In Sync/Out-of-Sync Lessons/Practices, 10/20 - 10/26 | Golden Skate

In Sync/Out-of-Sync Lessons/Practices, 10/20 - 10/26

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Had to name the thread this week as I had my first synchro lesson this morning.

In Sync: This is FUN!!! We have a new coach from Canada who moved into the area to take a sports related job. She skated synchro for 14 years and just loves the sport and it shows. She already started the kids team, now its the adult's turn.

We went over all the basics: Skating in a line, skating in a circle, skating in blocks, basic pinwheel and "passing through." It wasn't easy, but it was a good challenge. The five of us did pretty well for first timers and were all proud of what we were able to do. Ashleigh is a great coach--she explains things well and gave individual attention when needed. Initial goal is to put together a program for the holiday exhibition in December and possibly compete in the spring if we can get enough people. She has a pro friend in Canada cutting some music for us, so that should be exciting. The best thing is that this is going to be a great way to refine basic skating technique, which will be very helpful for me.

Sync or swim: Know what? Its darn HARD to do crossovers, mohawks and three turns while holding on to two people in a circle!!!! :eek: Several moves were very challenging, but I'm sure I'll get them with time. I also had to re-learn technique for a left foot snowplow stop, and my husband had to learn the one foots for the first time. He has several things he wants to work on with his singles coach tomorrow. He's not sure he wants to do synchro, but he's giving it the old college try and he's better than he thinks he is (at this time, he's the lowest level skater in the group, but not much below me who's next on the "skate" chain.).

I definitely like it and plan to stick with it. The only problem is, boy, are my arms tired!!! I joked that tomorrow morning, we'll all be like little Randy in his snowsuit in "A Christmas Story", namely...

"I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN!!!!!!!!!!"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Happy skating, everyone!!!

Yaz, the future Haydenette (in my dreams!!!) ;)
 
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luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Yaz, have fun skating synchro. It's hard enough for me to do it all my myself. I can imagine it's extremely hard to be "synchronized" with others!

In Sync: Determined to have my double 3s working on both directions. So I spent an hour working on them and it did the trick. I finally could do the down-up-down motion for my double 3s. That's a major breakthrough for me. Because of that, my double-3, mohawk, salchow sequence is getting much better. I'm very pleased with that.


Out-of-sync: Also worked on my 1-foot spin a lot. It's coming along and it's getting better. I can do 3 centered revs, but not 4. My coach's goal is to have me do a 1-foot spin with 6 revs. I need more time to work on my spins as it's my worst element. I need help big time. But I'm a very patient person, I'll work on it and work on it and work on it. Does it make me sound like Rain Man or what? :laugh:

Didn't even try backspin at all. Bad Bad Bad. No cookies for me.
 

blurrysarah

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
In-Sync: My Sunday sync practice was quite good. After State championships our coach literally tore our long program apart, and we're just putting it back together again. We worked out a new ending off ice which I really like, I guess we'll see how it works on ice. I also managed to do a retarded right back inside bracket in our circle for what is probably the first time.

Out-of-sync: I had to get off the ice and put an ice pack on my right foot. I'm having troubles with the ankle joint, as soon as I start skating, my right ankle begins to hurt when you bend/flex/twist/turn/land/put weight on it. It feels like a sprain and happens everytime I skate lately. I don't know what is wrong, it has no reason to hurt the way it does. My mum says I've inherited her notorious weak ankles, and that because I land jumps on my right foot, obviously it will bear more brunt than the other ankle. Incredible pain on ice, as soon as I get off the ice, it returns to normal. If anyone knows what on earth this could be caused by, do share.
:cry:
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
blurrysarah, is that the inside ankle hurt? I do have similar problem lately. My skate pro looked at my skates and found out that I didn't tie my laces tight enough. Bad me. Give me more information and I'll see if it's the same problem. I also asked my chiropractor for advices as well. Let me know more about your problem and I'll see if my chiropractor's advice may work for you.
 

