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 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.

July Update

I cannot believe it’s been weeks since I’ve had an update on this blog. Sorry to my regular readers, things have been crazy. In these last two weeks I’ve been entranced in planning two very important events and attending a week long conference. Any who, I am happy to be back with exciting news. First and foremost, on July 13th I passed my very first skating moves test (pre-bronze). I’ll write more about the actual test in a different post, I also have video footage of the whole thing!

After I finished my test and got my results at 9:30 I jumped for joy, literally over and over again. I sung my heart out as I rushed to my home rink for a 10:00 private lesson (w/ the same coach that came with me to my test). Due to the fact that my lessons are during Learn to Skate, it could not be rescheduled. As I walked into the rink I saw the skating director and exclaimed that I had passed. To which his response was, congratulations, now what are you doing here? “I am here for my lesson of course!” I ran over to the bench to get my skates and just 7 minutes later I was on the ice. Obsessed you say? I just got back from a one week Christian conference in at Bowling Green State University where I continued practicing daily. I got home at noon and by two o’clock I was at my home rink for an open skate practice session.

On The Ice

I’m bored. I just passed my pre-bronze test. In the lesson following my test, coach T showed me the bronze moves test (one of the elements was a “pass” according to her, on the first try). The other elements I did fine. It was shocking to me how I picked up the test so quickly, considering that my first moves test took me months to learn. I expect I’ll be testing bronze moves very soon, which makes my dream of skating at nationals this year a little more within my reach. All week at BGSU I did the moves test first and then continued on with freestyle. Within 30 minutes of every session I was bored and didn’t know what to do next.

I need a challenge. Doing the same thing over and over just isn’t working for me. I feel like I need to get frustrated with a move or jump. I was really irritated because I couldn’t do a waltz jump for the longest time, I chickened myself out of the toe-loop for a month. Why is it that nothing scares me right now? I used to be scared to practice the cross-behind dance step, now I just do it whether or not I feel comfortable. I was deathly afraid of crossing one foot in front of the other and now it’s become second nature. I talked to my coach about needing a new challenge today, but I was shot down, “Gina, you need to work on improving the skills you know now.” Arghh! I want to learn a backspin, a sit spin, the half-flip, a lutz, back 3’s, twizzles, and more before the end of the summer. How on earth is that supposed to happen if I keep working the same skills over and over. I am on the ice 10 hours a week, do you want me to die of boredom in that time?

More to come soon! Thanks for reading :)

The First Bad Hit

“Try that again, this time don’t swing your leg like that so that you remain in control” - Coach T

“Okay!” (I said enthusiastically)

Push forward. Swing leg around. Die.

It was all in slow motion, one moment I was swinging my leg around for a scratch spin and the next moment my head had hit the ice. I thought my glasses had shattered as they rolled forward on the ice. My nose was numbing. I lifted my head with a smile on my face, “I’m okay.” Within seconds, I looked down and there was blood dripping everywhere. I didn’t know if it was coming from my mouth or nose, because it surely felt like I had broken something. Turns out I actually had a cut near my eye (still no idea how I managed to get a cut) and my nose was bleeding from the force of the hit to the ice.

Within one minute, nearly every other adult had gathered around to see if I was okay, surely the blood wasn’t a very good sign. I got up, put my hand under my chin to catch the drips and made my way to the side while my coach ran off to get supplies. I can’t say it enough, but she’s actually the best. She came back and wouldn’t let me do anything, she literally wiped the blood off my face, cleaned the cut, and put a bandaid on it. Then instructed me not to get back on the ice. She had to yell a little for me to get the picture, but I appreciate that she’s like that. I convinced her to only take a half hour break so that I could continue my lesson with her.

Today was a hit for me. This week I’ve heard no less than three outrageous injuries that happened at my home rink including two concussions and other head injuries (w/ blood). I knew my time was coming as I thought to myself last Sunday, I’m so lucky, I haven’t hit my head on the ice yet. The entire time my coach was helping me with the cut I just wanted to get back on the ice and move on. Some would say I’m a trooper, haha.

I may be a little shaken up, but it was worth it. Looking back, the entire scenario was crazy. The cut is not even an inch long, it sits in the inner corner of my eye and runs up through my eyebrow. I’m glad I was with my coach and not on my own. I used to laugh about this before, but today I learned that I really should do what my coach tells me to do the first time around. It’s hard to make a quick fix when learning new skills on the ice, but I should have been more careful. I should have taken my time on the spin.

My pre-bronze test is next week. It would be great if I didn't injure myself before that. If only I could skate and be assured that I won't hurt myself. Yeah, that would be nice.

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!  

