Bored so posting a post asking for your discoveries in your skating and perhaps some anecdotes and ironic stories. Just everyday stuff- like what frustrates you, a personal victory, or even just full-out venting.

I can't think of anything except what has recently happened. I learned the half flip- how long ago?? a year?- and it's still not much of a jump, and I always hesitate in jumping it- but I learnt a full flip yesterday and landed it today, with plenty of fearless falling and skidding all over the place. Makes me want to pull my hair out.
Irony? I can now do a big beautiful half flip. I thought the half flip was supposed to be a helpful jump to step up to learning a full flip, not the other way round?? Perhaps I should do full lutzes and then work on the half lutz?

Your turn! Anyone else who was instantly better at full flip than half flip?

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Right Brain: In the distant future, I will land all of the doubles.
Left Brain: HAHAHAHAHA
Left Brain: You can't even do a backspin.
Right Brain: ...

figurekb on YouTube.

When I was a kid learning to skate there was no such thing as a half flip. You went from learning a toe-loop to learning the flip.

The half-flip is a totally awkward jump, like a bunny hop... ugh.

Give me a big old flip any day.

My biggest irony right now is that right after I have a GREAT skate I do something to hurt myself and am off the ice for a while. The last thing was two weeks ago today, had a great skate in the morning, came home, took off my shoes, made lunch, walked out to the patio and slammed my bare foot into the patio furniture.

Totally swollen, not broken but NO WAY was I going to put on a skate any time soon.

Skated yesterday and the day before, painfully, feeling like I was starting over...again.

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Ah I can definitely vent. It's about skating and about my mentality.

I've essentially been off the ice for 3 months now. I didn't skate at all for 7 weeks, then I skated twice, then didn't skate for about 6 more weeks. NORMAL people would expect to be a little rusty. I through fits.

I was getting SO frustrated. I would fall, get up, skate around, fall, get up, skate around, groan, get up, get water, fall, groan etc. I know I shouldn't expect myself to miss 3 months and not miss a beat, but it's never been THIS hard for me to come back. One of my friends from my program had sent me a text on my way to the rink reminding me not to set too high expectations. I told my coach this and she just said, "Ummmm has this girl MET you?!" I've been off for a while due to injury before, but I've generally been able to get everything back in a session or two. This time, however, I get to deal with my body "changing." It's like instant puberty, I tell ya!

I eventually decided not to be a total masochist and put a hip pad in, then I gave up and worked on spins which were luckily not totally off.

I also randomly had a dream about novice moves last night. I kept skating into the wall on the rocker choctaws. I think that might have been more of a premonition, knowing my history with the boards...

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Oldie but goodie. Girl in rental skates who can barely push forward on them has boyfriend come up to me a few years ago and ask me to teach her the (forward) biellmann spiral, which I was practicing at the time. So I kept insisting it was a really bad idea to try if she wasn't good at skating and that she could hurt herself... She kept insisting I show her, so well, I did (how to grab the blade and a bit of body position)... To my surprise, she goes and does a forward biellmann in 1 try at about the pace of oh I don't know, 2 inches per second on the ice, but a very nice biellmann too. Turns out the girl worked in the circus doing acrobatics on top of horses. She *could* have started out by telling that when I expressed concerns about her falling, lol. I've seriously never seen someone who couldn't skate just go and do a biellmann before.


Also, I just discovered the toe stops on my snow whites are actually adjustable. After like three years of owning them. I feel seriously stupid now.

Haven't posted here for over 2 months, since the last time I got intimidated here.

Thanks for sharing this. - Altho I don't have 9/10 of the skills others here write about, the (forward) biellmann spiral is one of my 7 goals, and
during some practices I try to do it a bit. - Much of my challenge is just Committing to moves.
Maybe we could have a thread about this, like how do we go about this process of Committing...

Good idea. I tell myself, today I will practice my footwork 5 times. And then I put it off in favor of jumping or spirals or whatever else floats my boat...anything but footwork. For Moves, I made myself go through the whole set before doing anything else. Maybe I should do that with footwork.

I also have issues fully committing to jumps, especially the Big Scary Axel.

The other day I realized how much I love those sessions where I can just let go and skate all out. They're usually the sessions where there are only a few other skaters, so I don't have to dodge programs and harness lessons and itty bitty kids. Those are the sessions where I (somehow) push through even if my jumps are off or I can't center a spin, and I skate just as hard as I can. Then I look at the clock and wish for another hour at the end of the session. I LOVE those practices. I wish they happened more often.

