Uggghhhh so I took a video of myself skating today with my phone. It's small size and you need quicktime to play it and I'm skating bad because I was nervous about the camera...

But anyways here you go:
http://casey.shobe.info/Video005.3gp

This one is crappier - I took it first:
http://casey.shobe.info/Video004.3gp

And just in case you like motion sickness, a first-person with a salchow at the end:
http://casey.shobe.info/Video002.3gp

Criticisms welcome, but I know I made stupid mistakes. Bleh...

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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

Terrific speed over the ice. All I would say is that your jumps are a bit "swingy" - straighten your free leg more, and that should help that - and you need to not stick your bum out when doing a spread-eagle! Also, from the noise on the "motion-sickness" one, are you toe-pushing a bit???

Having said that, you skate better than I do, and I've been at it ten years!

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

You obviously have a lot of talent! Make lessons a top priority and you will clean things up and start progressing even faster.

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I should also mentioned this kid here only started skating about 6.5 months ago!!!

Should have skipped the "motion sickness" movie clip... I just got over a stomach flu and didn't want to experienced that again...

General comments:
REALLY good speed. (I'm envious! I hope my secondary coach isn't watching this!!! She'll be on my case about my speed -- or lack thereof!!!) And a nice inside spread eagle trick, though as Annabel says, you really need to "tuck the bum" in. No "romp eagles" here!!! (Of course, some of us wishes they have the turn out to even do inside spread eagles. *sigh*)

You have a tendency to pitch forward on the landing on the waltz jump. That's partly b/c you are a bit swingy on the waltz jump. The second waltz on the first video is actually better controlled than the first one (same video.) Be careful or you might end up with a bump on the head. Keep your back straight and bend your knee on the landing more!!!

The free leg on the sal needs to be straighten a bit, but the right idea when leading with the knee to kick thru higher. (Not an easy job for me...)

I strongly suggest you get a very good skating coach with good technical skating background who can help you to be a better controlled skater (yet still maintain the speed.) Once you get that, then start thinking a getting a choregrapher when you get in more money. (If you're still taking ballet. Keep at it!!!)

Other notes: Not much into kiddie bands (New Edition.) They're cute at first, but wears my nerves quickly afterwards. LOVE the U2 in the background. And I just remember that summer is coming soon so I better adjust my lunch hours for one more "nooner" (lunch time skate that is ) ...and at an emptier rink too. My home rink will be MOBBED during the summer.

It's a nice video (well the first two... I'm not gonna watch the "motion sickness" one again!) I'm glad you put them up!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Not bad! You do look really comfortable with the ice, which is great. I agree with the 'swingy' comments, but that can be controlled with practice and a bit of coaching/watching. You also seem to be 'looking' for the ice a bit early on the landing--could be nerves due to the camera (which really does make one skate worse than normal, I know!) But overall, not too shabby, especially considering how long you've been skating!

On your spins--you seem to be doing something I used to do (and it was a bear to correct)--it looks like you're 'torquing' your upper body so it's not square to your hips. That can cause quite a bit of the traveling. It's hard to clearly make out on the vid, though. The way I fixed it was to think of a rigid string tying my free leg and wrist together, so that they had to come around together, helping to keep everything squared up. Otherwise I'd leave the leg or the arm lingering somewhere behind the rest of me, and go spiraling off to China. It helped quite a bit, and although I still consider myself more of a jumper than a spinner, at least I have a spin that I can more or less center most of the time. It ain't beautiful, but it's there!

Now that video technology is so easy to use, this ought to be a great tool for help and comments for those of us who don't get much coaching.

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"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!

Oh, one more thing.... lift your knee up higher on your one-foot spins. Your knee should be parallel to the ice. Think of it as balancing a plate of spaghetti on your thighs. That should get you over spinning on the outside edge (where you should be.)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Those are cool! My coach uses his phone sometimes to show me things I'm doing.

Okay, on your waltz jump you need to kick the free leg straight through & not bend it or let it swing around to the side. A great way to work on this is to stand at the boards (w/ the wall to your left & hand on the boards for balance), stand on your left foot as if you've just stepped forward for the jump, & swing your right leg through. Make sure it's straight & passes close to your left foot. As it reaches the top of the swing forward, your left leg will straighter & the left foot should rise up to the toepick--that's when you would be taking off into the air. Make sense? Goal is to get the right leg parallel to the ice when you jump off the left foot.

