Adult figure skaters: what was your today´s skate lie?

JULIEdance
JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
edited November 12 in Social Groups
What you´ve been working on?
Progress, experience, trouble, funny moments... share yours!

Me today - group session, mainly practised salchow. Individual work: spins, mainly change foot.

The ice was asful at the beginning of the session and we lost at least 10 minutes of the session waiting for the zamboni. Which means about 75 mins on ice.
And... photos for the skate club´s board were taken during the session, LOL.

*sorry, I ment "what was your today´s skate like", obviously, but I can´t correct the title :mad:

Replies

  • Qarol
    Qarol Posts: 6,171 Member
    I haven't been ice skating as much lately since I joined the roller derby league. But I'm still planning to continue ice skating. My rink just introduced a Wednesday morning "adults only" freestyle. It's a two hour session for only 10 bucks. Nice! I can't wait!

    Lately, I've been working on a lot of MIF. I spend a lot of time on basic edges, really trying to get these perfect and fluid. I also work on the 5-step and 8-step mohawk patterns. Power 3's. Brackets and backward 3-turns. And the 3-turn pattern that, I think, is from one of the adult MIF tests. I don't test, officially. I just work on what I like from various tests. I also work on toe loops and salchows. Scratch spins and the dreaded back scratch. Years ago when I skated regularly, I had a fantastic flip and lutz jump. I would like to get those back someday and finally land an axel. My camel and layback were decent, as well, but since I've been back, my scratch spin has been wildly inconsistent. I don't think I'm ready to start working on any other spins until I can get this one good again.
  • VitVit18
    VitVit18 Posts: 103 Member
    Today's skate was just a quick half hour at the outdoor rink in a local park. I was working on the mohawk part of the Harris, the Paso Doble (still learning the actual steps and getting the edges positioned correctly), and the end pattern of the Killian (my choctaw (sp?) was actually working today!)

    Last Friday's lesson was really good. Had a 15/20 minute freeskate lesson - salchows, flips, loops, and flying camels. Then a 15 minute dance lesson - went over the Harris (it's pretty much ready for partnering and then I think maybe testing it next month or March, I forget when the next test day is), and then quickly went over the Paso focusing on the forwards pattern. Possibly setting that one up for partnering soon!
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    Last Saturday: TERRIBLY cold, coaches tryied to convice me to wear their spare jacket, lol. Not even half of the usual number of people on ice, yay. Steps and spirals ok-ish, the rest just pure crap :sad: I can´t say I had problems landing jumps, I had problems to get them up at all. Gr. Continue working on my change foot and half-biellmann spins.

    @VitVit18: so jealous about the dance/partnering things. We never do these here.
  • VitVit18
    VitVit18 Posts: 103 Member
    So jealous you're working on a biellmann spin!! It's one of my goals to eventually get one. Right now my layback's pretty much stalled at the laying back part. Here pretty much every skater works on dances, might just be a Canadian thing lol. My coach is actually a former ice dancer (in the 60s), and she's very dance intensive, of course, which is fine because I've always enjoyed dance. I want my gold levels and her eyes basically lit up and a "challenge accepted" look on her face when I told her that lol.

    Lets see, last Friday's skate was ok. My coach wasn't there, and one of my sisters friends came to watch... so the night consisted of a lot of goofing off after a strange stroking session. Backspins, waltz jumps, salchows, salchow/toes, loops, loops and more loops, a layback spin attempt, and a couple of sit spins. Holy crap my sit spins feel amazing!! I'm getting so many more revs out of them than I did even last summer! Then dance I ran through my Harris a million times, and then Paso a couple of times... the partner still wasn't available this week :grumble:
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    Lol, just to make things clear, I don´t go to the full biellmann position yet, I mean the half-biellmann or "catch-foot" position. I have only done the classic full biellmann position in spirals so far. Work in process, still not much to be jealous of :laugh: Good thing for me is that my back is quite flexible and my ballet training helps as well, so far the "chinese" spiral has been one of my best moves, so I hope I can make it to the biellmann spin one day. I haven´t been skating that much lately though, so I´m not getting any closer :cry:
    You´re lucky to have a former ice dancer coach! Here most of adults just focus on spins, jumps etc., but many of them really lack the basic technique - no edge work, no flow, shaky turns, problems with basic steps. I´m no way perfect, but my coach made me lots and lots and lots of turns and steps before she let me try the first waltz jump. I remember being so eager to do something else than just stepsstepsstepsstepssteps all the time, but now I´m really grateful for what she gave me by this.
    Jealous of the sit spins, mine are terrible!
    Good luck and enjoy skating!
  • VitVit18
    VitVit18 Posts: 103 Member
    You´re lucky to have a former ice dancer coach! Here most of adults just focus on spins, jumps etc., but many of them really lack the basic technique - no edge work, no flow, shaky turns, problems with basic steps. I´m no way perfect, but my coach made me lots and lots and lots of turns and steps before she let me try the first waltz jump. I remember being so eager to do something else than just stepsstepsstepsstepssteps all the time, but now I´m really grateful for what she gave me by this.
    Jealous of the sit spins, mine are terrible!
    Good luck and enjoy skating!

