Running on Ice

 Lesson today! 

I spoke to Christopher about the challenges I was facing with the toe steps and what I am thinking of doing instead. So I showed him the swing roll into the bracket and he gave me his blessing to keep it as long as I emphasize the change of edge between the outside swing roll into the inside bracket on the same foot. We worked on it for a bit to really slow it down and make sure it's a proper bracket instead of a rocker or 3 turn. The trick is to bring my free leg back in after the swing roll and take a second to change to the inside edge. An extension after the bracket looks nice too so I'll do that. 

We took a moment to look at the new jump combo and I told him that I'm not punking out on it and that I'm committed to challenging myself with this by officially putting it in my program. We stated by looking at an Euler-Salchow and then we added the Flip to it. A weird thing happens when I add the Flip - the Euler is under-rotated. Huh. I didn't think this was the case but in super slow-mo video it's clear that I'm under-rotating it by a quarter of a turn. Yikes. I blame anxiety. I'm so anxious about getting it right that I rush through it. If I take my time and make sure to not open up too soon, I can make it work. Also, landing the Euler with my left arm in front helps me to not rush the Salchow. There are so many moving parts to this combo but I think I'm getting the hang of it and can skate it well come competition time. 

He wanted to see the full program, so I got the sash on and got into position. The new step sequence was good and he complimented me on a nice speedy camel but things fell apart during the last 30 seconds (the dreaded last 30 seconds where I have six jumps and a spin and I'm already exhausted). As predicted, I bungled the new jump combo which got me in my head enough to bungle the Flip-Loop and the subsequent final spin. Basically, the last 30 seconds were a shit show. He asked to see the 3 jump combo again and I performed it well. Then he asked to see the final spin which was better too, proving that I'm capable of doing these things. I just need to get out of my head about it all and perform as I've been trained. 

We finished up by looking at the new Free Dance. I spoke to him about my concerns about timing with the spiral and the overall speed of everything so of course he wanted to see it. I put the sash on again and got into position and skated really well, actually. I guess I'm concerned over nothing. In fact, he was happy that I was finally holding the spiral for once. He said it was nice :) Cool. Moving on, he added a little bit more to the choreography. He added only 10 more seconds of choreography but since it takes me so damn long to learn new things, it ate up the remainder of the lesson. So, after the twizzle and backward spiral, I step forward into an inside spread eagle and two alternating half-pivot things, then a big dramatic wind-up move into running. Yeah, running. Ya'll, I've never tried running on my toepicks before. Christopher was shocked that I haven't ever tried it. I told him I didn't want to catch a toepick and he responded with "you can't catch a toepick if you are already running on your toepicks." He's got a point. So I tried it and it's scary but I'll keep it. So, I run on my toepicks for a few steps and then go right into a rocker. 

Overall, a good and productive lesson.

Hybrid Choreography

Practice this week was excellent. I feel like I've made a lot of progress on jumps, spins, and Free Dance choreography but not a lot on the new step sequence choreography for my Free Skate. 

Jumps - I've been working on the Flip-Euler-Salchow combo that Christopher had me try in our last lesson. It's not beautiful yet but I'm more comfortable with it. In fact, I think I got it to the point where I can put it my program and not have it be a total disaster so I changed my PPC for Cup of Colorado to add it in. Fingers crossed I don't mess it up. In my program run throughs, my muscle memory is so strong with the original 3-jump combo that I end up bungling the whole thing. However, when I'm intentional about it and remember that there is a change there, it works. The Flip-Loop combo at the end was nice and strong too. Also, my Flips in general have been pretty fantastic and, now that I can do them with proper technique, they are quickly becoming my second most favorite jump (my first love will always be Loop jump!). I had one Flip today that was so lofty! It just felt so damn good. Maybe someday, my Lutz will feel like that too. One can dream. 

Spins - Spins have been kind to me in practices. I am pleased with them. 

Free Dance - I'm getting better at skating this with speed. The music is so fast and I really need to meet my musical cues for max effect but I feel like I'm slowing everything down when I get to the catch-foot spiral. I'm counting in my head at least four seconds but it somehow feels like I need to rush it because four beats of the music is faster than four seconds (if that makes any sense). I have to consciously tell myself to hold the damn spiral twice as long as I think I need to. But anyway, the spiral is nice so maybe it's good to hold it. 

