September 2009

-
-
2009-09-03 13:54:00
This week...
Skating this week went well- I think I'm making progress on my backspin. It's actually leaving a ROUND tracing instead of a line, and a good amount of time that tracing is centered! I'm also crossing my leg much better. It still scares me to go fast. I jumped for the first time in a long time (and might not again, my hip is sore). Andy said my loop was "perfect" (he was being generous) but pointed out the -tiny- (haha) error of me taking off and landing in the exact same place. If I'm going for distance (we're talking a 6 inches or a foot) then I kick out my leg, take off and land from the middle of the blade and two foot. Sigh, this has a long way to go. Wednesday I didn't have a lesson because Courtney was very busy with back to school work related stuff. I went and had a good practice- good backspins, good sit spins, good dutch waltz. I'm toe picking the entry to my scratch spins again... that is NOT good. I just really don't like to not stop before the entry! I ran the Canasta Tango a few times and the end pattern confuses me every time, even if I read the diagram right before I start. We had two pairs practicing/in lesson on the ice so it was a mad house. Staying out of lift lanes and out of their way when doing throws is nearly impossible if you need to move at all. I've taken to the "just don't move" method of avoidance, but some of the kids dodge for the boards. it's a mess. When they do programs I just get off the ice. They are generally polite about it, and I don't mind when I am just practicing, but other kids in lessons were always the ones who had to yield and that seems unfair. It's easier to have a "stand-off" when it's a single, no one wants someone getting hurt in a lift! But still, if this is a constant, I can see lots of skaters and parents getting annoyed. (It's generally not so bad when it's just ONE pair...)
public

-
2009-09-05 08:47:00
Not so good today
Woke up with a very sore throat and thought maybe skating would not be a good idea, but since I woke up so early (6) and the session is at 8, I figured I should give it a try. Not so good idea. I only skated for 20 minutes. I did 5 laps of knee bend exercise- regular stroking, except that after each push (a real strong edge push) I have to drag my toe pick. If I can't drag it, it means I came up in my knees. Man is this a quad killer! But staying down in the pushes really increases speed. Then I did 2 sets of Dutch Waltz to music. Man is that a slow dance! I did okay with it, though i'm not quite sure how to count the entry, and I lose the beat on the end pattern. The awful USFS provided organ music really does help count the beat, despite Barbara's insistence that you can "do a dutch waltz to anything". I did about 5 backspins, and 4 of them were really really good. Did 2 awful scratch spins, and called it a day. Even before I started spinning I felt dizzy.
public

-
2009-09-10 08:45:00
And that makes 3!
Preliminary dances learned. I learned the Rhythm Blues last night. Unlike the Canasta Tango, this one has steps that are very very easy to remember. It took me 1 pattern to pretty much have them down. That's a good thing, I can concentrate on learning to skate them- and that is not going to be easy. The cross behind steps are HARD. It will likely be at least a year before I'm ready to test this. That seems way too long for a preliminary dance. Courtney started the lesson by teaching me inside swing rolls (no problems there), very slowly doing the XB steps -I think my thighs are too big for this. She keeps telling me to touch my feet together and then set it down, but I'm not sure how to do get them close enough for that. Not working well, even at a crawl, but she keeps saying "good", so maybe I have hope. Then we do some progressives and chasses on a circle to work on posture, toe point, etc. We learn the pattern and on the first full pattern I get to the end and say "NO WAY!" I'm going about a thousand times faster than how we practiced the XB steps. So we work on the individual parts ot the pattern, work on the lilt in the 4 step progressive (hard! Even harder since apparently I don't bend enough for her to tell that I've then risen up...) Then we do the pattern again. This time, it's going great, I do the progressive into the end pattern, and suddenly I'm slamming my hip into the ice. I crossed back and kicked my foot out from under me- from the side. It hurt. It still hurts. I got up and we did a few more "so I wouldn't be scared of them" (uh, I was scared BEFORE the fall...) I was shaking so much, I'm not sure it really helps. My body doesn't handle falls well, even though realistically, it didn't hurt too much then, and my head didn't go down at all. (It hurts more now than it did when it happened). Somewhere in that we worked on the canasta tango end pattern, to do a cross in the swing roll for "tango flair". "Tango flair" is a bit of a joke with my coach, apparently she tested her Argentine Tango the same day she did the solo Canasta Tango because she was starting the new test track. IIRC she got great scores on the Argentine and then was told her Canasta lacked "tango flair". I have to agree with her, the dance is so darn slow, with so few steps there isn't much time to put in "flair". Then I did my own practice and I think my backspins are now better than my forward scratch, though not as good as my scratch spin used to be. I'm now doing the entry of the scratch spin the way Andy wanted it, but I'm dragging my toe pick again. :( Went back to synchro. I like our music, although I'm a little sad because our pinwheels are during a slow section. Now that provides it's own challenges (lines have to be REALLY straight) BUT my favorite part of synchro is getting to really fly at the end of a pinwheel, and that won't happen this year :(
public

