Pop Pop!

So, my flip jumps just disappeared today! I tried to cram and get them back during the practice before my lesson but it just didn't happen in time. Basically, they didn't disappear so much as they became unrecognizable as flip jumps. What the hell.

When my lesson started, Christopher asked me what I was working on and I confessed that my flip jumps were gone. So, we began with a review of the backspin position for jumps. I'm still having a difficult time crossing my free leg over in my backspin so we worked a bit on that and then moved on to loop jumps. Once all of that review was done, we moved on to actual flip jumps. He reiterated that the flip jump is very much like a loop jump. My brain understands how but my body just doesn't get the connection. My body keeps wanting to force the rotation leading to more rotation than I need resulting in overall panic during the jump. He broke it down for me and had me do just the pick in and draw but instead of the jump, just pop up with my free leg in an "h" position. Once that was performed a few times, he had me do the pop up exercise again but this time tag an actual flip jump on to it right after. So, more of a "pop-pop" with the second pop being the actual jump. This somehow triggered things in my brain/body connection and I was able to do some okay-ish flip jumps later in my practice. Also, remembering to keep my left arm in front helps me to not over-rotate.

We worked a bit on the toe loop-loop combo as well. Mostly working on the timing of the second jump in the combo and getting my free leg to land in front after the toe loop. I'm landing the combo okay enough but I still need to work on getting the technique better so it looks more deliberate. Again, keeping that left arm in front helps a lot.

Overall, it was kind of a rough lesson. It's like he needs to explain something to me 30 different ways in order for it to click. I really wish adult skater brains worked like the brains of some of our younger skaters. All they need is for a coach to explain something to them once and maybe demonstrate it and then they are off doing the thing. I feel like once you reach a certain age your brain just doesn't talk to your body anymore. That connection is just broken and it takes an extreme effort to learn a skill and actually have it translate into motion. #AdultSkaterProblems

And because I can't resist including a Community reference:

Progress?

I forgot to post on Monday so I'll just do an update about the whole week.

Practicez - I've been working a lot on getting the step sequence more smooth and I think it's pretty okay now. It could still use some work but the twizzle is less terrifying and the toe steps are making it around. Another thing that has been giving me grief is the BO power 3 turn into the loop jump. I think I panic about the upcoming 3 turn and that messes up the whole entrance. When I do the 3 turn well, the whole thing is lovely but I'm about 50/50 on it right now. Finally, I've been working on the camel combo. It's good about 30% of the time.

Lessonz - Monday's lesson focused on the program and I told him I had a lot of anxiety about the BO 3 turn loop entry so, of course, we worked on it a lot! Since it's still not entirely consistent, he agreed that I can just do a regular backward entry into the loop jump but still try to shoot for getting the fancier entrance up to par. That's nice but it feels like cheating. I'll keep working on it some more. He had me run the whole program but without music since he forgot his iPad and we didn't have an adapter to hook my phone into the speaker box. I felt like everyone could hear my scratches. I messed up the camel combo and I was able to save an almost disastrous salchow landing but I finished. Would have been better with the music, though. Oh well. Today's lesson was all about MIF and spins. We worked a bit on my backspin and then moved on to power pulls and backward 3 turns. I dunno...I sometimes feel like I'm not making any progress with Silver Moves. Sigh. Why are these so damn hard?

Conditioningz - I did another of Christopher's strength and conditioning classes and, just like last time, it kicked my ass. I know I must have abs under my fat because I think they are sore, lol.

I'm stoning my dress tomorrow. Wish me luck :)

EPIC Skate

Some of my Unicorn Tribe skate buddies were in town from Wyoming this weekend and I got to skate with them today at a rink I've never been to. The Edora Pool and Ice Center (EPIC) is up in Fort Collins and it's a nice facility with very friendly staff. The ice could have been zam'd before my session but I think they were a bit short staffed. Otherwise it was lovely there. 10/10 would skate again!

I got there before the other unicorns so I was done with my warm up by the time they got on the ice. I wanted to take a picture of the rink because there was this really pretty layer of fog on the rink. I never get to skate in fog but I had the ice to myself for the first 5-10 minutes and it was quiet and foggy and absolutely serene. Once they got on the ice, I had some time to catch up on how they are doing. I haven't seen them since CSI back in September so it was nice to chat for a bit. I really do love the adult skating community. It's so supportive and everyone is so encouraging. It's really the best, honestly.

