September 2011

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2011-09-02 10:31:00
Week in Skating
Did I post after Tuesday? I meant to but now I don't remember. You'd think I could just look, but I post by email and would have to wait until this afternoon to actually be able to open up my journal... Let's start with Tuesday: Power class was good. Tuesday LTS has none of the ice war issues that Sat does. The areas are assigned, and everyone stays in them. Occasionally a group will do laps, but it is never a problem, they just skate on by. The only problem I did have was half my fault, half not (well, probably all my fault, I should have been looking). At the end of class, as always, we do hockey lines. Carson now has us do lines where we skate forward to the line, and then back to the wall. I like these because I rock at skating backwards and can keep up with C.- she skates much better fwd than I do, but I catch her going bwd. Anyhow- there were 3 other classes on the ice- Sandy's, Sergei's and Burton's. I could see them all in front of me, so knowing where everyone on the ice was, I didn't need to look backwards while skating. Turns out an adult who takes a lesson on cheap skate had got on the ice and was doing slow laps while listening to an ipod, just lazing around in her own world to warm up. I nearly flew into her. Thankfully, although I wasn't really watching behind me, I was kind of peaking, so I managed to slam on the breaks before we collided. So yeah, it was my fault I wasn't looking, but if you aren't in LTS, you aren't supposed to be on the ice. Wednesday is no longer a lesson day, just independent practice. I skated for 45 minutes. Did my program runthrough and I'm still ending early- we need to add to it. Especially if he wants me to skate faster, because right now I'm spending a good amount of time creeping from here to there, since I know I have the time. Backspins are still making me mad. Why can't I cross my leg? On both Tuesday and Wednesday I had a HORRIBLE headache at work, enough that I wanted to go home sick. But I couldn't- because really all I need was a few hour nap to make the headache go away, but if I leave work I can't very well show up to skating. At a private rink I might get away with it- but at the mall? No way, "too sick to work, but not too sick to play?" :( Thing is, it's really more of a "I feel better now". I was wondering why I always seem to feel sick on skating days, but I realized, that skating 3 weekdays, well, that's just the majority of days. Last night was my first lesson. It was public ice, but the ice was good and it wasn't crowded. We did have one little bug girl- you know the kind that is attracted to you like a moth to a flame? At one point she was just standing like a foot away from us and Carson even said "Go skate sweetie" and she just stared. Doing loops she just kept getting closer and closer, so we'd move, and then closer and closer. It was pretty funny, but a little annoying. The ice was empty enough that it was easy to move. Did a program run through and Carson said I'm skating way too slow. Also worked on spins and I got complimented for being more aggressive on my fwd and sit spins- they are going a lot faster now, and are staying pretty centered. Camel got complimented, but my upper body is way too high. I think it was more a "its getting better" one. Worked a bit on crossing my foot on backspin. Now I tend to cross it over, then pull it back to the wrong side- WTH! Toe loop is gone, and I'm pissed. I fixed that! Come back!
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2011-09-20 09:52:00
Sad
I never updated last week. For one reason: frustration. I am just not having a happy time skating right now. (In Kevin's words: You just got new skates, you aren't allowed to quit.) It isn't the skates, it is me. And I don't want to quit. I like skating. I think the problem is I fell out of my routine. We went to Texas from the 3rd-10th and in that time I missed 2 group lessons, 1 power class, 1 private lesson, and 2 practice sessions. That's a lot of skating. Then I had a sewing class this Saturday, another practice and group lesson missed. No wonder nothing is working, I'm not skating! I'm especially struggling with my struggle to backspin. I do not understand why my foot will not cross. (It appears to be lack of knee bend and poor arm placement. On Wednesday, I did a couple well.) And my toe loop which I spent a year fixing is gone again. And I have no goal. I was shoot for nationals, and to pass Bronze, but now that is gone. I will probably take the Bronze test if there is a test session around here, but I don't deserve to pass it. I've had a years long battle with the loop (3 now? 4?). I just don't know if I have a third single jump in me. I wish Carson would let me work on flips without getting loop first. I don't want to just try them on my own because I have enough bad habits to fix. I can't pass Silver moves, the spirals are not possible for me. So what am I aiming for? This summer I had the competition to aspire to, but I don't have one now. I'll skate in the Christmas show, so I need to get my program a bit cleaner. (Carson told me I looked lethargic. Wonderful...) I just want to enjoy skating again like I did when I was in Basic 6.
