6.30am- I have landed my double salchow, double toe loop and axel-double loop combination and done a really good Russin sit spin.

Unfortunately coach is not yet in to see this.

7.00am-Someone gets in my way on a basic jump resulting in a dodgy takeoff and I crash to the floor just in time for my coach to appear and joke threaten to put me in the learner harness.

 

 

Today I branched out and tried more jumps at the rink, including the double flip, which I have a history of not being keen on. I wasn’t expecting to land it, but it was a breakthrough that I felt confident enough to at least try it. My Russian sit spin has improved and I can do it at least sometimes. Today was very busy at the rink, which unfortunately meant I didn’t get much program done.

I have discovered that my gym has a balnace ball. This is invaluable in practicing spin positions etc and means I am now able to practice my Russian sit spin position in a realistic way as on the balance ball I have to hold the position while fighting to retain my balance, as when on ice.

Today I managed to get a fast Russian sit spin with quite a few revolutions. Jumps wise I had a good practice. I landed double salchow, double loop (not quite cleanly) and axel dounle loop (not cleanly). Program wise I didn’t do so much as my legs were really tired from yesterday and there were a lot of people running their programs today so it was hard to get space.

My main bugbear is my step sequence as the curves on my double three turns mean I’m not straight for my tke jumps and I don’t see how I can do the turns straighter.

For the last few days I have been doing lots of jogging and cardio gym work to increase my stamina for skating my program. Today it was clear that it had made a difference so I need to keep that up.

Coach says my combination spin has improved (video clip above) and I’ve managed 4 rotations in my Russian sit spin. I need to work in getting that consistent now.

My main program goals are:

Not being so dizzy after my combination spin that I can’t do my step sequence.

Landing my axel consistently

Getting my Russian sit spin sorted

Building stamina

Improving my presentation.

 

I have made it my mission to skate my program through beginning to end every session without music and that’s what I did today although I found it difficult stamina wise. I’m still finding my step sequence difficult, basic as it is so I’m doing lots of practice on that. Program aside I landed double salchows and double toe loops, though I’m not sure the toe loops weren’t slightly under rotated. If they were it’s because I wasn’t pulling my arms in enough, which is a tendency of mine at the moment.

 Today was not my best day. I wasn’t feeling at all well (I had a temperature and felt hot standing stationary in an ice rink) and all my muscles felt tired. I didn’t even want to try my jumps so I didn’t. I’m still really struggling with the stamina for my program. Coach removed my broken leg sit soon from it as it wasn’t good on Thursday and replaced it with a Russian sit spin which unfortunately is worse as I can’t get my head right down on my legs without losing my balance and falling over in dramatic fashion.

My coach decided to lighten the mood by acting daft. I was doing my program runthrough and I was just about to take off for a jump when I noticed that my coach was sat at the side of the rink wearing what appeared to be a green party hat on his head. It turned out he’d put a plastic green cone used for hockey practice on his head.

Also, I told coach about the new word I’d picked up on when walking into a German lesson at the school I work at. Knoblauch apparently means garlic in German but sounds like a funny insult to me. Coach was of the same mind and kept shouting it at me to make me laugh. I’d just managed to stop laughing and pull myself together enough to go into a spin and just as I was getting up into my camel he shouted knoblauch and I fell to the ground laughing. Other skaters probably wondered why I was sat in the middle of the ice laughing til I cried, unable to get up. Not a productive skate, but funny.

Today the basic fieldmoves I’ve been practicing seemed a bit better as did my step sequence. So far I’ve stopped practicing a particular double jump when I’ve managed to land one on a session. Today I felt like I could try for more. I landed three double salchows, two double toeloops and an axel double-loop, although the latter didn’t have a clean landing.

Today I landed my double salchow (I’ve been doing so for a few skates now), my double toe-loop (for the second time) and an axel-double loop combination jump. I’ve not even tried double loop since I’ve been back. Hopefully this is a sign that my jumps really are coming back and I will soon be back to my old standard of skating.

Most of my ice time at the moment is spent wrestling with my new program, trying to get my moves down pat and building up stamina.

Today my coach finished choreographing the first half of my program. The problem is I seriously lack stamima to skate it. I am so out of breath and achy that by the time I get to my axel in my program I haven’t even the strength to take off for it. Half term is coming upand I think I’ll have to spend the extra time I have on the treadmill in the gym!

I’m entering the British Adult Skating Championships in the Silver Ladies category. I realised the other day that this is now only 7 weeks away, which is an alarmingly short amount of time, especially as my program hasn’t finished being choreographed yet. It is getting there though. My main worry is the step sequence as I am weak on this. Until the competition I am going to have to be strict on limiting the amount of training time I spend on trying to land new jumps, and spending most of my time on program preparation.

I did however land a big double salchow this session. I haven’t landed my double toe loop since the first time I did it but my double toe loop is usually round to backwards but I’m just putting my left toe down on the landing. Probably just something I’m doing is unbalancinge slightly on the landing but no doubt it will right itself soon enough.