Pre-Bronze Moves Test

Just over six months ago I decided to go to the ice rink to prepare for my friends annual Campus Martius ice skating outing in Downtown Detroit. The first day I came home, I was incredibly sore, but decided to go again the next day. I found myself at the rink everyday for a week. I even signed myself up for a learn to skate class a few days later. Before I knew it I was addicted to ice skating (to read more about my beginning click “here”). If you had asked me what the purpose of ice skating was then, I would have told you that I was just there to learn for fun. I had no idea that within a year I’d compete in a figure skating competition, take a moves test to pass into the first official level of adult skating, or even learn a couple jumps. It was beyond me, yet the skating community that surrounded me believed that I would succeed and learn quickly due to my age, dedication, and determination.

Shortly after competing in my first competition, my coach recommended that I begin improving upon my pre-bronze skills so that I could take my first skating test. Normally, when coaches suggest adults “test” many defer and choose to continue skating for fun. I on the other hand was excited to have someone truly judge my skating ability. I taught myself the elements testing order within a month and signed up for the test, with my coaches approval of course. Soon after I signed up, I began to see the weaknesses in my elements as both of my private coaches pointed out my many flaws.

I worked hard over the next few weeks. At every practice I began with the moves test from start to finish, without “re-dos” or  a proper warm up. Later in practice I would go through the elements that were weak in my first run through and within the next hour I’d run the test again. I’m not sure exactly how many times I ran the test in a month's time, but I did it everyday I was on the ice between 2 and 4 times. If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is.

I had a hard time falling asleep the night before my test, so I used lavender oil to help me fall asleep. I got up very early the next morning to get my skating dress on and have substantial time to warm up at the rink. The drive there was nerve racking, so I brought peppermint oil with me to calm myself. Once I got to the rink, I found that no one was there, so I quickly strapped on my skates and ran my through my test once. People began to show up, so I got off the ice, tied my tennis shoes, and began my proper warm up. I ran one lap around the outside of the rink, went up and down the stairs in the stadium seats, then slowly stretched my leg muscles to prepare for my spirals.

My test time was 9am and I was the first on the ice. After warming up my "difficult" test elements, my coach requested I do a couple other moves - she said they looked good, but 5 minutes later, my time was up. The judges called my name, I skated up to the boards and said good morning. He asked if I knew the test order, then welcomed me to begin once his hand was raised.

It wasn’t my best skating, nor was it my worst. I could sit here and pick apart the weaknesses in every single one of my elements, but I’ve chosen to just go on and be thankful for the “pass”. Some of you other skaters may watch this and think, “how in the world was that a pass?”, but others of you outside of the skating world may see this as I do; a joyous skater trying her best on the ice. If you watch the video closely, you may even see me crack a smile as I draw near to the glass.

Thanks to all of my readers for your continued support and motivation. I can’t believe that this blog has reached 2,000 views. Enjoy the video below of my very first figure skating moves test. I look forward to doing my freestyle (jumps and spins) pre-bronze test in September and my bronze moves test in October.

Hello there Sal!

I can’t believe that I worked on the Salchow today! I briefly mentioned to my coach that I had given it a try at practice on Monday and she was shocked, “Gina, you were so scared to jump at first, I’m so proud of you for trying.” I showed her what I had tried on the ground before getting my skates on and she said it was pretty close.

We started the private lesson with some stroking and forward crossovers on the ends and worked our way through the pre-bronze test. Coach says I am ready to test this summer so I am really excited about that. Every one of my practice sessions now starts with the test as my warm up.

Next she asked to see my waltz jump from backwards crossovers, she said it looked good (if you skate you know these comments are far and few in between so I was pleased with myself). Then we worked on the toe loop, which Coach T also said looked better after a few tries. And finally she asked me to see Mr. Sal. As I briefly stated before I had given this a try on my own during practice so I wasn’t exactly nervous to jump, more so just nervous to show my coach. I asked her to show it to me first, but she wouldn’t do it, she said she wanted to see what I thought it looked like first. So I gave it my best shot and looked up at her with a question mark on my face, was that it? “Sort of, not bad for doing it on your own.”

I was smiling my way throughout the entire session. When coach said we would be working on jumps I was so relieved. After working on my program for the last month I felt excited to finally be working on something new. My Salchow isn’t nearly a Salchow, it’s more like a half-Salchow, too bad that jump doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, it’s going to look much better by the end of the summer.

