If you are in the middle of a program or dance with music, it is customary and right that you should get the right away.

Know what you mean. And it's not like I don't do the Tango and American Waltz but once in a blue moon. I've been working on both dances for quite a while, and doing run-throughs of the Tango fairly consistently for a long while. And unless I'm sick, I've been skating on this particular set of freestyle sessions every Wednesday for the past 3 years.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

I can sympathize with everyone over people being in the way, and how frustrating it can be. Happens to me a lot. But I have to say that even though I do skate with ice dancers from time to time, I don't know all the patterns. I try to stay out of the way, but it doesn't always work. And often it seems to me that that consideration is not returned by some people, sometimes freestyle skaters but often dancers. If they want me out of their way on their dance patterns, well, it would be nice if they moved for me when I am doing MY program. Sometimes it happens, but often it doesn't. If the dancers expect us to recognize their dance patterns, maybe it would be nice if they could recognize some of the free skating jumping patterns or moves in the field patterns. The only people who have run into me and in fact knocked me off my feet have been... ice dance coaches.

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August 22, back on the ice!

FWIW, when I mentioned "snotty freestyle skaters" I wasn't referring to people that had music on, or were in a lesson, or were even setting up a jump or something and were honestly being nice about it...I'm talking about legitimate snots on the ice. Prima donnas, if you will. There are more nice folks than brats on freestyle, and more nice folks than brats in general when it comes to skating but...for my own piece of mind I'd rather take my chances on a public until I get better.

Actually, for a public session, it's customary for the person in front of your skate path to have right of way, that's as far as I know. And that's provided everybody is skating in the direction of traffic flow chosen by the rink supervisor, and provided that the public skater in front isn't doing anything crazy like weaving around everywhere and suddenly shooting out in front of you from the side wall etc.

I just had to update all of you on my experience today. I went to the rink that has the 12-1:45 public session....the same one I went to on Monday. But Monday was a holiday, and it was as crowded as a weekend session. Didn't get much practice, other than basic stroking and a few swizzles and short glides in then.

I am pleased to say that today was an entirely different story. I drove into the parking lot at about 12:30ish, and there were hardly any cars. I thought...I hope there's actually a session today!

I got inside, and sure enough...there was a session....only about 4 or 5 other people on the ice. I could hardly contain myself, but I quickly went and changed and got on the ice....what a difference! I had room to practice my backwards skating and swizzles and even was able to work on my one foot glide to the point where I was able to glide (only once, but hey..it's a start) almost the entire length of the rink on my left foot smoothly. I kept trying to get my courage up for crossovers, but something about crossing my feet makes me nervous that I'm going to get tangled up and flop on my face! Definitely a fear factor thing here! I'm going to face it next time though. I was planning on Friday, but now I'm so excited I'd love to go again tomorrow...heck I'd go right now if I could!

Anyway, I just wanted to share with you....and thanks for the suggestions...I think that there are some very good points you all bring up and that rinks could do better at accomodating the need of beginners to have some practice time that's not so crowded that it's counterproductive. I also will take the suggestion to be more assertive with my "slice of the ice". I tend to be a wallflower...and I'm always the one apologizing to others. Need to work on that....not that I need to be a b**** or anything, but I do need to stand up for myself a bit more. That may also come with time and experience on the ice.

BTW, a couple of things today....there was one guy skating who seemed pretty good...he was doing spins and jumps and spirals...but I could not believe he had headphones on the entire time! Scared the bejeepers out of me and I did my best to keep one eye out for him. He was going pretty fast, and I'd just move to the other end of the rink or hang a bit off-center where he didn't seem to cross often. Geeessh...not very safe at all, IMO. Just to add to your point that uncrowded sessions have their dangers too.

The best moment, though, was when a guy maybe a little younger than me who was obviously a beginner stopped me and asked me "so, how exactly do you stop?" I gave him my disclaimer ("Now, keep in mind, this is only my 6th time on the ice....so take this for what it is worth") and then showed him how I do a snowplow stop. I also explained about thinking about pushing out with your heel(s), bend knees, and make sure you put your arms out and forward for balance. A little later, I watched him practicing it....it felt good to think that I've made enough progress in this short time to even appear to know what I'm doing.....that was the highlight of my day!

Thanks!
Kathy

Yaaaaay!!!

It's exciting, isn't it? And SOOOOO much better on uncrowded ice! And yeah, it is a great ego booster to be asked how to do something, even when you know that you only have minimal knowledge yourself.

As for the guy in the headphones...he may not be as dangerous as you think. I've skated with people (figure skaters) wearing headphones to 'walk through' their programs (i.e., not necessarily going 'full out', but still doing elements), or mapping out/choreographing a new one, and they're usually still pretty aware of what's going on around them. But on the other hand, I've also seen skaters who think they're better than they are wearing headphones, and that might get dicey. Tough call.

