My, What a Difference 6 Months Makes
First things first. I am competing this weekend! I’ll more than likely post an update on the Eva Bakes Facebook page, so if you want to see how I’m faring, follow me there. There are 15 (!!!!) skaters in my event, which is pretty much unheard of. This is just an adult competition, and typically there are about 6-8 people in the event. I don’t know what happened this year, but it’s a huge group.
So we all know that progress on the ice is measured in millimeters. We don’t see success overnight. I’m glad that I’ve been documenting my progress on video so I can go back and watch how much I’ve improved.
One of the elements that I’ve been working on is the split falling leaf. I can’t seem to find older videos of my attempts but was able to locate one from August 2016. I videoed myself doing one not too long ago and took some video stills below so you can see the difference.
The setup and the takeoffs are the same for each jump. The one from August isn’t fully stretched out, and my back leg is still dragging. The one from this month looks like a completely different jump. My front leg is almost parallel to the ice, and the back leg has come up a lot higher.
Let’s be clear – this jump isn’t nearly where I want it to be yet, but it’s slowly improving. It’s crazy how much this has improved in a span of 6 months.
So what caused the improvements? Stretching off-ice (mainly doing the splits) and working on the grande jete in ballet class.
One day, I hope to have a big, beautiful split falling leaf like my skating mentor. Hers is jaw-dropping gorgeous. #skatinggoals
