What to Practice - October 2024
Welcome to this month’s practice schedule! All of these videos are available within the membership at
ThatNicoleFiore.com or my YouTube channel.
All levels, all ages, everyone is welcome! You do not need any previous skills to join us. If you want a more structured course to focus on all of your foundational skills, check out my Foundations Course. Please let me know if you have any questions. I am here to help!
We also have 10 spooky pieces of choreography (5 Beginner/ Intermediate & 5 Advanced) for you to check out this month: Thriller, I Want Candy, Monster Mash, Spooky Scary Skeletons, and Goo Goo Muck. Check it out here! 👻
Week 1:
Squat: 5 Minute Stretch
We are going to start with our 5-minute stretch video. I need to stretch more and I'm sure you need to stretch more as well. Skating, like life, requires some flexibility and we can all take a few minutes out of our day to stretch. If you want to do more than 5 minutes, absolutely do it. I am telling myself this just as much as I am telling you. With a membership, you have access to all of the drills on skates, off skates, breathing exercises, and more. There are so many videos to use if you need just a little bit of inspiration and a little bit of movement throughout the day. You don't even have to have skates on for that!
Video length: 5 minutes, 51 seconds
Go to the video: mind | body | soul page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Heel-Toe Manual
Our skill for this week is our heel-toe manual! This manual is balancing on the heel wheels of one skate and the toe wheels of the other. You can do it rolling or you can practice staying stationary. You will use the muscles in your legs, your inner thighs, your core…pretty much everything to keep you really stable and steady.
Video length: 18 minutes, 25 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (heel-toe section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Practice: Heel-Toe Spin
All of that leads us into our practice which will be the heel-toe spin. We will use that heel-toe motion from the manual and add a rotation. All of the balance that we developed and worked on with the manual is used and needed for spins. We will be tightening our core, balancing on the heel/ toe, and rotating.
Video length: 26 minutes, 13 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (spins section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 2:
Just Dance - Beginner/ Intermediate Choreography
This week we are doing our choreography to Just Dance by Lady Gaga! Every October, I try to do something that we can dress up for and develop a different character. And with this choreography, you can do exactly that. Please remember that you do not need to be a dancer in order to do choreography. Not even a little bit! Choreography is meant for you to practice. We will use all of the skills that we developed and practiced in week one into our choreography, adding some beats to it. You might be surprised at how easy some things start to become when you add a beat to it. The music can serve as a positive distraction and allow us to forget when things are difficult.
Video length: 32 minutes, 32 seconds
Go to the video: Choreography page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Practice: Downtown
For our practice this week, we will be doing the downtown! This is a skill that we use a lot. The downtown is a series of crosses: cross in front, cross in back. In our advanced choreography, we do the downtown into and out of the heel-toe manual. Make sure to practice the downtown in both directions and feel free to do it to your own beat. You can do it slow and steady and speed it up when you’re comfortable. Make sure you are using that core to rotate you side to side during each cross.
Video length: 19 minutes, 23 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (dance section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 3:
Drills 12: Rotation Strength Off-Skates
Let’s start with Drills 12 this week! This is our rotation off-skates. We will actually use our skates as weights in our hands to rotate. This really triggers us to use our core and we will notice right away if we ARE using it or if we are not. Just like bending our knees, every skater needs to think about their core when skating. It doesn’t matter what level skater you are. We all have to be reminded. Speaking of bending our knees…
Video length: 14 minutes, 31 seconds
Go to the video: Drills page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Toe Spins
We are going to be doing toe spins as our skill this month! When you balance on your toes in any skill, you don't have to go SO far to the toe. You especially don't want to go super far to the toe because you don't want your weight to be too far forward. You can balance on the axis of your plate. Use your knees when you do this. You don't want to have straightened legs. You want to have a nice bend in those knees. It may feel a little weird at first, but practice it. You're using muscles that you don't typically use in everyday life. Make sure you are using a staggered position with your feet. Practice your manuals and practice balancing on your toes. Hold onto something and rotate little by little until you start to feel comfortable with it. Take it easy. Take it slow. You can totally do it! And if you’re more comfortable practicing this with your toe stops in, go for it. Toe work is totally possible with toe stops…a bit more challenging, but completely possible.
Video length: 23 minutes, 58 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (spins section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Practice: Spin With More Rotations
For our practice this week we will work on how to get more rotations in our spins and jumps. There is so much muscle that goes into this that we all need to develop and maintain. You can learn to hold your spins longer and longer if you think about a few key things and we will go over those things in this video.
Video length: 35 minutes, 39 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (spins section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Week 4:
Just Dance - Advanced Choreography
It’s time for our Advanced Choreography to Just Dance! I always create a Beginner/ Intermediate and an Advanced version of the Choreography so that we can all enjoy it. No matter what level you are, I want you to check out both pieces of choreography. Obviously, the Advanced will be more…Advanced. No matter who you are, no matter what age you are, what level you are right now, there is a way that you can get to the advanced. I have seen it happen time and time again and it is why I continue doing what I do. So, check out both the Beginner/ Intermediate as well as the Advanced. I promise there is something within both of those that you can learn from. This Advanced Choreography has a lot of different skills: the downtown, heel-toe manual, two-foot spin, dribble, and crazy legs. There's a lot happening within these few eight counts. Take your time with it!
Video length: 31 minutes, 5 seconds
Go to the video: Choreography page [Link: Website, YouTube]
Practice: Crazy Legs
Now for our last thing to practice this month, we will be doing our Crazy Legs. Please remember that crazy legs are…crazy. That is why they have that name! When you are doing crazy legs, start with your shapes. Always start with your shapes. Crazy legs aren't an artistic skating thing at all, so this was something that I learned from session when I would hang out after practice or before practice. We always learned it and we always started it in the “steppy” way of doing it. It’s important in crazy legs to know your shapes, know which foot goes where, and break it down to move just one foot at a time. Again, take your time. A lot of people expect to be able to learn these things super quickly, but they take time and patience! Please let me know if you have any questions at all. I am here to help.
Video length: 15 minutes, 48 seconds
Go to the video: Skills page (dance section) [Link: Website, YouTube]
Progress:
Lastly, I want you to take a moment to look back and see how far you’ve come. Did you learn something new? Did you progress? Did you surprise yourself? Do you have new goals for next month? Take a moment, breathe, roll your shoulders back, lift your head high, and tell yourself you’re doing a great job. Because you are.
If you would like to submit your progress for our Community Progress Video, submit your vertical video here. Submissions are due on the last day of each month.
If you are practicing on Instagram, please tag me and #quadsociety! I love to see and share your progress! Lastly, don’t forget about the wonderful community on the Discord. Everything is better with friends!
Please don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know if you would like further guidance. You can book in-person private lessons or online private lessons here!
