Ecstatic / Exhausting Lessons & Practices January 12-18

C'mon, fess up. Tell us all about your great (ecstatic) and not-so-great (exhausting) lessons and practices for this week.

ECSTATIC - Today was a very good practice, especially for a Monday morning. There was only one other person on the ice with me, so I had lots of room to do things over and over. I spent the whole first half working on my back sit, in various combinations. You name it, I tried to put a back sit at the end of it! My backspins are centering very nicely - now if only I could get the back sit to look that way.

Flying camels were on, jumps were on, and the lutz/loop is definitely getting more height and flow. My connecting moves felt much more graceful, and I ran through my program several times without the "big" elements just to get a feel of the flow and to add more artistry. I paid special attention to my "Tigger" footwork, but it was feeling a little heavy, although I've really gained a lot of speed.

I'm hoping that tomorrow my coach will spend my lesson working on both double jumps (toe and sal), especially the timing of the take-offs. I also want her to supervise my first attempts in over 32 years at a flying sit spin.

EXHAUSTING - While I seem to have solved all of my major new skate pain problems, today I got lace bite on the left foot and ripped a chunk of skin out the size of a quarter. Then I made the mistake of putting Nu Skin on it and YEEEOOOWWWWWCCCHHH! Gosh that stuff is wicked!

DON'T MAKE ME BE SO ECSTATIC ALL BY MYSELF!

My skating practice today was one of the best I have ever had. I got an earlier start than yesterday, and even though the rink was more crowded than usual, after about 30 minutes it thinned down to me and 2 other people. I don't know what got into my coach, but she was just insatiable today and my 30 minute lesson lasted for almost 75 minutes! And I skated for another hour on top of that! Woo hoo!

Stuff was just COOKING! She pointed out all kinds of corrections and I was actually able to make them happen. It was too cool. We worked on just about everything, and she was quite pleased with my improvement over last week, even the lifting my leg over my head thing (which right now is only about lifing my leg so my toes are about even with my shoulder). I even cheat-landed both of the double jumps, which makes me believe that some day in the not so distant future I'll be able to land them solidly.

Honestly, I could gush on and on and go into great detail, but suffice it to say that I felt STRONG and LIGHT and SURE and MARVELOUS and even FLEXIBLE all at the same time. It was like flying. What a high!

Gosh I LOVE this sport!

Back to my first MITF and private lesson last night since taking a break after Thanksgiving.

I still remember how to skate and that's very encouraging. Watched Michelle won her 8th National Title sure does make me wanna go back to the ice and skate, and I did.

MITF class was OK. We're learning how to do forward outside cross stroke correctly. I'm not there yet, but I think I get the idea. All the little exercises our coach taught us really help.

My back edge pull is much better. We're doing FO3 (half a circle)/back edge pull/crossover (another half a circle), then repeat the same pattern down the ice. I was really pleased that I could actually do the back edge pull right after the FO3 (changing the edge from inside to outside). In the past, I had to put my free foot down to balance myself to do the Xover and skipped the edge pull completely. Last night, I understood what my coach was saying and I could actually do it. I was just stunned.

As for my private lession, since it was my first time back on the ice, we took it easy. Fine tuning on my forward Xover. I'm glad we did that. I really want to improve my Xover and makes them look easy and effortless.

Did some jumps, they're OK. I could even land the loop and my coach was pleased. Worked on waltz/loop a bit. I could land it, but my coach wanted to correct the timing on my loop take off. I'll have to work on that. Flip is coming along but not there yet. My coach asked me to do floor jumping exercise to get ready for the flip. So now I'll have to go to the gym and practice various floor jumping exercises.

My coach also worked on my 1-foot spin and I'm forever grateful. Under her instruction, I actually spun for 6 revs and centered. I couldn't believe it. I need to practice it more and see if it will become consistent. I'm hoping.

Happy skating everyone.

Exhausting: I've put on weight from being in residence, so all my doubles are gone. Not good with a major competition on the weekend. I fell on everyone I did, except one that I 2 footed. I hope I can fix the timing by Sunday, in time for the competition.

Estatic: Even though it's a major competition, I'm the only one at my level, so I automatically move on from the Interclub competition to Regionals. I still have to skate all my programs, but there isn't that added pressure of outskating other people, so I can concentrate and take my time with things, and if I don't skate well, I won't be penalized. There's also a month and a half between now and Regionals, so that gives me a month to get my jumps back. This is my first time doing a Provincial level competition, and the first time I'll be competing at Regionals, so I'm thrilled to be able to have that opportunity. I don't care how I place at Regionals, it's just such an honour for me to attend.

