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!

Skating Weekend

What an incredible skating weekend! It was rough at first, but I ended on a high note and that’s what makes this experience worth it. On Wednesday, I attended my group class and it was awful with the new skates and I began to lose faith in my ability to continue with this sport. The pain was unbearable.

On Friday, I went to the rink and practically begged the director to let me skate on learn to skate “practice ice” and he said yes, thank God. I got on and skated for a while and again, it was unbearable. The whole losing faith thing, totally applicable here.

On Saturday I woke up with a renewed passion after waking up from a dream of me skating (this happens often now that it’s taken over my life). I texted my coach to see if she had time to do a lesson with me and she did, woot woot. I just needed a quick pick me up to get me used to the new blades.

We spent a half hour together on the ice (less than what we usually have unfortunately, but I couldn’t afford to do longer on a lesson like this). The entire time was “breaking in skates time” we did knee bend exercises the entire time. I took one really bad fall while doing my crossovers and fell on the same exact spot that I fell on last week, that was miserable. I’m so glad that I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow to check out my knee. After a few minutes of relaxation after that horrible fall, I got back on the ice and managed to get a little more breaking in done.

After my lesson Coach T came off the ice and requested to “play” with my shiny new skates. She then began to bend them in a few different ways. This made a world of difference for me as I got on the ice today to skate. There was still a little pain at times, but it was such a great practice session because I felt like I was getting my moves back. I worked on my  3 turns, consecutive edges, mohawks (I think I got them down!), lunges (nailed the new technique a couple times), stroking, slaloms (wide strides and short fast ones), 2 foot turns, waltz jump, and spins. I didn’t have any “bad” falls and my feet weren’t killing me by the end of it, so I’d say my practice was quite successful! 

I am pleased with the progress I’ve made in these new blades and I am very excited to start jumping and working on some more complicated moves in the field. Who knows, I might be testing a little earlier than I expected.

So... This Is What Pain Feels Like?

I skated in my new skates and it was MISERABLE. Hello square one, how are you doing today? AHHHH I had no idea it would be THIS difficult. I thought maybe there would be a little pain here and there, but boy was I wrong!

So….that’s what pain feels like? Hmph. I digress. I walked into the rink on Wednesday with my head up high, walking in with my skating bag (and my brand new skates) like I owned the place. I was excited and somewhat nervous, but mostly excited. I started out by doing my normal warm up exercises: muscle stretches, jumping jacks, lunges, galloping (to the side), and jumps. I walked over to my bag to get my skates on for the very first time at the rink, it only took me a couple minutes to get them on as compared to the 15 minutes I spent to tie my old skates. That in itself was a success.

From the moment I stepped on to the ice I knew that it was going to be a challenge. The toe pick is way bigger than my older one, I was hitting it with just normal stroking. As I skated to the benches to put my stuff down I quickly realized that I would have a very difficult time stopping. Once I got to the benches I did the whole making snow thing to get my blades adjusted to the ice, those of you with new skates or newly sharpened blades, this is a must! It definitely made a difference as I continued.

It really was back to square one though, I basically wasted a class session. I worked on stroking, swizzles, half swizzle pumps, and one foot glides during practice time, and then two foot turns, crossovers, and spins during class.

My feet were aching THE ENTIRE time. Yet I managed to go home rest my feet a little and then got them back on again. I’ve been told by numerous people now that I need to walk around my house in the skates (and hard guards). So, I’ve been doing that for a few days now and they finally feel like they are setting in. Everytime I put them on they feel a tad more comfortable than the last time. Sometimes I warm up my socks before I put them on to mimick the heat molding experience, I figure this will speed up the process. I was told that some people put heat packs in the boots for a while then set their feet in, also to mimic the molding process. I’ll basically will try anything at this point that won’t ruin the boot. I can’t handle two weeks of no progress. It may just be the death of me.

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.

Unscheduled Private Lesson #2

I got really lucky again this week and had a half day at work, even left a half hour earlier than I usually do, so skating! I headed to the rink knowing that there’s an adult class on Friday mornings that I could catch if I got there fast enough.

