Progress... slow progress

I haven't really worked at my skating skills and for progress, since the beginning of the summer. The reasons were the lingering pain after the small hip injury, getting upset and put off by the politicking in the skating world, to what it was added the inconvenient summer ice schedule. As a result of all that, I've got both unmotivated and out of my skating rhythm. I've tried to get them back in the fall and I just couldn't find a way. So I've decided to skate for my own enjoyment, which I have lost when I was working too hard, for progress, and I wrote about it here. Ideally would be, of course, to work for progress and enjoy the process, but I couldn't find a way to do that just yet.

I wrote here, over a year ago, about progressing from a skating Beginner level to a High Beginner level. I though at that point I was at a High Beginner level, and I think I was right. I was wondering then and I'm still wondering, how to push into an Intermediate level (a beginner Intermediate level). I think I'm at the threshold. I need just a final push to get over it. And I think working towards finally testing the Pre-Juvenile MITF and the Ten Fox will finally get me there. So I'm trying to pump myself up to work for testing. And I'm shooting for testing in mid January. There are few test sessions in mid December that that's after the week and week end I'll be busy with the Nutcracker on ice, so I expect I'll be too tired. Testing  though, is just a symbol of passing a threshold. What I'm wondering is what skills should be acquired for a skater to be (look like) an Intermediate level skater.

I'm so grateful to my coach that he asks and listens about me feeling stuck and unmotivated, not confident even, and trys to help. Lately, instead of going trough the MITF exercises and the Ten Fox, he actually went for skills developing exercises. I mentioned them here and here.

So, just to review what I need to work on with awareness:
- posture and looking up,
- alignment over edges,
- pressure into ice
- touching the boots before pushing (so no wide stepping)
- bending into the ankles at pushes
- pushing perpendicularly away from the axis
- holding the whole body engaged (I think of it at tense, but is more like core engaged, upper body lifted, keep the tension after the push to have straight knee and pointed toe for the free leg.
- speed

I feel quite solid on forward skating. On backward skating I still don't find the balancing point quickly, I feel the push on the left outside edge is "empty". I immediately loose the good posture after the push and I'm not always on the edge. Theoretically I know I have to work on all the things I mentioned, and allow them to became body memory. So I plan to do lots and lots of backward stroking, chasses, progressives both on a circle and on alternating lobes, swing rolls. And of course, the turns (the dropped 3-turns from Ice Dancing and the forward to backward 3-turns from the moves) will get better when the back edges will be better.

How can an adult skater progress over a Beginner level and Figure Skating Levels

My previous post was about the progress of a beginner skater, more exactly, from a low-beginner beginner to an high-beginner. Then, I was thinking how could an high-beginner, which I feel I am, progress to an Intermediate level.

Firstly, I'll tell you what I think the figure skating levels are. I read in different places slightly different views on levels... I have written before about the testing process. MITF and Freestyle go hand in hand as passing  MITF is a prerequisite to testing the same level in Freestyle. Freestyle also includes pair skating. USFSA (United States Figure Skating Association) has 8 standard levels for testing and I'll add the scores required to pass. This is what kids test. Then, I'll add the adult  equivalent, and the ISI (Ice Skating Institute) levels.  Then  I'll add what I think of each level in terms of beginner- intermediate- advanced- expert...

0. Intro to Skating (no test) Basic Skills and ISI Alpha trough Gamma...
1. Pre-Preliminary (pass/fail) equivalent with Adult Pre-Bronze, ISI FS1 and 2 is an Low-Beginner
2. Preliminary (2.5 out of 6max) equivalent with Adult Bronze and ISI FS3 is a  Beginner
3. Pre-Juvenile (2.7 out of 6) equivalent with Adult Silver and ISI 4 is an High-Beginer
4. Juvenile (3 out of 6)  equivalent with Adult Gold and ISI FS4 is a Beginner-Intermediate
5. Intermediate (3.2 out of 6)  is an Intermediate
6. Novice (3.5 out of 6) is a Intermediate-Advanced
7. Junior (4 out of 6) is an Advanced Skater
8. Senior (4.5 out of 6) is an Expert Skater
What we see on TV on competitions I would say are 2 or 3 levels up, their skills marks would be 4.8 to 5.9 out of 6 as nobody is perfect :)

Each test concentrates on 5, 6 skills but a skater at that specific level knows many more skills. The test judges in fact the quality of how the skills are performed. For example you have to do an outside forward 3-turn in different combinations in each of the first 5 MITF tests. But you have to do it better and better...

I'm working on the Pre-Juvenile MITF so Level 3.  In Freestyle I'm all over the place. I know the elements but I don't think I do them well enough.

