The following was written June 1999 to January 2002. Feedback is welcome at julie@bixby.org.
Yes, I have finally made
the time (and worked up the nerve) to attempt ice-skating. I signed up through the City of Fountain
Valley recreation for an 8-week course at Ice Chalet in Costa Mesa (home to
national silver medallists Naomi Nari Nam and Sasha Cohen). I arrived early for
the 1/2 hour lesson to be sure I had the proper fitting skates. The first pair was too big, so I asked for
the next smaller size and that worked better. I'm very glad I wore my thin
skiing socks, as the rental boots are hard and uncomfortable; I think regular
socks would have been insufficient against the rubbing of the boot.
Our class was all of 5
people, with me at age 32 the oldest. 2 had done some skating before, while us
other 3 were complete newbies. Our
instructor was Eva, and she spoke with a European accent.
We actually covered a
lot of things in our brief 30 minutes.
Eva first made sure our laces were tight enough--she asked 2 of us to
retie one of our skates. We then
practiced off-ice marching with our arms outstretched in front. Then it was time to get on the ice and learn
how to fall--or rather, how to get up from a fall. Next was on ice marching, followed by marching and gliding (just
a few inches) on one foot, and marching and gliding on two feet while
squatting. I was disappointed that no
explanation was given for the various tasks we were trying--why a marching
step, why gliding in a squat. We also
did sine waves--heels together, curve feet inward to bring toes together--none
of us were successful at this task (which had another name, I think). We also tried spinning in place--again, not
too successfully.
Then the 1/2 hour was up
and we were free to roam about at our leisure.
For 10 minutes I did slow laps around the rink, just regular skating,
without a single fall (I did have to stop a few times to steady myself,
though). Just doing laps is actually
quite boring, so I'm glad I had both another student to talk to and the
advanced people in the middle of the rink to watch (two of whom were practicing
single flip jumps--and I knew they were flips because of all the time I spent
educating myself on what the jumps look like (insert shameless plug for the "Layperson's Guide to Lutzes
and Loops" here :-)).
Julie Learns to
Skate--Week 2 of 8
Now knowing what to
expect, I found week 2 to be an easier experience--my nerves were mostly
gone. One of the other students even
noticed the difference--she said I was much looser, freer. It's true.
We hurried through the
stuff from last week--one pass down the width of the ice instead of 2 or
more. What I now know are called
swizzles (sine waves) are still torture--anyone have tips? But then we were asked to do swizzles
*backwards*....and it was like night and day!
Backward swizzles are a piece of cake for me! They just flow. But when
I try to do them forwards, I tank. You
tell me.
We also tried backward
wiggles (kind of like doing the twist while moving backwards), which seemed to
go O.K., and one-foot forward glides, which varied in success. I'm steadier
when balancing on my left foot, but either way, sometimes it worked and
sometimes it didn't. We again tried
spinning in place, and this again was hard.
Before I knew it, the 30
minutes were up. See you next week!
Before this week's lesson, I actually went Monday to another rink in Huntington Beach for a between-session practice. It was a mixed result. The HB rink doesn't have 1/2 sizes, so I ended up with size 9 instead of my usual 8 1/2. Even so, the left boot really rubbed my ankle wrong, so after a few laps I asked for a different left boot. It helped some. The ice seemed very waxy and was nice to glide on. I tried some of my moves—swizzles backward, wiggles, gliding on two bent knees--in between laps. The rental skates never felt very good, and I wondered the entire time if that was what it's like to break in a pair of new boots.
So on to the regular Wednesday night class. Two very
interesting things happened this time.
Again struggling with the forward swizzles, Eva told me to *straighten*
my legs doing this maneuver, and also to use the *inside* edges. The first comment confused me, because
everyone here has been saying to *bend* my knees, but the second comment
took--I tried to pay more attention to using the inside edges. A funny thing happened.
I noticed that tilting
my feet inward gave me a knocked-knees stance, and performing forward swizzles
while thinking of "knocked-knees" made them easier to do! (I can hear
it now from this group: sure, Julie, whatever works :-). The other interesting thing was while doing
backward wiggles--I looked down at the ice I had just wiggled over and saw my
tracings (skid marks?)! Very cool!