-
2009-09-17 08:23:00
Going great
Skating yesterday was fantastic. I race from work to the rink for a lesson starting as close to 4:30 as I can get it to be (4:35 this week). We went over the Dutch Waltz and the Canasta Tango, this week to music. I feel so bad using dance music on this session because for years we have complained about a dance CD that plays in constant background music. But as one of the other skaters put it to me "yeah, your music is awful, but you're skating the dance to it, and then turn it off"- I think the turning it off is the big difference :) But man, the Canasta Tango music isn't so bad, but that organ music USFS provides for the Dutch Waltz is awful (and not what most of the youtube videos use... the CD I have from them is called "competition music" is there something different they use for tests?) The Dutch Waltz was okay. I have a hard time doing the progressive quick enough, so I get half a count behind and have to 2 foot a bit to get back on beat, because I can't pick up the time doing the pattern correctly. The swing rolls also get a lot shallower, which my coach does not like. And the end pattern is a disaster. I think I did a bit better keeping the Canasta Tango on beat, though the end pattern also throws me- mostly just the cross swing roll, a regular swing roll isn't so difficult. Keeping the pattern the correct size on each pattern is a bit of a problem, I'll stretch it on one side, then shrink it, then stretch it. Still since I pretty much just learned this one I'm quite happy with my progress. Another skater told me my dances were looking good :) We spent the last 5 minutes doing waltz jumps and I was told I look too dainty and not athletic. Courtney wants my hands in fists when I jump and as ridiculous as that sounds, it completely threw me off. I don't like jumping. I can live without it. My own practice was alright. I centered a slow scratch spin, but at least it's centered, did a few sit spins, worked on my backspin. I did some not so power pulls, cross rolls, and then did the slowest 3s in the field ever. I tried 8-step and it was a complete disaster, in my good direction. I didn't even try the bad side. I decided not to practice any jumps because Tim was jumping, and well people from the mall watch the rink. If he's jumping (and he could easily clear the wall) I don't want to be! I'm not sure if he did a couple, but he did one triple-axel attempt that was amazing. Didn't land it, but his air position was gorgeous, and he was up so high, and up for so long, it was just amazing. I hope he gets it, because it's just really really neat to see that level of skating at our rink. The two pairs were practicing today, but it wasn't so bad to stay out of their way, it's really only lifts that are a problem, because anything else, even if it does end in a crash (and nothing has yet) isn't nearly so big of a deal. Burton has his students trained to stay out of the way of lifts though, and I heard him yesterday explaining to a kid to yield to someone when they are doing a program, and then they will yield to you during your program, but in addition to "yield" pairs tend to just get the ice for their program. Since all the high level skaters are friends, they all stand at the wall, and the rest of us do too just to not attempt to do the "yield" thing. Synchro went well, I like the program (though it seems we "lean" quite a bit), and I got moved to the end of the pinwheels, which is my favorite place to be. The whole team still hasn't been there, so things will change again, but I think for this early we aren't doing too badly. LTS yesterday was good- a lot of workon alternating forward crossovers, then on power pulls, and finally on post-move presentation. My power pulls are awful. I've been told to ignore everything about "technique" and just attempt to do them as fast as I can. Doesn't help, at least the other way I'm moving slowly with a nice upper body, now I'm just slow. My forward alt crossovers are pretty good, I'm not sure if i got any comments, but to be honest, they should be, I worked on that test for a year and passed it a year ago. The way Andy wants us to end moves makes a lot of sense but is hard for me. Thinking about my arms makes my stops not work. He says you don't have to stop, but it's ingrained in me to stop, so then I get all muddled up.
public

-
2009-09-28 13:53:00
oops
It's a new week and I didn't post about last week. (At least I don't think I did.) Tuesday was horribly frustrating. We worked on the 3-turn pattern from pre-juv/silver moves. He wants the lobes so big that I can't even do the forward 3-turns strong enough to make it back to the axis, and the back 3-turns are just funny, I can barely even attempt to turn. My coach said she's happy with my lobe size except the BI, which I'm working on getting larger, so I just tried to hold my frustration in (I didn't do a great job of that) and try it this way. But it sucked. We also worked on alternating back crossovers from pre-juv/bronze moves. He wants the back inside edge on 1 foot, and I swear I tested it on 2. Oh well, something new to work on to make it a bit more interesting to do this over and over when I kind of want to move onto the moves I'm actually working on now. Y. will test soon, and then we'll move onto juv moves, so it's all good I guess. Wednesday private lesson went well- focused on backspins at the beginning and I can get 7 revolutions. Really need to work on a tight spin position and speed. 7 is also really my limit, so I lose the kick-out. Courtney wants 9 revolutions and told me I hear 7 freak out, and then break my upper body. I told her to stop counting out loud, and I still always broke at 7 (I'm not counting) so it's not a freak out thing, so much as a strength/can't do more than that right now thing. But it still felt pretty good. Worked on the Canasta a bit, including to music. Annoyed as hell because no one will yield to dances, and I think it's because they don't think of dance music as a program because one lady at our rink who insists on playing a dance CD for a whole session without ever doing anything but stroking to it. (SO ANNOYING. That music is NOT good.) Feel bad having to "excuse me!" through the dance, but if I only play each dance 1 time per session I deserve right of way. Synchro went well. I can't turn over my left shoulder. It makes me mad. If I have someone strong enough to hold onto I can turn 2 counts late, but at least I get around. Turning the wrong direction (which kept me on time) isn't an option here because we are in hold. I lost my end of the pinwheel spot to a stronger skater, but I'm still close to the end, so it's still super fun. Saturday I practiced a bit. Taped my cross rolls (on youtube Skittl1321) and they are looking way better than the last time I taped them, and I was excited about that until I saw the date. I've been doing these for a year now. So not too good on the progress. Also taped some backspins for a friend who wanted to see them (see, I take requests.)
public