The fear is lifting!
Well, the pulled muscle in my groin finally got better after a couple of days . . . enough for me to start lunging around the kitchen again :)
Littlest Rink quiet session tonight - and it was quieter than normal, I suppose because half of the usual attendee's were watching London explode.
I worked on my left mohawks and LFI3's as they weren't as good as the other side last week when my coach was running through the SkateUK syllabus. They actually weren't too bad this evening. I was holding the edge much more strongly on the BI edge of the mohawks and my LFI3's, whilst are definitely nowhere near as good as my RFI3's, were definitely improved. I think I am finally finding the sweet spot on my blade much easier.
After my exercises in my slippers on the laminate floor, I tried some drags today. Although I am getting much lower now (with no knee pain - yay!), I am not getting low enough to take the back blade off the ice and I find that my dragging leg is being pulled out to the side. I will carry on doing my kitchen exercises, but if anyone has any tips on drags / lunges, I would be interested to read them!
I did the usual thing of playing around with stroking, edges and also some crossrolls which I really enjoy doing now. I am really trying to get the sink down in my knees when I do the "cross" deeper, along with pigeon toes and crossing over onto the outside edge.
Finally, I was a very good girl, and practiced my backward crossovers. And it went okay! I haven't worked up to doing a whole circle on my own yet (still liking to have a coach within arms reach), but they are happening consecutively. I also MUCH prefer doing the advanced crossovers, due to the increased stability, and if I start with these, the beginner ones don't feel so horrendous when I move onto them. It has been a loooong auld process and still ongoing, but finally I am feeling the fear lift on these. And much to my surprise, I felt really exhilarated by it, small though the accomplishment was!
5 comments:
Congrats on your BXO progress!
Re: lunges, you really do have to work to keep the back leg from creeping around :-).
I've found in skating in general, there's no resting (this was actually on of my first coach's maxims). So keep some tension in that back leg and you'll be fine. The other part, of course, is to really keep your weight firmly over your skate! And look up and smile :-)
Hi Amanda
Very strange thing seeing as I cant do much else - I do a lunge. Its one of the first things me daughter got me doing and we had fun going round doing them together holding hands. You definately have to make sure you get the back blade off the ice so you are dragging the side of your boot. I actually find getting back up again harder!
I dont do them very elegantly and I think when daughter was learninig them properly you are supposed to have your upper body quite upright and this can really jar your back if you're not careful.
Gill
Thanks Gordon - I did find that a little bit of tension was stopping it happen quite so fast, but it's still coming round at the moment. Just something else that needs practicing!
Cat-Lil - I think that is the biggest part of the problem is that I am not far enough down to get the blade off the ice. I shall just have to carry on doing it in my slippers :)
Lift your free leg *before* lunging and keep it tight and straight behind you, like a ballet move. The drift usually ocurs when the foot is one the ice. You can practice on ice just going down a teensy bit at first to get the feel of lunging on ice without going too far down. and don't worry about falling - we all do at first and you're already pretty low to the ground, so it doens't hurt! oh, also, to get back up, you can put both hands on your thigh adn push to help you back up if your quads aren't quite up to the task.
3turn
Thanks 3turn - from reading all your answers, I am guessing it is as you said, with too much weight on the back foot.
And my quads are getting stronger - but still a bit of an effort on the kitchen floor!
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