Ice skating. What exercises or stretches do you do outside the rink?

Question

My daughter is getting serious about iceskating, and she needs to be more flexible for some moves, for example, she must be able to do the split.

What are the stretches she can do to improve her flexibility?

What do you do outside the rink to help your performance on the ice and in competitions?

Answer 1

I am a figure skater as well, and some of the stretches I do are:

Touch my toes while standing, reach for my toes while sitting, stradle stratch *legs are split sideways, and you stretch for each leg one at a time*, pull up the blade stretch, take your arm and hook it around your leg and pull up...sounds painful, but works realllly well! I would also practice actually DOING the split off ice, this really helped me!  She can also practice her spirals off ice, while hanging onto someone/something.  Outside of the rink to help my performance at practice, I work out.  I go on the treadmill, do sit ups, push ups, jumping jacks, jump rope, and I run around the block.  Before competitions, I practice my program over and over and over *etc...* again.  The night before, I write myself a note that says, "If you can believe it, you can achieve it." I read this right before I go to bed.  The day of the competition, I envision a perfect program once I wake up, and then I try not to think about skating at all. If I do think about it, it's simply to concentrate on a PERFECT program.  I hope this helps!

Answer 2

Ballet would build gracefulness as well as help with line and position. Hip hop would also suffice. As a competitive skater, I find that stretching daily for about 1 and a half hours really helps (but consistency is the key). Don't stretch too vigorously at first though. As an alternative, gymnastics classes would be useful. Do bridges, splits and practice skating spins and jumps on dry land eg. bending backwards for laidback spins. This aids in building balance and grasping new moves faster.

Some of my skater friends also pursue other sports(eg. cross-country running, track and field etc.etc.) to build stamina, as some programs teld to be really long and skating for a few minutes at a stretch is no joke.

As I have said, consistency and perseverance in the long run are of utmost importance. Combined with these suggestions, termed "off-ice training", should help to make an all-rounded skater.

Answer 3

I do a stretching class with my coach every week. We do lunges, spirals, off-ice jumps and more. Some of the stretches that have really helped me is the butterfly stretch and straddle stretch. Also if you have her hold onto the back of a chair and do her spiral push her leg up and hold it and high as you can with it hurting her that really, really helped me. I am about 3 inches away from being able to do the full splits now.

Answer 4

jump rope for endurance and ballet for flexibility

Answer 5

You could jump rope, run, do wall squats, work on your moves(jumps), or work o your spin rotations!