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specialBecause I can't stand Tripod anymore, I have moved my skating journal to livejournal. I already have an account with them and like it so much better than tripod. So all future journal entries will be made to the new journal. It would be nice if my faithfull readers could change the link in their journals as well. It will make me easier to find :)
Happy Reading! Enjoy the new format!
http://ahhskating.livejournal.com/
happyMy new coach for this session is Gigi. Although not as peppy as Kelly was, she seems nice and is very encouraging. Before my lesson started, I warmed up in the public session for about an hour. It was so nice having sharp blades again. The guy at the proshop did a really nice job. I am always a bit apprehensive about getting my blades sharpened because I have heard so many horror stories and have seen for myself many a ruined blade from sharpenings gone bad. This particular guy at the proshop is the only person that sharpens blades, so it's not as though they have some random dude at the shop attempt to sharpen blades for the first time. They ripped nicely on my forward crossrolls and on my edges. They felt great!
So, the lesson started off with jumps. Namely, the salchow and half lutz. The salchow I was able to do with no problem. I think I could still use a little bit more knee bend to gain height and Gigi said that both the entry and exit edge of the three turn should be of equal length. Right now, the first half of the three turn is a bit longer than the second half. Moving on to half lutz...I have never been shown the half lutz but common sense told me that it is the same as the half flip but the takeoff is on an outside edge instead of an inside edge. The entry is different too. She showed me how to go into the jump from one backward crossover, two foot glide, bring right foot up to the left knee to prepare and then bring it back, pick, draw and the rest of the jump is much like the half flip. The tricky thing is to get used to getting on that outside edge before you pick in.
Next on the agenda were the back inside three turns. In freeskate 1, I had a hard time getting the back outside three turns until one day, it just clicked. I never really attempted the BI three's because, well, because I was scared. I was afraid that it would take me a while to get the BI three turns down as well. I surpised myself! They were not to shabby. I just had to get over the fear issue and then I was able to do them almost as well as the BO three's.
Next up was the backspin. Gigi told me that Kelly spoke to her about how this was one of my weak points. I'm glad she did because the lesson was going so well, I was afraid that she would expect me do to the backspin as well as the other elements. At least she was prepared for the suckage ahead of time. Freeskate 3 requires me to do the backspin in the crossed leg position with a minimum of three revolutions. Right now I have about two revolutions in the crossed leg position but it's very inconsistant. It is something that really needs some quality time put in to make it smooth and effortless.
We will be doing the waltz 8 and forward/backward crossovers in a figure eight pattern next week. These elements are hard to do when you only have 1/6 of the ice surface to work with. She was relieved to hear that I am quite familiar with these elements already and I can practice them on my own.
brightI was on the USFSA website and found these new Adult MITF instructional videos. If ever you guys are in doubt about what is expected of you or what these patterns really should look like, now you have a place to go to view them. They have all of the moves patterns for each level with common errors and it points out what the judges are looking for when they are watching you. Enjoy!
http://www.usfigureskating.org/Programs.asp?id=316
celebratoryI didn't think I could do it but I surprised myself. I passed, backspin and all! Here's how it all went down, yo.
BO and BI consecutive edges - Very nice and controlled. These are even at the point where I would feel comfortable testing them in the Adult PreBronze setting. They have nice extension and they flow nicely down the line - Passed!
FO and FI Spirals (both directions) - Here is where I had a little bit of trouble. RFO spiral and RFI spirals were quite nice because that is the leg I spiral on. On the left leg, however, my weakness shows. LFO spiral needed more extension and really needed to be more steady than it was but I got the leg up to hip height and so that was good enough to pass. LFI was all over the place. The extension was mediocre at best and it was difficult to hold that edge as it is my weakest. Kelly said I could really use some more work on that particular spiral but passed me because I was able to do 3/4 of the required spirals with some degree of proficiancy - Passed!
Continuous Forward Progressive Chasse Sequence (both directions) - Nice flow, good extension, easy enough - Passed!
Waltz Threes - Nice, waltzy - Passed!
Beginning Backspin - I got the two rev's. That's all I needed - PASSED!
Waltz jump, side toe hop, waltz jump sequence - Great lift, good control - Passed!
Toe Loop - I didn't go for power or height here, I just wanted to make sure I did it correctly, no toe waltzing. So it was small but it was with proper technique - Passed!