    Exactly, taking it back to basics! My coach did this when she started with my sister & I about 10 years ago. We hadn't skated with her for about 4 or 5 years until this season and it's just been a HUGE turn around! She didn't take us back to basics this time, only because she knew the basis was already there. It's funny though, a lot of the adults I skate with are frustrated that they aren't jumping yet, they don't really get that they need to master the basics before moving on to much more.
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    GREAT 60min freestyle today! Just 6 of us on the ice. Steps/turns felt nice, I was able to increase difficulty by adding some extra turns, more brackets etc. Spins - camels and sit spin not so fine, but that coudn´t discourage me, change foot quite promissing today, yay. catch-foot (half-biellmann) not bad but not really improving at the moment. Jumps - OMG, there were all so much batter than last time and the week before. Spirals - I guess even my ballet teacher would be pleased! All the 60 min filled with fair work and effort.
    I was smiling on my way home...
    There were presidential elections here and I had no time to change, so I went there wearing my skating skirt. :laugh:
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    Saturday: 90min... supposed to be a group practise, but ended up more like a free style thing. I did about the same things as the day before, but this time they were slightly less neat and I had a few spectacular falls too. Did a decent amount of work though.
    Also as the main coach started something about he music to be decided by next week, I realized I´m kind of expected to participate in a competition the club is organizing. Surprise. (To make things clear - I used to skate at a different place, had some time completely off ice and only started comming here, sort of a guest, so I didn´t suspect anything). Anyway, one of the coaches has offered me help with the music, lets see how things go :-)
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    Ouch, last two! I had a mild cold at the beginning of the week and even though I already feel fine, there must be some trace left or something, since spins were making me dizzy and disorientated AS NEVER BEFORE IN MY LIFE. Sure I have been "normal" dizzy many times before, especially when returning to skating after a break etc., but this was... Two small kids with their coach on the ride side of the rink. My fellow adult skater on the left. Fine. Spinspinspin.... meanhile someone takes the rink and turns it the opposite direction. I´m totally surprised by realizing thing are reverse to what I expected and sometimes it takes time to realize which wall is the second ice rink behind, where´s the entrance door etc. GRRRRR! At least got some useful corrections and advice on my camel spins.
    Today, not so dizzy any more, but still not very secure in steps. Some correction of port de bras and posture, glad to get these too. Ice was terribly unneven. Several falls mainly from sit spins, these were ok, one from a jump combination, not so ok. I hit my elbow quite painfully, it´s now swollen.
  • VitVit18
    VitVit18 Posts: 103 Member
    Ohh :( All those falls don't sound like much fun there Julie!!


    My skate last night was pretty good. I definitely needed the skate. Freeskate wasn't too good, my jumps sucked a lot. The Monty Python split jumps were awesome :\ My dances were pretty good. Harris just needs a little more tweeking before testing it in less than two months. Paso is looking pretty good, I need to work on the change of edges in them and getting deeper knees through the crossrolls. "Homework" for this week is walking through and learning/memorizing at least the first half of the starlight :) (Gotta love former ice dance coaches who are willing to push you on the dances so you have the best chance of getting your golds by 30!!)
  • JULIEdance
    JULIEdance Posts: 139 Member
    The bruises from last time take ages to heal... :-/

    Last week off ice due to a dance performace in another town...
    This week a decent 60 min freestyle and fairly easy but highly beneficial 90 min of group practice - lots of basic things, got some corrections and tips and kept moving all the time.
    I was supposed to work on my free skate, but finally didn´t. Agreed on working on it in next freestyle.


    Sometimes it´s just not a jump day and you´ll do better next time!
    Jealous of all the dance things... no chance to do these here.
    Good luck!
  • Alisontheice
    Alisontheice Posts: 9,611 Member
    Ok I am determined to get motivated. I don't like being the biggest "girl" on my synchro team. :)

    My husband has been so busy lately that I never get out to the rink on my own anymore. I had planned on passing my very last dance this winter but I think I might leave that for the summer. My synchro competitions ended this past weekend but I still have that once a week for the next month and I participate in an adult group class twice a week.

    Julie - hope your bruises are healing
    VitVit - hope your Starlight is coming along. Pay carefully attention to the partnering at the end of the second side. I have seen many tests go wrong with this part. Love the Paso. Hope you are enjoying that one.
  • VitVit18
    VitVit18 Posts: 103 Member
    Hi Alison! Glad to see another in this conversation :)

    Hopefully you can get out to some more on your own. If you don't mind me asking, what's the last dance that you're working on? I'm hoping to have my golds by the time I'm 30 (not sure how that will work out because I'm still currently sans partner and won't be able to test at the end of March), and I'm still on the fence about doing my diamonds.
    VitVit - hope your Starlight is coming along. Pay carefully attention to the partnering at the end of the second side. I have seen many tests go wrong with this part. Love the Paso. Hope you are enjoying that one.
    I haven't actually had a chance to skate the Starlight yet, well, past the first half of the pattern. I'm loving the Paso too!! It's such a fun dance, I just need to watch my knees - I'm not getting deep enough on the crossrolls.

