November 2007
Week of November 4, 2007
Inside Slide Chassés
For an hour-and-a-half of a two-hour session, I did not spin and I did not jump. All I practiced were dance steps, moves in the field (MITF), and basic stroking drills. I like to combine steps and moves to create my own patterns and pick up new patterns from watching other ice dancers. Unless you are an ice dancer, this is a lot of time to devote to skating skills. In addition to wanting to test MITF, I believe nothing improves a person’s overall appearance and presentation on the ice like dance and moves. For most of my skating “career”, I absorbed myself in spinning and later jumping. I became a very good spinner, but could not fill the rink, skate fast, or perform turns in both directions. The “both directions” part still has me stumped especially after I broke my ankle on a counterclockwise three-turn. However, I am a much more balanced skater than I used to be.
My favorite dance skills are swing rolls of all types and chassés. My backward swing rolls drew the attention of another adult skater. She wondered what dance I was doing when I was actually just working on a drill of alternating back crossovers to back outside swing rolls. This is my variation on the field move that incorporates a backward outside edge extension. I prefer to do the move as a swing roll, though I would not chance this bit of personal expression on a test. We talked for few minutes then we both went back about our business.
I did a pattern of alternating slide chassés around the rink, filling the ice with big lobes and skating as fast as I could while still maintaining control and extension. Then I practiced them on a hockey circle doing one chassé after another. I had printed out the Adult Gold Inside Slide Chassé pattern for the MITF test intending to dabble with it. No one has ever formally taught me this pattern, but I have seen it performed many times in person by fellow adult skaters and have studied video of it. After walking through the steps, I tried to skate through one repeat unit in each direction, omitting the dangerous right back outside three-turn that mangled my ankle. For now, I will complete the turns on two feet until my confidence develops.
I do not understand the slide chassés. I love chassés, but these seem to be slips instead of slides. The diagram I printed from the USFS web site even says “slip”. I do not know how to slip. I know how to slide. This sounds like an exercise in semantics, but I cannot seem to change from one forward inside edge to another without pushing. I will consult a friend about this later and study more videos now that I have identified my area of difficulty.
View the Inside Slide Chassé pattern on the USFS web site.
Week of November 4, 2007; Part Two
The Dapper Gentleman
So who is this “dapper gentleman”? Well, he was there for the whole session. He spent most of his time practicing his own routine, which looked like a spotlight number, and included bloke-ish moves like a spin with hands his in his pockets and a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders. When he was not actively practicing, he chatted with other skaters and gave advice. I wondered if he was a coach. He was older, retired most likely, and dressed in a dapper outfit consisting of crisply pleated slacks, a turtleneck sweater with a cardigan buttoned over it and a jaunty hat. He had sparkly happy eyes and a crooked smile. We did not start talking until the last half-hour of the session when I began spinning.
He really liked my camels and said they were “beauty-full”. It was a very sincere compliment. He was especially fascinated by my inverted backward camel. Granted, I only have one crappy photo of this move and have never seen it on video, so I cannot be sure how it really looks. Since many people have admired it, it can’t be too bad. The dapper fellow thought I was doing some kind of Chinese spiral position. Then he concluded it was a layback variation, which I guess it is. I demonstrated the spin and hit a particularly nice one. I told him it is an adaptation of a roller skating move. Since I spin in the opposite direction, it can be difficult for people to digest what I am doing. For contrast, I showed him my basic layback, which he also declared “beauty-full”. Mr. Dapper noted that I approach spins with speed and center very neatly.
He asked if I did a flying camel, then possibly prompted by my age, commented on how dangerous they are. Not more dangerous than a bone-snapping right back outside three-turn. Anyway, he offered me an easy out, if I chose to accept it. One of my goals is to improve my air position and land with my free leg already at camel height. I was eager for his impartial evaluation. He said it took about two rotations for my free leg to rise into position, although it was only slightly below hip level. Now I know what to work on.
