January 2010

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2010-01-06 09:48:00
Ups and downs.
I went to NJ for vacation and really got a skating boost. First, we went to the Fritz Diedl rink in New Jersey with most of the family. This is the rink my Dad grew up skating at and it was so little and cute. It was a bit shorter than a normal hockey rink (I think- it only took me 4 strong strokes to get down it, usually it's 6-8), and rather than boards like most rinks you're inside a little concrete room with swinging doors. (Man I hope they secure those when hockey games are played, otherwise it seems like you could get checked right into the lobby!) My cousin also skates, and she is about my level. She has better jumps than me (a gorgeous waltz-loop) but I think my spins are better. I hear she has a gorgeous spiral, but sadly, on a public session I didn't get to see it. It was also fun to skate with my Dad. I remember going to Northcross mall as a kid and he'd hold my hands while I did back spirals. Kevin also came, and had a bad belly flop, so now I have no chances of getting him as an ice dance partner! Luckily, he didn't hit his knees, but his abs were sore for days. So the up. After seeing a public session, I realized that I'm actually a pretty decent skater. Not compared to skaters, but to people- absolutely. I did a few scratch spins, and since the ice was hard they were fantastic and public skaters fawned over me like I was a star! Even just stroking I felt like I was someone who looked like I knew what I was doing. It was a pretty cool feeling, and had me much happier about skating than I was last week when I left. Then, I met up with two ladies from skatingforums.com at the hackensack ice house. One of them really didn't like the hard ice, but I thought it was fantastic- I spun really well. (I don't know what the positions looked like, but I was able to hold my camel for much longer than normal, and my attitude spin.) Most everything went okay, no real bad skating, and it was fun to skate with other adults who are about my ability level. It left me excited to get back home and back to lessons. And that's where the "down" came. My group class is gone. The high freestyle girl moved to Saturday to the "axel plus" class, so the ones left are a girl in Freestyle 1 (I might have written about her before. Doesn't know which edge is which, doesn't seem to really care) and 3 kids who just moved up from Basic skills. I know my jumps aren't good, and even my spins need work- but I'm WAY beyond this. And yeah, I'm slow but I'm working on moves that are pre-juv/juv right now, doing brackets, counters and rockers. Sure my basic edges could always use work (espeically the back ones) but I can work on those on my own. I don't want that to be the focus of the class. I'm starting back sit (oh man it looks bad), not "one foot spin". And while the jumps aren't high, I need them to be taught to me in an analytical way that doesn't work with the youngest kids who don't know their edges-and I'm starting to focus on flip/lutz. My waltz jump needs work, but I also need to move past it. Skating with the "big kids" worked, skating with the "little kids" isn't going to. Yesterday was fine because Carson had two kids from the axel class doing a make up, they worked on axel and double loop while I did the same exercises with waltz and single. I asked Sue if she'd talk to Andy to see if I could take that class. I can't do the jumps, but I can do the spins and footwork, and it seems unfair to exclude me from a class just due to jumps- it's not a jump class. It's not like there is a "backspin-plus" spin class I can take. But I didn't want to ask Andy because I didn't want to put him on the spot if he doesn't want me in the class. I'll keep teaching, because it gets me ice free, but I am going to be so upset if I don't have a class anymore. It was such a good deal while it lasted. I guess if Andy doesn't want me in the advanced class I'll skate with Carson and the higher FS1 girl, but I'm not too happy about it. I love Carson, and he does a great job teaching the kids, but when it's the lower level FS kids, I don't really care for the way he teaches the class. (But they love it! This girl who requested him hates Andy). But yesterday when he was teaching the higher FS, it was good. My mind needs a higher class than my jumps I guess. I just really like lesson with Andy, and I'm so mad to be losing them.
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2010-01-20 08:50:00
Down in the dumps
I didn't skate at all last week- my hips hurt so much I skipped out on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. That's a lot of hip hurting. I did skate yesterday though. Taught one snowplow class and took my freestyle class, now with Carson. I guess it was okay, but I'm wondering if I should even skate anymore. I'm not getting better, and while my hips don't hurt too much today, they did hurt yesterday. Doing outside edge spirals I couldn't even get my right leg to knee height. (I can get it mid thigh on a straightline.) It a)hurt that bad, b)wouldn't go higher even with pain, and c)my left glide is so unsteady that I can't balance any higher. What the hell? This is the same problem I have with the straightline spirals, except I'm ALMOST to hip height, but it's not really the flexibility so much (I mean, I can get to hip off ice) it's the balance in the glide. Why the heck would at this level my strength in a one foot glide be so bad? I can do it just fine if I'm not leaning in a spiral. And it's hard to practice because it's just so darn embarassing to have such a crappy spiral. The other annoying thing about the class is M. She just doesn's want to do anything. We did swing rolls. Swing rolls are in freestyle 1, which I took 2, maybe 3? years ago. The swing rolls are for her! Now, for dance, I certainly need work on them, but when Carson asks her to do swing rolls it's to complete the requirement of the level. So GO M. You are wasting my time! He didn't comment on my swing rolls, but then we did cross rolls (which I led off, because they were done for my benefit more than hers) and he mentioned I'm rotating my shoulders, but not my hips, so I tried to correct that a bit. Also, cross rolls hurt my hips. Then we moved to sit spins (Carson recommended going down one hook on my boot, which I did, but I'm not sure it