Summer Goals & Achievements

It’s week 6 (out of 10) in my summer skating program, but what do I really have to show for it? I knew deciding to test would halt my learning progress, just like my competition did a month ago but I went for it anyways. See here’s the problem, when you sign up for a competition or test you work it to death. The program? You’ll do with your coach at least 5 times at each practice and outside of actually doing run throughs you are often working on stringing a few elements together at a time. A moves test? Say hello to running it at the start of every lesson, well there goes 10 minutes of my 15 minutes with a coach. In the last five minutes you might work on a couple spins or simple jumps. You say you want to learn something new? “Gina, you can’t get injured before a test/competition.” And that my friends is the end of that.

The purpose of this post is to share how my summer skating is going. Not to share my experiences off the ice or my thoughts about certain elements. Today I am sticking to facts, “this is what I am working on and this is how it needs to improve.” To this day I have been skating for just over 6 months, I spend nearly 10 hours a week on the ice, and have been for the last 4 months. If you’re just getting started, I wouldn’t compare unless you are on the ice for the same length of time. For two months of those last six I was on the ice with a coach between 2-3 hours every week.

[underlined statements are goals that were achieved within the 2 week time constraint]

Week 1-2 Goals: Be fearless. Take care of yourself - don’t over do it so that you don’t get hurt. Practice pre-bronze moves at the start of each practice.

Jump Goal: Strong check on the half flip and Salchow. Work on the toe loop from backwards crossovers. More distance and height on Waltz jump.

Spins Goal: Consistent 4-6 revolutions on 1 foot spin. Work on crossing leg on ½ of my spin attempts by the end of week 2.

MIF Goal: Consistent LFO3 on Waltz 8, more confidence when raising leg for spiral. BI edges need to be strong from the first push.

Program Goal: Pick a song and begin choreography

Dance Goal: Learn the steps to the Dutch Waltz. (learned only ½)

Week 3-4 Goals: Pass my pre-bronze moves test. Learn bronze moves patterns. Challenge yourself w/ 1-2 new skills at every practice (after your test).

Jump Goal: Work on the toe-loop with entry.

Spins Goal: 4-5 consistent revolutions on one foot spin.

MIF Goal: Consistent LFO3 on Waltz 8 and learn bronze moves.

Program Goal: Adjust music for jump spin jump spin choreography. Put together a difficult step sequence.

Dance Goal: Learn the steps to the Dutch Waltz.

Practice Goal: Mohawk crosses down the line, consecutive 3 turns down the line, power 3’s, and backward alternating crossovers.

Week 5-6 Goals: During open skate practice, work on improving basic skills. Check shoulders on all jumps. Learn a couple silver moves patterns. Do bronze and pre-bronze moves at all practices (preferably the beginning of each practice). Learn pre-bronze freestyle test order and practice it.

Jump Goal: Salchow w/ entry

Spins Goal: Scratch spin w/ ½ entry (try to get 1-2 good scratch spins at each practice)

MIF Goal: Power 3’s - less scratchy, backwards crossovers w/ landing position (work on arms and leg extension).

Program Goal: Adjust music

Dance Goal: Increase speed on Dutch Waltz and learn the next dance.

Practice Goal: Stay focused. Challenge moves: backwards spiral and shoot the duck (both haven't’ been introduced by a coach yet).

I am hoping that despite my conversation with coach last week that she’ll teach me something new at one of my lessons this week. I am so sick of doing the same skills over and over again.

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.

4 Month Skate-versary

Well, it’s my 4 month skate-versary! I haven’t made a ton of progress this month as far as actually crossing (or highlighting) skills on my curriculum guide, but I do feel like I’ve improved on many of the skills I have learned in the last month. So, even though I will be posting my curriculum guides on here for the month, I don’t think they accurately describe how much I’ve actually improved. For that reason, this will probably be the last time I post the basic skills sheets. My coach has showed me everything I need to know from the list, so what I haven’t already learned is “outdated” or unnecessary to learn according to her. Once I have more of these skills down, I’ll start working on my freestyle curriculum guide!

