In which I LEARN A JUMP, God help me
Sep. 17th, 2013 07:50 pmSince I'll be out of town for Saturday's class (in Chicago watching ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pezprez get married, woo!), I went to the Tuesday evening skating class tonight. They didn't have a class for my level, so I got put in the Freestyle 2 class.*
What I said: "Sounds good. I'm up for anything."
What I thought: O.O ohshit.
It wasn't as terrifying as it could've been, since there were only two other women in the class and the instructor--another of the USE YOUR WORDS style, yay--could split her attention between us without too much trouble. She decided, I think, that I needed a challenge, so she taught me the bunny hop.
Bunny hops, aside from being the cutest name for a sports move ever, are the first jump everyone learns. They show up in Delta. I didn't actually learn the full-out version, but rather a starter version where you skate forward on the left foot with the right foot extended forward, hop onto the toe pick of the right foot, then put the left foot back down on a flat. I only had both my feet off the ground for approximately a nanosecond, which was reassuring.
On the other hand, I TOTALLY LEARNED A (TINY) JUMP. THAT IS SO COOL.
Tonight's instructor also taught me a much, much easier way to do a mohawk that resulted in me actually doing a mohawk, yay! It works better when you aim for third position followed by a turn rather than fifth position and a simple weight transfer. (It also technically results in a half-turn on one foot, so maybe three turns will be less scary now?) Apparently lots of people have trouble with the turnout required to do mohawks, but I am not one of them, thanks to permanent ballet turnout, so...yay? It's gotten me compliments from almost every skating instructor I've run into, so that's nice.
Finally, she had advice for spins, which I didn't get to try out because I was desperately trying not to be sick after doing a bunch of bad spins in a row, but I'm skating tomorrow's public session, so will give it a shot!
* ISI levels go Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta (where I'm at), Gamma, Delta, and then Freestyle 1-10, or Dance 1-10, or Figures 1-10...whatever you decide to specialize in, or you can do them all.
pezprez get married, woo!), I went to the Tuesday evening skating class tonight. They didn't have a class for my level, so I got put in the Freestyle 2 class.*What I said: "Sounds good. I'm up for anything."
What I thought: O.O ohshit.
It wasn't as terrifying as it could've been, since there were only two other women in the class and the instructor--another of the USE YOUR WORDS style, yay--could split her attention between us without too much trouble. She decided, I think, that I needed a challenge, so she taught me the bunny hop.
Bunny hops, aside from being the cutest name for a sports move ever, are the first jump everyone learns. They show up in Delta. I didn't actually learn the full-out version, but rather a starter version where you skate forward on the left foot with the right foot extended forward, hop onto the toe pick of the right foot, then put the left foot back down on a flat. I only had both my feet off the ground for approximately a nanosecond, which was reassuring.
On the other hand, I TOTALLY LEARNED A (TINY) JUMP. THAT IS SO COOL.
Tonight's instructor also taught me a much, much easier way to do a mohawk that resulted in me actually doing a mohawk, yay! It works better when you aim for third position followed by a turn rather than fifth position and a simple weight transfer. (It also technically results in a half-turn on one foot, so maybe three turns will be less scary now?) Apparently lots of people have trouble with the turnout required to do mohawks, but I am not one of them, thanks to permanent ballet turnout, so...yay? It's gotten me compliments from almost every skating instructor I've run into, so that's nice.
Finally, she had advice for spins, which I didn't get to try out because I was desperately trying not to be sick after doing a bunch of bad spins in a row, but I'm skating tomorrow's public session, so will give it a shot!
* ISI levels go Pre-Alpha, Alpha, Beta (where I'm at), Gamma, Delta, and then Freestyle 1-10, or Dance 1-10, or Figures 1-10...whatever you decide to specialize in, or you can do them all.
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