Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

For many, this week includes a holiday, but we hope that doesn't mean that you won't be skating. For those that do, please share your great (empowering) and less-than-great (embarrassing) moments with us.

Re: Empowering/Embarassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

I decided to go to the two hour long morning session alone today, because I can't make the afternoon one on Wednesday before my class.

Oh yeah - starshine - I'm going to Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA (you asked me last week). I'm super excited for the beginning of the year; I can't wait to see what my classes will be like. It's about 5 hours away (by car) from where I live now, near Seattle. No rink on campus, but there's one w/in walking distance at least!

Embarrassing: As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw a big County Parks & Rec bus and said aloud, "Nooooooo!" Because I knew that meant 30+ elementary school kids who'd never skated before, taking over what I now think of as MY ice time (hah, I'm really not THAT snooty about it). But they only stayed on the ice for about an hour and they went on and off the ice a lot, so it wasn't so bad. I just wish someone would've told them to go counterclockwise rather than zigzagging precariously across the surface.

Empowering: Drumroll please.... today was THREE TURN DAY!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!!!! Back in February when I decided I wanted to take lessons, I spent a little bit of time every time I went trying the elusive three turn. I thought if I could just unlock the secret of that, everything else would come pouring out. Well, I'm not so sure now about that part, but today I successfully taught myself a pretty nice LFO three turn. Don't know why that one works so much better than the others (I tried every kind). I set out to just practice my little two foot turns that Joy said will get us ready for three turns. Then I started wondering why we were doing those pretty much on the flats of our blades, so I just sort of started leaning into it more. And once I felt solid with those, I started lifting one foot off the ice every so slightly when going into and out of the turn... and then more and more... and finally I was able to really pick my right foot up and cleanly turn on my left foot. I was so overjoyed at this and I kept grinning and I'm sure I looked pretty silly but this is the first "long term" goal I've achieved while taking basic skills (which are now half over). I kept on looking at the little "3s" on the ice and smiling.

Oh, another good thing - except for the camp kids it was only me and another girl I've seen before, but the kids went up for lunch at 11:30 and the girl left five minutes later so for the last 10 minutes I was all by myself. Made me wish I could do some nice big jumps in the middle but I was satisfied with my 3turn-step to face forward-3turn sequence. Yay! Can't wait until my lesson on Wednesday.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

<strong>Rachel</strong> - Hey, 3-Turn Queen!!! That's just fabulous progress that you've made, and you have every right to be proud. Plus, one of the things you learn at any decent skating camp is to analyze your tracings, so even if you were grinning like a crazy person while you watched your "little 3s," you were doing the right thing to keep an eye on them. There's a lot that can be told about your skating by seeing what's been left behind.

Ooooh, I was jealous of you having that whole ice to yourself. I usually go bonkers once everyone leaves and pull out all stops. Once, I was hamming it up pretty good, and when I came off the ice the rink manager made some kind of a comment about my "big arm movements." I just smiled and told him I was eating up the freedom.

<strong>Em-something</strong> - I honestly don't know whether to post today's practice under "empowering" or "embarassing." On the one hand, I don't feel like I was "all on" today, and I was constantly fighting with myself to motivate me to keep going. Running through my program was making me feel dizzy and a little nauseated. On the other hand, I skated the full 80 minutes and really worked hard on all my program elements and also did one full run-through on the moves. While they weren't my best ever, I think they would have at least borderline passed. So o.k., I had a bit of an off morning. I still kept going and got in some good ice time. Next time will be a better day.

I HAVE noticed that since I started doing the stretching exercises daily, I am making an eensy bit of progress. I can now reach a little farther down on the standing hamstring stretch, my back seems to be loosening up a little, and the leg pulls are getting closer to my face (lying on my back). Also, my spiral stretches show fairly even progress on both legs, and a nice "champagne glass" shape, even if I don't have a split spiral (yet ). So that is all a good thing.

Re: Empowering/Embarassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Rachel: Whoo hoo--good for you, you three turn tiger!!! And I agree with Cinderella--I look at my tracings constantly. Its a great way to track progress.

Cinderella: Hope you feel better. We all have our off days.