Two new things were
tried tonight. First, single swizzles
(one foot does the swizzle action, the other foot just glides, so you move
about in a circle), which were o.k. on my dominant right foot, but when I tried
doing it with just the left, I couldn't get my right foot to play dumb :-
). The other was a stopping action by
shoving one foot out to the side (is this a 1/2 snowplow?). I only stopped about 50% of the time. And we again tried spinning--Eva seems big
on this one, even though none of us in the group really seems to get it.
During the free skate
afterwards, I was encouraged by a small group of women that looked 30-something
who were practicing their spirals. Just balancing on one leg, other leg out
parallel to the ice, gliding. Hopefully
in a few years, that will be me :- ).
This lesson went really well. The ice felt smoother, more the “waxy” feel that I had noticed at the HB rink. My rental boots also felt better, I think because I could actually flex forward in them like I do my ski boots (but they were *not* floppy). At any rate, getting onto the ice, I did a lap around the ice to get to the end of the rink, at the end doing my forward swizzles (yea!). After marching and wiggles and snowplow stops (not too well on that last item), we tried something new—zigzags, or swooping around 180 degrees to face one end of the rink, then switching swizzle foot to swoop around the other way 180 degrees. Very hard. We also tried pushing off with the back foot to glide forward, and then push off the other foot to glide on the other foot (is this basic stroking?). This actually seemed a little easier than the one-foot gliding we had been trying before (step-step-step-glide on one foot). Thankfully, there wasn’t the dreadful spin-in-place maneuver this time. :- )
Wow, it’s hard to believe I’m halfway done already! The lessons are just flying by (I wish the time in-between would, too!).
The rink was really crowded tonight with a group of 30 or so youths on a group outing. They didn’t know rink etiquette, continuing to stray into our coned off area, with Eva repeatedly having to shoo them away.
Today’s lesson was crossovers. We started on the end line, crossing one foot over the other, lifting the toe-pick slightly of the back foot, and standing with feet parallel again. We did this the entire width of the rink, then back again crossing with the other foot. Then we tried crossovers just going in a small circle counterclockwise, and then clockwise. I found this tricky. It was very nerve racking to force my foot up and over because I wasn’t entirely sure of my balance on one leg. Sometimes, though, I did seem to get into a rhythm, like stroke-stroke-stroke-crossover, stroke-stroke-stroke-crossover. And in the post-lesson practice afterwards, doing laps, I found it easy to use crossovers going around the ends of the rink. That’s saying something, considering how crowded it was!
One other note was that I forgot my gloves. I remembered someone’s suggestion of asking for a lost-and-found pair, and viola!
Only 3 more weeks to go--time is flying!
Tonight was Showtime—my husband came to watch me skate!
He was originally going to be present at final week 8, but there’s a strong possibility he’ll be out of town that day, so we bumped it up to tonight. He saw my fairly decent swizzles & wiggles, and my pitiful attempts at zigzagging and snowplow stops. So, he got a good overall view of my abilities so far. Mark left before we got to the dreaded spinning-in-place, but you know what? I actually did a few 360+ turns and got dizzy! However, I think this was due mostly to the fact that the ice seemed very slippery tonight rather than my spinning talent.
New item for tonight was t-stops. I don’t understand why we’d add those onto the snowplow stops we haven’t even mastered yet, but it seems mandatory that each week something new gets added. Two people in our class are still struggling with swizzles, let alone crossovers. Is this just the nature of a rec. class vs. an official class? Do official lessons speed through moves like this, or is more time spent mastering a skill before moving onto another one?
or, Showtime, part 2, as this week my mother came to watch. She was duly impressed, even though I had several “oops” loss-of-balance moments (where I fall forward at the waist). “Showtime” was actually delayed as I had boot problems for the first time at Ice Chalet. The first left boot I tried really hurt in the ankle even before I got on the ice. The second left boot had a rung missing, but I didn’t think anything of it until I got on the ice and my left foot started sliding out from under me! Don’t know if it was physical or psychological, but in either case it was not a good sign. The third boot finally felt ok, so off I went. I think I was even in size 8’s this time, rather than 8 1/2, which seemed ok but left the tops of my feet a little sore. Forget about reducing your waist—try skating and shrink your shoe size dramatically!