We talked for a while after the session. He was very nice and enjoyed helping other people. He has only been skating a few years and is not a coach. However, he has mastered a spin that has eluded me. This man can do a cross-foot spin; not a scratch spin, but a true cross-foot. The cross-foot is an unexpectedly difficult version of a two-foot spin. However, the feet are crossed and the skater spins on the outside edges of his skates. I feel all tangled up when I try it. Plus, my thighs may be too thunderous to cross efficiently. Anyway, he can do it. Maybe he has a secret that he will share.
Week of November 11, 2007
At the Other End of the Rope
A jump harness can help skaters learn many skills, though it is most commonly employed when skaters begin to work on the axel. The harness consists of a belt that may have attached shoulder straps, a mechanism that fixes the harness to a rope, a moving pulley, and a line that spans the width of the rink. The rope hangs over the pulley with the skater on one side and extra rope for the instructor to hold on the other. The pulley rolls along the line allowing the student to skate the width of the rink to execute the skill being trained. The instructor assists the skater by pulling on the rope to lift the student off the ice providing additional air time to achieve position, complete rotation, and find the landing.
Another coach was using the harness when I began my weekly lesson with Lexie. Lexie wanted to try the harness. I have been strapped into a harness many times in the course of my own training. However, I have never been on the coach’s end of the rope. I did not confess this to Lexie. One of my former coaches explained how to use a harness years ago, and I felt confident working with Lexie. The belt was tangled and my student became visibly nervous. I told her we would not use the harness if I could not get it untangled. If she did not like the harness, we could stop at any time. Finally, I cinched her in.
I showed Lexie how to set her jumps under the line, which she understandably had trouble doing at first. Lexie is used to being unfettered and jumping like a little gazelle. On one hand, I encourage her to “skate big” using at least one-third of the ice to prep a jump. Now I was restricting her to the area right under the wire. She adapted easily enough and we started with a few safe waltz jumps during which I gave her a slight tug so she could feel the lifting sensation. My pupil smiled widely. She was ready to go.
Lexie wants to increase the size of her salchow. I encouraged her to hold each position in the set and check of the three-turn. She could spring from a loaded knee, reach with her free leg and land with confidence. I also taught Lexie the loop jump. She had done one holding the wall a couple of weeks before, but felt afraid to stray from its safety. In the harness, she experimented and eventually kicked her free leg out in the landing. We did waltz-loop and salchow-loop combinations. I talked to Lexie about axels and double salchows. She is not ready for these skills, but I wanted her to understand how the technique she was learning would lead her to more advanced jumps in the future.
A skill Lexie definitely needs to develop is the backspin. She is not a “spinner” by nature. Like many young skaters, Lexie enjoys jumping. However, spinning (particularly back-spinning) is a prerequisite for jumps. A jump is basically a spin in the air. This becomes more apparent in multi-rotation jumps. Lexie struggles to stay off her toe pick in forward upright spins, usually only achieving one or two turns before rising to the toe. She does not have a backspin to speak of. So we practiced a few spins in the harness so she could relax and explore her blade. I held her via the rope and she prolonged her forward spin with correct entrance edge and flexed knee. She completed at least five rotations without toe pick interference. Then she tried a backspin. The harness protected her from hard falls.
After the spins, Lexie did some more jumps in the harness. She landed a couple of decent loops from a forward inside three-turn. My student was having such a good time, she did not want the lesson to end. We spent another fifteen minutes together. I was having fun too and enjoying her easy progress. Freed of the harness, she landed some very nice salchows remembering the techniques she had learned.
To balance Lexie’s skating, I am spending the first ten minutes of our lessons on basic skills such as stroking and moves in the field. I want her to have a complete package for her level. Although she does not relish basic skills, she is beginning to appreciate their importance.