My practice went well. I spent a lot of time working on various chunks of the program to try to clean them up a bit. I feel like I made some progress on the step sequence as well as the tricky loop entrance with the amended choreography that blew my brain up yesterday. Spins were meh. I only had one camel change-foot backspin that felt good and had the required rotations. Everything else was mediocre at best.

Since my schedule at work might be changing back to 40 hour/week full time again starting in August, it's nice to know that I can add a Saturday freestyle session at EPIC if I need to. Unlike my home rink, I don't have to buy ice time directly from a coach. I can just drop in. It's nice to have options even if it is a bit of a drive.

Swatting Flies

Lesson today. It was one of those lessons where I just couldn't do anything right. So yeah, props to my coach for having insane patience with me and my brain farts!

We worked a bit on the camel spin to try to get it a little less wonky. I need to remember to go into it already bent at the waist so that it's not so much of a chore to get into position once I begin the spin. Another thing he commented on was my left arm on the entry. I need to lead with that arm instead of swinging it back to force the camel. He said it looked like I was swatting flies, lol. Finally, he wants me to pay more attention to my free foot. Make sure it doesn't point down. Instead, open my hips a bit more and have a lovely turnout with a pointed toe. Ugh, so much to remember to do!

We also took a look at getting to the loop jump from the salchow. He changed my steps a bit to get me farther down the rink and it absolutely ruined my brain. I had finally built up some muscle memory with the initial choreography and my brain just could not function with the changes. They weren't even dramatic changes but I was just having a difficult time undoing it just to re-do it differently. Adult brains are dumb sometimes. I got it now but man, I'm surprised he kept it together dealing with me. Most patient man alive.

Choreography Complete!

It's done! I have a fully choreographed program! Woooo!

Lessonz - In my practice before the lesson, I worked a lot on the step sequence to try to get better flow but the twizzle and the toe steps were literally tripping me up so when it was time for my lesson, that's what we started with. Basically, he had me do a bajillion toe steps. It's really just a matter of doing it and doing it often to really just get it. We worked a bit on the twizzle as well since I keep forcing it into a spin. I really need to slow it down and trust the turns. I ran the program so he could see how to get me to the final spin after the final loop jump. So, I step forward from the jump landing, do a pretty lunge, do a pretty glide with arms, wind up for the spin (a forward scratch spin), and do a back pivot into final arms and pose. I'm just so damn happy it's complete. Now I can really work on it without having to guess what's next. He also reminded me not to look down throughout the sequence. It doesn't look nice. Trust my skills.

Dressz - The crystals came in and I was so excited to get started with the stoning except...the place I ordered my stones from shorted me a bit. Their customer service was great and they are sending the remaining stones but that puts off stoning the dress for another week. With the stones I do have, I was able to lay out the patterns I want so I could see what it will look like. Ugh...it's going to be pretty, guys. So.freaking.pretty!

Boardz - Well, here's a new development! I got an email on Thursday from the President of our club asking me if I would consider serving on the RMFSC Board of Directors! They would like to expand and diversify their board and she thought having an adult skater's perspective would be an asset. I agreed and I attended my first meeting this evening. I am also now the Fundraising Chair. All of this happened so fast! But I'm seriously excited to be a voice for the adult skaters in our club and serve an organization that I truly love and believe in. I'm on the board!

Tricky tricks

Today happened in two parts - My practice/lesson and the Strength & Conditioning class I took from Christopher afterwards.