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2011-09-24 16:47:00
Week in Review: Saturday
Skating is making me much happier than the last time I posted. Although it isn't really making my knees or hip happy, but that is another issue. Saturday: I skated Freestyle for 30 minutes and then did two LTS classes (I have TONS of make ups to do). I was pretty lethargic on freestyle ice. The adults had a discussion before skating about fear of falling (both of the adults I was talking with are MUCH better than me- one is Gold, the other is a come back from about Juvenile level as a kid. They both do occasional doubles, so not scaredy cat adults) and we discussed the ice halo and different hip pads. (I'm seriously considering an ice halo. why are they a)so expensive and b)so goofy looking?) Anyhow- once on the ice, I was just tired. I'm always tired, but it is even tougher to skate tired. I did some AWESOME scratch spins (they have been amazing lately) and then some -meh- jumps. While running his program, one of the skaters (intermediate? he might be juvenile) had a really bad fall on a spin. I didn't see how he fell, but I thought it was the final spin in his program, because he just stayed laying down. But then his music didn't end. I skated by and asked if he was okay, but he just glared at me. Then someone else skated by and did the same. Then his coach finally came out to check on him. This kid isn't a cry baby- so if the coach knew the program wasn't ending and he was just being a drama queen, his response time was WAY too long. Anyway- kid is fine, got off the ice for 20 minutes, but came back for LTS. He was clutching his back a lot though, so I bet he is in pain. Anyhow- the point: the ice was jinxed for spins. I think I saw more people fall on spins during freestyle than I did for jumps! And what does this have to do with me? Well, during LTS, I did a backspin: my foot actually got crossed, I was thinking "woo" and next thing I know, I'm sitting on the ice. It wasn't a bad fall at all, but I did hit my hip. Carson skated over and looked at me and said "why are you sitting down?" I said "I fell!" (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he really thought I just sat down. In a year of lessons I've fallen twice.) So I got up, shook my legs out a bit- did a scratch spin to get the nerves to go away and got back to backspins. Like I said: it was NOT a bad fall. Carson comes over to watch my backspin and my legs started shaking like crazy. They shook for like 15 minutes. If I know it isn't a bad fall, why won't my body agree with me? I almost crossed a few other backspins, but it was difficult to control my legs at all with the shaking. The rest of LTS was just basic spins, circle 8s and then jumps. Jumps were tough. Because it was the make up class, it was a slightly different ice set up than I am used to (the other woman in the class is 71!! She isn't doing big jumps, but she is definitely trying- very awesome. She skates because her daughter is a Special Olympic skater and they do duets together. The daughter also does solos, and has the most amazing shoot the duck!) Anyhow, we did waltz jumps, which was fine, but then I got told to do waltz- side toe hop- salchow. Okay, I can do that. Um, but where? The other woman was skating on the left of the ice, Axel plus was landing jumps to the right. That wouldn't be a problem, but they were alternating set ups so one would be doing an entrance, the other landing, and then switch. There was never free space that I could come in from the other direction. I will never understand how I can find space on a freestyle session of 20, but can't when 3 people are doing LTS. I guess on freestyle it isn't like a constant plane landing pattern, everyone is going their own way. Anyhow- between the fall (hip) and over an hour of skating (knees) I'm in pain today!
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2011-09-24 18:35:00
Week in Review: Other than Today...
Thursday: So Thursday I had my lesson. I skated for about 15 minutes before it and was just not feeling it. I just couldn't decide anything to work on that was making me happy. This didn't bode well. But surprisingly I had a good lesson. I was a little worried I'd end up being a rotating guillotine while doing camel spin, because the public skaters kept edging into my space no matter where I moved (not a crowded public session, like 5 kids on the entire ice). My camel needs a lot of work. Honestly, I'm not sure why we are even doing them... Backspin was the same frustration as usual. So was loop (what is funny about loop is he always tells me to have a good tight position like my backspin. I always want to reply and say "surely not like MY backspin..."). Toe loop is also not going well, still. I can't get my weight onto the toe pick. At the end of the lesson we did loop in the harness, and eh. Even being lifted, I don't have the jump in me on my left leg (I can't do one foot hops off the ice. This is clearly YEARS away.) So he had me focus on pointing my toes in the air and landing on the toe pick. Well, I think the reason I don't point my toes is I'm not jumping high enough that the difference of the length of my foot can be accomodated. It has to stay flat because I only have like a quarter inch of jump. Anyhow- he thought I made good progress in the harness. I fell once and really slammed into my knee. I suppose this would have been a head-wacking fall out of the harness, so the harness did it's job, but I would have never jumped like that without the harness, so I'm annoyed at how bad my knee hurts. I do like the harness though. I have a little more guts to try the jumps. Wed: I don't remember this practice. I'm guessing that my scratch spins were awesome, and everything else sucked. That pretty much sums up my skating. Tues: Well, I'm definetly the only one in my power class now, which means we aren't doing power anymore (kinda sucks with just one person), but edges. Working on circle 8s and my front ones are pretty good. (we also use too small of a circle in the class- red dot to outside of hockey circle. My figure has to be 15 ft which is center rink red dot to red dot -exactly- being 5 ft tall is good for something). I can actually do them pretty well on the big circle too. The back ones are still comically bad. So bad that I can barely even figure out how the push works for the inside edge. (Picking up the skating foot, C-cutting with the other and then shifting to the lifted foot...) Half the time I end up on the outside edge wondering what happened. The edge isn't exactly pretty when I do get onto it, and it certainly doesn't go around a full circle (neither does the outside, but it is slightly better.) Our club has an exhibition this weekend, and the president said I could skate if I wanted to (they have 10 and can take 12) but it was advertised for skaters getting ready for tests/competitions, so I don't really want to do it. Plus my freeskate is in no state to be performed with the new layout, and I haven't practice I Feel Pretty for awhile (though I bet I could improv it just fine...) In other news: 1 self-assessment down, 1 to go. I hate week 4 of class. Week 8 is even worse, since it ends on Friday (usually we get until Sunday.) After this session (currently on week 4), I'm halfway to my Master's degree.
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