First Skating Competition

I cannot believe that I skated in my first competition today! A childhood dream come true. Though I didn’t nail every move, I tried my best and really enjoyed performing in front of the judges, my family, and friends. Going into this, I was so over competitions. I worked this program for about a month straight and didn’t learn many new things, just worked on perfecting what I’ve learned thus far in my journey...a perfectionist's’ dream come true, right? I am not a perfectionist. I want to learn new things and clean up my moves along the way. By the end of this last week I had reached a point of boredom. Ask me to do my program one more time. I dare you.

Nerves? What are those? Before the first day of school or a new job I rarely get any sleep, so I just assumed it would be the same before my first competition, but I happened to sleep like a baby last night. I woke up ready to go! I spent some of my morning stretching and warming up and then I went to get a relaxing manicure before heading home to get dressed. When I got to the rink I thought the nerves would kick in, but surprisingly nothing. I was calm as can be. My mom on the other hand... she was more nervous than I was! After seeing a skater my age fall on her knees, she got even more nervous!

It was my turn to warm up on the ice with the two other adult skaters, I had the opportunity to  skate my entire program and fix a couple elements, so I was confident when judging time came. I was first after warming up, lucky me! I got out there, smiled at the judges and made my way to the starting position. Though it wasn’t my best skating, it was my first competition and I am so happy with the results, after all I didn’t fall and make a fool of myself in front of family and friends #goals (I'll see if I can get a video up soon). Got myself a nice first place medal too, funny how that works when there’s no one competing in your level, haha! Hopefully next time I’ll have some actual competition.

Quick shout out to my readers: Thank you for supporting this blog and my skating endeavors, I wouldn’t keep this up if I didn’t have any readers so thank you for being one of them. You da best!

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!

Crossovers Galore?

A month ago I wanted a formal breakup with forward crossovers. I hated them with passion. Every time I got on the ice I would have to warm up for an hour before even attempting my good side of crossovers. My bad side? I’d do two to three around the circle with pushes in between and then I’d hit my toe pick and get frustrated. I was introduced to crossovers in the very last lesson of my first learn to skate session over four months ago. They’ve definitely improved, I now have more power and speed, but I have to learn to hold the cross longer and make them less choppy.

In these last few weeks I’ve worked on crossovers over and over again because they make up a third of my program (I have to do a figure 8 forward and backward). Today, I was having a difficult time with a move and decided I needed to rest my skills practice. After 2.5 hours on the ice I was close to a breaking point. Now in the past, I would spend this time doing slaloms or half-pump swizzles (alternating) down the rink, but today I naturally moved into my crossover pattern down the rink with more crossovers on the ends.

It occurred to me about halfway through my second pattern that my “rest” involved crossovers! The skill I ultimately thought would keep me from progressing in this sport. I’ve learned many new skills in these last few months, normally my coach introduces me to something and it looks awful the first time around. I work on it either on my own or with her for the next few weeks and in time it looks better and becomes easier to do.

I used to have to work my way up to crossovers and waltz jumps, even slaloms and now I just do them. When my coach introduces me to a difficult skill I don’t react like I used to, with fear and whining, I just do what she tells me (even if it looks and feels terrible) and I take her advice. Sure it seems impossible, but having done the “impossible” over and over again, there just isn’t a good reason not to do what she says.

“You want me to pick up one skate and glide with the other?? This is the first day of class, how?”

• Said while learning one foot glides

“You want me to pick up my foot and cross it over my other one without dying, how?”

• Said while learning crossovers the first time

“You want me to pick up one skate and put it behind the other skate without tripping on my toe pick? Haha”

• Said while learning cross behind step

“You want me to pick up my body and rotate in the air, muhahaha, so not happening”

• Said while learning waltz jump

As you can see, I complain a lot on the ice, but I am working on it! Whenever my coach shows me something new I make an honest attempt not to joke or whine about it. Yesterday I did crossovers for fun, to relax. Maybe in the future I’ll start doing jumps like the toe-loop or Salchow in my warm up!

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!

Official Progress Report - April

A month has come and gone which means it is time for me to update you all on my official progress. Even with the new skates, I have learned a lot this month! On the documents, highlighted means I’ve learned the move, highlighted with a dot means I learned the move in the last month (and probably need a lot of practice doing it), circled in blue means it is something I want to learn next month. As you can see, everything left on both curriculum guides is what I want to learn. So hopefully, by May I will have completed the Basic Skills and Adult Basic Skills Curriculum.

