Author Topic: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!  (Read 2868 times)

WednesdayMarch

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #11 on: March 23, 2019, 06:05:01 pm »
Outside edge? I'm confused?

My brain is also exhausted just watching out for the random movements of "pedestrians"!

Okay.  You said in an earlier post that you know what your edges are, so that's a start.

For a T-stop, when you turn the free foot at 90 degrees to the skating foot and drag it lightly (at first) along the ice, it gathers ice particles to slow you down and stop you.  This process is much more efficient when you drag the outside edge of that free foot/blade rather than the inside edge.  In other words, when you gently lower it onto the ice for the dragging part, make sure that you have the foot turned over at the ankle so you're dragging the side of the blade nearest your little toe, ie the outside edge.  If you have the ankle dropped in the other way (nearest the big toe and skating foot), then the stop goes all wimpy and hopeless.  (I am still traumatised by a chap I knew when I was a child who literally went all knock-kneed and took almost the length of the rink to stop!)  Basically, if your boots are touching as you perform a T-stop, you're doing it wrong.

Does any of that make sense?
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.

physichull

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #12 on: March 23, 2019, 06:07:52 pm »
Ah ok, I've always just dragged the inside edge as that's what I thought it was! Then just dig the inside edge in harder to stop faster...?!

What you say makes sense but sounds way more tricky!

WednesdayMarch

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2019, 06:34:35 pm »
Don't dig anything in!!!

It will seem more tricky at first but works much better.  Trust me.
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.

Leif

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2019, 11:47:23 pm »
Dragging the inside edge is an in-line skating technique. Using the outside edge is harder but more effective. You need a decent knee bend.

physichull

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2019, 09:12:52 pm »
Made decent strides in sorting out my snowplough and starting to understand hockey stops a bit more too which is good.

Lesson was useful again this week. I really want to make sure I've cracked the basics before trying anything new though. As such, I have a few basic weaknesses, all involving lemons! For some reason I really struggle with forwards and backwards lemons.

I either lose momentum half way through or my right foot drags/scrapes back across the ice when bringing my feet back together, instead of cutting a nice line in the ice. Backwards lemons I can do a bit better but it is for some reason one helluva workout on my calfs! I thought my muscles were fairly strong up until then! Backwards lemons cane my calfs and feet muscles!

I really need to practise these and get more proficient before I book any more lessons.

To keep it interesting though, I'm going to try to have a go at using my outside edges more. There is a drill I've seen a few times online doing figure of 8s using only your outside edge of your inner foot (outside edge of left foot when turning left). I can do this well on my inside edges but outside is another animal and a different form of balance!
« Last Edit: March 29, 2019, 07:02:51 am by physichull »

Jo

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #16 on: March 28, 2019, 09:38:13 pm »
Yeah it's lemons for me too. That's a skill that needs practising, although I’m getting pretty good on forwards lemons now. But I found backwards ones were much harder. I’m getting there slowly tho. A couple weeks ago I could only do one or two backwards lemons before I lost momentum but now I can mostly do the width of the rink. Backwards half lemons tho are still wickedly difficult for me. I can’t stay in a straight line and after even one I end up facing completely the wrong direction. Still I expect more practice will get me there. I’m thinking I’ll stop the paid lessons until I can master these backwards skills.

Good luck Physichull.

WednesdayMarch

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #17 on: March 29, 2019, 08:20:55 am »
Still I expect more practice will get me there. I’m thinking I’ll stop the paid lessons until I can master these backwards skills.

Remember that practice makes permanent, not necessarily perfect...

The paid lessons are what keep your progress on the right track, nipping any bad habits and technique in the bud before the become permanent.  Backwards does eventually click, I promise.  I honestly still remember the feeling of impossibility when I first started it, and that was 40 years ago.  I got there.   ;) 
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.

physichull

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #18 on: March 29, 2019, 09:46:40 pm »
Just got back from one of the teen disco session (I know, I know) - a work social was the excuse though.

Oh. My. Gosh. What a difference being able to hear what your skates are doing on the ice makes! Couldn't hear it because of the music and it totally freaked me out for a good 20 minutes! You slowly get back used to it but it was weird. I liken it to playing the guitar when you are deaf!

First time I wore something other than jeans though. Bought some looser fitting climbing trousers and it made a world of difference. Felt more dextrous and agile. Really feel like I am beginning to consolidate on a lot of stuff though and I'm beginning to get the hang of things.

Was difficult to practise most of the things I wanted as there was a lot of ice traffic but I'm  going back three times next week during the week days so will hopefully  be able to practise my outside edges in figures of 8. That's my next goal, along with dabbling with forward crossovers.

Its just such a great feeling to know that I am making really solid gains each week.

physichull

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Re: New(ish) to ice skating - a few notes on my progress!
« Reply #19 on: April 02, 2019, 06:10:05 pm »
Well that's me passed on Level 1 and 2, and to be honest, if I look at http://www.iceskating.org.uk/index.cfm/learn-to-skate/skate-uk/skate-uk-basic-skills-programme/ then I can pretty much do all of Level 3 too. As  such, I've put my lessons on hold to spend a month just consolidating a few things and to try out some Level 3-4 stuff on my own.

I found the Level 1-2 lessons a bit of a breeze to be honest. I was leagues ahead of everybody else in my group (albeit still a modest skillset!) but it just started to feel a bit pointless in going to them as it was not pushing me or testing me at all. Granted, there are still the odd things that I need to improve.

Got a couple of days off this week so am going to head down to Widnes during the day whilst its quiet to practise some things on my own. I might be skipping ahead a little bit but I really want to try and do some forward crossovers. I've been watching some videos online that summarise the basics and I don't think I could learn much different in a paid for group lesson than I would from YouTube so I'm going to strike out on my own for a bit. Once I feel like I've consolidated a few more skills I'll look in to getting some more lessons in.

I've been trying forward crossovers on corners as I was getting incredibly frustrated at the ends of the rink in losing speed by basically forward gliding or forward stroking round the corners, instead of generating speed and power through the turn. I have by no means mastered this yet but I do the odd one and it sort of clicks into making sense but I need to practise it a lot more. It kind of feels like a controlled fall in some ways...I don't know if that's how everybody else feels? But in that controlled fall you can preserve/generate more speed and it feels good when I pull off a good one.

Still a bit clumsy in stopping too. I can stop slow-medium speeds, but I can't do an "insta-stop" in an emergency situation for instance, so I need to keep practising that too. Its good though, I feel like lots of progress is made each time I set skate on the ice.

One thing I've noticed recently is that my right foot doesn't seem as dextrous as my left, which I was surprised by as I am right footed. For instance, with forwards lemons my left foot can nicely glide out and back in, whereas my right foot can tend to be a bit clunky and often scrape the ice instead of gently change direction and glide back in. In first noticed it when my girlfriend films me whilst going backwards, my left foot seemingly did much more of the work than the more rigid right foot. Its food for thought and I need to concentrate more on what the right foot is doing and make it pull its weight a bit more!
« Last Edit: April 02, 2019, 06:17:52 pm by physichull »



 

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