Happy Skating!!

ECSTATIC - I had another incredible practice today. Actually it started out kind of low key because, honestly, I still was sort of EXHAUSTED from yesterday. So I told myself that all I needed to do was work on the connecting moves and some spins and only skate for an hour. One of the coaches put on the music from Pirates of the Caribbean, and as lovely as it was, it just sort of went on and on and on. I found myself sort of numbed from it all. And THEN, her CD started to skip and she asked me if I'd like to play something else. I noticed that she had a Rolling Stones CD and told her to put that on. It was 40 Licks (which is AWESOME), and every single song was just incredible.

All of a sudden things just ROCKED and I started jumping and doing flying spins and it all was so ON. Wow, what a rush! I wound up skating for 1-1/2 hours and did endurance the last 10 minutes. Even though I was pumping it out big time, I barely broke a sweat on that segment, and that was great news because it means I've cranked it up another notch.

I left the ice feeling like I was actually making progress and that there's a chance I'll get all these elements in control in time to at least not embarrass myself at Mids.

Tomorrow is my skating rest day, though I'm excited because I've found some free Yoga classes and a Pilates class that I can join through my health club. I'm going to try to do something at least 1-3 times a week to work on flexibility, starting on Friday.

Starshine - I have missed you SO much! Hope school is going well. Smart girl, don't overstress about the competition OR the weight gain. You're still in transition, and everything will settle back in and your doubles will come back from Alaska. Tell them to bring some friends with them for me! Hope you are enjoying all of your new experiences and the balance of school and skating will find itself.

Luenatic - good to "see" you as well. I was inspired by many of the performances at Nationals too. Great job on the 6 revs!!!

ECSTATIC: Forward 1 foot spin. I seem to have found the right spot on my blade and with very little effort, I am suddenly spinning fast and centered- not dizzy and not scary. I seem to have all the time in the world to get into position and gently come out of it. And I love the feeling of momentum. Easy. If I keep working at it, the jumps will come, too (I still don't get the toe pick in right- partly because I'm rushing- what I've learned from the spin is that when you've got it right time kind of slows down- keeping the faith that the jumps will be similar). And every practice session reminds me that I really do love to skate.

EXHAUSTING: I don't think the evening group classes are going to work any more. They've merged 4 sessions into 1, drastically increasing the number of students, while decreasing the number of teachers. May just skip the crowded class and go to the (therefore very expensive because it's NOT a public session) 1/2 hour class practice session... may be the only way I can get evening ice time. I really don't know what to do, but somehow I will find a way to get the ice time I need to keep making progress. More incentive to hit the level where I can get on the early morning free-style sessions.

Or I'll start playing hockey... hockey program is getting all the ice time we've lost. If all else fails...

More ecstasy! I am starting to get the toe pick part of the salchow right! The jumps are little, but something to build on.

On Wed I took a group adult lesson where the only things we worked on is edges and I love it! My edges are getting better and better. I am now able to hold my left outside edge much longer then a month ago. If anyone has any doubt that doing edge work is easy they need to think again, because my legs get such a work out that by the time I do my jumps they are too tired!

Happy Skating All

ECSTASY - Woo hoo, another great practice day. The public adult skate session started out fairly crowded, so I spent a lot of time on my spins. The back sit spin is coming along much better, probably because I'm doing it in every combination, including camel/sit/back sit, flying camel/back sit, and sit/back sit/sit. Also making progress on stretching out those spin endings. After the first hour, there were only 3 "regulars" left on the ice, so I worked on all the single jumps, stretching my landing extensions as coach suggested. Gosh, they look so much nicer with a nice finish and locked, turned out free leg!

EXHAUSTING - Struggled a little to get the lutz/loop and axel/toe loop to have continued momentum, but the last several were quite good. Still need a lot of work on the flying sit. Went through my full new program once and only two words describe it accurately: PUH-LEASE!!! :\ Sheesh! I still have a lot of work to do.

ECSTASY - But then things really picked up again. I was alone with one of the good 14 year olds who likes to join the "cool" people, and she really helped me with my 2toe. She says I landed two of them, but I feel like they were cheated. I definitely cheat-landed about 6 more, and some of them were pretty darn close to full rotation. At least I know what I've got to work on, as she was great about giving me some pointers.

Finished up with endurance stroking and was really pleased to have skated for 2-1/4 hours!

Back on ice, at least for a few days between conferences. A good lesson today, we beat crossovers up and they decided to behave better!!!! Seriously, I keep making progress and they keep getting smoother. It felt good to be back on my blades!