Grounded

Yes it's happened: I've been grounded from the ice! :-( I'm SOOOOO SAD!!! That bad case of shin splints that I mentioned 2 weeks ago turned out to be a little more than just shin splints. About a week and a half ago (it was on a Sunday) I started having pain in my calf even when I was walking. I waited over Labor Day to see if it would go away but it only got worse. So that Tuesday I called a sports medicine orthopedist that a friend had recommended and made an appointment for the following afternoon. Tuesday morning I was still able to practice but I started noticing that I was having trouble getting into a flip from a 3 turn and I had already stopped doing Salchows and toe loops because they were quite painful. Wednesday morning I was supposed to have a lesson before my appointment that afternoon. I went out to warm up about 30 minutes before my lesson as I hate going into a lesson cold, but by the time my coach came out onto the ice I was in tears, not from the pain, but simply because I couldn't do anything without it hurting! I knew I was going to have to take some time off of the ice and that realization was heartbreaking! It only took a few pokes and prods on my shin for the doctor to suspect what the X-rays confirmed: a stress fracture. Even worse than I thought! As a nursing student, I had done my homework before going in and thought that it was a tendon problem. I figured a week at most off of the ice, a little physical therapy and I'd be good as new. Not so much. Between a soft tissue (such as ligaments and tendons), actual fracture and a stress fracture, having a stress fracture is probably the worst of the three. This is because of two main reasons: first, once you get a stress fracture, you're at risk for having future ones. Secondly, and more importantly, unlike a true fracture that heals in 6 weeks, there is no guarantee that a stress fracture will heal and if it does, there is no guarantee that it won't come back again to haunt you. Naturally, this diagnosis produced a few more tears. And I haven't even mentioned the other factors that were upsetting such as we had just finished choreographing my program 4 days before and I had a competition in 7 weeks (now 6) or the fact that, well let's face it, I'm addicted to the ice and to go from skating 6 days a week to NOTHING was impossible to imagine. So now I'm on a diet extraordinarily heavy in calcium. I eat 2-3 Tums a day, drink a minimum of 16 oz of milk, eat 1 cup of yogurt and 2 cheese sticks. I try to grab a bite or two of ice cream or some extra milk as well but it just depends on the day. It's probably my own fault now that I think about it because not only do I pound the life out of my joints and bones every day, but I started really watching what I was eating back in early July and since school has been in session for the last month, if it doesn't pack in a backpack, then I probably am not eating it. I live on peanut butter sandwiches, apples and granola bars. So yes I know that I inadvertently set myself up for this one but that doesn't make it any easier. Here's the crux of the matter, and this is hard for me to admit: what I've accomplished in the last 5 months is amazing and awesome, not to mention highly unusual. But it's the fact that I'm definitely not a typical skater that drives me forward even more to continue to surpass any and all expectations that anyone has for me, including my own. If I can't compete at the end of October, I'll be disappointed but it won't be the end of the world. What has me willing to kill to get back out there is that I'm really afraid of loosing some of what I had before. I started getting a consistent camel-sit just a couple of days before I was ordered off of the ice. My sit spin was getting much lower and tighter. My spirals were looking better, and I had a great catch foot towards the end of my program. I'm really afraid that I will have to go back and somewhat re-learn what I already have. And then there is sectionals. Okay, I guess I'll admit my secret. I know that the only thing I'm going to have to push hard for is the flying spins to skate in the silver division. The Axel won't be a problem for me. So, I was super secretly hoping that I would actually be able to do gold and not just silver. Because I'm fairly sure I could have had the double Salchow and toe loop. But now that I've lost ground I don't know if I'll be able to have even the flying spins by the end of December, which is when I'd have to test into silver if I was going to skate gold. Because you have to be tested into the level you're competing in (well you can skate one up but that's it) NOT by the time of the competition but by the time of the registration. So let me just point out that the registration for both sectionals and nationals is the first week of January. And sectionals are the last week of February, and nationals are the second week of April. Okay just so we're clear that's two and three 1/2 months respectively between registering and competing. Anyone else see the problem with this? I can accomplish.....well let me think a second here.....I think I had every single jump except Lutz and of course Axel by the 3 month mark. Just saying...So anyways, the only ice I'm seeing right now is teaching learn to skate. Hopefully by next week I can do some general stroking and moves just so that I can stay on my blades and maybe the week after I can really get back to what I do well....I think as long as I can be back on the ice at 100% by 3 weeks out from the competition, I can pull it off if I do 2 a day practices. We will see....more to come soon! I may be off the ice for a couple of weeks but I'm flooring it full force as soon as they'll let me get back on!

Three weeks later...

