I went skating today. IT was nice, near empty. waltz jumps were nice and big, spins fast and centered, the flip made an appearance, spirals were high and striaght, and what happened? i fell on doing crossovers. Twice. and the second time, i got stuck to the ice. it felt like glue trying to get up. go figure. everything else is ok, but crossovers, something most people consider a basic element, i screw up on. at leat my coach wasn't on the ice to see my crossover wipeouts.

NCSkater02, I hope your recovery is going well. (((Hugs))) to you during the time you're not on the ice.

Lion--had great lessons this week that pushed me outside of my "box"

Lamb--general brain fog from trying to fight off the low-grade virus that's going around work. I also lost my favorite hat and gloves (for real this time). I thought I wouldn't be able to find winter gear (Wal-Mart and Target already have their spring stuff out) but luckily I stumbled on a bin of magic gloves and hats in Safeway.

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How on EARTH do you center a spin?

My coach says to hold your free leg out for a few revolutions, but yy leg just will NOT stay out. It kinda bends and doesn't stay at the side. It's so annoying. I'm a CW spinner. I used to love spins but they're so ugly! HELP HELP HELP!!!

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Hi, Melzorina--
I'm CW, too, and I just worked on this very same thing in my lesson last night. Here are a few pointers that might work--

Start on a line, in a T position with the right leg in front. Bend your knees and push onto an RFO edge as if you were starting the RFO edge for the spin. BUT don't hook the spin until you have gone half circle (that is, until you've come back to the line). Then spin.

On the RFO entrance edge, think of knee bend and pressure on the right outside ankle. This will deepen your edge (thus hooking the spin). As your RFO edge deepens and the circle gets smaller, the path your free foot is on will take a larger circle, almost as if "centrifugal" force is at work.

I hope this makes sense. I was able to center my spins better when doing this last night. My main problem is that I usually rush the entrance edge and whip my free leg around too soon (before I've made the half circle), and then I'm not centered and have a not-so-nice position. This has also been throwing me off in the sit spin and the camel, so I have my work cut out for me!

I think there was another thread recently about pulling in/not pulling in during spins--there are some useful tips there, too.

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I once clicked-of-death on the mohawk entry to a flip. I fell directly to the ice and landed on one butt cheek. I hit so hard and loudly that a coach standing nearby turned around because she thought I had hit my head!

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Thanks Mikawendy, much appreciated. I'll try it out in the morning.
Speaking of which I've gotta be up in...5 hours!

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Mel, another thought. For the first 5 years of my one foot spin, I always went into it from a pivot. I could never go into a spin off one foot or hold my leg out until my coach, out of desperation, started working me on sit spins. In trying to do a sit spin, I instead did a beautiful 2-revolution with leg out into a gorgeous several revolution centered scratch spin. What my coach figured out was that on the entry edge, I have not been bending my knee enough and coming up too soon along with trying to get my leg up by dropping my skating shoulder. When attempting a sit spin, I bend my skating edge knee a lot more, which keeps my upper body more solid without allowing the skating shoulder to drop, and give one final deeper bend into the spin, which allows my leg to stay off the ice and out in front for a couple of revolutions. Sounds wierd, but it worked for me and may be worth your while for you and your coach to try.

Good luck!

Marcia

I hope you aren't too disappointed. It's still a work in progress. I just hope I get my act together by AN.

Lion - Blasted interp..........I'm so not cut out for this sort of thing. It's a major stretch, let me tell you.

Lamb - Spins were right on.

Lion: legs (quads) so sore from off-ice class, could hardly get out of bed today, or walk around, sitting down and standing up was painful!

Lamb: Scratch Spin!! 5-6 centered revs!!! Finally!! And the coach saw!! Ok, yeah it was only one, but where there's one, more will follow!!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Skating today. It was also picture day because our ice show is in a month. I was in a lesson with my coach because I have a test on monday and I was attempting to do a patern of the European. Because of everyone standing around on hte ice I managed to go sliding into the boards several times and withing 2 inches of where some one was putting their foot all because of people who wouldnt move when asked therefore leaving me unable to manover around them and I go sliding.... also causing my coach to be worried that I wouldnt even still be alive by monday to skate the test.....

In case you havent noticed. not a heck of a lot is going great for me 2day

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Hurrah for Desert Skaters! YAY for Jeff Buttle and Virtue and Moire!

I always go by the mantra "bad warmup, great performance"... think of today that way, and I hope you do great on the test.

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Lion: Everything about this week really isn't right. I went to the pond (the same rink that Johhny Weir trains at and they won't let you forget it) but I wasn't feeling it. I'm such an unlikely figure skater (they thought I was there to see hockey haha) that I didn't feel like trying to get in to a freestlye session, so I went public (it's also much cheaper). It wasn't to good though, everyone wasn't skating in their normal pattern, and I seemed like a real nuisance.

