I have not been writing lately, not because I have not been skating, but because I have been feeling kinda blah. I have not been super inspired by my own skating. My little Muffet skated like a champ last weekend. The men's Olympic skating has been ok. But a friend asked me to update, so here it is.
Actually my skating has been pretty awesome lately. I am happy with my progress on jumps and footwork. My camel is actually quite nice. The sit-spin leaves much to be desired, but I am hoping that will change by the summer. I had to buy new boots last weekend. Goodbye $800! I have a love/hate relationship with new boots. I am excited because they are so pretty. I hate breaking them in! I had my blades sharpened last weekend and I feel like I am sailing now on the ice. Barely a push and I am halfway across the ice.
All in all I have nothing to complain about. I think I am just in the doldrums. I need to get out of this funk since I have sectionals in three weeks. I am not even worried about competing. I am actually excited to skate my program again. I am finally in charge on the ice - not my program and as my coach says it is starting to "gel."
Muffet and I are skating today. I am hoping to see her land her axel today. Maybe inspiration will hit me and knock me out of the rut!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
She Knows Me Too Well
Unfortunately today was another public session day - but alas... I had ice!
I have been having a bit of trouble convincing my feet, legs, and hips that they can properly execute a right back outside to inside 3-turn. I get way up on my toe and in the end it looks more like a weak attempt at a backward loop. This might not seem like such a big deal, but I have been working on these silly things for about a year and a half now. To make matters worse, my coach decided that one of these said 3-turn would be a perfect addition to my footwork sequence in my freeskate program. Not only would I get to practice them more often, but maybe eventually I could actually DO one as well - in competition!
We had a few moments today to work on footwork after Muffet's lesson and before my coach's next person. I flubbed up that part about three times until I said, "I can't do it." She said, "Fine. Here's what you can do. I am making it easier." Now to the untrained ear, that sounds great - "easier." Everybody likes "easier." But not to this Type A++++++ personality - Oh no! "Easier" means "cop-out", "wimpy girl", "baby stuff." I tried the new way twice and then went back to the old 3-turn pattern and said "I'll show HER! I can do it right." And I did.
It is bad that she knows me so well. She knew that I would not be able to stand that she made my program "easier" and that I would go back to the old way just to prove to her (and myself) that I was not a wimpy girl. When it was time for my lesson, she smiled ever so slightly when I told her that I wanted to keep it the way it was and I showed her that I could do it correctly. Darn her! But really darn me for being so easy to read. I don't do anything half-way. If I am going to do my program, it had better be the toughest program I can handle. You can move elements to more natural places or switch one spin with a more difficult spin, but no making it "easier." I won't stand for it! Even when we are just starting out I never ask, but want to make sure that I am maximizing my point values with every move in the program. I want it to be just hard enough for me to be uncomfortable.
She knows me too well - and I love her for it. She pushes me when I don't want to be pushed. She pats me on the back when I need a pat. She makes me feel capable, beautiful and graceful on the ice. How lucky I am!
I have been having a bit of trouble convincing my feet, legs, and hips that they can properly execute a right back outside to inside 3-turn. I get way up on my toe and in the end it looks more like a weak attempt at a backward loop. This might not seem like such a big deal, but I have been working on these silly things for about a year and a half now. To make matters worse, my coach decided that one of these said 3-turn would be a perfect addition to my footwork sequence in my freeskate program. Not only would I get to practice them more often, but maybe eventually I could actually DO one as well - in competition!
We had a few moments today to work on footwork after Muffet's lesson and before my coach's next person. I flubbed up that part about three times until I said, "I can't do it." She said, "Fine. Here's what you can do. I am making it easier." Now to the untrained ear, that sounds great - "easier." Everybody likes "easier." But not to this Type A++++++ personality - Oh no! "Easier" means "cop-out", "wimpy girl", "baby stuff." I tried the new way twice and then went back to the old 3-turn pattern and said "I'll show HER! I can do it right." And I did.
It is bad that she knows me so well. She knew that I would not be able to stand that she made my program "easier" and that I would go back to the old way just to prove to her (and myself) that I was not a wimpy girl. When it was time for my lesson, she smiled ever so slightly when I told her that I wanted to keep it the way it was and I showed her that I could do it correctly. Darn her! But really darn me for being so easy to read. I don't do anything half-way. If I am going to do my program, it had better be the toughest program I can handle. You can move elements to more natural places or switch one spin with a more difficult spin, but no making it "easier." I won't stand for it! Even when we are just starting out I never ask, but want to make sure that I am maximizing my point values with every move in the program. I want it to be just hard enough for me to be uncomfortable.
