PSA: Hockey Players Not Welcome on Center Ice

For those of you who haven’t really skated before or are new to this like me, PSA center ice is for figure skaters. So, all you hockey players out there...you are not welcome. I haven’t been on the ice for very long and I’m already very annoyed with hockey players. They “ruin” the ice. Speed skating down the ice and stopping and or slamming into the boards is annoyingly frustrating. Just stop. Well, I can’t exactly ask you to stop, it’s open skate. However, I can politely ask you to get off of center ice!

There is a reason center ice is “reserved” for figure skaters. Clean ice is needed for jumps, spins, etc. It’s a lot more difficult to glide when the ice is torn up. Plus, it’s also super annoying to come out of a spin and almost get knocked down by a hockey skater zooming through the middle.

So, yes I understand it’s public ice time. I know many advanced skaters don’t even bother with that as practice time. But yesterday the rink was empty. There were no more than 10 people on the ice at a time. I think the hockey players can do their thing on the rest of the ice, a good 75%. Another PSA? Get your puck and stick off of open skate, they aren’t allowed and for good reason. It’s not safe! I don’t want to attempt a jump thinking that a puck could end up under my landing foot.

In other news, sharing center rink with a three year old yesterday was cute and very interesting. She got on to the ice for short periods of time (without any supervision by the way) and would come in to practice. Here’s the deal people. She is at a higher level than me. A three year old. It was cute, she’s an adorable little girl, but I couldn’t help but think how far I’d gotten if I had started at a younger age. Sure, this is a great endeavor for me as an adult, but I could have competed. I know that I have this in me. It’s just difficult to skate around with a three year old skating circles around me.

Lost Count Of The Falls .... Another 3 Hour Day On The Ice

Not sure when I’m going to learn my lesson, 3 hours on the ice is not for me! Or perhaps another way to look at it, I’m not sure when my body is going to get used to being on the ice for 3 hours. I lost count of the number of falls today, but after I hit five in a row practice should have been “cancelled” aka I should have gotten off the ice. But then, people started leaving, two by two, and soon enough I had the ice to myself and I couldn’t get myself off. Thank God for my knee pads, too bad I don’t yet have hip pads because I took a really hard hit today. Two and a half hours in my body was starting to feel sore so I began to take it easy.

Soon enough, I got right back to work. I wanted to try a new move on my own, the lunge, and since it’s so close to the ground I figured it wouldn’t hurt as bad if I fell. That’s true, however it gets old when you fall over and over and over again. I’m not even sure if I was doing it right, but it was fun! I literally can’t wait to get on the ice again with my coaches. I have a good handle on what they’ve already showed me, except for the crossovers. But if I spend one more lesson working on those darn crossovers I might hurt someone. I’ve been working hard on them during open skate, but my heart rate literally goes up whenever I start doing them. Not the problem, I just want to be comfortable with them so I don’t have to spend valuable practice time working on them. I want to learn new skills so I have more to practice during open skate!

Obsession

So, some people are already calling me obsessed… meh. I am and don’t feel any shame. I was on the ice 4 times this week, Wednesday-Saturday! This time was very productive, because now I’ve got more structure to my practices. I wrote down exactly what I worked on with my coach so now I’m not just skating around without order and things to work on. So, every time I’ve gotten on the ice I start with stroking and crossovers, then continue on with the list. Speaking of writing things down, I finally started a skating journal! It seems like on every other adult skating blog they stress the importance of having a notebook to write things down after practice. I have already re-copied my first private lesson session and began writing down the hours I’ve put on these newly sharpened skates. I apparently need to sharpen them for every 40 hours that I am on the ice. So here begins the count. I’m hoping that I just don’t need to re-sharpen them! I want new skates!! My ankles and knees are hurting from the lack of support in the boots. I bet you can guess what I’m using my tax refund on this year.

Why Now?

I like to talk about my skating experiences. I mean clearly, I started a blog and post everyday that I skate. So, I started blogging for a few reasons: I wanted to track my progress, I wanted to share my experiences with other first time adult skaters, and I needed to get it out of my system because I couldn’t stop talking about it and I’m pretty sure my friends were sick of hearing about it.

So since I happen to bring up skating to almost every person I see, I noticed that I always get the same question, why now? Like I said in a previous post, this is been something that I’ve wanted since I was young. Watching the winter olympics growing up really led to this dream of becoming a figure skater. It was out of my reach and it was way to expensive to pursue. It’s more than just a childhood dream though and that’s something I have trouble explaining to people. I’m just a person that needs to be challenged.

