Skating!
After talking with tarion_anarore about all the atrocious Olympic skating falls this year, I wasn't sure I wanted to go. You know, "Eeeew...he tore his Achilles! Oh my! She slammed right into the wall!"
I was feisty, though, so it's good that I did. And I had the practice of a lifetime. If I could practice like that every time I skate, I would be ten times better than I am.
I've made up my mind, seeing as I've accomplished my goals for this season with months to spare, to start working on my jumps. Mostly, to get my whole body in synch with my feet, which have known how to do these jumps for years. But there's more to jumping than what is done with the legs and feet; the arms are particularly important. If you watch figure skating, pay attention to the arms. The rotation comes from the arms, where the height comes from the legs.
To demonstrate: Hold your arms out in "T-stop" position, that is, with the left arm in front of you and the right arm to the side. They should be more or less perpendicular to each other.
Make your hands into fists and bring them straight into your body. Leading with the left elbow, pull your arms as hard as you can to your left. That is the proper arm position for jumping. You bring your arms in and around at the same time as you are taking off of the ground. That "snap" is what gives the rotation and allows a clean, backwards landing.
And it is precisely what I never did.
When I used to jump, people would be incredulous that you couldn't even hear me land, it was so soft. I would "float" my jumps and had trouble landing as a result. More often than not, I'd land part of the way around and "cheat" with a little turn on my foot to put me in the backward landing position. The trouble with this is that--while the landing is one-footed--you cease to roll and just. kind. of. stop.
I also had a bad habit of lifting my arms prior to snapping them in and around, which seems (intuitively) like it would give more power but actually does the opposite.
So my new goal is to work on "full body jumping," that is, getting the arms right, after fourteen years. I started working on it last night and...success! Even flip jumps, which I generally despise and have despised for thirteen years of my skating life now, were working last night. Actually, when you do the arms right, they're kind of fun. (I've always been terrified of flip jumps. You jump off of your right toe, revolve, and land on your right skate. It takes a lot of force to do that.)
Even though the bad habits are deeply ingrained, I have hope. When I started club skating, I used to drag both inside wheels going into spins. You are supposed to drag just the front wheel...but I was scared. Too much momentum. But I broke myself slowly of that habit and it feels natural now to go in with just the front wheel dragging.
My classmates were getting on my nerves, though. There were nine of us at practice last night. My instructor gives lessons in the back half of the rink, and we have the front half for practice. There were two of us practicing last night. Two. The others simply skated around in circles--sloooow circles--and talked about prom dresses and yadda yadda yadda. I don't care if they don't want to use their practice time, but could they please get the hell off of the floor for those of us who do? For those of us who drive almost an hour to get to the rink, who pay twenty-five dollars a month for this once-per-week hour of "club" time? (And don't get the twenty-five buckaroos from mommy and daddy.)
When we were working on spins, though, they all migrated to a corner, stood in a cluster, and talked. That was fine with me. The only other skater working was the newest club member, and she doesn't take up a lot of room, being relatively new to skating. I think I've been skating as long as she's been alive. So I had almost half the rink to tear around and do whatever I wanted, which included just about everything. In combination. With proper arms.
I was half-dead by the time the half-hour club practice ended and we began working on the closing number for the exhibition...but it felt good. I really wish I could have more rink time, but Putty Hill is the only freestyle skating club I know of in this area. I don't even want instruction, just the chance to have my tiny space of floor a couple nights a week.
Well, I shall have to live with two, I suppose.
In other skating news, the women's figure skating concludes tonight. Kimmie Meissner is in fifth! Fifth!! She goes to school ten minutes from where I grew up (if I lived a half-mile north, I would have gone to her high school) and so is a bit of a hometown hero. And she's sixteen years old. And does a triple axle. Eegads!
(It depresses me, though, to think that I've probably been skating longer than her...and I'm nowhere near as good. It really makes me wonder how things might be different if I'd picked ice skating.)
I was feisty, though, so it's good that I did. And I had the practice of a lifetime. If I could practice like that every time I skate, I would be ten times better than I am.
I've made up my mind, seeing as I've accomplished my goals for this season with months to spare, to start working on my jumps. Mostly, to get my whole body in synch with my feet, which have known how to do these jumps for years. But there's more to jumping than what is done with the legs and feet; the arms are particularly important. If you watch figure skating, pay attention to the arms. The rotation comes from the arms, where the height comes from the legs.
To demonstrate: Hold your arms out in "T-stop" position, that is, with the left arm in front of you and the right arm to the side. They should be more or less perpendicular to each other.
Make your hands into fists and bring them straight into your body. Leading with the left elbow, pull your arms as hard as you can to your left. That is the proper arm position for jumping. You bring your arms in and around at the same time as you are taking off of the ground. That "snap" is what gives the rotation and allows a clean, backwards landing.
And it is precisely what I never did.
When I used to jump, people would be incredulous that you couldn't even hear me land, it was so soft. I would "float" my jumps and had trouble landing as a result. More often than not, I'd land part of the way around and "cheat" with a little turn on my foot to put me in the backward landing position. The trouble with this is that--while the landing is one-footed--you cease to roll and just. kind. of. stop.
I also had a bad habit of lifting my arms prior to snapping them in and around, which seems (intuitively) like it would give more power but actually does the opposite.
So my new goal is to work on "full body jumping," that is, getting the arms right, after fourteen years. I started working on it last night and...success! Even flip jumps, which I generally despise and have despised for thirteen years of my skating life now, were working last night. Actually, when you do the arms right, they're kind of fun. (I've always been terrified of flip jumps. You jump off of your right toe, revolve, and land on your right skate. It takes a lot of force to do that.)
Even though the bad habits are deeply ingrained, I have hope. When I started club skating, I used to drag both inside wheels going into spins. You are supposed to drag just the front wheel...but I was scared. Too much momentum. But I broke myself slowly of that habit and it feels natural now to go in with just the front wheel dragging.
My classmates were getting on my nerves, though. There were nine of us at practice last night. My instructor gives lessons in the back half of the rink, and we have the front half for practice. There were two of us practicing last night. Two. The others simply skated around in circles--sloooow circles--and talked about prom dresses and yadda yadda yadda. I don't care if they don't want to use their practice time, but could they please get the hell off of the floor for those of us who do? For those of us who drive almost an hour to get to the rink, who pay twenty-five dollars a month for this once-per-week hour of "club" time? (And don't get the twenty-five buckaroos from mommy and daddy.)
When we were working on spins, though, they all migrated to a corner, stood in a cluster, and talked. That was fine with me. The only other skater working was the newest club member, and she doesn't take up a lot of room, being relatively new to skating. I think I've been skating as long as she's been alive. So I had almost half the rink to tear around and do whatever I wanted, which included just about everything. In combination. With proper arms.
I was half-dead by the time the half-hour club practice ended and we began working on the closing number for the exhibition...but it felt good. I really wish I could have more rink time, but Putty Hill is the only freestyle skating club I know of in this area. I don't even want instruction, just the chance to have my tiny space of floor a couple nights a week.
Well, I shall have to live with two, I suppose.
In other skating news, the women's figure skating concludes tonight. Kimmie Meissner is in fifth! Fifth!! She goes to school ten minutes from where I grew up (if I lived a half-mile north, I would have gone to her high school) and so is a bit of a hometown hero. And she's sixteen years old. And does a triple axle. Eegads!
(It depresses me, though, to think that I've probably been skating longer than her...and I'm nowhere near as good. It really makes me wonder how things might be different if I'd picked ice skating.)