Author Topic: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome  (Read 94112 times)

Leif

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #341 on: March 09, 2018, 12:15:10 pm »
The Sacred Voice: Am I right that these people getting in your way are fellow figure skaters during their own patch sessions? If so, TOTF is probably right, speak to someone, maybe the rink organisers. You are paying for patch time, and surely each person should respect the others space.

As an aside, what weird names some of you have. I wonder if The Sacred Voice is a vicar, or a singer in a choir, and TOTF is a gas engineer or an arsonist.

transmissionoftheflame

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #342 on: March 09, 2018, 01:27:32 pm »
As an aside, what weird names some of you have. I wonder if The Sacred Voice is a vicar, or a singer in a choir, and TOTF is a gas engineer or an arsonist.


Arson is not among my many sins, but plagiarism is.  TOTF is the title of a book I read once about passing things on - in my case I suppose a passion for skating.


Patch ought to be about sharing the space fairly, but it often wasn't in my experience.  A lot of the problem is the huge mixture of levels you find in UK rinks in the same session, and the sheer pressure of numbers.  Where I've skated in Germany they have strictly separated levels and disciplines (so dance had their own patch as did pairs) and limits on numbers for each category.  But they had all-day patch there, literally from 6 until 10 or 11 at night.

The Sacred Voice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #343 on: March 09, 2018, 02:05:37 pm »
In fairness, this was the first time I've really had that experience with that particular patch session, it is normally busy and I've got good at waiting for openings, I think part of it might be I just need to get slightly bolder about what I'll risk as a spot for a jump, at the moment I'm perhaps overly cautious, but like I said this is the first time that particular session's been so busy I've found it too difficult to even find spots - I've heard tell from the skating mums that there're several skating competitions coming up at the moment so I guess they're just getting in extra practise for those.

I do my other patch practice at a lunchtime session that's almost always quiet, typically no more than 6 or 7 skaters, several of whom are working on seriously large jumps because of how much quieter it is (my rink has one of the UK's few senior, male free skaters working on his quad toe at the rink), but it's very, very easy to work around their space requirements because you can just wait for them to have a run attempt and then do your own run somewhere else. If I see them coming through when I wasn't expecting then I'll always make an effort to get far out of the way so as not to interrupt their practice.

I'll ask my coach to see if there's more I can do in terms of space and traffic management to weave through on those busy sessions.

My username comes from a silly PC game I played with my sister over a decade ago. I can sing, did so in my university's choir back when I was there, but I don't do anything like that any more. Wouldn't mind doing it again, but time is a constraint.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2018, 05:37:04 pm by The Sacred Voice »
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The Sacred Voice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #344 on: March 09, 2018, 02:15:02 pm »
I forgot to mention there was at least one positive element to yesterday that only tangentially involved ice rinks.

I was standing in the queue to get the coach back home and this lady next to me started up a conversation and it turned out we're both skaters (she's into ice hockey) and I got the distinct impression I was being chatted up, very flattering!
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VisuallyImpairedOnIce

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #345 on: March 09, 2018, 02:54:04 pm »
Aargh. Two foot turns - forwards to backwards specifically. Have to do them on a straight line as part of compulsory elements in Glasgow. Tried on bigger rink yesterday and just kept doing a big circle instead of a tight turn.


On my little home rink I’m fine both ways. On the big rink, backwards to forwards is fine.


I don’t get it - maybe if I try it as though I was going to do a 2 foot twizzle...


Oh also, T stops. Again needed for the elements bit at Glasgow. I don’t normally do them. They’re kinda hard.


Drag with my back knee on the ice. Didn’t manage that either.


It was actually a really good lesson yesterday, I promise!
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WednesdayMarch

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #346 on: March 09, 2018, 08:48:53 pm »
Arson is not among my many sins, but plagiarism is.  TOTF is the title of a book I read once about passing things on - in my case I suppose a passion for skating.

Oh.  I had TOTF down as somebody who had been involved in the Olympic Torch Relay.  Ah well.  8)  I was born on a Wednesday.  In March...

Aargh. Two foot turns - forwards to backwards specifically. Have to do them on a straight line as part of compulsory elements in Glasgow. Tried on bigger rink yesterday and just kept doing a big circle instead of a tight turn.

On my little home rink I’m fine both ways. On the big rink, backwards to forwards is fine.

