Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

[starshinexavier]

Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

A new skating week is among us. Tell us about your Woo Hoo! (good) and D'oh (bad) lessons and practices!

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Woo Hoo: -Had an open dance session, so instead of doing group work, we got to do our dances individually. After not doing the Westminister for 2 months, I remembered it, and it wasn't too bad.
-Good lesson with my coach. She's still loving the changes to the interpretive, which is GOOD!!!
-Nice run through. Tons more power than last week, which is quite an amazing feat on dull skates. More dramatic than usual too.
-OMG!!! I am the 2 sal queen! I've gained more muscle in my upper body since last week at skating, which has majorly helped getting height and distance on the sals. They have a lot more speed going in and coming out as well.
-axels are higher and faster. A little weird on the landing though, but they're better, so who cares?!

D'oh: -was doing 2 sals and did this HUGE, dramatic wipe out, complete with sliding and rolling. Quite the sight to see.
-I have a run-into-me magnet on my back or something. The same person kept getting in my way when I was doing the runthrough of my interpretive. It didn't stop me though, but heightened my feeling of being chased in the program.

Happy Skating!

 

[Lanechka]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

On Monday I went to my lesson with my coach and we spent an hour together instead of thirty minutes, which was good because the extra thirty minutes was free of charge.

Woo hoo--I've got WHY I had the major problem with the salchow and it's better. Still struggling to try to get a full revolution but that's okay. I also have a one foot spin down and the whole spin entry (crossovers)... it's a pain. Waltzes are bigger. Not having a problem with the mohawk anymore, either, which is VERY good. Haha.

D'oh--Well, this is just amusing because I fell a LOT and once fell all over my poor coach. And I ripped my rights up falling on spins, how funky is that?!

Congrats on the 2sals, starshine, I'm sure you'll be doing 3sals in no time!

-Lanie

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Lanechka, you'll have that sal in no time. Good job with the waltz jumps, one foot spin and mohawks!! Keep up the awesomeness!

Woo Hoo:-I'm jumping very well. Good axels, 2 sals and 2 loops. Even did a jump sequence with 2 sal, hop, flip, 2 loop. When I'm feeling more adventurous, I'll try 2 sal, 2 loop combos.
-did a run through of my solo, and my coach commented on how pretty and graceful it is. I even put doubles in it too, after not skating it full out since February.
-Fixed a minor problem in my interpretive.

D'oh:-I CAN'T DO CAMEL SPINS!!!!!!! Grrr.........
-Oh so tired during the stroking session. Almost collapsed from tiredness. Of course the session HAD to start 30
seconds after finishing the run through of my solo.
-No interpretive run through today.

That's it for me this week. Happy Skating!

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Lanie - Keeping going on that salchow, cuz all of a sudden it's just going to "be there." That has always been one of my <em>least</em> favorite jumps, and I don't know why, except it always feels awkward to me. Even as a kid, when I used to have a 2sal, it was never a fun jump for me. Maybe it's because I'm not a patient person, and the whole jump is in the timing, especially the take-off. I know you'll nail it soon, so keep up the good work!

Sara - woo hoo, you are a jumping <em>goddess</em>! I am constantly amazed by your versatility (the interpretive, the solo, the stroking, and now the Westminster, for goodness sakes!). Hey, tell me more about stroking class and what you do (stroking, probably, duh). But you know what I mean--I want the details. Is endurance a big part of it? Or is it more style? I think improving my extension and how I hold the free foot would greatly improve how I look out there. But sometimes stroking gets short shrift in a practice. So tell me more.

I don't skate till tomorrow morning, so nothing to report so far this week. More later ...

 

[starshinexavier]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Cinderella, I'm "versatile" due to the fact that my mom signed me up for EVERYTHING involved with skating, except pairs. I started skating at 5, dance at 9, skating skills at 11 (finished them at 16), interpretives at 16(I had to have a gold test to start interpretives), and synchro at 10. I have a short attention span, so to combat that, she stuck me in everything! (and is making me finish everything too )

Our stroking sessions vary, depending on the coach we have teaching it. For the most part, it's endurance and speed over style. We usually start out with either russian stroking around the rink, or forwards/backwards x-cuts around the 5 hockey circles. Then we usually do 3 turns, mohawks, brackets, rockers, dance jumps, etc. with or without russian stroking after we warmed up a bit. We have little "routines" that we do with different types of stroking and turns in them as well. We only ever worry about style in our group dance lesson. In that we work on extention, proper foot placement during turns, etc. After the 15 mins allotted for stroking, we're usually dead tired.

Thanks for the comment about the jumps! I actually had my first non-interpretive lesson of spring skate, and I was happy to get away from doing the interpretive. It's nice too that I could land jumps for my coach to see, so that she knows I can still do them. I am a jumping bean!

Happy Skating!

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Woo hoo! Yesterday was 90 minutes of glorious, fabulous skating. I am always amazed how I wake up and "don't want to go" because I am SO not a morning person. But once I'm there, I'm like a little spitfire on ice. Oooh, ooh, ooh, we had so much FUN in my lesson! My coach ran me through all of my jumps because she's putting my freestyle program together and wanted a sense of what I can do. It was cool to give her a pleasant surprise because I've been working hard on them and everything was right on. Funny thing--there are two young girls who have been working all winter on their axels and just not making progress. I could see them watching me out of the corner of my eye, and they were sooo cute because they were clapping and all excited that I was landing mine. My coach had me try something new and I fell big time, and she pointed out to them that that was the secret of good skating--not being afraid to fall. Gosh, so glad that I could be of service!

Also, she was really pleased that the Power Circles she had taught me the week before showed great improvement (with more to go, though!!!). So it was a fun lesson.

Today my important discovery is that my butt and the ice must have opposite magnetic properties, because they sure seemed attracted to each other today! Actually, the practice was just awesome, even with the falls. For the first time, I made it through all six test moves without an error and without running out of breath or getting dizzy. (yay) Then I ran through my entire jump sequence, and everything seemed extra high and bouncy. (yay) Then I worked on my spins, which were just so ON, even the flying spins (yay yay). So I decided to really challenge myself and work on the hydroblade and some other challenging things. Then I tried some split jumps (ugh, they're coming along slowly) and some axel combo jumps (fall fall land-one fall land-one fall a bunch more stop). So that was my incredibly energizing afternoon.

The only D'oh for me is that I didn't get to skate more this week. Gosh, don't you just LOVE skating???!!!

 

[sk8er1964]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Hi all. Been MIA lately from here - kid in two sports and audit time at work have left me with no spare time. In the month of May I had exactly 5 evenings free. Whew.

A bit of background - since Adult Nationals I have been really trying to recover from this nagging injury of mine. About 3 weeks ago I got the no jumping edict from my sports mediciane doc, plus my physical therapy benefits ran out (ouch). Fortunately, my PT was wonderful and gave me a bunch of home exercises and has told me to call/email her whever I need to. The hip flexor does feel better, but we'll see in 10 days when I can jump again.

My coach, on the other hand, was thrilled with the no jumping rule. He's been wanting to work on my crossovers, knee bends and extensions for the last year - we just never had the time because I was so busy testing to get to AN.

I have been lurking - it sounds like you are all doing well. Starshine - great job on your interps and doubles. Cindy - wow. You are coming alonng so well (but please don't make my mistake of trying to do too much too soon - it's so easy to want to be what you were as a kid and so hard to make your body do it). And Beth - sounds like your skating is going very well!!! If I've missed anyone, sorry. It's late and my brain is starting to shut down. Anyway, here's my week...

Woo Hoo!

I had one of those lessons that were perfect this week. Learned tons, coach was pleased with my progress, etc. Because I can't jump, I've been working on the Intermediate MIF's and spins only. My power circles are getting deep knee bends and the extension that I'm aiming for. Still more work to do, but I really think I'm well on my way to losing that stiff-kneed adult look.

Coach thinks that the flying sits are coming along well. Learned the corkscrew spin (although I think I did it as a kid), and have been working on a camel - change camel- back sit- hop to forward sit. Coach said to put a change to the corkscrew spin on the end. Trying, but it's hard .

