2nd week of June: thoughts on rest and balancing my skating

I knew I’ll have a meeting on Monday so I decided to skate on Sunday. I never skate in the weekend because usually there is no ice, if there is, it is very crowded. Plus I formed the rhythm of skating during the week and resting in the weekend.

The minute I decided to skate on Sunday, I felt unhappy.  As I tried to acknowledge my thoughts and feelings,  I have found many... What set my negativity off, is that while looking for ice for Sunday, I had to face the fact that the ice schedule is gonna change for the summer, I'm gonna have fewer options for ice time and the ice is gonna be crowded. Then, I've realized that I am actually tired. I am physically tired from skating ( 5 times last week) but I'm also more tired because  most of my free time goes into skating, I have less time to rest. I was then thinking again about goals, and, if I want to improve, I do need lessons and practice, so I do need to put in all these time, planning and work. I think, this will get better as I will find more clarity in how to balance the skating.

As for this particular Sunday, I found it difficult to decide what to work on, and it felt like I just didn't want to work on Sunday. So I decided to have a skating day for my own pleasure. That lifted the pressure and the unhappy feeling. At the rink, I started slowly and concentrate on feeling my breath, my posture and my extensions. I took the time to finish the exercises with a pose.  I ended up actual working at lots of things!

So, note to myself, do occasionally slow down and smell the roses! I guess, this is, in fact, part of a balanced approached to skating...

Monday, no skating because of a business meeting. But... I have to acknowledge that I was very tired the whole day, unusually so, and it made me wonder if I may be skating too much?

Tuesday I was very busy and I still felt tired. Then I’ve realized there is a full moon coming, I never rest well when there is a full moon. In this circumstance, I’ve decided to not go skating, be gentle towards my body and schedule.

Wednesday. Tuesday night there was this huge beautiful strawberry moon, so of course I woke up at 5 and couldn't fall back asleep. I was even more tired than the previous days. In the past I would have definitely not gone skating. But I have planned a lesson on Thursday, so I felt I had to go. This is one of the benefits of having planned lessons, they make you commit. I didn't stay that long but I was pretty happy on how the Tenfox worked. I was careful ti alternate the work on the Tenfox with slower exercise.

Thursday, I had a dance lesson with my new coach. I woke up rested but I worked so hard to catch up on work, I felt distracted before leaving for skating. Then, I had traffic, it took me 40 minutes instead of 20-30. Then, this session was a Freeskate one, a bit busier that I'm used to. Anyway, these are my excuses for not doing well. The 3s in Tenfox were skidding all the time, every single time! I left very, very disappointed.

Friday. I went skating, it was very crowded, I mostly worked on the Tenfox 3s that didn't go much better than Thursday.

This week was rough, I was excessively tired following the very busy previous week. I kept the skating schedule and the lesson, and that is a win in itself. I got disappointed in the Tenfox 3 turns but I have to remember that progress is not linear, I was tired, or I was too much into my head... Otherwise skating felt in fact good! I think this is the perfect reminder that I have to skate for my own enjoyment and continue in organizing the skating weeks and months so they feel balanced between work for progress and enjoyment.

1st week of June

On Wednesday I'll have a business meeting North side.  That is where my boot fitter is and there is where my old coach is. I've decided to drive up and have a lesson on Tuesday and drop the boots, and pick them up when I get off my business meeting on Wednesday/

Monday. In preparation for my lesson with old coach, I practiced the double 3 turns. They were very rusty but got acceptable during the practice. The only negative was that I took a pretty heavy fall and my muscles tensed up and hurt. But luckily I haven't injured anything. 

Tuesday. The drive there was 1 hour 15 minutes, but back was an hour and a half... so, yeah, it not doable to see my old coach too often. As I work on dance with the new coach, I though to have this lesson toward moves in the field. I requested a full hour lesson. 

