Losing it

rosereedy · March 03, 2013, 12:04:04 AM

For the past several weeks, my jumps have taken a vacation. Axel, 2S, lutz...gone. I might get one each once a week if I'm lucky. I compete next weekend too. I am trying to get extra time on the ice to work to get them back. I am about in tears over this. Normally they are consistent but now, well they just vanished. Constant falls and pops and putting my foot down. I am at a loss. Any advice?

treesprite · March 03, 2013, 05:05:04 AM

Maybe you are nervous about the competition coming and it's messing up your steadiness and accuracy, even if you don;t feel "emotionally" nervous. Try doing some deep breathing exercises to clear your head and refresh your concentration, before practicing jumps.

adragast · March 03, 2013, 10:26:02 AM

I agree with treesprite, this may be psychological because of the competition to come. Try to relax a bit more when doing them while keeping in mind that they were consistent in the past which means YOU CAN DO IT.

Hope it will help, wish you the best for your competition next week.

ONskater74 · March 03, 2013, 01:41:06 PM

If it's any comfort, I recall reading that Brian Orser lost his triple axel for 6 months or so, just lost it. John Curry, for a time, struggled with his triple jumps, fine in practice, but lost them in competition. Psychological I think. Body changes also could be the cause if you are in a growth spurt.

amy1984 · March 03, 2013, 02:12:24 PM

See if you can spend a little extra time with your coach to work out the kinks. I know when things like that go on me, I'm usually starting to pick up a bad habit. Could be something as simple as your head position or whatever.

VAsk8r · March 03, 2013, 05:23:19 PM

Sounds like you're getting freaked out. When you're about to do a jump, force yourself to think about anything besides the jump. Repeat the same thing in your head again and again. When I was getting over a break-up, it was "Travis is stupid, Travis is stupid, Travis is STUPID," over and over. Sounds silly, but it worked.

I would think your coach could help you with any technical issues.

jjane45 · March 03, 2013, 10:27:23 PM

Despite some people called me crazy at times for the stuff I fool around with, I consider myself the most risk averse skater around the rink. And I pad up the most too, coincidentally.

Doubletoe · March 03, 2013, 11:46:34 PM

Roseyhebert, I totally hear you. My axel has been so on-again, off-again that I've just decided to take both axels out of my program and replace them with single salchows. I've had two axels in my program every year for the past 8 seasons and this just feels like defeat to me. But I know the PCS is worth half of my score and it's only going to suffer if I hyper-focus on two jumps that are worth 1.0 points each and let it stress me out. It's better to get any value greater than zero in those jump boxes and not sacrifice the whole rest of the program. . . So have a Plan B. Single the jumps if you aren't 100% confident, and single them nicely. It's not all about the jumps.

JSM · March 03, 2013, 11:52:05 PM

I get it... my most reliable jump has gone awol. I popped all but two I tried during my last lesson, and I tried a LOT. And it was 99% on until about 5 days ago.

AT this point, I'm going to put out there what I've got, and let the rest just happen!

rosereedy · March 04, 2013, 03:26:22 PM

Thanks everyone. My coach and I have been doing extra lessons for the past month and nothing helps. She tells me all the time that do it even if I am going to fall. But then she tells us that for every pop or fall in a program, we owe her money. I have this great dress and a fun program to music I love. I also don't have anyone skating against me so no stress there. I am going to work doubly hard this week and pray that they show back up for the competition on Saturday.

Skittl1321 · March 04, 2013, 03:59:35 PM

Quote from: roseyhebert on March 04, 2013, 03:26:22 PM
She tells me all the time that do it even if I am going to fall. But then she tells us that for every pop or fall in a program, we owe her money.

That is a bit of a frustrating mixed message....

I agree it is perfectly normal, and at this point- you just need to go for them. You can do them, and you know it. Don't let this temporary loss go to your head! It happens to everyone.

techskater · March 04, 2013, 09:24:57 PM

Agree with skitl. If it were just pops but you got a pass for falls, I'd understand her statement (that means you were at least going for it!).

rosereedy · March 04, 2013, 10:09:28 PM

Yeah skittl but I understand what she means. I want to work so hard but my mojo is just a little lost. Oh well, it's just a jump....right?

hopskipjump · March 05, 2013, 10:07:00 AM

Will your coach use coaches eye or other app to slo-mo your jumps? Maybe watching them would help? My daughter often sees errors better on video than trying to figure out on her own.

rosereedy · March 05, 2013, 05:23:16 PM

Quote from: hopskipjump on March 05, 2013, 10:07:00 AM
Will your coach use coaches eye or other app to slo-mo your jumps? Maybe watching them would help? My daughter often sees errors better on video than trying to figure out on her own.

We've used this. I think last night I might have figure out my axel problem but my 2S is another issue. It has good take off, air position, height, etc according to my coach but for some reason I am wimping out on the landings...just falling apart basically. The slo-mo thing doesn't really do much for me to show what I am doing wrong. Typically I can say what I did wrong to make the jump not work. Getting there, slowly.

fsk8r · March 06, 2013, 03:21:28 AM

When your coach is telling you you're wimping out on your landings, do you actually feel anything different in the air versus times when you do land? I can normally tell I'm going to two foot my flip at the moment I take off. Something's not quite right. Likewise I can feel myself rock on my blade just before turning my camel into a sit and I know that I won't be able to get down as the weight is too far back. My coach hasn't been able to spot me making the movement, but I can feel it happening.
I find identifying what is wrong is the first step to fixing it. While I'm nowhere near consistent my camel-sit actually goes down when I concentrate on not moving my weight while in the camel.

rosereedy · March 06, 2013, 04:29:32 PM

Quote from: fsk8r on March 06, 2013, 03:21:28 AM
When your coach is telling you you're wimping out on your landings, do you actually feel anything different in the air versus times when you do land? I can normally tell I'm going to two foot my flip at the moment I take off. Something's not quite right. Likewise I can feel myself rock on my blade just before turning my camel into a sit and I know that I won't be able to get down as the weight is too far back. My coach hasn't been able to spot me making the movement, but I can feel it happening.
I find identifying what is wrong is the first step to fixing it. While I'm nowhere near consistent my camel-sit actually goes down when I concentrate on not moving my weight while in the camel.

Until Monday, no. But once I made a little change in my axel I was like "oh so that's what feeling I am missing". I am not keeping my right side strong at all and it's causing my jumps to wimp out. Tonight I hope to fix my 2S. Gotta keep that right side strong for me!!

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Losing it