Ice 'n' Easy

Hectic few weeks

2009-05-12T11:50:00.009+01:00

It's been rather a busy time the last few weeks - hopefully things will settle down and I can start posting a little more regularly again. I didn't have a lesson two weeks ago anyway, as my poor coach had some nasty tummy bug on her return from the USA, so only last weeks lesson to report!

I have been doing lots of work on my compulsories lately - free dance has been put on a backburner for a couple of weeks, as we are aiming for my Level 1 Compulsories to be ready to test (as well as the Level 1 Field Moves that I am just waiting for a date for!).

Rhythm Blues is pretty good - D is happy with it. Canasta Tango she described as a mixture of really good bits interspersed with car-crash skating. Thanks D . . . Have sorted out my swings now so they come right round, and the hip is not hitched up or held behind which she is really pleased about. For the last week I am now trying to sort out my runs on them - we think most of the problem on them is that my weight is not coming forward onto the "running" leg, so I am focussing on keeping my hips pushed forward and dropping deeper onto the front leg on the runs in the hope that this helps! This especially applies to the Novice Foxtrot - such a simple dance, but so hard to get right, if you know what I mean!

Field Moves are all going okay. Backward edges are improving all the time - slowly getting stronger, but need to be a lot stronger yet. My nemesis - backward crossrolls - are getting there, but are still slow and hesitant. Goodness how I hate them! My latest frustrating thing is backward 3's - I am just concentrating on getting the backward outside 3's first, before I start worrying about insides. My RBO3's are great, nice and smooth - LBO's are a disaster!! I just can't seem to get the same nice smooth flow that I do on my right leg. Sigh . . . will just persevere!

Otherwise, I am busy trying to get a Birth Sampler done in time for when my best friends baby is born - due on Friday! All very exciting :) This is the progress so far - he is rather cute I think!!

C'mon Amanda - keep up!

2009-04-16T22:10:00.002+01:00

I got told off the other day by my uncle for not updating in so long. Sorry Uncle Pete - I'm fine, its just been a busy few weeks :)

Skating is going on the whole well. I seem to have spent all my time recently either at the rink or at work so can only apologise for not updating!

Mostly we have been concentrating on test things - Level 1 Field Moves is just waiting for the date to come through - I guess the next set of tests will have my name on it. I am feeling pretty okay about this - when I have quiet ice on the very odd times that I am at Lee Valley during the week, I do about 4-5 complete run-throughs of my test, from the moment I leave the examiner at the side to the moment I skate back to my coach after I have completed it, which takes five minutes almost to the second. Having done hour and a half ballet exams in my teens, I am hoping that this is not too stressful for me!

In my lessons we have been focussing on three main things:
Level 2 Field Moves: Yep - she is hoping that these don't take too long to get either. The only thing I am really having problems with is the backward cross-rolls. My backward inside and outside edges are coming along nicely, and the rest is not looking too bad either. The 3-turn exercise could do with some more speed behind it but hopefully it will all catch up and be ready at the same time.
Level 1 Compulsory Dances: That is, the Novice Foxtrot and the Rhythm Blues. Both of these are progressing quite nicely too - the runs are getting better, if not always perfect - the main gripe seems to be my knees not bending enough on them! D even video'd me for the first time yesterday - but then couldn't find it on her phone to show me. I don't want to see myself skating!!! These will be the next test to be submitted - possibly at the same time as Level 2 Field Moves but probably before.
Free Dance: This still terrifies me, but at least I look like I am skating it now! Keeping up with the music is another matter - the first 30 seconds are just about okay, the step sequence is too slow but hey, I'll get there. Even the blues choctaw is happening, much as I don't enjoy it yet!

Other things we've been looking at is Level 3 Field Moves (she has ambition, my coach - lol!) and I have started doing backward 3's a little more consistently. BO3's anyway - BI3's are somewhat harder. And yesterday when I was just playing around, I did my first double 3 on the barrier which was quite exciting!

Spinning was going well - and I was getting confident, they were centred and I was consistently getting 4-5 revs. Then stupidly about three weeks ago, I went skating when I was reeeeally tired. Promptly caught the back of my blade whilst spinning and fell on my front, with my fist between me and the ice. Its not very pleasant having your knuckles embedded in your sternum! I did get straight back up to do a spin, but I have somewhat lost my confidence spinning and it is not quite back to where it was yet. I will get there though . . .

However, I was excited last week when I did my first change of edge spiral!! It is a little change of edge but it definitely changes, and she has promptly put that in my free dance! Last night she gave me a few more hints for improving it - where my shoulders, arms, weight should be etc. I have been working on my spirals quite a bit - its my strong point from dancing, but I always have tended to do it very upright like a ballerina doing an arabesque. Especially this week, I have tried to get my upper body parallel to the ice, and rather pleasingly, my free leg has shot up about two foot higher in response. I can't do the change of edge with my leg that high yet though!!

No skating for me this weekend - I am off to Sussex to visit family (including the uncle who slapped my wrists through cyberspace!) so no ice for me for another five days! I am skating four days a week now, so that seems like aaaaages!! Oh well, I made up for it by skating for two and a half hours last night. And boy, are my legs telling me about it today . . . .

How time flies!

2009-03-19T17:05:00.004Z

Didn't realise I hadn't blogged for so long - whoops! That's what comes of getting funky new gadgets like an iPhone - completely distracted by it!!!

Things have been ticking along nicely - been mostly working on my Level 1 and Level 2 Field Moves. Level 1 is just keeping them going, in a calm and orderly fashion. I had a day off last week and went to Lee Valley, where I ran through the entire sequence about five times as I had the space to do it. It takes me five minutes, almost to the second, from going from the judge, through the elements and then to my coach. And that includes taking a nice deep breath between each "item on the menu", so I think I must have sped up a little!

Level 2's are going quite nicely too - backward edges are still not strong enough, but I am doing more like 10 up the long axis, rather than 16, which is an improvement! And even the dreaded backward cross-rolls are happening and beginning to get a little bigger and a little faster. I don't hate them quite so much now! The mohawk exercise is getting faster, as is the forward outside and inside 3's around the circle.

In my lesson last week, my coach even started teaching me Level 3 Field Moves.
Outside Mohawk Exercise: Actually isn't too horrendous, apart from the fact that I am not coming out of it on an BO edge - it is a flat edge at best. I think this is a confidence thing.
Alternating Spirals: Not sure what it is called, but doing a RFO spiral, then toe the free leg to push into a RFI spiral, then push into a LFI spiral, then toe push into a LFO spiral. I like doing this exercise, but I don't think I am looking massively elegant doing it yet.
Forward and backward 3's: ie. a FO3 on a lobe, then a BI3 on the other lobe, repeat down the long axis. Then do with alternating FI3's and BO3's. I was so tired in my lesson last week (I had been interviewing people all day) and my coach tells me I am actually less scared when I am tired, so just went for it. I have also been trying backward 3's all week since - BO3's are actually, I am delighted to say, happening quite nicely. BI3's are another matter - I haven't quite sorted it out in my head yet what is going on and just end up spinning on the spot! Still, I am happy that these are not taking quite the awfully long time that forward 3's took!

Compulsories are going quite well - we are revisiting the Novice Foxtrot and the Rhythm Blues as these are the two in Level 1 Compulsories. And bits of my free dance are beginning to feel better . . .

Otherwise, just been playing around with the usual stuff. Spinning is coming along nicely - they are becoming more consistent. Originally, I would do the first one and it would not be bad, but then I would overanalyse it and they would go to pot for the rest of that practice. Now, they are getting stronger, more centred and I can actually practice them for a beneficial length of time!

Ballet going well too - went to a more advanced class last week, which was more dancey than the seriously beginner one, which was nice. Apart from when the teacher said to the rest of the class that I was an "ice skating princess". . . . blush . . .

Oooh, sore bits!

2009-02-28T18:37:00.003Z

Lesson was good on Wednesday - level 2 field moves are coming along nicely. Well, I think so anyway :) Generating a little more power when pushing into backward edges, but still need to work a lot on that, and backward crossrolls I can at least do now, even though a little slow. But all progressing . . .

Runs are slightly better in my dances, but not good yet. So we worked quite a bit on the timing of them. I did a Novice Foxtrot for the first time in aaaaaages and my pattern and timing actually isn't too bad - but the runs need work. Mutterings about dance tests (to add to impending field moves tests) have started now as well!! Also did a Rhythm Blues which feels again, not bad - apart from those horrible cross-behinds which still have me in knots when going downhill at Ally Pally :)

Well, I found a ballet class! Had fun on Wednesday buying a new ballet outfit and shoes (blimey, I know why my parents complained about the cost now!) and went to my first class last night! It was a beginners class, as thought I should ease myself in gently and I really enjoyed it. The teacher complimented me which was nice, and spent a lot of time doing very specific corrections with me. Although I went to a vocational school, I was always made to feel that I wasn't quite good enough, so it feels quite strange to be in a class where roles are reversed. Nice though! He also said I will be fine in the more advanced class, but I will do the basic class for a couple more weeks before I move up - my balance isn't what it was!!

But goodness I'm sore today - my hips feel strange, and the muscles used for turnout feel very worked out. Hoepfully that will help my Ina Bauers and spreadeagles!!

I wasn't a happy bunny though this morning - I aimed to get to Lee Valley for 10.30 for an hour and a half skate. On the bus, the ice rink just came into sight . . . and then the bus veered off on diversion to then join back up with the normal route a few hundred metres after the ice rink. Unfortunately that diversion took over an HOUR on a route beset with traffic jams in a part of London I know nothing about and would get lost if I tried to walk it!!!! I got to the ice rink with no time to skate, but thought that I would pop into the shop to pick up some tights . . . and they didn't have the right ones! Three and a half hours of my Saturday morning completely wasted - how annoying.

I will go to patch tomorrow lunchtime instead at Ally Pally I think, but now I am trying to find somewhere in London that sells skating tights, as my pair from America haven't turned up and I need them desperately for Wednesday!! Any suggestions welcome . . .

Back to the Barre. . . ?

2009-02-24T15:18:00.003Z

It's been a good week and a bit skating, since my last post. My coach has been away coaching in Switzerland, so I didn't have a lesson last week, but practice is going well, and the ice is being nice to me at the moment.

I have been working quite hard on Level 2 Field Moves - the mohawk exercise gets easier each time, and the inside and outside 3-turn exercises have been cracked technique-wise, more or less, and I am now trying to get more fluidity and speed.

I have done some stuff on my program - my step sequence is a little sadly lacking at the moment in speed, and in the fact that I only get about two thirds of the way down the rink on it, but hopefully that will improve.

The evil forward run exercise that my coach gave me actually isn't QUITE as evil as I thought it was (do one reeeeally slowly, and then do four obscenely fast, repeat). They are so fast that it feels like I am skipping around the circle, but . . . not as bad as they could be.

Coach is back tomorrow for my normal lesson, test papers are about to be sent in for Level 1 Field Moves, I have ordered a new test dress and tights (cor blimey, just HOW expensive are skating tights?!), and . . . . ahem . . . . I might be making an appearance in a certain UK skating magazine, about weight loss and the health benefits of skating!!! Not sure which issue yet though.

Lastly, I am now hunting for a ballet class to attend. I trained at a professional vocational school till I was 16, and now I am all sylph-like, I am no longer bothered about beeing seen in leotard and tights! It is difficult to know what level to enter at, but I have decided to start at a nice "easy" entry-level class, as skating muscles are slightly different to ballet ones, and I think I have found one not too far from work. So I'm off to buy a pair of ballet slippers tomorrow for the first time in 16 years!!!

A mixed bag!

2009-02-15T18:10:00.004Z

Had a good lesson on Wednesday. Was particularly happy when D deemed half of my Level 2 Field Moves being at a passable state (including my mohawks - how loads of practice on your most hated element can pay off!). Was not so happy when she started looking thoughtful and muttering about doing Level 1 & 2 at the same time. I think not . . . my backward edges are nowhere near powerful enough yet, and I would like to get Level 1 out of the way. And I still hate backward crossrolls with a passion!

We also spent some time tango-ing and waltz-ing - the main theme is, as ever, the state of my runs. When I do them nice and slowly, they are not bad. When I try and do them fast in a pattern, they are NOT crossing enough. So D has given me some really hideous, doing runs as fast as I can and then some, exercise to practice.

I got really angry at practice yesterday (on a public session). I was doing a controlled, Level 2 mohawk exercise up the long axis, and as always, keeping a careful eye out for people. Then this obnoxious idiot started telling me that I was getting in peoples way! He then threatened to report me to the manager - I told him to go ahead, but he then said "Can't be bovvered". By the way - not a teen, but someone in his mid-40's at a kind estimate. He then proceeded to drag his children around behind him as he skated around in a too fast, completely uncontrolled way ON THE END OF A TEN FOOT LONG LUGGAGE STRAP!!!!!! Oh, and also proceeded to mock me and other figure skaters for the rest of the session. I was not a happy bunny.

So tried to make up for it today on a Sunday morning public session - never again. Completely overcrowded - will have to stick to just Saturdays.

On a good note, I had my blades sharpened yesterday and they actually feel great, after that initial 5 minutes feeling of skating through treacle. Not even too much trouble stopping - very happy.

On an even better note, after 14 months, I have finally reached my goal weight of just over nine and a half stone! (61kg for my friends across the pond, or 135 pounds) after losing exactly six stone (38kg or 84lbs). I am so pleased - I went and treated myself to chips from the chippie last night, not having had them for 14 months. And couldn't finish them! Now starts the enjoyable bit of working out how to eat more - yay!

Getting back to normal

2009-02-05T14:50:00.004Z

It's been rather a hazy couple of weeks, with travelling, funerals and being snow-bound for a day! However, I have racked up an average of 5 days on the ice each week for the last few weeks - it really has been therapeutic from that angle.

Still, back to lessons last night, and I asked "Can we keep it simple today?". Simplish - level 1 Field Moves, Level 2 Field Moves (not so simple!) and a Dutch Waltz.

Level 1 Field Moves - overall good. More power needed on my forward crossovers, and my backward stepping to forward needs to be tidier.

Level 2 Field Moves:
Backward Inside & Outside Edges: Did them with some support. Beginning to feel better, but need to be careful of my hip alignment on the inside edges.
Forward and Backward Cross-rolls: Forward need to be speedier, with regards to not holding the edge so long. Backward I still hate - I catch the toepick far too much, but I have an exercise to practice over the next week which should help.
FO3's / FI3's around a circle: A little better, I dare hope. Certainly FI3's are much better, as in they are happening now with the extended leg, even if still tentative and slow. The shoulder checking correction really helped a couple of weeks ago! Much like Level 1 - the main thing to work on is the backward stepping to forward, and opening my shoulders to let it happen. Trying to remember everything on these exercises at the moment does feel a bit like patting my head and rubbing my tummy though!
Mohawk sequence: A little better - I am not bottling my LFI mohawks any more (my weaker side) but that is because I am not doing the exercise fast. But I feel like I have something to start building on now with this, and will focus now on doing this exercise a lot, and moving away from doing mohawks in isolation.

Dutch Waltz: Was picked to bits, and then my coach said "It's only because you have got it up to this level that I can do these corrections!" which was a nice thing to say :) Timing felt good on the whole, although I had to avoid people quite a few times who were intent on ignoring everything around them. I know I'm a lot thinner than I was, but I don't think I'm invisible yet!

We also went over the part of my programme that has a Blues Choctaw in it. Which didn't happen, so she gave me a few tips . . . and I did my first wobbly, but most definitely a Choctaw!! Woohoo!

I am on a rising peak (as opposed to a plateau!) with my skating at the moment. It might be from all the hours I have put in recently, but my confidence does feel increased, and I am feeling like I have become a stronger skater lately. Long may this feeling last!

Even so much that I made myself try and do big backward outside edges up the long axis in my practice afterwards, à la the Level 2 exercise - and I did it! Without a coaches paw to lean on! Okay, they are not as big as they should be yet, and my push into them isn't that powerful so on my left ones, I tend to nearly run out of steam, but I fit in six up the long axis and was really chuffed!

Skating . . . but oh so tired

2009-01-22T10:57:00.003Z

I have been skating a LOT since that awful phonecall from Sussex Police last Thursday. Every day in fact, bar Sunday. Some have been good, some not so good (more dependent on the number of people around me, rather than my mental state - patch on Tuesday was MANIC!). But oh I am so tired. I think probably a combination of thinking too much and just perhaps overdoing the exercise a little. But it helps me relax. Oh well, I am now forced off the ice for a couple of days - physio appointment this evening, and no patch tomorrow.

Weight has been falling off me over the last week too - for someone who used to be 5 sizes bigger, seeing my size 10 trousers practically falling off me is a bit of a shock. I have been eating, it just seems that stress speeds up my metabolism. I think I will be a bit of a shock to my extended family who I will be seeing next Thursday at the funeral - they haven't seen me since I was six stone heavier . . .

Had my usual lesson last night. My coach has very efficiently put all worries out of my head about my Level 1 Field Moves. By telling me that we are aiming for me taking my Level 2 by August. Smart move - I am certainly more worried about Level 2 now! All I can think about is big backward edges, mohawk exercises and FI3's which I am not too balanced on!

Still, we did a full mock-test of my Level 1 yesterday and she was pleased. Apparently with all the practice I have been doing over the last week, my backward crossovers are so much improved. They feel good too - I have lost the fear of travelling at speed on them, and actively seek to try and make them faster now, which I am quite delighted about.

Then we went through Level 2 . . .
Backward Edges: I have to do these with a little help at the moment. I'm fine once I'm balanced on them, its the push into them that I am unsteady on, when I am going into them at that speed. So I have been told to work on just the push, concentrating on keeping my free hip forward, and having all the power coming from the push, rather than my body.
Forward & Backward Crossrolls: At least I can do forward ones, even if they are not great. Needs more of an edge, and more push. Backwards - I can do little ones on my own, very slowly - but big ones I still need help with. She told me to bend my knees more and I only bent the back one . . . meaning that I nearly fell on my backside on one of them. Good job she was holding onto me! A bit toepicky and wobbly, but she seems happy with how they currently are.
Forward 3-turns on a circle: I can get through the FO3 version, albeit not too quickly, but need to work on putting my feet together after the 3-turn rather than about 3 foot apart! And keeping my skating leg on the circle as I push into the BO edge after the turn, rather than lemon-ing it wildy! I have been struggling with FI3's with an extended leg for a while as they felt horribly out of control and that I would just spin on the spot if I did them with any speed, but had one of those eureka moments today - "It's your shoulders." Bingo! Will practice those a lot to get them faster now.
Forward Inside Mohawks: On one side not too bad - still bottling them a little on the other side. But I continue to practice mohawk after mohawk after mohawk in my practice sessions, so I think this is just a matter of time now. I KNOW I can do it . . .

And then we did a Dutch Waltz and a Canasta Tango, which weren't too bad. We worked on my timing at the start of the tango which is now feeling better, and my waltz felt pretty good. It's amazing how I can so easily take up the whole rink now - funny how your power increases without you realising it. My shoulders were a little hunchy though so need to pull my shoulderblades back and together.

Rest now . . .

Don't really know how this post will turn out . . .

2009-01-18T12:34:00.003Z

. . . it is a week of extremes really.

First of all, the British Figure Skating Championships were great. Very inspiring - loved all of the Senior Dance couples. I particularly liked the Kerr's (of course, who doesn't) and Louise Walden and Owen Edwards, who I haven't seen skate before.

I had a nice stay in Nottingham - used the gym (tempted to join one now) and swam each morning at 6.30, which is a nice way to start the day once I have dragged myself out of bed (I am not a morning skater, apart from occasionally in the summer when the sun is already up and shining).

My lesson on Wednesday was mostly focussed on Level 1 Field Moves. Test papers are about to be sent in, so we did work on how it all connects together in one test.

Then Thursday went about as downhill as life can go. My father died. I am not going to go into details - this isn't the place to do it. People who know me, know the details and that is enough. Not entirely unexpected, but a shock nonetheless.

Weirdly, all I wanted to do on Friday was skate. The ice rink is one of those places where I know I will generally leave feeling calmed, with my thoughts in some kind of order. So once everyone told me off for feeling bad about it, I took myself off there. I was so focussed on clearing my head, I probably had the most productive skate I have had in a month or two. Ran through my Field Moves - simple monotonous moves that I didn't have to think about too much - about 3 times, with all the connecting bits, and got it down to 5 or 6 minutes, which is good for a Field Moves test. The ice rink was blissfully empty (not even any DoI celebs) and it was very cathartic.

Skated my usual Saturday morning session yesterday as well - not so good, as very busy, but I found out it is quite hard to skate when someone is hugging you at the same time!

Other than that, people have been keeping me busy, with meals out, shopping, phonecalls, texts and keeping me company. Times like this make you realise how much people you love, love you in return.

Not sure what I am doing tomorrow yet. I might work, or I might take another day, on my own this time, to get my thoughts into order. We shall see.

Excited about the British Championships!!!

2009-01-10T17:46:00.002Z

I would have blogged earlier this week, as usual after my Wednesday lesson. However, it had to be cancelled due to one rather poorly coach (this virus is causing havoc this year!). So I have been trundling on as normal, practicing various bits and pieces!

Nothing very exciting to report really - someone was nice about my spins today, saying that they had really improved. They're not good - but the good ones are happening a little more frequently which I am happy about and I still love practicing them!

I'm looking forward to tomorrow though! I'm off to Nottingham for a couple of nights to watch the first two days of the British Figure Skating Championships - the ice dance part basically. Hopefully I will find it inspiring, as well as awe-inspiring!!

My coach is also going, and staying at the same hotel as myself. Apparently we are doing an off-ice training programme in the hotel gym, BEFORE breakfast. So much for a nice rest! I don't mind though - it will be interesting to do some off-ice work. There is also a nice pool, jacuzzi and sauna, as well as a massive buffet breakfast, so it should be a nice trip.

Oh, and I've just had an email . . . Apparently my coach, her mum and I are having a pyjama party in their room, to watch the first episode of Dancing On Ice, lol.

Had my first physio appointment this week with regards to my shoulder. No treatment yet, but I have some exercises which I have been good about doing every day, and dare I say it this early, but they might be helping a little. Back in two weeks for a follow-up . . .

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, I'm Stiffer than a Christmas Tree . . .

2008-12-30T11:59:00.009Z

Hello all! Hope you had a nice Christmas and sorry I haven't updated for a few weeks! I have had a lesson since the last time - in summary, it was good, we mostly did compulsories and apparently I can give it attitude on the tango after all.

I have been soooooo lazy for the last week it is untrue. And eaten far too much. So, this morning, I decided to take myself in hand and drag myself to the rink for the first time in nearly two weeks (unfortunately the necessity of Christmas shopping got in the way of skating last week!). And previous to that, various panto's taking over the rinks . . .

One word to describe it really . . . sluggish. Like there is half a tonne of Christmas pudding in each leg. Actually, there probably IS half a tonne of Christmas pudding in each leg. And my skates feel like they have regressed a month in the breaking in process . . . ooooowwieeee!

Just did basics really - my mind wasn't sharp, and my body certainly wasn't. I haven't dared get on the scales since before Christmas (this from someone who weighs herself every morning usually!) but it feels like I am hefting a few extra pounds around after Christmas. Which is normal I know - but it amazes me to think how uncomfortable that is, yet I used to lug around a whole lot more than that!! Anyway, back on a healthy diet again as of today, so hopefully my mind and body will catch up soon :) Spins were pitiful as well - I hope it doesn't take a month to get back to my best five revs again!

Afterwards, I walked down through Alexandra Park in the frosty sunshine, which was glorious. I rarely get to do this, normally skating in the evening and it not being a very wise thing to do in the dark!

Time to start thinking about the new year now I suppose. Entries for the BAC's have to be in on the 15th January . . . and I am not confident that my free dance will be ready. My compulsories are fine - but I am not dragging myself off up to Sheffield just to do those. It doesn't bother me if I don't do the BAC's this year - but I want to do the Mountain Cup in June, and that is loads of time to get comfortable with my FD (which incidentally, still isn't finished!). Anyway - in my coaches words - we will leave it to the last minute and see what "state" my FD is in :) Doesn't feel like I'll master Choctaws in the next 8 weeks though!!! Let alone the big swoopy thing in my program . . .

What I am looking forward to is that I have booked off a short break to go and watch the ice dancing in the British Ice Figure and Synchronised Skating Championships in Nottingham. My coach is going and suggested that I should go and watch, and I am actually really looking forward to it. Plus, I love staying in hotels!

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Choctaws are horrible

2008-12-09T21:43:00.005Z

Ooops - not updated for a while.

Had a lesson with S - a different coach - last week, as my own coach was away. S is a very experienced coach, and an ice dancer to boot and it was really interesting to have a lesson with a different teacher. We worked on real basics - and after a warm up, it was all about taking forward crossovers, forward and backward open chasses and forward closed chasses and breaking them down to the minute detail. Pleasant change to have someone telling me to slow down for once, rather than "Shift yer bum!" being yelled after me round the ice rink :)

I am even considering adding an extra lesson at least once a fortnight. I already have upped my Wednesday lesson to 45 minutes and D only comes to Ally Pally once a week, so might ask S if she can fit me in for an extra half an hour every other week or so, in March.

Skated Saturday and this evening. Still working my mohawks to death - both the "cheated" one in my program, which I am getting used to two footing, and speeding up "proper" ones. I now practice them with three strokes going into them - not particularly fast, but getting so much faster!! Quite pleased with the progress.