Salchow, everyone is right, straighter free leg, maybe hold the check of the 3 turn a bit longer before takeoff.

Spins: common errors--you're pulling your arms in WAY too soon--need at least 2 or 3 revs before you pull in a spin. Watch any high level spinner & count how many times they go around before it gets pulled in at all. You need that to find your balance & center. Then only bring the hands to your sternum--the elbows need to stay up & out. Your head looks like it's turning to the right--needs to turn slightly to the left, into the spin. Right arm needs to come around a bit more; you have to fight the centrifigal force to keep it in front of you. And whole body needs to stand UP straighter, you're crunching over to the right.

I wish I had one of those phones! Posting videos is a good ideas--& would let us all see each other once in awhile..... hope the comments are helpful.

Pretty darn good I'd say!!

You know what Uncle Dick (Button) would say about thsoe wild swinging free legs!

Are you taking lessons? You should definitely start if you haven't already!


I liked the first person one the best -- is that what it's like inside of your salchow?

I wish more of us could put these little videos on the internet for each other!

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

Pretty nice. You've been skating 6 months? Impressive. It's hard to see since they're so small, but one thing above all needs work - your free leg position in the jumps. It goes way out to the side.

Watch the salchow. If you pause it in mid-air, both your free legs are bent and back. This means you're not transferring your weight from left to right side in the air properly. The take off is pretty good, if not entirely checked strongly but that will come.

If you ever want to do a double, fix this now instead of letting it become a bad habit. Same thing with the waltz jump but not as pronounced. You have good flow but your jumps shoot across the ice - try for more height with a peak to the jump. Can you do a click waltz? That's when you do a waltz jump, but tap your boots together in the air. That might help.

If you're interested, I'll tape myself doing a waltz jump and salchow and post it after I skate on Monday. I lurve my video camera. Not to brag, but I've been skating a long time and I think I have pretty good technique. Now, double toes...

Thanks for all the advice, I'll have to try harder next time! I have some studying to do now! Actually, I'm aware of most of my problems (i.e. no spin ability, bringing arms in too fast, legs and back not straight on spread eagles...but it's the fixing it part that's harder.

Everyone seems to mention the legs on jumps though, and I'm not quite sure what to make of that. My coach never mentioned that as a problem ( :/ ), and I haven't yet tried anything to work on fixing it....so more detail on how to correct that behavior would be appreciated - I'll certainly have to start being mindful about it.. I really don't know what it is about spins...they just don't like me... I do hope that changes eventually though.

vesperholly, please do send videos - I've seen loads of stuff, but more skating videos are _always_ welcome.

I'm going to try to remember to take my digital camera along with me the next time I go to a rink and feel brave - it will take better quality videos.

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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 think you guys have created a new coaching category-video/internet coach!

Maybe we should have a new website called "Fix my skating....."

My coach uses video to show us what we are doing wrong. We skate, she videos, we watch, she corrects, we skate again (hopefully doing it right) with her yelling across the ice what to do correctly (again) while she videos again, we watch (usually the same mistakes again, but not always). Then we get a copy to keep.... The copy has all the class in it so we see the better guys too, that helps.

Casey, you are really good, especially for the short time you've been skating! I can't wait to see Veserholly's videos. All this advice is really good because my waltz is not that good. I don't have a salchow (my body won't do it-my legs got all twisted up last few times I tried it).

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

Haha yes. I guess there have been a lot of advice-requesting posts recently, and I suppose I'm responsible for my fair share.

HAHAHA no. There's soooo much more to learn. But thanks...I'll try to put on a better show next time. ;-)

The video deal with your coach sounds pretty awesome. It _really_ helps sometimes just to see what you're doing, even if it can be disappointing (*fights off flashbacks of the first time he saw a video of himself trying to spin*).

