Dedicated Pupil, or Good Coaching?

Well, firstly, hello! Don't you just hate it when real life gets in the way of skating, and therefore blogging? I know I do.

I finally got back on the ice on Saturday, after 5 weeks away due to various reasons, and was welcomed back by my coach with open arms and stories about how all my skating friends were missing me and wondering where I was. I have to admit, it was nice to be missed, that's never happened to me before. 

So, I had a half hour lesson because I can't skate next week due to a wedding I'm attending. We did a recap of everything I've already had signed off, then worked on some stuff from my current level and the one above.

Including forward outside 3 turns. They are evil, I do not like them at the moment haha! I'm sure I'll get there with them, I have with everything else, even when I was filled with self doubt about that fact. 

Now, the title of this post relates to a little debate my coach and I were having. She told me that I've done really well building up my basic skills, because normally when she teaches someone for the first time after a break, she spends a lot of time almost re-teaching them things they've already covered. She didn't have to do that with me, and says it shows I've taken her teaching, practiced, and now have a very solid set of basic skating skills.

I maintain it's her excellent teaching, that's made skating fun, and something I want to practice and do well at, and that's how my skills have become so solid.

In reality, I think it's both of these things. You can't teach someone who isn't willing to learn, and you can't improve your skills unless you're willing to take on board what your coach is saying or suggesting. 

So, I wonder what the readership of this blog thinks? Even if you're not a skater, your experiences could relate to anything, or even to the experiences of a child in school. Is a "team ethos" important to good, solid progress and enjoyment of something, or is it simply one party or the other that makes it happen, in your view? 

Would love to hear from you in the comments section, so please get in touch! 

Life on the Ice

I know a place, where I'm happy to be,
A place where kindness does run free,
It's called the ice rink, my friends are all there,
Read on, and my story, I'll happily share.

Some skaters are young,
Some young at heart,
But all of these people,
Do play their part.

They support one another,
Through good times and bad,
And when goals are achieved,
They are grinning like mad

They pick you up when you fall,
Laugh at your poor old bruised hips
They pass on their knowledge,
About learning lutzes and flips

They spin, and they jump,
They dance and they twirl,
They make me realize,
I'm a very lucky girl

Because I know a place,
Where I'm happy to be,
It's a wonderful place
Where kindness runs free.

OK, I know bits of it don't scan, but I felt like writing a poem about skating and for something written off the top of my head, I think it's pretty good. I hope you like it. 

Learning New Things, Making New Friends

OK, first of all I'd like to apologize for my lack of posts over the last few weeks. As often happens real life got in the way and I let the blog slip under the radar, but I'm back now.

So, what have I been up to since the New Year? Well, I've so far had 3 lessons, and all have been good. The first one was while the schools were still off, so was a bit hectic, lots of dodging children. We recapped everything in that one, and I practiced a few things that I was struggling with.

The next one was good, on a Friday when lots of adults come to practice, and we worked on my outside edges on a curve, and began working on turning from forwards to backwards.

Today we continued work on those, and although I'm making small amounts of progress, neither is ready to be signed off yet. This is annoying, as up til now progress has been quite good, but I knew it'd slow down eventually. We also worked a little on my backwards skating, and that has progressed to the next stage, so that's good. 

Anyway, the really great thing is, I've been making friends at the rink, all different ages and abilities, and the atmosphere is great, especially on a Friday. Everyone encourages each other, we have a joke, but we get on with our practicing as well. The annoying thing is, I can only skate every other Friday due to commitments elsewhere, so I do miss out on that sometimes. Today I was lucky that one of my skating friends came for a lesson and we got to practice together, which was nice. 

So, my plans for this week are; wear socks on our tiled floors to practice certain elements off-ice, do stretches to help open my hips off-ice and hope that we don't get too much snow!

Yep, apparently we're in for up to 10cm of snow and I for one am not happy about it. Luckily today the roads to the rink were clear and the bus could get through, but my next lesson is next Friday, so I'm hoping the snow forecast to start tomorrow disappears by then! 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, the day is finally upon us: Christmas Day is here and I hope all my lovely readers and followers are having a wonderful day, whatever you might be doing.

