Battle Warsaw / Slides!

First of all, Tim and I will be scheduling Skatefreestyle workshops for the autumn and winter. Summer is just too busy with travel and competitions for us to be giving any in the next few months.

Second of all, we've been up to a lot in the past few weeks, including Battle Warsaw last weekend, which was very different this year than it was last year. The technical level has grown astronomically, which was amazing to see. For me it was very revealing about just how lazy I actually am with training in comparison, as I tend to practice one trick only for as long as it is entertaining, and then I move on to something else. You can see that the Polish skaters train very specifically and very effectively, until a trick is of water-tight consistency. I have taken their example to heart this week and spent the majority of my time working on tightening up tricks and beginning with a few new ones. It's satisfying in its own right, especially with a good drum and bass mix in my headphones, which easily provides a one to two hour backdrop while I plug away at wheelings or sitting tricks or whatever.

However, many of the skaters at the battle appeared to ONLY train tricks, with no nice freestyle mixed in. Without the freestyle, only half the job is done, in my personal opinion. This was reflected in the judging, as I made it through to the final ahead of people who are technically further along than I am, and I assume this is because I was one of the few female skaters representing "freestyle slalom" as a whole, as opposed to "slalom tricks." I was very proud to make it to the final; it was actually the goal I had going into the battle, and once I got there, I didn't really fight. I came in fourth place. *Maybe* if I had fought I could have secured third, but I'm not really sure who I could have beat in that final, because the level was VERY hard.

I was a bit nervous skating in this battle, as opposed to other recent battles, so that was a little disappointing, because I couldn't really pull off any back wheelings, and my sevens were still failing left and right, whereas I am knocking out 7-9 of them easily in practice. Before Paris, I hadn't trained seven in a month of Mondays and just kind of took it for granted that I could do them, and it's been showing in battles lately. So, I've been back to the grindstone and they've improved massively in the past few weeks. However, they still didn't work in Warsaw. This is possibly the most frustrating thing, that I KNOW I can do a trick really well and then I fail it because I am a bit shaky. It just goes to show how sure of your tricks you must be in order to do them well in competition. With back wheeling, I am inconsistent in practices as well as in public. However, I've been drilling the crap out them all week, so maybe I will show some improvements in the next battle. Currently I am shooting for the elusive 20 cone back toe wheeling, and while I've come as close as 19, I've never gotten down the whole line without a single tap or mistake.

Anyway, back to Warsaw, the atmosphere at the battle was quite competitive and serious, and I didn't get much of a sense of the camaraderie amongst the skaters that I so depend on in order to keep bringing me back to battles. However, I realize that a lot of peoples' motivations are different than mine, and that for some people, winning is the only way to have fun. No matter. To each his own. However, it does concern me if this attitude becomes prevalent, and then people shy away from competing. On the one hand it is not necessarily a bad thing, because then it opens up the sport to having several different levels of competition and different kinds of events, but on the other hand, it does not help the sport if the competitions themselves have smaller and smaller numbers of people entering to compete. This is absolutely not the case so far; in fact, there are more people than ever in the freestyle slalom rankings, so I guess it's just a natural part of the evolution of the sport as it gets more popular and the level improves.

Personally, I am still improving all the time and know I am nowhere near the top of my potential, so I will continue to compete as long as I feel like I should be doing so, because I WANT to be as good as the people who are the best, and I know I can be, but it just takes more practice and more experience...i.e. competitions.  

The women's slide competition in Warsaw was my favorite part of the whole weekend. I hadn't signed up to take part originally, because I hadn't practiced any slides in ages. I had sort of lost interest in sliding somewhere between last summer and this one, partially because of the fact that I didn't really know how to improve, and I tire easily of something when I know there is no improvement. I suppose I could have sought out internet videos and studied them to learn, or bugged people to show me things, but I didn't, probably because I've been enjoying slalom way too much and I am content most of the time to just keep skating around the cones. Anyway, Ukranian skater Ksenija Komarchuk had an infectious enthusiasm about the whole thing and basically said to me, "Come on, why aren't you sliding?" which of course, worked on me and I signed up! Lidia Wardzinska was also taking part, and it's basically because of those two that I didn't want to be left out. :)

Ksenija took me on as her sliding paduwan and showed me heaps of tips and tricks, AND Mistrial slide, which I had never done before. I learned so much from her that when I left the competition area on Saturday evening, I left with an altogether different outlook on slides in addition to already being improved from the morning. Not only that, I managed to take fourth place in the women's slide competition, which was held apart from the men's only due to late registrations like mine (sorry, organizers!). Last but not least, I managed to do the whole thing in short shorts, and all of my skin remained intact, a fact of which I am very proud. :)

This week I practiced slide a bit on my own and with Pierre Alix, and I can feel how it's different than it used to be. Different better, if still rather noobish.

Well, apart from Battle Warsaw, there's actually been a lot going on, skating-wise, in that I've been training quite diligently. Last night I also had the pleasure of taking part in the Brussels Rollerparade for the first time, and I am hooked. I will be joining as often as possible until the season is over, that's for sure.

To close off, please enjoy some of these EXCELLENT slide tutorials, which come, fittingly enough, from Ukraine. :)

First up: Mistrial slide


Parallel slide


Pornstar slide


There's lots of these tutorials so check them out and happy sliding!
xoxoxo
meg

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Cobra, Part 2 (of 3)

To my surprise and delight, yesterday evening, right around the time I clicked "publish post," I received a short video clip in my email of two of my Skatefreestyle teammates practicing nothing other than the Cobra. So I wanted to make sure I kept these posts timely and relevant to them right now as they are working through their struggles with the exotic beast, especially since I am out there with them in spirit, at least in part. The other part of me is very much enjoying being home, but I consider these posts my small contribution to the team. 

Tonight we take a look at my own experience chasing the deadly Cobra. So, onwards and...onwards! Because "upwards" doesn't really make sense here. Yeah.

The McIntosh Cobra Chronicles:

The whole saga begins at the April 2010 slalom retreat in Belgium with Naomi, where Jurgen and I, and possibly a few others, demanded from Naomi that she magically zap our feet into being able to do this trick. At the time we got the breakdown from her on the entry from toe-heel snake, but our success in execution was limited. She also told us to sit back on the toe, with almost no weight on the heel. (in my case, the right toe and left heel). The heel is for steering, we were informed. We could get into the Cobra, fine, and maybe sneak forward half a meter or so in the same direction as our toe-heel screws, but then we would spin around and around in heel-toe screws. Oh, poor us.