New Free Skate Step Sequence Choreography - Ugh. That pretty much sums it up. I have really tried with these toe steps but when I do them, I almost come to a full stop since I hesitate so hard. So, on Sunday, I spent way too much time figuring out what I can replace it with instead. I came up with a sort of hybrid between what Christopher gave me and what I am capable of doing but is still challenging. I basically took the toe steps out and replaced them with a RFO swing roll, change edge, RFI bracket. We'll see what he says about it. I'm not giving up on the toe steps as I still have them in my new Free Dance but they somehow feel more comfortable there than here.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

 Lesson today! I told Christopher that I registered for Cup of Colorado and wanted to pick his brain about spin and jump changes. 

Spins - I told him that I wanted to do a Camel-Scratch combo for my first spin and an Attitude spin for my final spin. He asked to see both and I performed them well enough that he didn't ask to see more, he just gave his blessing for the change. Yay!

Jumps - I told him I wanted to switch my 3-jump combo to a Flip-Loop-Toe Loop since my Flip-Loop was pretty strong. That backfired! He suggested changing my last combo to a Flip-Loop (yay!) but then that puts me over my Loop jump quota so he wants me to do a Flip-Euler-Salchow for my 3-jump combo. NOOOOO! I hate the Euler! Even when it's done correctly, it's one of those jumps that just looks like a mistake. It's a "Wrong Loop." Ugh. But he wanted me to try it so I did. Most of my problem is I can't not think of a Loop while doing it so I end up landing it like a Loop. When I make a conscious effort to land on the left leg instead of the right, it works. But damn, I shouldn't have to think that hard on this jump. It just feels so unnatural. I promised him I would work on it as a potential combo. 

Footwork - He asked to see my Choreographic Step Sequence so I reeled it off for him. It was nice but he wants to change it to add some more difficulty. The beginning of the step sequence is admittedly sort of boring with just a couple of back crossovers and some pretty arms so he added some elements to the beginning part only. When I exit my Camel combo, I push under, do some clockwise toe steps, one back crossover with pretty arms, step forward into a Waltz 3, step forward again into a short Attitude glide, then pick up my choreography from the Ina Bauer and continue as usual. All of this stuff fits into the space that the previous two back crossovers were so it's...a lot in a short amount of time. It's not un-doable, I just have to rewire my brain to do the new stuff since I've been doing it the same way for the past year. 

After all of this, we didn't have time to run the program with the changes or work on new choreography for the Free Dance. This was enough. I have a lot of homework to do!

Feeling Strong

Practice this week was lovely! I had some really nice run throughs of my Silver Free Skate that left me feeling pretty confident that I won't embarrass myself come competition time. 

Jumps - I've been playing around with my 3-jump combo in my free skate. It's a Flip-Toe Loop-Loop but I have discovered that if I switch the last two jumps, the whole combo is more consistent. I'll run it by Christopher next time I see him. 

Spirals - I have never done so many forward catch foot spirals in my life! I've been scared of them but working on them so much has lessened the fear. I'm better able to get into them quickly without hesitation and the increased confidence has allowed me to really try to stretch up into them making them as pretty as the backward catch foot spirals I've been doing. 

New Free Dance Choreography - I've got it under control and am excited for Christopher to add on to it. 

Gold Moves - About where I left them. 

Spins - Spins have been great this week! I feel like when my spins are on, they are pretty nice but the consistency still needs work. I still have days where I just can't get any spins to work. Luckily, I have more days where they do.

More Choreography!

I did a double session this afternoon because I didn't get my typical Sunday practice in due to the Ice Dance Clinic. I'm just not built for double sessions. So tired. Oh, and I was at the Pilates Studio this morning too so, yeah. Dying. 

Nothing remarkable to report for the one hour of practice before my lesson session except that I lost all ability to spin. That's frustrating. 

Lesson - I was first lesson but I had been skating for an hour already so I didn't mind. I was plenty warmed up. He asked straight away how the new intro choreography looks and I told him truthfully that it's getting done but I feel so awkward. Nothing is muscle memory yet so my brain is working hard to try to remember musical cues and directions and stuff. I showed him what I had and he seemed okay with it enough to add on to it. So, after the intro, I do some back crossovers to gather speed for my first element which is the Short Edge Element. During our last lesson, he mentioned putting in the backward catch foot spiral but it seems this week he has other plans. Looks like I'm doing a LFO catch foot spiral. I've been working on these in practices, of course, but on my own terms and at my own speed. Now that I'll be doing it to music, I can't hesitate going into it or slow it down like I've been doing. I really have to go in with some speed and make sure I get on the outside edge (I've just been doing them on a flat). Then I go into a cross stroke with sassy arms, an Ina into a swing roll then a lunge into a LFO twizzle. We literally spent the entirety of our lesson on just this since it takes me so long to grasp choreography. However, I really like what we have so far. It's fun!