- The warmup was edges (correction: look where I'm going - I was flicking my head towards forward, and don't  twist, meaning stay square and encourage the edge by leaning). For the FI edges, tailbone under and more ankle bend. More ankle bend (push into the tongue of the boot, knees have to surpass the toes) I continued to hear during the whole lesson. On B edges more ankle bend and arched back, forming a Z.

- The coach wanted to start with simple 3-turns.  LFO3, surprisingly, the correction for the (the one that troubled me as I couldn't control the exit) was that I didn't turn it on the ball of the foot, I was towards the middle of the blade. I was also not completely aligned over the hip, the correction that worked was to lift the ribs over the hip. Then, a strong check is needed. RBI needed better alignment (lift over the hip and the free shoulder should pass the skating heel, so I should lean into the circle way more) and have the free leg thigh/ knee press into the skating leg. RBO same correction for the free shoulder. Also turn on the back of the blade, on the last 2 screws...

- For the double 3s is very important to check the 1st 3, use the top of the lobe carefully to change the upper body and extend the free foot (for the B 3s)

- Power 3s, after Mo, a push into B3 is acceptable, then the power comes from a lift like for a Loop jump. Strong check and repeat 

Wednesday, after I picked up the boots, I stopped by the rink on my way home. It was a bit of bad lack that the session I used to go to, was now an hour later. I decided to enter the session that was on right then, but I had just 15 minutes of skating. They had then, a 30 minutes break... so I didn't stay for the next session. With that little time I decided to not go through the 3-turns correction. I decided to work on the TenFox 3-turn. Yeap still scrapping...

Thursday. After 2 days away from home and work, I had so much to do. There were 2 skating sessions that day, morning at 9, and mid day 1.30. I decided to go to the 9 am one, because from my previous experience, when I get too much work to do I get caught up or exhausted  and I don't go skating anymore. While driving I though on how to organize the skating sessions and I couldn't really. My mind kept slipping back to work. So, I skated in default mode, and that took my again into the TenFox... mostly the 3-turn. I skated only TenFox related exercises and I skated hard so I felt tired after 35 minutes. Maybe it was ok for that day, as I had lots of work waiting. But,  this is exactly what I don't want to do... I want to balance each skating sessions (to work on more things) and the skating journey in general. My goal from this month, is to find ways to do that.

Anyway... the TenFox 3-turn. 

- I figured I was pressing towards the ball of the foot to accentuate the FO entry edge while rising, so at the point of the turn there was no more space to rock forward.  So I have to stay on the back of the blade. Probably a stronger core and posture, with the tailbone underneath, or hips forward, would help

- While twisting (and turning) I have to bring the hip forward (the free ribs and hip feel stacked over the skating side). And of course, the feet together (correction from my new coach). Then, I figured maybe I should think ate pigeon toe instead of feet together, that may bring the hip forward too.

Friday I went skating with the thought of finding balance in my skating. 

- I warmed up as I always do - fast

- I added some alignment awareness warm up exercises (like slower edges) - slow

- Chasses and SwRolls - fast

- Those seamed to help the entry into the TenFox 3-turn - slow

- TenFox - fast

- regular 3-turns with emphasis again, on alignment. I insisted on the LFO 3-turn and the circles (edges) F and B - slow

-TenFox - fast 

- exercise for TenFox of RFO double bend into the 3 turn. I think I finally figured out how to fix it. I was rising at the end of the 4 count double bend. The new coach suggested to stay low, but you have to rise to push into the 3-turn. I watched some videos of the dance and it looks that both the rise in the middle of the 4 count, and at the end of 4 count are very quick, not a full beat, so the rise is AFTER the 4 count double bend edge, and it IS the push into the 3 turn. With this approach the 3-turn seems to be on time. I think I was adding almost 2 beats there... one to finish the 4 count lobe and one to push into the 3-turn. If this is figured out, fingers crossed, I still need to make everything a little quicker to match the required tempo. 

