Smooth Ice/Slippery Sleet Lessons and Practices, 1/26 - 2/1

I came up with this week's title due to the lousy weather that CANCELLED ice time and lessons this morning. The lousy ice outside ruins our chances to get to the good ice inside!!! RATS!

Well, this was actually Sunday:

Sleety: Just getting my legs back after two weeks of travel with little skating in between. It took a while.

Smooth as silk: Good spin lesson. Two foot spin looks really good know, and I'm finally getting the hang of doing it out of back crossovers. One foot is coming back--had to drop it for a couple of months due to sinus problems and dizziness--of course, just when I was making progress... :sheesh:

Lesson on Thursday, and then coach is away, so lots of time to practice spins, three turns and crossovers. Time to work those skates!!! Yah, skater, MUSH!!!!!

Smooth: Forward one-foot spins are going really well! Good power, good momentum, surprising number of revolutions! Ta da! Jumps still tentative, but better. Salchow is my current favorite.

Slippery: The forward inside 3 turn keeps me humble ( though in spite of constant complaints, they DO get better).

Slip Sliding Away - gosh, I'm SO behind on posting my practices, it must be the time that's sliding away. Last week just must have been a bit "off" for me, as my third practice (on Wednesday) was also "sleety" despite having the ice mostly to myself. You know how sometimes you just get down on yourself? Well, I've been so preoccupied with work lately, and my not-so-new skates are still causing me roving pain, and there's just soooo much in my program that needs work -- and I guess I just let it all get to me. I then spent 4 days at a trade show, standing in high heels on concrete for 8 hours each day and eating unhealthily. Yeesh! What a mess!

Smooth Criminal - so I decided to start this week off with a bang, and yesterday's practice was so much better than I'd thought it would be. Despite getting in town very late the night before, I had the day off, so I had two wonderful hours before the tiny tots kicked me off. There was only one other person on the ice the whole time. I worked on various parts of my program, trying to feel more "comfortable" while I'm doing them so that I finally can add some style without pitching to my face. One of the coaches gave me some pointers on extension and locking my knee and pointing my toe (I'm just horrible at this!), and it really made a difference. She also showed me how to "punch up" the moves I'm doing, so they don't just all flow together in an unrecognizable blob.

It must have paid off, because today's lesson was excellent. My coach came in all full of beans and energy (must have been fighting the gigantic snowstorm, got her adrenaline up). Anyway, HER enthusiasm was contagious! We started off with a 10 minute warmup to simulate the one I will have at Mids. She wants me to do each element once and only once, combining several of the spins and jumps to save time. I'd give myself 7 out of 10 on that one, with a bit of a shaky flying camel, but a much stronger baby flying sit. Jumps were good, with the lutz surprisingly the best. Then she had me run through the entire program, leaving out the 2sal and the flying sit, but everything else was in. Even though I "fell" on the 2toe, the whole point was to force me to recover quickly and get on with the program. Then I warmed up two footwork sequences and she made me do the program again (!), this time with the 2sal & flying sit in, but the 2toe and the flying camel combo out. Of course, my legs were already turning to concrete, but I made it through without dying and actually got some compliments from another coach who watched. THAT made me feel really good, like maybe there is hope after all.

My coach was so encouraging, I think it will carry me through for practices tomorrow and Friday. I've got a lot to work on, but she was reminding me of how far I've come in only a year and a half, when I had lots of bad ingrained habits still lurking about from my childhood skating days.

Since I KNOW what needs to be fixed, it means I just have to get out there and keep plugging away. And so I will!

Slippery: The weather is rotten here. We got freezing rain, snow pellets, large flakes, rain and you name it. Makes for messy driving and walking.

Found out that I won't get to compete this weekend because no other adults entered by the entery deadline. A new skating buddy of mine from another area club tried to enter but was turned away. Three other adults also got turned away. I was the only adult to enter the competition on time but I still don't get to skate.

Coach is looking into having me compete in Sarnia, ON at the WOS Winter Invitational Competition. Only thing is, if I it is possible for me to compete, the deadline to enter is tonight and they'd have to fax my entery and also get my friend's enter faxed there on time too.

I didn't enter the Bernie Deveau because of it's location and the fact that I'd have back to back competitions each week with little time to train in between. Plus, on competition would have been a Canadian competition and the other a US competition with each having different program times. This means, I'd have only 3 days to change things around in my programs.

EIGHT REVOLUTIONS ON A TWO FOOT SPIN!!!!!

EIGHT REVOLUTIONS ON A TWO FOOT SPIN!!!!

EIGHT REVOLUTIONS ON A TWO FOOT SPIN!!!

