Skating stuff
Nov. 15th, 2013 08:32 pmGood practices this week. I think I'm finally bending my knees close to enough for forward crossovers, five months after learning how to do them in the first place. Nothing in skating can't be improved with more knee bend (except spirals).
Speaking of spirals, stretching has worked miracles there too. Off-ice, with something to rest my hands on, I can hit 125 degrees with my left leg, and 115 with my right. (I totally took pictures of myself and used Photoshop to measure the angles. Dedication, I haz it.) On ice, where I'm too terrified to drop my shoulders very far...well, I stretched until I could feel my back muscles hurting like they did on Wednesday, and I'm guessing I'm getting 80ish degrees on both sides. Not so bad! Would be better if I could just get over my fear of leaning forward. That's my goal for the show, I think, unless a more pressing one comes up once I learn the choreography for the remaining 5/6ths of the number.
Another goal: More than three revolutions on a two-foot spin. I ignored my dizziness and really focused on them today, and managed to get three revs with some consistency. I think I never quite make it to the right spot on the blade, which...probably means I need to bend my knees more when entering the spin.
On the other hand, I am totally getting the hang of swing rolls! As far as I can tell, these are the ISI Delta forward edges pattern with a swingier rhythm. And oh look, they go ever so much better when (wait for it...waaaaiiit for it...) you bend your knees more. Magically more secure edges! Crazytown! I have pretty good inside edges on both sides, and a decent right outside edge, but my left outside edge is still kind of sad. Gotta work on that more.
I can sorta-kinda-not really do the cross rolls in that video, too, although only with the left following the right (so I peter out after two). I was really just trying to do this forward crossover pattern I read about that gets you off the hockey circles and around the perimeter, and that worked okay (you get a couple strokes in between each alternating crossover). At some point, I think I'll probably do the USFS moves tests,* and the first one requires stroking around the rink with crossovers at the ends, the crossover part of which used to terrify me. I can get up to a decent speed just stroking, and my crossovers...did not do well with speed. Now they still don't like it much, but they can deal with it.
They have freeskate tests to go with each moves test. That's where you do your jumps and spins. Ahhhh. (You don't have to take the freeskate tests to test moves, thankfully. You do have to take a particular moves test before taking the associated freeskate test, though.)
In other skating-related news, I splurged on some athletic pants that are lightweight cotton without being tight enough across the butt and hips to embarrass me, and they are lovely. My mom surprised me with some fleece long underwear to wear under them, and those are faaaaaaaabulous. Warm butt! Yay!
* Beginning with either Adult Pre-bronze or Pre-preliminary; probably the adult one because the passing standards are a bit more forgiving to account for our older and crankier bodies, but if I'm feeling feisty I can do the standard track with the kids.
Speaking of spirals, stretching has worked miracles there too. Off-ice, with something to rest my hands on, I can hit 125 degrees with my left leg, and 115 with my right. (I totally took pictures of myself and used Photoshop to measure the angles. Dedication, I haz it.) On ice, where I'm too terrified to drop my shoulders very far...well, I stretched until I could feel my back muscles hurting like they did on Wednesday, and I'm guessing I'm getting 80ish degrees on both sides. Not so bad! Would be better if I could just get over my fear of leaning forward. That's my goal for the show, I think, unless a more pressing one comes up once I learn the choreography for the remaining 5/6ths of the number.
Another goal: More than three revolutions on a two-foot spin. I ignored my dizziness and really focused on them today, and managed to get three revs with some consistency. I think I never quite make it to the right spot on the blade, which...probably means I need to bend my knees more when entering the spin.
On the other hand, I am totally getting the hang of swing rolls! As far as I can tell, these are the ISI Delta forward edges pattern with a swingier rhythm. And oh look, they go ever so much better when (wait for it...waaaaiiit for it...) you bend your knees more. Magically more secure edges! Crazytown! I have pretty good inside edges on both sides, and a decent right outside edge, but my left outside edge is still kind of sad. Gotta work on that more.
I can sorta-kinda-not really do the cross rolls in that video, too, although only with the left following the right (so I peter out after two). I was really just trying to do this forward crossover pattern I read about that gets you off the hockey circles and around the perimeter, and that worked okay (you get a couple strokes in between each alternating crossover). At some point, I think I'll probably do the USFS moves tests,* and the first one requires stroking around the rink with crossovers at the ends, the crossover part of which used to terrify me. I can get up to a decent speed just stroking, and my crossovers...did not do well with speed. Now they still don't like it much, but they can deal with it.
They have freeskate tests to go with each moves test. That's where you do your jumps and spins. Ahhhh. (You don't have to take the freeskate tests to test moves, thankfully. You do have to take a particular moves test before taking the associated freeskate test, though.)
In other skating-related news, I splurged on some athletic pants that are lightweight cotton without being tight enough across the butt and hips to embarrass me, and they are lovely. My mom surprised me with some fleece long underwear to wear under them, and those are faaaaaaaabulous. Warm butt! Yay!
* Beginning with either Adult Pre-bronze or Pre-preliminary; probably the adult one because the passing standards are a bit more forgiving to account for our older and crankier bodies, but if I'm feeling feisty I can do the standard track with the kids.
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