Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I wrote a post in the summer about my other passions, besides skating. One of them is helping alley cats. My skating plan for last month got derailed by 3 orphaned kittens, 3 weeks old, needing assistance. That is bottle feeding every 3-4 hours, including during the night. They are doing fine!

The skating wasn't much  for first 2 weeks of the last month, when I've got the kittens, I was just too tired. Then, as they started to sleep trough the night, I've followed the skating plan from last month to build up my skating (muscles, balance and stamina). And it didn't go to well... I was slow, stiff and nothing I've tried to do worked. But then, finally, this week I've got my soft knees back... I'm not daring to hope that it will be just smooth sailing from now on, but at least I know I can still get better, because, honestly, I was kind of giving up hope.

I've started my sessions with a short warm up. Then I did Freestyle not moves, as I used to do. I did two to five jumps of each, trying to maintain and gain more confidence on the Waltz Jump and Salcow, improving the Toe Loop that I can do but it is hesitant, and trying to get the Loop back. I didn't work with my coach on them, there is just not enough time. Then I did few spins of each (scratch, back and some idea of a sit). Next were the Moves, but as I said I couldn't get myself to put power into them. I've also became impatient with the 3-turns. Then, I've run dance exercise and the Ten Fox. The one little piece of bad news is that I "feel" my hip, meaning I had some pain that I hope is just building the muscles not the old injury acting up.

On the week my skating didn't go well I didn't get to see my regular coach and I've asked another coach for a lesson towards learning to "skate for my own enjoyment". I wrote about that idea last month and during the summer. I didn't get into competing, there are no adults at my level that I know and compete. The only way to motivate myself was trough following progress and testing. When that doesn't go well I get frustrated. Anyhow I always wanted the artistic part of the skating, the self expression and emotional involvement. And I'm soo relieved that the new coach understood what I wanted and had a plan. We did simple exercises involving the whole body and the "soul". That's exactly what I wanted. I wrote about my desire to involve my soul in a post in the summer, but I didn't mention it to my new coach. I was quite surprised he went there, and pleased. I'll continue working with him but not on a consistent way.

Before thinking of what to do next month I have to accept that I still have to restrict my skating schedule to 3 times a week to allow the hip to have rest days. I also have to accept that I HAVE TO DO the off ice strengthening exercises consistently.

Even when I was skating 6 sessions a week I felt I needed to prioritize whatever I wanted to push for improvement and test. I cannot decide now, with only 3 skating sessions per week, if I should push something (moves, dance or Freestyle) or continue on working all of them expecting slow(er) progress. My desire and what logically made sense to me always, was to work on everything. My coach also supports this. But, in the past I've just felt that I've did better on focusing on something specific. That of course could change, so maybe I should give a try to balancing working on Moves, Freestyle and Ice Dancing. Interestingly when I was telling my coach that I was puzzled how two weeks ago I couldn't make myself skate well even if I was rested and not hurting, he mentioned somehow, I don't remember the exact words, that I was maybe "too eager". Working on everything would mean giving up on the idea of testing the moves at the end of this month. I am so "eager" to test them!  I felt almost ready to test them before hurting my hip (that was a  year and a half ago). Then I felt really ready to test them at the beginning of the summer, when I've registered to test and found out two days before the test day that I couldn't because of some scheduling error.


It seams I don't have a plan for this month. Work a little at everything and enjoy!