Ok ok I know I’m horrible….it’s been nearly three weeks since I’ve updated the skating blog. And the last two weeks I was in school so that does explain a lot as far as lack of time is concerned. I actually have had to read what my last post was so that I knew what I should talk about that has happened since then. A major factor that has come into play since my last posting is a severe case of shin splints in my left leg. I’ve had shin splints but none quite like this. Let me put it this way, it’s not uncommon for me to be woken up by shooting pain in my leg at 4 am. I think it’s mostly from the amount of spinning that I’m now doing. On my last post I had talked about how I was starting to try some sit spins and was learning how to do a camel. I now have a pretty decent looking sit spin (actually I get into a very nice position and it’s quite speedy, we’re just working on getting it lower) and a good camel when it decides to behave….it’s very inconsistent. So the pain I think can be fairly accurately attributed to my calf muscles freaking out because of all of the intense spinning that is going on right now. I’m not jumping very much at all and I’m really focusing on catching my spins up to my jumps. This was because I had been begging my coach to let me compete on the bronze level for our competition at the end of October instead of the pre-bronze level because I really wanted to be able to throw a Lutz in my program. I have the jumps, why not use them, right? And of course, her response was that if I wanted to compete in bronze, then I needed to catch my spins up to the caliber of my jumps. Logical, yes. Fun, no. Easy to do, heck no! But I am happy to report that I now have a happy and consistent backspin that I am still working on getting consistently into a combo, can do a sit scratch combo, and am within a week or so I’m guessing of having a camel sit. Oh and I can do a pancake spin and a headless scratch spin. So we started putting together my program on Tuesday. I like my music which starts out slow but then picks up and has a nice dark, mysterious accent to it which will go great with my amazing dress that I have. My coach asked me on Wednesday if I had timed my music yet. I said that I had and she just sort of gave me a look. I thought that she was trying to tell me it was a bit too long at 1:47. I said that I thought it could be + or – 10 seconds, which it can. Then she said, yes it could and then just kept looking at me. Suddenly the lightbulb went off. It was 1:47 because she was letting me skate bronze, which has a time cap of 1:50 compared to 1:40 in pre-bronze. I think I just about jumped over the boards! I was very excited, and still am! Although looking back, I should have seen it coming considering I’m throwing a camel sit in the opening 15 seconds! We choreographed the first ½ of the program Tuesday but then went back and changed all of the jumps around today, which was kind of confusing, but definitely better score wise! The one (and only) nice thing about pre-bronze is that the number of jumps as well as the number of repetitions was free. Now that we’re doing bronze, they cap everything out from now on. So we can only have 4 jumps, combos or sequences and you can only repeat a jump once, and it must be in a combo or a sequence. But I think the other catch is that you can actually repeat a jump more than once if it is in a sequence. But I could be wrong…I’ll get back to you on that one. Anyways, so we nixed what we initially were doing since we only had 4 jump opportunities and I’m pretty happy about the jumps that are going into it. Right in the middle of the program I jump around like a frog with a split jump, a combo and then a sequence all in about 30 seconds. But I do LOVE jumping….hence why there is only one solo jump in the whole program! Tomorrow we are going to finish it off so that  means step sequence, although I think I heard something about a spiral sequence instead……hmmmm…..not so excited about that one….and then the last jump and ending spin (which I’m assuming will be scratch backscratch). And then I have 9 weeks exactly to get it perfected. The likelihood that I’m actually going to be competing against anyone in October is pretty low. There is only one other adult freestyle skater at my rink and she’s definitely a pre-bronzer…I don’t think I’ve even seen her do a loop or a flip, let alone a Lutz. Ah yes, and how is that Axel you ask? Well the second time in the harness I pretty much fumbled every one of them until the end, where I proceeded to land my last two most excellently. And then shin splints happened, which have caused a major breakdown in the Axel work since pushing off my toes (AKA plantar flexion) is a KILLER right now. We tried to do them last week which resulted in me pretty much flopping around and doing ‘Tinkerbells’ as my coach called them. Not sure what that meant…maybe that I was just jumping up and not doing anything? But I know that I’ll get out of the harness quickly as soon as I can jump them again without wanting to amputate my leg….hopefully by next week. Oh and about that split jump I mentioned earlier….I should add the small note that I really don’t like it. I was trying to tell my coach that I could do a falling leaf at that particular spot in the program but she said no because we needed to land forwards, so then I suggested a stag jump. I thought how hard could it be? Then she said do a split. Of course, she likes my split jump because I get very high in the air. (Really? You don’t say? Imagine that, the jumping queen gets some hang time on a jump….) I don’t like it because I know I’m not getting a 180 degree split. It’s probably something like a 140 ish….I don’t really know. I should have her shoot it with her flip camera! And of course since she is THE COACH, what she says, goes. Although I will admit that there are 2 equal aspects of the split jump to consider as a skater: One, the spit itself, which I will be working on and stretching. But the second aspect that you don’t think about until you’re doing one is a confidence/security aspect. It’s one thing to jump into the air and rotate with your feet perpendicular to the ground. It makes for a guaranteed landing. A split jump, however requires not only height and rotation, but you have to split your legs parallel to the ice….which is absolutely opposite of every instinct in your body! So for me, I started getting a better jump immediately once I really forced myself to PULL my upper body up. Chest up and out, head back. You have to just trust that you’re feet will find their way back down to the ground. Okay, well I know I’ve more than made up for a lack of posting for three weeks now! I’ll try to get a quick update up in the next day or two regarding the full compilation of my program. Oh and of course, there’s one last little item of panic to mention….my coach could be disappearing on a shortened maternity leave any day! While she will only be gone for two weeks….hopefully….I’m already very nervous about it since I’m trying to prepare my very first program! Not that the secondary coach I work with off the ice and when my coach is gone isn’t fabulous, I just want my COACH!  