After my private lesson, I headed over to adult public skate. I skated my heart out, beginning with the pre-bronze test and on to jumps and swing rolls (forward and  backward). An hour later the session ended and I got off to give my feet a break before getting on the second session of open skate. I had an incredible skating morning thus far, why I couldn’t just head home after? I don’t know, but I was about to pay the price for my obsession. Just 10 minutes after being on the ice I fell on my left knee and could barely get up. After my friend begged me to get off the ice I got off and began to ice it thinking that I could just get back on after icing it for a bit. Twenty minutes later I could barely bend my leg, I knew then that it was time to head home.

After icing in 20 minute segments this entire afternoon and evening I feel much better. Hopefully by tomorrow morning I will feel even better. I am excited for skating this summer, though I know there will be more falls I also know I’ll just have to learn to get through it as I have in the past. I felt like the fall today almost broke me. For a half second, I actually second guessed continuing on with this sport. But it brings me too much joy to just quit because of a careless fall. A summer at the rink is so close I can taste it, just 10 more days!  

When Coach Doesn't Show Up....

Teach class? Sure! At my last group lesson we didn’t have a coach for the first five to ten minutes of class. So, we all decided to start off with stroking and crossovers on the ends like we usually do. We did a few laps and then I asked the group if they were ready to switch sides. By this time, we finally had a coach show up. Side note: I love this rink, I like the staff, the coaches, but most importantly I love the ice. So, the fact that Coach B couldn’t make it today is one thing, but then she couldn’t find a sub so they were looking for someone to fill her spot at the last second and this played a big part in how the lesson followed.

In all of the adult classes that I have attended I have always had an adult coach who was able to accurately describe exactly how to do certain moves and how to fix my many mistakes. For this session we had an oh so young coach who didn’t know what our levels were and clearly didn’t have a ton of experience coaching. So naturally (I am a teacher in my other life) I decided to kind of take over...without overstepping of course!

I come to my lessons knowing what I need to work on. I no longer rely on the coaches at group lessons to come up with something new for me to learn because outside of class I am learning moves and jumps in freestyle (the usuals at the rink tell me I’ve outgrown group lessons, but I am trying to keep them up as long as I can because they are cheap compared to contract ice). For this reason, when asked, I told the coach that I needed to work on my consecutive edges. The others were about to start working on their crossovers (again, ugh don’t they get sick of these?), but when they heard I was going to work on edges a few of them followed me. Coach drew a line for us on the ground (that intersected with the circle - that became a problem because there were two others in class learning fxo’s there argh, but I digress). I started off with my backwards edges because they are weaker than my forward edges. One of the girls hadn’t yet been introduced to forward consecutive edges, but she wanted to try so I showed her how to do them and the other women followed suit. At this point the coach was still working with the beginner in the class so I decided it was time to work on my next skill that needed work, consecutive 3’s.

The other women who were practicing on the line continued with edges until they saw that I was doing something different. They asked me what I was working on and I said they were consecutive 3 turns down the line. I told them I had just learned them and didn’t know if what I was doing was correct, but they wanted to see what they looked like so I showed them and they followed suit again.

Next we did a few lines of power 3’s which they pretty much had a handle on, me not so much haha. While they continued working on those I headed to center circle to work on my one foot spin. This is the point in class when I noticed how little coaching experience she had. When sub coach finished working with the other student I asked her if she could help me count my rotations. I normally get between 1 and 2 rotations, if it’s a really good spin I get between 3 and 4 rotations (but that rarely happens!). Sub Coach said I got 3 rotations on the second try, I barely got one and a half in. I don’t know why she would say I got it when I know I didn’t. Either I can’t count or I am way too hard on myself.

Even though I didn’t fix a lot of skills today, it was a great class. I initially signed up for Wednesday nights so that I could just get some extra ice time and that’s exactly what I got today. I even got to run my program a few times before the Zamboni came on the ice. More than that however I got a little feel of what it would be like to coach. During the lesson one of the other adults asked the coach how to do a change of edge on a line and she didn’t explain it very well, so instead she asked to see how I did it and I explained it to the best of my ability. Then substitute asked me to do it again so that she and the others could see (this obviously makes me feel pretty great about what I’ve learned and how far I’ve come especially with the change of edge on a line. I’ve been working on getting that skill for a couple weeks now and during that lesson I was able to do it successfully several times in a row without stepping down).

I am starting to seriously consider coaching in the lower levels of learn to skate. Coach T says I am capable and my Coach C says I will be soon. I still don’t have a summer job, so I would really like to do it. How fun would it be to be at the rink and get paid to teach someone to skate? It’s not great money, but it should at least get me by this summer.

