The secret to easy crossovers: Crossunders

Posted on: September 17th 2011

Attention new skaters!

You look ridiculous trying to reach your outside skate out in front of you to cross it over your inside skate because someone told you you needed to do crossovers in the corners but damn if this doesn’t seem like a waste of energy and really really awkward and unstable and slow….

Stop thinking about this as crossing over. Tilt your bodyweight forward, focus on crossing UNDER with your inside leg, and let your body weight fall naturally onto your outside leg which should now be right under your centre of gravity.

Less over, more under. Inside leg. Inside leg. Inside leg.

There. that’s better. You’re welcome!

2 thoughts on “The secret to easy crossovers: Crossunders

  1. I am having the worst time PUSHING with my inside leg. It just kind of drags behind. There’s no push and no flick. How can I teach myself to push?

    1. Hey Aubrey! Sounds like you might need to work on your adductors (inner thigh muscles) and the body positioning of a cross-under. You can do leg lifts where you lift your bottom leg up – a combination of isometrics (where you hold in place for 5-10 seconds) and regular dynamic repetitions would probably be good! As well, you can do cable exercises at a gym, with the ankle cuff, and replicate the cross-under positioning. Check out the StrideBuilder program too – we do quite a few exercises that will target those muscles and help your body do what you’re telling it to!

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