As usual, my rink closed for the summer in early May. I literally spent the entire summer working at summer day camps in town, and doing TONS of off ice training. I took off ice private lessons all summer with my current coach, and took an off ice class. One of the coaches teaching the class also happens to be a clockwise skater, so naturally, I was often paired up with her when working on jumps. I even worked on some off ice axels, and had some VERY good goes with it. However, I started having issues with my left hip. I kept landing too hard in general, so I was having some muscle pain, even with landing on waltz jumps. It wasn't anything serious, but it was something that my coach and I definitely took a look at, and worked on fixing. So far, knock on wood, things have seemed to have healed, and I haven't had problems since.
In addition to my off ice private lessons and classes, I was still running and took up weight lifting at my gym. The later was due to my off ice lessons since we were using weights at my coach's gym where he was living at the time. Weight lifting has kicked my butt, plain and simple. However, I made progress, and was able to start increasing the weights for my squats and bench press. In addition, I was also in a pool a few days a week since I was with summer camp kids, and would work on in-water jumping when I was able to do so, which proved to be a lot of fun since I have no fear of going under if I messed up. I also worked on jumps from off a diving board, and even tried my hand at an in-water climbing wall. I didn't do so well with that since the knobs were really hard on my feet, and it takes a ton of upper body strength, but I can't say that I didn't try. :)
Throughout the summer, I was able to skate a few times at different rinks, which was really good for me, as I could totally feel how much stronger I was getting as a result of my off ice work. Plus, I felt like I didn't totally lose my skills from this past year since I was able to skate more often. My rink FINALLY re-opened in mid-September, and I was soon able to start weekly lessons with my current coach.
Skate America!!!
In October, I got the chance of a life time to see Skate America in Hoffman Estates (one of Chicago area suburbs), and I served as an ice monitor for the practice sessions. Basically, I would let the skaters off and on the ice. This was such an amazing experience to see the skaters and their coaches up close, and was just amazed at watching these skaters fly around the rink with seemingly no fear of falling. I also learned a few things, as well as gaining a few words of wisdom from being arms length away from some of these skaters and their coaches:
1. The competitors are normal human beings, and many of them are SUPER nice! They are also human beings knowing that many of them get super nervous before going onto the ice.
2. Even top notch competitors utilize basic skating skill drills in their practices. This includes bunny hops, basic stroking, and waltz jumps.3. The top notch coaches will STILL correct their skaters on basic positions...head up, bent knees, pull-in, etc.
4. To see a major skating event for free...VOLUNTEER! It's a great way to see the events, be an active part of the skating community, and to see/hear top notch skaters up close!
5. Pairs skaters use a spray on adhesive on their hands to prevent slippage during lifts. I had never thought about that!
6. Skaters do need positive reinforcement from their coaches. I heard Jason Brown say something about his triple axel that he was uncertain about. His coach was literally right by me, and what was her response? "Trust it." I totally needed to hear that.
7. What I need to remind myself now because of #6 with my own skating: Go for it. Risk it. Trust it. 8. Jason Brown really is SUPER nice! He is totally this happy go lucky guy that just makes makes me smile when I watch him skate.
9. Arena food is super crappy and majorly expensive. Another perk to being a volunteer is having MUCH better food choices back stage.
10. Watching these types of competitions live will make you work that much harder when you get back to the rink. You know that you will never be at the level that these skaters are at as an adult skater, but you will work your butt off that much harder to work on the skills that you have your current skating level.
Basically, this event was the skating "pick me up" that I desperately needed, so I was able to return to the rink a few days later with the renewed energy. I started attacking my program more for my rink's fall exhibition skate, and was even attacking my Pre-Bronze MITF more. Since I was able to attack my program more, I did a successful first performance skate of the season with my program that I'm planning on using for skating competitions this winter/spring. My coach and I re-choreographed my jazz number ("In the Mood" by the Glenn Miller Orchestra), which is my ISI Bronze program. My program wasn't perfect, but I was happy with how I skated during the actual exhibition, and my coach was also extremely proud of me.
At this point, I'm working on really cleaning up that program for the Homewood-Flossmoor Polar Ice competition in January. I'm also working really hard onto finally getting that "devil" change foot spin as it's still not happening. THAT has been frustrating to the point of tears for me, however I have gotten it a few times, so I think a lot of it is mental at this point. I just hope that I will have two clean change foots for Homewood-Flossmoor....one in my program and one in my compulsories. I'm not really worried about any of the other elements, but I have to get that change foot to happen. I'm trying hard to be patient with it, and have done a fully rotated change foot spin here and there, so I know that they're hiding in the ice, so I just have to keep working on finding them.
This fall, I also continued with off ice training with my coach, and ran a local 5k at the end of September called the "Woman's Fitness Run," which the local running club hosted. There were approximately 80 runners, and I came in 32nd overall with a time of 30:30, and place 11th in my age group. At first, I was not happy with how I did since I started off way too fast, almost got too hot, and just about ended up walking from tiring out. However, looking back, I actually did really well, and I have hopes to place in the top 10 for my age group next year.
In addition, I also ran a 5k back in August. It was the "pie run" which was my first ever 5k from the year before. Although this race is not timed, I finished the race in 23 minutes and change, which averaged to about an 8:25 mile, and I finished third overall. I was actually the lead female runner for 3/4 of the race. Since it was a "pie run" pie was served at the water stops along with water. Knowing that there's no way that I can run and eat pie without getting sick, I skipped the water stops (I had my own with me), which saved me on time, and probably helped me keep my lead.
Unfortunately, I have not been running much as of recently, but am hoping to get back into it as I'm planning on running in the half marathon again here in April, which will take time to train for. However, I am taking an adult beginning gymnastics class at a local gym, and it is SO.MUCH.FUN!! It's expensive about ($130 for 8 weeks), but is totally worth it, and it is GREAT for off ice training. This is because gymnastics is all focused on flexibility, balance, and strength, which is all done by your own body. I am planning on keeping up with the gymnastics, and actually even have hopes to compete in my first adult meet in march. I might be doing "low level" skills, but someone's gotta show people that you can start gymnastics in adulthood, so it might as well be me. Like ISI FS levels, there are 10 levels to gymnastics, with level 10 being the hardest. Most of my skills are around a level 3 at this point, although I do not have a strong bridge, due to lack of shoulder and back flexibility, plus the needed arm strength. It is something that I'm working on, because I have hopes to make progress to harder maneuvers from there. So far, I think my favorite events are vault, beam, floor, and bars (although that may change), and it's been extremely good for me as I've got very little fear with working on my elements, so I'm able to attack them more. This is because if I screw up, I land on much softer surfaces. I have even been finding myself pounding out stress with landing on those mats, so it's been very great for me mentally as well. I actually wish I had more of that "let me at it" attitude on the ice. However, there's a big difference with my fear of falling because ice doesn't have any give if you crash...unfortunately.So yeah...that's what I have for this semester. Since I"m officially on Christmas break from work, my plan is to skate a lot, do some skating for the sheer fun of it, and focus on off ice training again. I may have to see about setting up some type of schedule for myself, as it is extremely easy for me to overdo things and wear myself out in the process. However, I'm determined to continue to improve with my skating, and am also so grateful that I've also found gymnastics to love as well. :)
That's it for now. I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday season, and happy skating!