Choctaws - specifically the Blues Choctaw in my program - however, are driving me insane. Any tips from readers would be gratefully received. I just can't seem to step onto that back outside edge consistently. The odd wobbly one, but mostly, I just step onto an inside edge. I think it might just be a question of confidence (as is so many things . . . sigh . . .) but finding them a little frustrating to say the least.

Spins going relatively well though I think - getting 4 revs now fairly consistently and not travelling quite so much!!!

Splatty splat!

2008-11-26T20:49:00.003Z

Had a looooooong session with my coach today - in fact, she spent the entire hour and a half patch with me. Apart from five minutes when I just HAD to rest my increasingly deforming right food. I warn you - I might post a picture one day, and it ain't pretty!

I have been rather sluggish this week overall - having a busy time at work and things on my mind, but it wasn't too bad.

Started with some exercises:
Forward Crossovers: Worked on getting the "sweep" through smoother.
Backward Crossovers: Looked at technique on these - and she has given me an exercise to work on the pushing. I was worried I wasn't stepping into the circle enough, but she said that was fine. Apparently my boots need to be a bit bendier at the back though!
A nice flowy edge exercise :) Steep outside edge, crossing over onto a steep inside edge, followed by another steep inside edge. Bit like Russian stroking but not. Felt nice.
Changes of edge - outside to inside: Need to push the outside edge up the rink more as was getting a bit diagonal.
Backward Russian stroking: Was all about speed on this today. I do this a lot in practice in circuits of the rink, but not as fast as we did it today, lol.
Mohawks: I wanted her to check out my mohawks to check that all this practice I have been doing on them is heading in the right direction. Okay, they need speeding up now - but she said they were lovely!!!! I've really, seriously struggled with mohawks for some reason, so absolutely delighted with this :) Funnily enough, the opening bit of my new free program has a mohawk that I have to actually cheat to make it go in a straight line! But it looks nice :)
Twizzles: No doubles even though she tried to get me to do doubles. Apparently if she asks me to do a double, I tend to go into it slightly crooked which I don't do on a single. Aren't brains strange things :)

Onto dances:
Dutch Waltz: I can feel edges getting better on this all the time, but need to check my shoulders particularly after the second swing, so I can get the run round the corner with less effort. Other things I have to watch out for is keeping my rear extended leg slightly more out to the side and lilt my run more. Unfortunately I lost my balance on the swing on the short axis and did a kersplat on the ice. Slid onto my back quite elegantly with my legs above my head, almost in box splits. One of the coaches said "Gosh, you're flexible!!". I am now . . . .
Canasta Tango: Didn't do this one to music due to current sluggishness, but she was actually happy with my runthrough. Working on not keeping my bum stuck out after the slip has helped!

Finally we worked on my new free dance. We now have 1.10 of the 1.30 minutes down which is great. She does throw the odd evil thing in though, like a blues choctaw! Probably the thing I was most happy about is that the 30 seconds I learnt last week, and was absolutely terrified of, I can now do not too badly considering. Okay - it needs to be bigger, faster etc. but I can actually do it! The new bit is still at the terrifying me stage (inside 3's at speed, blues choctaws, twizzles and barrel rolls) but I am a little more confident than I was last week that it could possibly work!!

The beginnings of my Free Dance

2008-11-20T19:30:00.001Z

Somewhat uncomfortable for today’s lesson, as my right boot was giving me grief. My left foot is absolutely fine now – but I have rather an unattractive bump forming over the arch on my right foot and I also had the laces tied too tightly which didn’t help. Never mind – I have a few days off the ice now (well, till Saturday at least) so hopefully that will help!

Not much to report for my lesson – we did some basics, the evil alternating twizzles up the long axis of the rink (I know they are not that evil, but they still feel odd in my boots, so I am not enjoying them much at the moment!) and then went through the CD’s required for the British Adult to music. Actually not bad – I thought my feet in new boots would still be too sluggish but I just about managed to keep timing in the Canasta Tango which I was happy about. The Dutch Waltz (after me saying “Musicality is the least of my problems. . . “) was all over the place for the first sequence, but it was to music I hadn’t heard before, and I really couldn’t find the beat in it! Caught up with myself in the second and third sequence though, and overall they are both fine.

Then we started putting together my free dance. We have about a third of it now (and I have remembered all the steps too!) – and Oh. My. God. I am terrified doing it! Actually, that’s a bit of an exaggeration – most of it feels okay, but it starts with a Mohawk on my weaker side, that has some graceful “dying swan” kind of position coming out of it, and I just cannot get my balance on it. At the end of what we did, there is also some strange toey thing after an FI3 to bring me back round to front again which I need to work on. I am a little concerned that it will always be terrifying J But it looks pretty, and I like what she has done – just a matter of confidence I suppose.

Next week my coaches other pupil is away, so she has said we will spend the entire session (an hour and a half!) learning the rest of it. Let’s hope my foot is a little less painful then . . . .

A lesson at last. Woohoo!

2008-11-12T20:28:00.004Z

Yes, my darling coach has returned from San Francisco (albeit slightly later than intended due to her original flight being cancelled due to torrential rain!) and it was my first lesson in FIVE WHOLE WEEKS!!! Haven't blogged in a little while, but I've just been mostly settling into my new boots, which has been going relatively well.

Today was going back to basics - making sure I could do everything okay on new boots / blades and it was great to be back in a lesson. I have 45 minutes now (as opposed to half an hour) so lots of time to fit everything in!

Forward Stroking: All about knee bending in the right place to generate power. I look like I "skim" the ice, rather than pushing down into it.
Backward Stroking: Again, need more knee bend and push - in the right place. I also have to work on keeping my free hip forward.
Two and one-foot slaloming: One foot is not too bad on one foot - dreadful on the other. D has corrected my position (I was kind of holding my free leg a little behind me) so now I have my free foot tucked into my other ankle, and knee lifted to the front.
Changes of Edge: Namely, inside to outside which I have been struggling with. She got me to do them by bringing the free leg forward on the inside edge and then swinging it back on the outside edge. Bingo! Now just have to try and translate it into NOT moving the leg!
Forward Edges: Not like Field Moves, but keeping the free leg extended back all the way. Free hip needs to be more forward.
Backward Outside Edges: She is supporting me, but was actually really pleased with them. And when I tried to do them on my own, they were tiny!
Backward Crossovers: I need to lead with the inside shoulder more and keep my weight back at all times.
Backward Runs: Lol, haven't done these in aaaaages. But they felt relatively smooth and D was happy.
3-turns: These are one of the things feeling a bit dodge in my new boots - D puts it down to new blades, lack of confidence and needing a stronger check.
Spins: D was soooooo pleased with how these have come on in her absence. She is now bullying me, in her inimitable way to get more revs :) Most of it comes down to me not always being right over the skating leg, but I do know when I am not. We also played around with different spin entrances.
Spirals: She was pleased with my new outside edge spiral! Also did the Level 1 Field Moves spiral exercise which was okay I think.

One boot didn't hurt at all today, which is great - the other one was giiving me a little grief above my arch, but manageable. It's taken a few weeks, but the pain is nearly over! D was complaining that I have no creases in them yet - apparently she got creases within a week. But she skates like 60 billion hours a week!!!! Humph, no fair . . . I have been instructed to either blast them with a hair dryer, or wear wet socks in them. I think I prefer the hairdryer approach.

Overall though - I think she was pleased with my progress. She said I was definitely a stronger skater now than before she went away, which is a relief. I had visions of spending four weeks trying to break in new boots, and not getting anywhere!!!

Time to go to the physio!

2008-10-28T19:10:00.003Z

I've had a few good skates since my last post - everything going fairly peachily. Haven't tried twizzles yet - but not deliberate, I just keep forgetting to try them on my new blades! The only thing that feels awkward still is (quite specifically) counter-clockwise backward crossovers. It's the crossing foot that feels very strange - a mixture of sharp blades, stiff boots and weight not in the right place to avoid toepicks. But getting better - I nearly fell over doing them, but as the rocker is so much better, I twisted out of it really easily!

Now, I've been moaning about my shoulder giving me problems during synchro, and as a result not being able to do anything in hold. Well, I finally got round to going to the doctors this morning - and his diagnosis corresponds with mine. Rotator cuff tendinitis. So I am waiting for a physio appointment to be set up (apparently it should only be a couple of weeks, which I am seriously impressed with - but we'll see) to have some treatment on it. I certainly am not allowed to have it yanked around in synchro - he actually said "Maybe ease off the skating", but reassured him that skating solo is very different to skating synchro!

I have a dilemma now though. Do I continue going to synchro for the next x number of weeks, not being able to do anything bar pottering through the steps on my own in the corner, or do I use that time for another solo session? I am kind of thinking that the solo skating would be more beneficial until my shoulder has improved, but won't make a decision till tomorrow. I have emailed my coach in sunny California to ask her advice as well!!! If she agrees with me, I'm actually going to try and book a lesson with S (another dance coach) at Ally Pally on Thursday. My own coach is back next week, but want to have a lesson again! And my coach is quite happy for me to have a lesson with S in her absence - in fact, highly recommended her!

I was going to skate tonight . . . but the weather is all of a sudden disgusting, after multiple blood pressure readings on my bad arm and being poked around by the GP this morning, my shoulder is rather sore - and when it is sore, it makes my neck stiff and other parts of my arm achey as well. It's not like me to miss a session, but quite frankly, after a horribly busy day at work, I have had quite enough today!

Light at the end of the tunnel

2008-10-19T09:28:00.003+01:00

Managed a whole hour solid in my new skates today!! I was happy to rip 'em off by the end as the bones in my arches are still giving me some grief, but it is improving. If I keep moving, it almost wears off!! I can highly recommend Scholl Party Feet as a cheaper alternative to Bunga Pads though :)

My confidence is definitely increasing now. Today I did lots of basic fast(ish) forward stroking, slaloming and swizzles, stroking, Russian stroking, Level 1 FM edges (getting much better now) and more stroking! And a little bit of backward swizzles/slaloming/stroking as well.

I started experimenting with mohawks and 3-turns. Albeit gently, they are happening. FI3's are a little dodgy, but mohawks and FO3's are getting there. In her latest missive from the States, D advised I started spinning on my new blades ASAP. Now my spinning is in its infancy, and I was beginning to manage 2-3 revs fairly consistently on my old blades. It took me a little while to adapt to new blades, but just a couple of times, I hit the sweet spot sooooo easily!!! And did 3 revs straight off!! I think spinning might be taking on a new dimension with these blades, with their lovely larger rocker :)

I also did some forward crossrolls - one side feels okay, the other side feels a bit toe-y, but it will get better I'm sure. And I did my first spiral in my new blades as well, which felt very nice :)

Lastly, I did my first dance in my dance-y blades. Just a slow-ish runthrough of a Dutch Waltz. The swingrolls feel really nice and secure but the progressives feel a bit odd and clunky. For some reason I was catching the tail of the blade (even though its about a foot shorter than my old blades!) but when I started pointing my foot a little, it got rid of the problem. I did half a runthrough of a Canasta Tango as well (had to stop as midgets in the way). I was a bit worried about the slip chasse's on shorter blades, but so far, it feels okay. In fact, I haven't really noticed the shortness of the blades at all yet, which is great.

The only thing I haven't got my head round yet is backward crossovers. I have done a few strokes, but drawing the foot across the front feels very peculiar. Something to tackle next time I skate.

And then I took in a bit of culture and went to see two exhibitions at the Tate Modern with my brother - Mark Rothko who I just love, and Cildo Meireles - a Brazilian installation artist, which was really interesting. I recommend both exhibitions if you fancy an afternoon pottering around the TM!

A little better . . .

2008-10-17T19:10:00.005+01:00

Maybe my new skates aren't the Instruments of the Devil after all :)

On recommendation from another skater, I bought some of those Scholl Party Feet (gel cushions designed for cushioning the balls of your feet in high heels) and shoved 'em down the sides of my skates. They didn't remove the pain, rather they dissipated it so it was a little more bearable. I managed 30 minutes solid before resting my poor battered feet today, which doesn't sound much, but is compared to 10 minutes on Wednesday! I also learnt today, that to keep the pain down, I have to keep moving. No standing on the ice chatting, as when I start moving again . . . OW! But towards the end, I could feel them beginning to "give" just a tad. Either that or my feet were going numb . . .

The boots definitely felt more secure today - my forward stroking is getting up to speed, forward crossovers are not such a struggle and I can hold pretty good forward edges on them. I think my edges will be much better on these blades. Level 1 Field Move forward edges are a little off centre, but I think that is a mixture of finding my weight balance on new blades as I bring the free leg through, and wearing slightly heavier boots. Did some forward Russian Stroking, and lots of slaloming (on two feet - haven't tried it one foot in these blades yet!) and swizzles. I also did a few gentle 3-turns, just to try and feel the rocker. They happen very easily, and as a result, feel rather strange!

I tried a few strokes of backward crossovers, and this feels rather odd. However, tomorrow I need to start doing backwards stuff on them, so I will just have to bite the bullet. I think it felt peculiar, cos I am not sure where on my blade I should be yet, and the comparitively massive toepick at the front becomes more apparent :)

So, although it was painful, I am pleased with progress. I was really a little dismayed after Wednesday's session, so this has perked me up a bit!

I didn't wear them to synchro last night - and I couldn't believe that even after just one session in my new boots on Wednesday, my old boots felt sooooo wobbly!!! Still not in hold cos of my bl**dy arm, but learnt the steps for the long line bit, and then we did some circuits for Moves in Isolation. I am getting more confident with spins (only 2-3 revs but still more confident) in my old boots - I hope this doesn't take too long with new ones. One circuit was salchows - well as an ice dancer, that ain't goin' to happen, so did some very feeble attempts at 3-jumps. I don't even think I am leaving the ice, lol. Spirals felt good - I have discovered that I really like doing these on an outside edge which I thought would be hard, but actually, no! And last circuit was drags. I was praised for a nice drag and nice spiral position - at least there is something I can do nicely in synchro!!!

My Transpack has just about fallen to bits after a year and a half of heavy use, so today I treated myself to a little baby pink suitcase from Primark for the bargain of £15. I don't think the backpack has been helping my bad shoulder, so maybe a set of wheels will help!!! And of course, it should keep my new babies (yes, I am just about liking them again now) cushtie inside :)

Well, that was interesting . . .

2008-10-15T21:05:00.005+01:00

First session on my new skates today. Hmmmm . . . .

Overall, I can feel the potential. They feel good around my forefoot and toes, which is as they should. The bony bits that stick out above your arches are screaming at me. But I persevered with basically 15 minutes on the ice, and 10 minutes off. The good news is that the bony bits on the outside of your ankles were also hurting me originally and that has more or less stopped. So that's progress!!! There is also none of foot or arch cramping that I had when I originally got my Riedells (probably cos they were too narrow) which I am very happy about. No blisters either, which is another bonus.

The boots overall are stiffer than my current old pair . . . of course . . . but I can get relatively good knee and ankle bend in them, being dance boots - and actually, bending my knees and ankles helped relieve the bony bits so that was very good incentive :) But the sore bits, "new boot" stiffness and higher cut that I am used to did all feel very peculiar and I felt very clumpy in them.

The blades were the least of my worries in the end (and was probably the bit I was most worried about!). I was extremely unadventurous today (mostly cos of the sore bony bits - its very distracting), doing just forward stroking, a few forward crossovers, some forward edges, a few tentative 3-turns near the barrier and lots of plies :) The rocker feels very different - much more of one basically. 3-turns felt practically effortless which was actually a little scary!!!

Hopefully that is the worst of it over. I will be wearing my old boots to synchro tomorrow evening and will wear my new ones during the day at home, and then take them to Lee Valley on Friday and Saturday for some more pain and agony. And hopefully start getting a bit more adventurous in them!!!

Say hello to the new girls :)

2008-10-14T17:36:00.009+01:00

Went to see Les Westaway today, and now I am a few hundred pounds lighter :)

But look at how pretty they are!!! SP Teri Dance with Coronation Dance blades.

It was an interesting day. First of all, my feet are wide. Which I knew. Second of all, on a UK shoe sizer, I am a 3 and a half, which I did not know! I have been wearing size 5 or 6 apparently to compensate for my duck feet!!!

So with my wide, short feet. SP Teri are just about perfect. Not the cheapest boot, but even as I sit here typing on the sofa, with my ankles being tortured (well, a bit of digging in - could be worse!), I can feel the potential. We went with the slightly longer boot, rather than the size down which was a little tight on my toes, so I have a little wiggle room, and slightly narrower width as although technically my feet are off-the-scale wide, they are the sort of feet that prefer a snugger fit (the widest fit felt like I was wearing boats). Not too snug though - still the second to widest fitting! And since I have come home, I have looked closer at my Riedells and seen that I have about a spare inch at the end of room, hence in the picture below, my new ones look nearly an inch shorter!!!

One thing that is a trifle concerning, is that with both having a smaller boot than my Riedells, and having a dance blade, the blades are TINY compared to my Wilson Excels on my Riedells!!

Look!! Skating the first time in these should be amusing . . . . The rocker is much more pronounced as well - wonder if this will help with learning to spin?

It's my birthday :)

2008-10-09T10:23:00.006+01:00

My shoulder is still very sore (not getting better, so I think I may need to go to the doctors about it) and today it is my 32nd birthday, so I have excused myself from synchro this evening to go out for a few drinks with friends. After getting such a lovely comment from "Anonymous" the other day encouraging me with the synchro, I shall be back as normal next week, learning the steps in the corner if need be, until I can hold on to people again without my arm feeling like it is going to fall off!!!

I am so positive about my birthday this year - it makes a change from being depressed about going up a year! I think one of the main reasons has to be that I am over five stone lighter than I was last year. My self-esteem and confidence has rocketed, and that makes such a difference to your general outlook on life, it is unbelievable. So feeling very positive about the coming year!!!

I am also very excited as I am off to see Les next week (I have a week off work so good timing!) to be fitted for brand spanky new skates. I have been meaning to do it for ages but just not getting round to it. I am rather bedazzled by SP Teri Dance - if they feel good, I may just splash out a bit on them. If I do like them, I am going to have lambswool tongue lining custom done as well - skating bare foot, my ankles are getting a bit lacerated, so something nice and soft would be lovely :) Les also said he may be able to do a special deal on blades (D has recommended Coronation Dance) for me as well, but I still think I might wince as I hand my credit card over!!! Unfortunately, they will take about six weeks to arrive, but at least the wheels (or should that be blades!) will be finally in motion.

Skating this week has been so-so. Lee Valley was swamped on Saturday, and patch has been busy at Ally Pally as well. However, I have been perservering with the spinning thing, and I can see progress. My weight is more consistently over my skating foot (not always, but sometimes!) and I am consistently getting 2-2.5 revs now. On Saturday I am going to start pushing it up to 3, and start doing them from a BXO start again, at least half the time.

I literally am SO EXCITED about getting new skates!!!!!!

Spinning the normal way after all!

2008-10-05T13:06:00.007+01:00

I have been spending a lot of time playing around with spins. Not forcing myself into it, just letting it happen and I am happy to say that I do appear to be a CCW skater after all. Which is good news for my coach! I have got back up to two revs fairly consistently now, from doing a T-position start, and have finally got the hang of letting the leg swing around in the hip (whereas before it was kind of getting stuck behind me!). So I am very happy with that.

Back to synchro on Thursday after being unwell, but my upper right arm is still not better. I did the first wheel of the session, and having had pain in my upper arm (just over the deltoid), it made my entire arm down to my hand start hurting. Oh dear. I just went through the steps of the program on my own in the corner, and then did some drills with the rest as long as I was only holding on with my good arm. Problem is now, I am not sure what to do - do I keep going and pottering through the steps, or wait until my arm has healed before going back? Hmmmm . . .

Lesson was good this week - my coach is going to California tomorrow for four weeks (sob!) so a lot of it was going through the stuff she has outlined for me to practice, to make sure I am clear on it. Some highlights:
Double 3's: Hehehe. As long as I am holding on, they are actually happening, but not on my own yet. So D has shown me how to do the first forward 3, and then two foot the backward 3, working up to one footing it.
Dutch Waltz: So along with the Canasta Tango, she is very happy with the progress on this. That means both of my compulsories are at basic competition standard, so lots of time to refine them before the BAC's next year!
Music for my FD: Yes, I have music!!!! This is so exciting! She put it on the sound system and it was great to hear it over the speakers, and much better than when I was listening to the whole track on my laptop some months ago. She's done a fantastic job on cutting it as well - the joins are indiscernible. It's worrying to hear how fast the step sequence section is though :)

So I have stuff to work on for the next four weeks, with strict instructions to email my progress at least twice a week. Two things I really have been focussing on personally is spins as mentioned, and working up backward speed. I now spend considerable time doing laps of the rink backwards, with Russian stroking down the long axes, and BXO's around the short axes. This HAS to help me build up speed!!!

I was debating dragging myself up to Oxford today to go and watch the Adult Open but was enjoying my lie-in far too much this morning . . . blush . . . so best of luck to all those people I know who are competing today!!!!

Spinning direction . . . inconclusive

2008-09-25T12:57:00.004+01:00

We spent some time in my lesson today trying to work out which way I spin more naturally. And the conclusion was . . . inconclusive. Some things I prefer one way, other things another. I do know that when I tried a very hesitant "leftie" spin, I immediately found the right spot on my blade, which I don't think I've EVER managed on the other side, but still. I don't even know if its because I am left footed, or if its because I spin stronger clockwise due to years of ballet. Sigh . . . lots of spinning in both directions now every time I skate, so we can work it out. At the moment it does feel very odd to spin "leftie" but that's probably because I've never gone that way before on skates!

My lessons have now been lengthened, so we can fit even more stuff in.

Level 2 mohawk exercise: It is getting better, but D tells me the reason I can't do mohawks at speed is because I am still spending too much time on two feet in between. I did a couple of isolated mohawks trying to do a faster weight switch, and yes I can see her point.
Mohawk into BXO's: In an effort to get this horrible (for me) mohawk transition on the Level 1 Field Moves, we did lots of these . . . . at speed. Okay - she has to give me the magic hand to do these at the moment, cos I still can't do them fast, but apparently we are going to do lots of these at every lesson, so I can get these darned Level 1 Field Moves out of the way. Joy . . . . Getting more speed up on BXO's today as well, as D was pulling my inside arm into the circle - that bigger step in doesn't half make you go faster! After the Terror(mo)hawks, she asked if I was going to write nasty things about her on my blog. Never :)
Backward Cross in fronts: No idea if that is the proper name, but I am sure you get the idea. All about getting my knee bend in the right place. The cross doesn't really bother me, but the outside edge does a little.
Backward Inside Edges: Little ones, again with a down-up-down motion and really deep knee bend. I liked these!
Spinning: In all directions, in three different ways . . . yep, we still don't know. D is praying that I am a "normal" skater, I have a feeling I'm not. Yay.
Dutch Waltz: Working on the other dance for the BAC's today - haven't done this for quite a while in a lesson. In fact, we put the introduction on it (very floaty with pivots and whatnot) and then when we went to do it to music (not having done it without), my darling coach put the Westminster Waltz on instead by mistake. So I went haring through the Dutch Waltz to music far to fast for it. She was quite impressed that I more or less managed to keep up! But doing it that fast, it was technically quite deficient :)

Off to synchro tonight but my arm is still painful which stopped me doing it last week. I will try this week and see how it goes, but I am also full of headcold as well. Very deep sigh . . . I finally get my energy levels approaching normal, and now my head feels full of cottonwool. This could be fun on the wheely things.

Update: I was going to go to synchro, but decided its not sensible. My head feels like it is blocked up with very thick custard, my legs feel like jelly and I am suddenly quite tired. Not a good idea . . .

Weekly round-up

2008-09-22T14:44:00.004+01:00

WELL! After the shock of seeing NISA trying to charge £81 per class for the British Adult Championships, my blood pressure has only just about come down again, now it is a more reasonable (but still bl**dy expensive) £42 per class. Two whole weeks of being an official member (yes, I have the shiny gold card and everything), and they have already had an email of complaint from me . . .

Still not feeling 100%. I think I may be slightly iron deficient at the moment, hence all the lethargy, light headedness, recurrent eye infection, bruisey legs etc, so am being a good girl and taking my iron supplements. Had a similar thing about two years ago, and it sorted me out after a few weeks.

I had a few days off work last week, and at the request of my coach, along with a few friends, I didn't spend four hours a day at the ice rink, and actually lazed around at home instead! I didn't even do synchro on Thursday - I seem to have pulled a muscle in my right arm (not sure how - probably synchro!) and the thought of clinging on for dear life to my neighbour with it wasn't appealing. I went and watched though - it was actually really good to see how it all fits together. Rather than being in the midst of it, and screaming silently :)

Lesson time was mostly working on the Canasta Tango. Sigh . . . you spend ages on one dance, thinking it is likely to be one of the required ones in the BAC's, get it so your coach is really quite happy with it, and then you have to start all over again. Not having done the Tango for ages though, D was actually pretty happy with it. I do need to work on not flattening off the progressive at the end of the long axis and the following crossroll, but overall, not bad. I remember when it used to feel that I was galloping to keep up with this - happy to report, my timing is pretty good on it now!

I am now temporarily cat-sitting down in Kentish Town and one thing that has been at my disposal is vast acreage of laminate flooring. So I have been spinning on it in my socks . . . as you do. And rather oddly, I have noticed I prefer spinning on my right leg, rather than my left. Could I be a "leftie" skater? It feels a lot more balanced, and I already do spirals on the "wrong" foot as well. This could be a problem for synchro though!!!! Something for me to play with this week though, when I get my skates on again.

