New thoughts about skating for progres versus enjoynment

I had a talk with my coach. Between other things we reviewed our work together. I first hired him just to partner me for tests for dances. But I liked his way of explaining, so I continued working on dances with him, then I added moves, then Freestyle, then figures. My goal was to progress and I was skating 7 to 9 sessions a week (4 on my own, 2 private lessons and one or 2 group lessons). I've got bursts of frustration when I couldn't train as I wanted because the ice was bad, it was too crowded, or I was tired, but I was generally satisfied.

Everything changed when hurt my left hip. I starting skating less to allow the hip to heal. But even when I skated I was holding back. I was hurting when I worked on extensions (and in dance everything has extensions), on 3-turns on that hip, etc. Then, I started saving stray cats and kittens, I had some orphaned kittens that needed to be feed by bottle including during the night, so I was tired for months. Looking back, it is clear that I couldn't progress in those conditions. I also couldn't enjoy skating while I was hurting, tired. And I also was having expectations about progress and not actually progressing, so I was getting frustreted... It is also clear that I couldn't see all these, then.

I was back on a good training pace before the quarantine, but then "that" (the quarantine) happened. Hopefully I can get back, from this week, on a good schedule and skating training (skating 3 times a week plus one lesson)... for progress....

But I also want to not forget the perspective I have now, about the time I couldn't "train" because I'm sure there will be times like that again. I want to be prepared to handle those kind of times better... The first challenge I see, is to be able to acknowledge when I cannot train. If it's short term I should just accept it, not push but hang in there don't give up on "training". If it's longer term, I should forget about progress for a while, anyway I saw that after 3 months of not being on ice, the skills were still there. So I should do something else, not the same exercises that I do for testing.

This summer, for example, I kind of knew... after quarantine... the available ice was all over the city, so I couldn't  create a well paced schedule, plus I knew I'm gonna be distracted by life.... I had the intention to have program choreographed to break from the "training" just that my choreograph was out of town. I think that would have worked. With my regular coach I shifted the attention from the pattern dances and moves (that I knew I couldn't train) to freestyle. Unfortunately my ankles hurt for 2 weeks and also my "good" hip hurt after a fall. So I've ended up doing exactly what I didn't want to do... the same old exercises for dance and moves, that I do for 2 years now, that I knew I couldn't improve (skating just once or twice a week on bad or crowded Freestyle ice). I'm soo happy I'll have a program choreographed! I think I'll also have to ask for new things from my regular coach when I'll know I cannot "train".

Skating technique: edges - Backward Edge Presses

While writing the previous post about hopes and goals and progress, I've went back and I've red some of my old posts and I realized that I haven't wrote in a while a post about technique. I remembered I was planning to write about backward edge presses, and I've filmed them, in January!

I described the forward edge presses here.  To me, it is the exercise that helps the transition from the basic beginner forward edges, to all the beginner-intermediate forward dance steps: chasses, progressives, swing rolls and the more advanced skill, the deep forward edges. I see I wrote these posts very soon after I started the blog.

I described the beginner basic backward edges here, where I mentioned the backward push and backward posture. Then I covered the backward push, posture and balance here in more detailed, as it is important and difficult, at least for me. Then I described the backward chasses, swing rolls,  but not the backward progressives and edge presses. It's not because I forgot about them, but because I described everything technique related in the succession I've learned them. And I haven't felt I've understood them well enough to describe them properly.

So back to the backward edge presses... They are done on alternating lobes, on an axis (same principle for both outside and inside).
- You start with the upper body almost square with the lower body over the axis, turned towards the inside of the circle just a little bit (for both outside and inside edges) both feet on the axis.
- You push away from the axis, straight back, maintaining the upper body square with the hips.
- Then you bend your knees and  "sit"... you bend the knees and ankles, you push the ankles towards your back (that helps the balance) and keep the shoulders back too and you PRESS with your ankles into the ice
- you create the edge by leaning into the circle, with the whole body and the ankle, being careful to not drop out the free hip or stick out the skating hip into the circle
- and you repeat on the other side...

Here is me practicing them I start on the right side of the screen with the outside ones, then I come back with the insides but somebody cut my way. I'll try to film them again when I'll get the chance for a more close up view and update on the progress.

 I was saying that I waited to be sure I understood them before writing about them... And that was smart. I was one day telling my coach of how much working on them help me with balance and alignment for the backward 3-turns. And he said "let me see them", because he hasn't seen them in a while. And he said... you are doing them all wrong! I was twisting my upper body immediately after the push... The coach said to keep doing them as an exercise for the 3-turns, as you need the body twisted like that before the turn. And here are a version of the backward edge presses, with the upper body twisting after the push.

 But the correct edge presses, that my coach thought me, with the body square, train something else...The meaning of this exercise is to help find the lean for getting an edge going backwards (along with finding the alignment, balance, posture and the finding the feeling of "gripping" the ice).

New hope and update on progress and goals

I've heard that my rink is gonna have back on the schedule the adult figure skaters only, noon ice, from the second week of September. Before the covid interruption, it used to be offered Monday, Wednesday, Friday on the big rink and Tuesday and Thursday on the studio rink, except during the summer. It was usually quite empty ice, and if crowded, we were all adults, looking out for each other. I usually skated Monday, Wednesday, Friday on the main rink on that session, on Mondays I also had a private lesson later in the day on Freestyle Package Ice and just before the lockdown I was also skating Thursdays on the studio rink, mainly figures. That was my ice... I really really hope it's gonna be back. I haven't seen it yet on the schedule.

I feel so comfortable on that adult ice. And I was often spooked going for lessons on regular ice. To my coach's visible disappointment, I often aborted patterns even if (in his view that I bet was right) I was in absolutely no danger of collision... When I was a beginner, I was more confused and uncomfortable then afraid, but after I hurt my hip, I was afraid. The little kids are not looking and the big kids are soo fast, so of course I'm afraid. But you know that my goal is to progress into an intermediate-ish level skater, not an adult skater... and I test standard not adult track. Well, that ice is "standard", the adult ice is comfortable because is slow...

After the initial excitement of having my comfortable ice back, I've realized that I'm not that uncomfortable anymore on the Freestyle package ice! Yeap, I've grown, I'm a big kid now. I'm sure this is a result of me progressing. Sometimes I feel I hold myself back by not being confident. After the quarantine, we've first come back on ice with maximum 10 skaters, then 15, now 20. It was a progression that made me forgot to think if I'm afraid. I just thought to acknowledge this new skill and confidence, as I'll soon go to my slow ice. While I feel happy and hopeful for the easier ice conditions, I think I can also be hopeful for progress!

My other goal (beside progress) is to find a way to, occasionally, break away from training and to skate for my my own enjoyment. I've set up in the past to train and test as kids do, and lately it backfired. I had to reduce the time I've spent on ice not because I've got bored but I think mostly because my hip injury. Then I've wondered if it's even realistic to expect my aging body to train as kids do. I also wondered about motivation... I feel that kids have their skating buddies, syncro teams, shows, competitions to motivate them and make them enjoy. I do have skating friends, but I feel that for the majority of them skating is a social thing, so I don't get the motivation. I also have adult skating friends that compete and I feel that is a good vehicle for both motivation and enjoyment. What I see them doing, is skating twice a week and that much time on ice allows them to maintain the skills they have and have one or two programs choreographed per season. But I want progress... and I don't skate enough to both progress and prepare for competitions. The only thing is that if I get unmotivated it's not good for progress. So, I'm having a program choreographed, for testing but mostly for myself!

I've had in plan for a while to have another Freestyle program choreographed, because I enjoyed working on the previous one so much. But before the covid I was working on moves and dance for testing so I didn't want to take time away from that. Now, my choreographer is out of the city. I've decided to ask somebody else, and she is a dance coach, so she can choreograph both dance and Freestyle, while my previous choreographer can do only Freestyle. So I've decided to have Solo Free Dance choreographed instead of the Freestyle. We'll start working on it from September, we couldn't find ice for now.

I'll mention just shortly that this month as I skate just twice a week, I know I cannot progress. But my skating goes better compared with the last month when the schedule, ice quality and a little injury worked against me. I'll try from next week to have weekly lessons and from next month I think I'll be able to skate on my own 3 times a week, and then I think I can settle into a training rhythm.

So I see lots of hope!

First week of the month update

From when I wrote the previous post, I skated Friday and Monday.

There were reasonable good skating days... I was complaining when I skated last month, how bad the ice was on Tuesdays and just a little better on Fridays, as on both days it was a hockey camp going on before. Still, on Fridays the ice was better then on Tuesdays. Maybe it was a different person cutting it. So, this Friday, the ice was as last month, not great, but not terrible. On Monday the ice was cut quite OK. Of course it has to be a "but"... It was so hot outside, that there were frozen drops on ice from water condensing from the ceiling, hundreds of drops... still it wasn't terrible.

There are 20 skaters allowed on ice, but there are never 20. I saw more like 15... I'm still annoyed by some skaters that take lessons and stay on a particular spot on ice near the boards, near their coaches, for the whole session. They block the use of the length of ice for MITF and Ice Dancing patterns. But, there were moments when the ice cleared... it was a waiting game but I was up for the game!

I mentioned that mid last month, I've had a fall that bothered my right hip. I was honestly overwhelmed by the possibility to have pain for 2 years, as I had when I injured my left hip. I also felt pain on both ankles... After I've fallen, I skipped a pre payed skating day, plus when I skated I took it easy. Also this month I skated just twice a week, so I had lots of time to rest and recover. And I think I'm fine.

Friday I started with moves as a warm up, no pressure. On the last lesson I had, I've had a meltdown on the forward to backward 3-turns. But I've got the correction that I wasn't lifting over the skating hip. I suspect I was cautious to use the hips as I felt the new pain, but also I was in a not good mood in general, I felt sluggish and I was not really getting mentally involved in skating. The 3-turns were definitely better, but as I started to get confident, I started to rush and I had few unbalances, so I moved along to Freestyle so I wouldn't risk a fall. I was very pleasantly surprised, for a change, that my spins finally felt comfortable (I was continuously dizzy from when I got back on ice after the quarantine). The Waltz and Salcow jumps felt great too. On the Half Lutz I started to not have to think about all the steps.  On the toe loop I'm not feeling I incorporate the corrections from my coach (to feel I jump from the skating leg, not the toe pick), same on the Half Flip (to jump higher) so I dropped working on them quickly. But I felt progress on the Loop! Then I did some dance exercises and dances, but truthfully I was already tired.