This month, I am going to do things a little differently by describing what I need to work on for each skill that I am currently working on.

1. Stroking - stay low, keep knee bent on the hold and extend free leg longer with more control.
2. Forward Crossovers (Fxo’s) - hold the cross for longer. These babies have really sped up over the last month!
3. Backwards Crossovers (Bxo’s) - hold the cross for longer, keep looking back to keep body in control, use “other” leg more in order to keep on or near the circle. I also need to remember that I don’t have any pumps before I cross on the figure 8. I don’t even think I could do these consistently a month ago and now I’m doing them on figure 8’s!
4. Forward Consecutive Edges - give myself some self some space when starting these, I don’t need to start right next to the wall. Remember that the first circle will be the size for the entire line. These have gotten a lot smoother and more consistent in the last month.
5. Backwards Consecutive Edges - Both outsides and insides are miserable still, but at least I have the patterns down. A few weeks ago I kept switching between insides and outsides. Remember to pull hip up and bring knees together for insides, and for outsides I need to remember to keep my shoulders pulled back and more relaxed (I tend to hunch and have too much weight on my knees - hence the issues I am currently having with my knees).
6. Mohawks - I can do these more consistently and with arms! Now, I need to work on doing them with speed and not on the line. I am almost there with the left side since I do it on the crossovers figure 8, but I have a lot of work to do on the right side.
7. Waltz Jump - I am landing pretty consistently now with decent posture, until I psych myself out. I am practicing these from backwards crossovers now. I’d like to see myself getting some more height on these in the next month and possibly doing a couple in a row for a simple combination.
8. Mohawk Crosses - If I pay more attention to my arms and pay less attention to the ground, I might actually get these down soon. Less toe picks as well, those things are going to be bare soon if I continue scraping them on every cross.
9. Consecutive 3 Turns - Once you have a skill semi-down in this sport we make it more difficult by looping it to other skills, in this case it’s doing these consistently down the line. Outsides are terrible because I miss the LO3 half the time but also because I am not going in the right direction after the turn. I need to get the pattern down. Insides are better since the turn is more natural for me and I actually hit the 3 turns each time - unless I’m not paying attention to what I’m doing…
10. Swing Rolls - Don’t bend the free leg! Bend skating leg and stand straighter on the “swing” for more speed and “technically” control, but I don’t have that yet. I feel like I have less control when I do this.
11. Toe-loop - This jump barely exists, I jump one out of every five or so tries. I can’t believe I landed it on my first try, but now I just psych myself out. I need to remember to keep my free leg straight while bending my skating leg (this is awkward and unnatural). I also need to keep from hammering my toepick into the ice, beginner problems...I thought you were supposed to do that.
12. Spins - I have the two foot spin with some speed and 4-5 revolutions on a good try, not always the case. My one foot spin is coming slowly but surely. I need 3 revolutions by my competition on June 4 and right now I have 2 revolutions on a good try - which is rare. I need to remember to bend my left knee and straighten out for more speed, I also need to remember to keep the weight on the balls of my feet while spinning.
13. Waltz 8 - I did this with pretty good control and speed a couple times at my last practice and then almost fall due to lack of control on my final run. So, it’s obvious that consistency is an issue here (and on EVERY single skill I’ve “learned”). I need to remember keeping my free leg forward for the backwards one foot glide.
14. Spirals - Look good according to Coach C and Coach T (on separate occasions) which shocks me because I never feel like I have my free leg up high enough. I need to remember to keep my weight in the back of the boot so I don’t fall on my face (again).
15. Lunges - I love doing right foot lunges! I need to practice my left foot lunge though, half the time I can’t go down and then when I do I can’t get back up without falling.
16. Bunny Hops - I can do four or five consistently on my right foot, my left foot I can do 1-2 while feeling like death. Easy to say that my left foot is not as coordinated as my right foot. Coach T always makes me do these on both feet, but I asked Coach C if I need to learn them on both feet and she said no, but it’s good to learn them on both feet so that my left foot learns to be more coordinated. The joys of having two coaches!
17. Forward Crossover Pattern - I did this with Coach T one time more than a month ago and I had to hold on to her the entire time. Last week she had me do these around the entire rink and I did them on my own. The pattern was off, but after doing them at practice a million times I got them down and with a lot of speed. I need to remember to that there are three steps on each side and that I can’t have two feet on the ground at the same time.  Can’t wait to learn them backwards, it will be challenging, but I am so pumped!
18. Program - My program is slowly coming together. In a month I need to have it down for competition, but I’d like to have it completely down in two weeks so I don’t make a fool of myself in front of my family and friends.

