Anyone seen my confidence floating around?
I went to class tonight, after not having skated for a week.
After my tumble last week, my wrists were rather sore and bruised, and in fact the right one is still a little tender. I didn't want to risk damaging them further, especially after falling up the stairs at work last Thursday and falling straight onto my hands again! Ouch indeed . . .
There were only two of us in our group today (don't the numbers drop out severely, the higher up the levels you get?!) and the coach was able to really dedicate some time to me today.
Backwards Crossovers - still horribly unconfident on these. I am better at them CW though. The coach let me use her hands doing these today, and she tells me that I am doing them on my own - but it is the confidence thing. Technically, I need to have more lift in my torso as my weight is too far back on the blade, and I also need to ensure that my head stays at the same level rather than straightening my skating leg on the backward push - apparently this is probably why I fell last time. I also need to keep my front arm a little lower. Doing these at the moment is completely exhausting - I'm guessing because I'm so tense about them!
Forward Inside 3-turns - not really much progress, but some more guidance as to where I am going wrong. First of all I am lifting the hip of my free leg and then leaning over it. I must look really wonky! I am not turning my shoulders enough into it before doing the turn and finally, my weight is going too far backwards. As with the FO3's, I think this is a question of time after time after time after time . . . . A couple of times, I did actually turn but am not going anywhere yet!
Forward Continuous Curves - at least I can do these well! I was quite pleased as I managed to get a perfect curve on my outside edge on the first one, which has always been the weakest one due to the pushing off from still. The coach was even pointing out the perfect curve on the ice! Inside curves went well too.
Skating Backward Turning to Forward - Level 6 but still good to practice! Went okay. These are happening slightly smoother now.
I think it was lucky for me that my coach was available to help me today - twice she stopped me splatting face first on the ice! I've given my wrists time to heal - back to my usual 3 times a week practice and hopefully confidence will come back.
The coach also showed me what a mohawk was today as my books weren't quite clear. Luckily it is what I thought it was! I tried a couple on the barrier and thought they were quite easy - I wonder how wrong I am. Mind you, the coach thinks that you are either a 3-turn person, or a mohawk person, and with my background in dance I will really enjoy mohawks as they like lots of turnout. We shall see!
I am knackered now so off to bed. When not skating or working, I am currently spending all my time researching weddings in Africa. Not for myself unfortunately, but for my best mate who is getting married in the next year. My head is full of images of Kenyan hotels at the current time . . .
7 comments:
It sounds as though you have the same issues going on with your back crossovers as I do so I sympathise!!
I too am totally fine when I have hold of Ro, even if it just his fingertips and I've lost count of the number of times he's told me that he is not doing the crossovers for me so I am totally capable. For me, it is purely a mental thing which feels harder to fix than a physical one.
You'll get there- we both will :)
Thank you Clare. It's always good to know that you aren't the only one with some mental block about letting go!
Welcome back to the ice!
On BXOs, my coach tells me to keep the back arm higher than the front and to *reach* with that back arm so that it's literally pulling you along the circle, adn you can feel the stretch from your armpit to your fingertips.
3turn
Thanks 3turn - I'll give that a try! She has already told me to put my front arm lower, but reaching out with my back arm sounds like it will help.
If you want, you can use the "glove exercise" that my coaches had us do...take off your gloves and put them on top of your hands (not grasping them). That will force you to keep your arms straight and level, as well as keep your posture nice and straight too (no hunching which tends to bending forward and scratchign wtih the toepicks). We actually just did it last weekend with back crossovers.
By the way, I wrote a new post about my new group lesson coach, and I heard that he was an ice dancer in the UK. I wonder if you've heard of him...Nick Hughes. I did some googling and found pics of him with his old partner, Autumn Brewbaker. There were also some posts about him on UK Ice dancing message board. Not sure if he is just teaching now or will still be competing, coz my first lesson was just this past Saturday, so I didn't get a chance to talk to him a lot yet. Either way, I think it's really cool.
by the way, I'm a total mohawk person. I love half flips, and when you learn them you will like them too =)
Thank you Niuiceprincess - encouraging words :-D I might just have to try that thing with the gloves (once I get the nerve to do the crossovers on my own that is!)
That is cool about your coach - I haven't heard of him, but having seen ice dancers teach, they tend to be fantastic coaches!
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