One of the first lessons a new skater should learn when beginning contact work is the importance of dominant foot placement, i.e. 'steering' an opposing player. This is a core blocking technique, and being low impact is ideal as a starting place for rookie skaters to begin working contact

The dominant foot is the one in front - a blocker can steer another player by placing their foot in front of that player and using body wait to move them around the track.

In this introduction to contact skating, skaters will work in pairs to steer each other off the track.

As a side lessons, students should also be taught at this early stage how to re-enter the track legally i.e. behind the skater that knocked them off.

An important aspect of this is to get skaters used to using their weight, and occupying the space - ensure they are committing to the block.

When students are first learning contact, they will often be a little shy and 'polite', and this can lead to a lack of commitment in the exercise.

As a coach you want to look for the body weight being engaged. At this stage, skaters should not fight for dominance, but neither should they yield it without making the learner work for it.

An important lesson at this stage is a feeling for 'body weight' - that is the feeling of moving someone else's bodweight around. Students will need to commit to the task to get that feeling down.