Ice Dancing: Ten Fox partnering

Because of this quite bad cold I've had I've skated less then usually. On Monday this week, I was still feeling congested, week and tired. I decided not to cancel my private lesson but I really couldn't skate with power. My coach decided to teach me the next dances... the Fourteen Step and the Foxtrot. I'm so excited, they look like lots of fun. But I still have to test the Ten Fox.

Here is were I described the steps of the Ten Fox. In this post I'll go over the partnering from the female point of view as I took notes and I remember. During the learning process I found out that I misunderstood the corrections many times. This is my understanding at this point...

Intro steps:
- Right stroke , Left stroke while the partnered are positioned laterally from each other and hold hands
- Right stroke on an inside edge, curving to get ahead of the partner
- LFO dropped 3-turn that will bring the female in front of the partner and in a waltz hold (I misunderstood at first that I really have to get in front of my partner, I was thinking ahead, slightly laterally, following the hockey circle, but it is more then that)

1.2.3. RB Backward Progressive On my own I tend to hook the lobes as I start them, but with a partner, it seams I go mostly straight. What I was asked several times, was to push, stroke, put power into it.

4a. LB Backward Swing Roll attention here to start the Swing Roll pushing backwards, perpendicularly away from the axis, and holding the upper body square and strong, don't allow it to rotate ahead of the edge. The female cannot twists the upper body, the partner is stuck in the back following her tracing, he cannot twist. Same is true for the end of the Swing Roll. Hold the upper body square, do not twist. I was really used to twist here especially as the next step is a step forward so twisting would put the upper body in the right position for that step.
4.b Open Choctaw R Foreword Inside Edge. On this one I've got the two correction of the same kind. At first I was to eager to step forward, as I said for the previous step, I was rushing to twist already and to step, probably wide stepping to, so I've left my partner behind. After I corrected that, I was still leaving my partner behind, as I didn't curve the inside edge enough.
5.6.7 L Forward Progressive Here I've got the the opposite kind of corrections. At first was to wait for the partner to finish the progressive, don't rush to cut his way. Then I was waiting too much, I was tucking behind him.
8. R Forward Outside Edge The first correction I've got here was again to wait for the partner. Then, I used to hook the pattern, the curve, at the middle of the lobe, to get me on a straighter line so I can stroke easier for my 3-turn.  But the partner is doing his 3-turn right there, so I had to keep the lobe straighter at the middle. Curve it afterwards by pressing into the ice and allow the upper body to turn to the right to allow the partner to catch up.
9. L Outside 3-turn Stroke strongly into the 3-turn. It's tempting to want to go around the partner, so towards the right, but the partner will be moving so that is too far away. Then I was also trying to stroke towards the left of my partner. No good either. It starts like that but as the partner moves that is too far left. I get it correctly if I try to align my upper body with the partner upper body. Works like a charm. Now as I rise to turn I have to get closer to the partner. That is very uncomfortable yo do for me. I started to get better at it, only to be corrected again. I was forgetting to bring the hip closer too. The whole body, as it rise has to get closer to the partner, the hips get lateral and the upper body aligned.
10.11.12 R Backward Progressive don't stop/ relax here. after the 3-turn, keep stroking.
13,14,15,16 Two L Forward Progressives Step forward after the back progressive, not towards the left, so you don't leave the partner behind. Also, these steps need to be stroked, both the push and under push. The lower body is square to the direction of travel, the upper body is twisted towards the partner, the upper back curved, so the partner can grab it. With each of these steps, the female needs to go a little ahead, before the Mohawk she should be ahead of the partner, so she can have space to bring the back foot in for the Mohawk.
17,18, 19 L Outside Open Mohawk into a L Backward Inside Edge Hold the upper body position for the mohawk and the inside edge.




I used to think that if I would do the steps correctly (but really correctly), I shouldn't have to think too much of partnership, and everything would fall into place. But that doesn't seam to be true. Also, for the more complicated dances with more turns, and they do get more and more complicated, it is important to know what step the partner does when you do your step. It is not as easy as paying attention to the partner. It is more a choreographed partnership.

When it rains it pours - still frustrated

I've complained a week ago that I feel overwhelmed, more about life (cats) then skating; and a little about the skating organizations I interact with. When I feel like that I get in a vicious circle, I get annoyed by every little thing and that makes me feel even more overwhelmed, and so forth... I tried last weekend to conscientiously reset my mind. I felt it worked...

