Crackers or Turkeys - Lessons and practices in Christmas week (21-27 December 2003)

[Mrs Redboots]

It's That Time of Year again - Winter Basics! All of us were working on them this morning, with the exception of one of the elite couples who are doing a gala next week sometime, so were working on a routine for that. Utterly brilliant, and great fun to watch order emerging out of chaos!

From what I am hearing, the judging community is beginning to look hard at adult dance presentation skills, especially here in Europe (you across the pond have much, much better presentation than we do), so our Winter Basics training is Winter Basics And Presentation Skills! In our lesson, we didn't do anything really hard (except inside swing rolls in Foxtrot hold, which isn't just really hard, it's well-nigh impossible!). We just did runs (progressives) round the circle in Kilian and Reverse Kilian holds, clockwise and anti-clockwise, then plain vanilla stroking in Kilian hold and Waltz hold (taking it in turns to go backwards), outside and inside swing rolls in Kilian hold, and the afore-mentioned inside swing rolls in Foxtrot hold, and, finally, forwards chasses in Reverse Kilian hold. We were required to focus on our upper bodies, keeping them together (I asked whether we should try to keep them facing the end of the rink, when doing the outside swing rolls, but he wants us to focus on bringing them round, for the moment), extension of the free leg (me, especially), and head position.

Crackers I do think it made a big difference - he said we looked really good. Some of it felt good, too, especially the chasses. Robert said he felt we were a little flat; we were definitely on an edge, but it was, I grant you, not a very steep one. I also found a lot of things much easier if I concentrated on bending my knees more than I normally do!

Turkeys: Well, if you think they're easy, you try inside swing rolls in Foxtrot hold! That will take some working on, I reckon. I felt our outside swing rolls weren't gaining enough momentum, and were slow; however, the elites at that precise moment (four elite couples today!) were doing their basic exercises round the centre circle, extremely fast, and our feeling that we were slow might just have been in comparison.

[sk8er1964]

Crackers: I landed a double toe - fully rotated, on the toe, one foot. :D Then I had a double sal, fully rotated, one the toe, but I just couldn't hang onto it and fell. That's ok, though. :D


Turkey: My ice schedule the next few weeks - no club ice, the adult sessions opened up to kids (including little hockey kids), lack of time. Maybe the break will do me good, but I'm afraid of losing the progress I'm making on the doubles 8O .

[luna_skater]

Crackers: Well, so far I have gotten way more ice time I expected to while I am home for Christmas! My Harris is totally ready to test, and I'm not testing it until the beginning of February. I feel like I'm getting stronger, deeper lobes on the Blues, and I'm getting a little less scared of the choctaw! Worked on skills for an hour and a half the other night, and I'm feeling a big sense of relief about them. When I test my prelim and jr. bronze skills at the end of January, it will be the first time I have EVER been on the ice by myself. But I am feeling confident enough about the exercises that I think I will be fine with another month of practice to go still.

Turkeys: A little frustrated with the Kilian! I feel ok about the choctaw at a slower speed, but I'm scared of it at speed with the music. Won't have a chance to partner it again until January 5th, so I'm trying to get confident enough with it on my own that I will be able to do it adequately with a partner come January. I keep ignoring the expanding exercises for the skills; for prelim I just don't like them, and for jr. bronze I can't remember how to get from one circle to the next!

[garyc254]

Turkey: I found out how easy it is to fall while trying to learn rockers. Ouch!!! My aching bum!!!

Crackers: I did step through rockers and counters with a minor bit of success. My edges wanted to be in the right places, but my shoulders wouldn't let them. :lol:

[rinsk]

Crackers:

One really really really amazing feeling camel-change-camel: the change was nice and quick and the back camel just flew. Wow, wow, wow.

That ridiculously insane back-change-edge-inside-twizzle-in-romantica: we completely dissected it and rebuilt it in my lesson on Wednesday and it's starting to feel good: edges are deeper and I'm really using that inside to torque the twizzle now which means I might actually fit the twizzle into the half beat sometime soon.

The back outside twizzle on the restart is also feeling good: it's like I'm finally getting the feel of how to press the back edge to start off the twizzle: yay!

Turkeys:

Trying to repeat above camel-change-camel. Sigh... Easy come, easy go.

Double toe: I think it's run off to Mexico and taken my double loop along for company (that's what I get when I don't take any freestyle lessons for almost a month... bye bye technique).

Stupid stupid stupid inside three section on romantica. Coach had me in tears over it earlier last week (coach also now thinks I am emotionally unstable nutcase for blubbering over it). I believe in scraping my toe picks into the ice throughout this whole section because I think that speed and flow are over-rated. On Thursday I decided to really go for it: full speed all out flying. You know that feeling where you miss your edge completely and hit down on your rear so hard, you have this horrible headache for the rest of the day? Yeah... I'm back to the scraping toepicks technique and will coach ever have a head case to deal with when he gets back from vacation in January.

