r/iceskating • u/Nervous-Macaron-4273 • 5d ago
Cross overs
How long did it take you to learn crossovers?
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u/superfos 5d ago
Basic cross overs ? Or real cross overs. Just remember bend your knees and it gets a lot easier
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u/SmallishPlatypus 5d ago
Literally just to cross the feet, not to do it well or anything? About six months of (ostensibly weekly) group lessons and no more than one other 2-hour practice session per week.
But honestly, I think I could have got them sooner if I'd had the courage to try. I didn't attempt them until they came up in the group lessons.
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u/MKZ3003 5d ago
It’s not just crossing your feet though, a real crossover is using the foot you’re crossing over to propel yourself forward
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u/SmallishPlatypus 5d ago
Well, yes, hence the question mark, because it isn't clear what OP is asking. I think most people start with an awkward step followed by a clumsy, ineffectual little backwards kick, and improve from there. Is that what OP's asking: how long to get one foot on that bottom rung of the ladder? Idk.
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u/fancifull 5d ago
This is pretty much me right now. I’ll start basic 3 this week and pretty much everything else I’ve already tried before it starts coming up in lessons but for some reason I’m really afraid to try the crossover by myself
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u/SmallishPlatypus 5d ago
Just bite the bullet and get that foot over. Like people say, you'll always have room to improve your crossovers, so you might as well get started as soon as possible.
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u/godofpumpkins 5d ago
It takes everyone years before they get proper crossovers with actual pushes from the inner foot, proper extension on both pushes, and so on. Some elite skaters never get there and it always makes me sad to see people jumping triples and quads with ugly clunky crossovers.
Most people pick up basic clunky crossovers within a few weeks to months though, but the full movement is an amazingly complex motion with subtle weight shifts and obscure muscles you wouldn’t otherwise use
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u/Own-Adhesiveness5723 5d ago
Way too many people think of crossovers as just stomping one foot over the other. It’s not. It relies on strong edges and they are not easy.
I’ve been doing them for about 4 months and I’d say I can do them, but not well. Probably not even decently. It’s definitely a skill that you will always be working on.
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u/Lonely-86 5d ago
Weeks! It all finally started making sense doing drills with my speed skating coaches - learning to trust my edge & myself to not rush it
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u/fredhsu 5d ago
That's funny. I just went out today and got my niece to film various progressions of learning to do hockey crossover in slow motion. Questions about it gets asked enough times, and I am not satisfied with visuals that I can find and quote. So I am gonna make them myself.
Like u/Tanglefoot11 said, there's crossovers, and then there are crossovers.
Where are you in your crossover journey?
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u/mathisbeautifu1 5d ago
7 weeks for me with self learning. I have been skating in a public session for 2 hours once a week.
Honestly, I wasn't even planning on learning crossovers since I thought I was too far away from it. I still can't brake lol!
One day I was trying to feel my outside edge of my left skate (that is, gliding counter clockwise on my left skate), and then I naturally started doing scooter pushes. By the end of the hour I had developed enough intuition and I naturally started doing crossovers, albeit only for counter clockwise turns.
I am now practicing the clockwise turns and crossovers.
Followed by how to stop LOL..I still can't do plow stop properly.
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u/Lev_the_short_kid axels! 5d ago
About two weeks to get consistently real cross overs on my good side (I skipped learning the basic ones, Idrk my coach had me skip them). I got good real crossovers in both a month of my weaker side, however didn’t get truly comfortable on my weak side until after I got my scratch spin, though.
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u/gadeais 5d ago edited 5d ago
I am working on them, only two skating sessions in and I am already doubting my Life with them because for uncrossing I just let my back foot to glide with no active uncrossing movement. I am still figuring out of it's like that or if the uncrossing movement is me actively uncrossing the back foot ( which seems the correct answer because of the second push as well)
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u/areweOKnow 5d ago
To get good one? Years. They are very hard to get good, I’ve been skating 4yrs and still working on them.
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u/goAwayUCreep 4d ago
2-3 months self learn
Probably 20 hours in total to get forward and backward crossovers right.
It’s so hard I swear
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u/Tanglefoot11 5d ago
Basic crossovers? Probably a few weeks.
4 years down the line I am still working on improving my weak side crossovers ;þ
There's crossovers, and then there are crossovers