Forward Inside, Back Outside Threes

Finally took some more video of myself skating. Working on that FIBO 3-turn pattern. It's tough. My consolation is I don't look as awkward as I feel. But my back 3's need a lot of practice.

First up, my good side on the FI and bad side on the BO. (RFI-LBO)
By good side, I mean it feels less awkward. And by bad side, I lose my balance a bit and have to put my foot down. A lot. Maybe if I really exaggerate the knee bend after the turn, it'll be easier. See, this is why I like video of myself. It reassures me in some areas and helps me critique in others. 

Next up, my bad side on the FI and good side on the BO. (LFI-RBO)
But I struggle to control that forward edge on this BO turn. It's swingy. I know I should hold my left arm in front, but I just can't. The force pulls it around. I'll keep trying.
(funny, they both look about equal...equally bad or equally good, depending on how pessimistic I'm feeling at the moment)

oh, and a bonus...my dutch waltz. I go off camera a bit, so I cropped that out, but I got most of the ice within view. (I'm the one coming into view at the far right...)

Squeaky Wheel

...gets oiled. Or something.

I just sent an email to the customer service director of my rink. Since school started, they have slashed freestyle. It's as if they're catering to the young kids in school, but even then, it's a very limited schedule (short afternoon session right when school lets out). My beautiful Sunday sessions are gone for the rest of the year. The only weekend sessions left are those stinking early Saturday morning, where all the young kids and synchro girls skate. No thanks.

They've also axed the Monday and Tuesday mornings. Leaving me with only 3 options: Wed, Thu, Fri. My goal is to skate at least 3x a week, maybe 4. With this schedule, I would have to go 3 days in a row, then not skate for 4 WHOLE DAYS. That's just unacceptable.

It's not so bad right now because I have my ice dancing class on Tuesdays over at the posh rink, so I can space my skating out a little by going Wed and Fri. But there are only 3 classes left. I'm really not looking forward to being so limited.

Hopefully my email will be well received, and they can do something about it. There are so many holes in the schedule, times where I think the rink is open, that it makes no sense to have nothing on the calendar. And taking away weekend sessions is like killing the adult skater. We work, kids don't. Most adults need weekend ice time or forget getting any skating in.

*fingers crossed*

Dutch Waltz

Had a rather frustrating skate today. I overslept. Meaning I had 15 minutes to get dressed, get my shit together (gloves, towel, water), make coffee, eat breakfast. And then traffic was nasty. I didn't pin my hair well, and flyaways kept coming lose during my skate. And trying to repin hair down with gloves on...I ended up looking like a hot mess. But flyaways annoy the snot out of me.

I suppose I'll start with the one bright spot about today. The only one. OK, so yesterday, I had my ice dancing class. I'm basically the only student. My friend paid for the class, but of the last 4 classes, she's shown up to 1. One. Uno. Eins. That was last week, the 3rd week. She was a no show again yesterday. Anyway, I'm struggling a bit with this Dutch Waltz. It seems so easy. It's not. That "quick" progressive is tough. My swing rolls were shaky and off-tempo, but coach gave me a great tip. As I'm counting, when I get to 6, instead of saying 6 in my mind, say down. So 1-2-3 (hip shift, swing) 4-5-down, to get me thinking about bending my knee in prep for the next steps.

In our class, we have very little space. Honestly, I don't know what the rink organizers are thinking. We get one little hockey circle. It's ridiculous. Coach has to tell me not to push, or I'll run out of room. But today, I had the whole ice. And after a few attempts, I was ALMOST covering the whole ice. I was covering between the hockey circles, not quite to the boards, but I'll take it. (bright spot) That tip about the swing roll really helped. My progressives still stink. Especially clockwise. That 2-1-3 is just too fast for me.

