ISI delta: shoot the duck or lunge?

[jjane45]

ISI delta test offers a choice between shoot the duck and lunge. I am pretty sure lunge is the more popular choice, but is it winning by a landslide? Are there skaters who do both for the fun? Anyone finding lunge relatively more difficult? Stories? Comments? I am especially interested in the coach's perspective

I admit I did the duck for my class test. Gotta show it off after finally getting it with so many splats

[Skittl1321]

I did a lunge.  Still can't do a shoot the duck.

[jjane45]

I did a lunge.  Still can't do a shoot the duck.

What do you generally observe in classes?

[Skittl1321]

We don't use ISI anymore, so I only saw my own class.  2 adults 2 kids, everyone did lunge.

Playing at the rink though, kids seem to like doing shoot the ducks.

[sarahspins]

Lunge here as well.. I wasn't able to do a shoot the duck until much later after I'd built up those muscles doing sit spins. 

I can't however, still do it 

[jjane45]

My general observation: on delta, overwhelmingly lunge.

I remember some group coaches conclude group warm ups with a lap of shoot the duck around the rink. On lower FS I think about 1/3 of the kids can rise from the duck position. On FS4 where the sit spin is, about 1/2. On FS5/6 majority of the skaters are fine.

At my previous rink, hockey skaters on public session have amazing ducks.

[VAsk8r]

I never had to take any ISI classes because even though our rink used the ISI program, the adult classes were just "beginner" and "intermediate" and you stayed in intermediate forever unless you got a private coach. I could do both but would certainly have preferred the lunge.

I do know an adult skater who prefers shoot the duck due to knee issues. I don't know what her knee issues are exactly, but she can do sit spins so maybe the work on those has made shoot the duck possible.

[sarahspins]

Well I can say that you won't catch me doing lunges either.. I'd rather do a not so low shoot the duck.  Lunges put a lot of lateral pressure on the knee which can really be really painful depending on your existing knee issue.  The OA I have in my right knee is in the lateral side and I don't like anything that puts a lot of pressure on that "side" of my knee.. even simple things like stepping from backwards to forwards can bother it more than anything else I do does.

[JSM]

I could not and still can not do a shoot the duck, and I've skated for over a decade.  My sit spin isn't great either, I just can't bend that way.  My doc says I'd need long physical therapy to get into that position :/

Thankfully, no one seems to need them for competitions!   

I don't see too many young skaters do them, save on on odd public session where they just have fun with them.

[Bunny Hop]

Way back in the dark ages when I did Learn to Skate the Australian system was based on the ISI system, and also called Pre-Alpha through Delta (my Delta patch even has the USA on it instead of Australia! ). For any of my countrymen wondering, this was before Aussie Skate started - I remember when it came in. Anyway, I therefore feel qualified to comment on this.

I did a lunge. I don't think they even bothered to try and teach us shoot the duck, so everyone just did a lunge when they tested us. I doubt I would have been able to do a shoot the duck then, and I'd definitely be incapable of it now (even if I could get down into that position, I'd never be able to get up again!).

Trivia: In the UK a lunge is called a drag, and shoot the duck is a teapot.

[turnip]

I'm jealous of the choice! In the UK, you have to do a drag (lunge) on grade 8 (of 10) of skate uk (which also includes mohawks, bw crossovers to a glide on a BO edge and a two foot change of edge of a large curve). Teapot (shoot the duck) is on silver (star levels, after grade 10) free skating with salchow, one foot spin and backward spiral. Mine is terrible, my coach made me work on it for a few weeks and then let me pass.

On the other hand, when i'm in club and we do spiral/teapot or teapot/spiral, loads of the kids fall on the teapot part cause they get low and can't get up. I don't get low enough to fall out of it, so i can get up into the spiral fine lol!

[jjane45]

On the other hand, when i'm in club and we do spiral/teapot or teapot/spiral, loads of the kids fall on the teapot part cause they get low and can't get up. I don't get low enough to fall out of it, so i can get up into the spiral fine lol!

Both of my hardest falls on the hip bone came from this! Luckily I was skating with hip pads for the first time too. It was in power class and the instructor made us do duck-spiral-duck-spiral diagonally down the rink on a single push, then alternate foot!!

Needless to say, it was a huge splat fest!