blurrysarah

On the Ice
Joined
Aug 21, 2003
Thank you for your help lue!
It's not really an inside or outside, the only way I can describe it is it feels like the very center, internal part of the ankle joint. The most painful move is preparing and jumping the loop jump off it. The bend, then pop up to jump is agonising, it's the sudden movement from the ankle bend to ankle straightening that really hurts. I've tried all sorts of lacing combinations, tight, loose, tight and loose, you name it. It happens regardless. I just don't know how on earth to fix it!
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Sorry blurrysarah, I don't think I can help you on your ankle problem. My problem was the tongue of my boot not sitting tight and caused my ankle problem. But your problem is different, I think.

My chiropractor did ask me to ice the ankles 20 minutes at a time. Then massage the ankles. The massage will actually help untie the "knots" in the muscle and speed up the recovery. It's a very simple massage and it works wonder.

However, I don't know the right massage technique for the middle of the ankle since I don't know how the muscle was developed in that area. For the inside ankle, I must massage it side way (horizontally) as the muscle was growing vertically. If I rub it vertically, it won't help! I didn't know that before, but my chiropractor explained it to me.

Disclaimer: Just a wild guess here. Since the muscle in my inside ankle is growing vertically, maybe the middle ankle muscle is growing vertically as well?? If that's the case, may be you can massage it gentle side way (going left and right horizontally). Put some lotion on when you massage your ankle. Not only it feels better with lotion, it'll make your ankle looks smooth and radiant! Try it for a couple days and see if that helps.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
blurry:: Please see a doctor if this continues and get the ankle x-rayed. If that doesn't work, a bone scan might help. I'm wondering if you have a stress fracture in one of the small bones of the foot or the distal (closer to the foot) long bones of the calf, or even a shin splint. All can hurt like heck. Please get checked out.

Out-of-sync: Oh, my arms, they aren't killing me but they ache.

Sychnly marvelous: One foot spins got better today, two to three or more revs with the stepped up technique. Some of the fear is going away and I'm finally getting the balance over my left side. Spirals went well, too, so a good day despite my "post-synchro stiffness." And hubby had a lesson full of one foot snowplows, T-stops and mohawks, so I think he may stick with synchro--Yay!!!
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Miss Synch Link - Phew, I'm glad I waited until today to post about yesterday's practice, because I was rather out of sorts and think it would have been one big whine.

I started out a little punk at Monday's practice because I am SO playing head games with myself. The November 6 Gold test date is looming close, and while I truly would not be ready for the test if it were tomorrow, it's NOT tomorrow. It's 2-1/2 weeks from now, and while that's not a lot of skating time, I need to STOP worrying about what I can't do, and take what I can and "just do it." The problem is that the fear is somewhat paralyzing. It makes me tired, which makes me not feel fit enough to run through the program, which makes me sort of drag through it, which makes it look bad, etc.

On the other hand, overall I had a good practice yesterday. I landed my axel for the first time ever in my program (I can do them as individual elements). That was a huge breakthrough. But it took me 45 minutes to push myself to actually do it. But I did it. I got through my program once, even though it was sloppy. I then went through it 1/2 at a time, and both halves were more than acceptable. So now it's just a matter of putting the two together.

I Synch I Love You - But then there was TODAY'S lesson and practice. Woo hoo, woo hoo. Nailed the back scratch and the back sit. Nailed two huge axels. Had a huger lutz. Had a decent program run-through, despite the fact that someone "stole" the CD cartridge and we couldn't play my music. Cleaned up some centering problems. Attacked my posture. Skated for two hours and was peppy the whole time. I DID take a MONGO fall on an axel, and now I seem to have a third knee growing out of my leg, but overall, it was a nice (tiring) skate-a-thon!

Yazmeen - LOVE the title of this week's thread and your excitement over the synchro. We never had formal synchro, but we did "precision" numbers in our shows, and I just loved them. I was always the little girl on one end of the pinwheel who had to skate backwards, do an axel, and then catch up to the line before they stopped. It was so much fun! Glad hubby might stick with it too.