But back to work today, and with a nice sore throat as well. I just want to feel ENERGETIC again!!!!!! Still, another three weeks, and I have a whole week off work. Luxury!

Feeling run down . . .

2008-09-10T20:42:00.003+01:00

Not at my best at the moment, I have decided. My skin is terrible, I have Mount Vesuvius sitting on my cheekbone (strange place to get a massive spot!), I have a flare up of a recurrent eye infection, and I overslept this morning. I soooo need some time off work. Luckily, I have some coming up! The only time I have had all year really is the week before Stacey's wedding, and I was completely exhausted after that, so hardly recuperative!

Saying that, my lesson was not too bad. I think my coach is very good at reading me and knowing what to get me to do!

Single push-off: I can get up almost to two-thirds of the rink in one push which is not bad, and my position has improved a lot. More knee bend required though . . . of course!
Backward Crossrolls: Wow - haven't done these for ages, and they feel almost . . . nice! My hands are still resting on D's, but my balance is much better, and they are getting a nice flowy feel.
One foot slaloms: More knee bend again! My head is only dipping about two inches, when it needs to be about ten, lol.
LEVEL 1 FIELD MOVES
Forward Edges: A pleased coach - only criticism was to not hold my leg at any stage, but bring it through smoothly. Its not all the time, just occasionally.
BXO's - Landing Position: No more slipping off the outside edge - again, a happy coach, but she wants more power in my BXO's.
FXO's & BXO's in Figure of 8: Have started doing the connecting mohawk to get used to it, but have to slow down first to do it. I'm hoping I can slow down gradually less and less. FXO's improved, BXO's as before need more power.
Forward Spirals: Another happy coach moment - holding them nice and long. So overall, Field Moves are on the whole a "good test" I think the words she used were. I need to work on making my BXO's faster, and that bugger of a mohawk in between the two figure of 8's.
Level 2 FM Mohawk Exercise: Managed to get through it from one end to the other, albeit quite slowly! All mohawks worked, even if my LFI mohawks are still a tad wobbly.
Choctaws: These feel odd. She helped me today - main point is to do the whole semicircle on the first FI edge, then the whole semicircle on the BO edge. It did make it feel a tiny bit better when I did that.
Golden Skater's Waltz: "I'd be happy to put that in competition". Music to my ears! Went well to music, chasse is a million times better, even the crossroll feels better and more "swingy". The two points to carry on working on was to raise my foot a little higher on the chasse, and to get more power and coverage in the pattern. I get pretty good coverage when doing it without music and hence slightly slower - I need to translate it to the correct beat now.

So some good points in my lesson today. And I also found out while standing off-ice that I can get into a two handed Biellmann position, which quite impressed me! I had tried to do it in trainers, but couldn't get a good enough grasp to get it high enough to get hold of it with both hands. It's a bit easier with blades on, but I can feel the muscles in my back now!!!

A summary!

2008-09-09T21:41:00.006+01:00

Suddenly realised I haven't updated on any skating stuff for a week and a half! Summary then . . .

Last Tuesday was a practice - bit bleugh, brain not in my feet at all. Overdid the drags and pulled a muscle in my groin . . . . AGAIN!

Wednesday was lesson day - not bad. Golden Skaters Waltz coming on - apparently its lovely up to the corner, I need to keep my toe forward when doing the chasse (suddenly I was doing them perfectly - breakthrough!) and bend my knees more on the crossroll. Step sequence is getting a little faster (in terms of steps, not in terms of ice coverage!) and did everything in it, including toe steps, twizzles - just missed out the drag with sore groin.

Thursday was my first synchro session! I was really apprehensive about this, and the coach kept telling me I looked scared, lol. The lesson comprised two elements which I am told are the hardest two things - one of which I did, and one I didn't. I DID do the wheel - I was put in the middle of a spoke and did the sequence - three spoke wheel, changing to four spoke wheel, change hold, change to a parallel wheel (not sure if this is the correct term) and then one line. Scary, and the first time I was taken aback at the sheer centrifugal force pulling you outward! I did better on subsequent wheel sequences, as someone told me to step towards the centre of the wheel - I think this will do sheer wonders for stepping into my backward crossovers! I did have rather sore arms from this the next day though.

The other thing they did which I backed out of was pass-throughs. The steps were a bit of a muddle in my head, and until I have them clear, I'm not ready to hare backwards towards a line of people and hope that I pass between two of them, WHILST doing a 3-turn! I am looking forward to trying some slightly simpler stuff as well, to give me a more rounded idea of what it is about :)

Saturday - I was a little tired after being up till one o'clock the night before, baking a birthday cake for someone and just mooched around doing this and that. Nothing special.

This evening - practice again. Not too bad - mohawks getting better I think. I can just about get through the Level 2 mohawk FM exercise if I don't do it fast. Which is better than it was when the LFI mohawks were half of the time fudged. Played around with spins as well - kept them mostly two foot still, as trying to get used to where to spin on my blade. Perhaps a little progress?!

Lesson time again tomorrow!

Bit of a journey but worth it

2008-08-24T13:25:00.003+01:00

Yesterday morning, for the first time, I braved public transport to get me to Lee Valley (Stacey no longer rides on the weekends at the stables next door, so have to rely on my own methods again!). Actually its not too bad - 2 or 3 buses (depending if one is passing as I walk up Lee Bridge Road) and about 50 minutes. Could be worse.

I had a tummy bug on Thursday with nasty side effects, and went home at lunchtime to collapse. Fully recovered now though, and with all the sleep I have had over the last few days, my energy levels yesterday morning were sky-high and I had a really good skate.

I spent quite a lot of time doing basics as I skated for longer than normal - taking my forward crossovers back as we did in my lesson and doing the "dog weeing up a lamp-post" exercises that she showed me to help me get a lovely smooth crossing action on the crossover. Other basics as well - forward and backward Russian Stroking, changes of edge, one-foot slaloming, and backward crossovers, which dare I say it, are picking up speed more and more now. Beginning to feel the wind in my hair as I do them!!

I went through all my level one field moves, picking up those little niggly bits that can be improved. Holding spirals longer (well, starting them earlier, so I can hold them longer!), making sure every edge is finished as perfectly as I can, and making sure my landing position doesn't wonder off its outside edge at the end as it is prone to do on my right foot. Actually, I think I have sorted that as worked on it quite a bit - pushing my skating hip slightly more into the circle has helped a lot.

And then I did a lot of the Golden Skater's Waltz (sadly, on my own again after enjoying it so much dancing it with someone the other day - I need to find a dance club! Shame onAlexandra Palace for cancelling it . . . ). It is feeling much better and more "flowy". The chasse that I was practically bunnyhopping now feels smoother and like the inside edge really pushes me round the corner and I am really enjoying this dance now.

And then, as I was practicing the spiral bits we have put together for my free dance, I could see another adult skater was watching me. Later, as I was doing backward crossovers and landing positions, she came up to me and asked if I would consider coming along to try out the adult synchro team! Myself and D were talking about this only on Wednesday as she tells me it would be brilliant for my skating, but I have to think about it carefully as it would be more cost, and Lee Valley is not the easiest rink for me to get to. Still, I was really touched that I was approached about it yesterday!

Looking forward to tomorrow as will head over to the IJS at Lee Valley to go and watch our best ice dancers in action (CD's and OD's I think)! Anyone else going? Shame I didn't pre-plan and book Tuesday afternoon off work to go and watch the FD's - I wonder if I can persuade my boss at the last minute . . . .

Great Lesson

2008-08-20T21:54:00.006+01:00

First things first - I don't think I'll be doing Oxford this year. D is a bit concerned that the class I'd be doing if I entered is too big a range of abilities. Ie. the class is Level 4 and below - she says I skate them very well for my experience and level, but not against skaters that are Level 4. She has mentioned Dunkerque in December though, so we shall see . . .

Anyway - onto normal stuff, and a FABULOUS (and yes, another super-long) lesson today :)

Covered today:
Level 1 Field Moves: Did the whole lot today and pretty good on the whole I think. Little things here and there - starting spirals early enough so they are long enough, checking my free hip and shoulder on the landing position etc.
Forward Crossovers: Picked up in the field moves, we worked on the crossing over action. Last week, she instructed me to bring the leg through in a straight line, instead of some weird in and out action. That's done wonders for my progressives, but it led this week to not crossing over properly for XO's! So did some strange exercises bringing the free leg round high and level to get used to the hip action and altering my weight as I do it and then making the circle smaller and smaller until getting the right XO action, which really helped.
Step Sequence: Quote after we finished working on it "Actually, that's really not looking too bad!". We changed a few bits - the cross in front into a barrel roll was looking awkward, so taken out the cross. And instead of straight backward toesteps, followed by turning toesteps, its just the straight back toesteps followed by a step to forward, straight into a lunge. Then back up and twizzle left, twizzle right. The bit I'm struggling most with now is the LFO3 stepping straight forward into a RFO3 - can't do the turnout yet to step straight into it.
Spirals: To be more precise, the spirals that will be in my free program. The sequence has been elongated now, so it goes straight into forward chasse (with the prayerful arms!), then crossroll, crossroll with a lilt into a forward run. With various arms floating about as I do it.
Golden Skaters Waltz: Had to work on the chasse at the end of the long axis - I was tending to jump it a bit. So have to slow it down, and really feel the inside edge on the chasse and using it to get round the bend. A male coach was doing it behind me when the music was on, so D asked him if he would dance it with me. Yep - my first dance with a partner! He asked if she wanted us to do it in open hold, but D said "Nah, go straight for Kilian!". It was great - I so need to find a man to dance with! He was very nice as well - told me that a lot of the time that it is often a struggle dancing with someone not used to it, but he didn't feel like I was a struggle to skate with. I'm glad he told me when he was about to step over my leg though (we did it in Reverse Kilian hold so I didn't have to do the steppy bit) - I've only focussed on the pattern solo!!

Doesn't look like we did as much as previous weeks, but we did! Lots of time on program bits, and a fair bit on the Waltz. I stayed on the ice for about another 30 minutes as well, practicing that chasse at the end of the long axis, to get it right.

My coach is potentially going to be away for four weeks when she has finished her PhD thesis, for the whole of September. Aaargh - what am I going to do! Looks like I may either have a temporary coach at Ally Pally, or D's coach at Queens. We'll talk about it in a couple of weeks anyway. And no lesson next week either - flippin' Hockey Camp at Ally Pally. Grrrrrr. . . . .

Another marathon lesson

2008-08-15T13:31:00.003+01:00

My darling coach got rather carried away again on Wednesday. These hour and a half lessons are exhausting! But Oh So Good at the same time :)

Lots and lots of stuff . . . where do I begin . . .
Level 1 Field Moves: Spirals are now passable (my timing on them is sorted out), and forward and backward figure of 8 XO's are getting faster - the whole exercise is now down to one minutes and a second. Especially with my caffeine enhanced coach coming behind me going "Shifty bum, shifty bum!"
Forward and Backward Russian Stroking: My forward ones were a bit big which is unlike me - I normally fit in four, and only did 3. Backward were not bad - getting faster, and my head is moving more with my arms, rather than just my eyeballs!
One foot slaloming: Forward, I think they have improved. Certainly on my right leg (my weaker side) they feel better, and trusting more that down-up-down movement. Backward - D was saying "You don't need to hold onto me!", but they feel all wibbliwobbly! I guess I'll get the hang of them - just a strange feeling.
Level 2 open mohawk exercise: I think maybe there is just a little improvement. Right to left are feeling ten times stronger, and although I'm wobbly on the left to right, they happen more often than not. D told me that I need to relax more into them, which makes sense as the weaker side does make me tense up somewhat.
"An exercise you'll love!": I've learnt not to trust those words :) "You just do a forward inside curve, and then at the end of the curve you place your free foot directly behind your skating foot, turned out, and push off into a backward outside curve". . . . "By the way, that's a Blues Choctaw". Managed one very fumbly one on my own, but quite impressed! I have to learn not to fall onto the back foot on the change of edge, but its quite a strange feeling stepping onto an backward outside edge.
Twizzles: Beginning to add arms now which is quite nice. They actually feel quite stable, my weight is much more over my skating leg, and they feel much smoother. I haven't managed a single double (if you know what I mean!) yet, but if my single ones keep getting stronger, hopefully it is just a matter of time. D is adamant that I don't do it as consecutive 3-turns, as she says its technically wrong, and just to keep practicing it as I am.
Spirals: I have my personal spiral which will go into my program, and which she was pleased with. I was somewhat upright (still trying to do them like a ballerina!), so on the second one for the first time, really tried to get my upper body to go lower (which feels very alien to me). Apparently my free leg went up six inches, just like that!
Backward Spirals: Well, these were a first. I KNOW that these are meant to be easier and safer than forward ones, but my knee was shaking a bit! Also tried a backward catch-foot spiral, but haven't quite sorted out the coordination in my head of exactly where my blade is when I am trying to find it! I'm not too worried about these feeling shaky now at my first attempt - I am guessing that this is one of those things of just getting used to the sensation. After all, forward spirals felt slightly wobbly the first time I did those too, and I LOVE them now!
Spins: Haven't been having a good time with these, so had taken them back in practice to two-foot spins but with my weight over my normal spinning leg. My skating leg always seems to yank too far back underneath me as I hook it, and I end up on my toepick. D didn't seem too surprised and said it is another thing that relates back to ballet - I can't yet spin on a flat foot. But sometimes now on the two-foot one (and another entry she showed me to practice the one foot one), I can feel where it should be. I will carry on doing this a lot, as I really want to be able to spin well.
Step Sequence: I have been practicing this broken down into segments as didn't want to do it down the centre of the rink in patch yet (I'm such a coward!), but actually, it wasn't too bad. We have added arm bits and I even just about managed to do my turning toesteps!! Needs speeding up a hell of a lot, but that will come over the next six months I'm sure! She was muttering about putting a choctaw in it somewhere as well, but we haven't done that . . . . yet. Currently its a mixture of 3-turns, inside mohawks, cross-behinds and fronts, toesteps, backward chasses, some floaty leg arm-y thing and ending with twizzles.
Golden Skaters Waltz: She was "impressed"!! Obviously its far from perfect, but she was pleased. Things I need to remember is to not take the first slip chasse too near the barrier, so it curves more back to the centre of the rink before the widestep, not to "jump" the chasse at the corner, and emphasizing the cross on the cross roll on the short axis. Did it to music for the first time, and suddenly realised its somewhat faster than the Dutch Waltz, but just about managed to keep up!
Rhythm Blues: We did this to music straight away, and apparently I am still a bat out of hell on the opening steps! She did say that this may have been as I went from doing the Waltz into this and we will practice going from one to the other. We added arms today which of course made me forget everything else, but it doesn't take me long to sort it out in my head thankfully. Picking up choreography quickly when dancing was always one of my strong points!

So was somewhat knackered after that lot, but a good lesson. I don't know if I'll get to skate this weekend, as I have to go out of London on Saturday, but apparently there is an extra patch on Monday cos of the school holidays, so might try that one out. I'm only skating 3 times a week at the moment (it did go up to four) but with my extra long exhausting lessons on a Wednesday, I can't fact a 5.45am alarm the next morning!

Mind you - in a couple of weeks, the ice rink is hosting a "hockey school" so no evening patches for an entire week. D said "Well, we'll see if we can sort out a 06:00 lesson!" - eekily eek!

I have skated this week . . . . .

2008-08-09T09:18:00.007+01:00

. . . but its been a bit Meh really.

No lesson this week, as D has been off fulfilling her journalistic commitments by reviewing some ice show for iSkate but was on hand as requested to help out her SkateUK Level 5 adults with their backward one foot glides and forward crossovers.

Conditions at the ice rink hasn't helped - condensation in there has been dreadful, with pretty patterns of bumps forming all over the ice in nice gridlike formations. It makes doing a spiral rather hair-raising!!!

That and having big splashy drops of water landing on your forehead can be rather off-putting! And the mist . . . .

Oh well, spent my time practicing my Rhythm Blues and Golden Skaters Waltz, field moves and other niggly little bits. STILL can't get a double twizzle, but after working on getting my weight right over my supporting leg on them, my single twizzles are much better. All the lunges and yoga I have been doing on the Wii Fit also seem to have had a beneficial effect on my drags and spreadeagles!!

I even spent some time trying to persuade another adult skater that he really wants to try ice dancing, with a partner . . . . lol.

I am now also trying to work out if it is worth the risk of ordering my new skates direct from the manufacturer in America to save rather a lot of money . . . D has requested that I get Coronation Dance blades which I will still buy here - for some reason they are slightly cheaper in the UK. But boots - I could save from £50-100, even with the postage!!

Late update - only just recovered!

2008-08-01T12:32:00.005+01:00

Well, a slight exaggeration, but being my coaches only pupil on Wednesday until a group lesson 2 hours later (and for the rest of the summer), she got rather struck by creativity this Wednesday and ended up coaching me for an hour and a half!!!! The time flew by though - I didn't even realise we were going for that long :)

Obviously worked on tonnes of stuff, so won't bore too much.

Covered all the Level 1 FM's - the things that previously were stated as being passable are apparently not so much (I am hoping this is just increased pickiness, rather than having gone dramatically downhill!!!). It's little things - spirals need to start earlier, legs need to be higher on landing position etc. And apparently my forward and backward figure of 8 crossovers are still not fast enough, even though I do the whole exercise in 1:06 minutes now, rather than the 1:40 it used to be . . . sigh . . .

What we spent a lot of time on was a step sequence. Yup - I now have an almost rink length step sequence for my first free dance! We weren't meant to be starting on it till next month (to be ready for the BAC's in February/March) but as I said, she was struck by creativity and we just kept adding to it. And much to my surprise, I can just about muddle through it, bar some spinny toesteps near the end. I can do them going straight backward, but am rather unconfident on the ones that turn round. But my choice was a back 3 (hahahaha!), a backward lunge (not too keen!) or toesteps which I have at least being working a little on. They are getting much better when I have the barrier to hand, so I think in six months I should just about crack'em! We also did some stuff on a pretty spiral, which makes the most of my previous ballet training by going into a nice attitude position, then pushing into a forward chasse with arms doing what reminds me of a rather prayerful plea - probably will be "God, please get me through the rest of my program!!".

Lastly we worked a bit on Rhythm Blues. Apart from nearly toepicking myself into a faceplant (saved just in time) on the downhill bit of the ice (gotta love Ally Pally) on the cross behinds, she said she was really pleased with it! We'll be working on the Golden Skaters Waltz in two weeks time (she is away next week), but hopefully I may just be able to do the Oxford Adult Ice Dance Open on the 5th October! Better sort out my NISA membership . . .

So no lesson next week as D is off reviewing some show for iSkate, but said I would Be On Hand for her group of SkateUK adults who are having lessons with her throughout the summer to give encouragement where needed :)

Getting broody

2008-07-27T17:31:00.007+01:00

Had a nice practice at Lee Valley yesterday morning - my feet are getting under me again and went through most things that we did in my lesson. All those little exercises to help technique in various things. Backward crossovers feel like they are getting faster again (I'm sure not fast enough for DE but I don't think they ever will be!) and even mohawks were feeling much better than they have for months, with the corrections she gave me on Wednesday.

I also ran through all my dances - and on the whole, not too bad. The only bit I sometimes bottle out of (not always) is the cross in front, cross behind on the Golden Skaters Waltz. I don't know why I occasionally bottle it - I haven't fallen on it . . . yet! Rhythm Blues felt pretty good, and even though it was a public session, the ice was quiet enough for me to do at least two consecutive sequences of every dance, so was very pleased about that.

And then it was off up to Leicestershire for a garden party of a work colleague who has just retired, in his beautiful home. Lots of sparkling wine, poached salmon, canapes, and later barbecued hotdogs. And I spent an inordinate amount of time cuddling a four week old baby - little Katie - and having a lovely time doing so.

I'm going to be dreaming of babies now for weeks . . . sigh . . . At the wedding, I heard a lot of "It'll be you next!" and regarding babies yesterday, some "It'll be you or Stacey next!". It'd be a miracle - I don't even have a current boyfriend, lol.

Still here . . . still skating!!

2008-07-23T20:37:00.007+01:00

Apologies for the interlude. I had a lesson a couple of weeks ago (3 days before the wedding) which we kept very simple. As I said to my coach, "Stacey will never forgive me if I break something and end up a Maid of Honour in plaster!". Then the rest of the week was spent doing things like getting up at Stupid O'Clock to go to New Covent Garden Flower Market, printing off order of services, making wedding cakes (which I have posted a picture of below, as I am very proud of it!), doing the flowers that we had got up at Stupid O'Clock to buy, decorating the church, a billion other jobs and generally trying to make myself look as nice as possible!

But after all that stress and strain, the day turned out fabulously. And I was truly spoiled as a Maid of Honour, with a Wii as a present! I have since invested in Wii Fit which is great fun - my coach is hoping to come round to review it at some point for a future version of iSkate!

The week after I had no lesson as my coach was away, and rather appallingly I have not been able to get on the ice for two weeks, with a mixture of pure exhaustion, seeing to the brides family who were over from South Africa, work dinners and my weekend transport to my usual Lee Valley sessions being on honeymoon :) I tried to skate last night, but some pillock on the bus at Finsbury Park refused to get off when his ticket was invalid, and held us all up.

After expressing my concern about needing to find my feet again, tonights lesson was really actually really good - lots of little exercises taking me back to basics.

The Finer Details of Forward Stroking: Need I say more?
Twists (making names up!): Getting a bit of speed up and tramlining my feet, and then rotating my upper body round as far as possible and then in the other direction whilst still gliding forward.
Crouchy Things: Tramlining again, then crouching right down taking the arms down with me, and then stretching up and slightly back, taking my arms up over my head. Need to stop sticking my bum out quite so much on the down bit.
Backward Russian Stroking: Not bad. I've stopped bringing my feet back together before going into the next BXO and after a gentle reminder, I started following my arms with my whole head, rather than peeking out of the corners of my eyes.
Mini Forward Inside Edges: As it says really - concentrating on keeping the hips tucked forward after bringing the leg through and we added arms as well.
Backward Crossovers: Not bad - need more knee bend and a bit more push. I think I was holding back a little on these tonight, as backwards felt a little more hairy than normal - I guess cos of the break.
Forward Crossovers: I appear to have lost at least one bad habit over the last fortnight (D said it can happen with a break) - my feet are all pointing in the right direction! We added pretty arms, and even on my weaker side, I can feel myself leaning into them much more now.
Pivots: Well, backward ones to be precise. CW not too awful - I really can't do them CCW at all though! About three quarters of one is about the best I could do. Mainly cos I don't keep my weight over the pivoty leg. Something to work on.
Level 2 Open Mohawk exercise: Actually, not too awful! We worked on my push into the mohawk (doing a straight forward push with extension, rather than my rather odd half rotated, leg looking like a dog weeing on a lamppost position) and also the speed of transfer, ie. me not two-footing it during the transfer.
Alternating spreadeagles: As it says really - inside swing, then swing leg back into spreadeagle, then transfer weight onto leading foot and bring trailing foot beside it, repeat on other side. One side not too awful - I have never done a spreadeagle to the left though, and that was pretty horrific. Kind of started getting the hang of it though - the most difficult bit was transferring weight to the leading foot without 3-turning it in as I normally do to come out of it.
Drag exercise: Forward drag on left leg (rubbish side) then straight into forward drag on right leg (better side). Wasn't coming out of them too elegantly, but better now.

There are no adult group lessons now for the summer, so stayed on the ice on and off till about eight, and towards the end it was lovely and quiet, so got some runthroughs of a Canasta Tango, Dutch Waltz and Novice Foxtrot in. Worked a little more on mohawks, and even got a couple of spirals in.

It was truly lovely to be back on the ice - I am glad things are getting back to normal!

And here is the wedding cake, made by my fair hands. It is a 3 tier White Chocolate and Dulce de Leche cheesecake (each cheesecake double depth) - if anyone wants the recipe I am happy to post it! I may be tempted to post pictures of the jewellery and tiara that I made too at some point :)

So pleased, I just have to share!

2008-07-06T11:49:00.005+01:00

Not directly a skating post, but I am so chuffed today that I just have to share it!

You may remember that I have been on a "health mission" (sounds much better than diet - and diet always sounds like such a temporary word to me) since about November. Well, as of this morning, I have now lost exactly four stone. That's 56 pounds, or 25.4kg for those of you who prefer alternative measurements :)

I have had two goal posts for this - next Saturday is my best friends wedding, at which I am chief bridesmaid. Quite a few months ago now, she took an absolute leap of faith at my request (bless her) and bought my dress about 3 sizes too small. That now fits, and I am looking forward to feeling absolutely gorgeous next weekend (well not as gorgeous as the bride, but still pretty fab I hope!).

I still want to lose a little more - and skating is partly to blame for that. If I wasn't skating, I would probably be more or less where I want to be - maybe another half a stone off, but if I am going to wear lycra in public (whenever my first comp may be!), I want to feel as good as I possibly can! So that is goalpost number 2 and I am sure it will get harder from hereon in. Still, onwards and downwards (on the scales at least!).

Regardless, today is a bit momentous and feeling very, very smug!!!!!

Another tired skate . . .

2008-07-02T20:25:00.002+01:00

. . . but still not a bad lesson! I am off work all of next week, which I am really excited about (followed by my stint as Maid of Honour a week on Saturday - yay!) and want to get some good skating in, when I am in a refreshed state, rather than dead on my feet! Hopefully when someone has been appointed to my old job and I don't have to cover that one as well, I won't be so tired . . .

Still, onto my lesson:
Mohawk Exercise: This is getting better - still not particularly fast, but my mohawks are stronger, more balanced and I am holding the exit edges so much better now.
3-turn exercise (level 3 FM's?): The forward outside 3-turns are not too bad - like the mohawks, I am holding the exit edge much longer now. The backward inside 3-turns to come back the other way are horrible though! Played around with these on the barrier afterwards and I managed one very wobbly one without holding on, but they are eeeeevil!
Forward & Backward Slaloming: Better, particularly the two foot turn from back to front. I think that the turning from back to front on two feet recently has helped me get my one wobbly BI3 (above) . . .
Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig 8.: About 3 seconds slower than the last time I did it, but I am about 50 times more tired, so will take that! Doing the whole exercise now in 1 minute 3 seconds - D wants it in 40 seconds for my test. Sigh . . .
Step Sequence: We went over the step sequence we started last week (not repeating it here again!) and much to my surprise, I managed to muddle my way through it, including the backward crossroll and a very, very dodgy outside mohawk (which actually is ending on an inside edge at the moment!). Trying to get my free leg over hip height and pretty while doing a backward ouside edge is interesting as well . . .
Golden Skaters Waltz: First time doing it ever on the ice, and I think D was surprised (as well as myself) that it actually wasn't bad at all!!! Even the cross in front and then behind wasn't as bad as I feared it to be. Almost breezy! That wide step is just UGLY though . . .
Rhythm Blues: What with wedding things, work things and general "can't get my head of the pillow to skate at 7.00am" things, this was the one thing that I really worked on yesterday - my solo practice since last weeks lesson. And D said she was very happy with it and how much it has improved. Even saying "Even in a competition, that would be passable". I can't tell you how happy that made me :) It did make me laugh though - she gave me a sheet of the pattern with notes she had written on it for me - the first one I saw was on the cross-behinds where it said "Relax shoulders. Don't hold breath". They are almost at the feeling okay stage now though, which is great.
Forward Upright Spin: Did just one as an afterthought today. Did two revs (pathetic I know) but D told me that it would actually have spun if I hadn't lost my nerve after a couple. I think I might be finally getting there . . .

So all in all, it was actually a very enjoyable lesson. It's typical really - the days I feel absolutely great, I normally end up splatting somewhere, and the days I am tired, actually go really well. Maybe it's because I have less expectations of what I can do?

Book Meme

2008-06-25T20:32:00.005+01:00

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicise those you intend to read (as in the book is bought and sitting on my shelf).
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Strike out the ones you thought SUCKED.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte's Web - EB White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Gacked from Mrs Redboots!

Tired girlie

2008-06-25T20:06:00.002+01:00

Not done too well on the practice sessions over the last week. I went on Thursday morning, but had a very tentative skate after falling on my hip last week, and then it was Stacey's hen weekend so no skating then! I started my new role on Monday (having been promoted - now a Business & Systems Analyst, doesn't that sound grand!), but not having a replacement yet, I am doing two jobs at the same time and was so tired last night, I didn't skate then either.

Still knackered today, but lesson time and it wasn't a complete wash-out.

Forward Stroking: Good - need to turn out my left leg more.
Forward Crossrolls: Did these slow and fast. Both need more knee bend - I have never done them fast before, and not bad, but need more "bounce".
Backward Strikes: There is certainly more power on these than there used to be, but I need to stop wiggling!
Backward Russian Stroking: Felt quite nice and smooth. I didn't realise that I bring my feet together before each BXO which I need to stop - apparently that will give me more power.
Rhythm Blues: Taken to bits without the music today. The pattern is much, much better, so focussing on things like pushing forward into the swings rather than in the direction they end up, so there is a better edge on them. We also worked on my progressives, especially the lilted ones to get the rhythm right. I now have "seductive" arms on the strokes into it, and did all my cross-behinds today, even though I still have a hint of terror on my face!! Pleased with how this is progressing.
Step Sequence: Yes - my first attempt at starting to learn a step sequence. How hard are these when you start!?!!! Today I did a RFO3 with extended leg and arms going up (American style?), push back onto a LBO edge, then RBO edge, cross-behind onto LBO, step forward to RFO, cross in front to an LFO, briefly bring feet together and then LFO mohawk. Feels incredibly awkward, but I believe this is the norm for learning step sequences!!!
Forward Spin: Didn't fall down a hole this week, but wasn't all there, and only managed paltry single revs. Although D tells me that I am dropping my right hip and shoulder too much so that could explain it!
Spreadeagle and Ina Bauer: Just a quick one of each at the end of the lesson. Done better - spreadeagle was better than my Bauer, but put it down to being tired.

Absolutely exhausted now, so off to bed very soon after grabbing something to eat, as I want to be up early tomorrow to be at patch by 7.00 . . . I am beginning to wonder about my mental faculties. How can I be so tired and STILL want to be up at dawn?!!!

Ouch . . . OUCH!!!

2008-06-18T21:23:00.004+01:00

I have had my usual three practice sessions since my last lesson but just not been good at updating!!

Lesson this evening though, and since Mrs Redboots kindly let me know what dances will be at Oxford, we are starting to work on those ones intensively. However, Oxford is about a month earlier than last year, thus a month earlier than we bargained on, and I haven't even TRIED the Golden Skaters Waltz on ice yet, so Oxford may not happen - it may just be straight to the British Adult Championships in February. Gulp . . .

Did a few exercises to start with. However, my brain has been in steady decline since the weekend and not too much better today so wasn't one of my best lessons.

Forward and Backward Stroking: Not bad - don't often get to do vanilla backward stroking, and not quite getting my weight over my left foot (right side better). I need to slow it down to get a more powerful push.
Backward Crossrolls: Almost unsupported! Still don't see how this is going to translate to just six up the long axis, but time will get it there, I'm sure! Placing my foot slightly better now and feeling a tad smoother.
Level 2 Mohawk exercise: Done it better - didn't do a good job of maintaining my exit edge today (weight far too far forward on the blade) and left mohawks still pretty horrible comparitively. Did it better in practice afterwards though.
Level 1 Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig 8: Shaved 10 seconds off this week compared to last week and doing the whole exercise in just over a minute - it used to be about a minute and 30 seconds!!
Rhythm Blues: Starting picking this one to bits. Main points to work on this week is to remember to do a lilting run on the second progressive (I always forget!), make sure my swings push out rather than up the rink and to ensure my progressives place directly in front of my skating foot, rather than next to and then sliding forward. However, I seem to be slightly less reluctant about the cross-behinds (I still don't much like them but was determined to do them today, even down the hilly bit!) and doing this to music, it was perfectly in time which is good! Need to sort out the pattern though as well - overshooting on the first progressive which pushes the whole of the rest of it out.
Forward Spin: First ouch of the evening - first spin and managed to find the only hole within a ten foot radius to get my toepick stuck in. Fell right on my hip. I kind of lost my nerve a bit then, but managed to do one reasonable one with the correct exit in the end! Still not many revs though . . . one problem is that I am still trying to spin on my toes a little, as I did for many, many years! You would have thought I would have unlearned that by now . . .
Pivots: All directions, all feet - hehe, they don't want to happen on my right foot! This is all stuff that she wants to put into my dance intro. Along with a two foot spin from pulling my feet together. With pretty arms and stuff. Actually, the pretty arms made it easier!

I then did a Rhythm Blues to music. As I said, all in time which is good. However, a munchkin pushed backward from the barrier right into my path, made me stumble, he fell over and then decided to grab hold of me pulling me down again and falling on top of him. Right onto the same hip I fell on with my spin! Definitely feeling somewhat bruised now!!

Unlikely to skate this weekend as it is Stacey's hen-weekend, so off to bed now so I can be up at some obscene hour to skate again. In nine hours . . .

Yay - back to Lessons!

2008-06-13T13:01:00.004+01:00

It was lovely to see my coach again on Wednesday evening - had to restrain myself from picking her up and hugging her!

Of course, after 3 weeks, it felt like a great lesson. We didn't really do any Level 1 Field Moves as D is "bored of those now", so warmed up with Level 2 Field Moves.

Forward and Backward Crossrolls: Forward were not bad, but need to pigeon toe my feet a little more. Worked on this afterwards and am beginning to step more onto the outside edge. Backward are still a bit hairy, but improving much to my astonishment, especially as I haven't done them for a while. I still use her for support, but much less and as long as I remember to step onto a flat blade, they don't feel too bad. Of course, instead of the required 6, I am doing about 20 up one length but getting slightly bigger!
Backward Edges: A little better but still too small. Worked on the push as I keep cheating it slightly, and did that a lot in practice too, so getting there. My leg movements passing through are quite good I think, and getting my arms and head to look pretty at least!
60 second drill: My monthly timed exercise - bombing up and down the rink to a further line each time, aiming to get it at 60 seconds or less. Looking back in my blog, the first time I did it was in about a minute and a half (this is about 8 weeks ago). This time, it was in a minute and 12 seconds, which is a huuuuuge improvement! Reckon I could have done it a bit faster, if it wasn't such a busy patch :)
Forward and Backward Crossovers in a Figure 8: Getting faster, and I have been working on my BXO's a fair bit recently, trying to get more speed without speeding up movements, ie. more powerful crosses. That turn from front to back still scuppers me though - getting worried that I won't master it in time for my test! I'm kind of getting there to do a mohawk at speed (grrrr), flunking it and then doing a dodgy two foot turn to try and not lose speed.
Canasta Tango: Spent a lot of time on this pulling it to bits. D is waiting to hear back from an IJS judge friend about what the CD's are likely to be for next season and she is hoping that this is one of the ones, as she thinks I will do it well. I was quite surprised about that, as its never been one of my favourites, but then I realised just how much it has improved recently. We took the entire pattern to bits and worked the little details of getting progressives, chasses, slip chasses and crossrolls on the right bit, at the right time and with the right posture and technique. Even to music it feels quite good now - I always used to feel like I was struggling to keep up with it, but did 2 sequences without worrying about it too much. I am hoping that the CD's are this and the Dutch Waltz . . . .

So yes, lovely to be back in lessons again and as I have just been promoted at work, hopefully I will be upping my lesson time as well soon.

I went to morning patch yesterday morning which was okay but my brain wasn't really in gear. However, I did some very slow runthroughs of the Canasta Tango to reinforce what we did the night before, and to work on technique rather than speed. And I have to say, I thought my pattern was pretty spot on, on the long axis at least!

Just had a little delivery from America and am now the proud owner of the biggest, fluffiest, purpliest soakers you ever did see, stuffed with foam and possibly bigger even than my skates (I may have to post a photo of them). A 13 year old girl at Ally Pally has them and I wanted a pair . . . . Well, I want to protect my new Coronation Dance blades on my new skates when I get them next month!!!! I keep seeing people with big padded knitted pairs with their names on as well - I think I am right in saying they are the fab work of a certain Mrs Redboots . . . ?

I strained my groin doing spreadeagles . . .

2008-06-11T09:13:00.003+01:00

You try explaining that to someone who doesn't know a thing about skating!!!

I skated at Lee Valley on Saturday morning and did lots of spreadeagles - the next couple of days? Oh good grief - I was hobbling around terribly!!! I must have pulled a muscle in my groin, but it took a couple of days to get better. Oh well, I was back on the ice last night, without too many ill effects, so the worst of it is over!

Main focus this week has been carrying on with mohawk work, doing them in isolation and in all the exercises that I know for inside mohawks. And it is definitely working now - my CCW mohawks are speeding up, and my CW are becoming more consistent, if not as fast. On the 5-step mohawk exercise, one side is getting there, and the other side is catching up. Once that side has caught up, I will start working on getting a bigger pattern and more speed.

Having a odd thing with spreadeagles - they are getting bigger and faster, but only when I do them curving towards the barrier. I don't have to touch it at the end, but I seem to be "setting" myself by it. When I do it away from the barrier, I lose confidence somewhat. Oh well, I will just have to edge it away bit by bit. Overall though, I am quite pleased with them.

I have been quietly working on my entrance into a one foot spin with the simple push off from the line and then curving on the FO edge, and bringing the leg round. My free leg doesn't feel quite so superglued behind me now as my hip is learning to drop just a little more (rather than being hitched too far up) so is coming round a little more now. I think this is just one of those perserverance things, till I learn how it feels and not to be offput by the slight whippy action.

I can't wait for my lesson this evening - I haven't had one for THREE WHOLE WEEKS!!!!

Return of the LFB

2008-06-05T22:21:00.004+01:00

Yep - after a blissful year and a half mouse free, one has been spotted in the kitchen and since barricaded in with a towel under the door. Time to go and stock up on peppermint oil again, and this time, I will tell the landlord straight away. Sigh . . .

Anyway, back to skating. I had to miss a few sessions (and of course, my debacle of trying to go to morning patch on Tuesday!), so since last week, I didn't get on the ice till last night. And then again this morning - I'm loving the mornings at the moment!

Lots and lots and lots of mohawks again. And it is really starting to pay off - on the patterns D has taught me, I am holding the exit edge of the mohawks and there is a definite increase in speed. Still not quick, but speedier than they were.

Practiced the usual bunch of stuff otherwise - ran through all my dances as well. Dutch Waltz feeling good, Rhythm Blues feeling quite good and Canasta Tango feeling faster.

Last night I did loads of 3-jumps and am beginning to feel quite comfortable doing them now. Spinning is not doing so well, but a little improvement. It's still bringing the free leg round into the spin that gives me the biggest problem but it is getting about halfway round now before I bring it in.

I've been playing around with inside spreadeagles quite a lot this week and glad to say that these have a little more power behind them now too. Ina Bauers are feeling a little more stable, but not with the same ooomph yet as spreadeagles (not that that is that much either!).

Lastly, I did backward crossovers, working on building up speed by using both pushes. I am leaning a little more into the circle now, and get faster much quicker which is a good thing. I have also started doing these from a mohawk start, just to get used to them, and find that this also helps with building up speed quicker. I am quite pleased at how these are going.

Can't WAIT for my lesson next week - it will have been THREE WEEKS since the last one! Although, I wonder how she and her partner are getting on at the Mountain Cup . . .

Humph

2008-06-03T10:25:00.003+01:00

I got up all bright and early this morning. Dragged myself out of bed at 6.00am to get the ice rink for my second morning patch. Waited at the bus stop in the light morning drizzle, ENTHUSED by the coming session and planning what I would practice in my head.

I sat on the bus, dreaming of a beautiful quiet ice rink, and praising myself for getting up even earlier than last week, just to ensure I could get a full hour on the rink and still be at work before nine.

Silly me had not put two and two together, to realise that it was PRACTICE ICE ONLY for the Alexandra Palace Dance Open that is on today . . . . .

Morning skate

2008-05-29T12:54:00.004+01:00

Tut, tut - I have been rather lax in updating my blog this week. In fact, I have skated four times this week, but . . . sob . . . I have no lessons until the week after next - various circumstances this week, and D at the Mountain Cup next week.

This morning, I took the bull by the horns and skated my first morning patch ever. It was a struggle to get up for it (took me about half an hour to drag myself out of bed), but it was so worth it. Just three others on the ice, quiet, lovely ice (by Ally Pally standards anyway) and the sunlight streaming in, which I don't EVER see up there! I was frozen when I got on the ice (about 7.15), but after a couple of minutes, I was warmed up and much to my surprise, able to skate at that time in the morning!

This week I have been focussing on the same things in practice. Loads of mohawks - with about four different mohawk exercises, including what I presume is the five step mohawk exercise. Getting to quite like that one, and the speed is gradually picking up a little now, even though I don't always hold the exit edge as long as I should. But the faster ones are happening more than they aren't now, which is a reversal at least.

Crossovers have had attention as well this week, in all directions. Backward ones getting faster I think after we focussed on them in my lesson - getting more of a push off the outside foot, and more over the outside edge on the inside foot. I would like to get a wider step though. Forward crossovers and runs are going okay, but my CW ones do need some work. CCW are getting what feels like a much better underpush now, but I can't lean into the CW ones with the same level of confidence.

Other stuff? Hmmm - spirals going well, spreadeagles and Ina Bauers not bad (now I know how to get out of them safely, I am more confident going into them), usual stroking exercises and all my Level 1 Field Moves.

Spinning I am trying to get the free leg to the whole wind up thing - it is a little better, but I am hitching the free hip up terribly and my leg tends to get stuck. With one finger on the barrier, I can do it with my hip nice and loose, but somewhere my weight is off. But like I said, getting a little better and I have been assured by other adult skaters that spinning is one of those things where repetition really is key!

I ran through all of my dances today as well - it was wonderful to have room to be able to do the pattern twice and cover the whole rink on all of them! Canasta Tango is feeling better - last night I did it to music when it was on, and even managed to get the cross swingroll on the short axis in time, although in rather edited pattern. Dutch Waltz always feels lovely to do - my main grip is the CW run at the end of the long axis which feels rubbish compared to the ones in my stronger direction - but I do love this dance. Rhythm Blues feeling quite good, and I even did a Novice Foxtrot for the first time in ages, and the pattern if I do say it myself, was pretty good!!

So it's not been a bad week overall, and I think a few more morning patches will be in order. At this rate, I can see it going up to five, even six days a week! Time to start thinking about getting monthly passes every month now!

A lesson on Technique

2008-05-21T22:36:00.008+01:00

I have had a bit of a long week so far with work, so today we decided to concentrate purely on technique, instead of haring around with a coach in hot pursuit / overtaking me as we normally do :)

I also wore leggings and legwarmers today (woohoo!!!), which D was happy about - and so was about half the rink, with the number of compliments I received! That's done my confidence a world of good, as far as my body image goes!

I also told her about my absolute negativity a couple of weeks ago and loss of confidence on the ice. She assured me that everyone gets that sometimes but as I found out, it soon passes!! She also mentioned the same fact that I was pondering about the other day - losing a fair bit of weight means I have to constantly readjust, which can make things harder, especially if my weight drops a lot in a week for example. Oh well, only another 2 and a half stone to go . . . .

Forward Stroking: Need to make sure that my legs (which she can now see!) reach the same height on extension, but overall, my extension is nice. FXO's also improving all the time, especially when I remember to extend the inside leg underneath after the (sometimes there) underpush.
Backward Crossovers: One of my particular "technique" requests today. I am trying to increase the step into the circle and this was really helpful. It's all about my coordination with using the outside leg to push off the inside edge, which will then increase my step into the circle onto an outside edge, before a strong scissor action. She also pointed out that I shouldn't speed my steps up to get faster, rather using more powerful actions. Very helpful!
Mohawks: Another one of my requests, for inside mohawks in particular. Part of the issue has been where my weight is after the turn - too far inside the circle, so I need to push my shoulder down outside of the circle a little more. We did a few new mohawk exercises as well - including the first one I will come across in Field Moves, but not sure which level it is.
3-turns: The Level 2 Field Moves exercise. I am now to do all forward 3-turns in a "dance" style - ie. FO3's go forwarde with my free leg extended behind me, and the free leg comes in straight (but lifted in the hip to keep clear of the ice) and turn on a straight leg. Began to get the hang of this. FI3's with a backward extension are better than they were, but need to increase my knee bend both before and after the turn.
Spirals: Doing these every time I skate (and enjoying them!) is paying off. My leg is now at about 100 degrees, which isn't too bad - my leg does go muuuuuch higher off the ice, but nice to see it is creeping up there now on the ice :) D smiled and said "That's going in your program!".
Drag: It's amazing that I used to think these were horrible. I love doing them now (even though I slightly twisted my knee today!) and now D has added nice arms. Something else I presume for my program . . . However, on the first one, I fell on my bum at the end and it highlights just how rubbish I am at standing up on the ice again after sitting on it!!!!!
Spin: Not too good today. The problem seems to be getting the free leg swinging round to bring into the turn - at the moment I am just folding it to bring it forward. She has given me an exercise to do (basically the step forward on an steep outside edge into it, forgoing the entering BXO's, and doing it on a line so I can judge it better), and also swung my arms round doing it to feel just how much impetus you can get. Hehehehe - it's quite powerful!!!
Bauer & Spreadeagle: One thing I did do today was ask how to get out of them. Most of my problems seem to be with my feet getting tangled up at the end, so D explained to do a 3-turn on the leading foot to come out of it. And hey presto - no more tangled feet! Hopefully this will make me more comfortable in trying to build some speed up on these.

So a very enjoyable lesson - I always enjoy digging down to the finer details, so this was great for me today. I just hope the rest of my week isn't as hectic as the first half of it has been!!!

"Amanda Likes To" meme

2008-05-17T11:10:00.004+01:00

I rarely do Meme's. But putting off going to Sainsbury's on a cold, grey Saturday morning and I came across this one on little.red.boat which is really quite entertaining.

What you do is type in "[Your name] likes to" into Google, and then paste the results of the search. Some interesting things come up :)

1. Amanda likes to do it in her community. What exactly? You can get arrested for that kind of thing.
2. Amanda likes to dance. Well, I loved ballet - hence training for 11 years (and one of the reasons I now skate). However, I am not that keen on dancing on a night out - I tend to feel a bit stoopid. Unless I have had copious amounts of alcohol . . .
3. Amanda likes to escape reality from time to time. Undeniably true. I am one of the worlds worst daydreamers. Bus journeys to work are the worst. I have missed my stop at least twice . . . which is quite clever when you think that my stop is Euston bus depot.
4. Amanda likes to distract herself with silliness. I am blessed to have a best friend who shares the same silly sense of humour I do. One journey on a bus (not daydreaming this time) and we were in hysterics about something silly - prawns I think. Some sad humourless person sitting behind us said to their travelling companion "Those two are talking complete drivel".
5. Amanda likes to draw, paint, write comic books, read Jhonen Vasquez comics . . . got to the comic bit and lost you there I'm afraid. I do like to draw and paint though. I should practice more.
6. Amanda likes to listen to 80's music. I like any music really. Really quite eclectic mixture of things on my iPod, from Britney Spears to Metallica to Il Divo to Tchaikovsky. I can't say I get the same pleasure from the Compulsory Dance tracks on there though!
7. Amanda likes to torture him. Nah - can't say I'm really that hot on sado-masochism . . .
8. Amanda likes to get jiggy with it. Hehehehehehehe . . . .
9. Amanda likes to go running. Not strictly true, but was quite impressed on my first run a couple of weeks ago, where I managed to run a mile of a 1.5mile circuit. A year ago, I'd have collapsed at the first lamp-post. Maybe I'll learn to love it . . .
10. Amanda likes to sit in her pajamas and shop for shoes on the Internet while eating Nutella straight out of the jar. There are soooo many things right with this one. Pyjamas - snuggly. Shoes - essential. Internet - hellooo! Nutella out of the jar? Yes, I have subscribed to this filthy habit in the past, but now I'm a good girl :)

Well, that was fun. I really must go and get my shopping now. That, and I want to go and get some legwarmers from Primark. I LOVE that I do a sport where I can wear legwarmers! I've even ordered some leggings . . . gulp. I feel a skirt coming on . . .

Oh, and I tag all of you skaters who read this!!!!!

Getting my legs back . . .

2008-05-14T20:41:00.002+01:00

Due to my coach having a family crisis, I didn't have a lesson this evening, so worked on getting my legs back to normal after their wobbly few days.

And it is getting better now - both yesterday and today I worked a lot on inside mohawks, after getting inspiration watching how the younger girls throw themselves into them. And on the whole, it is working - I started concentrating less on making them look pretty, and more on just doing them faster. After a while, they started happening faster (although I am sure still too slow for D, but give me time!) and I could start working a little more on the aesthetics again. Overall, quite pleased.

Worked on a fair few other elements as well - Russian stroking forward and back, crossrolls, edges (including starting to work tentatively on my backward edges for Level 2), 3turns, twizzles, spirals, a few spins and a few 3-jumps.

Ran through my dances - the long axis of Rhythm Blues feels really good now, but I am going comparitively so flippin' fast by the end of it, the cross behinds are really hairy! Dutch Waltz also felt quite nice, and Canasta Tango not too bad either.

Afterwards, I had a lovely chat with an adult skater who I have not had the pleasure to talk too before, but did get rather cold as a result! Still, it's always nice to meet new people :)

A "day off" skate

2008-05-12T21:11:00.000+01:00

Took a day off in lieu today, which was nice. Such a beautiful day!

Today was also my first skate since my horrendous one last Tuesday. It was definitely a better one, but even though my outward symptoms of whatever I had last week have mostly passed, my stamina was rubbish, and by the time I got home and had some lunch, I fell asleep on the sofa for half an hour! Being a Monday morning though, the ice was lovely and quiet, although there was a bit of an incident where a lad had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher by paramedics, after hurting his back.

Also not helping is my weight. It is fantastic that I have lost over 3 stone now, but I don't think it is helping my skating in some respects, mostly that my centre of gravity is always shifting. I am wondering if that is impeding my progress a little on things like mohawks. Oh well - I am not going to stop losing weight just yet, so will just have to put up with it! Roll on the day that I get to my nine and a half stone goal . . .

Practiced a variety of things - did various mohawk, 3-turn and stroking drills. Ran through the Dutch Waltz, Canasta Tango and Rhythm Blues a few times - the tango is one of the things that notice my weight distrubition problems. The slip chasses have really started feeling like I am going to land on my backside when I do them. Sigh . . . .

Did some element stuff - I think that finally I am learning to "sit" down into my Ina Bauer, as they felt a little more secure and I can come up from them (albeit slightly inelegantly) more smoothly. Inside spreadeagles also felt a little better, although I am still not doing them at the speed D wants me to do.

