Monday, March 10, 2014

Joining the Choctaw Nation.

 


After a considerable amount of goat-roping, I've managed to elevate my FI Mohawk turns from horrible to merely awful.  Yes, they're still scratchy and need more knee bend but as long as my brain isn't wandering off-task they're no longer hazardous to my immediate health.

Speaking of turns, I have to admit that sometimes while concentrating hard on getting the entry edge just right, I find myself launched midway into either a FI-Mohawk or a FI3 and come to the sudden realization that I'm brain fading on which turn I had in mind at the onset.  I just hate it when that happens.  Reflexes quickly take over at that point and things always seem to work out in the end but there have been a couple of "iffy" moments filled with existential ennui and stuff; wordy stuff, not fit for a family oriented blogspot.  Well, enough of that.  Time for something different.  Why not add Choctaw turns to my laundry list of poorly executed two-footed skating elements?

Last Thursday I asked coach M., my freestyle group lesson coach, to start me down the path towards Choctaw enlightenment but he said that those were more of a dance element and he didn't feel qualified to go there.  Instead he attempted to sell me on forward inside brackets, a single-foot turn related to the better known 3-turn  If you think forward 3s are a bother wait 'til you're introduced to these.  I. Just. Could. Not. Make. The. Blade. Turn. That-a-Way. 

It's OK, brackets.  You've won this round but I'll be back.

Saturday rolled around and so did my next dance lesson.  This past weekend Coach K. and I were relegated to the afternoon public session due to a hockey tournament which  displaced the usual early Saturday morning freestyle sessions.  As is the norm for this time of year, weekend afternoon publics are never a good option for ice dance lessons.  This particular session was no exception.  As I skated over to her, coach K. said "A little bird told me you wanted to learn Choctaws."

These little birds sure do talk a lot amongst themselves.  Looking around at the swirling Maelstrom of birthday party kiddies darting all over the ice with no clue of anything remotely approaching rink etiquette or even herd instinct I quickly said "Yes!  Let's find a "quiet" corner and work on Choctaws!"

In much the same way that brackets are related to 3-turns, Choctaws are the evil twins of Mohawk turns.  For the sake of this blog post and my sanity I'll limit this description to forward inside Choctaws.  Rest assured, just like all the other common figure skating turns, Choctaws constitute a large family depending on which foot and which direction the turn initiates and whether or not the hips are "open" or "closed".

While a forward inside Mohawk involves a change of feet and a change of direction (front to back), the edge stays the same (forward inside to back inside) as does the arc of the curve one is skating.  The Choctaw turn involves not only the change of feet and direction (front to back) but adds in a change of edge (in this case, forward inside to back outside) which changes the arc of travel as well.

Here (to the best of my memory) are the steps involved for a RFI Choctaw:

1. Enter on the right FI edge; free foot behind and over the tracing.

2. Right arm in front, left arm behind.

3. Shoulders begin to rotate into a checked position before the left skate is placed on the ice.

4. Left foot is placed on the ice behind the heel of the right foot, on an outside edge.

5. Now things get interesting:  Your body (some how) rocks on the right inside edge as the hips twist to change direction-- sort of like that Schafer Push thing I was moaning about (and am still struggling with) a few posts earlier.

6. Final touch: the right arm leads, the left arm trails as you gracefully exit the turn on the back outside edge of the left skate.

Coach K. will no doubt tell me I've got it all or at least partially wrong, but until then this fuzzy logic model is what I'm running with as I go to an early evening public today.  A concept vaguely grasped, a thing dimly perceived.  Hopefully this won't be another example of me teaching myself a single evening full of bad habits which (of course) take weeks to unlearn...






11 comments:

  1. Yea, that's the difficult choctaw, going from FI to BO. But you also enter into a scratch spin from a choctaw, and that one's (relatively) easy.

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  2. Yes! One enters on a back inside edge, generally from a couple back OXs, and steps into the circle on the opposite foot's forward outside edge. That Choctaw I can do. The scratch spin itself--not so much (yet) but it's getting oh so close.

