Friday, December 22, 2017

Last Coffee Club of 2017

Small but fun group on December 22.  Our last Adult drop in coffee club of 2017 with Valerie Anderson.  Everyone seemed like they weren’t into the lesson today (except me!) but we had fun.


Friday, December 15, 2017

Coffee Club fun with Power Pulls

Kimmi Jeffers, one of newest coaches at Lilac City Figure Skating Club coached a small but eager group of skaters in coffee club today.

We did some really fun (and tiring) exercises with edges and hockey pushes and worked on forward and backward power pulls and integrating them with cross steps.

Great fun - great lesson


Thursday, December 14, 2017

Chrismtas Program Last Lesson/Run

Ok, first the excuses.

1. This program was put together in 2 weeks.
2. We are not skating more than 1-2 times a week
3. We are not in skating shape (mostly me)

Given all that... here’s the full run of a very short and very lightly choreographed number.


Friday, December 8, 2017

Adult Drop In Coffee Club with Randy Clark

Randy Clark is one of our senior coaches at Lilac City Figure Skating Club.  We were delighted to have him come work with the adult drop in skaters today.

Randy worked with us on better technique for crossovers, deeper edge control, Mohawks even Choctaws and Twizzles!


Friday, December 1, 2017

Coffee Club 12-1-2017

Kim Ferraro-Severson guest coaches coffee club today.

Small group but fun lesson on deep knee bend crossovers, crossovers with push aways and backspins.


Thursday, November 30, 2017

A Little Pairs

This is really unbelievable.  Hank and I never get to skate any more and now we are committed to doing a holiday program in two weeks.  We have not really choreographed any of it.  New music.  Our coach Chris Anders is leaving town to perform in a holiday show in Atlanta... so we are going to have to find another coach to help throw this thing together in a hurry.

Quick 30  minutes with Hank and then 30 with our pairs coach.


Friday, November 3, 2017

Coffee Club Nov 3, 2017

Great lesson with Stephanie Krupke Parkinson.  Eight skaters today!  So much fun when we have a larger group.

I put in a few shout-outs to all the skaters today!  Hope I didn't miss anyone!

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Pairs Lesson Halloween

 We are back to our regular Tuesday lesson day but haven’t had a chance to skate in between time.
 We’re basically doing whatever we can do while ease back into regular practice.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Lesson Two for Two

Hank and I are finally back to weekly lessons, but haven’t found the time to practice in between yet this season.  Good lesson today with Chris Anders. We worked on stroking transitions we should have learned long ago and some side by side jumps.  A class of LTS kids came on the ice and I had to take my camera down before we started to work on the spins and throws... next time.


Saturday, October 14, 2017

Coffee Club 10-13-17

Coffee club today with Valerie Anderson.  Valerie just moved to the area from Florida and she is our new LTS director at Lilac Figure Skating Club.


Friday, October 13, 2017

Pairs Lesson 101

Hank and I have not hardly skated all summer.  In addition we have not had a lesson in probably six months.. I’d have to check my calendar.  I’ve been skating 1-2 times a week lately, but not really exerting myself.  TodayI had a lesson and by the time we stroked to warm up, did a few exercises and tried some side by side jumps .. I started to feel really light headed and had to get off the ice.

Doc said it was probably low blood pressure and dehyradtion - along with being out of condition.
Hope I can claw my way out of this physical funk.


Friday, September 22, 2017

Pre Coffee Club Pairs Practice

Hank and I haven’t skated all summer.  Between our summer travels and clashing schedules this is our first practice in months.  We had about 20 minutes on coffee club ice before the group lesson.


Friday, September 15, 2017

Here's What's Left ...

.... after a summer of mostly traveling and eating.

It's going to take some real dedication to get any strength, stamina, flexibility and skill set back.
I have talked about this before.  For me .. without having to "answer" to anyone or anything (like a test date or competition looming) I tend to just wane off practice (is that a double negative?)

Tried some warm ups today, little jumps and a spin before coffee club.


Coffee Club Returns

We had a great start to coffee club with 2 coaches: Chris Anders and Lori Benton who gave us a great "edgy" class ...



Thursday, September 7, 2017

Back To Basics

A beautiful empty Olympic size ice arena .. all to myself.  What better time to practice the fundamentals of figure skating. All my basic skills are hurting right now.  I know I can improve them, but it takes days like these of endless practice to make any noticeable improvements.




Afterwards I tried a non-stop "run through" of the Gold MIF.  Mind you these are nowhere near passing level yet.  Sadly, the rink at EWU has lots of background noise so you can't hear my edges - so I just muted it and put some music on so you can pass the 8 minutes with a little Bolero!




