Toughing It Out

 Madam Mim is determined in my post injury restart, to get me to use power.

Backwards.

So we spend about a third of the lesson in back crossovers and back edges or in transitioning to back edges (waltz threes). And I have to use real, adult power. Not scaredy cat adult power.

Power? Backwards? You sure?
I'm okay in here in the no power hotel.

Madam Mim won't accept a weak back crossover (usually my clockwise ones). We start with back crossovers around the circle, and those go fine. They're as smooth and solid as my forward crossovers (which are superior).

It's not until I'm doing alternating back crossovers that my sidedness issues appear.  Madam Mim lightly touches my hand to get my leading shoulder further back . And reminds me to 'sit' into the crossover. After a couple of tries, I'm laying them down, alternating CW to CCW, with power and good edges on my own.  Probably some of the best alternating crossovers I've ever done. I'm not nervous, or twitchy. The transitions are smooth. The crossovers are soundless. I am in complete control.

NO TOEPICKING!

Say hello to no toepicking in back crossovers

Yes, I'm making real post injury progress; now I'm finally starting to improve, not just recover basic skills.

Unfortunately, I'm going through tissues by the pound. I use up all of mine, then I have to dig into Madam Mim's stash and I go through hers. Stupid head cold.

At the end of the lesson, I have a really bad back fall. My right skate 'gets stuck' in a drop three and a fall backwards so that my skating foot is almost tucked under my butt when I land. There's a pain in my bad knee like a knife. I don't really remember that landing, I just know I rolled around in what must have been scary to behold.

 I hear a sudden silence in the freestyle, then the sound of skates coming towards me.

"I'm good." I tell Madam Mim quietly. She calls out "It's okay." I'm able to get up on my own and we go back to lesson.

Yeah, my least inspiring lesson in a long time. But I came off the ice feeling that I'm finally comfortable with backwards skating. I'm getting tweaks now, not corrections. I feel at ease going backwards. I don't feel uncomfortable looking over my shoulder to see ahead, and I have good skating skills. I'm happy with that for today.

Had to stop at a grocery store to buy some frozen peas to ice my knee, but I'm okay.

Useful in an emergency when you don't have access to ice.
Or an ice bag.

Invisible Toepick!

Remember "The Cutting Edge"?  If people have seen only one figure skating movie, that was it. And I know a respectable number of grown men who saw it. Any non-skater who's seen it all ask,

"How do you keep from tripping off those toepicks?"

Excuse me? Do forward falls not happen in other places? Other sports? Or is it always due to invisible toepicks?

Skateboarding: Invisible Toepick!

Biking: Invisible Toepick! 

Walking on the Beach: INvisible Toe Pick!

Soccer: Toepick!
OMG, GREAT FORM!

Even the animal kingdom--that is not know for wearing skates:
TOEPICK!

I meet men women who skate in hockey skates because "I'm afraid of tripping on the toepicks."  I guess they think they're safer.

The great Bobby Hull does NOT catch a toepick.
Hockey skates must be safe!

Ditto: No toepicks here either
Complete safety.

No toepick here either--
Nothing to see here--move along

Strangely, I could not find one single picture outside of "The Cutting Edge" of someone tripping on a toepick!

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.