I hope you can continue to skate this session every week, and maybe more than once a week. It's going to be great for your skating and your confidence.

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I went during the day today. Halfway through it got crowded as school ended, but before that it was me, one elite (I guess) who apparently gets half-days because of her training, and a young couple on rentals.

I skate with my ipod and I have to say that I'm almost OVER aware of other skaters on the ice with or without it. At least with it I'm listening to good music....which reminds me, I need to dig that bad boy out...

Since I rely on my ears to hear how much I scrape (helps me correct my edging), I don't think I'd want to take my mp3 player out on the ice with me!

Yep ... and if a fall-gone-wrong occurs, people could end up regretting when the device gets jammed between the body and the floor in the fall-gone-wrong. And fall gone wrong's can also mean somebody else causing it by accident when you're not expecting.

I'm definitely sticking with this session! I'll just have to remember those Monday school holidays and plan to go those weeks on Tuesday instead.

Luckily, I have a bit of flex in my work schedule...not much, but enough that I can probably swing 3, maybe 4 practice days a week on good weeks, 1 or 2 on not so good weeks. This week is probably not the best, but I'm forcing myself to take the time. I start work at 7, take 2 hours for lunch (skating/travel) and am SUPPOSED to work til 5, but so far this week, it's been 6pm. I work in accounting and it's year end/audit time for us. I'm hoping it the break might also be a stress reliever, and so far it has been.

I should have clarified...the guy with the headphones did not appear to be particularly aware of what was going on around him...he may have been, but just didn't look like it to me.

I know every session won't be this way, but I definitely saw the benefit today of having the time and space to really focus and practice a few things. I went from barely moving on backward swizzles to almost being fluid with them by the time I left. Now to conquer the crossover....any suggestions for a fraidy cat?
Kathy

re crossovers...

1. Remember to turn your shoulders and arms to face towards the center of your circle. Think of your arms hugging a HUGE beachball.

2. Bend your knees AND ankles. At the start of the crossover, the majority (all of your weight, if you are starting from a 1-foot glide on an outside edge) of your weight should be over the trailing foot (for CCW, your left foot; for CW, your right foot). As you complete the crossover, all of your weight should be on the new skating foot.

3. Try to keep your weight over the middle of your blade (i.e. well behind the toe picks).

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

yeah...maybe if you're really scared of doing cross-overs straight away, then you could try skating around a lot and practise gliding around on 1 foot, keeping all the body weight over the middle of the skate. Then once you're good at gliding around on one foot, then you can practise gliding around on the other foot.

And when you get good at gliding on either foot, you can then try skating along in a straight line, with both skates on the ice parallel to each other. Then start to apply most of your weight over one of your skates (choose whichever one you want). So you're now 'almost' gliding on 1 foot (your primary skate), except that your other skate (the secondary skate) is still on the ice with not much weight on that secondary skate. Now keeping the secondary skate in contact with the ice, you can maneuver that secondary skate slowly (taking as much time as you want) so that it ends up right in front of the primary skate. Remember that most of your weight is still on the primary (gliding) skate. So you're basically gliding around on 1 skate (with a lot of weight on it), while your other skate (with very little weight on it) is positioned directly in front the gliding skate. So your skates are like two carriages of a train, one behind the other - where the primary gliding skate (with most of your weight on it) trails the secondary skate.

At this stage, you can then practise transferring weight from your gliding skate to the secondary skate. That is, transfer your weight from the trailing skate to the leading skate. This kind of exercise might help you get used to the feeling of balancing on 1 skate and transferring weight from 1 skate to the other, which is what happens in a cross-over move. Except that the cross-over move is just an exaggerated form of the whole exercise above.

Well since I generally can't hear anything over the music being played over the loudspeaker and screaming giggling children (remember, I skate only on publics) I'll use the ipod to give myself some solitude.


I have the little thing that attaches the Ipod to my upper arm, facing away from my body - if I manage to fall and land on that I think I have more things to worry about than the ipod

re crossovers:

When I first started crossovers, my coach had me start with scullying. Basically, you're on a circle and your outside foot is kind of going in and out. Not really sure how to describe it. It never crosses though. Then, you move on to pushing out the outside foot, and then bringing it up to your ankle of the other foot. All teh while, you're still going around the circle. Then, when you;re comfortable with that, then you actually crossover your foot.

She still has me do that sometimes if I'm having an off day and am tripping over my own feet. It helps me.

Also for the crossovers, make sure you feel comfortable with a weight transfer. Do consecutive one-foot glides around the circle. If going CCW, practice a one foot glide on your right foot (which should be on an inside edge) and then switch to your left (should be on an outside edge).

On a different note, iPods and headphones aren't the only unique items--and potential distractions--on the ice. Recently, I've seen more and more people chatting on cell phones ...but what takes the cake are the parents who try to get on the ice holding a child in their arms/on their shoulders!

