Saturday 26 January 2013

Traumatic first practice

Despite my frantic protests, coach J decided that I needed to try out that first half of my program that I've learnt to music on the rink speaker. I wanted to run away, or at least borrow Harry Potter's invisibility cloak so no one can see me. I had tried it a handful of times to music in my headphone (I have it in one side only), but I could not do it up to speed yet. I didn't think I was ready to try it in full view of everyone. Coach J was adamant and so I reluctantly went to tie on the "I'm-in-a-program-with-right-of-way" belt for the first time ever.

My program, unfortunately, starts on something I find extremely difficult at the moment. My starting pose is with my left foot picked and right foot crossed in front. It's supposed to be that the right foot is perpendicular to the body with the heel to the left (like a tango stop), and the left foot with the pick in the ice, heel towards the right. Basically, something that requires good turnout, of which I lack, so I couldn't even hold this position steadily. From this I'm supposed to slide the right foot forward and back with left foot picked (lots of people seem to open with this!), which is kind of hard to do if you're not good at pivots. From this I turn around and go into a LFO3, right toe pick push and another LFO3 and so on. All this has to be done very quickly in order to do my jumps at a certain musical cue.

So there I am in the middle of the rink, with the program belt on, in my very awkward opening position, nervously waiting for the music to start. The notes tinkle, I try my best to do the pivot slide thing, turn around to do the first LFO3 - and I trip. Yes, 5 seconds into the music I trip. It was quite a feat to not have gone splat on my face really. Now I'm so desperately behind the music, which I could never catch up to in the first place , and I'm trying super hard to be able to follow my coach who's doing the program with me so I don't lose where I am. Everything was just super rushed and I glossed through a whole bunch of things just so I could catch up. I just wanted to dig a hole and cover myself up when I was done, I sincerely hope no one was watching that dreadful display. To sum up in one word that first practice ever with music on rink speakers - traumatic. I didn't feel any "real skater" moment out of it at all.

We tried it one more time at the very end of the lesson, because coach J said I'd never try it myself (she's quite right!). It went much better since I managed to not trip anywhere, but I'm still quite behind the music. This still needs a lot of work, plus I still have the last 40 seconds to learn!

I registered for the recital today, so I better work hard to be ready in time!

6 comments:

  1. Give yourself time; it gets better. In a month, it'll be near perfect.

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  2. Ha, I had SUCH trouble with this beginning pose too. (Mine went into a RFO3, though, not a left.) I don't know how many times I tripped/skidded from it, and we tried changing it at one point, until I got used to it. It does get better, thankfully. Like skatecat says, you'll be fine in no time.

    If you're struggling to stay on time, I've heard of other skaters making a version of the music that's a little slowed down (just a tiny bit, say 5%). Once you know it better, you can speed it back up. I didn't do this, but since I ended up speeding UP my music later it had the same effect.

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    1. I saw yours and realized it was the same! I'm getting slightly better at it now, but it's even harder when I have to do it rushed. Slowing down the music seems like a good idea, but at the same time, I don't want myself to get used to being able to do it slower. I think I'll stick with the original for now, and if I'm still having too much trouble, I'll try it that way. Thanks for letting me know!

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  3. Janie, sometimes I feel like we're living in parallel universes! I started my program this weekend and coach wants to open with a back pivot, then RFI twizzle, LFI twizzle, Ina Bauer with arms, then sideways snowplow. Yikes. I only did a back pivot once or twice (or maybe never--I don't remember if I only did forwards) when I was still in LTS. And twizzles are pretty inconsistent for me, so all in all, it's a strong opening so far ;) I did okay on the back pivot the one time we tried it with music, but my coach had me do it again without music, and it took me three or four tries to get past the pivot. I kept pushing my foot out too far so that instead of going around in a circle, my legs were just drifting further and further apart...

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    1. That sounds like an awfully hard opening! I don't think I can do any of those things. My "pivot" is not going around, it's just the skating leg moving forward and moving back. I slide out quite easily, but then have trouble pulling myself back lol, kind of like how your legs drift further and further apart!

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