Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Hello kidlets, it's a new week and a new chance to show off what you can do out there.

Tell us about your great (slinky) and less-than-great (stinky) efforts this week.

And enjoy!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

SLINKY: This weekend DH and I worked on my music to expand it by 30 more seconds so it's now 2 min 10 secs, just right for Silver Freestyle. It's better than ever.

I've substituted some of the new required elements for the old ones, so this morning I "test drove" it for the first time. I'm pretty pleased with it, and tomorrow during my lesson my coach will put the winning touches on the connecting moves that are now needed. I only did one simulated run-through today, where I completed about half the elements. I spent the rest of my time brushing up on the "new" jumps and spins, primarily the lutz (which was quite smoothe today), camel/sit spin, sit spin/scratch combo, and salchow/toe loop combo.

STINKY: I sure wish I had a killer layback or attitude spin. I have neither (don't think I ever did, even as a kid), but I've asked my coach to at least work with me over the next 4 weeks to develop an odd but attractive attitude. There's a part of my music just CALLING for it, and since I have all the other elements under good control, I figure I could spend the next 4 weeks working on the attitude, the endurance, and other artistry. I really want THIS program to look like something I would invite someone to watch.

SLINKY: So I'm all hepped up thinking about my lesson tomorrow and hoping she'll indulge me in the basics of what I'll then practice furiously on Wednesday and Friday (and maybe even Sunday!).

Hope everyone is skating happy this week.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices June 20-26

<span style="color:fuchsia;font-size:medium;">CINDER:</span>
Is this for July or June? The title says June, the post is July.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT="">

Sheesh. Maybe all that spinning is scrambling my brains?!?

This was supposed to be yesterday's new week. I've corrected the posts that I can edit.

Sorry, everyone!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

I was waiting anxiously for the new week to begin!

<span style="color:fuchsia;font-size:medium;">CINDER:</span>
Based on everthing that you have told me about your skating, you will be doing well with your new program! I love attitude spins. I like seeing people perform unusual elements. Maybe you just need some ideas from your coach. The stuff that I am sending you will have some great back exercises in it...not sure which part of the layback you are not happy with, but it might help. I have not learned them yet, but looking forward to it. SO, when you get this one down, I get to see it, right?

<span style="color:fuchsia;font-size:medium;">As for moi:</span> (as Miss Piggy would say)
Hmmm...had skate camp last week and helped with that. I did not get to skate very much. I will hopefully make up for it with a skating marathon on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I am frustrated right now becaue I feel unorganized. I don't have any plan when I skate. Is it normal for a coach to provide a syllabus of sorts? This is an area that I struggle with. And I don't feel that lessons are always organized. I usually pick what we work on instead of being guided. Any ideas here?

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Stinky: THE WEATHER--rainy, windy, thunder and lightning. My coach was in Florida since last Thursday, and she couldn't get a plane out because of the weather in Philly yesterday, so no lesson today. (You know its windy when the wind moves a heavy pyrex dish holding dinner in it prior to grilling. I'm amazed the grill didn't "blow out" before I could cook last night!)

A wee bit Smelly: At least practice showed me things to get help on: The push off and balance for back inside edges--now that they're bigger, my control is a bit off. I also need work on the progressive crossover pattern (speeding up with each one) on my left forwards--I just don't feel the security I do with my right. Of course, I'm a CCW, so that doesn't help.

Slinky baby: The Kwan spiral keeps progressing, back outside edges are WAY improved, and I'm getting the progressive back crossovers better, along with the ISI FS2 step pattern progressing swimmingly.

And kudos to my hubby: He got my nemesis move, the LFI 3 turn on the first try. I'm proud but also more than wee bit jealous. Of course, he pointed out, he's a clockwise, and he hasn't tried the right side yet--the left is his natural direction. I haven't even tried a LFI 3 since I had my old skates. I want to completely relearn them with work at the boards and major coaching help prior to trying them. No use ingraining any bad habits first.

Happy skating everyone!!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

One class A Stinkburger!! My coach is on vacation and she took my Salchow with her!! I am better on holding the LBI but the timing is still off in roating my right leg and right side through, thus still landing off to the side. I can do it on the boards almost perfectly, move out away from the boards and bye bye Sal.