Then, that May in France, at LHSKontest 2010, I received some further advice from Chiara Lualdi on this trick (she is a master of all tricks that screw with your mind like Cobras, inverted eagles on toe and heel, etc;), who told me to sit back onto my right toe and counteract with my upper body by bringing my left arm forward. At that time, I was told that I was leaning forward too much as a result of trying to thrust my left leg out on heel. And let me tell you, that doesn't feel pretty, people.

Still no dice, although I was already adding to my body of knowledge on the mysterious Cobra (cue ominous snake hissing sound now).

We then cut to San Francisco in June 2010, where I reunited with Team Skatefreestyle for a week of practicing together while Naomi simultaneously ran a slalom retreat. At that time I was acquainted for the first time with an Irish skater named Sinead Howick, who learned the Cobra from Naomi in the course of the retreat. I saw her gradual but definite success out of the corner of my eye, and was consumed by feelings of jealousy and longing. I wanted my legs to do that too! But they wouldn't. Not without spinning around, whirling me down a dark tunnel of shame.

The score was thus

Deadly serpent: 3

Pitiful human: 0

I gave up on chasing the Cobra for the rest of that summer, and it was easy to do, distracted by battles and traveling and all the good things in life. Plus, learning a proper footgun was a big priority, so the need to practice Cobra sort of dissipated. I briefly flirted with it again in September 2010 at the Jeonju, Korea competition, aided once again by the ever-helpful Marina Boyko (whose name I am finally spelling correctly! Sorry!), but I still had no success. I knew I didn't have the right feeling. Everything about the trick felt very wrong.

Side note: When you are learning slalom, new tricks will often feel very weird. However, there is a big difference between weird and wrong. When a trick feels weird, it's the sensation that you are doing something you have never done before, your body is not used to it, and you have to think yourself through every step in order to succeed. However, what you will learn to feel is the imminence of the trick being good one day. When it's weird, you know it will get better. You will learn to feel it. When it's wrong, you will also learn to feel it, if you don't know already. Wrong means that it hurts, or that you absolutely cannot sense a balancing point, or even sometimes that it's too easy. If you have your doubts about what you are feeling, consult a slalom expert. But if it hurts, please stop, and change what you are doing.

End side note.

After Korea, that was the end of the Cobra for me for a long time. The summer slalom season was over, so we retreated into our winter habits, which included long practice sessions in the sporthall on weekends followed by well-deserved dinners in delicious restaurants. Life is tough, I know. However, I did chip away the ice at my favorite practice spot to keep my learning curve high.

And then, the Cobra came back to haunt my dreams.

This year at Battle Bremen, the Cobra revealed itself once again throughout the women's competition. Their hips didn't lie. In reaction, I whinged. I whined. I actually wondered if my legs were just too thick to lock into that position (not valid, by the way). At that time, Cris Pers assured me that it is not a flexibility trick. Sinead Howick said that if I could do toe-heel screw, then I could definitely do the Cobra. I wanted to believe them. I really did.

And still, I doubted.

Back in Le Havre, France, for this year's edition of the LHSKontest, I once again made it to the final. And once again, there were Cobras dancing up and down the cone line. Both Zoe Granjon and Sinead Howick busted them out as final tricks in the battle final, in backwards and forwards versions, respectively. They looked like they were having so much fun. I wanted to join them ever so much. Sinead even did a funky dancey Eastern arm thing as she glided, with ease, all the way out of the cone line.

And then, the next time I went out slaloming, after more than a year of wanting to do this move, I managed a teeeeeny tiny little Cobra slaloming in the 120's cone line, where my heel and toe were just about even with each other. Rightfully, I celebrated.

Well, of course this story has a happy ending, though the saga of my Cobra is far from over. I am far enough along at this point, however, where I feel like I can let you, my dear reader, in on the mysteries of this trick. Since I saw Sinead again at PSWC, I got her opinion on what I was doing, and I even managed to consult Polina momentarily to see what I am still doing wrong. It's a work in progress, but a labor of love.

Current Score:

Slithering reptile: 3

Tenacious cone warrior: 3

(I get extra points for maintaining a positive attitude even though I've still got a ways to go.)

So, the next time, we will deal with the mechanics of this sneaky beast.

This post is dedicated to all my cone-dodging Skatefreestyle peeps out in San Francisco right now, under the tutelage of Miss Natalie UJUK.  *thumps chest*

Battle Bremen

Well, I don't want to get in the habit of waiting ages between posts and then apologizing for the lack of content in the interim, so let's just pretend that it hasn't been long and that I've been regaling you with interesting and useful thoughts on slalom this whole time. :)

We went to a battle in Bremen, and before the weekend, I was thinking about not taking part at all (*gasp*) because I hadn't been skating at all for a couple of weeks (*bigger gasp*) because I honestly hadn't felt like it whatsoever (*biggest gasp of all*). The reason for this is that I realized in the midst of a real training session that I was no longer taking any pleasure from slalom skating and that I was just doing it because I felt like I had to, which is of course not true. So I stopped rather suddenly, and didn't train or skate for a few weeks. Without slalom, frankly, I felt a bit empty. So, I learned a valuable lesson from my trial separation from slalom, and I don't think I'll be doing that again any time soon.

In retrospect, I think having a break was actually a good thing for physical reasons also, because the twinges of knee pain that had been creeping in during my early-spring training bonanza have now disappeared, and I suspect that they were the result of overuse. I have a borderline reverent respect for the human knee and always take care to avoid messing mine up, as it's not something that is easily rehabilitated and you're born with the only two.

But anyway, I digress. Bremen was fun, and even though my classic run was a mess, I'm glad I got to do it. I think I need to go back into it and take out some things that are just too hard. It pains me to do it, because I can do all those tricks when I'm practicing, just not all together in a formal run set to music. That's frustrating, but that's life.

This is also a nice lesson for me from taking part in competition, which is something that I've been debating stopping for quite some time. However I reached a milestone in Bremen and was actually able to relax a little while skating in the battle. I was not good in the final, but it was a huge victory for me to be able to actually enjoy myself instead of just make it through the experience. Saturday morning I was still thinking I wouldn't register at all, but then I realized that I would only be disappointing myself, so I went ahead and took part, and I'm really glad I did. I still had some nerves in my stomach, but I didn't have them in my head, which was quite tolerable, and more akin to the lovely nervous butterflies I used to have before going out on stage in a play. Those nerves I used to experience in theater were healthy, stimulating nerves, and that's what I hope I can eventually have when skating. I think skating in Bremen was a big step towards this, and I look forward to this weekend in Le Havre for (hopefully) more of the same, or (even more hopefully) an even better feeling.