During the weekend I saw an USFSA communicate that due to Covid social distancing rules and  the impossibility to partnered at many rinks, USFSA will allow Pattern dances tested solo to count towards the standard partnered track (until the end of the year). That would be an option for my Ten Fox... On pattern dances I'm not really good at partnering. But I'm also not good at keeping up  with the music (read here about training the previous dance, the Willow Waltz), and when I skate with my coach he takes care of that. I'm also probably not as fast as the young skaters, and I test standard, not adult track, so I need to display the power and speed like the average young skater. Again, when I test partnering with my coach, he helps me keep up the speed. But as I have the option to test solo, I'm considering it... mostly because I know it would take me loads of lessons, meaning twice a week, to get comfortable enough partnering so I can test. So I loaded Ten Fox music in my new phone.

Monday I started with the moves as well. They felt really good, including the 3-turns. (My club announced a test session on September 22, fingers crossed I'll build the consistency and courage to test them) Then I went into dance exercises but on Ten Fox rhythm. I put just one earbud in and on low volume, to still hear what is going on around me. Well, that's fast! I'm not used with that...  Then I've made few attempts of the Ten Fox on music... nope, they were not on music. Of course I was disappointed, but all that got me quite tired so i moved on to figures so I could catch my breath. I did a little spinning and jumping without pushing. As I left the rink I've realized that I wasn't feeling actually disappointed. I was just eager to rest and go back and try again! That's gonna be Friday.

Both last Friday and this Monday I felt tired at the end of the skating session. Every single time I started to skate more in the past, I felt tired for a while, I needed to build up both power and stamina. And I did it trough skating... Starting with skating 3 times a week, and adding to it, until getting to (at some point) nine sessions (two were 45 minutes group classes, not intense, but still). Being that I skate only twice a week I feel I should (and I do have the time) to work out a little bit off ice. Few year ago, when my ankle was hurt, I used to do ankle exercises every day. Just before the quarantine I added to those some core exercises. I kept it simple and quick so I will do them daily, and I did. During the quarantine I kept adding to those, and it actually backfired. Firstly, the whole thing became too long so it became a chore. Secondly, I didn't have the knowledge to warm up before those strength exercise and to stretch after... so while my muscles were getting stronger, they were also cramping and I've felt stiffer. Luckily, during the quarantine, my ballet instructor offered zoom classes, one of them was yoga/pilates and that really hit the spot. That class is not offered anymore. So I feel that on the days I'm not skating I should use the old stepper for a warm up, do some strength exercises and some stretching, maybe alternating the group muscles in different days. That should help the skating.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last month was... I don't know... not good. And I'm talking about skating... and life. Actually I think life affected the skating a lot. The covid virus is spreading, and while we are not in quarantine, life is definitely not normal. Rinks are open but not really... I mean not as before. And every rink has different policies.

I skated mostly at my home rink where I had to buy the ice for the whole month. Also we have to enter the facility fully clothed and with the skates and mask on, coaches are not allowed on ice, they teach by the ice entrances and hockey box and their students get stuck on the same spots, near the coaches, blocking the way for the rest of us. 20 people are allowed on ice so it is crowded. I bought ice for Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. On Tuesdays this ice was after hockey camps and it was horrible so I wasn't very upset I missed two of my prepaid slots. On Fridays it was just a little better. On Saturdays I was tired after skating Fridays and I also had life engagements so I've missed other two slots. I had two private lessons on another rink, and those both went towards Freestyle, the first one was very productive, the second one not so, I think because I was distracted by life...

And... to add insult to injury, I've injured myself. I talked about it in my previous post, and I said I was fine, but I wasn't. The ankles were hurting so I couldn't really work on jumps and spins... And as  all the perimeter of the rink was unusable (skaters blocking the way while taking lessons), and the ice was bad, it was no chance in doing MITF patterns or dance patterns. The good news is that the last time I skated the ankles felt fine. My right hip was hurting on some 3-turns and the back spin.

I was thinking to use this unproductive skating time to have a program choreographed, but the coach that choreographed my old program hasn't answered my texts. I am a little disappointed, but I'm mostly worried. I hope he's well. My regular coach doesn't choreograph programs so I don't know, should I look for a new choreograph, or should I wait?

What can I say... not a good month.

With the info I have right now, I cannot really plan this skating month. I bought ice at my home rink but just Mondays and Fridays. I just hope that Mondays will feel better than the Tuesdays from last month. If I would have two reasonably good practices per week I could add a lesson on Tuesdays or Wednesdays to the other rink, if not, maybe I'll hang in there without lessons until September and see if the ice schedule and life in general are gonna relax a little.