I'd like to take the time, if I may, to reflect on the last couple of months. Two months ago exactly, my rink opened its doors for the first time, and although I wasn't there that day, I went down there as soon as I heard about it. Since then, the number of skaters has started to increase and there is now a really nice atmosphere amongst the regular skaters. I started taking lessons after my first visit, and my skating has improved dramatically. So, here's to 2013 and more skating successes for me and my new skating friends.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I'll be back with my usual lesson blog at some point in the new year.

Merry Christmas everyone x 

Another Level Passed

Well, I had my last lesson til after the New Year today, and it was a good one!

I have officially passed Skate UK Level 3, and have now gotten further through the program than I did as a child - so I'm very happy. 

I had no falls today, which was nice, and am starting to make friends with some of the other adults who regularly visit the rink, which is even better.

I have some visual impairments that mean my balance and co-ordination have never been great, so every success on the ice is something I am very proud of, and so is my coach. We made another video today, this time of me doing forward chasses. These look very simple, and I admit, I do find them easy, but they're a starting point for crossovers, so very useful, in that they get you used to the feeling of lifting one foot off the ice, something that can be quite daunting at first.

So, here's the video




I've posted the link on a couple of skating related sites, and have had a few comments about how I'm smiling at the end of the video. I don't normally smile during pictures/videos! I prefer to be the photographer rather than the photographed, if you get what I mean. So the fact I'm smiling like that shows just how much I enjoy skating.

I love it, because it's hard sometimes, and some days you have a real nightmare time on the ice, like I did last week, 3 falls in 2 sessions. But it's all worth it when that move you've been working on for what seems like eternity, finally clicks. And some of the stuff I'm learning is scary at first, and sometimes I fall, and that makes me more scared. But I have a lovely coach who helps me push through the fear and when I overcome it, it's a real sense of accomplishment. 

I also shy away from wearing skirts, and tight fitting clothing, so for me to have the confidence to do that on the ice is great. You just wait, one of these days I'll post a video where I'm wearing a full on practice dress/tights combo! 

So yeah, there's lots of progress, and I'm kinda sad that I'm now not skating til after the festive period. 

Oh, and I love my rink - when I walked in today, everyone who saw me fall and bruise my elbow was lovely, asking how my arm was and if I was OK, and it felt good, I knew I was somewhere I belonged. I love that the rink has been open less than 2 months, and we've already got a nice little group of adult skaters who all hang out and practice together.

Yep, I love skating, I really do. 

Time for my first Skating Rant

Right, I'm sorry it's come to this, but I need to rant a little bit. 

I went for a practice yesterday, because apparently there are a fair few adults who go on a Friday for lessons, and I want to make some skating friends. 

So, I get to the rink, pay my money, and the lady on the desk says, "Oh, by the way, there's a party of 20 school kids coming in a bit".

Oh joy. If they were 5, all cute and tottering about on the ice, that'd be fine, because I could avoid them easily.

No, dear reader, they weren't 5, they were teenagers. They were out of control, skating at warp speed without a care in the world, showing off and generally being annoying. But, you learn to live with these things and I practiced what I could.

All good, til one of them crashed into me. He was going backwards, I was going forwards in front of him, or is that behind him, I dunno, but we couldn't see each other. He bumped into me, and knocked me off my feet, I landed hard on my right elbow.

It really hurt, I seriously thought I'd broken it, but I could move it, and after a poke about by my  first aid trained coach, I went home to soak in a nice bath.

So, my rant is this, can we PLEASE have some order on the ice?! My rules for the rink:

1. Skate anti-clockwise, and don't skate against the flow of traffic.
2. Don't skate backwards, even if you are following the flow of traffic, unless it's quiet. You can't see people, they can't see you, it's a bad plan.
3. Control is everything - don't go tearing round the ice if you can't stop.
4. If you're a skater who can do a bit more on the ice, do take care. A busy session is not the time to go spinning and jumping, especially, if like me, your rink is tiny.
5. Just, take care in general. Look out for each other, don't do anything stupid and everyone will have a great time. 
6. Accidents do happen, I understand that. If you do take someone out, make sure they're OK, offer them a hand up, and apologize. The lad who hit me, did do this, so for that I am grateful. 