Lastly I tried a couple passes at the Hickory Hoedown and the Willow Waltz...
Skated so slow on the HH I had to speed up the video to keep time with the music.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

12 Minutes of Agony On Ice

Ok subscribers .. don't yell at me for criticzing my skating.  It's my blog!  Ha ha.  I'm still posting even though my skills have deteriorated.  It's incredibly true that too much time off the ice makes the muscle memory go away!

I'm glad I got out there and I did my best to warm up some things I am planning to conquer this year. Gold Moves In The Field and Bronze Ice Dances!


Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Sun Valley Adult Skating Week

I will post all the videos as they come in and get edited.  This first video is from Tuesday morning patch class (compulsory figures) with Michele Monnier.  I am skating in my "old boots" with my patch blades .. Silver Test ... no toe pick ... but the hollow isn't correct.  They are sharpened right now with a 7/16 ROH (like my free style blades... too much bite) ... So I am not falling off the blades, but I am not getting enough momentum to get around comfortably.



I also took a private lesson on Tuesday with Michele.  It went something like this:

The video below was my personal favorite this week.  Anita Hartshorn gave a clinic on moves in the field.  We were split into groups: No test - through Bronze went with Frank and Silver and up went with Anita.  We focused on Power Circles beginning with the best preparatory exercise ... pump and chasse with no crossover.  Learning to stay low in the knees or "stay loaded" is the key to creating the proper stroke.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION FROM ANITA

"On the front crossover you don't STEP WIDE...it is the FREE LEG that come around wide - like moving on the furthest spectrum of the rainbow not the middle spectrum."




Friday's Coffee Club with Ryan Bradley was all about Three Turns.  Another staple of figure skating and something we all need more work on doing properly!




The next videos are from  the 2nd of two private pairs lessons I took with Frank Sweiding.  Darn it.. my camera was off for lesson number one when we did warm up patterns and a pivot spiral.  Today's lesson was on a few connecting moves he likes to use when testing his pairs students.  Video 2 is from another camera inside the rink.




Here's a very short clip of my friends and I on beautiful Sun Valley ice.



My final video is my ice dancing lesson with Chris Obzansky.  I'm working on the Bronze Ice Dances and this lesson covered the Willow Waltz and the Ten Fox (but the Ten Fox isn't filmed) Chris was a fantastic instructor.  I wish he lived closer to my home rink.


Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Summertime Skating Woes

Summer is usually difficult for adult skaters.  Where I live we have limited public ice that is not good for freestyle skating.  I try to hit 1-2 free style sessions a week - when I am home.  This year it seems I have been off the ice much more.

So far I have only skated 2 times since July 7.  I've just returned from another 9 days away. As you can imagine, most of the session was spent trying to "feel the ice" again.


Friday, July 21, 2017

Last Coffee Club of the Summer

This is our final Adult Drop In Coffee Club of the summer.  We will resume on September 15th back on rink #1 at 9:00 am.  Today we just had 3 skaters for our last class, but it was fun.  Stephanie Krupke-Parkinson is just a joy to skate with.


Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Summer Madness

We have both been going in opposite directions for the last three weeks. We finally got a chance to skate today.  I rolled my ankle playing golf on July 2, so I am skating  very cautiously..  balking at a lot of my jumps.  Wait - who am I trying to kid? I've been balking at my jumps for quite a while -- ankle or no ankle!!!!

 We had a great time skating today and some things worked miraculously well considering ....

 We also had the privilege of meeting another adult skater.. I believe her name is Miriam (sp?) from Tri-Cities...  an absolutely amazing skater still doing double jumps  after a 25 year hiatus!  She was working on her standard track Junior moves in the field … Wow !




Friday, June 23, 2017

Coffee Club June 23, 2017 ...Privé

Normally I would never complain about private ice time, but in this case I was sorry.  Only 2 of us showed up for Adult Drop In Coffee Club today.   It's summertime and today was beautiful out.  Some of our regular attendees have moved away for the summer and one moved to Sweeden!  One went to Missoula to take a MIF test .. (I'll let him off the hook!) Another got a job and as for the rest.... the jury is out.

I have worked so hard to make this coffee club a reality and I don't want to lose it.  I hope I can get some more skaters to show up next week.  We have a guest coach coming up from McCall Idaho!

So Hank and I were the only ones who skated.  We had Stephanie Krupke-Parkinson all to ourselves, which was both fun and interesting since Stephanie is not a pairs coach!  We worked on crossovers, Waltz jumps and Toe Loops.  We were introduced to the Toe Walley.  Basically a Toe Loop with a different entry.  I have never been able to do one - nor have I tried.  I think I am going to try to learn to do one this way.  According to Stephanie you can get more spring from it.  We also worked on getting our sit spins lower.  I found out today that Hank can actually squat all the way down.  On the video I have a typo... I said "He can't get all the way down" and I meant to say "He CAN get all the way down"! ... now we just have to incorporate that squat into a spin!


