Skating on the Planet

[Murieleirum]

On 1/14/2019 at 2:06 PM, shanshani said:

Me reading about all you people jumping meanwhile I just started learning backwards crossovers

 

Hey, I started jumps and my backwards crossovers still suck  jumping is just a matter of courage really, but the hard thing in skating, for me at least, is to do things cleanly and with a good technique, meaning executing even a simple step (like crossovers) in a beautiful way. So don't you worry about jumps for now. Even though you will probably start jumping waltz jump in less time than you think. 

[yuzuangel]

3 hours ago, Murieleirum said:

 

Hey, I started jumps and my backwards crossovers still suck  jumping is just a matter of courage really, but the hard thing in skating, for me at least, is to do things cleanly and with a good technique, meaning executing even a simple step (like crossovers) in a beautiful way. So don't you worry about jumps for now. Even though you will probably start jumping waltz jump in less time than you think. 

Yeah that's the hard thing about skating. Getting beautiful crossovers with good rhythm and speed might actually take years. But they're like the first thing(s) you learn in figure skating class.  They're also the worst things to fall on tbh.

[Murieleirum]

So today I didn't jump a single salchow lol, but I learned how to do pistol pose! 

(it /is/ supposed to scratch a lot with the tail of the extended leg, right?)

[utsukushii3A]

My Salchow is now fairly consistent (albeit imperfect), and my cross rolls have gotten much better.

 

My knee bend is getting better but is still pretty bad. 

 

Once again, I didn't give the slightest thought to my skates the whole time. I'm so glad I toughed it out until I could get good skates and didn't give up.

[Xen]

Question for all ye people in Edeas.

 

Recently during lessons for back scratch spins, I told my coach that sometimes when I force my weight to shift to the front of my boot (balls of feet region) it feels like I'm trying to go on tip toes. But it also feels like my right heel is moving up, rather than just a straight forward shift in weight. This isn't quite the case for my left foot. So she asked me why I ended up with Risports and not edeas. And actually said maybe I should re-considers Edeas.

 

Well truth be told, when I went to my awesome skate technician to change boots about a year ago, he also grabbed a pair of edeas for me to try. Think it was either concerto or chorus. And even after standing, walking around and sitting for 30 mins, I could not adjust to them. He said it was the first time he's met someone who disliked Edeas. It felt like the boots were out for my arches, and the area right under my big toe (the bone joint) felt squeezed the entire time. Granted, that might be normal breaking in process, but I have never felt that with Risports-even when trying out a pair that was 1 size small for me!

 

Now that coach has mentioned it, I'm curious if I should switch back to Edeas. I've heard that actually the higher level boots may be more comfortable than the lower level ones- so are Ice Flys or Pianos actually easier to break in than Concertos or Chorus boots? Is the pinching at the big toe-footpad joint and arches normal or abnormal?

 

Thanks!

 

 

[Murieleirum]

5 hours ago, Xen said:

It felt like the boots were out for my arches, and the area right under my big toe (the bone joint) felt squeezed the entire time. Granted, that might be normal breaking in process

 

I feel the same thing with my Edea skates, which are not high level boots. My feet are particularily 'large' at the arch area and it's been a hassle. Yesterday I was starting loop practice but when I go in my deep edges, you cannot imagine how much my bones presses against the boot! 

[robin]

On 1/21/2019 at 5:16 AM, Xen said:

Question for all ye people in Edeas.

 

Recently during lessons for back scratch spins, I told my coach that sometimes when I force my weight to shift to the front of my boot (balls of feet region) it feels like I'm trying to go on tip toes. But it also feels like my right heel is moving up, rather than just a straight forward shift in weight. This isn't quite the case for my left foot. So she asked me why I ended up with Risports and not edeas. And actually said maybe I should re-considers Edeas.

 

Well truth be told, when I went to my awesome skate technician to change boots about a year ago, he also grabbed a pair of edeas for me to try. Think it was either concerto or chorus. And even after standing, walking around and sitting for 30 mins, I could not adjust to them. He said it was the first time he's met someone who disliked Edeas. It felt like the boots were out for my arches, and the area right under my big toe (the bone joint) felt squeezed the entire time. Granted, that might be normal breaking in process, but I have never felt that with Risports-even when trying out a pair that was 1 size small for me!

