I had a great time skating today, it felt so wonderful to be back on the ice! First of all, I went to a new rink today. The St. Croix Rec. Center is in Stillwater, it has two rinks and it is beautiful! The only complaint I have is that the ice was kind of hard, but it is a great facility, and I see the South rink has a harness too. As far as practice goes, my scratch spins are still so-so. I just can't seem to get my freeleg high enough or strait enough. It seems like my leg muscles are so stiff lately, even though I stretch daily and work out, my legs just wont' get anymore limber. For this reason, my scratch spin will continue to be a challenge. My backspins weren't great today either, but I'm not to concerned about that right now. Considering how briefly I have been working on them, they aren't bad, I just need to work on balancing my body and centering them.
Onto the really good news....I landed several good loop jumps today, I am so happy! This is only the third session that I have been working on them, so I am quite pleased. They are by no means consitant, but they are improving, horray! Sometimes I think to hard about them, and my body just sort of quits in the air, but if my body and my mind actually cooperate, I can land the jump. I am getting better at remembering to point my toes when I jump too, though this still needs improvement. I plan on having having my boyfriend videotape them soon so I can actually see how they look.
I worked a teeny bit on toe loops today, and these feel like they are better, though it is hard to tell without seeing how they look! I am trying to make sure that I am picking with a strait leg and crossing my right foot in front of my left like the mazurka. The jump feels more confortable, but I'll have to get my coaches opinion on that.
May 4th 2003
I made a voyage to another new rink on Friday, and back to the Stillwater rink this morning. This morning was great, as it was just myself, my boyfriend, and one other girl on the whole rink, plus the ice wasn't as hard as it was last time. On Friday, I was having a pretty good "loop" day, but that wasn't the case today, although I did manage to land a handful of (decent??) loops. I have determined one thing in regards to that jump, and that is that it's all in my head. If I just think it through, and think about what I am doing rather than just letting my body wing it, I can land the jump no problem. This is probably a good thing, because I know how to talk myself into doing the jump and landing it. I am excited to show my coach that I can do the jump when I go home for a lesson this weekend, just as long as I don't loose it before then.
Though my backspins weren't very good on Friday, I hit some very good ones today. For whatever reason, I was having problems going into the backspin from a right inside three turn, but I was able to do them quite well from back pumps. Scratch spins were mediocre, I am still waiting for the day that I have a breakthrough with them. Shame on me, but I didn't really practice much else, just because those are the three things that I am most concerned about learning...everything else I am ok at...all I have to do is brush up and practice. I am definitly excited to watch the spring exibition and have a lesson this weekend, I'll put updates in as soon as it happens!
