I don't have any freestyle ice until Saturday, but it's spring break this week and there are extra public skate times on at one of the private rinks all week. I dropped in after work today and for only $2 I skated for almost an hour with only about 20-30 other people on the ice. It was pretty roomy! I did do some spinning but 'figure skating' isn't technically allowed so I didn't spend the whole time spinning in case someone complained. What I did do was practice my bracket turns a LOT. I just learned them a little over a week ago. The inside ones are not so bad but the outside ones are pretty tricky. Last Monday I fell pretty hard on a left outside bracket and I am a little spooked on those ones now. The inside ones are actually decent and I worked up the nerve to do them with a little speed. They're almost fun! But not nearly as effortless as 3-turns. Anyway I checked the tracings and some of them really look bracket-shaped. I'm amazed! I never learned these before and figured that it was a distinct possibility that they would just be too hard to learn.
I also practiced back outside pivots because they are also in the Sr. Bronze Skills patterns. The RBO pivot is not too bad probably because of more familiarity with the RBO edge because of jumps. The LBO pivot is much harder but I found that deeper knee bend and patience were very helpful. I have learned some bits and piece of the Sr. Bronze patterns and worked on what I could remember. I should be learning the patterns in full soon especially once I get the hang of the brackets and the pivots.
No skating until Saturday - which is probably good for my knees.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
I passed my Jr. Bronze Skills test!
I have been devoting a decent piece of each practice to my Jr. Bronze skills ever since my skills coach convinced me to test them. It paid off yesterday when I passed my test! I didn't skate them perfectly (had a few wobbles) but I thought they were pretty good considering the circumstances. Apparently they were good enough to pass but only with 'Satisfactory' ratings. The judge told me that one of my 3-turns was flat which I completely did not believe because my coach always tells me my turns are too curvy. She has spent all this time with me trying to get the 3-turn into my flip more flat and it ALWAYS curves. I also felt that I had strong edges and good control thoughout the patterns and figured I should have had at least one 'Good' rating....but you never can tell with judges, maybe she was picking up on those wobbles that I had. No comments on the wobbles though.
Today was the last day of our club ice and we had our year-end show. All the skaters in all the levels got to skate and there were a couple of solos from our higher-level skaters. It was fun! There were awards given out at the end and I didn't get one but I privately felt that if there were a 'Most Improved' award, I would have earned it. In July when I stepped on the ice I could hardly even skate. I couldn't do a crossover or a 3-turn. Now I have won a competition and passed two tests. I'm learning stroking and skills at the Sr. Bronze level and sometimes I have a fierce camel spin. I learned how to do jumps all over again. Except for the Lutz, I think all my elements are better than they were when I was a child and I've even learned some new ones. So I don't want to sound stuck-up but I think it is a big progression in only 8 months and even if nobody else have noticed, I have noticed, and I feel proud :)
I am sorry to see the end of the season but I will still be able to skate on Mondays and Saturdays at private rinks at least for the spring. Then we will have to see what the summer holds.
Today I picked up some fabric to make practice outfits. I think I am entitled to indulge myself!
Today was the last day of our club ice and we had our year-end show. All the skaters in all the levels got to skate and there were a couple of solos from our higher-level skaters. It was fun! There were awards given out at the end and I didn't get one but I privately felt that if there were a 'Most Improved' award, I would have earned it. In July when I stepped on the ice I could hardly even skate. I couldn't do a crossover or a 3-turn. Now I have won a competition and passed two tests. I'm learning stroking and skills at the Sr. Bronze level and sometimes I have a fierce camel spin. I learned how to do jumps all over again. Except for the Lutz, I think all my elements are better than they were when I was a child and I've even learned some new ones. So I don't want to sound stuck-up but I think it is a big progression in only 8 months and even if nobody else have noticed, I have noticed, and I feel proud :)
I am sorry to see the end of the season but I will still be able to skate on Mondays and Saturdays at private rinks at least for the spring. Then we will have to see what the summer holds.
