Saturday, March 23, 2013

New Coach--First Lesson

"You don't toepick," Madam Mim said, "That's good."

On our first lesson, Madam Mim had been running me through my forward paces. Stroking, edges, crossovers. She made a couple of tweaks: arm position, leg position, and knee bend. This is the reason you have a coach; You can fall into bad habits unless you have a coach. I'd only skated in the last few weeks a total of about 2 hours. I was still unconsciously favoring my knees and had some sloppy habits. On the good side no one could fault my posture.

So my impression of her impression of my forward skating was that of the 'nice Madam Mim' in The Sword in the Stone.
"No toepicking--nice stroking! Good posture!"
(I takes good news where I can find it)
However, going backwards was another story. I just don't trust my knee yet in deep kneebend going backwards. My back crosses were weak, pathetic really. And my back stroking--let's just say I've been given homework to bring me up to speed.  The knee may be (mostly) pain free, but a ligament or a bone, or a muscle, or something else could snap at any moment. Yes, I am a wimp. And paranoid to boot.

So when she saw my back crosses, my coach was like evil Madame Mim.
I reject your back crossovers,
and substitute ones I like
I have to pretty much redevelop back crosses and back stroking.  I have backward skating homework, like a remedial student in summer school.

(On the other hand, FO3 and mohawks coming along!)

So summary of this first lesson:
This is a knee.
Bend it more.


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6 comments:

  1. T. SedaiMarch 23, 2013 at 11:35 PM

    "This is a knee, bend it more" is like every single lesson I have ever had. Ever. For well over a decade. Today I had a breakthrough though. It was finally declared that my knee was bent, but that it just wasn't bent in the right direction to get a deep enough edge for the loop figure I was doing. At least he finally admitted it was bent. Sigh.

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    Replies
    1. Babbette DuboiseMarch 25, 2013 at 6:26 PM

      Yep. I'd like just one or two lessons where I don't hear the words "Bend the knee." or "Straighten the Knee. Extension!"

      Delete
  2. Noorah101March 24, 2013 at 9:39 PM

    My coach has started saying "press into the ice" instead of "bend your knees". Pressing into the ice seems to get the correct knee/ankle bend ratio better than bending my knees, evdently. Works for me, although watching videos back of myself, my knee is hardly bent at all. I swear the video auto-corrects to a straight knee!!

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    Replies
    1. Babbette DuboiseMarch 25, 2013 at 6:26 PM

      I'll give that a try.

      Delete
    2. LoriMarch 25, 2013 at 7:51 PM

      My coach tells me something like that too, if I think lust of bending the knee, my back side goes out. Press into the ice makes sure you bring your ankle into the equation. It gives you more power on your jumps too.

      Delete
  3. LoriMarch 25, 2013 at 7:52 PM

    ooops that's "If I think JUST of bending... really must learn to look at the keyboard when typing :)

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