Ice Doesn't Care--2nd Year Blogiversary!

Can't believe I made two years!  I thought I'd run out of topics after a couple of months, then I realized I  could  cover things so trivial no other skater would touch them…and, of course, pictures of cats.

So, what were my most popular posts of the last year (based on page views) ?

The Six Stages of Adult Figure Skating thanks to Lori over at International Adult Ice Skaters for mentioning it.

Judges--Thinking Positive. Apparently a coach at Bowie Ice Rink (I don't know who) posted it on Facebook. Thanks!

My favorite posts of the last year?

Types of Coaches

The Great Skate Bag Debate,

The most popular posts involving cats…

When I'm the tallest skater on the ice.  I have to admit, the punchline on this was a lucky find.

String Theory for Figure Skaters

So, do you have a favorite post? Waiting to hear about it!

My motto for every lesson is as follows:

String Theory for Figure Skaters

Today was my first lesson with Miss Bianca after my shingles recovery. She was glad to see me back.

Before my lesson, I was watching her teach her student (a girl of about 8) how to do lunges. Miss Bianca thinks lunges are "a cute little element".  She took the girl's hand to help her balance going down and coming up. "You're next!" she said cheerfully. I eyeballed the hand holding assistance. "You know I can take you down in a heartbeat don't you?" 

Miss Bianca thinks,
"I will get my revenge..."

Ten minutes later, when my lesson started, I laid down a competent lunge right off and said, "That's it for today!"  We both laughed. I was better than the eight year old too!

After reviewing my basic skills,  I did a two foot spin. After Lake Placid and my 10 minutes in Evelyn Kramer's spin class, I can do a two foot spin. I never thought that would happen. It's not a great spin, it's a slow, ladylike spin. Just two revolutions.

Slow but steady...

Miss Bianca told me to pretend I had a string attached to the top of my head and pretend it was pulling me up to the ceiling. This was to keep me from looking down when I did a spin.

Here I am in the appropriate upright position
while Miss Bianca instructs and an
ice tourist stares.

So I did a 3-turn entry and got an extra revolution...not any extra speed though.  Conservation of angular momentum's got me down....

The string theory works though. I don't get dizzy and I get an extra revolution.

Good head position in a back spin!

Two Foot Spins--the bad side

So I spent 15 minutes of my 30 minute group lesson practicing two foot spins. I had a couple that were stable and nicely centered. But, hey, I'm elderly, I've got inner ear issues. At first I was dizzy, then suddenly:

Tener mal cuerpo!

I just clung to the boards for a couple of minutes and frantically waved the coach away.

("Please, dear god, don't let me hurl over someone's boots.")

But, my stomach righted itself after a bit.

Maybe I'm not cut out for spins.

Back on the Ice-Experimenting with 2 foot spin

After a day lying flat on my back and doing Annette Fletcher's "Save Your Lower Back" DVD, I'm back on the ice. Highly recommend that DVD.

So today was mostly gentle stroking, some work on Waltz 8s, back edges, and other pre-bronze and bronze elements. Nailed both Forward Out side and Inside 8 (half the time). Never a good idea (at my age) to stress myself after an injury.

One of my goals today was to try out all the suggestions for two foot spins from the comments in this post by Hayden'sMom and MommyTime.  Unfortunately, I never got there. I tried out something that just popped into my head instead. I held my arms out in front of me like I would hold a beach ball (this was the group coach suggestion) and I turned my head to look over my shoulder in the direction of turn (Cruella's direction for two foot turns).  Then using a push with one foot and twisting the body I entered the spin. Not at all technical, just an experiment.

I got 4 rotations!  But I started spinning so fast it scared the dickens out of me so that was the only trial for the day. I was hesitant to do something that might ruin my back--again. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Yep, I'm a Spinning Chicken

I Sandbag Adult LTS

I feel sorry for LTS instructors, they never know what they're going to see.

I do a public session for an hour, then I have a 40 minute wait before Cruella's edge class starts. At my age 40 minutes means my legs stiffen up like a length of rebar. So I signed up for Adult LTS to keep my legs warm. After some consideration, I picked Adult 3 (so I could 'graduate' to Adult 4). Yes since I've passed Basic 8, technically this is sandbagging. I didn't see another choice since Freestyle is all jumps and spins. I will say I seriously considered taking a Learn To Play class at that time to keep the legs warm--Learn to Play in white boots with toepicks, I'm such a rebel.

There's two of us in the class Adult 3 class (the other skater is a true beginner). The coach asks for forward crossovers. I lay them down big and fast. Then the coach asks for back crossovers. I lay down some Big Girl back crosses. The coach gives me the hairy eyeball.

"Can you do mohawks?"

I do them both ways.

She then sticks the class curriculum under my nose. "Is there anything here that you can't do?"

I hang my head, "Two foot spins." Yes, it's true, I can't do a spin that most people learn in 5 minutes.

This is what my feet feel like in spins:
Heavy, frozen and totally worthless

I confess to her the reason I'm in the class and she takes it well. She alternates between getting me to do 2 foot spins and working with the other student. I'm making it harder on her to manage the class (sorry, dear, if you're reading this!) but at my age I'm willing to break the rules to move ahead.

At the end of the class I can do 2 rotations, but then I start to precess around the vertical axis and a cascading series of events ensue where I exceed the limits of the rotation and enter a failure mode--i.e. I fall. On the other hand, she's got me up to 2 rotations which is more than any other coach has, so good on ya!

So still working on 2 foot spins. Suggestions welcome.

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.