Saturday's Lesson 2/11
The things I do for ice-time! I don't mind getting up early, but 5am on a Saturday is rough. I was home before the rest of my family even woke up. My dad came downstairs at around 8am and asked, "Weren't you supposed to have a skating lesson this morning?" My reply, "Yes, and I already went and came back." Dad's reply, "Oh." (He doesn't understand why I would do such a crazy thing as get up at 5am on a weekend. Although, there are times I don't understand it either.)
The good news about Saturday is that it's a little less crowded than Tue. usually is. Not much though. The better news is that I'm Coach K's only lesson that hour. I got a 45min lesson for the price of a 30min lesson. The bad news is that I probably only got 10min of actual work done during my lesson because I was so busy dodging people.
Lesson Notes:
Split Flip: Coach K liked my regular split jump. :) She said it was nice because I got a lot of height and had some hang time. That prompted me to say that I thought it'd be cool to try a split flip. The first try was pretty ugly. Let's say a reference was made to a dog's leg and a fire hydrant. The problem was that I had tried to split and rotate at the same time. It obviously didn't work out too well. So, I then tried to absorb Coach K's coachly wisdom to jump up first. I jumped like I was doing a regular split jump, and then used my inner thigh muscles to snap my legs back into a rotation position after the split. It worked out quite well, and although I lost a little bit of the split and my rotation position was a bit noodley, Coach K thinks it will develop nicely if I could find some extra ice time to work on it.
Lutz-Loop: Coach K liked my lutz - once I found 3 inches of open ice to do one. When I say 3 inches, some of you may think that I'm kidding, but I'm not. I literally mean that if my foot swung 3 inches the wrong way on take-off or landing, I'd slice some jumping bean kid. It gets ugly at this rink fighting for your ice. These kids are all hyper competitive and aren't afraid to hit each other no matter who's better, bigger, on lesson, on program, or on pattern. But, I digress. After seeing a nice lutz, Coach K suggested I try a lutz-loop. I don't have great speed through this combo, but I can pull off two fairly big, clean jumps on a regular basis. Coach K commented that the lutz-loop is really very similar to a double lutz, and since I could do the lutz-loop, the double shouldn't be so hard. And, I thought she just wanted to see it b/c it'll probably be in my pre-juv test program... Thank god she didn't make me try a double lutz right then, but I consider myself warned that it's coming.
Double Loop: I've adoped my old bad habit on these - letting my L arm swing out wide before the jump. I fixed that and tried to get more of a snap in the take-off. I did one really nice one, and we left it at that.
Double Flip: I didn't land any today, but we made them huge! Coach K has a theory on why the Japanese/Russian girls have such monsterously huge flips/lutzes. They are taught an in-air weight transfer. This is difficult to explain, but that won't stop me from trying... Also, this is Coach K's theory which I agree with. This is not a fact, just a theory. American coaches usually teach students to transfer their weight to the picking foot by pulling the skating foot back toward the picking foot on take-off. Once the weight is over the picking foot (the landing side), it stays there. Japanese/Russian coaches teach the same take-off, but the free foot actually steps through and up which transfers the weight off of the toepick as the student leaves the ice. Once at the top of the jump, the student should read just to hit the rotation position with the weight all back over the landing side. Basically instead of merely pushing off the ice, the free foot pushes and then steps up to increase height. This worked really well for me. The trick is not to get too excited and throw your weight all over the place. This is a subtle weight transfer change. My double flips were much bigger after working on this. I didn't land any, but Coach K said she'd rather have me fall on these than land the little ones I had been doing. They should come in time, if I ever find time to practice them.
Walleys: Or as imitated by me, a dying fish flopping around on the ice. I haven't worked on walleys in quite awhile, add to that the fact that I was getting claustrophobic from dodging skaters all morning, and you get a flopping fish imitation. I did manage a few, but fell on a bunch as well. I attribute most of this suckage to being rushed and nervous because of all of the other skaters. The only times I really worked on walleys were when I was all alone on mid-day public. Coach K wants me to push off of my inside edge more on take-off instead of just hopping up. I also have to keep my L shoulder in front. I tend to twist my body and then try to jump. Bad skater!
