Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

If you remember, I wasn't happy with my skating 2 months ago. I had to prepay ice for a whole month and I bought 3 sessions per week, but the slots that I've paid for, haven't worked for me. Tuesdays sessions were after a hockey camp and the ice was terrible to the point of unsafe. Fridays were better. Saturdays I was tired after Fridays. After the first week, I ended up skating only once or twice per week. I also got disappointed that I couldn't stick with my plan.

Last month I bought ice only Mondays and Fridays and I added an occasional Tuesday lesson at another rink. Did I have one, or did I have 2 lessons? I don't even remember. It wasn't a productive month, being that I skated only twice a week, but as I knew I coudn't expect much, at least I didn't get frustrated.

I worked mostly on MITF, trying to get closer to test the Pre Juvenile ones. I think the only thing I miss is the confidence in 3-turns. I can do them fine few session in a row, and then I don't... On the last lesson, the coach corrected my alignment, and asked me to add more speed. The speed really makes them flow. And speed is confidence.

For Ice dancing I've ran my exercises, but I haven't had corrections from my coach in ages, I don't really work on them, I mostly observe the flow and the posture. I've tried to listed to Ten Fox music (that's the dance I work on now) in just one earbud, while doing these exercises, to at least work on timing. And that worked. Even the Ten Foxed kind of worked once or twice. But I felt it asked for more speed then I was comfortable to put on the quite crowded sessions. Plus dance at speed is the thing that gets me the most tired, so I've done more then nothing but not much.

I did Freestyle consistently, but again not much as I was afraid to not aggravate the last injury, the right hip. The jumps are fine, I'm just not making them bigger at this point. I saw in the last jump lesson that I can make them bigger, so I'm not gonna worry about that now. I've hesitated to work on the loop jump because it is on the right hip, but the few I've done haven't hurt, so maybe I could have worked more on those.  I've definitely felt pain on the back spin, so I've scratched that... Meanwhile, the scratch spin is finally comfortable (I was getting dizzy after the quarantine).

I did the Figures from the first test whenever I felt tired. The forward outside and inside circles look good, I'm working at the restart of the each circle, the marks of the push have to be on top of each other... they are getting closer... Then, on the waltz eight circles, the back push after the 3-turn and the forward stroke after the back edge need to start on the same exact spots. I'll have to ask my coach if you can mark with a marker those spots to be more visible. I don't even see those spots. You need to look down for those marks without getting out of alignment.

So, last month, while I haven't skated enough to improve anything, I think I skated enough and consistently enough to consolidate the old skills.

This month I bought ice for Mondays, Wednesdays (finally they had ice on Wednesdays), Fridays at my rink, to skate on my own, and I'll have each Tuesday a lesson at another rink. The adult only ice will start only from the second week, and I'm holding my breath to be the same that it used to be, safe... But it may be not. There may be too many newcomers and they may give it a different pace. I've heard a high level freestyler signed for this ice. This is not Freestyle ice, so nobody has priority, not the lessons, not the jumps, you don't have to spin in the middle or not use the lutz corner, the music has to be in a public skate style, nobody can run their program time after time... This is ice meant for adults with a wide variety of skills, to enjoy while feeling safe (from being ran down), and being respectful to each other. But will the new people know?

Another issue that may arise is hip pain. I have an old injury at the left hip and a new one at the right... While they feel mostly fine, I'm worried if I will be able to handle skating 3 days in a row (Monday, Tuesday with my coach and Wednesday). This week was I skated like that and I have to say I felt a little pain the hips, more like tiredness but.... I'm definitely gonna be watching out.

And just one more development. I saved another kitten! He is at the point when he starts eating on his own, so while there was a couple of nights that I woke up to feed him, he should be fine from now on, and soon on his way because I've already found a home for him!

I find my self, again, not sure how to plan next month. I was writing in the last post that I hope I'll be able to "train" for progress, but after how this first days of September went, I'm not so sure I can. The problem is, that if I make it my plan to train, and then I cannot stick to the plan, I get disappointed, discouraged... Also, if I approach the skating session pushing to train, while the ice is crowded, or there are several strong skaters on ice, the ice is bad, I'm tired or I feel pain, I cannot train, and I ask for injuries... I was looking before the pandemic at having a process oriented training instead of goal oriented (passing tests) training. I thought that setting my expectations to test on a certain date, and then seeing I wasn't, made me frustrated. But what I'm seeing now is that I actually cannot plan the "process".

So, for now, the plan is to "let it be". I'll add the song on the skating play list, maybe that'll help?