On Monday, my coach brought me some music to listen to and pick something out for my program. It's a CD of Spanish guitar music, and I love it. Hopefully we can piece something good together that will work.
What did I do at practice on Monday? After a bit of a warmup with stroking and power pulls and two-foot turns, etc. I did some 3-turns down the line and took a quick look at my new Jr. Bronze Skills patterns. After a lot of searching I finally found them on the Skate Canada website, so I printed them out. But, it was too crowded to have my nose buried in a sheet of paper while skating around so I will try them another time.
As usual I put a large fraction of my session into spins. I have quite a number of them to practice now! The upright, sit, and camel version on both feet makes six. Then there are combinations and variations and the occasional layback or attitude making quite a significant number of spins that I like to practice. And now I have my new flying camel to add to the mix! I tried to focus on the ones that we were experimenting with for my program. Sit-broken leg is not too bad as long as I don't screw up the entry (sometimes my free blade scrapes the ice). I did one of them that felt really good and solid and then I saw the trace and it had traveled badly, sigh. It hadn't even felt like it was traveling! Then I experimented with camel-layback-backsit, and it is a mess. The layback is hard to centre, and I get up onto my toe, yuck. If I can get it down this will be a cool, and probably less common, combination, but it might be wise to pick something I can actually do well. If I can get a bunch of time to practice it, we'll see where it goes.
I always get in a few spirals and leg pulls before I get to camel spins for a bit of a stretch, and they were alright. I tried my catchfoot spiral again, but my balance gets messed up and my free arm ends up sort of desperately reaching out to the side which must look ridiculous. I tried doing something with it like bringing the hand up to my face or taking the hand back to my free knee, but it threw my balance off. This is going to take some practice! I tried a leg pull going backward but was too frazzled trying to watch for traffic that it didn't go so well. Will have to wait until Friday.
After that I started working on jumps but I felt a sharp pain in my left knee during the takeoff of a Salchow. I've had issues with my knees for years and it's exactly this type of thing that sets them off, but this time it didn't just shake off right away. I went and sat on the bench for a minute and it felt ok so we went ahead with my lesson, but we focused on elements that keep the weight on my right foot like backspins, loops, and flips. I had one terrific backspin and my coach was really impressed with the newfound height in the free leg. Unfortunately I couldn't repeat it but that's the way with skating, sometimes you do something cool and you don't know how you pulled it off! For loops she had me try doing 4 in a row after I mentioned having accomplished this the other day. My first attempt was ok but she says not to jump again immediately after landing, but hold the landing edge for a few moments before doing the next one. And to try making those edges less curvy, haha. I did better the next time but the upper body was a bit wild, so that's something to aim for improving. For my flip it was the same old story about needing to check the 3-turn better, and a new bit of advice about keeping my arms still for longer. I tend to sort of pull them in as I initiate the jump, instead of waiting until I have already left the ice. That's going to take some time to get into that new habit!
In our group lesson we ran through our number for the Christmas show again. It was not too shabby. I have to remember to ask on Friday what I am supposed to wear to it. I am guessing I shouldn't wear my silly elf hat :)
Showing posts with label spirals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spirals. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Sudden Rush
I check the web frequently for competition postings, hoping that a local competition with adult categories will come up. Well one finally did! It's in February, yikes! That's pretty soon considering that I don't even have a program and have real consistency problems in many of my elements. But I mentioned it to my coach anyway. I wasn't sure how she would react, but she is into it and wants to help me find music and get a program. There are not a lot of adult competitions and if I miss this one it might be six months or even a year until the next one, so we figured I should just go for it. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that my coach is interested, this is more what she does than teaching Skating Skills.
We spent some time today talking about what kind of elements we could put in my program. She likes my spirals and leg pulls and wants to put them in as a spiral sequence. I tried a catch-foot spiral but it's a bit wobbly. I'll need to practice it to get my balance. I know I said that I hate leg pulls, but I can actually do them, and I don't think they look so awful in a backward glide. But they are more difficult going backward! Two jump combinations are allowed in my category so my coach had me try out some Salchow-toe loop and loop-loop combinations. They didn't go too badly considering that I've never done loop-loop (that I can recall) and it's certainly been a long time since I did any combination in fact. My coach was relatively pleased with my efforts. Then her charity ran out when she took a look at my flip, and decided that I need more control on the 3-turn; that's a shocker :) So now I am supposed to practice them and make sure they are not too curvy. It's surprisingly difficult!
I spent the rest of the time going back to fundamentals mostly. I put in a good chunk of time on edges and even forward circle eights. The forward edges are getting a bit better and I am on the edge for more like 3/4 of the lobe instead of only 1/2. But the circle eights are still on the flat from about the halfway mark. Figures are all about balance and lean, which are obviously going to take me some time to develop. On the bright side, the size and shape of my circles were quite good.