 -Twizzles - I didn't work on them in a while and they weren't stable - slow

- the B power 3-turns, but slow, working at the form 

-F  Stroking and Xstrokes - they were slow, a sign that I was tired

- Winding down 

This took 45 minutes, I was happy at the end. Of course I could have felt happy because I felt progress on TenFox. But maybe I made this progress because I tried a different approach. Also, a shout out to the alignment exercises, they seam to help and I can do them slow, when I'm tired. I should continue to incorporate them into most of the session. And I looks that I intuitively worked on some fast things, then some slow things.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I was skating hard and the Covid interrupted, well, everything. After Covid I had a hard time picking up skating again because of boots problems, I actually almost gave up.... Then,  I skated on and off. Whenever I picked up the skating again I had to go through a painful phase of building muscles. I also couldn't reach my coach because of heavy traffic during construction on expressway. I had no structure in my skating week or sessions, I've got demotivated, and got busy with other things.

But I figured out basically all of these! 

-The boots. I needed tighter, lower volume, boots and none of the four acclaimed boot fitters could not figure out a model to do that, including a custom boot, I bough in desperation on ebay, a half size too small and stretched the tip of one of the boots that felt too small. I have to keep stretching it weekly and it is not as tight as mi old boots, but it works! I still skate with temporary screws, I hope I can have the mounting finished this coming week.

-The building of the muscles. I am hyper mobile and so, my muscles get tired easier than regular people. I figured out after studying all kind of articles that I should not skate too hard when I'm building muscles. If I overwork the muscles, they get too damaged, I am in too much pain, and they need a long time to recover, like a full week, and they don't get the chance to build, and the following week I'm back to square one. Instead, I have to skate just to the point of feeling tired, then I can skate after 2 days, or even the next day and in couple of weeks I have some improvement!

- Coach. The expressway in my area is under construction and the traffic made it unrealistic for me to go to the rinks where my coach teaches, what it used to be a 35-40 minutes drive is now an hour and a half. I just found a coach at 20 minutes away, and my old coach was her coach back in the day, so there is some continuity there. I will still see my old coach whenever I can find the time, but now I can count on continuous instruction.

- Structure, motivation and goals. Having a coach gives some structure to my skating week and makes me skate harder as I have somebody to show my progress.

- Ice time. While floating around in between rinks, I ended up going more to a new rink that is very close to my house, just 10 minutes. It is the training rink (with two surfaces) of the big city hockey team. I tried it when it first opened, but they had unreliable schedule. Now, they figured it out better, and they have freestyle ice and public skate almost every day. 

My plan for the next months is, of course, to test the TenFox. 

BUT... my main goal is now: skating longevity, I want to build a balanced practice, a more uniform effort. When I used to skate hard in the past, before covid, I used to yo-yo in between feeling motivated to progress and test, and frustrated by any adverse condition, and even bored to stick to working on the same skills. So the bigger plan is to pay attention on the effort towards progress versus the enjoyment I get from skating day by day. 

 

4th week of May

 Monday was Memorial Day and the skating session was crowded, I expected it but I went anyway. I didn't stay long and I didn't do much, but I figured it would help both the balance and the muscle conditioning to not have a break from Friday till Tuesday.

Tuesday I worked hard at TenFox, maybe too hard. I definitely  feel motivated when I know I have a lesson. I worked on what the coaches suggested on the last lesson, the dropped 3s and Mohawk and skating everything quicker with mixed results. At the end of the session I felt very tired, but... I did a lot and I stayed longer, so putting it in perspective, there is an improvement in the muscle conditioning. Driving home I felt a bit unhappy that I haven't worked on other things. I think I'll have to be careful to balance my skating, keep the motivation up by having goals like testing the TenFox but allow time to also work the other skills, and new things for enjoyment. I think I'm mostly afraid that I may burn out.

Wednesday it was a rainy and drab day. In the past I wouldn't have gone out of the house, but knowing I have a lesson on Thursday, I did go. After a short warm up, I started immediately with the TenFox. After 2 patterns I decided to work on some skating skills. After one exercise I went back to the TenFox, and so forth. I think this may work! 