Twizzles were terrible. Well, that's not true - my single twizzles are feeling better and better, but those confounded doubles are still eluding me. And spins eluded me as well today - I don't know if this is because I am still not 100% on the ice, or if it is because the ice was extremely hard today, but never mind. I know they are beginning to happen - I don't mind if they are slightly temperamental!

Then after my nap, I went up to Wood Green to do a little bit of shopping, buying a couple of tops that actually fit (rather swimming in my clothes now), some Egyptian cotton sheets that were reduced in Woolworths, and a few bits from TKMaxx, including a pair of Pineapple yoga pants to skate in. I find it hilarious that Pineapples sizing for Large is a UK 12-14! I can get them on, but they are a little tight around my rear! But another few weeks, and they will fit perfectly :)

Off colour

2008-05-06T21:33:00.005+01:00

As D is off to France tomorrow for some competition, my lesson was brought forward to today.

I have been a bit off-colour the last few days, with symptoms of a headcold, and a dodgy throat (possibly hayfever?). I didn't give myself a hard time at Lee Valley on Sunday, but still like it today, and a feeling that I would get tired very quickly, so we abandoned the stop-watch timed things today. I just managed to keep it together for my lesson as well, before everything fell apart! We concentrated on elements today, rather than dances.

Forward Stroking: Pleased with these - good depth, and a good push off the inside edge.
Forward Edges: Good (and passable). Just need to try and get an extra metre on the first inside edge.
Backward Edges (from Level 2 FM's): Not done backward edges this size before and had a bit of support. Not too bad though, once I worked out where legs should be swinging back, bending, straightening etc. D has given me an exercise to work on increasing the power in my backwards push and I also need to push out more to the sides for each lobe.
FI Mohawk exercise: Better, maybe slightly faster. Fitting two in on a long axis, which I was actually quite impressed with, thinking it would be more like five!! We added arms as well today, which I always like dong - it tends to make me forget about the scary things I am doing with my feet!
FO Mohawk exercise: D clarifed the pattern on this today, and it feels like it will be better for that. I also need to check my shoulders on the mohawks. I will get these damn mohawks up to speed, even if it takes me five years!!!
Toe steps: Glad to say that since the last time we tried these, I can cross in front, do three backward toesteps and cross over in front again. Now I have to then do another three toesteps but turning at the same time. Slightly trickier!! Worked on these afterwards and they are getting there.
Ina Bauer: I find it so hard on these to remember everything at the same time. Main points are to keep my shoulders checked, weight over my front leg but not leaning in a strange way.
Inside Spreadeagle: Managed a couple of reasonable ones, amongst the slightly odd attempts. Got a bit frustrated with myself when D was trying to get me to go into it fast, but I just can't do it yet!! I prefer to build up my speed into it slowly I think, being the slightly fearful adult I am :)
Forward spin: Improvement on my entrance - as D said, I am stepping forward into it much more smoothly now and not like I am "going for a teabreak!". Only managed double revs today, but smooth, and a good exit I think.
Backward pivot turn: This is where things started going wrong - although I got the hang of these in practice afterwards, I fell right into a puddle trying these in my lesson, only having tried the forward variety before. Right on the still slightly bruised bit that I fell onto a couple of weeks ago when I fell off my Bauer. Ouch.

And then it was time to practice. Some bits went okay, as already mentioned, apart from the fact that the ice was horribly wet, and I had already fallen into a lake so was very soggy by this point. But things started going wrong - namely when I decided to try a few dances anyway, and my stamina was shot. Started tripping over my toepicks, which I never do, and nearly fell on my backside doing a Dutch Waltz!! I could understand it on the Rhythm Blues, but the Waltz has never given me that sort of problem before! And then I nearly fell over again doing a mohawk exercise, and very much annoyed and fed up by now I decided to get off.

So, all in all it wasn't a bad lesson considering I am not 100%, but the crappy practice afterwards and the general feeling of unease today put me in a bad mood and very negative state. Which is not like me at all.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

Beginning to spin

2008-04-30T22:01:00.006+01:00

Enjoyed my lesson this evening - was D's only pupil, so of course it overran somewhat, but I'm not complaining! A very tired coach though, having literally had no sleep since Monday, as she has been doing a photoshoot for Vogue at Ally Pally for the last two nights! And I mean ALL night . . . It's her last night tonight, so I am typing very quietly as she is sleeping in my absentee flatmates room for a couple of hours, before she has to head back up there for midnight. Luckily I only live about a mile away from the Palace.

Forward Stroking: Broken down even more today, into two distinct knee bends before the push. Feels good actually.
Inside Mohawk exercise: Getting smoother, and slightly faster. Almost beginning to enjoy it!
Outside Mohawk exercise: Not so good - D pointed out though that I shouldn't be trying to do it in a straight line, and showed me the pattern, whereupon it did actually get a little easier.
Alternating FO3's: Feels a bit odd as haven't done FO3's keeping the leg extended behind, but think I will like this exercise. Literally, FO3 and then step from backward to forward straight into another FO3 on the other foot. In a line down the rink.
Choctaw: Another new move. And although it felt vaguely horrific, not as horrific as I thought it would be. Apart from the fact that she wants me to raise my free leg way above hip level as I come out on the BO edge. Hmmmm . . . I think she said it was a Blues Choctaw that she showed me, as well.
FXO's & BXO's in fig. 8: Managed to knock another load of seconds off this today - just need to get the whole lot 14 seconds faster now, so D is happy!
Twizzles: These are driving me nuts. Still haven't managed one double one yet, but D did remind me that I only started learning even single ones a few weeks ago! Still, I find this infuriating. I can feel myself looking down while I do them, which really can't help.
Ina Bauer: I guess these are heading in the right direction, but still find it hard. I think the problem is that I can get in the right position, but not straight away. Time to start doing those exercises for my backside I think . . .
Spreadeagle: One of them wasn't too bad. We also did one with bent knees which was quite fun - again, can't half feel it in my bum!
Forward spin: Was thrilled with these today. Just about managed 3 revs! After going nowhere with them for a couple of weeks, all of them bar one worked in a fashion, and I was even getting a stable exit! I need to get the change from the RBI edge stepping onto a LFO edge on the entry smoother though.
Spiral: Having announced that I did one of these in an attitude position yesterday, she made me do one "normal" spiral on a straight edge, and then pull up into an attitude while going onto an inside edge for the second half. Feels quite stable - leg needs to be higher.
Canasta Tango: Some corrections on the pattern - I need to remember to push out from my line of direction sometimes, rather than trying to go with it. Did it through to music - not too bad - I just tend to lose a little bit of speed on the crossroll on the short axis, so we worked on foot placement for it. I also need to make sure my foot is parallel to the ice when I do the open chasse at the beginning of the pattern and get my knees bending at the right time before pushing into the swingroll. I love doing all these nitty gritty bits - and she said I would hate it! Oh well, there's still time :)

So quite a productive lesson - off to read my copy of iSkate now! We also talked briefly about coaching awards as well, as I would love one day to be able to do things like the SkateUK group lessons. At the moment, I could become a Programme Assistant (if D was my mentor) and help. Once I have NISA Level 1, I can do my Level 1 coaching, which would make me an Assistant Coach. I wouldn't be able to do Level 2 coaching till I had my own Level 6 NISA tests though, but one step at a time! At the moment, I'd just love to be able to teach SkateUK!!

Fear lifts a little more

2008-04-30T11:18:00.002+01:00

I had a good practice up at Ally Pally this evening. It was quite busy, but quietened down significantly in the last half hour which is always good.

Ran through my usual stuff, which I won't bore you with today, as I have a lesson tomorrow evening, and will probably go into it in my usual minute detail :)

Did a couple of spirals - they are beginning to feel stronger, but they do tend to fall onto my inside edge right at the end. I also tried one in an attitude position, which D wants to put into my free dance, and it actually felt okay! However, as it is about 12 years since I tried to maintain a proper attitude, I got a little bit of cramp in my hip :) It was always one of my favourite positions when I was dancing though, so I am fairly confident that I can get it to look nice.

I spent quite a lot of time doing "tricks" actually - my Ina Bauer is getting a little better, as I found that bending my front knee more helps a little (when doesn't it?!!!). I also did a lot of 3-jumps, near the barrier but not using it. And they really went okay! Okay, so I probably was only jumping about half an inch of the ice, but recently, it really does feel like some of the overall fear is lifting a bit. At this rate, I'll become positively kamikaze in a few months!!!

Ran through my Rhythm Blues a few times - the closed chasses are not going well at the moment, so did some slower nearer the barrier to work on foot placement. The rest is feeling quite good though - a lot smoother and faster. Probably why the closed chasses feel so hairy :)

What a lovely weekend!

2008-04-28T20:14:00.002+01:00

Well, apart from being rained on while waiting to go into Lee Valley Ice rink yesterday (typically), wasn't it a beautiful weekend?!

I had quite a good practice session, only slightly dampened by a higher percentage than normal of numpties who thought skating against the flow was a fantastic idea.

Practiced everything I should, including forward perimeter stroking, forward crossrolls, forward and backward Russian stroking, BXO's, FI mohawk exercise, landing positions and bauers.

I spent aaages today doing 3-turns. Just 3-turns!! I've been getting into a nasty habit of putting my foot down as soon as I turn, so wanted to practice lots of FO3's, holding the BO edge on the exit. Satisfied with how they went.

I tried a couple of tentative spins. Most of the time, I do the entrance and then as my foot catches the 3turn (is this the "hook"?) , my weight falls forward. However, for the first time in practice, I did manage to get a couple of revolutions out of just one :) Very slow and wobbly, but its a start!

And at the beginning of the session, when I had warmed up very quickly, and the rink was still empty, I even got a few runthroughs of the Dutch Waltz, and the Rhythm Blues especially, trying very hard to remember all the nitty gritty corrections we did in my lesson! The RB does feel soooo much stronger now.

Not such a "Bleurgh" skate after all!

2008-04-23T21:26:00.001+01:00

I wasn't expecting great things this evening. I have been rushing around like the proverbial fly all week and my brain didn't feel capable of concentration. But as often happens on those days, I actually had a great lesson! I think its because I don't Expect Too Much . . .

Forward Edges: Felt really good - now I am pushing off stronger, the curves are getting really strong and feel very stable. "Above passable" was the comment :)
Forward Stroking: Again, really working on the pushing foot and really pushing the ankle towards the ground to get right over the inside edge of the back foot. Right foot is good, left not so good, but I can feel it wanting to be!
Forward & Backward Crossrolls: Forward felt okay - getting better at leaning out of the circle now. Backward surprised me - managed to do a whole length almost by myself!! Again, working now on leaning out of the circle which helps, and I think my tiddly little curves are getting a leedle bit bigger.
FI Mohawk exercise: Hard work has paid off and this is feeling faster. I still can't bomb round and go straight into it, without a significant amount of slowing down first, but it is getting better!
Forward Progressives: Turns out I have got an underpush now - so glad I wasn't imagining it!
Forward & Backward Crossovers - Fig. 8: Managed to knock off a whole 8 seconds today! Really, really pleased with that. BXO's are getting deeper, faster and stronger - but still a work in progress to get them to the supersonic speed (well that's what it feels like!) that she wants them to be!

Then we spent the rest of the lesson pulling the Rhythm Blues to bits. D said that I would soon hate these dances, but actually, I quite like pulling things to bits and improving them little by little - it appeals to my perfectionist nature. Most of the corrections today were based on the pattern - where to push, when etc. Then I did it with the music, and apart from (as D said) going into it "like a bat out of hell" at the start, when I settled into it, it actually went not too bad.

After my lesson, I was just playing around with each dance, and then some Ina Bauers. They are beginning to go much straighter, which is probably a good thing as D asked one of the good skaters to demonstrate how it should be and it was beautiful. "That's how I want YOU to do it . . . ".

So they were going well, and then I lost my balance on the recovery from one and fell straight onto my sacrum, bashing my right wrist at the same time. Nothing hurts moving today, but a few bruises blossoming nicely!

We have also now made a tentative schedule of events. As most competitions seem to be in June this year, with Bristol(?) in September, it is all a bit soon as we haven't started work on my free dance yet. So the plan is to do my Level 1 Field Moves around September time, start work on my free dance in August, to have it ready in time for the British Adult Championships next February. How exciting!!!

This week's practice

2008-04-22T21:34:00.003+01:00

Once again, I am late in updating as had a practice at Lee Valley on Sunday and Ally Pally this evening. Oops . . .

Lee Valley I had a headache, so really tried to push through it and worked myself really hard. It worked - headache more or less went away. Ally Pally wasn't such a success today - it was really busy, I kept feeling like I was in everyone's way (including not concentrating and nearly skating into someones camel) and just couldn't get my brain into my feet!!!

However, I have managed to get quite a bit done over the two sessions. I have run through all my Level 1 Field Moves in one form or another (although not in sequence), managed to knock a second and a half off a large circle of BXO's (gone now from a paltry 23 seconds down to 18 seconds - so a fair improvement - the aim is to get it down to 10 seconds . . . gulp), various exercises like forward and backward Russian Stroking, one foot slaloming, changes of edge, etc.

I have worked a bit on my FXO's and forward progressives, to try and get the underpush. I am getting somewhere on my CCW ones, but CW needs to catch up. I presume it is the underpush - it feels like the ice is grabbing my blade and pulling it under.

I also did loads and LOADS of mohawks. And I think they are actually getting better. The change of foot is getting neater - well on the LFI mohawks anyway - and I am beginning to speed them up just a little. I know they won't be fast enough for D, but I am happy!

Otherwise, it was just bits like trying to get my head around BI3's, some twizzles (no, doubles still not happening), some spread eagles and some Ina Bauers. D was practicing with J (her dance partner) this evening at Ally Pally, and gave me a couple of pointers on Bauers and all of a sudden, something clicked! If I remember to push my leading hip right back and keep my leading arm pointing in the direction i want to travel, I travel in a much straighter line! Still struggling with the next bit she said - push over the front knee, but push the ankle back so my blade is on an outside edge, but it's just because it feels a little unnatural. But when has skating ever felt natural, come to that!

I have also managed to run through all my dances at least once, and since I have been working on my underpush, feel like they are more powerful. Of course, I could be imagining it . . .

Hopefully soon we will go through the Golden Skaters Waltz and Riverside Rhumba - I have just about committed them to memory, but want to go through them on the ice so they are committed to my feet, if that makes sense!

It's all about the push

2008-04-16T20:51:00.004+01:00

Apologies - I have been a little remiss in updating over the last week. I didn't skate again last week as on the Wednesday I felt absolutely dreadful - ached all over and very headachey. So I stayed home, relaxed and finished off Stacey's tiara for her wedding instead! I thought it was a 24 hour virus, but my coach thinks it is a mixture of a restricted diet (but I have lost over 2 and a half stone now since November!) and overtraining, so I was told to get some effervescent Vitamin C and Zinc to keep my immune system strong. Feeling much better now! I went to Lee Valley on Sunday and Ally Pally yesterday, but nothing amazing to report.

Lesson today though, so a different matter!
Forward Stroking: I had to do this really, really slowly today (nice to do something slow for a change!) and really work on the push off the inside edge by dropping my ankle right down. Started getting the feel for it but difficult putting it into my dances at the moment!
Forward Edges: Trying to do these with a correctly executed push as above, so actually lost a bit of power on these today. But I guess that once my push becomes more powerful, it will actually improve these more. Otherwise, she was very pleased with my curves.
Forward & Backward Crossovers Fig 8: The ice was horrendous today, so didn't knock anything off my speed today. Although she says that my technique is getting much better, and the BXO's are smoother.
Changes of Edge: Outside to inside not to bad, but finding inside to outside much harder.
A new 3-turn exercise!! I wondered when these would pop their head over the parapet . . . and it was today. Yep - backward inside 3-turns. Gulp . . . Yay - another few months of torment trying to work these out. I did get somewhere on the barrier with these - well, the turn bit, but then I just carry on turning! The whole exercise is like forward edges, but doing a 3-turn at the apex of each curve. So one side is a FO3, and the other side is a BI3.
Rhythm Blues: Had D bellowing at me all the way round saying "I want to see the push!!!". I need to work on my forward progressives on these, so I place the foot ahead of the skating foot, and also try and get the underpush which eludes me at the moment. However, I did the RB for the first time to music today, and it wasn't too bad - mostly in time, but I need to transfer my weight over more quickly for the first swingroll as that was the little bit where I slightly came off time.

Afterwards, I played around with things like spreadeagles and Ina Bauers (getting better, not curving around quite so much now), lots of the FI mohawk exercise we did last week (dare I think that my mohawks are getting a tad faster?!), and a Canasta Tango, Dutch Waltz and another Rhythm Blues when the music was on.

Time to get the stopwatch out . . .

2008-04-08T21:29:00.003+01:00

My lesson was brought forward to today for this week, so only squeezed in one practice at Lee Valley on Sunday. Unfortunately, I am hurting ALL over today, from a rather strenuous yoga session last night, so that just added to the fun!

The rink was freezing today, so the first half was all about speed today (the bit I worry about, when it comes to anything backwards!).

Started off with vanilla forward stroking, forward and backward Russian stroking, with my coach telling me to move it all the while. Then some 2 and 1 foot slaloming, and then some sequence of two forward slaloms and turn to back, followed by two backward slaloms and then turn to forward (which I find a little tricky at the moment). Then it was time to bring out the stopwatch she had asked me to bring.

First thing was the "60 second drill". Start on the end red line, skate fast up to the first blue line, touch it and back. Touch the first line, and then skate up to the next red line and back, then the next blue line and back and the final red line right at the other end of the rink and back. A bit like the beep test that you have to pass to get into the police! The aim is to do it in sixty seconds. Nowhere near, it took me a minute and a half, but apparently that's not too bad for a first attempt :)

Then it was onto timing my figure of 8 BXO's against hers (she was doing them at the speed she wants me to do them, not her full out speed!) - it took D 20 seconds, and it took me 41 seconds, cue embarrased grin. Finally, the whole of the FXO and BXO fig 8 exercise for Level 1 - D was 41 seconds, I was 1 minute 21. So the aim is to increase the speed little by little over the coming weeks.

Did a couple of mohawk exercises - one that is like a barrel roll, with an extra FO edge in between, going down the length of the rink. The other is LFI mohawk, step wide and weight over right leg, transfer weight back for a LBXO and step to foward, another LFI mohawk and push back into landing position. Makes sense to me anyway!

FInally we did various potential program bits. I had admitted that I had tried a spread eagle at Lee Valley on Sunday, so tried this out, both on inside and outside edges. Difficult, but not as bad as I expected to be. Also did some Ina Bauers. I got D to give me an exercise to strengthen my turnout - not that I need more turnout, but I need the strength to hold it. Twizzles next - still can't do a double, but hoping it will just suddenly fall into place like the singles did. Finally we did some forward spins - I had tried these with the correct entrance on Sunday and failed dismally, but I actually managed a couple of something vaguely representing a spin today! It helped when I was shown to go round the spot I was aiming to spin on, on the entering outside edge before pulling in, rather than trying to push straight towards it.

No dances in my lesson today, but I had a runthrough of the Dutch Waltz and the Canasta Tango afterwards during the rest of patch, although it was a little busy and I kept having to duck out of it. Hopefully this week, I will try and have a go at the Riverside Rhumba and the Golden Skaters Waltz, that I have been diligently learning on the bus on my way to work!

Tricky bits!

2008-04-02T20:49:00.002+01:00

I was my coach's only student today, and my lesson ended up extending to 55 minutes (from the scheduled 30 minutes!). I think I might be a little achey tomorrow . . .

Today we did a little bit on Level 1 FM's, started doing lots of bits that may or may not make it into my first program (yay!), and then ended with some dances.

Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig 8: Instead of bullying me to go faster, D actually pushed me around in the BXO's - jeez, it was hairy. It's going to take some work to get them that fast! Bottled the 3-turn in the middle, and then realised today that it is going straight down a hill, which doesn't help me align myself exactly! Did it on a flat bit, and it was okay. Hopefully I will be testing at Lee Valley anyway, so slopey bits won't be an issue! My BXO's are getting incrementally faster each week, just nowhere near as fast yet as she wants it to be :(
Ina Bauer: Did some of these away from the barrier for the first time today. Slow, and curvy, but beginning to get a feel for them.
Twizzles: I can do alternating single twizzles, but not mastered a double one yet, even on my good side.
Teapots: Well, the first bit anyway - just the bending right down hugging my knees. There was no hope in hell that one of my legs was going to extend forward today! Fell on my bum right into a puddle as well. Did it forward and backward - backward feels very strange.
Drag: Did some good ones today which I was pleased about.
Spins: Did my best ever spin today from spiralling into it, so we moved onto doing a proper spin entrance, with the whole tight BXO's into steep BI edge and stepping forward into the spin. Doing it with a stabilising foot before the spin first, but looking forward to practicing these and taking the foot away from the ice! Oh, and the exit as well, stepping onto a BO edge.
Changes of Edge: Found the FO to FI okay - enjoyed these. FI to FO is much, much harder, although easier on my right leg.
Toe Steps: Gosh these are hard - I keep coming off my toepicks and can feel my feet trying to shoot out in front of me. Just doing them going backwards at the moment, but she eventually wants me to do them while turning.
Forward Progressives: I wanted to do these, as they make dances much easier than trying to do FXO's. I have to put my free foot down on the ice ahead of and in line with my skating foot. That bit is okay but I am not getting a very good underpush - it seems that foot is gliding backwards rather than pushing out sideways underneath me.
Novice Foxtrot: She told me to do this to the Foxtrot that was playing and I just about managed to keep up. She then told me afterwards that it was a different, much faster foxtrot, so not too bad I think!
Canasta Tango: Mostly in time now, apart from that last little bit with the cross swing rolly thing going into the next sequence.
Dutch Waltz: Second time of having music on just for me, and actually the first time doing this one to music at all :) I do like this dance, and it felt lovely doing it to music and I managed to keep in time as well.
Rhythm Blues: Need to work out where the lilted run is in this, but not bad considering I haven't done this one much. Even managed to do the cross behinds (whilst gritting my teeth)!

So a very packed and very long lesson, and very wet for part of it as well! Lots of new things for me to practice too. Although I really need to focus on basics like getting that 3-turn faster for my field moves, along with faster BXO's.

And I wonder how frustrating it is for coaches teaching adults sometimes - I know that I look frankly quite terrified sometimes trying these new things, but that's the peril of being an adult - you know potentially how much something can hurt! I tend to get over the fear of something much quicker now, but new things can be scary! I even had my coach clucking at me today . . . :)

Two good practices

2008-04-01T22:15:00.001+01:00

Two practice sessions this week - one at Lee Valley on Sunday afternoon (where I had the ice to myself for the first few minutes which was lovely), and one at Ally Pally this evening.

Pretty much the same things practiced - most of my Level 1 Field Moves, for starters. BXO's still on the road to more speed which is good, even though I had to do them dodging small children at Lee Valley.

I spent a lot of time getting my head around doing FI3's with my free leg extended behind me, as the weight is in such a different place to what I have been used to. They are happening slowly now but if I do them too quickly, it still tends to throw me off slightly. Still, a definite improvement.

Backward crossrolls are also getting better - still very slow as well, but I am not grinding to a halt after 3 now, and can keep a little momentum up. I am really focussing on the cross going onto a good outside edge, which helps a lot.

On Patch this evening, I did a few runthroughs of the Dutch Waltz which is feeling good, and also the Canasta Tango to music. Now I am thinking of it more in terms of progressives rather than FXO's, it makes a huge difference to the speed I can do it. The only bit I struggle with now is getting into a forward progressive after the cross swingroll. Getting there though . . .

A good couple of practices, even though both public and patch were really busy this week. Looking forward to my lesson tomorrow evening!

Tired lesson

2008-03-26T20:34:00.005Z

Last night I fell asleep to my radio. Which then stayed on all night, until it woke me at five a.m., upon which I thought it was my radio alarm waking me up and got very confused in that semi-conscious way because it wouldn't "snooze". Which, coupled with a far too late night last night, led me to being somewhat tired today. It was nice to not have to think about Passport though!

Forward Stroking & FXO's: Apparently a breakthrough in the direction of my foot on the FXO's :)
Forward and Backward XO's in Fig 8: Probably about halfway there, speedwise, for the 3-turn change of direction - I will keep the practice up on this. FXO's got a "nice", and BXO's continue on their pathway to speediness. D wants me to get hold of a stopwatch, so I can time my FXO's and BXO's and make sure I complete the circles in the same time.
Forward and Backward Crossrolls: Need to bend my knees more on the forward. Backward ones really are improving. Okay, they are still not good, but I am doing them solo, and it takes more than three now for me to grind to a halt! It amuses me that I should eventually be able to do about eight along a long axis - currently its about 26 :)
3-turn exercises from Level 2 FM's: These make up on element of the Field Moves. The first part is FO3's, push back to landing position and step forward (Waltz 3's I have been told on here?). They are not too bad - I need to make each edge more defined. The other half is FI3's with the leg extended behind, step forward - swing. I have never done FI3's with an extended leg before and that is taking some getting used to, but I had some progress with this after my lesson.
FI Twizzles: Single alternating twizzles looking good apparently. Now D wants me to try doubles . . . .
Drags: I have lost some of my depth on these - something to work on.
Novice Foxtrot: And to my own music, for the first time! I thought it was awful but D was quite pleased. I didn't realise it was so flipping fast! I need to work on increased knee bending.
Canasta Tango: Music happened to be playing and I can now keep up with all of it!! Bar the last crossy-swing roll into the forward progressive around the corner at the end.

