A+/F- Lessons and Practices July 27-August 2

And so begins my third month of skating... has it only been two months? I'm already so immersed in it. I have my first real lesson with Joy on Monday, although it's not quite private bcs Tricia's doing it with me still (we get to split the price that way).

F-: Darn those left inside mohawks! I had a real tailbone crunching fall practicing these, the kind where I try to slow down to regain my balance but I fall anyway and it's worse bcs I take more impact bcs I'd slowed down. Pfft. I can do right mohawks okay, and I can do some nice ones holding onto the boards, but when I do the left ones I either a.) start to do an inside 3turn w/ my left foot before putting my right foot down or b.) manage to do the proper foot change but can't hold the edges and end up going around in a little circle. Anyone have any advice for these? It feels like it should be such an easy move. Spins also aren't going anywhere, but I know what I need to work on for those.

A+: More crowded than it was last Friday afternoon, so I guess there's no pattern to rely on. Except for some reason they didn't have the music on, and I found I skated better. I guess that means visual distraction = good, audio distraction = bad. Hmm. Usually I warm up with stroking but I don't always do crossovers at the ends of the rink bcs I'm intimidated by doing them at that speed. Except this time, I actually focused on extension during stroking (rather than just doing laps to warm up my muscles) and I did crossovers in all the corners - a pretty basic thing, but I usually don't do it and today I did so I was happy. 3turns were great today, I'm getting better and better at really gliding in and out of them and not flailing around (hah). And they're getting faster - rather than just take off from a starting position I was able to stroke (slowly) into a few. I even tried a back three but umm... haha that isn't happening for awhile. Worked on waltz jumps a bit - Yazmeen I took your (or your coach's) method and didn't let myself walk through them first, I just DID it. Not a lot of improvement there, but I am proud to say I'm bending more and keeping my head up. And finally, my CW back crossovers are actually showing some improvement, ie I can do them continuously w/o having to pump in between. CCW back crossovers are getting better too, but I practiced them a bit less bcs they're "easy." I'm also (on the CCW ones at least) able to drag my foot over the other one rather than picking it up, which seems to be what the "pros" do - is that a back chasse? I dunno.

Way to go on skating this week, everyone! You are all so inspirational.

Rachel - wow, it's hard to believe you've only been skating two months. You're right to be proud of all the accomplishments you've ahd already. Girl, you're a "real" skater now! I'm sorry that I can't offer good instructional advice--I'm afraid that I learned some of this stuff too long ago to remember good ways to "teach" it and I don't want to fill you up with bad habits. I wasn't exactly sure what you were talking about with the back crossovers (the dragging thing), but keep in mind that every crossover (back OR front) is two pushes. So if you are going backwards CCW, the first pursh is your left foot pushing towards the left, using the outside edge of the blade. The second push is the right foot also pushing towards the left using the inner part of the blade, while the left foot crosses in front. I suspect this is the "dragging" your describing, meaning that you don't actually have to pick the left blade up off the ice as you do the crossover. (Someone correct me here if I've described this improperly.)

Glacier - I really want to come visit the pink Sonja Henie room and read all the books. I especially want to feel all your material and see your costumes. I'm not sure I'm going to find the time (or incliniation) to make my own costumes--but we'll see how that goes. BTW, I'm planning to have video for you at the end of April, right after my Silver test.

Sk8r1964 - You're definitely motivating me to get excited about starting to work on doubles. My coach and I agreed that we will do no such thing until (1) I pass my Silver FS test and (2) I am well out of this cast and have been in the brace at least a couple of weeks. So probably no doubles practice for me until at least mid to late fall. What I probably will do is begin practicing the drills that lead up to them. At the Kathy Casey seminar, she showed us a number of jump combos that help lead to doubles. I'll have to pull out my notes and see what I remember.

A+ - I had a great practice today, though I would rate my performance lower than an A+ because I primarily spent it on the things I don't do well (but isn't that what practice is for). I just mean that I didn't spend much time at all on things like flips which are my favorites. One thing that WAS an A+ today were my backspins, which is amazing because when I NEEDED them for the Bronze FS, they often deserted me. I was waiting for a song to end so I could put my program music on, and I whipped off two strong ones and one good one until the exit.

