Saturday, April 22, 2017

Weekend practice and coach stuff

No lesson this weekend because the Ice Centre was putting on their Spring Exhibition. I skated on Friday evening and again on Saturday morning but because I will be at a conference in Pueblo next week, this is really my only opportunity to practice until my next lesson. Harrumph!

Only two things to report from my weekend practice:

Backspin - I've been working this pretty hard and, during my Friday evening practice, I somehow magically found the rocker on my right skate and was able to get FOUR (!) revolutions. I wasn't able to repeat it but now I know that I can do it if I can just find that sweet spot on the blade.

Backward Consecutive Edges - I spent a lot of time on these as well but there was one moment on Friday evening when I had just finished a set of BO edges when a higher level figure skater was getting off the ice told me "those look really nice, by the way". I was blown away! I don't have a coach right now so I'm trying to remember instruction from ten years ago. I guess I'm doing ok with these! She didn't have to say anything at all, right? So the fact that she did makes me feel somewhat accomplished!

So, speaking of coaches (or, rather, the lack thereof), I reached out to one particular coach and asked her for a trial lesson. I chose this coach because her profile was the only one of the many listed on the Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Club's website that mentioned that she enjoys working with all ages. She, however, wrote back saying that because of our difference in schedules, she would be unable to give me lessons on the weekends. She also informed me that, for the summer, the Ice Centre is doing away with the 6:00am freestyle slots further reducing my ability to find a time to practice. She was sweet and offered some alternatives for me to consider, but I'm just feeling a little defeated at the moment. Finding time to practice with my schedule is difficult and it looks like it's not going to get any easier. I see Christopher on Saturday for our jumps lesson and will ask him if he would consider taking me on as a student. Hopefully, he says yes but if he can't then I have a few more tricks up my sleeve (one that includes me joining a different figure skating club farther away even though I would really like to stay with my home rink).

Edit to add: I'm in Pueblo for a library conference and my hotel for the conference is right across the street from the ice rink! What luck, right? I had my skates in the car and was looking forward to skating at their public session but was saddened to discover that they do not allow any figure skating jumps or spins on public ice. So yeah, I could go and skate in a circle but that's it. Harrumph again!

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