Blurrysarah - I would seriously encourage you to have some x-rays taken, as it is very possible you've fractured something without knowing it. Yaz is right, it might be a crack at the end of the bone. There is no shifting, but you would have the pain you describe. Better to find out not, than to be putting pressure on a fracture and doing more damage in the end. I'm so bummed for you. Pain is never good!

Lue & Yaz - Love your "Rain Man" and "Randy" descriptions! :laugh:
 
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dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Today I went to a different skating rink then the usual one that I go to, since I had my mother-in-law with me and this one is at a mall. (She could shop while I skated). Anyways I get there about 10:30 am and there is no one there! So it is just me and the ice alone for about 45 minutes!:D
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
YES. I finally got the one-foot spin. I'm actually speechless. My coach even added 2 different entrances for me to use for the 1 foot spin. I can't believe it's happening. I was still Mr. Rain Man on Sunday. Now I got the 1-foot spin! For some reasons, it just clicked. It just started spinning and I could hold it for 5 to 6 revs. I still can't believe it.

The 1 foot spin gave me the courage to try back spin again. And to my surprise, I could hold it for "1" rev. :eek: Well, I'll take it. I'll be Mr. Rain Man again until I get the back spin for at least 3 revs.

I want to pass FS3 this year so I can compete in FS3 next year. Keeping my finger cross.

My coach asked me to do an inside spread eagle with my arms folding on my back and looking to my right shoulder. She seemed to like that position, but I'm not so sure.

Also try waltz/loop. I did OK with a small to medium size waltz jump. But I'm scared to death when I tried it with a full speed waltz jump. I need to work on that. I got plenty of time to work on this one. FS3 doesn't require loop jump at all. I think my coach is preparing me for USFSA. That's why I'm doing all kinds of MITF stuff.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
CONGRATULATIONS, luen, what do you think made the difference in the one foot spin? Mine is progressing and all advice is appreciated!!!
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Yaz, I think I really try to have very deep knee bend stepping into the spin (inside the circle). The deeper the knee bend, the smaller is the first half of the 3 turn and more speed you'll have for the spin.

My big mistake was rushing the 3 turn pre-maturely and hence "travelling" and "rocking".

Once the 3 turn happens (magically), I keep my skating knee a little bit soft but rise up. At the same time, I have to keep my arms in strong check position to balance myself. All these should be done in the first rev. Once I balance myself and spinning, I need to pull my free leg in and let it spin. Checking is very important to me because I'm so afraid of falling backward. Strong checking gave me the confidence to straight up my back and stand up.

Supposedly, I need to swing my free leg in to add speed to my spin, but I'm not rock solid on my 1 foot spin yet. So I'm not gonna mess up the timing in finding the so called "sweet spot". Last night was the first time I actually felt the "sweet spot". I can definitely tell I'm spinning on my inside edge on the ball of my foot.

I thought I'd never be able to spin. But hours and hours of practice do the trick.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Good for you, Luen, I'll try following your advice, which is pretty much the same as my coach's.

Out of synch: Me, this morning. Completely. Drove to the rink without my glasses, didn't even realize until halfway there. I was tired, shot, unfocused, a mess. We worked on back edges and at first, you'd think I didn't know how to do one!! After a bit, my coach smiled and said "Adding that extra early morning hour for synchro is kind of rough, huh?"

She was right. Since Sunday, I have skated for 4 and 1/2 hours, done a one hour stretch class and had a one hour bellydance class. That's a lot of exercise, and I think I finally just plain POOPED OUT. I'm just not used to all of this yet, especially since the return to dance class and beginning synchro are new.

Better synch: We harnessed and waltz jump was improved in and out of harness, and toeloop is getting better, too, so the day was more of a plus than a minus. Tomorrow I'm taking a day off with hubby. We're going to look at the leaves, tour some regional wineries, pack a picnic and just be lazy. We both need it.

