Dustin said he wanted to try this whole ice skating thing so he came with me to my practice session on the public skate at the Sport Stable. He was super nervous as he has never been ice skating before in his life. I promised him I would support him (physically and motivationally) the best I could. We got him laced up into his rental skates and on the ice we went. He made it once around the rink clutching the walls when he told me he had enough. He felt defeated and wanted to give up but, after a bit of a rest, he got back on the ice like a champ and conquered his fears! In total, I think he made it around the rink 6 times and each time he got better. I showed him how to push off with his foot and do a two-foot glide. At one point he even broke away from the wall to get around a group of people who were just hanging out and made it around them successfully without holding on to me! He had a couple of spills but overall I think he did really well. I'm super proud of him!!! While he's not ready to sign up for lessons or anything, he at least wants to try it again sometime in the future so I'm guessing he didn't totally hate it.
After Dustin was done and took his skates off, I had some time left to work on some homework. I did a couple of really nice scratch spins but my backspins, of course, were just a mess. I tried approaching them by going into a FI 3-turn with a nice knee bend and I was able to get one revolution in the crossed-leg position. This is one of those things that will take some time. A lot of time!
Salchows were jumpier but still sloppy. I think I may be hesitating and spending too much time on that BI edge just before the jump. I think it should just be one fluid movement but when I do it that way, it feels out of control. This is something that I'll bring up in my next lesson with Christopher.
Toe loops are easier to do in a combination for some reason. When I do a waltz jump/toe loop combo it feels more comfortable than when I approach the toe loop on its own. Maybe my problem is more psychological. When I go into this jump on its own, I am thinking too much ("omg here we go don't mess it up don't fall!!!!") whereas when I do it in combination with another jump it just happens. Again, this is something I can bring up in my next lesson.
I feel like I'm getting a pretty good workout when I'm out there doing jump after jump. Neat!
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Saturday, April 8, 2017
Freestyle Jumps Lesson #1
I have been super nervous for this lesson for the past two weeks. The main reason being is I'm not sure how bad my jumps really are because, with the exception of my waltz jump, I haven't done any jumping for the past 10 years. I showed up nice and early for the lesson so I could calm my nerves. I got my skates laced up and waited to see who my coach was. As I have learned from my Freeskate 4 experience years ago, a bad coach can really kill your spirit and motivation. For the next six weeks, I have Christopher as my coach. He introduced himself and told me a bit about his background (which is heavy in ballet so, yay, I'll maybe look a little bit more graceful when this is done!). Even though I told him I'm a returning adult skater who hasn't really done much these past few years, he had me start with....
The dreaded backspin! If you look through my journal entries from years ago, you will see that the backspin was my nemesis. I understand why he had me start with this: it is necessary to get the proper in-flight position for a jump. However, it's really difficult for me for some reason. The best way I can describe the goofy feeling of a backspin is that it's like being right-handed and after learning how to write well, your teacher asks you to now write with your left hand! Sure, you might be able to write out some letters, but they sure as hell won't be pretty! To me, this is the backspin. I can spin just fine on my left leg, but ask me to spin on my right leg and I can barely eek out a singe revolution. I promised him I would spend some time working on my backspin for my next lesson. Once I have that down pat, I'm sure he's going to have me start on the loop jump.
So we moved on to some other prep exercises. He had me do a two-foot half rotation from a standstill. I actually over jumped this and did a full rotation (oops). Once he saw that I could rotate in the air, we worked on toe-loops and salchows. Salchows were just ok. They could use some more height but I'm landing them. The toe-loops were a hot mess! I'm actually doing a toe-waltz so he had me do some exercises at the boards to get the feeling for where my picking foot should be and how my freeleg should cross in front. I'm cheating the jump by rotating on my toepick. This needs to stop.
Finally, we ended on a high note and he had me do some waltz jumps for him. These are pretty good actually and he commended me on having the proper arms for the take off. He said this will prepare me well for the axel (gulp!). He fixed some things on my landing like my head position but overall, they are passable.
Lots of homework for my next lesson so I will practice on Sunday and again Tuesday morning. The one really positive aspect of this jumps class is that I am the only student enrolled in it. So I'm getting a private lesson for the whole 30 minutes. :)
The dreaded backspin! If you look through my journal entries from years ago, you will see that the backspin was my nemesis. I understand why he had me start with this: it is necessary to get the proper in-flight position for a jump. However, it's really difficult for me for some reason. The best way I can describe the goofy feeling of a backspin is that it's like being right-handed and after learning how to write well, your teacher asks you to now write with your left hand! Sure, you might be able to write out some letters, but they sure as hell won't be pretty! To me, this is the backspin. I can spin just fine on my left leg, but ask me to spin on my right leg and I can barely eek out a singe revolution. I promised him I would spend some time working on my backspin for my next lesson. Once I have that down pat, I'm sure he's going to have me start on the loop jump.