I managed to get in several laps of stroking both forward/backward, and CW/CCW. I haven't done that in a while. Also worked on crossovers in all directions, feeling motivated knowing that they are in the next Skills level!
I put in some good practice on my spins probably managing at least 5-10 of each type. Backsits and forward uprights are still a bit crappy which means I should be doing more of them, but I did fewer oops! Camels were going well for me, I had several that were quite good and I didn't fall out of any of them. Some of them did not really come together, but I didn't fall out or have to give up on them. I tried to reach back for a catchfoot position, but while I can reach my blade I can't quite reach far enough to grab the part that you can hold on to. It takes a surprising amount of hamstring strength. Other than that, I didn't try any wild positions, just trying to get the basics down a little more. Consistency is key!
We spent some time today talking about what kind of elements we could put in my program. She likes my spirals and leg pulls and wants to put them in as a spiral sequence. I tried a catch-foot spiral but it's a bit wobbly. I'll need to practice it to get my balance. I know I said that I hate leg pulls, but I can actually do them, and I don't think they look so awful in a backward glide. But they are more difficult going backward! Two jump combinations are allowed in my category so my coach had me try out some Salchow-toe loop and loop-loop combinations. They didn't go too badly considering that I've never done loop-loop (that I can recall) and it's certainly been a long time since I did any combination in fact. My coach was relatively pleased with my efforts. Then her charity ran out when she took a look at my flip, and decided that I need more control on the 3-turn; that's a shocker :) So now I am supposed to practice them and make sure they are not too curvy. It's surprisingly difficult!
I spent the rest of the time going back to fundamentals mostly. I put in a good chunk of time on edges and even forward circle eights. The forward edges are getting a bit better and I am on the edge for more like 3/4 of the lobe instead of only 1/2. But the circle eights are still on the flat from about the halfway mark. Figures are all about balance and lean, which are obviously going to take me some time to develop. On the bright side, the size and shape of my circles were quite good.
I managed to get in several laps of stroking both forward/backward, and CW/CCW. I haven't done that in a while. Also worked on crossovers in all directions, feeling motivated knowing that they are in the next Skills level!
I put in some good practice on my spins probably managing at least 5-10 of each type. Backsits and forward uprights are still a bit crappy which means I should be doing more of them, but I did fewer oops! Camels were going well for me, I had several that were quite good and I didn't fall out of any of them. Some of them did not really come together, but I didn't fall out or have to give up on them. I tried to reach back for a catchfoot position, but while I can reach my blade I can't quite reach far enough to grab the part that you can hold on to. It takes a surprising amount of hamstring strength. Other than that, I didn't try any wild positions, just trying to get the basics down a little more. Consistency is key!
Friday, December 3, 2010
Bad Spirals
This morning I ran through all my test sequences again with my coach. We spent a bit of time cleaning up the circles, otherwise she thinks the only thing worth improving right now are my 'bad spirals' at the end of the mohawk pattern, haha. I think I will be fine on the test as long as I don't get too nervous or have a big wipe out. It's not an important test, but it's important to me, and I don't want to look like a chump :) Only six more days then I get to learn some new stuff. My coach asked me if I have a skating dress to wear for the test, but I don't really feel like spending money on that right now, and I would just be putting a sweater on over it anyway. Fortunately she agrees that my skating skirt will be fine. It would be nice to get a pretty dress but not just for a silly skills test...
Other than that, I practiced my edges, power pulls, two-foot turns, spins, spirals, and leg pulls. My spins were just so-so. I find that I have to practice them every time I skate to just keep them at the so-so level, to keep the movement in my muscle memory. To actually improve at them I have to dedicate an extended, focused effort, and I haven't had time for that in a while. I always have a few good spins in each skate though, even if I struggle with consistency. Today I had several spins that were perfectly centred. I don't know how I did it, but it's cool that it's within my abilities. I just have to figure out what I did differently on those ones (the others travel madly). I finished the session with one really solid backspin and one solid combination spin. It's always nice to end on a high note!
I feel very tired this evening after getting up early this morning at the end of a busy week. I can't wait to go to bed and go skating in the morning.
Other than that, I practiced my edges, power pulls, two-foot turns, spins, spirals, and leg pulls. My spins were just so-so. I find that I have to practice them every time I skate to just keep them at the so-so level, to keep the movement in my muscle memory. To actually improve at them I have to dedicate an extended, focused effort, and I haven't had time for that in a while. I always have a few good spins in each skate though, even if I struggle with consistency. Today I had several spins that were perfectly centred. I don't know how I did it, but it's cool that it's within my abilities. I just have to figure out what I did differently on those ones (the others travel madly). I finished the session with one really solid backspin and one solid combination spin. It's always nice to end on a high note!
I feel very tired this evening after getting up early this morning at the end of a busy week. I can't wait to go to bed and go skating in the morning.
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