April 2011

-
-
2011-04-02 10:18:00
2nd Lesson with new Coach.
I noticed a major difference between Courtney and Carson- probably about a foot. Carson is so tall, I have to look up drastically to see his face when he talks, and because that hurts my neck, I have to stand a bit away from him. And because there is often program music blaring in the background it means he has to practically shout. Ah, I never knew the importance of having a coach who is just about your same height... So today started with 30 minutes to warm up, and then I took my lesson on the second half of the freestyle ice. I started by trying to think of some moves to put into an artistic program. I'm going to use "I feel pretty" from West Side Story because the music I wanted to use was too hard to cut. I can't decide if I want to skate with a prop or not. I could skate with a mirror, but sometimes props are just something to hold, would it be better to just try to portray the character? The other problem- I'm a much better skater in my head. So it's difficult for me to think of things that look great, go with the music/character AND that I can actually do. If Sasha Cohen would skate this for me- I'd be able to come up with an awesome program. The ice was FANTASTIC, so my spins came back to me. I traveled a few scratch spins, but when focusing on really trying to hold the 3 turn before pulling it in, and not rushing it, I centered a beautiful, fast, spin with a good number of revolutions. (Couldn't count them- too centered!) I also did a few really nice sit spins, and played with moving my arms around in sit spins to "primp" (because I'm so pretty!). I can do arms in the sit spins without messing up the revolutions because I'm not going fast enough. In scratch spins, I can do alternate arms, but I have to pull them there to start- I can't move without throwing myself off. I did a few scratch spins, and then warmed up with just a few jumps (since I knew I'd be jumping in my lesson). Then I tried to do some work on moves. Power pulls are just not good. I have no power. I did outside mohawks on both sides, and did them around the circle on the bad side at least 10 times. I'm good as long as I'm very slow, but as soon as I get speed and really settle into that right outside edge, I can't get my left foot down. I think it really has to do with the hip flexibility- because if my right is flat, and the left doesn't need as much turnout, then I can do it okay. I tried to really think about pushing my hips forward and not leaning forward from the shoulders and sticking my butt out while doing crossrolls and it's a whole new feeling for sure. Then for my lesson Carson asked jumps or spins, and since I'm way more apt to practice spins on my own, like a good skater I picked jumps. We spent about 15 minutes working on my waltz jump. Carson also mentioned I lean too far forward on crossovers, so now I'm trying to sit into my knees and not bend from the waist in them. I did waltz jump from 1 crossover, from 2 slow crossovers, from 2 fast crossovers, from 3 slow crossovers. It's really frustrating that because my jump is so bad, I have to essentially do "bad" (no power) crossovers too. Carson stressed that the crossover can still be good, if it is slow, and I understand that, but good crossovers increase power, and I'm having to try to prevent them from doing that. He also gave me a few tips about where to hold my weight, and about snapping my hip into the rotation. He had me do jumps holding my biceps so I couldn't use my arms. Not cool! But slightly less scary than when Courtney made me do it with my hands behind my back. Then we moved to salchow, and by opening up the 3-turn I was able to make it feel less like a turn where I switch feet at the end, and more like a jump. Then toe loops, and surprise! I'm toe waltzing again. Back to working on pulling my feet together. Carson said the good thing about this jump was that I go into it with no fear. HAHAHA! I fooled him. At end, he let me pick one spin to work on. I asked him if he wanted to see a good one or a bad one, and he said one that needs work- so I picked backspin, and proceeded to do 2 of the best backspins I've ever done. He talked a little bit about changing my arms on the entry (straight instead of curved, I wonder if he'll change that on the loop too...) and about where to hold my free leg (like stroking, out to the side), then I did a few- not all were great- but most had my foot crossed, and a few felt like they were pulling in and speeding up* like a real scratch spin! *imagine the difference between a snail and a turtle... don't think cheetah when I say speeding up.
public

-
2011-04-06 08:05:00
LTS Last night
Fairly unremarkable. I'll probably stick in it because, like I said last week- it's really cheap when I take in account that I get freestyle ice free on Saturday for it. But the one girl in my class wastes SO much time of our lesson it just drives me crazy. The other girl is kind of flighty and chatty, but at least she seems to have joy in skating and does what Morgan says. The other girl doesn't do anything. And when you are in a line to do 3-turns one at a time, that means a lot of waiting and wasted time. Just do the damn three turns! Or the loop. Or the backspin. Whatever it is, just do it and stop wasting my time. The sad thing is because she doesn't do anything she won't pass up to the next level (and since I'm freestyle 4 for life, I probably won't either) so I'm stuck with her. I need an axel so I can skate with the kids who care. LOL My actual skating was okayish. Backspin is getting better. Did a few good scratch spins- but lately they either seem to be really on or really off, no middle ground. I need to hold the entry edge longer, but I'm still not really sure how to do that. And stop dragging my toe pick to slow down the wind up. I gave the cut music to my coach last night and joined our club. Guess I'm really doing this!