So we moved on to some other prep exercises. He had me do a two-foot half rotation from a standstill. I actually over jumped this and did a full rotation (oops). Once he saw that I could rotate in the air, we worked on toe-loops and salchows. Salchows were just ok. They could use some more height but I'm landing them. The toe-loops were a hot mess! I'm actually doing a toe-waltz so he had me do some exercises at the boards to get the feeling for where my picking foot should be and how my freeleg should cross in front. I'm cheating the jump by rotating on my toepick. This needs to stop.
Finally, we ended on a high note and he had me do some waltz jumps for him. These are pretty good actually and he commended me on having the proper arms for the take off. He said this will prepare me well for the axel (gulp!). He fixed some things on my landing like my head position but overall, they are passable.
Lots of homework for my next lesson so I will practice on Sunday and again Tuesday morning. The one really positive aspect of this jumps class is that I am the only student enrolled in it. So I'm getting a private lesson for the whole 30 minutes. :)
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Why am I doing this?
"Why figure skating?" and "Aren't you too old?" are two questions most adult figure skaters hear on a regular basis. When most people think about figure skating, they have visions of teens and early twenty-somethings skating competitively at Nationals and at the Olympics. They very rarely picture a middle-aged adult wearing skating skirts (or pants) and learning jumps and spins. So, what is adult figure skating and why would anyone want to do this when there is no chance of making it to the Olympics?
For me, I have very fond memories of skating as a child. About once a month, my childhood bestie and I would go to the ice rink and skate around to 90s music and flirt with boys. While I wasn't doing anything fancier than skating the perimeter without holding on to the walls, I thought I looked pretty good out there. But I always admired the figure skaters who dominated the center of the rink (to me, the "center of the rink" was sacred space that you just didn't enter unless you had white skates and could spin and jump). I wanted to be one of them!!!
I never got to take lessons as a kid. We just didn't have the money and time for that sort of thing. Besides, I was already in private music lessons and my goal was to get a music scholarship to college (which I did!). As an adult, I never really considered skating lessons. I didn't think that was a thing. One fateful day in 2004, when I was living in Texas and walking around the Houston Galleria Mall, I stumbled upon their ice rink and saw some adults skating around. I now know that what I saw then was a "coffee club" session reserved exclusively for adults. I was blown away! They looked like they were having so much fun and some of them were pretty darn good! I went online and signed myself up for lessons right away! I mean, what? You can skate and drink coffee?! Count me in!
I enrolled in an adults only class and before I knew it, I was spinning, jumping, and looking darn good on the ice. I loved that my rink was in a mall. I didn't mind an audience and I hoped that I could inspire an adult to pick up the sport just as I was inspired to sign up for lessons. Within months, I outgrew the adult lessons. I got a private coach, switched rinks, and started preparing to test! My progress was slowed when I got a new job in Colorado and had to move. Being new to Colorado, I enrolled in group lessons while I researched coaches. Since I was too advanced for the adult classes, I enrolled with the kids (awkward!) in the Freeskate 1-6 track but only made it to Freeskate 4 before I quit to focus on school.
I'm back now with a new eagerness to learn, test, and maybe even compete. Yes, adults can do all of the same things in figure skating as the kiddos do! While we will never go to the Olympics, we can still test our way through the adult or standard track tests, we can still compete at the national or international levels, and best of all, we can INSPIRE! Adult figure skaters are not doing this for the glory, we are doing this because it's FUN! We aren't doing this to fulfill our parents' unrealized dreams, we are doing this for ourselves! Instead of the pressure put on most younger figure skaters to land their axel by a certain age or they are considered a failure, adults consider the smallest advancements as success and will celebrate even the tiniest of victories!
Plus, I'm not going to lie, the skating skirts and tights make me feel pretty fancy :)
For me, I have very fond memories of skating as a child. About once a month, my childhood bestie and I would go to the ice rink and skate around to 90s music and flirt with boys. While I wasn't doing anything fancier than skating the perimeter without holding on to the walls, I thought I looked pretty good out there. But I always admired the figure skaters who dominated the center of the rink (to me, the "center of the rink" was sacred space that you just didn't enter unless you had white skates and could spin and jump). I wanted to be one of them!!!