So to get to an Intermediate level as an adult is a quite big accomplishment, so big that USFSA calls is worthy of the "gold medal". I think Gold level in MITF is within reach. In Freestyle this level includes the axel... I don't know about that. The risk of hurting may be too big to even try to learn it.

Ice Dancing traditionally is done in pairs and has testing on the pattern dances and I'll match them with the free dances done in competition at the same level. I'll start the counting from 2 because that's what I thing would be the equivalent with the MITF and Freestyle levels. It can be done solo too, on the same levels.

1. Basic Ice dancing Skills: Forward Progressives, Chasses and Swing Rolls - Low-Beginner
2. Preliminary pattern dances (Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues) (pass/fail) - Beginner
3. Pre-Bronze pattern dances (Swing Dance, Cha Cha, Fiesta Tango) (2.5 out of 6) - High-Beginner
4. Bronze pattern dances (Hickory Hoedown, Willow Waltz, Ten fox) (2.7 out of 6) and Juvenile free dance - Beginner-Intermediate
5. Pre-Silver pattern dances (Fourteen Step, European Waltz, Foxtrot) (3 out of 6) and Intermediate free dance - Intermediate
6. Silver pattern dances (Silver Tango, Rocker Foxtrot, American Waltz) (3.5 out of 6) and Novice free dance - Intermediate Advanced
7. Pre-Gold pattern dances (Starlight Waltz, Passo Double, Killian, Blues) (4 out of 6) and Junior free dance - Advanced
8. Gold pattern dances (4.5 out of 6) and Senior free dance - Expert
On TV we see International pattern dances (4.8 out of 6)

In Ice Dancing I'm working on Bronze or 4th level, so over my abilities from MITF. I do feel that I struggled in Ice Dancing because not only I had to acquire the skating skills but them present them in a pretty and very exact package while holding the beat of the music and getting into the character of the music. The kids and teens at my rink seam to learn the other way around: Freestyle first, MITF then to match their Freestyle level and be able to test and Ice Dancing later, as a refinement of their skills that they already have. I think this is a more natural path... Dare I say that Freestyle is more exciting? So it sounds to me that I'm thinking I should concentrate more on Freestyle.

The problem is that I don't think I skate enough to be able to push for progress all Freestyle, MITF and Ice Dancing. So the obvious answer is to increase the skating time AND the number of lessons... Now I'm skating 3 times a week and i take one lesson and everything goes mostly towards Ice Dancing. And that's because I was injured... I would have to go back to skating 4 sessions plus 2 lessons... My coach recommends 2 hours of practice for each half hour lesson.
I found this Canadian skating club guidelines to training time. It seams that for my level they recommend even more lessons then that, sounds like 4 half hour lessons and 2 hours of practice. AND they recommend lots of off ice training... And here is another guideline to how much time you need to practice to pass different levels.

Yeap, skating takes lots of time and money and I feel discouraged now.

My progress and tests I passed

The first five years of skating, my progress was very slow. I was talking  Freestyle group lesson and the first 2 years I didn't practice at all, later I started practicing  one hour per week. I realized, if I wanted more, I needed more practice time and a better, way better, technique. Just to be proven right about lacking technique, I hurt my left ankle. I stopped doing jumps and spins and as I didn't know MITF (Moves In The Field) exercises at that point, I was  just skating around. An older skater offered to teach me Ice Dancing pattern dances. Unfortunately she was teaching me mostly the steps in the pattern, not the skating basics technique (edges and turns), that is the foundation of ice dancing.

At this point I started some private lessons with a 17 years young lady that I knew from my Freestyle group classes asking her to teach me flow on ice.  She started me on MITF exercises. It was also the first time I went on practice ice, very crowded and intimidating, but eye opening about how young skaters train. Shortly, they take multiple group lessons (Freestyle, MITF and Ice Dancing) and at least one private lesson weekly,  and they practice every day. They are also in the syncro team  for their level, and they meet twice a week for that.

My young coach was a very accomplished ice dancer and she started teaching me a little of the basics. I also got into a Ice Dancing group lesson summer session, that was full during the rest of the year as it's a mandatory class for the syncro teams. The Ice Dancing class instructor was a national  medalist, amazing skater and very thoughtful teacher. Actually my young coach was her student. I did a couple of ice dancing private lessons with the Ice Dance instructor too. Then some private lessons with a young man that was her student, in order to skate the dances with a partner. It was an exciting time, I was discovering so much! It was also a humbling time, as I started to realize I basically didn't know anything about skating :( Then, in the fall both my young coach and young dance partner moved away.

