Here I will write about how to warm up. This is based on decades of experience in ballet, how we practice meticulously every day, how we warm up before performances to avoid injury, and also how I warm up skating.
First off, I would not think of a “warm up,” but rather of an entire session as a series of exercises, each with a specific purpose, to be done in sequence. Warming up isn’t just about getting our muscles warm (which we can do by running to the rink); but rather about getting our bodies working in specific ways that we need them to work, in order to skate.
Before I get on the ice, I would work on the basics of plie (“bend”) and tendu (“stretch”). This post is WAYYY too short to explain how these things work, but that info is available in any ballet class. And I would do it in BALLET SLIPPERS, socks or bare feet on a hard surface, nothing squishy like rugs or sneakers, they just make it harder to balance. In plie we work through our entire knee-bending range of motion while maintaining verticality of the spine, which is of course important for anything on ice. And in tendu we work on stretching the leg out and pointing our toes in front / behind us. However good your plie and tendu are when you’re focusing just on them… that’s the best plie and tendu you will do all day. They won’t get any better if you put your feet in skates and are thinking about other things. As part of the standard plie exercies, we also get stretches of our hamstrings, side and arms, and we “wake up” our port de bras.
I would work on chassee front and back, because that is similar to stroking. Also practicing stepping forward and back. The third way to move in ballet — pique — is not needed for skating.
If I think I even MIGHT jump, I would pay extra attention to warming up my feet so they don’t cramp on landings. That means stretching my pointe, ankle circles, point-and-flex exercises. Then releve, and tiny jumps (be super careful if on concrete floor) going through the full point and flex of the foot. I would work on “tendu back” exercises with flexed foot as well, to train to not toe-pick my pushes. Also try some fouette hops (“flying 3 turns”).
I would practice my arabesque, going through tendu back, then arabesque requriing a curve in the lower back, and then tilting forward into penchee arabesque. This is how we get beautiful spirals on the ice.
Then I would work on relaxing and rolling through the spine, down-and-up, like in modern dance warmup. And begin working on twisting the spine in different locations: isolate twisting movement of the rib cage, and the mid-section (pelvis) separately. Both are essential for almost anything skating.
Then I would start putting my body in positions required specifically for skating, making little dances with them. These positions, developed practicing figures, are inherently balanced without turning out the standing leg, and quite different from anything in ballet. I would practice tendu combinations with epaulement, and then exaggerate the epaulement to get how we do it in skating (to get everything squished down on our circle).
I would do a little bit of grande battement just to make sure everything is loosened up nicely and working well, front side and back. Do NOT try this with ice skates on…
And then some stretches, including heel stretches. And if there’s a barre available, do stretches at the barre. If not, you can do those on the ice, at the boards (or in the middle of practice if your hamstrings are getting tight). Just remember… you have to do stretches at the barre CORRECTLY, with your hips DOWN. If you lift your hip and turn in your free leg to get it up on the boards (as I see most skaters doing), that won’t do for you what you need. Get a barre low enough for YOUR body so you can do side stretches correctly.
Yea that’s my ideal warm-up before getting on the ice. After getting on… I work on small motions in my ankles, using them to do power pull change of edges on one foot, forwards and backwards, turning each foot as much as possible through 180 degrees. This gets the ankles activated and working to be strong, stable and supple all at once, and to suppport great skating skills. Maybe stroke around the ice then as well.
Then I work on my 8 edges. Every day. I spent many months working on just that. If I spend an hour improving FO8, FI8, BO8, BI8 then that’s an hour well spent, sorry no time for anything else today. The 8 edges are the foundation for ALL figure skating; and however they are when you’re focuing just on that, they won’t get any better when you’re thinking of other stuff. These are the best edges you will see all day.
Then I practice other stuff, whatever I’m working on.
If I’m going to jump, I need to be doing more in-the-field stuff beforehand. Crossovers, gliding faster on clean back edges, high-speed three-turns. If those are all working nicely, I can try some jumps. Practice the prerequisites for the jump before trying the jump itself. If the jump doesn’t work, figure out why, fix it in the prerequisites, and then try the jump later.
In ballet class we only do jumps in the last 10 minutes of a 90-minute session. That is practicing smart. Practicing dumb is doing a cursory warm-up and then jumping for 50 out of 60 minutes. Jumping is exhausting, and exhaustion leads to injury. And an exhausted body is untrainable. At the end of the day… either jumps work today or they do not. If they don’t work, we can try a bit to fix them, but mostly we need to fix the prerequisites and try again another day.