I never got to take lessons as a kid. We just didn't have the money and time for that sort of thing. Besides, I was already in private music lessons and my goal was to get a music scholarship to college (which I did!). As an adult, I never really considered skating lessons. I didn't think that was a thing. One fateful day in 2004, when I was living in Texas and walking around the Houston Galleria Mall, I stumbled upon their ice rink and saw some adults skating around. I now know that what I saw then was a "coffee club" session reserved exclusively for adults. I was blown away! They looked like they were having so much fun and some of them were pretty darn good! I went online and signed myself up for lessons right away! I mean, what? You can skate and drink coffee?! Count me in!
I enrolled in an adults only class and before I knew it, I was spinning, jumping, and looking darn good on the ice. I loved that my rink was in a mall. I didn't mind an audience and I hoped that I could inspire an adult to pick up the sport just as I was inspired to sign up for lessons. Within months, I outgrew the adult lessons. I got a private coach, switched rinks, and started preparing to test! My progress was slowed when I got a new job in Colorado and had to move. Being new to Colorado, I enrolled in group lessons while I researched coaches. Since I was too advanced for the adult classes, I enrolled with the kids (awkward!) in the Freeskate 1-6 track but only made it to Freeskate 4 before I quit to focus on school.
I'm back now with a new eagerness to learn, test, and maybe even compete. Yes, adults can do all of the same things in figure skating as the kiddos do! While we will never go to the Olympics, we can still test our way through the adult or standard track tests, we can still compete at the national or international levels, and best of all, we can INSPIRE! Adult figure skaters are not doing this for the glory, we are doing this because it's FUN! We aren't doing this to fulfill our parents' unrealized dreams, we are doing this for ourselves! Instead of the pressure put on most younger figure skaters to land their axel by a certain age or they are considered a failure, adults consider the smallest advancements as success and will celebrate even the tiniest of victories!
Plus, I'm not going to lie, the skating skirts and tights make me feel pretty fancy :)
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Snow and Skate....at 6:00am!!!!
Ok, those who know me well, know that I am not a morning person. Like, at all! But I needed to practice and now that I have a big girl 9-5 job, it's difficult to make it to the daytime and evening sessions. My only options are weekend public skates and early morning freestyles. I got dressed, brushed the snow off my car, and made the slow and slippery drive to the Sport Stable.
It was actually pretty nice! $12.00 gets me an hour and a half of ice which I shared with one other figure skater. There was no music so it was nice and quiet and I was able to concentrate on my moves. That was the theme for today's practice, by the way - moves. Since I'm taking the jumps class, I won't have instruction on MITF and edges so it is up to me to fill in those gaps. My goal is to take either the Pre-Preliminary test or the Adult Pre-Bronze test by the end of the year. I haven't decided which one yet so I'm working on both (they are pretty much the same anyway). Here's how practice went today:
Forward Perimeter Stroking - These were my warm up and I only did them CCW because, by the time I was ready to switch, the other skater made her way to the ice and she was also doing laps for a warm up. I didn't want to go against her flow. Now I know for the future to start with CW stroking. The stroking was fine. I felt like I was getting pretty good extension but I feel like I'm not getting enough crossovers at the end of the rink. Right now, I'm doing two forward crossovers but I think I remember reading somewhere that there should be 3-5. I could do smaller, less powerful crossovers to get more in but wouldn't that defeat the point? I thought this move was about power and extension.
Forward and Backward Crossovers - These feel pretty comfortable but I'm having some problems with the transition into the backwards crossovers in the figure eight pattern. I know I'm supposed to do a swing roll with a change of edge into an open mohawk but I'm not really sure where to place it. I'm sure I will eventually get into a groove with this. The good news is that the crossovers are nice. The transition will be easy to add in once I space things out properly.
Waltz Eight - Yaaaayyy, I remember the pattern! It felt swingy and nice but I wasn't coming back to the mid-point to start the other side like I'm supposed to. I kept missing it. So, in essence, I am completing the figure eight pattern but it was lopsided. I'm also not holding that RBI edge long enough coming out of the first 3-turn. Since my goal with this today was just to see if I remembered it, I didn't spend too much time on it. Instead, I thought my time would be better spent working on those edges, especially the BI ones!
