Alpha Class Week #3
I hate AC Transit with a passion.
As usual, I am late in getting my act together and have 8 minutes to walk five or so blocks down to the nearest transbay bus stop. I managed to scratch myself under the eye with my long, ungainly nails and now it stings every time I am skating and crying. I almost tripped over a bunch of people uprooting sidewalk plants and remembered that it was Berkeley Project day. I've been lazy and asocial all semester and haven't been part of any clubs, so I neglected to sign up. Not that I would've made it anyway, I guess, given my Saturday lessons and my inability to make it up on Monday due to my Physics Midterm of Doom. Yes, basically skating > community service. I'm an evil person.
I arrive at that fateful corner of Piedmont and Bancroft just as the bus gets there, violating all sorts of jaywalking laws in the process. But of course, the bus driver does not actually pull into the bus stop even though I am standing right there, in front of his door on the road, hands full and he proceeds to turn right into Bancroft even though I am 100% certain that he actually saw me. I know the bus drivers have it rough since public transportation in America is a magnet for derelict crazies, but still! This isn't the first time that this exact same thing has happened to me, so I was very pissed off.
I begrudgingly made my way to the front of campus, hoping that the bus will stop there for a while since it's the end of the line. Lo and behold, it was there for a full twenty minutes, so in the end all was well, even if I started the day out with ruffled feathers.
I arrived in SF with 45 minutes to spare, got a quick "lunch" at Jollibee, and went to class. It's still just me and the other girl. We started out with T-Stops, which I honestly have not worked on since last class. The other girl (whose name I still don't know--I really should ask) made some improvement towards hers. The coach put me back on focusing on snowplows (lol), and she had the usual criticism that I tend to skid and not stop definitively enough. Story of my life, sister. Next, we moved on to FXOs, upon whence I found out that I have been practicing my CWs wrong for a while now--I'm unconsciously omitting that push off from the outside/left leg, instead pushing with my right and calling it quits after that. The coach yells at me (in a joking way) and said "I'm not going to pass you in Alpha if you keep doing that!" leaving me totally mortified. I had no idea I was even doing it wrong; hell, just this week I thought I could safely say that I got my forward crossovers down. Nope! We also worked on the "second" push with FXOs
Backward stroking next. I worked on these all last week, to no real avail. Coach says that I'm off to "good start" though, but my problem is keeping my hips over my skating foot. I don't really understand what the hell she's talking about while she was explaining it, but it was something about proper turn-out. My coach's rule of thumb: "if you feel completely uncomfortable and ridiculous, then you know you're doing it right!" She also likes to talk about how skating is all about the quads (as in the muscles, not the jump, lol) and "butt, I don't know what you say at home, but here on ice, we say 'butt'". BELIEVE ME, COACH, I KNOW. The embarrassing cache of skater photos I have amassed on my external hard drive would attest to my knowledge that figure skating is alllll about dem thighs and dat ass. Now to translate that "knowledge" into actual figure skating...
Backwards crossovers, were, as expected, a disastuh, but at least i had a breakthrough. I assumed, for whatever reason, that I had to wrap myself around the hockey circle like with FXOs and pull my outside hip into the circle, but I guess with BXOs you keep your outside hip counter to the curve of the circle. Like the two-foot three turn revelation I had with Sarah, I immediately went "oh my god, it's so much easier this way!" My coach just laughs and goes "Of course it is!"
I found that part of my problem is that different sources (varying coaches, other adult skaters, the internet) tell me seemingly different things, leaving me confused as hell. The other, glaring, and significantly larger part of my problem simply boils down to lack of athleticism. I don't even have "artistry" to make up for it.
Public sessions after class is always a zoo, so I only stayed for half an hour and did some tentative work on my backwards stroking. One of these days, I'll actually have a free Saturday just to explore SF (aka shop window shop at Westfield), but of course, I had to return back to Berserkeley to study. Right. I'm probably not going to skate at OIC tomorrow, so backwards crossovers and stroking will have to wait until Monday.
My coach says its her aim to get the other girl passed out of Beta into Gamma, and for me to pass both Alpha and Beta before this class session is over. Seeing as how I still can't do test-level crossovers for Beta and Alpha (apparently--darn you CW FXOs), it's a lofty goal. I really should, for once in my life, work hard and accomplish something instead of consistently lowering my standards.