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  3. Wouldn't it be better to work first on the MIFs Pre-Bronze and Bronze before attempting to learn a Mohawk or Choctaw? I tried out both of these evil little twin brothers last summer in a workshop and still don't get the hang of them. So I have been concentrating now on learning all the Pre-Bronze MIFs before attempting any of them again in order to keep my frustration level to an absolute minimum. What say you? ;-) my gut feeling is that it is a time-consuming, but efficient strategy. One of my coaches (the youngest in fact who didnt go through the Old School practice figures as the other 3) keeps telling me I should simply try and it will work out some day then, but I doubt that a bit. Of course it is fun to mess around on the ice, but ice time is rare and must be efficiently used (especially for adults...) I am looking forward to the Berlin workshop this summer then there will be time even for messing around and trying out things...:-)

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  4. Here in the USA, skaters are introduced to the Mohawk turn fairly early in learn-to-skate group lessons. In order to pass the Gamma level ISI test one must be able to do a 7-step Mohawk combination in both directions. Most students can do so well enough to pass the test. Refinement of those Mohawk turns requires constant effort (at least that's my experience). My Mohawks are just now getting to the point where I can do them at speed without too much scratchiness.

    As for completing Pre-Bronze MIF test--one first needs to have a well controlled Mohawk in order to perform the transition from forward to back crossovers done in a figure 8 pattern. So the order of learning these turns is correct.

    As for the FI Choctaw turn, that will become important as I progress in ice dance. I don't need that turn for any of the current dances I'm working on, but I'll need it for some of the more advanced dances such as the Kilian, so I may as well start working on now.

    The Choctaw turns have easy as well as difficult members in the family. As Q points out above, freestyle skaters do one of the easier Choctaw turns without realizing it when they use the classic entrance for a forward single foot spin. The FI Choctaw is MUCH harder to do!

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    1. After checking out the ISI test site again I discovered that thing with the Mohawks too! Yes, under that circumstances it makes of course sense to work at the Mohawk quite early as it is a key element. Actually I can do a Mohawk better on artistic roller skates in both directions and also with speed, but on the ice I still can't do them properly and just very slowly. I guess i have to keep at it....I really have a problem with open hips (they dont exist to me :-() Anything with hips closed isnt a problem.....

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  5. I consciously try to remember to enter a FI Mohawk with deep knee bend on both knees. That helps me open the hips and bring the free skate closer to the heel of the skating foot. Without deep knee bends my Mohawk turns are scratchy and horrible!

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    1. Yep, thats good I noticed that too when I have deep knee bend it works better, but I still havent set my free skate close to the heel of the skating foot. Somehow I always think I will step onto the blade or something...With roller skates I havent that security problem....What are your arms doing by the way? Mine keep flailing away just while turning and it throws me off balance EACH time :-(.....

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  6. Example: Arm placement for a clockwise forward inside Mohawk (entered on the left skate): left arm (skating arm) forward and right arm (free arm) back. Both arms are more or less over the tracing. At the change of foot, the left arm becomes the free arm and I stretch it slightly like I'm trying to grab something. This provides part of the "check" and also helps me keep my upper body posture from slouching and putting me on the toe picks. My clockwise Mohawk is better than the counter clockwise one, but the CCW Mohawk is improving at a glacial pace.

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    1. Interesting..I do the CCW Mohawks better than the clockwise ones. probably because my left hip side is more stiff and always closed than the other side. Any twists and turns on that side don't go very well. I hope this improves one day......I'll try out the arms tomorrow evening and look whether it works better. I also practice a lot of movements along the boards of the rink!

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  7. Although I write right-handed, I'm a repressed "leftie"--in my generation, in primary school, during penmanship class if you picked up the pencil in your left hand you got rapped on the knuckles. I was forced to write with my right hand. Left handed people tend to move better CW and even after 60+ years of being right-handed I still retain the natural tendency to move better in the CW direction when doing 3-turns and Mohawks. At one point I was jumping CCW and spinning CW but I figured I'd better do both jumps and spins in the same direction. After a lot of thought and trials (and falls!) I decided to go CCW even though my brain is "wired" the other way. I still wonder if I made the correct choice.

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    1. A roller skating friend also is undecided onto where to move better. her coach let's her try out both directions and looks on which side tends to be better. that is the best method. She also is a repressed "leftie". My generation and the younger ones really havent got that problem any longer..I am a full "rightie" as the majority of people, but my sister is a real "leftie". if she took up skating, she would be turning, spinning and jumping CW as for example Tanja Szevchenko, the German champion from the 90s!

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