Skating on the Planet

[anski]

I missed a lot of classes because I was travelling a lot this month (my fault for being lazy and booking weekend classes instead of after work classes sigh) but I have been making use of free ice and I feel like I have improved a lot? My posture and edges and much nicer and I´m getting quicker with turns and backwards skating  

[yuzuangel]

12 hours ago, anski said:

I missed a lot of classes because I was travelling a lot this month (my fault for being lazy and booking weekend classes instead of after work classes sigh) but I have been making use of free ice and I feel like I have improved a lot? My posture and edges and much nicer and I´m getting quicker with turns and backwards skating  

Yay! Congrats!! Once you build up the most important muscles for skating you will get more comfortable with all that 

[anski]

2 hours ago, yuzuangel said:

Yay! Congrats!! Once you build up the most important muscles for skating you will get more comfortable with all that 

Def! I’m kind of cautious not because I’m afraid of falling but because I’d be mortified if I showed up in the office with a broken leg lmao but still I can see improvement and I’m so comfortable now trying new stuff  

[yuzuangel]

On 6/16/2019 at 1:22 PM, shanshani said:

Yeah, is it not called that when you step RBO to LFO? *googles* huh apparently there's some discrepancy in terminology and “mohawk” and “choctaw” officially only applies if the feet cross? Didn't know that, I thought it was just a description of which edges were involved in the step. Uh oh, I don't know if my forward inside open mohawks really fit that description. Looks like I have to practice those more too 

Haha tbh I just never thought of them in terms of definitions xD I guess that turn from back outside to forward outside was just a "turn forward" but you're right, it's actually officially a back mohawk.

[shanshani]

Did some waltz-waltz sequences last session. Jumping is fun! For some reason I find the sequence easier than the 3 turn-step forward entrance my coach is making me do. Probably because I'm always tempted to rush that entrance haha.

 

My coach is also making me do some mohawk-crossover sequence, which I think is called a drunken sailor (lol) which is apparently from freestyle 3 in the USFS curriculum, which sounds about right because I cannot figure out how to do it. I can hold the edge out of my mohawk just fine, but then I need to shift my weight over the blade to change from BI to BO and step over with my other foot? (also the day in which I finally gather enough courage to do an inside 3 turn off the wall approaches...very slowly. But I can tell it's actually approaching.)

[shanshani]

I finally did an inside 3 turn off the wall! This nightmare element has been bring me down for months. I'd been struggling with it on my own, but then I had a lesson yesterday and my coach was like "okay first hold the inside edge for a bit, then turn" and it was easy and now I have no idea why it ever gave me so much trouble.

 

Bad news is I think I gave myself a mild sprain or something from jumping too much. How does someone like Yuzu jump quads all day when my ankle starts being upset at me after two weeks for jumping waltzes? I take back my offer of my ankle tendon and ligaments to Yuzu--they are clearly not made to sustain so much jumping.

[yuzuangel]

On 6/28/2019 at 4:54 AM, shanshani said:

Did some waltz-waltz sequences last session. Jumping is fun! For some reason I find the sequence easier than the 3 turn-step forward entrance my coach is making me do. Probably because I'm always tempted to rush that entrance haha.

 

My coach is also making me do some mohawk-crossover sequence, which I think is called a drunken sailor (lol) which is apparently from freestyle 3 in the USFS curriculum, which sounds about right because I cannot figure out how to do it. I can hold the edge out of my mohawk just fine, but then I need to shift my weight over the blade to change from BI to BO and step over with my other foot? (also the day in which I finally gather enough courage to do an inside 3 turn off the wall approaches...very slowly. But I can tell it's actually approaching.)

Ooh I remember drunken sailor! I think someone showed that too me once but I never remembered it (I'm really bad at remembering steps or choreo) but it looked cool. I do remember it was quite complicated/difficult!

On 7/8/2019 at 4:24 AM, shanshani said:

I finally did an inside 3 turn off the wall! This nightmare element has been bring me down for months. I'd been struggling with it on my own, but then I had a lesson yesterday and my coach was like "okay first hold the inside edge for a bit, then turn" and it was easy and now I have no idea why it ever gave me so much trouble.

 

Bad news is I think I gave myself a mild sprain or something from jumping too much. How does someone like Yuzu jump quads all day when my ankle starts being upset at me after two weeks for jumping waltzes? I take back my offer of my ankle tendon and ligaments to Yuzu--they are clearly not made to sustain so much jumping.

Nice, congrats on the 3turn! Sucks about the ankle though did you fall on it? 

[Murieleirum]

How do you guys skate in july, every rink in my region is closed until september 

[shanshani]

53 minutes ago, yuzuangel said:

Ooh I remember drunken sailor! I think someone showed that too me once but I never remembered it (I'm really bad at remembering steps or choreo) but it looked cool. I do remember it was quite complicated/difficult!

