HP #16 - Monkey see, monkey do
Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See my first HP post for the full notes on these.
Background: I'd been enjoying the 5-8 class for a month or so by this point.
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"That doesn't look so hard..." I thought to myself as I stood on the rink one morning. Do other adult skaters have this kind of thought a lot? I was watching another skater - the classic, young girl skater type - and her coach on the centre circle as the coach tried to get the girl to do what I'd later come to know as the 3 jump (waltz jump for those across the pond). For the uninitiated, it's a half-rotation jump that you start gliding forwards on one leg, and do, what is effectively, a hop onto the other leg. You do a half rotation in the air to land backwards.
My hunger for new skating moves was always on the edge of my mind, nagging away at me when I got a bit bored of practising something I'd been doing for a few weeks. I'd often try and spot other people on the rink practising something and either use it as inspiration to practise it myself if it was something I knew, or give it a go if it was something I didn't.
Plus, I had a burning desire to jump.
So, let's see, little push into a forward left outside edge glide, swing right leg back then through together with both arms, push down when I reach the left toe pick to give lift, hope to land backwards on the right leg outside edge? I gingerly gave it a go in the middle of the rink, nice and short, just a hop... I made it! No problems! I was surprised at how easy the rotation was; your body does it without you even needing to really put any effort into it. Readers at home can give it a go if you're feeling adventurous, simply stand flat on one foot and swing your free leg through and hop. Try to land on the toes of the free foot first then slide down onto the rest of your foot, which should make your body do the rotation in the air.
Emboldened, I decided to try a slightly bigger leap and cover a bit more ground, still all fine! One of the women in my group class looked over at my latest effort.
"Oh wow!" She exclaimed, "that was really impressive!"
I gracefully bowed and and thanked her, but I knew it was just a small, simple jump at the end of the day; I knew many regular skaters learned to do it at some point. I felt that if there was an element to celebrate then it was more that I'd seen a little girl doing it and figured that it wouldn't be out of our adult skater reach either. The bigger, multi-rotation jumps are all kinda off limits as you get older, but a little half rotation hop seemed perfectly feasible. So I just did it. No mucking about, leave your fear at the door, just go and do it.
You definitely can't take that attitude with everything in ice skating, but I was building a reputation as a risk-prone maniac on the rink, so I wasn't about to let a little jump stop me! I wasn't totally insane though, the thought of trying an Axel jump was still way too intimidating, but maybe one day...
Background: I'd been enjoying the 5-8 class for a month or so by this point.
-------------------------
"That doesn't look so hard..." I thought to myself as I stood on the rink one morning. Do other adult skaters have this kind of thought a lot? I was watching another skater - the classic, young girl skater type - and her coach on the centre circle as the coach tried to get the girl to do what I'd later come to know as the 3 jump (waltz jump for those across the pond). For the uninitiated, it's a half-rotation jump that you start gliding forwards on one leg, and do, what is effectively, a hop onto the other leg. You do a half rotation in the air to land backwards.
My hunger for new skating moves was always on the edge of my mind, nagging away at me when I got a bit bored of practising something I'd been doing for a few weeks. I'd often try and spot other people on the rink practising something and either use it as inspiration to practise it myself if it was something I knew, or give it a go if it was something I didn't.
Plus, I had a burning desire to jump.
So, let's see, little push into a forward left outside edge glide, swing right leg back then through together with both arms, push down when I reach the left toe pick to give lift, hope to land backwards on the right leg outside edge? I gingerly gave it a go in the middle of the rink, nice and short, just a hop... I made it! No problems! I was surprised at how easy the rotation was; your body does it without you even needing to really put any effort into it. Readers at home can give it a go if you're feeling adventurous, simply stand flat on one foot and swing your free leg through and hop. Try to land on the toes of the free foot first then slide down onto the rest of your foot, which should make your body do the rotation in the air.
Emboldened, I decided to try a slightly bigger leap and cover a bit more ground, still all fine! One of the women in my group class looked over at my latest effort.
"Oh wow!" She exclaimed, "that was really impressive!"
I gracefully bowed and and thanked her, but I knew it was just a small, simple jump at the end of the day; I knew many regular skaters learned to do it at some point. I felt that if there was an element to celebrate then it was more that I'd seen a little girl doing it and figured that it wouldn't be out of our adult skater reach either. The bigger, multi-rotation jumps are all kinda off limits as you get older, but a little half rotation hop seemed perfectly feasible. So I just did it. No mucking about, leave your fear at the door, just go and do it.
You definitely can't take that attitude with everything in ice skating, but I was building a reputation as a risk-prone maniac on the rink, so I wasn't about to let a little jump stop me! I wasn't totally insane though, the thought of trying an Axel jump was still way too intimidating, but maybe one day...
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