Crappy Ending to A Great Skating Week :(

My sixth day in a row on the ice, 12 hours total. It’s like spring break all over again! A couple weeks ago I saw my general physician about the knee pain I was having due to the constant falling on ice and she basically told me to give it a rest. So, I stayed off the ice for 6 days and rested/iced my knee constantly. I got back on the ice with more ease and confidence ready to take on the world last Friday evening. I continued skating every day for a few hours until today. I got to the rink, skated beautifully during adult skate. I ran through my program several times, then broke it up into smaller pieces to work on elements. By the end of adult open skate, many people had gotten off the ice so I decided to just have some fun and ice dance to my current favorite song, "She", by Zayn. I was having a blast dancing along to it, I even found myself doing a new move, backwards power pulls (do those actually exist, because they are easier than forward power pulls). The zamboni came on to to the ice so it was time to get off. Luckily for me, there was another public session following adult open skate.

A few days ago I got really lucky and had the ice to myself during public skate. Today, there were four hockey players getting on to the ice and well, me. I knew that this session was going to end badly. While the zamboni was doing its thing I had a nice conversation with one of the other adult figure skaters at the rink. I’d seen her before and tried to be pleasant by greeting her but she seemed quiet. Today, she struck up a conversation with me! It was nice, we discussed our skating experiences. The conversation went as it always does.

Her: "What got you into skating...how long have you been doing it?"

Me: “Oh, around December I graduated from college and got really bored so I thought I’d come to the rink and skate. I was really bad at first, holding on to the wall but kept coming anyways. One of the other adult skaters convinced me to take an LTS class but I thought I was too old…”

Her: “Too old? I didn’t start skating until I was 40, I’ve been skating for 15 years. You are progressing so quickly and you have so much ahead of you.”

Me: “I really want to compete with other adult skaters, but I just don’t know if I’ll be able to”

Her: “If you want to seriously compete you need to skate between 4-5 hours a week.”

Me: “I usually skate between 8-9 hours a week, but I injured myself recently and I’ve had to limit my time”

Her: “Oh no, what happened?”

Me: “I hurt my knees from falling on them so many times”

Her: “You should wear knee pads”

Me: “I usually do, but I’ve been wearing a brace on my left knee”

Her: “You should still wear padding, double up”

Me: “I know that I need to…”

Her: “Well, I have to head out, I’ll see you later. Have a great day!”

Me: “Thanks, same to you!”

I literally had the same exact conversation with Anne (the other regular adult skater at the rink yesterday). Well, back to skating...I got on the ice with just my knee brace on the left leg knowing that it was going to end badly. Me and a few hockey players...they were sure to ruin the ice. I fell within the first 10 minutes on my right knee doing a crossover, arghh!!

After doing my program a couple times and working on my spins and mohawks I thought I should begin working on my backwards consecutive edges. As I was skating over I was looking down at the ice, it was already cut up by the hockey players, shocker. I thought I’d give them a try anyways. Before I made it to the end of the line I found myself on the ground again (thank you rut in the ice), on my left knee, in the same spot that I had been falling on for the last month. I held my breath, holding back the tears and I tried to get up but I couldn’t. Damn. I can’t get up. I tried harder and was able to just barely skate myself to the side where my stuff was. I had never felt this kind of pain before. It was miserable. For the first time in 3.5 months I was getting off the ice because I was injured. I limped my way off the ice, took my skates off and limped myself to the front desk for some ice. Then I drove my sorry butt home with the ice on my knee.

No more skating for one week. I just can’t. I need to let my knee heal and that means ice and rest. I can’t keep doing this to myself. I just can’t. **Insert tears of pain and sadness here**

Do I Need A Secondary Skating Rink?

I didn’t think I’d be doing this so soon, but I am looking at a secondary rink to skate at. I love my home rink, the Onyx, but I am getting kind of sick of seeing the same people over and over again. It is also too far from work, so if I get a half day job it doesn’t make sense for me to drive out there to skate a half hour.

I visited a rink in Royal Oak yesterday evening and it was okay. It’s a small rink and after talking to the workers for a bit I quickly noticed that they have a very small tight knit skating community. It also seems as if they have a decent sized adult skating community in their skating club, more than that in Rochester. I figured I would give it a try a few times, it couldn’t hurt right? Plus, if I end up working near there next year I could set up some contract ice time before work. I picked up a learn to skate flyer on my way out. They have a Thursday night adult class that begins next week. If I signed up for this class I would meet some other adult skaters and I would ultimately get to skate Wednesday-Sunday (week breakdown below) every week without a work conflict!

You guys know me pretty well by now if you’ve been keeping up with this blog. Ice time is precious time and I will take what I can get. If I sign up for this class I can stop skating during the day while I should be focused on other priorities and just skate in the evenings.

