I have a hard time completing the pattern my coach gives me. I though it was simply because I was too slow, but then I watched a beginning ice dance couple on Youtube skating without a lot of speed but able to complete the Dutch Waltz pattern (which I can NOT do even with chasses at 138bpm).
Of course I still aim to improve my stroking, but I also think that perhaps the size of my lobes are too ambitious for my current skating skills (no input from coach on this, but then he seems to have high expectations from all of his students). I want to start from the minimum, and then work my way up, because I think that's better than the constant frustration of not being able to do it the way a higher-level dancer would.
What are the guidelines on the size (short and long axis) of the lobes, and how can I use the hockey lines and circles to guide me? What is the minimum and what should I eventually aim for? I skate in an Olympic size rink, and my target is to do the Dutch Waltz. Thanks a lot!
P.S. The pattern my coach gave me is a chasse sequence, though it's not the official ISI pattern -- it's 4/4, around 80-88bpm, with the beat going 1-LFO, 2-RFI, 3-4-LFO, instead of 1-2 LFO, 3-4 RFI, 1-2-3-4 LFO. He wants me to do hockey-dot-to-hockey-dot in 6 lobes, working up to 4 lobes. For some reason, I can't do it in 6 lobes, but can do it in 5. However, I tend to stay too long on the last FO edge because I find myself not reaching the long axis in time for the next stroke.