Forward Inside Three Hell

I have pretty solid forward outside threes. Okay, there's still a checking issue, but I can do them either direction, in pattern, and not from a stop.

Last year I had Forward Inside threes. They disappeared when the Knee Went Bad. Now Miss Bianaca is all serious and everything about  getting them back. Most of the time I'm a serious and mature skater but when it comes to FI3, I'm all like this...

while Miss Bianca is pretty relaxed about the whole thing. She has a technique fore teaching FI3.

a. Push off onto an inside edge and place the free foot in the T-position, with a slightly open free leg.
b. As you do the turn hold the free leg so that as the skating foot finished the turn the free foot ends up parallel to the skating foot.
c. Move your hips in the turn.

I'm apparently a 'hip flinger'. When I do the three turn I do it al with my upper body and the hips kind of get pulled around at the last minute. This makes the shoulders of my 3 turn flat on the exit edge, and sometimes I can actually get a hook on the three turn.  This is because I've got stiff hips. I'm not proud about it, it's just that I worry more about my feet. My hips are on their own.

Still, about half the time I try, I can get a FI3 that works. Here's a video.

See, the hips are late in the turn.

Graduation Hell

This week I ran through my FO3 for Miss Bianca and she pronounced herself satisfied. They're far from perfect (I've got some checking issues) but they're strong and consistent.

Hooray! I'm moving on from FO3!!!

Then Miss Bianca said, "Let's work on you FI3."

You know, lady, give me more than 3 seconds of happiness before you introduce fresh hells into my lesson.

Anyway, she had me start doing FI3. I'm all ass over teacup.

Welcome to FI3 hell.

Then she ran me through two footed brackets and back threes.  If she'd asked me to do them one footed, I'd have said no.

But I know what's she's thinking.....

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

Forward Inside 3--Lessons Learned

I thought I'd write some notes about the FI3 and some things I figured out about learning new skills--well, new 3 turn skills---from the experience.

1. It takes a lot more kneebend that I thought it would. Coaches would tell me 'deeper in the knee' and I'd do it right once, then go back to 'not quite deep enough in the knee kneebend'. So, my bad (also, maybe 'my age'). Anyway, now if something doesn't work--GO DEEPER IN THE KNEE!

2. Coaches would hold my hand to keep me from falling. This was useful at the very beginning. I needed to put together a lot of stuff physically and not worry about falling. The hand holding in the long run, I felt kept me from getting some of the rhythm of the turn.  I needed the freedom to move my arms and shoulders. At some point, I wish a coach had just flat out said, "Put some pads on and get over it."

 3.  There was a certain kind of rhythm to me getting the FI3. Push off, pull the freefoot to the heel, do some fiddly stuff with the upper body (more about that later), turn. I really had to work on the order of occurence of all the fiddly upper body stuff in coordination with bringing the free foot to the heel of the skating foot. This was essential. Once I realized that the sequence and the pacing was critical, and I could duplicate it over and over, I was finally able to get what are honestly beginner FI3. The FO3 didn't seem to be as dependent on the rhythm of the turn (maybe I'm more of an intermediate with FO3 as I can do it pretty much from any position now) and I had not anticipated how sensitive to pacing the turn the FI3 was.  So it wasn't until I put some pads on and started falling that I was able to get the FI3.

4. Every coach had a slightly different technique for teaching FI3. Right now I'm definitely beginner, and I found that I needed more arm movement to get the turn. For a LFI3, one coach put a glove in my left  hand, and then while doing the turn I was to pass the glove from the left to the right hand in front of the body and turn. This actually worked pretty well. It doesn't give pretty turns with still arms, like people want, but it helped me get the turn.

5. I can't remember stuff from lessons perfectly so the InterTubes is a godsend. I particularly found Robert Burgerman's 3 turn video the most helpful in jogging my memory. Notice how he holds the free arm ahead of the body for the FI3. Now imagine holding the free arm in that position, then using the technique from para 4 (the passing of the glove in the skating hand). That's what worked for me. As I said, that gives me beginner FI3. See how he uses quite a bit of shoulder action? I need that, but as I'm just a beginner, I use arm motion to get me there.

Three Turns

(For my UK readers: What is that accent? Mancunian? Estuary? Geordie?)

So these are some things I learned in my FI3 journey. I still have quite a bit of beginner arm swing, but I'd rather work to suppress that and have FI3, than I would to work fruitlessly on FI3 in the hope I'll someday get them with still arms. I'm willing to skate with compromise rather than perfection.

[No, I've not returned to the ice. I'm scheduling an MRI for first week of January. Determined to find out what is going on.]

A History of Learning FI3

THEN 

THEN

Coach Poker--See, Raise, Fold

"Do a forward outside 3," Dance Coach said.

I did a perfectly respectable one with extended leg to a landing position.

And now begins a game of Coach Poker.

Dance Coach raises me a power 3.

I see him, then raise him doing three of them in a row--and then in the other direction. Scooorrre!

Dance Coach shuffles the metaphorical deck and has me do back crosses. I see him and raise him by doing crosses alternating between clockwise and counter clockwise.

Dance Coach raises one eyebrow, sees me, and raises me back progressives.

I see him with good edges and arm position.

I'm ahead. The chips are all in my pot.

Dance Coach starts a new hand. He opens with 5 step mohawk. I see him and raise him with good extension. He sees me, and raises the stakes.

"Inside 3 turn."

%*$@!  I fold.

In the end Dance Coach holds all the good cards

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!