Say, what moves in your Discipline do you have perfected..and how long did it take you YOURSELF to perfect them?
Please include your Discipline. Synchro. included.

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FSWer

I'm not sure there is such a thing as perfected in skating... even if something is technically correct, it can always be faster, higher, deeper, or tighter. I'm a pretty advanced skater, but I wouldn't say I've perfected anything.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Perfected? :LOL: Not a thing.

Even the elite level skaters at my rink still work on their stroking and swing rolls. I don't think any skater ever truly perfects something. There's always something you can do to make it better.

I agree. That's the wonderful/terrible thing about skating - you never get bored because there's always something more to learn, but it can also feel like no matter how hard you work it's never good enough.

Nothing is ever perfect in skating. Things can always be better, even if you have passed an element.

You will always, always, always be working on your basic edges and turns, even when you are World Champion. Perhaps especially then....

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Wellll..... I'd say I'm a pro at falling, LOL!

Just kidding. Now seriously.

Actually, I once saw a training of the ninefold Dutch national champion ladies, Karin Venhuizen, and the coach was telling her "Bend your knees! Look up, not down!" Those are things coaches tend to tell beginners too. I think this further proves the point that there is nothing that is ever perfected in skating.

However, I doubt I'll be improving all that much about my hydroblades any time soon. I feel they are good enough for my level of skating right now, and that the time is better spent on other elements. Other things I'm not consciously working on right now are forward stroking, 3-turns, 1-foot-glides, hockey and snowplow stops, etc. However, at some point my skating will overall improve so greatly, that I will need to work on that again. For example, while I can do the 3-turn pattern I need to be able to do for my next test, I cannot do a 3-turn pattern I need for 2 tests after that. So by the time I get to that test, I will need to work on my 3-turns again.

An other example would be a toepick jump we have around here which we call the "haasje" (it means rabbit), which is a sort of a mix between a bunny hop and a ballet jump. I thought I had mastered it, but now I have to do it in the footwork in my programme, right after two mohawks. I find that in order for me to be able to do this jump thing there, I need to take it slow on my mohawks. However, considering the rest of the footwork, I'd like to be able to use ALL of my power on the mohawks, gaining considerable speed to do justice to my abilities on the rest of the footwork. In order for this to work, I need to be able to do this jump at a much higher speed than I used to do it, and thus, I need more control. Which now requires me to work on that jump again. Of course I COULD drop the jump and replace it by double-3's and I would get even more speed, but then I wouldn't be learning anything, would I? And the whole point of skating is to keep improving on yourself, to face challenges and overcome them - not avoid them.

So you see, you can think you have perfected something, and then it can still come back and you discover you didn't perfect it!


I think a better question would be: which elements can you perform consistently?
Consistency is a sign that you may not have perfected an element, but at least you mastered it. It's also often very difficult to achieve (that's the whole difference between being able to do an element in practice, and in competition, too).

I think skating is all about striving for perfection...that is what makes a good sport for people with a slightly obsessive nature. You can never perfect things you can just do them to the best of your ability and continue to build your skills.

Currently, I am working on extension on my free leg during stroking, looking up while I skate quickly, good posture and a very specific spin entrance.

As the old saying goes, "If figure skating was easy, they'd call it hockey."

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