Yup, I recently saw a mom get on in rental skates carrying a baby!

An ice dancer I knew promptly got off the ice and summoned rink management. The woman hadn't even thought of what might happen if she'd've fallen and landed on her baby! And she wasn't very steady on her feet.

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Didn't read all the posts in this thread so I hope I don't repeat anything... but here are some suggestions from me.

Have you noticed other adults practising during public time?
If so maybe you could approach them and see if they would be interested in starting up an adult practise session. At our rink we have what they call coffee club three times a week (Mo-We-Fr) from 10:00-11:30 and it's basically just a bunch of us adults having fun. But some of us (including me) are also working on making our way up the "skating ladder", testing and competitions. I am one of those, I practise all three days and take a private lesson from my coach on Wednesdays. Works out great and on plenty of occassions it was almost like having private ice time!

We tried to start an adult class during coffee club as well but couldn't get enough people to commit on a weekly basis... but that would be something else you could concider starting up once you get a andful of adults together that are interested and ofcourse a coach that would be willing to hold a group lesson for you guys.

Speaking of coach, I truly believe that you should concider atleast taking some lessons. They are soooo helpful and invaluable to me!
you can certainly try to teach yourself but sooner or later you'll hit a road block where you just won't have enough knowledge to get the moves down correctly... and there's probably not much worse than learning to skate completely worng (or any sport for that matter)... hard to break old bad habits!

Good luck!

An adult session is something definitely to consider. Ideally, I'd like early morning or after work, so to avoid maybe a bit of travel time. But the lunch session will work for now. The problem with the area where I live is that many of the adults who would attend don't work (FL is basically one big retirement mecca....don't get me started on that one....it's getting a bit better, but still not the family friendliest state!).

I'm currently taking a group learn to skate on Sat am, but it's almost like private instruction as it's me and one other girl at my level with one coach who is also working with a higher level group. She switches off between us, which works well....gives us time to practice on our own and then she comes back to check progress and show us new skills or help where needed. Eventually, I'd like to get some private lessons, but this seems to be working well for me right now. It's a bit of a juggle time wise with 2 young kids and a full time job, but I've made this a priority, so I "just do it"
Kathy

I am glad you found a time that works best for you. It is a blessing for you to have a job that allows you to be flexible with your lunch hour and work schedule.

Regarding crossovers, something to do off ice is, find a staircase. Try going up the staircase sideways both sides (R & L). I paid close attention to how my hips lifted with each step & feeling how the weight is transferred. I also felt how my shoulders were counter to the direction of my hips (as if I were wearing an empire waist dress).

I don't remember where I saw this idea, maybe on the FAQ's somewhere but I found it really helped.

This is what my adult group lessons were like. I think the most we ever had at one time was four of us, and not everyone showed up every week (except me). When it's like that, you can often put off private lessons for quite a while, unless you want to compete. For crossovers: Bend, bend, bend your knees. You really want to SIT into these. When you think you've sat enough, sit some more. While 'sitting', remember to NOT bend at the waist. This can be really difficult, but if you bend at the waist, you'll pitch forward, and be on your toepicks (especially on back crossovers). Remember that there are two pivot points in your midsection--your waist, and your hips. You want to bend at your ankles, your knees, and your hips, but be very straight from your hips to your shoulders. (Not vertical, but straight.)

__________________
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
--Thomas Jefferson

www.signingtime.com ~sign language fun for all!

Thanks for the tips. I did a lot of practice work on edges and pre-crossover skills today during my lesson. I was finally able to consistently find my outside edge on the right foot, which has been the hardest so far. I find that it's been a challenge to get the knee bend that I need, which is likely due to lack of strength. I am going to look at some exercises I can do to work on strengthening my legs and core.
I also did a lot more backwards skating today, probably about 1/3 of our lesson time...I'm getting better, but still real slow and awkward. Took a couple of spills today, doing crossovers...I'm still not over the fear thing, but I was able to get right back up and keep trying, which is an improvement for me.

I am really enjoying my practices and lessons. I am not a very patient person in my off-ice life, and I am finding that learning to skate is really forcing me to slow down, take one thing at a time and enjoy where I am now. At the same time, I have little goals in mind, but I really do not have a timetable (very new to me!) and my ultimate goal is to enjoy the process....guess what? I am!
Kathy

What really helped me with my back cross-overs was backward stroking... have you worked on that yet?

The best publics are during the weekdays when the rest of the world is at work or school. Just call me master of the obvious. If you cannot access these utopias, and have to make use of the evening, late afternoon, or (egad!) wknd publics; you will do well to work basic skating skills. If the rink allows spinning, in the middle, you will be forced to develop a great center. You will get quick and ambidextrous on your edges as you dart about avoiding ppl. Good luck. Been there done that. Have been doing in recently.

Kay

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