Skating technique: Beginner Forward and Backward Skating

It seems that my blog unfolds as a presentation of skills, starting from beginners ones and growing in difficulty. If you read my view on Figure Skating Levels, I have an Intro to skating category before the Beginner level.  So I'll go over the skills in the Intro level and that is equivalent with the first levels taught on group classes I took under ISI (Ice Skating Institute) curriculum. Here is the link to their page, they also have videos! Today I'll cover the Pre-Alpha, Alpha, and Beta levels.

So these are skating exercises for the first times on ice Beginners to Low-Beginners, (disclaimer: as I understand them). 
- learning to fall, described here
- learning the "safe" posture: with feet hips apart, bent knees and ankles, straight back, core engaged, feeling your hips "underneath  you", so over your feet, arms relaxed, palms facing down at waist level, looking up. This is the posture used as a beginner. Later it's gonna be improved. And, spoiler alert, the posture skating forward is different than the posture skating backwards...

Going forward ( use the "safe" posture for all)
- for skating forward the balance point of your blade, where you feel your weight falling on, is on the back part of you foot arch, some call it the back of your blade, but it's not really that back.
- march on ice holding the safe posture (on the whole blade as you cannot step heel to toe)
- march into a two feet glide gliding in the safe posture position and one foot glide lifting one foot straight up to the ankle of the skating foot.
- swizzles - you do eights on ice starting with the feet heels together, bending the knees and ankle, pressing into the ice, coming to hips apart straightening the knees but not locking them, then again heals together, on bent knees. These are done on an inside edge.
- swizzles are helpful to learn the balance point on the blade for going forward
- half swizzles on a straight line where you'll start to have to shift your weight on the skating hip
- half swizzles on a circle, you'll shift you'r weight even more
- learn the alignment of the upper body for weight transfer for a one foot glide (bring an imaginary neck zipper on the same line with with your belly button, hip, knee and foot. The ankle and knee are bent and the knee can and will go forward over the toes (I didn't know this until recently)
- understand that "bend the knee" means bend the ankle too and press into the ice. I heard that you should bend 90 degrees and I had an image in my head that the thigh should be parallel with the ice, that would make the tibia perpendicular to the ice, so no ankle bend. Actually the 90 degrees is between the thigh and tibia and there is lots of ankle bend!
- forward stroking: push with your blade at 45 degrees not using your toe pick (so from an inside edge) into an one foot glide. The skating foot will be on a slight outside edge for a little while, then will be flat for the glide, and will go on a slight inside edge just before the next push, to help with the push 
- consecutive pushes on a circle on the same leg and that will be on an outside edge
- beginner crossovers: on a circle, you push on an outside edge using the alignment described on the previous point, and twist the upper body towards the inside of the circle, look towards the inside of the circle, then, with the weight transferred completely over the skating hip, lift the free foot, cross it over the skating foot and place it on an inside edge. These are beginners crossovers, they'll get way more complicated and better looking...
- stopping. The easiest one is the snowplow, when with the weight equally over both hips, you pigeon toe both feet and apply pressure on ice. Or you transfer your weight over one hip (for me it's easier on my left hip) and pigeon toe the right foot. Well, the easiest stop is going into the boards, no shame in that... It's very important to learn to stop on ice, not into the boards, because if you know you cannot stop, you are afraid of the other skaters moving, so you are afraid to skate.

Going backwards (again, use the "safe" posture for all).
- the balance point on the  blade for going backwards, is the forward part of your arch foot, just after the ball of your foot
- I find that the most important thing for skating backwards is maintaining the posture. The first place where I lose my posture is while pushing, if I don't keep the core strong, it makes me break at the waist (stick the butt out, lean the upper body forward). The second way is by looking down. I don't know why I look down, but I do it a lot. The third way is by looking back to be sure there is nobody in my way. Instead of turning my head around and using the peripheral vision, I turn around from the waist and break at the waist again... So, don't do any of these!
- The second important thing in skating backwards is to find the balance point on the  blade and keep it. Losing the posture is one sure way of loosing the balance point on the blade. Another way would be improper pressure into the ice, learning that takes some mileage...
- backward wiggles
- backward swizzles
- the backward swizzles will help you find the balance point on the  blade
- two feet and one foot backward glide
- half swizzles on a straight line
- be aware of the weight transfer on the the skating hip  (move the imaginary zipper and belly button over the skating hip, knee, and hip)
- backward stroking. The push is a quarter to one third of a swizzle (on inside edge), at that point you pick up your foot using your core and turn it out pointed and you shift your weight on the other foot. I heard the push being described as scooping ice cream.
- half swizzles on a circle shifting the weight
- half pushes on a circle. With the weight transferred on the hip towards the circle (outside edge on that foot), the upper body turned towards the inside of the circle and looking inside the circle, outer arm and shoulder in front, inside arm  and shoulder back. Push with the foot outside the circle, extend the foot in front after the push.
- beginner backward crossover. Push with the leg outside the circle as I just described, lift the foot and place it over the other foot, inside the circle. Now push the foot from inside the circle with the outside edge, laterally, underneath you, then extend it towards the outside of the circle and then it's placed beside the skating leg.

I've learnt all these in group lessons. The instructors didn't explain much, they were more "monkey sees, monkey does". I wish I had the awareness that all these exercises had a purpose (discovering the posture, the alignment for weight transfer onto the skating hip, the inside and outside edges feel, the knee bend that goes together with the ankle bend and pressure into ice). I look back and I realize I was doing everything kind of half way...