November 2001
Week of November 5, 2001
Athlete’s Euphoria
Since last week’s lesson, larger more powerful jumps have become a staple of my skating repertoire, as well as a source of fascination. Before my meeting with Geoff this week, I completed a flip jump of remarkable enormity, shouting with surprise as I struggled to control the landing. During my lesson, I enthusiastically attempted all of the combinations and sequences the coach suggested while maintaining a hunger for more. I did not pause to rest or catch my breath between efforts but proceeded with the zeal of a youngster in training for a pivotal competition. I completed exhausting sequences including: split-flip-half loop-salchow and split-flip-loop-half loop-salchow. My split jumps have attained a better split position, though plenty of room for improvement remains.
I felt like I could do anything. This would have been the perfect time for Geoff to request an axel or double salchow. I have not worked on these in weeks, since a friend of mine sustained a knee injury falling from an axel. If she can get hurt, and she skated competitively as a child, I certainly am not immune to disaster. Facing a daunting axel, I probably would have reverted to my hesitant, conservative style.
Once a skater masters a jump, there is no reason not to gradually increase his approach speed. Although my jumps have developed gradually over the years; dramatic acceleration has been long overdue. If a skill is truly comfortable to the point of thoughtless facility, it does not necessarily have to be taken to the double level, especially if the skater is reluctant to accept this endeavor. An adult soaring over several feet of open ice is a remarkable sight (and a pretty wonderful sensation). In my opinion; a gigantic, powerful single taken at maximum velocity beats a slothful, claustrophobic double without contest. Judges may score these elements differently, but I take more pride in a skill performed well than a half-assed one. Similarly, I am more impressed by adults who skate with strength and confidence while completing excellent singles than those who toe-pick around the rink and manage an atrocious double.
This lesson was unusual not because of what I achieved, but because of my mind set. My coach tends to push me very hard, and I always seem to possess a reserve of untapped energy that surfaces when met with simulating skating challenges. Even at the end of a two-hour session, I leap around the rink with the vigor of a teenager. Of course, I feel those final stars and butterflies the next morning, but never with regret. After Geoff left the arena, I continued to jump and twirl, skating as fast as the novice pair who warmed up individually.
Stricken by athlete’s euphoria, fatigue and apprehension had vanished due to an almost drunken lack of inhibition. I no longer cared what I tried or how quickly I moved. All outside references had disappeared leaving me barely aware of anyone else. When the session concluded, I stumbled numbly to the lobby and collapsed onto a bench. I was not tired. I was tipsy. Adrenaline circulated through my body and my muscles were taut and invigorated, ready to accommodate whatever confronted them. I wanted to skate longer, but it was time to leave. I needed to eat something and emerge from this glorious stupor before driving home.
Week of November 12, 2001
Thank You, Nicole Watt
Although I had heard of her previously, the first time I actually saw Nicole Watt was during televised coverage of Skate Canada 2001. She is a Canadian senior lady with a promising future. During her long program, Watt performed a lunge directly into a forward camel spin, an element I had never seen before but found intriguing. While I doubt Nicole Watt invented this move or is the first person to execute it in competition, she performs it quite well and it may become her signature piece.
I decided to try the lunge-spin this week. It had been eight years since I last performed a lunge. After discovering the ease with which I do this skill left-legged, I dissected it into minute details useful for improving my right-legged variant, the one that will lead into a clockwise forward spin. The best I achieved the first day was a decent lunge followed by a traveling upright spin. However, these results were encouraging.
The second day, I lunged across the rink and into a scratch spin that centered reasonably well. My confidence buoyed, I repeated the skill several times, just to be certain I could do it consistently. Instead of attempting the lunge-camel immediately, I imagined this preparation leading into a sit spin. With my body already close to the ice, whipping the free leg around to produce a sit spin without rising from the lunge could create a fascinating effect. After a few experiments; I lunged into a low, fast, centered sit spin. The camel presented little more difficulty than the sit spin. Everyone in the rink watched as I performed these unusual stunts, hopefully because they looked at least interesting if not immediately good.
