For all of you who might be interested in how the slalom week with Naomi Grigg went.
I want just to briefly look back and give you a small insight on how it went.
First of all - Naomi is an awesome skater and excellent hi-level personal coach.
Second of all - Naomi totally deconstructed us, our skating and as she declared in the first half hour - she broke our spirit.
The second day of the retreat I wanted to throw my skates into Thames river and never skate again. But .... now I'm very happy I didn't although I have to find joy in skating again :) Which I'm sure I will.
We also had quite a lot of rain and for some time we even skated in slight drizzle on a wet and muddy ground ... which wasn't very pleasant but actually worked - even though I'm probably buying new bearings now as they barely turn by now. But in London you don't have much choice, you simply have to skate in the rain. Naomi actually claims she loves skating in the rain (she has a bearings sponsor :).
Anyway if you want to know what I have learned ... I don't know. As I've said already ... at the very beginning Naomi took us down to the basic level and practically showed us we can't skate :) Then we started to work hard on the basic level again and for example me personally I've worked a lot -- and a lot and a lot on my hands movement. I've never done it before and it was a pain. Naomi also has a wonderful theory of skating - that works and that I won't give out here as she's publishing it in a book hopefully quite soon.
But I can't help myself and have to give you one or two pieces of advice.
1) There are no shortcuts in skating. Trying advanced tricks w/o knowing the basics won't get you far.
2) DO PRACTICE TRICKS EVEN "ON THE OTHER SIDE" // WITH YOUR WEAK FOOT LEADING. Can't emphasize this enough. At least the following tricks you should be able to do both ways (with your weak foot leading as well) - cross front/back, snake front/back, nelson front/back, sun, mega. It's boring to put time and effort to tricks on your weak side but this is really crucial. So do give it a thought and better yet some effort.
3) Practice the turning/pivoting tricks a lot and also try for both sides variations (j-turn, reverse j-turn, volt etc.).
4) Try not to rotate your shoulders and torso when doing spinning tricks on the spot (not when moving through the cones with them). This was a revelation for me - I always tried to spin on the spot with my torso.
5) Jumping X and Crab is not about jumping but rather extending your feet further apart. Meaning during the trick your shoulder level should not alter.
Sorry if you already know some of these but for me these were quite crucial. Anyway her book is in the process of making and I believe it will contain all the necessary theory about freestyle slalom.
So generally ... it was a lot of hard work, not always very pleasant but it was an amazing experience with great skate and person that Naomi is and I do plan to participate again - maybe in the spring or summer 2012. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves skating and challenges.
And finally I want to say that the video that I planned to shoot in the coming days is postponed indefinitely as now I'm not happy with my freestyle slalom. I have a lot of work to do and lots of things to improve. And of course find the joy in skating that I had my whole life and I had it in Peru and I lost it in London :) But I'm sure that in Budapest I'll find it soon.
I want just to briefly look back and give you a small insight on how it went.
First of all - Naomi is an awesome skater and excellent hi-level personal coach.
Second of all - Naomi totally deconstructed us, our skating and as she declared in the first half hour - she broke our spirit.
The second day of the retreat I wanted to throw my skates into Thames river and never skate again. But .... now I'm very happy I didn't although I have to find joy in skating again :) Which I'm sure I will.
We also had quite a lot of rain and for some time we even skated in slight drizzle on a wet and muddy ground ... which wasn't very pleasant but actually worked - even though I'm probably buying new bearings now as they barely turn by now. But in London you don't have much choice, you simply have to skate in the rain. Naomi actually claims she loves skating in the rain (she has a bearings sponsor :).
Anyway if you want to know what I have learned ... I don't know. As I've said already ... at the very beginning Naomi took us down to the basic level and practically showed us we can't skate :) Then we started to work hard on the basic level again and for example me personally I've worked a lot -- and a lot and a lot on my hands movement. I've never done it before and it was a pain. Naomi also has a wonderful theory of skating - that works and that I won't give out here as she's publishing it in a book hopefully quite soon.
But I can't help myself and have to give you one or two pieces of advice.
1) There are no shortcuts in skating. Trying advanced tricks w/o knowing the basics won't get you far.
2) DO PRACTICE TRICKS EVEN "ON THE OTHER SIDE" // WITH YOUR WEAK FOOT LEADING. Can't emphasize this enough. At least the following tricks you should be able to do both ways (with your weak foot leading as well) - cross front/back, snake front/back, nelson front/back, sun, mega. It's boring to put time and effort to tricks on your weak side but this is really crucial. So do give it a thought and better yet some effort.
3) Practice the turning/pivoting tricks a lot and also try for both sides variations (j-turn, reverse j-turn, volt etc.).
4) Try not to rotate your shoulders and torso when doing spinning tricks on the spot (not when moving through the cones with them). This was a revelation for me - I always tried to spin on the spot with my torso.
5) Jumping X and Crab is not about jumping but rather extending your feet further apart. Meaning during the trick your shoulder level should not alter.
Sorry if you already know some of these but for me these were quite crucial. Anyway her book is in the process of making and I believe it will contain all the necessary theory about freestyle slalom.
So generally ... it was a lot of hard work, not always very pleasant but it was an amazing experience with great skate and person that Naomi is and I do plan to participate again - maybe in the spring or summer 2012. I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves skating and challenges.
And finally I want to say that the video that I planned to shoot in the coming days is postponed indefinitely as now I'm not happy with my freestyle slalom. I have a lot of work to do and lots of things to improve. And of course find the joy in skating that I had my whole life and I had it in Peru and I lost it in London :) But I'm sure that in Budapest I'll find it soon.