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by garyc254
My edges wanted to be in the right places, but my shoulders wouldn't let them. :lol: Gary, that's an absolutely perfect description of the way I skate at times! Thank you.

Crackers: The ice was superb. Apparently it had been so dire last night that the hockey team had refused to use it, so they had spent six hours working on it - and it showed! It was lovely, just one tiny speed bump in a corner.

Turkeys: My skating! Robert and I did some exercises together which weren't too awful, but when I was working on plain outside forwards swing rolls, I could not keep my free leg back for love nor money. Then I danced a Dutch waltz and was way out of time, unusual for me.... oh well..... Lesson tomorrow, and I think there are only going to be 2 of us on the ice, so it should be fun. Won't be reporting on it, though, as we go straight off for Christmas after the lesson, and not back until Monday, so have a lovely Christmas, everybody.

[luna_skater]

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Annabel!

Crackers: Great ice this morning, and only my friend and I on it! Lobes on the Blues feel deeper and stronger every time I work on the dance. Harris feels ready to test! Skills are still OK. I don't think they are as aesthetically pleasing as I would like, but I am not bailing out on the back threes, and that is my main goal!!

Turkeys: Still having trouble with the Blues choctaw. I can't seem to get the LFI edge deep enough, or else I get it too deep, in which case I wait too long to step back to the RBO edge, and then I'm scrambling to catch up to the music!! Aaarrrgghhh!! Gave the Kilian a bit of a break today. I'm getting a bit frustrated working on my own, (I'm home for Christmas so I don't have any lessons until I get back on January 5th) as I feel like I have done as much as I can myself, and need some hints and tips from my coach to progress farther.

[singerskates]

My Christmas ice is a huge Turkey. I mean, I have no ice available to me when I'm not working. So I litterally have to wait until my club has ice again to skate January 4th, 2004. That's next year. There is no ticket ice available do to hockey tournaments and then the days I do have off like everyone else there isn't any ice at all available. I'm going into no ice shock!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brigitte

[dbny]

Crackers:
I am actually getting power and picking up or at least maintaining speed on my RB power pulls now. The LB are close, but not as good. The F continue to be very hit or miss. My one foot spin seems to be coming back, and I started attempting it from a wind up again. Best of all, I have combined hubby's technique for conquering fear of 3 turns with the blue line, and am now doing FO threes again. They are even improving. Can't wait to be able to do them anywhere.

Turkeys
Still seriously scared of FI threes. No lessons for about a month now, and none in sight.

[Terri C]

CRACKERS

The loop is getting more consistent, as is the salchow toe-loop combination!
On another side of skating, how many times does one get to share the ice with a Olympic eligible competitor???
Stewart Beckingham, a 2002 Olympian from Austrailia, was in my part of the world for Christmas holiday and needed a rink to train in, as he's competing in Four Continents next month! He wound up at my rink, and needless to say, it was a real rare treat to experience this! It was a shame none of the freestyle regulars were around, as they would have had a field day!





TURKEYS

Nothing really bad to rant about!! Just that Christmas, threw off my practice/ training schedule!

[MissIndigo]

Crackers:

Had two lessons this week (and I'm finally in a position where I can actually afford that on my beans and rice student stipend again!!) with both coaches. On Monday, had a lesson with freestyle coach and I began to get back into jumping on these new skates I have, even getting some courage to try some waltz/loops. Okay, so they turned into waltz/half loop, but still...:!: Spinning was good--continuing to get lower on the sit spin (coach thinks I can get down all the way if I keep pushing myself), camels were faster, laybacks coming back, and I'm feeling more of the edge I need for a faster backspin.

Moves coach started me with Silver moves, on the 3-turn pattern. I am so happy that I've finally conquered both back inside 3's now, but I still need work on the LFI 3.

Also got to skate the entire morning on Christmas Eve. That rocked.


Turkeys:

The LFI 3-turn in the field...that's all that really frustrated me.

[tidesong]

Turkey:

Well after taking a break for exams, my double salchow disappeared. I got some nearly there double salchows, had to fight for landing types... and right after christmas I landed one good one. And that very day i killed my left ankle. Well at least it isn't my right ankle which had the big injury already... but its no consolation... I was planning to take a test in about 2-3 weeks and I hope I can still make it but all seems gloomy at the moment.

Cracker:

Getting test program in place. (but see above)

[Cinderella]

Day After Crackers - I had an awesome skating practice yesterday, marred only by the fact that they evacuated us from the ice after only an hour and a half because they had some girls' hockey thing going on. On Tuesday my coach started me working on the 2sal and 2toe. Up until now, the last time I did doubles was 30+ years ago. Well, I started with my favorite, and twice came "this" close to landing the 2toe cleanly! I did land a couple of cheater versions (one was about 1.75 and the other about 1.82, still a great start).

