Relearning FI3

Madam Mim is working on my FO3 checks. While my turns are fine, I have issues in checking w/ my shoulder, so I end up making a turn that is heart shaped.

Madam Mim says it's 'butt shaped'.  Well, that's some negative motivation.

Then she says, "Let's work on your inside 3's."

To my surprise, residual skating memory works. I recover my okay beginner FI3 inside a few minutes.

Then I'm directed to work on my checks.

First try, I haul the leading shoulder back, going deep in the knee as I come out of the turn and glide for about 6 feet.

On the wrong edge.

Madam Mim takes out her Marker of Doom and sketches out the turn.

"Perfect rocker," she says.

First thought through my mind:

My three turn's crap

Then a second later...

Oh, delight! I have a rocker!

It's like losing your virginity. Accident or not, it counts!

"Oh, good," Madam Mim says, " I think that means you're ready for back 3s. Let's start."

ooooh noooo

Parts of the Skating Blade

So every once in a while, I like to post an 'educational' post. Today, I want to write about the parts of the figure skating blade.

Naming conventions seem to vary widely between coaches, parts of the country, and even between the US and UK. The only universal seems to be that the smooth part of the blade is called 'the blade' or maybe 'the rocker' and the pointy end is called 'the toepick'.

This is not what I was taught. Somewhere along the line I picked up a lot of names for parts of the blade. I don't know if this is useful to recreational skaters, but I think it's certainly handy to have a grasp of specific skating terminology.

Ladies and gentlemen, the blade.

This is from a UK site,  and I only have a couple of comments aboutvariations I've learned.

First off, I always heard the 'drag pick' referred to as the 'drop pick'.

Secondly, the vertical supports that attach the blade to the plates, I always read about being called the 'stanchions'.

Thirdly, the blade itself has two edges separated by a hollow between them. The measurement of this hollow is called 'the radius of hollow.'  I've heard the 1/2" ROH called a 'recreational hollow.' It's what I use, although I've also had 3/4 and 3/8. Some sharpeners will make a recommendation based on the type of ice you skate one--hockey ice is much colder and harder so it needs a different cut.

Source: Bill Schneider's skating pages

The radius of hollow has a 'bite angle' associated with it, but that's too technical even for me.

 

Creeping Up On a Skill

It's not supposed to be like this.

I tend to creep up on skills. I learn a piece of it here, and a bit of it there, and then with hours of coaching, and endless practice, suddenly I have it. And then I wonder why it took me so long to get it.

Right now (yet again) I'm creeping up on FI3. Yeah, I've been able to do these off and on, but I've never felt anything other than lucky that I could do one. And only at the boards. I've had some close calls too involving near death experiences---well, it seemed that way to me then....

Noooo! Noooo! I'm falling! I'm faaallinnngggg!

Then tonight, I realized I could actually feel the rocker as I turned, and I could shift myself from the back of the blade, to the front of the blade consistently without going up on the toepick, then stay at the front of the blade as I glided backwards. It was an interesting moment. At the beginning of the lesson I'm all flingy, then zip,zap, thunderclap, I'm on the rocker and kickin' rocker ass.

Still need assistance though (hold my hand Coach Cruella, please) so it's debatable if I'm kickin' rocker ass, or it's FI3 is kickin' Babbette ass. But, I'm creeping up on that skill a little bit more.

To what do I owe this marginal increase in my FI3? It's a slightly different approach to doing the turn.

I used to try FI3 the freestyle way with the leg extended. Then Coach Cruella told me to do it the dance way, with the toe tucked and the legs in closed position.  Closed position in this case being to keep my legs together like I'm protecting my virginity.

So, stroke onto the inside edge, hold for a slow two count, tuck the foot into the closed position for another slow two count, turn. To me the feel of the rocker only came through when I held the tucked position for the slow two count. I had time to get comfortable on the blade and in the right position. rather than just turning when my upper body was ready (which led to flingy 3's). Now I can get on the edge, get in the turn position, and turn. But the part where I'm supposed to go down in the knee on the back edge is problematical.

So I've 2 of the 3 C's: Control, Consistency, Coach holding me up after the turn. Sigh.

Anyway, now that I can feel the rocker change--and control it--I'm thinking complete FI3 may show up any day/week/month now!  

Making friends with FI3

Or I'll be blogging about it next year!