Lucky you. Any jump landing on a toepick, forward, and then stepping off, is an EVIL JUMP.
That seems to happen to everybody at some time

Really? I thought muscle memory was always there.. perhaps you were simply too tense??

hmm.. I wish I could just go and do a biellmann..
Sorry, but I have to laugh at that one. Isn't there like a user's manual?

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Right Brain: In the distant future, I will land all of the doubles.
Left Brain: HAHAHAHAHA
Left Brain: You can't even do a backspin.
Right Brain: ...

figurekb on YouTube.

To be honest, I think the forward biellmann is easier than the backward one. Whenever I try the backward one I just end up on my toepicks and scrape to a hold no matter how hard I try to push my heel down, and I only had a forward biellmann go wrong twice on ice (and once on rollers). However, all 3 times resulted in a very, very painful bellyflop... Maybe you could practice it like... with an inflatable cushion strapped to the front of your body or something? I dunno! (One of those times I flopped was on very badly scraped up and not swept ice, so definitely don't do fw. biellmanns on ice like that.)
For me, the forward biellmann sort of feels like my skate's heel is more forward than my buttocks are and my foot and leg make not a 90 degree angle but maybe 100 or 110, the back of the skate digs into the achilles just a tad, and it feels like that's what's keeping the toepick from catching the ice ( <- , I just first typed "lice" there)
Like, the leg and foot do sort of this: _/ instead of this: _|
Mind you, this is only a feeling, when you look at the video's I have of my biellmann it looks like it's just a plain 90 degree angle. Feelings are weird like that.




Nope, just a leaflet that points you to their website and also a cd that refused to play on any computer I tried it on. It's really silly because the unscrewing/screwing back in is also how you change your toe stops when they've worn out, and I did know that was how it was done... It just sort of never clicked with me that if you don't screw them in to the very end you can regulate how far down you want them (and yes, they stay in place even if they're not fully in even if you use them to pick and toe-step)...

One of the reasons I love the snow whites is that between the very different balance on spins and the suuuper-scary jump landings (not to mention heavy skates = less rotation), the edges, which translate very well, automatically become my practice of choice. I spent like half an hour today practicing forward crossovers cw and ccw and forward clockwise 3-turns (left inside and right outside) and then after did cw mohawks, back crossrolls, and what not. Good luck getting me to do any footwork I "already can do" when I'm on ice! On ice I'm only interested in NEW shinies!

I guess I should add that I left off nearly landing 2axel, so I had all of my other doubles consistent. The muscle memory is still selectively there. I remember how to rotate, but am not so good at STOPPING said rotation, so my first attempts at doubles were landing forwards, 1/2 turn overrotated. It's not like I forgot how to do everything, I just wasn't able to get back on and instantly land of all my doubles (again, only I would expect myself to be able to).

Plus, while I was off I had to re-gain much of the weight I lost, and it's a significant amount of weight, so I need to adjust to that. My muscles remember skating with a lower body weight. Just lots of adjustments, and I only get to skate once or MAYBE twice a week, so it'll definitely take time to get things back.

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I don't remember ever learning a half flip when I was a kid, either. I went from toes and sals to flips. It wasn't until I had to go take my pre-pre free that my coach had to go back and teach me to do a half flip. At that point I was skating synchro (called precision back then) and we did half flips in footwork all the time, so it was like "oh, that stupid thing? They call that a jump!?"

My coach is currently on a mission to turn me into a gumby. I'm almost 30 (eek) and have never been terribly flexible--I don't know if it's for his own amusement or if he actually thinks I can do this stuff or what. I could do the splits in one direction when I was like 12 and had a decent Kerrigan spiral back then, but that was about as bendy as I got. Then I quit freestyle and never needed more flexibility than that for synchro (since my senior team days were long before beilmanns, spread eagles and Y spirals were normal parts of a program).

He's actally starting to succeed, after 2 weeks I'm getting to where I can finally grab my blade on my cameley-donutish-whatever that spin is thing, rather than flailing my arm around for it until my hamstring or back cramp up. Not nearly as much success in his attempt to get me to do a back spin and yank my leg up to a Y position.

And we're working on more spin positions--cannon balls and pancakes and whatnot. Except right now my pancake is more of a 3 layered tiered cake because it's not very flat and my cannon ball is more like a giant beach ball.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

I call my pancake a muffin when it doesn't flatten enough.

I tend to go to the public sessions right now because they're cheaper and because I'm enrolled in classes at the rink I get half off the price.

BUT since it's summer, that means tons of kids on some days. I've had my fare share of trying to keep them out of the center where the skaters try to practice, and only two guards have been helpful. The others just ignore it, even after I bring it to the attention of them that it's dangerous for them to be hanging around in the center.

