Weekend Update

I have a few rowing posts I keep wanting to write, but I've been really busy...

But since most of you follow the blog for skating, I'll make sure to write that post.

This Saturday morning was a fabulous freestyle session.  Regionals was this weekend, so the coach with the most skaters was out of town.  Even though only a few of his skaters were competing, the rest took the day off, since their lessons were canceled. The first half hour of the ice was just me and one other skater (and her coach). The second half hour I had my lesson and there was a third skater there too.  Fabulous.

Since the ice was so clear, Carson and I really took advantage of being able to run dances, with music.

But first, the half hour before the lesson.  My knee has really been bothering me (but not really my knee, I think it is my IT band, but it hurts to bend, so we are calling it 'knee'- I go to PT on Wed. This is a rowing issue, not a skating one, so it is different than the previous knee issues.) so I took it kind of easy.  Warmed up all the dances.  Did some backspins.  Tried to do some scratch spins, but the bend on the entry is too harsh.  I didn't jump.  Did some three turns.  I need my skates sharpened.

I only made it about 20 minutes before I was worried about my knees so I got off ice and stretched and talked to a skater putting on her skates.

When Carson got on the ice, we started with the Cha-cha.  I still don't have music for that, so we haven't done it with proper timing, but we did work on it partnered.  Man, I love this dance.  It should switch place with the Rhythm Blues- it is so much easier.  Other than needing to not look down, I didn't get many comments on this one.  That's a really good thing.

Next we moved to the Rhythm Blues.  My step behinds are still kind of stilted, and I bend at the waist when I do them. I need to focus on using my knees (which presumably would be easier if both were fully functional, but I don't think that is the issue, so I can't really use the excuse).  Carson is still just holding me when I do them, he isn't skating along with me.  However, that is really the only problem here.

Canasta Tango is going well.  I am a bit early on the second slip step, but otherwise the only thing Carson told me was to make sure I didn't get too swingy on the step BEFORE the swing roll. He said he was worried he would kick me (I told him if I survived synchro, there was no way he was going to take me down...)   I did kick him slightly on a progressive on like our 4th pattern, but it isn't generally an issue.  Here I started focusing on not looking down and I really hate that.  It isn't so much seeing my feet- but seeing his.  If I can't see his, I worry the timing was wrong.

I sailed through the Dutch Waltz.  It was really fabulous- we fill the ice and it just feels like I'm skating with confidence.  I can think about things like extension on swing rolls (I just imagine Meryl Davis level of extension...please don't burst my bubble if you ever see me) and toe point.  Here I wasn't looking down and it felt okay. 

I think there will be a test session in February.  I better be injury free enough to utilize it!  Wish there was one sooner...I could probably do two of the tests now.

Catching up with skating

Oops, it has been a long time since I posted.  But I have a good excuse. 1) Because I'm not making much progress, I don't have much to say.  But that actually isn't true for these missed entries, I've just gotten lazy about blogging. The next excuse is better 2) We moved so I have been busy preparing to move, moving, and settling in,  and 3) we have no internet at home.

So with that said, let me recap some of my skating.

Tuesday the 9th. Fabulous day of skating!  Now that I live 15 minutes away from the rink instead of less than 5, there is kind of a problem. Already I'm burning out on LTS, but on a cold rainy day- I just DID NOT want to go. I'm so glad I did.  We started the lesson with alternating 3s from preliminary and then the forward to backward 3s from Silver, and magically- I didn't have any sidedness issues!  My counter-clockwise 3s were working just the same as my clockwise ones.  I have NO idea what I was doing differently, but hopefully whatever it is it will stay!   Then we worked on backward circle eights and they can be summed up as "awful" (for outside) and "awful doesn't even begin to describe it" (for the inside ones).  My goodness- how are they so different from forward edges?  I can hold the edge just the same on the line (well, maybe my back inside is weakest), so why is the circle such a challenge?  Don't even get me started on that awful push to get to the back inside edge...

But the really really good news (well maybe that was the three turns)- I crossed my foot on a change foot spin!  My backspin from an inside edge entry is getting stronger, I'm crossing my foot in a closed position instead of an open one, so I can start trying to cross higher up and push down for speed, but I've been working on a backspin from a pivot position and that is enabling me to get the push correct on my change foot spin.  It is still pretty atrocious, but definite progress is being made!  YAY!

Saturday the 6th.  Carson was out of town so no lesson.  I skipped skating because we had been so busy.  I really SHOULD have gone to practice, but moving is exhausting.

Tuesday the 2nd.  I skipped skating because I was so busy.  We moved on the 1st, so there was a TON to do.

Saturday the 29th.  This was a good skating day.  For my lesson I had hoped to work on the Rhythm Blues pretty intensely, but Carson broke his lace tying up his boot, so he wasn't able to partner (he tied his skate up with one lace so that he could still stand on the ice).  Rather, I did the Rhythm Blues a few times individually (he still held onto me during the end patterns).  I need actual practice doing the dance, and preferably to music.  Hopefully this weekend.  After that, I learned the cha-cha.  He had introduced the end pattern to me, thinking it would be difficult, but it turns out, I do that step down rather naturally.  So I learned the rest of the dance.  I LOVE this one.  It is quite fun.  I have a feeling I'm in for a big spill on that step down because it can't go this well for too long, but I'm really confident about this one.  In February when there is another test session, hopefully I can take four dances.  Unfortunately the mohawks in the other two for that level are going to take forever to get down.  We worked on mohawks a bit this lesson, and they are just really awful.  Maybe it will go better if I'm partnered...