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!

Competition Is In Just 3 Days! AHHHH!

I can’t believe it’s already June! This (school) year has flown by and I have officially been skating for 5 months! My first competition is coming up this weekend, can you believe I am competing after such a short time on the ice? I don’t believe it and I am clearly unprepared for what’s ahead.

This past month has been program work month, I’ve hardly had a chance to learn new skills. I’m frustrated because I had made leaps and bounds of progress in the first 4 months of skating and then month five was a quick halt. Like hold the phone, we need to actually make these skills look decent all strung together in a program. Program logic: Take everything you’ve learned in the last four months and cram it into a minute and a half with music and choreography. That’s a nice joke.

While working through this program my coach mentioned that I could take my pre-bronze test after I compete, the first available testing date is in mid June, but I am not quite sure I want to take it on just yet. I’ve spent a month working on my program, so spending another month working on just moves might kill me. I want to learn new skills! Coach T showed me the half flip and Salchow in the last couple minutes of a private lesson about a month ago, she said they would be the next two jumps that I’d learn, but I haven’t had the opportunity to work on them because I’ve been working on my program.

I now understand why most adults just don’t do the whole competing and testing thing! They want to spend their time learning and practicing the skills they enjoy. I think I still want to test and compete, I just think that I should be more strategic about my timing. For example, I shouldn’t have scheduled my first competition during the school year when it’s difficult to find time to practice around my work schedule.

Since it’s the first of the month and I should be blogging my monthly progress I am going to do to it in a separate post, though I feel like I really haven’t learned much, argh!

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!

Why is it that I train as hard as I do?

I asked myself this question over and over again yesterday and I feel like I couldn’t come up with a decent explanation. I like to think that I am training like an Olympian - I know it’s a stretch but I eat, sleep, and breathe figure skating. I train 6-7 days a week, 4 on ice and 2-3 days of off ice. When I am on the ice I train for 2-4 hours, so on average I am on the ice 10 hours a week.

How I train:

“Ice time is precious time”

My time on the ice is no joking matter. I don’t like to chat with the other skaters, I don’t appreciate when people interrupt my valuable practice time. I go from one skill to the next with short water breaks in between so that my solid 2-4 hours are used efficiently. I have even started using this idea of deliberate practice where I write down everything I need to practice in my skating journal and check it off as I go through.

During practices I challenge myself

I often write down 2-4 skills that are very difficult for me and I try my best to do at least a couple of them during my practice so that I can learn to be fearless. Sometimes I look up a skill or move online and attempt it on the ice, within reason (again, trying not to injure myself here).

I train with a coach!

I train with a coach for an hour and a half each week, 3 out of my 4 practices happen with a coach present. This makes a world of a difference for my skating. When I was on my own for most of my weekly practices I was picking up bad habits and not spending all my time on the ice wisely.

I warm up

I never get on the ice without a proper warm-up, on busy days it is as short as 10 minutes while on free days it sometimes lasts up to an hour. Warm-ups make figure skating more of a “sport” for me. My body has grown accustomed to many of the movements I make on the ice so I feel like I am not burning as much as when I am learning a new jump or skill. As an adult skater, I feel the need to warm up my body before stepping on to the ice. I jog around the ice 2-4 times, run up and down the stairs of the stadium 4-6 times, jump rope,  and  stretch in the ballet/off ice room. My coach recently told me that I have “a pop” in my waltz jump now, so basically more distance and height and I can honestly attribute this to my exercises. Running up and down stairs allows my knees to be more flexible on the ice and gives me the “umph” I need when jumping. Do yourself a favor and warm up before ice!

Why I train:

It’s a dream

I am fulfilling a dream of mine. Every time a land a jump, or finally “get” a new skill I feel like I am one step closer to my dream. I can honestly say that I can see myself standing on the adult nationals podium in a few years. Whether or not I place, I will be satisfied with the progress I’ve made. After all, just five months ago I couldn’t skate around the rink without holding on to the boards with my life.

It makes me happy.

Figure skating gives me a whole new understanding of satisfaction and confidence in myself. Growing up I played sports, but I never considered myself an athlete. Sure, I had coaches who pushed me, but never a coach who truly inspired me to want to do my absolute best (Shout out to the amazing Coach T). Figure skating gives me the opportunity to shine and present my passion to the world. It allows me the freedom of artistry and creativity while honing in on skill, power, and control. Figure skating cannot be easily compared to any other thing that I have experienced in my lifetime, but it has become my life. I want it in every possible way. I want to breathe it, live it, achieve it, and succeed in it. And that ladies and gentlemen is why I train as hard as I do.