Nice, congrats on the 3turn! Sucks about the ankle though did you fall on it? 

No, I just over trained, I think. It's mostly better now, but I have to be careful on how much I jump. Also I have to be careful about jumping only after I've warmed up/gotten my joints loose. Landing on a stiff ankle seems to aggravate it.

 

Inside 3 turn improves by the day! (Well, RFI anyway, LFI still sucks). Still can't do a drunken sailor though. One problem is that I can't figure how to exit a mohawk on a flatter edge. 

 

6 minutes ago, Murieleirum said:

How do you guys skate in july, every rink in my region is closed until september 

 

The place I live is hot all year so they may as well keep the rinks open in during the summer 

[yuzuangel]

1 hour ago, Murieleirum said:

How do you guys skate in july, every rink in my region is closed until september 

Argh, that sucks. We have an indoor rink around here but it's sooo crowded in the summer. There are upwards of 30 skaters including fast kids and skaters doing triples and coaches using harnesses and slow grandmas all skating at once in different directions. And not to mention the ice condition is horrible, so soft with lots of big dents and holes and track marks despite being resurfaced every hour or so. It's so crowded that you need to sign up for sessions in advance, sometimes weeks in advance. But it exists...

[yuzuangel]

So I've been trying to reduce the prerotation on my flip for a while. Since I don't film often (too many skaters and also I don't like filming LOL) I infer what the prerotation is by looking at my pick marking on the ice. If it's like a little triangle, then that means there was PR (around 180 degrees). If the pick marking is just a straight pick marking with no extras (usually in this case I can even see the grooves of the picks) then there's less PR, around 90.

 

Anyway, I noticed that if I pick a bit higher, then there's less prerotation. But I don't wanna pick higher I think I should bend my knees more to get that same force into the ice on my pick without having to mule kick. not sure if I pick *that high* but I think you're supposed to pick like 2 inches off the ice or something? Like if you watch Yuzu's flips or lutzes he picks so low and gently it's so satisfying. 

[shanshani]

1 hour ago, yuzuangel said:

Argh, that sucks. We have an indoor rink around here but it's sooo crowded in the summer. There are upwards of 30 skaters including fast kids and skaters doing triples and coaches using harnesses and slow grandmas all skating at once in different directions. And not to mention the ice condition is horrible, so soft with lots of big dents and holes and track marks despite being resurfaced every hour or so. It's so crowded that you need to sign up for sessions in advance, sometimes weeks in advance. But it exists...

Yeah, the trade off is it’s SUPER crowded. I skate in a tiny mall rink and tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if there were as many as 80 skaters on the ice at any given moment during peak hours. Fortunately the high level jumpers tend to skip those times, but I had to move my lesson time to a peak hour and I have maybe enough space to practice a small waltz jump with no entry. I’ve really been neglecting backwards edge work because I have to keep stopping because of the high chances of running into someone since I don’t have 360 vision. Not to mention when center ice isn’t being used for lessons, rec skaters with very poor control feel the need to skate through center ice where people are practicing elements.  Half of your brain space is being used on monitoring other people to avoid collisions, so it’s hard to focus on practicing in those conditions.

 

1 hour ago, yuzuangel said:

So I've been trying to reduce the prerotation on my flip for a while. Since I don't film often (too many skaters and also I don't like filming LOL) I infer what the prerotation is by looking at my pick marking on the ice. If it's like a little triangle, then that means there was PR (around 180 degrees). If the pick marking is just a straight pick marking with no extras (usually in this case I can even see the grooves of the picks) then there's less PR, around 90.

 

Anyway, I noticed that if I pick a bit higher, then there's less prerotation. But I don't wanna pick higher I think I should bend my knees more to get that same force into the ice on my pick without having to mule kick. not sure if I pick *that high* but I think you're supposed to pick like 2 inches off the ice or something? Like if you watch Yuzu's flips or lutzes he picks so low and gently it's so satisfying. 

I obviously have no advice since I’m only working on half flips (current status: lol how do toe jumps work, I don’t get the part where I jump after picking into the ice), but good luck! I also feel like I’m extra cognizant of certain jump qualities because of Yuzu. Sort of relatedly, I was watching a video on how to do a flip and the instructor specifically said to pick only with the toe and not to let the rest of the blade touch the ice, because getting on the rest of the blade would make the jump more like a loop. Pretty sure the video was made before the blade-picking issue got attention, so that was interesting.