public

-
2011-04-06 13:25:00
ankle pain
I forgot to mention something weird about my skates last night. My left lace is too short so I skip the top hook on the boots. I've been doing this for about a year and a half. Last night, I wore different leggings than usual- cotton from target instead of my UnderArmour. After only a few laps around the ice I felt like my ankle was broken- the inside of it hurt so bad. I skated the whole lesson without the pain changing- just staying bad. The only thing I can think of is that the ultra tight underarmour ankles are compressing my boot in at the top, and the cotton leggings don't do that so I lack the top layer of support. Am I crazy or could that really be happening? I really need new laces but haven't had a chance to take them out of the boots so I can meausure them. They are so old and frayed and knotted once I took them out I wouldn't be able to get them back in, so I'd have to replace them right away. Last time I replaced laces (different boots) I had to order them because no one local had them. Man I wish we had a pro-shop.
public

-
2011-04-10 17:19:00
Yesterday...
I'm supposed to be working on a weekly reflection for my grad school class (just 2 weeks left in this first class... and I'm registered for classes through December already- 4 more!) and I don't want to do it, so I'm posting about yesterday. First off, our ice isn't that early, but it ruins my Saturday. I get up at 7:00, so that I can have skates laced and on the ice to start lesson at 8:00, but I come home I'm so tired I'm just useless until I get a 2 hour nap. Thankfully though, I'm not at all tired for the skating, so that's a plus. Second, I wore my regular leggings and the tight elastic definetly helped. My boots felt fine (well, as far as having boots that don't fit well feel fine.) I found a place that sells the under armour cold gear fabrics, so I bought a legging pattern and am going to try to sew them. I don't know how well it will go, but I thought I'd try a $30 gamble (enough for 2 or 3 pairs) to get out of paying $60ish for a pair of leggings. Okay, onto the lesson. We started off with spins, and they were just not working for me. My scratch spins are just not going well. I occasionally center a very nice one, but the rest are just NOT GOOD. I need to work on holding the entry just a little bit longer...and I guess I also need to lower my arms and not bring them in so high. Sit spin, I'm leaning over too far. I've been told by multiple coaches that the height isn't that bad, and that I hold my leg in a really nice position, but I need to just concentrate on sitting up straight, instead of bending over. I guess the bending over makes me look really ackward, but to me, it means I'm not going to fall over on the back of my head! Backspin, which had been working so well lately was just gone. Carson told me to start pulling my arms in to my left side- something Alissa Czisny told me years ago... I forgot all about that tip. There are just so many tips- how do you keep them all straight. Don't curve the arms, put the leg behind you, snap the hip, over the left side, hands pull in to the heart (and thus elbows down, not out)... argh! At the end he had me just skate forward and do a 3-turn and then hold the foot in front.... it was insanely hard. I didn't get arms, and that made the 3-turn impossible. After that we jumped. Did some step-ups to waltz jump, first just holding the back edge, then turning to hold the forward edge, then jumping. Taking the arms away, adding the arms back in. Moved to salchow, and those are doing much better- once again holding just the edge and not jumping, and then finally jumping. I think it had just been so long since I did one of them, that I kind of forgot how. Finally, we did toe-loop. Anyone surprised to hear I'm toe-waltzing? URGH... I guess the one nice thing about my year long battle to do a real toe loop (I was doing them before I got hurt!!! Argh) is now I have a sort of nice outside pivot :)
public

-
2011-04-13 09:04:00
OMG hard class
Last night was the best LTS I've had in a long time! Two of the coaches were gone, so the classes were all kinds of crazy. Normally during the 6:15 session there is a Basic 8, a Freestyle 1, Freestyle 2-3, Freestyle 4, and Axel Plus. (I think). The Freestyle 1 and 2-3 teachers were gone, so Freestyle 2-3 got mixed in with my normal Freestyle 4 class. Now, you know I already have issues with the class and still doing things i've been doing for YEARS and also with kids who are just wasting time. I imagined with a bundle of even lower level kids, that this was not going to be a very productive lesson for me, so I asked the skate director if I could go to the axel plus class, and she said yes. Axel plus is the bane of my existance. It ruined LTS for me. I used to take Freeskate with Andy, and maybe 4 kids until he started Axel Plus. Then the Tuesday group disappeared, and the Saturday group ballooned to anywhere between 10 and 20 kids in LTS (Axel Plus has been awesome for the LTS group) and I got stuck with the lower freestyle kids. Which makes sense, jump wise- I'm low. But spin and moves wise I'm higher than the kids I skate with now, and attention and dedication wise, I'm WAY higher. But I understand that the Saturday class is way too crowded, and there is no way I can skate in it. So I stuck with LTS for awhile, decided it was kind of a waste of time, and then stopped. After the injury, I thought too many privates would be a waste of money, so now I'm back to LTS, and back with the low