Wednesday, October 3, 2007

First Private Lesson, First Jump EVER

Ok, first private lesson...about 45minutes long. And boy did we cover a lot!!! I hope I can remember everything. And I know this is long, but this is also doubling as my skating notebook for the time being, so I'm describing things in great detail...

Change of edge: Outside to Inside, Inside to Outside. It took me a little while, but I finally got the concept. When on a LFO edge, the arms are open and the R leg is in the back. Then swing the R leg quickly to the front, then to the back. When the R leg is in the front, change arms so that the R arm is more in front, and the L arm is towards the back, and lean into the LFI edge. It is reveresed for RFO-RFI, with the left leg swinging to the front. This is a great thigh workout!!!

FO3s: These looked good...no work needed.

FI3s: These are not very different from FO3s, though I'm losing most all momentum with the turn.

One foot spin entry from BXOs: Ok, so I pretty much don't even know how to do a one foot spin, but I'm learning the entry. Do a couple of CW BXO's and hold the crossed foot position. Rotate the upper body to the outside of the circle. Then bring the free leg (Left) around and step forward onto a LFO edge, making a very small circle (think LFO3), BENDING THE KNEE. Keeping the arms aligned with the legs as if they were connected by a string, bring the R arm and leg around the the front, thus creating a spin. Yeahh........I'm having troubles with the step forward part and the whole spin thing. But I know what I need to work on.

Waltz Jump: First jump ever! I pretty much already knew the steps for this, but never attempted it. From a RBO edge keeping the arms open, step forward onto a LFO edge with arms behind and jump off the L toe, bringing arms in. Do a half-rotation in the air, landing on a RBO edge with arms open and L leg behind. After stepping through it in the lesson, I attempted this multiple times and had a couple of decent ones - though only a millimeter off the ice!!!! I get the concept...now to just practice. I find if I don't jump right away after stepping forward, I lose most of the momentum for the jump. No more hesitating!!!

Half-Flip: Holy cow. Two jumps in one lesson. Not successful at all, but I know the steps. We practiced this from a LFO3, bringing in the right leg back (leg straight) and jamming that toepick into the ice. Jumping off the R foot, do a half revolution in the air (arms in tight) and land on the R foot going forwards with arms open. The landing foot is the same as the picking foot. It's messy and puny and two-footed, but something I can definitely work on - on and off the ice.

So my jumping is wimpy...lack of strength??? Fear of cracking my ankle??? Boots weight too much??? hmmm...maybe it's lack of knee bend.

I feel challenged, and kept laughing at how terrible I was doing. I knew I looked horrible, but I felt great!!! My coach made sure I could at least fumble through the steps. There's no way things are going to be perfect in a lesson anyway, and this gives me tons to work on. Some things still seem impossible (one foot spin) but I will just chip away at it.

Coach agreed with me about getting new skates. No more recreational skates!!! She recommends boots with more support and better blades too. Good thing I worked extra hours this week!!!

2 comments:

Gordon said...

Congrats on your first lesson!

Either you learned it differently from me or you just wrote it down differently, but the way I learned the half flip you jump from the R toepick, half rev, land on the L toepick and push out on the R foot (the landing is similar to a bunny hop).

NIUiceprincess said...

i love the waltz jump, so simple (once u get the hang of it) but when done correctly and enough preactice, it can look amazing...like you're really flying!

More knee bend will give you more height, you're right.