As usual, I am late in getting my act together and have 8 minutes to walk five or so blocks down to the nearest transbay bus stop. I managed to scratch myself under the eye with my long, ungainly nails and now it stings every time I am skating and crying. I almost tripped over a bunch of people uprooting sidewalk plants and remembered that it was Berkeley Project day. I've been lazy and asocial all semester and haven't been part of any clubs, so I neglected to sign up. Not that I would've made it anyway, I guess, given my Saturday lessons and my inability to make it up on Monday due to my Physics Midterm of Doom. Yes, basically skating > community service. I'm an evil person.
I arrive at that fateful corner of Piedmont and Bancroft just as the bus gets there, violating all sorts of jaywalking laws in the process. But of course, the bus driver does not actually pull into the bus stop even though I am standing right there, in front of his door on the road, hands full and he proceeds to turn right into Bancroft even though I am 100% certain that he actually saw me. I know the bus drivers have it rough since public transportation in America is a magnet for derelict crazies, but still! This isn't the first time that this exact same thing has happened to me, so I was very pissed off.
I begrudgingly made my way to the front of campus, hoping that the bus will stop there for a while since it's the end of the line. Lo and behold, it was there for a full twenty minutes, so in the end all was well, even if I started the day out with ruffled feathers.
I arrived in SF with 45 minutes to spare, got a quick "lunch" at Jollibee, and went to class. It's still just me and the other girl. We started out with T-Stops, which I honestly have not worked on since last class. The other girl (whose name I still don't know--I really should ask) made some improvement towards hers. The coach put me back on focusing on snowplows (lol), and she had the usual criticism that I tend to skid and not stop definitively enough. Story of my life, sister. Next, we moved on to FXOs, upon whence I found out that I have been practicing my CWs wrong for a while now--I'm unconsciously omitting that push off from the outside/left leg, instead pushing with my right and calling it quits after that. The coach yells at me (in a joking way) and said "I'm not going to pass you in Alpha if you keep doing that!" leaving me totally mortified. I had no idea I was even doing it wrong; hell, just this week I thought I could safely say that I got my forward crossovers down. Nope! We also worked on the "second" push with FXOs
Backward stroking next. I worked on these all last week, to no real avail. Coach says that I'm off to "good start" though, but my problem is keeping my hips over my skating foot. I don't really understand what the hell she's talking about while she was explaining it, but it was something about proper turn-out. My coach's rule of thumb: "if you feel completely uncomfortable and ridiculous, then you know you're doing it right!" She also likes to talk about how skating is all about the quads (as in the muscles, not the jump, lol) and "butt, I don't know what you say at home, but here on ice, we say 'butt'". BELIEVE ME, COACH, I KNOW. The embarrassing cache of skater photos I have amassed on my external hard drive would attest to my knowledge that figure skating is alllll about dem thighs and dat ass. Now to translate that "knowledge" into actual figure skating...
Backwards crossovers, were, as expected, a disastuh, but at least i had a breakthrough. I assumed, for whatever reason, that I had to wrap myself around the hockey circle like with FXOs and pull my outside hip into the circle, but I guess with BXOs you keep your outside hip counter to the curve of the circle. Like the two-foot three turn revelation I had with Sarah, I immediately went "oh my god, it's so much easier this way!" My coach just laughs and goes "Of course it is!"
I found that part of my problem is that different sources (varying coaches, other adult skaters, the internet) tell me seemingly different things, leaving me confused as hell. The other, glaring, and significantly larger part of my problem simply boils down to lack of athleticism. I don't even have "artistry" to make up for it.
Public sessions after class is always a zoo, so I only stayed for half an hour and did some tentative work on my backwards stroking. One of these days, I'll actually have a free Saturday just to explore SF (aka shop window shop at Westfield), but of course, I had to return back to Berserkeley to study. Right. I'm probably not going to skate at OIC tomorrow, so backwards crossovers and stroking will have to wait until Monday.
My coach says its her aim to get the other girl passed out of Beta into Gamma, and for me to pass both Alpha and Beta before this class session is over. Seeing as how I still can't do test-level crossovers for Beta and Alpha (apparently--darn you CW FXOs), it's a lofty goal. I really should, for once in my life, work hard and accomplish something instead of consistently lowering my standards.