    My skating's been canceled this week, and I'm not on the ice again until March 9th, then another break because of Worlds, and then I'm skating the Friday & Saturday that week. (I live in London, and of course, we have Worlds starting in 17 days! I bought the entire week long package of tickets for my sister & I, as did many others on my session, so they just canceled our ice for that week. And plus, by the Friday/Saturday night, I don't know if I'll be in condition to skate haha!! Come on, a local needs to show all the skaters around to the best bars, and maybe party with them after... I'm hoping... Team France looks like they'd be fun to party with lol)
  • Alisontheice
    Alisontheice Posts: 9,611 Member
    How exciting about Worlds in your town. I know lots of people from my rink are heading down to London to watch. We have a few elite skaters competing there so we have banners up that are waiting to be taken to London.

    My last dance will be the Austrian Waltz. I passed my Tango Romantica last summer. When I was in my teens I competed in Senior Dance so I got a lot of tests in my "prior life". :)
  • stiobhard
    stiobhard Posts: 140 Member
    What you´ve been working on?
    Progress, experience, trouble, funny moments... share yours!

    Me today - group session, mainly practised salchow. Individual work: spins, mainly change foot.

    The ice was asful at the beginning of the session and we lost at least 10 minutes of the session waiting for the zamboni. Which means about 75 mins on ice.
    And... photos for the skate club´s board were taken during the session, LOL.

    *sorry, I ment "what was your today´s skate like", obviously, but I can´t correct the title :mad:


    Oops! I did not read this thread till today because of the typo!!! I cannot think of any lies about skating...

    Today was a big review day for our class but we really focussed on forward crossovers and moving two foot turns on a circle.
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    A little off topic, but I did the bellman hold off the ice today, so at least I know I'm capable of it. I can't wait to start actively working on it!
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    Sorry for the autocorrect in my previous post. I didn't mean to misspel biellmann. Anyways, yesterday I made it to the rink, trying to work on my "bad" side and edges. I fell on my butt during backward crossovers and my wrist is not happy, but im proud to have been brave
  • cincisk8r
    cincisk8r Posts: 206 Member
    Happens to the best of us <3
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    Looks like I'm the only one posting updates here :) I think I finally am getting the hang of the left two foot turns away from the barrier, so the Mohawks in that uncomfortable for me direction should also be close. I also tried turning on one foot and (although I fell quite a few times) I got a few of them as well. I also realized how painstakingly slow I skate, so that's something to work on. Oh, and I managed to get a few power pulls on my good leg, which is pretty exciting. I wish I could skate more than once a week, but I'm happy to at least have those two hours for now.
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    I feel like I'm stalling in my progress. I realize that as an adult learner I have limitations, but I feel like I'm regressing in my skating. I am painstakingly slow (have no speed whatsoever), my body flails all over the place, and I still am horrified making left 2-foot turns, let alone left Mohawks and 3-turns. I feel like some strength training and weight loss would help, but I am so used to being nonathletic my whole life, I doubt I can ever seriously improve. After all, I've done yoga religiously for a year, and can still barely do a push up or hold a plank. No splits either. I wonder how much off-ice training I'd need to see any difference in skating.
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    Last night was nice. My 3 year old won the limbo contest (well, she's short) and I dedicated most of the 90 minutes to swizzles, slaloms, and power pulls. My legs and feet were on fire, and I really worked up a sweat. I'm a little disappointed in myself because I didn't fall down even once, so I probably could have tried to push myself harder.
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    I was finally fairly comfortable with left two-foot-turns, which used to cause paralyzing fear. Because of that I was able to work on mohawks on that side, too. Yay! I also made a little progress on the inside edge spread eagle. I have been stretching almost daily for the past few weeks to open my hips, and it must've worked.
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    I'm going to be in my senior year at the U and one of the things I'm really looking forward is to ice skating 4 times a week. I'm excited to show the coach that my summer has not been wasted. I am a lot more comfortable with many basic elements from last semester, and I can't wait to be pushed to learning new ones.
  • cincisk8r
    cincisk8r Posts: 206 Member
    Sorry I have been MIA, sounds like you are doing well <3
  • sophomorelove
    sophomorelove Posts: 193 Member
    Update: I took a figure skating class this past semester, which required learning a new jump and a new spin, and preparing a program. For me it was just waltz and 2-foot spin, but I feel great to have accomplished something :) I am in desperate need of better skates if I want to keep learning new things, but I'm in a deep financial well right now, so I have to put it off till maybe next year. I'll keep skating outside for now.
  • HappyAnna2014
    HappyAnna2014 Posts: 214 Member
    I just started skating in January. I'm at an ISI rink, and taking a pre-alpha class. My first competition is on April 29. I am really enjoying this, and a little aggravated with myself that it took this long to start...but I plan to work really hard and get up to Freestyle soon.
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