Now unfortunately I need to seriously start considering my finances and how much I am spending on this sport. I am literally dropping hundreds every month on private lessons, group lessons, competitions, the gym membership, and skate gear. If I sign up for this class it’s almost another $100 for an extra night to skate every week. Gahh!

I have until next Thursday to make up my mind, I should know by then if I want to make this jump. I know I need the extra practice time, especially with my first competition coming up. I just don’t know if it’s feasible.

Skating Breakdown -

Wednesday Evening - Adult Class at Onyx (1.5-2 hours)

Thursday Evening - Adult Class at Royal Oak (1.5 hours)

Friday Evening - Private Lesson at Onyx (1.5-2 hours)

Saturday - Open Skate (1.5 hours)

Sunday - Open Skate (1.5 hours)

Got Luck?

I had one of my best skating days today. It was absolutely incredible! I got to the rink fairly early to get my very first hour of contract ice and it was empty. I literally had the ice to myself for an hour! As soon as I saw my coaches sitting outside an empty rink my face lit up. I did a quick warm up and got onto the ice with Coach T.

We worked on my program and a few other moves before she had to leave. Wait...what was that...did you just mention a program? Why yes. Yes I did. My very first program is in place. I am skating to “All of Me” by John Legend (ft. Lindsey Stirling). It is a simple program, I am skating at adult level 5. Right now I am working on skills at a much higher level (toe loops, consecutive edges, consecutive 3 turns, waltz jumps, etc.) , but this is the best level for me to compete according to my coach. Oh how I would have loved to compete at level 6 where I can do a lunge or spiral in my program, but I digress. If I do well in this competition, I might have some luck convincing her that I can compete at a higher level next time.

I decided to stay for adult open skate, because there were only a couple other skaters. I didn’t get as much as I wanted done during practice since Anne was there “watching” me again and I didn’t feel so hot about that, but I ran through my program a few times and practiced several moves (3 turns, consecutive edges, mohawks, waltz jumps, and crossovers). Adult open skate ended and I walked out of the rink to find no one else getting on for public skate. My heart did a little jump and my face lit up again. Could I really get this lucky two times in one day? I wasn’t planning on staying for public open skate, but an empty rink. That would be a waste! Ice time is precious time.

I said goodbye to the other adult skaters, got on to an empty rink, and plugged in my iPhone to my program music. I ran through it about 15x before moving on to other things but boy did I fall in love with it. This morning I could barely remember the sequence of the program, by the end of my session I had gotten my figure 8 crossovers to the speed I need them to be to follow the song lyrics and because I sped them up I was able to add a few moves that feel comfortable to me. My coach put this program together for me and while I greatly appreciate that, I also felt like it wasn’t all “me”. I wanted to add steps and arm movements that felt natural to me but I couldn’t do it when we first began because I needed to get the footwork down first. What I can’t believe is that the second day that I have worked on this program is when I’ve gotten the footwork down and have begun this process of making the program more of my own.

I can’t wait to perform this at my first competition in June. My goal is to have this program clean by mid-May (that gives me two weeks) so that I won’t hiccup (aka fall on my butt) during the competition. “Don’t practice until you get it right, practice until you can’t get it wrong” that is how I am approaching my competition. Whether or not I end up competing against someone else, I will rock it!

I got off the ice feeling confident and satisfied in my work. After 4.5 hours on the ice I was starving and needed food immediately. I didn’t realize until I got home and laid down for an hour before work, that I also needed a great deal of sleep too. My body was so sore. 4.5 hours of ice skating is the same as working out for 4.5 hours. I don’t know why I don’t realize this when I am on the ice.

Until tomorrow friends! I have my first official private lesson on contract ice with Coach C (my soon to be official USFSA coach).

Spring Break Boot Camp!

Well, tomorrow is the day that my personal boot camp officially begins. In the next 10 days I will be on the ice for more than 20 hours and in the gym for at least another 10. Surely, I will be destroyed by the end of the week, if not broken.

When I decided not to travel over spring break, I did so with the intention of using my week off to push my skating to the next level. There are certain skills that I need to have down in order to really move forward, the first of them being crossovers. More than that, I just need to get myself more acquainted with the ice. I still have my random jerky moments with my arms flailing all over the place.