Throughout the years I’ve always tackled different projects during school breaks, planning events, designing collections (clothing), and painting just to name a few. So, this skating thing isn’t all that different. It’s basically a continuation of my pursuits on a larger scale, because my break is no longer just a week, I’m done with school!

I’m an obsessive/passionate person in my nature so throughout life I’ve always given 100% to everything that I’ve pursued. Any person who is close to me knows that, because it’s the same in my relationships. This skating thing, I’m giving it my all. It challenges me physically and motivates me to make healthier choices. I’m doing this as an adult because I wanted it as a child but even more because I need a challenge in my life. And I’m loving that I’m falling in love with it.

Competition?

I think about skating all the time now, like all day and night. I dream about being on the ice. Last night I just kept tossing and turning and while doing so all I could think about were the steps to a certain move.

So during my prep I figured, why not text the coach to set up another lesson in a couple weeks? Sure enough, it’s happening. Again. My second private lesson on the ice is in 13 days. Yeah, watch me count down, it’s going to happen.

Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey coach, can I set up another private lesson in a couple weeks? Same time and place.

Coach T:Yeah, of course!

Me: That’s perfect, thank you! I just took the day off work #priorities

Coach T: No problem, I like how committed you are, we can start getting you ready to compete.

WHHHAAATTTT? I’m sorry, how in the world am I going to start competing? Sure I’ve been playing with the thought. At first this was a two years in the future thought, but as I’ve been skating it’s been brought down to one year in the future. Apparently it’s happening and way sooner than I thought. I’m so excited!

I Need New Skates!!

It has become more apparent to me with every skating session that I need new skates. My recreational skates do not have good toe picks and the blades just don’t assist in spinning. I came off the ice yesterday with deep indents in my lower calf and pain in my knees and ankles from the lack of support in the boots.

Before learning to skate I had no idea there were different skates for different levels of skaters...and I had no idea how expensive they were! An “okay” beginner pair runs about $140 and a decent beginner pair is closer to $200. Nice skates for the mid-advanced skater run about $500-$2000, bet you didn’t see that one coming! I’ve dropped more than $70 in these last two days alone between paying for part of my L2S class, a private lesson, open skate, and my first sharpening. For skaters, this probably seems cheap, but for a beginner with an entry level job it’s a lot to drop in two days.

So naturally I’ve decided to pick up a part-time (temporary) job to cover the costs of skating. I’ve caught up to women in my L2S class who have been in it for 4 sessions (6 months). I’ve been able to do this because I’ve put in the extra time and effort on and off the ice. In order to continue doing so at an even faster pace I need the extra money to handle more classes, buy new skates, private lessons/ice time, and to join the skate club at my rink.

I’m coming at this skating thing with full speed!

__

So my coach just sent me a list of skates that I should consider buying for my level, they are way more expensive than I thought they would be. Any skaters out there have suggestions about models and or brands?

Riedell-
Motion 255 $315
Edge 229 $269
Flair 910 $410

**Shout out to my friend Rachel (changed for anonymity) who helped me come up with a clever name for this blog! Figuring (figure) Skating Out & Breaking the Ice **

First Private Lesson, Bunny Hops, Waltz Jumps, and More!

Snow Day?

Skating of course!

As soon as I found out I would have the day off I immediately began planning my ice time. Adult open ice begins at 10:30, so naturally I’ll leave my house at 9:30 to have maximum stretch and warm up time. But then, I had a thought. What if I texted Coach T to see if she’s available for a private lesson. I didn’t think it was possible since it was so last second, but I got lucky. So damn lucky.

I headed to the rink even earlier than I had originally planned and got to see some of my coach’s practice, she’s a star on the ice! I warmed up, stretched, and picked up my newly sharpened skates! I thought that skating with newly sharpened skates would go very rye, but it actually went really well.

I am about to tear up just thinking about the progress that I made on the ice today (or perhaps it’s because I’m still in pain). Who knew what an hour one-on-one could do? The best thing about having a coach on the ice with you is to get you to do things that might seem uncomfortable at first. I’ve been on the ice for two months now (exactly) and I’ve already formed bad habits like turning instead of a legitimate stop, “sure it looks pretty on the ice, but it doesn’t mean it’s right”. Having Coach T there today meant business. After she left, I still had two hours of open skate to practice everything we went through, by the last half hour my legs were dying, but I pushed through the pain.