The biggest help to me in terms of coping with nervousness better was (of course) something that Tim said to me. He mentioned to me how he thought I only started getting so nervous after I got sponsorship, and I think he's right. Because of that, I have felt an imperative to be good and that I need to win competitions, when in fact I wasn't advanced when I was originally sponsored. Tim said the important thing for me to do is just to skate like I can and do, because I am showing my slalom, not my competition result. He's right, of course, and remembering that really helped me feel more at ease in the battle.

This battle in Bremen actually had a lot of characteristics in common with the battle in Le Havre last year, for me, anyway. I unknowingly did a stupid final trick, same as I did last year in Le Havre. Whoops. Not that it would have changed the result (it wouldn't have), but my choice was the result of me not knowing the strategy of a final trick. This time I went for 20 cone screw, but 10 toe-heel and 10 toe-toe. I always thought that if a final trick was a combo that it would count as one trick if it showed no transition. But apparently changing from heel to toe counts as a transition because the foot goes flat for a second in between screws. If I had jumped from heel to toe then it would have counted as one trick. *shakes head* Whatever, now I know! And now you do, too. :)

Well, my slalom is far from finished. I'm still working on a lot of wheelings and wheeling transitions, and all I want is consistency! With these tricks at the moment, I am consistently inconsistent. Watching the men's battle competition was inspiring...the level that they are at with wheelings is leaps and bounds above the women, in general. In Western Europe, anyway. :)

As far as style goes, I think my skating is looking pretty good. It feels really good to do, anyway. Nothing holds me back anymore. I used to have hiccups and slow-downs and awkward moments, and now I feel like I am flying through the cones most of the time, totally free. That's the best feeling.

Except for on 50's. I still have to get that flying feeling on 50's.

Okay, I have a new goal! Flying feeling on fifties! 1-2-3 go!

Well I'm off to go chase that feeling. Thanks for reading this, and have fun skating!
xoxoxo
meg

Older Slalom Skaters

Sometimes I get asked the question of how old is too old to begin slaloming. The answer is, of course, NEVER. Anyone in reasonable shape with the desire to go skating can learn how to slalom. Anyone with doubts, of course, should ask a doctor, but there is absolutely no age limit to the sport.

In fact, in my experience, older skaters often turn out to be talented, as well as easy to teach. This is, of course, awesome.

I think this comes because a lot of people have always wanted to learn to skate, but they only get the time when they are a little older and their kids, if they have them, are grown up. When they finally do start, they are focused and ready to learn. As a result, they improve very quickly, and it's remarkable to see.

Anyone who wants to learn to slalom but feels like they might be "too old," I would encourage to abandon that sort of thinking and just do it. It's bad enough that the stereotype of ageism exists, and it's even worse when we start imposing this upon ourselves! Think about it...if everyone just tried to fit into the little boxes that stereotypes dictate we should, the world would be a very boring place full of extremely boring people.

Slalomers, fortunately, are hardly ever boring. :)

"Too old" and "Not flexible enough" are two of the reasons for NOT slaloming that I often hear. They are both invalid on their own. You don't have to be young or flexible to become a good slalom skater. You just have to really want it, and then go skating...often.

Speaking of which, I'm off to skate.
Happy skating, everybody!
xoxoxo
meg

On Falling (Down)

It's because of a self-imposed ban on skating today that I am here to blog, which is thanks to a nasty fall. It was bad enough that I had to stop my practice entirely. Granted, there was a brief moment where I hesitated and said, "Hm, well maybe I can just do things that don't hurt, like SITTING TRICKS!" but then the voice of reason stepped in and told me not to be ridiculous, because EVERYTHING hurt. While I was trying to decide whether or not I should continue practice, I skated off to the side and Googled muscular and skeletal anatomy for awhile to see exactly which parts of my body I had offended. I had slammed down hard enough on one side of my bum that the pain echoed continuously, but after resting for a few minutes on the ground, I concluded that the damage was strictly muscular, and likely fleeting. In so many words, I just plain busted my ass.

So then I packed it up, pulled off the skates, and braced myself for the 15 minute bike ride home which turned out to be rather longer, due to taking it easy. I also took the opportunity to run a couple of errands, since I had stopped skating early and the stores were still open. So then I found myself with a bicycle loaded up to the max with handsoap, peppermint tea, and a sizable potted plant (a red anthurium, if you're wondering), and THAT was the moment that the wind decided to turn violent and blow the spattering raindrops directly in my eyes. It was not, as you might have guessed, a pleasant journey, neither for me nor the plant. I did my best to shield the poor thing from the freezing gusts, but it had a considerably harder time of it than I did on the bike, even with my aforementioned busted ass.

But we made it home, the plant and I. The soreness really set in during dinner, and by the time I crawled into bed, I was quite worried that I might have done something quite terrible to myself without realizing it, because every time I accidentally engaged the affected muscles, sharp and intense pain was the result. This remained the case throughout the entire night, as every time I shifted position in my sleep, I was awakened by more of this pain. As you can imagine, I didn't exactly feel rested when I woke up this morning, due to repeatedly waking up with this feeling. At that point, the plant was definitely doing better than I was.

Now, almost 24 hours after the fall, the pain has thankfully subsided quite a bit, but the muscles are still quite sore. Honestly, I think I'm just used to falling well, and this is definitely one of my worst ones I've sustained, so I'm likely being a big baby about it.

The reason that I fell the way I did is because I skated into a cone in a way that it blocked my wheels entirely, and due to my body positioning at the time with crossed legs on two wheels, there was no adjustment I could make as I went down. I had been practicing toe-heel reverse cross compass (which looks like a backwards toe-heel screw) at the time, and it was going really well. So I was doing it with one of my more energetic set-ups, really trying to integrate the move into a run, instead of just doing a slow technical practice (which I had just finished). Then I overshot the entry, grabbed a cone with my right foot, and down I went, unable to uncross my legs or direct my energy in the fall to lessen the impact. The worst was that I felt the fall coming, and there was nothing I could do about it. What a horrible feeling! I bet that's a feeling I used to have more often as a less experienced skater (read: faller), but I just don't remember having it anymore.