Nothing new was added this week—is Eva reading these posts? :- ). We instead spent a bunch of time on swizzling in circles and crossovers, and more work on snowplow & t-stops (an aside—Microsoft Word doesn’t recognize the verb “swizzling”). My left leg gets really tired doing just left swizzles since it’s my weaker side.
I almost forgot to mention that I went Sunday to Ice Chalet’s public session, which had maybe 30 people there. I managed for the first time to go around the entire rink in backward swizzle mode! I repeated the feat tonight, though came close to not making it—there seemed to be a not-very-smooth stretch of ice where I came to a dead stop and it was hard to get going again. But I was really close to full circle, so I grunted my way through the tough part until I hit smoother sailing again.
Just one more week of class left, then I go on vacation to try out my skills at San Francisco’s rink!
Well, this was it! Started with push-glide, push-glide, then wiggles, back swizzles, back one-foot swizzles (that was new), one-foot swizzles going around in circles (again, very hard for my inferior left leg), balancing on one foot in circles & straight glides, crossovers in circles, snowplow stops, t-stops, and of course, finishing with spinning in place. Even another student looked at her watch at the end with a “time’s up already?” look on her face. Eva then came over to let us know when the next official Adult Alpha class starts (not until Sept 29!), and to hand out coupons for $5 off a group class.
The coupons are part of a “Skating School Progress Report,” and we were marked in the “Introductory” and “Pre-Alpha” levels. Mine all say “passing standard” (other options are “competition standard” and “keep working on it”) for two-foot glide, dip (the two-foot glide with bent knees), forward & backward swizzles, left & right forward one-foot glides, and backward wiggles (since I don’t see forward wiggles anywhere, why the reference to backwards?). Forward stroking and one-foot snowplow stops are in the Alpha 1 level and weren’t marked.
So, what now? Well, next week I’ll be in San Francisco, where I hope to try out their Yerba Buena rink. I’ll post about that when I return. Then I guess it’s public session practice until the official class starts (There was a coupon in today’s paper for $1 Saturday admission during August—business must be hurting.). I will also be linking this Learn to Skate log to my website for the benefit of others who want to know what it’s like to learn as an adult (note—my website will be moving shortly, so the log won’t appear until after I have my new URL).
Thanks for reading, and all of your supportive feedback!
During a business vacation (my husband did the business, I did the vacation :- ) I walked across the street from the convention center to Yerba Buena Gardens which has an ice skating rink (plus bowling alley, carousel, and playground).
When I arrived, an adult skater was down on one end of the ice, the area blockaded by orange cones. It took a good 15-20 minutes for paramedics to arrive, strap him in a leg splint, and wheel him off the ice. Shortly thereafter, everyone was shooed off the ice for Zamboniing. Fresh tracks! Unfortunately, I subsequently had my first skating incident :-(. I was going backwards, and periodically checking my path, but still bumped my rear end into a girl about 9 years old. Thankfully, I'm a slow skater so it was a soft bump and not a hard push. She fell from the impact but was o.k. Actually, with the number of kids on the ice--around 50--it's a wonder I didn't run anybody else down--or vice versa.
Well, after a few weeks off to move, I’m back in a formal class at Ice Chalet. I’m still in rental skates, but hope to remedy that soon. And no, I’m not doing anything fancy yet—just working on improving my basic stroking and crossovers, and trying to get better at going backwards (and as yet no spinning at all). It’s slow going, but hey, I’m not on the fast track to the Olympics, so who cares? So if you’ve been thinking of taking lessons but have been too chicken because you think you’re too old, I hope I’ve been of some encouragement.
Up until now, everything I’ve learned (except for that spinning in place stuff, and that doesn’t count) has come fairly easily, and it’s just been a matter of refining and improving the basic move. Easy until I started backward stroking that is. Backward stroking is like forward stroking—push to build momentum, then lift up the foot so that you’re gliding on one foot. Balancing on one foot going backwards, I found, is a completely different can of worms from doing it forwards. It just doesn’t balance the same. I found it very nerve-racking, unsteady, and frustrating that it wasn’t coming as easily as everything else had. Week after week I would struggle to lift either foot more than an inch off the ice and for more than 1 second. Slowly, though, my balance on my left foot has improved, so I can keep my right foot airborne about 4” for 3 seconds. My right foot, on the other hand, just isn’t getting it. That is very frustrating, because if my left foot can do it, why can’t my right? In spite of these difficulties, I am slowly getting the hang of back crossovers. Having my instructor to myself for a few weeks while others were absent certainly helped in that area : -).