She knows me too well - and I love her for it. She pushes me when I don't want to be pushed. She pats me on the back when I need a pat. She makes me feel capable, beautiful and graceful on the ice. How lucky I am!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Being Very Spoiled
I turned on my phone this morning finally at 11:00AM to discover a text from my coach (sent at 8:15AM, sry) that our usual freestyle sessions were cancelled. She asked if we wanted to reschedule or skate our lessons on the public. Knowing how much space this old woman needs to land her jumps (hahaha) I told her that we would reschedule. I forgot, however, that Muffet is skating at ISI Winter Classic this weekend and had a lesson scheduled with her partner at 4PM. Bummer! We packed up and headed to the rink.
I have grown to strongly despise public sessions. Usually at our rink they are not too bad if it is not a holiday for kids, aside from the stupid hockey coaches who try to run speed drills with teenage boys in full pads down the center of the smallest ice surface on earth. But alas, today was a holiday and the session was packed with toddling adults and kids hugging the walls for dear life. Mix in the two high level coaches who were attempting to conduct their regular lessons out there and it was chaos. The ice had not been cut for at least three hours. The terrible top 40s music was blaring out of the speakers. It was HORRIBLE!
The good news is that Muffet and her partner looked fantastic and my toe didn't hurt today. I was able to get some jumps in and felt solid. Nobody got hurt - as soon as Muffet was done with her lesson she said, "Let's get outta here!" Which is VERY rare indeed. I usually have to drag her off the ice.
As I was driving home, I realized just how spoiled we are. Our freestyles occur just about every hour of the day on a beautiful Olympic sized surface. Rarely are there more than 10 people on any given session and most are very kind and courteous of one another. On occasion there will be a stranger there who tries to run us over, but usually we have a clean sheet of ice to work our magic. I have heard stories of skaters in Japan who have no choice but to train on public ice as there is no such thing there as "freestyles." I remember hearing of how Oksana Baiul trained in an old warehouse with the floor covered in water then frozen as her surface. I have skating friends who travel hours just to get to the nearest rink.
So as horrible as it was, we were able to do our favorite thing in the whole world just minutes from our home. Sure we had to share the ice with about 50 other people, but who knows, maybe we inspired one of them to start up in our sport. Next time I skate a public, I will remember just how fortunate we are.
I have grown to strongly despise public sessions. Usually at our rink they are not too bad if it is not a holiday for kids, aside from the stupid hockey coaches who try to run speed drills with teenage boys in full pads down the center of the smallest ice surface on earth. But alas, today was a holiday and the session was packed with toddling adults and kids hugging the walls for dear life. Mix in the two high level coaches who were attempting to conduct their regular lessons out there and it was chaos. The ice had not been cut for at least three hours. The terrible top 40s music was blaring out of the speakers. It was HORRIBLE!
The good news is that Muffet and her partner looked fantastic and my toe didn't hurt today. I was able to get some jumps in and felt solid. Nobody got hurt - as soon as Muffet was done with her lesson she said, "Let's get outta here!" Which is VERY rare indeed. I usually have to drag her off the ice.
As I was driving home, I realized just how spoiled we are. Our freestyles occur just about every hour of the day on a beautiful Olympic sized surface. Rarely are there more than 10 people on any given session and most are very kind and courteous of one another. On occasion there will be a stranger there who tries to run us over, but usually we have a clean sheet of ice to work our magic. I have heard stories of skaters in Japan who have no choice but to train on public ice as there is no such thing there as "freestyles." I remember hearing of how Oksana Baiul trained in an old warehouse with the floor covered in water then frozen as her surface. I have skating friends who travel hours just to get to the nearest rink.
So as horrible as it was, we were able to do our favorite thing in the whole world just minutes from our home. Sure we had to share the ice with about 50 other people, but who knows, maybe we inspired one of them to start up in our sport. Next time I skate a public, I will remember just how fortunate we are.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The Zen of Figure Skating
So, I am a Buddhist. This comes as a major shock to most people who know me only because of my appearance. As with any practice of faith, I struggle to balance my human nature with what I know I should be doing in my daily life. Recently I have allowed outside influences to pull me away from my core beliefs and lead me toward the negative. It has been noticeable - to my family, my colleagues, and my friends. I noticed it too, but was unable to shake the human nature in me that kept focusing on all that was going wrong at that time rather than sending my energy to the positive and wonderful things around me. I have decided to make a concerted effort to get back in touch with my core beliefs and step away from the negative. That brings me to the Zen of figure skating.