So considering I am so knackered today, the lesson was good. Most of my timing problems on the dances are because I am still doing FXO's, so today I started playing with forward progressives after reading about the technique. And they make things so much easier and quicker! I have also asked that we cover these in next weeks lesson, so I can make sure I am doing them correctly.

I also got to try my first (within barrier grasp) Ina Bauer's today :) These are fun! And something that will be in my first program apparently. Lucky I have freakily turned out hips really!

Off to bed now - I have to be up horribly early tomorrow to go to Manchester. Hopefully I will not be confused at five a.m. again!

Back from the Easter break

2008-03-25T21:52:00.000Z

I avoided the ice rink over the Easter period, as it would have been hectically busy (and I was enjoying my lie-in's far too much to get up for morning patch!), so it was nice to get back up there this evening. However, my feet didn't feel completely "under me", but not a bad practice.

Practiced quite a few things - backward crossrolls getting a little better, but still very, very slow and small. My coach was there practicing, and gave me a few handy hints, including of course, "bend your knees more!". I am pleased that these are now happening - it was only a couple of weeks ago that I thought they were completely impossible :)

Practiced a few turns at speed. I think FO3's are my turn of choice at the moment - I can do these relatively fast now, although I can't quite maintain the BI edge and have to put my foot down pretty quickly, but a definite improvement. Mohawks are getting a little better, but my body still has an inbuilt speed limit with these! I also spent some time on backward crossovers, trying to get them faster and smoother. I am finding that my reach into the circle with my inside leg is naturally getting bigger as I get more confident - yay!

Other than that, it was the usual - lots of edges and Russian stroking, a few run throughs of the Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz, and a little chatting to my coach. The poor girl had no electricity last week, and this week she has no heating! Imagine being so cold at home, that you go to an ice rink to warm up!!

Passport completed!

2008-03-19T19:53:00.004Z

Yep, that dratted Passport is now all done and dusted!! Although my coach (and she agrees with me) was particularly hard on me today, and made me do twice as much as what is required, to finish the Gold bits off!!

Anyway, lesson:

LEVEL 1 FIELD MOVES:
Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig 8: Although my coach was going "Are you going to speed up your BXO's before I fall asleep?!", they ARE getting faster and smoother. I am almost enjoying them now, and feeling the long awaited "Backwards feel more stable than forwards!" that lots of people have mentioned. Still in issue with the mohawk or 3-turn transition - anyone got any tips for getting more comfortable turning at speed? D has told me to skate forward into any backward thing I practice, so I have to do a turn of some sort.
Forward Spirals: Now, I asked to do these as I wanted to see if my legs are above my hips now. And they are!! Well, hip level at least. And then I took a splat over my toepick. Apparently I saved it very well, as I twisted slightly onto my hip, and avoided doing a faceplant! Anyway, didn't hurt at all!

D got bored with Level 1 at this point, and we started doing some Level 2 . . . gulp.
LEVEL 2 FIELD MOVES:
Forward and backward swingrolls: Forward felt quite nice. Backwards still holding on, but starting to feel the potential, as I am more comfortable taking my weight back over the crossing under foot. When practicing afterwards, I started getting the motion of the undercross, but I CANNOT get any speed up at all and grind to a halt after three. I hope this is something that develops with time, but I am happy that I am getting the crossing under.

DANCE PASSPORT - GOLD
This is where the mean side of my coach came out today :)
Backward Chasse's in a Serpentine: Passed. My backward outside edges feel like they are getting better all the time as well, which I am pleased about.
Step sequence - LFO run, LFO closed chasse, LFO run, LFO open mohawk, LBI: I was still having problems with the mohawk at the end. D helped me a lot with these today, on where my weight is before and after the transfer. Losing a ton of weight apparently also highlights where I am hunching over them somewhat!! Anyway, I did actually manage it. She then decided that I should do it on both sides. Luckily, I managed it to her satisfaction and passed :)
Novice Foxtrot to music and 60% in time: D decided that she was bored with the Novice Foxtrot, and decided that I should do the Canasta Tango to music and 60% in time instead!! Hold on, isn't that Level 2?!! Anyhoo, I was actually quite pleased - fell slightly behind on the crossroll swing, but I am finding that my opening progressive is getting faster, so I am not losing it straight away! Passed :)

Yay - Passport done and dusted!

Dutch Waltz: Worked a bit on the lilting run - think I am getting the rhythm right. It helped when we added "breathing" arms to it. This is my current favourite dance and I think it shows - D says it is my strongest one. And I love it now I have nice arms throughout it as well - I actually feel floaty and graceful!

So, another very satisfying lesson. Now I just have to stress about my first NISA test!

Lots of skating

2008-03-13T22:27:00.004Z

Another day off today (mostly so I can get good use out of my rarely acquired monthly rink pass!), and I racked up about 2 and a half hours on the ice. It was a bit annoying though, as once again a third of the rink was coned off for various celebrities, practicing for the Dancing On Ice Tour, so I couldn't do my full dance patterns.

However, I did do the Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz as best I could - especially the waltz, as I wanted to practice its new arms that were added yesterday.

Backward Crossovers went quite well - they are definitely getting faster now, and I am feeling much easier where the weight should be on my blades (it seems to me to be just behind the centre of my blades). Did quite a bit of other "backward" stuff as well - serptentine backward chasses, backward Russian stroking and some BXO's into landing positions, trying to work on good extension and a deeply bent skating knee.

Did quite a few spirals today - I think on one side at least, I may have reached that holy grail of having my leg higher than my hip and I am beginning to feel more comfortable about pushing my hips back and getting my body closer to the ice. I am beginning to quite enjoy these now - and I know with my previous ballet training, that theoretically I could make these look nice. We'll see . . . :)

Otherwise, lots of playing around with edges, FXO's, crossrolls, the Passport Gold step sequence (yuck), mohawks, 3-turns and one-foot slaloming - one leg is getting quite good at it now!

And then after all that skating, I decided to go to a rather strenuous aqua aerobics class this evening. I must be mental.

Tomorrow we are having a "team" outing at work, including a 2 hour trip up the Thames with afternoon tea provided!! Yum - haven't had scones and jam for years!

Skating yesterday and today

2008-03-12T20:16:00.006Z

Last night I went to patch, but due to a lack of sleep (my fault completely) everything felt a bit "bleugh". Nothing was terrible - just very lacklustre. So I made sure I had an earlier night, and felt much better today for my lesson.

FIELD MOVES LEVEL 1:
Forward Edges: Good - not quite as good as last week before I had my blades sharpened, but they do feel a lot more secure!
Backward Crossovers to Landing Position: The main focus today was my landing position. I need to bend my skating leg much more. When I do that, I have a good position with a nicely stretched out leg behind me. Something to work on tomorrow (yay! Another day off!).
Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig. 8: Lots of knee bend today on my FXO's. My coach said "Now you're really skating!!". Still can't do the transition very well at all. The BXO's were smoother and faster today. Now I can work on them every practice session without turning into jelly legs at the thought, the improvement is noticeable.
Spirals: Second side up the rink was much better than the first. I need to push my hips back more, and get more speed going into them.

PASSPORT:
Backward Progressives in Figure 8 (silver): Finally passed them after about 3 attempts, with D threatening to kick my leg behind me all the way round! When she got me to focus on taking my weight back with the leg stepping behind, it got a little easier. That means all my Silver Passport is now passed - onto the gold!
Alternating Forward runs and slip chasses in fig.8 (gold): Passed!
Step sequence - LFO run, LFO closed chasse, LFO run, LFO open mohawk, LBI (gold): I believe this is part of the 14-step! It all goes okay till I get to the mohawk, and again my natural reluctance to do mohawks and 3-turns at speed steps in. In practice afterwards however, I managed to get it a little faster.

Novice Foxtrot: Felt good, pattern filled the ice - will take my iPod to the rink tomorrow and try it with music, as this is part of the Passport Gold.
Canasta Tango: We have altered the arms a bit - now a little more "dramatic" :) I need to keep the leg straight on the cross swingy roll thing.
Dutch Waltz: Have added arms to this now, which makes it feel even nicer. Being able to be more expressive with my upper half makes me feel so much more like a dancer again :)

So a nice lesson and happy that I have moved onto the last bit of Passport and nearly got it out of the way! I just have that 14-step excerpt, backward serpentine chasses again (considering it is in the silver as well, but now there is a "Partner Optional") and the Novice Foxtrot to music . . . "60% in time".

Days off work

2008-03-07T22:48:00.003Z

I am a little late updating, but I had yesterday and today off work, and skated a total of 3 and a half hours over the two days. I did the same things really, so no need to post about it twice!

Lots of forward edges, spirals, crossrolls, FXO's, BXO's, BXO's into landing position, forward and backward Russian Stroking, barrel rolls, twizzles - you name it, I did it!

Yesterday I stayed partly for the afternoon session as well, and after lunch had the entire rink to myself for about 10 minutes which was heavenly. I did runthroughs of all my dances, and oh what a difference it makes to have no-one else on the ice! Lovely big, fast (for me) patterns and I did about four continuous sequences of each one.

I had my blades sharpened yesterday after skating, and this morning tried them out. I think for the first time, I really enjoyed skating on newly sharpened blades - he must have done a good job! They felt smooth, secure, and stopping on them wasn't as painful as it has been after sharpenings before. I unfortunately did have a headache this morning, but a dose of Anadin Extra and an hour and a half on the ice knocked it on the head, so to speak :)

Today I only skated this morning, and then went down to Hatton Garden with Stacey this afternoon who was looking for her wedding ring. So much bling down there - it's great!

My bridesmaid dress is now also hanging up in my bedroom, and it is beeyootiful :)

A schedule to work to . . .

2008-03-05T21:19:00.006Z

Nearly a struggle making it to the rink on time this evening - some minor crisis came up at work and was worried that I would be late, but it was okay in the end.

After the revelation of the Mountain Cup yesterday (thanks Mrs R!), we had a chat about a schedule of events. I have to have my Passport signed off before I can do my Level 1 Field Moves - I passed another two Silver elements today, leaving one Silver (almost passable) and the Gold to do. Then it will be the Level 1 Field Moves after the summer holiday (around August). British Adult Championships are next February and I guess that the Mountain Cup (which is in France for my non-skating readers!) will be summer next year. Potentially, I could do my Level 1 Field Moves in about June (before the summer break), but as long as I have it by my first competition, it doesn't matter if it is later . . . and it gives me plenty of time to really work on those BXO's!

Anyway, back to my lesson:
LEVEL 1 FIELD MOVES:
Forward Edges: She was very pleased with these today! And they felt really, really good as well. Most definitely passable.
BXO's to Landing Position: Positioning good, needs more power. In fact, that is really the crux of what she has highlighted as issues on my field moves - my positioning and posture is good, I just need more speed and power.
FXO's & BXO's Fig 8: Same again - need more power and speed on the BXO's. But I am happy - it was only two weeks ago after all that the mental block was knocked down on the BXO's. They can only get better and faster now!
Spirals: D apparently never worries about me doing spirals and pitching forward, like she might with other skaters my level, as apparently my core is quite strong (and yoga is making it even better!). But I do need to get the leg higher on both sides. Confidence will help.

SILVER PASSPORT:
Backward Chasses in a Serpentine Sequence: Passed! Getting a little more used to holding a longer BO edge with the leg extended forward, without feeling like my legs are going to fly out in front of me!
Backward Progressives: Not passed yet, but feeling much better. I need to keep my weight more out of the circle, as it was rather a baby circle the first time round, but much better the second time. Should have this done by next week, and then all the Silver will be completed.
7 step Step Sequence: Comprising of: RFI open mohawk, RBO run, RBO cross in front to LBI, step to forward RFI. I had worked it out correctly this week in practice, and passed it! Even though she made me do it both sides :)

OTHER BITS:
FI Twizzles: I am soooo chuffed! What I was doing are twizzles, and I can do them both sides! I now have to practice them, consecutively and alternating sides. After the hilariousness of them last week, when she first showed them to me, I am really pleased that I have got some kind of grip on them within a week. Considering how long 3-turns took . . . :)
Forward Cross-rolls: Issues with grinding to a halt have long gone, and I love doing these. One thing to work on is bringing the leg forward and stepping on it in one quick, smooth movement instead of holding it bent.
Rhythm Blues: Not bad, considering I have hardly done it. I need to bend my skating leg more before starting the cross-behinds, but D gave me a finger to lean on for them, and they didn't feel so bad. I think I may be very close to conquering those!
Dutch Waltz: Pattern nice and big, flow and speed improved and I love this dance! However, that pesky problem of my foot pointing in strange directions on the FXO's is poking its head over the parapet again, grrrrr. However, I find it much, much easier to correct it now when I remember to think about it.

Another fab lesson, and I am off work for the rest of the week, so hopefully good skating tomorrow and Friday as well! However, I really must have my blades sharpened tomorrow, so won't be able to stop for about a week!

Oh, and the gingerbread went down a treat :) I even had enough calories left over in my daily allowance to have a slice, and it was yummy. I might put more ginger into it next time though. And I have had so many people today exclaiming about the amount of weight I have lost (24 pounds and counting, since November), it is getting just a tad embarrassing . . .

Qui, moi?

2008-03-04T21:51:00.002Z

Had a good practice this evening with lots of runthroughs of Canasta Tango, Dutch Waltz and a few Rhythm Blues (okay, bottling the cross-behinds!).

My coach was there practicing with her dance partner, which is unusual - I never normally see her during the rest of the week. She introduced me to her partner, and announced to him that I am doing the Mountain Cup next year! First I heard about it, but hey - I'll give it a go!

Dance runthroughs went quite well - patterns getting bigger, and the cross swing on the Tango is speeding up slightly. The Dutch Waltz was feeling nice as well, now I have a slight confusion over the end of the pattern sorted out in my head.

Apart from that, I ran through my edges, did lots of cross-rolls, one foot slaloming, stroking and some tentative serpentine backward chasses.

I also spent some time on twizzles - and quite a few worked! I have no idea if they are being done correctly, but (on one side at least) they are feeling relatively controlled. It feels like I am doing the beginning bit of a FI3 and just continuing right round. Does that sound like I am on the right track? I am happy anyway - I thought these would take me decades to learn, and actually - not so bad!

Got home quite late, and there is now a gingerbread loaf baking in my breadmaker for my coach. Of course, I won't be having any as it really doesn't feature in my current eating plan, but I hope she likes it!

A big fall . . . but not me!

2008-03-02T16:55:00.003Z

Usual Sunday now of skating at Lea Valley, whilst Stacey rode at the stables next door. Poor girl - she had her first fall off a skittish horse today and has hurt her wrist. But she got back on straight away, which is fantastic - some people would have struggled with that I think.

I had quite a nice skate at Lea Valley - surprisingly, it didn't get that busy today. More than a patch obviously, but I didn't feel like I was running out of room at any point.

Lots of power stroking today - it was like my iPod had been plugged into the speaker system, and all my favourite songs were playing, so for once it was just nice to skate around to the music, trying to stroke in rhythm and remembering that nice feeling of just skating. It's so easy to get so caught up on one element, that sometimes it's nice to just . . . move!

Saying that, I did quite a few bits as well. Backward crossovers (of course!) not long after getting on the ice. They have felt better and did feel a little shakey the first time round today, but that made me even happier that I still did them. The second time I did them, I managed to get a smidge more speed and power into them.

I did lots of one and two foot slaloming, FXO's, edges and swingrolls. Barrel rolls felt quite good and I practiced my LFO3 transition for changing from FXO's to BXO's on a figure of eight for my Field Moves. I'm just beginning to learn that doing an element in isolation is a far different game from putting it into some combination!

Twizzles next - they went slightly better than my lesson (which wouldn't be hard!) and tried some without using the barrier. I don't know how correct it was, but I managed a whole revolution just once! The rest were about 1/2 - 3/4 of a turn, but it felt like an improvement! I then moved onto spins - today I managed to do quite a few controlled, single rev one-foot spins, which I was really happy with. I can't wait to be able to spin properly!

Good lesson, but worn out

2008-02-27T22:50:00.004Z

It's been a long day today. Up since 5.30, train at 8.10 from Euston to Coventry for a values and behaviours workshop, back to London and up to Ally Pally for my lesson at 6.30!!

My lesson was good as always.
Forward Crossovers: Getting good extension on these now, except for the odd occasion when I am concentrating hard on something else.
Backward Crossovers: Apparently I look quite relaxed doing these now :) We worked on how I can get them faster, basically by putting more "Ooomph" into the crossover portion.
Backward Chasse's in a Serpentine pattern: Quite liked this and today it was mostly about the weight transfer when swapping from one leg to another.
Backward Progressive Runs: These are still feeling horribly awkward. I checked with D about where to put my foot, as some people have mentioned about putting it next to the skating foot. Apparently she used to do it that way, until she had coaching from her current coach (who also coaches the elite skaters at Streatham) who told her to place the free foot behind the skating foot. Sigh . . . is it me, or does placing it next to the skating foot sound so much easier?!
Barrel Rolls: These were signed off on my Passport today, so all Bronze bits now done, and a little of the Silver and Gold. I've been working hard on these, so am pleased about this! Although I have to say, she didn't sign them off till she had made life a little harder for me! The Passport requires three consecutive barrel rolls, and then do the other side. D made me do six in each direction. And even then, she wouldn't sign it off until I also did consecutive barrel rolls, alternating sides! Still, just about managed it :) And then the evil steps continued with something quite horrible thrown at me . . .
Twizzles: Well, yes. It's another moment for me to cry out for any tips possible on these! Trying them on the barrier at the moment and not really getting it. I read on the Skating Forums about practicing double 3's to help, but I don't actually know what a double 3 is!!!
Novice Foxtrot: Was pleased, as although I was definitely wilting at this point, D said it was looking really nice.
Dutch Waltz: Not too bad - when I get distracted, I forget the nice extension that I am capable of on the FXO's, but overall, not bad.
Rhythm Blues: Something else rather thrown at me, not having done it except for once about a month ago. Just about remembered it (again, thanking God for my good memory when it comes to steps!) with maybe a loss of a progressive or two. I even managed to do one of the cross-behinds (since getting over BXO fear, I have a slightly less fearful approach to some things now), but the other one nearly had me on my face :)

That was that - another pleasing lesson! I am now going to collapse into my much deserved bed!!!

Another good skate

2008-02-26T21:54:00.006Z

Patch tonight, and another good skate. Things are going generally quite well at the moment :)

Lots of backward crossovers again, and I worked on building up speed today. I think they were getting a little bit faster. I am learning to sit right back into my blade which stops that feeling of toppling forward and bending my knees more as well. I am sure nowhere near enough, but they are quite bent! My BO landing positions are not bad either and I am holding my right BO edge much better.

Other than my current usual fun (who ever thought I would say that!) doing BXO's, I did some crossrolls, lots of work on my forward edges - where my FI edges feel like the control has suddenly improved tenfold, some attempts at spinning (a bit rubbish, but I keep doing some every time I practice - it has to click at some point!), a few spirals which I think are getting higher and some barrel rolls - still improving bit by bit!

I also did a few sequences of both the Canasta Tango and the Dutch Waltz. Both felt not too bad and I think the crossroll swing and the first FXO on the Tango are getting a tad quicker, which is really the only two points where it slows down.

Tomorrow's going to be a hectic day. I have to go to Coventry for an awayday, get back to London at five-ish and then rush to Ally Pally for my later than normal lesson at six thirty. Having also stopped off at Starbucks to get some promised date cake for my coach, who is THE biggest Starbucks addict you will ever, ever meet. Mrs Redboots will confirm that I am sure! So by the time I get to patch, I could be somewhat knackered!

Yay - it wasn't a fluke!!!

2008-02-24T17:50:00.004Z

Off to Lea Valley this afternoon for the public session, where it wasn't quite so insanely busy as it has been.

The first thing I wanted to do after warming up, and whilst the rink was still fairly empty, was my backward crossovers again, after losing the fear of them on Wednesday. I was a little worried that the white mist would descend again and all my brevity would have disappeared, but no - there they were!!!! So I did lots of BXO's in both directions on the big centre circle, and then did some BXO's into landing position, where I was also pleased to see that I am holding the BO edge better on my left. So yay - my BXO's weren't a fluke on Wednesday! And I am even looking where I am going!!! The joy of it is, now I can really concentrate on improving power and speed - they are not that slow, but they need to be faster. Increasing my reach into the circle with the inside leg will help, and I am working on this.

Apart from that, I practiced a range of things - some one foot slaloming (left foot not bad, right foot catching up), edges, cross-rolls which were feeling good, changes of edge which I haven't done for aaaaaages and was pleased to find worked pretty well and some dance swings up the length of the rink to get a good, quick weight and edge transfer between them.

A few barrel rolls which are now getting nice and controlled, if slow at the moment, and some FO3's to increase the speed I am doing them, so I can do this on the transition between my figure of 8 FXO's and BXO's (instead of slowing down which I have to do at the moment!) and I left the rink feeling very satisfied.

Dancing On Ice tonight, and they have to do an unassisted jump. I guess most will do a 3-jump, but Chris Fountain has gone quite a few steps further and has announced he is going to try an axel. Should be interesting!

Best skate of my life!

2008-02-20T21:26:00.004Z

Yay - time for a lesson, after not having one last week! I had an amazing skate today, both in my lesson and afterwards, but I will explain as I go on.

D told me today what was passable and not for my Level 1 Field Moves:
Forward Edges: Passable and she was pleased. Nice even lobes and lots of control. I still want more push into them though.
Backward Crossovers into Landing Position: Passable. I am noticing that I am finding it harder to maintain the outside edge on my right foot more than my left, which coincides with the same problem on my mohawks. Came back to this later in patch.
Forward Spirals: Will be passable once I have my leg higher, but she was pleased with my technique.
Forward & Backward Crossovers in Fig 8: Forward were passable, backwards were not. I need to work on power and speed on the backward ones.

So not bad really, considering I am still working through the Passport!

Otherwise, we did some dances and D wanted to go through some free elements:
Drags: Don't know WHAT has happened to these - I was beginning to do them quite nicely! Still, I know I can do them, so will sort 'em out for next week.
3-jump: Today she taught me the 2 BXO's into BO edge, stepping forward into 3-jump. AND I DID MY FIRST UNASSISTED 3-JUMP - WOOOHOOOOO!
Spins: 2-foot spins are good apart from I am starting with my weight correctly over the (to be) leg I am meant to be spinning on, but it is wandering back to the middle halfway through the spin. I did manage a couple of 1-foot spins from a toepick start, which have started feeling like I am getting towards the right part of the blade.
Novice Foxtrot: D was pleased, and so was I actually. Felt like a good, big pattern and a good flow.
Canasta Tango: Again, pattern is getting much bigger, and D showed me how to speed up the crossroll, which is where I slow up.
Dutch Waltz: Spent some time working on the rhythmn of the lilting progressive at the start, and again, D was pleased with the dance itself.

And then . . . I had the most amazing practice afterwards! I know I need to practice BXO's, and although they have been improving, D has always been at arms length and I still avoided practicing them on my own. Today, I took myself in hand. I forced myself on the hockey circle, and made myself do them, around the circle. And you know what? I DID 'EM! Both sides! And I was enjoying doing them so much (grinning like a loon), that I did them for about 15 minutes!!!!!!!! Whole circles, BXO's into landing position, BXO entrance into a 3-jump (not the jump, just the entrance). I feel like my whole skating horizon has suddenly expanded and I am absolutely thrilled. It sounds like a small thing maybe, but this has been a huge deal for me, ever since I bashed my head.

And I was grinning all the way home too!

PS. Not only getting over BXO fear, and doing my first unassisted jump, but I have also lost 11 pounds in the last four and a half weeks and a total of 21 pounds since November. Woohoo!!

So cold!

2008-02-19T21:36:00.004Z

It really is quite tortuous getting too and from the rink at the minute, with temperatures being as they are, but I had a reasonable skate today, so it was worth it!

I spent quite a lot of time doing forward edges and cross-rolls today, trying to make them look effortless. My bum still sticks out on occasion when I don't get enough power behind my forward edges, but generally quite pleased with those and the cross-rolls.

Barrel-rolls were next on the agenda, and dare I say it, getting there with the checks and positioning. Still finding it a bit difficult to get right over on the outside edge after my left FO mohawk, but another minor breakthrough when I realised if I bring the free leg right in before placing it on the ice, it is much easier to transfer the weight. D'oh!

Did a few 3-turns into landing position, some two foot (and trying to do one foot) spins, and then I spent some time on compulsory dances.

Canasta Tango went okay - I was really trying to keep it to as perfect a pattern as possible, after my last lesson, and also trying to speed up the cross-roll on the short axis. Dutch Waltz went well, and getting slightly steeper edges now. And still my favourite :)

Generally, a nice practice today. And the bus came almost immediately afterwards! Being half-term meant the ice was a bit rough and wet, but the upside was that patch was nice and quiet! Can't wait for my lesson tomorrow though - I haven't had one for two weeks!!!

The world is not my Oyster today

2008-02-17T17:49:00.005Z

Today was a trip down to the Littlest Rink (which I haven't been to for a number of weeks) - Lea Valley was out, as Stacey has gone on some loved up weekend in Dorset.

Actually, it wasn't a bad skate. One of the tasks I set myself today was the FO Mohawks (to improve them for the barrelrolls) and I decided I was going to do 10 on each side, without flunking any of them by ending up spinning around on two feet. And do you know what - I did them!!!! I am so chuffed how much these are improving. The major problem I am having with these now is just on the left to right ones, and I am struggling to get onto the outside edge after the turn. For some reason, this isn't a problem the other way.