Monday I usually skate the noon session that is adults only and then I have my lesson at 2.45. This last Monday it was holiday, and each holiday the noon session transforms into public skate... I knew that, but I forgot. But no problem, I went and had a coffee and went to skated half hour before my lesson and then I had a good lesson.

Tuesday I hold myself back to not go skating as I really want to make sure the hip rests enough. I was pain free for a while and I love how it feels. Lately I took a lesson on Thursday too, and I like to skate the day before the lesson, if I would skate on Tuesday I would skate four days in a row, five if I would skate Friday. That was my program before hurting my hip, and I so plan to get back to it...when I will feel the hip allows it. Last year I skated just Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Recently I added the Thursday and I feels good. I don't want to push my luck.

Wednesday as I've got on ice on the adults only session, I've seen that one end  (a quarter of the rink) was barricaded. They wanted to fix something at the ceiling. It wasn't previously announced, I wasn't being told as I payed... I would have skated Tuesday if I knew and not Wednesday... But why should they give any respect to adult figure skaters... I bet they wouldn't have take away one quarter of the ice while hockey guys were playing a game. It was a crowded session too, so I really couldn't practice much for Ice Dancing., or the moves because they all go the whole length of the rink. Of course I could do 3-turns on their own, and jumps and spins. But I'm working now on the Ten Fox for the test, I'm on a schedule... Because I haven't had the chance to practice, it didn't make sense to have my Thursday lesson. And so another week passes...  Then, after running few errands, I've got home exited that I'll watch the European Championship, that day was pairs and men short, only that NBC Gold forgot to put the men short up. You can e-mail them and they usually answer after 48 hours. You can call them, but just between 8am and 5pm or something like that... So, I couldn't do that either.

Same evening, I found that there is a mix up with my judging application. I don't know if the people that are making the decisions are aware of it, or even if it is a  mistake. I also don't know if I should bring it up, or wait for maybe a week. I feel I keep waiting... but complaining may actually do more harm then good.

It was for the best that I haven't committed for the lesson on Thursday, because I woke up with a full on cold/flu, chest and back pain, headache, sore throat, fever... At least there was skating going on, live European championship Rhythm dance, Yum... I use NBC Gold on my computer. It started at 5, I started to watch at 7, from the beginning, plus I paused few times. One pause I used to call them to inquire about the men short event. They apologized, and they thanked me for letting them know. Meanwhile the Rhythm dance event ended. They do stop the live coverage when the event ends but they immediately put the event in the archive, but not this time, just as it happened with the men short. I waited for am hour, then called, waiting time 19 minutes or 90?  I called again in 15 minutes... "the current waiting time is over 2 hour" . No joke... For somebody offering live events, they really have no support. I wasn't able to watch one event (starting from fall when my subscription started) without having some kind of a problem. Later in the day the event was added and then... my internet went off for an hour. Comcast apologized...

Friday I woke up feeling even worse then Thursday. So I didn't go skating and I mostly rested, more exactly moped around.

Saturday I woke up feeling a little better but coughing badly.  I decided to not go to ballet, I would have made it trough but probably not enjoining . Plus it is a quiet class I would have probably be bothering to the others. The European Free dance was running live and I haven't seen yet the US Rhythm dance. You will never guess, or maybe by not it's expected, that NBC Gold had a technical glitch and couldn't be used on the desktop. They did apologized... I did watch on TV trough Comcast, but they have a weird app. You cannot start from the beginning, and you cannot fast forward or back, so it is "the 80's are back live TV", only it wasn't, the broadcast was lagging so interrupting every 30 seconds, and when you watch something with music it is really annoying.

And to hopefully finish with all complaining in this post, have I complained yet about the USFSA new web site? All documents are moved in the members only part of the site. Only, they don't have a "search" option there. And you cannot go from the member only to the general public part of the site, where they offer "search". So I open another window and search, only that the new window doesn't recognize that I'm signed in. It interestingly gives me the search I asked for, and when I click to it, I go to the page but it is not displayed to me (as they think I'm not signed in). So I have to copy, the link of the address of the page and go back to the members only page. I don't understand were USFSA expects the spectators to learn the rules of the sport and the judging rules. I was reading all those before being a member as I tried to understand. Is USFSA demanding that each spectator/ fan pay the membership?