Most of the time when I fall, I am able to redirect my energy along the ground, as opposed to into the ground. Rolling is a good example of that, if a bit dramatic for a fall in slalom, where we are usually not traveling fast enough to warrant multiple rolls along the ground to soften our impact with the ground. That being said, rolling is the ideal method. When I fall, I often think about the way people who do parkour tumble forward along the ground after they jump off something high.  You can read an excellent article by Eddy Matzger describing this way of falling here. He likens it to how you would want to jump off a high speed train, which is a really cool visual. :)

Slalom is very good for teaching you how to fall well, as you're simply recovering from *almost* falling the whole time you are doing it. Anyone who has ever learned from Naomi has had that lesson, and subsequently anyone who has ever learned from me. 99.9% of the time that I fall down it feels like I am still skating, except my wheels are no longer in contact with the ground, and I am often able to get up and continue in a fluid manner. Here is a nice piece by Carlesa Williams that describes this. What I also like about this is that she talks about using your naturally-padded areas (i.e. my aforementioned busted ass) to absorb impact, if you must.

So what about protective gear? Beginning skaters are advised to fall onto their pads on their hands and knees. See this article on Skatelog that recommends that you "try to SLIDE on your knee pads and wrist guards." This same list of recommendations turns up on various inline skating websites from skate schools, so my guess is that these are official ICP recommendations for falling while skating. These are excellent recommendations for people who are first learning how to skate, but they don't remain applicable for skaters who wish to specialize in something like slalom. In slalom we contort ourselves into so many positions where achieving the "hands and knees" fall is impossible. Also, many of us choose not to wear protective gear for various reasons and therefore the whole laundry list of falling techniques is moot. Above this, falling on hands and knees at this point, protective gear or no, would feel utterly and totally wrong to me and I would probably fall harder anyway, having learned to effectively fall otherwise.

So I think that in addition to these falling techniques, skaters should also learn, *as they are ready,* the rolling method of falling. It's a lot more adaptable to circumstance than a pad-slide type fall, and essential if a skater ever wants to skate without protective gear. I'm not advising people to skate without protective gear, but the reality is that some people are going to start leaving bits and pieces of it in their skate bag over time. To me, advising people only to fall on their pads is a bit like teaching abstinence in high school. It's a good idea in itself, sure, but the reality is that people will be better prepared to make good choices if they have a some knowledge on the alternatives.

Anyway, I've never taken a basic inline skating lesson, so I don't even know if people are taught multiple techniques. But I think it's great that there are a multitude of ideas out there when it comes to falling. Better that than just one. Everybody should be smart and choose what's right for them. And if you're learning how to skate, you BEST be wearing some protective gear.

When I was first teaching myself the screw from watching this 4WheelFreestyle tutorial and this Munobal trick video and also this one, I spent a lot of time falling on my left knee. In retrospect, my learning method was far from ideal. I could have saved myself a lot of time and headaches if I had just ASKED somebody how to do it, but at the time, I didn't KNOW any skaters who could do that move (sometimes I forget that my introduction to slalom, its skaters, and subsequent learning curve have been rapid). THAT was really awful, so I started wearing a knee pad on that knee because I KNEW I would be falling there, so why wouldn't I protect it? I probably saved myself from injury, even though at the time I was just practicing hard, not practicing smart.

For the record, I don't recommend slalom for total beginning skaters, in general. It can be much too frustrating for the skater who is trying to learn. It's like trying to learn how to dance without knowing how to walk yet. You don't have to be very good at walking when you start dancing (see: hilarious small children everywhere), but you're probably going to fall down a lot more than you would prefer and you'll struggle to keep up with the class. That being said, it depends on the individual and I have seen some amazing beginners who really "get" slalom from day one, but it's the exception, not the rule. A good time to start learning slalom is when you can skate forwards and backwards quite comfortably and can stop confidently without a heel brake. Otherwise, you might be wasting a lot of time working on basic skating techniques instead of on slalom itself, which isn't a bad thing, but then a regular skating lesson might be a better use of your time and money.

Well, it's really too bad that I can't be out there today, because yesterday was going SO well. Earlier in the week I had a really grueling, frustrating technical practice and I was just starting to see some of the rewards for that yesterday.

But anyway. Lessons learned?

1. Learn how to fall well. No, really. Do, because you're going to fall no matter what.
2. Take it a little easy if you hurt yourself, because if you don't rest up, you will hurt yourself even worse.
3. Meet people who can help you learn technical tricks, because it's kinda hard to do by yourself. :-/ You can always ask me if you need help meeting slalomers...we are generally friendly, helpful people. :)
4. A red anthurium is one tough plant.

That's it for today!
Happy falling, everybody, and thanks for reading!
xoxoxo
meg

London Slalom Workshop now open for registration: June 4th and 5th in Hyde Park

I'm coming to London.

Correction: WE'RE coming to London.

Tim and I will be leading a Skatefreestyle workshop TOGETHER in Hyde Park on Serpentine Road, and BOY ARE WE EXCITED! Teaching alone is rewarding, but teaching together is even better.

The dates / times are Saturday, June 4th 10 AM-3 PM and Sunday, June 5th, also 10 AM-3 PM.

What you will be getting...

• EIGHT hours of on-skates instruction, which allow us for one hour lunch breaks both days inside the scheduled time blocks. 
• The undivided attention of TWO professionally certified slalom instructors through ICP. I do believe we're the only certified couple in the world at this time. :)

We are capping registration at TWELVE students, which means that you will be getting lots of individual attention during the sessions. Depending on who signs up, we will either split the workshop into two groups and alternate working with each group, run the class as one entity, or some combination of the two.

And lucky you, we aren't charging double because there are two of us. Because, well, that would just be mean, and expensive, and we are excited about teaching. The price for the workshop is 75 GBP. Making a 35 GBP deposit through Paypal is required to reserve a space, which you can now do from the "Add to Cart" button right here on this blog. The remainder of the price is payable (in cash) on the first day of the workshop.

For all sign-ups and questions, please drop me a line at megan [at] skatefreestyle [dot] com. I really hope to hear from you. It's going to be such a fun, informative weekend.

Ok, well I still have loads to write, but this post has got to stick to being a workshop announcement.
Keep practicing everybody, and have fun!

xoxoxo
meg

The Meaning of Life. Also, Stylish Slalom.