Boot camp is probably going to be the most physically exhausting week of my life to this day, but I know it will be worth it. After all I really want to pass my pre-bronze test! After my practice session on the ice yesterday I was talking to one of the regulars in the adult skating community to get some advice on what she wears for testing, but she told me that she hasn’t tested yet! She’s been on the ice for two years and still hasn’t tested….now I know she wants to, so why the wait? I guess I’m speeding things up by wanting to test so quickly, after all I’ve only been on the ice for three months.  But I know where I want to be in 3-4 years, adult nationals. I can picture it and I know with hard practice weeks, like the one I have coming up, I can achieve my goal.

I know I am shooting for the moon here, adult nationals are like the Olympics for kid skaters...at least in my mind. But what difference does it make? Having goals like that should only push me forward. That is why I am working so hard. That is why I am going to push myself next week, like I’ve never pushed myself before.

3rd Private Lesson

Today I had my third private lesson. I still can’t believe that I am taking private lessons! I warmed up a lot today by running around the ice a few times and doing the stairs in the bleachers. I also stretched and did some off ice jumps.

The lesson was good, we went through a lot of things that we started in our previous session like lunges, spirals, and 3 turns. We went through some new things like backwards slaloms, power 3’s, and the waltz 8. While I am glad that we started some new things, I am really pleased with my progress on the backwards crossovers. I worked really hard on them after our session so I can’t wait to show them to Coach T tomorrow.

After the session, I continued skating during public free skate and worked on a lot of the elements that we worked on during the lesson. Unfortunately for me, I may have went to hard because I took a few difficult falls. I fell on my hips numerous times, I fell on my butt a couple times, and I can’t even count the number of times I fell on my knees. All learning experiences right? Instead of being scared now, I just go for it and a lot of the time that means falling. Olympic skaters fall, it’s a part of the sport. I’ll get over it one of these days.

I am really looking forward to my next session with Coach T tomorrow, I hope I don’t get stuck at work for the second half of the day. I am going to try my best to get out as fast as I can so I can get some practice ice time before the make up class. And following that, I can get some one on one time with coach! Woot Woot!

**OHH I forgot to mention what happened during public ice time today! A girl (about my age) came up to me to ask how I do that thing where I bend down, so I said, “like a lunge?” So, I told her, a few times actually, that I was still learning and probably shouldn’t be giving a lot of advice, but I proceeded to show and explain to her what I knew. From this experience, I just can’t believe that someone came to me for advice, as if I looked like I knew what I was doing. Ya’ll know I’m excited by this!**

Lesson:

Warm up

Stroking

Swizzles

Stopping

Spirals

Lunges

Crossovers (forward and backward)

2 Foot Turns

3 Turns

Consecutive Edges (inside and outside)

One Foot Glides

Slaloms (forward and backward)

Waltz Jump

Swizzles Crosses (forgot actual name)

Power 3's ( I think that's what they're called, one foot slaloms)

Waltz 8

First Official Progress Report

I am pretty sure the women in my class and maybe even my coach think I am a little crazy. I just think I am super organized, committed, and motivated. I took the time to google the US Figure Skating adult curriculum so that I can track my progress, I even began comparing the adult curriculum to the children’s basic curriculum. From now on I think I am going to try paying more attention to my progress in a systematic way like this. I know that I am just starting so I’ve learned a lot and I am aware that it’s going to start slowing down at some point. There’s no way that I am going at this much speed for much longer. The exercises are going to get harder and will take more practice. Nevertheless, I am going to post an official update every 1-2 months using the curriculum guide to note what I’ve learned and what I want to learn in the coming months.

I showed it to my coach at the last lesson and she confirmed that I knew these skills, she even questioned a few that I had circled because she thought I already knew them. I love that she also looked at what I want to learn. By checking this out she knows that I am serious about skating, but more importantly she knows what I want to focus on for the remainder of the session!

I really can't wait to see where I am at in a month, you know that is if I am still in one piece!

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.

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.

Continuity

I knew going into this, especially after my first couple sessions, that the more I skated the easier it would get. That could not have been more true! In that second week of skating, I continued my forward stroking and swizzles, but I also learned how to stop! I noticed the same woman at the rink everyday and we ended up talking on the rink for a while. She was really helpful and offered several tips. She showed me how to stroke properly and also showed me how to stop (T-Stop). It was very sweet of her, I get the sense that much of the adult skating community at this rink is kind and sociable. After practicing my stop around the rink I began turning, by accident. And from a slip of the foot, I learned how to turn around/spin (I used to call it a spin before I actually learned how to spin, haha!). On my last day at the rink on my winter break I met a really sweet skater who also happened to teach the adult skating class. I asked her when the class usually met and it was perfect for my schedule, Saturday morning! I told her I would think about joining. I had made so much progress on my own but knew that I would need to learn new things to keep myself motivated and challenged.