Today for some reason my home rink had freestyle from noon-1:30 pm. They normally don't, so maybe a hockey game got cancelled or something. I just saw the announcement on the website when I was going to suck it up and go to public skate. Anyway, it was a decent session.
Bronze MIF: Forward perimeter stroking - The pattern calls for 3 sets on one side of the arena, but right now I can only do four. Have to get the lobes bigger and also hold the inside edge part longer, plus make it curvier.
Bronze MIF: alternating backward crossovers - this still feels weird to me because I have to remember that the outer leg (that has the hip sticking out to the side), should have its skating foot on an inside edge, same as the other foot.
Waltz 8: little blah today, the left side was blah but the right side was good. I can usually do them decently on both sides. Maybe it's because we didn't do these at all last week.
Forward 3 turn pattern (Pre-bronze MIF:) I'm trying to get these not too "toe-y" but it's hard. Also trying to get the lobes of the 3 turns bigger because that was what I got marked down on my pre-bronze test. I will have to talk to my coach and have her confirm how big the lobes have to be for each turn. Maybe I'll have to do it using a line again to make sure there is enough curvature. It's hard to balance curvature/edge quality while maintaining sufficient speed though (especially for adult skaters).
I didn't jump at all last week since our whole lesson focused on Moves. So I figured I should do some jumps:
Loop: I only did one. Or attempted one. Still not happening >:( I will have to work on this on Tuesday if I do go skate.
Salchow: Going into this with more speed, still trying to get more oomph and height but they have vastly improved to what they were before. I even did some toe loops afterwards to make it a jump combination.
Toe Loops: Did them with the salchow or standalone by the line. They felt ok to me and I was careful to drawback so it doesn't become a toe waltz.
Waltz jump: I can do these in my sleep. I forgot to do two or three in a row but the single ones felt good. I need to kick my leg through more though.
1/2 Flip: for some reason I didn't think to do these today but I should so I don't forget since they are on the pre-bronze freestyle test.
Spins:
1 foot spin: These were alright. I'm still trying to get my foot to the front more so that I can cross it over easier and make them to a scratch spin. Let me tell you it took me forever just to get into this stage. When I started, and for the longest time, I couldn't even get around once and just end up doing a three turn. Now I can do 4-6 revs, even more if it's a good day. I don't know why this was such a struggle for me but jumps seem to come easier.
2 foot spin: Ugghhh I hate them. These are so awkward now after doing 1 foot ones for so long. I did one and it was wonky so I didn't attempt another one, lol.
Spirals: These were ok, legs are above my hip but of course on the floor I can get them way higher. It's a different story to focus on lifting and keeping the leg up WHILE gliding on the ice of course as opposed to just holding the position on the floor. I will have to keep working on my splits and building up my glutes and quad strengths (this is where the Spartacus work out comes in).
Y Spiral: My favorite "party trick" :) I am proud of being able to do these because not all freestyle kids even at a higher level than me think of trying to learn them.
Today I also shared the ice with a few high level skaters. One guy is either junior or senior level (by now) and he also teaches at our rink. One girl is a senior lady who has competed in sectionals and is always the star of our ice shows (deservingly so). She is lovely to watch and sometimes I just pause to watch her, lol. There was also a bronze adult skater in his 60's (good news for me, this means I have TONS of years ahead to enjoy this lovely sport!) who told me he can't pass silver moves (hmmm hope that doesn't happen to me lol) but was inspiring to watch coz he was working on the axel and double salchow. If I can even get past the darn loop Ill be SUPER happy.
There was another adult skater who came in for the last half hour. Good thing this was after the senior lady and the higher level boys were gone otherwise she might have gotten run over. She looks to be probably in the early stages of freestyle 1, probably just started the level. She was working on teeny waltz jumps from (very slow, tentative backward crossovers). That was me oh, maybe 3 years ago. But she wouldn't have moved out of the way fast enough had she been there while the senior lady was practicing her program. Anyway watching this other adult made me appreciate how far I've come in my own skating. I have built up speed going into my jumps and more power. I am not sure when I'll be retaking the test again, but to be working on MIF and freestyle with the intent to test has improved my own quality of skating tremendously. Since I have no desire to compete at this point, thinking of the tests gives me a goal and also got rid of a lot of my bad habits that I didn't know I've developed over the years: toe pushing, not enough knee bend, lack of power, stiff shoulders, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment