Concepts

Why it matters

Edges are the steering wheel of wizard skating. Parallel turns are generated by changing edges, Trees hold an edge on a single foot, and the transitions (Gazelles, Lions) happen exactly at the edge change at the climax. Without fine edge control there is no clean curve: there are pivots and hops that break the line.

How to feel it

In shoes, standing, press your ankles toward the outside of both feet, then toward the inside, then to the center. On skates, the right sensation is that the curve 'appears on its own' as you lean: you don't turn your feet, you change the lean and the drawing curves. If you feel you're forcing the turn with your legs, you are still turning instead of leaning.

Common mistakes

• Turning the feet instead of leaning the ankles: the skate skids or pivots instead of drawing the curve.
• Controlling the edge with one foot only and leaving the other flat: the curve comes out crooked and the transition has nothing to grip from.
• Confusing the edge with the movement's name: the Back Open Lion travels on the outside edge and is still 'open' — the edge does not define the variation.
• Skipping the ankle warm-up: edges are held with fine ankle pressure, and a cold ankle responds late.

Why it matters

This pair is half of the style's nomenclature: every movement exists in an open and a closed version, forward and backward, left and right. Understanding it once in the Predator makes the 8 variations of every fundamental readable — and it explains the rule of transitions: if you enter open you exit open, if you enter closed you exit closed.

How to feel it

Standing in your base position, bring the shoulders forward together with the hips: that's open — a feeling of freedom, zero torsion. Now keep the feet still and rotate only the torso: that's closed — the feeling of a loaded spring in the trunk. In motion, the closed version stores elastic energy that transitions later release.

Common mistakes

• Defining open/closed by the feet or by the edge: the pair is defined by the shoulders-hips relationship with the starting leg.
• Changing the relationship mid-movement: entering open and exiting closed dismantles the transition.
• Practicing only the open variation: the closed one stores the torsion that connects with most combos.
• Forcing the torsion from the neck: the closed rotation is born in the torso; the gaze only accompanies.

Why it matters

The whole of stage 3 is played at the climax. A transition is not two turns glued together: it is a single continuous movement whose center is this point. Whoever understands the climax stops thinking 'finish one turn and start another' and starts thinking 'pass through the point' — that's where the flow appears.

How to feel it

In the backward gazelle the sensation is unmistakable: the body compresses on reaching the end point and pushes on the way out — a 'boom' that expels you, the sensation of catching the gazelle. If you don't feel that compression-expulsion, you are probably pausing at the climax and splitting the transition in two.

Common mistakes

• Pausing at the climax: the transition splits into two separate turns and the flow dies.
• Changing the edges before or after the point: the exit can't find the arc and the drawing breaks.
• Crossing the climax without transferring the weight: the edges change but the body stays behind, and the exit comes out weak.
• Looking for the climax far from the guide: at the start, place the point where your two practice circles meet — the visual reference trains the timing.

Why it matters

It is the silent ingredient of all three stages. The Predator is a weight game before it is a pose; the turns need the weight committed to the curve for the edges to bite; and transitions without transfer are just edges changing with no body behind them. It is also your alarm system: feeling the weight tells you when you're in danger and lets you correct before falling.

How to feel it

Without skates, in your stance: move the weight forward, to the center, back — find the point where the 'almost falling' sensation appears and correct. That edge is information. When lifting a leg, the right transfer feels gradual: the leg detaches from the ground 'little by little', not all at once. In the backward gazelle, feel how the body compresses on arrival and pushes on the way out.

Common mistakes

• Lifting the leg without having moved the weight: the detachment happens all at once and balance is lost.
• Bringing the torso forward instead of transferring the weight: the trunk compensates for what the weight didn't do.
• Splitting the weight 50/50 and staying there: the base stance lives with a slight preference for the back leg, ready to release the front one.
• Transferring without direction: the weight moves together with the intention of the curve, not as a loose sway.

Why it matters

The tail appears as early as the fakie Predator and becomes the protagonist in the one-foot stage: Trees and Lions depend on it. The difference between a Tree that holds and one that falls is rarely in the support foot — it's in whether the airborne leg works or hangs. In the Lions, the tail demands constant awareness of its position.

How to feel it

Without skates, on one leg: move the free leg sideways and feel how the whole body responds — that's the rudder. On skates, in the Front Open Lion it feels like wanting to place an eagle in the direction you're going, but without lowering the foot: the leg can even stay behind the heel, active, without touching the ground.

Common mistakes

• A passive tail: the leg hangs instead of guiding, and the turn loses its rotation engine.
• Lowering the tail to the ground at the hard moment: the Lion becomes something else; the challenge is accepting the instability and staying up.
• Tensing the tail rigid: it is a rudder of constant micro-adjustments, not a frozen leg.
• Forgetting the tail's position: in the Lions it requires permanent awareness — if you don't know where it is, it isn't working.

Why it matters

It is the difference between turning and drawing. Whoever turns from the legs makes short, stiff movements; whoever drives from the torso draws wide arcs with relaxed legs. In the turns the torso decides the direction; in the transitions it executes the exchange at the climax; in the Lions it produces the impulses the support leg cannot generate alone.

How to feel it

In your base position without skates: rotate the torso and notice how the hips and leg want to follow — don't stop them; that drag is the engine. Rolling, the right sensation is that the shoulders arrive before the feet: you look over the shoulder, the torso drives, and the curve appears beneath you.

Common mistakes

• Turning from the feet with a passive torso: the movement comes out short, stiff and flowless.
• Driving the torso without direction: the trunk's rotation travels with the curve; it is not a dry spin.
• Forgetting the gaze: looking over the shoulder is part of the torso's action — the head doesn't stay behind.
• Swapping the shoulders out of time: in transitions the exchange happens at the midpoint, where the circles meet.

Why it matters

The circle turns abstract instructions into visible references: the diagonal entry, the arc to sustain, the exact point of the transition. Without it, the beginner turns 'by eye' and doesn't know if their curve was a curve. With it, every attempt leaves evidence — you entered well or you didn't, you held the arc or you cut it.

How to feel it

The first sign the circle is working is spatial: you skate the diagonal rhombus around it and suddenly you know where you are without looking at the ground. Later, in the transitions, the point where the two circles meet becomes a magnet: the body learns that there — not before, not after — the exchange happens.

Common mistakes

• Practicing without a reference: turning in open space without knowing whether the arc was wide, tight or crooked.
• A circle that's too small: a short radius forces tight curves you don't control yet; better wide (1 m or more of radius).
• Using it on one side only: the circle exists to practice both sides and all directions.
• Always entering at the same point: the diagonal entry is practiced on the 4 diagonals around the circle.