Adult Basic 6--

USFSA changed the Basic skills for Adults from Basic 4 to Basic 6 back in the Summer. I'm cool with the decision. Basic 4 left a lot of things out and assumed Adults just wanted to learn dance. Anyway, on Wednesday I started my second class of Adult Basic 6. Yes, I graduated from Basic 8 several years ago, but followers of this blog will know I've been cursed by a lot of injuries since then and lost some skills.

Basic 6 consists of the following skills:

1.  Forward inside OPEN mohawk, both directions
2.  Forward Perimeter Stroking with crossover end patterns
3.  Alternating backward crossovers with two-foottransition
4.  Backward crossovers to a backward outside edge glide (landing position)
5. Lunge
6. Spiral
7. Bunny Hop (optional)
8. Footwork sequence: (3-5 forward crossovers to an inside Mohawk, 3-5 backward crossovers, step forward inside the circle and repeat) 

 Of this I can do everything except Forward Inside OPEN mohawk, clockwise. I'm not really worried about it. Then our coach says:

"Oh, and to pass the test to graduate, you have to do a mohawk both ways."

A TEST! I've never been to a rink that tested adults. Usually the coach would say, "Take level x next time." But at this rink, THERE'S GOING TO BE A TEST?!!!
 

And passing the test for Basic 6 is rather pointless since Free skate group classes have disappeared from the schedule.

And did I mention the rink charges me for full ice with only half ice access?

Yes rink, I'm going to keep judging you

Back In Group Class.1 (Updated)

I've restarted taking mid-week group class to put some hours on my skates and build up my leg strength. An hour an a half of HALF ICE public, followed by 30 min of beginner dance, and 30 min of Adult Basic Six.

Shall I tell you the living hell of skating for an hour and a half on HALF ICE public?  And they charge us FULL PRICE FOR HALF ICE! I'd really, really like to express my attitude to rink management about this gigantic rip-off.

So after that, all the adult LTS (about 50 people) are crowded into a half ice, while LTP with about 10 people takes up the other half. Meanwhile the people in LTS Adult 2 keep skating backwards without looking behind them....right at me. I mean it must be wonderful to be so clueless that you skate backwards without looking behind you.

But fortunately, we're widely separated from the Adult Basic 1 class. Over there it's all like this:

I am humbled though by the fact than in a few months most of these people will be skating better than I am.

When You Take a Friend to the Rink because They Want to "Learn To Skate"

First you help them out on the ice:

And they grab you and take you down

 Then you get away from your friend as quickly as possible, letting them skate on their own:

Watching them grab for the boards can be amusing too:

Finally after a long hour at the rink, you go home and take a well deserved nap!

Lunges

Miss Bianca wants me to learn lunges.

Yeah, the foot dragging element that requires an elderly lady to deeply bend one knee and rise up from the ice on the same knee.

Pffffttt! Easy when you're 6, hard when you're 60+.

Apparently, I'm supposed to practice stretches every night because "it's a cute little element".

Function

Goal

So, obviously, I need a coach. I pick.....Jeremy Renner.

Ready, set, go!

Start with Support

'U so 'dorable.
(ooops, too old for that thought)

No Support!

How I look now!

Good Bye Adult 4. Hello Adult 6.

A week ago (probably) USFSA Adult Skating program had 4 levels.

As of Friday (2 Aug) it has 6!

Now for my Teeming Thousands Hundreds Tens, here is the NEW ADULT USFSA LTS PROGRAM (Thanks to Cush on skating forums.com for pointing this out.)

As far as I know, this has not been released to skating directors (it's not listed in the LTS manual or any of the newsletters).  You heard it here first! (Unless you're following the discussion on skatingforums)

The program looks like Basic 8 skills, with the jumps and spins removed but ice dance elements (swing rolls and chasse's) added.

Feel free to annoy your skating director with questions. If you get intel on its implementation, post it in the comments.

Skating Director: "What? I have to change our LTS program?
FOR ADULTS! Nooooooooooooo!"

PS. I'm sure this has been years in the planning, but I've found no one who knows anything about it. It looks like it may be an early release by the web master.

PPS. Hockey Learn To Play is changing to.

So, You're in LTS and You Want to Skate a Freestyle Session

So, you're in Learn to Skate and you want to practice your new skills, but you find public ice just too crowded.  You've heard of this mysterious thing called 'freestyle' ice, where there's only a handful of skaters on it. So you check the schedule, you pay the fee and you get on Freestyle Ice.

Oops! Maybe you shouldn't be there.

