The End of Summer As I Know It

10 weeks of summer contract ice have officially come and gone. I’m so glad to get back to my normal job and have actual money again, but with that I lose my daily skating time. It won’t come as much of a shock to you that I will continue to skate for an average of 10 hours a week. Half of my week's’ ice time will happen on Wednesdays, by winter I will probably be exhausted and irritable, but it will be worth it. That is, until I manage to break myself.

These last two weeks on the ice have been incredible. It seems like my basic skills are improving because my coaches have decided to introduce me to some new skills and speed/power drills. I’ve been introduced to a new dance pattern, the Rhythm Blues, twizzles, back 3’s, a back 3’s pattern (forward crossover, forward outside 3 turn, backward crossover, back 3 - around the circle), brackets, back power pulls, back cross rolls, the half-flip from a mohawk, and “the Jenkin” (a death glide where you do a crossover, hold the cross, bend down to the side, and touch the ice with your fingers).

At every practice in these last two weeks I’ve challenged myself with moves that I am incredibly uncomfortable with. First and foremost, the scratch spin that caused the scar on my forehead. At first I was apprehensive about doing with without my coach, but after a few slow and controlled tries I would give it a rest and resume the next day. With every practice I became more comfortable with the entry. It’s not a full “scratch spin” yet, but I think I’ll have it in a couple weeks. I’ve challenged myself with the brackets and back cross rolls that I could barely do in lesson with my coach. I worked on “the Jenkin” that terrified me on day 1. I had it day 2 of working it (after doing it off-ice several times at home of course). Determined to do things that challenge me? Yes.

Summer is over and I am really pleased with my progress. I am happy to say that I met each of my on ice skating goals. My off-ice goals were not met, those included taking yoga and ballet classes, but I look forward to beginning both of those this fall.

Finally, some new skills!

I’m learning new things!!!! Finally today during my lesson I felt like I couldn’t do the moves my coach wanted me to do, and it felt great! Have you ever been so challenged you were happy? I used to hate working on things I couldn’t do during my lessons, I quickly learned that lessons are for working on new things and challenging yourself. Only not when there’s a test or competition coming up. For the last couple months, my coaches have been working on jumps, spins, and repetitive pre-bronze and bronze moves.

I spend between 3-4 hours on the ice when I have skating days (usually 4 days a week). How on earth am I supposed to enjoy my practices by doing the same moves over and over again? It is torture. But torture no more, in the last two lessons with the amazing Coach T I have been introduced to several new skills and exercises that will definitely be kicking my butt for at least a month.

Coach T is now working with me on speed and power. We spent the first 15 minutes of my lesson on stroking very quickly, using my arms to help push my body forward by swinging them back and forth as I skated. We worked on very quick, short, and choppy crossovers, forward and back. Later in the day I learned that this kind of 3 count crossovers is called Russian stroking. Damn Russians making skating difficult. Next we did chasse’s with speed. Coach T clapped to the beat of my steps and clapped faster and faster as I went on. We did a couple other exercises similar to the ones I described before moving on to some other moves.

My bronze moves are starting to come together, exactly one month after starting them. At every practice we usually focus on one or two of them, today we did the figure 8 edges and forward crossovers to the landing position. In the next 40 minutes we spent a slew of time learning new skills. She had me doing backwards crossovers while attempting to touch the ground as I held the cross (I need this exercise because my hips are super weak). She asked me to do consecutive 3 turns, forward and back, as an introduction to twizzles. I was introduced to backwards cross rolls (aka cross strokes) even though my forward cross rolls are nearly non existent. I learned inside brackets, a new dance - the Rhythm Blues, and all back 3’s.

Talk about an exciting lesson! I don’t think I’ve ever felt the need to be this challenged, but I have been longing for it over the past two months. I thought that summer was going to come and go without acquiring new skills, but alas they are here. The best thing about feeling this challenged is knowing that in just a week of practice I am going to have some of these skills down, and in a month, I’ll have more of them down, and in about 3 months I’ll have them down consistently, with speed and power. I’ve been doing these for 7 months now, and it’s a clear trend. And I LOVE it.

I tend to be very timid on the ice and a lot of it comes from fear on the ice. Though I’ve let go of a lot of the fear, and my fellow adult skaters can attest to that, you can still see that I’m somewhat uncomfortable on the ice, my shoulders are often raised and sometimes I hunch over. So on my hand I wrote, “Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear.” I think it got me through this lesson. Fellow skaters, I always suggest looking at some motivating quotes before hitting the ice. It almost always makes my skating sessions more productive and enjoyable. Here are some examples below:

“The difference between champions and skaters who didn’t place is how they handle fear”

“Stop thinking you’re not ready, life happens beyond your comfort zone”

Figure Skaters Are Insane - “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”

“Great skaters are not made up of their technique but by their passion and love for the sport”

“Failure is simply a cost you have to pay on the path to being right”

Summer's Almost Gone!

Why is summer flying by? I’m not quite ready to be back on my normal work schedule, because it means less skating. On the bright side I’ve upped my summer skating hours. Sure, it means I’m spending more of my weekends and evenings icing, but the end is near and I need to reach my summer goals. I’m hoping that in these last two weeks I can start to pull together some of the skills that I had on my summer goals list.

My lessons in the past couple weeks have been somewhat repetitive. Most of the skills I’ve been working on with my coaches are older, things that I was introduced to in the last few months. So, even though I’m working hard during my lessons to improve, I’ve been getting more bored by the week. I desperately need something to spice up my practices. Argh!