November 2000
November 1-3, 2000
If Crap Could Skate
Of the three days I skated this week, the first two were normal productive practices. On the third day, I went to the mall and had a disastrous session. Everyone experiences bad skating days when nothing works properly. Rather than attributing these events to the laws of probability, misalignment of planets, or simple bad luck; a fresh blade sharpening probably resulted in my inability to skate up to standard. Ordinarily, I like very sharp edges since my home rink has hard ice. Unfortunately, the mall ice is somewhat softer.
A believer in the “move on principle” of avoiding frustration while skating, I moved on over and over again, unable to find a skill I could do well. Moves in the field that apparently improved seemed as underdeveloped as ever, and jumps felt awkward and scary as my edges grabbed the soft ice. Earlier in the week, I enjoyed a successful axel and double salchow lesson and decided to leave those elements alone. This last grinding evidently decimated the remainder of my rockers. Heel dragging and toe pick scratching, byproducts of flattened blades, ruined my spins.
Until my new boots and blades arrive, this equipment will have to suffice. I needed a dulling stone, a possession I once regarded as a waste of money and buried in the kitchen junk drawer. How could edges be too sharp? Desperate to salvage some ice time, I rubbed my blades on a bench. I spent much of the session performing flying camels, a move sacrificed to dull edges the previous week . It was about the only thing I could do without feeling clumsy.
After I left the ice a woman asked how long I had been skating.
“About eight years.” Too bad this kind lady did not see me on a good day. How lovely of her to boost my confidence when I felt so disgusted.
“That’s fantastic! You learned all of that in one year?” she asked, obviously mishearing my reply.
“No, eight years.”
Disappointment and embarrassment clouded the woman’s features as she sought words to disguise her faux pas. “I think it’s wonderful that you learned to skate as an adult.”
“Thank you,” I managed.
However, the woman’s expression belied her good intentions.
‘One year? You’re a great skater!’ versus ‘Eight years? You suck.’
I felt terribly ashamed of that practice and wanted to flee the rink as soon as my mistaken admirer returned to the sidelines to watch her child. If crap could skate, it would have looked better than I did.
Week of November 6, 2000
A Spectacular Fall
My coach, Geoff, leaned on the barrier watching as I approached an axel with more speed and determination than usual. I have been feeling comfortable with axels and managing to stay on my feet more frequently, though sometimes at the expense of rotation. However, I landed a decent one while warming up and wanted to duplicate the feat in my lesson.
I took off, lifting upward and initiating rotation. The velocity, though not impressive by absolute standards, must have intimidated me, because I opened in the air and fell with a hideous thud and slammed an unfortunate blade into the ice. The disaster made a terrible noise and everyone in the rink turned to see what could have caused such a violent disruption. Ordinarily, I bounce back from a stumble, and only a keen observer would notice the mishap. However, this fall left me dazed, wondering how badly I may have been hurt. Unable to regain my footing immediately, Geoff approached to assess the damage and found me stunned but not injured. The only ill effect I might suffer would be soreness the next morning.
Still confused and frightened by the intensity of that accident, I aborted my next axel attempt. I had to do an axel, or something closely resembling an axel, to regain my confidence. A startling and vicious fall could set me back weeks if not followed by a
Falling usually does not bother me. I have accepted it as a necessary accompaniment to progress, especially when attempting difficult
Respectable attempts at the double salchow and loop did not banish the axel incident from my memory. I was happy to reach the spin segment of the lesson where a powerful scratch spin finally renewed my peace of mind.
Week of November 13, 2000
Progress Report
An entire week passed without anything noteworthy or amusing happening at the rink. Therefore, I will take this opportunity to summarize my progress on new and challenging skills.
Axel
After last week’s disastrous axel fall, I took a break for a couple of days before even attempting this jump again. When I did, I fell every time. I doubt the axel will ever be a good jump for me. It is just too mentally and physically exhausting to practice for hours. The falls are painful and discouraging. However, I forced myself to work on it until I landed something, driving off residual fear.
Double Salchow and Double Loop
According to my coach, these are better than the axel, and I am beginning to agree with him. My technique is reasonably decent and the salchow, in particular, shows promise. My single loop is a huge jump and could easily multiply into a double. Unfortunately, I anticipate the rotation and overcompensate on the take-off losing speed and height. Next week, I will try to trick myself into believing I am only doing a single loop, then override prior mental commands and pull in for a double. This might work if I can summon the courage.