Lunge-spins technically resemble the entrance to a basic two-foot spin, in which the spinning foot plants while the second leg generates rotation from a wide push. For drama, the lunge is best attempted on the flat of the blade, straight down the central lengthwise axis of the arena, with the arms outstretched grandly. The faster the better, as is expected in freestyle ice skating. To enter the spin, the skater folds her leading arm across her chest and leans, finding the RFO edge for a clockwise spin. The trailing leg begins to slide to the side, as the skater cuts an edge. As the trailing leg arcs, its blade takes the ice, similar to a female pairs skater in a forward inside death spiral. Without ascending from the lunge, which is now traveling along a tightening curve, the skater executes a RFO three-turn, hooking her toe pick at the apex of the turn to anchor the ensuing spin. Upon hooking, the skater may achieve any desired spin position. For a camel, the leading arm sweeps into the spin as the knee rises, lifting the extended free leg off the ice.
Nicole Watt’s lunge-camel is not the first move I have mooched from a TV skater. I learned a one-foot salchow by watching Kurt Browning. One of my finest layback combinations was copied from Karen Magnussen. My forward sit-upright-sit combination comes courtesy of a Sonia Henie movie. My fabulous change-edge spiral was plagiarized from the repertoire of Michelle Kwan. Watching other skaters inspires me. Surprisingly, I have learned many of their clever tricks. I strongly recommend the lunge-spin to anyone who has mastered the lunge and any forward spin. It is not especially hard. Unfortunately, after years of admiring Elvis Stojko’s quadruple toe loop, I still have not acquired a simple double through osmosis.
so if my travels include any interesting skating adventures,
I will post an entry early the following week.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Week of November 26, 2001
Oscillating Sit Spin
Last week, I mentioned borrowing a sit-upright-sit spin combination from a Sonia Henie movie. I have also seen Nancy Kerrigan execute a similar skill within the last decade. I first experimented with this element nearly two years ago, without much commitment. Rising from a deep sit, descending again, then rising into a final scratch strains the quadriceps. This was sufficiently painful that I questioned the wisdom of perfecting the spin, unsure that its beauty merited the sacrifice. This week, I observed the short program of Romanian skater, Gheorghe Chiper, during televised coverage of Cup of Russia. I had never seen this man before and paid attention to what he might have to offer.
Gheorghe is a master of the forward sit-upright-sit combination and performed it to inspiring perfection. I learned two important tips by studying this skater’s interpretation of the old Sonia Henie move. First: initiating the combination with a fast camel can result in a faster forward sit spin than might otherwise be achieved by performing the sit spin alone. Second: an open position must be attained in the upright spin. The free leg should extend to the side, as though the skater plans to pull into a blurred scratch spin, and the arms should open. This posture allows the skater to draw his arms and leg inward generating speed for the second sit. Since no change of foot occurs presenting an opportunity to regain lost momentum, speed must be renewed solely by efficient manipulation of body position.
Thank you, Gheorghe Chiper. Back to the rink.
I hit this combination with expert precision on the first try. Lacking a formal name aside from the cumbersome nomenclature utilized to differentiate spin combinations, I have decided to dub the sit-upright-sit “the oscillating sit spin”, because it literally appears to oscillate up and down. The spin was almost too easy. I was amazed. Unfortunately, beginners’ luck reigns supreme and my next attempts floundered. After a few failures and embarrassing misfires that I hoped no one witnessed, I completed another respectable one. Confident, I repeated the combination at maximum rotational speed. In the second sit, my knee popped and I fell to the ice, legs extended indelicately while I spun on my butt cheeks. Like my new friend, the lunge-spin, the oscillating sit wreaks havoc on the thighs. My right leg screamed for mercy. Accommodating my frailty, I began to perform the backward variant of this spin combination: back camel-back sit-upright-back sit. Again, the first attempt was very good. Then I had a brainstorm. Why not join the forward and backward spins in a combination? A truly bizarre hybrid was born: back camel-sit-upright-sit-change-forward sit-upright-sit-scratch. This gave rise to another permutation: forward camel-sit-upright-sit-change-back sit-upright-back sit-exit.
Fortunately, my legs had recovered by the next day and I was ready to go again. A coach caught me doing one of the more complicated versions and remarked that she was impressed. This combination is not unconquerably difficult, and I recommend that anyone who owns a strong camel-sit try tacking an upright-sit on the end. It is far from impossible and nothing sounds better than “I’m impressed” coming from a coach who is not on your payroll.
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