5 Month Skate-versary

I’ve been skating for five months, wahhhh???? Here’s what I’ve been working on:

1. My Program: Most of my practice time has been spent working on the elements in my program and stringing them together more smoothly.
1. Emotion - I really like to look at the ice as most beginner skaters do and I look glum during my performance. I need to work on looking up more and showing the judges that I am excited for my performance.
2. Grand Arm Gestures - I have been working on arm movements and making them more grand (noticeable from afar). I can do this by breathing in with each movement  and lifting up my head instead of looking towards the ground.
3. Forward Crossovers - Taking a stronger push and holding the cross instead of flicking my foot (I joke and call it a “swish and flick” now, Harry Potter reference).
4. 3 Turns - Holding the turn in the beginning and end instead of doing it very quickly and barely making it back to the lines.
5. 1 Foot Turn - Remembering to check out after my one foot spin
2. Pre-Bronze Elements - This is the warm up to all my practices and lessons now. I don’t want to rush into the test because I do want to pass it on my first try. So, I have decided to just make it my warm up for the next two months, then I can perfect the moves slowly and not worry about rushing it.
3. Jumps
1. Bunny Hop - Right one is okay, I can do 4-5 in a row if I’m really into it. Left foot barely exists and I hate it with a passion, but I make myself do it because I need to get used to using my left toe pick for the half flip.
2. Waltz Jump - This one is getting fun! I have been doing it consistently from backwards crossovers, it’s higher now and I get more distance than before. I have also taught myself to do two in a row with a side toe hop in between.
3. Toe - Loop - I am not a chicken anymore! I think that this jump - though small and inconsistent has made the most progress in the last month mostly because I have let go of the fear. During learn to skate this last session one of the other adult skaters broke it down for me and it just clicked.
4. Swing Rolls - Since I told Coach T (who is primarily a dance coach) that I wanted to learn a couple dances in the fall, she has worked with me more on swing rolls. This month I learned how to do inside swing rolls and I just started backwards swing rolls as well.
5. Power pulls - These actually have some pull to them now, they began as swiggly lines and have evolved to swiggly lines with a few real pulls in between. While listening to She, by Zayn, one day during practice I began doing backwards power pulls without even realizing it. I showed them to Coach T and we began working on them more seriously.  
6. Cross rolls - Are non-existent, a couple months ago I asked Coach T to show me these a because I saw some figure skaters doing them and thought they were really pretty. She started me off with a grapevine exercise where I weave my skates in and out of crosses, it was practically impossible, but I started practicing the exercise a couple weeks ago and was capable of doing it (It’s crazy how a time elapse will make a skill easier without actually working on it). A few practices later I began doing “cross rolls”, basically alternating crossovers without the push in between - this is apparently NOT  a cross roll. So naturally coach had me doing the right ones, while I held onto her with my life. So, I know the correct way, but can’t do it on my own...yet!
7. Mohawk Crosses - I do mohawk crosses down the line, these have gotten smaller and a little more controlled with less toe-scratching.
8. Consecutive 3 Turns - Insides are very controlled and “pretty” (I still miss a LI3 here and there). Outside consecutive 3’s need work, I can do the 3 turns, but I don’t step forward properly because I am not doing a strong check - which I need to do to make them look better!
9. Spins
1. Two Foot Spin - I am slowly starting to lose this spin, most people say once you get used to spinning on one foot you have a hard time doing it on two feet. I can get up to five rotations on a really good spin.
2. One Foot Spin - This has gotten much better in the last month! When I am sick, it’s hard (I’ve been sick the last week and my competition is in a week, yikes!). On a good push I can get myself to do 4-5 rotations, but usually I just barely get 3. I still have not started crossing my legs during the spin, right now it’s just lifted up. I have been working on lifting my leg higher.

I am still working on some other skills like stroking and crossovers, but these are the skills that I have really been focusing on this last month. I am really looking forward to this summer, the next report I will post will likely be at the end of the summer, by then I hope I have learned a couple new jumps, some step sequences, and maybe even a combination jump! I will post my summer 2016 goals in a couple weeks once the school year is over and then I can “live” at the rink!

All Day at the Rink

Today was incredible, I spent my entire day at the rink...honestly at this point it would be so much easier to just live at the rink...or at least a little closer to one, but I digress. I had three sessions on the ice today and two warm-up/exercise sessions. The first session on the ice was a makeup LTS class with my favorite coach. We worked on BXOs ( I really need to work on holding the cross!), consecutive 3 turns (I still have to learn to step forward on the outsides), spins, waltz  jump from BXOs, and believe it or not the toe loop. When my coach asked me to do one I straight up said no. Again. I have really been working hard to stop saying no and giving her sass on the ice, but it’s difficult when you’re trying not to like die.

Just under one month ago, Coach T introduced me to the toe loop. I was overjoyed. My first big girl jump. We did it together a couple times and then she let me do it on my own (I was so nervous!) and I landed it on my first try then looked up at her and said “there’s no way that was it” and she said,  “no Gina you got it!” Her expression was priceless. Most people don’t just get this on try #1. Since that day I have psyched myself out of that jump, until today. In the makeup class there was one other woman who was just above my level, so we did a lot of similar moves but she basically did them way better than me, haha ( totally cool, she’s been skating for two years). Coach asked us to spin, we spun. Coach asked us to waltz jump, we did. Then coach said to toe loop and I said, woooahhh, please no; but this woman motivated me and told me I could do it. I took a leap of faith, literally, and did it solid. I even jumped on a line (I had been jumping on a curve for the longest time due to a lack of control on the three turn). Victory lap anyone? Of course I did, because I was overjoyed. It was near the end of practice and coach wanted me to run my program in the last couple minutes. It wasn’t a very smooth run, but it definitely improved throughout the day.

