Eight-Step Mohawk Sequence

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The eight-step mohawk sequence is a required pattern on both the adult silver moves and juvenile moves. I first learned an older, easier version of it for my adult silver moves, which I passed in 2010. You skated the mohawk sequence three times on a circle, stopped, then skated it three times on a circle going the other direction.

Now the adult silver and juvenile moves tests use a revised version of the eight step mohawk sequence that’s skated on a figure eight, so the skater has to transition between two circles. I’m currently working on juvenile moves. Juvenile is one level harder than adult silver, so I have to learn the new version of the mohawk sequence at a higher skill level.

The hardest step of this move is step four, the outside mohawk. Here’s a video of what an outside mohawk looks like:

It’s taken me a long time to get more comfortable with this step. My new, shorter blades are helping by taking away the possibility of tripping myself during the mohawk. Ty gave me a simple exercise which really helped me get the correct body position. Holding the boards of the arena and facing them in a good skating posture, press your hips forward as if you are trying to get your pelvis to touch the boards.

I think of the resulting posture for the mohawk as a ‘snowboarding’ posture. Your back is to the circle, your head looks along the circle, and you lean slightly backward due to your hips pushing forward. It’s not hard physically, but psychologically, it is. Leaning backward feels unsafe. It feels a lot easier when you’re doing a scary mohawk to push your hips backward and sink into a protective crouch. But that’s the opposite of what you need to do.

Kim has other hints for me about this move. On step five she wants me to scissor my arms and turn my head fully into the circle. On that step I tend to bring my arms around in a circular motion and only begin to turn my head. As of the end of step five, she says, I should already be looking for where I’m going to step forward on the circle on step eight.

On the video you can see that on steps five and six I push my leg to the side and turn out my foot. The resulting position forces the next step to be incorrect, a crossover instead of the required cross in front. I need to push my feet straight as if aiming progressives toward a dance partner. After step seven, the cross in front, I need to bring my feet close together and bend so I can step forward onto a good inside edge.

There are a lot of details to work on, and as Ty says, “Skating is all details.” Just like writing!