Embarassed: The first couple of minutes on the ice after having been off for almost two weeks. Just a moment or two needed to rebalance.

I am Skater, Hear me ROAR: Very empowering work with figures today. I'm getting the basic forward figure 8 on both feet, outside and inside edge. Don't bring up backwards though, that goes in the embarassing category; however, back edges are really improving. We really found the flaw at my last lesson, and my pushes are stronger, balance better and edges are bigger even with just two sessions working with new technique. The figure practice is really helping give me control, especially of my shoulders. Its amazing how my body wants to twist automatically on some moves. We hope to use this knowledge and technique with three turns soon to get them better.

Re: Empowering/Embarassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Today it was salchow day.

Actually did a few good ones that my coach was pleased with. Coach has decided we will go with the 3-turn entry. She told me that I am going to have to learn to hold the back inside longer. My problem is that I have a tendecy to rush my jumps. She figures that using the 3-turn entry she can effectively control my rushing the jump.

The problem I am having now is that I do not completely rotate so I land out to the side, rather than forward. It sounds like a practice issue to me.

Empowering is the fact that progress is going in the right direction.

Empowering/Embarassing Lessons & Practices

Figureskates -- I had a tendency to rotate too soon on my salchows. What I did to help was practice doing the three turn only -- and hold the check as long as I could. After a while it worked, and I was able to enter the salchow without swinging it.

You know, I wish this site would let you see all the posts in a thread when you are responding instead of the last one. I remember the last one no problem, but have trouble remembering who wrote what on the posts before.

Empowering: My lesson. I love my lessons. My axels were good. My MIF's are coming along. We worked about 1/2 hour on double toes. (Our 50 minute lesson went too fast so we went 20 minutes into the next session until coach had another lesson). I had one in the harness that felt right - I'm having some trouble getting the weight shift right on the fly (among some other things). However, it will come. No pain from the hip flexor !!!!

Embarassing: Nothing, except am I ever tired! My legs ache, my back aches, my arms ache. I am not used to doing 2 sessions in a row, and I haven't jumped like this in months. (I don't know how you do it, Cinderella.) The aches feel good, though....

Also, at the end of the session (I'm really tired at this point) I decide to work on my MIF's a bit. I'm doing my nemesis brackets, and on one lobe I came around and fell off my edge right onto my butt. The momentum rolled me over on my back, legs in the air. Reminds me of the commercial: $45 for the skating skirt, $825 for the skates, $12 for the skating session...falling on your butt on a <em>bracket</em> and rolling on your back at the feet of an National, World and Olympic ice dancer.....PRICELESS!!!

Re: Empowering/Embarassing Lessons & Practices

<strong>Sk8r1964</strong> - :rollin: :rollin: :rollin: AH Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. You had me ROTFLMAO on your suggested commercial. At my practice on Monday, I fell ..... stepping forward from a back crossover. <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/embarassed.gif ALT=""> It's always something stupid. But ouch, sometimes those are the ones that hurt the most.

I was totally impressed with your double session and all that jumping. I suspect the double toe is just going to show up one day.

And I agree with you totally about threaded discussions -- this format is not at all conducive to trying to keep your thoughts in order. I'm glad it's not just me. I thought maybe I was getting too old to remember the previous posts! :lol:

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

About the threaded discussions, if you click on the add reply at the top of the thread, you will be able to see pretty much all the posts from that thread. I stumbled across that a while back, and have used it ever since. So now you won't need to remember all the posts, cuz they'll be right in front of you!

Happy Skating!

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Empowering: Nothing.

Embarrassing: I fell a lot, the loop just left me. My feet today just liked to "unravel" right before I jumped which made me fall. My spins were bad, I fell a lot, and when I worked on crossovers I couldn't because I had to watch out for a guy doing triples and a girl doing doubles so I didn't get run over. I got so mad I started doing power x-overs across the rink, just zooming, and some idiot little kid ran in front of my and I skidded to a stop, slid backward and fell hard on my left hip. Good it's no injury, but ow it hurts! So, today sucked for me.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

<strong>Starshine</strong> - you little smartie, who ever said you needed to go to college at all?! That "Add Reply" at the top is something I hadn't tried before, and it's great to be able to scroll down and "remind" yourself of the posts.