I don’t get it - maybe if I try it as though I was going to do a 2 foot twizzle...

Use your arms to check more and don't worry quite so much about the feet.  If you try to do them more like a twizzle, you are more likely to rotate even further, defeating the object of aiming for a straight line.  ;)
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.

laurenSkatesicenice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #347 on: March 12, 2018, 01:28:47 pm »
Aargh. Two foot turns - forwards to backwards specifically. Have to do them on a straight line as part of compulsory elements in Glasgow. Tried on bigger rink yesterday and just kept doing a big circle instead of a tight turn.

I've been struggling with these but I found lifting my arm up and back a little earlier helped me. Don't think I'm describing right but before I would go to use my arm to check maybe a little too late when I had already slowed down if that makes sense, so the turn had less momentum.
Instructor also told me to use my head to look down the arm fully to get more of a twist.
I am in Stage 2 so behind you but I think we are talking the same thing!

Leif

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #348 on: March 18, 2018, 07:45:37 pm »
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The Sacred Voice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #349 on: March 22, 2018, 11:47:08 pm »
Had the opportunity to visit Doncaster's multi-level rink, The Dome, today while I was in Doncaster for an entry assessment for a course I'm applying to, but unfortunately I ran out of time so couldn't go ::) Guess those multi-level antics will have to wait for another time!
« Last Edit: March 23, 2018, 01:21:22 am by The Sacred Voice »
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laurenSkatesicenice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #350 on: April 03, 2018, 05:05:39 pm »
So I had a bit of a rubbish day in my most recent lesson (still in Stage 2) and I kinda want to get some fellow skaters’ thoughts on this.

 

I’d missed the previous lesson because I was away and came back thinking – uh oh, am I gonna forget?!  However it was so nice when I stepped on the ice and everything felt great. I practised all of my stage 2 weaknesses (in particular the two foot turns) and they felt pretty good and I realised I wasn’t even thinking about falling over.  I spoke to someone else in my class who said the class was now ridiculously full and people were being held back from moving up from Stage 1 at the moment, so I felt hopeful that the teacher would be looking to pass people today. I haven’t had the best experience with teacher in the last few weeks, she just tells us what item to practise and leaves us to practise each for 5-10 minutes during the lesson and rarely gives regular feedback.

 

She spent a lot of this week’s lesson doing much of the same, but sitting on the side for half of it chatting to someone off rink. She would then get us to go one at a time to show the skill and be assessed, but half the time I would look at her and she was barely watching some people as they went off to demonstrate theirs for assessment.

 

I didn’t care because I genuinely thought I was okay. I just had a good feeling I was getting the skills at least enough to pass compared to most of my peers in the group that week.

 

At the end of the lesson she brought the group together to ask us if we had any questions and then holds two people back and lets the rest of the group, including me, go –  I knew that meant I hadn’t been passed.

 

So I hung back to ask her what I needed to do to pass. I said I thought I had got the hang of things this week and as she would know better, could she tell me what I needed to do?

 

She said “remind me of your name again?”!!! In the moment I was still pretty disheartened I hadn’t passed and didn’t really focus on what was important there – she didn’t even know my name one minute after the lesson had ended.  She then told me I needed to “work on my weaker side” of the 2-foot turns, even though I always actively practise and do both and on the assessment she said to everyone “do your two foot turns, I don’t care which side you turn on”.

 

She said she would look at the turns at the beginning of the next lesson for me to see if they are there.

 

However the more I think about the whole interaction, I realise the main point is she didn’t even know my name (despite being in her class for 6 weeks now) so how could she even have assessed me properly that day? The fact she had to look at the ipod to tell her what was holding me back was the second the class finished has made me think she gave me a really generic answer as an excuse.  Regardless of knowing my name or not, she would have roughly known there and then what it was holding me back.

 

Now I’ve written it all out, it does sound like the most trivial thing in the world so I apologise for the rant – writing is good therapy! At the time I just felt super disappointed for not passing when I felt ready, not being given anything constructive to help me and as a student, completely ignored and unimportant.   Especially as my friend who did pass said they were surprised they passed and didn’t even feel ready, but was told “don’t worry, we need to make space in the classes and move people through”.

 

Am I taking this to heart a bit too much? Probably, it’s only a class!  But does anyone also think this whole interaction seemed a little off too? Hoping this is just a one off instructor and other teachers take a little more time and interest in adult students as I really haven’t enjoyed this stage for these reasons.

