Getting a Lift from Brandon Frazier

Our club invited members to take part in an all day clinic with Brad Kleffman and Brandon Frazier. Brad is a local coach and good friends with Brandon so I guess that's how this clinic came to be. As soon as I saw Branon Frazier's name I signed myself right up. There was no way in hell I would miss getting to work with an Olympian and World Champion! It was an all day clinic that involved Sports Psychology, Off Ice Jumps, On Ice Jumps, On Ice Spins, Power Hour, and Stretching. This will be a long post. We covered a lot. 

Sports Psychology - We began the day with a discussion about having a growth mindset and what makes a good winner/loser. It was nice to hear Brandon talk about his experiences with winning and losing and how to grow from that. He was also Nathen Chen's roommate at the Beijing Olympics so it was fun hearing about how Nathan handled the pressures and expectations of competing as well. 

Off Ice Jumps - We jumped right into the hard work. We went through some off ice warm up exercises and jump drills. It was good cardio for sure. 

On Ice Warm-ups - My typical warm up....but on steroids. Yikes. This was intense. 

On Ice Jumps - This was about an hour of jumping on ice with some time to practice after while Brandon and Brad were doing privates. All single jumps and combos. I think this is the most I've ever jumped in one session. I'm glad my skates are broken in. 

Lunch with an Olympian! - Out of the 33 participants, only four were adults so Brandon chose to sit at the "Grown-up" table during lunch. This was such an amazing experience being able to just casually ask him questions about his experience at the Olympics and Worlds, how he gets funding, what it's like working with Alexa and how that partnership came about, and his plans for life after skating. He's just a regular guy and was really easy to talk to. Really cool. 

On Ice Spins - Ok, really bad idea to do an hour long spin clinic right after lunch but I didn't barf on the ice (although I had my moments). We worked on everything! Scratch, Camel, and Sit. Then combos. Then change foot spins. I tried a flying camel for the first time too (it was not pretty, lol). They gave us lots of spin drills to try during our practices so I have plenty to work on. Brandon came around and worked with us individually and in groups. 

Power Hour - This is what killed me, I think. This was an hour of nonstop movement. For the first 30 minutes, all of us were stroking along the perimeter while skaters were called upon to do a jump or jump combo. Imagine stroking for an entire 30 minutes nonstop and just as your legs are starting to cramp you are randomly being called on to go out in the middle to perform whatever jump they command you to do. I can't remember what was asked of me but I was called on 3 times and one of them was a Flip-Loop combo. Sloppy, but I got it done. I was right proper exhausted after this session. One little girl asked me halfway through "When is this over?" It was refreshing that the little kids were just as tired as I was. 

Stretching - Lots of off ice stretching at the ballet barre, stretching on the floor with a partner, and splits. As if I wasn't sore enough. 

Autographs and my Moment to Shine - I didn't have anything for him to sign but my good friend and Unicorn Sister, Cheryl, had asked Brandon to put me up in a lift (Thank you Cheryl!). I've never done a pairs lift before so I left it up to him to decide which one to do. He told me how to get into a press lift and up I went! As he's holding me up, he asked if he could press me all the way so I was like Hells Yeah, let's do this! He pressed me all the way up and I lasted a second before I bailed (Alas, I only have a picture of the first part of the lift). This was by far the COOLEST thing that has ever happened to me. I've been lifted by an Olympian!!!!! AHGHGHGHGHG!!!

Step Sequence Done!

Lesson today and we got a bit more done with the Free Skate. It's so close to being done!

First, he wanted to see me skate it with the music to look at the timing of things and see where the choreography needs to go next. When I was done, he told me that there might not be enough time to add in two more jumps, a spin, and the choreographic step sequence. So he wanted to take the transition steps leading into the jump combo and turn that into the step sequence. That's basically what we worked on for the 40 minute lesson. Luckily, I had parts of it already under control from this past week of practicing so he just built off of that. He gave me some tricky moves and basically the whole sequence is pretty challenging. There are Rockers, Ina Bauers, Twizzles, and an almost Hydroblade. Oh! And all of it moves pretty quickly so I'll need to be right on target with the music for max dramatic effect. 