<strong>Lanechka</strong> - ouch, what a horrid day! Get some good sleep tonight and take heart in the fact that what happened today does NOT indicate how things might go the next time you step on the ice. I guess if things were going to unravel, they might as well have done so all at once. But I sympathize with your punk day, as I had one recently (not quite as bad) and it made me feel a little sour all day. Hope your hip feels better soon.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Cindy, he he he!!! I still need to go to University, but I found out about that by accident. It's just good that it helps!

Rachel, your college sounds quite nice! It'll be great to get away from everything at home, eh? (hehe, my Canadianess is showing! :lol: ) It's nice there's an arena near by too. Luckily, I have one right on campus!

Sounds like most of you are doing great, which is what I like to hear. All you lucky devils out there on the ice. 9 more days till I get back on the ice, and I'm glad I have a bud going with me.

Lanie, take care of yourself and that injury. Your loops will do that to you, it'll just take a bit to get them in line. Keep at it, and make sure you get some rest.

A lil off topic, but it's 20 days till I go to the American Idol Concert in Toronto. I'm sooooo excited that I'll get to see Clay live!!!

Happy Skating everyone!

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Yay for Wednesday, lesson day! Every Wednesday is a good day now, hehe. Plus I woke up early (well, 8:30 is early for me now during the summer) to hear the announcement about the Olympics - Vancouver, woohoo! I'm not sure I'll be living around here by then, but it was still exciting news.

Embarrassing: It took me an hour and five minutes to get to the rink from work, UGH! There was a brush fire (dry weather + fireworks and stuff) off the main road I take to get there so I had to backtrack all over the place and go on the freeway and it just wasn't fun. As for my time actually out on the ice, I had a few tailbone-crunching falls but none that have me left sore right now. We'll see in the morning. I took the impact on my wrists once, which is bad, because I have fairly weak wrists. Gotta start wearing wrist guards I guess.

Empowering: Today was a GREAT day of skating for me. I was still waaay overly excited about my three turns. Joy had us work on mohawk turns - whoa, can't do those so well, but I had some good attempts. Then we worked on three turns, and I got to show off a bit. Except she had us doing a weird setup (to me), starting by gliding with our arms one way, and then switching to the right way before we bent our knees and went into the turn. I didn't like it. Oh yes, and before all the turns, we worked on backward crossovers, which I can actually almost DO now! Wheee! Except going clockwise - that brings me to a grinding halt. Anyway, I stayed for the public session afterwards, and had a great practice. I worked on all the stuff - the turns and the crossovers - and felt really nice and smooth today (if that makes sense). By the end of the session, I was feeling really good, so on a whim I tried some spirals and was able to balance decently, even though I couldn't even get my free leg up to hip level on either side (I'm working on stretching, so hopefully soon it'll be better). Then I just sort of messed around with my arms while stroking around the rink - doing pretty little poses I've picked up in my years of dancing in musical theater productions (I don't have any "real" dance training other than tap, which doesn't translate to the ice too well). I dunno, it was nice. OH and one more thing - the girl from the "skating family" I met last week taught me how to do a wee little two foot spin, so I worked on that today, and managed to do some really nice ones by figuring out how to balance well enough to gain momentum. I fell out of one though, it was kind of funny, because I was in the exact middle of the rink (the crowd had thinned out a bit) and then all of a sudden I was on the ice.

Anyway, sorry my posts are so long, I just want to get out every detail! See you all next week

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

rachel: Your posts are NOT too long, they are great and much fun to read. We're glad to hear you are progressing so well and enjoying it so much.

Embarassing: My first attempts at a one foot spin in about 6 weeks. Ick, yuck, couldn't even remember what to do.

I've got the POWER: Later work on one foot spin. I still only do a rev or two or maybe close to three, but if this makes sense, I'm starting to FEEL it. I'm getting the free foot back, holding the initial edge better and getting the free around. I'm starting to feel the weight over the left side (I'm CCW) better. Now, if I could just stop dropping the right shoulder as I get it going...<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/grin.gif ALT=" >D"> :rollin: I was awful at first, then much better, then it got worse which meant overkill, time to do something else!!

