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!
Showing posts with label annoying jump exercises. Show all posts
Showing posts with label annoying jump exercises. Show all posts
Friday, March 4, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
30 minutes of annoying jump exercises
So I've been on a bit of a cloud with all the excitement and positive vibes in the last week. This morning my coach burst my bubble a bit by reminding me that my jumps are still crummy and put me through 30 minutes of those dreaded jump exercises. I hate to get all negative but I really despise doing annoying jump exercises. No matter how many times I do slo-mo jumps at the boards, I just can't translate them into the nanosecond movements that need to be made in the actual jump. Maybe you just can't teach an old dog new tricks? We didn't even get to my new Lutz in 30 minutes which was a bit of a drag. After that I didn't even feel like practicing any more jumps on my own. >:(
Once my lesson was over I cleared my head a bit with some skills practice. My 3-turns are really skidding a lot lately which doesn't bother me anymore because I'm getting used to it but I should probably try to fix that for my test which includes copious amounts of 3-turns. Two of my skills patterns are fine. The third one (Power Circles) is still a dog's breakfast so I made sure to practice it several times this morning. I figured out how hard I have to push on the first circle to make it all the way around the required 2 times. Then I figured out that after that I hardly need to push at all. Furthermore, I learned that the worst part now is the single count back crossovers. They build speed ridiculously quickly, and it's spooky when you come close to the boards. It doesn't help that I get more into my toes when I get spooked, then the crossovers get even scratchier and it will drive the judge crazy for sure. The tempo is so quick there isn't really time to fully extend each one and point the toe. That would drive my group enhancement coach crazy too! Despite these problems, I feel much more confident in the pattern and have the hang of how hard to push, the freaky swing Choctaw at top speed, and the light-speed tango stop. I figured out that I have to stay into my knees and get my weight balanced properly as soon as possible at the start of each new circle. Now I just need more confidence on those back crossovers and I'll be ready to conquer this test and move on to some delicious bracket turns.
Next I worked on my spins and spirals, focusing on more 'attack' in the spins. I'm definitely attacking more and occasionally it's rewarding; I get a really fast (for me) spin out of it. However I noticed today that my centring really goes to hell when I do this, and it had been getting better so I don't want to undo everything I've achieved in that department. So I need to remember that 'attack' doesn't mean 'rush'. IT'S NEVER OK TO RUSH. Right? Then I attacked the crap out of a backsit and fell down hard. Oops! I think that I didn't get enough 'snap and square' on that one, my right arm was still out in la-la land and it threw off my balance. Well it was good to have a fall, it means that I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I haven't had that many falls lately doing freestyle elements. They've all been from dumb stuff like trying to show off doing a tango stop from top speed.
Once my lesson was over I cleared my head a bit with some skills practice. My 3-turns are really skidding a lot lately which doesn't bother me anymore because I'm getting used to it but I should probably try to fix that for my test which includes copious amounts of 3-turns. Two of my skills patterns are fine. The third one (Power Circles) is still a dog's breakfast so I made sure to practice it several times this morning. I figured out how hard I have to push on the first circle to make it all the way around the required 2 times. Then I figured out that after that I hardly need to push at all. Furthermore, I learned that the worst part now is the single count back crossovers. They build speed ridiculously quickly, and it's spooky when you come close to the boards. It doesn't help that I get more into my toes when I get spooked, then the crossovers get even scratchier and it will drive the judge crazy for sure. The tempo is so quick there isn't really time to fully extend each one and point the toe. That would drive my group enhancement coach crazy too! Despite these problems, I feel much more confident in the pattern and have the hang of how hard to push, the freaky swing Choctaw at top speed, and the light-speed tango stop. I figured out that I have to stay into my knees and get my weight balanced properly as soon as possible at the start of each new circle. Now I just need more confidence on those back crossovers and I'll be ready to conquer this test and move on to some delicious bracket turns.
Next I worked on my spins and spirals, focusing on more 'attack' in the spins. I'm definitely attacking more and occasionally it's rewarding; I get a really fast (for me) spin out of it. However I noticed today that my centring really goes to hell when I do this, and it had been getting better so I don't want to undo everything I've achieved in that department. So I need to remember that 'attack' doesn't mean 'rush'. IT'S NEVER OK TO RUSH. Right? Then I attacked the crap out of a backsit and fell down hard. Oops! I think that I didn't get enough 'snap and square' on that one, my right arm was still out in la-la land and it threw off my balance. Well it was good to have a fall, it means that I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone and I haven't had that many falls lately doing freestyle elements. They've all been from dumb stuff like trying to show off doing a tango stop from top speed.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Monday practice
Yesterday I had my first practice after competition.
