Lyrical/Laughable Lessons & Practices, 11/3 - 11/9 | Golden Skate

Lyrical/Laughable Lessons & Practices, 11/3 - 11/9

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Lyrical: Absolutely nothing. Today was one of the most horrible days I've ever had on ice. I actually cried all the way home. :cry:

Laugh, clown, laugh: I hate to say it, but I'm beginning to think that Synchro was a big mistake. It didn't help that I was exhausted today after spending all of yesterday driving back from my conference. I just couldn't keep up. I was a mess. She went over more of the choreography and while I can do the moves, I'm not used to doing mohawks and three turns at high speed--even just some of the basic skating while holding onto others is almost frightening at the speed we need to be moving at. I balked out of things a couple times because I felt like I was going to tilt over. Hubby and I drove home miserable. I was in tears and he wasn't feeling much better. He's having trouble with the steps and getting everything in order, much less while holding onto someone at high speed. We are the two lowest level skaters in this group and the choreography just feels too fast and too complicated. I know I can get it with work, but NOT at high speed in one month!!!! We tried to basically do it with the music and there were points where I was just being dragged along in fear. I don't want to complain, but this seems to be too much for a beginner team--the program just seems very ambitious for newbies of varying levels. All of us came off the ice very subdued after realizing how the program was supposed to move with the music. My only comfort is that come of the other skaters were having trouble with it, too. I think we're going to need to talk at regular lessons tomorrow as a group, because if the synchro coach doesn't make this a little simpler or at least slower, both my husband and I will have to drop out. We don't want to hold everyone back.

I haven't felt this lousy about my skating in a long time. I'm sitting here at work still feeling miserable. I know I shouldn't let it get to me, and I know I'm exhausted and in bad need of a vacation, which will luckily be next week. After making so much progress in other areas recently, I felt like a complete idiot who couldn't stay on her feet today. Its just too much, too soon. Hopefully, we'll be able to work something out.

Hope your skating week goes better, everyone. I've got to just shake this off and be up for my regular lesson tomorrow.

:(
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Yazmeen, I hope you feel better soon. Remember, you wanna have fun skating, not crying all the way HOME!!!! If you don't have fun doing it, you may need to re-consider. Doing element in speed is totally different than doing it slowly. It takes lots of time and practice.

To be honest, being an adult skater and work full time. It's getting difficult. I have to do some other stuff like chores around the house, gym, dancing lessons, get together with friends/family, etc. I just don't have enough time to do it all.

Oh well. Here what I did on Sunday's practice.

Lyrical: 1 foot spin is still improving. I'm extremely happy about my 1 foot spin progress. I know I can do it, I just need time to practice it.

The flip is also getting better. I got the full revolution, I just double footed all the landing. :p

Laughable: Also worked on double 3s and they're OK. Just barely OK, not falling on my face kind of OK. I need to improve on my speed for the double 3s.

Trying to add more speed into the loop. The success rate is less than 30%. I'm so afraid of the high speed going into the loop. I need to get used to the feeling. Yaz, I feel your pain. I can do a loop easily if my speed is slow and easy. But when I speed up for the jump, it's down the drain. :(
 

Figureskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
First of all, I had to warm up on really awful ice. It was so deeply rutted that my skates were following the ruts rather than what I wanted to do. Thank goodness the Zamboni resurfaced the ice before my lesson ans exorcised the evil spirits haunting my skates!!

Lyrical: Coach is reworking my crossover both forward and backwards. In the forward crossover she is working on my extension and getting more of a lean into the circle. It is working and the crossovers are much cleaner and I am on more of an edge. The result is the forwards crossovers in an eight pattern is vastly improved.

Now the back crossovers are another matter. The big hangup is I am not holding the crossing skate on an inside edge when I draw the skate inside the skating leg. I have a tendency to flip to an outside edge which messes the whole crossover up. The problem seems to be in the counter clockwise direction. needless to say it messes up my back crossovers in an eight pattern. Today was better but needs lots more practice.

laughable: My toeloop!! Sorry people, I find this thing way harder than a Salchow which is really now consistent. I have two left skates when it comes to the toeloop. I am also working on the entrance to the spin. I am sure it will improve with practice and time but right now it is bad!!

Ah yes, the challenges of being an older adult figure skater!!
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Figureskates: Today, my coach was working on toeloop with an adult male skater, and she finally showed him waltz-toe after he asked if there was any way to do it "without the stinkin' 3 turn!!"
:lol

Much better day today--we worked on new moves for my artistic program, including power threes and perimeter stroking, which was fun. We also "Dorothied" my two feet spin, bringing the arms in and then hands down, and then tried arms up. Arms up is a bit of a bear, but I could at least do it a bit. We decided I'd compete at ISI FS 2 this year, so I'm movin' up!!! :D

As for synchro, a couple of our team members are coaches, including our head coach, and she had a heart to heart with the synchro coach, explaining that many of us are unhappy with the difficult choreography--it isn't just me. The synchro coach was surprised and really thought we'd all be able to get it, but she understood that we wanted to go slower. Most of the team is taking stretch class tonight, so we'll discuss it. The head coach asked me to call the synchro coach and explain it from the adult skater point of view (meaning those of us who didn't skate as kids). I think we might suggest simple choreography to some Christmas music for the holiday show--hopefully, the synchro coach will be agreeable or at least radically change the current program and slow it down and make it simpler. I think we'll be able to work it out, which is a relief. I really would like to do this as long as we keep it basic to start.
 

Figureskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Ah yes, the stinkin' 3-turn!!

Actually Yazmeen, my coach is having me use both entries into the toeloop for two reasons.

1) Face the fact that an inside 3-turn is an essential element of figure skating.

2) Waltz jump entry gives me beginning foundation to multiple jump sequences.

One thing I learned long, long time ago, you can't get away with anything with my coach!!
 

dlkksk8fan

Medalist
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Got on the ice today after a week off.

Lyrical: Since I have been working on my entry into my spins, which is much better, I was able to do a camel spin. Not great but at least I got a few revolutions going and then was able to finish with a one foot spin. Waltz jump was much higher off the ice:)

Laughable: Sit spins. This spin is so much harder for us old folk (at least for me it is). I find it hard to get "down" in a good position. At least I didn't fall trying!

Can someone explain to me what a waltz jump entry into a toelop is? Is this easier to do then a 3 turn?
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
dlk: You do a waltz, and as you are already on the back outside edge of the skating foot completing the waltz jump, you just pick back with the free foot and do the toe loop. You eliminate the inside three as you accomplish the back outside edge with the waltz jump. Many find it "steadier" than the swingy three turn entrance. I like it better, my toeloop is stronger with the waltz and I hesitate less with the pick than when I do the toeloop alone. Plus, its a combo, so its a win-win situation.
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Yazmeen said:
dlk: You do a waltz, and as you are already on the back outside edge of the skating foot completing the waltz jump, you just pick back with the free foot and do the toe loop. You eliminate the inside three as you accomplish the back outside edge with the waltz jump. Many find it "steadier" than the swingy three turn entrance. I like it better, my toeloop is stronger with the waltz and I hesitate less with the pick than when I do the toeloop alone. Plus, its a combo, so its a win-win situation.

In other words, it's just a waltz/toe combination jump.

No biggie.
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Laughable:

Couldn't breath proper so I had to go to the doc after work to get my preventative changed from the nose spray to the inhaler and I had to go an anitbiotics again.

Once again on my ice (junior session), I couldn't run through my program. Just too many kids just learning to skate forwards who shouldn't be on junior ice and should be on CanSkate ice in my way. I'm the fastest skater on this ice and I'm constantly having trouble doing my programs because I have to stop dead in the middle of elements or setting up an element. I had to restart my program 20 times today and not once did I get to run through it all the way. I didn't get to do my program with my music either.

