After Skating for 2 and a Half Hours

One and a half public
Two 30 minute group lessons

When I get home:

 And then:

And did I mention my feet yet?

Types of Group Numbers for the Holiday Show

Christmas is coming the goose is getting fat, time for the rink to do a skating show with hats.

Honestly, I always see a lot of hats at Christmas  Winter Solstice  Snowy Holiday  Winterval   Festivus Saturnalia  okay, at the rink show in December.

Also, Hats rhymes with fat, so call me doggerel lazy.

Anyway, I went skating today (45 minutes! 2 1/2 laps backwards!) and saw people out working on their programs with 3 foot long candy canes and decided to present a universal Holiday Show on Ice!

The Coaches Group Number

The Group number of a bunch of weak skaters and a star skater

The Group Number with the best costumes

The Basic Skills 1 class...
They get the biggest round of applause....

But the adults steal the show with a classic Adult Swizzle Train Number

Adults know how to shake it baby!

Also, adults know how to 'shake it' after the show too!

Cruel Edges--Smooth Edges

You know you've been around the block when you walk into a new rink and recognize half the coaches. Started group at the new rink and Coach Amazing was there, and Notable Bob, and the Big Guy's old coach, Coach Cruella.

So, I've been wanting to take lessons from Coach Cruella for years, timing conflicts of babies (hers) and injury (mine) made me give up on the idea. Then last night I walked into the new rink and she was teaching my edge class. Coach Cruella has a Russian coach husband (he recently took a skater either to Nationals or the Jr Nationals)  who taught her how to coach. As you would guess it's all crack the whip, get down in the knees...DEEPER....DEEEEPPPPEEERRRRR!!!!!!

Dance Coach has been yapping at me to stop bending forward (I'm not hunching,  I'm bending forward at the hips) but Coach Cruella uses what I have to assume are Russian instructional techniques so I hope Dance Coach will be happy at my next lesson. The 3 of us students are on the circle (not a hockey circle, we're squeezed into a corner) and it's outside and inside edges for the whole class. No. Let. Up.

She wants us back on the heel, and upright with an arch in our backs. We're supposed to:
a. pretend there are headlights on our hipbones and we have to shine them ahead, not down at the ground.
b. pretend we're carrying 'the girls'* on a table, not below the table.

The "girls on the table" thing means just keeping the shoulders back (Don't.Hunch) and an arch in the back. I'm not hunching, but I'm not arching either. The arch is awkward at first, but I got used to it.

Dealing with the "headlights on hips" is fun. I remember this from when I used to ride the sitting trot in dressage. The trick is to rotate the top of the pelvis backwards, rather than curl the butt under. If I curled my butt under, it stressed my back muscles, stiffening my lower back and making it hard to be flexible with my  upper body. By rotating the top of the pelvis backwards, I found I was using my abdominal muscles leaving my back muscles unstressed. So I did that in the edge class and it worked for me.

So, the class was fun, forward edges only. Next week it's backwards.

Hope Dance Coach notices my edges and upper body improvement. Otherwise, it's yapping all over again.

PS The rink ice felt funny. First time I've ever run across that.

*Men reading this. Ask a woman what 'the girls' are. I'm not explaining.

Thursday Group: I Learn some Mechanics

Coincidentally, Moves Coach is also the Freestyle 1 group coach. She's determined to get me to jump. Helloooo! 60 and 50! (60 years old and carrying an extra 50 lbs, and I'm wearing dance boots) Jumps are not in my future. Still she teaches me the mechanics of the half flip.

Pick behind. Half turn, catch the other pick step forward.

I think.

I'm so traumatized by the whole thing, that even though I never let go of my death grip on the boards, my memory of the steps is blocked out by the memory of my life flashing before my eyes. Still I practice it one way and then the other while Moves Coach goes to another student.

When Moves Coach gets back to me, she has me do a two foot spin. It's a good day; I  get two and a half revolutions CCW. CW I can get three. Stately, elderly lady spins.

"So, you can spin both ways?" she says.