Oh, well I'll try to reset my mind again during the week-end. Anyway, the most important thing, my skating actually felt good, when I've got to skate,, and that wasn't much.

Stretching with cats and mid month update

As the last blog was about feeling "overstretched" mentally because of me being involved in too many activities, well the cats mostly... it's just fitting to tell you what just happened while stretching with the cats.

Because my hip bothered me for a long while, I'm trying to care for it as much as I can. I'm really bad at doing strengthening exercises systematically. I do them now and then, plus I take once a week ballet. But, I do stretch each time after skating and I feel it makes a big difference. I stretch the quads, calves, IT band and mostly the hips, trough twists, so the tense muscles will relax. At home I roll. So it's no stretching with the cats, it's rolling with the cats. I have this big foam tube and I roll on it. Then I have different size balls and other "torturing devices" to help me get into the smaller muscles and press them to relax. The one I use the most is a tennis ball. But you know how cats and balls are a natural match. So I really have to hide mine, otherwise I never find them when I need them. The cats have their own ball-toys. Well, as I was rolling on the tennis ball on the rug, my phone rang and I've got up to get it. I went back to sit on the rug and roll, while talking, only that my tennis ball was nowhere to be found. It took them like 5 second to steal it from me... So that's how stretching with cats goes... always...

I'll continue with the cats, just shortly, as this is a skating blog... I'm working in setting a blog about alley cats, I hope that will help me put my thoughts together, so I can help them more. I'm still fiddling with both the design and the concept of the blog, because I want it to be more then a diary. I'll share the blog title as soon as I feel I've it right.

Now, the skating... I think it was good at the beginning of the month, then I've got frustrated by not making the progress I wanted on the dance 3-turns and I pushed too hard both physically and mentally. As a result my hip started to hurt and I've got my mind stuck in a negative state. So last week I tried to reset, skate without a purpose, or even not skate if I didn't feel like I really wanted to. I keep trying to get a balance between training for progress while enjoying the process, and I'm not finding it. I found that taking breaks form training helps a little. I feel mentally better now, but let's see how it's gonna translate on ice.

The dropped 3-turn definitely got better, I would even dare to say good, when I do them slowly. When I go faster into them I still skid, but not as badly as before. I was complaining to my coach about maybe feeling scared when having more speed and he asked if I felt is the velocity that scares me or the quickness. Good question... I wasn't differentiating between the two, and I thought is the velocity, but now I find it's actually the quickness. And it's not even fear, it's more that I'm not quick enough to find the right alignment over the hip when I go faster. So, as my coach says, I need to drill it, for that alignment (that I have when moving slower, because I have the time to think about it) to became muscle memory. I also feel confused about the timing of it, I'm so busy aligning I'm waiting to feel that alignment and there is just no way I can also think about putting it on a count. Back to work then...

Overstretched, not physically

I wanted to say overextended, but couldn't help myself to play the words game, and use something actually connected with skating...

I have many things going on and I'm processing few unexpected things that happened.  I wrote in the summer a post about my other passions. I love arts, and I paint. While I'm not making a living out of it, I am a selling artist and I do want to maintain my skills. Plus, have I mentioned I love art? So I do love and want to paint. When I started skating seriously I reorganized my weekly schedule allowing time to still create and go out to shows and expositions.

But then the stray and feral cats came my way... I love animals. These are sweet, innocents souls that are in a bad situation. How can I not help? Slowly but surely this took away more and more time, money and while I love helping them, there is a lot of pain that I feel handling them everyday. I'm feeding 12 colonies and take in kittens and friendly cats and find places for them. I've tried very hard all last year to organize this endeavor. I won't go into it, it's a too long of a story. I'll say that I feel I gathered some knowledge to, maybe, be able to organize the cat rescue this coming year... And I'm overwhelmed by the amount of work I know lies ahead.

I was contacted recently by a family acquaintance, business guy, that has a cousin, a lawyer experienced in non profits and fund raising. He wanted the three of us to start a non profit and split the money... I didn't know how to finish the conversation quickly enough. I tried not to think about it but I woke up at 5 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I talked in the morning with a good friend that is involved in business and she wasn't shocked. That also shocked me... She said that it's a known fact that non profits are run inefficiently or worse, inappropriately. She made the good point that at least I wouldn't had to worry about the nonprofit doing something illegal as one of the partners wound had been a lawyer. Then I talked with a friend that was involved occasionally with  animals help organizations. And she had the same angry reaction I had. She said that non profits like that, sooner or later are sniffed out but  the damage that they do is huge, as more and more people that would want to help with donations, don't know whom to trust and end up not helping anymore or giving to big non profits. And the bigger the non profits, the more inefficient they become. So, I want to start a new blog (about the alley cats) and start raising awareness, educating about options, and hopefully raise some funds too. I enjoy writing this blog about skating. Writing about alley cats I suspect it's gonna be painful.

The biggest help one can do for the feral cat population is TNR (Trap Neuter Release). That's the only thing that will curve the problem. And there are people that do only that. They don't even try to feed. They don't try to adopt the friendly ones. I still have to figure out how to best TNR myself. The animal care organizations have discounts, but they also have rules (each different), some of them making it impossible for me to follow.

A very good thing  happened last year, I was able to finally figure out, after months of dancing back and forth, the adoption process of one of the biggest organization that helps cats in the area. They take in friendly stray cats. They took from me and got adopted 7 cats at the end of the last year and 4 this month. Half of them were living with me for a while, and while I've tried to never think at them as my cats, I'm missing them badly. I'm very happy but it also feels like I'm grieving...

The last four cats that got adopted were living in room that was once my art studio. So now I've got to clean it, and theoretically  be able to paint again. Guess what, I've got sad looking back at these last two years I haven't painted. Then I've got sadder realizing that, realistically I still won't have time to paint in the coming future.

In regards with the cats, another big frustration and disappointment was actually seeing how inefficient the animal care organizations are.

Now, my skating... It's mostly good, really. I've just had a little setback as my hip started to hurt again after few months of being pain free. But I feel better already. I overworked my hip with the dance 3-turn. I have to fix the 3-turn before testing the Ten Fox. But I think I've got so worked out about it because I was distracted by all this other things. I've learned again and again, that my skating activity is more efficient and pleasant, when I get into a rhythm. Pushing too hard and allowing myself to get frustrated, gets me out of the rhythm and actually does more harm then good. And it also takes from my enjoyment, and then affects my motivation.

Dropped 3-tuns, new corrections for Ice Dancing intermediate level

I've had few new (and old) corrections on yesterday private lesson.

Firstly, you know how I was saying in my last post, that I feel my skills for the Ten Fox are good enough for the level, and all I need is to put a little more power and pay attention to partnering? Actually, it seams that I scrape the 3-turn... badly. May coach showed me the tracing on ice (in the Ten Fox pattern) and it was soo bad. That would be a good reason to fail the test. When I do the dance on my own, I'm never able to find the tracing. When I do the 3-turns on their own, I can find the tracing and it looks correct more often then not. But in the dance, I do the 3-turn after steps harder then and outside stroke, plus I have more speed, so it is a more difficult set up. I have to fix this before thinking of testing.

Here is the post I wrote about the dropped 3-turns. I'll go over the mistakes I make often now, and what I should be doing correct them:
- good forward outside edge on the entry stroke. That would include a good push from underneath yourself, so re bend on the skating foot, but then flip it on the inside edge as you actually put the new foot down. This will make space for the new foot to be set on an outside edge. I am able to do this consistently, but I'm not doing it in the dance... the problem I think,  is rushing, getting overexcited or nervous, and actually stepping, not pushing from underneath.
 - maintain this outside edge, not flatten it. Well, firstly, if I don't set it on an outside edge to begin with, it's kind of impossible, at least for me, to fix it. But let's say I do that right. To maintain the edge I should keep on the back of the blade (and I often find myself forward, again probably from the bad push) and press into the ice keeping the knee out. Yes, I'm letting the knee fall in, then of course the edge will flatten. It's possible I do this even worse with the partner as I may worry I'll hit his knee with my knee. But even on my own, this is not a skill I do without really concentrating on it. Another reason I think I lean forward is that I know I have to get closer to my partner just before turning the 3-turn, so leaning forward does get my upper body closer. I have o get closer with all my body, including the lover body.
- rise over the skating hip, lifting the rib cage. I feel I'm not doing this good enough, but my coach says that what it's messing me up, is in fact that I re bend while still turning (rushing again), and that it is what takes me out of the alignment and making me lean outside the circle not inside as I should, and this is making me scrape.
- another mistake I make often, is allowing the left shoulder forward. I am conscientiously twisting my upper body, but the left shoulder block my, and I am not aware of it while doing it.
- of course I have to turn my head with the turn...
- the old mistake was that I was pushing back after the 3-turn while re bending. It seams I fixed that by re bending even sooner (joke on me), instead of after the 3-turn...

