Landed My Waltz Jump!

I landed my waltz jump today! I cannot believe I landed my first jump! I’ve said this before and I am going to say it again. When I began skating, I thought I’d start jumping after a year or two. I’ve been on the ice for three months now and I’m learning to jump, and this is crazy to me!

If I’ve learned anything from this experience it’s that skating is all mental after basic skills. When I go into the waltz knowing that I am going to land it, I do, and when I’m shaky I don’t. Coach T and I spent a fair amount of time working on the waltz on Tuesday and just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Then during my private lesson on Thursday we went through more of the smaller pieces that go into the jump and I got it! The look on my face was priceless, according to my coach, and I honestly felt like I was going to start tearing up. But there wasn’t time, because my coach wanted me to do it again and again. When Coach T says “one more time” it really means we are going to continue doing it until I start flubbing it again.

My coach also started to show me a one foot spin, I think it might be a scratch spin but I am really not sure because we just went through a couple of the intro steps. I’m posting my first videos on the blog. Below you will see my waltz jump and a two foot spin (which I fell out of, but I tried my best!).

I can’t wait for spring break boot camp. I have three private lessons scheduled, so I am hoping I can learn some new skills and perfect some of the ones that I’ve been working on.

Spring Break Boot Camp!

Well, tomorrow is the day that my personal boot camp officially begins. In the next 10 days I will be on the ice for more than 20 hours and in the gym for at least another 10. Surely, I will be destroyed by the end of the week, if not broken.

When I decided not to travel over spring break, I did so with the intention of using my week off to push my skating to the next level. There are certain skills that I need to have down in order to really move forward, the first of them being crossovers. More than that, I just need to get myself more acquainted with the ice. I still have my random jerky moments with my arms flailing all over the place.

Boot camp is probably going to be the most physically exhausting week of my life to this day, but I know it will be worth it. After all I really want to pass my pre-bronze test! After my practice session on the ice yesterday I was talking to one of the regulars in the adult skating community to get some advice on what she wears for testing, but she told me that she hasn’t tested yet! She’s been on the ice for two years and still hasn’t tested….now I know she wants to, so why the wait? I guess I’m speeding things up by wanting to test so quickly, after all I’ve only been on the ice for three months.  But I know where I want to be in 3-4 years, adult nationals. I can picture it and I know with hard practice weeks, like the one I have coming up, I can achieve my goal.

I know I am shooting for the moon here, adult nationals are like the Olympics for kid skaters...at least in my mind. But what difference does it make? Having goals like that should only push me forward. That is why I am working so hard. That is why I am going to push myself next week, like I’ve never pushed myself before.

Practice Sessions & More

Another incredible skating weekend under my belt, I skated for just over 3 hours on Friday and about 1.5 hours on Saturday. I feel like I am really getting the hang of these new boots, finally. I know I’ve been saying that for a few days now, but every time I put them on they feel a little better than the last time. I got off the ice both days feeling really great about my practice sessions without a coach present.

I worked a lot on skills that I’ve been taught in the last learn to skate session, nothing new besides the power 3’s (which are incredibly fun by the way, when people aren’t skating through my line). At this point I really can’t wait to get back on the ice for a real session with my coach. I want to start jumping! I want to land my waltz and I have a feeling it’s coming in the next couple weeks. I also really want to clean up at least half of the skills that I need for my pre-bronze test. I feel like I can do my forward stroking and forward consecutive edges comfortably, so I have about 4 more skills to nail down: backward consecutive edges, crossovers, waltz 8, and spiral or lunge.

I also wanted to mention the fact that I missed my skating-versary a few days ago, it’s been 3 months! I will update my progress report in just a couple days, though I didn’t learn as much this month as I have in the past - I know that I’ve come so far from where I began. Much of it was due to the fact that I was breaking in new skates, but now that they’ve molded to my feet hopefully I’ll jump right back on to the progress bandwagon.

**Side note: Coach C walked in on me totally jamming out, singing, and dancing on the ice when I had it all to myself on Friday morning (for a short period of time). I was a tad bit embarrassed but totally in my element, if anything it shows that I am ready to present myself on the ice, have no fear skater Gina is here.... argh I can't help myself, I just had to go there.

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.

First Official Weigh In

It’s official. I’ve lost weight! To the people I see everyday, this comes as no surprise, but for some reason this is a shocker for me. I’ve been weighing myself on a semi-regular basis at home for a few months now and my weight hasn’t fluctuated very much, clearly my scale is not working at home.

Yesterday, I went to the doctor to get my knee checked out because it has been bothering me from the numerous falls (more about that later). I used the visit as an official weigh in day so that I can get an accurate reading of the weight I was in October to compare against my current weight. Drum roll please….! I’ve lost about 15 pounds, shout out to..... me! It probably doesn’t sound like much since it’s over such a long period of time, but I’ve gained a lot of muscle weight in these last few months.

I’m really excited and motivated by this as it is a confirmation of my hard work and commitment. I’ve been asked about my weight change several times over these last few months and I am pleased to say that I am motivated by my figure skating endeavors. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it will be easier to “jump” if I’m lighter and stronger.

Over these last few months I’ve done a good job of slowly cutting the “crap” out of my diet. I’ve been taking pictures of several of my meals over the last few weeks and I’ll be sharing more details about my diet soon.

Now, back to the doctor’s appointment. I visited the doctor because I noticed that my knees started to make “clicking” noises when I bent them. This worried me because I thought something was torn, I've taken numerous falls on my knees at this point, who knows what's going on down there? I also feel a significant amount of pain when I am exercising/moving around a lot. I’ve confirmed that nothing is torn/broken, but I need to continue wearing the brace for extra support and I need to do some exercises to strengthen the muscles around my knees. Good times. I had a friend (in residency) check out my knee before this official visit and she told me I’d probably have to stay off the ice for a couple weeks, thankfully this is not the case. So, I can continue doing what I love: being on the ice <3

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.