My test is this Friday and I need some extra time on the ice so I found a freestyle session at the Sport Stable. Initially, I thought I would only be able to make the 4:00pm public session but, as luck would have it, my schedule opened up and I was able to attend the 2:00pm freestyle. Cool!
After my off-ice warm up, I met another adult skater in the lobby who belongs to one of our neighboring clubs (and she recognized me from Sectionals!). It was nice to know that I would be sharing the ice with another adult skater. Can I just say what a rare luxury this is? It was so nice to skate with someone who respects space and is observant of their surroundings. I've been skating with small children for so long that I forgot how much I can accomplish when I don't have to spend most of my time dodging kids who don't look where they are going. Lovely!
Before getting on the ice, though, I was quickly reminded once again why I rarely come here. The ice is dangerous! They didn't seem like they were planning to zam the ice before my session and, when the zamboni guy saw me waiting by the boards to get on the ice, he approached me and said that the zamboni was leaking hydraulic fluid and he can zam the ice if I want but there will be oil on the ice. Ok, so, it's not really a choice then? I either skate on uncut ice or skate on oily ice? I'll take my chance with the torn up ice, thank you. So, yeah, the ice was rough and snowy but it was better than skating on an oil slick. This place is so beyond terrible. Just when I think they can't disappoint me more than they did the last time, they outdo themselves. Bravo!
Anyway, I took this as a challenge. If I can perform my test moves on crap ice, I can certainly do well on test day with decent ice, right? After my on-ice warm up, I started with the Circle 8. As rough as the ice was, I was able to do several rounds that I think would be passable. The ice was so bad that there were a few moments where I barely made it back to center but, I did. Seriously, if I can make this move happen on terrible ice, I'll be fine for the test! I ran through the whole test several times just as I would on test day and everything feels fine. I'm feeling pretty good about possibly passing.
Since the session was nearly two hours, I had plenty of time to work on some other things as well. I did a few complete run throughs of my program and then I did some work on cleaning up sections of the program. I dabbled in some alternating 3 turns on the blue line (the 4th move from the Preliminary mif) and those were pretty terrifying but it's a good exercise to get the feeling of the twist your upper body needs to do to return to the axis. I think this helped my power 3 turns a smidge! I also started work on a couple of the Silver moves, namely the FI-BO 3 turns, forward cross strokes, and consecutive outside spirals (I didn't do the inside spirals). I feel like Silver moves will be the death of me. Sigh.
One thing I did today that was pretty amazing (and I didn't even realize it until I got home) was that I did loop jumps on this ice! The last time I did a loop jump at the Sport Stable, my leg broke in two places but today, I just...did them. I did so many and I didn't even think about what happened last time I did them here! I really feel like that's progress!
But seriously, readers, if you live in the Denver metro area and you are tempted to skate at the Sport Stable for whatever reason, stay away! You'll probably die here (or at the very least break bones). This has been a public service announcement :)
No comments:
Post a Comment