So yeah, please, please, please can everyone look out for each other? I nearly had 6 weeks minimum no skating, was so lucky my elbow is just bruised. 

Take care and skate safe, everyone!

The Art of Falling Over

Yes, there is an art to falling over, and it's one I'm now starting to have a appreciation for, however, before we get to that, there's the small matter of yesterday's lesson to talk about.

I headed down to the rink yesterday, to see if I could have my lesson a day early, as today, I'm being taken out for a belated birthday lunch by two friends. Fortunately, there was no problem with me doing this, so we began.

I now have an on ice warm up as well as the one I do off ice. The new on ice one consists of:

Moving round the rink by use of two foot slaloms, this is to help warm up the back muscles, the twisting motion helps with this, and prepares the back for doing turns, twists etc. Do this for 2 circuits of the ice. 

Moving round the rink using forwards sculling, or lemons. Now, a slight pause, just to explain what a lemon is: you start with your feet together, push outwards, and then bring your feet back in, and it looks similar to this: (). Anyway, I have to do 2 circuits of the ice doing these continuously. This warms up the legs.

Then I have to do 2 circuits of forward stroking, again, warming up the legs.

Finally, I have to do a couple of 2 foot glides on a curve, to get a feel for the edges and as a last bit of stretching.

See, it's serious business, this skating lark!

So, after that, we started with 1 foot glides on a curve, on the inside edge. These are nearly ready to be signed off, just need a little bit more practice. Then we did the same but on the outside edges, and this was a lot harder. I think it's just a case of me needing to get comfortable on my outside edges, so will definitely be practicing these when I go back to the rink tomorrow. 

Then it was onto chasses, which again, are very near passing standard, I just need to get some speed going with them, and practice the other direction a bit more, as well as remembering to straighten my free leg after I do the initial push. Must remember to bend before I push, as well. Anyway, they'll be practiced tomorrow, too. 

Then we did backwards skating, and this has progressed, which is good, so we incorporated a 2 foot glide once I'd got some momentum, and this was signed off, which is good. 

Now we get onto the cause of fall number one for the day. 

Backwards lemons - the same procedure I described earlier, but in reverse. I've got them signed off, as they're passable, but both my coach and I want them to improve a little bit. Anyway, I was practicing them, coach was giving me pointers, to which I was listening to, then BANG!

I'd not been paying attention, and basically skated backwards into the rink barrier, which had the effect of knocking my feet from under me, and I landed on my rear end! I burst out laughing, so did my coach, and so did the other coach and her skater, who were also on the ice.

So, the art of falling. Well, the main thing, is to protect as much of yourself as you can. I wear wrist guards, which do help, and I'm considering wearing my knee pads tomorrow, I'll explain why in a second. So, I take reasonable precautions. 

The other thing, is to not take yourself too seriously. When you fall, after you check you're not injured, laugh it off. Easier said than done, I know, but some falls are just plain funny, like mine was yesterday. Some hurt, but after the initial pain goes away, try and have a little joke with yourself, like "Oh, only I could fall on a totally smooth, empty rink". It happens to us all, and it just means you're pushing your boundaries (or not looking behind you, in my case!).

Now, after my lesson, I always stay on and practice a bit, and yesterday I had the ice to myself to do this - I am so lucky I can go in the middle of the day! I was doing a few inside and outside edges, and after a while, it happened. I was practicing an outside edge, and I'm not really sure what happened, but I fell again. BOOM! Straight onto my knees, and fortunately protected, wrists. I got up, smiled, skated for a minute or two, then decided to quit while I was ahead, and go and get some food. 

I'm going back tomorrow, so no doubt I'm going to be adding to my collection of bruises, but hey, I'll get there in the end!