Thursday I had my second dance lesson with the new coach. There was definite improvement on the TenFox, I'm gonna add the corrections to the previous post. And we squeezed in few other exercises because I needed to rest a bit in between the TenFox patterns.

Friday I was tired but I was excited to try some corrections I've got in the lesson, so, this week I skated 5 times! 

TenFox update

I was working at the TenFox when the Covid interrupted, well everything. I had an intention to start working at it again at the end of last year, I had a private lesson towards it but I gave up as it became clear that I wont be able to see my coach regularly. I do work and test the pattern dances by partnering my coach, so without him... I now found a new coach, and the first lesson was promising. 

Here are the corrections:

- start at the red dot on the hockey circle, not at the edge. That helped a lot in filling the ice.

-intro dropped 3 turn. I worked on these at the end of last year. I could do them at a pace of 3 counts, so turning on 3. Whenever I was trying them in the TenFox, on a 2 count, I was scraping them. The correction from my old coach was to straighten up completely as I was turning, also to keep connected the skating shoulder with the free leg, I guess to help the free hip come around. More than that, I was interrupting the flow after the first stroke, I was rising and then twisting the shoulders, while the skating foot also stalled. I have to rise and twist at the same time, let the skating foot continue and bring the free hip around more. The 3s improved, but now they are slow again. I think the biggest reason is that my muscles are tired and sluggish so I'm not quick enough.  The new coach suggestion was to allow for a lower, shorter, extension into the stroke, so I can rise and turn quicker. And instead of rise, her cue is together (feet together), that helped straightening faster I guess!

- B progressive, quicker stroking. The coaches cue is push, push... 2nd lesson correction, stay low during all strokes.

- B SwR make it tighter, quicker. 2nd lesson correction for BSwR in general was to arch the back

- Step forward

- 4 count edge with knee bend, point the toe and maybe don't rise at the end completely, so I gain time to get into the 3turn, where I'm late :(

- B progressives towards back, along the hockey circle 

- Mo, don't swing the free leg, that brings the foot at the skating foot toe, after 1st edge bring the free for directly at instep (that would make me rise too). I'm excited to have the new image and cue of together  instead of rise, I guess just because it is new, it grabs my attention quicker. I figured while training that if I push the right shoulder back more, the hip seems to open and the free foot seem to go easier towards the instep

 

 !!! (June 6th) I think I finally figured out how to fix the timing of the 3-turn. I was rising at the end of the 4 count double bend. The new coach suggested to stay low, but you have to rise to push into the 3-turn. I watched some videos of the dance and it looks that both the rise in the middle of the 4 count, and at the end of 4 count are very quick, not a full beat, so the rise is AFTER the 4 count double bend edge, and it IS the push into the 3 turn. With this approach the 3-turn seems to be on time. I think I was adding almost 2 beats there... one to finish the 4 count lobe and one to push into the 3-turn. If this is figured out, fingers crossed, I still need to make everything a little quicker to match the required tempo. 

 

3rd week of May

I expect to be tired and hurting when I start skating after a break, but last week I was more tired than I expected. Through past experience I’ve realized is better to skate shorter sessions so I don't get the muscles so tired that they would need a week to recover. I skated short sessions, and still... tired.

And this Monday I was still tired, both as overall feeling and the muscles felt sluggish.

Wednesday I’ve met a Friend and skated together, I did bursts of skating harder and then breaks for social skating. I felt OK, but not strong. 

Thursday I’ve took a dance lesson! I found a new dance coach! My old coach is an hour and a half away, the new one, 20 minutes. I will work wit the new coach towards testing the TenFox. During the lesson I skated quite hard (speed and knee bend) to show her the dance. I was careful to pace myself, take some breaks. My tiredness level was OK, better than my very diminished expectation from the previous week experience. The lesson was also OK, I tried to not put much expectations being that I like my old coach so much, plus the new coach is a lady so it will be probably more difficult to partner. But she used to skate with my old coach so there is some similarity in their style so some continuity.