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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, the first time I saw myself spin-I thought-how can I spin I'm soooo stiff and not bending!! Yuk! And I'm guilty of hogging up plenty of skating advice myself!!
We will keep looking for more-who knows, this may start a trend in skaters getting cell phones that can take videos (at least they are easier to cart around)! I didn't know they could take such nice ones! I'm a bit behind the times.....

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

The add-on stuff for phones is usually pretty crappy, but very handy. You have to be careful with cell phones though, because the majority of them (even from the same brand) are junk, and the good ones aren't available in the US until they've been available in Europe and Asia for a year or two (yes, it's retarded). Best bet is to buy an unlocked phone (will work with any provider) on eBay - I have a Nokia 6230 that I bought off eBay a full year ago - Cingular is just starting to offer this phone, and the other companies do not offer it yet.

Look at european companies (for example http://shop.o2.co.uk/choosehandsets ) to see what's really available and will be here in another year or two.

Most modern digital cameras, even the compact ones, will take videos with no length limit besides the size of the card you put in, and of much higher quality than cell phones. There's a lot of basic stuff that you can't do with a phone-camera, like zooming, or using a flash, and they're typically much easier to deal with with respect to getting the pictures/movies copied off.

I'd recommend a camera over a phone upgrade any day.

I have a small compact camera that cost $150 less than my phone. The videos are 4 times the size and much higher clarity, and there's no comparison on photographs (did I mention the phone doesn't have a flash? and photo quality is abysmal). The only con is that it's about twice the size of my phone, but still small enough to toss in my pocket if I think about it before I go to the rink.

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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

But the beauty of having a camera phone (mine only takes stills) is that you don't have to think about bringing a camera at all. In fact, the only time I use the camera function of my phone is when I suddenly wish I had a camera, then I remember - I do!

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Ditto.

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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 just did the same thing today with my Digital Camera recorded some vids, and saw how hard it is to make skating look easy.....

Btw anyone know where I could upload these movies for some feedback??

Ray

I'm going to tape a waltz jump, salchow, scratch spin, "click" waltz jump. Anything else? Post requests before 2pm Eastern US time because I skate at 2:30! About a year ago I bought a small camcorder to use for taping my skating. I'm obsessed now!

Hey guys any feedback on me skating did this today, btw only been skating for 5 months 23 days

the link is

http://members.iinet.net.au/~satch/100_2824.mp4
http://members.iinet.net.au/~satch/100_2827.mp4
http://members.iinet.net.au/~satch/100_2853.mp4
http://members.iinet.net.au/~satch/100_2866.mp4
http://members.iinet.net.au/~satch/100_2867.mp4

Oh, I better get in my vote. How about your backspin from a FI3 entrace? (Either direction, but slight preference for CW direction, please.)

TIA!

__________________
Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Hey Ray,

I don't think I have anything that will play your .mp4 files - so I might have to reboot into Windows to watch them later...

Just wanted to let you know that I have LOADS of space and bandwidth available for skating-related stuff at http://sk8rland.com - I still have to find the time to make the website, but I can create a directory for you (or anybody else) where you're welcome to store anything skating-related that you'd like to share (as long as it doesn't violate copyright).

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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 just discovered I can play these files just fine - very impressive! I wish I could spin that well - how tall are you? And centered too! Your back power pulls were great too - I can't do them very well yet (though I did finally figure out how to get the *power* part out of the blade on the forward ones.

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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

Quicktime plays .mp4 files.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Ok, here are the videos! They are Windows Media format. Please right-click and save to your desktop, my webspace is small and doesn't have a lot of bandwidth. They're all relatively small, from 200-500KB. Thanks!

http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/axel.wmv
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/camel.wmv
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/v...cwbackspin.wmv
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/clickwaltz.wmv - kind of a bad angle
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/cwbackspin.wmv - not the best, on the flat of the blade
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/salchow.wmv
http://users.adelphia.net/~jdelmar/video/waltz.wmv

Holly those were great clips !!! Nice to see them !!Thought the backspin was nice, my skater is having a hard time with that one.
http://www.yousendit.com/ is a great service
I just used it to send Mrs Redboots an ice dance mpg of my skater.Seems to be very useful.We take mpg from our sony camera at least weekly and is helps her know what she needs to work on !~!