Yes, this was a multi-month adventure. I decided as a late birthday present to get my own pair of skates. The short version of the story is that I ended up in a pair of Riedell Royal 900s with MK Double Star blades. Basically that means I got near top-of-the-line boots and beginner blades. Makes for an odd combination, I admit, but it was suggested by the boot fitter. I was fitted into a narrow size—a bit too narrow for comfort, so we “punched out” a little in the toe box and ankles. I did my best to follow the breaking in instructions on Harlick’s web site (which I heartily recommend, BTW, to anyone who gets new boots), wearing them while watching TV and not lacing them to the top. Still, it took a long time (several months) to get used to them. If I had been in softer beginner boots it might not have taken so long; I honestly don’t know. At any rate I seem to be accustomed to them now, which is called “broken in.”
Well, it had to happen. It came during the public session right after my weekly lesson. I was in a good mood, having received my “Alpha” completion certificate from my instructor that lesson. About 15 minutes into the public session, I was practicing a 3-turn, which we had just started learning (it’s name comes from the tracing, which looks like the number “3” on the ice). I was at the end of the rink, using the semi-circle in front of the hockey goal area as a guide. At the top of the arc, I make my switch from forwards to backwards. I can’t remember which foot I was on. All I know is I knew I was falling and praying on the way down that I wouldn’t break anything. I fell to my right and put my arm out so that I would fall on it instead of my hip. I lay there stunned for a few seconds. I thought, “man, is *this* going to hurt tomorrow!” I slowly turned over, got on my feet, and left the ice. As I was taking off my skates, another adult beginner had the strangest timing, noting how well I seemed to be progressing!
Sure enough, the next day I was slightly sore. But what surprised me is that I am *severely* sore 2 days out. I don’t see any bruises, but if I move my right arm the wrong way (like lifting it up putting a coat on) it hurts big time. It’s primarily the shoulder and forearm that are affected. I’ve been sore after falling from skiing, but this seems more intense.
I knew after a fall that I needed to get back on the ice. Because of the pain in my arm, I waited the full week until my next lesson. In hindsight, that was a mistake. Not the waiting, but in making my first time back a “pressure” situation, where I had to perform certain skills. Not the 3-turn I fell on, curiously enough, but backward stroking & crossovers—the fear was overwhelming. Just being on one foot backwards was precarious enough before, but now it terrified me. Week after week I’d be fine until backward stroking or crossovers, then the tears would flow. My instructor was nice about it—she said to just give it time, and started giving us new things to try—lunges, shoot-the-duck, spinning in place, mohawks (a forward-to-backward move where you switch feet). Only now, in the middle of April, am I regaining some minimal competence in back crossovers. They are coming along slowly (particularly slow in the counterclockwise direction), as are the new tricks I just listed.
Practicing the back crossovers this week I took my second big splat, this time landing on my butt and elbows. Nice quarter-sized bruise on the left elbow, but fortunately it doesn’t hurt. Still, I can tell that they are progressing. I’m staying more down in my knees and sticking with a slight forward lean instead of bobbing up and down with my upper body. I can’t do crossovers with the lift-the-foot-over manner, so instead I use a slide the foot over maneuver. The latter is actually more advanced, but my instructor says if I ever want to officially test it, I’ve got to do it the lift-the-foot-over way. Alas, since one-foot backward glides are still my nemesis, that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon. In other news, I’ve actually been advancing on a shoot-the-duck move. This is where the skater hunches low down to the ice, with one foot stretched out in front (like a rifle, where I think the move gets its name). I can get down, then lift my left leg out, and hold it for a few seconds. The hard part is getting back up—ideally, rising on the one bent leg, but I have to put the outstretched foot back down and rise on two legs.
It's actually only been 11 months since I started skating, but since my latest group of lessons ends next week, I thought I'd take stock. Despite being on the ice nearly a year, there's much I cannot do. I can't turn, spin or jump. I honestly didn't expect to be able to jump after only a year, but a single turn or spin would have been nice. I also can't glide backwards on one foot for more than a second, and I've been working on that for 6 months :-(. It has definitely stymied my progress.