Friday I was out of the house for a meeting that finished when the ice was available, so I went and skated again. I was very tired but excited to try some corrections I’ve got. I feel I can correct most things, the hardest to correct is the quickness needed. I feel pretty balanced, I think, at this point, what holds me back is the muscles strength. That will come. 

I feel excited to push the dance. It is nice to feel excited after so long of feeling hopeless and frustrated. But, for next week I will have to be careful to be patient and not work too hard, to let my muscles recover.

 

 

2nd week of May

This week I have skated 3 times but... not much...

Monday I was excited and I skated 40 minutes. I know from experience that when I pick up skating after a long break I should start with 30 minutes. But Monday skating felt quite good.

Wednesday I skated 30 minutes, I had to leave and go to an appointment but my muscles felt tired anyhow, it was ok.

Friday was the worst of these 3 days. I don't know if my muscles were still tired... probably yes, but I was tired because I haven't sleep well (thunderstorms). I was sluggish and not very focused.

I'm hoping for a lesson next week, but I don't feel I got my "skating legs" back. 

*Note to my future self: DO NOT take so long breaks anymore, you will regret it! Instead of skating, you will have to use 2 weeks to build muscles and you will hurt! You will also not be able to plan lessons and think at goals.

*Note to check with my coach... Today I suddenly scraped the European Waltz dropped 3s (they were fine for a while now). I think it is because my muscles, or the body, were tired and as I stroke the outside edge I leaned forward (not engaging the core and hips to stay on the back of the blade), so when I raised and twisted I didn't have more space to go forward on the blade ti turn cleanly... 

*Another question, towards what direction should I point the toe when skating backwards. Because I push with a pigeon toe, I don't seam to be quick enough to get a turned out foot.

 

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

 After not skating at all in April, I skated now once per week for the last 2 weeks. Interestingly the balance and skills felt pretty good (or could have been a comparison with my low expectations). The building back the muscles will be a problem... again. I think it would be way easier if I would skate at least 2 times per week, and/or I would do some off ice leg workout when I take a break from skating.

The next weeks I'm gonna (hopefully) skate 3 times per week. Besides the physical pain from building the muscles working at the old things feels "grinding" to me, there is a disappointment that the things don't improve, and after a break from skating they actually regress and there is lack of excitement.

Breaks are gonna inevitably happen again, so I'm trying to build some wisdom in dealing with the breaks. I think the problem is more mental than physical and it is a loss of motivation, a disconnect from skating. And talking about breaks happening again... the summer ice is starting in 2 weeks so very little ice is gonna be  available (and because the kids are on vacation and have camps).

 I hope I won't "fall" into a break again, but it doesn't look that during the summer I can build  a full skating practice for progress. Progress motivates me.Testing motivates me, because even if I have to grind on those skills, I have a goal. And learning new things motivates me because that is exciting in the moment. 

Testing the Tenfox is not in the stars until I find a way to take weekly lessons, the skills I believe are there, but because I test while partnering with my coach and I need consistent time partnering to get comfortable. 

The next Skating Skills (former Moves in the Field) that I could test are the Standard Bronze (former Juvenile) or the Adult Gold and most of the skills in these tests are the same. I haven't have instruction on them in forever, I guess I can have a lesson in that, but with unpredictable skating time I'm not sure I can see progress and testing may be not close by.

 For learning new things I definitely need another coach, my old coach is into "grinding" the fundamentals (ice dance and everything else), and he is great at it. But he is also more than an hour driving distance away from me. So it would be great to find a coach at the rink that is close to me. A new coach would be a whole new adventure, could be good or not...

These are some thought on some possible scenarios. 

I don't feel I can plan much, I think I should have a lesson towards moves with my old coach and try and find a new coach at the close by rink.

 

 

 

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

 Well, I have not skated at all this month :( 

And I'm terrified of the painful "come back" I'll have to go through.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

 Last month was grinding, it felt like a commitment more than enjoyment. 