Friday, June 16, 2017

Coffee Club June 16, 2017

Stephanie Krupke-Parkinson guest coached the adults at coffee club Friday morning.  We are now on the summer schedule at the rink and are on rink #2 at at new time 9:30 to 10:30.

Stephanie has been skating over 25 years.  Starting as a freestyle skater and competing through Novice level and now she is coaching both freestyle and hockey and power skating.

Everyone enjoyed her 30 minute class.  Most of us were drinking water and tired at the end!


Tuesday, June 13, 2017

It's Been A While ...

4 weeks to be exact .. since Hank and I last had some pairs practice in.  Longer .. if you consider we have not been working on things other than what we were doing in the show since mid April.

We had an enjoyable practice .. one out-of-nowhere fall and a successful Axel lift.  Considering I put on about 10 lbs from careless eating and not skating much .. I can't complain!


Friday, June 9, 2017

I Have Not Vanished From The Ice

.... I have been super busy.  After our ice show - I was drained.  The pressure of co-producing a show and trying to make it successful while trying to make everyone happy was a task I am not cut out for!

Following the show we had a weekend at a car show and then a vacation in Yellowstone.  All fun but alas, no skating.  I even missed out on a local competition that some of my friends participated in.

Hopefully for the rest of June - I will be skating with more regularity.

Today I am posting 2 videos from Coffee Club.  The first is from the group lesson and the second is me ... trying to get my legs back under me.  (Notice the lack of jumping and spinning!)


Friday, May 19, 2017

Adult Drop In Coffee Club 5/19/17

Kim Ferraro-Severson was our guest coach for the second time.
She had us doing Waltz Jumps, Toe Loops, Scratch Spins and even Catch Foot Spirals
.....nobody fell - great lesson!


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Ice Show Complete

Sorry everyone.  As co-producer + skater of the ice show at our rink, I have not had the time to be posting any videos of practice.

Hank and I finally got on the ice today to try a few things.  We are rusty for sure and I for one am really fatigued from not doing much in the ice show - skating wise.


Monday, April 17, 2017

Go Figure!

Now that I have my freestyle boots fixed and mounted, my old pair is mounted to my Silver Test MK figure blade again.   I am not 100% sure of this, but I believe my current free style blades are sharpened to 7/16" .... like #3 below.

My figure blade is sharpened to 1 1/2" .... so much less bite than 5/8 shown on the far left.  If I am not careful my blade will skid out from under me.  It was not meant to be ridden on a flat edge, but getting my weight and body lined up properly to execute proper compulsory figures is going to take some hours on the ice of practice.

I am convinced (as is my coach) that this will help all aspects of my skating -  I probably won't post many of my figures lessons..... There is a reason they were removed from competitive skating -
It's boring to watch.  But it's a lost art if you ask me.







Friday, March 31, 2017

Coffee Club 3-31-17

Another great coffee club with Kim Ferraro-Severson.  Kim gave us some great edging exercises.  We worked on edges forward and backward, power pulls, shoot the ducks and sit and scratch spins!  All in 30 minutes... amazing.


Monday, March 27, 2017

Monday Practice - All By Myself !

Got a little play time in at the end of my moves in the field practice session today.
First video in ages of me skating:  all by myself!


Friday, March 24, 2017

Adult Drop In Coffee Club 3-24-17

Super excited today to have Randy Clark as our guest coach.  Randy is one of our senior coaches at Lilac City Figure Skating Club.  He currently coaches some of our most advanced skaters.  Randy has over 30 years of coaching experience and has coached skaters of all levels, some of which who have competed at Jr. Nationals, US Nationals and International competitions.

Randy is one of our more "technical" coaches.  I was surprised during our class to see him giving us some tips on presentation with head and arm movement!!   Today's video is one of my longer videos, but worth watching and listening to.  I know I will be viewing it over and over.

Things I learned today:  (No discredit to all my other coaches.. but today a few things sunk in)

1) point your toes on edges - upward toe picks are UGLY
2) follow your arm movement with your head and eyes
3) use extra knee bend and ankle strength to push into the ice
4) stiff = unbalanced


Friday, March 17, 2017

Skating with Leprachauns!

It was St. Paddy's Day today -  Hank and I got a little practice in before the lesson on the coffee club ice.

Followed by a fun coffee club with Heather Martin - We worked on edges, spirals, lunges, stops and finished with a pinwheel!

Sadly there were no IRISH COFFEE'S AT COFFEE CLUB !!!


Friday, March 10, 2017

Coffee Club 3-10-17

Sorry viewers.  I have been a little behind in my postings lately.  My involvement with our club's ice show in May, some travel and guest from out of town have limited my time to edit and post video.

