Sound of Silence

Holy shit. Chills. I got literal chills. This is quite possibly the best cover ever made. And I just adore this pair.

Ashley Wagner

This a beautiful shoot, showcasing her strength, her beauty, her muscles. It's art for me.
And a little naughty.

Yuna

When you want to show skating without triples, this is how it's done. Triples are way overrated, and don't even get me started on quads. IMHO. OK, not so humble.

Interview with Caryn Kadavy

My favorite skater of all time. She was just the best. Most beautiful layback ever. Grace and beauty, strong jumps, excellent spins.

And Skateguard interviewed her.

Aerials & Figure Skating

I was watching Pandora's Holiday Moments on Ice yesterday. And I saw something...I was mesmerized. As if pair skating weren't dangerous enough...AERIALS? Wow. Just wow.

Of course, when she put the strap around her neck, I got really uncomfortable. When I was six, my grandma took me to the circus. I remember a beautiful lady with a sparkly pink halter top showing her midriff and matching harem pants. She performed this spinning trick with the strap around her neck. She fell. There was no net. She broke her neck. She died instantly. I've never wanted to go to the circus since.

At least this skater was holding onto the strap. Beautiful routine. I've always loved aerials. But I seriously lack the upper body strength and grip strength to ever do them. To combine it with figure skating is just epic.

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.

Alissa

I guess I'm a collector of favorite skaters and favorite routines. Alissa Czisny is just elegant.

Her spins are phenomenal. And even though she singles her double axel here, this is just a beautiful piece of art. le happy sigh...

She just creates works of art. Her choice of music. Her choice of costume. Stunning.

PIC skate

This is kind of exciting. I mean, it's probably quite an adjustment to learn, going from a blade to inline, but you could essentially figure skate almost anywhere with a PIC skate. No need for an ice rink, no need to work around limited freestyle schedules.


I may look into how much these cost...and get me some. I'll never have children; it's just me and hubs. We gotta spend our money on something...we're always saying, "can't take it with us!"

Layback

So Haley Dunne is kind of a friend of mine. And she sent me this a while back. Totally fun! She's a hoot.

Is there a more iconic skating move than a layback spin?

Skating Camps

I have a good friend online. We met online. We've never met in person. She skates roughly my level, so we love to "talk shop" together. What we're working on, what we're struggling with. We pat each other on the back when we make time for skating. We commiserate together about what our bodies just won't do. She just told me today that if she won the lottery, she would take us to Dorothy Hamill's figure skating camp. I looked it up and nearly choked on my coffee. $4,500? And that doesn't even include airfare or accommodations. umm, I better come away from that camp knowing how to skate like Dorothy Hamill, for that kind of money.

However, it intrigued me. Surely there are other adult figure skating camps. There are. Most very far away from my little southern, east coast locale. Except for this baby...

Atlanta Ice Dance Weekend

This is driving distance. I've actually been to this rink. I used to skate at Parkaire (now renamed Marietta Ice Center) when I was in high school. The Cooler didn't exist then. But it's a posh rink, much like my local Extreme Ice Center.

Too bad I missed this year. But it's probably for the best. I'm just getting back into my figure skating. But by next summer? I'll be much improved. I'll have lost some weight. Hopefully. And besides, I need reasons to look forward to summer. It's my least favorite season.

My Favorite Skater

OK. There's no more beautiful skater than Caryn Kadavy.

She is the reason I had to have brown skates in high school. I could watch her all day. She is and always will be my favorite skater. A favorite routine? I don't have one. They're all my favorite. Her layback position is just exquisite. She steps on the ice, and I get chills.

She really thrived as a professional skater. Not a ton of success or popularity as an amateur. But dim the lights, give her some brown skates, add lyrics to her music, smooth the curly hair...et voila! Perfection.

But in browsing videos of her skating, I came across this familiar piece. And whattya know? At 2:20, she does alternating 3's. I'm working on those and have gotten so much better at them. I seriously thought they would forever be impossible when I first tried them.

ah...to skate as lovely as Caryn.

Michelle Kwan

So...Michelle Kwan was never my favorite skater. But no one can deny her impression on the sport. Her name is legendary. And this has got to be one of my favorite of her performances. That hair! ♥

My Dream

It's my dream to skate like this...well, something closely resembling. I'll never have her speed. The beauty of this piece? No jumps. For me, figure skating is so much more than jumps. Let's see, my layback needs work. Like serious work. I used to have a decent one in high school. 10 years off ice and nuh uh. My spiral needs a bit more flexibility. Forget that split catchfoot...that ain't happening for me. But that spread eagle? You betcha. All in all, I'm close. Maybe I should write down the steps and bring it with me to practice.