Skating With Liz Day 2
Today we worked together for 45 minutes. Thursdays are good for this. She doesn’t have any other student so it’s fun to work for a longer period of time.
Figure 8s
We started off with forward and backwards figure 8s. I can do the forward figure 8, but she showed me how to do it again, which is necessary given that I learned it a long time ago and haven’t practised it since. So things to point out:
- push off and get into position : start out with opposite arms and feet, arms lower down penguins arms Jeff would have called them, push off into toe to heel. Pull up the hip you’re not on so you’re tilted nicely on the leg you’re supposed to be on.
- transition upper body at top of circle
- transition feet into train tracks at the last quarter of the circle - so your foot that’s toe to heel now shifts forward to be before your skating foot on the line exactly with a slight pigeon toe for next push
For backward circle 8, it was reversed, you start off with train tracks, transition arms at the top of the circle and transition from toe to heel into train tracks at the quarter circle. Do them one at a time, not both at once. Also, push off with a “running start”. So you push off from the foot that’s opposite to the direction that you want to go for a backward figure 8. And land into the train tracks position with penguin arms. Pump for the second circle. Going to practice only the outsides for now!
Fancy Cross Overs
(Note to self: find out the real name for these). These were really fun and really challenging. So the idea is to to the cross over right at the end of your semi circle. The foot that’s underneath has the job of then pushing through, pigeon toe-ing, stretching out and holding while you’re skating foot is has taken off on a semi circle, and then coming around and crossing over the other foot at the end of semi circle to cross over the skating foot. That leg movement is called something like a “grand jamboree” (again, find out the proper name for the leg movement). Things to keep in mind, keep the upper body stable, mostly move the lower body.
We also did the backward version of this, where you push off from your skating foot which is perpendicular to the skating foot. You push backward onto it and move your foot that just freed up to go behind it. That push is called something like “lamarche slide” (again, need to find out the actual name for this move!).
Regular cross overs
I showed Liz my regular backward crossovers and she said something right away that made them better — the foot that is pushing through behind, I’m pointing it but to the side so it’s pushing me to a direction that’s unhelpful, so I need to push through without squaring the foot. When I was practising the forward direction earlier without her, I think I was doing the same thing, where everything was taut but something was still off.
One Foot Spin
I learned the splat — so I’m going into my semi circle with opposite arms checked, but then I was missing the split where I release that check arm to make the 3 turn happen and stay more centered while doing so. The thing I had to work on now is bringing my left arm and left leg up (again in that jambouree movement (again finf out the proper name for this)) at the same time. Lastly, I have to focus on leaning forward a little bit in order to center the spin a little bit in front of my chest. Like say 5 inches in front. So this will prevent me from “learning back”. The last spin I did was a bit toe-picky, but it was good!
I’m pretty happy and excited to practice all these new (and some old moves) out! 😃 ⛸️