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!

Perfection? I think not.

I am not a perfectionist, not even close, but I am a hard worker - especially on the ice. I do not have natural talent in this sport...it takes me ages to learn new skills and I often feel foolish when my coach presents a new skill to me and I come no where near re-creating it. So, when someone tells me I look good on the ice or have made a lot of progress, I am not sure sure how to respond or how I should feel. Yes, I feel awesome when I’m on the ice, but that doesn’t mean much. 

I know people hate being recorded on the ice, but I love it. I record myself learning new skills and then I record again in a few weeks to see my progress. I record because I like watching myself skate. I see a girl who is pursuing her dreams. I see joy.  I see a girl who is fit. I see a figure skater in the works.

When Coach Doesn't Show Up....

Teach class? Sure! At my last group lesson we didn’t have a coach for the first five to ten minutes of class. So, we all decided to start off with stroking and crossovers on the ends like we usually do. We did a few laps and then I asked the group if they were ready to switch sides. By this time, we finally had a coach show up. Side note: I love this rink, I like the staff, the coaches, but most importantly I love the ice. So, the fact that Coach B couldn’t make it today is one thing, but then she couldn’t find a sub so they were looking for someone to fill her spot at the last second and this played a big part in how the lesson followed.

In all of the adult classes that I have attended I have always had an adult coach who was able to accurately describe exactly how to do certain moves and how to fix my many mistakes. For this session we had an oh so young coach who didn’t know what our levels were and clearly didn’t have a ton of experience coaching. So naturally (I am a teacher in my other life) I decided to kind of take over...without overstepping of course!

I come to my lessons knowing what I need to work on. I no longer rely on the coaches at group lessons to come up with something new for me to learn because outside of class I am learning moves and jumps in freestyle (the usuals at the rink tell me I’ve outgrown group lessons, but I am trying to keep them up as long as I can because they are cheap compared to contract ice). For this reason, when asked, I told the coach that I needed to work on my consecutive edges. The others were about to start working on their crossovers (again, ugh don’t they get sick of these?), but when they heard I was going to work on edges a few of them followed me. Coach drew a line for us on the ground (that intersected with the circle - that became a problem because there were two others in class learning fxo’s there argh, but I digress). I started off with my backwards edges because they are weaker than my forward edges. One of the girls hadn’t yet been introduced to forward consecutive edges, but she wanted to try so I showed her how to do them and the other women followed suit. At this point the coach was still working with the beginner in the class so I decided it was time to work on my next skill that needed work, consecutive 3’s.

The other women who were practicing on the line continued with edges until they saw that I was doing something different. They asked me what I was working on and I said they were consecutive 3 turns down the line. I told them I had just learned them and didn’t know if what I was doing was correct, but they wanted to see what they looked like so I showed them and they followed suit again.

Next we did a few lines of power 3’s which they pretty much had a handle on, me not so much haha. While they continued working on those I headed to center circle to work on my one foot spin. This is the point in class when I noticed how little coaching experience she had. When sub coach finished working with the other student I asked her if she could help me count my rotations. I normally get between 1 and 2 rotations, if it’s a really good spin I get between 3 and 4 rotations (but that rarely happens!). Sub Coach said I got 3 rotations on the second try, I barely got one and a half in. I don’t know why she would say I got it when I know I didn’t. Either I can’t count or I am way too hard on myself.

Even though I didn’t fix a lot of skills today, it was a great class. I initially signed up for Wednesday nights so that I could just get some extra ice time and that’s exactly what I got today. I even got to run my program a few times before the Zamboni came on the ice. More than that however I got a little feel of what it would be like to coach. During the lesson one of the other adults asked the coach how to do a change of edge on a line and she didn’t explain it very well, so instead she asked to see how I did it and I explained it to the best of my ability. Then substitute asked me to do it again so that she and the others could see (this obviously makes me feel pretty great about what I’ve learned and how far I’ve come especially with the change of edge on a line. I’ve been working on getting that skill for a couple weeks now and during that lesson I was able to do it successfully several times in a row without stepping down).

I am starting to seriously consider coaching in the lower levels of learn to skate. Coach T says I am capable and my Coach C says I will be soon. I still don’t have a summer job, so I would really like to do it. How fun would it be to be at the rink and get paid to teach someone to skate? It’s not great money, but it should at least get me by this summer.