Lesson with New Freestyle Coach

 My first love is ice dancing, but I cannot find a coach close by, I have a dance coach at 30-40 minute distance and my old coach at 1 to 1.5 hours distance.  It is pretty time consuming to go and see either of them.Anyway, dance instruction is pretty specific so a half hour lesson per week is needed. It would help to have more instruction towards other skills, in the past I used to ask my old coach to coach moves in the fields, jumps and spins, only for choreography I went to a different person. I was very happy to find a coach at the close by rink (this is 10 minutes away from my house), she is a freestyle coach, so she can help on all things not dance, so then, I keep my dance lesson as pure dancing.

So! The lesson! For the first freestyle lesson we decided with the new coach to show her what I usually do for warm up and exercises (excluding the dance) so she could build on them. As the lesson progressed we decided to keep a list with what I would like to revise on the following lesson, I'll put a star on those exercises*

- slalom forward and backward, play with the rhythm ( 2 slow, 4 quick)

- FI edges play with free leg and arms, free leg at ankle, front, and B crossed*1 love this, and arms over head palms up, connected, or low at the back

- BO edges, and many exercises going forward she said to keep the head calm, looking forward, she feels my extreme head turning is messing my alignment and stability. She went into a variation with the free leg going back, that is actually a swing roll, same note with the head.

- BI edges, she didn't "hear" the power, she showed me how to push just as I finished the previous edge, before shifting the weigh to the next foot. I couldn't really do it, but I understood, I'll work on it.*2

-  FI Twizzels:arms straight over the line, bring the back arm but stop at the middle (I crossed over), in a ballet position or straight forward grabbing fingers. Stay straight (I was forward). Keep free foot close.*3

- I asked for the power 3-turns  for the preliminary test, the 3s were fine, but I released the free foot to quickly, she wanted to hold it close and then to power push (the same weight shift like for the BI edge), she also wanted me to hold the under cross from the B xovers, longer, more stretched*4

- I tried the dropped 3-turn for Tenfox, she doesn't do dance but, she said that I rise too soon and  I don't have enough pressure into the ice. I think this is valid, I cannot wait to try working on them

- B xstrokes, she said to hold the B edge longer to settle into the position (I'm trying now to twist the upper body over the edge, not square) and we worked on that position, back shoulder more back, head forward, free leg over the circle*5

- I shared with hear that I don't always engage my core, and she suggested to stroke holding an elastic band slightly stretched, I loved that!

- I also asked for quick off ice exercise that would help the core engagement, and she suggested the plank (front and sides), because it engage core, shoulders, back, arms and even legs, and since I don't last long, it is really quick :)

- During the class, as I asked clarifications, she asked permission to film me so she can show exactly what to change. I love it so much, and I remember I used to film myself and it was helpful, I plan to do this again.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last month I skated 2, 3 and even 4 times per week, so not bad. As I've finally settled into my boots, I have convenient access to ice, and I figured out that I can build my muscle and stamina if I skate consistently, I think I'm ready to consider some skating goals.

I still have few challenges, firstly, I'm pretty busy with work, like really busy, I cannot skate as much as I theoretically could. Secondly, my coach is not teaching at the closer rinks I skate at, and with how busy I am, I cannot even think at driving to where he teaches. 

I tentatively would like to test the Ten Fox until the end of the year. But for this month, I'm making my goal to figure out how to stay connected with skating when I cannot skate 3 times per week. Like this week, Monday was Labor day and the rinks were closed, and the previous Friday I couldn't skate, so Tuesday skating was cautious and I felt disconnected mentally and emotionally. I haven't got frustrated, as I understood what was happening and why, but it is hard to keep motivated like this.

I couldn't skate Wednesday and I will not be able to skate Friday, that will leave this week with just 2 days of skating so I bet, next week I will feel again disconnected. The third week of September I will be traveling for work so I skate less and also I will disconnect. 

So I want to find short activities like watching videos and off ice drills not only as exercises but skating specific exercises to keep me motivated when not skating and to help me connect with skating quicker when I finally get on ice...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

The plan, last month, was to get back into skating after two months off. I was also looking at the reasons I didn't skate. Most were valid scheduling issues, but some, were lack of motivation because the blade was still not in the permanent aliment position so I couldn't skate fully, I was trying to take it easy/ I didn't have any goals. So I set as priority to work on the blade alignment, to skate 3 times per week and to observe my reasons for motivation/ frustration in skating.

I think there is progress in the boot fitting and blade alignment. I figured I had to tighten the boot to the point of cramping, only then I had control and the changes in blade positioning didn't feel so important. The good news is that the boots will continue to mold on my feet, so eventually I will cramp less. The bad news is that during the last visit at the bootfiter, he nicked the corner of the sole on the heel, so I'm not sure if that will collapse, or if it is already collapsed, and I think I'll have to address this now, before continuing the work on alignment. I am exhausted from working with the bootfiters, I know they are doing their best, I know my feet are not perfect... it's just wearing me out. But, as I said, there was progress, so I have to keep pushing this until eventually gets done. The less I push, the longer it will take.

I expected that the muscle conditioning (and pain) is going to be a problem, but it is honestly more unpleasant than my expectations. The lesson here, is to do my best and not take so long breaks from skating, and if I really cannot go, do some squats and lunges. I don't work out beside skating (and ballet that I also stopped doing) but I think I can make myself do 10 squats and 10 lunges.

Food was also a problem, I need more protein to help the muscle growth, and as I am almost vegan I need to get creative with recipes (and I'm starting a category of posts about food with focus on plant based protein). I also ordered some protein powder, maybe that is gonna be an easy fix or at least help a little.

Rinks... the sessions I use to skate on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at noon for adult figure skaters only, used to be very quiet, but it is suddenly heavily populated by former high level competitors. They do watch out for the rest of us, but for me it is still very distracting. I still struggle mentally because I hurt my hip (is it now 4 years ago?) because a fast skater came close to me and I got spooked and I fell. Also I cannot keep straight my patters, or my thoughts, to be honest. I went and checked up the next closest rink to me, it is the rink of the local hockey team, they usually (not consistently) have an 11am public sessions. I didn't have time to skate but as it looked quite empty, I bought 10 passes (another parenthesis here, to complain that this rink is more expensive than my home rink). I feel that after I'll have the blade set, I'll be more adaptable and I could maybe go to my home rink, for now, I need quiet sessions. And that is gonna be a challenge, as the kids' summer vacation starts, there is less ice available because the rinks offer skating camps.

Motivation...is related with all these difficulties I've mentioned and the fact that I get frustrated. Few months ago I was trying to take a balanced approach to skating in order to hopefully avoid frustration. In my mind that was "take it easy" approach, but that ended with me not skating at all. I still think I should try and avoid frustration, that goes against motivation. I'll try and take the yoga approach and observe the difficulties without judgment, and keep going gently not pushing hard. Of course, specific goals would help, like to test the adult Gold MITF, but it is difficult to work  seriously at this while I'm still playing with the blade alignment, that changes my balance each time.

I also asked few of the skaters that skated as kids and keep going what it's their motivation to keep coming back, because I know we all have the same difficulties (work, family, scheduling, finances, aging body, traveling). One said, well, I'm unhappy if I don't skate, yeap... it is true for me too. But few said that music helps a lot, especially in those moments that skating doesn't go really well. So I'm revisiting my skating music playlist and I've ordered some wireless earbuds. I tried to avoid using them because that can be a safety issue, but I see the majority of the skaters on my regular session are using the, so I'll give it a try.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

And... as in all my latest post, I have some bad news. I've got on e-mail from my rink, that lessons are not allowed anymore on the adult only ice... At this rink, my home rink, coaches were never allowed on ice after the rink reopened, they coach by the doors and bleachers (so more skaters could be on ice). For the adults only ice, the coach could signed up as a regular skater and be on ice, and as long as we socially distanced, we could do whatever we wanted. I've sent an e-mail asking for clarifications, I expect an answer just on Monday.