D'oh -- 9 days until I can jump. I am so afraid that when I start to jump again that the injury will come back. I can still feel twinges (although it's getting better), but I want it to BE GONE!!!!!

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Sk8ter1964 - gosh, it's so good to hear from you again. I was just about to send you an email SOS to be sure that you were o.k. So sorry [d'oh] to hear about your jump moratorium, but thrilled that you are enforcing it and listening to the doc. Your advice is right on--as an adult skater, it is easy to want to do too much, too soon. That's why I had backed off of trying "hard" things like axels and flying camels until now. I realized pretty early on when I started skating in March '02 that I had could not coast by on my current "racquetball fitness" and had better build up my long-rusty skating muscles, hip flexors, flexibility in general, etc. before I started doing too much. My coach has been great at that. I guess it helped that I started working on the Moves in the Field right from the beginning, because I've been laying the groundwork for each of the elements before getting into them.

I hope I can continue to skate without injury. Of course, there was my wrist, but I almost don't consider that a skating injury because I wasn't actually skating at the time. It has healed nicely and didn't slow me down (skating-wise) in the least. In fact, it probably helped me to be more thoughtful, focus, and cautious so that I wouldn't re-injure it.

I'm interested in the exercises that your PT has given you. Would you care to share them with us? I think off-ice training is as important as on, and have been trying to incorporate some things into my regular fitness routine. I had a "lesson" with Carl Poe who has written an off-ice training book (just my luck he operates out of my home rink!!) and now I saw there is a woman who has written a skating book about avoiding injury that I think I'd like to read.

We've missed you here and I'm glad to hear you're working on some things that will truly improve your look no matter what you are doing. Those things are just as important as what you can land or which spins you can do! As far as jumping again, I hope you'll listen closely to your body and ease back into it at your own pace. Use your good judgment!


Have you

 

[Lanechka]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Woo Hoo--Got that one foot spin down and was trying my hand (er, skates?) at scratch spins. It's irritating. But I'm not a spinner. I worked on some jumps today.. getting more rotation.

There was a little girl, about 12, who was doing Beillmanns and Sasha spins and 2axel/2toe combinations. I was like, "Whoa." They make me feel inferior! But I've come a long way since December, so I'll be doing that eventually. I've got about seven years (you have to be 25, yes?) before I'm old enough to compete in Adult ranks (I think I might try collegiate when I go to university... year after next... AAHH!). Anyway...

D'oh--I was doing a loop and I slipped on the landing and scraped up my left arm horribly. Lots of Neosporin on that one. It stings! Feels like a rug burn. My lower back is hurting because I was practicing my Ina Bauers and I love to lean back far (usually I don't do them right... my leg doesn't want to drag and the other one doesn't want to lean, and I end up turning and doing a wacked-out inside spread eagle instead). Anyone have hints on Inas and spread eagles?

This summer I'm planning to go to the clinic in Lake Arrowhead (about 1 1/2 hr drive). It's expensive, but I think one week with one of these coaches--you do jumping classes, off ice classes, MitF classes, ballet, weights even--would make my skating SO much better, I think.

Two weeks til school is out... jeez.

Happy skating, guys'n'gals!

-Lanie

 

[Cinderella On Ice]

Re: Woo Hoo!/D'oh! Lessons and Practices 5/26-6/1

Lanie - congrats on that one-foot spin. Yes, you've come a long way in a short time, so keep your spirits up and don't worry about what those 12 year olds are doing out there! Many of them have at least 7 years under their belts already, so think how far you'll go in that amount of time!

I wish I could give you advice on the Ina Bauers, etc., but I've not gotten there yet in my training and something tells me I better get back to my Pilates and other stretching exercises or I never will. At my age (46) it's all about regaining the flexibility. Surprisingly, it DOES come back -- it just takes longer!

You are so smart to go to that clinic. It will make a world of difference. When I did the weekend one a month ago, it gave me my axels back. That was VERY exciting for me! I am still reaping the benefits, as she gave us lots of off- and on-ice exercises for the doubles, and I will be working on them this summer. All of my existing jumps and spins also benefited, so I can't wait until you go and then can tell us (in great detail!) about what you've learned.