In my quest for thinking of the positive and only focusing on the positive, today I ignored that my right toe hurt a bit and my knee was a touch sore. Instead I focused on the fact that I was able to run through my program three times today successfully. I worked on a spin that I love - the camel. I had my salchow/loop today. My flip was very flippy. I felt tired, happy and positive when I stepped off of the ice. The Zen is the power of positive energy. If I fall, I get back up and try again. If I don't do my program just right, I fix it and do it again. I am not going to worry that I have let my coach down or what others think of me. I am going to focus on me and my best efforts.
I have an amazing life. I have a beautiful, loving husband and two fantastic, talented kids. I have a job that I love - minus the adults. I can practice my amazing hobby any time I want. I have friends and family who support and love me. I have a beautiful home in a beautiful place. The Zen will simply allow me to focus my energy into what is positive - love, faith and figure skating!
In my quest for thinking of the positive and only focusing on the positive, today I ignored that my right toe hurt a bit and my knee was a touch sore. Instead I focused on the fact that I was able to run through my program three times today successfully. I worked on a spin that I love - the camel. I had my salchow/loop today. My flip was very flippy. I felt tired, happy and positive when I stepped off of the ice. The Zen is the power of positive energy. If I fall, I get back up and try again. If I don't do my program just right, I fix it and do it again. I am not going to worry that I have let my coach down or what others think of me. I am going to focus on me and my best efforts.
I have an amazing life. I have a beautiful, loving husband and two fantastic, talented kids. I have a job that I love - minus the adults. I can practice my amazing hobby any time I want. I have friends and family who support and love me. I have a beautiful home in a beautiful place. The Zen will simply allow me to focus my energy into what is positive - love, faith and figure skating!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
My Own Personal Train Wreck
I really think that I am a fairly good skater. For an adult that never skated as a kid and only started 4 years ago, I think that I am not too bad. That all changes when I have to compete. It is like I lose my mind.
My artistic went very well. I placed 3rd out of 6 and was out "costumed" by one lady and out skated by another. I felt pretty good going into the freeskate. I was calm, but energetic. My warm-up was OK. I wasn't really landing my loop or flip like I wanted and the sit spin was not in the cards. So I was first on the ice in my group.
The first few seconds were not too bad. I sort of landed my salchow/loop, did fine in the next pass, threw out the sit spin, was fine on the spiral/toe loop and then it fell apart. I didn't land my flip correctly which got me flipped around the wrong way. I then totally blanked out. I forgot where in the heck I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing. I improvised the best I could, did a crappy back spin and ... well there ya go.
At least they call this competition the Mid-Winter "Warm-Up" cause boy did I need it!
Now I could simply throw in the towel and say, "The hell with this crap." But NOOOOO, I am too hard headed for that. I will be busting my butt at the rink between now and March 24 trying to get this thing licked. No silly program is going to hold me back.
Thankfully I am taking tomorrow and Monday off to rest. I really don't want to see a rink for at least 48 hours.
My artistic went very well. I placed 3rd out of 6 and was out "costumed" by one lady and out skated by another. I felt pretty good going into the freeskate. I was calm, but energetic. My warm-up was OK. I wasn't really landing my loop or flip like I wanted and the sit spin was not in the cards. So I was first on the ice in my group.
The first few seconds were not too bad. I sort of landed my salchow/loop, did fine in the next pass, threw out the sit spin, was fine on the spiral/toe loop and then it fell apart. I didn't land my flip correctly which got me flipped around the wrong way. I then totally blanked out. I forgot where in the heck I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing. I improvised the best I could, did a crappy back spin and ... well there ya go.
At least they call this competition the Mid-Winter "Warm-Up" cause boy did I need it!
Now I could simply throw in the towel and say, "The hell with this crap." But NOOOOO, I am too hard headed for that. I will be busting my butt at the rink between now and March 24 trying to get this thing licked. No silly program is going to hold me back.
Thankfully I am taking tomorrow and Monday off to rest. I really don't want to see a rink for at least 48 hours.