I shared that I was having choreographed a Solo Free Dance (on the adult ice). It is roughly put together, structured, but it is far from finished. If my choreographer is not allowed on ice anymore, the program will take a hit. I'm grateful the rink is open, and whenever I sign up for ice there are waivers and rules, and a reminder that it can be canceled at any time... So we'll see... I have a lot to say about the program. I'll make a separate post about it soon, that will be a good summery for me to use while working at it, very probably without the choreographer... The biggest news here is that I've learned to Twizzle! I've got one and a half revolution on the Right Forward Inside, just one revolution on the left side...

Anyhow, let me tell you about the rest of my skating during last month. Part of the time from my lessons with my regular coach were used to support the program. I needed to learn twizzles, and brackets, the forward inside ones. The rest of the time was used for Ice Dancing... the Ten Fox, partnered, and I've asked to work a little bit on dance exercises, because those make my skating evolve. I've felt I had a better control and I was faster on the exercises. On the Ten Fox I still hesitated on the spots that were harder for me, like the partnered 3-turned and partnered outside mowhawk. But... I picked up the corrections easier then before. I also occasionally work, on my own ,on Foxtrot and European Waltz, on the dances I concentrate on flow, and I also work on technique on the Closed Outside Mohawk for the Foxtrot and on the drop 2-turns for the European Waltz...

The Moves in the field took a little of a back sit in the sense that I just couldn't make myself work on the 3-turns anymore. Everything else from the Pre-Juvenile test goes very well. I had one day when the 3-turns worked very well, and I'm able to remember the feeling of soft knee, lean and the speed. I can do them... I think that when I think about testing them I get tense, I lose the soft knee... So, I think I'll ask my coach to start me on the double 3 turns, the forward ones, and hopefully working on those I'll improve the Pre-Juvenile ones too.

Freestyle... I cannot really work on jumps if my legs muscles are tired, and they are tired because I skate 3 days in a row (Monday trough Wednesday), then I have a rest day and skate again on Friday. I did a Waltz Jump here and there and lately I've started working on the Loop Jump, as my coach said that I have to build calf and ankle strength. Spins: I did work on the regular forward spin a lot, because I'll have it in my dance program.  I'm happy on how it's progressing and I'm happy that working at it made me improve the knowledge and awareness in spinning in general.

I work on figures whenever I'm tired, mostly on the restart, the push of the edges. I'm trying to go slower, because if I'm fast I cannot restart with precision, but I cannot go to slow either. I need just enough speed to make it around, then I pivot the skating foot into the push for the next circle, on the exact mark from the previous push...

And I've started ballet again. It is not my former ballet class, that was Saturday morning at 40 minutes driving distance, that class hasn't started again after the quarantine. There are newly offered ballet classes at my rinks studio and there is an adult one, once a week ( mask on and social distanced). It is different then the one I used to take... it is only 45 minutes long, I don't feel I'm warming up, and it's faster paced... I liked it enough to sign up for the second session.

Other off ice exercises... not much... and I really really should work on core strength and hip strength, I need it...

The plan for next month is to keep up what I was doing this month... work a little bit on everything and choose each time on ice to work on something in detail.

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.

Mid month updates

To balance the joy of skating... I'm hurting, I feel tired and some frustration is sneaking in. I did say I wanted to balance my skating life, just two posts ago... right? Well, it's not what I've meant...

This week, on Monday, it was the first time skating after the quarantine break, when I allowed myself to not hold back at all... and I don't know... ... Firstly, some of my hip muscles were more tired then on the previous weeks, hopefully they are building up not getting hurt again. Then, my whole body was feeling tired and hurting. I went through this tiredness before, as I was building muscles and stamina, and if I remember well it took weeks to months to feel strong, I hope this time is gonna be easier.

On Wednesday I had my lesson. We corrected the Ten Fox, the dropped 3-turns, and I wanted to learn the theoretical technique on the  backward cross rolls and the backward outside edges from the European Waltz. I felt it was a productive lesson, but it was my least energetic day on ice since I've been back on ice, so not a happy skating day. I haven't said it before, because I didn't want to jinx it, BUT... when I first got back on ice with a refreshed awareness on alignment, my dropped 3-turns worked like a charm! And now, they are not :(

That brings me back to the goals I've set at the beginning of the month: to keep the alignment awareness and to work off ice on my core strength. I've done the core exercises, and got sore muscles after, proof that they've got weeker. But it seams to me that the alignment awareness is not as strong... The first step in fixing things is identifying what is wrong with them. Some reasons I can think of: body feeling tired and hurting, less mental engagement, rushing, feeling less excited to "feel" the ice, probably because I was tired and hurting.

As for the frustration... On Ten Fox, the coach gave me 3 corrections. I was unable to do what he suggested on the 3-turn as my mind took over and gave me extra stuff. I was disappointed, but my coach pointed out that the 3-turn was better, and I corrected the other 2 things he asked for. Then, he asked me for speed/ power and instructed me to just go for it and not think about mistakes. He was happy with what I put out there, I was unhappy about the mistakes!

I don't think there is another way to learn then to have something explained, then corrected until you do it. And there are so many corrections in skating... This brings me again to the goal I was working on just before the quarantine break, of having my skating training (learning), process oriented, not goal oriented (that led me to feeling frustrated a lot). And I feel I'm trying...

And still, I feel I need something more to balance the effort of learning. When I first got on ice after the 3 months break, I was soo into what I (me, me, me...) was feeling. I'm trying to remember what I was feeling. And I remember I felt that I didn't care if somebody is watching or how do I look, I've just stepped back on ice after 3 month, I was allowing myself to " re learn" without judgment.   But I also remember I actually felt "pretty" (like not awkward). And that may be because I was doing easy things that I was comfortable with. And this may be what I'm yearning for... to have some time on ice when I don't learn/ train, to be there, on ice, feeling "pretty". I used to think of this as a goal of skating for my own enjoyment. So I'm planing to look for exercises that are comfortable enough so I can enjoy skating trough them, and also try to not "work" when doing some harder exercises, just go trough them...This may add joy to the training process and give some confirmation of progress.

About my progress... After the break I was lucky I skated the first three times at a rink with uncrowded sessions, we were just 4, 6 and  2 skaters on ice. Where I skate now, we are 10 skaters on ice and in the Monday session all skaters were high level and fast. I felt intimidated, but way less, then I was felling lets say a year before, and I felt I've held my own way. That's the biggest proof of the progress I've made!

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last week I skated Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I've already wrote about Monday, "the first time on ice after 3 months". Wednesday I followed the same plan to take it easy and work on alignment an balance and it went way easier the Monday, though I still felt little of balance moments going backwards. Friday I kind of felt very good.

Firstly, I was surprised by the intensity of the joy I've got from being on ice. I felt blissful, nirvanic, I don't think there is such a word, but it should be...

Now on the technique side, some aspects of my skating regressed for sure and I'm haven't even tried to add power, speed, extension and knee bend, though on Friday I haven't hold back as the days before.

But interestingly some aspects of my skating improved? I'm wondering if it was because I was very focused as I skated and I took it slowly and methodically, or because I worked during quarantine on posture awareness through ballet ( I found the upper body lift that some instructors call for) and on core strength trough pilates, but I felt better alignment, body lean and I felt that my hips and shoulders are leveled, not dropped.  It took me by surprise on Monday and I tried to think about it, and control it on Wednesday. Then, I haven't thought about this body alignment awareness on Friday until after the skating session was over, and it's not that it was gone, but it wasn't as strong. I  sooo don't want to loose it! So, I'm making this one of my goals going forward: to channel this posture awareness and engagement during the first minutes of each skating session.

Then I'm thinking I should be sure that I have the muscle strength to engage. Unfortunately I've never enjoyed working out, and even if during this 3 month quarantine I've done  regularly the 3 weekly zoom classes my ballet instructor was offering, it doesn't seem I've developed a habit.Yeap, I've done... none this last week. So I'll add to the goals list to develop and maintain core strength and posture awareness  trough off ice exercising, and it shouldn't even take away from the skating time.

This brings back the thought that I consider to balance my life, by not giving skating as much time and priority as before the quarantine. I have this suspicion, but it could be wishful thinking, that I would be happier overall and the skating progress wouldn't suffer much. What I would lose because of less training on ice I may gain trough other activities that lift my spirit and prepare my body, including maybe more dance classes. Looking back, before the quarantine, I think I skated without joy at least half the time, maybe I even got to the point of burn out. Maybe skating less, or at least with less intensity will work better.  At least I should give this a try, and see where is taking me. If it's gonna affect my skating progress in a big way I'll either have to accept that, or push skating more again.