That was the lesson. It was a long one, and we did lots of jumping. My right hip was sore the next day, but feels better now.
The good news about Saturday is that it's a little less crowded than Tue. usually is. Not much though. The better news is that I'm Coach K's only lesson that hour. I got a 45min lesson for the price of a 30min lesson. The bad news is that I probably only got 10min of actual work done during my lesson because I was so busy dodging people.
Lesson Notes:
Split Flip: Coach K liked my regular split jump. :) She said it was nice because I got a lot of height and had some hang time. That prompted me to say that I thought it'd be cool to try a split flip. The first try was pretty ugly. Let's say a reference was made to a dog's leg and a fire hydrant. The problem was that I had tried to split and rotate at the same time. It obviously didn't work out too well. So, I then tried to absorb Coach K's coachly wisdom to jump up first. I jumped like I was doing a regular split jump, and then used my inner thigh muscles to snap my legs back into a rotation position after the split. It worked out quite well, and although I lost a little bit of the split and my rotation position was a bit noodley, Coach K thinks it will develop nicely if I could find some extra ice time to work on it.
Lutz-Loop: Coach K liked my lutz - once I found 3 inches of open ice to do one. When I say 3 inches, some of you may think that I'm kidding, but I'm not. I literally mean that if my foot swung 3 inches the wrong way on take-off or landing, I'd slice some jumping bean kid. It gets ugly at this rink fighting for your ice. These kids are all hyper competitive and aren't afraid to hit each other no matter who's better, bigger, on lesson, on program, or on pattern. But, I digress. After seeing a nice lutz, Coach K suggested I try a lutz-loop. I don't have great speed through this combo, but I can pull off two fairly big, clean jumps on a regular basis. Coach K commented that the lutz-loop is really very similar to a double lutz, and since I could do the lutz-loop, the double shouldn't be so hard. And, I thought she just wanted to see it b/c it'll probably be in my pre-juv test program... Thank god she didn't make me try a double lutz right then, but I consider myself warned that it's coming.
Double Loop: I've adoped my old bad habit on these - letting my L arm swing out wide before the jump. I fixed that and tried to get more of a snap in the take-off. I did one really nice one, and we left it at that.
Double Flip: I didn't land any today, but we made them huge! Coach K has a theory on why the Japanese/Russian girls have such monsterously huge flips/lutzes. They are taught an in-air weight transfer. This is difficult to explain, but that won't stop me from trying... Also, this is Coach K's theory which I agree with. This is not a fact, just a theory. American coaches usually teach students to transfer their weight to the picking foot by pulling the skating foot back toward the picking foot on take-off. Once the weight is over the picking foot (the landing side), it stays there. Japanese/Russian coaches teach the same take-off, but the free foot actually steps through and up which transfers the weight off of the toepick as the student leaves the ice. Once at the top of the jump, the student should read just to hit the rotation position with the weight all back over the landing side. Basically instead of merely pushing off the ice, the free foot pushes and then steps up to increase height. This worked really well for me. The trick is not to get too excited and throw your weight all over the place. This is a subtle weight transfer change. My double flips were much bigger after working on this. I didn't land any, but Coach K said she'd rather have me fall on these than land the little ones I had been doing. They should come in time, if I ever find time to practice them.
Walleys: Or as imitated by me, a dying fish flopping around on the ice. I haven't worked on walleys in quite awhile, add to that the fact that I was getting claustrophobic from dodging skaters all morning, and you get a flopping fish imitation. I did manage a few, but fell on a bunch as well. I attribute most of this suckage to being rushed and nervous because of all of the other skaters. The only times I really worked on walleys were when I was all alone on mid-day public. Coach K wants me to push off of my inside edge more on take-off instead of just hopping up. I also have to keep my L shoulder in front. I tend to twist my body and then try to jump. Bad skater!
That was the lesson. It was a long one, and we did lots of jumping. My right hip was sore the next day, but feels better now.
posted by Jennifer @ 11:16 AM
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