[yuzuangel]

4 hours ago, shanshani said:

Yeah, the trade off is it’s SUPER crowded. I skate in a tiny mall rink and tbh I wouldn’t be surprised if there were as many as 80 skaters on the ice at any given moment during peak hours. Fortunately the high level jumpers tend to skip those times, but I had to move my lesson time to a peak hour and I have maybe enough space to practice a small waltz jump with no entry. I’ve really been neglecting backwards edge work because I have to keep stopping because of the high chances of running into someone since I don’t have 360 vision. Not to mention when center ice isn’t being used for lessons, rec skaters with very poor control feel the need to skate through center ice where people are practicing elements.  Half of your brain space is being used on monitoring other people to avoid collisions, so it’s hard to focus on practicing in those conditions.

 

Ooh that sounds worse actually, if it's a public session  mine is a freestyle, so they limit the number of people who can be on it. And you need to own a pair of skates before you can go, too, so there aren't very many true beginners (except for the grandmas who have actually been skating for decades, they're just really slow and cautious!) But the downside is of course there's no order to any of the skating and you need to pay a lot of attention to other people's patterns and stuff like that. I always feel like I'm in people's way. I'm also terrified of crashing too so I break a lot and/or skate slow lol. 

 

4 hours ago, shanshani said:

I obviously have no advice since I’m only working on half flips (current status: lol how do toe jumps work, I don’t get the part where I jump after picking into the ice), but good luck! I also feel like I’m extra cognizant of certain jump qualities because of Yuzu. Sort of relatedly, I was watching a video on how to do a flip and the instructor specifically said to pick only with the toe and not to let the rest of the blade touch the ice, because getting on the rest of the blade would make the jump more like a loop. Pretty sure the video was made before the blade-picking issue got attention, so that was interesting.

 

Haha you'd be surprised; I was on another skating site earlier reading pre-Sochi threads and the blade-picking issue was being discussed. I think it was Plushenko's full-blade lutz. You might be surprised how some people have selective memory on whether or not full blade toe jumps exist depending on whether they like the skater being discussed! But yeah, I have that problem too. If I don't bend my knees or pick harder and/or don't point my toes my blade often collapses on my flip. I've been trying to get rid of whatever's causing that but I haven't really figured out how to prevent it consistently. It doesn't happen as much as it used to, though.

 

6 hours ago, shanshani said:

No, I just over trained, I think. It's mostly better now, but I have to be careful on how much I jump. Also I have to be careful about jumping only after I've warmed up/gotten my joints loose. Landing on a stiff ankle seems to aggravate it.

 

Inside 3 turn improves by the day! (Well, RFI anyway, LFI still sucks). Still can't do a drunken sailor though. One problem is that I can't figure how to exit a mohawk on a flatter edge. 

 

 

The place I live is hot all year so they may as well keep the rinks open in during the summer 

 

ahh be careful! sometimes the overtraining injuries take longer to heal than injuries from a freak accident. 

[Xen]

On 7/16/2019 at 9:53 PM, yuzuangel said:

Anyway, I noticed that if I pick a bit higher, then there's less prerotation. But I don't wanna pick higher I think I should bend my knees more to get that same force into the ice on my pick without having to mule kick. not sure if I pick *that high* but I think you're supposed to pick like 2 inches off the ice or something? Like if you watch Yuzu's flips or lutzes he picks so low and gently it's so satisfying. 

Yuzu doesn't pick high, but if you notice, he reaches very far back, and accelerates the edge a bit before he fully picks in. . The motion is more like a scissoring motion, just think that his two legs are like scissor blades, but instead of one leg staying still and the other reaching back and up on its own (the mule kick), both blades are moving together. He picks IMO (and you get this more often with the guys) with his legs much closer together, which you don't really get if you mule kick the pick. You get same or more amount of force concentrated for take-off with his methods (think the physics of how scissors work). XD

 

Also practicing flips...and apparently I'm a lipper. Coach has already caught me. =(

Spins wise...I've just started layback.

[yuzuangel]

8 hours ago, Xen said:

Yuzu doesn't pick high, but if you notice, he reaches very far back, and accelerates the edge a bit before he fully picks in. . The motion is more like a scissoring motion, just think that his two legs are like scissor blades, but instead of one leg staying still and the other reaching back and up on its own (the mule kick), both blades are moving together. He picks IMO (and you get this more often with the guys) with his legs much closer together, which you don't really get if you mule kick the pick. You get same or more amount of force concentrated for take-off with his methods (think the physics of how scissors work). XD

 

Also practicing flips...and apparently I'm a lipper. Coach has already caught me. =(

Spins wise...I've just started layback.

scissor analogy is interesting, i can totally see that! will try it... 

 

nice, i want to try a layback but my upright spins are weak. my spinning foot is always turned out 90 degrees from my hips...idk why. i don't know how to fix it.