Choreography Part IV

 After taking 5 days off ice - it’s that Bambi feeling again.  Trying to get my legs under me with confidence.  My lesson today was to pick up where we left off and make a few changes to what was previously choreographed.  I’m skating too slow to put the right EM-PHA-SIS on the right SYL-LAB-LE.

Day 4 on Ice

This was my fourth day in a row skating this week- For most skaters this is the norm. For me it’s probably too much. We had a short lesson but made some progress on both dances.

Wednesday Practice Only

 I got to have my Wednesday lesson on Monday this week so today was just practice.  Badly needed practice however skating 3 days in a row... soon to be 4 tomorrow... is taking it’s toll on my 61 year old joints and muscles.

Today I tried to mostly focus on skating elements.  Stroking, edges, foot work, twizzles and I spent a few minutes attempting some spins as a need one for the end of my Free Dance... whew.  Those spins did me in.  I am out of practice.  I was not centered and really dizzy following the first one.  Once you get spin sick .. there is no recovering!

Monday Lesson and Tuesday Practice

 Monday I had a lesson instead of Wed due to a cancellation.  We did part IV of our choreography on the Free Dance.  As frustrating as it is to not be able to execute these moves to perfection.. it is the most fun process of learning a new program.  My coach Naomi is AMAZING.  She just thinks of these steps right off the top of her head.

Tuesday - is my normal golf day but my thumb sprain is keeping me from any sports with clubs or racquets in my left hand.

Ice Cafe with Grant ... Best ever!

 Beautiful music today and great edge class.

Choreo Part III

 Wednesday lesson:  Part III of my Solo Free Dance choreography.  As usual I am a slow learner when it comes to steps, movement and arms.  It’s like dyslexia on ice!

Blue Jean Monday

 Skating at Gilbert today because I forgot to book my regular ice time by the deadline Sunday!

Decided to go casual Monday denim ... it felt pretty awkward!

I spared you the ice dance practice and the majority of the session I endlessly worked on waltz 3 turns.

I wonder if I will ever get them right.

Fun Fridays @ Gilbert

Turns out I am getting extra ice time since I injured my thumb.  While lacing up is difficult - skating itself doesn’t require much use of my left thumb.  I’m using added caution so I can try to avoid the falls.

Thursday Ice Cafe and Partnering Lesson

 Skating with a sprained thumb - unable to properly lace up snugly.  I did the best I could today.

Choreography Part 2 Solo Free Dance

 This video is kind of long.  The new choreo starts about 6:50 into it!  The rest is me trying to cautiously skate after a fall yesterday on the golf course - led to a sprained thumb - Im in a brace and lacing up is very difficult if not impossible to do correctly.

I hate Mondays.

 So since my last post was Thursday... I’ve played a few rounds of golf, a round of pickle ball and even attempted to pick up an old tennis racket. That was probably the worst choice. Sunday my husband and I were trying to volley a few balls when our club tennis pro came out with the basket of balls and decided to give us an impromptu private lesson. Oh are we ever sore. 

I keep thinking of the mantra if you don’t use it you lose it however I’m starting to feel like I need to set some boundaries. 

I booked an hour of ice on Monday and didn’t put out 100% of effort as my right knee… The one with little to no cartilage was really aching from tennis. So most of my session was just warming up to the idea of making some turns.

F-F-F-Free Dance Whaaaat?

 Yep.  I succumbed.  Today I had my first lesson toward working on a Solo Free Dance.  I don’t know what level it will be.  The rules are confusing.  It will either be Bronze or Silver in an adult competitive event - or Adult Juvenille.  As of now we are programming 1:40 +/- 10 sec .....   if it’s Silver I’ll need to be able to do Twizzles on both feet 😧- otherwise I can get away with just one foot!

We had a bunch of songs in contention but we decided pretty quick today.  I loved all the choices but thought this one resonated with me.  It’s slow enough and I think I can handle the emotion required for it!

