I was sliding a lot in my last lesson, so I decided it was time to get my blades sharpened. It's the first time I've had them sharpened since buying the skates (the shop I bought them from did the initial sharpening). The guy did a good job, but I'm not used to super sharp blades. Stopping was difficult, but not impossible. Edges were clean - which was very nice. Mohawks were clean (except for the upper body, but that's doesn't have anything to do with the blades). The only thing that really suffered was my two-foot spin. For those who are new to reading this blog, I LOVE TO SPIN!! I was sad to see my spin run away screaming from the newly sharpened blades. I kept hitting the edges, which were very grabby, and that was the end of it. Perhaps my blades were really dull before and I was cheating by not spinning completley on that sweet spot. The spins improved slightly by the end of the session (about 1 hour), which gives me hope that I just need to adjust to the sharp blades.
OK Readers: How long is the adjustment period typically, and what can I do to help dull my blades a bit?
Other bits from this week: I skated at the Olympic Oval public session, which was on the speed skating oval. I really really like the ice there, but trying to figure skate on an oval was strange. There was no middle area for spins and such. Still, it's the best ice I have ever skated on, and if it wasn't so far away, I'd skate there all the time.
My goal this week is to make progress in controlling my upper body, especially with mohawks and crossovers. I have been consciously locking my upper body in place, which is helping a lot. I can now do consecutive mohawks, and my CW FXO's are more secure. It is very interesting to see how much the upper body influences the lower body.
My rink may not be offering Adult 4 next session. Perhaps this is the point to seriously consider private lessons....
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6 comments:
you are doing great and really progressing very quickly! it does sound like time for private lessons - prepare to say good bye to all your disposable income! did you ever get new skates?
3turn
thanks for all of your support!
I now have to figure out a budget for skating!!! And it's time to buy a yearly pass too. I got public skate pass with my group classes, which was included in the cost. really sweet deal. $45 for 6 group classes and a skate pass good for 6 weeks.
As for skates, I'm still using my Jackson Glaciers. They're good to start with but I already know they aren't going to last much longer. I'm going to look into new skates next month.
I'd like to know the same about the break in on newly sharpened skates. I bought myself a pair of skates because the rentals they had just weren't cutting it, the blades were either too dull or too sharp. But now that I have a brand new pair with newly sharpened edges, I've had difficulty mastering the snowplow stop... this is really embarassing for me because it's supposedly the easiest stop. Since I've read up more on it after my class last week, I guess the problem was I wasn't pushing with the flat of the blade, but rather the inside edge. So I'll make a concerted effort to use the flat this week.
In my case, I've found that the skate kind of would skip across the ice rather than nicely scrape up ice... is this because of the sharpness of the blade or because I wasn't using the flat?
By the way, now that you mentioned it, I need to look into seeing if my rink has a multi-week skate pass. I get two free passes with my 10 week lessons but I plan to going to one open skate a week, which would cost me $8 per session... not bad, but I wonder if most rinks offer deals. Can't hurt to ask I guess!
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