So, I'm in that in-between phase where I am not in my Jumps class anymore but I haven't yet started my private lessons with Christopher so I don't have anything specific to work on. Because of this, today's practice focused on stuff that I don't do well, namely spins and jump sequences that include loopy things.
Spinz - Scratch spins are progressively getting more and more centered albeit at a glacial pace. I am seeing progress, though. I've been starting to put my arms overhead during the spin rather than draw them down toward my pelvis and, although it's a different feeling than what I'm used to, I think they may look pretty decent. Camel spins are still about the same. I get one revolution but have no momentum to do any more than that. Sometimes I can eek out an additional 1/2 revolution but that's it. I think I may not have my free leg behind me enough. It may stick out slightly to the right which is throwing off my balance and forcing me onto that inside edge. Who knows. Sit spins were better. I was able to get 2-3 revs out of them but I know I'm not nearly low enough. My lower back is killing me though! I was at the doctor's office on Friday and he gave me some muscle relaxers but that is only going to help while I'm at home. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be wise to take those and then go skating. Backspins are getting there. I've been making more of an effort to do them with the free leg crossed in front but it's hella scary! I also did some two-foot spins, not because I enjoy them at all (I don't) but I need to make sure I keep up with them since they will be on the Adult Pre-Bronze Freeskate test. I cannot wait until I never have to do a two-foot spin ever again.
Loopy things - I worked a lot on the waltz-loop combo trying to get the feeling for landing with my free leg in front. These are getting better but are still not the best. They are tiny! Loop-loop jumps were tiny as well but at least they are happening. Waltz-falling leaf-toe loop sequence was super wonky. Christopher introduced me to this toward the end of our Jumps class but I stumbled through it....I'm still stumbling through it. The waltz-half loop-salchow sequence is the same story. I'm stumbling through it. I know this is something that I just have to keep working on. For me, it's just a matter of building up that muscle memory with that free leg in front on the landing position. Once I get that, I think I'll be on my way toward some decent jump sequences.
MIF - Yeah, I worked on this too. Everything here is testable (I think) so I have just been running through it at this point rather than dedicating too much time to it.
My first lesson with Christopher is coming up next Thursday. It will be interesting to see if any of my spins and MIF are actually in good shape or if I'm just imagining things.
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Drunken Camel
I wasn't feeling very jumpy today so I mostly worked on spins and MIF. I'm not sure what it was but I just felt weak today, like if I tried to jump it wouldn't go too far. That's not to say I didn't jump at all.
Jumps - I did some tiny waltz jump loop combos to get a better feeling for landing with that free leg in front. Out of the many attempts only one of them turned into an actual combo. It is purely a matter of breaking that muscle memory in my free leg because it keeps wanting to go into landing position. I also worked on some half loop salchow combos. I'm really trying to get my salchow to slow down. I feel like I am relying too much on the momentum I get from swinging my leg around after the initial three turn. If I approach it from a half loop, it forces me to do a salchow without the swinginess. It was tough to say the least but it's a good thing to work on because I'm pretty sure somewhere down the line of tests I will need to do a Waltz-half loop-salchow combo. So, basically, any jumping I did today was to prepare me for that.
MIF - someone forgot to put the goalie nets away and they were too heavy for me to move so working on the forward/backward crossovers in a figure 8 was challenging. I still worked on it but it was wonky. I moved onto consecutive edges. The forward ones are just fine so I ran through them one time and moved on to the backward edges. I have really come a long way in terms of getting that initial push to be stronger (I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos!). These feel comfortable enough and they tend to gain speed the farther I get down the line but I would really like them to be of equal strength from start to finish. Finally, waltz 8. The move itself is not difficult for me, it's size that is the problem. Oddly, I'm a lot stronger on my bad side (cw) so the circle is much bigger. The left side is a regular sized pattern. Ideally, they should both be the size of the left side. So yeah, I need to rein it in a bit on the cw side. Because it was a public session, I didn't do stroking or spirals.
