Skating on the Planet

[guitarist]

19 hours ago, robin said:

 

I got a knock off edea one but I wasn’t aware I was buying a fake one off the internet so don’t judge lol

 

hmmmm it didn’t damage my parent’s granite floor but my own old linoleum floor got some scratches. Depends on your floor and the density of its material in relation to the plastic of the spinner 

Ah, better not risk it, then. I ordered one that won't scratch the floor, it's metal and it has a base, so it works on any kind of surface. A little pricier, but I don't have much of a choice  I also got one of those strap things for increasing leg flexibility, not that it'll help much...

 

Today's progress on the Ina Bauer: went from stopping completely when entering the position to being able to glide slowly for 2-3 seconds. Fell down when trying to go faster, but at least no one was looking  

Now, progress on my 3-turns: .........nothing to see here...... 

But my left outside edge is slowly improving. Sort of.

 

Anyway, this is the third day this week I do a 2.5 hr morning session, and... my legs are SO sore. But if there's something I learned from this thread, it's that if you're not in pain you're doing it wrong 

[Xen]

Today's practice with coach: I didn't know there was a thing called straight backward gliding. What is this thing?! How do you skate on flat edges? Or nearly flat edges?

Coach: for the next couple weeks, let's just get your gliding basics fixed. It's a bit embarassing for your level. You should be using your knee bend more, not just pure leg strength.

Me:

 

But on the other hand, I can already tell there's a slight speed pickup. Now to get the control to the level where the speed pick up isn't going to freak me out (and accidentally run over my coach), and work out a bit to get more thigh strength, because my thighs tend to feel exhausted the day after 2-3 hour sessions.

[yuzuangel]

I had a lesson today and I wanted to show my coach my one foot spin, but I couldn't get into any spin at all. I think I wasted about half the time trying to do it before giving up and moving onto something else and just declaring that it was not the right time to do a spin lol 

 

And then right after my lesson I was able to do good spins  and in fact I think my spins feel really different now, like the edge going into it feels strong and powerful, and I feel a lot of snap on the 3turn. I think one issue was that I was trying to do it slowly in a small confined space during my lesson like I usually do, but afterwards I could skate faster and have more space to do it. Also I think I am just not a tough competitor, and everything I do is much worse when someone is watching or recording, so good thing that door has long closed at my age 

 

(I still need to figure out a way to get my leg to turn out while entering the spin, though. I mean I know I need to turn it out...and I know how to turn out my foot...I just can't do it )

 

So we did work on my waltz jump instead, and yesterday I felt like I got maybe 3-4 waltz jumps that felt good. Today I think they have gotten more consistent, and I probably did like 20-30 good waltz jumps, and although they're probably not any bigger, they are basically effortless now. I'm sure there's still stuff to fix, but at least I get the basic timing and feeling of the jump. I don't go into it with very much speed so there's definitely improvement to be made there. My coach had to tell me to count to force myself to jump on time instead of waiting for a long, long time on the forward edge until I feel comfortable, lol. And still, I'd be like "onetwothree foouuuuuurrrr fiveeeeeeeeeeeeeee *jump*" 

I think after another week of doing waltz jumps I'll move on to other jumps, probably starting with the salchow. But I also want to dedicate some time to doing basic skating stuff like edges, turns, etc. 

[Xen]

25 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

I had a lesson today and I wanted to show my coach my one foot spin, but I couldn't get into any spin at all. I think I wasted about half the time trying to do it before giving up and moving onto something else and just declaring that it was not the right time to do a spin lol 

 

And then right after my lesson I was able to do good spins  and in fact I think my spins feel really different now, like the edge going into it feels strong and powerful, and I feel a lot of snap on the 3turn. I think one issue was that I was trying to do it slowly in a small confined space during my lesson like I usually do, but afterwards I could skate faster and have more space to do it. Also I think I am just not a tough competitor, and everything I do is much worse when someone is watching or recording, so good thing that door has long closed at my age 

 

(I still need to figure out a way to get my leg to turn out while entering the spin, though. I mean I know I need to turn it out...and I know how to turn out my foot...I just can't do it )

 

So we did work on my waltz jump instead, and yesterday I felt like I got maybe 3-4 waltz jumps that felt good. Today I think they have gotten more consistent, and I probably did like 20-30 good waltz jumps, and although they're probably not any bigger, they are basically effortless now. I'm sure there's still stuff to fix, but at least I get the basic timing and feeling of the jump. I don't go into it with very much speed so there's definitely improvement to be made there. My coach had to tell me to count to force myself to jump on time instead of waiting for a long, long time on the forward edge until I feel comfortable, lol. And still, I'd be like "onetwothree foouuuuuurrrr fiveeeeeeeeeeeeeee *jump*" 

I think after another week of doing waltz jumps I'll move on to other jumps, probably starting with the salchow. But I also want to dedicate some time to doing basic skating stuff like edges, turns, etc. 

1) Think about forming a V shape- arms at around 120-150 degrees rather than straight up 180 degrees apart, and turning your free leg out but to the side and slightly in front instead of just at the side. It helps.