I made it home, got some (healthy) food in me before my workout at Lifetime. I had to push through it, due to the pain, but it was worth it. Afterwards I had my first massage! It went way better than I had expected. I think that it’s going to be habit to get one after my 3hr+ ice days.

There was pain today, I fell multiple times, even brought my coach down with me once...but overall it was worth it. I did a bunny hop without the wall and the waltz with some help from coach. I think I might be able to land the waltz in the next week or two if I skate on my own instead of just for class. I learned the proper way to do a t-stop, two foot turn, and hockey stop. I got a little more comfortable with my crossovers and spins. I think I am going to take some time off soon to get another session in. I know that I say this a lot, but I’ve literally been on the ice for two months and I am already jumping. What???

1. Stroking
2. Crossovers (on the ends)
3. Crossovers over the lines, one on each side
4. Snow plow stop
5. Hockey stop

6. T-Stop
7. Bunny hop
8. Waltz jump
9. Spin, weight on left foot, half pump swivel, bring feet together, arms to the right (bring in for momentum)
10. Swizzles
11. Half pump swizzle one on each side, practiced forward and backward
12. Backwards walking/beg. Stroking
13. Two foot turns on small half circles, make sure both feet are turning parallel, weight on toes of foot when going forward, balls of feet when going backward. Turn stomach.

You Couldn't Wipe The Smile Off My Face If You Tried

Michigan finally decided to man up and dump a large sum of white on us. While this made me pretty happy (early dismissal at school today) it also completely threw off my schedule. I got home from school and began watching Gilmore Girls season 1, before I knew it so much time had passed and I was going to be late for class. I was in my car a half hour before ice time, which clearly was not enough time. I got stuck on the road for an hour! I missed practice time and got right on the ice for class, no time to get used to the ice. To say the least, I got almost nothing done in class. I used 15 minutes to warm up on the ice, for the next 10 minutes I worked with a younger coach on my crossovers and finally began the bunny hop on the ice. Very basic, but fun. I have some work to do, that’s for sure!

It’s interesting that in these last couple weeks the things and conversations that have occurred off the ice have been more motivating than my ice time. After class my coach went over a couple more stretches with me and then we walked over to the rink store to check out some skates, none of which were “to my potential level”. I need new skates, desperately...and I probably can’t drop the cash for another month or so. I know it will be worth it though because I’m in this for the long haul. I also left my skates today for their first sharpening, getting on the ice afterwards is going to be miserable.

When I got home the big news came! No work tomorrow due to inclement weather, for me of course, this is an excuse to drive to the rink for some much needed ice time. I could have made so much progress had I gotten on the ice before class today. Lesson learned, I cannot skate once a week at class, I need more ice time! I texted Coach T when I found out work was cancelled to see if I could get in for my first private lesson. I honestly didn’t think it would happen, seeing as I haven’t officially signed up for private lessons and it’s also super last second, but she said she was available! You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face if you tried.

I cannot believe that I have my first private lesson tomorrow. Sure class today was meh, but I’m hoping that my muscles are re-acquainted with the ice so that tomorrow I can rock it and make some progress. No gym for me tonight so that I can rest up, just a hot shower and good nights sleep in my future to get ready.

Sleep & Two-a-Days

I never thought I would actually spend time writing about sleep, but I also didn’t realize how much it would be affected in this process. Simply stated, skating takes it all out of you, it sucks up your energy. Just yesterday I skated for an hour. One hour. I went home, spent some time with my family and got dressed to hit the gym for a two a day (explained later). I never made it to the gym. I hit the sack at 8:15 pm. How do I know exactly when I slept? Well, I woke up to a handful of texts all time stamped around 8:30 that I never saw/responded to. I also have a fitbit that tracks my sleeping patterns. And I never plugged my phone into the charger, a daily routine for me.

When I took classes on Saturday I would often stay for the open skate afterwards, on these days I would go home and rest or nap for hours. If you know me well you know that I have difficulty sleeping during the day. I only nap if my body is 100% exhausted.

I think it’s important to note that I don’t feel exhaustion on the ice. That’s what confuses me about this. Ice time in my mind is glorified, I feel like I’m in my happy place. I smile when I succeed at something that I’ve been working on. It doesn’t hit me until about 10 minutes after I’ve been in my house. Nowadays, I don’t even let myself sit when I get home. I literally have trouble getting up every time. So I figure if I avoid sitting I can make myself a quick/light dinner and head to the gym for the two a day. Rarely the case.

