Re: Incredible/Impossible Lessons & Practices 7/7-7/13
<strong>Glacierskater</strong> - Thanks for the encouragement after the "chased goose" look I practiced on Tuesday. See my report below to see that I took your kind words to heart.
<strong>Rachelstarlet</strong> - Great workout and clearly you are now hooked on skating! Glad SkaterBoi was so accommodating. There are very few boys at our rink, so I don't see the young girls getting to interact much. They were scarce when I was a kid too, though my very first crush was on my skatefriend's brother (who also skated) and to this day I still have his picture which he signed for me. Don't worry that some things progress faster than others. Keep plugging away at those basics and soon you will find that everything improves remarkably!
<strong>Yazmeen</strong> - Ouch, ice mines. I remember them well. On summer Sunday mornings we would go to do patch (figures), but first everyone would spend 1/2 hour scraping the bumps off our pathetic ice. Glad you "hulked" up and got right back on the ice what threw ya!
<strong>IN-CRED-EE-BLAY</strong> - Oh my gosh, this morning was just the most wonderful practice! It started off a little odd because I didn't get to bed till 2 a.m. because of a work project, so I only had 4 hours' sleep. Then I got there and my coach had called to say she would be late and we'd have to span over into the next session to get my lesson finished. She warned me not to wear myself out before she got there, so I worked on all my moves and I was especially pleased with my power three-turns around the end caps. Then I started working on chunks of my program, focusing especially on the connecting moves and getting my arms to look like something other than flopping spaghetti (or the chased-goose look). When she got there, I was so warmed up that she asked me to do my program. WOO HOO! Not only did I complete the whole program with hardly a "bobble," but the endurance conditioning I've been doing must have kicked in because I did not feel like I needed to lie on the ice and stage a small death!
Oh, and she said I looked powerful, but graceful out there and praised me for smiling and emoting the whole time!
Then she had me run through all my jumps up to the lutz and they were all "on," and then my reverse spin which was above average.
Then after they made ice, I ran through my whole set of moves and she said that they would have passed if they had been my test. So I'm burning them into my brain and planning to do them "just so" next Friday when I test.
Then as if the day could not be better, a woman I don't even know and don't think I've ever seen before (she had something to do with the hockey camp going on at the other rink), smiled at me and said, "You are a lovely skater." OH MY GOSH, I almost floated up to heaven. As it was, it brought tears to my eyes and I thanked her profusely. You know, when you're an adult skater, sometimes you kind of miss the unconditional encouragement you used to get from your mom and dad. So this unsolicited bit was just so nice.
I've been reading a book called "Inner Champion" which is how to develop your mental attitude to compete in figure skating. One of the things it suggests is to post positive affirmations on your mirror. I'm going to write down that woman's quote and stick it right up there.
<strong>IMPOSSIBLE</strong> - Not a darn thing!
Sorry to be so long. Just had to share!
Nothing too bad today. Not too many falls, thank goodness.
Those helped me a lot just within about 10 minutes! And when you do the three turn, do NOT cross the feet, just keep the left foot OFF the ice in front, squeeze the thighs just a little bit, and just go for it. 
:rollin:
