Thursday, October 30, 2014

1st Axel Lesson On The Harness

As promised - my first lesson in the harness.  I was pretty nervous.  My coach thought it went really well and you will see by her reactions.  I see that I have much to learn off ice and on before this jump will ever be something I would do off the harness.  Time will tell....


Poppurri Skating

Today I had a fresh nearly private sheet of clean ice but no legs or stamina.  I did my best and got some practice in but it was a disappointment in my book.

I did make some Backward Circle 8 progress thanks to tips from my viewers... THANK YOU.  Keeping my back arm up higher helped a lot. (no video)

But if you want to see a really great fall... my video is at the bottom of the page!

Here's a few stills of the week


These pictures were from Monday ...
See if you can guess what I was working on from the pink tracing my coach laid out for me.  I must have done something right because my skate picked up the pink dye!

Special Congrats to my friend Penny who underwent TKR (total knee replacement) in August and
got back on the ice this week.  (wonder how many Advil that took?)



Monday, October 27, 2014

Off and On Ice Practice & A Lesson

I wasn't planning on much more than working on Moves In The Field today, but here's how it played out:

I got to the rink and decided to do a little off ice warm up.  I often wonder if I am the only one (adult) who struggles trying to do off ice jumps. I really fear torquing my knee and twisting my ankle.  Which I did today.. on a Loop Jump.

On ice I worked on my Gold Moves.  I was able to get in 2 sets of each of the Power Crossovers in both directions and both frontwards and backwards. Without someone filming you - the video is not good from the rail, so I didn't capture that.

I worked on my Backward Outside Eight many times both before and during my lesson.  My coach could see during my lesson that I need to raise my hip on my free leg and that should help my trouble spots on this move.

During practice I got frustrated .. again.. and moved onto free style before my lesson and I was really happy with my Waltz Loop Loop progress.

Thursday.. the plan is to put me in the harness for my first Axel - in harness - lesson.  We probably won't be attempting the whole jump, just trying to initiate more rotation.. we'll see, I hope to capture it.


Friday, October 24, 2014

Axel Prep Exercises

Today I had a really frustrating session and decided since my moves in the field were not working why not try some Axel Prep!

Here's the result.  I had a lesson yesterday which I didn't video and this was what we worked on for the last 15 minutes.  This was drawn out for me yesterday with a pink marker.  Basically it's a Waltz Jump (on a specific tracing) then a Loop Jump on-the-ice to finish.


Tuesday, October 21, 2014

3 Fall Tuesday

Bought a new pair of Mondor shorts with padding in them.  I put them on this morning and was so disgusted with how my already oversized hips looked even more "out there" that I took them off.  I said to myself.. I won't be falling today.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...

First on my moves (which I spared you of sitting through) - had a blade click on the double three turns - BAM.

Second on my Flip jump, which is usually my strongest jump next to a Waltz Jump, BAM

Third on my Loop Loop combo (not seen) BAM.

Wish I had been wearing those ugly shorts!

Great session though.  3 of us regular ADULT FIGURE SKATERS plus a new girl and another new (younger adult .. 22) ... I wish we could encourage more of this at our rink.  It's quite motivating to be on the ice with kindred spirits and arthritis ~!


Thursday, October 16, 2014

Public + FS Session and Lesson

I double dipped today.  Public was great.  3 Adults.. all "skaters". Beautiful quiet, clean ice.
Then I had to unlace, take a break for lunch and come back for Freestyle session - only I was so tired I could only do moves.  Had my first couple of hard falls today on brackets!

Also took my pattern and material to a seamstress for my 2015 or 2016 LE program.  I am NOT committing yet to passing my Silver and making it to Nationals - not sure I have it in me... but the programs and dresses and costumes are in progress... so we'll se.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Moves Practice Continues ....

I missed some practice last week and was out of town for a few days -

Monday I had a MIF lesson which I did not record.  We worked on brackets mostly.

Tuesday I went to a nice quiet public session and spent most of it working on the MIF.  There was a lot of practice, but I only made a video with one of each element.  (And that is too boring for most to sit through ... )

After that I spent a few minutes on my freestyle.  Nothing too exciting to report, except that it felt good to be back on the ice.

MIF




FREESTYLE

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

I Love My New iPhone6...but

It recorded my entire skating session today including my choreographers lesson.  It's going to take longer to edit my videos now, but no more "oh darn, the camera stopped before I did this great __________ (fill in the blank)!

So it has taken me 2 days just to sift through my video of Oct 7th practice and lesson to come up with this excerpt of just my practice.  My choreography lesson was on a FS session and from where the camera was sitting and where I was skating and the repetition of it all .. I decided not to post it.  Much of it is me at the wall with my coach trying over and over how to put 3 steps together and me attempting them over and over and getting confused!  I wish I could learn them faster!

Turned out it was a hard day of practice.  I have been actually sore since that day.  I must have over exerted myself.  Boo hoo.

My iMovie is doing that weird pixelating thing again in this video... working on the solution.


Monday, October 6, 2014

Monday Moves Lesson - Struggling with Backward Eights

I had a long MIF lesson today and we kept working on the Backward Circle Eight.  I seem to be ok on the 1st outside circle, but the 2nd outside circle (on my LBO edge) I have a lot of trouble making it all the way around AND trouble keeping my free foot close to my skating foot and just passing it by at the top of the circle.  I am occasionally falling onto a flat or worse, even wobbling inside/flat/outside/flat/inside.

Here is USFSA video library example:  Adult Gold Moves In The Field: Backward Circle Eights
Not a perfect example, but a good example.  However, I notice too that his free leg on his LBO circle wanders a little after the top of the 2nd circle.  I think this is common for most of us when we skate on the non-landing leg.  We all have superior control on every turn and every edge in both directions on that leg.

I also had my first lesson on Brackets In The Field.    I have been trying these from time to time on my own without a lesson and have already developed a BAD HABIT of placing my free leg in front after the turn.  Now I will struggle to undo my problem.

When the lesson was over I felt defeated did a little freestyle.

Video #1 Freestyle



Video #2 Moves Lesson


Getting busy on these Silver Dances

I have been working on these silver dances too long!   Planning to go all in on them until I can test them in the next few months.