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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
With 2 weeks off for Christmas and New Years - I decided to take on a 2nd coach for ice dancing.
I’m really lucky to be getting instruction from our two top ice dance coaches in Arizona: Todd Gilles and now Naomi Lang Strong. Most of my lessons with Todd are spent working on partnering and not on fundamentals. I think they both will have a lot to offer me. Whether or not I can take the information and put it into better skating ... is yet to be seen.
My first lesson 12/30/2020 .. my last skate of 2020 was with Naomi. We have wonderful dance sessions at this rink with hardly any skaters on it .. no excuses right? Our first lesson was my biggest problem. My sloppy three turns. Both coaches have told me about this “5 step” breakdown of a good dance three turn.
1. Bend and press into the ice
2. Stroke forward
3. Rise and feet in a T or together
4. Turn whilst keeping feet together (the hard part for me)
5. Bend and press into the ice before the back edge
Sounds simple .. but if you have seen me trying and trying and trying .... it’s not.
I think I need to think about turning on the rise and coach Naomi says to squeeze your legs together - then turn and hold the squeeze before releasing and sitting into the ice .. She makes it look effortless.
Strange day. I started my skating day with figure blades (aka patch blades) - I wanted to work on my edges and three turns without the ability of lurching forward !! No can do with figure blades !! Watch me almost fall.
Secondly I put my “regular” FS skates on and worked some more on the three turns .. not much progress and I felt a bit sore and tired .. so I left and headed home.
On my way home I decided to stop by a local farm/bakery/event center about a mile from my house that was supposed to have an outdoor rink. Turns out .. they did and it was open - so I just paid $8 for a 10 minute skate on a tiny holiday rink. I somehow drummed up enough energy to skate about 10-15 minutes. It was sooo hot out .. about 80º .. not even Sun Valley is that hot in the summer.
I was on a dance session but the other skater was off ice doing an adjustment to her skates with her coach...so I jumped at the opportunity to try my dances with overhead music. I don’t normally do that since I can’t yet keep up and haven’t been able to remember all the steps. Today was no different but it gave me a better idea of the tempo I need to catch up to.
These three turns are becoming my nemesis. My feet should not be a giant wide step every time and I am consciously trying my hardest to improve them. My coach reminds me to enter them almost in a T position but the urgency to complete the turn on time forces me to get them done any way possible.
I have to correct this before I will ever be able to test these dances.
Ice Cafe is always fun for me - plus it's a great warm up before a lesson. Grant always has a plan of edges and skating fundamentals but including expression of arms which is the hardest part for me.
On my lesson with Todd afterwards, we worked on three turns and all three Pre-Silver Dances. We both agree they are making progress. The sooner I can get comfortable with the steps the closer we will be able to skate together. I still tend to push him away if I fear I don't have the steps down or if I am not stroking efficiently enough to keep up with him.
