Skating on Friday
I just realized i never posted about skating on Friday. I told myself I would post everytime I skated- because I wanted a true journal of how it was going. (at least until I skated more than once or twice a week)
First off, dull blades was the problem. I picked up my skates an WOW were they a dream to skate on. This by rink sharpeners. I can't imagine what it will be like when I have a "real" sharpening on real blades.
I skated for an hour and a half and my ankle hurt a bit after it. The 6-weeks of rest aren't up yet, and I guess I need to stick to that. Nothing like it did before, but still, hurt.
Overall the session was not good. The Silver Skate is coming up next weekend and so the ice was filled (well 5) with high level freestyle skaters. I know that adult sessions are not treated as open sessions and you can skate however you want, but when there is more than 1 or 2 people jumping and spinning like mad, it makes it very difficult for the rest of us to fit anything in. The low level freestyle skaters I saw (who weren't jumping, but running through different program components) seemed to be able to fit things in okay, but the basic skaters I talked to all said they were very frustrated and that's how I felt.
There were also about 2 new skaters who were clinging helplessly to the wall who looked terrified and about an hour through the session the seniors came to rink circle- which just made it impossible to do anything.
Couldn't use the center, or stay near the wall.
I got a bit of practice on three turns in. I am consistently trying to turn the right direction, but never actually did one. At one point I was prepping for one- from a stop- as is required in basic 4, and a couple dancing cut right in front of me so I had to wait to push off. As I was about to get started one of the high level girls comes flying by me and yells "stand by the walls" That really made me mad. I wasn't standing, I was in a t-stance waiting to push off and not hit the pair, and I was only about 2 feet from the wall. I wasn't in a lutz corner, and she was just practicing stroking (although really fast). There is no reason I would have been in her way. If it was a freestyle session, then I shouldn't even be on the ice with my lowly three turns, but it wasn't. It was an adult session and we all had the same right to the ice. I spent most of the session making sure I was out of the way of people a million times better than me.
The good part of the session was the man who offered to teach me dance holds before I hurt my ankle taught me them this time. (he said he thought he had scared me off because I never showed up again) I learned a Killian hold, a Reverse Killian hold, a Foxtrot hold, and a Waltz hold.
So we worked on basic stroking around the rink in each of the holds. I realized how unsure I am on my left foot. When I do stroking I hold my left foot out for a long time, but rush through when my right foot is up. With counts I couldn't do that.
Then he taught me how to do swing rolls. My edges aren't good enough to hold them for long, but he kind of held me on the edges and we did laps of swing rolls in the Killian hold. Then we tried them in the Waltz hold, but because he was facing backwards he couldn't hold me on my edge and it was just to difficult for me at this point.
My main "correction" was to stop looking down. That's tough to do when you are worried about slicing through a semi-strangers leg.
Dance might be something I look into- it seems fun.
I just realized i never posted about skating on Friday. I told myself I would post everytime I skated- because I wanted a true journal of how it was going. (at least until I skated more than once or twice a week)
First off, dull blades was the problem. I picked up my skates an WOW were they a dream to skate on. This by rink sharpeners. I can't imagine what it will be like when I have a "real" sharpening on real blades.
I skated for an hour and a half and my ankle hurt a bit after it. The 6-weeks of rest aren't up yet, and I guess I need to stick to that. Nothing like it did before, but still, hurt.
Overall the session was not good. The Silver Skate is coming up next weekend and so the ice was filled (well 5) with high level freestyle skaters. I know that adult sessions are not treated as open sessions and you can skate however you want, but when there is more than 1 or 2 people jumping and spinning like mad, it makes it very difficult for the rest of us to fit anything in. The low level freestyle skaters I saw (who weren't jumping, but running through different program components) seemed to be able to fit things in okay, but the basic skaters I talked to all said they were very frustrated and that's how I felt.
There were also about 2 new skaters who were clinging helplessly to the wall who looked terrified and about an hour through the session the seniors came to rink circle- which just made it impossible to do anything.
Couldn't use the center, or stay near the wall.
I got a bit of practice on three turns in. I am consistently trying to turn the right direction, but never actually did one. At one point I was prepping for one- from a stop- as is required in basic 4, and a couple dancing cut right in front of me so I had to wait to push off. As I was about to get started one of the high level girls comes flying by me and yells "stand by the walls" That really made me mad. I wasn't standing, I was in a t-stance waiting to push off and not hit the pair, and I was only about 2 feet from the wall. I wasn't in a lutz corner, and she was just practicing stroking (although really fast). There is no reason I would have been in her way. If it was a freestyle session, then I shouldn't even be on the ice with my lowly three turns, but it wasn't. It was an adult session and we all had the same right to the ice. I spent most of the session making sure I was out of the way of people a million times better than me.
The good part of the session was the man who offered to teach me dance holds before I hurt my ankle taught me them this time. (he said he thought he had scared me off because I never showed up again) I learned a Killian hold, a Reverse Killian hold, a Foxtrot hold, and a Waltz hold.
So we worked on basic stroking around the rink in each of the holds. I realized how unsure I am on my left foot. When I do stroking I hold my left foot out for a long time, but rush through when my right foot is up. With counts I couldn't do that.
Then he taught me how to do swing rolls. My edges aren't good enough to hold them for long, but he kind of held me on the edges and we did laps of swing rolls in the Killian hold. Then we tried them in the Waltz hold, but because he was facing backwards he couldn't hold me on my edge and it was just to difficult for me at this point.
My main "correction" was to stop looking down. That's tough to do when you are worried about slicing through a semi-strangers leg.
Dance might be something I look into- it seems fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment