Monday, August 31, 2015

Sun Valley Adult Week

 This was the most amazing week I loved Sun Valley and their adult skating camp. I took so many videos… So little time. I will start posting with this video and I will continue to add to this particular post as I slowly  edit  all of my skating experience there.

Keep checking back for more highlights.

Video number one was taken after coffee club with Erin Reed (A fun morning skating adventure different things every day) this day we did a pinwheel.




Video 2 was me getting on the ice five minutes before the Zamboni came out and I had the ice almost to my self wouldn't you know they would have to play this song?




Video 3 was from the daily open dance sessions.  They played all (30?) dances and there were couples, solo dancers, pros giving lessons and people like me, just trying to pick up a few steps.  There is nothing quite like it when the sun is out and it's 85 degrees outside with the backdrop of the beautiful Sun Valley Lodge.  I am really motivated to learn to ice dance.


Video 4 is from the 2 pairs clinics on Wed and Fri with Jonathan Hunt and Natalia Zaitseva with help from Ale Izquierdo Hunt and Ilia Zaytsev.  I expected this clinic to include stroking and tracking and maybe a throw Waltz.  I am sure I can speak for everyone who took these clinics that they were FUN.



Video 5 is my private dance lesson with Ty Cockrum.  What a great guy.  I watched him dance with ladies young and old all week and just had to take a lesson.  He made anyone he danced with look good and feel great.  I signed up for dance classes as soon as I got home!  Next year I will be ready to dance (and perhaps test?)




Video 6 is the Partnering and Tracking Clinic with Brent Bommentre and Kim Navarro.  This class was fabulous and fun.  We had a great class size and worked on edges, stroking, swing rolls in unison.  Great exercise for pairs, dance, synchro, duets and just control in general.  I can't say enough about how fun this and all the clinics were and how enthusiastic and patient all the pros were!




Video 7 is a compilation of 2 jump clinics by Jonathan Hunt.  Day 1 went from the Bunny Hop - Loop Jump.  Day 2 went from the Flip - Axel.  (Don't get too excited only 2 in the group could do one! ) The rest of us worked on Axel prep.




Video 8 is morning Patch / Figures with Michele Monnier.  She gave a great class for all.  If you never skated a patch before she began with the basics: Outside edges on an axis.  They laid out a standard size figure 8 on 3/4 of the ice and we all took our patches, some doubled up.  It felt great after so many years to be on QUIET ICE ... The only thing missing was dressing like an eskimo and the fog coming from our breath... because it's SUN VALLEY IN THE SUMMER!




Video 9 is the Spin Clinic with Craig Heath.  I wish I had taken a private lesson with him to work on my flying camel and back spins.  We talked about it on day one, but I decided to first attend the clinic and see if I still wanted one.  By the time the clinic came I was exhausted and injured, so I lost my opportunity for that.  The clinic was great for anyone.  He began with the concept of the two foot spin and gave some great tips.  I for one HATE the two foot spin and I learned how to distribute the weight on each blade.  We went on to Scratch and Sit and started on Back spins from a pivot before the "bell" rang to end the session.  Thanks Craig.





Video 10 is Choreography Clinic with Stephanee Grosscup.  This lady is amazing.  Skating with her is like a wonderful zen experience.  She has incredible grace and flow in all her movements and the ability to choreograph a simple, but elegant group number in record time (30 minutes of instruction over 2 session).  If you ever lose the joy of skating for any reason... 15 minutes with Stephanee will make you fall in love with skating all over again.




Video 11 is Edge Clinic with Lisa Marie Allen.  Another great clinic for skaters of all abilities.  Learning good strong edges is so fundamental I don't know why clubs don't put more emphasis on reinforcing these principles.





Last but not least.  This was icing on the cake. Every day we had lunch on the terrace at Sun Valley Resort and got to watch the pros practicing for the Saturday evening show.  What a treat.  The show on Saturday night headlined with Jason Brown, but we didn't see him practice.


