Lesson #2 - 27/11/18

Is progress visible?

I bumped into coach a little before my lesson time, and she told me about all the warmups I should be doing before getting on the ice. Since I was already pretty late for warming up, we got onto the ice and she ran me through a few laps:

- 1 lap "side-stepping" (strange sideway pushes to go forwards)

- 1/2 lap forward slalom, 1/2 lap backward slalom

- 1/2 lap side-stepping to one foot glide, 1/2 lap other foot

- ditto for backwards

- STROKING!

Then went the actual lesson.

Forward Stroking:

- 1cm rule was introduced, which is placing the free foot 1cm above the ice parallel to it, right next to the skating foot.

- Before placing the foot down, the skating foot starts its push (tilts from straight line).

- Make sure knees are BENT.

- Make sure free foot is parallel to the ice.

- Make sure arms are out in line with chest.

- Make sure butt is not out.

Pivot:

- Weight placement is still an issue.

- Weight should be in between both feet.

- Need to figure out weight transfer with the open glide.

- More practice at higher speeds!

2-Foot Jump:

- This was scary!

- Get some HEIGHT by straightening out completely and pointing toes.

- When landing, bend knees. The ice isn't going to cushion you.

- Practice at the wall if unsure.

- I should get my blades permanently mounted...

Things are pretty simple at the moment, yet I feel I am far from "mastering" these skills. However, I know I can do it! Just more ice time, more strength.

During the week, I went to a coffee club session at a different rink with a different coach. She picked a direction for me (anticlockwise) and made me learn a 1-foot spin on it. Apparently I am a quick learner! It is far from perfect, but I understand the basic concept. I love spinning! And 1-foot is so thrilling.

Positive feedback I've received: nice lines, quick learner :)

Negative feedback I've received: need to tie boots tighter, need to maintain upper body posture

My right inner malleolar is killing me! Coach says it's because my boots aren't tight enough, but I think it feels more like a bruise than a blister. Will update on attempts at solutions.

Lesson #1 - 20/11/18

It happened!

I had my first 4(:30)AM wake-up this morning, and my first lesson at 6:30AM. It was actually quite lovely seeing the sunrise, and surprisingly right now (2PM) I don't feel all that sleepy. What better incentive is there, to switch one's sleep cycle to bedtimes at 10PM!

Today was a day of firsts. It was my first time on a figure session. When I arrived at 6AM, it was nicely empty except for 4 high-level skaters and one other adult, stroking around the perimeter. I got my boots on, and did a few laps of stroking and slaloms before getting bored and not sure what to do.

I love my new coach! The first few minutes of the lesson were laying out the groundwork for the rest of our working relationship together. I established my goal, of actually looking good on the ice and not sloppy as some late starters end up doing, and she established her methods of teaching, which involve a lot of yelling but also a lot of praise.

We went over some basic skills, I'll summarise main takeaway points below. I don't think they will ever be perfect, but at least they will look nicer and be stronger with every passing week!

Forward Stroking:

- Free leg will be at 5:00 and 7:00 positions, ~30cm above the ice.

- Prepare by BENDING knees, to position weight over the heel for acceleration.

- Feet together, then push with inside edge of one foot, lifted to appropriate clock position.

- Hold a little while, then bend again, and push onto other foot.

- Ensure skating knee is bent and free leg is pointed (apparently something I naturally was doing!)

- Keep top half of body straight. There is no point trying to skate out at 5:00 and 7:00 if your top half of body is twisted the wrong way! (something I was *not* doing)

Forward 2-Foot Turns into FO 3-Turn:

- She tricked me with this one, we did a basic 2-foot turn first.

- Prepare with a stroke, legs together, knees bent.

- Arms!! Twist arms back to prepare for the turn.

- TURN! The arms (not just shoulders) will help.

- Exit with a glide, take note of free hip (should be higher than the main skating hip).

- Can repeat on one foot for a 3-turn, tucking free leg behind.

Forward Crossovers:

- Make sure to keep arms low. We want to keep centre of gravity low.