Adventures in the Harness and Camels

Another fantastic week of skating and I'm not posting until Monday! I'm not going to lie, after this weekend I pretty much feel like a skating rockstar. In my lesson Friday, we didn't get a chance to work in the harness at all like I had been looking forward to all week. As it turned out, however, my blades were so dull that I couldn't have worked on Axels anyway. So after having them sharpened that evening, I hit my coach up on Saturday morning for some harness practice. First we ran through a few Axel walk throughs which is where you do a baby Waltz jump (as in from a standstill) and then land in a backspin, or in my case, a backspin slide :-). Then we did some nice big Waltz jumps with the harness on just to get the feel of things. Think of being in the harness as sort of a brain game. I thought my coach was actually pulling me up on the Waltz jumps, which she wasn't, so I was jumping REALLY high since I thought I wouldn't fall. I didn't of course, but like I said, it's a head trick. The tricky part about leaning how to do an Axel in the harness is that you take a very straight approach when it's much easier to do a nice 1/2 circle approach. The harness cable goes straight down the long side of the rink and you have about 3 feet on either side of the cable. So that's a 6 foot width to work with. Not much at all! The first several ones were really just figuring out how and when to snap into the backspin position and then getting my arms in sync with my leg. I wasn't getting any help with the jump, it was just the landing. My coach says it's normal for a skater who is learning a new jump to get up and rotate fine but then just crumple as they hit the ground, so they usually end up pulling you up so that you don't kill yourself. Which is strange when you're trying to land the jump because you almost feel like you can't find the ground when you're coming down! After a few attempts I started rotating better and landing them and all of a sudden I threw one that I landed fairly well. My coach said, "I'm not pulling you I'm just holding the rope. That was all you." SWEEEEEEEEEETTTTTT! I threw a couple more decent ones and a couple more 'waxels' AKA wacky Axels. Don't ask me, I don't come up with the terminology. I'm hoping to squeeze in another 15 or 20 minutes on the harness this Saturday and my goals is to get them very consistent this time so that my coach will let me throw them out of the harness. We have an open house in two weeks and I'm helping demonstrate things, so my goal is to be able to demonstrate an Axel there. We shall see :-). In other news, I started doing some camel spins on Thursday in class. Oh yes, I now have an instructor from the school of figure skating, not ice dancing, so my problem is fixed. I heart my coach who took care of this. She said I actually was getting into the correct position perfectly but I was really only rotating once. Friday, my coach and I worked on it and were able to get 2 revolutions. Saturday I stretched three out of it once and Sunday, insert drumroll please, I had 5 revs two separate times! I was pretty happy! Especially since I don't consider spinning my strong point, to not have to fight a spin for once would be great. I fought that stupid scratch spin for nearly four months, my backspin still stinks, and my sit spin, although only a couple of weeks old, is not very pretty. Although, I should mention that my coach feels like it's fairly close and we're slated to work on camel-sit combos this week as she thinks I'll nail that one right down and then I'll be able to do solo sits. I think we are going to start working on putting together my program either this week or next as we are about 10 weeks away from the Halloween competition on October 30th. My coach likes to have her skaters have at least 8 weeks on a program before they compete with it. I'm wondering if she's not trying to give my spins AKA backspin, sit and camel an extra week or two to get good enough to put in there. I'm not thinking that the backspin is going to be good enough but maybe the camel will and if I'm super lucky a camel-sit. I need a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 3 spins but I think they can even be the same spin, but who would want to do that?! And I'm also hoping that I get to throw a flip-loop-toe loop combo as I FLY though the air when I do those! It's the one combination with a loop that I really get some height on but go figure since it starts with 'my jump' the flip. Well I think that's about all that's gone on this week, cross your fingers that I can get that camel consistent and nail my Axel this weekend and I'll keep you posted!

