While we were up north visiting family for the holidays, I had the chance to skate at my hometown rink for a while. I feared a packed ice rink and poor ice, as usual, but was pleasantly surprised that for the first half hour I was there, only half a dozen people occupied the ice. Also, the ice was in decent condition...usually, the ice is very hard, and last time I skated, there were 2 inch mounds of ice where condensation had dripped from the rafters and made dozens of treacherous stalagtites (or is it stalagmites?) Anyways, my skate wasn't half bad, and rejuvinated my hopes for pulling a routine together for badger state. My jumps (waltz through flip) were about average, although as usual, my toe loop needs more practice. I'm getting more comfortable with this jump, but as I have stated before, it has never feeled like a real jump to me.
As far as spins though, I had my last lesson on back spins and change foot spins. I am still having trouble entering my backspin from a forward three turn, but I was having moderate luck today entering from a back right outside edge and a strong push off of the left foot, if that makes sense. I am still getting a feel for where my weight has to be shifted to keep on an outside edge...I am trying hard to eliminate my inside edge back spin. I had a "lightbulb" moment on change foot spins. After my last lesson, I developed a real good idea of what I have to do to get my change foot spin to work. Of course, it's a matter of body over mind, as I have to convince mybody to do what my mind knows it is supposed to do! I did one change foot spin that felt exactly right, boy was I beaming! I couldn't repeat it during the session, but now I know what it feels like to do this spin right, and what to practice.
In practicing change foot spins, I also "fixed" my scratch spin a bit. I realized that I was bringing my freeleg around too fast and throwing my body off balance, causing my spins to travel an awful lot. I found that if I let my leg come around with the rest of my body, my spin is much more centered. This is also something I have to make a mental effort to practice more!
Today, I also made a new goal to improve my camel spin. I realized today that when I do these, they are hit and miss, however I never really do anything to make them better, I just sort of do them. So from now on, I'm going to make an effort to keep track of what I am doing that either makes my camel spin work, or not work. Then I can hopefully get my camel spin off of the plateau it has sat on for so long.
So as long as I'm here, soley for the purpose of my own reflection, I have to comment on progress I've made at my gymnastics class. My back handsprings have become more consistant, although I am still doing them on the wedge. I need to work on gradually doing them lower and lower on the wedge until I am doing them on the floor. My coach also says I have enough power in my roundoff that I should be able to start connecting my roundoff and backhandspring soon. My backwalkover has gotten better too. Another classmate was helping me with these. I just need to remember to start with my arms behind my head, shifting my weight over my shoulders, and blocking when my arms hit the ground instead of letting them buckle. When she spotted me as I did the improvements, she commented that my backwalkover was visibly better. I want to improve these so that I can start doing them on beam.
Speaking of beam, my cartwheels are somewhat more consistant...they improved greatly when I realized I needed to start with my arms together above my head instead of apart. Another goal I have is to make my full turn on the beam more consistant. When I can do it, I can do it easily, I just need to strive for consistancy. Now my favorite apparatus, bars. : ) As of last class, I can now do forward hip circles, although they are not consistant yet. I am working toward this. I learned sole circle dismounts, though I did these from a jump off the ground, and not from a cast. This too I am working toward. My ultimate goal is the kip, and I have built up to forward staddle glide to feet touching the bar. Now I have to build my muscles and get the timing right so I can pull myself up onto the bar. Other things I am working on are forward mill circles (can't do these yet) and I would like to learn cast-tuck on the bar. I haven't done anything on high bar yet!
That's enough updating for one night. Happy Thanksgiving!
I quick update while I have time...I skated on the freestyle session on Saturday morning. Frankly it was too early in the morning for me to really remember how I skated, though I do recall that I uncharacteristically landed several loops on my ass. My flip jumps were good though, as they usually are when I'm skating "on". Anyhow, I had a quick lesson on spins. I got some pointers on my back spin and change foot spin, which I dearly need. (needless to say, after not having a lesson in nearly a year, the dreaded backspin was NOT what I wanted to have a lesson on, but I sucked it up and told coach that was what I needed to work on.) I also got some pointers on my attitude spin, which is actually coming along nice..I think. I suppose if I saw my spin for myself, it probably doesn't look as good as it feels, but coach says it looks decent. Anyhow, Im skating on the public session tomorrow, so hopefully I'll be able to see some improvement on my back spin and change foot spin. It is encouraging to have something to work on and know what to fix for once! It has been hard skating and reaching a point where i can't correct my mistakes on my own. If felt good to have a coaches imput again!
I had the chance to skate twice last week during my lunch break, so I finally have something to write about! I've been trying really hard to figure out what my short term goals are, and so far I would like to get a program going for Badger State. Unfortunately, on the one day that I am able to skate on the freestyle session and get a lesson, there is no longer a freestyle session. That puts a wrench in my plans, because now I have to figure out how to squeeze a freestyle session into my schedule so that I can learn a program and get help on some elements. I guess if worst comes to worst, I can use my music from 2003, although I'd prefer not to. Actually, I guess I can't for freeskate because the program has to be 30 seconds longer. To do a pre-prelim SP, the elements include flip, waltz+ any single jump, change foot spin, and spirals. A prelim Freeskate program can include any single jumps, combinations, as well as upright spins and sit spins. I really hope I can get a program together in time...I'll be so dissapointed if I can do Badger State this year!
As far as my skating sessions last week, I tried to work on change foot spins, but was having a lot of problems transitioning to my backspin and keeping the correct edge. this is probably what I'll have my next lesson on. My flips were consistant, so I was working on getting more reach when I pick back, and more height in my jump. I also worked on lutz's one day, and actually landed a few! (on my feet, and not my butt!)I've also been working on my loop, because as soon as I enter the jump with speed, I seem to wait too long to jump and end up skidding too much before the jump. This decreases my speed and height significantly. I seem to get much more "pop" on my loop when I go slower. This is also something I think I'll need to have a lesson on, because whatever the problem is, I cant' seem to fix it on my own. On the plus note, my waltz jumps were great, really big and floaty feeling. I just need to work on tacking a toe loop at the end. Toe loops never felt natural to me, so this is goin to be a challenge. As for salchows, they were so so; I am working on transfering the height and distance of my waltz jump into the salchow.
A skating session at open skate at my rink back home also made me realize that I just want to look like a polished skater, even if I am only landing single jumps. They have a skating program in my hometown, but I question the quality of the instruction, as I've seen a lot of the skaters working on elements that they don't look like they should be working on. Like loop-loop combinations when they can hardly do a technically correct loop in the first place. I'd rather be pushed to do each element tecnically correct, than do it half-ass and have somebody tell me it's good enough. It motivates me to work twice as hard on making the elemetns I can do polished, instead of rushing my skating just to say that I can do XYZ jump or spin.
Hopefully I'll be able to skate this week and have some good things to say about my skating.