I spent the first half of practice working on all the individual elements from Silver FS. Hubby was there to videotape, so tonight I'm going to watch and self-critique and write down what I need to do at Monday's practice. I worked on camels, sit sins, and camel/sit combo with my "program arms" which is different from how I usually do them. I felt they were a little scratchy, but they seem to look better on the video.

I also worked on footwork segments, program segments to music only I could hear (wearing my MP3 player), and then did my whole program to the music. I would have rated it a C+, but everyone commented on quite a few things that they felt had improved. I had more speed, better breath control, landed all my jumps except for fudging the flip/loop combo. My split/falling leaf/toe loop combo was not so great in the program, but looked excellent afterward. I still have a lot of work to do to get my timing in line with the music (I tend to tense up and rush), but everyone said I'm showing more ice presence, artistic impression, and that I'm keeping my head up.

I finished up by power skating to 3 repeats of my program music, for a total of 6-1/2 sweaty minutes!
My husband hasn't seen me skate for two weeks, and his comment was, "You know, all that practice you're doing really shows. It's clear you've been working hard. It 's made a big difference in your skating. You look so much smoother out there."

Well, who could ask for anything more???

RACHEL:
I did not realize that you have been skating a mere 3 months! WOW! I am impressed! On the mohawk thing...Are you keeping your arms checked...making sure that they are in the right place and not throwing you off balance. Also, I am not sure how you are getting into a 3 turn on the mohawk, it sounds like you may be waiting too long to put the right foot down. Are you keeping your knees bents? When I learned these my coach had me skate on my left foot with my right heel poised perpendicular to the left nestled in where arch of the foot is. Then just a little quick stp down with the right foot, and wha-la...Mohawk. I hope that this is not confusing. I find that all written skating for me is. I have to really think about it....especially since I am a CCW skater. Do you have the pull on pads? They have padding in the rear, and sides. They may not sound glamourous, but they help. Excellent work thus far. It you get the chance, try a totally private lesson now and again. They are great. Oh, have you decided on a skate boot?

CINDER:
I have to wait until APRIL for a tape!?!?!? This will be more anticipated for me than the start of the skating season! I will be PATIENTLY waiting! The Sonja room is not done yet...I somehow found myself cleaning the garage for 6 hours yesterday...we have the fiance's dream car on the way, and he went to Vegas so I cleaned the garage and made a place for the car. Oh, this man so owes me...what will it be? More skate lessons? Trip to Nationals? That might be pushing it. I digress...anyway...anytime that you get ot NWA you have a room!


Oh, I do have skating news from the land of Glacier...I just found out that I am supposed to take my first USFSA test next Sunday. Did I already mention this? I just found out. Oh nervers! I can do it. I will be taking the adult pre bronze, and whatever the first one is on the harder, non-adult side. Thus far I have only tested ISI. My stomach lurches every time I think about it. The Tulsa skating club is really nice to our skaters when we go over...that helps a little. Then it will be on to Bronze level. I am stuggling with alternating 3 turns...if anyone has any advice...I am all ears. I usually have really nice 3 turns, deep edges, control, etc...but on the alternating 3's I tend to over rotate, and go back the other way. I have tried to check my arms, but sometimes I end up looking like a boy dog hiking his leg trying to keep my hip open...it ain't purdy.

You all keep up the good work. I am on the treadmill running when I am not skating, and I watch skating while I am on it...it's not quite the same, but a girl does what she can.

Glacier

Rachel - Have you tried doing your mohawks to a count? What I mean by that is something like this: edge-2-3-turn-2-3. That's what I do with my three-turn jump entries when I start to get whippy and it seems to help. Good luck - you are doing great

Thanks for the advice and encouragement everyone. I'm going to try a Sunday and see how it is (I went one Sunday back in January - it was my birthday, actually - and thought since it was the day of the Super Bowl it wouldn't be as crowded. Wrong! After an hour they turned on the disco ball and lights, which is my nemesis. Can't skate - too distracted! But summertime is way different, so we'll see) and I'll try everyone's tips. Glacier: I think you may be right and it's my arms throwing me off because I can do them just fine at the boards and that's when I'm resting my hands there for balance. I dunno.

sk8r1964: Your tip sounds good and it reminded me of something I totally forgot - I've done a little bit of dance (mostly in HS musical theater productions + a little outside tap) and I'm addicted to counting things out even after I've learned the steps; I work much better that way. But I haven't tried it at all with skating! I'm going to have to start doing that.