Some Philosophy:
First of all, "How to Do What You Love" by Paul Graham. It's so true. I want to read more things like this.

More things like that? Oh, well how about "How to Do Philosophy," also by Paul Graham, and even more awesome, especially since I majored in philosophy in college for many of the reasons that the author himself wanted to do. However, unlike the author, I satisfactorily went away having learned what The Meaning of Life meant to me, which is, in case you wanted to know, to make meaning. It's a simple concept, but not necessarily easy to do, which is evident in all those people busily searching for meaning outside of themselves. I know better, of course, and I have a feeling that most creative people out there do too, that is, if they are not too busy enjoying missing the point of existentialism in the first place, as I used to tend to do. :)

But anyway. Let's jump ahead from existentialism  to post-modernism and get right down to slalom, because freestyle slalom embodies that concept so well.

Manipulating Style
Well, what I originally wanted to blog about today was style. It's been on my mind as I've been designing a classic run for the upcoming season. And yes, the reason that I haven't been here blogging about slalom is because I've been out there doing it, taking advantage of the nice weather as much as I could. I've been trying to find my run all week, and it's coming along slowly. Today it is raining (not drizzling...RAINING...otherwise I might still be out there), so therefore I am writing.

Do you think about your style? I am starting to think about mine. In the past I've thought a lot about other peoples' style, but not really my own. I mean, I know I have a certain way of skating and there are things I like about it and things that I don't, so in that sense I have thought about my style, but it's only very recently that I've been thinking about it as something I can improve with practice, like getting better at wheelings or anything else.

However, I didn't make up my style. It's not something I created. It was already a part of me before I started skating slalom, and I want the way I improve it to be equally organic. If I go out and try to change my skating to fit the vision of what I think good style is, I will only reach it to an extent. I can grasp and incorporate new elements of other styles, but my basic character remains the same. So in order to make life easier, I suggest on working WITH your existing stylistic attributes instead of attempting to scrap your whole identity as a skater and come up with a new one. There is a word for that. It is called "poser."

As a bit of a teaser, I have an exercise I would like to try out in my pilot workshop in 2 weeks that is all about discovering and defining your own style. In my Leadership classes we have been reading a lot of intriguing materials that are really helpful for self-discovery and I think they can be applied to style as well. We shall see how it goes over with the group, but obviously, I hope it is useful and goes well!

Objective Elements of Style. Help! Because I need help coming up with them.
"Style" is often perceived as "merely" subjective, so how can any one style be better than another? The answer is that while there are many different KINDS of style out there, style itself is present in differing AMOUNTS. There are definite objective criteria to consider when talking about a skater's style, the same way there are objective criteria in technique. So when comparing two skaters side by side with completely different styles but technically identical skating, it can still be possible to determine which one has a better mastery of his or her own style, and therefore who should win the battle round. Of course this isn't always easy for judges to see and they are making calls on the fly, so no process is perfect. Regardless, in theory, this should be possible.

So what are these criteria for measuring style? To be honest, I don't really know. I have an IDEA, but I am not done thinking about this subject yet. What are the things that jump out at you as ALWAYS IMPORTANT in measuring style? This is not where we ask ourselves, "What kind of style does this skater have?" but merely "Does this skater have any, and how much?"

I would venture to say that one of the most important factors in answering this question is COMFORTABILITY. Perhaps this concept might show up on judge's sheets as "trick mastery," but that's not my terminology and "comfortability" is more clear to me personally. Skaters who look comfortable are always nicer to watch than skaters who look like they are seizing from the waist up. If there are two skaters turning the same screws down the line of cones but one has Flarms (flailing arms) and the other does not, the skater without Flarms is going to win because he or she looks more comfortable and has clearly mastered the trick at a higher level than the Flarming individual.

I think it's also useful to think about comfortability with regard to a person's basic skating level, though I'm sure people are only judged (and should be judged) in the context of the competition itself. How strange is it to watch someone gliding through the cones in Cobra when that same person can't make it downtown on their skates? That's a situation I just made up, but I can very well see that happening. A person with a high level of comfortability on their skates is going to adapt better to different surfaces, slopes, and situations than someone who has only practiced tricks, and it's going to shine through in their slalom, no matter how easy or difficult the runs are. Look at somebody like Naomi, who doesn't often show alarmingly technical slalom but who looks cooler than practically any other skater, ever, and a lot of it is due to the fact that the woman can SKATE. Period.

What are some other objective elements of style? I really want to assemble theory on this. I'll do some reading. But if you have ideas and want to share, I would be thrilled to hear them.

What I like:
In the evenings after my sessions this past week I have been watching videos of different kinds of skaters in order to try and pick out elements that I also want in my skating. Some of them show technique that I would love to master. Some of them skate perfectly in time with the music. But after backing up and re-watching several videos because I couldn't pay attention to anything in particular and I was just plain mesmerized, it becomes obvious that this is the skating that I want to emulate: slalom that is smooth, connected, and forms a whole instead of being created from Difficult Elements.

Yes, these people are also incorporating Difficult Elements and there are certainly "Wow" moments in their runs, but everything is integrated in such a way that the skating is something to be judged as a whole.
This is a specific style of slalom that I personally really like. There are, of course, many other styles of slalom that other people may prefer, but they are ordinarily not to my personal taste as much as a skater who integrates everything in such a way that the parts are not individually perceived.

I wish my skating was like this. I don't know if it ever approaches it, but at least it does in my head sometimes. :)

When I'm not thinking and am doing that "zen" thing I do with freestyle is my best guess as to when I might even approach this. My skating is certainly not like this in classic runs, where I always feel pressure to make every second of Great Significance because I'm only allowed 90 of them, or in battle where I feel rushed and I bounce around like a circus monkey attempting to show what I've learned in the past few months. My next step is to connect the first, "zen" situation with both classic and battle competitions. Once I can do that, I'm confident my style will fall directly into place where I want it.

Well, I'm far from done thinking about this, but I'd say that was a good go of it for the moment.

On that note, please enjoy this lovely classic run from Jon Larrucea. :)

As always, thanks for reading!
xoxoxo
meg

Snazzing up the Place

Well, I went ahead and tried to make the interface here a little bit cooler looking. It's not exactly my specialty, so I hope the changes are positive ones. I wanted to add more pictures of slalomy goodness, but I also don't want the page to be too busy, so I guess I should just post pictures that I think are cool.

