Skating on the Planet

[guitarist]

9 hours ago, yuzuangel said:

LOL I think that looks like a success! It's never crossed my mind that this is possible to try lmao

It's not nearly as hard as I thought it would be! All you need is a healthy dose of Complete Lack of Common Sense!

 

And yeah, butterfly pose helps with turnout. I saw this in a ballet YouTube video. It's harder if you're laying on your back, and you have to make sure your back isn't arching. Namely, it has to be as flat as possible. This makes it harder for your knees to touch the floor. I can't quite do it.

 

There's this 40-50 year-old guy at the rink who rehearses his free program every morning (I think he's going to Adult Nationals next week), and he has a really good outside spread eagle, and I'm so jealous 

[Xen]

Hmm...regarding sit spins...I'm not sure how to describe it without using a video, but usually my rinkmate and I actually enter the spin in a much lower position. Even though his entry is a bit more similar to yours-he tries to center via forward scratch first before going down into sit spin. I actually have my skating leg bent a lot more (maybe already at 120 degrees) and try to get to less than 90 within 1 revolution. 

[yuzuangel]

2 hours ago, guitarist said:

And yeah, butterfly pose helps with turnout. I saw this in a ballet YouTube video. It's harder if you're laying on your back, and you have to make sure your back isn't arching. Namely, it has to be as flat as possible. This makes it harder for your knees to touch the floor. I can't quite do it.

 

Oh that's so weird because I can do it lying down with no problem but I can't do it in a sitting position, LOL

[yuzuangel]

2 hours ago, Xen said:

Hmm...regarding sit spins...I'm not sure how to describe it without using a video, but usually my rinkmate and I actually enter the spin in a much lower position. Even though his entry is a bit more similar to yours-he tries to center via forward scratch first before going down into sit spin. I actually have my skating leg bent a lot more (maybe already at 120 degrees) and try to get to less than 90 within 1 revolution. 

Yeah you're right I definitely need to hit the position way earlier. But ugh I still can't do a back arch so it's like somewhat unfathomable to me how to do a sit spin lol. But looking at pictures it seems like other people have their butts slightly higher than their thighs and I somehow drop my butt (although it's probably hard to see but i can feel it?) I wonder if lifting my butt would help and if so, how the hell do you do that in the first place lmao.

 

I did a lot of sit spins today and they're one of the few things where I'm not afraid to fall lmao, so I kind of feel like a little kid doing them (they fall all over the place!) hopefully that helps because kids improve so fast lol.

[yuzuangel]

IM. TRYING. VERY. HARD. TO. LEAVE. THE. GROUND. LOL.

 

 

[yuzuangel]

I've been literally thinking (heh..image training..jk) about sit spins for the last couple days just to understand them (LOL I just don't get the position at all) and I came up with: stick your butt up, lean forward but then look up/straight forward/not down (LOL) but not by moving your head, but by lifting your shoulders? Anyway, I tried it, and fell a lot, but it didn't hurt, because in the sit spin position you're already close to the ground. Must be what it's like to skate as a tiny kid!

 

Still can't spin much in that position, but there's at least a moment or two where I feel like it looks good before the end (and usually when I drop my hips is when I fall or whatever). Looking at the videos I wanna literally push myself down into the position faster, lol, like @Xen said.

 

Also, today my coach told me to do the sal off of a mohawk instead for practice, like @Xen also said before at one point, to stop using the 3-turn momentum to jump. It makes it harder though, but supposed to be practice for jumping off of your edge rather than spinning. I guess it teaches you to control your jump better.

[robin]

It's been around 4 weeks since my surgery and good news is I barely gained any weight even though I only minimally watched what I eat. (Well my mother is denying me my cravings. Sad.) I just lost lots of muscle, especially in my injured left leg, but I've been doing some exercises for my right leg instead and I actually think my right thigh muscles have become stronger and bigger? Once I transistioned from cast to vecoped 2 weeks ago I started with 2-3 sets of 15 squats on just my good leg (going as low as knee height) and slowly increased the load. I'm now doing 4 sets of 25 squats and then 1-2 sets of 5-15 calf raises (doing them after squats when my leg gets shaky from exhaustion is super hard so I can't do many yet.)

I'm also doing some light exercises on my left leg that don't put strain on my ankle but they're not too effective. I find that even when I exercise my left leg, my right one ends up working more because there's virtually no muscle left in my injured leg and my body is trying to compensate. And my knee actually hurts when I lock it because the muscles around it are gone so I am not sure if I should do any exercises at this point. I looked up light knee stabilizing exercises without weight on knees but they're not very effective either. Sighh

I should probably wait till I start physical therapy but seeing my dead left leg drives me mad! It's half the size of my right leg

 

I'm also doing some ab/core/arm/shoulder/back exercises and am currently sore all over my body (even in my upper left thighs/glutes) which is making me super happy. It's been a while

 

The sad part is I haven’t been able to figure out good leg stretches that don’t hurt my left ankle (and don’t put any strain on it.) My muscles are currently super tight 

[yuzuangel]

Aw @robin take it easy, you'll have lots of time to work up muscle when it gets better

[robin]

48 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Aw @robin take it easy, you'll have lots of time to work up muscle when it gets better

 

Yeah... But I have a lot of time and motivation right now and it should be fine as long as I’m careful 

[yuzuangel]

someone at my rink told me that she was really impressed that i work so hard...hehe hehe cries

[dotsquare]

Hey guys, I've got a super rookie question that I'm sure you all can help me with  

 

I started group lessons a week and a half ago and so far I can manage something that looks like stroking and forward swizzles. I also managed to do a few backward swizzles in succession today! 

