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's Almost Gone!

Why is summer flying by? I’m not quite ready to be back on my normal work schedule, because it means less skating. On the bright side I’ve upped my summer skating hours. Sure, it means I’m spending more of my weekends and evenings icing, but the end is near and I need to reach my summer goals. I’m hoping that in these last two weeks I can start to pull together some of the skills that I had on my summer goals list.

My lessons in the past couple weeks have been somewhat repetitive. Most of the skills I’ve been working on with my coaches are older, things that I was introduced to in the last few months. So, even though I’m working hard during my lessons to improve, I’ve been getting more bored by the week. I desperately need something to spice up my practices. Argh!

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.

Nightmares.

How is it already July? I feel like the summer is going to pass before I have the chance to even soak it in. I haven’t been in the sun enough, because on most days I am cooped up in a 35 degree rink (my choice, I know). Now that it’s July I can begin the countdown to my pre-bronze test, just 12 more days to go. Please kill me now. Maybe I’m not ready for this…

Last night I had a dream...no a nightmare, that I failed my pre-bronze test. I was hysterical. I wish I knew what I had done wrong, all I remember is asking to reskate an element and the judge wasn’t having it so I started crying. I tried telling her that I had only been skating for 6 months, but she wasn’t having it. I went home angry and didn’t want to ever go through testing again.

I hope I don’t react in the same way on testing day if I do fail, but God it was miserable. I woke up so confused, as if I had actually failed my first skating test. I haven’t skated since Friday and don’t skate again until Wednesday. I will try my best to get on the ice at some point tomorrow before my lesson on Wednesday, but that is dependent on the availability of my physical therapist. I am actually worried that I will get on the ice and flub everything I’ve learned due to that stupid dream. I know I need to put it behind me, but my exam isn’t for two weeks, surely I will have more of these dreams. Funny thing is that usually I have skating dreams if I’ve been skating a lot in a week, but I’ve really kept to a strict schedule (physical therapists orders) with recovery days so I don’t over do it. Why was I dreaming about a test I haven’t thought about in days? I don’t know.

Right now, I just can’t wait to get back on the ice. It’s been too long. Happy Skating!