Two-a-days are intense. They are the days when I do two complete (1 hr +)  workouts. I know it sounds crazy, but it makes sense to me. As I’ve mentioned before, I am really committed to my plan and my goals in figure skating. If I am going to start jumping I need to be in good shape. Second, I am paying for a membership at a really nice gym. If I’m paying for it I better be going every day, sometimes twice a day. These two-a-days occur on very specific occasions, they occur on skating days because I can only do a workout after skating (otherwise I’ll be too tired for ice time), and skating is a complete workout in itself. They also occur on friend gym days. Luckily my gym is right next to my place of work, and because I end at 2pm (and literally have nothing else to do until 6) I hit the gym for an hour knowing that I’ll be heading there again at night with my girls. Surely this changes my workout, I usually go hard on my magic machine in the afternoon so that in the evening I can walk on the treadmill while my friends are on the ones next to me (they hate my machine and I hate running on the treadmill, so I take it easy at night).

Two-a-days are my favorite. I feel my best on those days and I sleep really well too. I come home, shower up, and hit the sack. At first I used to wake up feeling sore, but as this goes on it doesn’t feel as bad in the morning, some days I even wake up refreshed.

Diet and Exercise

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I re-started my Lifetime Gym Membership. Figure Skating has become my motivation for the gym. I am also really lucky to have my best friend right by my side, pushing me to do my absolute best.

A few years ago I lost a ton of weight and dropped 3 dress sizes, I was comfortable wearing a bikini on the beach and I felt great. My motivation back then? To impress and feel my best. Unfortunately, in the last couple years I’ve gained the weight back. Between school and work I had little time to exercise and frankly I lost my motivation. As soon as I began skating I knew that if I wanted to get better (and do jumps) I had to get in shape. Slowly I began making changes in my diet and I restarted my gym membership. In the early stages, I had many cheat days: pizza, soda, and chocolate! Who knew I’d join the “chocolate club” as soon as I started to care? I hated chocolate before and now it’s like a delicacy. When I learned the waltz jump I knew that I couldn’t cheat anymore. I didn’t think that I would start jumping on the ice for at least another year so I had time to get in shape, little did I know that it was go time. Things got serious quickly.

I had been doing exercises at home, but I wanted to get on my magic machine [basically what I refer to as an elliptical on steroids (Precor: Adaptive Motion Trainer with Open Stride)]. I call it the magic machine because it’s a cardio workout I can do without feeling like crap, I can get my heart rate up where I need it to be comfortably and for long periods of time for maximum gain. In addition there’s a good amount of resistance that I can add which makes the movements more strenuous. When I am at the gym I usually start out by doing 15 minutes of cardio, as I continue going to the gym this time usually increases in increments of five. After Cardio, I move on to weights. I work on my arms (100 reps total, between 40-50 pounds to start), then my quads (25 reps x 2), abs (100 reps total, 50 at 60 lbs, 50 at home), then I get back to legs (100 reps total on 3 different machines).  If I have extra time I work on my calves and glutes, then to arms again). After weights I head back to cardio on my magic machine, 10 minutes to start, then as I continue going I usually bump up the time in increments of five. Finally, I stretch. Sometimes I’ll throw in a couple 30 second planks and yoga, it really depends on time.

As far as my diet goes, it is really difficult. Like I said, now that I’m in the early stages of jumping I feel like I need to lose weight and get stronger very quickly. I can’t make the jumps I want to be doing...like flips and loops until I lose some weight. This means that soda needs to be completely eliminated from my diet… for good. Soda has been my most difficult challenge in this endeavor. It is like the outlier in my life, I try to eat foods that aren’t processed often, I tend to overcome pain and the common cold using natural remedies like elderberry and essential oils...but then I drink soda? I know it is by far one of the very worst things you can put in your body, I am aware, yet it continues to challenge me.

The diet itself isn’t anything specific, motto “don’t put crap in your body”. I am eating lots of protein, mostly grilled chicken. Less carbs. More vegetables (aka lovely salads). Lucky for me I don’t like cheese very much and I don’t eat red meat more than once every two weeks, so they aren’t really a problem for me. I definately make choices that others might avoid on a diet, such as butter and real sugar. I’d rather have the “real” thing in both cases rather than the processed alternatives.