After watching my performance, I decided on a few goals for my skating:
For my jumps I also tried to give them more spring but usually my technique ends up going out the window when I do this. I get especially chicken in the waltz jump. I feel good on the entry edge, all coiled up like Tigger, ready to jump. Then when I jump, something feels funny in the way my weight is rocking through the blade and I don't kick out as much as I want to. So I think it's a matter of making sure not to rock up onto the toe too quickly. And being less chicken. Anyway my jumps were ok and no problems with the flip.
For my lesson my coach was also feeling like it was time to learn some new things so we worked on the Lutz jump. We had gotten to this jump before but haven't worked on it since we got tunnel vision over my program. We basically started over from the beginning. There is a lot to think about in this jump and I commented that if I thought the other ones were bad, they were nothing compared to the Lutz. I did squeak out a couple of them at a crawl, and my coach said they were good. Wow! After that I wanted to work on back camel spins but we were running out of time so I only got to show her one. I had to hop in my toe a couple of times to keep from falling. Coach says the technique is basically there, but -- get this -- I'm not pressing into the ball of my foot. That's why I end up on the toe pick. She suggested practicing a spiral position at the boards with a bent skating knee and then gradually straighten it. And then we were out of time!
In group lesson, we worked on some assorted cross rolls and twizzles. The coach was really into the twizzles. We did them forwards, backwards, in singles, doubles, and triples. I was feeling dizzy by the end of it! Not surprisingly, I have the classic problem of being able to reasonably pull them off on the versions that resemble a backspin (same foot and direction) but on the other foot and direction are quite hopeless. I sense much practice on my bad side/direction in my future!
After watching my performance, I decided on a few goals for my skating:
- More 'attack' especially in spins; spin faster
- More height on jumps
- Skate faster
- Be more precise in my movements
- Learn more elements/moves
For my jumps I also tried to give them more spring but usually my technique ends up going out the window when I do this. I get especially chicken in the waltz jump. I feel good on the entry edge, all coiled up like Tigger, ready to jump. Then when I jump, something feels funny in the way my weight is rocking through the blade and I don't kick out as much as I want to. So I think it's a matter of making sure not to rock up onto the toe too quickly. And being less chicken. Anyway my jumps were ok and no problems with the flip.
For my lesson my coach was also feeling like it was time to learn some new things so we worked on the Lutz jump. We had gotten to this jump before but haven't worked on it since we got tunnel vision over my program. We basically started over from the beginning. There is a lot to think about in this jump and I commented that if I thought the other ones were bad, they were nothing compared to the Lutz. I did squeak out a couple of them at a crawl, and my coach said they were good. Wow! After that I wanted to work on back camel spins but we were running out of time so I only got to show her one. I had to hop in my toe a couple of times to keep from falling. Coach says the technique is basically there, but -- get this -- I'm not pressing into the ball of my foot. That's why I end up on the toe pick. She suggested practicing a spiral position at the boards with a bent skating knee and then gradually straighten it. And then we were out of time!
In group lesson, we worked on some assorted cross rolls and twizzles. The coach was really into the twizzles. We did them forwards, backwards, in singles, doubles, and triples. I was feeling dizzy by the end of it! Not surprisingly, I have the classic problem of being able to reasonably pull them off on the versions that resemble a backspin (same foot and direction) but on the other foot and direction are quite hopeless. I sense much practice on my bad side/direction in my future!
Monday, November 22, 2010
3 for 1
3 skates, 1 post:
Friday:
On Friday I had a bit of an off day, although not as bad as Monday. My skates felt a bit dull, I was skidding and sliding a lot on 3-turns and spin entries. I did my usual warmup of edges down the line, three-turns, and scrimped on stroking a bit. I practiced crossovers although only going forwards because my knees were bothering me a bit. No jumps today. Anyway not a particularly good or bad skate, just some practice. For my lesson, we worked on my skating skills test material. On the 3-turns pattern I was skidding on some of my turns and when I finished the pattern my coach said I looked totally dejected. She reminded me the importance of presentation in skating and to just fake it 'til I make it. After that I ran through the mohawks pattern and we were both pretty happy with it so it's funny having that juxtaposition. We spent some time on the circles too just cleaning up some sloppiness, what to do with arms, etc.
Saturday:
I always like to skate on Saturdays, I get two hours of practice and 45 minutes of teaching the kids which is fun. Some of the kids that I've been teaching for a while are really into it and seem to like me. They say cute stuff too :P
I had a much better skate compared to the previous Monday. My skates were tied perfectly the first time and felt fine the whole time. The ice was a bit 'furry' which seemed to actually help somehow. Amazingly I forgot to get my skates sharpened over the weekend, and I think a little texture to the ice helps prevent the skidding a little bit.
