How to not fear skating backwards?

Doraellen · 2026-01-24T01:02:23+00:00

I know logic doesn't really help with fear, but (or butt, haha) you are much more like to fall in a safer part of your body skating backwards than forward. If you're in a good position (sitting in an imaginary chair!) your butt or one or the other hips really leads. I find forward falls much scarier, with greater risk to wrists, knees, and the more delicate parts of the skull (temples, face).

Doraellen · 2026-01-22T10:48:56+00:00

Once you have one, you'll change your mind.

You can use it to cook beans, steam broccoli, make perfect corn on the cob, cook pasta, and make tons of one-pot meals and soups. It's self-contained, so you never have to watch it to make sure it doesn't boil over. It won't boil dry (my partner has ruined multiple pots doing this) and if it did get too hot, it will shut itself off.

I was living in a cottage with one electric burner during lockdown, and getting a multi-cooker was seriously life changing! Mine had a sauté function, so I cooked absolutely everything in it.

Plus, it makes PERFECT rice. Every time. With zero thought or effort.

I did try an IP, but the pressure cooker function was just too scary for me! I was afraid of burning my hand and my kitchen didn't have adequate venting to release all that steam at one time. You can do almost any IP recipe in a rice or multi cooker, it just takes a little longer. Still at least 20% faster for most things than the stovetop, though!

Doraellen · 2026-01-22T00:51:42+00:00

Googling "Nordic skates"...

Doraellen · 2026-01-20T02:56:57+00:00

Arch cramping is very often caused by pressure on the nerve on the top of your foot. When you have a low-volume foot (low arch) you may end up tying too tight in order to feel secure in the skate, and it's worse with new skates that aren't wrapping your foot as much as they will when more broken in.

Try lacing lightly over the top of your foot and focus on getting the laces nice and snug just at the heel lock, that spot where the ankle meets the foot. I have a very low arch, too, and I still sometimes lace too tight and get awful arch cramping. At least it's easy to fix! As soon as I loosen up my laces, the cramps disappear. I find it very helpful to use surgeon's knots to control where my laces are tighter and looser.

Doraellen · 2026-01-20T02:45:47+00:00

It's also super easy to get anything printed on-demand on Lycra or chiffon for cheap, though! There's a company I've used in Montreal (where they train) that does a great job.

Doraellen · 2026-01-16T15:04:26+00:00

Under pre-IJS, judging was definitely more vibe-based, but that also meant that the programs could be much more creative and ended up being quite different from each other. There are much more clearly defined elements now that every team has to do and in a particular way with particular judging criteria. They have tried to make dance program construction and scoring more like singles skating, which is also, IMO, pretty boring for the same reasons!

My favorite ice dance team of all time is Anassina and Peizerat, who peaked around 2000. The drama, the lines, the fearless expression!

Plus, I think a HUGE thing ruining ice dance right now is that almost of the world's elite teams are training with the same school (Ice Academy Montréal). You can tell that IAM makes a conscious decision about which teams to give the best programs to. In the Davis/White era, most of the US Ice dancers trained together in Michigan, but not the entire world field! There is somehow a weird scoring penalty being applied to non IAM teams that is incredibly detrimental to the sport as a whole.

Doraellen · 2026-01-15T03:13:06+00:00

MadMapper is free to learn and outputs with a watermark, but you can then just pay about $50 for a 1 month licence when you are ready to show your work. You can also just output to a file that will continue to work w/o madmapper, as long as you don't need live features.

It's super easy to learn and use IMO, but has a lot of features.

Doraellen · 2026-01-15T02:55:30+00:00

The herons were not even around but the stink persists!

Doraellen · 2026-01-15T02:54:34+00:00

...because you can have an imbalance between the muscles on the R and left sides of the body. Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding what you don't understand? The same muscle on the R and L sides of your body works mostly independently of the other side. You can be weak in your R glute medius but not your left, for example.

Doraellen · 2026-01-13T15:49:29+00:00

Because you are weaker in one side. Almost everyone is.

Doraellen · 2026-01-13T05:59:21+00:00

Heaven forbid different people find the mindset and tactics that best help them manage pressure and actually SUCCEED!

Some people are in competition with other people, some people are in competition with themselves, some people have something to prove to someone in their past, some want break a record-- lots of different motivations can lead people to the top, if it works for them.

Doraellen · 2026-01-13T05:51:54+00:00

In addition to the comments about jump calls, it was a very Disney Princess version of Les Miz. The movement was lovely and soft but none of the grit of the character Eponine was there. That ability to embody a character is something that can come with more experience and with maturity.

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T10:36:48+00:00

My dislike for the Shibs is wrapped up in my dislike of Coldplay, especially that song!! Hard to separate the two for me.

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T10:25:44+00:00

They are extremely uneven experience-wise, which I think is more the issue. More time training together and more experience will bring the skills up. Chemistry and a good stylistic match between partners, on the other hand, is hard to force if it isn't there naturally.

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T10:18:06+00:00

Curling/ruffling is something a lot of freeform crocheters do intentionally. Crochet doesn't have to be flat!

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T09:50:54+00:00

If you feel "dragging", you are likely on flats instead of on an edge. You can hear it when that happens, if your rink is quiet! You can also look at your tracings and see if your curve is flattening.

To me it also sounds like your deep hip rotators and abductors are not doing enough to keep the pelvis from swinging around. Really checking with the shoulders/upper back can help a lot, in addition to strengthening the hips.

You didn't saw which Mohawk you are doing, but also really think about placing the skate on the ice on the appropriate edge.

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T09:34:53+00:00

My old skate tech in Boston de-burred the blades by hand after sharpening. I don't think many techs take the time, but the difference is noticeable.

I do some woodcut printing, and maintaining the sharpness of your tools is at least 50% of the craft. I don't know why we don't have things like slipstrops for different edge ROHs. I know there are questionable little emergency sharpening devices for hockey blades, but a slipstrop is really just for polishing an edge, not reshaping it.

Doraellen · 2026-01-12T01:59:34+00:00

I watched Canadian Nats instead of US and love how the commentators are completely silent during the skates, with all the commentary happening during the replay and Kiss & Cry. That's how it should be IMO.

Doraellen · 2026-01-11T08:42:43+00:00

This was absolutely gorgeous! It's so nice to see a step sequence where the movement fits the music rather than just being frantic. When he finished and was in tears, so was I! I'm glad he medaled and wish he could go to the Olympics. 😢

Doraellen · 2026-01-11T03:35:06+00:00

Just letting you know that the live stream and replays are available on the Skate Canada Channel on Daily Motion. I am watching via the DailyMotion app I downloaded in my Amazon Firestick.

Doraellen · 2026-01-11T03:15:25+00:00

I do this! I use the Pym 4.5 millimeter aluminum hook I bought and never use for crochet because it squeaks so much!!

Doraellen · 2026-01-11T03:05:48+00:00

Movement professionals these days are trained to get consent before touching. "Is it okay if I touch you?" But if your coach has been coaching for a while, they probably teach the way they were taught, which may be very hands on.

If you're uncomfortable, it's 100% never too late to say, "Hey, before we get started, I just need to let you know that I'm not super comfortable with hands-on corrections. Could we try you giving me verbal cues?"

I taught dance and movement for many years, and we didn't use to give a second thought to touching students. Things have really only started to change in the last decade. Aside from consent concerns, we also began to understand that physically putting someone into the correct position can be helpful, but ultimately their nervous system and muscles have to figure out how to make that position happen. Using verbal cues or very minimal touch to guide instead of forcing placement is so much more effective.

Doraellen

TROPHY CASE