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.

My Unfortunate Reality (Private Lesson #4)

Well I’m not broken, yet, that’s the good thing. But I have reached a progress plateau. My 4th private lesson was yesterday and I was working hard, but my boots just weren’t working with me. I kept skidding on my consecutive edges and my ankles and feet were killing me while I was doing simple bunny hops. I just won’t have it any more. If I want to progress I need new skates. After my lesson I actually got off the ice and didn’t want to skate anymore (first time since I began, oh no!). I had fallen on my butt three times during practice, now usually I just stick through it but now that I’m seriously considering new skates I feel like I’m going to lose a lot of what I’m learning on my current boots.

And so I have officially decided to pick up my new pair of skates this week. After doing some extra work this weekend, I have made some more money and will shell out the $300 for the Jackson Freestyle Skate. While it is at a lower level than the Jackson Competitor, I remember it was a lot more comfortable for me.

Now, back to practice, we didn’t get through as much but I think it’s because we spent more time working on my 3 turns. I think I have the small 3 turns down, but when I move onto the larger circle they become a lot more difficult. Coach T and I worked on spins, bunny hops, swing rolls, lunges, and the waltz 8. After our session we discussed testing again and I learned that each rink has a testing session each month. So I very well may be testing before June. I imagine it will probably take another month or so for me to get the skills down. The only thing coach hasn’t showed me yet are my crossovers in an 8 pattern. My crossovers are still clunky but I know that if I keep up with practice I’ll get them down eventually. Afterall, I learned my backwards crossovers way faster than my forwards.

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!

First Private Lesson, Bunny Hops, Waltz Jumps, and More!

Snow Day?

Skating of course!

As soon as I found out I would have the day off I immediately began planning my ice time. Adult open ice begins at 10:30, so naturally I’ll leave my house at 9:30 to have maximum stretch and warm up time. But then, I had a thought. What if I texted Coach T to see if she’s available for a private lesson. I didn’t think it was possible since it was so last second, but I got lucky. So damn lucky.

I headed to the rink even earlier than I had originally planned and got to see some of my coach’s practice, she’s a star on the ice! I warmed up, stretched, and picked up my newly sharpened skates! I thought that skating with newly sharpened skates would go very rye, but it actually went really well.

I am about to tear up just thinking about the progress that I made on the ice today (or perhaps it’s because I’m still in pain). Who knew what an hour one-on-one could do? The best thing about having a coach on the ice with you is to get you to do things that might seem uncomfortable at first. I’ve been on the ice for two months now (exactly) and I’ve already formed bad habits like turning instead of a legitimate stop, “sure it looks pretty on the ice, but it doesn’t mean it’s right”. Having Coach T there today meant business. After she left, I still had two hours of open skate to practice everything we went through, by the last half hour my legs were dying, but I pushed through the pain.

I made it home, got some (healthy) food in me before my workout at Lifetime. I had to push through it, due to the pain, but it was worth it. Afterwards I had my first massage! It went way better than I had expected. I think that it’s going to be habit to get one after my 3hr+ ice days.

There was pain today, I fell multiple times, even brought my coach down with me once...but overall it was worth it. I did a bunny hop without the wall and the waltz with some help from coach. I think I might be able to land the waltz in the next week or two if I skate on my own instead of just for class. I learned the proper way to do a t-stop, two foot turn, and hockey stop. I got a little more comfortable with my crossovers and spins. I think I am going to take some time off soon to get another session in. I know that I say this a lot, but I’ve literally been on the ice for two months and I am already jumping. What???

1. Stroking
2. Crossovers (on the ends)
3. Crossovers over the lines, one on each side
4. Snow plow stop
5. Hockey stop

6. T-Stop
7. Bunny hop
8. Waltz jump
9. Spin, weight on left foot, half pump swivel, bring feet together, arms to the right (bring in for momentum)
10. Swizzles
11. Half pump swizzle one on each side, practiced forward and backward
12. Backwards walking/beg. Stroking
13. Two foot turns on small half circles, make sure both feet are turning parallel, weight on toes of foot when going forward, balls of feet when going backward. Turn stomach.

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