level kids. Andy no longer teaches on Tuesday, so Carson does Axel plus with Y. and D. (You might remember me talking about Y. She and I have done freestyle together for years- and while I used to be able to keep up with her pretty well, she's about to test juvenile free and intermediate moves and has a full set of doubles except axel -maybe not lutz, i'm not sure- I'm not even close anymore). However, unlike when the class first started, I'm no longer even close in skill level to these kids, so I've never asked to skate with them. It's not just "axel plus" anymore -it's "double flip". Anyhow- with yesterday being a special circumstance, it looked like the choices were "waste my time" or "go to other class". Because everyone was shuffled around, Carson said I was more than welcome to join his class. And then I worked my butt off making sure that I kept up with the 'axel plus' class and didn't get in the way the way I think the kids in my class do! He started by telling D. to finish the laps he skipped, and told Y. "I want to see your layback". (It's gorgeous!) Then he told me to do a sit spin. I said "You don't want to see MY layback?" He said "sure" - clearly thinking I was joking, but I did my attitude spin, pushing my hips forward, shoulders back, and head up (hands on hips). And miraculously, I stayed centered (usually the head up throws me off). Carson told me it was way better than what he expected me to do (I assume he didn't expect anything at all.) And then I moved to sit spin. Unsurprisingly, I need to be more aggressive in the entry- swinging my leg to not loose the momentum. I'm doing better at not hunching, but now I need to pinch my shoulder blades together and pull down. So much to think about. Then I moved to backspin, and I need to work harder on keeping my leg behind me and snapping my hip. He also told me that my hips are too open, and I need to think about closing them (why can't they be "too open" when doing mohawks?) I think he does these different from Courtney, because what he's telling me doesn't seem to match what she told me (although it matches what Jessie told me YEARS ago that I couldn't do.) The backspins weren't great. Then it was time to jump. He had us all do exercises from the line- no extra pushes, and holding our biceps, so no arms. The kids started with axel and I did waltz jump, just step, jump. I really worked on picking my leg up and kicking through, and while I doubt it looked like much, they felt like the highest waltz jumps I have ever done. I got a better idea of the check needed (usually I don't have enough power to need any!) and think I actually did pretty well. The kids moved onto double salchow, and I did salchow. This was a lot harder to do without my arms, which tells me I'm using them for all my lift. Instead I'd just 3-turn and forget to jump. Then we all moved to toe loop. I'm getting back to almost having the pull together there. Man I have spent so much time on making this jump a real toe loop. Apparently I'm picking with my hips too closed ("That's more like a lutz" -oh right, clearly I have lutz confusion with my toepick, since you know, I can do one of those...) and need to work on opening them up. (I think I need a cheat sheet for how my hips are supposed to be opened or closed...) So I worked more on the picking, and did some teeny tiny little jumps. I don't know why I feel so much less secure when I do it right than when I do it wrong and am willing to jump. Then we moved onto loop, and I did just a few (THUD!) and as anyone has seen my loops has said, I was told to make sure to take off from my toepicks and land on them (Carson hadn't seen me do them before). Maybe I'll just call that my coach test. If they don't mention it, they're fired, because it's a clear mistake. Good think I can keep this coach. Last, I did half-flip - Carson hadn't seen mine before, but I told him it was one of my better jumps, and while I have picking and weight transfer issues, true to my past, I did manage to get it to leave the ice visibly. This seems to be the only jump I can do that with. I did ask to get my hands back (arms on the biceps the whole time for everything else) because I wanted something to catch me if I tripped landing forward. Other than transfering my weight over the legs (it's hard to do with a half jump- there doesn't seem to be enough time in the air...at least for me) I need to work on keeping my arms lower (yes Courtney, I know you told me that too- on everything!) I tried to change that, and that threw off the entire balance of the jump... We ended class doing suicide drills on the hockey lines -just one set. Holy crap those kids are fast! They finished when I still had a whole length of the rink to go, and I was skating so hard that I could barely breathe when I was done (can't embarass myself too much by being WAY behind.) At the end of the class I asked the skate director if she would ask Carson if I could move up to the class. I don't want to ask him myself, because he's nice and I feel like he would feel bad saying no, even if he doesn't want me in the class. I know I don't have 'axel plus' but this class was HARD and worthwhile, not a "well this is probably worth the $2" I usually think after LTS. So hopefully he'll tell Sue that he think it's okay. I mean the class only has 2 kids in it (and one of them is my "friend")- it's not the same as Saturday's class where having a lower level CW jumper would kind of mess the flow up. I'm crossing my fingers that LTS will be back to being really worthwhile.