Ironically, for now, as ice time is limited, I have absolutely no choice but to schedule my life around ice time, or I wouldn't get to skate at all...

Mid month update

I had a nightmare last night. We were going back ice skating, there was pre registration to get on the ice and a waiting line outdoor. I could see that the skaters getting of ice were excited and that built the excitement for me to get on ice already! And then, as I entered the building, the rink wasn't familiar. It was redesign in terraces, different levels of ice surfaces. BUT they were very very small... the one on the bottom was the length of a tennis court but narrower, and the upper terraces were really more like balconies. I just couldn't believe that other skaters were content about it. I woke up from the dream right then, so I don't know if I actually tried skating or I just left. In real life I would have left for sure...

As time is passing without skating I have this growing worry that skating won't be the same, for me... I put in the past quite an effort into it. I had to come up with a time management that included sacrificing social life and not pursuing other things. What's happening right now, was unforeseeable...  Still, it is general wisdom that a person should strive to balance different aspects of life.

As I don't have skating to motivate me, I am not keeping up with the muscle conditioning. I was always slim by eating healthy and not sitting much, but before skating I was never what one would call active. It was hard and literally painful work to build up my muscles for skating, mostly through skating, but added lately strengthening exercises to help my skating. Now, I let those go... I am still doing some yoga, ballet, pilates in a relaxed, no pressure manner. Pre covid,myy ballet class was offered through the city park district and now it is moved online. The same instructor also offers online classes light yoga and pilates and ballet conditioning, so I take all of them, but honestly I do less then I would do in a live class.

I came back to my old (before skating) eating habits, light and fresh. Because I'm not active, I'm never hungry these days... And also I don't have to worry about the protein intake (as I'm almost vegan) to keep the muscle strong. Yes, it is clear, skating did make me alter my way of eating... Anyway, I've started to loose the weight I gained last month...

I feel that last month I was in standby, keeping myself ready to start skating at days notice. This month I actually fell I'm consciously letting go of skating so I make room for other things. It could be months until the skating rinks open, and even then, the schedule will be altered and I really cannot just stand and wait. And later, if I'll get now into other things, it's gonna be a fight again to take away time from these other things and put into skating. And even when circumstances will allow, and I would eventually decide to go back to skating as it was, it would be very very hard work. I fell very confused....

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I was telling you at the beginning of April that my plan for the month was to crawl trough it. I'm so happy that I haven't planned for more, because I would have been disappointed.

Now, firstly, not necessarily related to skating, but with life in general, I have so many thoughts... And I'm conflicted in choosing between suppressing them, and wishing and waiting for life to come back to "normal", or acknowledging the thoughts and using this time to re assess the "normal" and hope that the world will move forward, to something better, not backward, to "normal".

Then, on a more practical side and related to skating, I try to help my body stay healthy and in shape. But, I'm disappointed I've gained 5 pounds. Obviously I ate too much for the amount of exercise I've been doing. My exercising now consumes less calories then before, because I don' t do that much cardio. So I would have had to eat a little less then before. But, for the first few weeks, while adjusting with staying home and cooking more, I think I may have eaten more... I'm looking at what I eat now and I think I'm eating healthy, and I think is less then before the quarantine as calories. I think at this point my weight will be stable. Of course I would love to loose that extra weight I've already gained, but not by dieting... not now, when I need the strongest immune system I could have. So, I should increase the cardio exercises...

As for last month exercising, I definitely haven't figured it out. I did consistently some strength exercises, some light yoga exercises and mostly watching instead of following, some ballet. And, I've ran outdoor twice...

The strength exercises it seems I approached wrongly. I wasn't warming up before them, and I wasn't stretching and rolling after... I didn't think I was doing that much. A set of eight here and there... But, I cramped few times and my hip had some pain. I mean, from what? I wasn't doing anything strenuous... It was eye opening when I started to roll my hips, quads and IT band. Oh boy... As for the hip, besides of not rolling the big muscles and them probably pulling the hip muscles, I think I do sit more then in the past and that shortens and tightens the hip flexors.

With yoga, the light exercises are fine. For really getting into a more serious practice, the problem is that I cannot use a mat with the cats around, and any pose that I would need a grip for, like deep lunges, triangle, even down dog, I cannot do on the rug.

For both yoga and ballet, I just don't have enough space near the computer if I want to follow along. There are so many ballet and yoga lessons online, and as I was watching and trying to follow along, it just didn't click for me. I thought maybe they are over my level, or I was just not emotionally connected. But them my regular ballet professor offered a ballet class on Zoom and I definitely connected. After hitting the furniture on the smaller steps it became evident that I couldn't go for it...

That instructor also offered a stretch class (yoga and pilates inspired) and that hit the spot big time. I did take the time to move some things around and turn the monitor around before the class.

And outdoor running... Well it was a rainy and cold month and... I hate running anyway...

I'm trying to learn from all these in order to improve my life moving forward. And I'm not thinking just about this month. There are some ice rinks that posted the safety guidelines for when they'll open. There is gonna be masks, social distancing, limited number of skaters on ice, so limited availability of ice, maybe price increase. It may not be very accessible. And no partnering... so my ice dancing training for the test goes away. If I cannot be on ice at least 3 times a week, the whole training concept goes away. And this can take a while...

The plan for this month is to move more and it has to be outdoor because I cannot move more in the house. Also, do the strength exercise after warming up, and do the rolling. If at the middle of the month I'll see that the real skating and ballet won't be back any time soon, I'll have to rearrange some furniture so I can really get into ballet and yoga at home.

So instead of crawling as I did last month, I would like this month to start walking... Small steps...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

At this point we know the lockdown will continue probably for the whole month of April. And truthfully, skating is less and less in my mind, other thoughts are taking over. But I still feel that part of what I do is related to skating, or habits I've got while skating. I also feel that the desire to go back to skating makes me more aware and willing to keep up with exercising and eating well.