Why did I spend so much time practicing this waltz today? Because I'm panicking. Yesterday, dance coach said that next week, we'll do the dance in a hold. Shit. I'm not ready. The steps are still too quick for me. I'm probably going to kick him in the leg with my swing roll. And he'll be fast, and if I need to bail or go slower, he'll be holding onto me. And I sweat. I'm gonna sweat all over him. It'll embarrass me. But I lack confrontational skills. He'll ask why if I say I don't want to. I just wish I could test this solo. The test manual says I can. Why must we do this in a hold? I don't wanna. *pout*

Now onto the suck. My alternating 3's were terrible today. Not sure if it was the cold. Man, it was cold. I almost never complain about the cold. Usually because I'm not cold, duh. But it was COLD today. I kept rubbing my legs to get them to circulate and warm up. Thirty minutes in, and I still had my jacket on. That's unheard of! Then I tried the FIBO 3-turn pattern. My back 3's are still rough. I scrape and can't hold that forward edge very well. On my good side, I swing around too much, can't control it. On my bad side, I have to put my free foot down too soon.

And that damn scratch spin. I cannot stop coming up on my toe pick. It's maddening. I try just holding the extended position, but I can still hear my toe pick. I try making sure my free hip doesn't drop, my arms are "10&2" although it ends up being more like 11&2. It's like my upper body rotates, or can't completely rotate around, and I can't fix it. I dream of doing a layback. I'll never get there if I can't nail this scratch spin. le sigh.

Unrelated to all that, there were two other adults on the ice with me. Very basic skaters. I love seeing adults learning to skate. I think I recognized one of the women. She was working on shaky crossovers and forward edges. But the other woman...was wearing jeans. JEANS! the hell? Jeans restrict your movement. Your muscles tense up. You wouldn't wear jeans to the gym. Don't wear them skating. Plus, it's against freestyle rules. (Why is the rink so vague on the definition of "beginner" skater?)

 
She looked like a skater on a public session, just shuffling around the perimeter. Not to mention, for a while, the two of them were skating together, casually, around the perimeter, socializing, like it was a public session. That kind of irked me. But I guess they were moving. :-/

Carolina

Molto Bene...Bellisimo...Perfecto
I'm talking about the outfit...oh yea, her skating is fabulous, too...but that outfit!
I want.

Couldn't find this in English so I figure in the language of her home country is good enough. What can I say? I want this outfit! It's one of my all-time favorites.

Shibutanis

I saw this routine and loved it. It stuck with me. How her dress is the color of cherry blossoms. Memoirs of a Geisha is one of the most beautiful soundtracks. It's a lovely medley of the best pieces, from soft to intense. I just love this...it's another piece of art. Just watch...

Brackets and Counters

I think I've finally weaned myself off the psychological crutch of the boards while practicing bracket turns. I still only attempt right leg brackets (inside and outside). My right leg is stronger. I figure when those feel solid, I'll try them with the left leg. Cuz these turns are a bit scarier than 3-turns.

At practice recently, I noticed something...the tracing on the ice looks like I'm doing a counter and then coming back to finish the bracket. So I thought, why the heck not? Let's try a counter turn. Wow. It felt easier and more natural than the bracket. First, I was working on the forward outside counter. Then I moved onto the inside bracket and decided to try a counter there, too. Again, feels a lot more natural than a bracket. Weird. I thought counters were supposed to be hard or harder. I mean, there are no counters on the Adult Track for MIF. Just brackets in the field. What's up with that?

Here's how they look on the ice...calling them three-turns and brackets makes sense because duh, that's what they look like. I have no idea how "they" came up with the terms counter and rocker.

Essentially, with a 3-turn, your body rotates in the same direction as the curve (clockwise or counter-clockwise). The opposite is true for a bracket turn. But both of these turns are not only a change of direction (forward/backward) but also a change of edge (inside/outside).

Counters and rockers do not change edge, only direction. Counters start out like a bracket, while rockers start out like a 3-turn. So while brackets are harder to learn than 3-turns, counters are easier to learn than rockers. Probably because of your turning momentum. Or something. But who knew counters would be easier than brackets...

And there's your figure skating turns lesson for the day. You're welcome.

three turns & more three turns

Ms. Hu was there again this morning. Just the two of us on the ice. But today, I decided not to let her get to me. And I succeeded. That or she really wasn't feeling her session. She did about 4 jumps and a couple spins...in an hour. Otherwise, she just skated around, stood around, played on her phone.

