Just practice and more practice

Tags

back camel, back sit, jumps, layback spin, spins

It’s been nice to spend some time post-competition to put the program run-throughs on hold for now to get back to learning new skills, which is always motivating. (Although I have to remember to still run my program every now and again! The last time, it took me so long to be able to do a full run-through because I’d gotten out of the habit for so long.)

Most of the new skills have been with spins, mostly because my jumps are still where they’ve been — I’ve been working to get them better, but I haven’t added any to the arsenal, sadly! For the past couple of months, my forward spins have all gone completely AWOL and it’s been my backspins that have shown most improvement, which is a little surprising (though I’ll take it! Don’t say I’m ungrateful!). It’s to do with the entry edge, and my coach and I are working to break down the problem and fix it at the source — I can still do forward spins, but the hit rate is pretty low because a lot of the time, a bad entry means the whole spin is gone.

The camel’s been the most affected by this (urg! It’s completely gone these days), as well as my basic scratch spin, but I can sometimes still salvage a sit spin and the layback, which is improving although I still have issues with keeping my free hip down so I’m not doing that lovely dog-peeing pose as I spin. You know, where your free leg is awkwardly up and open instead of tucked nicely in line with your hips. It’s ugly, I know, but my hips just don’t want to tuck under. I’m also enjoying practicing the back camel, because for whatever reason I find that backward entry a lot more secure than the forward one.

Jumps are much the same, although I’m telling myself that if I squint really hard, my flip and lutz are every so slightly improved. I’ve been working on getting a good jump off the toe pick and not leaving my left leg on the ice too long, so that it looks like I’m jumping off two feet. I’m pretty sure getting that timing better will help ensure I don’t flutz, as will getting my foot crossed in the air, which it really really doesn’t want to do, because I just don’t feel like there’s enough time in the air to do all the things my coach wants my body to do! And the axel is still a long way off, but I’m starting to feel more secure in the jump-into-backspin mechanism, where I jump up and over, and come down straight down on the toe pick instead of trying to swing myself around. I know THAT will never get me there.

Jumps:

Spins:

March practice videos

Tags

back sit, backspin, flip, loop jump, salchow, sit spin, spins, toe loop, twizzles

I’ve got a bit of a backlog of videos to get through, so here are a couple of videos from last month — now that the crowds have thinned during (most) public skate sessions, I’ve been trying to get back into the video habit. But I’ve been taking them and not watching them, which defeats the purpose! So my goal is to get better about taking (and reviewing) videos.

On the flipside, I do find that concentrating too much on getting good video (in an open spot! In frame! With nobody cutting in and out! With decent light! etc) can be distracting, so I try not to do it too much. I’ll bring it out for maybe ten minutes in a session, once a week or so, although often I forget.

This winter and spring, I’ve mostly been working on improving my skills rather than learning new ones. I wouldn’t say I’m stuck because I can generally feel improvement from month to month, but I’m not progressing so fast that I’m on to new skills yet. So for jumps, I’m working on getting my waltz higher, my salchow less swingy (jump out, not around!), my toe loop crossed properly so I’m not toe waltzing, my loop bigger, my flip more consistent, and my lutz into existence.

Some fun stuff

Tags

back camel, back sit, backspin, twizzles

And now for more fun stuff! Not that I don’t find sit spins and backspins fun, but isn’t there always that pressure when you’re working on the elements that are up for testing? Anything beyond that starts seeming more fun and exciting.

This video includes a bunch of skills I’m just starting to work on, so please excuse how badly they’re being done! I’ve found that when I started taping myself I was embarrassed to show the really bad attempts and only showed things that were in my best 30% of attempts, but then when I started looking back I found it wasn’t as helpful as if I’d just included a representative snapshot of everything. With that in mind…

This was my first day attempting the back camel from backspin entry. My coach ordered me to practice from a pivot or out of a forward camel, so that’s what I stuck to. Then this day at practice she suggested I try the backspin entry and as you can see, I’m super tentative going into it. I could barely feel the toepick when I went into the spin, because I was too scared to give it much power. But as you know in skating, having zero speed or power actually makes everything really hard, so I think I have to build my way up to not being so scared of it. (I hit my head on the ice once doing a back camel — I fell off the RBO edge — and it’s always freaked me out a little after that.)

The back sit also needs me to commit more, because I always chicken out after that first revolution. It’s so ungainly the way my leg just flings itself back to catch me instead of trusting that I’ll keep spinning — it’s almost an automatic habit, which I should really break now. I remember the forward sit really unnerved me too because I hated falling on it, and I could foresee that learning it would require lots of falling.

Layback. I’m really going to have to practice stretching and hitting the positions in front of a mirror at home. As you can see, right now it’s really just a looking-up-spin because I can’t manage the back arch — ack to old spines! This will require a lot of slow progress as I gradually increase the back arch and lift the leg higher — right now looking up makes me incredibly dizzy so I’m getting accustomed to the new view.

Stars! I’d love to include stars in my program, but they are of course terribly difficult so we’ll see how they go. My coach had me starting with 3-turns, then going down into more of a camel position. I haven’t quite figured out the timing of it yet — you can see there’s a lot of pausing between turns, and it throws off the momentum.

Twizzles, ack. I really really want to learn how to do twizzles. I really really can’t get the knack of them though. The right foot does better, so I’ve been trying to focus particularly on the left, but they’re so tricky. (Outside twizzles are worse; right now the insides are hard enough). Right now I’m thinking of them as very slow 3-turns — otherwise my upper body tries to travel while my feet try to spin, which ends with a fall. At least if I think of them as very close 3-turns, I can manage the turn and stay upright without losing my balance.