She will be back next week and not one nanosecond too soon!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

GLACIER - I definitely rely on my coach a lot to "tell" me what we're going to work on during our lessons. She has a great ability to break everything down into different chunks, so we never do too much of anything, but we cover a lot of stuff. If she really like something, we move on, so I don't tire myself out doing stuff over and over that is o.k. If I'm learning quickly, we keep going; if I'm not, we drop it for now. Because of the testing, there is a lot of structure to what we do, because by necessity I have to get good on certain elements. For practicing by myself, I always plan in advance what I'm going to work on. I have a notebook and I write in it what I hope to accomplish at that practice. I might write that I want to do the clockwise moves 3x to every 1x the other direction; that I want to work on leg extensions on all jumps; that I want to improve my flow of footwork after a "dizzying" spin; and that I want to figure out where to put my arms after a particular move has ended. I review this list before I go on the ice (sometimes I bring it with me). I list things as both "primary" and "secondary" goals, with the idea being I will at least do all primary. But sometimes when things go well (or even bad), I need to move on to the secondary. After I skate, I make notes next to each of the original notes on what I accomplished and how. Anything I didn't do well goes on my list for the next practice. Then I look at my lists of elements needed for my program and/or tests and add some of them to the next practice's plan of attack. It really helps keep me from dilly dallying around. I also include things like building endurance (e.g., do my program in full to music and then stroke around as powerfully as possible for 8 more minutes straight). Stuff like that.

YAZ and MR. YAZ - You go, kids! Glad to hear about the progress on the spiral and the 3s. And even a practice that doesn't quite go as planned is still a good one if it points out what needs work and you can self-assess the way you did. Glad also that the grill didn't blow away, though if it had come here with a couple of steaks sizzling away, I promise I would have takent good care of them (oops, I mean it)!

FIGURESKATES - Sorry you're singing the Salchow Blues, but I'm sure it will be back before you know it. Unfortunately, that's the way these elements sometimes are, but your coach will help you capture the elusive salchow again soon.

SLINKY - Woo woo woo, I had a great practice this morning. Before my coach came, I ran through all my combo jumps and footwork steps. Then she and I filled in all the choreography gaps in the new Silver program. So tonight I will step through everything to the music to be sure I've memorized it, and then tomorrow it gets its first trial run. I'm especially excited to have some new "arm positions" to use in some spins and steps which are kind of wicked looking and way cool. I will work on them tomorrow and Friday as well. The other good news is that my test date has moved one week later to August 22, so I have a little more time to jazz this one up. Alright!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Cindy: You had mentioned somewhere that you used to do your doubles with your feet parallel instead of crossed. Well, I have been having a terrible time with my doubles. With the axels, the muscle memory was there right away, but with the doubles everything has felt wrong. Well, I remembered your post and mentioned it to my coach. We discussed it a bit, and thought that this may be one of the problems that I am having with the doubles. I asked my mom (who coached when I was a kid), and sure enough, I did doubles without the legs crossed too. So, I need to relearn the muscle memory. Easier to do now that I know what the problem is. Gosh, I was seriously wondering if I was getting too old to rotate, but the problem is my "wrong" (not for the 70's) muscle memory warring with what my coach is telling me now. And I want to do the correct 21st century version.

Thought I'd thank you for the mention of the non-crossed doubles and warn you of what to expect!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Stinky: Took me for-EVAH to warm up this morning. I dunno why. I need to figure out a different off-ice warmup, incorporating some of the tips from you guys in that one thread. Anyway, my ankles (my weakest place) were on fire for the first half hour or so. The ice again felt weird, and I'm blaming that as the reason that I lost my balance a few times during normal stroking. Joy (coach, who was there this morning) told me something went wrong with the humidifier (?) over the weekend and there were little mountains all over the ice on one side that formed because the ceiling was dripping. They fixed it, but that probably made the ice not so good. I'm getting very picky about ice quality now, and it doesn't seem to be very consistent at my rink.

Slinky: After I got over my initial frustration, I managed to practice a lot of things. Most notably I practiced mohawks at the boards for what seemed like forever, and I got a nice little turned-out snap thing going on. Can't do them very well without help, but ohwell. Let's see, what else... I forced myself to work on spinning and CW back crossovers, two things I'm pretty weak at, and I noticed progress, so that was good.

Tomorrow is my last Basic Skills class. Boo hoo! While I will not miss having to share the ice with 60 five year olds careening all over the place, I do feel rather nostalgic about it, since it really has been my "introduction" to figure skating. More updates tomorrow...

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Sk8r1964 - Oh boy, a portent of things to come. I'm not ready to re-activate those doubles quite yet, but I appreciate the advance warning. I've been practicing crossing those legs during my off-ice drills, and doing things like off-ice loop and flip jumps where I cross them. I haven't tried it on ice yet (a little afraid with the ole cast and because I have the testing just coming up). But I can see that I'll need to. Glad that my accidental discovery might help you nail those doubles. Then you can come here and help me out!

