Times Changed for Sunday, Feb 27! Training Tips! Oh My!

Workshop Edit:
Just a heads up. We couldn't get the sporthall in Leopoldsburg at the times I wanted for Sunday Feb 27th in the workshop, so instead of meeting in the morning, we will be meeting from 3-8 pm.
I am actually excited about this because it means we can sleep in Sunday morning!!!! Or, skate. :)
I hope it's ok for everyone's schedule.
In case you still haven't let me know you want to sign up, please do, because I only have a few spots left, and it's been less than a week since I posted it. I am unbelievably thrilled. Actually, I might be gloating a little. :)


In Other News:
Yesterday's session in Diepenbeek was small (only 7 or 8 skaters) but EPIC! We trained so hard and even got to stay an extra hour because the basketballers cancelled their game due to the weather. We are SO much more hardcore than them. ;)
And the TRICKS we worked on are incredible. Training with Conecrazy is really special to me. We all motivate each other to get better in a way that jacks up our levels MUCH faster than we would progress alone. Even better, everybody has different strong points.
For example: my Sevens are totally rubbing off on Tim and Jurgen.
Jurgen's (and Wim's!) sitting tricks are totally rubbing off on me.
Tim (and Vicky's, too) style are rubbing off on me.
Everybody skating together just has this energy that can't be found when we're not. Yesterday I missed so many people for example, and although Jurgen Tim and I trained tech HARD the whole time (which we usually do a great deal of together, because we're all working on the same stuff), I missed the feeling in the room that comes from everybody working on their own thing.

Some Useful Training Tips:

Practice basics that contain elements of higher-level tricks
Just writing this really quickly because I am thinking of it since yesterday's training, when I worked really hard on sitting tricks and jumping tricks, so my legs were quite tired by the time I got to training sevens, swans, and reverse toe-heel compass. Sometimes it's better to practice a trick that is LIKE the trick you are working on, but not as hard. This isn't just for the times when you are tired, however. It's something you can do all the time that will help with your trick. For example, I didn't get good at sevens from practicing sevens. No, I am getting good at sevens by practicing the exercises for seven. Yesterday I did very few actual sevens, but I did 120 cones of the exercise...in a row, in sets of 40.

Another benefit of doing this is that if you are constantly failing a trick, it can be very discouraging! And practicing a useful basic element that you CAN succeed at will help you feel less crap about your skating and also help you more in the long run than endless repetition and failure. That being said, there is a huge element of "If at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again" present in slalom, but that's more fine-tuning than anything, in my opinion. Most people want to skip the "training" part and get right to the "skating," which is perfectly understandable, but in the long run it's much more satisfying to do the basic work involved first and get a good result faster and with less headache. Like doing the off-skates squats for footguns, as a great example. I tried footgun over and over again for a long time, but it wasn't until I just bit the bullet and trained the squats that I had any measure of success. I know that I'm a sucker for discipline when it comes to training, which is why I always enjoyed ballet growing up, and why I loooooove training exercises. Most people aren't like that, so I get it if that's no fun for you and you don't want to do it all the time, but if you hit a trouble spot, it's something that will really help you.

Do it down the whole line of cones...and back...and there again...and back again
The high number of repetition is important because often the hardest part of a trick is building up the endurance to continue it down the whole line. It's also important to teach your body not to automatically fall out of a trick after a few cones, which is entirely psychological, but no less compelling than a feeling of tiredness in your legs. Important to this exercise is not stopping to pick up knocked cones until you've made it down the line, or down the line and back again. I try to do 40 cones without stopping to pick up cones, for example, because I also want to include the change of direction in my practice.

Isolate weak points and "shed" them:
"Shedding" is something from music. I think the term came from family members of musicians telling them to go practice their scales in the shed, because it's repetitive and annoying, but needs to get done. :)


Often the exercise you should practice will be something basic that is the foundation for OR an important element of the trick you want to improve. However "basic" does not necessarily mean "easy," so sometimes you might practice elements where you won't succeed at the basic, but it will still help with the final trick. Wheeling is a "basic," for example, because it is the foundation of many tricks. For example, yesterday when training swan, I practiced back toe wheeling on the outside edge of my "bad" wheeling foot (i.e. the one I don't normally wheel on), because I know that it is a crucial but currently weak element in my swan. Of course, back toe wheeling on my "bad" foot is not very successful for me, but then when I went ahead and plugged it back into my swan, I already felt a bit more comfortable driving backwards on the outside edge in the move.

Another example is practicing your bad leg footgun to help with your kazachok (and general strength!), practicing your volt to help with your screw, practicing toe-toe or toe-heel snakes to help with your wheeling...I could seriously go on forever.

As an example within the first example, the whole reason I practiced swan in the first place was so I could improve my reverse cross compass. :)
Improving my swan is also important, because it needs it, but the overall goal is for a combo I am working on that doesn't even include swan...although perhaps now it will...I am very inspired by that little girl in Chuncheon who kicked my butt in the battle...

Ok, well this is starting to dissolve into ramble, so I'll quit while I'm still ahead, and wish you all happy skating.
Thanks for reading!
xoxoxo
meg