Special affects? No just some Arizona rain and building humidity. It created a foggy foggy rink with some bumpy drips in the center of the ice.
Still on FS blades working on a decision to stay in them or go back to my dance blades. There were several instances today when my blades “clicked” … spinning feels better but speed across the ice is lessened.
In my lesson we changed the ending choreography putting the long edge (spread eagle) after the character step sequence on the short axis … it’s ALWAYS a challenge.
I did it. I tried going back to my old skates this week. The jury is still out. I was skidding quite a bit at first. The blades are not set exactly as my dance blades and I feel like I have to work harder on things like stopping and stroking .. however everything else felt fine while in partner. I didn’t get a chance to do the spin in my program run. I know I will be able to do a better spin in these skates. Will try again Wednesday.
I’ve grown increasingly frustrated on my dance blades. They are working great for preventing tripping on the tail of the blade during partnering but I cannot get comfortable doing solo spins and I am nearly to the point of going back to square one.
Next week I will try both lessons on my freestyle blades and see what comes of it.
Watching Adult Sectionals this past weekend was inspiring. It was great to see everyone skate and especially nice to be just watching and not sitting there with butterflies worrying about my event!
My lesson with Vitali went pretty good on Monday after a long drive Sunday. I was tired but tried to give it my all.
I only have till mid April to whip these dances into testing shape. I hope I can do it. The American Waltz and Rocker Foxtrot are giving me trouble. Practicing these dances without a partner are virtually impossible so far. Trying to do the swing 3 turns alone just throws me off balance and the rocker isn’t happening at all.
Jumped on the adult session for practice before my lesson. Worked .. reluctantly on spins before my lesson since I have been unable to pull off any good spins on these MK Dance blades.
This am during a morning pickle ball session I strained my back a bit and I really felt it during the spread eagle .. so I dropped it from practice today and threw in a spiral instead.
Felt better about the runs today as I am getting closer and closer to finishing ON TIME!! Not there yet.
Had a great 1/2 hour lesson today with Vitali in Gilbert. Hockey took over my rink this weekend and we had to do a little juggling of ice time and lessons.
I feel we are making progress on these dances although I wish I had the energy and time to work on them more in between lessons. I just can’t seem to get the balance and flow and proper posture of these dances when I do them alone.
We took a short trip to Cabo for a friends daughters’ wedding. Had a blast - drank too much tequila and got ZERO exercise unless you count going from the room to the pool and back or a quick few dances at the wedding.
Back in AZ on the ice on my first day back and of course a lesson day I cautiously stepped on the ice. It’s always colder than I remember. I didn’t think I would accomplish anything but I think I had a good lesson. I even got through 1 complete free dance run and almost ended with the music!
I know my videos are longer than they should be for anyone’s attention span, but I don’t keep the blog or my YouTube channel for the viewership. That has just become a added bonus to my way of holding myself accountable and analyzing my skating. I think it helps to know that what you feel you are doing on the ice isn’t what you look like! That is a double edged sword… it does lead to a lot of disappointment and self loathing!! But once in a while you yourself .. or me myself .. will see some actual progress.
After doing this for 10 years now - skating as an adult and blogging and vlogging about it I can see and have documented my progress and set backs. I wonder what it would look like on a chart or graph?
That was a lot of alliteration. Today I had a lesson.. here it is. Vid #2 is the same skate of the free dance but with more close ups trying not to show the other skaters in the rink.
Heading to Cabo for some fun in the sun. First a rearranged dueling lesson. 45 minutes partnering followed by 45 minutes with Naomi on my Free Dance. One word. EXHAUSTING.
The Silver dances are making baby steps of progress.. with an occasional step back! The free dance is still a work of choreography in progress. Today we made some changes that will help me eventually be able to finish with the music on time. This program is still a year away from being a test program.
If you have skated long enough it has happened to you. I was on the ice today and the rink music wasn’t working. So off I went to inform someone at the front desk and when I came back onto the ice ….
… you know what happened next. Nearly did the splits and lucky not to have bruised anything but my ego.
My practice ice didn’t go great .. maybe I will look at it later and post a few moments but my lesson went pretty well. These dances are not getting any easier. There are lots of quick steps in the Tango and partners shift positions quite a bit. The Waltz is well.. swingy to say the least… that’s all it is. Swing rolls and swing 3’s .. it can get out of control pretty easily. Hard for me to keep my hips under me on that one. The Rocker Foxtrot has trouble in just about every step.
I really look forward to my lessons on Monday partnering the dances I am working on with coach Vitali. Usually I walk away feeling like I can do this! But today I didn’t skate the session leading into my lesson with him and he had already been on the ice for an hour.
We did a short warm up of two foot forward and backward pumps and slaloms and got into the Tango. Suddenly I am cutting myself off after the cross-behind step and making it impossible to keep the dance on pattern. We stopped and restarted so many times.
When we finally moved into the American Waltz the same thing happened. I was not swinging to the wall and not re aligning with my partner after each swing. Again start-stop-start-stop.
At the end of the session we had no time for the Rocker Foxtrot but did a couple of lengths of the rink doing the rocker exercise. Again .. that rocker isn’t being executed correctly.
Hopefully next week will be better. I’ll try to get some solo practice done. You know things are bad when your coach is out of breath and you are not. It made me aware of how hard it is for them to “prop” you when you are learning the steps and the cadence of the dances. I can’t imagine how hard this would be with two “student” skaters both trying to learn the dance.
Putting the final outline of the program together today including the edge element, the choreographic character step and the spin placement. What kind of spin.. TBD.
Coach is off to skate at Masters Synchro next week so I will get 2 weeks to work out the kinks.
Sometimes there is forward progress. Sometimes you take one step back. Most of the time you keep practicing until everything starts to click … and I don’t mean blades! When a dance is done properly and you and your partner are in the correct dance hold and your posture is good and you are skating on the correct edges and you are making clean turns with legs properly extended … 🤯 it’s pretty amazing.
You don’t even run out of breath. The dance flows and you feel such a sense of “I’ve got this”
Well… that isn’t the case quite yet for me on these Silver Dances. It’s going to take a lot of REPETITION.
Bit by bit we’re putting this program together. I could use 2-3 sessions of practice in between all these days of lessons but I just don’t have the energy to stay on the ice beyond one session. Earlier this week I skated 2 sessions on Monday. One before my pattering lesson and that didn’t really pay off.
Today I had a little warm up time before my lesson, but things weren’t really working. Especially my brain while trying to learn new choreography. I felt pretty off balance too. Who knows why some days are like that.
Great lesson today with Naomi. She helped straighten me out on a few of the Tango steps I didn’t understand. The end pattern is tricky. That closed Mohawk (ugh) and I know I will need to get my boots much closer together on the XB’s.
She also started me on the Rocker of the Rocker Foxtrot with a Great wall exercise and an exercise down the rink to help reinforce the steps.
Then we got to work on the new choreography - adding to my new program. She always is smiling when she does this. It’s a gift. How - without any forethought - can come up with great steps that fit perfectly into music she has only heard 1-2 times. She’s a PRO.
Great lesson today. I knew we wouldn’t make it through all 3 dances. But we got some good practice in on the American Waltz and I am trying to learn the complicated (to me) steps of the Silver Tango. So many cross behinds!!! Such a different feeling trying to do these steps alone vs with a partner.
Next lesson we will finish the Tango steps and start on the Rocker Foxtrot.