I don’t eat late at night and I try to have a light dinner (heavier lunch). If I eat most of my protein during lunch I have more energy later in the day and I have time to burn it off while exercising. Lighter dinners are great for nighttime workouts and good sleep. I hate snacking, but sometimes when I am dieting I make myself snack so that my meals are more frequent. I choose to either have yogurt or vegetables (usually carrots & celery).

I’ve posted the specifics of my diet and exercise plan for a few reasons. First and foremost I need it as a reference. In a few months I’ll update it and get to see my progress. Second, those who want to use it as a reference can! I’ve had a lot of success with this plan in the past, I know that it works for my body, hopefully it will for you too - should you choose to take this step.

So Many Disappointments Today….Progress Overall: Exceptional

I am so incredibly excited for class today. It’s the first day of session two and I am crossing my fingers that I’ll have the same coaches as the last make up sessions on Wednesdays. I decided to show up at the rink two hours before my class today. I really didn’t want to be at home, but here’s my thought process… ½ hour to write/watch the actual figure skaters on the ice, ½ hour to warm up, and 15 minutes to get my skates on (I tie and re-tie over and over to get it just right). Nope it still doesn’t add up, I don’t care. I want to be here, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two from watching the skaters and coaches do their thing.

-------

So yesterday’s class didn’t exactly meet my (very high) expectations, but nevertheless I made some progress. My first disappointment was the coaching staff surprise, unfortunately I didn’t have the same coaches as the makeup sessions. Now, we only have one of the figure skating coaches and even she will only be there every other week. The other coach we will have is younger with less experience, my understanding is that she is strictly a learn to skate coach. I will make the best of the time I have with figure skating coach C.

I skated for just over an hour between practice time and class time. I have made leaps of progress with my forward half pump swizzles, now I can do them with confidence and speed (this would not have been possible if I didn’t do open skate for 3 hours on Monday!)There’s another woman in that class whose taken it 4 times already and I’m pretty sure we’ve made the same progress, so that excites me. We took a short break after working on those..this became my second disappointment for the day. We don’t (correction: I don’t) need a break in a half hour class. I want to be learning new exercises so that I can work on them when I go to open skate. During our little break one of the women mentioned that she didn’t know how to fall "correctly" (really now, we are going to spend time on learning to fall?). Well for the record, I have taken several spills and I know how to fall and get back up...not sure if I want to spend class time doing this, disappointment #3.

After our falling lesson we moved on to crossovers. Coach C asked if I was ready to begin these, little did she know I had started “working” on them with Coach T. So I started and didn’t look like a complete embarrassment because it really wasn’t my first time, haha! I didn’t fall in the 5-10 minutes that we worked on these so that was good. Coach C fixed my posture and explained the step by step process. This explanation is exactly the reason I decided to sign up for Wednesday classes as opposed to Saturday classes!

We took another break (arghhhh), disappointment #4. I couldn’t really take it anymore so I scooted myself back a little and just played around, while still making it seem like I was a part of the useless conversation.  Then I mentioned that I wanted to work on my spins so coach suggested we all work on them. I showed her what I had been working on...something that I “figured out” but to my dismay I’ve been doing it all wrong...arghhhh disappointment #5. She showed me how to do it the proper way, gliding in the shape of a six with my weight in my left leg, half swizzle with right leg, keeping the weight on that foot, and spin! Sounds easy enough. Nope. My brain definitely gets it but my body sure doesn’t. Disappointment #6.

Class ended and the other women skated away, but I took the opportunity to ask Coach C a couple things before the Zamboni came out. First I asked her if I could show her the Waltz by the wall that I had been working on. She looked really scared for me at this point, clearly I am way ahead of myself...but jumping excites me and I am going to work on it simultaneously with basic stroking. She made a couple changes to my posture and toe picking foot, then we had to skate off the ice because the Zamboni came on. Once we were off the ice she asked me if I had learned the bunny hop (clearly I was supposed to learn this before the waltz), I hadn’t. So she showed me off the ice what I was supposed to do. Yay! I have something to work on next time I skate on my own!

[Bunny Hop: Scissor right foot (lift, bring forward, bring back, then forward again, small jump - toe pick, land on right foot, glide with the left, repeat.]