Preliminary Moves in the Field
I find moves in the field (MITF) stunningly tedious. I usually only do them as a warm up or cool down or out of a sense of guilt. I want to take the USFSA Preliminary tests but have to force myself to do these boring moves. Lately, I have been practicing MITF with new diligence completing at least three rounds of each skill per session. The alternating backward crossovers with outside edge extensions and forward power three-turns are the substandard members of the group. The alternating crossovers are better refined than the miserable power three-turns. I work especially hard on the power threes but wonder if my coach will ever declare them testable. The pattern lacks rhythm and my insecurity translates into toe pick scratching; fingernails on the skating world’s chalkboard.
Cannonball Sit Spin
I pulled my right quadriceps doing too many forward sit spins this week. I want a cannonball sit spin desperately and was exploring different methods of achieving the position. Unfortunately, as I put my head down, the view of my foot rotating on the ice below makes me sick. Another skater, who owns a passable cannonball, told me to close my eyes. My leg gave out before I could bravely shut my eyes while spinning. No more forward sit spins for a while. Almost every spin or combination I worked on this week involved a backward sit spin, instead.
Flying Camel
I simply love this flying spin. It’s my best skill, with the possible exception of the layback.
Death Drop or Flying Camel Sit Spin
While I enjoy this move, I have trouble flipping over quickly into the backward sit spin. Usually I travel a few rotations before centering. However, the death drop produces a very fast backward sit. Some skaters tap their free toe on the ice to anchor the back sit spin before the transition. I have never tried this. Unlike the flying camel, the legs must kick high above horizontal to achieve a death drop. Mine does not look like the enormous
Butterfly
My coach says this actually looks like a legitimate butterfly, as seen on TV. Like the death drop, I have to work on either pivoting out of it more smoothly or flipping over into a back sit spin faster. This entrance also yields a very fast backward sit spin.
Illusion
Illusions are not easy. I do them out of a back camel and generally can only complete one at a time and have never executed more than four in sequence. My illusions are fully inverted, unlike the “bobbing for apples” backward camels that many competitive skaters perform. Some coaches call those “bounce spins” rather than illusions. The ideal illusion should approach a vertical split and create an illusion of the body rotating like a windmill around the hips.
Backward Camel Variations
I recently discovered the layover (or inverted) backward camel, and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite spins. Given my affinity for laybacks, the layover is a natural spin for me. This week, I have enjoyed great success with these, rotating five times in an upside down position. Instead of simply pivoting out, I have made the spin more interesting my rolling back into the traditional swan dive pose for a couple more turns before exiting.
Last week, I observed a young skater approaching a backward camel from a series of three turns. For the counterclockwise skater, the turns are RFI3, RBO3, and RFI3 into a backward camel. Ideally, the turns are performed in a camel position creating a traveling backward camel. This element is common in artistic roller skating and can be performed with remarkable speed on quad skates. I immediately decided to learn the traveling backward camel, which is fortuitously easier than its evil twin, the traveling forward camel. While my turns are still more upright than in a spiral position, I find this move an interesting diversion.
Weird Spin Combinations
Over the summer, I played with the layback-change-back sit combination with some success. The difficulty of this combination lies in recovering from hanging upside down in the layback to pushing strongly into a seated posture. After warming up with an attitude (an upright spin with a layback leg position)-change-back sit combination, I try the full layback. On a good day, I complete one or two decent ones.
Similar to the layback-change-back sit, I am also experimenting with a layback-change-back camel.
The forward sit-change-back camel is on hold until my right leg heals.
An interesting combination on one foot that I learned years ago but did not possess the skills to perform is an attitude-camel. The skater spins as fast as possible in an attitude position then hits the toe pick to hook a forward camel. The first spin must be very fast because hooking the camel reduces the speed of the combination. This is a fascinating method for entering a basic camel, and I finally have the foundation to do it well.
Summary
My spins are good with the possible exception of the cannonball that claimed my right thigh as a victim. Predictably, the difficult multi-revolution jumps were the low point of my practices. Someday I might be ready to test Preliminary MITF. The forward power three-turns are the worst skill in the lot, despite numerous repetitions during each session.
The layover backward camel stands out as the highlight of my skating week.
Friday November 24, 2000
The Day After Thanksgiving
“There aren’t many cars here,” my husband announced enthusiastically as we pulled into the parking lot of an outdoor rink.