Rachelstarlet - Three cheers for you for practicing things you didn't really "feel" like. That is always a good sign that you are becoming a "true" skater. Think how crappy everyone would be if they only did the things they were good at! As far as ice quality, my sympathies on your experiences so far. I especially hate those little "ice tits" that form from the drippings. We've been fortunate not to have those; however our quality over the last few days has been so horrendous that they keep switching us from rink to rink because it would take too long to do the repairs necessary in between the sessions. I don't know what's going on, but be sure to listen to your gut and don't do anything too strenuous if you feel the ice is rutty or dangerous. Better safe than sorry!

I'm heading off for practice and will post the results later.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Sk8r1964 - Oh boy, a portent of things to come. I'm not ready to re-activate those doubles quite yet, but I appreciate the advance warning. I've been practicing crossing those legs during my off-ice drills, and doing things like off-ice loop and flip jumps where I cross them. I haven't tried it on ice yet (a little afraid with the ole cast and because I have the testing just coming up). But I can see that I'll need to. Glad that my accidental discovery might help you nail those doubles. Then you can come here and help me out!

Rachelstarlet - Three cheers for you for practicing things you didn't really "feel" like. That is always a good sign that you are becoming a "true" skater. Think how crappy everyone would be if they only did the things they were good at! As far as ice quality, my sympathies on your experiences so far. I especially hate those little "ice tits" that form from the drippings. We've been fortunate not to have those; however our quality over the last few days has been so horrendous that they keep switching us from rink to rink because it would take too long to do the repairs necessary in between the sessions. I don't know what's going on, but be sure to listen to your gut and don't do anything too strenuous if you feel the ice is rutty or dangerous. Better safe than sorry!

I'm heading off for practice and will post the results later.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

SLINKY? STINKY? - Whoa, boy, do I ever have my work cut out for me. I worked on my new skating program almost the whole session, and it reminded me of trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. Just as soon as I'd get the beginning footwork sequence down, I'd screw up the following spin. Or do the spin and come out of it dizzy and blow the next moves. Or forget I'm doing the "new" program and suddenly veer off into the old one. And then some. Who knew that skating was so complicated?

So basically, I looked like a confused putz out there and was still having a blast. I gave up on trying to do the whole thing at once so I wouldn't have an early coronary, and mostly focused on learning the 4 new connecting steps/footwork. I feel like 3 of them work fine, but the 4th is not quite what my coach intended and she's going to need to do triage on it at my lesson on Tuesday.

I did endurance at the end and then a super stretching session, so I should be all primed for Friday with tomorrow as a skating rest day. Things will get better, as they can't get much worse!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

I am just checking in to tell you guys what a bum I am. I got off work this morning (0700) and slept until 1400. I feel lethargic and lazy today. I am hoping that I can start putting together my program for FS4, and figure out what I am going to be doing for pre bronze and bronze testing...I don't feel organized, and it is making it hard to be focused on what I am supposed to be doing. Glacierskater is cranky tonight.

I need to go to bed. I will be checking in after practice tomorrow. You guys are keeping me inspired.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

LAST CLASS OF BASIC SKILLS, week 8

Stinky: Didn't skate that well in the evening session (i.e. where I stay after my lesson for the "cheap skate" night w/o paying even tho it's not technically allowed); I think I was just tired.

Slinky: I officially passed Basic Three, woohoo! I know a lot of the elements from the other levels, but I think three was the only one I'd be able to get through anyway (we only had time to do everything up to there). I didn't get a cool report card like the little kids, ohwell . Except I was confused - I know we're a USFSA rink, but when I looked at the USFSA description of Basic Eights, it was different than what Joy had. Hmm. HEY WAIT! I clicked on "Adult" and now that makes sense. Okay, I've officially passed ADULT Three. We also learned progressives and chasses today, which I enjoyed a lot. Umm... what else. Oh yeah, I made my mom come with me today, and she was very impressed.

More later about my try around the rink w/ Joy's skates.

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

Cindy: Good luck with that footwork pattern--sounds like the program is coming along wonderfully!!

Rachel: Congrats on passing Basic 3--good for you!!! You have made really terrific progress. Are you going to continue with groups in the Fall or consider privates?

Stinky: Nada. It was a good day.

Slink, slink, slink: We worked on the forward progressive crossover pattern today (increasing speed with each successive one) and that went swimmingly.