Loop de loop de loop de loop

Well it has happened.....I thought it wouldn't but lo and behold the elusive loop jump finally clicked today! First I should probably apologize for not updating the blog last week, it was a bit of a hectic week with work last week! But back to the lovely loop jump.... I was a bit frustrated with the loop jump as I have previously stated. It didn't help that I was getting differences in coaching as well. I am in a jumps and spins class on Thursdays and my coach (who ROCKS!) always takes the 'high' skaters AKA the girls throwing doubles and combo spins. Hopefully I'll be in their group by next summer. But anyway, there's a very good reason why she always works with them. Different coaches obviously have different styles of teaching. My coach is also all of the high skaters' coach and doesn't want any other coaches messing up their jumps. Not to mention that they won't jump for one of the other two coaches that teaches the class. She's very nice and means well and is a great ice dancing coach but that's about where it stops. Her background is in ice dancing, not freestyle, and it really shows with her coaching. She pushes the higher skaters to do jumps and combos that they aren't ready for and tries to completely change their jumps. Of course, the problem then is also that skating is largely dependent on muscle memory so time spent changing a jump incorrectly ends up being more time spent correcting it. Two steps forward and one step back essentially. So I have had this coach teaching me for the last few weeks. I don't want to speak badly of her as she is certainly a good person and a good coach but her training is in ice dancing. It's like a figure skating coach teaching hockey. It just doesn't work. So two weeks ago when my coach left for a week of vacation, she left me with the assignment of getting all of my toe loop and loop combos. Toe loops were no problem but I was really struggling with the loop, especially with just a single loop and even a loop combo was really only intermittently working for me on the toe loop and Salchow. Then this coach keeps pushing me to really kick forward on all of my jumps....to the point of practically doing a split jump on every jump. Not only was this really messing up my jumps, but I could barely even land half of them, let alone try to get into a loop combo! Needless to say I was very happy to get my wonderful coach back this week and I informed her I wasn't jumping for this other coach anymore. I was welcomed into the ever growing folds of skaters at the rink that also feel this way. After spending most of my lesson on Friday fixing my jumps, we started talking about putting together my program for my first competition (YEA get EXCITED!) at the end of October. We decided on three jump combos: Flip-toe loop, toe loop-loop and Salchow-loop. Then a solo flip and solo loop. And maybe one other solo jump. It wasn't set in stone yet but obviously I'm already rolling my eyes because I'm not landing loops very consistently. So I just went out this morning and decided that I was going to kick the loop's butt. I was not getting off that ice without figuring it out. So I decided to revert back to what my coach had originally shown me when learning the loop, as in scrapping this straight line intro that the other coach had me doing. I went back to the forward 3 turn entrance into the backspin position to take off for the jump and after doing that a couple of times from a standstill I went back to the circle and set it up wider just like a toe loop. It worked like a dream. And suddenly, the light bulb went on! I realized that when you wanted to come down into a loop combo set up you had to 'flip' or switch your hips around in the air, mid jump. Bam! Just like that I was able to throw loop combos on all five single jumps. The only thing I had trouble with was the Waltz jump. I think I need to just throw a straight Axel because I was over rotating it to get into a loop. I was very excited. I'm not sure if we will really change my jumps around but it does open up a couple of other possibilities. I like the flip-toe loop combo though because I feel like I really fly though the air on it. Other than the loop jump I've just started working on sit spins and I can tell I'm actually fairly close to getting them, I think a week or two of squats, squats and more squats will really help that out. I'm looking forward to another great week of practice and I get to put in harness time this week.....I fully plan on winning that bet I made of having a double by the second week of September! I can't stand to loose! Oh so since I didn't write last week, I should mention that I did attempt to throw a double Salchow last week, and I got one and 1/2 revolutions out of it. I think I really need the harness just to figure out what the rotation feels like, because I kept wanting to put my foot down too early. So hopefully I'll be a rockstar and land my Axel at least speedily and of course and double of something quickly! I will keep you posted....:-)

Testing done, Scratch spin done!