The Sacred Voice

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Re: What didnt you achieve this week all help welcome
« Reply #351 on: April 03, 2018, 05:44:33 pm »
I’d missed the previous lesson because I was away and came back thinking – uh oh, am I gonna forget?!  However it was so nice when I stepped on the ice and everything felt great. I practised all of my stage 2 weaknesses (in particular the two foot turns) and they felt pretty good and I realised I wasn’t even thinking about falling over.  I spoke to someone else in my class who said the class was now ridiculously full and people were being held back from moving up from Stage 1 at the moment, so I felt hopeful that the teacher would be looking to pass people today. I haven’t had the best experience with teacher in the last few weeks, she just tells us what item to practise and leaves us to practise each for 5-10 minutes during the lesson and rarely gives regular feedback.

She spent a lot of this week’s lesson doing much of the same, but sitting on the side for half of it chatting to someone off rink. She would then get us to go one at a time to show the skill and be assessed, but half the time I would look at her and she was barely watching some people as they went off to demonstrate theirs for assessment.

I've been following along with your coach woes on your blog and I'd say that, from the sounds of things, you've just got a bit of a bad apple. Every profession has good and bad individuals and it just goes to show you can do a lousy job and still get by in the world just fine. What this person might not be appreciating is that this is her opportunity to show you what a great coach she is in case you wanted to get a coach for private lessons further down the line. What she shows you now will affect your judgement at that point so her performance now is potentially losing her a future customer.
 
She said “remind me of your name again?”!!! In the moment I was still pretty disheartened I hadn’t passed and didn’t really focus on what was important there – she didn’t even know my name one minute after the lesson had ended.  She then told me I needed to “work on my weaker side” of the 2-foot turns, even though I always actively practise and do both and on the assessment she said to everyone “do your two foot turns, I don’t care which side you turn on”.

However the more I think about the whole interaction, I realise the main point is she didn’t even know my name (despite being in her class for 6 weeks now) so how could she even have assessed me properly that day? The fact she had to look at the ipod to tell her what was holding me back was the second the class finished has made me think she gave me a really generic answer as an excuse.  Regardless of knowing my name or not, she would have roughly known there and then what it was holding me back.

This may sound bizarre, but I've found that skating coaches, particularly in group lessons, have atrocious memories for peoples' names and even what level of skill the group is at. My group was frequently asked by almost all of our regular Skate UK coaches whether we'd done X exercise before, or whether we'd started Y move yet, though I admit that it's pretty embarrassing she couldn't say off the top of her head, directly after your lesson with her, what it was you needed to improve. If I had to defend the name thing, it's possible that because your rink structures the group lessons by breaking people into each individual level of Skate UK then learning someone's name when they're just gonna move on in a few weeks (particularly if the coach is kinda lazy) might seem like a bit of effort.

I don't know how true this is, but I get the impression that Skate UK group lessons aren't given a huge amount of attention by coaches, who I suspect aren't paid that well for running them, so they tend to focus more on their private lessons. I can understand their position and don't blame them for this, but, again, their performance affects their future business so it's up to them how they want to come across.

Now I’ve written it all out, it does sound like the most trivial thing in the world so I apologise for the rant – writing is good therapy! At the time I just felt super disappointed for not passing when I felt ready, not being given anything constructive to help me and as a student, completely ignored and unimportant.   Especially as my friend who did pass said they were surprised they passed and didn’t even feel ready, but was told “don’t worry, we need to make space in the classes and move people through”.

Am I taking this to heart a bit too much? Probably, it’s only a class!  But does anyone also think this whole interaction seemed a little off too? Hoping this is just a one off instructor and other teachers take a little more time and interest in adult students as I really haven’t enjoyed this stage for these reasons.

As a counselling student, I can confirm that sharing is indeed very therapeutic and writing it out yourself knowing that others are going to read it does help to organise your thoughts and see the issues more clearly O0

I suspect that you're unlikely to be in this group class long enough to warrant making any real fuss out of it. If you thought you were going to be in it for a very long time (most of a year) then it might be worth saying something to the administration, but I suspect you'll find that, even if progress seems a little slow at the minute, in relative skating terms then you'll be through it soon enough I imagine.
I'm blogging about my skating journey, please read along at dontexcelaxel.blogspot.com



 

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