Broken leg spinnin'

I was busy again this past week (fun fact: Summertime is the busiest time of the year for librarians!) so I didn't get to practice as much as I wanted to. Because of that, I pulled a double at the rink this past Monday. Skating for two hours straight is no joke, ya'll. I'm tired. 

Lesson - During this two hour session, I had my lesson with Christopher. He took a look at how the Free Skate looks so far and then we had some time to add to it. So, after my opening jump combo (Loop-Euler-Salchow) I do some pretty transitions to get into position for my second jump - a Lutz. I have another transition into my first spin which will be a broken leg spin (fitting since I'll be doing it on my formerly broken leg). I've never tried one before so Christopher walked me through how my arms will stretch out opposite of my "broken leg." It's a really weird feeling and I was a bit dizzy but I know the more I practice it, the better it will become. So yeah, that's all we have so far. It was a short lesson today but I have a lot to work on. 

Busy Week

I haven't updated in a week because I've been bonkers busy but I've been working hard. Here's what I've been up to!

Sunday Sport Stable - They had a two hour session and I stayed for the whole two hours. I was not only exhausted but super hungry by the time I was done. I worked on everything! I especially wanted to work on getting the Euler to happen so I did some Waltz-Euler-Salchow combos and they worked but they were just a bit on the tiny side. I really need to work on power but hey, at least it's a start. I did dances and ran my Free Dance a couple of times as well. 

Monday Lesson - Ok, we officially started choreography for my new Silver Free Skate! I only have the first 40 seconds but it's really pretty! For now, my opening jump combo will be a Loop-Euler-Salchow (which I had not practiced!) and then the second jump will possibly be a single Lutz. The music is really flowey and dreamy so lots of pretty arms and extensions! I've got some work to do this week for sure!

Tuesday Morning Practice - I basically divided the hour in half. The first 30 minutes was for Gold Moves and the next 30 minutes was program practice. I worked on the opening of the Free Skate to get it a bit more smooth and then I focused on the step sequence in my Free Dance to try to get some more confidence. I watched my performance from the exhibition and I noticed a lack of speed and power throughout the step sequence. I think that needs a lot of improvement so I slowed it down and focused on my edges and really tried to get some more consistent flow. 

Skates - I had my final appointment with my fitter to get the blades permanently mounted and to get them heat molded. They feel a lot better! I should be good with these skates for the next couple of years (hopefully). 

Creative Ideations

Lesson today! I'm still sore from yesterday's toepick incident but I feel well enough to do a lesson. 

Spins - We started with spins since I told him about the amazing sit spin I had during practice last week. I was able to do one decent one for him but then he wanted to record it so, of course, everything fell apart. We moved on to camels which were looking better (finally) and then we looked at Laybacks (which haven't been touched in a looong time). Laybacks are actually not too bad so that was a nice surprise. Are they good? Nah. But they don't entirely suck. 

Jumps - Before playing around with jumps, we looked at the requirements for Silver Free Skate. Looks like I need to start really strategizing in order to rack up those points in IJS. Enter the Euler! It's been so long since I've last done one that I remember them as Half-Loops, lol. So we fussed around with those to try to get some some different combos done. They need work for sure but I think I can get them back in a session or two. I did a sloppy Salchow-Loop-Loop combo and some Lutzes that were pretty mediocre. 

Pizzazz - There is a required Choreographic Step Sequence so he brought up several possibilities including twizzles and *drum roll* an Illusion! I've never done one before but after the third or fourth try I was able to get the hang of it. Gotta keep that free leg straight and really reach down toward my feet. Eventually, it'll get there. We also briefly looked at split jumps, although my attempts just looked like stag jumps. Sigh. 

The music is mostly done. He sent me the rough cut but told me he wanted to smooth out some transitions so he warned me not to get too attached. It's beautiful! I'm so excited to skate to it!

The skates felt really good today. Normal, even. I have an appointment soon to get my final mount done and get them heat molded and then I should be good to go!

Hickory DOH'down

There was a two hour freestyle at the Sport Stable and for the first 45 minutes or so I had the ice to myself. I used that time wisely to run through anything with music (basically, all of my Dances and Free Dance). 

Free Dance - This was my first time running this with the music in my new skates. It was rough. I'm not sure if it was rough because it's been a few weeks since I last ran it to music or if it was the new equipment but it was hella gross. I'll just have to build it back up to where it was before the new skates. 

Cha Cha - I ran this a bunch of times since this is one of the two required dances for my level for the 2022-23 season. I haven't officially decided on music yet but I'm leaning toward "It's so nice to have a man around the house" by Della Reese. I really focused on pushing the pattern out to the corners and having more expression. 

