Falling Down
That's about all I did today - fall down. I will say that it's that time of the month, so I expected things to be off a bit. However, I didn't expect to fall on a waltz jump! I popped my first waltz jump, and fell on my second attempt. I honestly cannot remember the last time that I fell on a waltz jump. It wasn't a little fall either. It was a big, loud splat and then a slide about half-way across the rink to stop just short of the boards, right at the janitor's feet. Just a little embarrassing. By the way, the janitor's name is Jim, and he admires that I fall and get back up like the kids. I took that as quite the compliment.
Before I started my fallfest, I tried to do some "figures". I put these in quotes because I haven't been trained in figures - my coach used to use a scribe to make figure eights for us to trace at the beginning of his group adult freestyle class, and I do those plus add a few 3turns and brackets once I've made a nice figure eight. It always amazes me how hard it is to hold that darn forward outside edge in a perfect circle. And my forward outside 3turn which I thought was pretty good was really goofy right after the turn. I sort of bulge out/off of the circle on the inside edge, then come back to the circle instead of staying on the circle. Great stuff to work on since I was having an off day.
I did my mandatory run-through of intermediate MITF. They felt much better. I was only disappointed with 2 things: the clockwise backwards power circle, and the backward power3 sequence. My backwards clockwise crossovers gain speed/power by reaching far inside the circle in long graceful strokes. This generally good, but the power circle is supposed to increase in tempo and the last few crossovers should be almost march-like and very quick. This is really hard for me (plus, I'm a little afraid of running into the boards. The power circles should increase in size and spiral out, and since I'm an adult, my biggest cirle is supposed to just about scrape the boards. For some reason, only scary on the backwards clockwise pattern. The rest are fine.) The backward power3's were much better. They actually had some push and flow through the 3 pattern around the corners. I only fit 5 power3's on each end, and I'm supposed to be doing 6 to increase the quickness required for the pattern. That should come on its own as I adjust to the pattern (aka. stop thinking I'm going to hit the boards and really get into the corners).
Spins were a little scary. I couldn't center a forward scratch to save my life. That happens sometimes, and I never can figure out why - then it'll just center itself again in a day or two. The rest of my basic spins - camel, layback, back scratch, sit-back sit were all lackluster, but manageable. I decided to spend time working on flying camels. My back camel from the 3turn entrance was ok again. No speed to brag about, but it's getting steadier and in better position. My camel-back camel was good today :) But, the flying camel - which I'm thinking about re-naming the flailing camel - was still in sorry shape. The entrance edge should leave a forward outside edge hook shape on the ice. Ideally, I would roll up to the toepick to vault into the air at the end of the hook. I get the hook, but must hold the entry too long because I actually turn a 3turn and take off of a back-inside edge. That combined with keeping my back too high makes my entry look more like a salchow than a flying camel. Not pretty.
Jumps were very scary. I was popping singles left and right, and had a fallfest on doubles. My axel had a foot long skid mark on the take-off instead of a solid edge. Sigh - that's one of those bad habits I've worked very hard to correct. The highlight of the day was landing 2 fully rotated 2salchows. (On my 30th attempt or so, but I'm happy to have landed them.) 2toes and 2loops were almost back to their usual 1/4 cheated landing. 2flips and 2lutzes were just sad. Lots of forward landings on my toepicks which are much scarier than landing backwards or close to it and falling. I wasn't getting my weight back and over my picking foot like I know I need to. This is another habit I'm trying to correct - I need to get my weight over my picking foot AND pull my free foot toward the picking foot. This should produce a light, flowing takeoff and get my weight firmly over my right side. I tend to jab my picking toe in the ice and try to rock back off of the picking foot without bringing my free foot in. This reduces my flow into the jump and stops me from getting my weight fully over the right side.
I tried to end the session on a positive note with some spirals. Then, I almost fell on a RFO spiral (my weaker side) and decided just to call it a day.