Here's one!

Happy skating everybody and stay tuned for more tips!

xoxoxo
meg

Freestyle to the beat

So perhaps it had nothing to do with the delicious Mexican dinner Saturday night, but Sunday was pretty miserable for my tummy. It's too bad. Well, the shrimp TASTED fine and I had a nice time in the restaurant with everybody, so ah well.

The skating was fun too! Tim was playing a bunch of RJD2 and other songs I really like, so I alternated between actual training and then just freestyle with the music. It's been quite awhile since I just enjoyed good music and freestyled a lot. I used to do it a lot more often, but then those evil things called "tricks" crept into my skating and suddenly I found myself "training" instead of "skating." But Saturday I just let it go, for the duration of the playlist at least. Something about chilled-out hip hop just makes me feel so damn good: RJD2, Tribe Called Quest, Diggable Planets, anything like that really makes me want to slalom, and not just any slalom, but very relaxed freestyle, with lots of nelsons and volts and strolls and pivots and extremely bent knees. Tricks? Forget tricks. Ha.

Skating with the music is also something that I have the satisfaction of being able to do with a lot of hip hop, without having to try too hard, either. Maybe KSJ can keep perfectly in time with the beat of a hyper-kinetic Korean pop song, but I'm not at a level where I can do that. I mean, I've never tried. I mean, I wonder...

OK, next time I go out skating I will find the fastest song I can and see if I can skate in time with the music! I will let you know how it goes. :-D

But anyway. It's not exactly easy to skate in time with music, at least, I never found it easy to do, and the more my level comes up, the easier it becomes. When I started slalom, I remember desperately wanting to slalom with the beat and feeling that my legs just wouldn't go where I wanted them to fast enough, or that they went where I wanted to in time but then they slipped into the next movement too quickly, and that was frustrating. Wheels make control rather difficult. :)

If this is you now, then just keep trying. Trying to keep yourself paced with a beat is very challenging and will have a massively positive effect on your level, and if you can't do it very well yet, then there is nothing wrong with you! In my case I didn't practice skating with a beat as much as I should have, because it was so frustrating to always mess up. Then my level became much higher through other means, and when I came back to skating with the beat, I found it much easier. So either way, you will get better at it as your level rises.

Well, I didn't spend the whole skating session freestyling, as nice as that would have been. In fact, I dedicated one hour and a half, 90 whole minutes, to practicing JUMPING TRICKS! Yeah! By that I primarily mean Jumping X and Wiper, and combinations thereof. If you've ever practiced Jumping X, then you know how exhausting that is! But I found myself with 90 minutes left in the session and I was still simply burning up with energy (don't you remember my post from last Saturday? LOL), so I decided to burn it off with these tricks. To be honest, I didn't think I would make it through 90 minutes of jumping. But I did, and my Jumping X and Wiper are soooo improved! I'm really excited to use them in my runs now. And to be honest, the better you become at these tricks, the less exhausting they are to do, so while I was sweaty and tired at the end, I was no more so than at the end of a regular slalom session.

In the next post I will outline my Jumping Tricks practice session for you, because I think I practice very effectively and I think it could help you structure your own practices, whether for jumping tricks or any other sort of trick.

BUT, my mama is visiting from the States and I've got to go, so it's got to wait until next time!
As always, thanks for reading! :D
xoxoxo
meg

Workshop Planning: Work That Isn't Work

First off, there are only 3 spots remaining in the February workshop, so I'm pleased about how quickly it's booking up.

Secondly, I am really excited with the group of skaters who are on board so far, and it's become my new hobby to design the specifics of the weekend. I have been busy snapping photos of inspiring bits of text, making notes of applicable yoga poses, and listing possible things to work on with people. I've been doing it all with a fantastic application called Evernote, which you can download for your computer and/or smartphone (they sync!), both of which I have done. It's a tool that basically allows you to keep track of your ideas so that the fleeting genius we've all experienced won't get away.

The best part of all this is that it's totally and completely FUN, and I honestly wasn't expecting that. I knew I would have to prepare the sessions, and I'm really glad I gave myself a good amount of lead time for this first workshop, but I actually can't STOP myself from preparing. I know I'm going to end up with far more material than I will get to incorporate this first workshop, and hey, that can only be good A) for repeat attendees and B) for being able to change plans and improvise if I need to as the sessions progress.

In designing the weekend, I want to work with my own ideas, sure, but also make sure to incorporate all of the awesomeness in content and method that I've learned from Naomi. 

Well that's all for now!

Thanks for reading. :)

xoxoxo

meg

Sunday Morning: Figure Skating

Here, watch a video of Kim Yu Na that actually makes me think there is something good left in figure skating, after all.

My absolute favorite bit is the spin that begins at 3:50 or so.

Also, I love that her technical elements just materialize out of nowhere. Her tech is part of her style. Far too many skaters visibly transition from one to the other. I hate when I'm watching a skater and I can tell that they're setting up for something. Most of the time in figure skating, you can see it coming a mile away. It's not so bad in slalom, but then again, we're all about footwork, which is kind of a mindscrew anyway and doesn't really allow the brain to see what's about to happen and in some cases what did just happen.

Personally I am at the point where I can watch a slalom skater and in close to all cases see exactly what's going on in the cones. There are a few exceptions...Kim Sung Jin, Kim Tae Bin and some others in the same vein do some stuff that I'm still like "Whaaaaa?" Of course this is part of the reason why their skating is so fascinating. But under ordinary circumstances I can pretty well tell you exactly what a person did, even if I can't do it myself. Videos that I watched two years ago wracking my brain with "How the heck are they doing that?" I can watch now and say, "Huh. It's this move connected to this move. I'ma go try that." 

And on another side note, I think this should be the criteria people should meet when they are judging a slalom competition. People who know slalom inside and out should be the only ones sitting behind that table. Because if the skating is still by and large mysterious, then one can't possibly judge it correctly. Not to mention taking into account the fluidity with which one incorporates high-tech maneuvers.

Happy Sunday everybody!

Backwards Slalom

OK, so I have a secret to tell you. If you're a skater, and you're still practicing your basics, and you're doing well but you know you're not as advanced as you will eventually be, then this secret is for you:

Skating backwards is not harder than skating forwards. In fact, it's rather easier.