Spinz - To start off, I did some really nicely centered one-foot and scratch spins. Because these felt good today, I started working on camel spins. This is where the title of this post comes in. I get one revolution before I start wobbling. I figured I just needed more speed going into it but that didn't help either. I tried staying down in my knee for a bit before rising up...nope, still looks wonky. I'm not the best spinner and I have a tendency to get up on my toe picks during a spin so that could be what's throwing me off but I won't really know until I have Christopher look at it. I also worked on some change foot spins. They are super unequal. I can get plenty of revs out of the forward one-foot spin but then when I get into the backspin, I'll get one rev if I'm lucky. Also, I don't typically get dizzy on spins but changing from forward to backward is messing up my equilibrium something fierce. When I switch to the backspin, I'm already tipsy (which baffles me because I'm not changing direction, just feet. My body just doesn't like it).
I only stayed about an hour today before I wanted to just go home. I worked on a lot but I don't feel like I accomplished much. Meh.
Jumps - I did some tiny waltz jump loop combos to get a better feeling for landing with that free leg in front. Out of the many attempts only one of them turned into an actual combo. It is purely a matter of breaking that muscle memory in my free leg because it keeps wanting to go into landing position. I also worked on some half loop salchow combos. I'm really trying to get my salchow to slow down. I feel like I am relying too much on the momentum I get from swinging my leg around after the initial three turn. If I approach it from a half loop, it forces me to do a salchow without the swinginess. It was tough to say the least but it's a good thing to work on because I'm pretty sure somewhere down the line of tests I will need to do a Waltz-half loop-salchow combo. So, basically, any jumping I did today was to prepare me for that.
MIF - someone forgot to put the goalie nets away and they were too heavy for me to move so working on the forward/backward crossovers in a figure 8 was challenging. I still worked on it but it was wonky. I moved onto consecutive edges. The forward ones are just fine so I ran through them one time and moved on to the backward edges. I have really come a long way in terms of getting that initial push to be stronger (I had to watch a lot of YouTube videos!). These feel comfortable enough and they tend to gain speed the farther I get down the line but I would really like them to be of equal strength from start to finish. Finally, waltz 8. The move itself is not difficult for me, it's size that is the problem. Oddly, I'm a lot stronger on my bad side (cw) so the circle is much bigger. The left side is a regular sized pattern. Ideally, they should both be the size of the left side. So yeah, I need to rein it in a bit on the cw side. Because it was a public session, I didn't do stroking or spirals.
Spinz - To start off, I did some really nicely centered one-foot and scratch spins. Because these felt good today, I started working on camel spins. This is where the title of this post comes in. I get one revolution before I start wobbling. I figured I just needed more speed going into it but that didn't help either. I tried staying down in my knee for a bit before rising up...nope, still looks wonky. I'm not the best spinner and I have a tendency to get up on my toe picks during a spin so that could be what's throwing me off but I won't really know until I have Christopher look at it. I also worked on some change foot spins. They are super unequal. I can get plenty of revs out of the forward one-foot spin but then when I get into the backspin, I'll get one rev if I'm lucky. Also, I don't typically get dizzy on spins but changing from forward to backward is messing up my equilibrium something fierce. When I switch to the backspin, I'm already tipsy (which baffles me because I'm not changing direction, just feet. My body just doesn't like it).
I only stayed about an hour today before I wanted to just go home. I worked on a lot but I don't feel like I accomplished much. Meh.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Jumps Class - The Season Finale
Per usual, I spent Friday night at the Stable cramming for my lesson today. I felt extra cram-y because this particular lesson isn't so much a lesson as it is a test day. Eeep!
Nothing extraordinary to report about my Friday night practice except for the fact that my Flip decided to leave me completely and I got run over by a hockey player and really hurt my elbow. Although losing my Flip was disappointing, I was more upset at getting run over. It was a hockey coach working with her student who was skating backwards and wasn't watching where she was going. I wasn't mad at the hockey kid but I was upset that her coach wasn't keeping a better eye on her student's surroundings. I'm usually pretty good at avoiding people on the ice but this kid was skating backwards really quickly doing some sort of drill and, honestly, I didn't even see her coming. Just CRASH! The coach asked me if I was alright (I lied and said I was fine) but I feel like she should have apologized. Yeah, her student was skating backward, but the coach was skating forwards and should have seen the collision about to happen. Hockey kid wasn't hurt because of all the padding she was wearing but she looked scared like she was about to get yelled at. I assured hockey kid I was fine and packed my stuff up and left to go lick my wounds elsewhere.
