Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Not quite ready for prime time

 It has been nearly 2 weeks since Hank and I have taken the ice together to practice our silver pairs free skate. Today we had a lesson and the advantage of being on a club session so we could try a program run with music.  Needless  to say we are not in the best physical condition having not run this program since nationals.

 We will get to skate twice this week before commencing on another two-week break ..  How do you like our hard-core training program?


Friday, June 17, 2016

If it first you don't succeed…

Try try again right?

 I took a couple of days off since my disastrous doubleheader lesson day and decided to just work on my choreography... On public, at my own pace, in my own way, with my own ideas.  I moved a few things around from what my coaches asked me to do and I'm feeling a little more positive.   Chances are it will be several weeks before I see either of those two coaches again  as we have summer travel plans ahead.

Looks like I'll be  missing up another program down to the wire before competition.

Warning this video is repetitious ...



Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The Agony of Defeat ...

For those who skate ... you know.  Some days you unlace your skates and ask yourself WHY?
Why am I doing this?  Today was a compound disaster day.

For unknown reasons I woke in one of those moods.  Hubby says "anything wrong?"  To which I reply "no".  Obviously something threw me off kilter.

I arrived at the 2:15 session ready for 2 lessons.  Coach first then choreographer. I warmed up and felt ok having stroked a few laps, done some edges and cross strokes, stretched at the wall, etc.

Then I made the mistake of talking.  Talking to my coach about my displeasure of the changes in my choreography and how I didn't feel like it was going in the direction I wanted it to.  At some point she said.. "Diane you look like you are about to cry".  Within seconds .. there I was standing at the wall, balling my head off for no reason except that I was embarrassed that I was upset and in tears.  It was a vicious circle for 5 or 10 minutes, which I felt was an utter waste of my lesson time and money... made me more upset.

Finally we stepped away from the wall and tried to work on the program a bit.  I floundered and didn't ... no COULDN'T skate well.  Then she passed me off to the choreographer and I spent another 20-30 minutes with her, floundering, falling (hard a few times) and coming away totally beaten to a pulp.  $60 poorer do to paying for lessons where I couldn't learn anything with my own mental blocks.

..... grrrrr.

I'm home now.  Had a cocktail, played golf with my husband, came home had dinner and a glass of wine and I am not able to see this for what it was ... a bad day.  Nothing more.  And the moral of the story is:  Show up for a lesson with your mind and body open .. not closed and don't spend lesson time talking.  It's a waste of time.


Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Getting in Step

Freestyle on public today. No lesson just working on step sequence and program elements. Tried a few new things today- spin combos, illusions, transitions.

Lessons tomorrow.


Friday, June 10, 2016

Pairs and Choreography Lessons

Lesson day for pairs and choreography for singles.

Hank and I haven't been skating much lately.  One or the other has been out of town or sick .. guess who?  Bleh!  I'll give it 3 more days, then I think an anti-biotic may be in order.




Computer problems prevented me from posting video #2 yesterday so I am posting it a day late.
Maybe it's because my iMac is from 2009 or because I have too many videos and photos and need to use 2 external drives to keep my storage in the safe range... I don't know.  All I know is that uploading, editing and posting video was a lot easier when I started this blog/vlog project a few years ago and that eBlogger and iMovie have joined forces to drive me crazy.

.. end rant.

So choreography.  Not my forte.  I wish I could stand in a mirror "a-five-six-seven-eight" and watch a choreographer show me steps and upper body movements once and catch on .. and move on and add more like they do at theatrical auditions.  I am like the remedial class held back for not getting it.

I'm also fighting my sense of vision most of the time I am with the choreographer.  I have this vision of what my program should look like before I begin.  After all - it's always me who chooses my music and dress.  Somewhere along the way - the program always strays because the choreographer has ideas about program design, putting certain things in front of the judges, etc.  I know if I tried to choreograph a program myself it would not be successful.  I trust her.  My coach trusts her.  I know I am in good hands, but sometimes she wants me to do things I don't know how to execute or would really slow down the completion of the finished program in order to learn.

.. end rant #2.


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Wasted Days and Wasted Ice

 Much to my disappointment I am now entering my second week of this chest cold and I don't like to complain but it's putting a real damper on my skating practice.   I can't skate very hard without hacking and running out of breath. Blah!

 So today I just took it easy did what my body allowed me to do which was A few spins, I worked on some choreography for my new Freeskate and MIF and fooled around a little bit doing some outside loop figures .

Tomorrow I will try to put a little more effort into it. I have lessons in both pairs and choreography on Friday.


Monday, June 6, 2016

First Freestyle In 10 Days

 Skating today with the "never ending" head and upper respiratory cold ...,  I did not know a body  could produce so much mucus ... Gross.  So with low-energy and a depleted oxygen source I tried some freestyle today and had some pair practice with Hank.

 To my credit I will say that I was elated to have done my first two Lutz jumps since nationals...

 We have a lesson on Friday and saved all of our lifts for that.


Friday, June 3, 2016

First Two Preliminary Dance Tests

Pass! & Pass!

 Got some good criticism as well.  Skating with a very bad upper respiratory infection -
 It was nice testing and feeling confident even though it wasn't perfect... Dance is so different as far as posture and carriage but these dances are like the learners permit of ice dance.. They are forgiving!



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.