Still, there are things I can do I couldn't do a year ago. I can swizzle forwards and backwards. I can wiggle. I can glide forward on one foot. I can snowplow stop forward and backward. I can t-stop most of the time. My biggest accomplishment is that I can do forward crossovers CW and CCW (my backward crossovers are about 50% there). I can also sometimes manage a "cheated" shoot the duck (lower & rise on two feet).
So, what do we have? It gets me out of the house and some exercise without having to wear a leotard J. There’s always something to work on—and, unfortunately, be frustrated by. But that seems to be the nature of the beast. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it, right? And if things take time, well—let’s say I just learn things at a "leisurely" pace J.
My difficulties with going backwards are well known. I was also having difficulty keeping up with the others in my group lessons. So I decided to bite the bullet and fork over some extra money for a private with my regular instructor, Sarah. Between the extra instruction in the private and additional advice on the regular lesson (at which I was the only student present), my head is all a jumble. Most of the advice involved keeping my upper body more upright (I tend to lean forward slightly), more follow through with the hip on backward crossovers, and being more in tune with which part of the blade (forward or back) I’m on. I can tell you, was I sore the next day! 45 minutes (15 private + 30 regular lesson) of intense practice will do that.
Well, lo and behold, I did an honest-to-goodness mohawk. For months I’ve been doing these against the boards (wall), terrified of the switch of feet. A mohawk is when you glide forward on one foot, then put your other foot down in front (kind of like third position in ballet) to end up gliding backward just on the second foot (there’s that backwards on one foot again!). I did a few holding Sarah’s hands, then I was finally able to do one on my own! Just left foot to right foot, mind you—I haven’t got the hang of the opposite way yet, so don’t ask me what the “secret” is J.
We’ve also started doing forward spirals—basically a one-foot glide in a arabesque position (the free leg should be waist high—yeah, right :-). This is far easier to balance on my dominant right leg than my weaker left. Michelle Kwan has nothing to worry about J.
I have owned my skates for nine months and hadn’t had them sharpened since first getting them. I had read that sharpening blades can have an effect on ability; that for a time after sharpening, skills decline briefly as the skater gets used to the new feel of the blades. I can now vouch that this is somewhat true. The first skill that went out the window was stopping; specifically, the snowplow stop. I just could NOT snowplow! The blades wouldn’t budge. Sarah quickly advised trying a t-stop, which I managed, but not as good as B.S. (Before Sharpening). The only thing that felt "normal" was forward crossovers; everything else feels slightly "off." During the post-lesson public session I felt like I should have been wearing a big blinking light with a "CAUTION: UNABLE TO STOP" sign J.
One thing, though—I think having sharper blades has made outside edging a bit easier (though I’m still far from good at that). Outside edges means gliding forward in a semi-circle on the outside edge of one skate, then switching to the other foot for another semi-circle, making a giant “S” or sine wave pattern across the ice. Since I tend to lean into the inside edge of the blade, it’s very tricky to get the balance to the outside.
Time again for a "working vacation" with my husband (last year was San Francisco). I went to a public session at the Class of 1923 ice rink at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. The rink is where hockey games take place so this was my first time skating in an "arena." The #42 bus took me there in just 10 minutes from downtown Philly.
Since I knew I'd only get one skating opportunity, I didn't bring my own skates. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing was that I saved carrying my skates 6,000 miles round-trip for one hour of activity. I also learned it's possible to do mohawks in rentals! :-) This means I really have come a long way to achieve *that*. The bad thing was the rentals didn't have any real ankle support (although they didn't flop over) so I omitted some skills entirely. I did swizzles, back wiggles, a right foot t-stop, a few right flat spirals, a left leg forward lunge, 2 awkward shoot-the-ducks, and a few right and left mohawks. After doing a single crossover I realized that would be a very bad idea in the rentals, so did not do any after that; same for edges. Although mohawks were manageable I refrained from trying any 3-turns as it did not seem prudent. I skated for about 40 minutes then quit while I was ahead in the falls count (me 1, falls 0 : -).
Just before leaving for Philadelphia, my "group" lessons ended. I use quotes because for the past two months I was the only person in the class! It was thought back in July that others would be joining my group, so the class was scheduled, but I was the only one to join. I essentially got privates at the "group" rate, which I loved but the rink didn't. So at the end of the 13 weeks I was told to join the "Adult Club" group, which consists of Freestyle 1 and higher skaters, though I’m not quite there yet. I had one night with them before Philly.