public

-
2011-04-20 17:55:00
Choreography Begins...
(I tried to post this by email several times. If email posting stays down, I'm going to blogspot...) Saturday the coach at our rink who coaches half the kids was off at Adult Nationals (where he did quite well!) so most of the kids stayed home- turned out to be a mostly empty freestyle session, but 3 kids from another rink came and were working on a trio. Let me tell you, while they were very polite, and had great ice etiquette having a trio on the ice is even harder than a pair- it's like a wall of skaters coming down and all doing loops. LOL. They were choreographing their program, and of course, I was doing mine, so we both seemed to need to be in the same place at once. Overall though, I think it worked out okay. Started the session by listening to my music (it's from Memoirs of a Geisha, apparently) and the scratchyness that comes up in the car doesn't on the rink speakers, so that's nice. Then Carson ran me through all my jumps, and he started the choreographing. We got about 1/3 of the way through- and while I think the music sounds impossibly long, he thinks it's way too short to get everything in. HAHA. I'm up to the point where he wants me to do a footwork sequence, and he's not 100% sure what it's going to be, but he just skated the program through with me, and when I stopped, he kept going with a straightline sequence. He got all the way down the ice in like 4 turns, and when he skated back to talk to me, I pointed out to him that it would take me the rest of the music to skate that far! He laughed, and said "oh yeah, we should probably just make it half ice for you". Carson tells me the program is "slow and balletic" but for me, I still feel it is frantically fast to get from one place to the next. He doesn't have any really high level skaters (I don't think he even has any middle level ones...) so I guess he's just used to choreographing for himself- because ice coverage for me is a HUGE issue based on what he wants. I think I'll get more comfortable with it, and maybe we can take out anything impossible at the end of next month. Other than getting from point A to point B, the only really hard thing is that I'm doing a scratch spin from a 3-turn instead of a windup, but I did that in synchro, so I just need to practice it again, and that I come out of that spin with left over right forward crossovers. I'm anticipating changing those to edge glides- because I am so uncomfortable with those crossovers, that I don't think I can do them dizzy. It's kind of my own fault though, because he did ask me if I want all the spins at the end so I don't get dizzy, but it's never been an issue. But I realized it's never been an issue because I've never tried to follow a spin with a move I'm already terrible at! If it were either back crossovers, or the other forward ones I would have been fine. I don't think there is any way we'll get this program plus my artistic done in time for the competition, so I'm picking up a Wednesday lesson this week. Man, this venture is getting expensive. It better be fun! I have about 1/4 of the artistic program choreographed, but am hoping once the freestyle is set Carson will help me with ideas. Still no dresses, but she told me it might be until the end of May. I just hate waiting. And am nervous they won't fit. In other news- my deltoid is killing me. I can only lift my arm to about 30-45 degrees. I have no idea when this happened, but it hurt Saturday night, and still does. It didn't hurt Saturday morning, and I didn't fall or anything. I am SO MAD- because I've been injury free, and really wanted to stay that way. I've spent so much money on this competition that I'm skating even if my arm is in a sling! At least I'm used to jumping without my arms now :)
public

-
2011-04-21 09:41:00
Choreography continues...