But let me tell you about last month. 
The first week was a regular skating week. I was working towards making my skating training more process oriented then goal oriented. And I talked about that idea here and how I started to implement it here.
The second week of last month I described here.
The third week of March (quarantine week 1)
This week I was self quarantining under the city guidelines to stay home if you can.  At first I was sad to see all the entertainment gone, concerts, ballet, restaurants and, of course skating. Then, I accepted it and started to organize. The first days, I was busy and productive. I cleaned the  house,  and only got out to do some quick shopping for non perishable food, and keep the appointment for spay/neuter. The news weren't terrible just yet. The weather was rainy all week long and in the week-end it snowed, so staying in was not so bad.
Regarding skating, I missed it soo much, it really hurted. I had a dream where I was skating, very vivid and intense... I did a double axel! I can still feel the flight and the rotation. It felt so real, I was sure if I would have had ice right then, I would have been able to replicate it. (I remind you that in real life, my jumping ability stops at the waltz jump....) But that is what dreams are good for! Back on the reality side of life, my coach sent to all his students some guidelines on how to keep the skating skills alive (practice turns on the floor in front of the mirror, concentrating on alignment and practice the dances as steps on music). Of course I knew I have to keep my body strength. I'm part on a skating group on facebook and many members were sharing their work out plans. For me doesn't work that well to start big, but start small and build on it. I was doing lately some core work. I taught let's add squats, and push ups.
The fourth week of March (quarantine week 2)
This was the first week of mandatory quarantine. The news from Europe were terrible, the news here, confusing. I didn't really need to get out of the house for anything. Because I was in the house more, I have found that I had to clean more, I found myself cooking more, and the days were blending and bleeding into each other. At some point I felt I'm suffocating. It was sunny few days in a row so I went for a walk. It was pleasant, but frustrating too somehow. I saw some people running and I realized how much I missed cardio activity (that I was getting from skating). The exercises I do in the house are just strength and stretching. As I was wondering if I could maybe use this opportunity to start running (which I don't like), the weather got gloomy again, so no running for now. I was looking into ballet, there are so many free classes on the internet. It's not working too well for me because I don't have a big enough space near the computer to do all they are doing and I get frustrated. To be honest, my heart is also not so light and happy to enjoy ballet. And so, I found myself thinking about yoga. I started small and simple: breathing, cat cow, mountain, forward bent and flat back, down dog, lunges, stretches. When doing yoga in a studio I loved the flow classes, where you were moving from one pose to the next. I don't have enough knowledge myself to do that on my own. I tried many dvds in the past and none was the rhythm and poses that I wanted. So I'm thinking for now to keep in simple, study these simple poses and create a habit, then build on that.
Skating... I somehow didn't miss it so much. I try to not think about it, there is nothing I can do anyhow...
The last days of March (quarantine week 3)  
Well, here, I've got lost. This was the moment when it became obvious that the quarantine won't stop on April 7th as it was planned at first. I went to sleep late for few nights, so the I felt tired during the days and I was "comfort" eating. During the first days of quarantine I came across articles (one was about an astronaut in space) advising how to hold yourself together while in isolation. The advice was to keep a schedule (especially sleeping and eating and exercise, that I generally do anyhow) and also schedule pleasant activities.  But it seemed that the harder I tried to basically do the things that I was doing the weeks before, the worse I was in fact doing. My body was restless (from not enough sleep, and I'm wondering if there is such a thing as exercise withdrawal because I move significantly less then while skating), my mind was unfocused, and my heart and soul couldn't really find the pleasant activities. This is when I came across an article saying something opposite, or at least complementary. It was that, times are really hard, don't put extra pressure on yourself, go trough them as painless as you can. This helped a lot, combined with the fact that at that point my sleep was on schedule again. From there, I reassessed the eating. I tried to pay attention and eat when I was hungry and eat a whole meal. The previous days it felt that I was snacking all the time and a little hungry all the time, but not hungry enough for a meal (vicious circle there). It was interesting to look back and see that I was very satisfied eating "the soup of the week". I might write a post about those... Also, I found out that my confort food is: fries. Exercise slid away from me for few days, but I came back, without any effort, to the quick and easy things I was doing before, because they do make me feel better. I hope I can build up to more, but I don't want to put any pressure on myself.
Skating seems very very far away.

Goals? Just do it! That is... crawl trough it...

Stretching with cats and mid month update

As the last blog was about feeling "overstretched" mentally because of me being involved in too many activities, well the cats mostly... it's just fitting to tell you what just happened while stretching with the cats.

Because my hip bothered me for a long while, I'm trying to care for it as much as I can. I'm really bad at doing strengthening exercises systematically. I do them now and then, plus I take once a week ballet. But, I do stretch each time after skating and I feel it makes a big difference. I stretch the quads, calves, IT band and mostly the hips, trough twists, so the tense muscles will relax. At home I roll. So it's no stretching with the cats, it's rolling with the cats. I have this big foam tube and I roll on it. Then I have different size balls and other "torturing devices" to help me get into the smaller muscles and press them to relax. The one I use the most is a tennis ball. But you know how cats and balls are a natural match. So I really have to hide mine, otherwise I never find them when I need them. The cats have their own ball-toys. Well, as I was rolling on the tennis ball on the rug, my phone rang and I've got up to get it. I went back to sit on the rug and roll, while talking, only that my tennis ball was nowhere to be found. It took them like 5 second to steal it from me... So that's how stretching with cats goes... always...

I'll continue with the cats, just shortly, as this is a skating blog... I'm working in setting a blog about alley cats, I hope that will help me put my thoughts together, so I can help them more. I'm still fiddling with both the design and the concept of the blog, because I want it to be more then a diary. I'll share the blog title as soon as I feel I've it right.

Now, the skating... I think it was good at the beginning of the month, then I've got frustrated by not making the progress I wanted on the dance 3-turns and I pushed too hard both physically and mentally. As a result my hip started to hurt and I've got my mind stuck in a negative state. So last week I tried to reset, skate without a purpose, or even not skate if I didn't feel like I really wanted to. I keep trying to get a balance between training for progress while enjoying the process, and I'm not finding it. I found that taking breaks form training helps a little. I feel mentally better now, but let's see how it's gonna translate on ice.

The dropped 3-turn definitely got better, I would even dare to say good, when I do them slowly. When I go faster into them I still skid, but not as badly as before. I was complaining to my coach about maybe feeling scared when having more speed and he asked if I felt is the velocity that scares me or the quickness. Good question... I wasn't differentiating between the two, and I thought is the velocity, but now I find it's actually the quickness. And it's not even fear, it's more that I'm not quick enough to find the right alignment over the hip when I go faster. So, as my coach says, I need to drill it, for that alignment (that I have when moving slower, because I have the time to think about it) to became muscle memory. I also feel confused about the timing of it, I'm so busy aligning I'm waiting to feel that alignment and there is just no way I can also think about putting it on a count. Back to work then...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I started last month with not much of a plan, but a "laissez-faire" attitude (the economic concept of free market translated as "let it happen"). I work on Ice Dance, Moves in the Field and Freestyle and I used to prioritize only one at a time so I can push it for progress and test. Now, I skate less time then before because I don't have enough energy (physical from my hip still not being 100% after the injury and emotional even) so I cannot push for progress on any of those. So I let them all be, progress or not, and try to enjoy the process. In a way I also wanted to experiment and see what happens if I don't push. And I think I've got confirmation that progress doesn't happen unless I push. So I have to be ready, at some point to start pushing again. But not this month... I think this month will go more or less like last month. Here is how last month has gone:

Ice Dancing: The private lesson went towards Ice Dancing, I think I took just 3 lessons. I'm getting more and more comfortable, with the basic steps exercises and the Ten-Fox. I didn't prioritize Ice dancing in my training for close to a year now, from when I tested the Willow Waltz. Whenever I want to work on Ice Dancing I need to do it when the ice is emptier so I have a better chance to hold the pattern, so I have to prioritize at least from that point of view. And I'm doing this now.

MITF: I still do them but without trying to add power. I hope I do maintain them because I certainly don't improve.

Freestyle: I started taking group lessons for Freestyle. I've had 3 lessons. And we did a review of spins and jumps (scratch spin, back scratch, waltz jump, salcow, and toe loop), that was most welcome. We didn't get yet to my targets, the sit spin and the loop jump. I feel it would be beneficial to work a little more on freestyle, but then again as I'm taking more time for Ice Dancing, I do not have more time for Freestyle.

Falls and Injuries: In my almost 10 years of skating I've never caught a toe pick. But I've caught one today. I was late to the group class and I joined  as they were just finishing the warm up with bunny hops. The first line, on the easy leg, was fine, but on the second line, on the harder leg... toe pick. I really blame it on not being warm up, I just didn't jump high enough... And I splashed on ice in a "superman" position, and slid... Yeah, it was a good one. I have scratches and a big blue bruise on my left knee, the side where my hip is still hurting and I had an ankle injury few year ago. It seems it is my favorite side to injure. I think I'm fine, but I'll know for sure just in few days.

Off ice: I said I have to do off ice strengthening exercises... I'm not doing them regularly...  I'm also not warming up before I get on ice, because I'm always late. So, I hope I'll do better. At least the ballet class is on again and I feel that helps with strengthening. I also did some stretching after few of the skating sessions and that seemed to help.

The kittens are doing fine, but they still take soo much time and energy.

The Skating for my own enjoyment saga: Because I don't push for progress I don't get frustrated. So at least I have that. On the other hand I don't think I'm really consciously enjoying. I'm comparing this enjoyment with the feeling of being present in yoga and with the feeling I get sometimes at ballet (not always), and that is again a feeling of being disconnected from the regular day and connected with the music and feeling lighter both body and soul. I've had another lesson with the new coach that helps just with this. On the first lesson we established some concepts of  musicality and soul involvement but we also did 3 clear exercises that I can practice. We polished some things from the first lesson when and did 3 new exercises. It's all I wanted from these lessons, my only disappointment is again, that I don't have more time to practice them. I firstly need to "get" the movement before I can incorporate soul and music into them.

NEXT MONTH, as I said, I expect it's gonna be the same and... more.