The second correction I've got it was about the back push, and that translates into all backward skating so I'm very excited about it. It will be one of my next posts.

Then we did partner Ten Fox again and again, and I still do all kind of mistakes. There is this expectation that the coach helps the student during the dances, including during the tests. But these things eventually need to be corrected. And I think I have enough corrections for a whole post, so again, I'll come back to it  in a new post soon.

Update on 3-turns Jan 2020
- I worked on these for half hour on the next two sessions I was on ice. I went trough all the corrections, and I found the one mistake that ruined it even when everything else was right. This is the LFO 3-turn, so I have to twist the upper body towards the left. Well, I do, but I'm also pushing the left shoulder forward, so I'm blocking the twisting...
- Then on my next lesson, the coach said that even if I'm twisting toward the left, I'm still not aligned over the left hip, I should think of pushing the left hip forward (until now he was saying butt in)
- I was saying that holding the 3-turn entry edge on an outside edge was a problem mostly in the solo pattern dance. I realized that I wasn't finishing the previous lobe correctly, I wasn't twisting while rising towards the inside of the next circle, as I was explaining here. I should finish the previous lobe with the right hand forward and left shoulder back, ready for the 3-turm. I finish sometimes square and sometimes with the left hand forwards, that also means the left shoulder forward and that is a problem even when I do the 3-turn on its own, setting it like this in the pattern is doubling the same mistake!
- But I'm able to correct these, so I need to practice them enough to became body memory. And the dance was already better....
- update and corrections here, the last paragraph of the post

And here is a video with my dropped 3-turns done in a circle, both directions

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I will start by telling you that I don't understand how I ended up so busy during the holidays. My intention was to have some quiet time and I haven't made any commitments for Christmas days or New Year days. I suspect I felt that I'll have all this free time so I got into a deep cleaning, lots of cooking, going to few shows, meeting friends and stuff like that.

The skating schedule was as expected, not great. I did have my weekly private lessons, and the first weeks I added an extra lesson to hopefully get me ready to test the Ten Fox. The deadline was January 1st and I wasn't ready. I have to say I'm frustrated. My coach was asking me in November if I wanted to test in December, when I couldn't because I was busy skating in the Nutcracker on Ice. I felt ready to test, in the sense that my performance was good enough for this level. But the coach kept correcting things, the basic skills like not wide stepping when changing those lobes backwards, and the dropped 3-turns. Again, I thought they are good enough for my level, it is still a Bronze level dance, but of course I do agree they need improvement. This is firstly affecting my confidence, in the sense that the coach expected me to be ready in December and I wasn't able to.Then it's putting pressure on my regular life schedule because I try not to schedule other things close before those potential test days. I don't even know how to ask my coach about this to be sure he understands.

And now that I'm done venting, I'm trying to look again on what could possibly not be ready. I'm thinking at my coach's latest corrections but I also tried to remember the issues I had before testing the Willow Waltz, and it all made sense. Then, after the steps and skills were considered appropriate for the level I was asked repeatedly for power, remember I test standard, so I need to look as the kids and teens do. I also was asked repeatedly to be aware of partnering, I cannot skate go on my own way, I have to follow my partner.I think this is exactly what is happening now. My coach didn't ask for power, but to go for it, and to be assertive, but basically it is the same thing. And I'm still not partnering at points... To add to these, we haven't yet skated the Ten Fox on music, just on counting. And looking back at the posts about the Willow Waltz I found a post with the title Searching for confidence to test the Willow Waltz and here is the link, where I was describing that my last worry was skating on music. On my last lesson I tried and succeed to be more assertive. On my next lesson my plan was to pay attention to partner. But I'll skate an hour on my own before my lesson so I"ll have the opportunity to try the dance on music on my own. I'll have to remember to put some Ten Fox music on my phone.

The plan for this month is obviously to  keep working at the Ten Fox for testing, but with my newly found assertiveness I may be able to also finally work on the Pre-Juvenile MITF for testing. As for testing dates, there is one early February and one mid February.