 

Now that coach has mentioned it, I'm curious if I should switch back to Edeas. I've heard that actually the higher level boots may be more comfortable than the lower level ones- so are Ice Flys or Pianos actually easier to break in than Concertos or Chorus boots? Is the pinching at the big toe-footpad joint and arches normal or abnormal?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

I am wearing Chorus boots and never tried on the higher level Edeas so I don't have a complete opinion but with Edeas in general it is said that they don't have much of a breaking in period. And I can confirm, my boots have gotten a teeny bit looser but there's no substaintial difference to how they were in the beginning. So if you hated the fit in the store, it won't change much. I have heard that ice flys and pianos have a different fit tho (a little tighter around the heel, which is my problem with the choruses... horrible heel slipping. urgh. it's a nightmare) so it might be worth giving those a try.

 

Also noteworthy is that you can heat punch Edeas, so if there's a particular region that's too tight you can widen that part locally. I think the higher level ones are a bit harder to do at home but I fixed some of my boot issues myself with a hairdryer (for lack of accessibility of an awesome skate tech)

[utsukushii3A]

On 1/20/2019 at 11:16 PM, Xen said:

Question for all ye people in Edeas.

 

Recently during lessons for back scratch spins, I told my coach that sometimes when I force my weight to shift to the front of my boot (balls of feet region) it feels like I'm trying to go on tip toes. But it also feels like my right heel is moving up, rather than just a straight forward shift in weight. This isn't quite the case for my left foot. So she asked me why I ended up with Risports and not edeas. And actually said maybe I should re-considers Edeas.

 

Well truth be told, when I went to my awesome skate technician to change boots about a year ago, he also grabbed a pair of edeas for me to try. Think it was either concerto or chorus. And even after standing, walking around and sitting for 30 mins, I could not adjust to them. He said it was the first time he's met someone who disliked Edeas. It felt like the boots were out for my arches, and the area right under my big toe (the bone joint) felt squeezed the entire time. Granted, that might be normal breaking in process, but I have never felt that with Risports-even when trying out a pair that was 1 size small for me!

 

Now that coach has mentioned it, I'm curious if I should switch back to Edeas. I've heard that actually the higher level boots may be more comfortable than the lower level ones- so are Ice Flys or Pianos actually easier to break in than Concertos or Chorus boots? Is the pinching at the big toe-footpad joint and arches normal or abnormal?

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

That could be a blade alignment problem.

 

I don't know if big toe pinching can be normal in some cases, but I had that when I tried on a pair of stock Jacksons just to check the fit. They were too narrow. I ended up getting them in the same size but a wide width, and nothing pinched anywhere.

[Xen]

@robin@utsukushii3A and @Murieleirum:

Thanks for the insight! Hmm...yeah I don't know about punching out at the skate shop since my tech is about a good 4 hour flight away. XD Maybe I should look into the ice flys? I'll go bug him, since my boots are nearing year 2 and at some point, I might want to change just in case. Risports are pretty sturdy though, so they might last more. But it does feel like there is heel slippage.

So, has anyone here ever actually broken/worn down their boots before? Other than visual cues, are there other indications?

I've never been able to visibly break down boots before, my boots almost always look 75% worn in, even after a year and half. o_O

 

[robin]

2 hours ago, Xen said:

@robin@utsukushii3A and @Murieleirum:

Thanks for the insight! Hmm...yeah I don't know about punching out at the skate shop since my tech is about a good 4 hour flight away. XD Maybe I should look into the ice flys? I'll go bug him, since my boots are nearing year 2 and at some point, I might want to change just in case. Risports are pretty sturdy though, so they might last more. But it does feel like there is heel slippage.

So, has anyone here ever actually broken/worn down their boots before? Other than visual cues, are there other indications?

I've never been able to visibly break down boots before, my boots almost always look 75% worn in, even after a year and half. o_O

 

 

Well I wore down my Jackson Artistes which are low level skates so maybe this wouldn’t apply to your Risports but...

 

There were visual clues as well but I wasn’t yet able to pick up on them for lack of experience lol so it took me a while to get the hint. It just became impossible to tie the laces tight enough without causing pain in my whole foot, since the padding was all worn down. It never really gave me any support anymore. I had to go back to adjust the laces all the time, making it tighter at times, when it felt like I couldn’t even lean into my edges anymore, and looser at others bc the pain became too much. 