made a difference.) He said my knees are in the right position but I need to get my butt down. Any ideas as to how to get a butt down? I do think my sit is passable for Bronze though. It isn't quite low enough, but is definetly sitting and not a bent leg scratch spin anymore. I was trying to get as low as I could, and hold it for as long as I could, which made getting up hard. My thigh felt so weak. Then we did backspins, and those were okay. I didn't have a lot of attack though because I was wearing sport pants, which I'm terrified of catching my blade in. backspins do not hurt my hip, but I do need my blades sharpened. Then salchows- my 3-turn is too straight. But I'm pretty sure Courtney has told me to do these on a straight line, not a circle. I'll have to ask her. Then toe loops. I get a great pivot if I don't jump, and a great toe-waltz if I do jump. Carson also pointed out that I'm not "h"ing my free leg, but to do that I kind of need to turn in, the opposite of turning out for the pivot, so I think that will just make things worse on the pre-rotating on my toe. These are getting better though. Maybe 10-15% of the time I'm not toe waltzing? And, opposite of the salchow, I'm doing this TOO curvy and I need to focus on more of a straight line. I had planned to skate after lesson, but was in too much pain. I then went home and had a breakdown over the fact that not only can I not skate well, I can't do anything well, and I'm always hurt, and I just want to be good at something. I can't run because of my ankles/knees, I can't swim because of my shoulders, I can't do step aerobics (my favorite) because of my ankles, I can't do ballet because of my ankles, yoga bored me too much (maybe I should do the hot yoga), pilates is just too expensive, kayaking hurts my shoulders, biking scares me because there are too many down hills (I'm okay with up hills). Anyone have an idea of an athletic activity I can participate in if I give up skating?
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2010-01-25 12:13:00
Saturday Skating
I don't know if I'll ever have a lesson again. Ah, well, it's saving me money. (I say this because we have no ice time Wednesday due to synchro sectionals, NOT at all due to missing Saturday's lesson. My coach had a medical emergency, so no hard feelings at all to missing the lesson. She's doing better, but I don't know if she'll be skating for awhile.) So anyhow, I don't remember why I didn't have a lesson this Wednesday- ice storm? Maybe. I didn't skate at all. Saturday, even though coach called to cancel at about 10:00 Friday night I did still drag my butt to the rink. My hips have really really been hurting lately, so the plan was NO jumps. I skated for about minutes, and although I did some stroking and crossovers, I really didn't do anything other than spin. Backspins (meh, I think I need my blades sharpened), attitude spins (feeling good, no clue what they look like), camel spins (also feeling good, no clue what they look like), "looking up" scratch spins (woah dizzy. I want to get this before I start trying to do a layback in the attitude- which will pretty much be a look up since I have no lay), sit spins. And then I started doing arm variations in my scratch spins- that was fun, and I'd like to tape them to see what they actually look like. Then I did some inside edge to outside edge scratch spins. Kind of a neat feeling, though I can't switch back to inside edge. Any idea of spin variations for a beginner? I'm looking for scratch spin variations that don't require a sit spin combo (most require a sit spin and then pull your leg to somewhere). I think I'll start trying the "A" thing- but how unattractive will that be to practice, seeing as how it's pretty unattractive when done well!
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2010-01-27 09:03:00
Bad and Good
Bad: Only did 15 minutes of group lesson, and not even all of it. There is no way I can jump right now. We started off with backward crossovers, and on one direction (can't remember with) it killed. I stuck those out though. It's the under push with my left side that hurts my hip. Grr. Then we moved to inside spirals. Couldn't do either leg. (I can do one leg on my outside spiral). I'm talking can't even get to knee height. Major pain. Moved to sit spins and just had crappy spins, but not due to hip pain. Just due to having crappy spins. Carson tells me it looks like my left hip is too high, but when I try to drop it I fall off to that side. And that my butt looks too high. No idea how to make it go lower, my knees don't bend any further, and if I just try to lean back to drop my butt, I lose the spin. I'm out of ideas, but think i'm close enough that it should count for bronze level. Then they started jumps so I left. The good: I hung around for awhile because someone was supposed to meet me to bring me something (she forgot, no big deal). As I'm leaving, I run into a synchro friend- I miss synchro, but honestly, kind of glad we aren't skating this weekend in sectionals- with my hip bothering me for the past month or so I don't think I'd have been able to, and with our team size that would have been everyone out. So while I'm talking to her a coach from the Cedar Rapids rinks gets onto the ice- my skate sharpener!!! I run over to the hockey box to talk to her while she puts her bags down, and leave her my skates. She's coming back today and will bring them back down. YAY!!!!! My skates needed sharpening so badly, but the highway to Cedar Rapids is a death zone in the winter, and since i have to arrange ahead of time which day I'm going up there, I'm always nervous it will be a bad one, since I don't know ahead of time. I think this should really help my spins. I do not like dull blades. No lesson tonight- have I even had one this month? Synchro sectionals has all the ice time this week. Maybe a lesson on Saturday. I need a goal. Silver Moves is beyond my reach due to overall skating ability and especially due to spirals. Freestyle is out of the question due to jumping. Dance- well a partner is not to be found, or a test session. So what am I working on? What's the point? I like tests, they motivate me. I can't even go back and do pre-pre/ preliminary moves because of the spirals. If I had done them years ago I would have been fine. Stupid spirals
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