I'm always short for time on Mondays and it's busy so I did a bare minimum of stroking, and noodled around a bit with 3-turn sequences and power pulls. I practiced spins, and now there are so many of them to practice it can take quite a while to get through them all. Sit-spins were giving me trouble, forward and backward, so I blamed it on needing a sharpening and moved on. I practiced my jumps, except for toe loops (tsk tsk). My knees were bothering me on the jumps so I didn't go crazy with them.
For my lesson I asked to work on skating skills again, because they moved up the test day! It was going to be Dec 18 but they moved it to Dec 9 to accommodate some sort of qualifying deadline. We worked on some of the circles that we had run out of time for on Friday, and the three-turns again. Some of those were a wash because it was a bit too crowded to do the pattern exactly as dictated and I got a bit confused trying to avoid two girls doing synchronized Axels. Anyway it was good practice; my coach things I'll be fine, I think I'll be fine, and even one of the other coaches thinks I'll be fine. Fake it 'til I make it!
Group lesson was a bit better I think because there were slightly fewer girls out there today. Still it is lame only getting to practice each skill once, I need to practice them sometime (when?). I finally (?) I think got the sequence down for this Choctaw exercise they have been trying to teach us:
Friday:
On Friday I had a bit of an off day, although not as bad as Monday. My skates felt a bit dull, I was skidding and sliding a lot on 3-turns and spin entries. I did my usual warmup of edges down the line, three-turns, and scrimped on stroking a bit. I practiced crossovers although only going forwards because my knees were bothering me a bit. No jumps today. Anyway not a particularly good or bad skate, just some practice. For my lesson, we worked on my skating skills test material. On the 3-turns pattern I was skidding on some of my turns and when I finished the pattern my coach said I looked totally dejected. She reminded me the importance of presentation in skating and to just fake it 'til I make it. After that I ran through the mohawks pattern and we were both pretty happy with it so it's funny having that juxtaposition. We spent some time on the circles too just cleaning up some sloppiness, what to do with arms, etc.
Saturday:
I always like to skate on Saturdays, I get two hours of practice and 45 minutes of teaching the kids which is fun. Some of the kids that I've been teaching for a while are really into it and seem to like me. They say cute stuff too :P
- Skating skills: The usual run-throughs of my test material, with music. In this time slot one of the other coaches teaches some other participants so sometimes the music doesn't always line up with what I want to do but I usually get a couple run-throughs of everything and some good practice time. One of the girls has been working on the preliminary dances, so I should print out the patterns for them so I can follow along. I already know the Dutch Waltz, and I've been following her on the Canasta Tango to learn it, but it would probably be good to have them in my head! Strangely, my blades weren't feeling quite as dull/slippery today and I did a decent job on my 3-turns.
- Group lesson: We practiced some good solid stuff like edges down the ice (at speed, definitely more fun than patch-style), 3-turns down the ice, a forward 3-turn followed by a backward 3-turn (fun and challenging), stuff like that. I really need to write them down sooner because sometimes I learn something new but then I forget to record it :P
- Spin lesson: One of the girls was away and with only 3 of us we seemed to get through more material, almost all the basic spins and a combination spin. We also tried experimenting with cannonball position sit-spins. I got to try a catch-foot camel and it felt like I pulled my hamstring! And I didn't even manage to grab on! Good stuff.
- Freeskate: I usually continue with spins after the lesson and seemed to be having a better spinning day that I expected after the way I skated on Friday. I didn't have any amazing combination spins or anything but was generally having some decent spins. Then I practiced my jumps, including a whole bunch of toe loops from a standstill, the one I totally hate, hehe. They still feel awkward but occasionally I have one that flows more. Those are the ones that feel close to being a toe-waltz, so I have to remember only about a quarter turn happens on the ice. Strangely I was a little spooked doing flips (usually fun) and more confident doing loops. Must have been opposite day:)
- Lesson: My coach brought her videocamera again and we had a very productive session with my backspin. It's very informative being able to see the spin right after you do it so you can connect sensation with appearance; also to see the result of what was wrong and what was corrected. Then we got some footage of my sit-spin and camel spin. I wasn't too surprised to see how wobbly my camel spin is, but it has potential. On the other hand my sit-spin is not very 'sit' at all and my free leg is somewhat bent, bleh. Getting a deeper squat will take some time because I have problems with my knees, but straightening the free leg should just require some extra strength in the quads. Essentially, if your muscles aren't burning, you're not doing it right!