YEA!!!! I passed my Adult Pre-bronze MIF and Freestyle tests this morning! I had a shaky start on my consecutive BIE's but recovered and made it across in only four, which happened to be a new feat for me....I guess I pushed extra hard since I was nervous. My waltz eight went well and the only other fumble I had on the MIF test was the back half of the "power three turn pattern thingy". I refer to it as that because it is power threes, you just have that second three turn in it. I did the first half nicely but when I came around the corner for the back half I COMPLETELY BLANKED on what foot I was supposed to start with. How embarrassing. I quickly remembered but it just kind of threw the whole back half off. But I passed so we move on. I was much more comfortable with my freestyle test because the only hitch in the elements was, of course, whether or not my one foot spin would center up and cooperate. I had two so-so ones and one really nice one in my warm up. I did my Salchow which was clean first and then set up to wow them with my flip. Now let me interject for a minute here, you have to understand that this is the only freestyle test that is not a program, it's just the required elements and it only requires 2 half or single revolution jumps. So, I could have just done a Waltz jump and a half flip if I wanted to. But I had to be a hot shot and show off my flip which is very strong and I actually end up 'hanging' in the air for a good second or two before 'deciding' to come down. Should make doubles fun and hopefully easy! But as I was saying, I set up for it and just didn't quite vault up right and therefore ended up sort of halfway two-footing the landing. I rolled my eyes, cussed silently and then moved on. One foot spin centered up nicely, I was just too nervous to really push the crossing over and down for the scratch! The rest was cake. I assumed that they would ask me to reskate my flip jump properly and honestly I wanted to because I couldn't believe I fumbled the landing, but of course, they just said thank you. My coach said that since they had seen me warm it up three minutes before and I had landed all four or five I jumped, they probably would just give it to me since I obviously had it. They did. So yea, I passed both tests. Now it's onward and upwards to putting together a program and hopefully when my coach gets back from vacation the first week in August, we get to start working on Axels and DOUBLES!!!! I'm really tempted to just try throwing a double Salchow for kicks and grins this week and I just might if I have private ice this Friday. I think it should be fairly easy for me as I have to force myself not to put too much into my single or else I over-rotate it. I wasn't allowed to work on Axels until after the testing session today so bring them on! There's also that little bet I made with the rink manager that I'd have a double in two months out of the harness. So I have until the middle of September.....surely that's feasible?! The other highlight of my day today was that I....drumroll please...STARTED SCRATCHING!!!!!! THANK YOU FINALLY!!!! I felt like it would never happen! I think I actually might have done one yesterday but I did several today! One of the girls I skate with on Saturdays was telling me yesterday that her coach always tells her to breathe in as she's spinning and it helps cross your free leg over your skating leg. As I'm sure you're thinking right now, I told her that's complete poo. But to humor her I tried it yesterday. Well, I'll be a donkey kong, it works. So if you're stuck on your scratch spin like me, try breathing in. It's harder than you think because you naturally want to breathe out as you spin. But for some reason the breathing in helps pull your free leg across your skating one. So I was quite happy about this situation today....it's only taken nearly 3 months! For the next two weeks, my coach wants me to really focus on combinations until she gets back. Prep work for doubles. This means after warming up all six jumps, I have to first do all of them with a toe loop added on (Waltz-toe, toe-toe, Salchow-toe, loop-toe, flip-toe, and Lutz-toe) and then I have to do all of them with a loop. Toe loop is no problem, but loops are another story. Loops and I are still friends at a distance. Sometimes we get along and sometimes we don't. I can do a Salchow-loop fairly well and I really started doing toe loop-loops well today. But not so much on the other jumps, especially of all things, Waltz jumps. But I'll keep working on them. And I do need to also work on my spins. Backspin is coming along, I can usually get three revolutions and then exit. I learned camels this week in class and I need to figure out how to actually spin on those! Thanks to Shauna for the shout out this last week and I hope to connect with more college-aged skaters. Pass this site on to your skating buddies!

5 days!!!

There's only 5 days left until testing day and I'm partially excited and partially nervous. I'm not really worried that I won't pass the test, it's more that I'm worried that I'll be so nervous I'll be shaky and not hold my edges! It will be nice to get the testing out of the way as learning new things on the ice has really been stalled out for the last several weeks. I'm really looking forward to working on my Axel and maybe some double Salchows and toe loops after this weekend! I'm ready to work on some new tricks! I need to put in some more work on my backspin and I would also like to start working on my sit spin. I'm really getting centered much more now on my one foot spin and I'm so close to actually scratching it's making me crazy. It's kind of addictive really because I'll work on it for fifteen minutes or so and I'll get really close and but never actually get there. I think it's a combination of the strength it takes and the fact that I always feel like I'm going to fall over if I cross my leg over any farther. I know, though, that once I do it for the first time, I'll know exactly how to do it again. A funny little incident happened today. I finally broke down and purchased a pair of Chloe Noel pants and they sent a child's size instead of an adult size! My skating dress I had ordered a few weeks ago finally arrived this week. It is absolutely stunning! As beautiful as it is, the down side is that it is absolutely not a practice dress, it's definitely a competition dress. That is the final thing I'm looking forward to post testing session, is putting together a freestyle and artistic program. Then I'll know I'm getting close to my first competition!

Testing in Two Weeks!

I don't have much new progress to report for the last week....I'm two weeks away from testing into Adult Pre-bronze so I'm really focusing on everything that I'm testing on. I'm still feeling fairly nervous about my back inside consecutive edges as well as my waltz eight. I'm honestly not sure whether or not what happened at practice today is a good thing or a bad thing. One of the guys who usually judges skates on the same time as I do Sundays. He saw me working on my waltz eight and made some suggestions on how to fix it. Now if this was from any other coach I would have just taken it at face value. But because he was a judge and was fairly adamant about the way to execute a waltz eight it kind of made me nervous because now I'm worried that he's going to watch it even more analytically than he would if he hadn't stopped and said something. But on the other hand he knows how hard I train and perhaps he was trying to be kind and point out what they look for. But then again, my coach said it was fine and I was good to go for testing even though it's not my strongest element. So that is my debate. I'll have to chat with my coach on Tuesday about it. I'm really starting to get the hang of my backspin and I was definitely getting three or more revolutions out of every one today, however my jumps were really off. But I chalk that up to my blades needing sharpening. (I dropped them off for the pro after practice). I had to laugh when I totally fell on a waltz jump and a couple of girls who had stayed after the public skate right before my practice reacted as if I broke every bone in my body. Ironically, it was a perfect fall, as in it didn't hurt at all because I landed on my butt and because I had a lot of velocity still, I slid about 15 feet across the ice. I laughed at myself because it was a dumb jump to fall on (who falls on a waltz jump?) and those poor girls will now probably never want to skate again since I sufficiently scared the need for ice out of them. I'm hoping my skating dress arrives this week so that I can make sure it fits....I don't know what I'll do if it doesn't! Well that's about all for this week. Hopefully I'll have something that I've progressed on to report for next week, like my loop jump that is still stumping me!

