Waltz Jump-Toe Loop? How? ... I Need New Summer Goals

There’s a good chance I am going to have to re-write my summer goals...I haven’t yet published them to the blog but it’s clear that I am going to achieve them considering that in the last two lessons I have learned two of the skills on my list. There’s always room for improvement in this sport, I don’t think perfection can ever be achieved, I just want to learn as many new skills as I can this summer because I won’t have as much skating time during the year.

I attended my last learn to skate lesson today at the other rink, it was a makeup class so I didn’t know the group that I was skating with. The coach asked me what I was working on, but I didn’t want to be a bother so I asked what the other skaters were working on, I figured I could work with one of the groups. Fortunately there were several levels of skaters so I could choose if I wanted to work on mediocre skills that need improvement (like the dreaded crossovers) or I could work with the youngest skater on more difficult skills like spirals, jumps, and spins. I chose the latter.

Though my basic skills need improvement, I have found that they look much better now that I’ve learned more challenging skills. For example my three turns have become consistent because I use them for my jumps. Consecutive edges have helped me skate deeper into my edges for power pulls and swing rolls. I decided to work with the young girl because I wanted to be challenged, and sure enough I was challenged. She was working on freestyle 2 and I am more comfortable in freestyle 1 (but I have learned a few of the skills in 2).

We began working on spirals then moved on to backwards consecutive edges. Since it was test day I asked the coach to test me on my edges, they are on my pre-bronze test and I needed the “pressure” for practice. She passed both my insides and outsides, which was shocking because my insides totally suck. I think the pressure helped, haha! Next we did spins, she said that I spun really quickly but needed to pull my arms in at the same time for even more speed and control. Finally we worked on jumps. I showed her my waltz from backwards crossovers, the half-flip (which I haven’t actually worked on with a coach yet), and my toe loop. I was surprised when she told me the half flip was correct (I need to end on an inside edge instead of an outside edge), my coach showed me this one time at the end of practice and I’ve just made myself practice it so that it isn’t miserable when I am working on it with her.

We still had a couple minutes left of class and the younger girl needed to do a watlz jump-toe loop. Coach asked if I had done it yet and I said I hadn’t so she told me to give it a try. Hmmm…. I don’t know how I feel about that. I thought I’d be doing a combination jump by the end of summer not the beginning of summer! I tried it anyways and once I again I made (what seemed like) the impossible, possible. I got it on the second try, the first one was a fluke after I couldn’t even land the waltz properly.

So, sure enough my goal to land a combination jump before the end of summer skating happened before summer officially began. I need new goals. Crazier, more difficult goals. My updated summer goals will be posted later this week. Summer skating officially begins on June 20th, can this next week just fly by so I can live at the rink?

Learn to Skate Makeup

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