Friday, February 26, 2016

Singles Practice at EWU

Skated today at Eastern Washington University - the equivalent to HOT YOGA for figure skating!  This rink is so warm.  Heaters above the ice and bright inside.  I wish every rink was like this one.
You can peel off all the coats and sweaters and sometimes even the gloves for practice here....

...that is when they let you practice.  They have strange rules about what you can and can't do on a public session.  Sometimes you can skate to your hearts content as long as you look out for others.  Sometimes an ice monitor will come out and tell you that you cannot do ANY freestyle or even skate backwards!

Today I went to their one and only drop-in freestyle session on Friday from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.  $5.  Such a deal.

After a day of doing nothing except watching videos of other adult skaters I decided to get off my butt and get some exercise.  My pairs skating is so much fun, but I have really neglected regular singles practice and now some of my elements ... along with my stamina are suffering.

My Lutz is 100% gone.  I balk every time I toe pick in and just do a 1/2 Lutz.  Flip?  Not a problem.  And considering my Lutz is a Flutz (a Flip from a Lutz entry) ... this should not be a jump that gives me trouble, but it does.  So today I resigned myself to the fact that my competition next Sunday
at PCAS will probably look like a Bronze skate.... at best.


Friday, February 19, 2016

Skating Solo Today

My partner was nice enough to give me a day off pairs to work on my singles.  Competition March 6 ... not much time to regain my skills and build up some stamina.

I did a really stupid thing.  I entered the Silver Ladies Championship event at Sectionals - knowing I was going on vacation for 3 weeks and would be off the ice and not getting much exercise.  My skills were barely at the Silver level having recently passed my Free Skate back last summer - I have been concentrating on pairs and .... well.... you know the adage ... if you don't use it ... you lose it.

Too late to pull out of the competition.  I did not expect to "qualify" at Sectionals for Nationals, but I was hoping for a good skate.  I will be competing agains ladies of all adult ages from 21 and up.  I have no idea how many 56 year olds there will be.... not that it makes a difference in this competition... we are not divided into age groups.  I just hope I don't come in dead last.... anything above that and I will be happy!

At Nationals I will then fall back on my Adult Silver IV "open" event ... where we are split into our appropriate age groups.   Not as prestigious as Championship, but I am going to go with a new "joy for skating" attitude and try and accept whatever level I am able to skate at and BE GRATEFUL.

Grateful I can skate at all... grateful my adoring husband lets me stay home and spend hours at the rink and when the coaching bills come in and the dresses are bought ... he never says anything to me.... although secretly I know he is rolling his eyes wondering what the fascination is.

He loves aviation ... he could fly all day, and talk about it all night (and never get a blister!)  So there.


Thursday, February 18, 2016

Pairs Lesson

Back from vacation - which was fabulous.  Aside from getting the flu and being down for 3 days of it ... And not getting to skate or doing much exercise -  I went to the rink today without much in the way of expectation.

We had a lesson with our pairs coach Chris Anders and he brought Melida Seable to help out with a few pointers - she is a coach at Frontier Ice and a former show skater as well.  It's nice having the female perspective on pairs.

We ran through some elements and then got to work on completing the backbone of our Silver Pairs Program for competition laying it out and marking everything.  This video today didn't process properly with the music but you can get the jest of the program layout.

Our Axel lift is working well off ice but failing still on ice... We need to be closer hip-to-hip before I go up and I need to push harder with me left arm.  We just marked the loop lift toward the 2nd half of the program and our footwork was spliced because one of us (me) didn't do it right and when I put the music on it we were late on the music....

Like I said... It's an outline.

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.