Combos, Backspins, and a Competition Plan

This week's title pretty much sums it all up. I put in a lot of jump time this week and it has paid off. I'm landing really good flips and my Lutz is now coming along nicely. I'm able to tack a toe-loop on to pretty much everything. I still don't really have loop jump down, so that is my mission for this coming week. Then I should be able to really mix things up! My backspin finally started to fall into place this week and I can get about 2 revolutions out of it consistently and sometimes quite a few more. This is a huge relief to me as I was NOT getting the concept of it at first and I had read online that for many skaters who didn't start in early childhood, a backspin is often extremely hard to master, and therefore really stalls out their advancement into the Adult Bronze sector. My coach had been out of town all of last week and missed our class on Thursday so Friday was the first day I saw her. I've decided that the best payoff for lots of practice is when you can actually surprise your coach with how much you've improved on something. She liked my Lutz, which was great considering I had barely learned my flip when she left for the last competition, but it was definitely her reaction to my scratch spin that has made every fall and countless hours of work for the last 10 weeks worthwhile. If you remember from last week, I had finally figured out what I needed to do to fix my scratch spin. I started swinging my free leg around to the front more before straightening up on my skating leg. This really centered the spin much better and even though I still travel about 70% of the time, it's much more controlled, sometimes I'm perfectly centered and don't travel and regardless, I get tons of revolutions and have to be careful getting out of the spins now because I'm so dizzy! But this is a good thing. Anyway, so I told her my spin was getting a lot better and I wound up into one, praying of course, that my spin would back up my talk. I whipped into it and two turns in I could tell that I had centered up nicely. After about five or six spins my coach exclaimed, "Honey!" (which is a phrase she uses a lot) while I continued to slowly pull everything in nicely before doing a toe stop instead of exiting, so I wouldn't fall on my face. Needless to say, it had reduced her to a one-word reaction. I was VERY proud of myself! We also formulated a game plan for testing and competing. I have to say that I was hoping it would all happen a little faster but I understand at the same time that a solid, consistent routine is important before competing with it. I will be testing at the end of the month in both my Adult Pre-bronze MIF and Freestyle, which will require me to compete in Adult Pre-bronze. Which is fine....I'm jumping on an Adult Silver level and once I get my Axel, I'll be on an Adult Gold. Then there is another testing session at the end of August and I'm going to test my Adult Bronze MIF only. You can test as high as you want in MIF but it's not until you take the Freestyle test that you're required to compete at that level. Then we will start preparing a Pre-bronze program and hopefully one that is easily adjusted to work for Bronze as well. My coach says that she really wants two months of solid practice on a routine before using it to compete and test with. Also, she wants me to do at least one Pre-bronze competition or exhibition so that I can get the feel of competing and we can see how I perform in front of people. All in all, I'm really just nervous about the MIF portion of the test at the end of July. I'm still a little shaky on my Waltz-eight and my BI consecutive edges aren't quite there yet. But I still have three weeks and I plan on working harder than ever. All in all, another good week of skating. Personally, the week ended on a bit of a rocky note as I lost one of my two jobs without any warning or severance pay. I think, however, that I have been able to realign everything and should be back on track in a week or two. I may just need to put off joining my skating club for a month or two. Happy Fourth of July to all and God Bless America!

Lutz! Well...maybe....

Another successful and unfortunately, painful week of skating has come to a close. Tuesday I was incredibly lucky and had the ice entirely to myself. This was due to the fact that the girls who compete on an Intermediate level and higher were at Broadmore in Colorado Springs this week and the younger skaters--pretty much anyone younger than me--that weren't competing tend to get lazy when their coaches are out of town and don't practice. That's okay with me though! Shows dedication on my part as well as gives me a break from the ice dancers. Have I mentioned them? I inevitably end up ALWAYS skating with these two high school aged kids that are ice dancers. The problem is that the ice dancers at my club tend to take over the entire rink! It's not just the two that usually practice when I do, it's multiple couples. It's really frustrating especially when someone like me generally sticks to a single hockey circle in a corner and works only around that circle. I understand that they need to practice their routines but seriously, maybe they should consider banning dance from all ice sessions except designated dance sessions. Unfortunately, it's a nice thought and an impossibility because there simply isn't enough traffic through the club for them to be able to afford to do that. But I digress... So I really enjoyed my private time on the ice on Tuesday and conveniently found this an opportune time to take a horribly nasty fall that I am still feeling sore from today! I don't really know how I managed to fall as hard as I did but I landed very hard on the backs of my hands and my tailbone leaving my wrists and midline VERY sore! Thursday we had a couple of girls about my age that usually coach the Learn to Skate and Freeskate programs running the jumps and spins class as all of the coaches were out of town. They got me to land my Lutz! It's still only about 50% there but I'm sure that by the end of this next week it will be good to go. My flip has become very consistent this week which is great. In fact, I had a lesson with one of the girls that ran the class on Thursday today and she said I have a really nice flip. :-) it really made my day. Actually, what truly made my day was the fact that my mom came out to the rink to watch me today. Even though she was late and only saw about 5 minutes of practice, it was really rewarding to show her some of my jumps and spins that I've been working so hard on. She's never seen me skate before! Speaking of spins, I'm SOOOOO close to getting my backspin it's making me crazy. I just need to get the momentum a little more. I get a solid two or three revolutions out of it before really just stalling out of the spin. And my one foot spin is getting better still. I'm focusing on really holding the three turn into it all the way around and then bringing my free leg forward more before straightening up. This gives me more momentum and allows me to center it much better. I centered up so well today and was spinning so fast that after I backed out of it, I fell over I was so dizzy! I'm really hoping that by Friday when I am back to my regular lessons with my regular and fabulous coach we can start working on Axels! My secret goal was to be landing my Axel at the end of 3 months of training, but I'd settle for 3 months and one week. Meanwhile, testing is only 4 weeks away and I'm starting to get a little nervous but mostly excited. I've ordered a dress and I'm hoping it turns out well. I found a girl on Ebay that will make it customized to my measurements for $100....seems really  cheap but her feedback ratings were great. Not too glitzy or glamorous but not plain Jane either. I'll try to post a picture as well as some pictures of my practice today.

