July 6, 2006

July 3 lesson recap
Not sure if I ever wrote a report of the last lesson I had at Troy.
Well first, we earned the patches for Adult 2 (earned them the first lesson) and they actually gave us the patch! I feel like such a dork but I wish I had gotten them from Kettering instead of the certificate. I wonder if there is anyway to just get the patches I’ve passed (I’ve officially passed Basic 3 and 4. I’ve unofficially –in a private lesson real quick- passed Basic 1 and 2, and kind of Adult 1 also). But the patch is really pretty... I wonder if I’ll get ISI patches. I still need to figure out which level I will be, I have a huge mix of skills for what they teach.

So anyhow- lesson. We started off getting on the ice 15 minutes early because they didn’t cut new ice. That gave me time to practice stroking around the rink, do 3 turns, a couple mohawks, some spirals. It was all great fun. The best part is that I wore a skating skirt. Skating in a tiny little skirt, beige tights and white skates really makes you feel like a skater. It was amazing. I probably looked stupid but I am sold on skating skirts.

Anyhow our coach was 10 minutes late so by the time he got in we had been skating for 25 minutes. Then he asked us to start a quick warm up. What have we been doing for the past 25 minutes? Anyhow the warm up was straight skating with crossovers on the corners for the half rink. I decided to actually do proper stroking and it’s amazing the kind of speed you get. A few other people did that too, but it amazed me that the majority of the class just kind of skated around. We are in lessons, and it’s been covered that this is the “right” way to skate forward- why would you continue to push off your toepicks like a public session skater? Anyhow while we were skating the instructor came up to me and went “oooh she’s in a skating skirt” which really annoyed me. He was a great coach, but didn’t strike me as a very nice person. I was probably just being too touchy because I couldn’t seem to do anything good enough to get a compliment the entire session.

So then we worked on all the things we had done before, waltz jumps, stroking, backwards snowplows, pivots, two foot spins. Everything is getting stronger- nothing is good yet. We also learned t-stops which was different than I expected. I thought you set your foot down and stopped- no skid. I had so so so much trouble being on my outside edge. I only even tried the right side and eventually did it once or twice.

Then we moved on to mohawks. My left to right is consistent and occasionally actually pretty. My right to left is just not good. That was actually the first thing I was complimented on the whole session, which is crazy because it’s BAD. I place my foot behind me and worst of all, if I’m not doing it from a standstill I get confused which way I’m supposed to be going. We did these for about 15 minutes, and I alternated them with FO3s because that many mohawks in a row when they are either working well, or just not working gets old. But I was successful on my bad side a few times.

I talked to one of the instructors about arranging a private lesson to go over the ISI skills in Beta that I don’t know so I can start in Gamma, but summer ice is expensive so it would be way too much plus the time off work and the drive. I don’t have my new skates yet, so I decided it wasn’t going to be worth it. I called Rainbo and the skates got there last Thursday, but they still hadn’t processed the exchange yesterday. If they haven’t been shipped by tomorrow evening I’m going to call and ask them to hold them until I move. I cannot believe I am moving in less than a week- or that I have the good fortune of being walking distance to a rink.

June 20, 2006

3:58p

I can crossover- backwards! I have never ever had such an awesome time skating. It started off looking not so good. There is a pee-wee hockey class, and then a hockey power class on the rink before the learn to skate session, and the ice was torn up big time- but for some reason, unlike last week, they didn’t cut new ice. EEK! We did, however, get to be on the ice 20 minutes early. So I spent those 20 minutes doing some stroking, a couple pivots and working on 3 turns. Then a woman called us together, explained that our instructor from last week was not there and she would be teaching. She was very soft spoken and hard to hear. She lined us at the wall and had us stroke the width of the rink, so she could see where we are at. It’s tough to stroke the width of the rink and have good extension. I got maybe 4 strokes in before I was at the end. After doing that, we worked on the circle- all 8 of us on one circle- my goodness it was a HUGE traffic jam. The class is pretty mixed level so I felt like I couldn’t move at all. We did forward crossovers, which I can do well on my right side and okay on my left side, but I still need to practice, and then did forward pumps. The pumps were especially hard because they get me moving fast, but the people in front of me weren’t moving fast. Oh well, got to share the space. Then we moved onto backwards things. We started by trying to hold back edges. Eek. We set up by doing 3 swizzles, a 2 foot glide and then hold the outside edge, then we repeated for inside. Back outside edges appear to be easier than back inside edges, and the opposite true for forward. I wonder if that’s true for other people. While I can generally hold my forward edges for a long time, I had trouble holding these for more than a few seconds at a time, I certainly couldn’t hold them consistently enough to glide around the circle. Then we went to the wall and talked about how to be on the proper edges for backwards crossovers, and got paired into partners. Our partners held our arm while we did back crossovers to steady us. I was scrapping my toe pick a bit, and really watching the ice (and watching for blades on the ice behind me to some extent, but I wasn’t looking over my shoulder- oops) but I picked these up pretty quickly. Then I helped my partner. I loved doing backwards crossovers. They almost immediately came together for me. The left side was not as smooth as the right but I had anticipated so much trouble with these because of the trouble I had adjusting to swizzling to my toe instead of my heel- but apparently that prep worked. With just 10 minutes left in the class the instructor wanted to teach us something fun. She had a young adult skater demonstrate a spiral and then told us we could do this, first by just lifting our foot to calf height behind us and getting used to gliding on one foot. Then she etched out the ‘banana’ position with her foot on the ice and told us a bit about how our body should be and left us to practice. Psssh. I’ve glided on one foot before. So since she set us to practice on our own I went ahead to a waist high arabesque, gliding on a flat- obviously. I’m proud to say my (flat) spiral on ice is as good as my arabesque in ballet. Unfortunately that doesn’t say much. But the instructor did give me a little clap and say “you must have done this before” Nope- and I’m surprised I didn’t fall on my butt. So I did more of these, and now because a spiral is so much fun I’m really going to have to work on my flexibility. I tried to practice a few times gliding on my left foot, but I can’t get my leg as high on that side so it’s not as much fun, but my left foot is my weaker skating foot, so I need to make sure to give it equal practice time. Then we had 20 more minutes to practice on our own. I tried forward pivots (closer to doing one than last week), more spirals (weeee!), forward crossovers, forward outside 3 turns (these are still very small but I rarely put my foot down anymore) and more crossovers. We had another instructor ask us if we had any questions and I asked her if I was doing the crossovers correctly before I kept practicing wrong. She looked at them, corrected my arm and shoulder position (so now I physically can’t look at the ice if my shoulders are correct) and told me I looked great. Then she helped other people while I practice (having them step one foot over the other at the wall) when they moved back to the circle, I moved to the outside of the circle so I wouldn’t hit anyone- problem with crossovers is I get going really fast- and my only backwards stop is a snowplow which I can’t do very efficiently at speed, so once I get going really fast I wobble and then I have to figure out how to stop. The instructor came back over to me and said I was ready to learn the next part of crossovers, so she explained to me how the second foot pushed (we had just been pushing with the first foot) and how to pull the blade of the other foot. So I did that, and wow adding that push some how makes you center your feet correctly so you don’t drag your toe pick. Anyway I left the rink feeling like a star. I’m so so so proud of myself. (3 Comments | Comment on this)

7:31p

Nervous about new skates Well, I ordered skates and now I am having second thoughts: First off, I ordered size 3W Riedell 300 Gold Medallion skates with a Club 2000 blade (stock blade). It cost $250, plus $20 shipping and they threw the sharpening in for me. That’s what I planned to spend on the Competitor but the blade it came with is a slightly better stock blade. So now my issues that are making me worry I made the wrong choice (and something to refute them, because I am probably worrying needlessly): -I didn’t try them on ahead of time. (There is no where in southern Ohio that seems to stock my size anyway, so I would have had to guess at a store too) -None of the Reidells I tried on in the store were comfortable. (They weren’t the right size, of course they weren’t comfortable) -I really wanted the Jackson Competitor because it was a better deal. (But the price was the same. Get over it. Reidell is a great brand) -The people at sports plus didn’t think I was a wide. (The people at sports plus generally proved to be idiots) -I might have measured my foot wrong so the woman at rainbo might be wrong about me being a wide (uh....) Now the reason I didn’t get the Jackson Competitor is that the 3.5 wide is not in stock at Rainbo or the Jackson warehouse in Canada. But I’m not really sure I needed the wide. The 3.5 I tried on in Cincinnati fit well, but maybe I just thought it did? Is it possible to be wrong about things fitting well? It’s hard to tell if skates fit well because they are supposed to fit tight. Because if I could have gotten that skate, I’m going to cry. It was $250 for the boot and a protégé blade. The blade normally sells for $150 and the boot for $200. That was a great deal. Why didn’t I buy the freaking skate. I didn’t buy it because I thought I should wear the 3. But rainbo sports suggested the 3.5. So if I was right about the 3, then the boot I just bought is also going to be too big. So now I’m worried the skate I just spent a ton of money on (but not compared to quad figure skates) is going to be too wide, too stiff, or too big. If the boot doesn’t fit, I can always return it- but that costs $20 shipping both ways. Maybe if I exchange it I don’t have to pay postage to get it back again. Still, double shipping though. Why is this so stressful?

June 15, 2006

4:56p

So good to be on the ice again
I started lessons at Hobart Arena in Troy this Monday. My instructor is Glen (I think) and he is quite a character. Very fun, and seems like a very good skater and teacher.