2) Waltz jumps- look at Yuzu's launch for his axels. Notice how there is a slight point where he has a visible "spring up" on his ball of foot to knee. It's quick transfer, but if you watch gifs, or slo-mo, you'll notice it. =)

[yuzuangel]

1 minute ago, Xen said:

2) Waltz jumps- look at Yuzu's launch for his axels. Notice how there is a slight point where he has a visible "spring up" on his ball of foot to knee. It's quick transfer, but if you watch gifs, or slo-mo, you'll notice it. =)

Oh, interesting! 

 

Here's a gif:

 

 

You mean when he bends and then snaps up (sorta)?

[yuzuangel]

On 3/20/2018 at 2:24 PM, robin said:

 

I got a knock off edea one but I wasn’t aware I was buying a fake one off the internet so don’t judge lol

 

hmmmm it didn’t damage my parent’s granite floor but my own old linoleum floor got some scratches. Depends on your floor and the density of its material in relation to the plastic of the spinner 

Off ice spinners sound like fun! Your scratch spin on the spinner looks really good, like a proper scratch spin haha. I haven't really tried the edea spinner much but I don't know how to use it, seems like learning how to spin all over again lool. Also, my apartment is not great for doing one foot spins, because if I reach out with my foot I will kick something. 

[Xen]

5 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Oh, interesting! 

 

Here's a gif:

 

 

You mean when he bends and then snaps up (sorta)?

Yep....that little bend and snap. Springy....

As for spinners- I'm from the camp of can't do my spins on the spinners, but I can spin on ice. So >_>

[yuzuangel]

1 minute ago, Xen said:

Yep....that little bend and snap. Springy....

As for spinners- I'm from the camp of can't do my spins on the spinners, but I can spin on ice. So >_>

I know, it feels like learning to spin all over again, LOL. But I would love to do it if for no other reason than spinning is fun...and sometimes you have no ice...

[robin]

2 hours ago, Xen said:

 

2) Waltz jumps- look at Yuzu's launch for his axels. Notice how there is a slight point where he has a visible "spring up" on his ball of foot to knee. It's quick transfer, but if you watch gifs, or slo-mo, you'll notice it. =)

But isn’t that weight transfer to the ball of his foot bc he takes off from his edge unlike most people? I wonder if it makes sense to use him as an example for waltz jumps 

[yuzuangel]

5 minutes ago, robin said:

But isn’t that weight transfer to the ball of his foot bc he takes off from his edge unlike most people? I wonder if it makes sense to use him as an example for waltz jumps 

I think most people take off from edges in a waltz jump, no? TBF I don't really know what a skid-axel is technique-wise...but I've only seen it with people doing a 2A and above. But I think most ladies don't do a skid-2A (personally I think skid-axels are uglier)

[yuzuangel]

Ok here's a video of Javi and Pchiddy's axels in suuuper slow mo:

 

 

Seems like they turn 90 degrees on their blade before jumping. I think I only see people doing this with 3As...probably because 3As are harder? I think there's a girl in my rink who does this on a 2A...you can hear a loud scraping noise before the jump. Anyway, I think we definitely shouldn't do this with waltz jumps though.

[Xen]

3 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

I think most people take off from edges in a waltz jump, no? TBF I don't really know what a skid-axel is technique-wise...but I've only seen it with people doing a 2A and above. But I think most ladies don't do a skid-2A (personally I think skid-axels are uglier)

Skid axel is a bit...wow how to explain it without a video.

I think the basics is that you do something like a hockey like stop from a hockey glide. Supposedly the best ones are a constant speed from glide to skid/stop to jump, that gives the best lift. A decreasing speed one is okay, but you won't get the lift, and an increasing speed skid tends to create problems.

[robin]

 

7 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Ok here's a video of Javi and Pchiddy's axels in suuuper slow mo:

 

 

Seems like they turn 90 degrees on their blade before jumping. I think I only see people doing this with 3As...probably because 3As are harder? I think there's a girl in my rink who does this on a 2A...you can hear a loud scraping noise before the jump. Anyway, I think we definitely shouldn't do this with waltz jumps though.

 

Well you can see that they’re taking off from the toe pick in the end whereas Yuzu takes off from the full edge 

 

Yeah in any case, if we had as much prerotation as they have here we wouldn’t rotate in the air at all in a waltz jump lol

 

eta: I’m probably not seeing right tho

[yuzuangel]

3 minutes ago, robin said:

 

 

Well you can see that they’re taking off from the toe pick in the end whereas Yuzu takes off from the full edge 

 

Yeah in any case, if we had as much prerotation as they have here we wouldn’t rotate in the air at all in a waltz jump lol

Yuzu absolutely takes off from a toepick too, in fact if you look at the gif he actually prerotates on his toepick quite a lot before lifting into the air. He just doesn't "skid" so I guess the terms edge takeoff and skid takeoff are a bit misleading. He lifts onto his toepick from a clean edge rather than a skid is more accurate I guess...

 

I don't think you can do an axel or actually any jump without "taking off" from your toepick? But maybe we're talking about different things here..

[Xen]

Regarding skid axels, closest I can think of is the video here: for Javi's, you can see the entire/majority of blade being pressed and used to halt and launch into the jump.

Yuzu does have a slight skid when he uses the counter entry, but not a noticeable skid if he uses a different entry.  I hear there are benefits with the skid, that being when well done, it's easier to control the edge when going in for axels at higher entry speeds.

@asahi: could you give us some insights on this?