The Nutcracker on Ice: I'm gonna have 2 rehearsals this month, the first one this coming week. I'm very very excited.

Skating training: My main coach pushes the Ice Dancing, that it's covered. I don't feel I have to work much harder on my own. Most of the work it's happening during the lessons, especially now that we started partner the Ten-Fox. The Freestyle I plan to keep at the same intensity... On the MITF I plan to train the 5 minutes warm up for the test, but not on the first 5 minutes on ice. I feel that was throwing my whole session of. And I'm thinking at this point that is the thing that I'm least confident about the test day, go figure, the warm up...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

MITF: Last month I skated Monday, Wednesday, Friday on my own and I had my lessons on Thursday. The plan was to push the MITF to hopefully have Pre-Juvenile ready for testing for June. And that's what I did.  Each day I started with the moves and I stayed with them as long as the ice wasn't too crowded and I wasn't too tired. And every single minute in my lessons was about the moves. A miracle has happen! My coach doesn't ask for more power at this point. He still adjusted the inside edge after the back crossovers, I'm missing something there. The 3-turns are quite ok. The backward power pulls on one of the sides (the hurt hip one)  is not on committed edges. He readjusted the initial push on the circle eight and the inside circle hips alignment. On the 5 step Mohawk he keeps asking to look up. And he adds new corrections (over what's necessary for this test). Like on the intro steps that are not judged, to hold the extension on the Mohawk second edge, bring feet together at ankle and start with a  power wide step. I said, "You never asked me that before", he said "Because you couldn't do it before". As we put in new corrections I mess up some things but there is still enough time until the test to be able to bring everything back together.

Then I did Freestyle, spins and jumps:
- Forward Scratch Spin, I'm trying to put more oomph into it. I had during  last year a handful of them that felt quite fantastic, but I wasn't be able to identify what made them better and repeat that. Now I'm starting to get it. Firstly it cannot be done without a strong pressed entrance edge. But then, it's all in the swipe of the free leg around, it's the confidence (tension, stretch, speed) of it and also I try to stop the foot more forward then latterly (as my coach instructed).
- the Back Spin was getting consistent few months ago, but as I stopped working at it consistently when I worked intensely at my Freestyle program, it stopped being consistent. I think I'm also going into it faster then before. So, when I don't abort at the entrance, it goes quite well, but then again, I cannot try the entrance 2 times in a program to get it right. The last instruction from my coach was few moths ago and was just to keep at it and don't go fast. But I really think it's time for updated instruction.
- The Sit Spin... I enter it  just 2 out of 3 tries, then from those entered I get into the position on 1 out of 3 (basically I don't bring the free foot forward enough). And those that happen, are far away from a sitting position. But some days are better then others, so there is definitely hope.
- Waltz Jump. I'm trying to do it from entering with more speed and make it higher. I'll do it in the ice show, 2 or 3 in a row...
- Salchow I do just a couple here and there because my left ankle still feels tight
- the Loop. I've worked on it last time last summer, but just in the group lessons, and it was going consistently 3/4 rotated, occasionally fully rotated. Now it's between 1/2 and 3/4. I've realized recently that before jumping I had my weight on both feet, so maybe working on keeping the weight on the right foot and hip will help...
- the program I did just once a week and without music. I wanted to present it at my rink competition but it seems to be lots of obstacles. The competition is ISI and even if I was tested in my group classes up to FS4, it seems that I have to be re tested and put into the system, starting with Alpha! Alpha trough Delta is pass/retry, but then they need a score for each element. The coaches run the tests and I understand that if they coach you day by day they can fill up the papers. My regular coach is not registered with ISI so he cannot test me. So whoever would test me, would need to see the elements, at least from Fs1 and up. And I think it would take few sessions to get trough everything. Also, the rink asks the coach who enters a student in the competition, to make themselves available for judging. I think it's hard to ask somebody that's not my permanent coach to ruin their weekend, unless I find a coach that already has students in the competition willing to enter me too... The other thing is that the competition is mid June and my MITF test would be a week away towards the end of June and I'm afraid not to get distracted in preparation for the test. And the deadline to enter the competition is May 5...

Ice Dancing I did rarely, at the end, with tired legs. My coach said to not let it go completely, but I'm worrying that I do more harm then good.

The ice show rehearsals go as I expected, unexciting. I think I've outgrown this shows.

The ballet goes so well. It is funny how I'm fighting the turn out (that I do have) because I'm used to keep my feet parallel from skating.

For next month: This first week of the month is weird with the ice show taking over the ice time. But for the rest of the month, the plan is the same: push the moves, keep working at Freestyle and don't let go of Ice Dancing.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last month was all about the Freestyle program. This was my first program. I approached it with a cautious excitement and in the end, I think it went better then I expected... I wasn't particularly good at picking up choreography before, and while I had the jump and spins, they weren't always consistent when I had to do them in the program. I wanted to test this program for the USFSA Pre-Bronze test as soon as possible so I'll go back to training the other things, the moves and Ice Dancing. So I tested and passed it so now I can move on and work on everything.

One thing worth  mentioning about last month, is that I think I figured out what was the main reason for felling tired... I was writing about this on my last month "monthly skating review" post. Surprise! Not enough sleep... To function as I want on ice it seems I really need my 8 hours of sleep per night. I can get away with 7, or the occasionally 6 for functioning in the day by day activities quite well, but not to be able to train hard on ice... Now I know.

My plan for this month:
MITF: I still warmed up with them and occasionally I worked those forward to backward 3-turns. As I feel physically better (from the hip injury) and more rested, I felt in control. One day I did all the moves in the order and intensity of the test and they felt really good. I really, really want to push these for testing. My rink has another test session at the end of June and then none until late fall.

Ice dancing: From my bronze dances I still have to test the Ten-Fox. I didn't work at it at all last month. I tried it on Monday and I think it was "not bad" as my coach says. But can I push is for testing at the same time as the moves? I don't know... But for me it is not so much about this dance, as about my overall skating level. I feel I am not fast and powerful enough for the next level Pre-Silver. I think I have to work consistently on the basic exercises (forward and backward stroking, chasses, progressives, swing rolls, dropped 3-turns with attention on alignment, lean, push, extension, blade lean, change of lobes). I don't think I can do this at the same time with pushing the moves... but I'll definitely try, we'll see were it goes.

Freestyle: The program will take a break. I'll still do it at least once a week so I won't forget it, but it's not gonna be a focus at all. I want to start working on the elements for the next level testing, the bronze.
Jumps: I need all the jumps up to the flip. I kind of had them few years ago, BUT kind of. The were all pre rotated and done from barely moving and they were all small. In fact even the jumps I used in the program are small. I tried this week the Toe Loop and the Loop. I felt some pressure on my left ankle (that was injured 4 years ago and made me stop Freestyle and start Ice Dancing) so I'll have to really listen to my body with the Toe Loop. I'll start with my main coach on the Loop and maybe just the pick for the Toe Loop, and I'll continue with the Salchow and Waltz Jump (I bet the coach will still want the Bunny Hop) and hopefully make them bigger. I'll add the Toe Loop and Flip as soon as I'm comfortable.
Spins: I'll continue working on the forward scratch spin, which is "not bad". But, when it will powerful enough, the coach said we can start the layback spin. That's my favorite spin, I want it! The back spin is consistent but shy. I need to learn how to exit from it. And I need to learn to do it as a chance foot spin, after the full speed forward spin. I can do the change, but at a small speed. The sit spin I "kind of" had 4 years ago and again 2 years ago. I know it will come back. I'm just worried not to hurt my left side around the hip. One of my bad falls was on the left sit bone, and it affected the hip, plus I still feel pain when I fall, more then on the other side. Plus I don't really like the sit spin, the look of it... The camel spin will be new for me, and I'm wondering if it's not gonna hurt the abductors (that was the initial hip injury).

This month I'll have practice for the Ice show for the adult number. I'm not too excited about it. I don't like the song. The theme is 90's. The song "I'm too sexy" from "Right said Fred". I fell we, the adults skaters, are not strong enough to "be sexy" and why would we even try in a family oriented Ice show?

