In just a few hours competitors will take to the ice in the 3rd event of the senior Grand Prix, Cup of China in Beijing. I need to sleep tonight, so I won't be up at 2:45 a.m. Eastern to watch on IceNetwork. I will be slowly and begrudgingly rolling out of bed to a 5:50 a.m. practice to work on outside rockers.
I'm starting to remember what to do so I don't come out of the turn on a flat for an ungodly number of feet before I can control being on the appropriate back outside edge. I've been trying to pull my free hip back immediately after the rocker to go into a back pivot. Thinking of a back pivot position seems to get my hip in the appropriate position but I'm still getting this scratchy flat, particularly when I'm actually working on power skating in the move. I was told by a dance coach to think not of pulling my free hip back, but to think that my skating leg and skating hip keeps pushing forward. After trying that, something seemed to click and I could remember my movement in the Rocker Foxtrot, a compulsory dance with a move similar to the junior MITF rocker pattern.
While I'll be seeing if I can recreate that action again and improve my outside rockers, skaters far better than I will be putting their short programs out there for judges and the rest of the skating world in Beijing.
My favorite skating blog has a good preview of the competitors at Cup of China: http://loopaxles.blogspot.com/2010/11/beijing-bound.html
If you find yourself with insomnia, check out Aaron's predictions about the event and tune into IceNetwork or Univerals Sports. See if you can spot rocker turns in footwork sequences and if it looks like the free hip is back or the skating hip is forward....
1 comment:
I wish I had advice for your rockers, but I have never even attempted one :)
I also have to get up tomorrow early to skate, but since I'm on the pacific coast the competition starts just before midnight. I'm tempted to stay up and watch a bit of it...I'll probably regret it in the morning though!
Post a Comment