AlwaysSababa

Stroking!!!

Submitted by lishevita on Mon, 09/27/2010 - 12:00

It seems like such a simple thing, such an obvious thing: Stroking is the base of any figure skating warm up, right?

It may be the base, but there's more to stroking than you might think. The stroking portion of your warm up needs to get your pulse rate up, warm up your muscles, help you feel your edges under you, and get you skating with the best technique right from the start so that you can do everything else. Oh, wait, that last bit... that's the hard part, so, let's start there.

Jumping the tens

Submitted by lishevita on Thu, 09/23/2010 - 17:28

Continuing in this week's theme of warm ups for ice skating practice, I want to share an exercise I call "jumping the tens". Depending on various factors, you might want to change this to "jumping the threes" or "jumping the fives". In general I'd say either do fewer jump types with more reps or more jump types with fewer reps. Of course, your personal fitness level or injury profile should also be taken into consideration when you decide how many reps to do of each jump.

Warm Up Strategies On Small Rinks

Submitted by lishevita on Wed, 09/22/2010 - 04:17

Over the course of my skating career I've spent a lot of time on very small rinks. The first rink where I ever trained was the old San Francisco Ice Arena on 48th Avenue and Kirkham. It was tiny and was the oldest indoor ice rink in the US still standing for many years before it was closed down in late 1989. The first rink where I coached was the Palouse Hills Ice Rink in Moscow, Idaho which sits inside a big U-shaped tent.

Spin Cycle

Submitted by lishevita on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 09:35

The spin cycle is a series of spins from easy to difficult, skated at the beginning of a session with no previous spin warm-up. This exercise is intended to help increase consistency across spins even on the first attempt.

There are no second chances. If a spin is good or bad, it doesn't matter. Just move on to the next one. Between spins, think about what would have made the last spin better and what you need to do to have a perfect next spin. Visualize your next spin completely. Feel it in your body from entrance to check in your imagination. Then spin.

On Ice Warm Ups

Submitted by lishevita on Fri, 09/17/2010 - 08:57

Every on-ice session needs a warm-up and a cool-down period. Some of the warm-up and cool-down can – and should – be done off ice, but warm up time on ice should not be neglected. Elite skaters often spend the first half hour of their daily ice tie on moves in the field (MIF) in a warm-up mode. By that I mean that they work on stroking and MIF patters with power and fluidity, without slowing down for technical adjustments for a full half hour.

The Wave of NOW

Submitted by lishevita on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 01:45

Yesterday I shared some exercises for competition preparation. Today let's look at focus during your program. When it comes down to it and the steel hits the ice, you have to remember this:

There is only NOW.

Getting Psyched For A Competition

Submitted by lishevita on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 01:42

Getting ready for competition day is more than just making sure that you can do all your elements and that you have your program choreography down pat. If you want to get the best scores, you have to shine when you get out there. You need to look like you aren't nervous at all, even if you feel like you could explode at any minute. You need to make the program look like it's easy, like you aren't worried about a thing. You need to smile. But how can you do all that when your palms are sweating and you feel your knees shaking as you step out onto the ice?

The power of breath

Submitted by lishevita on Sat, 06/12/2010 - 10:11

Spending two weeks in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada was so good for me. I needed some time off between my regular life in Tel Aviv and my work this Summer in Seattle. It was a grat vacation spent with my long time friend Julie and her partner Sebastien.

The frustration factor

Submitted by lishevita on Mon, 04/19/2010 - 06:35

One of my students came to me a few months ago as a newbie skater. She could go frontwards and backwards and could do two foot spins, but she hadn't been able to figure out a one foot spin yet. The problem is, before we could get her one foot spin to work, she had to undo some unhelpful muscle memory she'd picked up in her two foot spin and teach her how to center a spin correctly. Then, we started working on the one foot spins.

Visualization Technique #2

Submitted by lishevita on Sun, 12/20/2009 - 23:26