Basic Consecutive Edges - My FO and FI edges are just fine. I worked on them on Sunday and today they felt pretty solid. In fact, I don't know, they may even be testable? So I spent a good chunk of time on the backwards edges. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, out of the hour and half that I was at the Stable this morning, an entire hour was dedicated to backward edges. They were pretty awful since I haven't done them in 10 years. The BO edges came together eventually but I am really weak on the first push. They pick up strength as I go down the line but I'm not sure how to get the initial push to be more deliberate. This is why I need a coach! The BI edges were gone completely. I think I stood there for a while just trying to think about what my arms should be doing. Finally, I had the idea of doing another set of BO edges and paying more attention to my arms. Theoretically, it should be the same arm movement for the BI edges. They are! The arm on the free leg side follows the same movement as the free leg. Once I figured this out, I just had to clean them up a bit and they were good. I have the same problem as I do with the BO edges in that I have a weak initial push. Damn.
What I didn't work on today - Spirals. I'm just kind of scared to attempt them if I know I haven't been stretching. I have visions of catching a toe pick and doing a face plant. I need my face, it's my money maker ;)
It was actually pretty nice! $12.00 gets me an hour and a half of ice which I shared with one other figure skater. There was no music so it was nice and quiet and I was able to concentrate on my moves. That was the theme for today's practice, by the way - moves. Since I'm taking the jumps class, I won't have instruction on MITF and edges so it is up to me to fill in those gaps. My goal is to take either the Pre-Preliminary test or the Adult Pre-Bronze test by the end of the year. I haven't decided which one yet so I'm working on both (they are pretty much the same anyway). Here's how practice went today:
Forward Perimeter Stroking - These were my warm up and I only did them CCW because, by the time I was ready to switch, the other skater made her way to the ice and she was also doing laps for a warm up. I didn't want to go against her flow. Now I know for the future to start with CW stroking. The stroking was fine. I felt like I was getting pretty good extension but I feel like I'm not getting enough crossovers at the end of the rink. Right now, I'm doing two forward crossovers but I think I remember reading somewhere that there should be 3-5. I could do smaller, less powerful crossovers to get more in but wouldn't that defeat the point? I thought this move was about power and extension.
Forward and Backward Crossovers - These feel pretty comfortable but I'm having some problems with the transition into the backwards crossovers in the figure eight pattern. I know I'm supposed to do a swing roll with a change of edge into an open mohawk but I'm not really sure where to place it. I'm sure I will eventually get into a groove with this. The good news is that the crossovers are nice. The transition will be easy to add in once I space things out properly.
Waltz Eight - Yaaaayyy, I remember the pattern! It felt swingy and nice but I wasn't coming back to the mid-point to start the other side like I'm supposed to. I kept missing it. So, in essence, I am completing the figure eight pattern but it was lopsided. I'm also not holding that RBI edge long enough coming out of the first 3-turn. Since my goal with this today was just to see if I remembered it, I didn't spend too much time on it. Instead, I thought my time would be better spent working on those edges, especially the BI ones!
Basic Consecutive Edges - My FO and FI edges are just fine. I worked on them on Sunday and today they felt pretty solid. In fact, I don't know, they may even be testable? So I spent a good chunk of time on the backwards edges. I'm not exaggerating when I say that, out of the hour and half that I was at the Stable this morning, an entire hour was dedicated to backward edges. They were pretty awful since I haven't done them in 10 years. The BO edges came together eventually but I am really weak on the first push. They pick up strength as I go down the line but I'm not sure how to get the initial push to be more deliberate. This is why I need a coach! The BI edges were gone completely. I think I stood there for a while just trying to think about what my arms should be doing. Finally, I had the idea of doing another set of BO edges and paying more attention to my arms. Theoretically, it should be the same arm movement for the BI edges. They are! The arm on the free leg side follows the same movement as the free leg. Once I figured this out, I just had to clean them up a bit and they were good. I have the same problem as I do with the BO edges in that I have a weak initial push. Damn.
What I didn't work on today - Spirals. I'm just kind of scared to attempt them if I know I haven't been stretching. I have visions of catching a toe pick and doing a face plant. I need my face, it's my money maker ;)
Monday, April 3, 2017
Fast forward 10 years later!!!
So yeah, it's been over ten years since my last update! I took a break from skating to focus on finishing my college education. I graduated with my Bachelor's in History in 2011 and then finished my Master's in Library and Information Science (MLIS) in 2014. After that, I wanted to make sure I was well-established in my career before I committed to returning to the sport. So, here we are in 2017 and I'm finally back on the ice!
