It happened!
I had my first 4(:30)AM wake-up this morning, and my first lesson at 6:30AM. It was actually quite lovely seeing the sunrise, and surprisingly right now (2PM) I don't feel all that sleepy. What better incentive is there, to switch one's sleep cycle to bedtimes at 10PM!
Today was a day of firsts. It was my first time on a figure session. When I arrived at 6AM, it was nicely empty except for 4 high-level skaters and one other adult, stroking around the perimeter. I got my boots on, and did a few laps of stroking and slaloms before getting bored and not sure what to do.
I love my new coach! The first few minutes of the lesson were laying out the groundwork for the rest of our working relationship together. I established my goal, of actually looking good on the ice and not sloppy as some late starters end up doing, and she established her methods of teaching, which involve a lot of yelling but also a lot of praise.
We went over some basic skills, I'll summarise main takeaway points below. I don't think they will ever be perfect, but at least they will look nicer and be stronger with every passing week!
Forward Stroking:
- Free leg will be at 5:00 and 7:00 positions, ~30cm above the ice.
- Prepare by BENDING knees, to position weight over the heel for acceleration.
- Feet together, then push with inside edge of one foot, lifted to appropriate clock position.
- Hold a little while, then bend again, and push onto other foot.
- Ensure skating knee is bent and free leg is pointed (apparently something I naturally was doing!)
- Keep top half of body straight. There is no point trying to skate out at 5:00 and 7:00 if your top half of body is twisted the wrong way! (something I was *not* doing)
Forward 2-Foot Turns into FO 3-Turn:
- She tricked me with this one, we did a basic 2-foot turn first.
- Prepare with a stroke, legs together, knees bent.
- Arms!! Twist arms back to prepare for the turn.
- TURN! The arms (not just shoulders) will help.
- Exit with a glide, take note of free hip (should be higher than the main skating hip).
- Can repeat on one foot for a 3-turn, tucking free leg behind.
Forward Crossovers:
- Make sure to keep arms low. We want to keep centre of gravity low.
- Both pushes (main push + underpush) should be at the 5:00 or 7:00 position, 30cm above ice.
- Majorly work in progress.
Backwards Swizzles/Glides:
- Apparently my backward swizzles are powerful and good (YAY!).
- One-foot glides however...
- Glide with both feet parallel and close together.
- Shift weight over one foot, realigning body (take special note of the hip!).
- I conceptually understand this but somehow putting it into practice is just nigh-on impossible! I think just more practice and experience is needed for this. One step at a time!
Pivot:
- She tricked me! Hahaha - I did a pivot but she called it "the pivoting action".
- Every move should have a clear start, move, and finish.
- Start with stroking: 2 strokes, starting on the leg you are pivoting on.
- Glide in a circle 360˚, one foot slightly in front of the other.
- Stick the toepick in and pivot 360˚.
- Finish off the move with a push and glide.
Things for the future:
- I still don't know which one is my dominant foot. Somehow I always thought right (the one I naturally want to start gliding on), but in my panic over being dominant on the "wrong" side I practiced left so much it looks more natural. I call it ambilegstrous.
- Figure sessions are scary after 7AM :( so many jumping and spinning action!
- Next practice session, I want to practice more forward crossovers, stroking, looking beautiful from the top to the bottom. And then throw in some 2-foot spins since I've forgotten how they go :(
- I got roasted a lot on my fitness (or lack of), need to actually do push-ups and crunches ... Maybe they will be my early morning 6AM wake-up regime!
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