Hey all! I finally got a replacent laptop, so I'll be able to update this journal a little bit more. :) I had a good weekend, I rode horse in my hometowns Halloween parade...I dressed as Daffy Duck too, trust me the costume was cute, i'll post a picture when i get them developed! As far as skating lately, I went on Saturday at my hometowns rink. There wasn't many people there, just a few kids and some parents, but HOLY COW is that rink kept cold~ I have never been in a rink that is kept that cold! So I didn't do too much except just skate recreationally with my friend.
Today I went skating and it was an OK skate. First off I worked on waltz jumps, which I can obviously do, but am certainly capable of doing better and bigger. I have found that if I do 5 in a row, usually the last one or two are the best. I still don't feel like my waltz jumps are big enough to ever be the precursor to an axel, but I am sure there is hope. In fact, in one of yahoo groups I belong too, some adult skaters were talking how they got their axel in their 30's or 40's. So there is no reason that I should be giving up hope at 22! I also worked a lot on my salchow today. That used to be such an easy jump for me, but I couldn't get the comfortable spring that I can usually get. After doing like 100 of them, I determined that it is likely because I am not checking hard enough and holding the check after the three turn. I got one salchow that was up to my standards, and i stopped there. I should mention that prior to that, I was practicing salchows from a mohawk, which is kinda tricky! I have to do them rather slow this way, but I found that this entrance keeps me from being to "swingy" on the entrance. So kudos to me for trying something new!
After I found that one good salchow I moved onto loops. I did probably 20+ of these. I still don't think they are as big and confident as they should be, but to look on the bright side, I didn't abort any loop attempts, and I am trying to get "less afraid" of jumping off that back edge. I think that once I get more confident, the height and distance will come naturally. I guess it doesn't hurt to try to push myself though. I KNOW that i can do this jump, I just have to block out the mental negativity that says I should be scared to do it. I threw in a couple flips, but lets face it, flips are by far my best jump, and I can do them over and over, and do them well. For that reason, I stopped after I did about 4-5; it doesn't pay to overpractice what i can already do. Today, I felt SO BRAVE that I worked on yes, brace yourself, LUTZES!~ Mostly this meant walk throughs, as I tried to do a few but just couldn't...I two footed just about all of them, but came kinda close to landing one. I know I can do these, but considering thath I haven't practiced these since August, it's no wonder they are rusty. Also, i think I have to be more agressive, and go into the jump with a little more speed. I try to slow it down to make sure I am doing it right, but when you go too slow, I think it just makes it that much harder to get into the air and do the jump. So next time, i'll do lots more walk throughs (this is what made my flip what it is today, imo) and then I'll try to do the jump, just getting more speed into it.
As far as spins go, I did one scratch spin that centered pretty well, which was an indicator to me that it would be safe to work on attitude spins. (i've learned that it doesn't pay for me to even try attitudes unless I can center a scratch right off the bat.) Of course, I only had one attitude spin that was decent because I couldn't center the subsequent spins after that first one. Go figure. I had some really good camel spins though, and I plan to keep drilling these until I can get them somewhat consistent. One thing that I didn't work on but will need to is backspins. Ever since I wrote about having that "breakthrough" with backspins, they have proceeded to SUCK. I am not sure why, but I need to work through that once again, so I can work on change foot spins as well.
I suppose that's enough rambling for tonight, I am gonna finish watching the mens short of SkateAmerica and I'll write more when i skate on Wednesday. :)
Well I can't believe I survived, but I did. Between noon on Tuesday and noon on Wesnesday, I had to take a final worth 1/3 of my grade, a 150 point midterm, another exam, and give a speech. Talk about being stressed! Since the class I took the final in is over now, I was able to go skating at noon on Weds, and I had a wonderful skate. :) My first few scratch spins were centered so perfect, I was so happy. Since they were centered, I took the time to work on atitude spins, which are coming nicely. Toward the end of the session, I started to loose my centering, but I realized that I wasn't holding my left outside edge long enough, because once I did, "CLICK" the spins were back on track. Talk about rewarding! My camel spins were also good, which is a relief considering I couldn't do them the last time I skated. I think I was in such a happy place when I went skating, due to all my exams being over, that I couldn't help but have a wonderful skate! I didn't work on loops, but I did work on flips, which were all good, I am just trying to work on making them bigger. Also, did I mention last time that my ina bauer is coming along nice? I think I can attribute that to ballet! Anyway, I might go skating tomorrow dependign how I feel, but I for sure have skating planned for Saturday night. I am going to my mom's this weekend, and the rink opens, so I plan to have some fun at open skate. I'll write more then!
