forward crossovers, so I needed to bend my inside leg more and lean into it. My body should be leaning slightly into the circle while my sculling leg pushes outwards with the heel of my foot.
Standing forward crossovers: This was a bit scary to do at first but maintaining proper posture and looking straight ahead or slightly upwards helps. When putting down the crossed foot, it should be as close to the standing foot as possible and placed in parallel. This mimics the placement required in actual forward crossovers.
!BONUS SKILL! – Backward stop: Clearly, there’s a lot more backward skating in Basic 3. I realised that I was being very cautious and hesitant about the backward moves because I didn’t know how to stop. It turns out the the way to stop while going backward is similar to the snow plow stop from Basic 2 (duh!). I also referred to this tutorial. I recommend giving this a go if you find that you’re worried about crashing into others.
In Basic 3, my friend and I also went for an extra practice session on our own each week. I decided to go because I needed to practice my moving two foot turns. I think the extra practice does help especially with trickier moves. It also just feels great to be on the ice all the time but maybe that’s just me. 🥰
Results
Thankfully, after all that practice, I passed! 🎉🎉🎉
The test was conducted on the fifth and final “lesson”. We had 15 minutes of warm up where our coach got us to run through all of the critical moves. This 15 minutes was great because even though I choked on all the moves, it let me get a feel for the ice before the real test.
The next 10 minutes was the actual test. We started off with the moving dip and backwards two foot glide. Then we went to a hockey circle and did our forward sculling and one foot glides, all in the anti-clockwise direction. We did both moves again in the clockwise direction. The last move was the dreaded two foot turns but we only did it in the clockwise direction, which happens to be my stronger side. Score!
After the test, we had 5 minutes to try out some moves from Basic 4. We worked on the basic forward crossover, which is just crossing the foot and holding the cross. Incidentally, my friend and I had signed up for the four day Basic 4 intensive Learn to Skate which would start the very next day! I had a prior appointment on the first day so I decide to start working on the Basic 4 moves during the free practice after the test. Stay tuned to read my progress log for Learn to Skate Basic 4!
Learn to Skate in Singapore
I’m taking group Learn to Skate classes at The Rink @ JCube. If you would like to know more about the Learn to Skate experience, click here for my in-depth review and what I wish I knew before I started.
Skater Bio and About
I’m an adult ice skater from Singapore who started group lessons in April 2022 at age 23. I’m currently working my way through the foundational levels of Learn to Skate and hope to pursue ice dance and figure skating in future. In this series, I document my progress as a form of encouragement for my future self and for other adults who also wish to pursue this sport. 😊