It wasn't awful, but I really didn't feel comfortable either. It's harder in a group to go at your own (read: slower) pace, to see everyone else waiting for you to finish, to be the only one who has to work on a different skill because the others can do it already. The only thing I felt OK on were swing rolls--first, they were a new skill to the others so I wasn't the only one trying to figure it out, and second, they strongly resembled regular edging, which I had been working on. And of course, there's not as much individual attention when there's five of you to monitor.
I then had my week in Philly, and when I returned to the rink I decided not to officially join the Adult Club. Since my instructor now has the 7pm time slot free, I asked if I couldn't do a private in place of a group lesson. She got permission, so that's what I'm now doing (and, in fact, another instructor just started a private in that time slot, too). I like the fact that Sarah already knows my abilities (and lack thereof), and I'm comfortable with her teaching style. Plus I don't feel like I'm behind or slowing others down. It's very easy to tell oneself not to compare your ability to others, but hard to do when you're paired up with them. In a private I'm so focused on what I'm doing there's no time to think about anyone else.
One of the other adult skaters who participated in last year’s show talked me into joining. I had started wondering about actually putting the “do re mi” skills I’m learning into an actual program and this seemed like a good opportunity. Not that I’m doing a solo, mind you—I’m in the adult group number. That means an extra 30 minutes of ice time for rehearsals. As there’s one adult in the group who’s less skilled than I, everything gets tailored for her level, which is fine with me.
In my own lessons I’ve started 2-foot spins, forward inside 3-turns, and back inside edges. This last one has really had the gears in my brain shifting to get away from the back outside edges pattern, which starts in the same manner. Several times I'll be trying the back insides and just mid-pattern unconsciously switch to the outside edge after the initial push. "Moon River" was playing last night for another class learning the Dutch Waltz, and I found that helped me get into a rhythm, keeping time with the music, just to rewire my brain for the push inside pattern. Once I can get that going then I can worry about increasing the size of my semi-circle (lobe?).
Normally I do forward outside 3-turns (FO3) from a standing still T position. However, now I’m trying to do them from a moving start--a 2-foot glide. I find I'm balking at this because a) the motion is unsettling when I'm used to being still, and b) I can't get the same kind of push-off that I'm used to with my feet parallel. I was at the rink today working diligently on this, and what should come on the PA system but "Who let the Dogs Out?", bringing a smile to my face as I remembered Todd Eldredge’s Improv-Ice routine. We all have our own skating challenges :-).
The reason I’m trying moving 3’s is that I want to be able to link individual skills together. I asked to be taught a routine my instructor is teaching one of her (ahem) much younger students, with a lot of elements I recognize as ones that I am doing—except that I do them in a vacuum, unrelated to one another. One of the parts in the routine is a single forward crossover into a FO3. As to the group Holiday Show routine, that is composed mostly of swizzles, t-stops, stroking and gliding (both 2-feet and 1-foot). The hard part there is getting to the right place in the few notes allotted for getting to the right place!
[from AP news wire]: Proving you don't have to be Michael Weiss or Timothy Goebel to go splat on a jump, Gamma-Delta student Julie Bixby emulated the senior men at last week's Nationals by belly flopping on a bunny hop. "I know the rink is closing in a few days, and I wanted to make sure my last lesson there went out with a bang," Bixby explained.
Seriously, at least I can laugh about it--it could have been worse. It was towards the end of my lesson, doing stroking into a bunny hop. I felt myself tripping and falling forwards, and absolutely nothing I could do about it. My instructor stayed with me, asking if various parts were broken. All I could do was shake my head no because I couldn't say anything; I was just stunned, in tears, trying to breathe. A textbook case of "getting the wind knocked out of you." After about 2 minutes I was able to get up off the ice, get a LONG drink of water, blow my nose, and rest a bit. Miraculously, I did NOT land directly on my knees, but just above them. At the time it felt like the skin had broken; Sarah said that's "freezer burn" from sliding on the ice. No broken skin, but a pair of bruises have formed just above the kneecaps, and my torso is sore in general.