One cute story from my dance class: Last night our Teacher had us in our circle doing the various tribal moves: Gawazi, 3/4 Gawazi, Egyptian, Arabic, and then she had us do the "Turkish" move. Well, this was new to me, but I was game and went along, thinking they'd done it in the first class, which I had missed. As she went around the circle checking us, she had to help people more than usual and she suddenly looked up and said "Oh geez, I didn't TEACH you this pattern yet!!!! :laugh: Hey, we did pretty good just following along!!!! :p :D
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Sync to the Bottom: Yesterday's practice was definitely not 100%. For some reason, I was very tired, and I had a hard time getting my excitement level up. I finally decided to cut myself some slack, work on all the elements individually, and only skated an hour.

I Sync I Can, I Sync I Can: I had a butt kicking good time at skating today. Despite the fact that my legs were not 100%, thanks to 2-1/2 hours of racquetball last night, I made it through my full program with only two errors. I'm allowed to reskate two elements, so as soon as I was done, I acted like the judges had asked me to reskate my jump combo, which was big and beautiful the 2nd time, and my axel, which was small and beautiful the 2nd time. Which means that if this had been an actual test, I would have passed. I'm storing that knowledge and feeling in my Big Fat Brain so that I have something to draw on during the actual test itself.

Hubby came to videotape with our new big camera, so tonight I'll watch the video and jot down the (many) things that need improvement. Thank goodness, I'm finally starting to feel "ready" for this test!

Yaz - you sounded awfully tired after all that activity, so don't be too hard on yourself for not feeling perfectly synched. Sounds like you still accomplished a lot, especially in the jump area. Thanks for sharing the dance info -- it's fun to hear new words and dance lingo, and your story was cute.

Lue - our fingers are crossed, as you requested, but it doesn't sound like you really need them since you're making great progress on your own. Congrats!

Dlkksk8fan - Skating in a mall - what fun! Sometimes a new venue is a great change of pace.
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Oh, I totally forgot - in another forum, Brigitte (singerskates) asked if we've recently crossed anything off of our skating "to do" lists.

Today I crossed off the scratch spin. Mine have been o.k., but skating with the cast on my arm makes it a little difficult to balance AND bring the arms in (the centrifugal force wants to take that cast and toss it out into the "audience"! But today, it all clicked, and my forward scratch was just AWESOME! My hubby got it on video, and after all the set-up revolutions, I did at least 12 amazingly fast revolutions, perfectly centered, feet crossed, everything aligned. Phew, I felt like Lucinda Ruh out there!

Luckily, I treated it like the end of the program, came out of the spin, and froze for a few seconds in my ending pose. I think if I had tried to skate, I would have slammed right to the ice from the vertigo!:\
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
In Sync:
Well, my coach is getting tired of my choreographer (her brother)
taking so long to choreograph my interpretive program. So today we
worked on it together and got some things moved around a bit. He will
be shocked when he see what we did it the program. ROTFLOL Anyway, we
were about 10 seconds into the program and I covered about 3/4's of
the NHL size rink and she wanted a spin. I didn't want to do the same
spin every time, so I tried to do a sitspin. That was the end of us
choreographing the program for the session. She saw that I was
getting down trying to get a sitspin going, so she switched to the
sitspin lesson. I really tried to get her to demo it for me. Nope,
she said on the ticket ice next week she'll do one for me. yeah, she
wants time to show me up. LOL Anyway, after she showed me the very
very basics at the boards, I went to try and try and try. The first
time was not pretty, one rotation, bad arms and didn't stay down.
Second time the same. Then something clicked. I was able to get my arms in the right place when down and got 2 slow revs. Then I did it again and got 2 fast revs and finally just before it was time for me to coach Learn to Skate, I got 3 fast revs before getting another in the upright position before exiting.

Now I only need to get my backspin to be 3 or 4 revs (OK, I want 5 to
9 like my forward upright spin) and I need to get a camel going. I'm
having trouble getting into the camel spin. Seems I'm not leaning
onto my left outside edge enough.