Before the crash, however, I was able to do some spirals so there's that! One more thing to check off on my list of things I was scared to do!
Anyway, testing today. Apparently, the Jumps class is split up into parts. I passed Jumps 1 but I didn't do so well on Jumps 2. I mean seriously, it's a lot to learn in six weeks so I wasn't really expecting to pass anyway. My goal with this class was simply to get back what I lost over ten years of not skating. I would say that I not only achieved that goal but surpassed it as I have learned things during this session that I have never worked on before (such as the Loop and Flip jumps).
Oh! And my coach dilemma is finally resolved! Before my lesson, I spoke with Christopher about the possibility of him coaching me since I never heard back from Kelly and he said yes!!! I should have just asked Christopher from the start. He was the natural choice since he has already been working with me and knows what I struggle with in terms of skills. We agreed on a June 1st start and will have our lessons on Thursdays during the first early morning freestyle session. I had to fill out the paperwork to contract with the Ice Centre for those sessions and, once he signs off on it, it will get processed and I will be good to go come June! It will be nice to work with him on things other than jumps. I realized this evening that he has actually never seen me skate. Boy does he have his work cut out for him!
Here are the two "report cards" from my Jumps class with him. There was a lot to learn and I'm proud of myself for getting as far as I did :)
Nothing extraordinary to report about my Friday night practice except for the fact that my Flip decided to leave me completely and I got run over by a hockey player and really hurt my elbow. Although losing my Flip was disappointing, I was more upset at getting run over. It was a hockey coach working with her student who was skating backwards and wasn't watching where she was going. I wasn't mad at the hockey kid but I was upset that her coach wasn't keeping a better eye on her student's surroundings. I'm usually pretty good at avoiding people on the ice but this kid was skating backwards really quickly doing some sort of drill and, honestly, I didn't even see her coming. Just CRASH! The coach asked me if I was alright (I lied and said I was fine) but I feel like she should have apologized. Yeah, her student was skating backward, but the coach was skating forwards and should have seen the collision about to happen. Hockey kid wasn't hurt because of all the padding she was wearing but she looked scared like she was about to get yelled at. I assured hockey kid I was fine and packed my stuff up and left to go lick my wounds elsewhere.
Before the crash, however, I was able to do some spirals so there's that! One more thing to check off on my list of things I was scared to do!
Anyway, testing today. Apparently, the Jumps class is split up into parts. I passed Jumps 1 but I didn't do so well on Jumps 2. I mean seriously, it's a lot to learn in six weeks so I wasn't really expecting to pass anyway. My goal with this class was simply to get back what I lost over ten years of not skating. I would say that I not only achieved that goal but surpassed it as I have learned things during this session that I have never worked on before (such as the Loop and Flip jumps).
Oh! And my coach dilemma is finally resolved! Before my lesson, I spoke with Christopher about the possibility of him coaching me since I never heard back from Kelly and he said yes!!! I should have just asked Christopher from the start. He was the natural choice since he has already been working with me and knows what I struggle with in terms of skills. We agreed on a June 1st start and will have our lessons on Thursdays during the first early morning freestyle session. I had to fill out the paperwork to contract with the Ice Centre for those sessions and, once he signs off on it, it will get processed and I will be good to go come June! It will be nice to work with him on things other than jumps. I realized this evening that he has actually never seen me skate. Boy does he have his work cut out for him!
Here are the two "report cards" from my Jumps class with him. There was a lot to learn and I'm proud of myself for getting as far as I did :)
Saturday, May 13, 2017
I'm Flippin' Out!!!!!!
Today was my second to last jumps lesson with Christopher. After my practice yesterday and my progress of pushing through a big fear with the flip jump, I was feeling pretty confident today.
