November 2011

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2011-11-11 15:08:21
Good News/Bad News
I haven't posted in awhile. This is for 2 reasons 1) I'm stuck in a rut, so I don't have anything interesting to say about my skating. Maybe I should try to write content about skating in general. I like blogs like that, but I also like reading practice reports... 2) I've been really busy with school and haven't really had time. So let's do today in terms of good news/bad news. *Good news*: I found out that I won't lose my lesson time to hockey. The schedule is printed to include public ice until 5:30 on Thursday through December. (Though I suppose they could just change it...) *Bad news:* The ice SUCKS. Since my lesson is the LAST 30 minutes of public ice, it hasn't been zammed in ages. I really really hate bad ice. I am an ice snob. I will not skate on bad ice. (For example, last night, I just point blank refused to try 8-step mohawk. I did half the pattern and told Carson it just wasn't going to happen. For 8-step, I think he understood...) *Good news*: We changed the footwork in my program. I like it SO much better now. Oddly enough, despite Carson wanting to focus on power, for the footwork he is telling me NOT to push. Don't cover the ice, just have tight, quick steps (apparently I wide step, and it looks clunky, he wants my feet close together- perfect for stepping on your own blades...) *Bad news:* I'm incapable of crossing my left arm in front. Apparently the crossover into my toe steps he wants me to do like a spin wind up. (Carson: "I don't understand why this is hard- this is what you do into the entrance of every spin. Oh wait, it's what I do. You do the other one, never mind.") I don't understand why it is hard, it is just putting my arm in front of me when my feet cross, but it is SO ackward. What a silly thing to practice. *Bad news*: I did possibly the worst program of my life yesterday. I missed EVERY element. A few because I was in immediate danger of being attacked by two public skaters (who had demonstrated that they didn't know how to stop) racing each other across the center of the ice, but my sit spin I just totally missed. My sit spin has become one of my strongest elements if you ignore how high my butt is... Just no good. *Good news*: After those guys left the ice and the last 3 minutes of public skate I re-ran the program (woo- double run through from no stamina girl!) and it went MUCH better. My sit spin was fantastic, good snap, nice speed, lots of revolutions. My footwork went very well, the change is definetly good. The only thing I missed this time was my salchow, which I tried to enter like a waltz jump. The entrances are similar enough I should have been able to save it, but I got confused as to why I was stepping forward rather than 3-turning and just didn't do the jump. *Good news*: I'm working on an attitude spin. And I'm actually spinning for a good 5-8 revolutions, centered. *Bad news*: Spinning slower than molasses runs, but spinning. It also turns into a bit of a "kick the butt" spin at the midway point. *Good news: *I found out from the other Bronze skater in the area that she can't cross her foot on the backspin. It is not required for the test. *Bad news:* Carson says there is no way he'll let me test if I can't cross. However, for me personally that means I need to be able to cross in practice. If on the warm up for the test it isn't happening, it's nice to know I can just spin. Because with my foot by my ankle, I got this one! So really the only problem now is that I'm landing my "loop" two footed. *Bad news*: My knees are killing me. I couldn't jump on Tuesday at all. I can't walk up or down stairs. I can't even move the comforter on my bed without crying in pain (I kick the sheets around at night, including to let the dog get out of the bed, because she's too stupid to figure it out on her own.) *Good news*: They were doing A LOT better yesterday. I still don't want to work on jumps (and won't tomorrow) but I did them in my program, and it wasn't bad. It did hurt more when I got home than when I left for the lesson though.
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2011-11-30 01:08:52
Knee progress...
So, I tried jumping today. After a week off, it doesn't hurt to jump (or to land, which was really the problem), however, now that I am off the ice I'm in quite a bit of pain. I think on Thursday (if PT doesn't aggrevate it further, which it often does) I will tell Carson he gets 15 jumps (including 4 in program), so he can pick which ones he wants. We started group lessons just doing swizzles to landing position, and then pivoting. My pivot is getting pretty good. It also made me realize better how my foot needs to pick for combination jumps (the point of the exercise). I'm still doing a slow-mo toe loop, but to me, that's better than a cheated one. My waltz jump toe loop is okay, but my salchow toe loop is pretty good if I do say so myself :) Too bad it's not a choose of the combo on the bronze test. That's stupid. In theory, they should be equally difficult. Carson was kind of surprised I did the salchow-toe loop, but really- it's all the same isn't it ? The idea is to jump from the landing position. As long as you have a strong landing position (which I do on my first three jumps, waltz, toe, sal) what's the difference? Then we did spins on our own (the 15 minute lesson thing, since he teaches two classes at once). My backspins are spinning really well, very centered, correct edge. I just can't cross the darn foot. At this point, I'm practicing some of them stork legged. For the test what is important is that I decide right away if I can cross or not- whatever position I'm in, I need to GET THERE. I don't want to have to do 10 revolutions because it takes me 7 to get into position (pretty common, since I try and try to cross it, and then give up). Carson also asked us to work on change foot spins, and I'm not getting near enough power in the change. I can do a weeny one like I did years ago in my ISI competition (however, 6 months ago I couldn't -so it i a step in the right direction). To get the push right I basically have to cross front, and I don't do that at all. I'm not skating in the Christmas show (next weekend). The club president told me just do a program without jumps, but I would have to learn one, and there just isn't enough time. I could probably skate like a weeny to my current program, since jumping doesn't really hurt, but it would be really unpolished. Our show is already painful to watch (way too many low level skaters, each doing multiple solos sometimes) I don't need to add to that. Test session is March 3. Even if I have to ask my doctor for cortisone shots, I am taking this test.
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