With all of that out of the way, I'll just tag my Flip-Toe Loop-Loop combo onto the end and then I only have 30 seconds left to do another combo (Flip-Toe Loop), a single Salchow, and my final spin. So much is packed into this program. Aghghg!

I asked him my IJS question and he confirmed that yes, I'll probably get 0.00 points for my not-low-enough broken leg spin. Alas. It might be better to stick a camel spin in there and get full points rather than perform the broken leg and get nothing. So, that's what I'll do. I'm not sure what this means for my final spin. I was hoping to do a layback but what if that's the same problem. Ugh...IJS. 

Anyway, things are coming along and I love that I have a bunch of really challenging elements in this program. I'm just nervous about skating Silver. Little fish big pond, you know?

Sticky Sunday Skate

I arrived at the Y today for a two hour session but only stayed for one hour. It was...sticky. All of the hockey glass was fogged over and there was a low layer of fog on the ice. I finished with my 10 minute warm up and I was already damp. It was kind of uncomfortable to stay more than an hour so I got done what I needed to and then left. Gross. 

Free Skate - I worked on the new transition steps into the Flip-Toe Loop-Loop and, once I had that properly warmed up, I ran the whole thing with the music. It went well but I was just slightly ahead of the music and I'm not sure why. Maybe I was rushing and didn't realize? Anyway, besides that, it was an okay run through. I started thinking a lot about the broken leg spin. I know it's not low enough but I've got the speed and rotations. I'm wondering if this would just be negative GOE or if it wouldn't count at all for IJS. I'll ask Christopher about that tomorrow. I'm all for challenging myself and learning new skills but my sits will likely never be low enough due to the metal in my ankle. I don't want to risk leaving points on the table just for the sake of challenging myself. I would rather do a less exciting spin and get points than do an exciting one poorly and get nothing. 

Free Dance - I ran it with the music and it is maintaining. 

I worked on some other elements on their own and dabbled in Moves but I just had to get out of there. It was so...moist :( 

Double Session

 I decided to skate another double session today. I just really wanted the extra hour before my lesson to clean some things up. 

Practice - Nothing extraordinary to report here. I just wanted to run what I have of my new Free Skate so it looks decent when Christopher and I work on it later. I started the program but right after my first jump, I noticed that one of my unicorn sisters took a tumble and hit her head pretty hard. I stopped to check if she was okay. Satisfied that she didn't bust her head open, I restarted my music and tried again. It went well. Opening with a single loop was a good call since I really don't have time for a combo there with the music timing and all. The mohawk entry steps into the Lutz were okay too. Would I like for them to be better? Sure. But it's not a disaster so I'll take it. I worked on some spins and the Loop-Euler Salchow (which has thankfully returned) and I worked on some flip jumps. I spent some time on Gold Moves, reviewed pattern dances, and ran my Solo Free Dance (without the music because I didn't want to be rude by running a second program when other people needed to still run their first). 

Lesson - We started with a look at my backward catch-foot spiral in the Free Dance. I really don't feel like I'm getting to where I need to be quickly enough. Christopher looked at it and made a small adjustment and it seems fine now. At least he didn't seem too concerned. Next up was running the Silver Free Skate to see how it's looking. He seemed okay with what I showed him so we moved on to the next part of the choreography. He would like for me to exit my first spin and transition to the other end of the ice for a jump combo (Flip-Toe Loop-Loop). This transition across the ice is pretty tricky as it has a lot of mohawks, cross strokes, and a rocker! Yay! My first rocker! With everything in place, this puts me at 1 min 30 sec. I think I might have all the choreography done in the next couple of lessons! And then it will be endless run throughs if I plan on having this ready for CSI in September. Worst case scenario, I'll focus on Dance for CSI and then debut the Silver Free Skate at Fright Fest in October. 

Madness and Mayhem

 I was really looking forward to my lesson today but the rink was packed! There were so many skaters on my session that my anxiety levels went sky high. I couldn't focus on anything other than trying not to get run over. It's one thing if I hurt myself but I'll be damned if I let a child with poor situational awareness break my bones for me. Anyway, I did what I could and then told Christopher to go easy on me today due to the madness and mayhem. Sadly, this meant no additional choreography for my Free Skate but we were still able to work on some stuff. 