Getting back on the ice after a ten year hiatus was pretty intense! Last week, I went to a public session at my old home rink and holy smokes the ice was SLIPPERY! Was it always so slippery?! I think I did two or three laps around the perimeter just to get the ice under my feet again and regain some balance. Once I felt confident (or crazy) enough, I did some tiny waltz jumps, two-foot spins, and some one-foot upright spins from backward crossovers. Let's just say I was pretty rusty! My waltz jumps were more like waltz hops and although my two-foot spins were solid, they were really slow. Backwards crossovers in both directions felt great - like riding a bike I guess the body just remembers how those are supposed to feel. One foot spins were not centered at all and I kept falling out of them. I couldn't really work on anything else because it was a crowded public session (and also I am terribly out of shape!) so after an hour, I left.
Yesterday, I went to a new rink that opened up a few minutes from my house and although it was a public session, it was uncrowded and the few people who were there were figure skaters and hockey players skating laps so I had plenty of room to work on some MITF. FO and FI consecutive edges were clean and consistent, FO and FI crossovers felt pretty good, and my waltz jumps were much higher. I did some centered one-foot spins and even some scratch spins! I estimate that, although I had passed Freeskate 3 ten years ago, I'm probably a solid Freeskate 1 right now.
I don't think I'm ready for a private coach right now so I just enrolled in some group lessons until I can research a good coach. The Ice Centre has changed the way they do their Freeskate group lessons, though. It used to be by level where you would take Freeskate 1, learn the elements, and then pass the test to get to the next level of Freeskate. Now, they have broken it up by elements: Freeskate 1-6 jumps, Freeskate 1-6 spins, and Freeskate 1-6 edges are the only options now. Since my jumps require the most work to get back, I enrolled in the six week Freekate 1-6 jumps class. I'll be starting on Saturday!!!! My plan is to take a Freeskate jumps class and then take a Freeskate spins class. I figure (heh) that should be enough to get me back to where I left off ten years ago. Then I'll get a coach.
Did I mention that I'm really out of shape? Because I am. I mean, I'm the same size I was ten years ago but not having worked out AT ALL has left me with no stamina and hardly any muscle tone. I need to get that back.
Getting back on the ice after a ten year hiatus was pretty intense! Last week, I went to a public session at my old home rink and holy smokes the ice was SLIPPERY! Was it always so slippery?! I think I did two or three laps around the perimeter just to get the ice under my feet again and regain some balance. Once I felt confident (or crazy) enough, I did some tiny waltz jumps, two-foot spins, and some one-foot upright spins from backward crossovers. Let's just say I was pretty rusty! My waltz jumps were more like waltz hops and although my two-foot spins were solid, they were really slow. Backwards crossovers in both directions felt great - like riding a bike I guess the body just remembers how those are supposed to feel. One foot spins were not centered at all and I kept falling out of them. I couldn't really work on anything else because it was a crowded public session (and also I am terribly out of shape!) so after an hour, I left.
Yesterday, I went to a new rink that opened up a few minutes from my house and although it was a public session, it was uncrowded and the few people who were there were figure skaters and hockey players skating laps so I had plenty of room to work on some MITF. FO and FI consecutive edges were clean and consistent, FO and FI crossovers felt pretty good, and my waltz jumps were much higher. I did some centered one-foot spins and even some scratch spins! I estimate that, although I had passed Freeskate 3 ten years ago, I'm probably a solid Freeskate 1 right now.
I don't think I'm ready for a private coach right now so I just enrolled in some group lessons until I can research a good coach. The Ice Centre has changed the way they do their Freeskate group lessons, though. It used to be by level where you would take Freeskate 1, learn the elements, and then pass the test to get to the next level of Freeskate. Now, they have broken it up by elements: Freeskate 1-6 jumps, Freeskate 1-6 spins, and Freeskate 1-6 edges are the only options now. Since my jumps require the most work to get back, I enrolled in the six week Freekate 1-6 jumps class. I'll be starting on Saturday!!!! My plan is to take a Freeskate jumps class and then take a Freeskate spins class. I figure (heh) that should be enough to get me back to where I left off ten years ago. Then I'll get a coach.
Did I mention that I'm really out of shape? Because I am. I mean, I'm the same size I was ten years ago but not having worked out AT ALL has left me with no stamina and hardly any muscle tone. I need to get that back.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Freeskate 4 - Lesson #3
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 :)
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 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)