For my second session on the ice I hopped on to public free skate. There was about a half hour left of adult skate and then there would be about an hour and a half to go of regular public skate. During this time I ran through my program a few times, did both sides of lunges (even though I kept falling on the left side, I didn’t quit), worked on my spins, change of edge, mohawks, and even my toe loop and half flip (but without the actual jump - coach and I haven’t really worked on it yet). It was a very productive session and I still had one more to go.

I had about an hour and a half between public skating and my private lesson so I intentionally scheduled an interview in that time (more about that later) when I had finished my meeting I got dressed, had a quick snack, and began warming up for my final session of the day on the ice with Coach T. We worked on all consecutive edges, spins, the program, crossovers, spirals (in test format), lunges, and the toe loop.  It was a great lesson, but unfortunately it was my last with Coach T for this session because she will be out of town next week. I still get my lesson, but I will be working with another coach, argh :(

I spent about 4 hours on the ice today, training. I didn’t goof off, I tried not to let conversations on the ice take me away from the work that I had to get done. By the end of the day I had also spent an hour exercising to prepare for ice. That’s a total 5 hours of activity in my day, so naturally sleep was calling my name. Seriously incredible day, I hope that I will continue to have such successful practice sessions over the summer!

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.

Program Preparations w/ Coach T

Private Lesson W/ Coach T

I had another private lesson with coach T today, it was very productive. We worked on my program elements for an hour which meant a lot of repetitions! The following required elements are in my adult 5 level program: crossovers (forward and back) in a figure 8, t-stops, change of edge on a line, beginning 1 foot spin, and inside 3 turns.

The first half of my program is fine, I have some cheesy arm movements, a couple swing rolls and slaloms, and then I get into my figure 8. Then I stroke towards the center, do a couple more slaloms with arm movements, my inside three turns, and then my one foot spin. Everything after goes downhill. I am exhausted and very confused, I often forget my steps or go in the wrong direction. It’s basically a mess.

It was my goal to have this program down by mid-May so that I could just clean it up and make it more smooth by competition, so I basically have five more days to do this. In these five days I have two LTS lessons (Wednesday) and (Friday), then one open skate this weekend. I believe in myself, but yes I do have some doubts that I am going to get this where it needs to be for competition. I am by no means a perfectionist, but I’d rather not make a fool of myself in front of my family and friends who are all coming out to support me.

The change of edge on a line and one foot spin have been my hardest elements to learn in the last two weeks. They were the last elements to be presented to me by a coach so I’m still in the very beginning stages of picking up on them (If you don’t skate, skip down to the last paragraph!)

Change of edge on a line: My coach showed this to me about 10 days ago. Since then I have done it successfully maybe 5 times after attempting it about a hundred times in five ice skating sessions. For those of you who don’t know what a change of edge is, you basically do a swing roll, then bend your free leg so that its behind your skating leg calf and your edge changes. With that change of edge, all my body wants to do is continue on the same edge, so in order to switch to an inside my top half also needs some restructuring. One of my biggest problems with skating is my inability to totally relax, my shoulders are stiff and mentally I am timid, approaching every new move with caution. In the week that I have been working this I’ve come home sore, incapable of doing anything but eating and sleeping. My abs are sore from the resistance that I am putting on them from my change of edge. My abs are also sore from spinning. Over and over again.

One foot spin: My one foot spin is hard to come by, nowadays I think I hit my sweet spot two out of every three tries, but I only rotate 3 times if I give myself a really good push. My coach told me something interesting yesterday...she said even if you start to hit your toe pick you need to keep spinning, so if you feel like you’re coming out of a spin, get back into it. This morning I was watching the ladies free skate session on contract ice and I noticed that before getting into a camel spin most girls were hitting their toe pick and then getting on the blade for the spin. Other girls were just barely managing to land a jump and would hit their toe picks one or two times to land it - somewhat. This whole idea baffles me, if I am “going down” or feel like I am coming out of a spin I just follow what my body tells me. I rarely if ever push myself to complete a move when I think I am going to fall. This is clearly something that I need to work on. The idea that I can continue spinning even if I hit my toe pick or if my body is feeling out of balance is unnatural, but much of what I do in this sport does feel unnatural - because I haven’t been doing it since I was 3. One of the adult blogs that I follow closely really summed up the one foot spin experience for a beginner, here’s a link to it if you want to check it out: http://icedoesntcare.blogspot.com/2016/05/why-my-one-foot-spins-go-wrong.html.

I have a lot of work to do between now and June 4. I need to learn those two elements and make my program a whole lot smoother. I’ve taken a chill at the gym because I just can’t seem to manage two jobs, family commitments, figure skating 4 days a week, and working out. I get mini workouts in before I skate each day and I make sure I walk at least a half an hour at work so that seems to be working because I am continuing to lose weight (more on that later!). I just really hope I can get this program looking decent in a few weeks, I know I am cutting it close. Most figure skaters put programs together in the fall and work on them the entire year. I put mine together a couple weeks ago for a competition that is oh so soon.

Happy Skating!

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!