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.