Out of Sync:
Flip and loop are still at the football game. LOL
Backwards inside and outside swing rolls getting cleaner slowly.
Still a bit of scrating. Back alternating Crosscuts getting cleaner
too. Funny my coach wanted me to do 6 of them to get to the other
side of the rink and I had to cut them down to 2 to fit the ice. LOL
Who's got power on ice?

In Sync:
If I haven't already told you guys, my coach is lining me up to
become a Skate Canada CanSkate Coach. Hellish:
That's why she's getting really
picky on my backwards edges. She wants that Sprint sound; nothing.

Almost In Sync:
Group Stroking Class was good today. Brook Coatsworth, who coaches my
stroaking class, liked my forward and back crosscuts but had to get
after a skater working on her junior bronze for her slopy posture and her execution. This skater has her prelim FS but is slopy in her
general skating skills and is about 12. I wish I would have had group
stroking classes from the start.

Out of Sync Coaching: I got this kid that wouldn't stop crying in Saturday Learn to Skate who was 3 years old and was taking a fit hyperventilating(sp) who would not stay up on his skates and kept pulling at my leg while I had another child on my right hand who was also a beginner. I had to stop, get down on my knees and talk right into the whiners eyes telling him that no matter how much he crys that he wasn't going to get off of the ice and that he was there to skate. I then worked to get him breathing normally and to stop crying before going for a short 20 minutes around with him and the other child in my hands around the rink. I was soaked with sweat from nerves head to toe from this. By the way, no other coaches could ever get this kid to stop crying and try to skate. Hopefully, he does better next time.

In Sync: Saturday's CanSkate session. I got my own group to teach, 10 of them working on level 4 and 5. Yes, I got movers who wanted to try to improve. What a relief from the session before (Sat. Learn To Skate)! My coach came about with only 10 minutes left before freeskate with the CanSkate page of elements. Before that, I just had the kids do what ever came to my mind. But as it turns out, the stuff I was having them do was on their level on the sheet. So I didn't have much more to teach them before freeskate time. One thing I was having trouble teaching them was to glide on their outside edge of the circle's inside foot before crossing over with the free foot. they totally just skipped it no matter how many times my assistant and I showed them. Then, there was also my coach's daughter in my group who just didn't take anything seriously. She thought everything was a joke.

Out of Sync after Sat. CanSkate: Couldn't find anyone with the coach's change room key to lock the door. I was the last one out but being a coach in training, I don't have a key to lock the door. I went upstairs to the Club Tecumseh office to find out that the lady doing the office work, didn't have a key. Then I went to find Shaun who runs Tecumseh arena to see if his master key worked to lock the door. Nope. So that means that the door is not locked and the club will have the door unlocked all weekend. Hope our sterio equipement is still in working condition by Monday. I think my club should give a key to the Club Office so that whoever is last out of the coach's room can lock the door. I know I would have if I could.

Brigitte
 

SugarCoated

Rinkside
Joined
Aug 15, 2003
singerskates - good luck on ur backspin! i feel for you, my backspin is barely 2 revs, sometimes barely 1

out of sync: horrible salchow. really really horrible. fell on most of them and the couple i didn't fall on my jumping leg was hooked and bah no height. I couldn't hold my spiral on the left foot it was really weird.

in sync: AHHH I LANDED MY TOE LOOP! TWICE! no cheating no nothing, a full rotation :). sorry it made me happy. My waltzs are improving and i did get one really really nice centered spin.
 
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Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Totally in-synch: Great ice on Sunday--smooth, a bit soft, even good at the goal ends. A good practice day. I hit a few multirev one foot spins and am finally getting my weight over the correct side. Salchows and waltz's were yummy.

A bit out of synch: Need more work on toe loop, I seem to hesistate a bit with the pick, but I knocked off a few that were better, so its coming along.

Singer: You have my sympathy. I work with two brothers in one beginner class, and the older one defines "whiny." He was better this Sunday, at least he wasn't grabbing me all the time, but every time we mention a skill other than just moving forward he wails a loud "NOOOOOOOO" and then of course, he usually does fine with it! :\
 
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