But so far my most memorable moment this summer with annoying children who feel entitled, was this overweight little 5 year old with a camp who could barely stand, looked at me as I was getting on the ice as she was hanging on the wall, and says very loudly "I NEED HELP. HELP ME SKATE". I was so taken aback by the fact she'd just yelled that at me I helped her momentarily but as soon as her friends started using me to stop by grabbing my jacket and me I told her I couldn't help anymore because I had to practice.

They assume because I can skate I'm completely willing to help them.

Yesterday I had two teenagers actually politely ask me if I could help, but because it's a liability because I'm not a coach and if I help one person I will be helping the whole camp, I politely said that I wasn't allowed to because I'm not a coach. They were very nice about it which made me feel better.

Sometimes though, I just don't try anything, I just .

Lol that story reminds me of what we had to do last summer. My coach runs a sort of camp over the summer, and we skate the public sessions. We tried using cones to block off the middle, but it didn't do very much good. Then she decided we should all be human cones, so we formed a circle. It was actually a pretty good idea because we could steer skaters away from the middle.

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Lol. That happened to me less than a week ago. I got on the ice and after I stroked around once, one little girls said "show me how to skate." I politely ignored her (acted like I didn't hear) and kept on going.

There were some teenagers who were trying ot mimic the moves I was doing. It was hillarious.

One girl asked me to help her skate (she didn't even know how to stroke forward), and I decided to try to lend a hand - it was her birthday and all (at least that's what she and her friends told me). 5 seconds after I ask her to bend her knees she almost falls on me. That was the end of that. I'm not going to be the subject of finger pointing when someone falls and hits their head.

I usually just pick people up. I don't help them skate. I can't count how many people I picked up off the ice yesterday, there was a camp group.

Oh and there was a dad and two little girls, the littler girl had double runners strapped to her shoes!! Poor thing just stood in place.

__________________
Right Brain: In the distant future, I will land all of the doubles.
Left Brain: HAHAHAHAHA
Left Brain: You can't even do a backspin.
Right Brain: ...

figurekb on YouTube.

Oh goodness, don't even get me started on the teenagers that mimic you. I just look, smile, and silently laugh at how stupid they look in my head. It's cute when little kids do it because they don't know any better, but when kids who are maybe 5 years younger than you, if that, it's just obnoxious.

Last winter, a dad approached a friend and me at an uncrowded public session and said "You should help those kids" in the most demanding tone. Luckily, we were getting ready to leave, so we just told him we had to go. That was a really uncomfortable situation. Normally, if someone asks (as opposed to demands) for help, I'll show them the basics for a couple of minutes. Then I make excuses and go back to my own practice. I want to be friendly and helpful, but I'm not a coach and don't feel comfortable doing more than that.
That situation made me think of other sports. If someone is in the middle of a golf game, would it be okay to walk up and demand that person help you learn to play golf? While swimming laps at a pool, would someone stop you and demand you teach their kid to swim?

Exactly morgail! I always feel a little bad not helping a kid who is seriously having trouble, but I also don't want to overstep my boundaries, be at fault for them hurting themselves, or get stuck trying to fend off other little kids.

There was a case recently in Florida (unrelated to skating but there is a tie-in, trust me) where a little girl followed a 15-year old out of a store. When he realized, he brought her back inside and told her that he'd help her find her mom because she didn't know where she was. Well, the mom saw him with the kid and cried kidnapper, when all this guy was doing was getting her back into the store. The security tape SHOWED the little girl following the guy out (no coaxing she just left her mom and followed the kid unbeknownst to him) and yet the mom still tried to get him convicted for kidnapping. Turns out the mom wasn't watching her at the checkout counter and didn't see her daughter walk off.

Now, to tie it into skating, I personally would not want a parent thinking that I was trying to take their kid or touch them against their consent, even if they were to ask me to help them skate. I would hate to have a lawsuit on my hands because of an overprotective parent.
I will gladly help my friends skate because, duh, they're my friends. I will even SOMETIMES help people my age or people I know are in skating classes or in classes with me, because it helps us both. I helped one girl who was taking lessons with BCO both sides and had her use me as something to grab if she went off balance, she was grateful and it helped both of us in technique. **EDIT** I should add that her coach saw me helping her, too, and was totally cool with it and was happy to have her see technique from someone other than just the coach. But that coach is really cool and easy going, definitely one of my favorites at the rink.

But my usual excuse is "I'm not a coach here, so I'm not allowed."


