Today just sucked. It zapped the life out of me and killed my motivation. It started with a crowded public session for a warm up. I was unable to do anything and spent most of the time chatting with my classmate. Then the lesson....One of the worst lessons I have ever had. My coach told me at least two different times that what I was doing was "terrible" or "just horrible"! He said my sit spin was "all show and no go" whatever that was supposed to mean. Keep in mind I have just recently started working on the sit spin. It is a new skill for me and while it could be lower, I at least have the feel for it and get the rotations. But this is only the second time in lesson we worked on it and for him to say it was "terrible" made me feel so bad! Tell me what I need to fix, work with me on it some more but DO NOT tell me it was terrible. I know it's terrible compared to what it should be but I JUST LEARNED IT! Anyway, he gave me this torturous exercise that is supposed to help my sit spin. It's a spiral/shoot the duck/spiral (OMG WTF!). It is when I attempted this that he said "That was just horrible, no wonder your sit spins look the way they do". I wanted to just die. This is supposed to be fun. I'm doing this for my own enjoyment and he just sucked all the fun out of this lesson today :(
Oh, and I did a whole bunch of loops today (fully rotated). Despite the things my coach said to me today, I was proud of myself for landing this jump. It still needs more height but I'm doing it. Not too many adult skaters would be as daring as to try it away from the boards after only one lesson. And I didn't fall once doing them either :P
I have a few more group lessons with him and then I am going coach hunting.
My reward for believing that I rock even though my coach repeatedly told me that I suck....a "New Creation" Smoothie from JJJ :)
Friday, November 17, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Freeskate 4 - Lesson #2
New Session. New coach. I was off the ice for about two weeks so I was a little afraid to see how deteriorated my skills have become. Surprisingly, I got on the ice and nothing had left me! In fact, my BO and BI three turns were better! I should take vacation more often!
Anyway, the coach for this session is Scott. It's too early to determine if I really like his coaching style yet but he seems OK. I just hated that now there is four students in the freestyle class and we are each at different levels so he has to divide his instruction amongst the four of us. That bummed me out a bit. So, here is what we worked on today:
Salchow: Scott wanted us to warm up the salchow because we were going to work on the loop jump later in the lesson. He said that I need to hold the LBI edge longer just prior to takeoff and that I need more "ommph" with my right arm and freeleg going into the jump. All things I have heard before. I don't know why I haven't corrected them by now.
Spiral Sequence: In Freeskate 4, the spiral sequence is a FI spiral/mohawk/BO spiral. He commented on my flexibility (YAY!) but warned me to be careful not to bend the skating knee on the BO spiral. I usually don't but I had to today....it was the only way I could do a BO spiral and look in back of me to see where I was going so that I don't kill anyone. It's not so easy to do this in a small space and I was worried that I would behead my classmates :(
Sit Spin: I warmed these up in the public session before the lesson. The last time I really spent time on these was a year ago with Coach P. I feel as though I need to get lower than I am. It's hard to tell when I can't see myself doing the spin. Anyway, he showed me some exercises I can do on and off the ice to improve my sit spin. His only correction on my spin was that I need to keep my left arm out in front of me and keep it there as I enter the spin. The right arm and leg should whip around in front together to give me more momentum.
Loop Jump: We started this by looking at the backspin first to get familiar with the air position for the loop. He said that for the loop jump, I should tweek my right hip and right arm more than I would for a backspin. I guess this is what gives the jump it's strength and lift. I practiced just the entry from a RFI three turn and then instead of the jump I did a backspin. We moved over to the boards and we worked on getting the feeling of taking off and landing on the same foot. Towards the end of the session, I was brave/insane enough to try one away from the boards for the first time. While it didn't feel fully rotated, I at least landed it and got over the fear of doing a new jump out on open ice. I need to practice these a ton and somehow figure out how a waltz/loop combo works.
I didn't reward myself today :(
Anyway, the coach for this session is Scott. It's too early to determine if I really like his coaching style yet but he seems OK. I just hated that now there is four students in the freestyle class and we are each at different levels so he has to divide his instruction amongst the four of us. That bummed me out a bit. So, here is what we worked on today:
Salchow: Scott wanted us to warm up the salchow because we were going to work on the loop jump later in the lesson. He said that I need to hold the LBI edge longer just prior to takeoff and that I need more "ommph" with my right arm and freeleg going into the jump. All things I have heard before. I don't know why I haven't corrected them by now.
Spiral Sequence: In Freeskate 4, the spiral sequence is a FI spiral/mohawk/BO spiral. He commented on my flexibility (YAY!) but warned me to be careful not to bend the skating knee on the BO spiral. I usually don't but I had to today....it was the only way I could do a BO spiral and look in back of me to see where I was going so that I don't kill anyone. It's not so easy to do this in a small space and I was worried that I would behead my classmates :(
Sit Spin: I warmed these up in the public session before the lesson. The last time I really spent time on these was a year ago with Coach P. I feel as though I need to get lower than I am. It's hard to tell when I can't see myself doing the spin. Anyway, he showed me some exercises I can do on and off the ice to improve my sit spin. His only correction on my spin was that I need to keep my left arm out in front of me and keep it there as I enter the spin. The right arm and leg should whip around in front together to give me more momentum.
Loop Jump: We started this by looking at the backspin first to get familiar with the air position for the loop. He said that for the loop jump, I should tweek my right hip and right arm more than I would for a backspin. I guess this is what gives the jump it's strength and lift. I practiced just the entry from a RFI three turn and then instead of the jump I did a backspin. We moved over to the boards and we worked on getting the feeling of taking off and landing on the same foot. Towards the end of the session, I was brave/insane enough to try one away from the boards for the first time. While it didn't feel fully rotated, I at least landed it and got over the fear of doing a new jump out on open ice. I need to practice these a ton and somehow figure out how a waltz/loop combo works.
I didn't reward myself today :(
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)