Saturday, August 22, 2015

Off Ice Pairs Lesson

This will be our last chance to skate together for another eight days as I am off to the
Sun Valley Idaho 2015 adult summer skating camp.

 There's no deadline so anybody can jump on this glorious bandwagon.

 Off ice we worked on the stag lift which is not something required for silver pairs nor does it count for anything more than an artistic flair in the program… But it's a beginning we haven't done any lifts yet. Next we worked on the Axel lift... Much harder for me I have to do some of the work... ha ha

We had about  five minutes of on ice practice before somebody accidentally knocked my cell phone off-the-wall onto the ice and when they picked it up the angle that right toward the ceiling so my very first axel lift with Hank will have to wait for another session also getting my arm ripped out of my socket trying to do death spiral practice.


Thursday, August 20, 2015

More Pairs Practice

Grabbing ice time between having company and summer travel; Hank and I worked in 40 minutes of on ice practice. Without a coach we just practiced some of our side by side jumps, spins and a few throw jumps.

Lesson Saturday!

Monday, August 17, 2015

Evening FS Session

Trying to get ice time in the summer is difficult.  This rink has a new club and most of the kids are LTS or just higher so they are all over the place and don't really follow freestyle session etiquette -

Glad it was only me.  Hank and I skate Thursday night there... we'll see.

I just worked on this and that.  Feeling less than confident on my toe jumps especially my Lutz (or Flutz I should say) -

Good things happening:  My sit spin is getting stronger and I am getting lower and faster.  My camel spin comes and goes but I am getting stronger and finding my center more often than not these days.
I really want a flying camel for my program and a back sit spin.

Lastly I imagined my dramatic music in my head and tried to improvise a little.  Still not 100% sure of the music.  It's very quiet and slow and 1:30 isn't a lot of time for that type of music.  The main thing is the dramatic skate has no jump requirements or spin requirements.  So everything you put in it needs to be skated well or left out.  It's more about the connection to the music.  I will play around with it more next time I skate then show my coach (choreographer) and see what she says.


Saturday, August 15, 2015

Traveling: Skating at Westminster Ice in Cypress CA

On a long weekend trip to California... Brought my skates and got in one early am freestyle at Westminster Ice.


Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Poppurri

Skated at EWU today.

Got told "NO FREESTYLE" on public ice including "skating backwards" "no jumps" "no spins except in the middle" ----- but they require me to skate backwards ???

In between regular rent-a-skate people on the ice they let us do freestyle.  Don't get me started.

Worked on a little of everything today.  Long video (sorry) with a wide variety of music ...

I have really been dropping the ball on my video editing ... realizing of course, skating is more important than video editing!

See you after I get back from Disneyland and hopefully a few times on the ice at Westminster or Paramount or Lakewood Ice in So Cal.


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Short Post

Skated today at EWU but I didn't  set up my camera correctly and it wasn't in focus.  Bad video.
Anyway I was working on trying to choreograph my own light entertainment program.  Tomorrow I have a lesson with my choreographer, but I was curious what I could come up with on my own.

Pretty much nothing exciting.

At the end of my short 45 minute session I moved the camera and did 2 sit spins.


Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Early Morning FS and Lesson

Coaching during the summer is sporadic at best.  This was the only time I could secure with my coach this week.  I haven't had a lesson since before my FS test.

After a discussion on what my game plan was (taking my test program and turning it into a competition program) we got to work on my Flying Camel -

Basically I am doing a Waltz Jump and a Back Camel .. I need to turn it into a Flying Camel by being in the proper take off position (camel position) and by entering the "flying part" much later and landing in a certain place.

Video #2 is my lesson that was about 20 minutes today.  I cut out some bench talk and some wall work we did.  I did show all 16 or 17 attempts at the flying camel.




Getting busy on these Silver Dances

I have been working on these silver dances too long!   Planning to go all in on them until I can test them in the next few months.