Week of Skating Brilliance!

Well all in all it's been a really wonderful week of skating! The two main highlights of the week have been learning my flip all on my own and fixing my messing scratch spin. I've been playing around with my flip here and there and never really sat down to work on it because I was waiting for my coach to bring it up. But I decided to take some initiative and spent about ten minutes working on it Thursday morning during my hour long practice before my jumps and spins class. I kept just slightly putting my left toe pick down before landing on my right foot and I was getting frustrated. As I told myself to really throw my right leg around on the next jump, my coach just happened to be walking by the windows looking in. I didn't see her as I jumped and actually landed the jump properly for the first time. As I'm coming out of the landing I see her waving, clapping and thumbs-up-ing me through the glass. That was really cool that she just happened to see the first one that I landed! Then it only got better as we finally fixed my scratch spin. I guess I tend to drop or pull my arms in towards my sides instead of out and around when I'm spinning, which causes me to push up onto my toe pick and loose my center as I spin. I usually only get 4-6 revolutions before I am forced to get out of the spin. So, Gia had me grab one of my skate guards and hold it in my left hand. She said as I spun I had to hold the guard straight out and bring my right hand around and grab it but still hold it straight out in front of me. First try, I centered up beautifully and only exited the spin because I wanted to. That's how you know you're landing a jump well and spinning well is when you CHOOSE to move on or out instead of being FORCED to in order to avoid falling. So now I'm spinning with my skate guard and hopefully I will get the muscle memory down quickly because I get to test at the end of July! I'm secretly hoping that I get to test through Adult Pre-Bronze and test into Bronze because my coach was showing me power 3 turns yesterday which is a Bronze MIF (move in the field). But that means I really have to work on my backspin because I only get a couple of rev's on it....but I just learned it last week too. It and the sit spin are both on the Bronze Freestyle test and will be the only two elements that I really will have to focus on for the next five weeks. So in the meantime, I'm going to put in as much ice time as I can and work harder than ever. I also found a great practice dress online that I'm ordering so that I can practice and test in it. Fun but not too much sparkle, good for testing in. Also very affordable at a modest $100 for custom measurements. I really like that! So all in all, it's been a good week of practice and Thursday provided me with a really great birthday present at practice with my jump and spin!

Terms and Abbreviations

So I realized that I just posted a bunch of abbreviations and terms that may be unfamiliar to a new skater. So here below I've listed everything I can think of....let me know if I missed something!
Basic edges: You are nearly always either on the inside edge of the blade on your skate (inside of your foot) or the outside edge (outside of your foot) you will often see this abbreviated as O or I.
Basic ends: Sometimes you will see something labeled RFI or LBO. R and L are right and left. F is forward, meaning towards your toes and B is toward your heel. There are a lot of moves that require you to push your weight onto one end of the foot but it's not like standing on your actual toes or heels.
Basic moves in the field
Crossover: going either forwards or backwards, one foot crosses over the other before pushing off the ice.
Mohawk: starts in one direction on one foot and pushes onto the other foot going the opposite direction.
3 turn: one foot 180 degree directional turn either inside (toward body) or outside (away from body), makes a '3' shape on the ice.
Bracket: similar to a 3 turn but makes a } shape on the ice
Rocker: also similar to an outside 3 turn but exits on a BOE (back outside edge) instead of a BIE
Spins
Two foot spin: just like it sounds, works mainly from the hips and arms
One foot spin: just like a two foot spin, on one foot but also is used to define spins such as a scratch spin
Scratch spin: a one foot spin, for basic skaters entered from a BIE windup around a circle and then spinning on the opposite foot. Skater makes a '4' by bending the free leg at the knee and then a '1' by pushing it down to exit.
Sit spin: starts like a scratch spin but squeezes free leg across spinning leg immediately and then the skater 'sits' down.
Back spin: a reverse scratch spin where the skater spins in the same direction as the scratch spin but on the opposite leg.
Camel spin: skater has arms at their side and the free leg straight out making a 90 degree angle
Layback spin: starts like a scratch spin, skater swings free leg back and bent, arms up in the air, and bends slightly backwards.
Jumps
Waltz jump: the beginning of the axle and the first jump learned. Bring non-skating knee up, forward jump off non-landing leg, 1/2 rotation and land on opposite foot.
Toe loop: skating backwards on landing leg, reach free leg back, tap the ice with the toe pick and land on the same skating leg.
Salchow: starting forwards on non-landing leg, outside 3 turn to backwards, swing free leg around and push off toe of skating leg, land on free leg.
Loop: skating forwards on landing leg inside edge, 3 turn to backwards, bring free leg across skating leg to deepen BO edge, jump and land on same skating leg
Flip: skating backwards on INSIDE edge of non-landing leg, reach free leg back, tap ice with toe pick and land on free leg.
Lutz: skating backwards on OUTSIDE edge of non-landing leg, reach free leg back, tap ice with toe pick and land on free leg.
Axel: has an extra 1/2 rotation on it because it jumps from a forward skating direction and must land backwards like all jumps. Bring non-skating leg up, toe push off skating leg, rotate 1 and 1/2 times, and land on non-skating leg.