Ice Dance Clinic Recap

Today was the Ice Dance Clinic hosted by my club and it was a good time. I learned a lot, got to meet Keiffer Hubbell, and got lifted!

Effort vs Ease - We started with a discussion on effort vs. ease. Every element we do in skating must have a balance of both of these things. Too much effort results in tension (which can lead to injury) and too much ease doesn't engage the core enough to perform the element properly. I know this but having it phrased this way is something I'll remember and keep in the back of my mind when I work on the trickier elements like Double 3s or Brackets. Twizzles too!

Interpretive Choreography - Expression and how you interpret the music is huge in ice dance so we worked on exercises to help us really engage with the music. They were animal themed and the first exercise was to watch the Hummingbird Dance from So You Think You Can Dance (one of my favorites!). There are so many ways to interpret being a flower or being a bird that go beyond the typical movements. We were given some time to work on choreographing ourselves to music to tell a story. In this case, we are a hummingbird who wakes up hungry, finds the nearest flower to get a drink of nectar, but then gets chased by bears for some reason (kids came up with the story, not me). The final part of the story is the joy of freedom from finally escaping. After about 10 minutes, they asked for volunteers to skate their piece. I raised my hand knowing that they never call on the adults to do these things but...they picked me! I think this was the most expressive I've ever skated AND later when we were having lunch, Keiffer told me he was really impressed with my solo. Yay!!!!

Yoga - We did an hour of Yoga before lunch. 

Lunch - As per usual when we have a special guest, they end up sitting at the adult table during lunch. I can't blame them, kids can be a lot sometimes and it's nice to eat with people your own age. Lucky us because we got to ask him all kinds of questions. He was intrigued by our Alpha Unicorn Tau jackets so I made him an honorary unicorn and gave him a, AUT sticker. Welcome to the herd, Keiffer!

Off Ice Spins and Lifts - We met off ice after lunch to talk about dance lifts. He taught us two lifts that he was going to put us in. The first one is an inverted lift and the second one is a cantilever lift. He showed each of us how to get into the lifts and we each had a turn getting into the lift with him on solid ground before we took it to the ice. It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be. 

On Ice Spins and Twizzles - We spent some time on ice working on twizzles with Brad and Spins with Keiffer and Brad. Let me tell you, partner spins are really weird and tricky. I was paired off with my friend Ruth and we struggled so hard hooking into the spin. My main problem is, as always, I'm impatient and if one person does something wrong, the whole spin goes to hell. I didn't stay in the entry edge long enough before the spin therefore, we weren't able to get it to work. Alas. 

On Ice Lifts! - I was slightly nervous about this but he's a champion ice dancer so, I trust him. He didn't drop me and I had a lot of fun. Here are pictures of me in both lifts. 

Super fun day and I'm very appreciative to my club for hosting this!

 

Break-aversary!

Six years ago, I broke my left ankle and fibula and thought for sure I was done with skating. Here I am six years later just having competed in my first U.S. Figure Skating Adult Nationals and getting ready to test Silver Free Skate and working on Gold Moves. I've come a long way and what better way to celebrate than to get on the ice!

I was at the Y today and it was really busy since a lot of local rinks are closed for the holiday weekend but I was still able to get some meaningful work done. Of course I worked on jumps, spins, and Gold Moves but I spent the majority of my time working on the new Free Dance choreography that Christopher gave me during my last lesson. It's just 20-30 seconds of the intro but it's tricky. It took me a few minutes to get my brain right on this but eventually I was able to complete it and even get it quicker. I really love it and it works better with expression so I think this will force me to be more expressive during my practices rather then just when it counts on competition day. 

Cup of Colorado - I just registered for my first competition of the new season. Usually, I start my season off with CSI in September but since I already have a well-established program, there's no reason not to start sooner. I've never done Cup of Colorado so I'm excited to see what kind of vibe it is. It's happening from August 18-20 so I still have time to polish my Silver Free Skate and get that Flip jump under better control. I have some video of my practice today and I did a single Flip and a Flip-Loop combo. Watching the video back, it looks like the launch is more powerful (which I can feel!) but it would look nicer to have less of an open position in the air. I definitely have that "h" position but in all of the videos I see of a nice Flip jump, the ankles are pretty close together even on a single. So maybe this is something I can talk to Christopher about. I mean, it's still a Flip jump but can I get it even better?