Good Vs Evil

Good

Evil
(Adorable Evil)

With a Spiral

Things Only A Figure Skater Understands.3

What your skating feels like when your dance 

coach finally says "Nice edges"

Things Only a Figure Skater Understands.2

When the rink goes directly from a hockey game to public ice without an ice cut between

 

Things Only a Figure Skater Understands.1

When I don't check the schedule, then get to the rink only to discover it's switched to 'summer hours' and there's 

only 30 minutes of public left

Ah, Kirk, the classic

Don't Compare Yourself to Other Skaters!

The Skater With Some Amazing Jumps

Me

The Cool Skater with Neat Little Spin Entries

ME

What People Think of the Cool Skaters

Of Me...

Just signed up for Medicare,
So I am This Old!

Whatever...

 

Skate for yourself... not for anyone else!

Stuck In A Skating Rut!

I guess a girl can just make so many skating advances in a two month period: lunges, forward power pulls, alternating 3's, back stroking without fear, mohawks both ways in a pattern, outside mohawks. Is it too much to get FI3 and one foot spins too?

I know I should be happy that I'm making progress of some sort, but spins and FI3 elude me.

I bitched to my coach about how I was struggling with one foot spins and how kids could pick them up so easily, she said darkly, "Some kids, yes....not every kid."

Then she whispered so only I could hear, "Little Tyra can't do a scratch spin and she's been working on it for a year."

What should my response be?

a.

b.

c. This doesn't make me feel better.

Forward Power Pull Into a Three Turn

As we last saw our heroine doing 'real' power pulls, her coach said, "I want you to do a forward three from a power pull."

So our heroine does. Left fortward power pull, forward outside three turn, then quietly drops the free foot to a back edge.

The coach stares thoughtfully.

The coach says to our heroine, "Did you just switch feet?"

Our heroine can't find the words to explain...or say anything else.

Coach Confirmed! Real Power Pulls! But...

It's not that I don't trust Gold Skater, but it's always nice when your coach too confirms you have a 'real' skill.

Miss Bianca said, "Yes, those are real power pulls. But...."

"....they're not big enough, but that will come...."

Translation:

Actually, there's moments I'm afraid now.

"....you wave your arms too much and can't keep your shoulders still...."

Oh,....what can I say....
"I'd best, I'd best, I'd best suppress the chest."

"...you need to work the hips more.."

Apparently my hips do lie...

 And then she says....

Riiight.

Mileage on Ice

I'm a fan of lap skating--circling the rink over and over has a lot to recommend it. And for people who complain about how they need to strengthen their legs for off-ice, lap skating may be the answer.
But I know what you're thinking,

No, no, I disagree.

1. It builds leg strength, improves balance, and stability.
2. You can do it forward and back
3. With swizzles and slaloms to strengthen your knees and ankles
4. You'll get faster
5. You can throw in power pulls, spirals, shoot the ducks and lunges for variety
6. With crossovers  on the ends it helps you work on your basic skating skills

USFS actually has a fitness program for adults.

Anyway, the pdf has a pertinent paragraph:

Lap skating for adults can be a terrific exercise utilized to aid in weight loss

as it can burn up to 250-810 calories per hour with just recreational skating. Forexample, a 150-pound man skating continuously for an hour burns as many calories as when he is running five miles in an hour. 

If you want to keep track of what you're skating, here's the data.
a. For Olympic Rinks 9 laps is one mile
b. For Hockey Rinks it's 11 laps for one mile

I usually lap skate 11 laps during my warm-up, consisting of stroking, crossover, swizzles,  forward and backward skating, and power pulls. So my initial warm up is a mile and takes about 10 minutes.

Here's the thing, I wish USFS lap skating program had badges!  I think people might enjoy that.  But you know USFS.....

The Faces We Make

My coach Miss Bianca told me to do alternating three turns so I did. I've got issues left on these; the turn forward is like watching square wheel turn the corner. However, she asks for them and I do them. No hesitation.  Right down the center.

She sighs. "You've still got that issue of the turn forward," a slight shrug. "But, at least you're not making that face anymore when I ask you to do them."

I do the crinkled forehead bit to indicate my confusion. "What face?" (Like I don't know.)

"Oh, you know," she says, "This one."

"But, I'm adorable when I do that." I cry out.

Another patient sigh from Miss Bianca. "No, you're not."

Oh, just wait. 'Cause I've got much worse expressions than that one.

Learn to Skate USA -- replacing USFS Basic Skills *and* ISI weSkate (at some point)

First up with some hot gossip.

1. The Professional Skaters Association and the Ice Skating Institute will be merging.
2. ISI We Skate program will disappear eventually, merging with LTS USA (maybe in a couple of years)

What this means functionally, I don't know. ISI is a rink management program that has a skating side, not a skating program. Is PSA taking over the rink management side of ISI? Or is ISI just unloading its skating program and keeping its rink management program where it makes its money?

Anyway, what this means for the skater is that eventually, there will be only one learn to skate program.

So, this evening I joined LTS USA.

You pay your money, and you get  a notice that you will be receiving program materials in the mail, and direction to print our your registrations page and give to your rink when you sign up for LTS.

You can see all the program sheets and search for rinks without even registering so if you want to poke around you can do that from the splash page (scroll down until you see the words Skating Classes then poke around until you find what you're looking for). The only problem is with the rink search: they calculate the distance to the rinks using 'as the crow flies'. They don't take into account things like massive mountain ranges to drive around and rivers where you have to find a bridge to go over. They calculate it as if you just drive straight to the rink. My 'nearest rinks' are like 3 hour drives but this app says they're less than 30 miles. If you live in a city and don't have to go far to a rink, you should be okay.

Then after you register and print out your registration page, you get this:

I'm assuming there will be more stuff later. However, since 90% of the materials you're interested in are available without logging in, and you'll get a packet in the mail, the login seems to me made just to track your account. I've heard there will be a way to track your levels in the event you change rinks. I will say that they have the absolutely best contact page I have ever seen. I'm telling you the truth. If you have a problem once you've registered, you can find a person to fix it.

Now for something that burns my hide.


Adult LTS still lives.

ISI doesn't have adult LTS. I hope when ISI weSkate merges with LTS USA that they convince them to kill  the separate (dance focused) Adult LTS program when the kids program will do for both.

I'm not emotional about this at all