What I'm exited about,  I'll start ballet again. It was a nice surprise to see that after I started to get the form of the exercises I felt that the exercises made me more powerful, I was able to concentrate on posture, hand movement and rhythm. And I actually feel happy after the class.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

The thing that I remember the most from the previous "skating month" is feeling tired. That is, my muscles were tired a lot (quads and the gluteus on the side that was hurt), some days I was sore, plus, I felt tied overall after skating. I reviewed again causes for tired muscles and I can definitely improve some aspects. It is said the muscles need rest to recover after a hard work out, and I do have 2 rest days per week. It is also said more sleep is needed when you build muscles, and I actually had few shorter sleeping nights (involved with helping stray cats, but that's a story for another time) and this may well be the only reason I'm tired. Then, maybe my protein intake needs a boost. And also, I've fallen out of the habit of warming up before getting on ice. Other tips for muscle recovery arehydration, more iron rich foods, foam rolling, bath with Epson salts.
Update 3/6/2019. USFSA advice on it, here.

Freestyle: I've had 4 lessons, all towards choreographing my program. I've got very little technical explanation because I have the elements needed for the test, I needed help in the connecting elements and hand movement. I'm very happy of how this is going. I feel I've learned soo much. At this point I'm working on entering the forward one foot spin from an inside 3 turn. The music would ask for a quick entry in the spin so I really really hope I'll get this. We also tried to bring the hand over the head while spinning and that I can do if the spin is nice and centered. Other spin "developments", with my choreographer/coach, we decided that we don't really like the scratch spin from an esthetic point of view. On the other hand I feel the music asks for something fast, so I may be tempted to consider the scratch spin... But, for now, my inside 3-turn entry is wobbly, and if I don't center, I cannot do the scratch spin anyway... Now, while working with my main coach on the back swing rolls, he took me by the board and wanted me to push the hips forward and curl the shoulders back, as for a layback spin. I immediately said that that is my favorite spin and can we to work on it. He said that I need the scratch spin centered and strong first. So now, I have the motivation to work on it. I was avoiding it in order to not put pressure on the hip abductors that were the initial hip injury. And the last spin update, the back spin... it's getting better and better, but I don't work on it diligently anymore. I still have no instruction on the pull exit, I step inside to exit, but I need less and less concentration for the entrance and I usually center it.

I feel I'm using like half of my skating time to work on the program and that is taking away from the Ice Dancing and MITF. And I'm not actually working on Freestyle elements, I'm using what I already know. I don't know how much time is needed to learn a program. We have now 3/4 of the choreography done and it gets harder and harder to run it all, especially on music because of other skaters getting in my way. And I get stuck trying again and again. While for now I'm truthfully excited about working on it, I do hope I'll get better at doing the whole program not just half of it. I was hoping I can test the Freestyle Pre-Bronze program on March 30th in a way to be done with it and get back to the rest of my training. Of course I wanted to keep it trained for hopefully showing it at my rink small competition in June, but I want to take the focus off it. But the March testing session is already full, the next one is beginning of May. So, I'll have to plan my time.

MITF: I occasionally did some of them. I think I have now my hip strong enough to be able to work on them. At this point the biggest obstacle is feeling tired. If I feel tired I'm not totally controlling my body and maybe my attention is less then optimal, so I'm not eager to work on delicate things and risk to fall and hurt myself.

Ice Dancing: I had just 2 lessons with my main coach this month. The Ten-Fox is progressing with the speed of snail. I expected it. My coach seemed disappointed last Thursday with my complacent attitude. Then on Friday the skating session started empty and I thought to work on the Ten-Fox first. Bad idea because that got my legs tired and I wasn't efficient the rest of the session. So, no I cannot have it all. With the pattern dances, I feel that when I work at them, they really take over all my skating. They make my muscle tired because there is a lot of knee bending in Ice Dancing so I cannot really work on the other skating kills after I work on dance. They also need empty ice, many times that is only on the Tuesday session that I now don't take, I use Tuesday as a rest day... Then, my coach thinks that I need 2 lessons a week in order to really progress. But I skate 4 days total! As I said Ice Dancing takes over if I let it. I think I have to let them develop at a slow pace and then push when I decide to test.

Off Ice: I still have 2 weeks from this sessions for both my ballet activities. Then 2 week off and then a new 2 months session starts. The ballet conditioning on Fridays just before my skating I'll let go. It's not interesting enough and I'm not sure we are encouraged enough to hold the correct form, plus it's getting me tired before skating. The beginner ballet on Saturday is not really beginner, and I half love it and half feel frustrated about it, about not knowing what we are doing so not be able to follow along. I am getting better... And I do feel is gonna help a lot with posture, hand movement, choreography and muscle conditioning. And I love ballet as an art form a lot. I just didn't get yet to feel joy or accomplishment.

So the plan for this month? Hopefully I'll be better rested, by sleeping enough, but I cannot really control this. What I can control is to warm up off ice before the skating. And listen to my body and train just as hard as I can so I don't injure myself again.

I've reached out to the test chair to double check if the session is full and she said she'll work on the schedule tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I'll get to test... Then the Freestyle will be priority. If not, I'll have to push it back and whenever I feel the strongest I should work on the moves and whenever the ice is emptier I should work on Ice Dancing. But I should remember to not start with the Ice Dancing because that kills my legs for the rest of the session...

Working at my first Freestyle program part 3

This is the second lesson with coach B that is doing my program's choreography.
Read about the experience with coach A here and the first week lesson with coach B here.

We started by reviewing what we've done last week. At the end of the first week I filmed the coach doing the choreography so I'll have reference. I learned the steps reasonably well. I asked for help in the arms movements  that I numbered last week 1, 2 and 3.

And here are the next steps, I put in bold characters the things that are new to me...
- after the spiral like step I continue with a left forward mohawk,  step wide for a power push with one hand over the head movement 4.
- back crossover and step forward on the right foot with both arms 5 coming from low to lateral. This step brings me to the right hand and forward corner from how I started in the middle facing the judges.
- step on the left with some arm movement 6 that waves somehow, forward crossover with long inside edge. That is right, left and stay on the left and continue holding the inside edge and bring the right foot forward. I'm always tempted to put the right foot down and even if I don't, I usually mess up my balance, so my flow, and the arm movement 7 associated with it... All this brings me towards the center again.
- right forward mohawk, back crossover, back edge, Waltz Jump
- left forward 3-turn and wide step and ride backward on the inside edge,  on a bent right knee (similar with a back pivot maybe but in a lunge position not putting the toe pick in the ice)  twisting the upper body with arms lateral, palms up. This is soo pretty! And I am now in the right corner but back to the initial center position.

Some things that caught my attention:
- I noticed about many steps that they have a rhythm like short step, short step, hold the edge...  And it makes sense since my music it's waltzy.
- Some of the arms movement are ballet inspired done with a square upper body. Others, those with a wavy motion use the shoulders and breathing to initiate them.
- Breathing is a very effective tool for enhancing the movement. For example on the first element: arms up with inhaling , then arms down and initiating the pivot with exhaling...
- I was asking about keeping the body tense. I was wondering about it for a while and he said that it's tense, but not that tense. There is a balance between softness and stiffness. So you should be holding some tension so you can control the movement and extend, but then release it before it becomes stiffness and  actually would stop the movement. This goes hand in hand with the breathing... Theoretically, I knew it was something like that, but I was actually able to see him doing it and copy some of it. Then of course, I loose it when I try on my own.
- I was pleasantly surprised that I learn the choreography reasonably quick. That was a big worry for me. I haven't done any sports, dance, music or performances as a kid, so I really have nothing to build on. I did my rink adult group number at the annual show and I was really, really bad in picking up the choreography. Then I did some contemporary dance class last summer and I was quite overwhelmed. My regular skating, with my main coach, is MITF and pattern dances, that are all, for my level, very repetitive steps. When I started with the first Freestyle coach, coach A, I was still getting overwhelmed. But somewhere along the way it got better. Firstly, while not rocking science I've never had to do connective steps and weight shifts to change the direction, so I had to learn them and give them a little time to became comfortable. Then, I literally told myself to not be overwhelmed. And it worked, I can follow along for a bigger chunk of the program then I expected. I realized I'm getting stuck on things I cannot do, not on choreography.
- I'll ask my coach on my next lesson if he has any advice on how to approach the process of learning a program. I would think firstly is to learn the elements and the order of the steps. Then add arms, put it on music and add expression. But I suspect, as in Ice dancing there is a back and forth approach.
- And related with learning choreography, I asked my ballet instructor if he has any tips for beginners, more exactly what to pay attention to. I already told him that my goal is to improve my posture and hand movement. He said that it is more important to get the rhythm. The exercises I'll learn the more I do them. Something to think about...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I start each "skating month" with reviewing the previous one and then planning the current one.

