Friday, July 24, 2015

When I'm In Over My Head--On Ice

I missed the first two sessions of LTS where the skating director (for some insane reason) has put me in Freestyle 2. Anyway, I showed up this week and introduced myself to the freestyle coach. So the rink rotates coaches through Freestyle LTS, and this session it's the technical jump coach. 

I don't jump. I barely spin....but I'll try anything where there's at least one foot on the ice.  The coach said, "Don't worry, I teach all levels."

She has  us working on our axel snap and turn (at the boards--THANK GOD) and then we transition to doing the snap and turn with the freeleg in the 'h' position,  on a three turn. It takes a few tries, but I can do it. It's not pretty,  but all my leg bits are in the general area of correctness.

Then the coach takes out a squeaker--you know, the kind they put inside dog toys--and sticks it to the inner front of her thigh. If you do your legs cross correctly in the jump (she demonstrates), the back of the crosing thigh will press on the squeaker and you'll know you're in the right position. 

Then the coach says, "But, to get that crossed leg position, you need to point your toes together or the cross won't be correct." She demonstrates a two foot spin with pigeon toes. The other skaters laugh and a couple demonstrate their foot position problems for the spin.

The coach turns to me and asks, "Can you spin?"

I don't even think about it, I rip off a perfect two foot three rotation spin, with the toes correctly pigeoned in.

The other skaters, who have put up with my spin learning process in the previous session,  burst into spontaneous applause.



WTF the coach was thinking about this, no idea.

And if I've got any of the technical bits wrong...sorry, I'm in over my head!



3 comments:

  1. I love how supportive the other skaters are of you! Good job on your spin!

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  2. Just watch - you're going to land the axel before any of the other adult skaters in your class! Those who might be working on it might have bad habits they're trying to correct, while you are starting from scratch.

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