After this conversation, one of the practice time coaches came up to me and talked to me more about my waltz (I had asked her a question about it during practice time). The conversation was very helpful and motivating, I had mentioned that I’ve only been on the ice for 2 months and definitely wasn't ready to do the jump without the wall by my side, but she had a lot of faith in me (or at least made it seem that way). She said that she couldn’t believe that I had only been on the ice for that short of a time period and was impressed with my progress.

Though there were many small disappointments today, I still feel like I’ve made a lot of progress in these last couple months. At this point I have mastered my forward swizzle, forward half pump swizzles on both my right and left legs, one foot glides (my left foot is a tad bit weaker but I can still go on one push ½ the width of the rink), and 2 foot turns with a start on both my left and right leg. I hope I can squeeze in an open skate session sometime between today and next Wednesday...if I don’t I am taking a day off next week so that I can do an adult open skate session. #priorities

Welcome to My Figure Skating Blog!

Thanks for taking time out of your day to read about my most recent skating endeavors, have a wonderful day!

If you’ve read any of my status updates on Facebook in the last month or so, you know by now that I’ve started ice skating, crazy right? A 23 year old just getting on the ice for the very first time. I’ve gotten past that now, because after skating daily during my winter break, I found that there are several adult skaters who also recently began their journey, some in their forties, fifties, and even one sixty year old woman who only began skating two years ago.

Though my first day was challenging, I continued to go back for adult free skate and got better day by day. Seeing the older women at the center of the rink practicing their spins and jumps was pretty inspiring. It sparked something in me and I began to question whether it was really possible for me to get that good. Before I got on the ice that very first day, I thought I was way too old to begin skating. That my childhood dream of becoming a figure skater was lost…until I did a simple google search. I found that there were thousands of other adult skaters across the nation who also began skating in their adult life.

After stalking the numerous adult skating blogs, I decided to start one myself. It’s important for me to share my progress and document any tips my coaches give me so that I can remember them all, moving forward. Through this initial process I found that these adult skaters not only skate for fun, they compete and test for different medals! I was stunned, that little spark of interest turned into desire, desire to compete and test as an adult figure skater.

Last Learn to Skate Class (of session 1) & An Incredible New Skill

Wow, today was the last day of learn to skate. I feel like it was definitely worth the money I paid for it. Today as soon as we got to practice there was no “warm up time” we went straight to the circle and began with challenging moves, half-pump swizzle (right and left legs), then one foot glides, and finally crossovers. Coach T came over to help me with those, what a relief! Unfortunately, it didn’t last long. She let me do them on my own….and I took a great big fall. Flat on my face. It didn’t hurt that much, until I got home and saw the bruise, but at this point falling is a learning opportunity for me. I’ve learned how to fall and not completely hurt myself and I’ve learned how to pick myself up and continue doing what I was doing. Now as soon as I did so, my favorite hockey coach told me that the “toe pick” got me. No shiz bro? I know that...thanks for letting everyone else know too.

After our circle exercises we moved on to the normal layout of exercises moving from one end of the rink to the other. We did swizzles, half pump swizzles, one foot glides, and then the awful half pump backwards swizzles. Dun Dun Dunnnn. I am not about that life. So...I moved over to where Coach T was, working with the really beginner group again. It was near the end of class so I asked to work on my spins, thankfully another woman in class was thinking the same thing and came over with me. We attempted on working the spins again, but didn’t get much farther. I understood what I needed to do, but had a difficult time actually doing it. So….Coach T decided it was time to move on….to JUMPING!!! I’m sorry? What’s that you say? Jumping in the first learn to skate session? I didn’t think so either. But apparently we were going to jump! ARGGGHHHH!! Excitement through the roof!

[So, here’s the thing. I’ve been going through this process and it’s been really exciting, motivational, and challenging in so many different capacities. I never thought I’d be doing any jumps in the first year of this, yet alone the first two months! I was shocked, excited, and very nervous!]

Coach T grabbed my hands, explained what I was going to do (very quickly I might add) and had me do exactly what she described. I basically had no time to think. I took a leap of faith (literally) and landed. Sure, most of my success was dependent on the fact that she was basically holding me, but I landed my first jump! After doing it with her, she did the same with the older woman that came with me to practice spins. The best part: there was still a few minutes left of class. So, she showed us how to practice on the wall!

This first jump is called the waltz jump, fairly simple to explain and incredibly difficult for a first time adult skater! You essentially swing your foot back, then swing forward, jump up (turn 180) and land on the opposite foot.

At the end of class I thanked Coach T for everything and asked if she taught private lessons. I’ve considered this a little over the last few weeks, but I thought I would ask just to get it out of the way since I am no longer taking Saturday classes. She said she was fully booked for the upcoming session, perfect for me since I wasn’t going to do it until the following session! Get excited folks, this is getting serious!

Open Skate:

I went to open skate today and spent every minute on the ice working on my spin and the waltz jump by the wall. I was annoyed because I had to keep moving away from the wall for first time skaters, but I had to keep myself grounded. I was a first time skater not too long ago (literally 2 months) so I should give them the space that I also needed at the time.

Learn to Skate Makeup

Class was amazing today. Shocker. I spent most of class just working on a couple skills, but it was incredible because I feel like I’m actually learning the proper way to do things. My coaches are fixing my posture, they tell me where my arms and weight should be and this really makes it easier to learn the skills. My muscles hurt from doing things the “right way” over and over again, but I know I need the basics down before I can successfully move on to bigger and better things. Today I mostly worked on half pump swizzles on the circle, both my right and left legs. My right foot has got it down, but the left foot is much weaker. I was also taught a simple combination, 2 swizzles and then a one foot glide. I was really pleased with this warm up because I was combining skills.  At the end of class, I asked one of the coaches to show me how to do the spin properly, unfortunately I was still unable to get it. I was told initially to split my body in two, upper and lower half, but I think it’s confusing me because I am not able to move both sides at the same time. I’ll work on it and it will come in time. On the plus side, I showed them the turn that I taught myself to do on like day three and they said it was a legitimate move! I am excited by the idea that I am capable of teaching myself how to do certain things on the ice.

Saturday’s: My New Practice Sessions

Today’s class was pretty good, not as great as Wednesday’s session but I don’t think they can be compared at this point. I am basically considering my Saturday class a practice session from now on and my Wednesday's will become my learning classes. I’m pretty good with that setup, plus it means two days on the ice. Perfection. I was on the “advanced” side of class again today which meant...hockey teachers. Although there were several people missing from class today so it wasn’t as bad. Plus Coach T (the one that referred me) came over to help me start doing crossovers. I swear every time my foot crossed over the other, my heart dropped. It was a very uncomfortable experience, but for the first couple rounds most of my weight was on Coach T. Unfortunately she had to leave and I didn’t feel like I could do it on my own so I began doing one foot glides, which I thought would be somewhat helpful because when I am doing crossovers I have to be comfortable with the idea of just one foot being on the ice at a time.

In the last five minutes of class I ditched Mr. Hockey coach and headed back to Coach T. I wanted to learn how to do a proper spin! I asked and she showed me how. I’m pretty sure I fell three times in the 5 minutes. I wasn’t really sure how it worked, she kept showing me but I wasn’t exactly getting it. Ultimately my feet were moving before my upper half. Class ended before I knew it, but I was definitely going to work on it during free skate after class.

I cannot wait to be on the ice again this Wednesday with the other coaches. I might actually learn the proper way to do a spin!

Where have I been the last few weeks? … Missing out

OMG. I cannot believe how much I’ve been missing out. I love my Saturday coach, she is the one who referred me after all, but the coaches on Wednesdays have so much more experience. Geeze. I feel like I’ve learned more in that half hour than I have in the last two sessions. The coaches today taught me how to skate as opposed to Saturday when I’m just told how to skate. Big difference. You see the coaches today actually told me what my toes need to be doing when I’m practicing swizzles (I have to squeeze them together to gain speed when I’m pulling my feet back together). I also learned where my weight should be when I am skating backwards, on the balls of my feet. Bits of information like this has  truly transformed my experience on the ice. Who knew that your toes had to be doing something particular while doing a move? I know I have a lot to learn, but just after this one session I’ve realized that skating is made up of lots of little parts. For example, when doing the one foot glides I need to push off of one foot, tighten my core, and pick up my foot allowing it touch the side of the boot that is still gliding on the ice.

I’m so glad that I am making up another class with these coaches next week and frankly Wednesday evenings work so much better in my schedule than Saturday mornings, so if I am going to start session two I should really consider switching into this class. The other thing that is awesome about this session is that there are fewer skaters, only 4 as compared to the 10 skaters on Saturday. AND no hockey skaters, woot woot! Definitely looking to spend some more time with these coaches!