So I skipped LTS on Tuesday because I was huddled on the couch crying in pain- my arm got REALLY bad. The pain in my deltoidish area was horrible, and I could barely lift my arm, but the worst part was that I was having itchy and tingling pain in my thumb that moved on to be pressure pain like someone was squeezing my thumb in a vise. Itching on my hand happened a lot while I was in the hospital, and thumb pain is generally a referall pain from C5 - since I didn't have any thumb injuries. Anything that points back to neck issues freaks me out, so I am going to the doctor today. I only briefly took painkillers early in the day- 1 Ibprofeun that did nothing, and then 45 minutes later a second. That provided pain relief for about 30 minutes, and it was back to full strength pain. I decided at that rate I'd have to take way too many drugs, and should just deal with the pain instead. Yesterday, I had a better day. I slept okay overnight on Tuesday, despite going to bed terrified I was going to wake up paralyzed. Wednesday my arm hurt at work, but not horribly, and my thumb had only minor pain. I had a lesson scheduled to finish up my program, so I really needed to be able to make it to the ice rink. I did, and surprisinlgy, while I took it easy- I was able to use my arm normally for skating. Oddly enough, as soon as I got off the ice, it started hurting again. Is ice a magic painkiller? So choreography went okay. We changed a lot from Saturday already, and then added in the rest of the program. Carson is very particular, and has great vision for what the program should look like. He's trying to put in a lot of fine details (arms and head) and I appreciate that, but right now I'm really freaking out about being able to even 1)remember the elements and 2) get from A to B in time to do them. Hopefully on Saturday we can run the program a few times before trying to do arms- for the most part, I just forget them, and then I feel bad because now I have even more I'm forgetting to do. It's not just "oh crap- do I do forward crossovers or backward crossovers after the half flip" (the answer is forward- into a spiral) it's also "do my arms sweep overhead or down and around?" - having more to forget makes this even more stressful. I'm also having a hard time with the timing at the end of the program, because I'm not entirely clear where the music ends. It has a little bell refrain that repeats, and I don't know how many times. So I keep thinking I'm at the end, but then I have lots more time. I need to spend some time before Saturday counting how many repeats there are. Of course, this is a crazy busy week with school, so I don't know if I'll have much time to do that. The freeskate is PreBronze and I am doing the following elements: waltz jump -toe tap- waltz jump scratch spin (from a 3-turn entrance, instead of a wind up...I need to practice that again, the spin isn't as good, the entrance is much harder) salchow 1/2 ice straightline footwork sequence with lFI3, LFO3, toe steps, LFI (I think- it's mostly flat) bracket (I'm going to try to trade that bracket for a mohawk though. It's not one of my good ones...so while I agreed to it at half speed, it's impossible at full speed), LFO3, ballet jump. Half Flip RFO Spiral Toe Loop Sit Spin T-stop. Somehow the footwork sequence is all on my left foot. Which is absurd, because I heavily favor my right foot. But it goes both directions, so hopefully judges won't care that I didn't use the right leg too much. You don't have to even do one, so I should be okay. We were unsure if we should put the backspin in, because one part of the rulebook describes the required spins as "min. 2 of a different nature" and the other part describes it as "min 2, max 3" but doesn't mention nature. A backspin is an upright spin the same as a scratch spin. I asked a coach of another skater entering this event and she does a 1 foot spin and a 2 foot spin- so I'm thinking the "nature" thing doesn't matter- but Carson is used to IJS, so he's pretty particular. I think the program is also pretty well set up to convert to my Bronze test later on. The waltz-toe tap-waltz can switch to waltz-toe loop, and the 1/2 flip can turn into either a flip or a loop (I'm thinking about skipping loop and just trying a flip instead. I hate loop). I just need to put a backspin in, and the elements are covered. No progress on the artistic program. After watching adult nationals- I feel my artistic is sorely lacking! Hope the Dr. has good news on my arm. (My best case is her telling me my neck muscles are tight and go get a massage. I've already told Kevin if they suspect a trapped nerve I'm just going to live with the pain for the rest of my life. I've done those tests before, and NOT having a trapped nerve it was like being tortured- thrown against a high power electric fence. I will never do that again.)
public

-
2011-04-22 08:37:00
Rhinestones?
