Pop Pop!

So, my flip jumps just disappeared today! I tried to cram and get them back during the practice before my lesson but it just didn't happen in time. Basically, they didn't disappear so much as they became unrecognizable as flip jumps. What the hell.

When my lesson started, Christopher asked me what I was working on and I confessed that my flip jumps were gone. So, we began with a review of the backspin position for jumps. I'm still having a difficult time crossing my free leg over in my backspin so we worked a bit on that and then moved on to loop jumps. Once all of that review was done, we moved on to actual flip jumps. He reiterated that the flip jump is very much like a loop jump. My brain understands how but my body just doesn't get the connection. My body keeps wanting to force the rotation leading to more rotation than I need resulting in overall panic during the jump. He broke it down for me and had me do just the pick in and draw but instead of the jump, just pop up with my free leg in an "h" position. Once that was performed a few times, he had me do the pop up exercise again but this time tag an actual flip jump on to it right after. So, more of a "pop-pop" with the second pop being the actual jump. This somehow triggered things in my brain/body connection and I was able to do some okay-ish flip jumps later in my practice. Also, remembering to keep my left arm in front helps me to not over-rotate.

We worked a bit on the toe loop-loop combo as well. Mostly working on the timing of the second jump in the combo and getting my free leg to land in front after the toe loop. I'm landing the combo okay enough but I still need to work on getting the technique better so it looks more deliberate. Again, keeping that left arm in front helps a lot.

Overall, it was kind of a rough lesson. It's like he needs to explain something to me 30 different ways in order for it to click. I really wish adult skater brains worked like the brains of some of our younger skaters. All they need is for a coach to explain something to them once and maybe demonstrate it and then they are off doing the thing. I feel like once you reach a certain age your brain just doesn't talk to your body anymore. That connection is just broken and it takes an extreme effort to learn a skill and actually have it translate into motion. #AdultSkaterProblems

And because I can't resist including a Community reference: