It seems I lately have bad news to share each time I post... So here it goes: my sharpener moved away :( And I really, really didn't like any other sharpener I tried. They changed the radius, they left the edges rolled out... don't get me started.... The sharpener used to live 30 minutes away from me, and I used to drop my skates at his house on Sundays and have lunch/ dinner in that area, then pick them up. Now I kept postponing, because I'm trying to social distance as much as I can, and I didn't want to eat out, and I didn't really have any other business that way. And when I've finally couldn't take it anymore, to skate on dull blades, and I tried to call, the phone was disconnected. I asked around at my rink and I found that they moved away.
Now, there is some good news... my coach sharpens skates too, and I can give him the skates after I see him for my lesson, and pick them up later. He is a little farther away, but I trust him.
The bad news is really, that I skated the last two weeks on very dull blades... I slid around a lot. I had to be very careful on how much I leaned. I couldn't really skate confidently, or fast, I had to be cautious. I also pulled a little a muscle, lucky, just a little. And after sharpening I'll need time to adjust to the new grip of the blades on ice...
Luckily, I have things that I just started learning, that I need to work on slowly anyway. And basically, these are all that are worth reporting as "worked" and improved.
The forward inside brackets got more comfortable. My coach started me on a straight line and with transitioning trough 3 body positions just before the turn, then I practice on a slight curve. As I could do that, He said to deepen the curve and try to "marry" the 3 positions/ alignment and go trough them faster. And I just started working on the forward outside ones, slow, going trough all 3 positions and a a very shallow curve.
I work on the forward inside twizzle quite a lot. I'm fascinated by them, but I also thought they can actually benefit from blunt blades, as I have to move on the middle of the blade. And drum rolls... on the right forward inside twizzle I'm starting to hit 2 rotations! On the left side, I'm still at one... As I said, I'm fascinated... on the right side, even if I hit 2 rotations more then occasionally, I cannot really pinpoint what I do different. I mean, here are few things on the ones that may make the twizzle work... I feel the entry edge is deeper, then the speed it's actually slower, but it could be just that I don't rush. I feel I'm aligned over the right hip, and the rib cage is lifted. I also feel I'm pressing into the ice. And I cannot replicate all this all the time, it really is hit or miss. And I don't feel ANY of these on the left side... so that's gonna be a long way to go.
More than that... Working on this left inside twizzle made me realize the back left outside edge is week. I control it fine when I do slow edges or in the back circle eight. It seems that when I add the leg extension I go off balance. I felt the right hip was not stacked, in other words it was not lifted enough, but also the upper body was too forward. I asked my coach to watch the forward inside 3-turn (that is my worse 3-turn from them all, including the backwards ones) to correct the back edge, and he actually said that the forward edge was the first problem. The free hip was too high and that made me lean outside the circle entering the 3-turn. So I put a lot of "slow" work into that too.
After all this slow skating I'm looking forward to catch a little speed!
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