I suppose I should look at the bright side and focus on the fact that my moves improved, but I can't help being frustrated with my jumps. It's days like this that I wonder if doubles are just beyond my reach. Those 2 double salchows that I landed are incentive to keep trying though. Maybe tomorrow I'll land 3!
Before I started my fallfest, I tried to do some "figures". I put these in quotes because I haven't been trained in figures - my coach used to use a scribe to make figure eights for us to trace at the beginning of his group adult freestyle class, and I do those plus add a few 3turns and brackets once I've made a nice figure eight. It always amazes me how hard it is to hold that darn forward outside edge in a perfect circle. And my forward outside 3turn which I thought was pretty good was really goofy right after the turn. I sort of bulge out/off of the circle on the inside edge, then come back to the circle instead of staying on the circle. Great stuff to work on since I was having an off day.
I did my mandatory run-through of intermediate MITF. They felt much better. I was only disappointed with 2 things: the clockwise backwards power circle, and the backward power3 sequence. My backwards clockwise crossovers gain speed/power by reaching far inside the circle in long graceful strokes. This generally good, but the power circle is supposed to increase in tempo and the last few crossovers should be almost march-like and very quick. This is really hard for me (plus, I'm a little afraid of running into the boards. The power circles should increase in size and spiral out, and since I'm an adult, my biggest cirle is supposed to just about scrape the boards. For some reason, only scary on the backwards clockwise pattern. The rest are fine.) The backward power3's were much better. They actually had some push and flow through the 3 pattern around the corners. I only fit 5 power3's on each end, and I'm supposed to be doing 6 to increase the quickness required for the pattern. That should come on its own as I adjust to the pattern (aka. stop thinking I'm going to hit the boards and really get into the corners).
Spins were a little scary. I couldn't center a forward scratch to save my life. That happens sometimes, and I never can figure out why - then it'll just center itself again in a day or two. The rest of my basic spins - camel, layback, back scratch, sit-back sit were all lackluster, but manageable. I decided to spend time working on flying camels. My back camel from the 3turn entrance was ok again. No speed to brag about, but it's getting steadier and in better position. My camel-back camel was good today :) But, the flying camel - which I'm thinking about re-naming the flailing camel - was still in sorry shape. The entrance edge should leave a forward outside edge hook shape on the ice. Ideally, I would roll up to the toepick to vault into the air at the end of the hook. I get the hook, but must hold the entry too long because I actually turn a 3turn and take off of a back-inside edge. That combined with keeping my back too high makes my entry look more like a salchow than a flying camel. Not pretty.
Jumps were very scary. I was popping singles left and right, and had a fallfest on doubles. My axel had a foot long skid mark on the take-off instead of a solid edge. Sigh - that's one of those bad habits I've worked very hard to correct. The highlight of the day was landing 2 fully rotated 2salchows. (On my 30th attempt or so, but I'm happy to have landed them.) 2toes and 2loops were almost back to their usual 1/4 cheated landing. 2flips and 2lutzes were just sad. Lots of forward landings on my toepicks which are much scarier than landing backwards or close to it and falling. I wasn't getting my weight back and over my picking foot like I know I need to. This is another habit I'm trying to correct - I need to get my weight over my picking foot AND pull my free foot toward the picking foot. This should produce a light, flowing takeoff and get my weight firmly over my right side. I tend to jab my picking toe in the ice and try to rock back off of the picking foot without bringing my free foot in. This reduces my flow into the jump and stops me from getting my weight fully over the right side.
I tried to end the session on a positive note with some spirals. Then, I almost fell on a RFO spiral (my weaker side) and decided just to call it a day.
I suppose I should look at the bright side and focus on the fact that my moves improved, but I can't help being frustrated with my jumps. It's days like this that I wonder if doubles are just beyond my reach. Those 2 double salchows that I landed are incentive to keep trying though. Maybe tomorrow I'll land 3!
posted by Jennifer @ 11:36 AM
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