Amazing short program
12/01/2006
hip stretcher spin.
We worked on the lucinda run spin (or hip stretcher spin) today for the first time.
Spins were REALLY good and FAST!!! camel,flying camel, camel-sit-chg-sit - ruh spin.
salchow sucked.
Waltz was good - Axels were really good - pushed the take off at least 2 that were all the way around and had to put free foot down to balance landing
double loop - think single but big single - sit down in the knee, then UP and over and then IN.
11/30/2006
The "safe" spot
We worked on the outside counters today in Novice MITF. There is a safe position right before the turn where you tuck the free leg behind the skating leg in a figure 4 position. Its really counter intuitive a lot of the time because having the foot INSIDE the circle makes me think that i'm gonna lose my balance and fall. It seems so much safer to left the free leg hang out to the side so that i can quickly put it down in case, but that's the wrong way to do it cause its actually MORE dangerous and off balance!!
same for the quick rocker choctaw
pattern around the ends... stand really tall on the turn and lean back
away into the circle... seems scarier but once you're there its safe,
also pushing under will help me get the power to move around the curve.
Don was saying how this pattern should really be on junior mitf and the
rockers in the field should be on novice. Mostly because skaters
haven't learned how to do a rocker before this test!
11/28/2006
The Juxtaposition of Tension and Relaxation
Its weird, but not being an athletic person for a long time in my life and then training in skating has given me a lot more awareness of my body and mind than i ever asked for. To learn how to do any skill in figure skating requires the simultaneous tension in the core of the body along with a relaxed mindset. Add stress and the tension doesn't work anymore... you get stuck and the move doesn't work. My common sense says, "you can't be relaxed AND have tension in your body!".... but to do any jump, spin, MITF... even a simple 3 turn or mohawk takes clarity and focus in the mind while relaxed , but keeping tension in the arms, legs, core of the body at the same time, or fall down go boom I go....
I totally get it when I see Sasha Cohen go through a program and have wonderful moments and then Bam, loses focus and falls. It's such a delicate balance. *sigh*
Too tired to move
Note to self: I think i have learned my lesson!! No working past 5pm on
mondays or else i'll just eat it at 6:00am on Tuesdays!! Its just too
bad that i don't have the mind-body connection to focus that early!!
And have a lesson. Coach even buggered me about not skating the 5:30 am
session as a warmup. *rolleyes*
11/27/2006
About jumping height and rotation
I watched a couple of kids work on their double jumps and noticed that some of them can be really low in height and fast in rotation. Then there are others that go up first and then rotate.
I'm not an expert at figure skating, and I know various coaches demand different things from their students. Some coaches clap and squeal when their students rotate their jumps, no matter how low and how short the rotation is. Other coaches tell their students to "stop it" and make them fix their entry and do it over again. It is a lot easier to jump low because it takes a lot less effort to get in the air. Plus, its also a lot less scary and you feel safer not committing your whole flying carcass, um kahoonas into outer space.
Sometimes its really hard and frustrating for me to know what's "the right" technique but I know one thing I can't do well is rotate low and fast. Maybe it's too hard for my body since i'm not a kid any more or i'm too slow to react. But I do know that while it is harder to jump up high first, i can feel the "hook" . By hook I mean, it puts me into the loop position every time right before I pull in. And that's a really secure feeling because I know chances are I'm going to stay vertical when i rotate, and not in some funny angle. The funny angle off axis rotations? Have you ever fallen on one of those or seen someone fall? Ouch. They really hurt. There's so much more force when you get thrown out of one of those jumps.
Any why is it harder to jump higher up? Well at first it can be really scary because what goes higher, falls further, and the ouch factor - the thought that it probably will hurt more if I jumped higher. But, what if, instead of working on trying to do a double, trying to work on doing a big single jump? That's a lot less scary. At the same time, it's practice to get up in the air and look for "the hook". When it comes time to try for the double, it is hard to jump high up. There's two things I know that work against me, being stressed on the entry and then not enough compression to get in the air.
Stress?
Yeah stress. Cause it's S-C-A-R-Y. Or can be when I start thinking about rotation. When i stress out before the entry, I tend to let the checking shoulder go. And then that's a problem because i lose the tension i need for the snap into the backspin position.
Compression?
Yep. That too. That's when I don't have enough bend in the knees and create tension in the core before takeoff. I'm not going for max height. Compression i think is really hard because my body doesn't want to do it naturally. I know that it's unatural to want to squeeze your body into a ball-like position and then explode into the air. Its like a slingshot effect, but I'm sure nobody likes being the ball and rubber band that's about ready to go into the air. The irony , like many of my skating experiences, is that the more compression before take off , the safer i feel once i'm in the air. Well as long as I stay rigid in the air, then i'm really feel safe because there's almost a guarantee that i'm not going to fall hard. Chances are i'll stay vertical. So counter intuitive. Its like you have to have the confidence to go there first before knowing that you're going to be safe.
11/23/2006
Welcome to my new blog
Hi . Welcome to my new blog. I'll write about my exciting adventures in figure skating and all its craziness, plus other bits of drama from my work/life. Yes I do actually skate - I'm not just a fan, and I will tell you it is a lot harder to learn how to skate in your 20s than it is when you're a kid. But I love it, so I still do it and enjoy it despite how hard it is and how much work and dedication it takes to make any miniscule improvement. This blog will be available with some public posts but mostly invite only to those who love skating and are interested in reading it.
