Music system up and down today. Rink filled with out of town kids for a competition and nobody film - The stars just weren’t aligned in my favor this month. I’ll have to pay for this test twice too. Grrr.
We skated for an hour but I’m already mentally checked out for vacation so I grabbed the Blues and cut the rest.
Happy April -
Time has run out. Was hoping to test the Blues last week but the music was out and today’s practice did not seem worthy when we did the full run through. The music system at the rink is broken. They tied a speaker to the system on the floor but the selector system wouldn’t accept our fingers with or without gloves. I’ll show up Wednesday and hope A) the music works B) I skate better and C) someone there will be kind enough to record it.
Got up at 5:15 to get to the rink for the 7:00 freestyle. Brought hubby who is not feeling well at the beginning of a cold .. just to find out the rink music system is down. So no test attempt today.
But coach did bring a pocket speaker and we practiced all the dances with a speaker dangling from his coat - an awkward experience having music blaring in your face while skating … he is pretty tall so it was really right in front my face!
On a positive note we have starting running full or multiple patterns of each dance.
Well I have a goal and a date. Looks like I may be looking for a new coach next fall as my coach is moving away. I don’t know what I will do next fall. I will cross that bridge when I come to it. For now I have April and May to work on these Pre-Gold Dances. But I will be gone for 3 weeks of April on a cruise. That leaves me about 4-5 weeks of practice
It wasn’t a true reunion, but I did attend a session of Adult Coffee Club while in Spokane this week.O was so happy to learn it is still going strong and so many skaters showed up. Great to see everyone I knew and meet new skaters too.
So I had the realization today that I won’t be back on the ice until possibly April 1 - then I will be gone most of April on a cruise - leaving me no ice time or very little in between time. May will be my last chance to hunker down and skate as much as I can to get these dances past the finish line.
Today’s lesson was a full hour but I only uploaded the patterns we did with overhead music. They weren’t my best.. so I didn’t bother zooming in to look at my sloppy feet!
* The Blues 3 patterns but I did not correctly do the Choctaws. They were more like Mohawks.
* Starlight Waltz I messed up change of hold at the end of the pattern
* Kilian clearly needs cleaner Choctaw and neater feet
* Paso Doble same as Kilian. Neater feet - and EXPRESSION on all dances.
Good lesson for me today. First time ever skating a full test pattern of the Blues to music overhead. I think it was pretty good. I still need more expression in the dance and to quit looking down at my feet. The Chocktaw is getting better and step 14 - the back CR and LBO edge are making progress. I still look a bit bent forward at the waist.
As for the Paso Doble… all I can say is … it’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach. I am getting closer to muscle memory of the steps but I really need NEAT FEET and more push on all the strokes and of course EXPRESSION in the dance. Step 17 I always forget is 2 beats.
Since I didn’t skate last week I decided to take 2 lessons this week. Today was #2 and it was at 7:00 am. That is NOT my favorite time of day to skate. I rallied as best as I could. We skated hard for the entire hour but I just captured the dances we did with overhead music. Ironically the best runs are the ones without music playing.
I had a good lesson today. Worked hard. Made so many runs. Got through 3 dances with music. These are not easy and as you can see - the steps are sometimes a challenge.
2nd Lesson of the week. A short one but we got lots of Blues practice in and I learned that I have been turning my head the wrong way … forever during the dance, fighting the direction we are skating toward and not looking “out of the circle” like I should.
When the coach tells you this … it sounds like an easy fix, but for me with what I call “choreography dyslexia” trying to fix something in my upper body means forgetting what my feet and legs are doing!!
Usually during a virtual test other skaters on the session try and skate out of the view of the videographer so as not to block any perspectives a judge needs to see. I get that. But it seemed today we spent a lot of time at the wall just waiting for a skater doing “skills”. Great for her, but it cut into my hour session and my hour of my lesson too. Oh well.
I somehow got lucky enough to be “dismissed” from jury duty on Tuesday and was able to snag a last minute lesson with coach Vitali.
End of the week lesson. We had lots of time to work on most of the dances except the Kilian.
Really struggling (and dislike) the Blues. I no longer fear the Chocktaw but the Crossroll after and the 4 count LBO edge…. I keep doubling at the waist because ????? Who knows.
Starlight is my favorite but it’s exhausting to practice over and over. Trouble area is the change of hold toward the end of the pattern… who wants to let go????
Paso Doble.. I am really still learning the steps .. there are many and they are fast and boggling to my mind. Many cross behinds and in front … that one will trip me up for sure.
Had a short lesson this morning after walking 18 holes of golf yesterday. I felt some back pain and could not ever warm up enough to settle into the ice. Not loving the Blues dance too much… there must be a trick to it.
Happy New Year. My year started with a minor surgery on Jan 2 - Which is the reason for no video last week. I really hope to put some extra effort into practice and these dances - all of which I kid you not.. are difficult.
Music system up and down today. Rink filled with out of town kids for a competition and nobody film - The stars just weren’t aligned in my...