Lyrical:
Still able to do a sitspin and finally figured out how my coach got me from a RBO swing roll into my sitspin; finish back swing roll and then step forward into a LFO3 and then step onto a BI edge and start going into the sit spin prep. Coach is going to give me a make up lesson tomorrow; 1 hour. She missed last week's Wed. and Fri. lessons because her 2 year old was in the hospital for 3 days. Poor kid. Kid is doing better now.

Since I wasn't getting anywhere with my own skating, I was glad to do some teaching for my over booked coach. I took this girl who only had been on the ice a few times before and was teaching her proper forward stoking technics. I was trying to get her to lift her freeleg and touch her skating leg with it at the ankle. It took her along time to get her to stop wide stepping with her right foot. But she never quite got it with her Left skating leg. She had for the most part her legs about a foot and a half apart. I tried to teach her about inside and outside edges at the boards and showed her how to push off from a T position. I was also trying to get her to push each step from the middle of her blade and not the toe pick. I had her try to feel the outside edge of her blade at the boards on the ice and then rock to the inside edge to give the skating leg a push. She just doesn't understand yet.

My coach was talking to the skaters mom after the session and the mom was not to happy that I was coaching her daughter and not my coach. My coach was just over booked as most of the other coaches left for the day after the presectional ice was over. My coach is all stressed out over all these skating moms who have their kids skating on the junior ice thinking that their kids should be doing what I can do in a couple weeks. Hello, it didn't take me a couple weeks to get where I am and it just doesn't work that way. You don't go from barely standing on skates to doing loops, flips and sitspins in a month. These moms need to relax.

Anyway, my coach and the head coach are looking into switching me from the Junior ice to the Presectional/Sectional ice since I can't get any of my programs skated or any elements on their own done on the Junior ice because all of these preprelim and CanSkate kids are on my ice and even the other two skaters who are really working on their Prelim FS don't move fast enough for me to be able to do my programs. It wasn't bad in September before the CanSkaters and more preprelim skaters got on the Junior ice but now, it's just impossible. I should here what sessions, I'll be move to soon.

I really need this ice move since I'm teaching on my session to help out my over stressed coach and because I need ice where I can train to improve my skating skills and elements so that I can pass the tests for competitions and to be able to get my CanSkate Coaching stuff lined up for the course and so that I can also be ready to take the other courses to become a Level 1 NCCP coach. Then I will really be qualified to teach everything from Learn To Skate, CanSkate upto Junior Bronze.

I have to test 2 dance ASAP, Baby Blues and Fiesta Tango. And then I have 2 more Junior Bronze dance and 2 Senior Bronze dance to learn and the Bronze Creative dance to make up and learn and test. My coach is under the assumption that I have to do one dicipline upto the Senior Bronze level and then I can go for the coaching course. In the mean time, I'm teaching as a program assistant on Learn To Skate, CanSkate and the Junior ice of which I'm suppose to be skating.

Any other adults in this situation too (skater & teacher)?


Brigitte
 

luenatic

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 28, 2003
Laughable: MITF class. Yike. We're doing back edge pulls into double 3s. Yeah right. That's a waste of time for me :p I can do back edge pull and double 3 seperately. BUT not together. Oh well.

Lyrical: My coach was pleased with my 1-foot spin, so now I have to start back spin. :) I'll be rain man again and keep saying, "I'll work on it, I'll work on it and I'll work on it"!

Others: We didn't work on jumps at all. Instead, we're working on back crossover in a huge Figure 8 pattern. Basically, do right BX in half of the rink (make 1 circle), then do left BX in the other half of the rink to complete the figure 8 pattern. We're working on adding speed and pay attention to extension while doing XO. It's difficult to do it in public session. I'll say it's almost impossible with so many people on the ice. Don't know where we're going with this.