Willow Waltz - I ran this with the music as well and surprised myself at how well I did. I didn't think I was ready to run it at tempo with the music but, dammit, I did the thing! Neat. 

Ten Fox - I did not run it with the music but I worked on the pattern, especially the end pattern. 

Hickory Hoedown - I was doing great until...TOEPICK! I did one pattern down the ice with the music and the end pattern was really lovely and then I caught my toepick on the first step of the new pattern. It hurt. A lot. I didn't think different toepicks could have different levels of hurt when you catch them but out of the three blade types I've skated in, this was the worst toepick fall I've ever had. Both knees are bruised as is my elbow and my left hip. Luckily, I was alone on the ice because it was a very dramatic fall. It would have been really embarrassing if anyone had seen it. Ugh, and I was doing so well up until that point. 

I got some water and hung out by the boards for a bit until the pain mostly subsided and then I got right back to work on non-dance things. At this point, other skaters got on the ice so it was a good time to stop working on programs anyway. 

Moves - I spent a lot of time on Brackets and Double 3s. Now that I can do both FO and FI brackets, I went around the hockey circle alternating feet and directions. I also worked on the BO brackets by the boards but wasn't brave enough to try it out on open ice. I did the same thing with the Double 3s, just working on them in the context of the hockey circle. I didn't do any in the pattern because I want to make sure the turns are stable and consistent. 

Jumps - Hey, my jumps are back! I worked on all of them. 

Spins - I'm still struggling with camels and sits so that's what I spent most of my time on.

So yeah, It was a productive practice but I left the ice battered and bruised. I cancelled tomorrow's Pilates session so I can heal a bit and put ice on all of the hurty parts of myself. I feel like I've been hit my a bus. A really large bus. 

Gettin' Low

 Afternoon practice today and I feel like I've turned the corner with these new skates. Things are feeling quite a bit more as they used to. That's a huge relief!

Moves - I made sure to work on everything (except I forgot the backward Double 3s for some reason, damn). Power Circles (aka Power Snails) are oddly better in my bad direction going both forward and backward. Not sure why that is but I was able to do forward and backward snails without bailing but on my good side, I struggled. I'll keep working on it. Backward Circle 8 was still a mess with the inside circles. I'm just having a hard time getting a strong push and then staying true to the inside edge. I did my Forward Double 3s on a hockey circle working both directions. They aren't pretty but considering I haven't been able to work on them at all since getting the new skates, I'll take this as progress. Finally Brackets. A skater friend of mine blew my mind last week when she saw me struggling with these. She took me to the blue line and told me to do a 3 turn and keep it as straight on the line as possible. Then she had me look at the tracing and asked me "if you hadn't known you had just done a 3 turn how do you would know that it wasn't a bracket?" Huh...she had a point. So, those FO Brackets I've been too scared to do away from the boards are really just inside 3 turns on the blue line. Little by little start adding the correct edge to make it a Bracket and over time, you'll have a bracket! It's just a 3 turn with a different edge! So today, I was working on FO Brackets on the blue line and little by little was starting to add the curve to it with the proper entry and exit edge. I was able to do several LFO Brackets this way! Away from the boards! Without Christopher holding my hands! Mind blown!

Jumps - I spent a bit of time working on getting my loop jump back. It still feels unstable on the takeoff edge but it's getting there. I even did the opening jump combo from my old Free Skate program (Salchow-loop-toe loop). 

Spins - My scratch spins are so nice and my camels and sits have improved a bit too. In fact, I did the best sit spin I've ever done! I got that sweet spot right away and because the blades have such a pronounced rocker, I was able to push a bit to get lower than I ever have! Unfortunately, I didn't get it on video but my husband was in the stands and he saw it and can vouch that it was LOW! This is promising!

Free Dance - I couldn't play my music because they were piping in music from the outside and I didn't want to interrupt my practice to get off the ice and tell them to turn it off so I just ran my program without the music. It was okay. 

Bronze Dances - I ran through all of my Bronze Dances (without the music, of course) and these are feeling pretty good. These blades are magic for dance. I feel like I can lean back on some of these backward edges. Cool. 

So yeah, it was a good practice and I'm starting to settle in with these skates. And it's only going to get better. How exciting :) 

First lesson in my new skates!

Today is my first lesson in the new skates. I haven't had a lesson in a couple of weeks because of the holiday but at least I was able to practice a bit and be slightly more confident in these things. 

Equipment Check - Christopher had me do some glides on a line just to make sure the alignment of my blades was okay. Everything looks good here. Next we worked on some stops and then moved on to backward glides where I rise up on my toe picks to get a feel for where the rocker is. It's not as easy to rise up on my toes as it used to be in the old skates (this is a good thing). 