Sadly for you, you've just violated one of the sacred rules of figure skating. As a skater for you to get on Freestyle Ice one of 4 things needs to happen:
1. You have passed Basic 8 (or Delta in ISI)
2. If you have not passed Basic 8 or Delta, you are in lesson with a coach
3. A coach (probably the skating director) has approved you to skate on freestyle sessions even though you're in LTS (I don't know how rare this is, but it doesn't seem to be frequent)
4. In some rinks (apparently training rinks) you have to get the skating director's approval to go on freestyle

The skaters on a freestyle session are relying on all the other skaters to know freestyle etiquette, be able to skate and observe the other skaters, and be able to avoid other skaters.  If you don't have good heads-up skills and good stopping skills, you can irritate the heck out of the other skaters and maybe be a safety hazard.

If you are in LTS and you don't understand the problem list below, that's an indicator you shouldn't be on freestyle.

1. You don't yield properly to skaters in program or lessons
2. You hang around harness alley
3. You hog the lutz circle.
4. You can't stop quickly enough
5. You don't have a sense of where the other skaters are headed and you get in their way

I've never seen a figure skater kicked off a freestyle session for not being qualified, though I suppose it does happen. Coaches will not talk to you in case you are another coach's student, so don't look for any help there. Initially people will be polite and avoid you, but eventually they'll get frustrated with you in the way. What may happen is some of the other skaters will find you an irritant and may do, shall we say, ice bullying to get you off.  They may skate really close to you, they may spin in your path, they may jump close to you, or try other ways to physically intimidate you to get you to leave.

If you can't play by the freestyle rules, they want you gone

This is not bullying of one freestyle skater by another (bad enough in itself) but bullying of someone who doesn't know the rules, and doesn't belong on the session. It's their only way of letting you know you don't belong. Because:

"The skaters on a freestyle session are relying on all the other skaters to know freestyle etiquette, be able to skate and observe the other skaters, and be able to avoid other skaters. " You are a danger to them, and their polite actions to avoid you means they waste precious training time, so eventually they get more forceful.

So you're frustrated with the ice tourists getting in your way? Multiply that by 10 and you have the frustration of a freestyle skater avoiding your LTS self.

Yeah, frustrating, but you'll have to keep practicing on public for a while longer.

And before you cry 'It's unfair!', there are certain sessions I avoid because they have a higher proportion of high level skaters. So, even in freestyle, there's divisions.

My First Skating Test

I was cleaning out a notebook and I found a copy of my very first skating evaluation--Pre-Alpha I in June of 2007.

The last item on the test was for backwards wiggles. They taught us to wiggle our butts in order to go backwards. I did my backward wiggles like this:

Sadly not going anywhere

And my coach was like this (on the inside):

So my evaluation looked like this:

But at next practice I figured I was supposed to do this:

Oh, it's just backwards slaloms. (Facepalm)

And then I was all like this:

On to Pre-Alpha II  in July, 2007! 

Unsung Heros of the Ice Rink: LTS Coaches

Imagine what it's like to be an LTS coach. The rink doesn't pay you much of anything, but the coach is held to professional standards. The hours are long, the work hard, and the coach represents the rink. Plus there's 'nightmare parents'! So, what does LTS possibly look like from the coach's point of view?

I thought you'd never ask.

First day, the booting up area looks like this...

Parents generally have no clue how to tie boots

 Then the buzzer sounds and the little monsters wonders pour onto the ice (blocking everyone getting off the ice from the previous class)....

Monsters vs wonders
Try to do a statistical analysis

"Hi, we're the adult learners' class!
We're going for beer after!
Wanna join us!"

For some reason a pre-Alpha kid has been put in a Delta class

And there's always a few kids that just want to skate--
really fast--that's all.

And the kid who cries for mommy

The little kid who just lies on the ice
and ignores the toys

The mother who watches from the boards--

The parent who distracts the kid the whole time
to take pictures--then complains she/he
never learns anything

Is it any wonder the coach has to put on a fake smile like this?

I Sandbag Adult LTS

I feel sorry for LTS instructors, they never know what they're going to see.

I do a public session for an hour, then I have a 40 minute wait before Cruella's edge class starts. At my age 40 minutes means my legs stiffen up like a length of rebar. So I signed up for Adult LTS to keep my legs warm. After some consideration, I picked Adult 3 (so I could 'graduate' to Adult 4). Yes since I've passed Basic 8, technically this is sandbagging. I didn't see another choice since Freestyle is all jumps and spins. I will say I seriously considered taking a Learn To Play class at that time to keep the legs warm--Learn to Play in white boots with toepicks, I'm such a rebel.

There's two of us in the class Adult 3 class (the other skater is a true beginner). The coach asks for forward crossovers. I lay them down big and fast. Then the coach asks for back crossovers. I lay down some Big Girl back crosses. The coach gives me the hairy eyeball.

"Can you do mohawks?"

I do them both ways.

She then sticks the class curriculum under my nose. "Is there anything here that you can't do?"

I hang my head, "Two foot spins." Yes, it's true, I can't do a spin that most people learn in 5 minutes.