Today I picked up some fabric to make practice outfits. I think I am entitled to indulge myself!
Friday, March 4, 2011
The A-word
It's been a busy week in ice sports again. On Sunday I had another great hockey game. We actually won it! First game in quite a while. I had one cool rush where I came around my net, swooshed around a forechecker, managed to hang on to the puck through the neutral zone, and get a weak shot somewhere in the vicinity of the net. I don't remember if it was on goal or not...funny how it's always a blur.
On Monday I had another dreaded jump lesson! I really hate doing 2 in a row. That is what I get for not having any ideas for what to work on, my coach will always pick jumps! My coach was really not pleased with any of my jumps, some days she is like that. She had me try toe-toe and loop-loop combinations; the second jump is always the better one. Not sure if this is typical. Otherwise the rest of the hour was pretty routine, nothing remarkable happened just more good practice. It always feels so lame to skate for only an hour.
This morning coach surprised me by talking about stroking. We haven't done a stroking lesson in ages, and I don't know if that is because I've improved so much or because she is obsessed with jumps, haha. She wants to teach me all the stroking patterns that are on the freeskate tests! This is great and will help me be a better overall skater. It was just surprising because she didn't want to teach skating skills but it's optional for freestyle skaters and stroking isn't so maybe that's why. We started in on some of the Jr. Bronze patterns which involve edges down the long sides of the rink and crossovers around the ends. For someone who did patch I thought it would be a breeze but it's a different beast going fast! My forward outside edges are fine but we did forward and backward inside and they need a LOT of work. But this is exactly the type of thing I'm happy to practice.
Because we were talking about freeskating tests we got on to the dreaded 4-letter word: AXEL. Dum dum dum. She asked if I want to learn it and I admitted that I want to be able to do the Axel but without all that hard work and falling. She pointed out that with her technique most of her kids don't fall that much. As if on cue, a girl beside us wiped out on a wonky Axel attempt. She wasn't helping! Strangely, Coach says that I'm ready to try it, this is weird because she seemed so displeased with my jumps this week. I'm sure that my waltz jumps need to be 1000 times better first. Who knows?
I filled out the rest of the hour practicing my Skills patterns and just a few of all my spins and jumps. One hour is just not enough time to skate!
On Monday I had another dreaded jump lesson! I really hate doing 2 in a row. That is what I get for not having any ideas for what to work on, my coach will always pick jumps! My coach was really not pleased with any of my jumps, some days she is like that. She had me try toe-toe and loop-loop combinations; the second jump is always the better one. Not sure if this is typical. Otherwise the rest of the hour was pretty routine, nothing remarkable happened just more good practice. It always feels so lame to skate for only an hour.
This morning coach surprised me by talking about stroking. We haven't done a stroking lesson in ages, and I don't know if that is because I've improved so much or because she is obsessed with jumps, haha. She wants to teach me all the stroking patterns that are on the freeskate tests! This is great and will help me be a better overall skater. It was just surprising because she didn't want to teach skating skills but it's optional for freestyle skaters and stroking isn't so maybe that's why. We started in on some of the Jr. Bronze patterns which involve edges down the long sides of the rink and crossovers around the ends. For someone who did patch I thought it would be a breeze but it's a different beast going fast! My forward outside edges are fine but we did forward and backward inside and they need a LOT of work. But this is exactly the type of thing I'm happy to practice.
Because we were talking about freeskating tests we got on to the dreaded 4-letter word: AXEL. Dum dum dum. She asked if I want to learn it and I admitted that I want to be able to do the Axel but without all that hard work and falling. She pointed out that with her technique most of her kids don't fall that much. As if on cue, a girl beside us wiped out on a wonky Axel attempt. She wasn't helping! Strangely, Coach says that I'm ready to try it, this is weird because she seemed so displeased with my jumps this week. I'm sure that my waltz jumps need to be 1000 times better first. Who knows?
I filled out the rest of the hour practicing my Skills patterns and just a few of all my spins and jumps. One hour is just not enough time to skate!
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