After almost a year of "casual" skating, I finally made the decision to go beyond moving forwards, backwards, change direction and forward crossovers.
Without a coach and never attended LTS, I'm 100% Youtube-educated. I decided to step up the skating ladder by doing....JUMPS
That means starting from the bottom, Waltz Jump. Simple and trivial to the forum members here, but a giant leap (forgive the pun) for me.
Until today, I've always been wary of Mr Super Big Toepick. But this afternoon, I went for broke, expecting to fall over many times. But I fell only once, despite numerous landing stumbles. Mr Super Big Toepick kept me balanced and I was able to put the left foot down when the landings went awry. I managed to land smoothly a few times but the right back outside glide petered out after only a very short distance. Guess I haven't done the shoulder check. At other times, I came to an abrupt stop after landing (no glide).
Right now, I'm just trying to practise to get it right. In my preferred end corner of the rink, I do a short run up, lean on my left outside edge and kick low. My priority is not height or distance, just trying to practise getting the landing correct without stumbles.
My observations are as follows:
1) I need to correct my tendency to lean forward. That probably accounts for my stumbles upon landing because the middle toepicks hit the ice, instead of just the lowest one.
2) I need to stop looking at the ground. I have this subconscious fear of under-rotating and not making the half revolution. If I keep my head straight, is there a way of knowing that I'm rotating enough (visual reference sights when in the air)? This will also help me to know when is the right time to shoulder check in the opposite (clockwise) direction.
3) Lack of shoulder check upon landing. I know because on the few lucky occasions that I manage to land smoothly on right backward edge, it turns into a sharp backwards curve instead of a long (5 secs or more) gentle wide arc. But how to know when is the right moment to shoulder check? In the split second spent in the air, everything moves so fast.
4) Stop pointing right foot down. I kept reading "keep the foot pointed!" instructions. So there's the subconscious directive in my mind to point my right foot down. Maybe that's why I stumble too, because pointing my foot means the middle toepicks hit the ice instead. On my Ultima Mirage blade, the ground clearance of the lowest toepick is really VERY LOW. So I reckon by keeping my foot level, it would hit the ice precisely.
Anyway, I'll keep working on improving the Waltz Jump for the next few months. My priority are as follows:
1) Get the landings right.
2) Then go for height (kicking right foot up higher and higher).
3) Then go for distance (lifting off with more power).
4) Finally go for speed in the approach to jump.
Topic: My First Jump (Read 2113 times)