Whatever Works: Books, and Videos

The year I started this blog, 2010, I had a project that required lots of discipline around time.  That year I did a new thing every week for a year -- 52 in all -- which also meant that I did at least one entry every week.  Having that level of accountability kept me on track, and this time is much harder. So, I'm trying a couple of new things, namely a book (my skating journal) and some videoing.

Like most of my good ideas, these ideas aren't really mine at all.  The journal was my friend Jackye's and the videoing was Melody's.  Almost exactly a year ago I went around to various skaters -- all of them much better than me -- to ask their advice on how to improve.  From Annie I learned that I needed to make the commitment to skate at least three times a week; Joe told me to embrace the parts that scare me most and tell myself that actually I like them; one of my coaches, Melody, told me to look up and work on having "ta-dah!" posture; and Jackye told me to keep a journal and to pick one or two things to focus on each week (like looking up, bending my knees more or better posture).   After a particularly discouraging lesson a few weeks ago Melody shared a video with me made by a skater who tracked her progress on some jumps and spins over a five-year period.  It was inspiring to see how far she came, and made me decide that, frustrated as I may feel now, hopefully someday, I too will have progress to show and will wish for a baseline to compare it with.  So, I am going to start trying to use my journal to chart regularly what it is I am working particularly hard on, and hopefully also some video to show how it's going.

Right now, in ice dance, I'm working on two dances in the "Pre-Bronze" sequence -- the Swing Dance and and the Fiesta Tango.  They introduce some new skills I've still got a long way to go on -- like backward swing rolls, outside three turns, and mohawk turns at the same time with a partner.  Hopefully at a later point I'll be write another post about those, and maybe some video to show what they are.

In the Free Skate realm I am definitely moving much, much more slowly than I would like.  I had hoped to take my first test -- the Pre-Bronze Free Skate --in early  May, but I won't be ready.  The test includes two-footed and one-footed spins (the former I could probably pass, the latter, I couldn't) and two jumps.  For the jumps I'll be doing the very simplest jump -- the waltz jump -- and a second jump -- either a Salchow or toe loop.  With some trepidation, I'm posting this video that was taken last week(and hoping that a few months from now, will post another that is appreciably faster, higher and more fully rotated).  But everyone starts somewhere, so here is step one in the quest to learn to jump and spin.

Learning to Skate and Learning to Wait: Who Knew They Were So Connected?

There were some things I knew, or strongly suspected, when I started working on figure skating in my late forties.  I'd need to try to get more flexible (when I started I couldn't even touch my toes); obviously, I'd have to work on balance; and I'd need to carve out time to practice.  But what I didn't know is this: if you want to become an adult skater, you'd better either have reams of, or be willing to work on, the personal attributes of patience and courage.  Patience because there are a whole lot of new skills to learn, and they don't come quickly, especially for adult skaters.  And courage because that ice is hard, and if you were never a daredevil climb-on-everything and go-as-fast-as-you-could kid (I was definitely not) the prospect of jumping, and even going faster than your comfort zone is scary. So, the understanding that has taken quite some time to get past the denial of my brain is that, if I am going to keep progressing in this hobby I've chosen, I need to also accept the fact that I am always going to have to work twice as hard to progress half as fast as I might have forty years ago.  But it's still worth it.

I've been a lot less regular about posting on my skating progress than I meant to be, and that is largely a function of the fact that progress is going so sloooowly (see note above about patience).  But since the year is a third over, I think it's time to assess where things are at, so here goes.  I have three areas where I'm trying to improve this year, and only in one of them (ice dance) do I have anything tangible to show for my efforts.  But I like to think that at least I'm developing character, so here's where things are at right now.

1. Ice Dance: my one clear piece of progress: passed my fourth dance test (the Cha Cha)!  Now I've moved on to start work on two that feel a lot harder --  Swing Dance and Fiesta Tango.  The Cha Cha was the last of the dance patterns that goes only forward; the two I am working on now are skated partly going forward and partly going backward, and the transitions between the two (with a partner in tow) are a new skill to learn in themselves.  Still, I was excited to have passed the Cha Cha and happily, here's the video to show for it. For testing, you dance the pattern twice, and at least at this very low level you can do it on your own or as I have here, with my ever-patient ice dance coach, Russ.

2. Free Skate: The first Adult free skate test Pre-Bronze Free Skate) is a simple affair: two jumps of 1/2 to one rotation; a two-footed spin; a one foot spin, forward and backward crossover and either a spiral or a lunge.  The simplicity is made even simpler by the fact that I passed two of these elements (crossovers and spiral) over two years in ago in a Pre-Bronze Moves in the Field Test.  Yet I'm stuck.  My first jump (a Waltz jump) is more like a hop, and on my second (Toe Loop), I fail to actually make the jump (hop) about half the time.  Spins are only slightly better.  Each has to have at least three rotations, which isn't a problem for my two-footed spin, but definitely still is on one foot. I think the spin will come with more practice (that is, patience), but the jumps have me more frustrated.  Jumping on ice just scares me, and I need to figure out what to do about that to get past this place where I'm basically stalled out.

3.  Moves in the Field: This is the place, where on paper, I had advanced the most, but now my progress is on hold. This is true for two reasons.  First,  I have to catch up a little in the other two areas, and second, the next test, the Adult Silver Moves in the Field is really, really past my abilities.  Every single move on it feels very challenging. My initial hope was to start with some of the less daunting parts like cross strokes and power pulls and spirals, and save the really hard Mohawk sequence and forward and backward three-turn parts for later, but until I get some progress on the very simple jumps and spins I am trying to learn, that's where most of my lesson and practice time and energy is going.

So bottom line, progress is going much slower than I would like, but at least it's going. Happily, my coaches, Melody and Russ, are both unfailingly patient and encouraging so there's that. Hopefully in August I'll be able to take my first Adult Free Skate test, and at least one of my next ice dances.  And in the meantime, I'll keep chipping away, and writing about, hopefully both on a more regular schedule.