The Five Minute Rule

I didn't read this in any book, or hear it from any coach. It's just common sense.

We all know practice is necessary to advance. But if you're like me you kind of 'ignore' practicing or working on skills that aren't fun. Or you do a few, then go off and work on fun skills. I can work on progressives, FO3, dance patterns, even backward stroking all day, but deliberately work on my weak side mohawks? Uh-uh.

I need discipline. . . to get myself to practice

 

 

 

So I needed a way to make myself do stuff that wasn't 'fun stuff'. I invented the rule that I had to practice my 'un-fun skills' for five minutes straight. No breaking away to stroke around, no chatting, no resting.

I had on my iPhone one of those yoga meditation timers. It allows me to set multiple sequences of 5 minutes followed by a chime.  So, beginning of the session I decide what 3 or 4 things I'm going to work on, then I get on the ice and warm up. When I'm ready, I turn on the timer and start on the first skill. When the chime goes, I switch to the second. Then the third. I don't go past 3.

Does it work? Yes it does. Even if the skill is scary, I keep after it even if I need to stay near the boards. Doing this helped me work out my fear of CCW mohawks. There's lots of work left, but I no longer freeze.

I do this off ice too. I'm working on my glider disc to strengthen my kneebend, balance and  upper body position for the ever friggin' evil FI3. When I started, I was a flailer. Now I'm stronger and the flailing only occasionally happens. But boring though it is, I stick at it for five minutes.

Would this work with jumps and spins. I assume so, but it might be too stressful as most people don't switch legs.

The nice thing about a timer on your smart phone is that if a Chatty Cathy interrupts you, you can pause it then start it up again when they leave. And seeing you click off the phone, might actually get the Chatty Cathy to leave early!

The icePhone

Last year when I bought an iPhone I discovered that it had a pretty good external amplifier. Good enough so that if I wanted to practice a dance on a public session, I could hear it provided I put it close enough to my ear. I've found those arm holders for phones don't work for me when I'm wearing a jacket--maybe they don't work for anyone--they kept slipping down my arm. So I did the same thing I do when I'm gardening, I stuck the phone in my bra.

Nope, no need for a special bra. Insert phone between bra and boob, it's not going anywhere. I find a side-boob position is best. All you need is good coverage in the cups.

And I can hear the music.

I try and be discreet about it. I turn to the boards to pull it out so no one has to witness the sight of me rustling around in the neck of my shirt.

Apparently, this is pretty common among adult women skaters. I've had a couple tell me they do the same thing. One told me her male coach skated up to her while the music was playing, stared at her boobs and cried out, "The hills are alive!'

After about a year of skating discretely with the phone playing in the bra storage position, there came an occasion when Dance Coach wanted to skate to a dance with music while we were on public. I pulled my iPhone out of my pocket. "I can play it on this," I said. I turned on the music.

"Do you have armband?" He asked.

"No, it's just easier to just stuff it in my bra." I started to put my hand in the neck of my shirt.

Dance Coach recoiled in panic.

"Turn music off! Turn music off, NOW!"

I think in retrospect, I should have turned away from him before sticking my hand in the neck of my shirt.

The Amazing Coach

"You're starting to skate faster and you're skating backwards around the rink. You're bouncing between Intermediate and beginner skater," the Amazing Coach said, "You need to learn how to fall better."

I balked, " No, no , no , no, no"

Nooooo! Please don't make me do fall training!

"You've got your pads on. It's time to fall."

Her goal was to train me to roll when I fell so I ended up on my hip pocket. So for the next ten minutes she had me falling and rolling onto my hip pocket on both sides.

Jeremy Abbot falls on his hip pocket

Shudder.

Even with bones as fragile as china, I learned to fall safely (source)

Two hours later I caught a toepick (this never happens!), sprawled forward and reflexively rolled onto my hip pocket. The Amazing Coach made it across the rink in a heartbeat. I want to think she pointed her finger at me and said, "See! See!" But that would be a false memory.

What she actually did was tell me "Get up! Get up!"

This is part of the Amazing Coach's training. She says that if you fall and don't get up right away, you're training your mind to failure on that particular skill. So I have to get my legs under me and stand up as quick as I can ---- which is pretty slow. I look like an arthritic cat trying to go up the stairs. Another skater said I got up like a 5 year old in CanSkate. Then she demonstrated the correct way to get up. Hello sweetie, when you're 60 then we'll talk. Right now I'm happy to get up at all!