I didn't do much skating last month. On the first week the rink schedule was inconvenient, then I was taking it easy because I had some pain from a fall in December. Then I fell again :( and decided to rest for few days to see if I don't come back to regular form faster. And then we had the polar vortex! The rink was closed 2 days.

Ice Dancing: I'm working on the Ten Fox. We tweaked the pattern, mostly the 3-turns placement. The outside mohawk is fine! As I still work on the pattern and I was protecting the hurt muscle, I haven't got yet to go full power and speed and I'm not on time yet. Also I didn't partnered yet. I feel the coach pushes on each lesson for a better backward skating, Higher extension, pointed toes, re bend before the new push, less time on transitions between lobes, and of course the posture.
I asked start to work on the European Waltz,  which is 3-turn after 3-turn because I wanted to work on something that will require patience, not power. My problem is that I don't re bend when stepping from backward to forward. That is both after the back edge, before the 3 turn, and in between the 3-turns on the end pattern. I can do it at slow speed, and I also train it off ice. So it's gonna take a lot of repetitions done correctly, at slow speed first, to get it in the muscle memory.

MITF: As much as I don't want to accept it, the truth is, I cannot make them better if I cannot put power into them. And if I have any kind of pain, I can't... both physically and mentally. So, they are right there, almost ready to test, from a year ago, jut not quite there.

Freestyle: I've had just one lesson, on the first week of the month. We reviewed things that we've done before and I made it clear I wanted the Pre-Bronze program so i can test it. And then my coach got sick and then he had to travel. So I hired somebody else. And he got straight into the program! My goals from doing programs is to learn new elements and how to link the elements I have. And I actually want to work with many coaches/ choreographers because I feel they all have different styles. The first coach, let's call him coach A, I worked with, was specialized in adults. The coach I hired now, coach B, is a quite experienced choreographer and performer, still settling in my city, so still approachable as price. He has such a beautiful style with lots of upper body movement! I first tensed up, thinking I won't be able to do much of what he showed me, but he broke down everything and he said that whatever I won't get comfortable doing in few weeks we'll change. So I take it as an opportunity to learn new elements, even if they are not gonna get used.

Off Ice: I did 3 weeks of ballet now. Overall I love it, but it is as tedious as the skating, if not even more. My goal here is mostly to improve my posture, upper body  movement (as I tense and rise the shoulders) and learn some arm movement. But my mind gets lost in between remembering the exercises, actually doing them correctly, so for now I keep forgetting about my posture..

I think this month I have to be patient to consolidate what I have in dance and moves and I think the progress that I crave and push for, will happen on it's own. And I have now the Freestyle program and the ballet to keep things interesting.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

Last month I skated more (from 4 sessions to 5 and a half per week) and had 2 private lessons per week with my dance coach as I was registered to test the Willow Waltz and I wanted to be prepared.
As you may know from the previous post, I passed the Willow Waltz test, testing standard track no less. Passing tests is very good for motivation and confirming that I do progress. As much as I love skating, learning it is very hard work and not always enjoyable. There is often lots of frustration.

Ice Dancing: Bedsides working on the specific steps for the Willow Waltz I feel I got to a new level of power in my stroking. That's the biggest difference between adult testing and standard testing, the power. Having more power makes you look (and feel) more stable, so better. I'm very happy I was able to do the Willow Waltz solo on music and keep the count, as I was struggling with that before. Read about it here.
MITF: Taking 2 lesson per week we had time each lesson to review an element from the Pre-Juvenile test that I'm working on. While being complimented on the better display of power, it seams that I dropped the standard in the quality. I had corrections on each and every one of them, on things that I used to do just fine. The good news is that I can incorporate the corrections immediately.
Freestyle: I had just one private lesson with my new Freestyle coach and I asked to work on jumps. I definitely like how I react to his instructions. More then that, because he works with adults a lot, I feel he identified some specific problems that adults have and other coaches, that work manly with kids, just don't think about.

Making plans for next month there are two main things I consider:

Firstly, I would like to balance the Ice Dancing, MITF and Freestyle. I always say this and it never feels I'm doing it. Both MITF and Ice Dancing need fairly empty sessions and last month I was always prioritizing dance over moves. That means I worked on dance at the beginning of the sessions when the ice is emptier. And Ice Dancing tires my quads sometimes so badly that I don't feel like jumping.
MITF: I'll have to work on both slow on the corrections (to became body memory), and fast to improve the power. And as I worked on them for a long time (from before I was hurt, in fact I was close to being ready to test them), I'm not very excited about them. It's sounds to me that I'll actually have to prioritize these somehow.
Freestyle: I think I would be more motivated to work on Freestyle elements if they would be part of a program. I'll have to ask my new coach clearly about the timeline for choreographing it. Up to now I was disappointed as I kept expecting to get the program and instead I've got lessons. He gave me very good instruction but I wasn't ready/ didn't have time, to work on elements on Freestyle because I was concentrating on Ice Dancing.  So we'll have to talk and align our efforts.
Ice Dancing: I'll start working on the Ten fox that I let go these last 2 months and doesn't have too much flow right now. The only really sticky thing about it is the outside Mohawk. I never felt that I've really really got it. But I'm doing it and it may be good enough for this level... So we'll see how that goes.

The second thing I have on my mind is the quad muscles pain. As the hip was ok, I've been skating 5 days in a row, one of the days, Monday, twice. I was curious if I'll have the muscle building pain, as I was getting it last year when I was skating like this. Last year it passed after maybe a month, but that month was very hard. I felt exhausted, I needed more food and more sleep. The last week of last year and first week of this year I'll skate just twice weekly, because of the ice schedule. So I think I'll have no choice but to build slowly on that, and go again with 4 skating days a week, and in the past that meant Tuesday and the weekend off. From the second week on January I'm registered to beginner adult ballet and ballet conditioning. The ballet conditioning is on Friday just before skating and I hope is gonna be focused on core strength (to replace the pilates class) or balanced, but definitely not on leg strength as I don't need it and I may not skate well after a leg focused workout. The ballet is on Saturday morning and my only hope is that it's gonna meet at lest some of my expectations (work and awareness on posture, alignment and port de bras)...

It's customary to make new year resolutions and set goals but I don't really do that.  And planning skating for a whole year doesn't seam realistic. Especially after how it went last year (the tiny hip injury that didn't heal completely for more then 6 months). When I started private lessons in mid 2016 my goal was progress.Two years ago I was able to push very hard and I felt I'm going the right way. Last year I basically skated half the time compared to 2 years ago. But looking back, I progressed more than I expected. Not in the areas that I was planning (power and speed) but starting to put together the skills that I had and working on expression (mostly arms). I also feel I enjoyed skating somehow more then when I was pushing very hard. Learning from all these, my plan for the new year is to be flexible and to make the best out of my time on ice!

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

I usually skate Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That's 4 sessions a week, while last year I was skating 7, 8 sessions a week. I would have the time to skate more, but I felt it was best to let the hip injury heal. At the beginning of the month the rink was closed for renovation, then there was just public ice on Veterans day and around Thanksgiving. So I was skating even less and that translates in less progress...

Ice Dancing: I had 3 private lessons (my private lesson is on Thursday and I lost 2 lessons because of the ice schedule). We worked exclusively at the Willow Waltz as I want to test it. And we decided to register for the December 23rd test session. That is an hour session that goes after the Ice Dancing group lessons 2 months classes to allow the students to test what they've learnt. It covers just up to bronze dances. I love these sessions as they are less pressure then the 3 hours long sessions. So, I was ready to test this dance in March (and I didn't test because I've got injured), and I was confident about it. Where did that confidence go? My coach says that my skills are improved, and I agree. I think that protecting the hip I lost the tension in my body that makes somebody look sure of themselves... I'll have to find it quickly...

