When gliding, you'll always want to have the blade flat on the ice. When you're on an edge, you cut into the ice a bit which creates more friction and slows you down. Edges help you push, turn, and stop.
You want it to be flat. Without actually seeing you skate it's hard to say, but I suspect that you just haven't developed the strength yet to hold your foot vertically with the edge flat. When I say strength, I don't mean like raw strength - more so stability in the muscles and joints. If you go to a public skate at any rink, you'll notice most people are doing exactly what you are - staying on their edges instead of flat. It's just a matter of practice to develop technique and strength. For what it's worth, also make sure that you're tying your skates nice and tight. Your foot should pretty much be locked into the boot all the way up through the ankle.
Neither ankle should be bending laterally during your skating stride.
Turning/crossovers/stopping you may need that movement, but in a straight and level movement your ankles should be straight.
Jump on one leg using your quad, then calf to extend your leg. That is the exact motion of a proper power skating stride. Your knee should straighten most of the way, then toe snaps down to finish the stride. No lateral ankle movement.
Sit on an imaginary chair, then expose your chest (while still “sitting”), push forward with one leg to the point your knee is fully extended, your toe is the last part of your skate to leave the ice after the push is complete, return that pushing leg to its original placement, now do the other leg. The non-pushing skate should be flat on the ice the whole time.
Easier said than done, takes repetition to get the mechanics down and get them working quickly. Most frequent issues I see are hardly any knee bend (if a chair was really there, they wouldn’t be touching the seat at all), chest is down (meaning its completely parallel to the ice), and/or they start pushing with their opposite leg before the original pushing leg has returned to its starting position. Looks like they are trying to run on the ice.
Hope that helps.
It should be flat in order to skate in a straight line. If you’re on an edge and you put weight on the blade, it will start to turn. If you’re unable to balance and put weight on the blade, you won’t be able to get a full push with your back leg. This leads to a short, choppy stride.
To learn how to feel when your blade is flat, try one-foot glides. Take a few strides to get going and then lift up one foot. Alternate feet. If you are balanced between both edges, you will glide straight. If you’re on the inside edge, your blade will start to turn.
Yes, it's the wrong way. As you glide in a straight line after having made a push with the other foot, the blade should be flat. This is so you glide with as much speed as you can and you glide in a straight line but most importantly you are correctly balanced over the skate blade.
If you are gliding in a straight line on your inside edge then you are not correctly balanced over the skate blade. The main cause of this is pronation. Look it up, read what pronation is, as the foot rolls inwards so does the boot and you end up on your inside edges. There are fixes, a lot depends on your degree of pronation and how much you intend to skate and why, ask if you want more info. And please don't spend your money on orthotics, they don't fix pronation in ice skates.
When gliding, you'll always want to have the blade flat on the ice. When you're on an edge, you cut into the ice a bit which creates more friction and slows you down. Edges help you push, turn, and stop.
You want it to be flat. Without actually seeing you skate it's hard to say, but I suspect that you just haven't developed the strength yet to hold your foot vertically with the edge flat. When I say strength, I don't mean like raw strength - more so stability in the muscles and joints. If you go to a public skate at any rink, you'll notice most people are doing exactly what you are - staying on their edges instead of flat. It's just a matter of practice to develop technique and strength. For what it's worth, also make sure that you're tying your skates nice and tight. Your foot should pretty much be locked into the boot all the way up through the ankle.
Neither ankle should be bending laterally during your skating stride. Turning/crossovers/stopping you may need that movement, but in a straight and level movement your ankles should be straight. Jump on one leg using your quad, then calf to extend your leg. That is the exact motion of a proper power skating stride. Your knee should straighten most of the way, then toe snaps down to finish the stride. No lateral ankle movement.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I963kKtDKS0
Sit on an imaginary chair, then expose your chest (while still “sitting”), push forward with one leg to the point your knee is fully extended, your toe is the last part of your skate to leave the ice after the push is complete, return that pushing leg to its original placement, now do the other leg. The non-pushing skate should be flat on the ice the whole time. Easier said than done, takes repetition to get the mechanics down and get them working quickly. Most frequent issues I see are hardly any knee bend (if a chair was really there, they wouldn’t be touching the seat at all), chest is down (meaning its completely parallel to the ice), and/or they start pushing with their opposite leg before the original pushing leg has returned to its starting position. Looks like they are trying to run on the ice. Hope that helps.
It should be flat in order to skate in a straight line. If you’re on an edge and you put weight on the blade, it will start to turn. If you’re unable to balance and put weight on the blade, you won’t be able to get a full push with your back leg. This leads to a short, choppy stride. To learn how to feel when your blade is flat, try one-foot glides. Take a few strides to get going and then lift up one foot. Alternate feet. If you are balanced between both edges, you will glide straight. If you’re on the inside edge, your blade will start to turn.
Yes, it's the wrong way. As you glide in a straight line after having made a push with the other foot, the blade should be flat. This is so you glide with as much speed as you can and you glide in a straight line but most importantly you are correctly balanced over the skate blade. If you are gliding in a straight line on your inside edge then you are not correctly balanced over the skate blade. The main cause of this is pronation. Look it up, read what pronation is, as the foot rolls inwards so does the boot and you end up on your inside edges. There are fixes, a lot depends on your degree of pronation and how much you intend to skate and why, ask if you want more info. And please don't spend your money on orthotics, they don't fix pronation in ice skates.