Gold Moves - We started with Forward Double 3 Turns. While these are looking a smidge better (or at least they feel that way), I'm still off on the timing of things. I'm always turning the second turn too early. He also pointed out that I'm (once again) not looking in the direction of my turn on the backwards 3s. I'm making it unnecessarily harder. Moving on, we looked at the Backward Circle 8 which is still a struggle. Doing this on rough ice on a busy session was not delightful but I tried anyway. My biggest issue, of course, is weak pushes. I'm okay on the edges but it's hard to maintain an edge (or circle shape) when you are going at a snail's pace. Sigh. 

Jumps - I proposed to Christopher my idea of opening the Free Skate with a Loop jump and then moving the combo elsewhere. He was cool with it (yay!) but he wanted to see the combo. I did one that was pretty mediocre. They typically have no speed so he wanted to see another one with more speed throughout. This is when I lost the Euler completely. Like, I just.could.not. Super embarrassing. After several failed attempts we moved on to some Flips and Lutzs. He gave me an alternate entry into the Lutz (mohawk crossover) and that's tricky but puts me on the right edge going into the jump. I'll work on it. Seems fun. 

Dances - Clearly, I wasn't able to do any pattern dances in their entirety but he had me skate the end patterns for all three Bronze dances making sure to bring my feet as close together as I can on the 3 turns and have soft knees throughout. 

Spins - We finished up the lesson with a look at spins. I'm really struggling with getting more rotations on the camel and my sit could be lower. Ugh. 

So yeah. It was a mess of a lesson. I was a mess, the ice was a mess, and there were just too many freaking people on the ice to get any meaningful work done. Oh well, there's always next week. 

Private ice

I skated an afternoon session at APEX today and it was lovely! I had the ice to myself and I took advantage of that by working on both programs. I think I ran each one 5 times! 

Free Dance - This is back to where it was before I got new skates. My only issue now is speed on the backward catch-foot spiral. I'm just not making it as far down the ice as I want to nor am I able to extend upwards on the catch-foot as I know I can. I blame the new blades but I'm not entirely sure why this one thing is an issue. It's weird. I'll just keep doing it and maybe it will get better with time. Other than that, this is ready for competition in September. I'm just in the maintenance phase now. 

Silver Free Skate - I did as much as I have (about 40 seconds worth) but I tried to do it with expression each time. The one thing I've noticed is that there is a timing issue with the first jump combo (Loop-Euler-Salchow). It just works better with the music when I do a single loop jump. I'll talk to Christopher about moving things around. I'm not opposed to doing the combo but maybe we could move it somewhere else in the program. Besides, it would be nice to open the program with my strongest jump. I also worked on the broken leg spin. I took some video of (what I thought) was a really nice one but when I watched it back, it wasn't nearly as low as I thought it was. However, it had the twist and it was nicely centered. I'll keep working on it. 

So I was sweaty and hungry after one full hour of program run throughs but I think things are really starting to look okay. It's paying off, I suppose. 

Battle of the programs

 I skated at the Y and there were just a few of us on the ice - myself, another adult skater working on turns, and a Senior-level ice dancer working on her programs. Me and the ice dancer basically took turns running our programs for the whole one-hour session. We each had two programs to work through so that was a total of four pieces of music that the other adult skater had to listen to over and over again on repeat. Sorry, not sorry. 

Silver Free Skate - Oof, this is hard. I have the timing right on things but the elements are just difficult to get the hang of. But I plowed through and probably ran it 3-4 times. I just wish I had more than the first 40-ish seconds of choreography. 

Free Dance - Same thing, I ran it 3-4 times and it got better each time I did it. This is in good shape. 

So yeah, it was almost an entire session of program run throughs and I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I was done. I haven't been able to attend as many sessions as I want because of scheduling and being an adult but, when I do, I've really been pushing myself to make up for lost time. but on the plus side, my boots are finally feeling natural. The heat molding helped a lot!