Near the end of class yesterday, after working a bit on spins, I had a bit of a talk with the coach. This week was kind of a pre-test and “technique tuning” with next week being testing (last class of the 8 week session).
On balance, I’m probably OK to pass Adult 6–not quite really “there” with the two-foot to one-foot spin (shown in the video above). If I were just doing Adult 6 and out which is typical for recreational Adult skaters (if they even go that far) what I just need is the practice to get it to “come together”. Thus, I could be considered passed for level.
However, since I do plan to continue with free-skate (the actual “figure skating” curriculum, as for competition) my thought to stay in Adult 6 a bit longer is probably a good one.
I do need to have my spins a bit better to continue with the more demanding standards of the free-skate classes. Also, there are a few things not covered in the Adult curriculum that are part of the “Basic” curriculum that younger skaters, aiming at free skate, take. Things like toe taps and bunny hops (preliminaries for the jumps with rotation you learn in free-skate), spirals, and pivots being the main ones.
One of my coaches has been willing to work with me on those since the classes at this level are small and they can be flexible with curriculum. Harder to customize curricula in larger classes. Still, it’s been a while since we did any work on those and I may need to take a few private lessons to “fill in the gaps.” The trick there is, as always $$$ as well as being able to work out a schedule.
One thing I am a bit unhappy with is that I still look a bit “clunky” out skating (see the progress video posted last week, but also here…)
Figure skating should be “pretty” and, well, I’m not quite there yet either. I actually mentioned that to the coach and some of the things I have been working on since doing the above video–pushing “out” in my crossovers rather than back and getting down lower in my knees (which also allows a deeper cross) is helping with that. Also need to work on not “breaking” at the waist which is not only bad form (and part of my problem with spins) but also looks bad.
Finally, I left my skates with the coach who also does sharpening (has his own sharpening machine). I do not have the folk at the rink sharpen the blades. They are all hockey guys and can ruin figure skate blades really quickly by putting a hockey profile on them. That’s why I had to replace the blades on my skates a couple years ago (not long after I bought them). I’ll be able to pick them up Tuesday.
Forward! (And backward…because…you do that in skating.)
The Writer in Black 