Author Topic: What did you achieve this week  (Read 630268 times)

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5016 on: September 24, 2017, 09:53:45 am »
Can you do a non-cheated Kilian (open) Choctaw?  Could you ever?  Do you know anyone that can?  Any tips?  I find the closed one quite easy, the open one seems impossible without surgery.  I mean I can do it but the entry edge is always cheated.

WednesdayMarch

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5017 on: September 24, 2017, 09:11:02 pm »
Ah, the Kilian choctaw.  A joy...  ;D

The answer is that yes, I could and I don't recall ever finding it particularly impossible but I haven't tried lately!  I seem to recall loving the dance and think I probably preferred that one to the Blues Choctaw.  But then, I was always weird!  I fully intend to be able to do it again, but goodness knows how long it will take me - please don't hold your breath!

From what I recall, the trick is to have really good, deep knee bend.  It's not a dance that you can fudge without it going badly wrong, more a "do or die" situation!

Have you ever seen Bestemianova and Bukin dance the Kilian?  Beautiful to watch.  There's a lovely video on YouTube, which has a nice slow motion replay of the choctaw, too.  1988 Olympics, I think.
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5018 on: September 25, 2017, 12:12:00 am »
Yup, always working on that deep knee bend.


Wow, impressed by your memory.  It's here: https://youtu.be/3y3do9T5SoI


The slow motion of the choctaw is here: https://youtu.be/3y3do9T5SoI?t=108


It's hard to tell whether there is an edge cheat as it happens so fast - need something filmed with more frames per second.


An ice dancer I know told me they and some other steps are easier in dance hold as you have someone pressing against you that helps keep you in the right orientation.  I don't do dance but it makes sense to me.


This gives a tip: https://youtu.be/hSzpjJ3sli4


And this: https://youtu.be/tTJgo6r3HSw

WednesdayMarch

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5019 on: September 25, 2017, 10:03:29 am »
Ooh, great links, thank you!

My husband was slightly surprised to come home and find me in the centre of the sitting room, "dancing but not dancing" as I tried to recall exactly how to do that choctaw.  The poor man has seen nothing yet...  (Although he will be spared off ice attempts at axels.  Ain't no way I'm going down that route, ever again!)

The ice dancer is absolutely right that there are some steps and dances that are much easier with a partner.  Personally, I think they are all much easier with a partner.  And that way there is always someone else to blame...   :P
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5020 on: September 25, 2017, 10:28:32 am »
Off ice Axels, yes.  Have hit the lampshade once or twice.

AndyinSwindon

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5021 on: September 26, 2017, 03:02:26 pm »
...and here I am struggling with backwards one foot glides!

Kind of puts you in your place when you feel like you're doing well, and then you see something like this!

In the grand scheme of things, if skating ability were measured with progress up a ladder, I'd be on one of those old 'elephant foot' stool thingummys that you find in shops to reach the higher shelves.  Holding a handrail.  And wearing a safety harness.

Started skating 07.01.17
Currently working through NISA LTS Levels.
Currently wobbling through hockey LTP sessions.

Snufkin

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5022 on: September 26, 2017, 03:16:58 pm »
 ;D  I like seeing chat from people much better than me. It gives me an insight into what might be coming up. Hopefully one day, I too will know what more than one type of choctaw is.

As for me, I got a shiny badge from the ice rink saying I'd achieved my grade 1 skills. This is roughly equivalent to Skate UK 1. I'm actually up to about Skate UK 4 or 5 but they only give you one shiny badge per 6 week course so I'll have to wait for those ones. Still, I'm a simple creature, I love to have a shiny badge O0
Started skating August 2017

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5023 on: September 26, 2017, 03:41:42 pm »
Don't know that I think of myself as "much better" than anyone, though I suppose compared to a beginner I am.  Still loads of things I am struggling with, and not just fancy stuff but basics that are still ugly or ragged.  I've been at this for more than 10 years now!

WednesdayMarch

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5024 on: September 26, 2017, 06:18:36 pm »
Ice skating was my life until I wrecked my leg aged 31. At least 2 hours a day, usually 6 days a week, although Saturdays was teaching rather than training.  Everything was wiped out in a fraction of a second, from backward crossovers of all things.  Back then I was teaching part time, whilst working a couple of other jobs to make ends meet and finance my training because I wanted to qualify properly as a NISA coach and also to progress my skating and get what was then Inter-Gold Dance. I never felt I was any good, though.  There is always someone better and practically every skater thinks they're not progressing fast enough.

