Monday, January 29, 2018

Ice Dance Lessons with Chris Obzansky

I had an opportunity to fly to Seattle and take 2 one hour lessons with Chris Obzansky.  We worked on all three of the Bronze Ice Dances.  Chris is a great coach.  Very easy to learn with .. patient and makes very good use of lesson time.  Can’t wait for the next lesson tomorrow.




And here is lesson #2


Friday, January 26, 2018

Busy Friday - Lesson - Pairs - Coffee Club

I’ll put these up as they are finished editing.

1) Short pairs practice on Coffee Club ice before the group lesson


2) Coffee Club

3) Lesson on Moves in the Field

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Three Turn Dilemma

It seems just about every aspect of my skating is going through a rocky period.  I’m not sure how to get back on track except to keep skating, taking lessons and following the advice of my coach.

I went out today alone to practice moves in the field but the three turn lesson I had last Friday has me over-thinking everything and feeling as though I am starting anew.

After a bit I just took off my skates and swapped them out for my figure skates - with figure blades to try and force myself to get on the edges while keeping on top of my blade.. You’ll see the result!


Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Pairs ... Practice ... sort of

Hank and I had a short practice before a lesson .. which didn’t go so well today, so I didn’t capture it.
We are struggling to continue skating together for a myriad of reason right now.

Here’s what we did do...




Friday, January 19, 2018

First Lesson New Coach

My coach for the past five years has taken on a “regular” job and is spending less and less time at the rink.  So now I am in the awkward position of looking for a new singles and moves in the field coach.

... and the winner is:  Randy Clark.  Randy is one of our most senior coaches at the club and coaches everything from learn to skate through senior level skaters, many of which he has taken to Sectionals and Nationals and I believe even Jr. Worlds ... don’t fact check me.

Today’s first lesson was only 15 minutes but right away I can see I will have my work cut out for me.
Trying to teach this old dog new tricks .. or really OLD TRICKS done properly!

First on the long list of things needing fixing before I can .. move on are my Three Turns.  If you look at the ice to see my tracing ... it’s a three turn.... but my tense upper body is keeping them from being smooth turns.   After this first lesson, here is my bullet list of things to work on:


  1. Staying on blended knee but not rising and falling in each turn (or hopping)
  2. Not bending or breaking at the waist after the turn 
  3. Keeping my foot toe to heel to start
  4. Learning and remembering the sequence of 
    1. checking the arms after the turn
    2. passing the arms close to the body
    3. then turning head while passing the free foot through
  5. Checking with free hand in line with opposite hip
Something tells me this means I won’t be testing my Gold Moves In The Field .. any time soon!


Thursday, January 18, 2018

Easing Back Into Pairs

After Tuesdays lesson we tried to practice a few of the new things we worked on during the lesson.
It’s going to be a slow climb back ....  Still loving it.


Saturday, January 13, 2018

A Good Start to the New Year

With no competition looming this year (so far) I am free to just regain some lost skills and conditioning.

 Due to a snowstorm there was nobody on the ice with me and I just put on whatever music I wanted to for the entire time!  La La Land is one of my favorite new soundtracks.  From the moment I saw the movie I wanted to skate to it, but one of our more senior young skaters in our club had already chosen it for her skating season and it's kind of frowned upon to have the same music within in the club for two different skaters.  Even if I'm an adult and she is standard track ... it's kind of hard on the ears to have too much La La Land!

Now that the season is over - and I don't plan on competing any time soon, I am toying with the idea of using it for pairs.  First I would have to talk my pairs partner into it!

It made a fun background for my practice today.


Friday, January 12, 2018

Good Friday!

... and after the freestyle session there was Coffee Club!

Our coach Johnnie Bevan got the lesson time confused so he arrived late, in street shoes!
He still came down to the ringside and even stepped onto the ice to give us our lesson in shoes!


Friday, January 5, 2018

Happy New Year 2018 - Resolutions and Goals.

Life is good.  This past year has been full of adventure for me.  Hubby retired in November of 2016 so most of 2017 was spent enjoying our new full time life together!  Prior to his retirement he was away from home 1/2 the month flying for Fedex.

Along with lots of traveling and fun in 2017 - came a lot more meals, eating out and a lot less skating. Sadly I gained back every pound I lost when I first started to skate pairs with Hank.  We did not compete whatsoever in 2017 - only a Holiday pairs program in December which we prepared without our regular coach in a little over 2 weeks time.

My new life (post husband retirement) is going to limit my ability to skate at Adult Nationals once again in 2018.  We planned a big cruise at the end of March which takes up all of April as well.  While we were on vacation in Mexico during Christmas I did a lot of thinking about how to get back on the ice and feel some sense of accomplishment and goal setting for the coming year.

Obviously - weight loss is at the top of my goals.  At 145 lbs I make a terrible pairs partner.  My landing knee which is already 98% without cartilage really feels it when I try to jump with that extra weight.  The throw jumps put more pressure on the landing knee than my singles jumps.  Lifts are next to impossible.  Not just for poor Hank, but my upper body strength can’t handle supporting my own weight in the Axel lift - You get the picture.

Going for the gold this year.  Not atop a podium, but I hope to pass the Adult Gold Moves in the Field test.  I think if I put everything into it, I may be able to attempt a test session on March 2, 2018.


Other goals I have in mind for 2018 are to do the next set of Bronze Ice Dances (The Hickory Hoedown, The Willow Waltz and the Ten Fox.  Yet without an ice dance coach this will be difficult.

In pairs - I would like to make some sort of progress with our skating.  Perhaps we can compete at the ISU competition in Vancouver if they have it again this September.  I will be here for Pacific Coast Adult Sectionals in March, but I don’t see the reason to go through that if I am not going to Nationals.


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.