The SASH!

Choreography Day 2 - We finished the remaining 1/3 of the choreography today during our lesson so now we are just in the polish and presentation phase! Best part about today was that I got to wear the sash! I know it's a minor thing to most skaters but it was my first time wearing the sash because I've never run a program before. I love how powerful it made me feel. All skaters must make room for me! MUAHAHAHA! In addition to how awesome wearing the sash felt, it felt amazing being able to hear my music through the rink's speakers and actually skate to it. Pretty cool. So, here's what we got:

• Starting pose with pretty arms, 360 rotation, pretty arms again 
• LFO three turn into single CW back crossover, switch to single CCW back crossover
• Backward one foot glide in landing position with pretty arms
• Step forward, switch feet to lunge with pretty arms halfway through
• Exit lunge with LFO three turn into three CCW back crossovers
• Waltz jump
• Airplane (that's what I'm calling it but it's a pretty glide on a curve with arms)
• Left one-foot glide with wavey arms to center
• Pivot into two foot spin
• Exit spin to half flip (thus starting footwork sequence)
• Brief one foot glide into to LFI mohawk/crossover sequence
• Hold backward glide with pretty arms
• Step forward to LFO three turn 
• Three turn sequence (x2) with pretty arms, hold landing position into step forward
• Step forward to LFO three turn into four CCW back crossovers with pretty arms during last two (end footwork sequence)
• Salchow
• CW turn out of landing position plus two CW forward crossovers
• Left one foot glide in attitude position through center
• Position glide with arm feature
• CCW forward crossovers (x4) with pretty arms during last two
• Pivot into one-foot spin
• End pose facing judges but not staring directly at them because that's creepy. Look into the ether ;) 

Christopher told me that these steps are not set in stone. We may amend them for timing meaning we might add or delete elements once I get this up to speed. We did a run through and I made it through with one fall (I got up and tried to catch up to the music per instructions). Yesterday's freestyle session involved me getting what I knew as smooth as possible so I'm glad that parts of this are decent. Overall, it's pretty sloppy but it will get better the more comfortable I get with it. I'm still shooting for an April 13th test date but honestly, I think Christopher will have the final say. If it's still sloppy by April, we may push testing out a month to May. I know I want to test both MIF and Free Skate on the same day. Since test days are always on a Friday, I need to take a day off work and I would rather just take one day off and test both than take two days off to test each separately. Also, my dress still has not arrived yet so that may be a factor as well. I'm starting to think it won't get here in time for April even though I was promised it would. Fingers crossed. This is all so exciting!!! 

Blegh

I dropped in on an early morning freestyle session at my rink this morning. Getting up at 5:00am to skate is no bueno. Skating without a drop of coffee in my system is no bueno-ier.

In a way, it was nice because I had the whole rink to myself for the first 30 minutes or so so I was able to work on my program without feeling self-conscious. Ok, let me state this for the record...the lunge is by far my most hated element. It's such an easy skill but I feel super off balance doing one and I can only do it on my good leg as I'm still having stiffness/mobility issues with my left ankle. I hate the lunge and, after this test is over, I hope to never have to do one again. Die in a fire, lunge. Just die.

Movez - I warmed up with pre-bronze moves. My waltz 8 felt pretty damn good today! I heard rips, guys! I only did a few rounds of waltz 8 and moved on. No spirals today because I was a coward. Hate me later. My crossovers in a figure 8 are doing much better, though. I mostly just worked on speed and trying to get everything to move at the same pace since this was an issue that Christopher pointed out a couple of weeks ago. The swingroll transition is much more deliberate now although I'm sure I need more swing to my roll. Edges were steady. The forward ones still need to be more shallow and slow and the backward ones need a stronger initial push. However, I've discovered an ease to the BI edges that I never had before. Oddly, out of all of the four edges, these feel the most comfortable. Circle 8 is still a work in progress. I'm making it around on the RFO about 50% of the time which is a pretty significant improvement. The RFI/LFI feel great so I didn't spend too much time on them. Where I need to focus my efforts now is the LFO and then eventually putting it all together. Why are inside edges easier for me to do now after getting injured? Before the leg break, I struggled with inside edges. Now, they are cake. Weird. Perimeter Stroking happened right at the beginning of my practice and I tried to keep that waltz count in my head and focus on extension. These felt off perhaps because I was still half asleep. I blame Starbucks for not being open that early. Totally their fault.

