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dreamsharkSomewhere around the middle of September I stopped making noticeable progress in my figure skating, even though I was skating 2-4 times per week. Oh, I was getting more comfortable with the moves I already knew, but just couldn't master anything new. In particular, I was stuck dead on the basic 1-footed turns: mohawk and 3-turn. I could do each of them on one foot, but not on the other, and my final position was awkward even on that foot.
I do not have good balance. Although I've always been active, I'm also something of a klutz. I can mostly keep from falling down when I'm in motion (riding a bike, for instance) but I've never been able to simply stand on one foot. With concentration and practice I can learn to do it in one position at a time. With foot raised close to ankle, but not with the knee raised. Then with the knee raised, but not straightened. With hip facing forward, but not opened to the side. And so on. It's a slow process, and when I don't keep practicing I tend to regress.
And I get practically NO transfer of body knowledge from one side of my body to the other. I have to learn balance positions and moves separately for each side, and it's like starting all over from scratch. This just does not seem right. The knowledge is in my brain, and there has to be some way to mirror it from one side of the brain to the other. Everybody has this problem to some extent, but I can see from observation that most people do not struggle with it as much as I do.
My various skating instructors were of no particular help when I asked them for tips on this. The universal answer was, "Oh, everybody has one side they're much stronger on. Practice and it will come." There has to be a better answer than that. Sure, if you practice long enough you'll probably pick up the skill eventually, but I can't believe there aren't specific exercises what would facilitate the mirroring of a physical skill from one side of the body to another. Besides, I was practicing and practicing and it wasn't coming.
If there are specific techniques for mirroring body learning, they clearly aren't being taught to skating instructors, so I've been working them out for myself. For the last month I have been doing exercises of my own devising, some on the ice and some on dry land. The basic idea is to break down a problem move to the smallest atomic component, and then to do the move first on the right foot, then immediately mirror it on the left. The key thing is that it has to be really quick, just a few seconds. I started with just drawing my arms in to my center, bending my knee slightly and raising one foot to ankle height for maybe 3 seconds, and have been varying foot positions from there. It seems to be helping. My balance has noticeably improved on my left foot, and I'm starting to make some progress with the RFI mohawk (which ends up on the left foot). We'll see how it goes.
I do not have good balance. Although I've always been active, I'm also something of a klutz. I can mostly keep from falling down when I'm in motion (riding a bike, for instance) but I've never been able to simply stand on one foot. With concentration and practice I can learn to do it in one position at a time. With foot raised close to ankle, but not with the knee raised. Then with the knee raised, but not straightened. With hip facing forward, but not opened to the side. And so on. It's a slow process, and when I don't keep practicing I tend to regress.
And I get practically NO transfer of body knowledge from one side of my body to the other. I have to learn balance positions and moves separately for each side, and it's like starting all over from scratch. This just does not seem right. The knowledge is in my brain, and there has to be some way to mirror it from one side of the brain to the other. Everybody has this problem to some extent, but I can see from observation that most people do not struggle with it as much as I do.
My various skating instructors were of no particular help when I asked them for tips on this. The universal answer was, "Oh, everybody has one side they're much stronger on. Practice and it will come." There has to be a better answer than that. Sure, if you practice long enough you'll probably pick up the skill eventually, but I can't believe there aren't specific exercises what would facilitate the mirroring of a physical skill from one side of the body to another. Besides, I was practicing and practicing and it wasn't coming.
If there are specific techniques for mirroring body learning, they clearly aren't being taught to skating instructors, so I've been working them out for myself. For the last month I have been doing exercises of my own devising, some on the ice and some on dry land. The basic idea is to break down a problem move to the smallest atomic component, and then to do the move first on the right foot, then immediately mirror it on the left. The key thing is that it has to be really quick, just a few seconds. I started with just drawing my arms in to my center, bending my knee slightly and raising one foot to ankle height for maybe 3 seconds, and have been varying foot positions from there. It seems to be helping. My balance has noticeably improved on my left foot, and I'm starting to make some progress with the RFI mohawk (which ends up on the left foot). We'll see how it goes.
