I've neglected keeping up here, mostly because I haven't had anything worth writing about. First of all, I took the GRE last week, and it didn't go as well as I hoped, so that put me in a foul mood. Secondly, I upgraded blades and bought a used pair from a coach at my rink. While they feel great, I have had quite the problem getting my scratch spin back, which obviously puts me in a VERY foul mood. So finally, today, I have something worth writing about. Somewhat off the topic of skating, but my boyfriend and I joined an athletic club, and it feels SO good to be working out again! Especially swimming..for as much as I used to hate it, I love doing laps now. So I am hoping that I can stick with it and get my flabby tush in shape. If I didn't like food so much, it would probably be a lot easier! But this place is amazing, it has 4 pools, raquetball, it even has elliptical machines that you can surf the net on! It's huge, and so far I love going there. I think I will sign up for yoga and pilates, but I am going to wait until December to do that.
As far as skating goes, I went to the rink last Friday and had a horrible session. Back spins were aweful, sit spins weren't even worth practicing, and I could not land a flip for the life of me. Today, although I was initially angry that I STILL could not get my scratsh spin back, I did some really decent sit spins, I can approach my loops with some real speed, and I landed every flip that I attempted-about 4 of them. YAY! This was exactly the encouragement I needed, especialy being able to land the flips. Typically, I am afraid to try them without my coach, because she can always figure out what I am doing wrong and I can usually fix them and land them. Without her there, I was afraid that I would somehow pratice them wrong and teach myself bad habits or something. Now I am finally getting brave enough to do them on my own.
Overall, I had one of those days where it dawned on me, "Hey, you really ARE improving, see?" Once I get my @#*# scratch spins back on these new blades, I will really be pleased. Hopefully that comes sooner and not later!
The funny thing about practicing is how you never see results right away. At least I don't. I made it to the rink last Friday. This was my first time at this rink, and I found it quite nice...2 hours of freestyle (yes freestyle, not open skate) for only $5. I can't say that I had any great revelations, nor did I skate very well for that matter. I did, however practice salchows, loops, and backspins relentlessly. By the end of the two hours, my salchows still felt awkward, I could only land 30% of my loop jumps, and my backspins were no better than when I had started. But I was on the ice, and that itself was just plain nice. I couldn't really complain.
Fast forward to Monday. As usual, I hauled my tired body to the rink. After working on MIF for a while, I met my coach for my lesson. She had me run through a waltz jump, salchow, and loop jump. After giving me some pointers on my waltz jumps, it was onto the salchow. Apparently all the practice I had done on Friday had payed off, because according to my coach, my salchow looked great. Same story with the loop...she had me do three good ones, and then we moved on. I need to make a mental note to practice my waltz jumps, toe loops, and the entrance to the flip with the diligence that I practiced my loop and salchow! So anyways, the highlight of my lesson was that I learned a new spin...the sit spin. I spent the majority of the remainder of the session working on these, just because it was so refreshing to work on something new! I am sure the majority of my sit spin attempts looked like crap, but a few felt balanced, and most importantly I have something new to work on. I didn't land any decent flips today, but that fact reiterated the fact that I need to work on the entrance to the flip, and making sure I am checking the three turn. Ironically, by the end of the session, my body was so prepped to do sit spins, that I couldn't do a decent scratch spin to save my life. Ah well.
I am very much looking forward to August when I will be able to greatly increase my time skating. I can only imaging how far I could progress if I practiced daily...just look at the impact two hours of practice had! Unfortunately, my internship takes up a lot of my time, but I enjoy the research so it isn't bad. I have also signed up to take the GRE in two weeks, so I am trying to make myself study for at least an hour per night for the test. It's not that I can't retake it if I don't do well, but it cost $115 to take the damn thing! Can you believe that? So bottom line...skating is on the back burner for now.
I will also try to get some photo's scanned in here, perhaps next weekend. The photo gallery on this site needs some work!