We went through the checklist of doom once again to make sure I was keeping up with everything he has taught me so far. When it came to the flip jump, I told him of the progress I have made but that I am still two footing the landing. He asked me to try one and, of course, it was again two footed. He gave me some corrections (of which for the life of me I cannot remember now) but whatever he told me seemed to click because I tried another one....AND I LANDED IT!!!! YAAAAASSSSS!!!!!
Mouth agape I looked at him and asked "Did I just land a flip?!" and he said yes and gave me a high five! I turned to Dustin who was watching from the stands and he was clapping! He knew what a big deal this was for me. I've been obsessing over this jump for the past few weeks. Later, Dustin told me that a couple of the skate moms turned to him and said they were rooting for me. I guess the struggle was evident even to those who don't know me. Christopher was just as excited as I was and I guess maybe he wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke so he asked me to skate it again. AND I LANDED IT A SECOND TIME!!!!!!!
Hells yeah! I feel like I just won the Olympics!
*Achievement Unlocked: Landed Flip Jump on One Foot*
We went through the checklist of doom once again to make sure I was keeping up with everything he has taught me so far. When it came to the flip jump, I told him of the progress I have made but that I am still two footing the landing. He asked me to try one and, of course, it was again two footed. He gave me some corrections (of which for the life of me I cannot remember now) but whatever he told me seemed to click because I tried another one....AND I LANDED IT!!!! YAAAAASSSSS!!!!!
Mouth agape I looked at him and asked "Did I just land a flip?!" and he said yes and gave me a high five! I turned to Dustin who was watching from the stands and he was clapping! He knew what a big deal this was for me. I've been obsessing over this jump for the past few weeks. Later, Dustin told me that a couple of the skate moms turned to him and said they were rooting for me. I guess the struggle was evident even to those who don't know me. Christopher was just as excited as I was and I guess maybe he wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke so he asked me to skate it again. AND I LANDED IT A SECOND TIME!!!!!!!
Hells yeah! I feel like I just won the Olympics!
*Achievement Unlocked: Landed Flip Jump on One Foot*
Friday, May 12, 2017
Friday Freestylin'
I love the Sport Stable because it is a shiny new ice rink but I hate the Sport Stable because they cannot for the life of them be consistent with their ice schedules. I went there with the intention to skate on the 4:00pm - 6:00pm public session (because it is relatively uncrowded and it's a steal at only $5.00) but when I got there, I was told that the public session didn't start until 6:25pm. Instead, they had a freestyle session going on currently from 3:30pm - 5:30pm. So I ponied up the $12.00 and skated for the remainder of the freestyle. Trust me, I like skating on the freestyle sessions much more than I do the public sessions but I'm trying to be conservative with my money. This is not a cheap sport.
My ultimate goal today was to at least attempt the flip jump and to tackle that fear head on. Since it was me and just one other skater, I figured that if I fell in my attempt, she won't really judge me. Besides, she was too busy worrying about what she was working on to care about what I was doing all the way on the other side of the rink. So, after a warm up of MIF, spins, and basic jumps...I went for it! I think I did about three attempts and all of them were two footed but I pushed through that fear barrier and that was good enough for me!
Since I was feeling inspired, I worked on some more advanced moves. Now that my forward and backward consecutive edges feel pretty solid, I wanted to experiment with trying one of the moves on the Preliminary test - the alternating forward three turns. Doing the three turns was cake. Getting the transition down from BI edge to FO edge on the blue line is a different story. Essentially it was a mess. But now I'm determined to get it right!
I'm also struggling with a bit of a coaching conundrum. Last week, Kelly from the Ice Centre skated up to me after my lesson with Christopher and agreed to coach me. She said she would email me with more details regarding her rates and available times. Toward Wednesday, I still hadn't heard from her so I sent her another email to remind her and see if I could get the ball rolling on this. I only have two more lessons with Christopher (our lesson tomorrow and the one next Saturday) and then I will be without a coach. It's now Friday and I still haven't heard back from her. I'm wondering if I should move on and consider other coaches or if I should wait it out. I don't want to be annoying and send her another email but I'm concerned about having a gap in my coaching. I really want to stay with the Ice Centre but at this point I may have to consider another coach from a different rink. I met Nancy (a coach of one of my skate buddies) during a Tuesday morning freestyle and she seems great. She has also agreed to coach me but going with her would mean joining a different club farther from my home. Another option would be to ask Christopher to continue coaching me but I am afraid of him saying no now because he may not want to step on Kelly's toes and take a student from her. Ugh. Why is this so tricky?
My ultimate goal today was to at least attempt the flip jump and to tackle that fear head on. Since it was me and just one other skater, I figured that if I fell in my attempt, she won't really judge me. Besides, she was too busy worrying about what she was working on to care about what I was doing all the way on the other side of the rink. So, after a warm up of MIF, spins, and basic jumps...I went for it! I think I did about three attempts and all of them were two footed but I pushed through that fear barrier and that was good enough for me!
Since I was feeling inspired, I worked on some more advanced moves. Now that my forward and backward consecutive edges feel pretty solid, I wanted to experiment with trying one of the moves on the Preliminary test - the alternating forward three turns. Doing the three turns was cake. Getting the transition down from BI edge to FO edge on the blue line is a different story. Essentially it was a mess. But now I'm determined to get it right!
I'm also struggling with a bit of a coaching conundrum. Last week, Kelly from the Ice Centre skated up to me after my lesson with Christopher and agreed to coach me. She said she would email me with more details regarding her rates and available times. Toward Wednesday, I still hadn't heard from her so I sent her another email to remind her and see if I could get the ball rolling on this. I only have two more lessons with Christopher (our lesson tomorrow and the one next Saturday) and then I will be without a coach. It's now Friday and I still haven't heard back from her. I'm wondering if I should move on and consider other coaches or if I should wait it out. I don't want to be annoying and send her another email but I'm concerned about having a gap in my coaching. I really want to stay with the Ice Centre but at this point I may have to consider another coach from a different rink. I met Nancy (a coach of one of my skate buddies) during a Tuesday morning freestyle and she seems great. She has also agreed to coach me but going with her would mean joining a different club farther from my home. Another option would be to ask Christopher to continue coaching me but I am afraid of him saying no now because he may not want to step on Kelly's toes and take a student from her. Ugh. Why is this so tricky?
Saturday, May 6, 2017
Flippin' Fear, Man!
My two hour cramming session (aka practice) was spent at the Sport Stable on Friday evening. I mostly worked on jumps and spins but I was able to squeeze in some MIF when the public session thinned out enough to do so. Overall, I feel like I made some slight progress on things (including BO 3 turns!). But one thing was holding me back....fear.
Let's talk about fear for a second. Ten years ago, I was fearless! When I had just started in Freeskate 4, my coach showed me the loop jump and, after a couple of attempts at the wall, I was comfortable enough to try it out on open ice. And I landed it! Now, I'm almost 40 years old and, I don't know, maybe I just feel a little bit more...breakable? I have been having some issues with lower back pain that was there before I started skating again and on top of that, I am scared of hurting myself so severely that I would need time off from work. With my particular job, that's not something that I can afford to do. I'm a solo academic librarian (emphasis on the solo) so if I am out of commission for a bit, who will run the library? A lot more is at stake now than ten years ago. This doesn't mean I'm not pushing myself. I am! But with certain things, I'm hitting this fear wall that I cannot break through. In particular, spirals and the flip jump. Spirals are easy and they are something that I was able to do well years ago. In fact, I used to get compliments on them regarding form and flexibility. Now, I'm scared of catching a toe pick and landing on my face therefore I tend to skip over them during practices. The flip jump is something that I know I can do (and possibly do quite well) but I just can't bring myself to try. My half flips are solid and have pretty good height. I could easily add another 1/2 revolution on to that and make it a full flip. I have been practicing the flip on the floor and am easily getting around. I've been doing walk-throughs of the jump at the boards during practices. So why can't I bring myself to try it on open ice?! I'm just...scared. I know that once I try the jump, the fear will be gone. But I just can't get past that fear. It's really slowing down my progress :(
The fear and apprehension was showing during my lesson today. I was very tentative on almost all of the things he asked me to do. Because of this, I had some pretty nasty falls. And I was falling on stupid things like backward to forward two-foot hops. I was just in my head the whole time and on the verge of tears throughout the whole lesson. Christopher assured me that it is completely normal to be in a "funk" and that even some of his more advanced students find themselves in a funk for a week or more but he says they always come out of it. I hope he's right and that this is just a slump that I will eventually move past. Right now, I just feel like this is something that I will be struggling with for a while.
