I GOT ONE!
Finally!! After weeks of trying, I finally managed it. I got a FO 3-turn!!!! In fact, I think I got two. They were small, and I only went backwards about a foot. But it doesn't matter, I GOT IT!!! I don't mind if they are hit and miss, as long as they are hit occasionally!
It was a good lesson in other ways too. Today we covered:
Backward Chasses: I could have done backward crossovers today, but I decided to stay on backward chasses as I am trying to build my confidence up going backwards and wanted to get these feeling better. And they are feeling much better now - they are faster, smoother and with quite a good push backward. I am bending my knees, and sitting right down into the blade and feeling where the weight should be on my blade as well, rather than falling towards my toepicks all the time. So yes, very happy with how these were going today. The CCW ones were even praised!
3-turns: Well, I have already declared my excitement about these, but I was concentrating on my core stability today. I also found keeping my arms lower with my hands about waist height helped too. Even when I didn't manage to come out of it on a backward glide, the turn itself is feeling smoother, and fewer of them are scraping.
Continuous Forward Outside Curves: A series of semi-circles, each on an alternating foot on an outside edge, and going in a general forward direction. We did this one on a hockey line, so each half circle started and ended on it, before pushing off to the other side. These were harder than I expected it to be, I think mainly because I am used to skating for a few steps before doing something at speed and starting these from a static position was difficult. Apparently I still look "neat" when I am doing them, but I didn't feel very neat!
Continuous Forward Inside Curves: Same as above, but on an inside edge! Easier than the outside ones, but still a little difficult. Again, doing these from standing is where I find it hard and as above, once I have done a couple and picked up some speed, they get easier. One thing I will need to focus on is getting a strong push off from a standing start.
So I had a really good skate today and am feeling very happy about it all. A couple of areas to focus on - obviously I need to keep at the 3-turns so they start happening more often and getting some power into pushing-off from standing.
The other fabulous thing is that I got my patch application form signed off today by one of the senior instructors, so I can go and get my membership card. Yay! I am actually terrified about skating on patch sessions, but I am sure I will get used to it in no time.
6 comments:
Yay!!! Such a rewarding feeling to finally get a glimmer, after sloggin away so!
3turn
Thank you 3turn! The lesson overall yesterday felt like a real step in the right direction, and to get a FO3 was the icing on the cake!
I thought I was imagining when my FO3 "penny" finally dropped. Good for you, I know how you feel :)
With regards to the edges- going at those semi-circles from a standstill is hard!! We always do them with a few strokes first to get a bit of a run up at them.
It IS hard! Especially when on the bit we were on where you have to push UPHILL to get going!! She was emphasing the pushing out at 90 degrees to your direction of travel as well, to make sure you get your full semi-circle.
But fun all the same - it is nice to suddenly be doing some forward motion things occasionally, rather than all this scary backward stuff
:-)
What you're calling "Continuous forward curves" are usually referred to (at least in the US) as "edges". So when people talk about FO or FI edges, that's what they mean.
FI edges are trickier than they look, actually. The hard parts are to make your lobes nice and even and to keep your free hip up.
Sounds like you had a great lesson! Congrats on the progress!
Hi Gordon, and thank you!
I wasn't too bad on the FI ones, but found the FO ones harder. I normally have an okay-ish FO edge, but doing them continuously made it difficult to keep up the momentum! I think it's because I'm used to getting up speed before going into an FO or FI, rather than pushing straight into them.
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