Grassroots to Champions Seminar

I attended the Grassroots to Champions Seminar in Gurnee, IL on Saturday. The seminar was from 7:30am-5pm. The morning sessions were off-ice, and the afternoon sessions were on-ice. The coaches included Audrey Weisiger (coached Michael Weiss), Nick Perna (pictured above working with Sarah Hughes on his "fishing pole" harness), Chris Conte (uses Dartfish to record moves and replay them frame by frame), and Pasquale Camerlengo (ice dance/choreography).

The morning sessions were rather boring. There were only two things that I found really useful in the morning. One was going over what tracings proper jump entrances should leave on the ice. The other was the off-ice harness which each participant got to try. (It was a little boring waiting for all other 50 people to take their turns though...) The off-ice harness is really cool because it allows the coach to pick you up off the floor and you can spin practically forever. The record is over 200 revolutions. We each got to try two ways. First, a coach would lift us up, we'd get into our "D" position, and then the coach would initiate the spin, and we'd try to maintain the air position. Then, we'd stand on the floor and jump like we were going to do a loop jump. The coach would pull on the harness so that we could snap in and rotate without ever coming down. I managed alright on the harness. I wasn't anywhere near the 200 revs. though. I have a tendency to arch my back slightly when rotating, and it would really slow me down. I can see how the off-ice harness is a great tool for training the rotation ("D") position. Coach K says that we'll work with it in the future.

After a slow start in the morning, the afternoon on-ice sessions were loaded with good information. Things we worked on:
-The "h" and "D" air positions that should be hit in all jumps and exercises to promote muscle memory for these positions. "D" position can be seen in the photo below, although ideally, the arms should be lower and the left toe would be pigeon toed or turned away from the other foot a bit more.

-Using the "fishing pole" harness.
-Videotaping with Dartfish to see frame-by-frame what we're doing in our jumps. Chris actually told me that I have a great "D"! I just need to jump higher and believe in myself.
-Axels with arms in a hoop and a frame. (hoop=holding hands, arms making a big circle like you're hugging a big ball, frame=like a circle, but holding your elbows so that it's more of a box shape) These were really tough because you had to generate the jump with your lower body and not your arms. I did manage to do it though! This is considered a double axel training exercise...
-Changing to an inside edge in backspins. I can do the upright no problem and got a compliment from Audrey! I can also do an inside edge backsit, but it's really really high.
-Straight Line Footwork: RFI 3, X front, toe hop, LFI 3, X front, tap toe, RFI twizzle (1.5x around), exit twizzle on RBO, edge pull to RBI, RBI double 3, step to LBI, change edge to LBO, pull o/s edge in extremely small circle and use a xover to push out of the circle, step forward, choctaws. I was really proud of myself for pretty much keeping up with this sequence (I was in the group with the other girls who have passed novice which was actually mostly people past senior moves and working on double axels and triples). The only thing that I sort of fudged were the choctaws on the end. I think mine were probably mohawks.

We had one other afternoon session that was really good. It was floor/barre with a ballet instructor. It reminded me a bit of Pilates. We laid on the floor and did different exercises to work on straightening our knees and extending our leg lines.

This was the second year that the Gurnee rink has offered this seminar. Next year, I don't know if I'd do the actual seminar again (too much waiting for your turn and not enough individual attention from the coaches), but I would definitely sign up for private lessons from Nick and Chris.