Well this is a little more of a gymnastics update than a skating update, but I just had to mark the calender...yesterday at gymnastics I finally weaned myself off the incline mat and did my back handsprings on the floor. YEA!! This was one of my goals for the year, I can't believe I accomplished it already! My next gymnastics goals include roundoff backhandsprings, and getting my kip and flyaways, to name a few. :)
I have been working on split jumps on and off ice, and they didn't look too shabby when I did them in front of the mirrored wall at gymnastics. I just hope they look as good on the ice as off! Aside from that I skated last Saturday at open skate, but unfortunately it wasn't anything spectacular, not like my last open-skate skate. I will be going to the freestyle this Saturday morning, I am just hoping that I can mentally prepare myself for it. For some dumb reason, I feel so uncomfortable (intimidated?) skating with the little freestyle kids. I feel so much more at ease during an open skate. I just need to mentally tell myself that I am not skating to impress anyone but myself. I suppose it doesnt' help that I'm the only freestyle-level adult skater at the session, but I need to change my way of thinking, or else I'll never make the most out of my skate.
Happy New Years! Well 2005 has gotten off to a good start. One of my new years resolutions was to USE the gym membership that I've had for the past year. And I have been doing that. I came to the conclusion that half my battle with skating and gymnastics is that I'm not in shape at all. And considering that I only have one, maybe two days a week to skate, I can't even make the most of my time because I'm worn out halfway through the session. So I am hoping that getting in shape will allow me to have "quality" skating time, since I don't have the luxury of a "quantity" of skating time. So far it seems to be working! I have a lot more energy during gymnastics and skating.
Backing up a little bit, new years day, I went to open skate and got my bf to tape my skating. I was really looking forward to this, until I got on the ice. It was then that I realized how hung over I was. :p So I got to see myself on tape, but it was not my most stellar performance. And of course dear bf's hands got cold just before I started spins, so I couldn't even see how my spins had progressed, which is what I really wanted to see. Although dissapointed with my skating, I did observe a handful of things I need to work on, such as NOT bending my knees in my waltz jump, and when I pick for my flip jump, as well as in my stroking, which looks pretty wimpy. OH, add a strait freeleg in spins to that list too. My arms are also getting ahead of my body in my loop jump, which is something my coach had mentioned to me way back when I first started learning that jump. I guess I still need to work on that.
So fast forward to this weekend. ON saturday, I skated the freestyle session, which was mediocre, I guess. I hate skating with the kids on that session. I must have heard "excuse me, excuse me Kati" about half a dozen times. I wanted to be like, "excuse ME!" what makes them think that they are above and beyond moving their path over a foot or two to avoid a collision? I am constantly altering my skating path to avoid a crash, why these kids can't is beyond me. But anyhow, I went to open skate at a different rink on Sunday night and had the skate of my life!!! I was landing all of my jumps, including my lutz! I have heard people comment that they had an easier time with the lutz when they used the mohawk-crossover entrance instead of just a long glide. I have to agree that I much prefer this enterance. I did land several lutzes both ways, in fact I do believe I landed all 5 or 6 that I attempted. : ) I did a couple flips, making a special effort to keep my picking leg strait. This definitly gave my flip more height and distance.
Going through my mental list, I landed all my single jumps, and worked on loop-loops, waltz-toe loops, and a little bit on waltz loops. OH, I played around with the half loop too, though I have to work on keeping my right leg checked, or else the jump gets to "swingy" and there's no way I could ever do a salchow out of it. I also played around with split jumps, though I just plain need to work on my splits to get this jump where it should be. I did have a break through with spins. I had never tried an actual layback before, the furthest I got was an attitude spin. So I gave it a try, and after finding out that it wasnt' that scary to look up, I had to try some more! I ended up doing two or three laybacks. One was particularly good. : ) I cant' wait to sucker someone into taping me again so I can see if my spins look as good as they feel! My camel spin is also blossoming....I just have to remember "chest up!" and I can usually get 3 decent revs out of the spin. One thing I do have to work on is keeping my freeleg tight, and not letting it droop out of the spin. IF that makes sense. :)
Well, I am hoping to skate twice this coming weekend, I will probably work more on combination jumps with the toe loop, as well as the lutz and my layback and camel spin. My new goal is to have a program together for our rinks competition in August. If not sooner! This goal I plan to keep.