The session is just Adult LTS. They divided us into 3 groups: Never skated before, Learning to Skate, and Good Skater. I was in the middle group. We would be working on Adult 2, and he read a list of skills and asked if anyone had done them before. I raised my hand and told him I had passed everything but the chasses (which actually aren’t adult 2) and he asked me if I wanted to move up, and as the class above me took off into beautiful sit spins I told him that I’d be alright with a refresher to improve my basics.

There were 8 people in the class. One a former child skater who had been off the ice for years. She was surprisingly uncoordinated- but had new skates. I’ll assume that was why. There were two girls in denim skirts, tights, and the flimsyist skates I have ever seen. There was no structure to the leather and they had their laces tied around their ankles. I’m surprised the instructor didn’t have them retie- the skirts were an interesting choice for a sport where people often fall. Kathleen from Kettering lessons was there as well and it was great to see her, and some other people

We started with forward stroking. I still feel stupid holding my arms out because it seems like no one else does it. But maybe no one else wants to be a good skater? Or maybe they just don’t care. Either way, I feel stupid. My stroking goes well, and from the edge. I’m not twisting my torso, but I probably am bobbing up and down. I have terrible knee bend.

As we are stroking the Never Skated class took the ice. One man in hockey skates could barely go 2 feet without falling, getting up, falling. I felt badly for him. The instructor retied his skates and he was able to go a bit further- he said he had truly never been on ice before. By the end of the evening he was going across the width of the ice on his own.

After stroking we moved to backwards glides on one foot. I am SO happy with this one. I was able to glide well on both of my feet. I am still taking a bit of an edge on my left foot when I’ve glided for awhile, but not as badly as before. Glen had us hold our foot to our knee while gliding instead of to our heel. Maybe the ballet like position helped me keep my balance? During these I also practice back snowplow stops and did very well on the right side, and okay on the left side (which is interesting since I can’t do a left snowplow stop at all). Those are on the Adult 2 curriculum but as a class we never did them.

We then moved to the circles for forward crossovers. Before we went to the circles Glen had us walk sideways placing our foot over the other and then moving them back together. The exercise went well on my right side and a bit bumpy on the left. Then he showed us how to do a crossover- and then showed us how we would be doing them in the perfect imitation of someone learning crossovers and jolting between each step. My right crossovers are good, and my left ones are getting better. I still don’t have a deep cross. During the crossovers I was told I really need to work on my kneebend.

“You are too good of a skater to not bend your knees.” Oops.

That comment made me wonder how long he thought I had been skating. I have about 10 hours.

Then we worked on forward pivots. Those were miserable. I can do backwards ones for a few revolutions, but can’t get around forward at all. I just don’t get it. I have my pick into the ice, my hip turned out, then I swizzle my foot and STOP. I have got to work on these.

Then we went to 2 footed turns on a circle. He took the goal half-circle and drew an arrow for us to turn on. My counter clockwise one was good, but my feet weren’t perfectly together (are they supposed to be?) and I didn’t glide out of it as well as I would have liked. My clockwise one was probably the best I’ve done. Good kneebend, quick turn at speed, and then kept gliding exactly on the circle. Coaches response “Yeah, whatever” Everyone else had a lot of trouble with these, although most people did end up turned around someway or another.

We then went to backward ½ swizzle pumps on a circle. No problems here except I go too fast to share a circle with people just learning them. And it’s probably a bad thing, but I really am not too sure of how to make them much slower. I feel like writing this it sounds like I think I am some incredible skater who is better than everyone else, but really I don’t. I do, however, think that this particular class was review for me, and I was the best one in the class. I don’t think I was doing anything extremely well (especially not bending my knees).

Forward edges on a circle were great. I can hold all 4 edges for at least ½ of a rotation and can hold the clockwise edges ¾ of one!

The last thing we did was forward chasses. If anyone is still reading this entry and knows about dance, are chasses really just a stroke with one foot and then pick the other foot up? That seems way to simple. Anyway- those went without a hitch.

At the end of the class he told us we would be starting Adult 3 next week (yay, new stuff) and that all of us had passed Adult 2 because we all performed the required skills. This was my only qualm. Clearly no one in the class had perfected EVERYTHING. (Um, my pivot?) There were some people who struggled with everything we did. But now we are moving on. I’m sure he will review, but why call it passed? How about just- we are going to add new skills? But I guess that’s how LTS is.

I am ordering skates from Rainbo Sports soon, and Glen is the guy Troy SC recommends to mount and sharpen blades, so I’m glad he’s my instructor. I’m also going to try to get 1, maybe 2 private lessons in July so I can get backward crossovers and a bunny hop before moving.

I’m so glad to be on the ice again.