Hubby came to videotape and I was shocked to see last night when I was watching it that I did at least 25-30 jump attempts (I'm going to count them to see how many I really did) which is amazing not only because I do not remember doing so many, but I was not tired and I have no ill after effects the next day. That is a LOT of jumping, especially since I also ran through all of my singles and did about 6 really nice axels. I also was practicing my flying camel, which is technically a spin, but obviously involves jumping onto that same landing leg and then doing a back camel. I also threw in some combo spins and fast scratch spins, so I crammed quite the workout into that time period. I was tired but satisfied at the end of it.

Turkey - getting kicked off the ice at 3:00 was a bummer since they let us on late because they hadn't bothered to remake the ice. Usually they don't watch the clock and you can just skate till you drop (sometimes I don't quit until 3:30 or even 3:45). Also, because I didn't realize they were going to do this, I never got to my 2sal which I REALLY need to see on tape because I'm not handling the take-off correctly. I need to learn to bring my right free foot around in front of me and THEN up for the jump. I think I could have improved my timing better if I could see what it is I'm actually doing. Oh well, guess that's for next week's practice.

[Cinderella]

Turkey Crackers - Saturday I spent time watching the 3rd tape in the Gustave Lussi series -- on jumps. He puts poor Paul Wylie through his paces. Then I compared the techniques to the video hubby took of me at skating practice on Friday. Verrry humbling. Those "great big" axels everyone tells me I'm doing (and all my other jumps too, really) are off axis, legs akimbo, arms flying, and generally Lussi would roll over in his grave if he saw them. (Now I don't know that he's dead, but I know if he's alive he's about 145 years old because he looks already embalmed on this third tape, the poor man!) In the video, I'm working primarily on my 2toe. As I said in my previous post, I was so close to landing it cleanly, several times I cheat landed it somewhere between 1.75 and 1.85 times around. I can see what I'm doing wrong (primarily my arms), but it will take some time to fix it. Just for fun, I counted how many attempts I'd made, because I was pretty tired the day after. I had done 31 attempts! And that was in addition to all the single jumps and axels I'd warmed up before, plus the flying camel and the spins. So at least I could see that I'd worked hard at the practice. In the future, I'm going to cut that back because I ran out of time to attempt the 2sal, which is in worse shape. Maybe if I know I only have X number I can try, I'll make each one count even more. Thanks to Sk8er1964 for that tip. Any other hints or tips are greatly appreciated.

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by Cinderella
In the future, I'm going to cut that back because I ran out of time to attempt the 2sal, which is in worse shape. Maybe if I know I only have X number I can try, I'll make each one count even more. Thanks to Sk8er1964 for that tip. Any other hints or tips are greatly appreciated.

Welcome, Cinderella - glad to see you here!

What Cinderella is referring to is that my coach decided to limit me to 6 attempts each of the 2sal, 2toe and 2 loop. This is because I was becoming immune to bad attempts - kind of like "oh well, I have another try". Now I have to make each attempt count - make it a good one - because if I pop or blow it is counts as one try, and that s**ks! :twisted:. I have already seen an improvement in my practices from it.

Turkeys - haven't skated since Tuesday. Fat cells are massing around my middle. Need to find ice tomorrow 8O.

[Mrs Redboots]

Christmas Eve seems to have been a long time ago, but it was fun. Apart from Robert and me, there was one other skater, plus our coach and his family. Who had all dressed up in Christmas kit to go and fetch the child. And after some work had been done, they had great fun with a sledge - I have this video of my coach, with reindeer antlers, pulling the skater and his own up the rink on the sledge - I'm still wondering how much he'll pay me not to put it on the Internet. Starting like this: http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/photos/Santa's%20sleigh.jpg

(Tee hee!)

[StarshineXavier]

Originally posted by luna_skater
Still having trouble with the Blues choctaw. I can't seem to get the LFI edge deep enough, or else I get it too deep, in which case I wait too long to step back to the RBO edge, and then I'm scrambling to catch up to the music!! Aaarrrgghhh!!

Which arm do you have in front luna? I struggled with the choctaw too when soloing, because I did what my dance coach did, and had my left arm in front when I went into the choctaw. Make sure you do it with your right arm in front, and that should help getting the edge just right.

[dbny]

Mrs. Redboots - :lol: :lol: :lol:

[luna_skater]

Originally posted by StarshineXavier
Which arm do you have in front luna? I struggled with the choctaw too when soloing, because I did what my dance coach did, and had my left arm in front when I went into the choctaw. Make sure you do it with your right arm in front, and that should help getting the edge just right.

Well, I don't really have to much of a problem with it with my right arm in front on the LFI edge. However, my coach wants me to do it with my left arm in front, so that's what I struggle with. But, I find it kind of strange because in the dance hold, I will actually have my left shoulder back and my right shoulder ahead of me. Regardless, right before I'm about to switch my weight over to the RBO edge, I change my shoulders so that the right one pulls back more. My main problem is not hitting the edge so much as it is getting it as deep as I want it.