Saturday's Lesson 2/4
After two lessons of choreography, it was time to get back to my nemesis - jumps. I made the mistake of thinking my axel was feeling really solid at the beginning of the week. Therefore, I promptly stunk at axels for the rest of the week. On Saturday, I guessed that Coach K would want to see jumps since we hadn't worked on them in a week. I warmed up singles through axel and double sal. (By some miracle, I managed to land a few double sals on one foot.) Then it was onto lesson:
Double Toe-Loop: I have to make sure to bring my left leg and right arm through in order to get the jump to have that nice rainbow shaped arc to it. Right now, I'm putting my toepick in and stopping instead of pulling myself toward the picking foot and into the jump. I did have some improvement here.
Double Loop: I wasn't even close on this one today. In our very first lesson, Coach K told me to let the jump go up and out instead of just up. Well, since we hadn't worked on it for a long time, I developed a nasty habit of letting my left shoulder swing out just before take-off. We worked on a couple of exercises to fix this. First was loop-back scratch. Then was open arm/leg back scratch-jump and pull in-land in rotation position still spinning. I cannot do this exercise to save my life. We will have to look at it again on Tuesday. The last exercise was to do a FI 3turn with L hand on R hip. Hold the outside edge until the curve tightens, and then pull the right arm in. I can do this when I let it happen naturally and don't rush. I found this exercise was the most helpful in teaching me to create rotation without moving my left shoulder.
FO Edge Camel: I was sooooo close today. Coach K correctly pointed out that I'm in the right position, but I'm pivoting on the heel of my blade instead of riding the full edge. By raising my free hip just a bit, I got the true outside edge. I still wavered between an actual outside edge and pivoting on the heel though. Just a bit more work and I should be able to hold those nice big outside edge circles that you see on TV.
Flying Back-Sit: This one is weird! Coach K is teaching me to start like I was going to do a back sit from a RFI 3turn. At the apex of the 3turn, I'm supposed to jump instead of sitting into the spin. I am awful at this. I don't think anyone would know what I'm trying to do if they watched me. I'll probably keep working on it during public sessions b/c it doesn't take up much space and I can do it from a standstill - no elaborate entry required. It's definitely within my potential, but it'll take some work to get comfortable with it.
That was it for the lesson. It was a long lesson as I was Coach K's only student on that freestyle. I wish I could have had a better skate. My jumps are just so disappointing right now. With the lack of ice time and all of the other things that I'm working on, I just don't have enough time to practice. I feel like I'm going backward in the jumping department (despite getting better everywhere else). While we were working on jumps at the beginning of the lesson, I was actually looking at the clock and wishing the lesson was over. I did work through it, and enjoyed the rest of the lesson which was quite an achievement. Usually once I get depressed, there's no hope for my skating that day. I just wish I could get some consistency instead of working on the same jumps over and over for years on end.
Double Toe-Loop: I have to make sure to bring my left leg and right arm through in order to get the jump to have that nice rainbow shaped arc to it. Right now, I'm putting my toepick in and stopping instead of pulling myself toward the picking foot and into the jump. I did have some improvement here.
Double Loop: I wasn't even close on this one today. In our very first lesson, Coach K told me to let the jump go up and out instead of just up. Well, since we hadn't worked on it for a long time, I developed a nasty habit of letting my left shoulder swing out just before take-off. We worked on a couple of exercises to fix this. First was loop-back scratch. Then was open arm/leg back scratch-jump and pull in-land in rotation position still spinning. I cannot do this exercise to save my life. We will have to look at it again on Tuesday. The last exercise was to do a FI 3turn with L hand on R hip. Hold the outside edge until the curve tightens, and then pull the right arm in. I can do this when I let it happen naturally and don't rush. I found this exercise was the most helpful in teaching me to create rotation without moving my left shoulder.
FO Edge Camel: I was sooooo close today. Coach K correctly pointed out that I'm in the right position, but I'm pivoting on the heel of my blade instead of riding the full edge. By raising my free hip just a bit, I got the true outside edge. I still wavered between an actual outside edge and pivoting on the heel though. Just a bit more work and I should be able to hold those nice big outside edge circles that you see on TV.
Flying Back-Sit: This one is weird! Coach K is teaching me to start like I was going to do a back sit from a RFI 3turn. At the apex of the 3turn, I'm supposed to jump instead of sitting into the spin. I am awful at this. I don't think anyone would know what I'm trying to do if they watched me. I'll probably keep working on it during public sessions b/c it doesn't take up much space and I can do it from a standstill - no elaborate entry required. It's definitely within my potential, but it'll take some work to get comfortable with it.
That was it for the lesson. It was a long lesson as I was Coach K's only student on that freestyle. I wish I could have had a better skate. My jumps are just so disappointing right now. With the lack of ice time and all of the other things that I'm working on, I just don't have enough time to practice. I feel like I'm going backward in the jumping department (despite getting better everywhere else). While we were working on jumps at the beginning of the lesson, I was actually looking at the clock and wishing the lesson was over. I did work through it, and enjoyed the rest of the lesson which was quite an achievement. Usually once I get depressed, there's no hope for my skating that day. I just wish I could get some consistency instead of working on the same jumps over and over for years on end.
posted by Jennifer @ 11:03 AM
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