Figure Skating's Not For Sissies

A couple of hours before I got to freestyle a teenage girl was dancing the Kilian with Dance Coach (remember him?)  and during the Open Choctaw stabbed him in the shin and tore it top to bottom with her blade.

 

He drove himself to the emergency room where he got 6 internal and 6 external stitches then drove himself back to the rink to pick up his lessons.

The adult skaters at the rink were telling him to go home, and the little student who had wounded him showed up looking miserable. 

I don't know if  Dance Coach was taking anything for pain, but I never saw him wince. That's what I call a real man.

Of course after he left for lunch every skater on the ice couldn't wait to tell me all their choctaw horror stories. Like I said, figure skating's not for sissies.

When I FINALLY Nailed My Superfast One Foot Spin

Hit a spin--and suddenly hit a speed I'd never done before, hit the rocker perfectly, head perfect,  arms perfect, free foot perfect, and suddenly I'm rotating the speed of stink.

I could not let my coach down by panicking in front of her younger students, so I squeezed my gut in and held on to that spin with all the skill I had in my 6 1/2 C boots. But I Hung On...all the way to a pretty exit.

My Expression? Total Fear all the Way through --

Minus the Jello

My Coach's Expression 

 Oh, yeah, making progress!!

Taking Our Sport Back: Compulsory Figures Part I

In 1971 Trixie Schuba, possibly one of the best skaters of compulsory figures in history of the sport, beat Janet Lynn, the pixieish spectacular star of freeskating, faced off at Worlds. Trixie won because of her superior skills in the compulsory figures which heavily weighted the scores. But Janet Lynn was the far more popular skater....

By 1990 compulsory figures were dead...and gone. The ISU saw ending figures as freeing the free skaters to greater expression---and to be more appealing to TV. At the end of this video you'll see some US skaters were very bitter about it..

Then after the last compulsory figure was skated in the 1990 Worlds....

The century of compulsory figures in competition came to an end.

I'm so Embarrassed--off Ice

A Video of Sarah Kawahara explaining the Triple Axel scene in I, Tonya

Then I read the posts on this in Facebook, and it turns  out Margot Robbie was in Jackson Freestyles that were inappropriate for the period, one of the doubles was in Edeas, and someone griped that Harlick's would have been more 'period appropriate'.

And I thought I knew my boots---

I'm so ashamed

Free or Semi-Free Videos for Stretching

These are a few videos either on YouTube or Amazon Video Prime that I like. They're not very demanding, but they are useful when you have an injury or want to stretch for a half hour before or  after skating.


YouTube

JessicaSmithTV--- the dog's name is 'Peanut'

From Amazon Prime Video

Flexibility Yoga, Hips, Splits & Hamstrings - Krystin Scott 2017

This is a three part series. 

 

 

  

Transistions

My Coach said: "Forward outside right three, into a back edge, then a one foot turn forward facing out of the circle, left forward crossover, followed by a left mohawk, into a back edge, back cross and glide, then step forward into a one foot spin. Followed by a nice exit."

 

 

Me

 

The Groin Pull

So, perhaps during last week's  spirals, I overstretched or pulled a muscle, tendon, or irritated a nerve. I was limping around the house and work for a week. I was tempted to go to the doctor, but this is the Internet age, so I googled it.

First things first. Apparently WOMEN don't get groin strain very often. Livestrong can't even find a picture of a woman

So, Livestrong.com was a wash. If they can't tell the difference between men and women, can you really trust the text?

I googled randomly "groin pull" and picked Mayo Clinic--they'll be authoritative.

Direct and indirect causes of groin pain for MEN . THERE IS NO ARTICLE FOR GROIN PAIN IN WOMEN!!!--Mayo Clinic you're  a bunch of sexist pigs!!!

 But let me say, I am so glad I'm unaffected by most of the groin issue men have.There's a lot of words I've never used describing them and things I didn't know existed. Men are so fragile.

So I wanted a fast 'cure' or at least 'fast temporary relief'. I pulled out my old faithful book for muscle strain. I love this book for palliative care for common muscle strain.

Muscle Pain Relief in 90 Seconds:

 The Fold and Hold Method

$15 bucks on Amazon--raving fans.

Okay, when the exercises in this book work, they REALLY work. I did a couple of exercises for the shoulder I fell on a few weeks ago and the muscle pain went away in 24 hours after 2 three minute sessions.

Of course, if you sense that the pain is too much (like you can't walk) or the pain lasts too long, consult a physician.

Sadly, it turns out that I have 3 things wrong with my left hip: groin pull, bursitis and some old injury in my left buttock. Hello Old Age!

Started with the book's groin exercise--doing that I could get relief for a couple of hours, now I'm focusing on the bursitis and the buttock issue too. Those are also improving. No miracles, but temporary relief.

But if you want to see what traditional exercises for groin pulls looks like, here are some from a New Jersey PT practice. Curiously, several of these look like the traditional bursitis exercises; So  a twofer if you've got multiple issues!

Summit Medical Group