Does anyone know anything about BeadsFactory.com? They have a fantastic price on 20ss Crystal AB Preciosa rhinestones- $55.80 for 10 gross! But the shipping is 12.04, and they want to charge a $6.70 currency surcharge. Since I'm in the US, and it looks like they are too- I don't know what the heck that is. (So that's $74.54 for 10 gross) Still, for 10 gross - even with the ridiculous charges it's cheaper than the base prices anywhere else I can find. BUT- I don't really need 10 gross. Now, I'm sure between 2 dresses and a pair of practice pants I can definetly use them up, but I was originally thinking 3 gross on one dress and 1 gross on the other. However, that was going to run me $40ish plus shipping anyway. So I thought, rather than do crystal AB + topaz color (for the red dress), I could just get a bucket load of crystal AB. The other company that seemed to have real good prices (before I found beadsfactory) was Rhinestone Supply. But there just 5 gross of 20ss Crystal AB Preciosa rhinestones would be $51.49, and shipping is $5 (so that's $56.49 for 5 gross...) or my original plan of 3 gross preciosa crystal AB ($31.46) and 1 gross swarvoski topaz ($10.99) costs 42.45 plus $5 shipping (so 47.45 for 4 gross). So which do I get? $75 seems more than I need to spend, but per gross is a great deal (7.45 per gross) $56 also seems expensive, but at least it's less. Per gross though, it's a lot more (11.30 per gross) $47 is more what I was budgeting, but per gross it's expensive, though about the same as the previous option, and it has a color stone too (11.86 per gross) Should I just spend a bit more and get the bucket-load. Afterall, there are surely PLENTY of things in my life I can cover with rhinestones, right? (Just that with the insane shipping plus the currency surcharge, the rhinestones cost more than the dress!)
public

-
2011-04-23 11:27:00
Go ahead...call me crazy
I'm skating in the club show next week. After my lesson my coach asked me why I wasn't on the list. I told him it's because I learned my program last week, and today was the first practice I've even done a run through (ONE). I said I didn't think I'd be ready but also (and I was serious) that I didn't want to skate unprepared because I didn't want people to think that he was a bad coach who had unprepared skaters. He laughed and told me since it was a LTS show there would be plenty of underprepared programs, and he thought it would be really good for me to put the program out before the competition. So I talked to the club president and she said even though the deadline was well past, she hadn't made the program yet and would put me in. $30 later- I'm in the show! I don't have any dresses that fit me well, but I'll just wear my black keyhole back practice dress I did my bronze moves test in- it's just a little tight. I cannot wait for my program dresses to get here. I'm so worried about the sizes. They are the same company/size as the dress above, but the woman who makes them said this fabric runs slightly looser- I hope so, because the weight loss is going nowhere. Arm update: Went to the doctor, it's not related to my neck. I have crazy swelling in the shoulder/deltoid. Got some drugs and a "wait and see", may have to go to PT next week if it doesn't calm down. This morning I was really worried I wasn't going to be able to skate because I couldn't hold my arm high in crossovers, or for jumps in my warmup, but after about 5 minutes it was only a little painful, and by the end of the lesson- I totally forgot I was supposed to be restricting it. Maybe it's the cold air, but the pain just diappears when I'm skating. Sadly, it's back now - but not too bad. So the lesson. We started with the footwork. I did get rid of the left bracket (I can only do them on the right, in one direction), and traded it for a mohawk step cross thing that Burton taught me. Basically step forward left, mohawk to right, step the left leg over the front of the right foot, and then step forward onto the right. Sounds like a lot to replace the bracket with, but I do it quickly where the bracket had to be REALLY slow, and even then I sometimes couldn't get it. Carson had me do the footwork a few times, and then he had me focus on making the turns go out side-to-side, and not just straight. Then I practiced doing the footwork looking UP. I got a bit of a compromise and I get to look down on the LFO 3-turn that starts the sequence, because otherwise I flip out. It's done loop-like where the free foot is in front, and that just throws me off terribly. So on the NEXT step I'm required to look up. Then we added arms to the toe steps (down and rounded to my hips) and arms to the mohawks (floats gracefully up and around). After that we worked on the half-flip entrance, and the CW vs CCW thing provided a bit of confusion. Once he finally got onto the correct leg for me, I then couldn't figure out what he was doing- turns out I need to get used to a new preperation. I've always held my right leg in front of me to prepare for the 3-turn, then put it down to 3-turn and then picked with he left leg. He wants me to glide on the right leg with the left leg in front of me, then tap the left leg behind me to give the "oomph" to start the 3-turn on the right leg, then pick behind with the left leg for the jump. Looks great when he does it- but it seems like another opportunity for me to trip! Then he said he was impressed with my speed in the spiral, but unfortunately that also means lots of speed in the