Then my coach brought up...(horrors!!!) ...THREE TURNS!

NOW, I really understand why she had me doing that figure eight pattern. We worked on forward outsides and the goal was to a FULL beginning outside edge, as if I were doing edges. In other words, do a full RFO or LFO edge and THEN turn. This requires far less arms and takes away the "hurling" of oneself into the three turn that a lot of us do. It was a bit tough at first, but after a few tries I started getting decent back inside edges. I was surprised at the difference--I suddenly went from rather stinky three turns to spot on ones. That doggone figure pattern helped me get over my tendency to turn too quickly--hooray!!! On Tuesday, we'lll work on inside 3's The LFI3 is my nemesis, but we're going to start over from the beginning, and after seeing what occurred today, I'm actually looking forward to this!!!

We also worked on two foot spins, and now that we've gotten rid of that pesky flaw I had before, I'm consistently hitting it and getting three to four or more revs and it keeps improving--I can finally get it out of back crossovers consistently, too. We went back to one foot spins, and I'm hitting a good approach now with speed and getting a couple of revs, so all was good today!!!

Skate with joy, everybody!!!

slinky/stinky

Cinderella, you are the best for setting up these weekly strings. I love how supportive you all are, so I'm joining you!

So, here's where I'm coming from. Long, long ago, ending when I was about 14 (about 25 years ago!), I skated a few times a week for a few hours a day. Since then, until last summer, I skated about once a year if I was lucky. Then last summer, I decided I wanted to try it again- I ended up being at the right level for an adult group class at my rink, with weird strengths and weaknesses (very strong cross-overs, but am still re-learning 3 turns- coach is always surprised by what I can do comfortably with flow and what completely throws me- muscle memory doesn't work until you are doing something right!). I'm pretty much working on the same things as Yazmeen! With this week's slinky/stinking VERY parallel.

Had my lesson last night:

STINKY- FI 3 turns and BI 3 turns. Getting better. The FI attempts no longer induce total terror- I can do them but still VERY tentative and NOT in combination... and on the BI 3, I usually end up stuck on my toepick. Practice and courage needed.

SLINKY- The class before me was working on basic forward outside figure eights- an easy school figure. So after my class I decided to try that (first time in decades)- and I could do it! Took a few tries to remember the coordination it takes to get around the circle, but what makes it work is staying down in the knees and right over the skate. Moved on to FI 8- which I think will be a great exercise for practicing staying down in my knees before making a FI 3 turn attempt. Moved on to the one where you start on the FO edge then do a 3 turn at the top of the circle- great exercise to practice controlling the FO 3 turn! I am so happy to be adding basic figures back into my repertory!

Re: slinky/stinky

icer: What you were doing with the edge and forward 3 at the top of the circle was EXACTLY what my coach was teaching me today. You're a bit ahead of me in some areas, I haven't gotten to back 3's yet. Good for you for coming back!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

GLACIERHONEY - Obviously, your body just wanted some sleep sleep sleep and I'm sure your cranky ole self will be back to normal in no time. I think I know how ya feel--when I get "out of control," there's just no appeasing me. Grab a pen and some paper and jot down 3 things that you LIKE about your skating. Things you do well or that make you feel good. Then jot down 3 things you could do at your next practice that need some work and kind of bum you out. Go to practice. Warm up. Do one of the fun/good things. Do one of the icky things. Do one more of the good things. Do two more icky things. At the end, treat yourself to the third good thing. That's all. Congrats, you're back in control. You have the power. Hang in there, baby, we're all with you and you'll be having slinky days before you know it.

RACHELSTARLET - Here it is right here, your "official" report card with lots of smiley faces on it. Good gooding on your test and congrats at making the next level. We give you a gold "STAR"let!

YAZ - You're making us dizzy with those awesome two foot spins! Just think, not long ago you were pretty certain that they were your nemesis, and look how far you've come. That LFI3 is going to go down the same way! A couple weeks from now you'll be whipping those babies out like they were forward stroking. You go, girl!

Re: Slinky / Stinky Lessons & Practices July 20-26

You guys, I am a spaz this week. I will respond to all and share my love and support tomorrow. Today was marathon skating day. Lesson in the a.m., and did well on the loop. I am having a breakthrough on consistency. Learned the way that a lutz is supposed to go...too chicken to try right now. Can't think, must sleep. I have a lesson in the a.m., and I will check in with the week's sordid details. You all are keeping inspired...I hope I can share some inspiration tomorrow.
Glacier