Tried various stuff like forward inside spiral, 3 turns into BO pivot. Inside mohawk into double 3s and repeat the same pattern immediately. My right side is much better than my left. My coach asked me to work on my left side more.

All in all, not too bad. Won't go to the rink again until Sunday. Just don't have enough time.
 

singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Laughable:
Salchow was giving me trouble today and I don't know why other than my left leg lower leg feels stiff and just won't let me get off of the ice on the takeoff. Same for flips. I think I need more time to heal from all the coughing I've been doing because my old preventative wasn't working and my ab muscles seem shot at the moment. I also couldn't feel my left leg coming out of the backspin position during my loop so I two footed ever single one.

Lyrical:
My coach and I got more of my interpretive program choreographed today. Coach likes that I'm doing my sitspin each time I run through what's been already done. Still don't have my signature move in the program but I am going to put it in. Probably at the end of the program after the footwork sequence. I haven't even passed my prelim test yet, yet she has me doing rockers and Alexie Yagudin style footwork for the faster part of the footwork that goes diagonally from left bottem corner to the right top corner. I found out that these rockers and the footwork I'm doing for my interpretive is Senior Bronze level. Gees. Now I just have to do it with some speed. Just learned teh rockers today.
 

Yazmeen

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
Laughable: Me in general on Thursday, I was just so tired. Didn't make my bellydance class the previous evening as I got called back to the hospital to perform a study, and I got home late.

Love the lyrics: A good session with coach. Worked on power 3's, perimeter stroking, and alt. back crossovers followed by extensions. All are coming along nicely. LOOOVVE the perimeter stroking--it looks so cool!

Well, I finally get a long needed vay-kay next week, so I'll see you guys when I get back. Its a break from work, skating, everything, and I really need it. Take care, and Happy Skating!!!:love:
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
LYCRA ... oops, I mean LYRIC (when you're an adult skater, Lycra commands a greater importance in your life!)

Yesterday's practice was quite nice. It will come as no surprise that my whole practice focused on SMOOTHNESS on the ice (since that's what I got dinged on in my test on Thursday). I had a good day with all the elements and realized that I have to work more on where my arms are so they aren't flapping around like the Lost in Space Robot (danger, Will Robinson, danger!).

Then I took out my absolutely gorgeous, brand new, fabulous skates and managed to skate in them for 45 minutes without my feet falling off in pain. I think they are going to break in quite well. I have another 3 hours to put in before I'm "allowed" to jump or spin in them. So now that I've got the first 70 minutes, I think next time I'll try skating backwards and doing back crossovers.

I skated for over 2 hours, and since the last 45 minutes were virtually nonstop, I was just bushed. If I can find the time, I might go over to the public skate tomorrow and see if I can get at least another hour into the new skates.

Coach wants me to bring both pairs to my lesson on Tuesday so she can evaluate whether I'm ready to begin training in the new ones and chuck the old. She's hesitant to have me start skating in the new (which also have new blades and a different toepick configuration than I'm used to) because that adds a new variable to my program, and I only have 4 weeks before I test again. But the problem with the old skates is that they are so broken down, they are starting to pinch my ankles because the top part of the skates can fold back over onto themselves (can you imagine landing jumps in these things!). In fact, one of the other coaches at the rink is convinced that my recent scratchiness is caused by having no support whatsoever. So we'll see how this plays out.

I'm so behind in posting, that I apologize for not giving a personal "woo hoo" to everyone who's been so nice and detailed this week about their practices. I will get my act together and stay on top of this a little better. But just wanted to thank you all for sharing your accomplishments. It's always so inspiring to read these posts!
 
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singerskates

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Lyrical:

Well, it's official. I'm off of the Junior ice and on to the Pre-Sectional/Sectional ice, meaning I'm skating with skaters who are working on their junior bronze(prejuv in US) to gold/senior competitive(novice to senior in US) skaters. I start on this ice on Thursdays at 3:20 pm and Fridays at 4pm. I'm still skating my ticket ice on Wednesdays at 2pm.