Well, under ordinary circumstances, anyhow. Once you get the hang of it, skating backwards should feel like a dream. Of course, any kind of skating, once you get the hang of it, feels like a dream --like a smooth, buttery dream-- but backwards skating, more than forwards skating, will have a surreal level of ease and smoothness. This is worth practicing for, people.

The reason why it's physically easier to skate backwards than forwards is because of the way our feet are attached to our legs, that is, our ankles. Skating forwards puts pressure on the front part of your lower leg, that is, your shin. It's harder to get enough bend in your knees because there's resistance there. Skating backwards, this resistance does not happen for a few reasons.

But in order to get to the backwards bit, let's first describe skating forwards:

FEET: When skating traveling forwards, we are putting slightly more weight on the back part of our feet/skates. Not too much, of course, but, in general, there is a bit more weight towards the back than towards the front.

KNEES: We travel along with lovely bent knees, so much so that the knee is over the foot. No? You're not doing that? OK, go practice! But wait, finish reading first. And don't get shin splints. Take it slow if you're just starting out. I promise, one day it will feel natural to be bent so much at the knee and not anywhere else.

HIPS: Facing squarely forwards. Also, of course, we have our hips in a relatively neutral position, definitely pushed forwards for most slalom maneuvers but we NEVER let our tail bones slip out from under us a.k.a. we do not stick out our butts. Ideally for skating forwards, off-cones, our hips are neutral and as a result, we skate with nice, straight backs.

BACK: Straight, as I just mentioned. :)

SHOULDERS/ARMS: Shoulders and arms should be relaxed, but I'm not going to yell at you if you need to stabilize yourself with your arms a bit while you're learning basic slalom, but arms should NEVER come above the shoulders. This wrecks the center of gravity, which is already raised up off the ground more than what we are used to as a result of being on skates. At most, arms should be held slightly forward of the shoulders and low, as though they are resting on a table in front of you. Perhaps you can imagine yourself as a roasted peanut salesman at a baseball game with your hands resting on the merchandise--that's about the most I want you to do with your arms, okay? But definitely not out too far to the sides, because that is going to pull your shoulders out of whack and you've got enough to deal with trying to learn good basic skating skills.

Also, by the way, I just made up that peanut salesman image, so I hope it helps. :)

Anyway when you get into certain moves your arms will swing naturally, and this is to be encouraged, because it looks natural, it helps you direct your momentum, and it will help you generate energy. But if you're just thinking about your form as you travel forwards through the cones or skating off-cones, then do not think about this too hard. As you begin to slalom more, you will feel when swinging happens when it is appropriate, and you will also feel when it is not appropriate. It will feel "off" or like you are working too hard, or doing something redundant with your upper body. The thing you should try hardest to do with your upper body is RELAX. And yes, this can be learned. I take yoga lessons and this serves as my proof!

NECK: Not normally an issue that I've come across, but if you tend to be tense here, well, then, relax. :)

HEAD: Now, this is important. It's also very simple. Look where you are going. Always, always, always. Unless you are having a laugh like we've done in Cone Crazy slalom sessions and tried going as far as we can down the line of cones in criss-cross, nelson, snake, one foot, whatever, with our eyes closed. It's quite funny, because everyone tends to list to one side of the cones and end up slaloming quite crooked off into space, and that person THINKS they are doing brilliantly, not knocking any cones, when really the cones are just somewhere else entirely. Or they lose the correct spacing after a few cones and proceed to kick them everywhere. :)

Of course we are all experienced skaters doing these sorts of silly things in a perfectly flat, smooth polished sports hall, so there is no danger of getting thrown off by a nasty crack or killer pebble or anything. I wouldn't recommend that you head out to the local park and practice eyes-closed slalom, for example. Not unless your skater friends are willing to watch out for you, and even then it's not incredibly smart.

HOWEVER, laughs aside, looking where you are going is obviously very important, in general. Looking where you are going does not mean looking where you are. In fact, "looking where you are going" can mean looking quite far down the surface --you can look at the last cone in a line of slalom cones, for example (try it, it's not easy if you're not used to it!)-- or it can mean looking six cones in front of you, or to the next cone that you know you need to catch for a maneuver you are planning. Of course I am talking in terms of cones because that is normally what I am skating with, but with regular street skating, this can mean looking several meters in front of you. And as a rule, the faster I am skating, the further I look ahead. Kinda like driving, so I can be prepared for dealing with obstacles.

So, my point is, look ahead. DON'T LOOK DOWN! Your feet are still there. They might feel funny in skates, but they are still your same feet, and you don't need to look at them. :) Looking down causes your butt to stick out and your hips to pull back, which makes your back hunched over, which straightens your knees, which puts the weight on the front part of your skates...aaaaaand then you will have a much easier time executing a lovely face-plant on the asphalt, which hurts A LOT. So don't do it. It's no good.

Now that we are skating along with lovely form and we're feeling the breeze (or burn, depending on how hard you are working), it is time to share another secret. Here it comes. OK, ready?

Skating backwards is not the opposite of skating forwards.

Wait, huh? In order to skate backwards, don't you just, uh, do the opposite of going forwards? Well, kinda. But not really. Sure, your feet travel in the opposite direction, and your feet in fact can make pretty similar maneuvers to what they do when you go forwards-- i.e. you can do all slalom backwards, then off cone stroke backwards, do backwards swizzles, backwards crossovers, and whatnot. But that's about it. When skating backwards, your feet are about the only thing that do the opposite of what they do when they go forwards.

So. Let's talk about what SHOULD happen when you are skating backwards.

This time I will begin describing from the head down because this is exactly the order you should use when beginning backwards skating, specifically backwards slalom!

HEAD/SHOULDERS: You *must* start here. The first thing that you need to do is to look where you are going. Ordinarily people find that looking over one shoulder feels more natural than looking over the other. Go for it. Look over the shoulder that feels more comfortable. When you look over your shoulder, you will find that if your shoulders remain facing squarely forwards, it will be very painful and you will strain your neck. Do not do this. It is silly. Simply open up your shoulders to the side, and then looking where you will go becomes much easier. So now you should be standing with your shoulders TO ONE SIDE and your head looking to where you will eventually be skating. This should be a relaxed position. It should be as though you are at a party standing and talking with, oh, let's say ME, and I am standing in front of you and you are directing all of your attention to me (of course!), and then another friend, let's say, oh NAOMI, is on the other side of the room behind you and then she calls your name brightly. Perhaps she is itching to regale you with an anecdote. Your ears perk up, because this anecdote is guaranteed to be interesting. You turn towards the sound, but you leave your feet in place. And VOILA! Your shoulders are open and your head is in the right place looking at Naomi and waiting for her to tell you this amazing thing, and everything else is quite relaxed because you're at a party with friends, for goodness' sakes, so there's no need to tense up.

