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!