Oh my. Well. That explains THAT.

[dreamshark]

I think I've figured out why my cute teenage skating instructor turned out to be so unexpectedly good at teaching.

I had no idea, really. I suppose I should have suspected something when we kept having substitute teachers because Alex was out of town competing in something or other. I guess next week he'll be here.

And the first week that he missed a class he must have been here.

Comments

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Actually, his jumps are spectacular. Even Olympic skaters take falls, especially on those multiple triple jumps. I had no idea who he was until I described him to a couple of my ice-skating buddies at open skate tonight. Their eyes went wide and they chorused, "You're taking lessons from Alex Johnson??? He's our hero! He's famous! He's a national champion, and he's headed for the Olympics in 2012 for sure!"

Yikes.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm used to seeing spectacular skaters fall. My comment was based on his jumps in the videos you linked to -- not the fall so much, but the landings looked like the weakest part of those performances. (To my relatively uniformed eye.)

I'll take your word for it, though. You've seen a lot more than I have.

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

I don't have a particularly informed eye, actually. I don't even know the names of any of the moves. I was just reading the commentary. :-)

There are actually 3 different links in my entry, if you look close. The first one is his best performance, the one where he took the bronze at Nationals that qualified him for all those international competitions. I've watched that one about 5 times now - it's beautiful! The first time through it looked totally flawless to me and I couldn't imagine how anybody could beat it. By the 5th time I could see a few glitches, and I think they all were in landings from jumps. If you caught that the first time through you are much better watcher than I am. Apparently his camel spin is considered one of his best moves, if you know what that is.

Or you may have been looking at the last link, which seemed to be kind of an off night for him: the one where he took the big fall right near the beginning. It must be so disheartening to fall right at the start.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was thinking you might have seen some of his jumps in person. :-)

I watched all three of the videos, though only once each. All of his spins look remarkable to me. Yes, his body lines in his camel spin are pure grace and (again, to my eye) perfect. They're much better than the skater's positions in the camel spin photos shown in the explanation I found on About.com.

I especially like how Alex can spin and spin and spin and spin, then come out of the spins and return to regular skating without wobbling or otherwise looking like he needs to regain his orientation or recover from dizziness. The main reason I'm tempted to watch all of the videos again is that I want to count the rotations on his spins.

I agree -- he's a beautiful skater! I'm glad he's an excellent teacher, too. Enjoy!