Most skating coaches are employed as independent contractors, meaning they are not employees of the rinks where they teach. The rink does not take deductions out of their paychecks. In US tax lingo they are paid as “1099s”. I have worked as a 1099 and as a rink employee. Rarely is a coach salaried or fulltime unless that coach has a staff position such as skating director or other management. In this case, the salary would probably be quite low because the coach would be expected to supplement his/her income with private lessons much as a waiter or waitress earns tips. As with most part-time jobs, skating coaches rarely receive a benefits package. No health insurance, no paid vacation, no sick leave, no family time, no retirement plan, no nothing. Whether you take a day off to go shopping, to have surgery, to tend a sick child, or stay home with a hideous cough; (guess what) you don’t get paid. I have not worked this type of job since I was a college student. And, by the way, neither of the rinks where I currently teach offers complimentary ice time to its professional staff. So even that cost-saving fringe benefit has vanished since my last stint as a skating instructor.
Unfortunately, I was nursing the early stages of a cold when I worked with my private student at the beginning of the week. Within a couple of days, I was full-blown sick as a dog and have been coughing just short of hocking up a lung. Obviously, I have not worked an hour since. Salaried office people go to work in worse condition. It is a form of corporate macho that may earn extra points with slave-driving bosses but shares the virus with everyone else. Soon the whole sea of cubicles is hacking and sneezing. As a skating coach, it would be terribly irresponsible to come to work in a cold environment and distribute my germs to susceptible children. I have cancelled private lessons and missed group teaching. I have not earned a single dollar since Lexie’s harness lesson. With Thanksgiving coming, I will have another week of sparse income. Classes are not being held. However, I was able to reschedule two students I had to cancel this week.
While teaching skating is the most rewarding and enjoyable professional experience I have ever had, I am discovering its realities. Veteran coaches have described the ebb and flow of their wages according to economic trends as well as random factors. A student may break a bone and be out for a few months. If the coach cannot fill that timeslot, s/he does not earn money. Students quit for various reasons. Revenue from those skaters disappears overnight. One coach told me a pupil’s parent recently lost his job. Skating is a luxury readily cut when budgets get tight.
Fun as it may be to teach people to skate, coaching is a business. No career is completely devoid of problems. It is an excellent job for college students, people with successful spouses, and those who really don’t need the money. If you can coach for “gravy”, you will not be disappointed. I do not mean to paint an entirely bleak picture. Plenty of pros earn a good living teaching skating. Maybe I will be one of them.
Sunday November 25, 2007
That Wobbly Feeling
I have been off the ice for two weeks due to a cold. It had to be a particularly nasty one to keep me away from rinks for that long. I probably could have gone skating over the Thanksgiving Weekend, but I learned my lesson long ago about holiday crowds. Forget it. The arena is packed shoulder-to-shoulder and the mass moves like a slime mold with the exception of a few compact individuals on hockey skates who manage to weave among the swarm.
The freestyle session at Ice Castle was virtually empty for Lexie’s lesson. I anxiously took the ice planning to get a respectable warm-up before teaching. My legs felt like jelly. I experienced a strange wobbly sensation as I stroked around the rink, as though I had forgotten how to skate or my body was still full of congestion making me dizzy and detached. Playing it safe, I continued to reacquaint myself with the ice by skating forward two-foot slaloms then graduating back to stroking. My legs were weak and pliable. It has been a long time since I returned to the ice after recovering from so virulent a cold. I certainly was not in top form and was glad the majority of regular skaters were away for the holiday. This is not the professional image I want to project.
A coach about half my age enjoyed a little free ice for herself between students. She has obviously not been sick lately and is blessed with youth. She appeared to be working toward her senior moves in the field test. Her extension in the spiral sequences was truly lovely. I must work on my own spirals. Add that to the list. She also completed a very exciting series of traveling three-turns into a backward sit spin. I used to do traveling threes into a camel. Time to exhume that skill. I have also learned how to do a back sit as an isolated element from a forward inside three-turn. This pro gave me an idea for combining two skills I already have but use infrequently.
Watching other people always motivates me to improve my own skating. I am anxious for this congestion to clear once and for all so I can get back on the ice and get to work.
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