Wednesday 31 October 2012

Pre-bronze practice woes

Practicing those pre-bronze MITFs is slowly crumbling my confidence I'd gained from being good at learning jumps. I'm so slow at doing the basic things! That "plan" my private coach J had set at the beginning, had me good to go for the test by September, yet here is the end of October and I'm still working on it. I now have less than one month when I'm actually going to be doing the test on 11/27!

Worked hard on edges and waltz-8 this morning, the two things that still need work (a lot of work). FO and FI should be okay, but BO and BI have much to be desired. I can sometimes do a good set, but it's not stable at all. Waltz-8 is just a nightmare... I think I'm fine with the 3-turn and the BO edge, it's the step forward to FO edge that I have a problem with. I wish I could just step forward and go on a tangent instead of curving the circle back to the centre. I either a) go off on a tangent or b) curve and as I bring the free foot forward keep curving and curving and curving too much. I know that my arms and legs should be in a certain position but they just keep moving over! I can't control them!

At least all the other elements are good to go (including FS), and I am improving slightly, just oh-so-slow. Definitely need to practice more but it's so hard to get up in the morning.

I had a freak fall when doing crossovers today. It wasn't a hard fall, it was just completely unexpected and unexplainable. A fellow skater said she saw me skating perfectly fine and upright then suddenly the next moment, I went down! It must have looked pretty bad since a few people came and inquired if I was okay, but it actually didn't hurt much as I went down at an angle (and slid across the ice on my back for a few feet) instead of wham! straight down.It was weird, I didn't hit anything, it just felt like my edge gave up grabbing the ice and slid out from under me! I doubt it's that the blades need sharpening, since they only have 20 hours on them, and I haven't been skidding on anything else. Better not happen again!

Practicing basic skills is actually very tiring, because to do them well, you need to be in control of every muscle in your body. I'm all weak now from getting up too early and tensing all my muscles for almost an hour. Hope I won't be sore tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. The waltz-8 took me a long time to get right too. I haven't had my test yet, though I think I'm close to ready. The best thing for me on that step forward was not to think about arms and legs but instead to think about shoulders. Keep your shoulders parallel along the circle you want to be skating, and your arms will naturally end up where you want them to be -- and be less likely to drift.

    Good luck!

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    1. Thanks for the tip!! I'll try it out next time I practice!

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