Sure enough I made it to the rink with time to stretch, change, and get my skates on. Coach T was teaching this lesson, which is awesome because she is my favorite, haha! During class I showed her the mohawks that I had been working on, only I found out they weren’t exactly mohawks because I was doing them on two feet. She showed me the proper way to do them on one foot, then helped me do them the right way. Then looked at me and said, “your turn”. Now, I just want to take a moment here to describe my experiences with Coach T thus far, she shows me what I’ll be working on, I blankly stare at her thinking there’s no way I can do that. She guides me through the move, I do it with her a few times. Then, she says, “your turn” and I blankly stare in fear and hysteria. HAhA, you want me to do THAT on my own? Good one.

So, I tried the mohawk on my own and didn’t die. Sure there were a few close calls, but I did it! As with any move I learn, it needs work, but I am so glad I learned the proper way to do it! In the last couple minutes of class I worked on spins with one of the other women in class. I am still using my toe pick to hold my left foot in place, but besides that I can get into my spin about half the time. Coach T came over and said to turn it into a one foot spin (start on a two foot spin and lift right leg). So again, I stared at her blankly thinking, really? She knows what I am thinking and pushes me to do what she’s asked anyways. And that my friends is why I love her.

Having a coach on the ice with you is great, they push you to do things you don’t want to do or you don’t think you can do. I don’t think she’s ever proven me wrong though, I have never hurt myself trying something new - yet. So, I trust her.

After class I asked Coach T if she had any time to come out on the open skate with me for a lesson. She had time! Woohoo! It was a great one hour lesson - unscheduled private lesson number 2! I learned several new skills so I have a lot to practice on my next open ice! During a break I also showed Coach T my new binder! I started a journal last week to write down notes during practice, but the binder thing, that is new. It has all the adult and basic skills curricula in protective sheets. I also included the pre-bronze competition sheets to reference. She wants me to compete and I have decided that I want to compete..officially. The next competition that I can attend (that isn’t too far) is in June. Look out other adult skaters, I am here to stay!

Total ice time: 3.5 hours. So naturally, death and destruction. Everything hurts, I need to ice. I need to stretch. And I need heat pad like 5 minutes ago. I’ll learn my lesson one of these days. So far this week I have had more than 8 hours on the ice! Not sure if I’ll be this lucky next week, but I am going to try for at least 5 hours. My official - planned - private lesson is Thursday! I bet you can guess how excited I am on a scale of 1-10. That’s right, 20 :)

1. Class: Warm-up stroking, crossovers, mohawks, spins.
2. Inside and outside consecutive edges. Switch feet, one pump only down the line. Shoot for 6-8.
3. Backwards crossovers, body straight - not leaning forward.
4. Lunges, two feet first, make sure leg isn’t behind you.
5. Spirals, stretch on wall first. Make sure arms are out, chest up and head up, strong core.
6. 3 turns, turn stomach, stay strong, weight on toes.

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

Saturday’s: My New Practice Sessions

Today’s class was pretty good, not as great as Wednesday’s session but I don’t think they can be compared at this point. I am basically considering my Saturday class a practice session from now on and my Wednesday's will become my learning classes. I’m pretty good with that setup, plus it means two days on the ice. Perfection. I was on the “advanced” side of class again today which meant...hockey teachers. Although there were several people missing from class today so it wasn’t as bad. Plus Coach T (the one that referred me) came over to help me start doing crossovers. I swear every time my foot crossed over the other, my heart dropped. It was a very uncomfortable experience, but for the first couple rounds most of my weight was on Coach T. Unfortunately she had to leave and I didn’t feel like I could do it on my own so I began doing one foot glides, which I thought would be somewhat helpful because when I am doing crossovers I have to be comfortable with the idea of just one foot being on the ice at a time.

In the last five minutes of class I ditched Mr. Hockey coach and headed back to Coach T. I wanted to learn how to do a proper spin! I asked and she showed me how. I’m pretty sure I fell three times in the 5 minutes. I wasn’t really sure how it worked, she kept showing me but I wasn’t exactly getting it. Ultimately my feet were moving before my upper half. Class ended before I knew it, but I was definitely going to work on it during free skate after class.

I cannot wait to be on the ice again this Wednesday with the other coaches. I might actually learn the proper way to do a spin!

Continuity

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