I began skating in late December and started taking group lessons in early January. It's been about four months and I cannot believe that I've made this much progress. When I first began I thought I'd be doing jumps in 2-3 years and I started jumping more than a month ago. I can't say that skating comes easy to me, because that's far from the truth, but I love it and I spend between 8-10 hours on the ice each week. On some days I am on the ice between 3 and 5 hours! Sure, I'm in grave pain afterwards, but it's worth it because I'm following my dreams. I am determined to get better at this sport. They say you shouldn't compare yourself to others, but I do it anyways. I've made progress in this time that many other adult skaters make in 2-3 years of skating. I hope that I can continue to progress at this rate, but I know that I will plateau soon unfortunately. The things I am learning are getting harder and my ability to do them consistently is fading. In this upcoming month I will be spending most of my time on the ice working on my program to prepare for my very first competition so I am not sure how much new stuff I will learn. I think I am going to slow down the pace that I am learning and practicing at so that I can be in good shape for that competition. This summer I will be contracting ice and working with a coach at that time, so I hope that I'll get back to learning a lot during the summer months! Happy Skating!

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).

Skating Withdrawals

20 hours of skating last week may have done more mental harm than good, yikes! I am having skating withdrawals. I feel like a part of me is missing. Yesterday I could have gone skating in the afternoon, but I chose to hang out with my friends knowing that I wouldn’t be able to skate again until Friday. I had a great time with them, but open skate starts in a half hour and I am longing to be there.

I woke up an hour before I had to, on a Monday morning, the day after spring break no less; and all I could think about was getting back on the ice so I started brainstorming. I would do anything at this point for more ice time, but all the available ice time is during my work day. It’s far too late  in the season for me to join the skating club for afternoon drop in sessions (which are all to expensive anyways at $14 an hour!). I could join the adult skating class on Wednesday evenings, but that only guarantees me one extra hour a week. Plus, there’s a new coach in that class and I don’t know how I feel about having another coach instructing me. I have gotten really close to Coach T and I am used to Coach C’s methods. If I have learned anything in these last few months, it is that every single coach instructs differently! It could be a nice addition to my skating schedule, it won’t hurt my finances too much, and this coach could very well be a great coach...but there’s an even better option!

The edge program at the Onyx is for skaters who have passed basic 1-5 and are looking to learn more advanced figure skating skills without having to join the skating club. Coach T said that I have met the level, but I am not quite sure how I feel about joining before the summer. This program has many positives and only a couple negatives so I will start with those. I am worried about joining edge because I would be in a class with children. There are skaters in edge as young as 4 and 5 years old. There are some older students, but I would still feel like a giant next to them. Compared to the adults in my previous classes, I have learned relatively quickly, but I am about to be the tortoise in edge. Edge is also more expensive than the regular classes that I’ve been taking, even more than my private lessons, but for good reason. If I join edge I would have class instruction time, regular practice time, two additional practice sessions (on LTS ice) per week, and 20 minutes of off ice training (which I so desperately need). That would mean that I could skate on Wednesday evening, Friday evening, and Saturday morning. My skating time would triple, for a little extra moola ($$) that is!

I need a decision to be made by Wednesday, because that is the next edge class. I’ve already missed one week that I’ll have to make up, but I can only make up one class per session. I’m excited to say the least, because either way I’m going to end up with at least an hour of extra skate time per week in addition to my weekend public sessions.

Practice Sessions & More

Another incredible skating weekend under my belt, I skated for just over 3 hours on Friday and about 1.5 hours on Saturday. I feel like I am really getting the hang of these new boots, finally. I know I’ve been saying that for a few days now, but every time I put them on they feel a little better than the last time. I got off the ice both days feeling really great about my practice sessions without a coach present.