I didn't want to leave the rink in that state. So after a 10 minute rest I did just a few leisurely laps while chatting with others and *then* left the rink.
Postscript: on the drive home what do I hear on the radio but "Free Falling." (I swear I'm not making that up!)
I paid $37 for the videotape of the Holiday Show I participated in last month. Even my husband & father-in-law are in it as it includes occasional shots of the audience applauding. Nice touch. Anyway, the first thing I noticed upon seeing me was the rounded shoulders. GACK! And this was just skating out to the opening position! I was horrified :-). Now, I think I do naturally stand that way, shoulders forward (I mean, does anyone other than runway models walk around with shoulders thrust back?), but seeing it on the ice just looked terrible :-(.
Item #2: how stiff and stilted I moved. I know we adults aren't supposed to compare ourselves to the kiddies, but having watched 16 routines before the adult number (and countless ones after it) I was struck by how fluid and easygoing the kids moved and how Al Gorish I moved :-). Why didn't I pick up this sport 20 years earlier? <sigh>
Item #3: for the most part, we adults were in sync with the music and each other, with variations in style just as you'd see in any corps. Plus our windmill move, where we clasped arms at a focal point and removed our hats, looked really cool.
A nice memento of my days at Costa Mesa Ice Chalet. Yes, the rink is closing after 27 years. There are 2 other rinks I can go to: Huntington Beach Skate Zone or Westminster Ice Palace. I’ll be watching their respective group lessons and decide if I want to join either of those. My private instructor Sarah is now independent (not on staff at a rink), and has said she is available for private lessons at both rinks during selected times.
I went to the adult classes of two rinks near my home; both rinks were very accommodating to us Ice Chalet refugees, granting a free lesson for us to try things out. Tuesday was the HB rink. Their intermediate class had not yet learned mohawks, but it was clear the advanced group was too advanced to me. Wednesday was the Ice Palace. That group had explored more territory; indeed, in my trial lesson we did alternating 3-turns and waltz jumps, neither of which I had really done before. Since this group was more of where I’m at, I signed up for the remaining 4 classes in the session. However, after my second visit I think I’ll go back to just privates in March. The second class went into even more new skills than before: crossrolls (forward and backward) and spread eagles and Ina Bauers; again, skills I hadn’t tried before. I felt overwhelmed. The only way to ensure things aren’t too slow or too fast is to stick with privates.
After 4 weeks in the group lesson at Ice Palace I’ve gone back to just privates with Sarah, Monday nights at Skate Zone in HB. Because of her independent status, we now do a 30-minute private every-other week instead of the 15-minutes each week we did before. I think it works well this way. Do a good “warm up” of stroking & crossovers, with little refinements or encouragement to “stretch more” or “push more.” Everything needs some degree of reinforcement and improvement and greater consistency: FO & FI 3-turns, assorted mohawks, all 4 edges, forward spirals, and 2-foot spins. Each skill takes 5-10 minutes to review, so the time is well spent. The “off” Mondays are for independent practice, and I still go to IP’s Wednesday night public session to practice, plus a weekend public session (at either rink) if I can. Progress at this point has slowed to a crawl, and it can be frustrating to work on something for months without any sign of improvement. I just need to remember that there’s no time limit for learning, and that over the course of 6 months, perhaps there won’t be a “major” breakthrough in ability, but certainly something will be easier or higher or longer or smoother or whatever than it was before. And it’s still great exercise.
After many months of trying I still don't have forward inside 3-turns or back inside edges or a consistent 2-foot spin. My LFI3 is *almost* there, even if the RFI3 isn't (which is interesting, since my RFO3 is more reliable than the left; or perhaps not, since both RO3 & LI3 go off to the right?). The BI edges are less foreign feeling. I realized that all I really have to do is backward stroking and let the curve happen automatically. I don’t get a full 180-degree curve this way, but that should come with time. I've got a 2-rev 2-foot spin 50% of the time; the trouble there is remembering to keep my shoulders *down* and keeping my weight over the left foot (the right foot *loves* to cause balance trouble, but I'm not steady enough yet to lift it out of the way :-). OTOH, there's continued minuscule improvement on my weaker, left forward spiral—it’s still not waist high, but over the past 6 months the balance has slowly gotten steadier so the leg is noticeably higher than previously. Sarah says that just before the spiral ends to give the leg a quick uplift before lowering it to encourage the leg to go just slightly higher the next time.
