A major stroking drill on the MITF tape is the push at 90 degrees to the glide skate. I'm finding that in order to do the dance moves in balance and in time with the count, I have to focus on getting that 90 degree push position with my skates close together on every single change of edge and especially in the progressives, and pushes out of a chasse. All the dance "steps" require that the skates be placed at or beside each other before each step. That means you will not tend to build momentum any other way than from the pushing blade. And you cannot stay leaned into an edge. You have to recover from every push and come back over the closed-together skates. Now, when I'm just "freestyling" around, I don't need powerful pushes at all. I can just do a lot of about anything to come up to speed, and then throw my body weight into the edge, and skate around cleanly. No big deal. But if I want to fit a dance to a big pattern, and do each stroke at the proper place on the ice, I need the power of the 90 degree push from the closed skate position. Try just doing a series of cross rolls down the ice .. properly with the skates closing after each cross roll. That will immediately show you the power in the 90 degree push. You just don't need that in regular stroking down the ice. It is easier to just drop your body weight into the stroke and let it build with more pushes at a much lower angle to the line of the glide.