Friday, January 29, 2010
As Good As it Gets
Well there it was. The last practice before competition tomorrow. Of course the rink would have to screw me up by moving the start time of the freestyle up ten minutes and then cutting ten minutes off of the back end time. This totally messed me up because my friend was coming in to coach me in my coach's absence. So I frantically threw on my skates while I cursed under my breath at all of the hockey players in the world, ran to ask another friend to text my substitute coach of the new times, and got my butt on the ice.
There was no way to play music on this particular rink - perfect - I will just hum it I guess! My texting friend came to the rescue with her laptop and plugged it into the speakers. I did not know that her CD player has been broken for six months, so I popped my music in and it started to play. I had inadvertently fixed her CD player. Yea me. I got a big hug for that one.
My substitute coach ran out with just about 15 minutes to spare. Just in time for me to run through my Artistic (easy peasy) and once through the free skate (couldn't hear the music). I was fine. I will be fine. It is as good as it is going to get and I am OK with that.
Best of all are all of my great friends who have been texting me good wishes, hugging and sprinkling good thoughts on me at the rink, and leaving me inspirational messages on my wall and on my phone. Skating has given me such a wonderful, loving and open set of friends that I don't know what I would ever do without them now! They save me time and time again and I hope they know I would do the same for them over and over again.
So this one is for you AdM, "Team Balboa", SW, SS, LW, JJ, MR, JS, JB KH, PD and all of my other friends who make me smile. It is as good as it gets!
There was no way to play music on this particular rink - perfect - I will just hum it I guess! My texting friend came to the rescue with her laptop and plugged it into the speakers. I did not know that her CD player has been broken for six months, so I popped my music in and it started to play. I had inadvertently fixed her CD player. Yea me. I got a big hug for that one.
My substitute coach ran out with just about 15 minutes to spare. Just in time for me to run through my Artistic (easy peasy) and once through the free skate (couldn't hear the music). I was fine. I will be fine. It is as good as it is going to get and I am OK with that.
Best of all are all of my great friends who have been texting me good wishes, hugging and sprinkling good thoughts on me at the rink, and leaving me inspirational messages on my wall and on my phone. Skating has given me such a wonderful, loving and open set of friends that I don't know what I would ever do without them now! They save me time and time again and I hope they know I would do the same for them over and over again.
So this one is for you AdM, "Team Balboa", SW, SS, LW, JJ, MR, JS, JB KH, PD and all of my other friends who make me smile. It is as good as it gets!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
I'll Write Anyway
Remember the work issue? Well it just keeps blowing up in my face just when I think it is gone. I am actually writing through tears right now, but I think that it will help to focus on skating for a bit.
Today was not a total loss on the ice. I was able to almost finish my program on time. I landed most of my jumps clean. My sit spin may become a scratch for this competition. But the big breakthrough for me today was that I breathed. I know what you are thinking - well of course you were breathing or else you would be dead! That is not the kind of breathing that I am talking about. I breathed deeply between each element of my program. I only skated one element at a time and tried to skate it strong and with conviction. I started my program with my chin held high and my arms strong. I pressed my shoulders down so I would not look like Frankenstein. My coach said, "You did the best you could" which could mean - "OK not too bad" or "Well... there ya go." I felt like I had moved a mountain.
I don't have high expectations for this weekend. My hope is that I don't fall and I don't place dead last. I will be putting myself on the ice, so I don't have to worry about letting my coach down in person. But most of all, I hope that I can just breathe and let the world escape from me for just a few moments. I think I deserve that.
Today was not a total loss on the ice. I was able to almost finish my program on time. I landed most of my jumps clean. My sit spin may become a scratch for this competition. But the big breakthrough for me today was that I breathed. I know what you are thinking - well of course you were breathing or else you would be dead! That is not the kind of breathing that I am talking about. I breathed deeply between each element of my program. I only skated one element at a time and tried to skate it strong and with conviction. I started my program with my chin held high and my arms strong. I pressed my shoulders down so I would not look like Frankenstein. My coach said, "You did the best you could" which could mean - "OK not too bad" or "Well... there ya go." I felt like I had moved a mountain.
I don't have high expectations for this weekend. My hope is that I don't fall and I don't place dead last. I will be putting myself on the ice, so I don't have to worry about letting my coach down in person. But most of all, I hope that I can just breathe and let the world escape from me for just a few moments. I think I deserve that.
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