I think I'm going to use the Fred Rust (University of Delaware's) arena next. The people there are much cooler. Plus I went to a very crowded public session last weekend and saw some really good skaters. Pulling off triples with no effort. Though it makes me want to get really good. I guess that's the only good thing that happened to me this week.

Lion - rotten LFO edge. I am so aching. (Says the coach: "Lean. Lean! LEAN!!". When he shows me by manually hauling me over, I reply, "You want me to lean THAT far? But how do I stay standing up?" Answer: "You don't if you're not going fast enough." Great. So now I hit the ice faster).

Lamb - at last I'm getting the RBI to RBO change of edge happening without hitting the toepicks. Sometimes. (But to paraphrase a poster above, where there is one, others will follow. All I can say is, they'd better.)

The Pond is awesome! I think you should go back and try to have a better experience with it. Go in the morning- there's nobody there. Johnny skates in the morning and pretty much, you have to ask him or his coach if it's alright to be on "his" ice. Depending on what you're working on it may or may not be okay, but he usually does one session and then skips the next and goes back for another, so even if he doesn't let you on, you could do the one he isn't on. EMPTY ice, I swear. And if Johnny does let you on, he's very courteous and if you don't get in his way, he won't get in yours.

Fred Rust is terrible. It's a zoo. If you were intimidated by a few people doing triples in public at The Pond, you will run from Fred Rust. I guess they do put freestyles according the level, but I remember going to a Novice-Senior freestyle (which you'd think would be LESS crowded than a lower level one, cause people kind of start to drop out after Intermediate) and there must have been 30 girls trying for that same corner for the triple lutz. I got maybe ONE in. I wouldn't reccommend it. Even the "low level" freestyles have people doing triples on it, which is kind of sad. But The Pond really is awesome, give it another shot. Not on public though, that's a waste of time anywhere.

Lamb: At our coach's request, we signed up for Latin/Ballroom dance classes (more Latin, it turns out, than Ballroom) and the first one was last night. Great fun. Not much different from ice-dancing, in many ways, although of course we didn't progress beyond the equivalent of Prelim Foxtrot - the "improvers'" class were doing all sorts of interesting things.

I think that this was the first time in all the almost-26 years we've been married that I've got the Husband on to a wooden dance floor stone cold sober!

Lion: Back and hips still very sore. Especially first thing.... I am rather dreading skating tomorrow. But it does seem to "work off" during the day, and of course ibuprofen helps, both internally and topically applied.

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Regarding the Pond vs. the Rust Arena, I skate in both places depending on the session and the time of year. I agree the best sessions are the morning ones at the Pond. Even the open freestyles, which anyone can get on, are not crowded at all and the ice is nice. The later freestyles often have poor ice conditions. You also have to worry that the sessions will be cancelled with no notice due to hockey or something else. This just happened yesterday. And in fact, there is no ice there at all the next 3 sundays. No notice posted, you just find this out by luck.

The later afternoon sessions at the Rust arena, the medium freestyle ones, are hit and miss with the crowds. But at least the ice is usually cut. I do find I skate faster there just to keep up with the crowd. Most of the kids are very nice to skate with but there are a few that you have to watch out for.

I would never skate a public session at either of those rinks unless on a holiday weekend in the summer!

Shinn-Reika, If you are going to go to UD for one of the medium sessions, PM me if you'd like to meet up.

Pat

Hello all,

Well, here's the wrap-up of my skating week.

Lion: I had something strange happen to me while practicing a sit spin. I went into the spin, my free arm and leg came around and I clasped my hands in front of me as I got into my sit position. I came up and finished the spin. Don't ask me how I did this but somehow I managed to jam my middle and ring fingers on my right hand. OUCH! It still stings. I didn't feel anything until after I finished the spin and I don't remember my hands coming together any differently than before. In addition, my landing leg has been bothering me and my coach was saying she thinks it might be a stress fracture. Great! I'll just add that to my ever-growing list of ailments. Doh! I'll be resting until Tuesday and we'll see how the leg responds. If it continues to be a problem I may have to see my doctor about it. It wasn't that long ago I had to go to him because of my back. Grr. During my program first run-through the camel-sit became a flailing mongoose-flop. However, it was better in the second run-through.

Lamb: I had a sharpening between Friday and Saturday and that seemed to help things quite a bit, in general. Who'd have thought? I changed my entrance into the flying camel. It feels better now. In general, the jumps were okay although my axel got a bit wonky so we worked on that for a while. Then my coach asks me "Do you want to try a double axel just for the heck of it?" My first response was . This was followed by, "Well, why not?" It was fun! Didn't come close to landing it. I got around precisely twice before my brain screamed "What the !@#$! do you think you're doing?" inside my head. I tried it three times and the last time I got around maybe 2 and 1/4 but kind of slid down to the ice on the landing. Still, it was invigorating to try something new and potentially life-threating.