In my group lesson the other day, a younger girl (I'm 22, so she was prob 15) came up to the instructor and wanted to help the class. So the instructor let her. Well the entire class she kept saying "CAN I DO A WALTZ JUMP? CAN I DO A SPIN?" yada yada yada. It got to the point of annoying. She was there to "help" the class but wanted to show off instead.
I've been skating for 10 years. I'm in the class to review basics and get stronger in basic elements because I never tested and didn't compete. But I'm the most advanced in the class, so the instructor doesn't need to do much other than show me something once or twice and I go off and work on it. Well she had me run through my edges and said "Ok, go do your back outside edges." I swear this girl about flipped. She said "How does she know back edges yet?? I've not learned them!"

... uh what? (voice in my head)

I didn't hear the instructor's response, but probably something along the lines of "She's in adult 4 and has been skating a long time."

There is a lot of show offiness among the younger girls I've noticed. Don't get me wrong, when my friends find out I skate and come with me and want to see me spin, I love showing off to them, but I never show off to strangers intentionally. If I'm practicing, I'm practicing, there's no intention of showing off, even if sometimes to other people it may come across as that.
Any of you run into that problem?

Me! I think the half jumps are all pretty silly. I end up doing half lutzes fairly often these days because I don't skate often enough and am horribly out of practice and just lack the confidence to pull off a full lutz when I try.

I also found, once I learned the flip and loop, that they were far easier than the salchow and toe loop. The loop is my favorite and it's usually the first jump I'll try, even if it has been months since I last skated.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Yeah, I enjoy when that happens though, and usually try to help them out a bit, since they're daring enough to try things beyond their ability.

What's really irritating is when they do it in a mocking sort of way - usually teenagers in rental hockey skates that think figure skating is silly.

What I also didn't enjoy was one time when a girl who was drunk and on ecstasy (this being what she told me) claiming to have done ice dance in the past rudely insisted that I skate with her whilst she was fumbling all over the place and most obviously intoxicated and trying to feel all over me. Ummmm, no thanks.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

One of them said, "teach me how to be graceful." I didn't know how to react to that.

I almost said "do I really look graceful," but I thought about it...

So I just skated away and smiled.

Sounds like a spoilt, princessy brat. Does anybody raise kids right anymore?
I can go into an hour long rant about this, but I'll spare you.

Who invented half flip and half lutz? I will kindly strangle them. My coach made me do half flips at high speed this week, I just hate hate hate that landing. I only actually jumped about two half flips after about twenty entrances. It just embarrasses me when she's broadcasting my "fear" of half flips across the rink. Wouldn't any sane person be afraid of putting a stationary toepick in the ice at high speed, landing forward?
I think half flips encourage pre-rotating and staying over the left side, which is bad for learning full flips.

That reminds me, after I did my program for an exhibition a week or so ago, random parents kept coming up to me and saying how good it was, and today somebody told my mom that I'm really graceful. Graceful? I am the farthest thing from graceful. I run into walls on a daily basis, for pete's sake.

I guess to public skaters, anybody who has white skates and has decent stroking looks graceful!

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Right Brain: In the distant future, I will land all of the doubles.
Left Brain: HAHAHAHAHA
Left Brain: You can't even do a backspin.
Right Brain: ...

figurekb on YouTube.

If you'd like I can create a new thread to rant about this. haha. Honestly, I understand them wanting to show that they know what to do, but it's a waste of my time and the instructor's time if you beg them to let you help in their lesson and then beg to basically just show off. Two girls in the class are just getting the hang of swizzles, the other guy is just learning crossovers, and I'm learning stuff in bronze. We're all different levels, and out of all of them I'm the most advanced. I'm working on bronze but I know my basic jumps for the most part, they just need work.

It was fine when she was trying to help the girls who couldn't skate well, but it got annoying when the coach had me reviewing crossovers and she got to close shouting "You guys are doing great!!!!". You get close, I lose my focus, and I stop because I don't want to be the cause of an accident nor do I want to run into the wall. She apologized when she realized she was distracting us. But her trying to show off the way she was was just getting annoying more than anything. The kicker was the coach told her that she could jump the last 15 minutes of the session. Honestly, she should have just kicked her off. It wasn't any better when another skater joined her to show off more. I'm there to work on my skating and learn from the coach with time I'm paying for, not there to watch her show off taking over the space that we're using by doing her jumps. That is what freestyle sessions are for and it's dangerous because there are itty bitties on the ice with us.

A kid came up to me today while I was booting up before public and asked if I was a coach.
It must be the tan skates.
I told her I was an adult skater.
She gave me a look as if I was a blue striped giraffe. Adult+skater did not compute.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Maybe you can look at half-jumps as an element to spice up connecting moves or footwork sequences. As "jumps," all that, say, a half-flip or half-lutz teaches is how NOT to rotate....not good, imho.