Well I had a couple good skates last week that I wanted to write about, but at the beginning of last week, my screen on my laptop died so I have been without a computer since then. My skate last Sunday was really good, I know that I landed at least 3 good jumps of each jump (except the lutz) and my spins were good too, except the scratch spin was on vacation again. This Saturday was a good skate, except my loop jumps were off the mark, as were my camel spins- I don't know what that was all about. Fortunatly, my scratch spins were all wonderfully centered (planets must have been aligned correct) and I did several good atitude spins too. At least they felt good, don't know what they looked like!
As far as other interesting things go, I won't be getting new skates anytime soon, due to the fact that I just spent $600 on a new gun. Yep, a gun. (bet you didnt' know I was that kinda girl, lol!) I borrowed a rifle from a friend for hunting season last year, and I had been eyeing this Browning .243 micro ever since then. Well when we went to Gander Mountain this weekend, I just couldn't resist. Now hopefully, I'll be able to land a deer this year, and get some venison in the freezer! ON a skating note, my noon class ends at the semester (this Tues.) so I'll be able to start skating on Mon. and Weds. afternoons now. Provided I can find an open computer in the lab, I'll try to update this jounal as often as I can.
I finally had a chance to go skating in Stillwater, thanks to my 11:00 class being canceled. The ice there is kept way colder than I am used to, so it always takes me a while to get used to skating on it. I had a *breakthrough* with backspins today though. :) I recall somebody saying that for backspins, it helps to mentally think to keep your weight balanced over your little toe. This was the "trick" that totally helped me. I had some really, really good backspins and I did them all while keeping my skating leg strait. This was the highlight of my skate, I just wish I could have seen for myself what they looked like.
My scratch spins were cruddy, who knows why. Likewise, my camel spins weren't as good as they have been, but I did do some good sit spins. I still really need to work on strengthening my legs for my sit spins, as I can't seem to get as low as I used to be able to. Once my legs get stronger, I am going to experiment with back sit spins. As far as attitude spins, I didn't even attempt these considering that my scratch spins were horrid. I can only seem to do decent attitude attempts when my scratch spins are "on". I did some salchows, which were ok. I found that I can do a really good salchow if I set it up immediately after a waltz jump. I don't know why the jumps is so much better, but it is! I attempted around 6 or so loops, and landed them all. They probably weren't all "great" loops, but just landing them is a step in the positive direction. Sometimes I get in the bad habit of aborting the jump right before I actually go to jump, and I didn't do that this time. I worked on flips, and those were good, for the most part. I tried lutz walk-throughs, but didn't actually do the jump yet. I wasn't that brave (er, crazy?) today!
I am planning on going to open skate on Sunday, here at school, so hopefully I can get another good skate in. My scratch spins ought to be better, sometimes it's just a mental block why I can't do them. I plan to go through all my jumps (including the lutz if I feel brave enough) as well as spins including the change-foot spin. I think I am just going to work extra hard at doing each element technically correct, and then doing at least 3-5 good ones, then stopping. That is the plan anyways, we'll see what happens on Sunday!
I made it to the open skate this afternoon, seeing as though my noon class was canceled because my prof was at World Dairy Expo. :) It was a really nice skate, there was one other beginner girl on the ice, and a little boy just learning to skate. I tried to make it my goal to work on the "new" things that I wrote about last time, but that didn't totally happen. I tried to steer clear of loops, lutzes, and flips, because I screwed up some muscle in my back and I was quite scared of falling. I actually did attempt some flips, which were the worst they have been in a long time. But I wasn't to concerned, because I am sure it was just a mental block...I was so concerned about falling and hurting myself more that I wasn't doing the jump properly. But enough of about the negative side of the lesson...
I worked on change foot spins today, and these were really good! I never practice these, but I am going to make a note to include them in every practice. My scratch spins were good today..I did two that traveled before I finally hit one that was right on the money. I just stopped there, because it didn't pay to overpractice it. My sit spins were good, though they are much lower than this summer because I haven't been working out much. My camel spins are slowly and steadily improving. This is so exciting for me, because as of this August, when I was just learning the camel spin, I thought I would NEVER get it! I couldn't even do anything close to a camel spin for the longest time. Now, my camel spin is at least a recognizable camel spin!! I tried to work on the attitude spin, but this is one that is going to take a lot of practice, I can tell already.
Our school skating club had it's first meeting yesterday, and we have ice three mornings a week. I wish I was more of a morning person, I don't know how often I will go because I just can't get out of bed in the morning!! Once Oct. 22nd rolls around though, my noon class is finished, so I can skate from 12-1 on Mon. and Weds. As far as my ballet class goes, I really like it. I still feel like a clutz, but every once and a while, I'll catch myself in the mirror and think, "Wow, for a split second, I really looked graceful!!"
That's all I have to write about...hopefully I'll be able to skate this weekend and I'll have more good things to say.
