Thank you so much for providing all your helpful, funny, and downright amazing skating lectures :) I started with your tutorials about a year ago - and now I am bit by bit unlocking a set of new skills. It’s so amazing that there is a skatie tutorial for every step along the way 😊 ✨
So, I've been doing heel manuals all wrong for the last six months or so. Looks like I know what to work on next time at the rink. I have one concern, though: I have no idea if you have hyper-flexible Achilles tendons, or whether it's just that girly high-heeled skates are that much easier to get heel manuals on (see 6:33 for getting your front wheel about half an inch in the air, or more), but I have reason to doubt I'll be able to get into a heel manual position with my knee *that* bent. If your foot is at the same angle to the horizontal as mine (in my converted Bauer ice skates), you're on a heel manual, I'm on all four. On the other hand, I'm doing just fine with toe manuals, and I've got toe stops the size of bin lids. About all I need to crack with those is swapping between left and right in front without putting all four down on one side.
I lock my knees when I do heel manuals, which makes it easier to raise my toes off the floor. It took a fair bit of practice and some falls but I can scissor, shuffle, slolam, pump and wiggle on my heels -- all stiff legged. One foot heelies are next!
Hey, I'm going to buy the 83a 64mm wheels (Hellium from Roll Line) but i don't know if i can still practice figure skating on those wheels. If i buy them i will mainly skate at the road so i don't know if it would be a good idea to buy them if i want to do turns, jumps and spins... what do you think?