Two foot spins were good today, and we began exercises for...(Wait for it...) BACKSPIN. She got me to do a two foot spin but concentrate on the right arm and keeping the weight to the right. We also worked on a wall exercise of doing the inside three and "folding" (coaches words) the free foot in front to begin the spin. She warned me: I'll probably try to toeloop with the free (pick) foot in front and backspin with the free in back (as I would for toeloop) until my brain adjusts to the switch in free foot position between the two.

Overall, today's lesson was more BRAIN work thank foot/body work. I came out of it physically and mentally tired, but it was great. Happy 4th of July holiday, everyone!!! Enjoy!

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

I only have a second, so I'll pop back in here later to comment on the new posts by everyone. While it's fresh in my mind, I want to post about today's practice.

EMPOWERING: I had a SUPER session this morning. I popped out of bed all perky and got to the rink 10 minutes early. My coach was late, and by the time she got there I had really worked up a lather and was tired already. Fearing that I was going to be too floppy, I convinced myself that I had just arrived and was fresh. We started out by going over all the Moves in the Field, and she was overall quite pleased. She tweaked a few things that I think will help me pass the test with flying colors.

EMBARRASSING: But I have to share my Extreme Fall story. I was doing back power circles (you skate backwards doing crossovers in an ever-widening circle) and not to brag, but I was going at warp speed! There should have been no problem (everyone knows the pattern, so people don't get in the way), but this young girl of about 11 (bigger than me, though) made an unexpected 3-turn after I had already passed by her and she turned right into me and "clipped" my blade, which caused me to fall and take her with me! We slid a good 15 feet at fairly top speed. For me, it was surprising (I had no CLUE what had caused the dreaded "click"), but for her it was frightening because she was practically standing still one minute, and the next she was jerked along like when you first start up with water skiing! I felt so terrible (even though it wasn't at all my fault) because she hit her head slightly, but both of us were o.k. Everyone was more worried about me, because I had taken the gargantuan part of the fall (and I'm OLD!!), but I sprang up right away to help her up and make sure she wasn't going to concuss on us. We're both fine. She'll probably have a small headache, and I'm going to have a whopper bruise on the palm of my right hand (thank goodness, no wrist fracture) and possibly my right hip.

AGAIN EMPOWERING: Well that sure woke me up! I had enough adrenaline to take me through the rest of the lesson. After that, I ran through my whole program and while I still have a lot of work to do, I felt a lot stronger throughout the whole thing and each of the elements was a little better executed than previously.

Once home, I did a brand new stretching/strengthening routine that is designed in particular for skaters. (It's on the Magic of Style video with Ann-Margreth Frye.) It felt GREAT!

More later ...

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Empowering: Well, we worked on the mohawk all session because for some reason I kept having problems with it today. Coach and I got it to where it was so much better, big improvement there.

Embarrassing: None, really. Thank God I didn't have a day like the other day!!

Other: Watched the skaters in the other rink and saw Bebe Liang working on a new program... poor girl was popping axels left and right, I felt bad for her... She's taller, about an inch more than me (I'm like 4'10). It was nice watching all these girls who are so talented... my friend Linda said she saw Danielle Kahle do a 3/3.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

<strong>Rachelstarlet</strong> - You are truly becoming the 3-Turn Queen, and we know EXACTLY what you mean when you say you "felt smooth." You're making great progress and soon you'll be feeling the same way with that two foot spin!

<strong>Yazmeen</strong> - Good for you too, you've got the "feel" and that's very important. And I hope I don't sound preachy, but the BRAIN is probably the most important part of all the skating. It can be your friend, and it can be your enemy. So it's great that you are learning to focus and to train your brain so that it will begin to do things automatically, without a lot of thought. That is totally powerful and will serve you well for the future. Also, no matter how many other things I learn, I still seem to have troubles with the on-again, off-again backspin. So don't hesitate to share every single tip and trick that you learn so I can remind myself.

