Saturday, May 24th, 2008

Time

Event

4:50p

Dance lesson number 2 Had another Dance lesson. I am so happy I'm doing these. It's exciting to learn a new type of skating and its so much fun to do the semi-privates with one of my friends. We started by doing swing rolls down the rink, had to hug to wall for a few minutes (as did everyone else in the rink) while the intermediate pairs team ran their new program. No one knows where they are going yet- and MAN do they move fast. (Not to mention- if you get in the way of another skater and accidentally run into each other it sucks but is usually okay. Totally less okay when someone is 8 feet off the ice in a lift...) Then did swing rolls down the otherside of the rink. I felt like my shoulders were entirely messed up, by got told they were okay. I've always thought my consecutive edges are pretty good, but I just can't get a hang of these. I'm not crossing the axis perpendicular, and I KNOW that I should be, and my edge wobbles right towards the end. :( Then we did progressives on the circle. They are getting there on the right over left side, and pretty awful on the left over right side. Andy's hockey skate lesson must have done something though because i got complimented on my underpush. I really need to extend on the first push though. Then we learned the Dutch Waltz. We didn't do it to music, but covered all the steps. I get confused at the end pattern, and always forget to do something. But I think if I just go over the steps a bit more I'll be okay with it. Skating it solo is really difficult. If I push with enough power to fill the ice, I get scared and can't do the next step. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it, and I can really see why dance makes you a stronger skater. My knee bend is still really bad, but for dance I'm only lacing 3 hooks and it definetly helps. I really really need to work on toe point though. Having been out of dance for so long, it's just disappeared. I also had my fushia colored blades today, and got quite a few compliments. :) Sharpies are fun. I'm trying to decide if I should color them another color for Tuesday. I'm taking a moves lesson on Monday- I haven't worked on those in forever...

Sunday, May 11th, 2008

Time

Event

2:19p

First Ice Dance Lesson Well, yesterday was my first ice dance lesson. We just worked on a few skills- not yet on a dance. I really think I'm going to like ice dance, but my goodness it is going to be HARD. We started by talking about the axis of the rink, how you always stay on a lobe, how your shoulders are always facing the axis, not the direction of the lobe (hard!), and a few other things. We are going to talk about holds next time. Then we worked on skills. So we did progressives, chasses, swing rolls, cross rolls, cross strokes, and drop 3 turns. (Maybe there was something else.) Progressives on my right side weren't good but I understand how it works, on my left side I'd touch my foot to the ice and then it wouldn't slide in front. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to slide in. I really need to bend my knees, tuck in my butt, and not sit my hip to the side. That goes for everything. Other than the body positions mentioned above chasses were fine. It's a more continuous movement than in synchro- which is broken apart, but once corrected I got the hang of them. Swing rolls, eh. The knee bend then straight really messes me up, I have no rise and fall. Pick one :) Cross rolls- these were NOT good. These were what we were doing in group lesson on Tuesday but were being called swing rolls. I had the same left foot sliding on the ice problem as in progressives, and the issue of not being able to figure out which way my arms go. Just really bad. So we changed to cross strokes, just to get the feeling right- without a big lobe. These went a bit better on the right side but the left side is bad. I can't touch the ice before crossing- not just that it won't slide, but half the time my foot won't get down far enough. I imagine this is a knee bend issue. I caught my toepick numerous times and had one fall. Even though the fall wasn't bad, and I wasn't upset about it, my legs didn't get the message and responded like I had falled off a cliff- unsteady and twitching. That made practicing much harder. We moved on to drop 3 turns and it took me awhile to figure out exactly what was happening there. On my strong side I think I did a few good ones, and on my weak side I think I might be cheating a bit (not keeping my leg out for as long as it should be). I got a general correction to really lift my chest, which might be easier than thinking about "relaxing my shoulders". My shoulders don't relax, up by my chin IS the relaxed position :) Then I took group class. We worked on waltz jumps and Courtney mentioned that I need to really concentrate on keeping my weight on the heel at the take off. I'm a really scratchy skater! Then we did half flips and Courtenay told me I actually do leave the ice. It doesn't feel that way, but the jump does feel more natural to me. We then worked on edges and I moved onto the alternating 3 turn pattern. It is SO much easier to do outside than inside ones in that pattern. (or the other way around?) Not the 3 turn, but the transition. I'm SO glad this is not one of the adult moves. Did a few spins before class ended. One centered nicely, the rest traveled like crazy. When I center them I'm beginning to be quite happy with my scratch spin. Before dance lesson I skated just about 20 minutes. Camel isn't working. I could only get 1 revolution in position, and thats not really a spin. I did pinpoint that the pull in my groin thats really been bothering me is from NOT falling in the camel- I jerk up to an upright spin if I lose the position. Did some nice scratch spins, 3 centered nicely, the rest spun 5-10 revolutions but traveled further than I am tall. Oops. Tried a few "laybacks"- more of a slightly leaned attitude spin, I'm just working on getting the hips forward. Also did a few backspins, but with the new arms I'm still way confused. I also really need to get my skates sharpened- I was slipping off my outside edges like crazy.