I planned for a lesson at the end of the month but my coach couldn't make the time we agreed on, with good excuse. This unrevealed my meticulously plan for motivating myself into skating consistently. The problem is that work is very busy, some day I cannot skate, but what is even worse, is when I have to travel for work half weeks. I have to travel the second week of March, then again the last 2 week in April and 1st week of May. I need lots of effort to get back into a skating schedule after these long interruptions. I am happy that it seems that I found the recipe for building the muscle strength back by taking it easy and not overexerting myself. And I was hoping I found the recipe to keep my interest and excitement up through these monthly lessons.

So, for now, I'm giving up on any planing for consistency and keeping the muscles in shape, it is just too much effort for the time I have. I will have to have another "come back" in May.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

The second part of the last month I worked hard into getting at the rink 3 times per week. It is hard to make time for it, but it seems the biggest problem is that my muscle hurt and I feel pretty tired for the first two weeks when I skate 3 times per week. The thing that I discovered during the last skating "come back" is that I build strength faster if I take it easier and stop skating when I feel tired. Then, I'm not hurting so badly and I can come back and skate in 2 days.

So I took it easy and slowly built while working on the easier and by now more boring exercises. And then I worked on the newer things that I had instruction on the last lesson (basically the European 3turns and the Foxtrot). 

I think that having some shinny new things to work on, helps my motivation. I used to take weekly lessons and now I don't have the time for it (my coach is an hour driving distance, worse with traffic). I plan on another lesson, it looks it is a full month from the previous one, and I think that while I cannot really build new elements, I get some corrections so I don't build or continue training with bad form.

I also feel that the lessons help me mentally by having a commitment. It is forcing me to train more consistently, the boring stuff. And I also  get excited for the lesson to maybe ask for some little new thing.

Private Lesson

For my private lesson I prepared a bunch of questions on things I felt I regressed, and also on things I wanted to work in the future on and didn't want to create bad habits.

- Left Inside Mohawk (the regular one, done in MITF or FS) Problem: I was changing the entry edge from I to O just before the turn; Correction: twist the upper body sideways to align over the circle, so the L shoulder back  (I used to stay more square and the left shoulder stayed back, outside the circle, pushing me to an O edge)

- The European Waltz 3turns Problem: I was delaying the turn (I guess to find the alignment) and then force the turn from the foot/ ankle. Correction: the regular 3 turn has 5 phases after the entry edge: Rise, Turn the upper body, Turn, Check, Re-bend, then exit edge exit. The European Waltz being quicker combines the first 3 phases, so you use the rise from the entry edge to get flow into turning the upper body over the circle; the back hip stays only slightly back (I used to leave it back, the correction felt like I had to engage it to bring it forward), engaged in opposition with the upper body twist and release at the point of turn. This release of the hip creates the turn. The check is with the shoulder down, arm up like being pulled backwards by somebody. Interestingly I was recently working after some youtube videos, at the regular 3 turns check, and they were saying press the palm down and back... I guess this does the same thing, shoulder down and upper body straight/ not forward. The strong check and balance allows to be able to not wide push. In order to push neatly, the skating foot moves out of the way, the new skating foot stays underneath

- The Foxtrot O ClMo Problem: I can do it but not at full speed, and it feels jumped. The correction: O entry edge by looking to the left, Rise and bring L foot toe to R foot heel (I think I was bringing the instep at the heel), Plie and twist the left foot (I guess the ball of the foot/ little toe to hold the outside edge) out of the way by maintaining the outside edge by staying on the little toe, this twist makes way for the right foot to step down underneath the body, and the left foot pushes from the plie.

- B  Cross Strokes Problem, not much flow. Solution: after the stroke the free leg opens to the side so it can come back (for the next stoke) directly behind the heel, plie and push, then the knees stay togheter to help the body weigh on the new O edge

- F Cross Strokes to improve, feel the force of the  push going into the skating knee

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

As expected, the ice availability was scarce during holidays. I skated occasionally so I don't get totally disconnected.

 I am planing a private lesson so hopefully I get some structure and some enthusiasm back into my into my skating.