photo by Steve Penland

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Ass to Grass

My skating learning curve goes something like this:
1.  People tell me about an aspect of technique that I'm lacking
2.  I stare blankly at them because I have no idea what they're talking about and I nod and say "uh huh" because I don't want them to stop giving me technique tips just because I'm clueless
3.  Repeat steps 1 and 2 for up to two years for each technical point
4. Eventually, some of what they are saying filters through my brain
5.  I begin working on the aspect of technique
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for up to two years
7.  If I'm lucky, there will be an epiphany and I will suddenly be able to execute the aspect of techchnique--once
8.  I will then be unable to replicate the epiphany and will subsequently spend an indefinite period of time trying to recapture the technique epiphany

For the past couple months I've been on Step 8 with my cornering.  I had the epiphany in Milwaukee back in August, and I've been vainly trying to replicate it ever since.  Every so often--maybe once per workout, if I'm lucky--a corner will "click" and I'll feel the smooth power that was so thrilling in Milwaukee...but most of the time, the corners are just...there.

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong.  I had thought that it was the "right side pinch" that had enabled me to get my left hip into the corner and properly execute the cornering technique.  But "pinch" though I might, the corners were just not clicking.  I finally concluded that perhaps the Roseville corners, with their wider radius, just didn't lend themselves to proper technique the way the Milwaukee corners did (What?  It couldn't possibly be me, could it? Must be the corner radius that's the problem.)

But then I went to Milwaukee last weekend, and the corners were still not feeling right.

Until, that is, I remembered something fellow masters skater Aussie Boy had said during practice the previous week (you have to imagine this being said with a faint Australian accent; Aussie Boy has been in the States for many years):

"Yeah, I finally figured out that I need to get my butt down before I enter a corner, and then everything is fine."

Unfortunately I didn't have this thought until after my two races; "unfortunately" because it turned out that the missing link to recreating my cornering epiphany was, indeed, getting my butt down.

In CrossFit, this is referred to as "Ass to Grass."

(Technically this refers to going below parallel when doing a squat, and yes, I did run this phrase by Urban Dictionary to make sure it didn't have any other, um, connotations that I was unaware of, and it seems to be clean).

It turns out that if I get my butt down and tuck my hips under just before my corner entry, then I can successfully execute the "pinch," get my left hip into the corner, get a full left leg underpush, and just generally rock the corner.

Yay.

Of course, I couldn't do it in my time trials this morning, but the corners in the warm up and cool down laps felt good, and hopefully it's only a matter of time until I can execute the technique at race speed.

Henceforth, I shall be chanting "ass to grass" just prior to every corner entry.

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