Well that's it for me this week.

Take care,

Frank

I did not realize you and Sk8pics were so close! We will be going up to the Pond for the summer-when our Harrington rink closes (until September). We went to U of D about 2 weeks ago and did not have a good experience there during a public session, we (my daughter and I) were told we could not practice any spins or do our waltz jumps (the only ones we know) meanwhile kids where playing 'crack the whip'. Our problem has been coordinating practice times where all of us could go, my husband and son cannot get into a freestyle session--they are not skilled enough.

If you want some quiet ice, come down to The Centre at Harrington Fairgrounds on Mondays 1-3 or Thursdays 11:30-1:15 (but only when there is no school, otherwise it is a zoo). There is practically no one there and it only costs $2.50. Most of the time we get to play our own music. It is usually pretty quiet unless there is a homeschool group scheduled (call first). We also have an adults only public skate session on Sundays 4:30-6:15 pm that is really nice.

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Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Lamb: Talk about serendipity! My hips and back were sore this morning, which is a great improvement on how they were on Friday and Saturday, and I found that I needed to be very careful of my posture on the ice, or it was painful. And, of course, the position I needed to be in was the exact position I needed to be skating properly.... so I had my weight in the right place all morning, and skated better than ever!

We worked on the Willow Waltz & the Swing Dance, especially the Willow. Trying to get my RFO 3 in the right place (husband doesn't exactly help....). But we improved during the session, and the coach is quite pleased with it. Now, if only we can manage to stretch it out to fill the entire rink... pigs might fly.

Lion: Coach said I looked as though I was being dragged along in the Swing Dance, not pushing properly. I said he should try skating with my husband when he was going backwards - husband's edges can be most peculiar at times! However, did try, and it was better. Only apparently still stuck my bum out in the Mohawk. I don't know why I can't get into the right place to do it. Sigh.

And although, in the Willow, it looks great when the man extends his free leg behind on the inside edge before the woman's Mohawk, it doesn't work for us, so we've had to have him extend in front. Which then points up where I'm in the wrong place. Deep sigh.

And my new trackies left fluff all over my tights! Luckily that didn't matter - not like the time a new sweatshirt left fluff all over my competition dress!

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

Mrs Redboots, lol reading your posts! I have a dumb question about your signature re "back cross-cuts" - what is the difference between a cross cut and a cross over? "Cross cut" is not a term we use here and I don't know what one is.

i have a superstition sort of thingie where i NEED to fall during warmups or else i'll fall during the program in competitions. it's worked so far! for all my programs that went fall-free, i fell during warmups. but for all the programs that i fell in, my warmups were relatively strong.

sadly, on saturday my 20minute practice in the morning went well and warmups went better, but my actual program was a bad, bad disaster. i was the ONLY skater to fall in that group and i fell on my lutz-loop combination which felt strong but apparently...wasn't. and i fell on my spin combination too. sigh. 6th place out of ten.

BUT! (well i guess this would be the lamb..)
i managed a flying sit today! i was so shocked when i started spinning after i jumped and didn't fall flat on my butt. i managed a few more and also a jump into a backsitspin (strangely this feels stronger than the normal sit..). so yay. still debating whether to tell my coach about it or not since technically he has yet to teach me the sitspin seriously. lol.

Yes, this is still a bad time of year for public sessions, and they tend to be so crowded you definitely can't practice typical freestyle elements. It gets better in the summer, at least it used to. I haven't skated a public session in several years. But if you get there early and jump right out on the ice when the session starts, you can probably do what you want for around 30 minutes or so.

Maybe I'll see you this summer at the Pond!

Pat

A cross cut and a cross over are the same things where I am. In Canada we just use two different words for the same thing...we just like confusing our new skaters

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Hurrah for Desert Skaters! YAY for Jeff Buttle and Virtue and Moire!

A back cross cut is where you lift your foot off the ice, and cross it over alternativley infront of the other foot.

I think. I find them to be great fun, and I recently found out that LOTS and LOTS of speed is a great help when covering distance, especially when going into them from backwards crossovers.

Annabel is much better at explaining than me. I'll let her take center stage n this one.

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Lion: My spins still stink! Scary that soneone asked me for advice on how to spin! I told her she was asking the wrong person!!

Lamb: Landed a HUGE lutz/toe combo. Worked on solo toe loop aproach...getting better... still not as natural feeling for me with toe loop as I do the Lutz, flip and sal!

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