I won't be teaching Learn to Skate on Fridays anymore. Instead I'll be teaching the upper level CanSkaters who are on the Junior session and leaving at 6pm. Won't be late to lead Youth Group Fridays anymore. I'm still doing Learn To Skate and CanSkate on Saturdays. My niece may join the club for CanSkate on Saturdays. I advised her mom to have her try skating at public skating first to see if she really liked it or not.

On my last Junior session on Friday, one of the skating moms asked me if I skated as a child. I said no. Never. I had to convince her that I only skated skating over 4 years ago and when I did that I was barely not touching the boards at the time. She thought I had been skating for years just because I had a little speed and wasn't constantly looking at the ice. Well, if she would have seen me skate last year, she wouldn't have asked me if I skated as a kid. She would have known that I was a complete beginner adult skater. My stroking classes have been helping me tremendously to gain proper technic, power and speed. Also we've been working on the turns with flow and speed too in stroking.

One last thing, I discovered that when I'm teaching, I'm not thinking about if I can move CW. I can move CW doing turns, two foot jumps, waltz jumps, toe loops and two foot spins. Now, I'm a CCW skater so CW is not my direction of choice. I have to teach more Lefty upper CanSkaters and more Lefty preprelims so that I can get really good at moving CWs.

Laughable:

Ran through my interp program and forgot how my coach laid it out. My coach at one point was following me saying that's not how I put it together. I sort of improvised as I went along after the sitspin.

Ok, Yes I have a new 4 rotation sitspin but like the commercial that says "I've fallen and I can't get up.", I said to my coach "I've sat and I can't get the freeleg up and out." Coach nearly died laughing on that one. I'm able to get back up to do a forward spin before exiting properly.

Backspin is still 1 and 1/2 rotations and I want it to be at least 4 rotations for competitions.

Flips and loops still two footing them. I'm wondering if that surgery to remove the ovarian cyst I had last year messed up some of my abdominal nerves because I can't feel my left leg falling down and out to touch the ice first. It's very frustrating. I can hear it but I just can't feel it. If I can't feel it, how do I control it? I think my right side/ab is really week. Any tips to gain strength on the right side?

Footwork sequence was good until I got to the Rocker and then the Alexie Yagudin toepicking footwork going backwards. My feet got all tangled up on which foot to pick where and when. LOL

Ok, I lost one of my stroking sessions to get my Thursday Pre-sectional ice. Hopefully, I won't miss it since I don't get a lesson on that stroking session anyway. I more or less work on stuff on my own or my coach once and a while shouts footwork steps out to me to do while teaching the kids.
 

Cinderella on Ice

Bless you, Fairy Godmother, I'm Having a BALL!
On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Lyrical -
I wound up having a marvelous skate yesterday -- instead of the 45 minutes planned, I was out on those new (concrete block) skates for an hour and 15! That was constant stroking and back crossovers, without one rest. Woo hoo. The feeling is still odd, but they are starting to ease up a little. Also ran into an 11 year old named Brianne who skates the same time I do on Monday and Tuesday mornings. She was curious about the skates and started "pushing" me to do more. Could I do a back spin? Could I do a scratch spin? Well, you know competitive ole me. Next thing you now I was popping off some fairly nice spins considering the limitations of the stiff boots. We did this for about 15 minutes at the end, and then I thanked her profusely for kicking my butt and getting me moving hard when otherwise I would have left the ice because I was "done." Her mom said it was so "cute" to see the two of us doing what a lot of the young kids do when they get together. Her mom is really nice and one of the women who is always supportive of me when I'm out there. She said the other moms like it that I make friends with their daughters because it's like them having an adult role model who they listen to and observe, but the kids don't think of me as an adult, so it's sort of subliminal. She said that the kids always say on how hard I work during practice and that I always make comments about how much I LOVE skating (almost every practice, at some point, I have to just burst it out!). So it's good for them to hear and to remember how fun and exciting it is.
 
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