OMG! Back Spin! For Real! (Rink Closing UPDATE!)

Sometimes my figure skating dyslexia comes in handy. My coach was working with me on my arm position to increase my spin rotational speed. I'm spinning to the left, then to the right. I get the left spin pretty good and my coach does this.....

Alrighty then. Solid left one foot spin with 3 rotations.

Next second, I do a two foot entry into a right spin, and when I lift one foot....I go into a back spin.

My Coach does this

She's soooo happy! "That's the best spin you've ever done. centered! Fast! Perfect body position!"

I like making my coach happy.

This may be the highpoint of my skating for a while. One rink closed today, my home rink may close soon. Just glad I had a perfect moment to remember.

(About 5 hours after I posted this, my home rink closed for two weeks) 

 

Croronavirus and the Rink

Some rinks are closed. Mine are not.

However, Thursday night both rinks sent me emails (at the same time!)  about Coronavirus 19 and what they are going to do. I have to give them credit, the ice rinks beat the  flow of 200 Coronavirus-19 emails a day I've received since then by about 6 hours.

One rink sent me a pretty detailed email about their increased cleaning regimen. I showed it to a friend before group when I got the email. "What do you think?" I pointed to the 'increased cleaning regimen' sentence.

He said "Well, why aren't they doing that anyway!?" Which is exactly what I thought.

Clean up--we always clean up

Hire this guy....and see if he can do pairs--he's got the shoulders

We both looked down at the detritus over the mats. Candy wrappers, tiny toy parts, random pieces of candy, nuts, more candy wrappers with gooey pieces of candy in it (let me say 'Merica, if you're wondering why your kid are so fat, I think I've found the answer.) The rink always looks like that.

Then I got angry. I typed a message back to the manager. "If you're worried about hand cleanliness, why has the hot water in the ladies room sinks been out for the last two weeks?"

I am going to hold that rink's metaphorical hockey skates to the fire, and that emotional fire better be under the hot water heater that has a pipe to the ladies room.

So, I have to give the rink credit. I had an answer in fifteen minutes that they were going to fix it as soon as I told them which rink of their stable of rinks....oopsie.  Maybe I should ask them to fix the two broken doors in the ladies too while they're poking around.

Fortunately, our rinks are satisfactorily crowded, but not crowded like a Sunday Mass during Lent. I don't feel bad about skating as you seldom get closer than three to six feet to people.  So, I continue to skate.  So far....

The "Cute Little Mohawk Element"

My Coach Loves Mohawk Variants

Especially the Mohawk Back Cross

The way my coach does it on a line
it looks like she's going backwards
and forward at the same time

I struggle with these because it makes me do mohawks, then turn my body in a way that confuses my feet. Basically, I'm mohawk back cross dyslexic.

Coach says, "It's Forward-Back-Back-Repeat." This is to be my personal mantra for the lesson. I have to do it on the line, and remember the rink geography.

1. Forward on the right foot, starting from the line, Facing the wall with the CLOCK
2. (mohawk step) Backwards to the line , To 'the Wall without the Clock'
3. Bring the right foot over the left foot (back cross) -- This is supposed to just magically happen and I have to face forward on the line
4. Forward on the Left foot, to the wall without the clock
5. (mohawk step) backwards on the right to the wall with the clock
6. Bring left foot over the right, facing down the line

I know my right from my left, but when I'm going backwards I've been know to think 'stage right' and 'stage left' which is from the audience perspective. Therefore I wear a black glove on my left hand and a red glove on my right.

To help me with right/left in the mohawk back cross, my coach gives me a marker to hold in my right hand. I hand it back.

"I don't need that.I have a red glove on my right hand," I tell her. "Right is red."

"Oh!" she says in surprise.

This is not  an actual picture of my coach--she is just this adorable

Anyway, with my mantra (Forward, back, back) and waving my red gloved hand for a tip on going the right direction, I can get ONE or maybe get TWO mohawk back crosses. Then everything falls apart. I don't do a 'real' mohawk, or I forget which foot I'm on or something. Normally this would be just a one lesson thing, but Group Coach wants me to do it, and when I told my private coach she's determined that I do it well, This thing is going to live on and on, LESSON AFTER LESSON.

"Forward, Back, Back"!

I drive 120 Miles to pick up my boots after a sharpening--then more!

Last week I was on business travel and left my skates with my sharpener. He sends me a picture on Friday that they're ready.

And there they are

Fifteen minutes later when I check Saturday's schedule, I discover that my rink is having a 4 day hockey thing. Competition? Intermurals? Some kind of hockey bowl thing?

And I have to have my skates on Monday....to skate.... in a completely different rink... in a completely differen town.

Sunday, I drive 60 miles south to get my skates.

Then I drive 60 miles north to get home

-- skates in the trunk 

TOMORROW? 

I drive  50miles NORTH! to go to LTS

Then home again is another 50 miles

For this many miles that LTS lesson better be worth it!!