June 2010

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2010-06-03 17:44:00
Breakdown
Skated 30 minutes yesterday. Was fine then, but my hip hurts today. Unrelated, but I have a very very bad headache right now :( We started the lesson with the Rhythm Blues and I had a bit of a breakdown. I'm not getting any better with the step behinds. It will be years before I can do them to speed, and it's not really possible to practice the dance "faking" them, because then I'm stranded in the middle of the ice when I need to be around the corner. So anyhow, I'm thinking I'm going to be giving up dance for awhile. It was supposed to help my edge quality so that someday I can pass Silver moves, instead, it's just making me really mad. I've been working on the Dutch Waltz for over a year, the Canasta Tango for a bit less. I'm not close to testing them- I've only ever done them partnered maybe twice, and rarely with music. Five year olds do these things in 2 months, why am I having to spend this much time on it. (Lack of partner, I honestly think is the reason). Anyhow- since I don't see myself getting the stupid step behinds um, ever, I see no reason to do dance at all. (Yeah, I could do them without testing, but I like testing, it's my main motivation in skating). I can't move on without the RB. There is no reason to test DW and CT if I can't also test RB, because I won't pass the level. USFS is too expensive to join to test two dances if I don't get the level out of them. Maybe if I do a freestyle or moves test that year then I'll also do the dance tests, but that's looking unlikely too. So after my breakdown, we moved to spins. What the hell happened to my spins? I can't center a scratch spin, my backspins are as tenative as ever. We did attitude spins (wonder if that's why my hip hurts or if it's the one spiral I tried) I don't even want to know what it looked like. Also working on change foot spins and they are a mess. Courtney tells me she has no complaints about my sit spin, but I'm sure if I took a lesson with Andy again (unlikely now that he only works with freestyle students who have axels in group class) he's have plenty to complain about. Then we moved to moves. My forward cross rolls are getting better I think. I still rise up too much on my left side, but the switch over to my right foot gets an awesome growl. I mean OMG! awesome growl. I was very proud of that. Back ones are pretty good as long as the ice is clear. They are still a bit scratchy, so I need to get off my toepicks, and while my right foot placement is good, I still toe step on the left side. I'm actually a bit nervous I'm going to take a backwards spill on them, because I feel like i'm getting too gutsy with the speed, and my blade placement isn't perfect. I worry too much. Then we moved to no-power pulls. Hahaha. The right side definetly slows down as I reach the center line, the left side- comes to a dead stop at least 5 feet before the end line. I clearly need muscle work. We didn't do backwards, but those are usually better (but scratchier) than forwards. The entrance to these is so difficult. Of course, like the preliminary dance test never happening, Silver moves will never happen. My left spiral is just about knee height. It is much too painful to even try to get it higher. (Grr- livejournal wouldn't let me post this by email. If that isn't a temporary bug, I think I'll be moving to blogspot.)
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2010-06-09 10:51:00
Breakthrough
I took group class yesterday. While the other girl did half lutz (i'm stil on a no jump order from my NP and PT- my next practice I'm going to play around with switching my jumps so I land on my right foot. If I can do that, then I can start jumping again) I worked on step behinds from the RB, then we did sit spins, then we did the FS4 spiral sequence (FI, mohawk, BO), then cross rolls. Now, I'm FS4 for life because of waltz jump-loop combo, I had previously been "passed" on these spirals (but barely) but now my hip will prevent me from getting them I think. Anyhow, on the right leg side, I can do the leg, and while I know it isn't pretty- I think it does hit hip height. But the last time I worked on these (possibly a year.. I can't even remember the last time we did this) my mohawk was so bad I practically had to stop before the turn. My big breakthrough- last night I couldn't remember which mohawk was my bad mohawk. After trying both sides I figured it out- it's still a little hoppy, but that tells me I am ALMOST there. I could do it out of the spiral, with a bit of hesitation, but at the same speed. YAY me! Step behinds went better. I'm still really worried about doing them at dance speed, but in isolation I'm getting better. I hate these. Sit spins were miserable. I just feel like my blades are never sharp enough. I feel like I go through sharpeners like boxes of kleenex. Even if someone initally does a good job, eventually I get to where i feel like the blades can't get sharp enough. (Though to be fair- I got rid of the first one after a sharpening lasted me about 2 days, the 2nd because we had a "falling out" when I switched coaches, and this might not be my current ones fault. I might be overly pick and not get them done often enough. Though I only skate an hour a week or so, I do march in place for an hour a week too, and I'm sure that's hard on blades). Back cross rolls went well. I'm working on sliding my left foot, but the right side is good. I can really see why for kids this is on the test after power pulls. You really need a good power pull to do them, which explains why they are good on the side I have good pulls, and bad on the other side. I get that for the adult test putting them lower means they don't have to be as good, but it's a bit of a stumbling block to not have the time to build the necessary skills. Anyhow, Courtney kept telling me I really needed to PUSH more, then I realized she was only seeing the end of the pattern, because at the beginning she was working with M. who is just learning these (these took me FOREVER to learn how to even put my foot down). I have good push at the beginning (I think)- I run out of it. Who made these rinks so long?
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2010-06-11 12:24:00
A lesson in humility...
(I didn't post yesterday about my Wednesday lesson because I was still a bit sad about it.) So my last post was me bragging. I was so proud of my mohawk. I've had a bad side for so long, and to have to actually compare the sides to determine the bad one, rather than it just being so awful I know it's bad was a pretty big step up for me. So my natural response was to come onto my blog and tell the world how great my mohawk was. The skate Gods do not like a braggard. (Is that a word?) My mohawk did not come to Wednesday practice. It was as bad as ever. And my pattern starting right forward inside 3-turn also did not show up. (I can do them once the pattern starts, just not to start the pattern.) Okay- I get it. Work hard, stop bragging. Can I have my turns back? Also- I discovered what hurts my hip. Turns out it's skating. :) Pretty much anything can trigger it if I rotate my hip, or let my leg muscles get fatigued. Which means building up to left power pulls will be tough. And too many cross rolls is not a good thing. Nor are 3-turns. I can no longer jump CW, and my attempts to switch to CCW were not pretty. I don't know what I'm going to do.
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2010-06-30 08:47:00
sigh...
So I skated yesterday- just a 30 minute LTS class, and not even all of it. I think I might need to take a break from skating. My body just can't do it anymore. Holding my arms up for stroking hurt my shoulders/neck, jumping (I did like 6 total jumps, 3 salchow-omg those were awful- and 3 half lutz) hurt my hips. My knees didn't hurt while skating, but I forgot to wear my bands and they hurt today. I was feeling like crap yesterday, and sit spins made me so dizzy I had to get off the ice. I did a few good backspins, but if anything they are way more tenative then they were 6 months ago. I just don't skate well. The only thing I did well was the waltz 8, and I am so freaking tired of doing the stupid waltz eight. I feel like I've been doing it for like 5 years. I haven't been skating for 5 years, but it feels like that's when I passed Pre-Bronze, I'm that tired of this move. So, I don't have a private lesson this week. I need to decide if I'm going to keep doing them or not. Skating isn't fun. Between my knees and my hips, I'm always in pain- not to mention that I still don't like how my boots fit. And since I'm always in pain I don't even have a chance at getting better. And not getting better sucks. It sucks for a hobby I love to not be fun. I don't want to give it up, but I don't want to do it either. I've overweight with no form of exercise I like or can do without pain. Skating used to be the one I liked- though I'm not sure it was ever "exercise" for me.
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