Today's Coffee Club was coached by Angela Rasmussen and Larissa Lowell - Mother and Daughter!
Both Gold Medalist skaters - we had a blast trying three turns, double three turns and power pulls.


Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Ice Show Coming to Spokane starring Ryan Bradley!

TICKETS AND INFORMATION

I am super happy to be involved as a co-producer/chair for the 2017 bi-annual ice show at Eagles Ice Arena in Spokane.  Our club, the Lilac City Figure Skating Club will be featured and our guest star skater is Ryan Bradley, 2011 National Champion!  If you live anywhere in the area and want a treat .. come see our show.  Tickets available now via TicketsWest.




Friday, March 3, 2017

Coffee Club 3-3-17

I can't tell you how much fun our Friday adult Drop in Coffee Club is..
See for yourself


Friday, February 24, 2017

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Post Vacation Skating ! Pairs Lesson

Another pairs lesson today.  We had another 10 days off ice.  Do not try this at home... training involves training nearly every day and not skipping days and weeks at a time.  

Progress .... hmm. I wonder why we aren't making any?  The video say 2-20, but it was actually 2-21.


Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Pairs Lift Breakthrough !!

We had a pairs breakthrough today. After more than a year of trying to get this lift up with a one foot take-off … Today it happened three times.  It's not the prettiest lift as I still have not been able to master getting my legs behind me but this is a great start to progress .


Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Off and On..

... Ice that is. A few off ice lifts before getting on ice.
Practicing a Lutz Lift and Waist Lift with a fan kick out of a loop lift.
Later on the ice I found myself feeling ill. Light headed and dizzy so I quit in the middle of our lesson!


Friday, January 27, 2017

I'm Loving Our New Coffee Club

Week #3 for our coffee club.  We had 12 skaters today!!  Our guest coach was Chris Anders again...
Today after warming up we spent most of our lesson working on - and learning about TURNS.
I'm sure a few of the skaters today were learning about Brackets, Rockers and Counters for the first time.

Me? I know what they are but I cannot do any of them very well.  The Adult Gold MIF test has bracket turns on the test but I am nowhere near ready to take that test yet!


Thursday, January 26, 2017

Pairs Pracice 17.2

 I think I will refer to my practices this year like an app release version 17.2 equals second practice of 2017 !!  That's as clever as I can get today!

 Yesterday was our first practice in over a month with a lesson. Today we thought we would work a little harder and some of our jumps and throws and spins.



Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Happy Pairs New Year

The last time we skated was right before Christmas.. at least a month.  Between my vacation and Hanks we havn't seen each other in quite some time.  A bit out of practice and out of synch ... we had a pretty good lesson with our coach Chris Anders.

Goals for 2017:  Work on our pairs skills -better stroking, tracking, deeper edges, learn some new tricks.  No competition for this year planned.


Friday, January 13, 2017

Adult Drop In Coffee Club

After attending a few "coffee clubs" in other cities I really wanted to start one at our rink.  The dilemma was whether to have it be part of our figure skating club or a rink function.  After weighing all the options I decided that making it a rink function would allow more new adult skaters to get their feet wet... or cold.   Hopefully some of our new adult skaters will be inspired to take more lessons and join our figure skating club as a result.  First things first...: To have the experience of skating with adult peers and getting a group lesson to boot.

My rink has allowed me to use an hour of normally unused ice as a Drop-In Adult Coffee Club.
The rink also offers Drop In Hockey so they decided it was only fair to offer a similar drop in for figure skaters.  (We have no rules about what type of skates you put on your feet - just no pucks or sticks and the lessons are geared toward figure skating)

I am so excited to have been instrumental in getting this started and I hope it's a big success.  Through just word of mouth and Facebook we scrounged up 10 adults at our first session Friday Jan 13, 2017.


Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Happy New Year 2017

This year starts my 5th year "back" on the ice as an adult skater.  I don't know what I expected when I started.  In some ways I am disappointed in what I have NOT accomplished.  On the other hand, I am very grateful and proud of the things that I HAVE done.

I never expected to be skating pairs.  I never expected to be learning or want to learn how to ice dance.  I wish I were winning the race against time with respect to my body and physical limitations.
DON' WE ALL?

Hope everyone had a great holiday.  We got away to warmer weather.  Had 10 days in Cabo & San JosĂ© Del Cabo.  Unfortunately I got a nasty bacterial intestinal infection that landed me in the hospital for 2 days.  That was just a week ago that I got out!

So I am grateful to be home and feeling much better.  Today was my first attempt at getting on the ice since Dec 21.  I was weak and shakey so out of form and balance, but all things considered, it didn't go too badly.


Monday, January 9, 2017

We Get Up

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been away for the holidays.  When I got back ... this happened!






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.