Nice clips Jocelyn, especially the CW backspin. Have you spent a lot of time working on that because it is not something I can do at all. I can do CW front spins, but the backspin is a bit of a disaster.

My clips are online here, they won't be anything new to posters at RSSIR, but I haven't posted them here before. I did have a clip of the eponymous 2loop2loop combo, but unfortunately I seem to have mislaid it somewhere.

John

Vesperholly, I'm sure I have seen a video clip of your axel somewhere before, as the video just there reminds me...I'll have to find it. I'm sure it's you!

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

There is one out there - I've seen it too.

John

Vesperholly -- where do you skate?

It looks somewhat familiar to me.(?!)

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

A quick question to both Casey and rf3ray. You both say you've been skating less than 6 months but how much time have you actually spent on the ice? Do you skate daily and/or how many hours a week. Also do you have experience in roller blading/ roller skates or gymanastics or something that has given you a head start as you both look very confident on the ice even if techniques need a little refinement.

I'm trying to make myself feel better here as after 5 years of skating I have only just landed a single loop and can't yet manage a flip or lutz. However I don't spend a huge amount of time on ice compared to some (max. of 5 - 6 hours a week and much of that is spent socialising )

I'm no expert but agree with most of the comments from other people. For the spin it looks like you are trying to force it and twisting instead of keeping the torso square and definitely work on spinning a few revs with arms and leg held out to find centre before bringing them in. I found this so hard to do at first but once I got the hang of it, it improved my spins no end.

On the jumps it looks like you need to work on the upright position in the air and especially on landing - keep head up, back straight and free leg extended on the landing (again something I found difficult to do til my coach said 'if it's not hurting you're not doing it right! - he was only half joking!)

One thing I've noticed with young men who take up skating is that they tend to be much more fearless than the ladies and with their greater strength this often allows them to get the jumps fairly quickly but their form is not always good and their basic skating (stroking, footwork, extension etc) is what needs work. Can't really tell from those videos if this applies to either of you.

Anyway it looks like you are both doing really well and having fun.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

MPlayer seems to play about everything too.

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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

Hey, I have a server with loads of space and ridiculous amounts of available bandwidth (1000GB/month), where I'm setting up a website for skating stuff. You can have space there if you want - lemme know. http://www.sk8rland.com/

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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

Videos from today, again from the old home rink (nice and vacant daytime sessions):
http://sk8rland.com/casey_shobe-may2005-jumps.3gp - a couple minutes long, all the jumps I can do (except the half flip and half lutz), spins both directions, spread eagle...
http://sk8rland.com/casey_shobe-may2005-footwork.3gp - Took this one about 2 minutes after the last fall - barrel rolls, outside spirals (forwards and backwards), spread eagle, 3-turns. twizzles (not very good here).

I'm pretty happy with my skating in the above two videos - they show my current skill level pretty clearly, I think. So, please point out anything wrong you notice in either of them.


http://sk8rland.com/CaseyShobe001.3gp - Another first-person one for fun.

http://sk8rland.com/CaseyShobe002.3gp - Power crossovers that I just did first today, kind of long and boring. dbny - do they look right?

http://sk8rland.com/CaseyShobe003.3gp - Well this one didn't go as planned. You can see quite a nasty fall in this one, the only time I've fallen out of a spiral Good humor value

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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

I generally spend at least 15 hours a week on ice, usually 20+. And I've been skating since November 6th, which is 6 and a half months. I never rollerbladed much (maybe 2 weeks worth back when I was 15), but I have a lot of leg strength and good balance leftover from a few years of bicycling.

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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

Well, when I started skating, start of Jan I was going about 1-2 times a week, till I began group lessons for Feb-Mar then I went about 2 - 3 times a week, then in April I started getting private lessons from a coach, then was pretty much trying to skate 4 - 5 times a week, till I broke my wrist, then from then I dropped it down to 2 -3 times a week, for this week I have been trying to skate at least 24 hours a week if I can (still with a cast on my wrist, get it of in 1 week). With the skating, when I went private my coach pretty much made me relearn everything, that was learning in group lessons.

