Beta class!
Sep. 7th, 2013 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixieThis session, I get the sub I had a while ago who's very good at explaining things in words and pointing out where each body part should be and what it should be doing during any given move. She also has a nice stockpile of exercises that aren't steps per se, but they're nice easily practiced things that prepare you for real steps or make your real steps work better. This is all exactly what I like and need, so this session should be awesome!
Other awesome things: I...think I may be the only person in my class? Today there was also a beginning hockey guy, but I got the impression he was making up for a class he missed earlier in the week. I was definitely the only person in this class on the lists they posted this morning, anyway. We'll see what happens next week.
Mostly today was review, but new to me things included hockey stops, backwards slaloms, and edge pulls or power pulls, which are essentially forward slaloms on one foot.
Hockey stops aren't quite as bad as I feared, but are not for the faint of heart. There's definitely a moment where both your feet are over there and your entire body weight is over here, and if you stay in that position too long, you go crashing to the ice.
Backwards slaloms are pretty much just really exaggerated wiggles, and I am an excellent wiggler.
Power pulls went...about how you might expect for a Beta class, which is to say they didn't. My body is steadfastly refusing to lean way over to either side while balanced on one three millimeter-wide blade, especially not at any speed. I'll get there. One day. It might take a few years.
But I'm sooooo close to doing a real three turn! I can get about halfway through it on my right foot before I have to put the other foot down.
The bad news from today is that to pass Beta, I have to do backwards crossovers the annoying, clunky way where you actually pick up your foot. Boo. I like the others so much better.
They're trying something new this session with the beginner classes having class for a half hour, then a half hour of practice, and the not-beginner classes (i.e., me), doing the opposite. A synchro team also uses the ice during these times. So what they've done is split the ice into thirds to accommodate everything.
On the one hand, I like it as an idea. I always have about ten minutes of "Wait, where are my feet, what are hips, how do shoulders work?" at the beginning of any on-ice session, and it's nice to get that out of the way before class. I get most of my real practicing done during the week anyway (especially since they now give us fourteen public or freestyle passes per session instead of seven, so I can come twice a week without paying extra), so using that as basically an extended warmup doesn't bother me. It'll be a nice cushion in case of parking problems, too.
On the other hand, trying to run a bunch of different classes on a third of the ice is REALLY HARD. Hockey circles in particular were at a premium. The practice portion wasn't much better. I made my own imaginary hockey circle on which to practice crossovers, but it was still crowded. If only the synchro team would use the other rink, it would make things a bit better; I'm not sure why they can't. Grrr.
Other awesome things: I...think I may be the only person in my class? Today there was also a beginning hockey guy, but I got the impression he was making up for a class he missed earlier in the week. I was definitely the only person in this class on the lists they posted this morning, anyway. We'll see what happens next week.
Mostly today was review, but new to me things included hockey stops, backwards slaloms, and edge pulls or power pulls, which are essentially forward slaloms on one foot.
Hockey stops aren't quite as bad as I feared, but are not for the faint of heart. There's definitely a moment where both your feet are over there and your entire body weight is over here, and if you stay in that position too long, you go crashing to the ice.
Backwards slaloms are pretty much just really exaggerated wiggles, and I am an excellent wiggler.
Power pulls went...about how you might expect for a Beta class, which is to say they didn't. My body is steadfastly refusing to lean way over to either side while balanced on one three millimeter-wide blade, especially not at any speed. I'll get there. One day. It might take a few years.
But I'm sooooo close to doing a real three turn! I can get about halfway through it on my right foot before I have to put the other foot down.
The bad news from today is that to pass Beta, I have to do backwards crossovers the annoying, clunky way where you actually pick up your foot. Boo. I like the others so much better.
They're trying something new this session with the beginner classes having class for a half hour, then a half hour of practice, and the not-beginner classes (i.e., me), doing the opposite. A synchro team also uses the ice during these times. So what they've done is split the ice into thirds to accommodate everything.
On the one hand, I like it as an idea. I always have about ten minutes of "Wait, where are my feet, what are hips, how do shoulders work?" at the beginning of any on-ice session, and it's nice to get that out of the way before class. I get most of my real practicing done during the week anyway (especially since they now give us fourteen public or freestyle passes per session instead of seven, so I can come twice a week without paying extra), so using that as basically an extended warmup doesn't bother me. It'll be a nice cushion in case of parking problems, too.
On the other hand, trying to run a bunch of different classes on a third of the ice is REALLY HARD. Hockey circles in particular were at a premium. The practice portion wasn't much better. I made my own imaginary hockey circle on which to practice crossovers, but it was still crowded. If only the synchro team would use the other rink, it would make things a bit better; I'm not sure why they can't. Grrr.