Plus, proper arm positions, increasing speed, doing them correctly out of crossovers, improving push out to end them. Coach is now talking about keeping the two foot spin in my program and adding a one foot spin!!!

Did I mention I hit eight revolutions on my two foot spin????

Yaz, doing the Snoopy Happy Dance

Yaz - I've been meaning to ask you. How many revolutions can you get on your two foot spin???

Slippery - Oops, forgot to post about my Wednesday practice.

Smooth - Wednesday's skating practice started off a little slow (more boot pain), but I pushed through it and then it was just awesome. I DID work through my program twice, and while I could nitpick a hundred things that need improvement, I DID make it through both times and pushed myself harder than I usually do. And it was FUN! I can see that I'm on the verge of a breakthrough where the program does NOT seem like a marathon run, which allows me a little more time to actually breathe and maybe .. just maybe ... enjoy myself out there. Oh happy day, please come soon!

Not that I don't enjoy the skating part -- oh, I'm in heaven out there. It's just that whenever I do my program, I go into a techncical trance and I'm so focused on landing things or completing elements correctly, it looses all its flavor and excitement. Think the squinched up forehead and clenched hands of sheer determination. Hardly a good, flowy look on the ice!

So I'm looking forward to Friday's practice, which is in the afternoon and not at the crack of dawn, so I should be extra energetic and will attack all of the elements AND the program and try to whip them into shape.

Creamy Peanut Butter Smooth - oh joy, oh joy. Is there anything in life that's better than 2 hours of fantastic skating practice???

Slip Sliding Away - Actually, the session started out a little dubiously, because instead of the usual 4 people on our public practice ice, there were around 30! ZOINKS! Turns out that a group of adults who live with brain disorders were having a special outing. My annoyance factor at having to run a gauntlet of non-skaters was quickly replaced by awe at seeing what these brave people were trying to do out there. But it WAS a little hazardous, because we also were inexplicably joined by a speedskater (!), 3 hockey players, 4 women who haven't skated for about 20 years, and a youngish girl (beginner) who really didn't belong out there at all (on adult ice).

Smooth Flowing - So for the first 20 minutes or so, I aborted anything with a pattern and contented myself with working on spins. The ice was beautiful, and the spins were gratifying, especially the back sit. Did back scratch, camel/sit/back sit/front sit, flying camel/sit/back sit/front sit. Then when the ice cleared, moved to jumps and ran through everything through the axel. The axels turned out big and beautiful and I'm finally learning to straighten my leg(s) and keep my back up. I got two huge compliments from experienced skaters on these. Woo hoo! My only complaint was my lutz/loop still has a scratchiness at the end that tends to interrupt the flow, so it's 100 more or so of those to try to correct that problem.

We were down to only 2-3 people on the big ice, so I started running through pieces of my program, trying to get my body posture and arm gestures to stop resembling someone using choppy semaphore to be rescued from a deserted island. Must have achieved some success, because two other skaters remarked on how "SMOOTH" they thought I was looking these days. Oh joy!

I completed one full program run-through with music after having skated for an hour and a half, and I was still full of energy afterwards, which means the endurance training is paying off. And speaking of, I closed out the two hours with 10 minutes of power stroking in the CW direction and then my poor tootsies just couldn't take another minute and I reluctantly left the ice. What a great practice!

P.S. Oops. Forgot to mention one teeny, tiny little incident that I've blocked out in all my joy. Tripped when I lost my concentration on my Tigger footwork sequence and somehow landed with the back half of my newly sharpened right blade slicing into the inside of my left thigh. Didn't think much of it except ouch. But when I removed my leggings (sliced) and tights (sliced & bloody), seems like I tried to salami cut my own leg! Yeesh. Two bandages (it's kinda long) and some bacitracin and it should be o.k.

Cinder: OUCH!!!! Please take care of that wound!!! Congrats on your skating thought, especially the stamina building.

This weekend I did lots of crossovers. WHY? Its the only BLOODY way to stay warm at a semi-outdoor rink in 17 degree, windy weather!!! We have large new groups of beginners and slightly advanced at both rinks I assist at, so 2 and 1/2 hours on ice yesterday, 3 and 1/2 hours today. My left hip is achy from demonstrating falling, and boy, are my forward crossovers sharp from demonstrating them multiple times. I'm gonna hurt in the morning, but it was well worth it.

I got a neat compliment today. An adult beginner who progressed with me from wall clinging to joining the general group asked if I gave private lessons!!! I had to explain I'm a full time doc and just a volunteer, but it was a nice "egoboo" to hear her tell me I was a great teacher. A good weekend all round.