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.