MITF: I didn't work on these with my coach in months. Again, these Pre-Juvenile MITF were close to be ready for testing in March, when I couldn't work on power because of my injury. I occasionally ask him to see one move if I have questions. At some point I lost my backward circle eight so he helped me adjust the weight on my hip and I got it back.The power crossovers with inner edge he likes. On the power pulls I do well, except the the back ones on the hurt hip. But they are coming along. The 5 step Mohawk was always good. All it's left is the forward to backward 3-turn... And I do them fine! Except when I try to put a little speed in them. I think again it's about not tensing my body enough. I tried to have my coach look at them and I did way worse then I do on my own. He couldn't really correct anything because I was not doing them. Usually he corrects the timing as i was turning before reaching the middle of the lobe. The he always finds some weight over the hip adjustment. The only thing I could take away was to look up. I look down after the turn. I think the thing I need is that confidence back.... because honestly, I CAN do them.

Freestyle: This month I had 2 lessons with my new Freestyle coach. I described the Freestyle lessons here. Last lesson was about going faster and going bigger. When I hired him I thought I was going to like him, and I do like him even more than I expected. And here comes the BUT. I like all he is teaching me and I respond well to his instructions. And I agree I need eventually to know all these. BUT, I hired him to do a program for me, 2 moths ago. I want my program! I know I'm being childish, but am I? The program should be a Pre-Bronze one for testing, not competition. So it doesn't need more difficult skills than I already have. He brought up again the back power 3-turn, that are next level MITF. And while I can do them, I kind of don't want to work at them. I didn't do Freestyle in 2 years and I don't have allocated time in my week for it. I have to make room, so to take away time from dance and moves where I already feel I have less time than I want (like 8 sessions a week,  before injury). Now to be honest, each day on ice, I do have "I don't know what to work on" moments. So why wouldn't I work on the back power 3-turn. I'm definitely being childish, trowing a tantrum instead of working on things as an adult.

Last thing I'll mention is my hip pain. It is mostly good. I did hurt after jumping a whole session, but it went away during the long Thanksgiving weekend. I'm giving Thanks for that! Then I've fallen again on that side but I was wearing the gel hip pad, and while the fall hurt a little, I think it didn't add anything to the previous injury. Thanks for that too... Something new, I took a pilates class that is offered just after the ice time on Friday. It was my first time talking pilates and while I expected a good core workout (and sore muscles), I was surprised of how much it made me work the hip muscles too, so I may continue taking it. A physical therapist was also taking the class and she joined the conversation I was having with the instructor comparing yoga and pilates . They both consider that pilates is more beneficial as a core and hip strengthening and stabilizing exercise while cautioned me about the risk of injury if yoga is not done properly.

The plan for next month, if I feel no hip pain, is to skate Monday trough Friday and have 2 private lessons with my old coach, one Monday after my regular skate and one Thursday. That would give me more instruction for the dance I plan to test, plus would bring me to 5 and a half sessions of skating per week. BUT, if I feel any pain I plan to be on the cautious side and cut back on skating. As I'm registered to test the Willow Waltz I'll have to prioritize to work on it. The problem is that I need fairly empty ice to be able to put in the whole pattern and keep the beat. Usually the beginning of the sessions are emptier, so I'll have to work at the dance first.  The big disadvantage of this is that Ice Dancing makes my muscles tired because of the continuous bending and rising of the knee. That definitely affects my jumping negatively. But if I'm able to skate 5 1/2 sessions per week I'll have time to start incorporating some Freestyle in my training. I might not take any freestyle lessons, to keep the skating budget under control, or I'll go crazy and spend, thinking of it as a holiday gift...

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

First week of last month I skated just once, because of the inconvenient ice schedule. I was waiting for the second week to go back to my regular schedule, but on Monday I bumped into somebody, well, we bumped into each other, and fell on my bad side. It didn't seam that I hurt the hip, but there was pain on the muscles compensating, that lasted 2 weeks.  Yeap, I had to take it easy again... So what did I work on?

Freestyle: I went through my jumps occasionally so I don't loose them again. But without corrections from a coach they are just as bad as they were 2 years ago (pre rotation, no height, no speed, obviously other things that I'm not aware off). I also just try to maintain my forward scratch spin as I don't want to put pressure on the abductors. The backspin improves every week! I enter now from an inside 3turn and I do cross my free foot. It's slow and shy but it's consistent. I'm curious what the next instructions will be from my coach. I'll have to ask how to exit from it... I know, bend the skating leg and pull, but I don't really know how to do it.
MITF: I've got big compliments from my coach on the power alternating crossovers. They were: "Well, for somebody that started skating as an adult, these look great!" I looked at him confused, because  my goal is to not look as somebody that started as an adult, and I'll test these on standard track like the kids... It sounded to me that they are not that good, even if I knew he said it as a compliment. He continued, surely answering to my confused face... "No, no, they are good, I saw worse than this pass"... I think this is all the compliments I will get! My coach is famous for being stingy with the compliments... But he thinks these are ready for the test, so they are good enough for this level. That's all I need to know :)
The backward circle eight initial push was giving me trouble. I think because I was pushing from the bad hip, in time, I stopped pushing. I also forgot to pigeon toe and lead with my heel the foot that's gonna became the skating foot. And it seams that I was dropping the free hip, again....
The 32 3-turns... My hip was hurting when I did 3-turns on it. So each time I skated I did just 2 of each... just to maintain. I still got the correction that I'm not transferring ALL my weight on the skating hip, and that I rush the turn sometimes. The biggest correction was to make the upper body movement continuous. I was actually trying to snap them, as I do in Ice Dancing. There, I stroke on an edge and hold the edge on bent knee with a good extension, and I twist the upper body just when I rise for the turn. I can do them with continuous upper body movement too. I was happy that I'm starting to be able to control these timing differences.
Ice Dancing: We keep working on backward skating: stroking, chasses, progressives. We work on the push, posture, extension, quickness and finishing the lobes. The Willow Waltz I think looks good, the Ten fox we didn't do together too often so I don't know.

The biggest thing this month was, again, feeling frustrated that I cannot push for progress. I'm happy that now my hip seams better. But it seams that it's very easily re injured. I'm trying to find ways to enjoy what I have. What else can I do?

So, coming from my adult Freestyle group lessons I always wanted to be able to connect the elements. At that point I had nothing but elements: some small jumps, the one foot spin, lunges, spirals. I had no speed and the turns, the Mohawk, the 3 turns were not solid on their own, so surely I couldn't have done them at speed. And they are the connecting elements. Now I have some control... So I asked a new coach (after consulting with my main coach that doesn't do choreography) to do a program for me. We would start with few lessons to see what I have, and go from there.This new coach is specialized in adult skaters and he's trying to bring the "fun" into skating. I overheard him telling somebody "let's not put this into an equation". Myself, I love to put everything into equations, forces, momentum, angles... So I was curious if he was gonna be a good fit. I had one lesson and half of it we did hand movements and half a step sequence. So, yes, he doesn't provide a doctorate paper on how to paint a masterpiece but rather a paint by numbers instructions. And I have to say, for now, seams effective.

Goals for next month:
- Order some hip pads. I researched as much as I could, I've asked all my skating friends, I've red reviews and forums and I think I'm leaning towards the gel ones. They are $40 each but I'll order just one for now.
- I still stretch regularly but I'm adding strengthening exercises. I'm doing one leg calf raises for a while now, I recently added 2 exercises for hips and core (I was doing core but I stopped at some point).
- Handle the frustration...and motivation. My goal at this point is progress. I was cautioned about over training and boredom and advised to have fun. But, I feel that, as an adult over 40, I'll be limited in my progress sooner or later. So I was trying to get my satisfaction from the progress and I was planing to have fun later... With the amount of time I skate these days the progress is soo slow, sooo frustrating. I hope working on my first program with my new coach will bring some fun and motivation.
- And I hope I'll get to test the Willow Waltz at the end of the month to give me some confirmation of progress and some confidence.