 

My main problem right now is one foot glides  Do you guys have any tips and tricks? I've tried bending my knees and shifting my weight. I can hold a one foot glide on my right foot for 1-2 metres but my left foot glides are non existent. Sometimes my one foot glides veer to the left which makes me think I'm not distributing my weight properly. 

 

Do I just need a ton more practice? How long did it take for you guys to master one foot skating? I would love to know! 

[guitarist]

5 hours ago, dotsquare said:

Hey guys, I've got a super rookie question that I'm sure you all can help me with  

 

I started group lessons a week and a half ago and so far I can manage something that looks like stroking and forward swizzles. I also managed to do a few backward swizzles in succession today! 

 

My main problem right now is one foot glides  Do you guys have any tips and tricks? I've tried bending my knees and shifting my weight. I can hold a one foot glide on my right foot for 1-2 metres but my left foot glides are non existent. Sometimes my one foot glides veer to the left which makes me think I'm not distributing my weight properly. 

 

Do I just need a ton more practice? How long did it take for you guys to master one foot skating? I would love to know! 

The glides that veer to the left, are those on your right foot? If so, what you're probably doing is leaning a little bit into your inside edge. 

It's a bit hard to tell what you're doing wrong without more details, but a few things come to mind:

- How are you starting the glide? From stroking? If so, have you tried doing [swizzles -> two foot glide -> lift one foot] instead? Sometimes stroking makes it a little harder for beginners because if you don't do a strong push, there's not enough force/speed to actually glide. 

- When you're gliding on two feet, bring them closer together. I see a lot of beginners doing two foot glides with their feet too far apart, forming a slight /\ with their legs, so when they lift one foot from the ice, they can't balance because the skating foot is not in line with their center of gravity.

 

I think right now the best thing you can do is just practice a lot, work on the swizzles and stroking so you can get enough speed for the glide. 

 

I'm quite far from mastering a one foot skating, though This is the kind of thing that is measured in progress. Like, every week I can hold my edges a little bit longer,  or, I'll learn a new kind of turn. But to answer your question, to get beginner level one-foot glides (on a flat, and for short distances), maybe 2-3 weeks. They weren't particularly great, though, my posture was awful. Now it's less awful. But the gliding improved haha.

 

[dotsquare]

1 hour ago, guitarist said:

The glides that veer to the left, are those on your right foot? If so, what you're probably doing is leaning a little bit into your inside edge. 

It's a bit hard to tell what you're doing wrong without more details, but a few things come to mind:

- How are you starting the glide? From stroking? If so, have you tried doing [swizzles -> two foot glide -> lift one foot] instead? Sometimes stroking makes it a little harder for beginners because if you don't do a strong push, there's not enough force/speed to actually glide. 

- When you're gliding on two feet, bring them closer together. I see a lot of beginners doing two foot glides with their feet too far apart, forming a slight /\ with their legs, so when they lift one foot from the ice, they can't balance because the skating foot is not in line with their center of gravity.

 

I think right now the best thing you can do is just practice a lot, work on the swizzles and stroking so you can get enough speed for the glide. 

 

I'm quite far from mastering a one foot skating, though This is the kind of thing that is measured in progress. Like, every week I can hold my edges a little bit longer,  or, I'll learn a new kind of turn. But to answer your question, to get beginner level one-foot glides (on a flat, and for short distances), maybe 2-3 weeks. They weren't particularly great, though, my posture was awful. Now it's less awful. But the gliding improved haha.

 

 

Thank you for all that advice  Yes, I have been stroking into one foot glides! I haven't tried swizzling into one or payed attention to how close my feet are together- maybe that's the problem! 

 

I'll keep practicing  Thanks! 

[yuzuangel]

2 hours ago, dotsquare said:

 

Thank you for all that advice  Yes, I have been stroking into one foot glides! I haven't tried swizzling into one or payed attention to how close my feet are together- maybe that's the problem! 

 

I'll keep practicing  Thanks! 

What boots do you use? I had that problem in the beginning and it was bc my blade was not centered.

[dotsquare]

57 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

What boots do you use? I had that problem in the beginning and it was bc my blade was not centered.

 

I'm still using rentals  I promised myself I'd only get my own boots once I got close to starting crossovers but I'm so tempted to get some now