Hopefully this helps clear up any confusion and aids in visualization of the jumps, spins, and moves!

3 Months In!

Well it's been 12 weeks since I started skating....the official 3 month mark isn't for another 2 weeks but I feel like an assessment is in order. So, here's a list as of today of what I can now do thanks to a lot of hard work and rocking coaching. First and foremost, jumps: waltz jump, toe loop, salchow and loop. Off ice I can do flip/lutz (as you really can't differentiate off ice) and axel. Spins: two foot, one foot/scratch (not nearly as pretty as I'd like), just started backspins and scratch spins this week and can get a couple revolutions. Spinning is not my strong point, jumping is. As for moves in the field, I guess a good guide would be the required adult testing elements. I can do all of the pre-bronze moves: forward perimeter stroking, consecutive edges FI, FO, BI, BO, forward and backward crossovers, waltz eight, and FI, FO, BI, BO three turns. After watching youtube videos of bronze and silver MIF tests, I'm about 90% sure I can do all of the moves from those as well. Gia, my coach, wants me to do a pre-bronze competition just to get used to competing before moving into bronze but based on my current skill level, I feel like pre-bronze is a joke and even bronze isn't going to be very challenging. I'm all for taking first but if you don't have to put any effort into it then it really isn't fun nor is it fair to the other skaters that you're competing against.

Simply Irresistable

Hi there and welcome! I've decided to keep a blog chronicling my pursuit of competitive figure skating. Let's get a few things straight first of all so that you know where I'm coming from. First of all, I'm a 20-something with no previous figure skating training or experience. I have had some dance training, but not an excessive amount. Initially, my goal was to be able to jump. Now it's to compete in Ladies Gold at Adult Nationals, take names, and take first place! Before beginning training three months ago from the date of this post, I could skate and hold a decent inside and outside edge on my right foot, while wobbling through them on my left. I could do a fairly sad looking right foot inside spiral. I could do forward crossovers and skate backwards, but not backward crossovers. And contrary to what my mother claims, I could not spin or jump. In March 2010 I decided that I would take a figure skating class in the fall from my local skating rink. However, because I have some joint problems, primarily in my right hip and both knees, I thought that something less than a 4 month commitment would be good just to see if I would hold up physically. I enrolled in the back four weeks of an eight week learn-to-skate class for adults. From the moment I walked onto the ice, it was pretty clear that I was ahead of the other adults. The instructor thought so too. After the class she told me that I would need to get some new skates as my $70 sporting goods store skates had zero support in them. Lucky, lucky me, the pro shop just HAPPENED to have my size in a top level boot that costs about $600 for the boots and another $150 for the blades. Long story short they had ordered them for a skater, they didn't work out and they were stuck with them. They sold them to me at cost (thank you Shane!) and so I found myself wearing super stiff, super expensive, top of the line boots and blades for a grand total of $250. Then the instructor recommended that I skip up to the freeskate classes. I competed the last few weeks in level 1 out of 6 levels, but I seemed to be a little bored in that class too as some skaters took pity on me one Sunday on a public skate and showed me how to do a waltz jump and a toe loop. On the suggestion of two different instructors I scheduled a few lessons with a private coach initially just to see where my skill level really was so that I could be properly placed in the next freeskate class. It only took one lesson with Gia, my amazing coach to realize that the freeskate program wasn't really going to work for me. My skill level in jumps, spins, and moves on the ice were all in really different places! So we decided that private lessons would be best for me. I now skate about 5-6 hours a week and have a 1/2 hour private lesson. Most of my skating time is in the early morning, at 6 or 7 am. It takes some dedication to get up at 5 am but I can't think of a better way to wake up. I hope to share my experiences as well as meet other skaters who find themselves in my skates, taking up the dream of figure skating that they have had for years and running with it!