 

[utsukushii3A]

On 1/22/2019 at 11:44 PM, Xen said:

@robin@utsukushii3A and @Murieleirum:

Thanks for the insight! Hmm...yeah I don't know about punching out at the skate shop since my tech is about a good 4 hour flight away. XD Maybe I should look into the ice flys? I'll go bug him, since my boots are nearing year 2 and at some point, I might want to change just in case. Risports are pretty sturdy though, so they might last more. But it does feel like there is heel slippage.

So, has anyone here ever actually broken/worn down their boots before? Other than visual cues, are there other indications?

I've never been able to visibly break down boots before, my boots almost always look 75% worn in, even after a year and half. o_O

 

 

You're welcome!

 

Pain, significant slowing of progress, and losing skills can be signs of boots breaking down (or just not being a high enough level).

[shanshani]

I got my blades adjusted and omggg it's so much better. Why didn't I get this done sooner? I can glide for way longer now, everything is easier and just so much better.

 

I got my t-stop on the first try today! Why do you learn it after snowplow? It seems way easier. I also learned...uh...idk how to describe it other than a mini-spread eagle. I'm rubbish at them (my on-ice turn out is...bad, which is why I think my coach is having me do them), but I did sort of do it successfully once or twice. My on-land turn out isn't that bad so hopefully I'll get better at them quickly. I wanna do a spread eagle!

 

Cross over status:

forward ccw: pretty good

forward cw: okay

backward ccw: getting there

backward cw: I need to actually practice this 

[yuzuangel]

5 hours ago, shanshani said:

Cross over status:

forward ccw: pretty good

forward cw: okay

backward ccw: getting there

backward cw: I need to actually practice this 

Surprisingly my backward CW crossovers which were usually the worst are now much better and my weakest ones are now the forward CW crossovers 

My coach said my crossovers are the weakest of all the elements in the pre-bronze MitF test (something Americans take lol)

[shanshani]

1 hour ago, yuzuangel said:

Surprisingly my backward CW crossovers which were usually the worst are now much better and my weakest ones are now the forward CW crossovers 

My coach said my crossovers are the weakest of all the elements in the pre-bronze MitF test (something Americans take lol)

Haha, well forward crossovers are scarier than backwards crossovers. Even though I haven’t fallen on a forward crossover since I officially started learning them, I still have to give myself a bit of a pep talk before practicing them  my cw ones got way better just because of the blade adjustment though, so that’s nice.

 

Now that I think about it, I haven’t actually practiced backwards crossovers much at all. I had to take the week off because my boots were in the shop/I had knee pain anyway, and I didn’t practice much the previous week also because of  the knee pain, and that basically covers the entire time period since my coach started me on them. Well hopefully I can practice more now since fixing the blade issue should help with the knee issue.

 

Are you going to test? Is pre-bronze the test you do after going through the basic skills courses? I might move back to the US one day so I’m curious about how all that is structured.

[guitarist]

10 minutes ago, shanshani said:

Haha, well forward crossovers are scarier than backwards crossovers. Even though I haven’t fallen on a forward crossover since I officially started learning them, I still have to give myself a bit of a pep talk before practicing them  my cw ones got way better just because of the blade adjustment though, so that’s nice.

 

Now that I think about it, I haven’t actually practiced backwards crossovers much at all. I had to take the week off because my boots were in the shop/I had knee pain anyway, and I didn’t practice much the previous week also because of  the knee pain, and that basically covers the entire time period since my coach started me on them. Well hopefully I can practice more now since fixing the blade issue should help with the knee issue.

 

Are you going to test? Is pre-bronze the test you do after going through the basic skills courses? I might move back to the US one day so I’m curious about how all that is structured.

Yes, pre-bronze is the first test you take at the adult level. Iirc, the skills tested are:

- Forward stroking around the rink, with crossovers at the corners

- Crossovers in a figure 8 pattern

- Edges on a line

- Spirals (on a flat, if you want)

- Waltz eight

 

I'm working on it too, but I'm definitely not there yet. I haven't been practicing as much, and my back CW crossovers are pathetic hahaha.