- Both pushes (main push + underpush) should be at the 5:00 or 7:00 position, 30cm above ice.

- Majorly work in progress.

Backwards Swizzles/Glides:

- Apparently my backward swizzles are powerful and good (YAY!).

- One-foot glides however...

- Glide with both feet parallel and close together.

- Shift weight over one foot, realigning body (take special note of the hip!).

- I conceptually understand this but somehow putting it into practice is just nigh-on impossible! I think just more practice and experience is needed for this. One step at a time!

Pivot:

- She tricked me! Hahaha - I did a pivot but she called it "the pivoting action".

- Every move should have a clear start, move, and finish.

- Start with stroking: 2 strokes, starting on the leg you are pivoting on.

- Glide in a circle 360˚, one foot slightly in front of the other.

- Stick the toepick in and pivot 360˚.

- Finish off the move with a push and glide.

Things for the future:

- I still don't know which one is my dominant foot. Somehow I always thought right (the one I naturally want to start gliding on), but in my panic over being dominant on the "wrong" side I practiced left so much it looks more natural. I call it ambilegstrous.

- Figure sessions are scary after 7AM :( so many jumping and spinning action!

- Next practice session, I want to practice more forward crossovers, stroking, looking beautiful from the top to the bottom. And then throw in some 2-foot spins since I've forgotten how they go :(

- I got roasted a lot on my fitness (or lack of), need to actually do push-ups and crunches ... Maybe they will be my early morning 6AM wake-up regime!

Baby Steps

Skating... I'm obsessed!

Jackson Freestyles with Donut Soakers

It has been 5 months since I bought my first pair of skates - Jackson Freestyles!
(see image - aren't they gorgeous!)


The exam-procrastination-impulse-buy probably came as no surprise to my friends, who had been pummelled with earfuls of me talking about skating for the 5 months before that moment.

After struggling the whole year with completing the third year of my engineering degree, I have finally finished my final exams, and in my freedom have decided to take up private lessons (and with that, start this blog).







Here's a little summary of the lead-up process:

Me - a 21-year-old engineering student, soon approaching a full year of internship before my final year of study.

February - first realised that taking lessons isn't an impossible feat for a beginner, took some Learn To Skate (LTS) classes with kids half my size.
March - university took over my life.
June - exam season, after dreaming of owning my own skates I finally bit the bullet and paid up.
July - found out that Coffee Club (CC) exists, and is better for adults than skating with 3-4 year olds. Started going to CC whenever university schedule allowed.
October - exams hit again!
November - that's now! When I am going to take up private lessons!
The future - from December I will be full time interning and taking a year off studying, hopefully that will let me skate more.

This blog begins as a way for me to track my progress from here on out, both in skating and in trying to juggle adult life with skating.

Current reflections:

I am so excited to start lessons tomorrow, but at the same time am very scared. I picked my skating friend's coach (she got me into skating by showing me too many awesome tricks that I wanted to try), who I've heard is quite tough and technical - exactly what I love and fear!

I am most afraid that all the skills I picked up at CC will be deemed "wrong", and have to relearn everything. Yet at the same time, I do want to learn everything properly!

At the moment, having rolled around in about 15 CC sessions, my skill set includes:
- Forward stroking (still in progress getting it looking nice...)
- Forward crossovers (left feels more comfortable but apparently right is technically better?)
- Backward crossovers (friend told me they're all wrong though)
- Ugly 3 turns (when they feel like it, FO and FI, and sometimes BI if the day is right)
- 2-foot spins (5-7 revolutions, usually CW but after a month off CCW is better???)
- 1-foot spin (like 2 revolutions)
- RFO spiral (apparently a pretty good beginners one!)
- Mohawks (one is more comfy than the other)
- Snowplow stop (lost it for a while when I got my new skates and moved off rentals)

I get the feeling that ALL of these need hours of more work. Here's to waking at 4AM tomorrow to get to the rink for my first lesson!
Part of this blog will be on my struggle to shift my sleeping pattern to become more of a morning person, and learning to cook for myself (!!) in the early morning. Here's to a long future with this expensive sport!