I worked a lot on skills that I’ve been taught in the last learn to skate session, nothing new besides the power 3’s (which are incredibly fun by the way, when people aren’t skating through my line). At this point I really can’t wait to get back on the ice for a real session with my coach. I want to start jumping! I want to land my waltz and I have a feeling it’s coming in the next couple weeks. I also really want to clean up at least half of the skills that I need for my pre-bronze test. I feel like I can do my forward stroking and forward consecutive edges comfortably, so I have about 4 more skills to nail down: backward consecutive edges, crossovers, waltz 8, and spiral or lunge.

I also wanted to mention the fact that I missed my skating-versary a few days ago, it’s been 3 months! I will update my progress report in just a couple days, though I didn’t learn as much this month as I have in the past - I know that I’ve come so far from where I began. Much of it was due to the fact that I was breaking in new skates, but now that they’ve molded to my feet hopefully I’ll jump right back on to the progress bandwagon.

**Side note: Coach C walked in on me totally jamming out, singing, and dancing on the ice when I had it all to myself on Friday morning (for a short period of time). I was a tad bit embarrassed but totally in my element, if anything it shows that I am ready to present myself on the ice, have no fear skater Gina is here.... argh I can't help myself, I just had to go there.

You Know You're Excited When You Start Counting Down The Hours Until Class

It’s the last day of session two. I have been counting down the hours until class since yesterday evening at 22 hours. I’m down to about 7 hours now. The wait might actually be killing me. I am excited to show my coach the things I’ve been working on outside of class like my 3 turns, mohawks, and lunges. I haven’t done any of them in learn to skate, so this will be quite a surprise for coach C (who I’ve had serious discussions with about coaching me at the club level!)

I cannot accurately describe my excitement to get on the ice today. It cannot be compared to anything. Spring break is coming up and I’ll get to be on the ice everyday. So long as I don’t injure myself, I’ll be on the ice for at least 15 hours in 5 days. I’ll also be doing my own version of boot camp (details to come) when I’m off the ice, so it will be a challenging week physically.

My goal in spring break is to learn my test. I know the skills I need to perform and the only one I haven’t been introduced to is the crossovers in an 8 pattern. I know that if I spend an hour a day on my crossovers, I can have this down. I need some intense practice on ALL of the other skills too, but I know that after 15 hours on the ice I can get them to where they need to be. The test isn’t until one month after spring break anyways so I have time to perfect my moves.

Half Way Through Session 2!

Today I had the third lesson in session two which means I am already half way through! I got on the ice an hour before my scheduled practice time, I absolutely love the girls that are on the ice at that time because they always let me on early. I learn so much more when I’m acclimated with the ice before lessons. I began with simple stroking and moved on to one foot glides and swizzles. Then started to work on stopping again, I really need to get that down because my habit of turning to stop is silly. 

During class we began with stroking, then worked on crossovers for a little. I am really glad that I didn’t work on them the entire time like I feel like I have been these last two weeks. Next Coach C took about half of us on the circle to teach us how to do a two foot turn. Now, technically I already know how to do this, but she showed me a different way to make it a little more challenging. After we worked on that for a bit she moved everyone back on the circle to begin learning Mohawks! I didn’t think I’d be learning this skill for a while since it’s listed as an Adult 6 lesson on the US Figure Skating Curriculum. 

Coach C showed us what the first part of it looked like, make a T on the circle (right foot in), push out so boots like like a spread eagle then bring it back to the circle. I had that down very quickly, I was astonished! With only a few minutes to spare coach came over and said I had it down and that I was ready for the second step. She also said I would have it down by the end of class, that’s in 4 minutes, but okay! I like a challenge! Do step one, then instead of keeping my body weight on my right leg I shift all my weight to the left leg and lift my right leg up. After trying it a few times I had it! I am really looking forward to working on this new skill at my next open skate practice session. Right now I have that scheduled for Saturday night, but if I don’t get an afternoon job tomorrow I will be heading to the rink! Get excited!

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!

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