I had a much better skate compared to the previous Monday. My skates were tied perfectly the first time and felt fine the whole time. The ice was a bit 'furry' which seemed to actually help somehow. Amazingly I forgot to get my skates sharpened over the weekend, and I think a little texture to the ice helps prevent the skidding a little bit.
I'm always short for time on Mondays and it's busy so I did a bare minimum of stroking, and noodled around a bit with 3-turn sequences and power pulls. I practiced spins, and now there are so many of them to practice it can take quite a while to get through them all. Sit-spins were giving me trouble, forward and backward, so I blamed it on needing a sharpening and moved on. I practiced my jumps, except for toe loops (tsk tsk). My knees were bothering me on the jumps so I didn't go crazy with them.
For my lesson I asked to work on skating skills again, because they moved up the test day! It was going to be Dec 18 but they moved it to Dec 9 to accommodate some sort of qualifying deadline. We worked on some of the circles that we had run out of time for on Friday, and the three-turns again. Some of those were a wash because it was a bit too crowded to do the pattern exactly as dictated and I got a bit confused trying to avoid two girls doing synchronized Axels. Anyway it was good practice; my coach things I'll be fine, I think I'll be fine, and even one of the other coaches thinks I'll be fine. Fake it 'til I make it!
Group lesson was a bit better I think because there were slightly fewer girls out there today. Still it is lame only getting to practice each skill once, I need to practice them sometime (when?). I finally (?) I think got the sequence down for this Choctaw exercise they have been trying to teach us:
- RFI3
- LFO3
- step into a backward crossover, hold the underpush with R foot under, weight on L foot
- change the backward edge from inside to outside, keeping free foot close
- step forward with R foot, L foot comes in front
- step backward onto L foot, R foot stays close behind
- these two steps, not sure if they are on edges or flats. I'm doing them on flats for now.
- repeat those two steps
- step forward again, should be on R foot
- repeat whole thing on other foot
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Good weekend ice and stupid toe loops
Another multiple day post, yeesh.
On Saturday my regular session was cancelled for a ringette tournament. I paid extra money to go to the national training rink and it was wonderful. I skated for over 2 hours with only about 4 other skaters on the ice! I tried to work on just about everything but I definitely practice camel spins and combination spins the most. I had some fun with spin variations that travelled wildly but were fun. When I left I had blisters on both heels but it was totally worth it!
On Sunday I made it to a women's drop-in hockey scrimmage at yet another rink. It was pretty fun and I got in some good practice. It would be nice to get in some skills practice but there aren't any ice times for that that suit my schedule. Fun to meet some new friends too!
On Monday I had one of those throwaway practices where things just didn't go well. The ice felt crowded after the empty session I had on Saturday, and it was hard to even find enough space for a spin or a waltz jump. My blades felt like they were wobbling and my boots were too tight or loose no matter how many times I adjusted them. In my lesson I got flustered attempting my stupid toe loops and was downgraded to practicing them from a standstill again. Actually even through I was frustrated it was a bit funny when my coach asked me "Are you practicing these?" LOL!
Also I got a bit confused with the loop. It's a four step process: bend the knee, pivot on the ball of the foot/blade, push onto the toepick, pivot more and jump. I was combining everything into a big scratchy mess instead. I don't know how I will be able to do all that in the actual splitsecond of the real jump, blah. The real demoralizing moment happened when my coach said "I want you to get up to Lutz feeling all the jumps as being a natural motion. Then we will go back and do another round of fixing stuff." Gah, like we're not already doing them properly? Yuck.
At one point my coach made yet another reference to double jumps and it's making me wonder what I really want to do with my skating. I don't really like jumps and I don't learn them quickly. I'm afraid of falling and have zero kinesthetic awareness for skating. Even good single jumps don't seem to be in the cards for me, so where do I want to go with all this? I mentioned the 'artistic' category of competition to my coach once and she was not too jazzed about it but I wonder if it might be a better fit for me. Seriously persuing ice dance is out of the question not only because of the difficulty of finding an adult male partner but also because I'm ticklish. So while I'm going to continue with freestyle for a while yet I'm going to try to really focus on my basic skating skills and maybe try to make it onto the adult synchro team next year. With enough practice there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to do all the skating skills levels and there's nothing more fun to me than actual skating to music.