Did a few 3-turns into landing position, which I enjoy, but trying to maintain the BO edge for a little while after the 3-turn, instead of stepping down too quickly. Tried a few 3-jumps on the barrier, but they weren't playing very well today and I also spent quite a lot of time doing 2-foot and aiming for a 1-foot spin. I can manage a very scratchy single revolution on one foot, but I guess (I hope!) this will get better as I get used to the sensation.

The rink was busy, but as it emptied towards the end, I managed to get some fast stroking in, some FXO's, and some cross-rolls. A most satisfactory skate really!

And then . . . .

I walked to the bus-stop, and panic set in as I couldn't find my Oyster Card anywhere (for my overseas buddies, this is a pre-paid touch-in travel card in London - mine has my entire yearly bus-pass on it, as well as some pay-as-you-go cash for the tube). Rushed back to the skating rink - nowhere, so I must have left it on the bus. So I now have to wait for a new one to be sent to me, and pay extra for my travel this week - on a week where I am a little strapped for cash. Aaaaarrrgh!

Let's hope Dancing On Ice cheers me up a bit. I can't wait to see what Chris Fountain pulls out of the bag this week!!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . .

2008-02-13T21:39:00.004Z

As my coach is in Arosa teaching at a skating camp, there was no lesson for me today. However, I kept to my normal routine - skipped out of work earlyish, and headed for patch. Especially as I had missed yesterday evening, due to feeling completely exhausted.

It was nice today, albeit a little bumpy on some parts of the rink. Fairly quiet though (being half term) and I managed to run through quite a few things.

Did some forward edges, Russian Stroking, FXO's, and 1-foot slaloming - which is much easier I have decided with my leg extended forward, rather than tucking my foot into the side of my skating leg.

Spent LOTS of time on FO Mohawks and Barrel Rolls. They are improving every session now, which I am pleased about, and today they were beginning to happen with a smidgen more speed. I was really focussing on getting onto the BO edge after the turn - this happens quite nicely on my right to left mohawks, but not so well on the other side.

I also ran through all my FI3's and FO3's today, just to make sure they are behaving themselves :) And they are, thankfully! My RFI3's are perhaps a tad scrapy, but the others are all happening quite beautifully and they are at least working, they just have a slight soundtrack accompanying them!

Apart from that, ran through the Dutch Waltz (love it) and then some of the Canasta Tango when the music was on. Hehe - still seems disgustingly fast!

And then I had to stand at the top of Alexandra Palace for what felt like hours, in freezing cold fog waiting for the bus. I was completely frozen by the time I got home, and only just about defrosted now . . . .

Another beautiful day!

2008-02-10T17:39:00.000Z

What a beautiful sunny day it has been today!

Went to Lea Valley again today on their public session, whilst Stacey was riding next door, and it was busy again but I had a good practice.

As last week, the first 10 minutes were relatively quiet as people put their skates on, so I did forward stroking, FXO's, Russian stroking, crossrolls and forward edges. I even managed to do a couple of spirals - the first one was uncomfortably forward, but managed to bring the weight back onto my heel for the second one.

When it got busier, I spent some time working on barrel rolls again. They are kind of making progress - it's only really the FO mohawk that I am having the trouble with, but as long as I don't look down and make sure I pre-rotate, turn my legs out, check my arms and head and keep my weight back after the turn, they work fine!!!! I also did a few BXO's looking behind me, and I am getting used to my head twisting round now - again I have to remember to keep my weight back, my biggest backward problem.

Last of all I spent some time on the one-foot slaloms that we did in my lesson on Wednesday. Slowly getting the hang of it, and I do really enjoy doing this! The curves are very small still, but I am beginning to feel how I can influence the edge with my knees, hips and the rise and fall. Bring on those Thighs Of Steel . . . :)

Then I walked over to the riding centre to meet Stacey, got to cuddle a few horses (if I marry a rich man, I will be back on a horse before you can blink!) and now my hands smell of horse, even though I have washed them about five times. I don't really mind though . . .

Looking forward to Dancing On Ice now - I was quite relieved when Aggie got voted out last week. I was beginning to wince, every time I saw her skating, bless her!

No lesson this week for me, unfortunately. My coach jetted off to Arosa in Switzerland yesterday, to coach at a week long skating camp. Hopefully I'll get those barrel rolls consistent on her return - I know I can do them! Once they are up to her required standard, I'll have Passport Bronze signed off, along with half of the Silver and a bit of the Gold! Level 1 Field Moves are getting uncomfortably real now . . .

Beginning to feel like an ice dancer

2008-02-06T20:00:00.000Z

Another lovely lesson this evening - I do love this sport!

We started off with:
Forward Slaloms: Haven't done these in a lesson since SkateUK group classes, although I always do a few when warming up. But I thought "Okay then" - slalomed down the rink (still find it fun!), and then D said . . . "Right, let's try it on one leg!". Huh?! Found it very difficult at first, but started getting the hang of it when practicing afterwards. She has promised me it will give me "Thighs of Steel" . . . :)
Backward Crossovers: Just plain ones, nothing complicated like figures of 8, but I asked to do these so I can get used to looking behind me! They are not bad if I remember to keep my weight back, and some started going really quite fast. I have worked out that the majority of my issues with anything backward are because my weight is too far forward, and things are definitely improving since I worked that little thing out!
Barrel Rolls: Much better than last week, but I need to still work on the FO Mohawk. It's mostly the lack of pre-rotation that is causing me problems, so worked on this afterwards as well, with quite a positive improvement.
3-turn to Landing Position: Quite enjoying these really! D has made it slightly more complicated by adding a swing on the step forward, but not bad!
Open & Closed Chasses: Closed chasses are getting better. Then we spent some time just doing open chasses, working on the rise and fall. When I hit the correct rhythm, they felt wonderful - and apparently I have a really nice extension on these :)
3-jump: Haven't done these for ages and ages - did them holding onto D rather than the barrier, and actually, they felt pretty good! She tells me that my landing is very stable on them - just need to build up the confidence to do them on my own now!
Drag: Not bad - just need to push a little more of the back foot on the recovery, so it doesn't get pulled round to the side.
Spiral: Slightly under hip level, but I have not done many on ice yet! D tells me I have really good control over my core, which is nice to hear, and slightly takes away the worry that I will pitch onto my face!
Novice Foxtrot: Feeling good, and only one or two progressives where my foot is turned out, which is great.
Canasta Tango: Spent some time on the pattern on this - I need to remember on the swing after the first slip chasse that I should be carrying on the curve, rather than trying to turn in the direction the swing ends up. I also need to speed up the cross-roll, but apart from that, it is in time and doesn't feel bad at all.
Dutch Waltz: My favourite one still - D asked the little girl she teaches after me to judge me and she gave me a 6.5 :)

All the dances were feeling good today, and they are now also beginning to really feel like dances, which is lovely. I think that working on my arms and head this past week has really helped, and brought back some of the poise I had when I was dancing.

I also brought up the topic of extra lessons, although I might have to start going to morning patch. Not happening yet though, until my payrise comes through!!!

A Pleasant Practice

2008-02-05T21:37:00.000Z

It did start out as one of those evenings, where you think "Do I have to go out?". But like most of those times, it turned out to be a nice patch, if a little busy today!

I did some big things - forward edges, which are feeling nice and controlled now (just need more power), Russian stroking - working on expression with my arms, head and everything else above the waist up, FXO's, etc.

I spent an awful lot of time on barrel rolls, and think they have improved somewhat, as long as I don't rush it, and I really commit to the weight transfer and turn on the mohawk (otherwise, the mohawk don't happen!). I hope they are still there tomorrow. I also did a bit on FI mohawks, which I think have also improved ever so slightly. A few BXO's, so I can work on looking where I am going - as long as I keep my weight firmly on the back leg, they feel okay, some FO3's into landing position and a bit of Dutch Waltzing! So a nice varied practice, and I have a slightly achey back and bum now which is a good sign I think, although that could be from the rather punishing aqua aerobics class I did last night!!!

A New Rink!

2008-02-03T17:12:00.000Z

Well, not literally, but today I got to skate at Lee Valley Ice Centre for the first time. Stacey rides at the Riding Centre next door, and it happens to cooincide with the afternoon public session.

It was incredibly busy - I don't expect anything else at the moment, what with Dancing On Ice, but for the first 15 minutes (whilst everyone else was still putting on their skates), I did manage to do some of the "big" stuff - FXO's, fast forward stroking, Russian Stroking, forward edges etc. Once it got busier, I did the "small" stuff in a quiet(ish) corner- mostly focussing on Barrel Rolls and open mohawks.

It is more expensive, but so much more preferable to the Littlest Rink - nice flat, well maintained ice. And one thing that was a real bonus - Plexiglass!!!! For once, I was able to see my reflection (slightly disconserting to start with!), and I could see on the Barrel Rolls where my weight was being thrown off slightly. And it helped! I am doing them nice and slowly at the moment, making sure each stage is well defined and with me pointing in the right direction, and they feel a lot smoother. I shall attack them again at patch on Tuesday.

I also spent a little time doing a few BXO's with my head looking where I am going, as D made me start to do in my lesson. I really paid attention to where my weight is, keeping on my back foot while crossing over, and then transferring the weight really smoothly to the front foot. Progress, I think.

So a busy session, but a good one. And I got to stroke a few horsies before walking over to the Ice Centre as well!! I hope I don't have an overwhelming compulsion to return to horse-riding as well - don't think my bank balance could stand it at the moment :)

Hectic week!

2008-01-30T21:48:00.000Z

What a week. I hadn't been near an ice-rink since my lesson last week - I had to go down to Sussex at the weekend for family bits (rinks are practically extinct down there!), and yesterday I went to Manchester on a work trip. I was actually back in time to go to patch, but was so tired that I didn't think my coordination was up to it! Although I did a "mental skate" on the train - I have my current four CD's on my iPod, and was dancing them in my head :)

And then today, I went to get changed into my skating stuff before leaving work, and realised I had left my jogging pants at home. Aaargh!!! So I had to leave 10 minutes earlier and do a detour via my flat (which was an extra bus journey), hoping and praying that i wouldn't be late! Still, after all that, I managed to have quite a good lesson today.

Forward Crossrolls: Feeling much better and more powerful. Working on getting an even deeper knee bend before the cross.
Backward Russian Stroking: Felt good and stable! Getting more expressive as well, once D said "You need to turn your head, not just glance with your eyes!".
FXO's & BXO's Fig 8: FXO's feeling better. Certainly less of the "Point your foot in the right direction!" happening. D now trying to get me to look where I'm going on the BXO's (hehe . . .) which has temporarily pulled me off balance, so something to work on.
Alternate Open & Closed Chasses: I have passed these now on the Passport Bronze! Still don't much like the closed ones, but they are certainly 100 times better than they were. Hoping this will translate to the Rhythm Blues!
Barrel Rolls: I was getting somewhere with these last week, and they all fell to smithereens again today. They got a bit better when practicing afterwards. I need to try not to start turning whilst I am still crossing over the free foot.
FO3's - landing position: Got better when practising them afterwards. Bad habit in lesson of putting foot down after the 3turn too soon, but it got better later.
Canasta Tango: Did this to music today, and the second time just about managed to keep up! Those forward progressives feel seriously fast, and I can't quite do the cross swing thing in time, but D was pleased with how I managed to keep up.
Dutch Waltz: Oh I do like this one. We haven't spent that much time on it previously, so broke down the long axis, to get the pattern and the "lilt" correct. This started feeling really good in the practice afterwards - I just hope I was doin' it right!

So a good lesson, and after my schedule over the last week, things are back to normal for a while. Luckily I have still managed to do three 4-mile walks over the last week, so have kept my exercise up, and this week Stacey and I are going to start aqua aerobics - yay!

I also managed to lose a staggering four pounds last week!!! I found a brilliant website where you can track all your food and exercise really simply, and I have been able to tweak healthy recipes to be lower calorie - http://www.nutracheck.co.uk/. Really feeling quite good at the moment - I am a sylph in training!

Onto Rhythm Blues - just!

2008-01-23T20:31:00.000Z

Lesson time this evening - I had a good lesson, but with a few ditzy moments in the dances!

Anyway, starting from the beginning:
FXO & BXO Fig 8: Not too bad. D has told me I can do the connecting mohawk on the other foot, but still not happening at speed! Now my BXO's are nice and flowy (for me anyway!), I really, really want to start getting my confidence up on these, so I can relax into them.
Forward Edges: Much better now with the knee passing through, which has helped a lot with not swerving off the inside edges. I want to work on the power pushing into these now.
Open and closed chasse's: I was turning my feet out a little too much. I still don't like these very much, but getting better! The open chasse's are fine, as long as I don't disregard them and forget that I shouldn't be pushing on the lift!
Barrel Rolls: I think I was rushing these today, as they were a bit rubbish and I know I can do them much better! Practiced them quite a lot afterwards, and took my time, and can now do the requisite three in a row IF I take my time on them for the time being.
Waltz 3's: Added some nice arms to these today which was nice! It's funny thinking about how much grief I had with 3-turns - I don't even think about it now!
Forward Crossrolls: A bit toey on one side, but felt quite nice to me. I need to bend my knees more as I cross.
Backward Crossrolls: D told me today these are LEVEL 4 or 5 or thereabouts!! No wonder I struggle with them :) Most of my problems seem to be from leaning too far forward. So far I had always done these with the "magic hands" - today she MADE me do two on my own. Hmmm - one was on its own, and the other ended with 'gentle' hand resting . . . Still, it's a start!
Backward Progressives: A new thing! And I quite liked these - much easier and smoother than I expected them to be.
Novice Foxtrot: Good pattern today - my spacing is much better and the flow between sequences is nice and smooth. Just need to focus a little on my left FXO's that the foot doesn't slip round.
Canasta Tango: Pattern the first time round was a little small - partly cos of my first ditzy moment of forgetting the slip chasse. How many times have I done this?! Second time was much better. Trying to get more power on the crossroll though, as I tend to slow down quite drastically after doing it.
Rhythm Blues: Got to run through this once, and yes - I had learnt it all on the bus, I have done it loads of times in my head, and then had another completely ditzy moment! Still very unsure about the cross-behinds, but D says we shall spend a lot of time on this next week and I can do it with cross-rolls for the time being when I am practicing. The rest of it was actually not bad! I like the timing on this - it makes me think :)

So yet another packed lesson, and practiced some crossrolls and barrel rolls afterwards before heading home.

I am trying a new recipe now, which will be ready in 13 minutes (can you tell I'm hungry?!) which is Sticky Ginger Chicken with Noodles and Pak Choi. How nice does that sound! And very healthy, of course :) Let me know if you want the recipe!!

Patch practice

2008-01-22T21:47:00.001Z

After the horrors of the Littlest Rink on Sunday, it was positively divine to go to patch this evening, even though it was relatively busy!

I spent a bit of time on my forward edges today, working on keeping the knee pointing forward as I bring the leg through. It made it harder for a while, and then I got the hang of it. No more 'dog peeing up a lamppost leg' here!

I spent loads of time on mohawks and barrel rolls. Barrel rolls slow but sure, apart from one issue I've noticed, where I grind forward onto my toepick after the crossover and before I step forward. I have worked out that lifting my toes in my skates stops this, but then I have the still scary thing of gliding backward with my feet crossed! I guess I'd better get used to it!

I tried to work on the underpush on my FXO's, but I really don't think I am doing a very good job there. Hopefully this will get better with lots of practice.

Apart from that, just some waltz-3's, Russian stroking and stroking practice. I enjoyed my practice today!

Hell has frozen over

2008-01-20T17:46:00.000Z

The Dancing On Ice mania has officially hit the ice rinks. The Littlest Rink today was horrendous. Filled with kids, adults and chavs on hockey skates. Yay . . .

I only skated for about 45 minutes, but managed to find a quiet corner for a little while. My main aim today was to get lots of mohawk practice in, so the FO mohawks I cracked the other day aren't a complete fluke. And luckily, they aren't! In fact, they are feeling increasingly secure, and it has tremendously helped my FI mohawks as well!! So at least that was some progress today, on the "Hell has now frozen over" ice rink. Still not fast, but the technique is so much better, and speed will come in time.

Having remembered the steps for the Rhythm Blues in my head at least (I am so glad I have always had a head for choreography!), I tried the cross-behinds on the barrier today. I am guessing it is like a slip chasse but crossing behind before slipping? I kind of get it, but I don't know how my nerve will stand it in the dance. I guess that the faster you slip the free foot forward after the cross, the easier it is? Any tips for these would be gratefully received :)

I had no room to do anything else, apart from a few desultory FXO's to try and increase the underpush. But they were so sporadic (one at each end basically), that it wasn't even worth the time. The rest of the time was spent skating agonisingly slowly and trying to avoid pillocks (now in my head called "Twats in Hats" of the baseball variety) who were playing tag as fast as they could, regardless of the direction and who might be in their way. Sigh . . . .

Gulp . . .

2008-01-19T09:49:00.000Z

I had an email from my coach the other day.

It included new copies of the patterns that I had elegantly managed to dump a cup of Earl Grey over. The Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz are for reference, and dutifully I have been learning the Rhythm Blues on the bus, on the way to work in the morning. Got it down in my head now, but still to see how it will translate to ice, especially with those disgusting cross-behinds. It looks like I'll have to watch out for the timing as well.

Then, on the same email:
"Added Swing Dance just so you can see what we will be going onto SOON!"

Eh-squeeze me? It goes backward!!!

It's a good job I was already sitting down on the bus . . .

Lots of energy!

2008-01-16T20:09:00.000Z

A lesson tonight, and a relatively quiet patch which was nice. We did a mixture of Passport and Level 1 Field Moves today, and then a couple of dances, so quite a packed session.

Perimeter Stroking: YAY!!! My foot WAS pointing in the right direction on the FXO's!! You've no idea how happy I am about this! Now we are focussing on the underpush . . .
Forward Edges: Worked out why I am swerving in on these, especially on the inside edges. When I bring my free leg through, I do it with my leg turned out (like the ex-ballerina I am!). When I tried it with the knee pointing forward, it felt much more controlled.
Crossovers: Again - I now need to think about the underpush on the FXO's. I really tried to put more power into the BXO's today and they were much faster. Now I just need to hike up the brevity! But I am getting braver on these all the time, which I am thrilled about.
Forward alternating open and closed chasses: Getting better, and it has helped me work out what causes the majority of my problems, with these and with mohawks. Basically, if I have to do some manoevure whilst changing skating leg, I don't trust the weight transfer enough - ie. on these I don't trust transferring the weight onto the crossed under foot, on mohawks I don't commit fully to the weight transfer. And it's true - knowing the problem is halfway there to solving it! Much better by the end, if a little slow.
Barrel Rolls: During the lesson and on lots of practice afterwards using the point I learnt with my chasses, I finally get closed mohawks! Very happy, especially as I can quite happily do barrel rolls on my own now. All the closed mohawks took was a nice strong upper body rotation :)
Waltz 3's: I LOVE doing these!! Just need to make sure I don't drop my free foot too soon after the 3-turn, but it's fine when I concentrate on it.
Alternating FXO's and Slip Chasse's: Beginning to get a better "slip" on these now. Just need to not leave my bottom sticking out . . . :)
Novice Foxtrot: Not bad. The pattern is getting much bigger and I need to work on the transition from the short to the long axis, so I get a good strong change of edge, but not bad.
Canasta Tango: Did this twice - second time felt really good - good speed and better once D told me to get my cross-roll pushing out from the direction of travel, rather than trying to do it going forward. Again, I need to work on the transition steps.

I also have some versions now of the Foxtrot, Tango and Blues (which I must learn this week) to put on my iPod so I can practice trying desperately to keep up!

And since I have so much energy, ever since following a really healthy diet since about November, I am now off on a 3.7 mile walk!!

An exception to the rule?

2008-01-15T21:15:00.000Z

Was debating all day whether to go and skate at evening patch, but dragged myself out in the rain and in the end (as I am 95% of the time when I am reluctant) I was very glad that I went.

My legs and shoulders are still a little sore from various stretching / toning routines I have been doing over the last six days at home (having become somewhat addicted to doing them!), so I didn't push myself too hard, and have also sworn off the stretching for one evening so I am not wincing in my lesson tomorrow.

I did forward edges, crossrolls, spent some time doing forward crossovers (again, feels like I am pointing my foot in the right direction, but D always tells me otherwise when it comes to my lesson!) and Russian stroking.

Moahwks were temperamental - the first half I did actually steadily improved, and then the second half declined drastically as I presume I had reached the "cut-off point". LFI mohawks are still a bit crap, but still improved from last week.

I also tried a bit of the Canasta Tango to music whilst it was on - jeez it's fast! Only did the first side and just about managed to keep up, but it felt like I was going to fall over my feet at any moment! D was mentioning about bringing in one version of each of my dances so far, so I can put them on my iPod. I might be able to get better used to the speed then!

That was about it. I did get a bit annoyed though. There is a "celebrity" who brings her daughters to have lessons on patch. When her daughter was having her lesson this evening, the "celebrity" was just skating around, like your average public session skater.

My problem is, isn't that dangerous? And, when skaters have to have patch forms signed by coaches, no going on patch unless you are having coaching at the rink, etc. etc., how come she is the exception to the rule? She certainly wouldn't be able to get out of the way quickly enough of your average patch skater if needed, which means, everyone has to look out for her instead?

Hmmmmm . . . .

Cycling shorts of pain

2008-01-13T17:13:00.000Z

I have been sticking to my resolution to do intensive stretching every night, in particular to improve my spiral position, and boy, can I feel it. I have started referring to it as being "like wearing cycling shorts of pain . . . .". A bit of an exaggeration, but the aches are there! However, I am already seeing improvements in my position, especially in keeping my back as upright as possible, so that's good!

Not that I got to practice any spirals today, as the Littlest Rink was absolutely packed. I got a bit of edge work in, some crossovers (trying to relax into these more now, to try and help my foot point in the right direction) and lots of mohawks and 3-turns.

Every time I practice now, I go through a routine of doing at least three good 3-turns, both edges, both sides, just to keep them in shape. My LFI3's are still the weakest, but they are all happening, and my outside 3-turns feel quite strong.

After my coach helping me with mohawks on my lesson on Wednesday, I am pleased to say they are still in attendence and both ways (ie. the one where you lift your foot, and the one where you extend the leg behind you). My coach pointing out that I needed to be more confident in trusting the weight transfer has been a bit of a breakthrough - still a little tentative, but quite an improvement.

And that was about it, as it was soooooo busy. Off to cook my (healthy) tea, and settle down to watch Dancing On Ice - yay!

First lesson of the new year

2008-01-09T23:15:00.000Z

I was delighted to be back into lessons today, although my legs felt the work more than they normally do! Mind you, that could be because I spent about an hour yesterday evening doing stretching exercises.

I started off with the usual perimeter stroking, and yes, my forward crossovers were hacked to pieces. That bloody foot is still pointing in the wrong direction - aaargh! They really are turning into my bete noir. I think they are happening correctly a little more often now though - I really need to hammer away at them one session.

We then ran through the entire Level 1 Field Moves:
Forward Curves: Didn't have quite the control that I was getting on these before Christmas, but hopefully these will sort themselves out. However, bringing the leg through feels much smoother - I mostly have to remember to push the hip out over my skating leg on the inside edges, otherwise I swerve right in. And I mustn't leave my bum sticking out!
Backward Crossovers into Landing Position: I am still a little nervous about BXO's but every time I can do them I can feel the confidence growing. I need to start working on speed though. However, this was rather helped today by doing the last few and then the landing position going down a slope!
Forward and Backward Crossovers: Not bad. I am not losing control of the circle so much now on the backward crossovers - again its about speed and confidence now. And that foot on the FXO's! Trying very hard to turn the leg in from the hip, but frustrating me!
Spirals: Yay - I did my first spirals today! I luuuuuurve doing these! She did a couple with me but then I was quite happy practicing them on my own after my lesson. It's nice to find something that doesn't scare me! When D was nearby I am quite happy to lift my leg above my hip - it is not quite reaching there when I do them on my own, but that will come with time.

We then went onto:
Mohawks: After having issues with the "extended" type before Christmas, we spent quite a lot of time on these. And I was happy when they started working, not just with my coach, but when practicing afterwards as well. A lot of my issues appear to be not keeping my weight over the top of my skating leg after the turn (instead falling into the circle). Knowing that has helped tremendously and I am really pleased with progress on these.
Forward Russian Stroking: Foot. FXO. Direction. Crap. Otherwise not bad :)
Backward Russian Stroking: D spoke to me down the whole length of the rink about something else and I'll tell you something - distraction works a treat! Fairly fast and smooth and really quite comfortable!
Backward Crossrolls: I have gone from "Bwaaahahahaha - you're joking!" to "Hmmm, maybe they can work!". Still doing them with a helping hand, but each time I do them they make a little more sense.
Novice Foxtrot: Only time for one dance this evening, and to be honest it felt a bit rubbish. But faster. Maybe that's a good thing. But I felt a wee bit unbalanced on the swings. I presume it's just down to not having skated for a couple of weeks, but I know I need to get my blades sharpened as well.

I then came home, cooked dinner for myself and Stacey who had come round (we have plans to take it turns to cook a healthy meal once a week to try out new recipes) and we sat down and I started making her wedding tiara! It's lovely working with all these beautiful materials (freshwater pearls, sterling silver wire, Swarovski crystals etc), but that wiring doesn't half make your hands sore!