toe loop. Shhh- don't tell him but I'm planning on just toe waltzing, rather than skidding to slow down. I know I'll get that jump eventually (it's looking like a real toe loop from the line- we stopped the program work to do a couple and quite a few had the take off edge just past the pick instead of 2 feet in front of it. woo hoo!) but not by June I don't think. Plus this is the one element I can skate fast into. I want to skate fast and do a crappy jump rather than skate like a snail and do a slightly-less, but still crappy jump. So then at the end of lesson I did a run through. I need to rush less at the beginning of the program, and rush more at the end. I also need to figure out exactly when my music stops. It's kind of hard to tell, and I havne't had it long enough to know! I'm feeling like it should be good for join though. Unless they group us with Bronze, and then I'm feeling less good about it. (I have a feeling they will...the announcement had bronze music at 1:40 - ten seconds less than they should get. It seems like the only reasons they would do that is a) not reading the rulebook or b) planning on sticking them with pre-bronze.) After my lesson I did a lot of practice with 3-turn entry into the scratch spin. It's doing pretty well from a standstill, but when I skate fast into it, I'm traveling like crazy. I don't want a sloppy scratch spin- that's something I'm supposedly good at! I also worked on the toe loop from speed, and really tried to drill the footwork. Then I did some outside mohawks. I have a new rule that I'm not allowed on the ice without doing at least a few. (Of course, if governing council changes the silver spirals, I'm done for. ) Now I'm off to the sewing room to see if I can make leggings. I found a place that sells actual under armour coldgear fabric, so I can make my own frosty tights. It's $10 a yard, so I want to try leggings with cheaper fabric first- but if I can do them, they will end up less expensive than even target leggings!
public

-
2011-04-23 13:50:00
OUCH!
I taped myself at the rink today. Just one shot to do each of three spins. I was fairly happy with them, but watching now, I'm not happy at all. I am nowhere close to being where I was pre-injury. My backspin video from a year ago was slow- but at least twice as many revolutions, my scratch spins used to be a lot cleaner. I don't think my sit spin has regressed, but it always feels so much lower than it looks :( Video is just mean. The embed didn't work, here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Gt1_WQEgf4
public

-
2011-04-23 13:50:00
Funny...
Reading through my journal from 2006...since I'm migrating it over to blogger. And I'm talking a) about how my backspin is better than my forward spin (neither were very good) and b) how terrifying ballet jumps are (I remember that breakdown...I had to leave group class I was so terrified.) Now a) my backspins suck and b) I actually suggested putting a ballet jump into my program. But it's still not very good...
public

-
2011-04-27 20:47:00
Tuesday
I got to skate with the Axel Plus class again. SO much better- actual lesson, and not trying to get skating in amongst kids whining. Started with backspin- they just aren't where they were, and they weren't very good anyway... I need more snap, and just need to be more aggressive. Then sit spin- Carson says it looked lower than Saturday. They were feeling pretty good. Then scratch spin, from the forward inside 3-turn, like my program. They are getting more stable- hopefully by June it will be reliable. Moved onto jumps, and once again I got a compliment. Carson says he can already see my jumps getting bigger. I imagine it's very much like watching grass grow though, it might be bigger, but the difference is almost imperceptible. Still, I'll take the compliment. Instead of doing them from the line, we did them half rink. That's a LONG way for me to skate into a jump. I did my best not to freak out and actually jump, and everything was okay. Toe loop entry gets really sloppy with speed though (stand still I'm finally doing a true toe loop again. The entry edge goes past the pick.) Didn't do any loops or half-lutzes. My 1/2 flip actually leaves the ice, but now Carson wants me to work on an actual weight transfer instead of a two foot jump -boo-. I also got yelled at for skidding 3-turns because 'that slows you down'. Well DUH! That's the whole reason I skid! Afterwards I tried to run through my program on public skate and it didn't go well. I'm filling about 1/2 the ice space I need to. At least now I know when my music ends (there are 7 repeating phrases with bells at the end... I just have to count.) I need to figure out the absolute last moment I can start my sit spin and still have time to end correctly, because I enter the sit spin from the toe-loop exit edge, and who knows what will happen with that toe loop (I come into it from a half ice entry- and am going fast- I'm terrified to jump, but since I enter from a spiral can't figure out how to slow down.) My half flip is also wonky because the entrance is all messed up. I think I just need to telegraph the entry and not worry about choreography just yet. What the heck was I thinking doing a show on Saturday? Picked a dress (one of the GK Elite ones I got on clearance last year) and it looks okay on me (OMG I'm so fat- how did that happen) but can't find a strapless bra anywhere in the house. I have 3, so if you have any idea where one is, let me know. I need it by Saturday!