So, Freeskate 2 is a thing of the past. I will continue to work on those things that Kelly told me to fix. With the spirals, it is difficult to practice those in a crowded public session. I'm not making excuses, but yeah, it's not easy to be in a spiral position with kamikaze kids whizzing about. I signed up for Freeskate 3 which starts next Thursday and then headed to the proshop to reward my skates for a job well done. They are getting sharpened and I bought some glittery skate guards too. Freeskate 3 elements will be:
1). Forward and Backward crossovers in a figure 8 pattern
2). Waltz Eight
3). Advanced forward consecutive swing rolls (four to six)
4). Backward inside 3-turn (CCW and CW)
5). Backspin with free foot in crossed leg position (min 3 rev's)
6). Salchow
7). Half Lutz Jump
8). Waltz jump/toe loop combo or Salchow/toe loop combo
Most of these I am already pretty good at so, I think Freeskate 3 might be easier than Freeskate 2. We'll see. Oh, and I finally got my Rocky Mountain FSC membership. I feel all official now ;)
irritatedDear Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Club membership guy,
It has been about two months since I gave you my application and money and I still have not received anything nor have you responded to any of my emails. Please do not make me think that you are a) ignoring me or b) a crook. I really want to avoid getting mad at you, really. So, would it be terribly difficult for you to just, i dunno, ANSWER MY EMAILS AND TELL ME WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!?!?!
Thanks,
Mandi
surprisedNo more struggling with spazzed out attempts at the dreaded backspin. No more sleepless nights worrying about whether or not I will pass Free Skate 2. Why?????
BECAUSE I HAVE A BACKSPIN!!!!!!!!!!
That's right! This little girl here has a backspin. Ok, to be honest, it's not the most beautiful sight to behold but I had a eureka moment today and it just clicked. I got two revolutions consistantly and every now and then I would find that sweet spot and get three rev's. It still needs a lot of work, though, but now I know that I CAN DO IT. It is no longer an impossiblility! It is no longer the "dreaded" backspin but now just a......backspin in training.
So, here is what I think happened because we all know that eureka moments are not just given to us from the figure skate gods (even though sometimes I like to think that they are). They happen because for once, we may have done something completely different from what we have been doing all along. I brought my free hip up and I closed my hips. I also changed my arm position. The main reason why I felt so darn spazzy is because my arms were spazzy. I brought them in low, underneath my right boob and I tried looking more to my right. This also helped in keeping my weight over my skating leg. All these things worked together and produced a recognizable backspin. Oh, and I did it slowly. I really tried to think about where all my body parts were. So, the revolutions were slow, but they felt somewhat in control.
It was a good practice overall. There were only about 10 of us and we were all adults. I had enough room to practice MITF and jumps. I even had some room to practice some camels. I'm so happy I could spit! To celebrate, I treated myself to a "Berry Manilow" smoothie from the Jumpin' Juice N' Java next door!
YAY ME!!!!!!
downGood news and bad news...I'll start with the good. Michelle Kwan is coming to Denver! Seems as though she is taking a year off of skating to attend the University of Denver on a full time basis. She plans on skating in exhibitions only but nothing competitive. Maybe I'll see her around and she could give me some pointers on the dreaded backspin.
Which brings me to the bad news. I had my lesson today and I still do not have the two revolutions on the backspin required to pass Freeskate 2. I am so frustrated because I have all of the other elements down pat so I could easily pass the test next week except for that darn backspin! I have tried going into this spin from numerous entries but nothing seems to work. This is totally killing my motivation. I know it shouldn't. I know I should be nicer to myself because I am making progress on everything else. But it frustrates me to no end that I spend so much time on this and I am not getting any better. One revoultion. Always just one revolution. And....it's not even a nice 1 revolution. It's a panicky, spazzed out revolution. I'm bummed.
coolI didn't write about my practice yesterday because, besides the fact that I got run over by a 6 year old kid who wasn't looking where he was going, it was quite uneventful. I worked on the usual things with no real improvement, at least any that I could see.
Today's lesson started with the usual warm-up of stroking followed by a transition into the new progressive slide chasse sequence we learned last week. After we were all nice and warmed up, Kelly introduced us to the waltz 3. Really simple to do! Foward outside three turn in the open position switch to back outside edge, push off onto another foward outside three turn in the open position. Repeat, repeat and repeat. This picks up speed just like the progressive slide chasse sequence so it was really fun to do and once I get my arms going in the right direction, it will look as nice as it feels.
