The Invisible Partnership

I have fallen into a perfect partnership between my ice dance coach and my edge coach. And yet they've never met. If they were to meet and form an instructional team, they could probably write their own tickets with adult ice dancers. Yes, together they're that good, and I'm that lucky.

I'm perfectly satisfied with the way Dance Coach teaches me. He focuses on the dance skills, and works to get my basic skating skills, particularly power, up to par. I chose to go this route because fixing my basic skating skills was getting dead boring. I had so many things wrong; I needed something more than just relearning stuff. I needed a motivation.

So I told Dance Coach I wanted to test. Since then he's focused on building my skills around the dance tests. As I wrote about in an earlier post, learning to ice dance is a good introduction to skating.

So Dance Coach is my Macro coach. He's teaching me dance skills and how they fit into a pattern dance. Rather than learn going around in a circle, I'm learning by going the length of the rink, developing my skating skills and my stamina and power at the same time. The lessons are not boring. They are full of variety. It keeps up my interest in skating.

But with Coach Cruella I get a Micro Coach. She is quite willing to work me on a single element for 20 minutes.  Her lessons are focused, exacting, detailed,  and fun. If this was all I was doing, it might be boring. Instead, because her skill building is improving my ice dance, I'm immediately able to translate her coaching lessons directly into my ice dance.

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So, Dance Coach is directing me into the skills that have me sweeping across the ice, changing elements with every stroke, building into skills that have me covering the ice with power and fluidity. Coach Cruella is taking elements and breaking them down to the atomic level so that I develop ever precise control over every edge, rocker position, and posture element.

Over the last two months since this invisible partnership formed, my ice dance has leaped forward. Dance Coach hasn't been this happy about my skating since the Big Warmup. My edges are nice and even the scary left inside swingroll has become a deep and powerful curve. My posture is now natural and erect. My power has improved. There's still things to be fixed. There's no perfection in figure skating; but I can see a future where I can get the outside mohawk and the choctaw--and the rocker too!

Rocker Foxtrot

What can I say? I fell luckily into a great partnership with two coaches who don't know each other and never met each other. Right now I feel like the luckiest skater in the world.

The Strike

In my old figures books, what we now call a push off or even just a push, used to be called 'the strike'. Doesn't that have a powerful sound?

"Set up for your strike." the older coach said, "You can absolutely dominate your opponent with the quality of the strike." He paused drawing on his pipe, while his eyes darkened with memories of figures past, "Do it for America."

So begins the never to be written figure skating novel dealing with with the vicious competition at the 1960's Olympics cold war fought on the figures ice. Yep---that's a best seller.

Dick Button

 Anyway, Coach Cruella is not the only coach to lecture me on my strike, but she's the only coach to keep after it and get me doing it correctly.

I know how to do a strike. You set up in the T push position, then put all your weight on the inside edge of the back foot. As little weight as possible should be on the front foot.  Bend your knees and push off.

Only, it never worked for me. I would be hunched and bend forward, or my kneebend wouldn't be enough. Good posture is necessary so I can get the weight on the back skate. Hunched over, or bent forward meant no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get my weight solid on the back skate. So in previous posts I've discussed Coach Cruella's rules for getting good posture:

1. Put 'the girls' on the table
2. Shine the headlights (in my language 'assume the position of the sitting trot')
3. Pinch your shoulder blades towards each other

Good kneebend is necessary to get a good push. She introduced her one rule for kneebend with the hyperbole:

1. Bend your knees so you can hold a basketball with your legs

Unfortunately, I'm naturally more of a bend your knees so you can hold a whiffleball girl myself. What she's trying to get accross to me is that I need a lot more kneebend than I think I do. It's been hard to make the basketball mindset a habit, unless someone is there eyeing me. I know it's the right thing to do, but my body forgets.

Not long ago I had a bad fall doing a mohawk. The kind of thing where I thought I wouldn't get up from without two coaches lifting me.  But after I stopped sliding on the ice, I clawed my way up, and skated away from it.

"You fell," Coach Cruella told me, "Because you didn't have enough kneebend on that first push."

Right. I'm permanently motivated. That fall was scary. BEND THAT KNEE! EVERYTIME!

Now I have the upper body positioned so I can put my weight solidly on the back skate, and the kneebend so I can hit the sweet spot when I straighten the back leg. The strike is looking good!

Power and control together. Perfect.

Skating Trousers

Well, I did the laundry this weekend, and I have 4 pairs of stretchy slacks I wear for skating. Four pairs!

Most of them are old and beat up--and due to weight loss--don't fit.  One pair even has a hole in one thigh where I fell on the heel of my blade. So I have to buy new ones.

And like every other woman's, they're all black. It's fashion tyranny! Don't go with 'just wear black'. Be daring. Be edgy!

I'm going to go out on a stylistic limb here---I'm going for NAVY!

.....Sorry, antiphrasis took over there for a minute....

I do wish a pretty outfit plus a Zuca bag would make my skating better. Life would be so much easier.

And I'd be 8.