Jumps - We went through my entire repertoire of jumps (but no combos) to see how these are looking. I told him I wasn't able to do a loop from back crossovers so of course he made me do one. I was able to to do it! It wasn't my best but I got it done (I'm always a bit more brave when I've got my coach nearby). My jumps are not as bad as I thought they were. He even said I had nice spring on my waltz jump. 

Spins - Ok, so my scratch spins are lovely in these skates! They are so much faster and centered. However, my camels and sits really are gone. When I get in position, I start rocking trying to find that sweet spot and that usually doesn't end well. I'll get it eventually. We did some backspins and while most were garbage, I had one that had what felt like 5 revs. 

Turns - I told him that my backward 3 turns were gone and he held my hands to try one. Turns out, they are not gone, I'm just in my head about them. I was able to do them without him holding my hands after that. 

Free Dance - I ran my Free Dance without the music and it was okay, except I did a splat on the final knee pose. Figures. 

Silver Free Skate - He cut the music and I think he hates me for it. (JK, he just had a difficult time with it since the phrases are so long). He played it over the speakers and it sounds lovely! We didn't have time to start any kind of choreography on it but I'm sure that will come soon. I'll be skating to one of my most favorite pieces of music in the world: Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. 

Husband Observations - My husband came with me to the rink  to see how the new skates are working out. When I was done, he told me what he thought. First, he mentioned how quiet I was! I was completely silent throughout my warm up so he couldn't hear me at all! No toe scratching! Next, he said that I was fast. I thought that was weird because I was skating very carefully since I'm still a little unsteady in these skates. Imagine how much faster I can be once I'm comfortable with these skates! A friend of mine has the same blades and she refers to them as little "race cars." I believe it! 

I had to reorder new guards from a different website since the ones I ordered back in May still haven't shipped. I'm tired of walking on my toe picks. They should be here by the end of the week. I ordered the Edea guards since those will stretch to fit most blade sizes. I got them in green (Dinah's favorite color 💓). 

First Week Complete

It's been one whole week skating in the new skates and I'm feeling a lot better than I was last Tuesday when I first put them on. Most of my skills are back now so I'm feeling a bit more confident. 

Moves - One of the things that hasn't come back yet are my backward 3 turns and I'm really sad about it. I attempted a couple and felt like I was going to die so I think I'll wait until Christopher can hold my hands or something. It's just unsettling how curvy these blades are on this move and it really does feel like a disaster waiting to happen. On the flip side, my forward three turns are so damn nice and my forward and backward circle 8s are back as well. But my edges are the nicest of all. Like, they are just so pleasant and part of me wants to just skate around the rink doing inside and outside consecutive edges for the whole session. They're satisfying!

Jumps - Earlier in the week, I wasn't able to do much more than some tiny waltz jumps but now I'm jumping everything. However...my best jump is dead. The loop jump was the one jump that I felt like had strength and power and now I'm just unable. I can do a tiny one from a RFI entry but I can't do it at all from back crossovers. Again, the curviness of the blade makes it really difficult to get the deep edge I need to make the jump happen. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this is temporary. I'd be really sad if I lost the best jump I'm able to do. I can even do it in combo with a salchow, but not on it's own. Sigh. 

Spins - I think I've got a handle on the forward scratch spin and I've been able to do them like I used to but once I try any other spin, it's disaster. Camels and sit spins are gone. Backspins are hopeless. They'll get there though. I'll probably get a hang of those before I get my jumps back the way they were. 

Free Dance - I haven't skated it to the music since I switched skates but I've been able to work on sections and, with the exception of the camel spin, all is well. I think I'll try it with the music next time I'm on the ice. 

Pattern Dances - For the 2022-23 competition season, the two Pattern Dances for my level will be Cha Cha and Hickory Hoedown. These are two very fun dances and I'm excited to get these polished up for competition. The last time I competed with the Cha Cha, I didn't place well (to be fair, I was competing against a bunch of senior level skaters but still). I'm determined to do better and part of that is making sure I fill out the whole rink with the pattern. That requires more power than I'm skating it now so I have some work to do. I also need to figure out what I'll skate to. I have Bonnie Raitt's "Something to Talk About" for the HickHoe but I'm undecided about the Cha Cha. All of the songs I really like are wildly out of tempo. I can adjust tempos slightly using Audacity but not that much. I'll have to find something that has a Cha Cha feel and is at least close to the tempo I need. 

Cup of Colorado is coming up in August and I would like to compete in Pattern Dance and Free Dance. I think next season will be the "Season of Dance" for me since I can't imagine getting a Silver Free Skate put together in time.