Programz - I have all of the moves memorized that he showed me last week but I struggled with putting them all together. I've never learned a program before so I'm not sure if this is normal but I would start the program, get about 15 seconds in and then falter. Per Christopher's suggestion, I tried to just keep going but it really just felt like I was working on one section, pause, then another section, pause, and then another section. I was completely unable to just skate the whole thing. I hope that the more I do it, the more natural it will become. I think it's because I have only ever worked on elements in isolation and never in one complete narrative, so to speak. I'm actually nervous for my lesson tomorrow morning because I'm kind of a mess. I just hope he doesn't get frustrated with me. I'm trying.

Speaking of trying, one of the skate moms who monitors the freestyle sessions has always been great about reminding me that it will all get better. She sees me on the ice working hard and she sees my frustration sometimes when my body just won't cooperate. She never fails to remind me that I'll get there. It makes my heart swell :)

Edit to Add: As of today, I have completed all 13 of my required volunteer hours for RMFSC. I'm done for the rest of the skate year! YASSSSS!!

Channeling my Inner Geisha

Free Skate Choreography Day 1 - OK, now I'm excited! First, Christopher cut the music to fit the 1:40 time limit and he did an absolute amazing job. It's seamless! Second, the choreography is pretty! I think it helps that he is a ballet dancer because the movements are so fluid and elegant (I mean, at least when he does them. We still have to get me to that point!). He paid attention to all the details including how my fingers should look! We got about 2/3 of the choreography complete before time ran out but what he gave me so far looks great! We have a lunge, a waltz jump, two foot spin, a half flip, and connecting steps in between. We still need a salchow, one foot spin, and forward/backward crossovers and somehow we have to fit it into the remaining 30 or so seconds. I asked him to throw a spiral in there too but now I'm thinking it may not all fit within the time parameters. I have a lunge so if we can't fit the spiral in, I'll still meet all of the required elements for the test.

I didn't want to forget anything so as soon as I got home we wrote everything down and, since I can't make it to the rink until later in the week to practice, I've been running the program in my living room (much to the amusement of my cat). Memoirs of a Geisha is one of my favorite novels (and the movie was well done too!). I think I may have to re-read it in order to really get the emotions between Chiyo and the Chairman down pat. I truly feel like I made a good choice with the music selection and I most definitely made a good choice with the selection of a coach. I'm lucky to have Christopher to work with me on everything.

Movez - Before my lesson, I had a good amount of time to warm up which I accomplished by running through the entirety of my moves test, including two passes of dreaded spirals. Everything looks fine, I think. I've been doing a lot of off ice spirals so those have improved in terms of balance but I still need more flexibility. They are "at least hip height" so I will get a pass from the judges but I would love for them to be better. I had some extra time so I threw in some circle 8s. These are hit or miss but at least they are not all miss anymore :)

"Every step I have taken has been to bring myself closer to you"

Valentine's Practice

I really think I'm going to stop coming to APEX for their Wednesday night public sessions. It's just too crowded. I only ended up staying about 30-45 minutes because it was too congested to work on anything meaningfully. Here's what I worked on:

Movez - I worked a bit on edges and waltz eight. Nothing to say about these. They are passable, I think. I did, however, make some good progress on the Circle 8. I was actually able to get around the RFO circle completely without putting a foot down. In fact, I was able to do it 2 or 3 times! It's still not consistent but this is progress! Exciting!