A little over a year ago, in January 2017, I started lessons with my current coach. He is an experienced coach specialized in ice dancing and he also partners his students for ice dance tests.  I approached him asking to help me test the first 3 pattern dances. But I liked his very methodical approach and the fact that he also teaches MITF and Free Style, so I choose to have him as my only coach and to commit to a lesson per week. He first asked me about my goals. I said I wanted to skate better, of course... I wanted to look like the strong skaters I saw at the rink not in terms of jumps but I wanted their flow and confidence on ice. My coach said that that is called "power" and it's very difficult for an adult skater to get. We developed a lesson and training plan following the standard track testing for ice dance and MITF. The focus is in acquiring the knowledge for that level not to pass the tests. I've started to take 2 private lessons and skate 5 days a week. We tried to include FS but I wasn't able to find the time to train it methodically.

So here is were I stand:

Ice Dancing: 
Preliminary pattern dances ( Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango, Rhythm Blues) standard, I passed in January 2017
Pre Bronze pattern dances (Cha Cha, Swing, Fiesta Tango), standard, I passed in March 2017
Bronze pattern dance Hickory Hoedown - passed in January 2018. I'm close in testing the remaining 2 dances at this level, when the injury will allow.
Bronze pattern dance Willow Waltz, standard, I passed in  December 2018 (update)
Ice dance is harder than it looks and than I expected. The thinks I'm working on continuously are edges and steps based on edges (chasses, progressives, swing rolls forward and backward), posture, speed and power, dance 3- turns and inside and outside mohawks.

MITF:
Pre-Preliminary, standard, I passed  in March 2017
Preliminary, standard - in November 2017.
I think I'm close in testing the third level, Pre-Juvenile, all the coach is asking is more power.
What this covers is stroking, edges, forward and backward crossovers in different presentations, forward and backward circle 8 edges,  all kinds of 3 turns, each test level asking for a better execution (forward outside and inside 3 turns, power forward outside 3 turns, backward outside and inside 3 turns), forward spirals on outside and inside edge, inside mohawks, power pulls.

Freestyle:
From my group lessons I'm confident in the forward pivot, shoot the duck, lunge... that's it.
With my private coach we covered a little  bunny hops, waltz jump, Salchow, half flip, forward one foot spin, forward scratch spin and we started the backspin.
Adult Pre-Bronze Freestyle test, I passedin March 2019 (update)

Testing

I started skating in group lessons that followed ISI (Ice Skating Institute) curriculum. ISI is an international governing body for recreational figure skating. There are 5 basic skills levels and 10 FS (Free Style) levels, each including up to 10 skills you needed to learn reasonably well before passing on to the next level. One session was 2 months long and at the end of each session the instructor would test each element and give you a pass or retry and feedback. I have to say that I was nervous every single test day. It wasn't expected to learn one level per session, so I had test days when I knew I wouldn't pass, and I still was nervous!

When I've got more serious about learning, I decided to test under USFSA (United States Figure Skating Association) that's affiliated with ISU ( International Skating Union) which is the international sport federation administering ice skating sports throughout the world. USFSA governs the competitions we see on tv. Their testing is a serious affair! They are judged by actual judges, certified judges, and for easier tests there is one judge but for more difficult tests there are 3 judges. 

There are testing sessions, scheduled months in advance, and the skaters register to test around a month before the test day. A coach needs to sign the registration form so you are basically pretested and don't show up unprepared. The skaters are all  dressed up and the test is presented in choreographed, confident, pretty and respectful manner. The testing sessions are several hours long and there is a announced schedule, grouping the skaters by levels. The skater has to be there an hour in advance. Everything is nerve racking! Being dressed differently than the practice clothes, waiting your turn while you see the other skaters nervous or happy or crying, having just 5 minutes for warmup, seeing the judges, being by yourself on ice...

The reasons the tests exists is to decide the skater level for competitions. But there are skaters that don't compete and still test. There are tests for MITF (Moves in the Field) which are to be passed first because are a prerequisite for FS and Pair Skating. Then there is Partnered Ice Dancing both pattern dances and Free Dance and also Solo Ice Dancing (pattern and free), which you don't have to test if you tested Partnered Ice Dancing. There are 8 levels in each category of tests and the last gives the skater the distinction to be called "gold medalist", to have the name published in the Skating Magazine and to be able to wear an official USFSA jacket embroiderer with the skaters name and the "gold medalist" title. Also for young skaters being a gold medalist seams to be a strong point for the college applications, because it shows commitment to hard work.

For the adults there is a separate testing track called the adult track while the other is called the standard track. The adult track has just 4 levels, and the requirements for passing are a little bit less strict. The 4th level is called the gold level and gives the adult skater the distinction of being an adult gold medalist.

As for me, even if I don't intend at this point to compete, I decided to test to both motivate and structure my training and to force me to train at a certain standard. For this reason, I also decided to test into the standard track. It's also a sure way to follow the progress I'm making, and to feel that I have a goal.