Besides .. Walking After Midnight .. is perrrrrfect for a SOLO free dance!  My amazing coach Naomi Lang whipped out the first 22 seconds of this without hesitation.  She just listened to it for 30 seconds and started out ... Yep... I see this.. and this and this.  How do they do it?  I’m grateful she not only showed me the steps but let me record it.. I started to write it all down but I am so SLOW to learn choreography-

What else would you expect from a 5 time National Dance Champion and International and Olympic competitor? I only wish I had the skating chops to do it justice.

Grateful.

Adult Figure Skating: Monday Dance Practice

2 for 1

 I put Wednesday and Thursdays practice and lessons on one video this week due to time constraints.

Wednesdays lesson was on edge control with Naomi.  Thursday with Todd we partnered the Pre-Silver Dances.

Partnered Lesson with Todd - Making Progress

 Today went better than yesterday, but I was more warmed up for my lesson having just completed Ice Cafe’s group lesson with Grant.  We focused on the Fourteen Step and the Foxtrot today and worked on fixing my Mohawk so the heel of my right foot hits the instep of my left foot and I transfer the weight.

Every Missed Day of Practice is a Setback

 Is it really mid February of 2021?  Where does the time go?  When I got to Arizona and started getting regular ice time and coaching (2x a week now) I thought I’d be turning those corners faster.  But only skating 3 days per week - 4 on occasion I cannot put in the hours of practice and repetition necessary to learn new skills with much noticeable progress on a day to day basis.  

I’m pretty frustrated with my three turns.  I just can’t seem to find the balance to hang onto the turn in the dance form:  

Posture:  head - shoulders underneath - hips under shoulders - feet under hips and legs extended ....

Which I just learned (or it just clicked) YESTERDAY that my free leg should not be bent or coupe like in ballet or how we did it in figures.  In order to do this you have to really feel yourself stretching tall on the turn and squeeze the ever-loving you-know-what out of your legs together while still keeping your feet in a T position ... which after the turn needs to be right next to your skating foot - STILL TOUCHING boot-to-boot!   I can do this at a very slow pace, but add a little speed and poof.. wide stepping and lurching body! Grrrrrr.  

I could get a lot from doing more compulsory figures where you have to train yourself to stay under your head and shoulders.  And lurching or over rotating of the arms will cause you to go off your circle - but the speed of ice dancing will never come out in figures.

Anyway - todays footage is what I took after my lesson (which did not record) on the subsequent session.  I worked on the things mentioned above and did a few runs alone of my 3 Pre Silver Dances.  All were skated without music so when I dub over .. I am not at the right tempo.  Yeah!  

Thursday Lesson Day

 I was so excited when I started getting regular partnering lessons with Todd Gilles.  Since my last batch of Bronze tests were also not up to par leading into the test session after Adult Week in Sun Valley last year .. I thought .. oh 5 or 6 lessons with Todd and I’ll be nearly ready with these Pre-Silver Dances.  Not so.

I don’t know if the steps are that much harder or if I just find them more difficult.  I can punch out a vague pattern on tempo of all three dances at this point - but executing the steps correctly, with good posture and extension whilst staying connected to my partner .. so much harder than the last set of dances.

On the plus side:

My stamina is increasing

I’m having to think less about the actual steps of the dance and more about placement of my feet

Coach says I am improving in my hold although I still need work on not rounding my shoulders and giving adequate resistance in our frame

He says my three turns are improving - although to be honest he can’t really see my feet - the video doesn’t lie.

On the frustrating side: 

I can see that I am fighting to keep up with him and doing so causes my three turns to go wild

All dances need more work on the end patterns 

Prior to the lesson I did a full run of my Gold MIF for the first time in months.  First run - lots of mistakes as you will see.  

Busy Week - Combined practices

Busy week - and I didn’t have time to do much editing.  Skated Monday for 2 hours on ice dance sessions practicing mostly Twizzles and Chocktaws.  That’s a lot of Twizzle and chocktaw practice!

On Wednesday my lesson was cancelled so I showed up late for the adult session and after a bit of dance element practice I popped out a couple of jumps and spins.  I’d love to get back into freestyle but my knee tells me otherwise.