Next up was our introduction to the toe loop. I really should not say introduction because both of us have done them before. My toe loops are more like toe-waltz jumps than anything so an introduction is just what I need at this point. I need to start fresh and learn this jump the right way. Kelly started by having us look at the "worst" part of the jump - the "pick, draw and takeoff". This is the part that most people (me) cheat on. From a stand still, she had us pick in with the freeleg in the proper spot, behind and slightly inside. From there, we drew in with our skating leg and passed the skating leg through for the takeoff portion of the jump. We did this for a few minutes and the she had us tie in the easier parts of the jump, namely the intro (FI3 turn) and the landing (BO edge). I still feel as though I am cheating the jump. Maybe because I have been cheating it for so long and old habits are hard to break. I will break this habit and learn it the right way. I have to - it's on the Pre-preliminary freestyle test! Then she had us tie in other jumps. So we did waltz jump - side toe hop - waltz jump - toe loop. What a workout!
Speaking of jumps, Kelly started talking about the correct air position which led us into, of course, the dreaded backspin. Kelly reminded us that to pass Freeskate 2 in a few weeks, we need at least two revolutions. I am still only getting 1 revolution on a good day. And it doesn't matter how I go about entering the darn thing, I still feel as though I am only ever going to get 1 revolution. But, I have another three weeks to gain another turn so maybe it will happen. If not, well....I'll be in Freeskate 2 AGAIN!
Better get to work on that :)
So, I was going to ditch class today in favor of some much needed sleep but since the rugrats who live downstairs from me were banging on the metal railing of the stairs outside with baseball bats, I couldn't sleep anymore anyway. So, I had been up for over 24 hours, slept for about 4 hours and got up to go to my lesson, with almost no caffeine btw.
I got to the rink and it was more crowded than usual. Wait a minute...I thought today was the first day of school. Don't these kids have like, I dunno, HOMEWORK???!!! I could not work on anything! Seriously, I skated in circles for an hour. I was so uninspired. And sleepy.
The lesson started with Kelly asking us how the first day of school was and after my two 12 year old classmates answered, Kelly turned to me and waited for my response. I looked at her like "geeez, do I really look that young, must be the ponytail". I guess she thought I was still in high school and was surprised to learn that I am only one year younger than her!
We warmed up with advanced foward stroking. There is always something you can improve with your stroking, I guess. Then she introduced us to one of the Freeskate 2 elements, the foward progressive chasse sequence. I love it! I actually felt like an ice dancer out there. It was fun and really picks up some speed when done in a figure eight pattern. The rest of the time was spent on the dreaded backspin. She showed us how to go into it from BXO's just as you would for a foward spin except instead of stepping onto a deep LFO edge, you somehow step onto a RFI edge. I didn't really get how this worked. I will have to have her show it to me again. How do I go from riding a RBI edge to stepping foward on a RFI edge. Doesn't make sense to me at all. I practiced it, instead, from a standstill pushing off onto a RFI edge and holding it as long as possible until it hooked and started to spin. I still only got about 1 revolution but it's better than nothing. It will improve with time. Next week is jumps (waltz-side toe-waltz and toe loop) and the waltz three.
happyThey got rid of the "cheapskate" on Tuesday afternoon so I went to the 7:30 to 9:00pm session tonight before work. I finally got to talk to Scott Hamilton. Ok, not really. But, everytime I go to the rink, there is this guy who looks just like Scott. He finally skated up to me today and commented how good my edges were and that he wished he had edges as nice as mine! A pretty nice compliment coming from someone as accomplished as he is. He is working on his axel, by the way. His name is Jim and learned most of what he knows by watching skaters on TV and has just recently started taking private lessons again. He is also working on taking the Adult Pre-Bronze test soon, even though I'm sure he could even pass the gold test now if he wanted to. He gave me some pointers on the dreaded backspin. He showed me how my arms should be and where I should be looking. I can still only do one revolution but they are less and less traumatic the more I do them.
I did some nice camels. I got some that had two, maybe three, revolutions. So, Yay! I also worked on scratches since I felt centered today. That never happens so I figured I should take advantage.
Waltz jumps were not as high as they usually are but I was tired today so that may have played a part. On the other hand, half-flips were super high, maybe the highest I've done them so....go figure. No salchow today. I just forgot to include them in my practice. I'll make up for it tommorow. I'll do twice the amount. Toe loop was unremarkable as usual.
Edges, well....they were nice (According to Jim) so I must be doing something right. You know, I think I spend more time on edgework than anything else. I guess it's starting to show. I would rather have really nice edges than really nice jumps. Eventually, those really nice edges will help me achieve really nice jumps...key word is "eventually".
BO3 turns....still there :) I played around with double three's on the line. Ummm.....stinky. That's all I have to say about that. Lesson tomorrow!
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