I then realize that Dance Coach has drilled into me the fact that I have to do everything both ways in dance, so I just practice everything both ways regardless.

I know coaches have ways of determining which way a skater will jump and spin. The problem with my spins, is even though I'm more comfortable with CCW spinning, I actually spin better CW.  There's the same effect with my (board assisted) half flips. Moves Coach has me picking behind with my right foot,  which feels safe, but when I pick behind with my left foot, it's smoother. So even though my right leg is the stronger and dominant leg, I actually seem to be better balanced when I'm turning in the opposite direction.

The 'why' of  this phenomenon rather baffles me. Although I'm right handed/footed, I'm left eye dominant, but I don't see how that can affect my balance. It's a puzzlement.

I kind of like learning things both ways. I never know what I'm going to discover.

Too Tired To Type

Sorry, just got in from group where I was learning back 3s. Don't have the energy for the second Lake Placid Adult skate camp post. It will need to wait until tomorrow.

Back threes are the spawn of the devil. And everyone knows that heavy metal bands are the spawn of the devil. Therefore, back threes are a heavy metal band.

I want to Shout at the Devil! for Back threes.
I need to get a motley crew of coaches to help  me!

This gentleman skated with Jennifer Wester on Skating with the Stars, and coincidentally, I met Jennifer when she was coaching at Lake Placid Adult Skate Camp. See, I'm still on topic.

Learn to Skate--as an Adult

In an adult group class, the 25 year old coach was teaching us to do lunges. The class is divided between people over 40 and people under 25. The under 25's do the lunge. The over 40's applaud and cheer them on enthusiastically. Then group coach has the over 40's do it. "Get really down in the knee!" she says to our half hearted effort.

The over 40's all burst into laughter. The young coach blushes. Charming Charlie says, "I can get down but I can't get up." I tell her, "Wait 'til you're 60. You'll look back on this day and laugh too."   Hockey Harold gives it a manly try, rams into the boards and pulls himself up. "That's not gonna happen."  Poor coach, stuck with a curriculum for kids and teaching it to adults.

Some weeks later came shoot the duck. This was introduced to us with great enthusiasm. The over 40's laughed again. We didn't even try.  (However, this doesn't mean that older mature senior adults  AARPC eligible skaters can't do it. I saw a woman in her seventies do a classic shoot the duck across the length of a rink. She couldn't do it every day, but she could do it, and do it well. And by the way, every one on the session burst into spontaneous applause.)

So even though I'm in private lessons, and I'm testing, I still take group lessons. What wonderful fun!

Members of the adult group have been skating together at this rink for several years. The rink doesn't use the adult program, but sticks with the kids program. We do Basic 1-8 not 1-4. There's a distinct advantage to this for the rink; Their coaches don't have to keep two separate programs in their heads. For the skaters there's an advantage too; We're learning the program as it's meant to be taught.

We're also fortunate that the coaches don't make us do every skill to pass. I don't jump or spin; The coach substitutes something else. The guys in hockey skates are reluctant to do spirals; no problem, do something else. This is really an excellent example of how an adult program should be run, with flexibility and innovation. Adults are there to have a good time. We don't have a deadline for our triples; We know our limits and we want to have fun while learning a skill. I've had some really good times in the adult Basic class.

Then one day, they passed me into Freestyle. Oh, I was miserable. I'm in Ice Dance, I don't jump. The class is filled with little kids wanting to jump and three adults who are also willing to try. I stuck it out for one round and went back to Basic 8. There's stuff I can work on at that level: waltz 8s, and back edges, and maybe even a lunge. I just didn't want to spend my time in Freestyle. In Basic 8 the coach can send me to a corner and let me practice dance stuff so I can get mid week ice time. I'm so not worried about getting my patch.

Surprise! Surprise! The new coach came in and said to those of us who had been in the program for a while, "You guys are ready for brackets!" So she taught us.

That's what I'm talking' about! A program that says, 'Not everyone fits in the USFSA mold. Let's keep the adult customers by acknowledging not everyone wants an axel. Let's have fun!"