The group lesson on Monday was also a bit of a wash, partly because we spend probably less than half of the time actually practicing the skills. The other part was that the coach would show us something complicated very quickly and then expect us all to know it. It's probably a technique for teaching kids but I don't appreciate being talked down to so it can be a bit annoying at times. On the bright side, I worked up the courage to ask the other coach to list the steps again and she spent a couple of minutes teaching me the steps and correcting me, which was very nice of her. Then instead of getting in line to practice the sequence I just did it by myself, to the side out of the way and nobody seemed to mind. I like this better than waiting in line to practice it down the ice and then running over little girls. I have tried to go ahead of them but they all bunch up in front of me! Next season I will probably skip the group lessons. The ice time is better spent when I can dictate my own practice routine.
On Saturday my regular session was cancelled for a ringette tournament. I paid extra money to go to the national training rink and it was wonderful. I skated for over 2 hours with only about 4 other skaters on the ice! I tried to work on just about everything but I definitely practice camel spins and combination spins the most. I had some fun with spin variations that travelled wildly but were fun. When I left I had blisters on both heels but it was totally worth it!
On Sunday I made it to a women's drop-in hockey scrimmage at yet another rink. It was pretty fun and I got in some good practice. It would be nice to get in some skills practice but there aren't any ice times for that that suit my schedule. Fun to meet some new friends too!
On Monday I had one of those throwaway practices where things just didn't go well. The ice felt crowded after the empty session I had on Saturday, and it was hard to even find enough space for a spin or a waltz jump. My blades felt like they were wobbling and my boots were too tight or loose no matter how many times I adjusted them. In my lesson I got flustered attempting my stupid toe loops and was downgraded to practicing them from a standstill again. Actually even through I was frustrated it was a bit funny when my coach asked me "Are you practicing these?" LOL!
Also I got a bit confused with the loop. It's a four step process: bend the knee, pivot on the ball of the foot/blade, push onto the toepick, pivot more and jump. I was combining everything into a big scratchy mess instead. I don't know how I will be able to do all that in the actual splitsecond of the real jump, blah. The real demoralizing moment happened when my coach said "I want you to get up to Lutz feeling all the jumps as being a natural motion. Then we will go back and do another round of fixing stuff." Gah, like we're not already doing them properly? Yuck.
At one point my coach made yet another reference to double jumps and it's making me wonder what I really want to do with my skating. I don't really like jumps and I don't learn them quickly. I'm afraid of falling and have zero kinesthetic awareness for skating. Even good single jumps don't seem to be in the cards for me, so where do I want to go with all this? I mentioned the 'artistic' category of competition to my coach once and she was not too jazzed about it but I wonder if it might be a better fit for me. Seriously persuing ice dance is out of the question not only because of the difficulty of finding an adult male partner but also because I'm ticklish. So while I'm going to continue with freestyle for a while yet I'm going to try to really focus on my basic skating skills and maybe try to make it onto the adult synchro team next year. With enough practice there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to do all the skating skills levels and there's nothing more fun to me than actual skating to music.
The group lesson on Monday was also a bit of a wash, partly because we spend probably less than half of the time actually practicing the skills. The other part was that the coach would show us something complicated very quickly and then expect us all to know it. It's probably a technique for teaching kids but I don't appreciate being talked down to so it can be a bit annoying at times. On the bright side, I worked up the courage to ask the other coach to list the steps again and she spent a couple of minutes teaching me the steps and correcting me, which was very nice of her. Then instead of getting in line to practice the sequence I just did it by myself, to the side out of the way and nobody seemed to mind. I like this better than waiting in line to practice it down the ice and then running over little girls. I have tried to go ahead of them but they all bunch up in front of me! Next season I will probably skip the group lessons. The ice time is better spent when I can dictate my own practice routine.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Catching up on the Weekend
I just can't seem to blog on the days I actually skate....need to do something about that! Another post covering multiple skates, here we go:
Friday
On Fridays I have to get up early which can be a bit of a struggle. I was a bit behind schedule when I left the house and I started running to catch the bus. As I jogged through the foggy darkness and drizzle I realized that I must really LOVE skating!
Sunday was a hockey day! I actually had a great game and our team played well too. We were very even for the first half of the game and the score was also tied 1-1. Then one of our players went out with a knee injury and we had only 3 defence for the rest of the game :( I was totally sucking wind! THEN another woman got thrown out of the game (!) for apparently having some words with the ref so even the forwards had a short bench. We only had three players on the bench at a time after that. So, for the rest of the game I was just concentrating on surviving rather than channeling Bobby Orr but I did still get 2 shots on goal! When the final buzzer rang I was stoked to go home until I realized that we would have a 3-on-3 overtime period for 5 minutes. I was lucky enough to get the first shift and discovered that 3-on-3 sucks! Constant sprinting! But because it was so open I had a chance to go on the attack and had another shot on goal and had another sequence of trying to pass the puck but it somehow kept hitting a skate or something and coming back to me so I had quite a few chances to make some moves. We were playing so well in the overtime I was really hoping we could win it, and in fact our captain/star player managed to end the torture with a nice goal with about a minute left. That was exciting and it was fun to win again. Also no goals were scored against us while I was on the ice!