public

-
2011-04-28 13:59:00
Wednesday Skating
So I forgot to mention yesterday that the skate director went ahead and signed me up for Axel Plus next session - YAY! Bad news though apparently Andy, who has had Tuesday classes, is coming back to Tuesday LTS for the summer. You'll recall Andy is one of my favorite coaches, and I did group freestyle lessons with him for years. So why bad news? He doesn't want me in the class. Hopefully Carson will keep Axel Plus and Andy will get a different freestyle class, but I doubt that, because Andy is probably the best coach at the rink (and without a doubt the best, most decorated skater) so he gets good classes. So I'm just hoping that if Andy gets axel plus and kicks me out Carson has the high freestyle class and I can go skate with him, and the girls don't walk all over him the way they do with Morgan (and used to do with him...) I just cannot deal with kids who waste more than half the class. I'll just be done with groups, but that would suck- because private lessons are so expensive (Carson is $10 per half hour more than Courtney was too...). But if Carson gets low freestyle, I have my doubts high freestyle will be any good, even if Courtney is teaching it (I think she's been doing Basic 8 in that time slot though.) Okay enough moaning about what might happen next week. So I skated Wednesday again this week, and I remembered why I don't skate that hour without a coach. I need someone to run interference for me, because the session moves too fast. There are multiple really good skaters there, and I just feel like I'm in the way. That or I just can't get anything done. If I set up for a jump, by the time I'm ready to jump, someone is in the spot I was eyeing. It's just no good. I tried to practice elements in the program, and it's not looking good. The spin from the 3-turn entry is getting a little better, but the toe loop and half flip are major problems. For the exhibition, I'm just going to telegraph the half-flip across the ice, rather than do the edge into it. It will be slow and boring, but I don't care. The toe loop, well I don't know what to do about that. I WANT to do a spiral, but I can't lose speed from it fast enough to do the toe loop entry- even for a crappy jump. I'm so skiddy in the 3-turn I can't jump at all. Who knows what I'll do Saturday... I did run the program once with music, and except someone stepping right in front of me and throwing me off on the footwork, I think my timing is okay. I know when the program ends at least. I'm also not starting the footwork on the music when it makes a really great transition, because I have to wait for it, and since I'm in such a rush at the end, I don't really want to do any pausing for the music. Hopefully we will run this quite a few times on Saturday morning... The finale for the show is a disaster. Instead of the standard skate in a circle and wave we are doing a "grand march", single file line - skaters go left and right and meeting back up to go 2 by 2. Those meet up to rows of 4, which meet up to rows of 8. The show is mostly basic skills skaters, and let me tell you- this does not look good. It's not clean enough to have visual interest to the audience, and even though the "choreographer" was pissed about it the club president and I decided to remove the snowplow skaters from the grand march and just do our own little dance party on the side. Going length wise across the ice is an accomplishment for those kids- they can't do it quickly 4 times! The organizer said for them to just go on their own speed, and not do the lines- but then they get plowed down by the older kids. The freestyle kids watch out for them, but the basic skills ones just run them over. The thing is a mess. Oh well, just a LTS show, it's not the Olympics. I never thought I'd want to skate in a circle and wave though. Five bucks says we end up doing it on the fly.
public

-
2011-04-30 13:20:00
I cannot believe I am doing this...
...count down to the show: 4 hours. Had my lesson this morning and we worked on jumps, spins -you know skating things. The biggest take away is to hold everything longer. Hold the entry to the salchow, hold the pivot for the toe loop, hold the entry to the scratch spin, hold the entry to the backspin, hold the entry to the sit spin. I'm letting my body tell me when to jump/spin, and not telling it. I at least understand WHY it's a problem. At the end of the lesson we ran the program, no jacket, no gloves- and that was fine. Skating in a dress/skating without gloves isn't really an issue for me. What wasn't fine was the actual skating. I was SLOW. I ended on time, but had to really cut my sit spin short. I got my waltz jump okay, but my salchow didn't jump, and my toe loop was a disaster, and because the toe-loop was bad, and I was behind, then the sit spin was bad too (I wind up straight out of the exit edge of the jump). This is going to be HORRIBLE. What the heck was I thinking? My arm is also really hurting, and I so badly want to take a nap- but it hurts the worst sleeping, so I'm not. I think I'm going to bed around 8 though, when I get home from the show...
public