Skating technique: the Lunge

This is in the requirements for testing Gamma under ISI, the last level before Freestyle, so still a very beginner move.

The Lunge is a glide with the skating foot bent, and the back foot hold straight back turned out so the side of the boot is on ice. It seemed easy for me, AFTER I've got it.... I was recently asked by two beginner friends about it. One had trouble lowering, the other rising. And I remember I had both of the problems.

There are few problems in lowering. The first one is not keeping your weight over the skating hip and foot, leaning the upper body too much forward so going too forward on the blade and then wobbling back and forth on the blade. The second one is placing the free foot on the ice at an angle so part of the blade or the tip of the boot touches ice and steers you on a curve. And for rising I find that firstly, you don't have to let yourself "sink" into the lunge, but just as much as you can control with your inner tights muscles. Then you have to be engage the right muscles, obviously the skating quad to straighten the knee of the skating foot, the inner thighs, but also the core and free hip muscles.

What you have to do is:
- stroke, find the balance point on your blade,
- engaging your core and keeping the balancing point on the blade, start bending the skating knee while keeping the free leg extended back, turned out and flexed so the blade gets parallel with the ice, only then lower totally on the skating foot (until the hip is lower then the skating knee) and allow the free foot's inside of the boot to touch the ice
- hold the position for a distance four times your height keeping the core engaged and the inner thighs tense and engaged.

- to rise, press a little into the skating knee and free foot booth that's on the ice and  lean your upper body a little forward (that will move the balance point on your blade forward, so when you lift the free foot, that will pull you back on the initial balance point).  Then, with the core engaged to balance everything,  lift the free leg from the hip muscles and rise using the quad, hamstring and gluteus of  the skating leg. You have to rise on one leg.

I like practicing the lunges on both feet as a straightening exercise, even if now I'm very cautious not to re injure the hip muscles.