Monday
After the long ice time I have on Saturday it feels like such a rip-off to skate for only an hour on Mondays :P I only get 25-30 minutes to practice before private and group lesson. So I scrimped on quantity but tried to practice as many things as possible.
Friday
On Fridays I have to get up early which can be a bit of a struggle. I was a bit behind schedule when I left the house and I started running to catch the bus. As I jogged through the foggy darkness and drizzle I realized that I must really LOVE skating!
- Edges: worked on these going down the hockey lines. Had some real wobbliness going on but started to get the feel for them after about four lines. Forward insides were especially wobbly and noticed that I need to put the weight slightly further back on the blade as the free leg comes through. Also focusing helps a lot.. :S
- Figures: skipped them! :O Was a bit late getting on the ice and finding the half-lobes of edges enough of a challenge.
- Crossovers: I really need to work on these every time I skate. I practiced them going around the circles and worked up a good sweat. They always feel clumsy at first and then feel better as I get used to the movement.
- Perimeter stroking: did sort of a bare minimum of this in the interest of time but it's always fun to skate really fast on a nearly-empty rink.
- Spins: I didn't have a great spin day but practiced them nonetheless. I wanted to work on my combination spin but was falling out of the camel again >:( Good practice though. I noticed that some of the kids look outside the circle on their 'windup' glide so I decided to try it and it produced a couple of well-centred spins. It also produced some real wild ones too so I'm not sure if it's any better, so I will keep trying it for a while.
- Skating skills: my coach and I worked on the three patterns that I will be tested on next month. She thinks that in general they are decent but could use a lot of cleaning up. We focused on getting proper coverage of the ice and really checking those FO3's like crazy. She wasn't too happy with my circles though and tried to contort me into the gliding position that she would like to see. The forward position is much more painful than the backward one so my backward circles are actual better than my forward ones which is apparently unusual. I am looking forward to testing these patterns and moving on to something more interesting!
- Jumps: didn't get to them, no tears shed over that.
- Skating skills: as usual I got to practice these to the music during the first time slot. Also some Dutch Waltz, whee! Practiced a bunch of the circles especially backward inside (blech). Trying to make each stroke smooth and deliberate because I get a bit sloppy/awkward on the forward crossovers from a standstill. This 1/2 hour of skills always gets my temperature up! Good thing because CanSkate is right after that.
- Group lesson: We got to practice some fun things like those quick turns where you go forward-backward-forward really fast. I guess it would be a bracket followed by a 3-turn if it was on a curve. I did them two-footed :) Another new thing for me was to forward crossovers interspersed with changes of edge. Fun! And the group lesson coach seems to think I am a "Senior" level skater (i.e. passed the first freeskating test). Ha!
- Spin lesson (small group): This lesson can be a mixed bag because the kids in the group are so much better than me, but this time I had a lot of fun. We reviewed the basic spins and then we even worked on some fun variations like the broken-leg sit-spin. I had never learned this one before and my first attempts were sad but after the lesson I worked on it for a while and had a few good ones. I don't know how my position looks but I was able to keep my balance at least.
- Freeskate: I always enjoy this freeskate session because I have already warmed up and done a ton of skills practice so I have lots of time to practice jumps, spins, footwork, and stuff like spirals. I didn't make any big breakthroughs or anything but it was some good solid practice.