Yep, not even three months yet, but of course I did skate a lot before that not really knowing what I was doing, attempting crossovers with my body turned the wrong way and skidding all over on my dull skates... ah those were the days (Only a few months ago! hah) I can't wait until I'm asking everyone for jumping tips!

Oh, I would LOVE to have l discoball and lights at our rink! Of course I would probably break something!

Glacier -- As Homer Simpson would say, "D'oh!" NO, I did not mean April -- I am such a silly. I meant AUGUST. AUGUST, as in the month that just started. Sheesh! Maybe I'M the one who has fallen on my head, and I do not know this?

Anyway, I test on August 22. In the worst-case scenario, my plan is to have hubby come to skating the following Friday and videotape the program so I can send it to you. This way I will have practiced it for 3-1/2 weeks and perhaps polished it up a lot. Because right now, it doesn't have much in the way of artistic impression, because I'm still just working on stringing all the elements together and not dying from exhaustion! (I still like my idea to take a nap during the extra 30 seconds we added.)

But I may relent and just send you one of the previous practice sessions. I thought about sending you the one from this last Friday, but I was having some kind of a boot crisis and on-and-off my skates were attacking my feet. It caused me to skate sort of oddly--like not pointing my toes as I stroked around because the boots were sending pains up my legs when I extended. I also felt like my jumps were particularly puny that day. Then I finally bit the bullet and took both of them off and put them back on (not an easy feat with one hand in a cast, I might add), and everything was euphoric again at the end. Odd!

But the reason it might be a good DVD to send is that I ran through the individual elements (jumps and spins and footwork ad nauseum) and also my program. It was only the second time I've done a run-through of the new program to music, so it's clunky but not horrible for never really having done it.

Hmm, maybe if I send it to you with a thousand disclaimers, like "I'm really much better/thinner/prettier/artistic than this" or "Knowing you might watch this made me nervous and I didn't jump as high" and things like that??? Or just a giant "DON'T LAUGH" pasted on the case???

In any event, do you have a DVD player or do I need to send an actual video?

In AUGUST.

F-: They DID do the discoball, ewwww. I dunno, I get majorly distracted. Too many hockey boys too. Note to self: no skating on weekends.

A+: Tricia came w/ me, she hadn't been in a few weeks. We taught ourself a lunge! Kinda. But I think we're both doing it right. I have a lot more fun when someone is with me - a motivating factor, I guess. We tried to synchronize our waltz jumps.... didn't work that well! Haha. But in the process I set it to a count of 8 and found I was jumping a lot better. Interesante... I tried doing a back 3 again and fell on my beeehind but it was actually quite a graceful fall, so now I'm not as scared of them as I was before.

Tomorrow's our first lesson, and I'm probably gonna buy those skates. The worst thing that could happen is they're completely wrong for me and I sell them to someone else... I'm gonna try to skate a whole session w/ them and see. I dunno tho. I'll keep you posted.

Good luck with the skates tomorrow, Rach. And your bee-hind is looking just fab-u-lous. That falling really shapes it up nicely!

P.S. I took my niece roller skating yesterday and found that I HATED the disco ball/lights. Thank goodness it was an afternoon session and they only did it twice. I found that I couldn't really see well enough to avoid all the tiny tots out there. And I'm prone to migraines, so sometimes those things make me feel like I'm going to have an epileptic seizure. I'm with you--too distracting for skating purposes. Now disco music ... that's another thing altogether. Night fever, night fee-ver ...

wow Rachel! It took me nine months to get to the point where i learned a mowhawk! it was about last year that i was doing so... good times.

oh and sk8er1964, its isi freestyle 4

Whoops - this went into the wrong thread -- moving it to the right week .