This is what my feet feel like in spins:
Heavy, frozen and totally worthless

I confess to her the reason I'm in the class and she takes it well. She alternates between getting me to do 2 foot spins and working with the other student. I'm making it harder on her to manage the class (sorry, dear, if you're reading this!) but at my age I'm willing to break the rules to move ahead.

At the end of the class I can do 2 rotations, but then I start to precess around the vertical axis and a cascading series of events ensue where I exceed the limits of the rotation and enter a failure mode--i.e. I fall. On the other hand, she's got me up to 2 rotations which is more than any other coach has, so good on ya!

So still working on 2 foot spins. Suggestions welcome.

The Du-uuu-uutch Waltz Countdown: 6 Days

So, you're thinking the Dutch Waltz is a dance of great antiquity, danced by dutch skaters down the canals of Holland. Sorry that's the Dutch Roll they did down the canals of Holland. The Dutch Waltz was invented in 1948 at the Broadmoor  Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colorado by the eminent coach George Mueller (who also invented the Fiesta Tango).

George Mueller and wife Leah

As I've discussed before the DW has Stroking, Progressives, Swingrolls. It's all forward movement. Practically anyone past Basic 5 should be able to do a version of it. So why isn't it introduced as a skating exercise in LTS? I mean wouldn't it be great to have a class skating around the rink to music and having a good time?

Yeah, I know why. It's that god awful music.

I have to test to "My Bonnie Sails over the Ocean." The music is so bad it makes my teeth hurt. So I understand why ISU has standard music for testing, but couldn't someone make the preliminary dances fun?

Certainly, all that's needed is some music that appeals to people rather than music that is designed for testing. There's waltzes in zydeco, C&W, R&B, even Rock. Joe Cocker did a waltz time version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" that's almost the right speed. Here's what the Dutch Waltz looks like to a zydeco waltz;

Dance, mon cajun dance!

So, why doesn't LTS introduce ice dance even in this minimal form? Even this simple dance teaches footwork, edges, timing, any rhythm. Oh, I forgot, LTS is all about building your skills to jump, silly me.

But still I think it would be a good idea for people to get exposed to this very simple dance in LTS. With the right music, it could be fun. I'm sorry the USFSA is all about jumps. Dance is where you learn to skate.

Learn to Skate--as an Adult

In an adult group class, the 25 year old coach was teaching us to do lunges. The class is divided between people over 40 and people under 25. The under 25's do the lunge. The over 40's applaud and cheer them on enthusiastically. Then group coach has the over 40's do it. "Get really down in the knee!" she says to our half hearted effort.

The over 40's all burst into laughter. The young coach blushes. Charming Charlie says, "I can get down but I can't get up." I tell her, "Wait 'til you're 60. You'll look back on this day and laugh too."   Hockey Harold gives it a manly try, rams into the boards and pulls himself up. "That's not gonna happen."  Poor coach, stuck with a curriculum for kids and teaching it to adults.

Some weeks later came shoot the duck. This was introduced to us with great enthusiasm. The over 40's laughed again. We didn't even try.  (However, this doesn't mean that older mature senior adults  AARPC eligible skaters can't do it. I saw a woman in her seventies do a classic shoot the duck across the length of a rink. She couldn't do it every day, but she could do it, and do it well. And by the way, every one on the session burst into spontaneous applause.)

So even though I'm in private lessons, and I'm testing, I still take group lessons. What wonderful fun!

Members of the adult group have been skating together at this rink for several years. The rink doesn't use the adult program, but sticks with the kids program. We do Basic 1-8 not 1-4. There's a distinct advantage to this for the rink; Their coaches don't have to keep two separate programs in their heads. For the skaters there's an advantage too; We're learning the program as it's meant to be taught.

We're also fortunate that the coaches don't make us do every skill to pass. I don't jump or spin; The coach substitutes something else. The guys in hockey skates are reluctant to do spirals; no problem, do something else. This is really an excellent example of how an adult program should be run, with flexibility and innovation. Adults are there to have a good time. We don't have a deadline for our triples; We know our limits and we want to have fun while learning a skill. I've had some really good times in the adult Basic class.

Then one day, they passed me into Freestyle. Oh, I was miserable. I'm in Ice Dance, I don't jump. The class is filled with little kids wanting to jump and three adults who are also willing to try. I stuck it out for one round and went back to Basic 8. There's stuff I can work on at that level: waltz 8s, and back edges, and maybe even a lunge. I just didn't want to spend my time in Freestyle. In Basic 8 the coach can send me to a corner and let me practice dance stuff so I can get mid week ice time. I'm so not worried about getting my patch.

Surprise! Surprise! The new coach came in and said to those of us who had been in the program for a while, "You guys are ready for brackets!" So she taught us.

That's what I'm talking' about! A program that says, 'Not everyone fits in the USFSA mold. Let's keep the adult customers by acknowledging not everyone wants an axel. Let's have fun!"