January 8, 2007

January 7th practice.
I still haven't posted about my first lesson with B. here goes- it was awesome. I started on a salchow. I forget to jump when doing the salchow and just spin and then set my foot down. My spinsneed work, my edges need work, my 3-turns need work, my mohawks need work, my bunny hop, waltz jump, side toe hop, salchow, toe loop combination is laughable. But an excellent lesson, and I think I picked a good coach.

Here is my January 7th practice report:
I went to the public session on January 7th. I skated for just over an hour and came home extremely sweaty, feeling like I had gotten a good workout. Today my calves are killing me.

There was a birthday party at the beginning of the session, but it took about 30 minutes for any kids to let go of the wall, so I did get a bit of good ice and after 3 quick laps worked on backward spirals immediatly- I knew I wouldn't have another chance. They stunk. I do them so slow, and I know I look like a fool when working on them. I never got a chance to do forward spirals, it got much too crowded.

Here is what I worked on-
stroking- I am getting more power to my stroking, but I lack any sort of extension. I feel like an idiot trying to skate gracefully on a public session though, so I'm not sure how that is going to get better.

forward crossovers- It would really help if I'd stop looking at the ice. These crossovers aren't bad, but I tend to slip on them when going really fast (around the end of the rink during stroking, instead of just around a hockey circle).

backward crossovers- these need a lot of work too. One side is much stronger than the other, and pulling with my left foot is just horrible. I spent a good amount of time practicing these, but man I need more. I'm really trying to bend my knees more, but I just don't know what else to do about it.

3-turns- RFI and LFO are strong (or the other way around, I can never remember) RFO and LFI are very weak. I'm trying to work on all of them from both opened and closed positions. The stronger ones I'm starting to work from a moving start, but a slow one- I'm still real scared of turning around while traveling, and the weaker turns are too weak to do it while moving. urgh, luckily the 2 I can do are the ones I need for the jumps I do.

forward mohawks- quite pitiful. My right to left mohawk is practically non-existant, except from a well thought out standstill. The left to right is weak, but I can do it from a slow moving start (as in the combination from Basic 8).

waltz jump- I'm becoming more comfortable with this jump. It's fun to get off the ice. It doesn't go very high, but I'm working on it going further across the ice. Not by much though. My body does it better if I step off from a backward outside edge, rather than just starting going forward, but B. doesn't really prep it that way, so I have a harder time in lessons. I'm landing on the middle flat of my blade, that doesn't seem right.

toe loop- so cheated! I rotate at least half way before leaving the ice. So I guess that makes it a toe waltz.

salchow- I never remember to jump! This is a hard one, because it's easy to just stay on the ice and then stick your landing foot down. Urgh. I did do a couple at the wall, but in the ice I'm useless.

1 foot spin from hockey glide- YAY! These are going really well. I did a bunch where I did not pull my arms in until I had 3 or 4 revolutions and then slowly pulled in to get going "really" (not really, but for me) fast. I probably got 10 revolutions or so on most of them. It's a great feeling. My free leg is pointed by my ankle. I just cannot seem to be able to cross it.

1 foot spin from crossovers- bleck. Mostly because I can't hold the backward edge, and then I lack the strength to lift my leg into that really ackward bent position before it is pulled in, and then I can't cross my skate over the working boot. But I was getting 2 or 3 bad revolutions.

1 foot spin from T position- The open arms help me more than the closed arms, but I am using my arms to whip myself into the spin instead of my leg. I need to stop that. Like from crossovers, my lack of proper free leg useage is really stopping me. I can get into a lousy spin, but I'm worried I am teaching myself bad habits.

backspin- worked on these a bit from a 2 footed spin. Got 2 bad revolutions that traveled like crazy. But I'm finding the "sweet spot" so that's good. What's funny is when I first started one foot spins I was doing backspins and they told me I was doing them wrong, so I stopped. I wish I had practiced them together, instead of just working on the forward spin.

hockey and t-stops- my stops are terrible. I still can't even snowplow in these skates unless I'm barely moving. My right t-stop is okay, but my left leg won't turn out that way. My hockey stop works only if barely moving. I'm not sure how to go about working on these.

There were a lot more hockey players than normal at the rink. Many stopping as fast as they could to spray their friends, but more annoying than that was a man who was just stroking. There were 5 or 6 just stroking as fast as they could, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh- you know the sound. But this guy stroked and then somehow picked his toe, he sounded like swoosh-think, swoosh-think, swoosh-think, and left a divot at the end of every single step. It seemed like an entirely unnecessary way to ruin the ice.


I'm going to "Rock and Skate" friday for a girls night out. The idea of that makes me nervous- skating without any freestyle practice? hmm...