Spinz - Two-foot and one-foot spins are still testable. I think these are fine. I moved on to more advanced spins. I worked a bit on my nemesis, the backspin, and those were quite a disaster as were my sits and camels. I just have no flexibility in my left ankle so the sit spin is barely even a squat right now. Maybe I'll see improvement the more I do them. Let's hope anyway.

Jumpz - Waltz and salchow are still okay. I feel good about incorporating them into a program now. I'm consistently landing them. I just need height. I did some more toe loops so I have something to show Christopher on Saturday. I'm pretty sure they are toe-waltzes but I'm trying. What killed me tonight were the half-flips. It's no longer a fear thing...these HURT! Landing forward on my left toe pick just about killed me. I'm still really sore. Not pleasant. But if he wants me to do one on Saturday, I will just to show him that I've been working on it. But damn...ouch.

Practice and Music Selection

No lesson this week because my coach was performing in a ballet so I had all of the Saturday morning freestyle session to work on things. Basically I ran through all of my requirements for both free skate and MIF. Nothing Earth shattering but I made progress on a couple of things:

Circle 8 - The FI edges are actually okay! I'm making my way around completely without putting my foot down or falling into the circle. The FO edges are still a mess. It just needs time. It's getting there but gosh, it's slow going.

Lunge - I kept falling on these (silly, right?) until a sweet upper-level skater saw me struggling and offered to give me some tips. She was so upbeat and positive and her energy must have rubbed off on me because after her instruction and encouragement I was magically able to do them just fine.

Toe Loop - I promised Christopher that I would work on expanding my jump repertoire so I did some toe loops at the boards and, once I was convinced that it wouldn't hurt, I ventured out into open ice to try a couple. I landed them and it didn't hurt entirely but I'm pretty sure they were cheated. But, you know...bravery happened.

Also, I made a decision on my music and checked with Christopher to make sure he approved it. I'll be skating to The Chairman's Waltz from Memoirs of a Geisha. Onward to Choreography!

A Program?!

My lesson today focused mostly on Pre-Bronze Free Skate test stuff but we started off looking at the circle 8 upon my request. Although I didn't make a ton of progress on it, I did make some and I wanted to make sure I was on the right track with it. Mostly, I am getting around the circle better when I don't switch my arms halfway through. If I stay perfectly still, I can almost make it around. So, we decided that I just won't switch arms then. Get a good push off and then squeeze EVERYTHING  and hold on for dear life until you get back to center. Oddly, the inside edge circles where easier. This move will take time to master so I'm glad we started it now.

Waltz Jump - He made one small correction but overall he thinks it's passable.

Salchow - He was actually very okay with the state of this. He seemed pleased. I made sure to emphasize the check after the three turn and that made all the difference, I think. It was actually one of the better salchows I have done in a while and I'm glad I did it in front of him. Now, to be consistent about it.

Half-Flip - He wants more jumps in my arsenal (trust me, I do too!) so he asked me to do a half-flip. The fear barrier was strong as I'm still pretty hesitant to do any jumps on or off of my left toe pick. We worked it out by the boards and I promised him I would work on it.

Toe Loop - Same issue so we worked it out along the boards and, again, I promised him I would work on it. Scary, though.

Spinz - Two foot spin was slow. I'm not sure I even did the required three rotations. I need to wait more before bringing my arms in. One-foot spin was fine.

Lunge - He could tell I hadn't practiced this and I admitted that I don't spend a lot of time lunging during practice. I managed to do a lunge three turn and then fall over ever so gracefully. This will get worked on.

At the end of our lesson, he let me know of a new change to the USFSA rule book regarding the pre-bronze free skate test. As of November 1, 2017, skaters now have the option to perform their pre-bronze free skate to music (1:40 maximum in length). He said it would be so much more interesting if we did a program so he sent me home to think about music (something maybe slower and flow-y). Geez, that escalated quickly. I wasn't thinking about skating to a program until I got to Bronze. Yikes!