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!