With previous experience, I havent done any rollerblading, or gymnastics.
I'm 28 turning 29 next week, most people say that I am very flexible for my age, without doing any previous dicisplines in those areas.

With my skating, I just watch olympic dvds and watch it frame by frame on what they do and I just think about it when I get on the ice..

I hope that helps

Ray

Exceptional job! What level are you skating at?

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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

Hey John, really good skating, just wondering how long have you been skating??

Wow, you guys have got to see this footwork. It's on inline skates, but very very well done.
http://sk8rland.com/freestyle_inline...ork-slalom.wmv

Has anybody here skated on Pic Skates ( http://www.picskate.com/ )?

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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

You have the sequence correct, but you are not getting that transition from BI to BI edge properly. You are stepping from BI to BO/flat instead, and are stepping instead of pushing. Here are some things to help you get the BI edge: Try to cross the long axis at a right angle when you push to the BI edge, you are retrogressing just a bit and that flattens the edge. Think of pushing into a B lunge position, so that your BI edge from the crossover is going to do a push to get you to the BI edge on the other foot, and the pushing leg is going to stretch out into the lunge. Always cross the long axis on the push to BI edge, so that the new foot takes the ice at the axis. It's good to practice this on a line just to get the idea of the lobes.

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Fun stuff! That can all be done on ice, and some of it is done regularly in the test structure, but with very different form required . The first sequences of two footed moves are called slaloms. Done on one foot, they are power (change of edge) pulls. This skater reminds me of Ilia Kulik's Rubberband Man program.

My daughter has pic frames and can jump and spin in them. The big problem is finding a decent surface for them. She wiped out in the driveway and still has the scar from it on her shoulder.

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Toepick! If you haven't seen "The Cutting Edge" yet, go rent it tonight. You might want to consider some inexpensive knee pads from a sporting goods store. An ounce of prevention, etc.

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On the spread eagles, arch your back as much as possible and push your shoulders back hard. These are going to shape up for you. On your toe loop, be careful not to pivot on the toepick on take off. Practice just toeing off and jumping straight up and down with no rotation.

You really have a lot of talent. If I lived anywhere near you, I would coach you for free just for the pleasure of nit picking you into good form.

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Nah, I have never, ever fallen forward like this before. I also landed on my right hip, which hurts, but nothing else. I've never hit my knees either. At least there are some things to be thankful for ;-)

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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

Haha, depending on how often said free lessons were, the amount of money I'd save/more coaching I'd get would make it quite worthwhile to move about anywhere, lol

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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

That URL wasn't found, but this looks like the right one: footwork

Nice freeleg height on spirals!

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You're right! Thanks for letting me know. I've fixed it.

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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

Ahh, that's probably why you're having better luck with spins then - it's supposedly harder for taller people. I'm 5'11"

What type of skating boots/blades do you have?

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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

I've always been able to spin CW. When I started in private lessons, I jumped/spun CW. That only lasted a year, and when I switched coaches my new coach decided that I spun and jumped better CCW so I switched everything. I've been skating for over 15 years (oh, god) but that, plus college, put a big crimp in my progress.

Basically I kept spinning CW because I still could. I can do back spin, scratch, flying camel, layback, back camel spins CW. I've been trying hard to switch them BACK to CCW. So far the backspin has improved and the layback is better CCW now. A lot of times I get frustrated that my CCW spins aren't as good as my CW spins, especially the flying camel which is awful CCW, but I've been able to do a flying camel CW for at least three years, and I just started working on it CW last year. I like being able to spin CW but sometimes it's just way more trouble than it's worth!

That's similar to my experience, I started out jumping CCW and spinning CW and my first coach let me get away with it. About 6 months later I switched coaches and the new coach immediately made me spin CCW, it didn't take me long before I was spinning far better CCW and I never looked back. I still have a strong upright front spin CW and I have made some attempts at a reverse camel, but it is not there yet. But as for CW back spins and flying camels

John

Well I'm in the UK so the levels are all different, but I compete in the adult competitions at the masters level.

John