Skating blather
Jul. 17th, 2016 06:43 pmI'm going to be the only person competing in my level at the competition in three weeks. It'll be like an exhibition with a medal at the end!
My program has settled into its final form. I'm hitting the five marks I really want to hit about 90% of the time (and within a beat or two the other 10% of the time) and did two really good run-throughs today. My camel-sit spin is still wobblier than I'd like, but everything else is going well.
I had BF sharpen my blades last weekend and put in a slightly deeper hollow* because it seemed like I was skating over the ice rather than on it, which is NOT a good feeling. Admittedly, this could've been because I had someone else sharpen them last time, but we figured a deeper hollow wouldn't hurt. A deeper hollow tends to make edges more secure (it makes the edges longer as measured from the center of the hollow, thus giving them more "bite"), but at the cost of some ease of glide. I went from 5/8 of an inch to half an inch.
My verdict? I started out feeling like I was skating through glue, but I think I'm going to like this hollow. The blades definitely have more of a mind of their own, which makes stopping...interesting...but my edges are much more secure. They saved me from a spread eagle the other day that would've had me on my face with the old hollow. Also, they've helped my back spin. I'm actually spinning a little before I get too far up the the toe pick!
* The bottom of a skate blade is shaped like an upside-down U (illustration), giving you two edges, inside and outside, which are what you actually skate on. The depth of this U, and the corresponding length of the two edges, is referred to as your hollow.
My program has settled into its final form. I'm hitting the five marks I really want to hit about 90% of the time (and within a beat or two the other 10% of the time) and did two really good run-throughs today. My camel-sit spin is still wobblier than I'd like, but everything else is going well.
I had BF sharpen my blades last weekend and put in a slightly deeper hollow* because it seemed like I was skating over the ice rather than on it, which is NOT a good feeling. Admittedly, this could've been because I had someone else sharpen them last time, but we figured a deeper hollow wouldn't hurt. A deeper hollow tends to make edges more secure (it makes the edges longer as measured from the center of the hollow, thus giving them more "bite"), but at the cost of some ease of glide. I went from 5/8 of an inch to half an inch.
My verdict? I started out feeling like I was skating through glue, but I think I'm going to like this hollow. The blades definitely have more of a mind of their own, which makes stopping...interesting...but my edges are much more secure. They saved me from a spread eagle the other day that would've had me on my face with the old hollow. Also, they've helped my back spin. I'm actually spinning a little before I get too far up the the toe pick!
* The bottom of a skate blade is shaped like an upside-down U (illustration), giving you two edges, inside and outside, which are what you actually skate on. The depth of this U, and the corresponding length of the two edges, is referred to as your hollow.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}