Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Sun Valley Adult Skating Week

I will post all the videos as they come in and get edited.  This first video is from Tuesday morning patch class (compulsory figures) with Michele Monnier.  I am skating in my "old boots" with my patch blades .. Silver Test ... no toe pick ... but the hollow isn't correct.  They are sharpened right now with a 7/16 ROH (like my free style blades... too much bite) ... So I am not falling off the blades, but I am not getting enough momentum to get around comfortably.



I also took a private lesson on Tuesday with Michele.  It went something like this:

The video below was my personal favorite this week.  Anita Hartshorn gave a clinic on moves in the field.  We were split into groups: No test - through Bronze went with Frank and Silver and up went with Anita.  We focused on Power Circles beginning with the best preparatory exercise ... pump and chasse with no crossover.  Learning to stay low in the knees or "stay loaded" is the key to creating the proper stroke.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION FROM ANITA

"On the front crossover you don't STEP WIDE...it is the FREE LEG that come around wide - like moving on the furthest spectrum of the rainbow not the middle spectrum."




Friday's Coffee Club with Ryan Bradley was all about Three Turns.  Another staple of figure skating and something we all need more work on doing properly!




The next videos are from  the 2nd of two private pairs lessons I took with Frank Sweiding.  Darn it.. my camera was off for lesson number one when we did warm up patterns and a pivot spiral.  Today's lesson was on a few connecting moves he likes to use when testing his pairs students.  Video 2 is from another camera inside the rink.




Here's a very short clip of my friends and I on beautiful Sun Valley ice.



My final video is my ice dancing lesson with Chris Obzansky.  I'm working on the Bronze Ice Dances and this lesson covered the Willow Waltz and the Ten Fox (but the Ten Fox isn't filmed) Chris was a fantastic instructor.  I wish he lived closer to my home rink.


Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Summertime Skating Woes

Summer is usually difficult for adult skaters.  Where I live we have limited public ice that is not good for freestyle skating.  I try to hit 1-2 free style sessions a week - when I am home.  This year it seems I have been off the ice much more.

So far I have only skated 2 times since July 7.  I've just returned from another 9 days away. As you can imagine, most of the session was spent trying to "feel the ice" again.


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.