- Private lesson: We covered spins in more depth because it had been a while. The biggest change that coach suggested is to swing the free leg around sort of bigger and higher going into the sit spin. I tried this and it seemed to help a lot! Sometimes I just feel my inner thighs screaming though so obviously I need more power in those muscles to get the leg around quicker. Coach wants me to squat down lower, but I know that it will take time. She also noticed that my knee is falling inwards which is making me lose my balance. My physiotherapist noticed this too! OH and I had one fabulous backspin. We both wished that it had been captured on tape >:(
- Field moves competition: I'm not registered in this but because I missed skating last Monday I decided to stay and nobody seemed to mind. We did leg-pulls, where you grab the blade and pull your leg up and out to the side. I hate these things but I really tried to stretch out and "sell" them with good presentation. A cute little girl won the competition but they told me I was a close second! The others are all better but the coaches have higher expectations from them, so ha :P Maybe I should actually practice these things since I'm apparently not as terrible at them as I thought. But there is no way one of those is going into my program! :O
Sunday was a hockey day! I actually had a great game and our team played well too. We were very even for the first half of the game and the score was also tied 1-1. Then one of our players went out with a knee injury and we had only 3 defence for the rest of the game :( I was totally sucking wind! THEN another woman got thrown out of the game (!) for apparently having some words with the ref so even the forwards had a short bench. We only had three players on the bench at a time after that. So, for the rest of the game I was just concentrating on surviving rather than channeling Bobby Orr but I did still get 2 shots on goal! When the final buzzer rang I was stoked to go home until I realized that we would have a 3-on-3 overtime period for 5 minutes. I was lucky enough to get the first shift and discovered that 3-on-3 sucks! Constant sprinting! But because it was so open I had a chance to go on the attack and had another shot on goal and had another sequence of trying to pass the puck but it somehow kept hitting a skate or something and coming back to me so I had quite a few chances to make some moves. We were playing so well in the overtime I was really hoping we could win it, and in fact our captain/star player managed to end the torture with a nice goal with about a minute left. That was exciting and it was fun to win again. Also no goals were scored against us while I was on the ice!
Monday
After the long ice time I have on Saturday it feels like such a rip-off to skate for only an hour on Mondays :P I only get 25-30 minutes to practice before private and group lesson. So I scrimped on quantity but tried to practice as many things as possible.
- Perimeter stroking: Again did sort of a requisite 3-4 laps going forward and backward (but not both CW and CCW, for shame) and then some laps doing 2-foot slalom and 1-foot power pulls. For a while I thought I was decent at the power pulls but lately I have been really sucking at them, especially backwards.
- Crossovers: on the circle, all 4 varieties. A bit tough with so many skaters on the ice though. Same thing with stroking.
- Spins: Wow I had an amazing day for spins! I had a couple of centred one-foot upright spins but I don't know what I did differently. Some of them also traveled ridiculously. Eh. Also practiced making a higher swing-around on the sit spin with some success. Backspins mediocre but camels were amazing! Combination spins were also coming easily to me today and I practiced camel-sit-change-sit, and camel-sit-broken leg sit. Worked on just the sit-broken leg too, it's fun and a nice challenge that's not outrageously frustrating.
- Private lesson: I started by showing off my combination spin to my coach and she was suitably impressed. BUT she had to point out that my camel position is still not perfect, haha. Then we moved on to jumps.
- Waltz: need more knee bend just before the jump and kick the free leg straight through and not across the midline of the body. Timing still needs work.
- Salchow: need more "pressing down" with the arms and check/control after the 3-turn. Otherwise pretty good, my best jump.
- Toe loop: need more pressing down with the arms, standing up straight, and pulling the right foot in close to the left. Why does she have to tell me this stuff EVERY time? This jump just makes no sense to me. Was relegated to practicing the nasty do-them-from-a-standstill exercise. We moved on to the loop probably because my coach was going to gouge her eyes out rather than any actual progress :S
- Loop: more blechiness here, this one is in a contest with toe loop for worst technique. It's all about getting a timing and confidence. A snap of the hips and a deep knee bend initiates the jump, arms only move after leaving the ice. I want to initiate the jump with my arms though. Not long ago my coach said this jump looked "natural", not sure what happened??
Monday, October 4, 2010
"Excellent"
I wanted to name this post "More dreaded jump exercises" or something but decided to take a more positive tone. One of my salchows elicited an "Excellent" from my coach today! So I suppose it is not really my ugly duckling jump, that title squarely belongs to my loop.
I had been sort of avoiding doing jump work with my coach so I bit the bullet today and asked to work on them. Of course I got more of the hated slow-mo walkthroughs; you know, the ones that require patience, edge control, perfect body position from head to toe, blah blah blah. I admitted that I have not been doing them as much as I should, so I will make a better effort to do them now. We worked on all four of the jumps that we have been studying. I was a bit disappointed that the loops I did for my coach were sad little hops, when I had pulled off some more inspiring versions earlier in the hour. The main bit of advice on that one is to stand up taller and not bend forward.
I am not particularly enjoying working on jumps. The preparation going into the jump requires concentration and edge control. The jump itself happens so fast that it's hard to tell exactly what all your body parts are doing. There are so many little bits to remember, it's overwhelming. Jumping wasn't taught to me in this way when I was a kid, so it's rather jarring to spend so much time nitpicking them now. Of course I want to have nice jumps so I have to suffer through it. I think the key will just be not to overdo it, to make sure my lessons over the course of the week are balanced across all types of elements. Otherwise it's just too frustrating.
I spent the rest of the freeskate practicing all my elements. My camel spin was not as effortless as it was yesterday, but it was still not too bad, I don't fall out of it as much anymore. I tried some more back camels and still get about one revolution. I had some decent backspins too. Yesterday I probably did some thirty or forty camels; it can really take time to warm them up. So with only about ten minutes to practice them today, I was not really expecting them to be at the same place. I practiced my layback too and while it is probably all wrong, I am having some success with feeling less dizzy when looking up at the ceiling.
I practiced spirals on both legs, both edges. My right foot spirals feel extremely awkward. I need to make a point of practicing about ten times as many of these than left foot spirals. My left footers get plenty of practice doing camel spins. In the group lesson they made us try those awful forward spirals (aka "leg pulls"). I surprised myself by managing to pull off a sloppy, bent-knee, but not so bad version on each side. My coaches seemed surprised too! I had been griping about these things on Saturday and swore up and down I couldn't do them. They also noted that I had held them for as long as they had instructed, when hardly anyone else did. Still, I don't think I will ever put them in a program if I can avoid them. Let's just say they are a bit, um, suggestive.
After that there was public skating, so I decided to stay but after about 20 minutes it was just too crowded to do much of anything really. I managed to do some laps of two-foot and one-foot slalom/skiing, and a two-foot turn exercise that has been baffling me. I think I made some progress in combining the turn with the required change of edge and smoothness. I did some opposite direction spinning while helping a little girl practice her spins and turns. I stuck it out to the 40-minute mark when there was a Zamboni break, then I called it a night. I couldn't even practice three-turns in this environment.
Good news, the ice conditions were much better today. I wonder if it is because of the drier weather, or because of the complaint I made last week?
I had been sort of avoiding doing jump work with my coach so I bit the bullet today and asked to work on them. Of course I got more of the hated slow-mo walkthroughs; you know, the ones that require patience, edge control, perfect body position from head to toe, blah blah blah. I admitted that I have not been doing them as much as I should, so I will make a better effort to do them now. We worked on all four of the jumps that we have been studying. I was a bit disappointed that the loops I did for my coach were sad little hops, when I had pulled off some more inspiring versions earlier in the hour. The main bit of advice on that one is to stand up taller and not bend forward.
I am not particularly enjoying working on jumps. The preparation going into the jump requires concentration and edge control. The jump itself happens so fast that it's hard to tell exactly what all your body parts are doing. There are so many little bits to remember, it's overwhelming. Jumping wasn't taught to me in this way when I was a kid, so it's rather jarring to spend so much time nitpicking them now. Of course I want to have nice jumps so I have to suffer through it. I think the key will just be not to overdo it, to make sure my lessons over the course of the week are balanced across all types of elements. Otherwise it's just too frustrating.
I spent the rest of the freeskate practicing all my elements. My camel spin was not as effortless as it was yesterday, but it was still not too bad, I don't fall out of it as much anymore. I tried some more back camels and still get about one revolution. I had some decent backspins too. Yesterday I probably did some thirty or forty camels; it can really take time to warm them up. So with only about ten minutes to practice them today, I was not really expecting them to be at the same place. I practiced my layback too and while it is probably all wrong, I am having some success with feeling less dizzy when looking up at the ceiling.
I practiced spirals on both legs, both edges. My right foot spirals feel extremely awkward. I need to make a point of practicing about ten times as many of these than left foot spirals. My left footers get plenty of practice doing camel spins. In the group lesson they made us try those awful forward spirals (aka "leg pulls"). I surprised myself by managing to pull off a sloppy, bent-knee, but not so bad version on each side. My coaches seemed surprised too! I had been griping about these things on Saturday and swore up and down I couldn't do them. They also noted that I had held them for as long as they had instructed, when hardly anyone else did. Still, I don't think I will ever put them in a program if I can avoid them. Let's just say they are a bit, um, suggestive.
After that there was public skating, so I decided to stay but after about 20 minutes it was just too crowded to do much of anything really. I managed to do some laps of two-foot and one-foot slalom/skiing, and a two-foot turn exercise that has been baffling me. I think I made some progress in combining the turn with the required change of edge and smoothness. I did some opposite direction spinning while helping a little girl practice her spins and turns. I stuck it out to the 40-minute mark when there was a Zamboni break, then I called it a night. I couldn't even practice three-turns in this environment.
Good news, the ice conditions were much better today. I wonder if it is because of the drier weather, or because of the complaint I made last week?
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