Now I'm beyond thrilled not to have fallen over and done myself another injury!  It's incredibly frustrating, too, because most of me knows what to do and how to do it, but the leg with the severed thigh muscle and screwed back in kneecap doesn't have much of a clue and probably doesn't want to have quite the steep learning curve that I'm trying to push it into.  (We won't talk about arms, either; they have a mind of their own...)

Don't diss backward one foot glides, Andy!  I now have a completely new perspective on learning to skate, especially from the point of view of an adult, which I never had before as I first put blade to ice as a child and after 3 steps (my mother counted) just pretty much said, "Oh, that's how it works," and off I went.  I used to really enjoy teaching adults more than children but I now know that I really didn't really understand the fear factor properly.

The Best Day of My Life was the one at the end of my first set of classes when all my young pupils passed their Grade 1 and a few got Grade 2.  I'd been utterly terrified 8 weeks before when I stood there (alongside one of my childhood coaches) and thought, "How the H E Double Hockey Sticks am I supposed to teach all these unguided missiles to skate?!"  The looks on their faces when the judge shook their hands and put the tick against their name was indescribable and I had to go to the ladies because I had something in my eye.   ;)  I don't think anything ever tops the joy of helping or watching somebody master something they'd felt might just be impossible when they first saw it demonstrated or tried it.

I really love reading that people have achieved something.  Anything!  And if I can help in any way, I love that, too.  I'm right back at the struggling to master pretty much everything stage right now.  I have a lot of speed with very little effort but I struggle to control it and channel it into the movements and directions I want it to go.  It's very, very scary - and that's just skating forwards around the rink!

Snufkin, I, too, love a shiny badge!  I only ever got the type you sew on...  <sigh>  I may well still have them somewhere.  As to knowing the different types of choctaw, sometimes ignorance is bliss.  Each and every one was invented by a complete psychopath.  Trust me on this.  Nobody is more surprised than me to find that I could actually still do a reasonable LFi closed one!  I sure as heck struggle with closed mohawks at the moment.  I suspect it's because my right leg doesn't actually know that it's difficult.  Once it works that out, all bets are off...
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

AndyinSwindon

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5025 on: September 26, 2017, 07:36:43 pm »
.....WednesdayMarch.....I know much better than I ever did to diss anything on ice these days.

I have been skating for a princely 9 months now, and the first few months progressed at what I thought, was a good pace, but after reaching LTS level 5, have kind of reached a bit of a plateau, whereas other skaters I play hockey with seem to progress through learning mohawks and backwards crossovers pretty quickly.

I hate skating backwards at the best of times (unless I'm safely cocooned in my hockey gear), and those backwards inside and outside edge glides are really holding me back.  I am making very slow, and very gradual progress, but when I look at where I was 6 months ago (when my rapid (comparative) progress was assisted by compatible working hours that enabled me to get around 15hrs ice time a week) I am considerably better than I was.  I am slowly 'getting there' with 3 turns, and as for my forward crossovers.....I knock them out of the park (my coach has commented 'ah, we've found something you enjoy!).  Crossrolls....nope, backwards crossovers....laughable, and I expect a lot of people reading this are thinking to themselves 'Really?  You're having problems with these basics?'.  But, I'll get there in time.  I have no ambitions or illusions to be a competitive skater, I just want to be a useful skater in a rec hockey team, without feeling like I'm a liability or embarrassment to my team (assuming I ever get onto one).

It's now got to the point where I wake up, having dreamt that I could do a backwards edge glide, or backwards crossover, think to myself 'today is the day I nail it', turn up at the rink, and realise that yep, it was just a dream!

I think the biggest development that I have made in the last 9 months is a greater appreciation and respect for any one that gives this ice skating lark a go, regardless of age, experience, ability, and discipline (as in figure / hockey / dance / synchro / freestyle etc).

I think my biggest ambition now, is to prove to those that have given me withering, derisive looks over the last few months when I have bumbled my way around the rink, making me feel like I am wasting my time, and that I have no right to be doing this, totally wrong.  That would make me happy.
Started skating 07.01.17
Currently working through NISA LTS Levels.
Currently wobbling through hockey LTP sessions.

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What did you achieve this week
« Reply #5026 on: September 26, 2017, 07:49:42 pm »
I know very few skaters who were doing decent basics after 9 months.  I don't think many people who have been through it are wondering why you can't do good backwards crossovers yet.  It is hard.  Possibly people who have never skated might wonder why you haven't learned more quickly.  And yes it is all hard whatever the discipline.  Try to keep enjoying the process and another year or two will fly by and you'll be much more relaxed on the ice.



 

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