Lessonz - My practice before my lesson was nothing special so I'll skip ahead to the lesson. We ran through the program to see what I have so far and then we moved on to choreographing the final jump (we'll leave the final spin for our next lesson). I knew I wanted to put a loop in as my fourth and final jump but I wasn't anticipating Christopher making the entry so damn difficult! Remember those backward power 3 turns from a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, those came into play today (good thing I have been sorta practicing them!). So, coming out of the salchow, I do some cross strokes and forward 3 turns to get to the other end of the rink and then... a mohawk - RBO power 3 turn - loop jump. Yeah. Tricky! I actually surprised myself and was able to do it but very slowly for now. Later in my practice after the lesson I did a bunch that had a bit more speed but man, so challenging! If I can pull it off during competition, I think it might be impressive but there is a lot more work to be done until then. We also cleaned up some other areas in the program where the transitions were a bit sloppy. When I exit the backspin, I should be facing the far away scoreboard, step forward, cross stroke, step forward, mini spread eagle and continue on with the step sequence from there. I was having a hard time getting from the backspin exit to the "mini eagle" (that's what I'll call it now) so this fixes that and makes the flow much nicer. He had a lesson with another student right after me so I asked him if he could just hit play on my music before he started with her so I could run it one more time. Ugh, it was bad. I'm having a hard time with the timing. It will get there, though.

Strength & Conditioningz - Right after my session, I had enough time to get my skates off and run up to the promenade above the blue rink for Christopher's off-ice class. I was told to bring a theraband, a yoga mat, and some hand held weights (which I didn't bring because weights are impossible to find these days). This class kicked my ass a bit. It was me and two other young ladies (emphasis on "young") but I feel like I held my own. It was tough and I know I'll be sore tomorrow but, like all of Christopher's off-ice classes, they are well done and I always feel stronger for having done it. Since my schedule at work changes every other week, I will only be able to go every other Wednesday.

Jumpin'

Today was the first practice in a while where my leg didn't hurt as much! It still hurts but it's not nearly as bad as it has been. I was able to jump full out today!

Lessonz - Christopher caught me working on the opening jump combo from my program (the toe loop-loop) so that's what we started with. We worked a bit on taking the time to feel the glide through for the toe loop and then taking my time again to get the loop just right (land the toe loop with left leg crossed in front and right arm back). Moving on, we started work on the salchow and loop jumps. He actually said my salchow looks better than my loop jump which was surprising to hear since I always feel like my loop jump is my strongest jump. However, I have been spending a lot of time in practices slowing my salchows down to make them less spinny so maybe they are shaping up after all! We did some flip jumps and some flip-toe loop combos before calling it a day.

Overall, it was a great lesson and I didn't fall on any of the jumps. I need to be more mindful about speeding up my approaches but taking my time in between jumps on the combos. Also, when I focus on my arms and where I'm looking before the jump takeoff, things improve dramatically.

For Wednesday, I asked him if he could take a look at the exit for my backspin since I really don't feel the power coming out of it. He also invited me to his "Power & Strength" off-ice class right after my session on Wednesday. I'll be exhausted on Wednesday for sure!

Dressz - I'm going to stone my own dress again! I have a beautiful black over nude lace dress from Brad Griffies that is begging to get sparkled! So last night after doing some math, I ordered 5 gross of the 30ss Jet Hematite Swarovski stones. I went back through this blog and remembered that I told future Mandi to stone the dress in one sitting so that's what I'll do as soon as the stones come in. I'm excited to get my sparkle on!

Choreography: Days 2 and 3

I didn't post about my last lesson on Wednesday so today's post will combine the two. The choreography is mostly done now! We have about 20 seconds left that will include one more jump and one more spin but so far we have:

• Intro with an Ina Bauer, a back pivot, and pretty arms
• Step forward into crossovers to an attitude spiral that sets up my opening jump combo
• Toe loop-loop combo
• Step forward into crossovers to another Ina with arms
• Step forward into an LFO spiral
• Flip jump
• Push under and setup into Camel-change foot backspin
• Exit spin directly into step sequence that includes mini spread eagle, toe steps, pseudo fan spiral, twizzles, and backward cross strokes
• Power 3 turn into back crossovers with pretty arms into a single salchow

That's all we have for now. We still have a loop jump and a final spin (TBD) left to go. Everything in this program pushes me in terms of skills. It's a nice challenge. 

We've run it a few times and Christopher mentioned that this program suits me. I agree. Even though I'm struggling with getting some of these skills consistent, I feel good skating to this music. I feel vulnerable emotionally and I hope that it comes through in my expression. 

One thing has been giving me grief, though. My left leg has been killing me! I've been taking time to rest it but it really hurts. I'm not sure what's going on but I need to figure out a solution. Every jump feels like my leg will fall off or break (or both). Ouch.