Monday, January 25, 2021

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.


Friday, January 22, 2021

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.

Thursday, January 21, 2021

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.

Monday, January 18, 2021

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.


Wednesday, January 13, 2021

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.



Friday, January 8, 2021

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. 




Im on my last legs here…

 I just can’t turn the corner on these dances.  One pattern looks about as good as I can do it, but two patterns I make too many mistakes. M...