First skate of 2008

2008-01-06T17:26:00.000Z

Finally, after nearly 3 weeks off it, I got back on the ice today with a big mental sigh of relief. What with one thing and another, I haven't been able to make patches in the evenings and have avoided public sessions, because . . . well, its holiday season!

Today was mostly just about getting my skates back under me again. Although, on the whole, and this being longest time I have been away from the ice, it all felt pretty good. I didn't do anything spectacular (too busy for one thing), but lots of stroking, playing around on edges and the such.

The other day, I saw on TV the "Dancing On Ice Live Tour 2007" and spent most of it scrutinising the pro's feet, in particular forward crossovers, where my feet doesn't want to point in the right direction. Applied the theories today, and they felt pretty good, considering I haven't done them in a couple of weeks! Speedier, smoother and more poised. Although I am sure my coach will pull them to bits on Wednesday :)

Went through all my 3-turns - my weakest ones (RFI3's) were a little scrapy, but all still working . . phew! I was terrified that everything would have disappeared - irrational I know, but hey! Mohawks were also significantly better than the last time I skated, when I was getting frustrated with them. Not brilliant, but better. I found that just emphasizing how much I turn within my arms after the turn makes it feel much more secure. I love that about skating - a tiny alteration can make such a massive difference!

Did a bit of backward stroking (not bad - trying to get more power into it now), some backward sustained outside and inside edges and some power pushes. Looking at it, it wasn't a bad skate really!

I hope you all got what you wanted from Father Christmas this year? I got some fab curling tongs with interchangeable heads (having recently had my very thick hair cut from below waist length to shoulder length). My coach in an email said that she thought it would be good for competition - half up, half down with ringletty curls. I don't think completely practical - it took me an hour and a half to do the other night! And I would probably burn my scalp with my nervous shaky hands . . . . maybe heated rollers will be better for that :)

A Very Merry Christmas to All!

2007-12-24T09:16:00.000Z

No skating at all over the last week, hence no posting! Unfortunately my lesson was cancelled on Wednesday, and every evening seems to have been spent in a flurry of running around trying to find presents or Christmas trees, or visits to the pub!

I will try and get to a rink towards the end of this week. I feel like I have been drowning in mince pies, and quite frankly, need the exercise.

In the meantime, I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and I hope you get all you asked Father Christmas for in your stockings!

Relationship problems . . . with mohawks

2007-12-17T20:22:00.000Z

A day off today - firstly because I could, and secondly, this evening my cat-sitting duties come to an end, and after three weeks in my friends flat, I wanted to have a clean and tidy round this afternoon.

It was a little busy this morning, but I still managed to get quite a lot done, which I was pleased about.

I spent some time on FO & FI Edges and finally, I am stopping the "hooking" around on my FI edges. D had mentioned keeping my weight outside the circle, and today I just pushed my skating hip a little more out of the curve, which really helped. I also worked on controlling the free leg on both, so it is like "pushing through marshmallows" (D's description!).

I did a lot on pushing back into landing position and then turning from back to front - this was not terrible when I learnt Waltz-3's (thanks 3turn!) the other day, but one side was a little stuttery and I wanted to feel more comfortable with it. Mission accomplished I think.

I ran through Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz, mostly so I could think about the speed of weight transfer between curves. Feeling a little better I think. I have noticed on the crossy swingy thing on the short axis of the Tango, I always run out of power, so I did some cross-rolls as well, which are feeling better every week.

Lastly I worked on my nemesis. I only realised today that they are my current nemesis, but I am really struggling with mohawks at the moment. When I first learnt open FI mohawks (in the "dance" style, ie. not extending the leg behind me on the exit), they weren't too bad. But they were, and still are, slow. And I am struggling to do them at a higher speed. Plus, now I was taught an exercise with mohawks last week, I now have to do the "freestyle" type where the free leg extends behind me, and I just cannot do them for toffee. Gaaarrrgh! Typically, I can do them perfectly on the barrier, but either not at all, or extremely slowly off it. I've got no hope of being able to do closed FO mohawks yet, if I can't get these right!

But apart from mohawks, I can't really complain. I felt nicely worked out afterwards, managed to get around to buying some Christmas cards (is it really only next week?) and came back to the flat to put my Mrs. Mop head on. I am now waiting for them, as they are on their way back from Heathrow on the tube.

I wish I had just had 3 weeks on the Maldives . . .

Lunchtime skate

2007-12-14T15:53:00.000Z

I took a half day at work today, and as I had to be in really early at 08:00 for a patch (not the ice kind, the software kind!) release, I was able to leave at 11:30 and get to the rink for the last hour of the morning session.

Annoyingly, a third of the rink was cordoned off for the usual "Dancing On Ice" coaching that you get this time of year. Only a few celebs - I recognised two out of the three, but I think the one I don't recognise is on standby as he is not on the "official" list . . . (edit: just realised who he is, and no . . . he's not on "The List". But then neither was Clare Buckfield at first!)

What was left of the rink was busy, and the ice was a state - snow everywhere! Managed to get quite a bit done though.

I spent a lot of time working on my MITF FO and FI edges. FI edges are feeling better, and are not "hooking" around quite as much as they were. D now wants me to do all of these starting from standstill, so I am also trying to get more power into the initial pushes - it gets easier once I get going!

I ran through my dances, focussing on the speed of weight transfer and change of edge. I think there was a little improvement. The bit I find most difficult to do cleanly is the two consecutive swings on the Dutch Waltz, but it's good that I am now able to break these dances down much more, rather than just concentrating on remembering the steps!

Last of all, I spent some time on mohawks, 3-turns and some closed chasse's. Mohawks are peeing me off at the moment. I'm trying to get the speed up on my FI mohawks and struggling - but I need to be able to do them faster for the exercise D taught me on Wednesday and also on my MITF FXO/BXO fig 8's to change from front to back. And I still can't get my feet around FO mohawks at all! . . . sigh . . .

3-turns were okay and crossed chasse's are getting better too. They have stopped feeling horribly unstable - on Monday, I want to try and get these happening at a higher speed.

PS. How long does the cough from the Evil Winter Virus take to shift?! It's driving me nuts!! Luckily it never went down onto my chest, but still, so annoying!

So cold!

2007-12-12T20:27:00.000Z

Ah, the joys of winter. The temperature has PLUMMETED over the last few days, and waiting for buses to hoik me back to Kentish Town just isn't fun!

It was a relatively quiet patch tonight for my lesson, and I was taught some new exercises as well.

Perimeter Stroking: Not bad. At last, my foot is falling in the right direction (some of the time) on the FXO's. Thinking of my knee pointing in the right direction didn't really help (yes, I have feet that can turn quite a way independently of my knees!), so now I think of rotating the whole leg in from the hip and that seems to help.
FXO's fig 8 to BXO's fig 8: Okay, can't do mohawks at speed at all. In fact, more than about a snail's pace! Other than that, not bad. The glide in between the BXO's is feeling much better and BXO's are feeling much smoother and getting a little faster. We worked on me keeping my inside shoulder and hip pushed back so I can keep control of my direction.
BXO's - landing position: Again, not bad. I need more power in my BXO's now so the glide can be held for longer.
FO & FI Edges: Outsides - my leg needs to be better timed as I bring it through. Insides - I am still hooking round on the inside edge, but D told me to keep the free hip pushed further back. Something to work on, but I can feel the difference. I also need to stop sticking my backside out!
Forward & Backward Crossrolls: Forward didn't feel too bad. Backwards still need help, but I am feeling how to transfer the weight onto the foot, so I think these have potential!
"A FO3 exercise" (aka, no idea what this is called): On a circle, do a LFO3 following the circle. bring feet together briefly and push back into a RBO landing position, then bring the free foot down (not on the ice) and step from back to forward . . . into your next LFO3! To my immense surprise, I really enjoyed this exercise! It is stronger on my right FO3 side than my left, but it is only really the step from front to back that is unsteady.
"A FI Mohawk exercise" (aka, another exercise that I don't know a name for!): Didn't like this one quite so much - like I said before, mohawks at anything above crawling pace just aren't happening atm. But, two strokes L & R, LFI mohawk (urgh),step back onto left foot and weight over left leg, push over onto right leg into a LBXO, step from back to front with right foot. All not bad . . . . but for the mohawk. I really need to get more comfortable with these at speed.
Novice Foxtrot: Improvement. Now need to work (on this and all dances) on speed of weight transfer and change of direction.
Canasta Tango: Another improvement (working on patterns yesterday paid off). I need to stop sticking my bum out on the slip chasses, but the swingy crossy thing is not being forgotten now. Apparently my arms were good too - no floaty bits this week :)
Dutch Waltz: Again, improved. Yay! Same things to work on as the others really - speed of weight transfer / direction change. D has given me an exercise to work on to practice this, so I can work on this.

A good lesson - now defrosting at home! I am back at home next week, so a much easier journey to both rinks (one bus, as opposed to three!). I do have a half day on Friday, and I will go straight to the rink from work for the last half of the morning session (I have to start very early, but that does mean I can leave very early too!) and I have Monday off too, so will try and make the morning session then.

Not my usual patch . . .

2007-12-11T22:22:00.000Z

Well, after the disappointment of last night and the gas leak, I made it up to Ally Pally today for patch. It felt quite odd - out of routine, and I don't normally go to patch unless I have a lesson, but I had a nice skate! Worth the absolute pain in the arse of getting there from Kentish Town. I really should look at getting my driving licence . . .

I am still not quite 100% after the Evil Winter Virus, so didn't overdo it today. After my "going back to basics so I don't collapse" lesson last week, I practiced some nice vanilla forward and backward stroking. I also tried some more backward power pushes - still a little pathetic!

I also concentrated on getting my feet sorted out in the crossed chasses. They don't feel quite as evil as they used to any more, but finding that my left leg crosses under much more happily than my right leg?! Maybe I've got one leg that is much chunkier than the other . . . Closed / FO mohawks still aren't making much sense. They do on the barrier, but a complete disaster away from it. Never mind - I think it took a couple of weeks for open / FI mohawks to fall into place. I also did a few 3-turns and FI mohawks, to keep them going and a few BO "landing positons".

Patch was busy to start with, but quietened down, and I managed to get at least one sequence in of the Canasta Tango and the Dutch Waltz. Mostly I was just trying to sort the pattern out in my head, now the steps are there, as I was losing my way a little on some of the edges. It was time well spent - they are feeling more comfortable and the steps / edges are pattern-correct now (in my head at least!).

How annoying

2007-12-11T10:14:00.000Z

I was going to skate last night.

I was going to skate last night, having only skated once in the last week and a half, due to Evil Winter Viruses.

I was going to skate last night, and rushed out the door at my temporary flat and cat-sitting abode in Kentish Town, in the freezing cold weather, waited for a bus and got to the ice rink in super early time.

"The ice rink is closed due to unforeseen circumstances".

A gas leak. Harumph . . .

By this point, it was too late to try and make it up to patch at Ally Pally, so I had to traipse home again. I will try and make patch tonight, not a usual night for me, but still . . .

Going easy on me

2007-12-05T21:22:00.001Z

A lesson this evening, and my first time on the ice since my lesson last week, due to the Evil Winter Virus. D was well aware that I have been ill, so we took it easy today, with some basics and edge work, and running through three dances.

Perimeter Stroking: Instead of speed today, we focussed on nice extension and the length of each stroke. Felt quite good - my extension is quite good anyway - but I need to really sink into the knees between each one. Down to four strokes each side now!
Backward Stroking: This was great as this is the first time that my backward stroking has been concentrated on since about Level 4 of SkateUK! We worked on getting my weight transfer right over the skating leg, and getting a good push with the feet together and turned in, pushing right into the inside edge of the "propelling" foot. Not bad actually! We also tried some power pushes, doing one push, holding the free leg in front and seeing how far I could get. Of course, D manages to do about half the rink on one push, and I managed a comparitively pathetic 10 feet. But secretly I was quite pleased :)
Russian Stroking: Once I got that stupid foot pointing in the right direction on the FXO's, this felt nice today.
Backward Russian Stroking: Not having done this for a while, I felt a real improvement in this today. The BXO's felt quite smooth, and once D pointed out "You are meant to be getting faster, not slowing down!", I managed to put a bit more power into it.
Forward Crossrolls: Having feet that naturally want to point outwards on the FXO's (my "stupid" feet), at least it helps my crossrolls! I am getting a bit more power into these now and the curves are beginning to get bigger again. I need to try and bring the crossed foot back a bit, rather than further in front - more of a cross I suppose.
Backward Crossrolls: Second time trying these, and having found these aaaawwwful the first time I did them, actually today they weren't so bad! Still doing them with support, but just perhaps, they are starting to make a little more sense now! I am getting a better idea of how to put the crossing foot down on the ice now, through the toe, although my right foot is much happier crossing than my left one!
Novice Foxtrot: I got a bit off my pattern the first time round, but the second time was much better. One of my focuses for practice this week is to make sure that FXO's and swings all push out perpendicular to the direction of travel, rather than trying to twist into it, and this is applicable for all my dances.
Canasta Tango: Apparently my arms switch between being sharp and floaty - no room for floatiness in this dance! And I was concentrating so hard on getting my arms right throughout it (having only worked it out in the living room!), I forgot the cross swingy thing!
Dutch Waltz: Finally got to do this in a lesson (having learnt it a few weeks ago). The second time through was much better as my edges were deeper and I was pushing a little more perpendicular to the direction of travel than I was on the first time round :) I like this one, but someone was playing the music and I can't quite keep up on all of it just yet!

I was so glad I didn't cancel my lesson this week after being ill. I'm glad we took it easy, but I feel so much better for having done some exercise - almost feeling completely human again!

Winter drawbacks

2007-12-04T14:10:00.000Z

I haven't been lazy this past week. I was finally got by the Evil Winter Virus.

It is quite rare for me to succumb to these things, so typically, I was hit quite badly. Throat started a bit "off" on Friday, feeling rubbish on Saturday, full body aches on Sunday, and a day off work yesterday, getting bored to tears by daytime television. Plus, streaming nose, hacking cough, watering eyes, sore throat . . .

Back at work today, being very careful to keep my distance from everyone (though with the air conditioning in this ten storey building, there are probably germs from about 500 people circulating in the air around us as I type), still coughing and sneezing, but on the whole feeling much better. Better than I sound anyway . . .

My coach told me to forget the "24 hour rule" for lesson cancellations and to let her know tomorrow if I am okay for my lesson.

I think by tomorrow I will be so desperate for exercise and to get on ice, I will be there regardless. Even if I have to wrap myself in a duvet.

In the meantime, thank the Good Lord for Nurofen Cold & Flu!

Officially on Passport!

2007-11-28T21:17:00.000Z

In my lesson today, we finally put to bed all those niggly bits from the Skate UK syllabus that we hadn't finished (oh alright, and I had lost the booklet for signing off and had to buy a new one . . . ).

There was only four bits from Level 8 and 9 that I hadn't officially passed before, even though I had passed all of Level 10 :)

LEVEL 8
Drag: Managed two respectable ones - not even contemplated a few months ago with my 'orrible kneecaps, but no longer a problem!

LEVEL 9
Bunny Hop: Still need to do these a little less daintily apparently, but acceptable.
Backward edges (both feet and both edges): BI edges were easy, BO felt the best they ever had which I was thrilled with. Not brilliant, but I learnt that keeping the same arm in front and not swapping halfway through makes them a lot more stable, and there were discernible edges on all of them
Two BXO's to a sustained backward inside edge: Much better than before - I can hold the position on both sides now, unnatural though it can feel!

And that's it - my Skate UK booklet is all signed off, and can be shoved to the back of a drawer!

Next stop is the Skate UK Dance Passport in bronze, silver and gold (although I am also doing most of the Level 1 Field Moves, bar the spiral at the moment). The passport bronze level consists of:

Forward open chasses / crossed (closed) chasses continuously on a circle (min 3) (L & R)
LFO closed mohawk, cross in front onto a LBI. Step forward to RFI (x3) (L&R)F
Forward progressive runs (CW & CCW)
Two consecutive LFO 3-turns followed by LFO sustained outside edge with free leg extended for a count of 3 (L & R)

So in the rest of the lesson we covered:
MITF Forward Edges: Not bad - I need to bend my knees more and make sure I don't hitch my free hip up when bringing the leg through.
MITF FXO's & BXO's Fig 8: I need to remember to keep my inside hip pushed back on the BXO's, otherwise I tend to lose my sense of direction. I just about managed to do the required mohawk for the change of direction, but I had to slow down massively!
MITF Backward Landing Edges: Fairly satisfied. One side wandered slightly onto a straight edge, but the other side stayed most defintely on an outside edge and both felt quite secure. It is defintely seeming that gliding backwards on one leg no longer holds the same terror it used to!
Closed Chasse's: Bwaaahahahaha! Well these feel normal . . . Crossing the free foot behind the skating foot and stepping onto it, for those who are unfamiliar. It kind of started making a bit more sense in the patch afterwards where I could do them slowly and really feel where the feet should be. Right feels much better than left and I have to remember to pigeon toe my feet on the cross (my natural instinct being to turn them out).
FO Closed Mohawk: Another newbie and although D says they are easier than open mohawks, I'm not feelin' it yet! I can do them quite nicely on the barrier, but my feet turn into a big skiddy mess when I attempt them away from it.
Novice Foxtrot: Not bad - still hip riding a bit on the swings (hitching the free hip up) but it is feeling much bigger and faster.
Canasta Tango: D added various arms to this today, which confused me a little, but I can work it out at home. I did three rounds today - the second one, D got me to follow her speed and pattern and I just about managed to keep up. The third time on my own subsequently felt much better and at the beginning I had a eureka moment when my knees really were bent. Everything felt smoother and more powerful and it felt really good. Now I just have to work to maintain it throughout the whole thing!

Very happy after my lesson, especially as that pesky SkateUK booklet is all signed off, and I have wholly new things to think about!

A Simple Skate

2007-11-25T19:15:00.000Z

I am currently residing in my friends flat at the moment, looking after their cat, whilst they are away sunning themselves in the Maldives.

So today I went up to the Littlest Rink in the afternoon, rather than my usual evening slot. It is a longer journey from where I am temporarily, so I thought that even going to a busy afternoon session would be better than not going at all cos I don't want to go out in the evening! I also went with my new flatmate, and it is always nice to have company - although the combination of a very busy rink, the usual twat's on hockey skates and teaching her to skate backward, I didn't get too much done myself! However, sometimes it is nice to just skate . . . .

So not much to report really - a few 3-turns (which went well), a few mohawks (likewise), a couple of barrelrolls, some power pushes, some FXO's and the usual playing around on my edges which is always a good fallback for busy rinks!

I am now snuggled up on the sofa, dipping into a Chocolate Banoffee Gü Pud, which is just heavenly. Incidently, Gü are sponsoring the open air ice skating rink at the Natural History Museum!

More new things!

2007-11-21T20:12:00.000Z

Lesson time once again (these weeks are rolling around quickly at the moment) and a few more new things today.

Perimeter Stroking: It appears that the tip about pointing my knee in the direction of travel rather than the foot has really helped on the FXO's - thank you 3turn! Now, I have to smooth the movement out - almost like a swing through and cross, instead of what I am doing at the moment which is to bring the free foot to my skating ankle and pausing before crossing over.
Forward Crossovers - Fig. 8: This was actually where she picked up on the smoothness of the FXO's. The second time I did it, they felt much better and I also need to maximise my (apparently nice) extension before crossing over.
Backward Crossovers - Fig. 8: Not bad! I even did these on the hilly bit of the rink without flinching too much. I have always disliked the backward glide in between and suddenly it all seemed better when D told me it was just a glide back in the landing position. It's funny how something small can completely change your perception :) My weaker side on the BXO's is also feeling a little more coordinated now, especially once I get going.
BXO's to a sustained inside or outside edge: The sustained BO edge wasn't bad - it feels like I am a little more over the edge now, and I can hold it quite well. The BI edges not so good - the bad side is catching up, but it is still bad! It still just feels like a weird position, but I know I'll get used to it. I have to think about just lifting the undercrossed leg up, rather than twisting into some weird and warped position!
Crossrolls: Better now I am doing smaller curves - the momentum keeps going, especially when I hit that outside edge on the cross. For dancey ones, D told me I need to think about keeping my weight over the free leg rather than the skating leg.
Power pushes: Just pushing off from both feet with a deep knee bend and strong extension and seeing how far I can go. A little pathetic at the moment, but something to work on to get more "oomph".
3-turns & mohawks: All just about playing ball, but have been better.
Barrel rolls: A new thing! I thought these were going to be horrible, but I actually quite enjoyed them and managed some on my own, small though they may have been! Basically a mohawk onto a BI edge, cross the free foot over and then step from backwards to forward. The main thing for me on these at the moment is to make sure that each movement is defined, so it doesn't become a spinny muddle. Pleased at how I did on these for a first go :)
Novice Foxtrot: Not bad - still leaving my bum sticking out a bit on the swings. I think this is mostly due to getting used to swinging the leg through and not feeling like my leg underneath is going to come flying up as well.
Canasta Tango: Someone else was doing this today, so I got to try it to music for the first time! Heck, it sounds so much faster when you are actually doing it! On the long axis, I actually managed to keep with it quite well, but lost it a bit on the crossover on the corner, into the cross swingy thing. But so much fun!!!

A good lesson, considering I was a little weary when I got there. D has also told me to start practicing the position of the Ina Bauer at home so I can get comfortable doing it on the ice. A possible element for my first program . . . .

Monday evening practice

2007-11-19T22:39:00.000Z

Tonight was one of those practice sessions that you really don't want to go to (it was very cold and rainy outside), but actually turns out to be really good.

Specific things I worked on today was:
3-turns which behaved themselves.
FXO's remembering 3turn's advice about pointing the knee in the direction I want to go, rather than thinking about the foot. Very helpful and I think it might have helped immensely. Difficult thing to check myself though, so will have to see what my coach says on Wednesday!
Bunnyhops and 3-jumps: Bunnyhops feel really not too bad now. 3-jumps are a little scary, but practicing quite a few of them on the barrier. Not quite ready to let go yet!
2 foot spins: I seem to have lost the 1 footness that I was doing in my lesson last week, but did quite a few 2-foot spins. The spin is getting a bit faster now and my weight is much more over the spinning foot.
Drags: Happening, but not so good as I seem to have actually pulled a muscle in my bum (don't laugh, please!). I swapped bedrooms with my flatmate last night, so was lifting and dragging piles of stuff and furniture, which didn't help, and then typical me, kept forcing myself into drags this evening. Hopefully it will be better by tomorrow . . .
2 foot turn from front to back: A strange thing to practice, all the way back from Level 3 (I think), but a good reason why. I don't like changing direction at speed, so want to get more comfortable doing these at speed, so I can turn without losing momentum.
Forward Chasse's: Something from my lesson last week, for the Canasta Tango - making sure I don't point my foot downwards on the chasse.
Crossrolls: I found that keeping the curves smaller means that I don't lose impetus and can actually keep up a fairly decent speed. I worked on the nice soft knees on these as well, so I sink down on the XO.

And amazingly, the ice down at the Littlest Rink was really pretty good! No troughs of melted ice down the middle, fairly smooth and really quite skateable!

I'm off to put a hot water bottle on my butt now . . .

Trying to get more "oomph"

2007-11-16T20:52:00.000Z

After being absolutely furious yesterday, after going stir crazy waiting in ALL afternoon for Virgin Media to come and fix my telephone line and then not turning up, it was nice to get up to the rink today.

Skated for about an hour before lunch and 45 minutes after - it might have been longer, but in the half hour lunch break, they were doing something with the lights and didn't bother with the usual Zamboni, so it was feeling somewhat rough this afternoon.

So, it was a little tricky today as it was quite busy with little hockey munchkins, but I did spend some time throwing myself around to get the aforementioned "oomph" into my skating. I don't find it a problem when I am doing vanilla stroking, but still not getting it into my crossrolls. I just can't feel where the power is meant to come from . . . something to continue bashing out.

Otherwise, I did quite a few things:
Perimeter Stroking: I really concentrated on getting my toes pointing in the right direction on the FXO's, and they did feel a little smoother. I shall have to remember 3turns tip about pointing my knees in the right direction, rather than just my toes.
Russian Stroking: Did this for the FXO part really. Felt quite good.
Open Chasses: This was to work on lifting the foot parallel to the ice rather than pointing the toe, and not having any push behind it. Feeling better.
BXO's: Need to remember to "sit" back into the BXO, otherwise I occasionally end up on my toepick.
FI3's: Not bad. Happening both sides at least. I am still in disbelief that I actually worked these out, as they gave me massive headaches at the time!
Drags: Proud to say, not only a bit of snow on the sole of my boot, but actually all over the bottom of my jogging pants! My knee now lets me go ALL the way down! Mind you - i'm not getting up too elegantly at the moment :) But thrilled - a simple thing, but I did doubt whether I would ever find it possible.
2-foot spin: Didn't quite get to a one foot spin today, but worked out the arms (well, on the ice and on my kitchen floor as well). I can feel where the arms give the impetus for the spin now, and my 2-foot spin is feeling . . . spinny.
3 jump: Remembered about pulling myself upright after the jump, and it feels . . . okay. Scary to go into, and obviously I am still doing these on the barrier, but working. I think I will take my time on these!
Crossrolls: As I said, still not getting much power into these. I am wondering whether I should make the curves a little smaller, so I haven't come to a grinding halt by the time I do the next cross.

So I managed to fit quite a bit in, around the little hooligans. My legs are pleasantly achy from all the drags and "oomph-ness" I was doing and I feel like it was a good practice!