<strong>Lanechka</strong> - Glad to hear you made mohawk progress. It's always nice when a lesson shows immediate improvement!

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

A little tidbit about the "brain" element: Joy (coach) was holding one of my hands while I was attempting a mohawk, and as I was concentrating so hard that I thought I'd bore a hole into the ice, one of the little boys in hockey skates whose lesson was over by then came barrelling past and fell and slid right in front of me. I was so surprised I promptly executed a very nice (still somewhat small) mohawk! My expression was so awestruck that everyone started laughing and Joy said, "You were just thinking too much about it before - you needed that distraction!" I think the whole thinking too much/fear factor will be my biggest obstacle in learning to skate, as it probably is for many adult beginners.

And another thing (I keep thinking of all these things to write about while reading everyone else's posts): maybe I just don't go at the right times, but I never see any really "advanced" skaters at my rink (despite the huge "HOME OF ROSALYNN SUMNERS" on the hockey scoreboard). I don't think I've ever seen anyone do triple jumps. Probably the best skater I've seen is my new friend from the skating family, and I think the best jump I've seen him do is the double axel. Hmmm.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

<strong>Rachelstarlet</strong> - The fact that you have hockey skaters on your ice makes me think that you are probably going to public skates or some other types of sessions that high freestyle skaters would avoid. At your current level, this may work out o.k. (as long as they aren't <em>too</em> crowded or <em>too</em> dangerous). But it may explain why you aren't seeing many higher level skaters.

You might want to ask your coach about what other sessions are available--not to skate during them, but to come watch part of a session where the more seasoned skaters are practicing. It is both motivating and humbling to see how <em>fast</em> and how <em>effortlessly</em> many of them seem to skate. It just allows you to see how skating progresses to be more and more beautiful.

No matter what your level, it is important to find the practices that are most suitable to you. If you found yourself the sole beginniner on ice full of advanced skaters, you probably would be very intimidated and possibly it would be dangerous, as advanced skaters tend to assume that everyone can get out of their way quickly. As you get more seasoned, you automatically "know" all of the patterns that people tend to follow when they're practicing Moves in the Field, dances, and even different lines for double and triple jumps. So when an advanced skater veers suddenly, you would anticipate it and not skate into that path. Hopefully (but not always), the advanced skaters should be doing the same for you. But I find it's easier to skate with people who are closer to doing the things that I am. (In fact, see my "Big Fall" reference above for what happens when people don't or can't anticipate patterns.)

When I first started back to skating after 30 years off the ice, I rightfully went to the Adult Public Skate sessions. The problem was, I turned out to be the most advanced and fastest person on the ice. Luckily, we only have 7 - 12 people at any given time. But I quickly noticed that people were frightened to death of me because they were so unused to anyone having power or speed. I made sure that I made friends with everyone right away and explained that they didn't need to go "running" out of my path, that they had paid for the ice same as me and were entitled to do what they were doing, and in fact if they remained predictable, I had the ability to "get out of their way" by anticipating their flight path, so not to worry. Up until the big fall yesterday, I have never run into anyone (and in fact, she ran into me), and that was a super odd circumstance because I had already passed her and for all practical purposes, we should not have been in each other's way.

Anyway, didn't mean to make this so long (or preachy), but I'm very excited about the progress you have made and I love your posts because they remind all of us of the wonder of trying--and then successfully doing--something new. Hopefully that feeling will never leave you (it hasn't left me yet!) and you will continue to enjoy skating for the rest of your life!

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

We have two rinks--the NHK and Olympic. The Olympic is the weekly public session rink and the NHK is the freestyle rink so you usually don't have to worry too much about people running into you doing triples (usually). I don't get how you get to be in the freestyle rink, though; probably doing doubles and triples (in that case I'll NEVER skate in that rink during the week, haha!). I think the two rink thing is a good idea. Usually you don't get too many people. You get the younger kids who are working on their cute little ISI programs or whatever.

Re: Empowering/Embarrassing Lessons & Practices 6/30-7/6

Cindy, so you are another "30 year hiatus" skater!!

For me, big mistake. Should not have waited 30 years!!