On a good note! After my lesson, Kelly (who was my coach years ago from Freeskate 2) skated up to me and mentioned that she got my email asking her to be my coach and she would be happy to work with me again! She said that she could definitely work with my schedule so that we could have a weekly lesson during the early morning freestyle sessions. I'm waiting for her to email me back with her rates and some other information but it looks like I might have a coach and I'll be able to stay at the Ice Centre! This also means that I would be joining and representing the Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Club in tests and competitions.
So, it was a weekend of highs and lows. There were some good moments like improving the consistency of landing my loop jump and the not so good moments of falling on the easiest of elements. This just goes to show how difficult this experience is as an adult. Younger skaters, I'm sure, experience stumbling blocks with their skating from time to time but I feel like they can move past it and recover more quickly than someone like me. Le sigh.
Let's talk about fear for a second. Ten years ago, I was fearless! When I had just started in Freeskate 4, my coach showed me the loop jump and, after a couple of attempts at the wall, I was comfortable enough to try it out on open ice. And I landed it! Now, I'm almost 40 years old and, I don't know, maybe I just feel a little bit more...breakable? I have been having some issues with lower back pain that was there before I started skating again and on top of that, I am scared of hurting myself so severely that I would need time off from work. With my particular job, that's not something that I can afford to do. I'm a solo academic librarian (emphasis on the solo) so if I am out of commission for a bit, who will run the library? A lot more is at stake now than ten years ago. This doesn't mean I'm not pushing myself. I am! But with certain things, I'm hitting this fear wall that I cannot break through. In particular, spirals and the flip jump. Spirals are easy and they are something that I was able to do well years ago. In fact, I used to get compliments on them regarding form and flexibility. Now, I'm scared of catching a toe pick and landing on my face therefore I tend to skip over them during practices. The flip jump is something that I know I can do (and possibly do quite well) but I just can't bring myself to try. My half flips are solid and have pretty good height. I could easily add another 1/2 revolution on to that and make it a full flip. I have been practicing the flip on the floor and am easily getting around. I've been doing walk-throughs of the jump at the boards during practices. So why can't I bring myself to try it on open ice?! I'm just...scared. I know that once I try the jump, the fear will be gone. But I just can't get past that fear. It's really slowing down my progress :(
The fear and apprehension was showing during my lesson today. I was very tentative on almost all of the things he asked me to do. Because of this, I had some pretty nasty falls. And I was falling on stupid things like backward to forward two-foot hops. I was just in my head the whole time and on the verge of tears throughout the whole lesson. Christopher assured me that it is completely normal to be in a "funk" and that even some of his more advanced students find themselves in a funk for a week or more but he says they always come out of it. I hope he's right and that this is just a slump that I will eventually move past. Right now, I just feel like this is something that I will be struggling with for a while.
On a good note! After my lesson, Kelly (who was my coach years ago from Freeskate 2) skated up to me and mentioned that she got my email asking her to be my coach and she would be happy to work with me again! She said that she could definitely work with my schedule so that we could have a weekly lesson during the early morning freestyle sessions. I'm waiting for her to email me back with her rates and some other information but it looks like I might have a coach and I'll be able to stay at the Ice Centre! This also means that I would be joining and representing the Rocky Mountain Figure Skating Club in tests and competitions.
So, it was a weekend of highs and lows. There were some good moments like improving the consistency of landing my loop jump and the not so good moments of falling on the easiest of elements. This just goes to show how difficult this experience is as an adult. Younger skaters, I'm sure, experience stumbling blocks with their skating from time to time but I feel like they can move past it and recover more quickly than someone like me. Le sigh.
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