Whew!

Once again, do not look down. You are not allowed to look down. I will come and find you if you are looking down, and especially if you are looking down and attempting to gaze at the space between your feet. You cannot see where you are going this way, and once again, you are setting yourself up for a nasty fall by letting your back hunch, your hips and butt pop out, and your knees straighten. (Don't get me wrong; not all falls are nasty. I am the queen of falling! But it's the nasty ones I warn you against.)

HIPS: Here is the other keystone. Your hips, like your shoulders, open up to the side that you are looking over. When Naomi called your name at the party, one of two things probably happened with your hips and the way your weight was distributed on your legs. Firstly, you could have shifted more weight to the leg opposite of the shoulder you decided to look over, and your other foot possibly turned out some to accommodate this new hip position.  As in, if you looked over your left shoulder, your weight shifted more to your right leg as your hip opened. Also, if this happened, your right knee probably bent a little and the left one likely straightened some. Did you stand up and try it in your living room already? You had better, because I did.

Now, if this happened, this is good. Congratulations. This is how it's supposed to feel when you are skating backwards. In backwards slalom maneuvers, the weight remains somewhat more on the front leg and the back leg (leading leg) initiates movements through the cones.

The other thing that could have happened when you tried this exercise is the bad thing, the thing we did not want to happen. Unfortunately, this is a thing I see a lot. When Naomi called your name from the other side of the room, your shoulders and head might have moved beautifully, but then you might have shifted your weight to the same hip of the shoulder you were looking over. So if you were looking over your left shoulder (my natural side to look over, so you're just going to have to switch the examples if you are opposite!), your left hip would end up somewhat behind the right one, but still facing squarely forward (towards me; remember you were originally talking with me?).

If you did this weight transfer when you looked backwards, and if you try to skate this way, you will constantly be working to twist the upper half of your body to try and see where you are going as your lower body struggles valiantly against nature. You might manage to puff through a few minutes skating backwards this way, but you won't be able to progress beyond a frustratingly low level, and it will literally become a pain in the neck to see where you are going. A slalom move like back snake, for example, will be impossible, as your two feet will want to meet up and ride parallel (due to your hips) instead of having lovely, empty space between them as they travel.

So, if you have this problem when you try backwards slalom, know that your hips don't lie. Try the party exercise in your living room (or, actually, have a party! Invite me and Naomi!), and get the weight on the front foot. Then, of course, try skating with your hips and weight in this awesome, correct way. Backwards one foot will feel easy. In fact, try backwards one foot slalom before you try backwards snake (if you've got the balance for that sort of thing), and your weight will be FORCED to be in the correct spot. Then you can start to feel how your other foot is a counterbalance and is held not behind you, but slightly out to the side. When you put the foot down and start backward snaking, you will feel how the initiating foot begins to take more of the weight so you can make bigger, more dramatic and ultimately more beautiful slalom.

As for the rest:
KNEES: Still lovely, soft, and low. Never otherwise, actually, unless specified.

FEET: Still attached to your legs via the ankles (thank goodness!), but now the weight has shifted from slightly towards the back part of the feet/skates to slightly forward. You are of course constantly reacting to your environment and adjusting accordingly, but somewhere in the neighborhood of having your weight slightly forward on your feet is a good thing when going backwards.

And that's about it when it comes to form. In summary, when you are skating backwards, everything down to your legs is actually facing mostly sideways. It's lucky that we have ball joints in our hips, isn't it? That's how we get to do everything all at once --ride backwards AND see where we are going-- without any discomfort or struggle.

I hope this helps people. It would be cool if people read this and leave me a comment to let me know how you did.

For now, happy slaloms, all!
<3 Meg

Oh hey!

This blog's not dead anymore.

In fact, i forgot i had this, and the tone of the first couple posts is a bit serious for my tastes, but hey, at least i'm focused.

Since i've written here i've traveled all over the world for slalom. Right after my hometown competition in Boston, I flew out to Belgium, and continued from there on to Paris, Barcelona, back to Belgium again, then to Hannover Germany, then Berlin, then Munich, from there to London, from London to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Chuncheon Korea, and from Chuncheon to Seoul.

Then I flew back home and had a big moment of "What the fuck? i can't believe this is my life."

Which was nice.

This year I've been out to Le Havre France, Paris, San Francisco, Houston (for family), to New Hampshire (again, for family), then to Warsaw, another competition in Belgium, and this weekend on to London again. Asia is as yet undecided. If I go, it will be only to Chuncheon, which is ok by me.

Oh, also, I moved to Belgium, and I live with my amazing boyfriend, who is also a skater, and is very tall and handsome, if I do say so myself.

Which I do.

So, where does that leave me? Well, so far, as yet unemployed outside of teaching skating, taking Dutch classes, in a graduate Master of Science in Leadership program in Brussels. Skating a bit less than I was last year but skating much, much better, and diversifying as I go. For example, I learned how to drop in and ride in a skatepark only in December, and I have practiced a bit on ramps and jumps here and there as I find myself in skateparks. 

Anyway, with slalom, there is still a lot of room for improvement but I've graduated from tenacious beginner to rising intermediate, to pretty durn good but not as awesome as I know I can be. Next year I think I will really start to shine.

On Monday I assisted at a sportcamp with another skater, with about 20 little kids, most of them skating for the first time. I had them "draw lemons" with their feet, and this worked out great and most of them pumped out lemons all over the place, and some of them even learned how to go backwards. They didn't much get the concept of stroking, though. I need to find a good way to teach that. And I would also like to teach falling, because it's important to not be afraid of falling. A couple of them were ready to try skating cones, so we did some beginning slalom, but not much.

They were ridiculously cute. And bonus, I taught the whole time (about 2 hours) in DUTCH!

Go me.

If I go to Korea again, I will have my birthday there for the second year in a row.

I've known for a couple years that my life was about to finally get really cool, but it's only now that everything is truly manifesting. With skating I have found something unique and wonderful. That would have been enough on its own, but it also enabled me to meet other unique, wonderful people.

Which is kind of a major part of life, so that's pretty cool. :-)