He planned to take pictures of me showcasing my new skills under the clear blue sky. Since he has not watched my skating for a couple of years, I hoped for a good morning session before the place filled with the Thanksgiving weekend crowd. Assuming mothers would be lined up at the mall rink the moment it opened, eager to ditch their children for a few hours of shopping during the busiest day of the year, we choose the outdoor facility for our photo session. As I lifted my gear from the trunk, cars poured into the lot. Hoping any ice arena will be skateable on the day after Thanksgiving is probably as ridiculous as wishing for short lines at Disneyland on a summer Saturday.
The circling throng of once-or-twice-a-year skaters prevented a proper warm-up of stroking exercises and moves in the field. I began spinning almost immediately. The small ice surface compounded the over-population problem. It also deteriorated quickly under the rented blades of more than a hundred people. My husband took six pictures of the same stupid layback that he has seen since our first date, which happened to take place at this very outdoor ice rink. The layback has probably improved over the years; but I hoped to demonstrate stars, flying spins, and jump combinations. However, these skills require room to build speed and an uninterrupted performance area. I tried a few flying camels, death drops and butterflies; but none matched my usual standard. Before entering each trick, my concentration broke as I looked for people who might be impaled by my blades.
Plenty of oblivious little kids stood absently in the center, which was marked by cones for the couple of figure skaters at the session. Other people cut through the area or merely stood there for a break, to pose for family portraits, or view the scenery. Although my husband depleted over two rolls of film, many shots were wasted as someone stepped cluelessly in front of his lens. Hopefully, we will salvage some decent pictures to add to my online photo gallery.
After only an hour, I wanted to leave the insanity. Regardless of the conditions, I felt ashamed of my skating. I feared that I looked no better today than I did three years and several thousand dollars ago. My husband will have to take my word about my new competencies, because I certainly did not reveal what a brilliant skater I have become. He agreed that the impossible session precluded all but basic spins initiated from a three-turn. Still, I worried about my disappointing performance. If I were a child showing off for my parents; I would have been afraid they might fire my coach, revoke my skating privileges, and send me back to public school.
** Photographs from this session have been posted in my Photo Gallery.
Week of November 27, 2000
Meeting the Standard
Every time my coach monitors my preliminary moves in the field (MITF), he finds something new wrong with them. For the last couple of months, I have devoted about three or four hours per week to these stupid moves because I want to take the test and proceed to the next level. An entire year has elapsed since I took a skating test. While my skating may be sufficiently imperfect that a coach could
Upon posing this question, the coach quickly admitted that he though I would pass, but when challenged with nervousness in a testing situation, slight imperfections could magnify into large errors. MITF have been a troublesome and often humiliating experience for me. I learned to skate with little background in the basics, first due to lack of finances and time to invest in the sport and later due to a coach with disputable qualifications. Now I find myself struggling with fundamentals I should have developed years ago. Practicing for an entire year to take a test that is commonly passed by children under ten years old with minimal preparation has left me doubting my potential. While these moves are not necessarily easy, they seem especially difficult to me.
Adding to my confusion, I recently observed another adult skater working on alternating forward outside three-turns with her instructor. The lobes were enormous; whereas mine reflect the scale of the diagram in the USFSA Rule Book. The instructor did not attempt to correct her student’s supposed fault. Lobe size varies tremendously between skaters on several patterns. Some people cross the rink’s lengthwise median when executing backward crossovers with outside edge extensions, which is completely inconsistent with the rulebook’s illustrations. Other skaters perform slow, methodical forward power threes with huge lobes. In contrast, my power threes are fast and powerful, which I thought was the point of the exercise. My coach explained that there will always be variations between individual performances, but he is guiding me based on previous successes. The rulebook itself appears to allow plenty of room for interpretation.
In an effort to make the preliminary moves easier by comparison, we began working on the pre-juvenile skills. The backward and forward alternating crossovers will not present a problem, because I warm up with them daily. However, the three-turns in the field threaten to halt my progress for years. Backward counterclockwise three-turns make me uncomfortable. I can do the clockwise variants, but rocking to the back of my blade and turning in the other direction defies the forces of nature. Fortunately, this seems to be the only limiting factor in the pre-juvenile set. I wonder how long it will take to be ready for this test. Those backward threes are going to drive me crazy. I am satisfied just to complete one without putting my free foot down, never mind obsessing over placement, lobe symmetry and other minutiae.
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