I abandoned that line by the hockey goal. It's not ideal. I only use it when I'm trying to stay out of the way. I used the lines more in the middle of the rink. My alternating 3's are quite good now, if I do say so myself. For the outsides, I almost never struggle with the choctaw step, controlling the back inside edge nicely. My inside 3's could use a bit more speed but are otherwise satisfactory.

Then I worked on the FIBO 3-turn pattern. This is tough. But I remember when forward alternating 3's were tough. Just a few short months ago. I'm scraping a bit more than I should on the back 3. This also slows down my forward edge. I corrected it on my good side, using my hips to turn rather than relying on my arms. But understanding the concept and applying it to my bad side are two different things right now.

I worked on my spins. The first one...man, I wish I had filmed it. I held the extended position until I thought I found my center. I couldn't even hear my toe pick scraping, so I pulled in. My toe pick started scraping just a bit, but it was much quieter than usual. Spin was fast and centered, and I even checked out. I wish I took a picture of the ice. Then I tried about 5 more and could not do them. I decided to try one more before moving on, and while it wasn't as good as the first, it was close. Minimal sound of my toe pick scraping. I traveled a bit, but the whole spin felt secure. yay!

And then onto back spins. These were just not happening. At all. I'm still entering this from a back pivot. My coach tells me to keep my toe pick lower, so I don't have to bring my skate down so far to spin. I thought I was doing this every time, but I guess it's low when I start, but once I pivot around, my heel comes up when I bend my knee. I don't know how to pivot on the bottom part of my toe pick.

By this time, there was 15 minutes left. I needed to work on the progressives and swing rolls for the Dutch Waltz for next week's dance class. Coming along, I guess. Still not great. I tried the full pattern. My goodness, I don't have enough power or speed. Those swing rolls in 6 counts cover a lot of ice. If I try to cover that much ice, it's more like 10 counts. But if I keep it to 6, I'll need to do like 4 swing rolls instead of 2 to cover the necessary ice before the next progressive step. Whoever said ice dancing isn't hard needs to be smacked. Not sure if anybody ever said that, but I'm sure there are some skaters out there who've thought it.

Sharing the ice

First weekday morning freestyle since school started. Jessica Hu was skating. I had no idea who she was. Still don't. But I can recognize a triple jump, and she was doing them. Well. At first I was impressed. Until I discovered her inability to share the ice. We're TWO skaters on the ice. Just two. I'm WAY off to the side, using the line by the hockey goal, giving her the rest of the ice. Then I'm using the corner hockey circle. (No, she wasn't working on lutzes. Besides, there are 3 other corners she could use if she were.) But she just HAS to skate near me. And fast. I'm working on back 3's, and her constant closeness was getting on my nerves. So I moved. I guess she had the same idea, because she moved, and was still skating too closely to me, repeatedly.

Honestly, I don't understand this attitude from elite skaters. And frankly, I like my rink because there really aren't any elite skaters. The kids may be rude and not quite understand right of way, but the adults are always polite. There's two of us on the ice. And I'm giving her the vast majority of the ice. Can she try not to skate two feet from me? Once, as I was coming around a back 3, she came up behind me in my blind spot and cut me off. I nearly peed, I was so startled.

I took a quick glance at the sign up sheet on my way out to find out her name. Later, a quick google search. 11th at Junior Nationals in 2012. I guess she's now skating at the senior level but possibly didn't qualify for 2013. And her home rink is Raleigh. She's just in town visiting (I hope). No way our rink has a triple jumper. Any elite skaters in the area prefer the posh rink 20 minutes away. I'm surprised she didn't bother skating over there. I wish she would have.

I'm probably still ornery from yesterday's ice dance class. Not the class. I decided to stay and skate the public session after to practice moves from the Dutch Waltz. I needed to tighten my laces, and while I'm doing so, a little girl about 7 or 8 comes up to me and asks incredulously and with disdain, "are you sweating?!" Brat. She's not some toddler who doesn't know any better. Anyway, I felt too self-conscious to skate after that.