Friday Fun in Gilbert

 Rather than spend the hour of the session on freestyle, I decided to put myself to task on the Twizzle and Chocktaw exercises coach Naomi gave me this week.  I think it helped.

Partner Lesson

Adult Figure Skating Ice dance elements lesson

What a frustrating lesson.  Some days it’s like that.  No matter what you do you cannot translate the coaches words into your body’s actions.  Primarily the reason I started this video journal of my skating.  I will get to relive this lesson over and over and hopefully on another session some of it will come together.

Pre - Silver Dance Lesson

Thursday Lesson with Todd Gilles! 

Twizzles and Chocktaw Lesson

 My Wednesday lesson with Naomi. 

Rainy Monday Practice

 Yes it rains in Arizona!   This morning it was raining quite hard and inside the rink - it was super foggy and wet.  The ceiling was dripping on us!  I managed to squeeze out a few runs on the pre-silver dances with music in the rink to see if I could keep up and/or complete the dances.  See for yourself.

Freestyle Friday @ Gilbert AZ Ice

 Normally I am playing golf on Fridays but not today.  I woke up thinking ... I wonder how my skating friends at Gilbert Ice are?   When I got there I quickly got motivated to try a little freestyle as there were so many adults skating their hearts out.  My friend Jose Hinojos was there from Tuscon who I haven’t seen in ages as well as my friend Melissa.  I spent much of the session talking and not much skating .. but sometimes that’s fun too.

My freestyle has taken a back seat and boy were those spins hard to find centers for.  I spared you the outtakes of the the misses.

Ice Café & Lesson

I had yucky oral surgery the day before yesterday. I’m not on narcotic pain pills but I think I may have come back to skate too soon. I felt sick during Ice Café class and got off the ice to rest until my lesson.... too bad it was a good class today. 

Here’s a few minutes of my lesson.  It’s difficult to capture the opposite end of the rink with my camera setup - when I zoom that much it’s pretty blurry... If I leave it as the whole rink you can’t really see the steps and I am putting others in a video that might not want to be there.  Respectfully,  I try not to publish anyone who specifically requests that I don’t show them on the ice.

Motivational Monday

 Wow - what a week of figure skating.  I was glued to Peacock watching nearly every program from all the senior disciplines.  I love our talent pool.  I have always been a freestyler at heart, but lately I am finding much more enjoyment out of Ice Dance vs Pairs or Singles.  There are hardly any falls and the mistakes are often hidden.  The innovative programs, holds, lifts, pair spins, tricks.. if you will are just stunning - not to mention the costuming and expression of the skaters. Just wow.

All that wow motivated me on Monday to try a little harder, but I am still so far behind the dance curve.  I have so many fundamentals of dance and skating that won’t come to fruition - despite my visualization and knowing where my errors lie.  It comes down to balance, core strength and solid edges .. all 8 of them.  I think that is why figures played such an important role years ago.  Nevertheless there are plenty of young skaters who don’t even know what a scribe is.

Enough said.  Here’s my warm up, drill practice and 3 stabs at the pre-silver dances on Monday.

Busy Week - First Skate Since Last Lesson

 That’s never a productive session.  No time to practice in between lessons.  My Thursday coach couldn’t make it last week and golf kept me off the ice Monday - so I hadn’t skated since last Wednesday.  

Nevertheless - I think some repetition and some of the words are beginning to sink in.  I think I am making a little progress on those nasty three turns.  At least while I practice them outside the context of the dance pattern.  Once I go back into trying a full scale pattern - the wide step rears it’s ugly head while I try to keep up the tempo of the dance.

On The Ice This Week

Here’s a couple of sessions of Ice Café. Two different rinks. One in Chandler the other in Scottsdale. The latter comes with a group lesson. 

The video is pretty choppy on Scottsdale - I had to cut out a skater who prefers not to appear on my YouTube channel. 

Working with Naomi Lang Strong is helping me make small but incremental improvements in my dance skills. Huge difference in my awareness- correcting the problem will take longer.