I've been working on my 2-foot spin. Until last week I was mainly focused on my feet & weight balance. But last week Sarah brought up 2 areas that had been neglected--arms & shoulders. I had been doing a good job bringing my arms in, resulting in fast rotation. But the speed resulted in a lot of teetering. Sarah mentioned to hold the arms out longer, and at that point I realized I really hadn't been getting the arms fully outstretched before pulling them in; I'd been bringing them in from my “wind-up” position. The outstretched arms mean slower, more controlled rotation, to help reduce the teetering.
Also to combat the teetering--and a tendency to bend at the waist when I felt myself losing balance--Sarah mentioned keeping my shoulders back. She had previously mentioned keeping the shoulders down, not hunched up, but this instruction to keep them back has been a real eye-opener. The spin feels a lot different, and I find I don't have to worry about my feet as much. I'm still not consistent, but I think these changes are a big help.
I'd gotten into a discouraging rut practicing the same stuff repeatedly, so I asked Sarah for some new things to try. The Rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational newsgroup had been having an interesting debate over a new adult testing system (MITF), so I took a look at the lowest required skills in the so-called “adult track” (called pre-bronze) and the “standard track” (pre-preliminary). Unfortunately, the pre-bronze category includes alternating 3-turns, which are beyond me at this point. However, something called a “waltz 8” from pre-pre sounded interesting, so Sarah brought her official book and we actually went over ALL the official pre-pre stuff. That meant refining 3 moves I had already been working on (forward stroking, consecutive edges, and spirals), plus learning the W8. And since she had her book out, we also explored alternating back crossovers to BO edges, and power 3s, from the next level up, Preliminary.
These moves all contain elements I've done before, but in a different way by giving them a specific cadence and/or linking isolated skills together. It was so refreshing! The alternating XO-BO pattern was the easiest new item to grasp (why the adult track puts them in a later category than alternating 3s is beyond me!). The waltz 8 I understood far better than I could perform it; little did I know it happens to contain my 2 most troublesome skills: the BI exit edge of the 3-turn (which tightly curves and I have yet to figure out how to widen the curve) and a final step forward (aka back mohawk). Well, I did ask for it... The power 3s were simply mind numbing. Like the W8, they contains elements I’ve done in isolation before, but putting them together in this particular sequence makes my head hurt J.
Haven't posted lately for 2 reasons--first, a combined 3 weeks off in Australia and Chicago (I had hoped to go skating at both locations, but the skate gods didn't look favorably upon me), and second, I just haven't been progressing. Not significantly, anyway; just minor tweaks that help a little but nothing that's been an "a-ha!" Re-reading some prior entries above I find I'm basically still at where I was in April, but with a waltz 8 to add to my list of things I'm attempting (I nearly said "struggling with," but tried to come up with a more positive term). <SIGH>
As I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere with lessons, I decided to take a break from them during September. I still planned to practice; however, I just didn’t seem to get around to it. I was busy, or I was too tired to go. Then the terrorist attacks happened, and I didn’t feel like going. So my planned break from lessons became an unplanned 6-week hiatus from skating altogether.
Then I got an e-mail from someone who read this diary. She was coming back from a 2-year hiatus, lived nearby, and asked if we could get together for a “skate date.” I’m glad she did. It was more fun practicing with someone else than struggling alone; it certainly helped that her skills are about the same level as mine. And it got my butt off the couch and back on the ice.
In August, I took a hiatus from lessons & skating. I just wasn't improving on mohawks &
3-turns & edges, despite over 6 months worth of effort, and when presented
new skills--waltz 8--just continued to struggle. It wasn't fun anymore. :-(
So the hiatus has gone from temporary to permanent. I've only gone a few times to the rink
since, as a casual activity now instead of a serious one.
Thus, I think the conclusion of my "learn to skate
diary." Technically, I *have*
learned how to skate, if you define skating as knowing how to go forwards &
backwards without much thinking about it (although turning from forwards to
backwards & vice versa still takes much thought). I've also vastly increased my knowledge of skating with
first-hand experience rather than just watching it on tv, and I'm tremendously
glad I did that.
I thank you all for reading & your support. I wish you better success in your own skating endeavors.