When I left for skating in the morning it was snowing very lightly. After my hour on patch I received a text from work saying that it was closed due to snow. I didn’t think much of it as they generally get more snow in the area. I got back.on patch for another hour and landed my double salchow again and 5 axels in a row. When I finished patch an hour later I found thta we were completely snowed in. All transport had been suspended and no one could move their cars. I ended up going back to my coach’s house with some other skaters. One skater even skated up the road as the road was frozen under the snow.

We had epic smowball fights and built a snow family in my coach’s garden, including a snow dog. After lunch we all went back to the rink for afternoon patch. My legs were so tired! As I wasn’t sure if the snow would have cleared enough the next morning for me to come in and have my lesson I had my lesson on the afternoon patch and worked on my program.

Today I had a really good skate. In my lesson we started on the choreography for my new program. This is the music I’m skating to.

After my lesson I practiced my two doubles and I landed double salchow again and I landed my double toeloop! One happy ice skater here!

Today I landed my double salchow. I think I will be able to do it quite easily once my takeoff is sorted out and I regain my confidence in the takeoff being correct. Being reticent on takeoff as I’m not sure whether it’s going to work out is what’s holding me back. I’m hoping it makes another appearance in my lesson on Thursday.

I had some close double toeloop attempts along with some not so good ones. I just need to remember what I have to do in order for it to work out.

I’ve started training on Saturdays too now as then I can get a two hour session in. Today’s skate was much better than Thursdays. My double toeloop was again nearly landed and so was my double salchow. Now my coach has helped me with the takeoff it is going much better. I’m so impatient to land these two jumps now!

 

Today’s skate was not the best but then it wasn’t disastrous either so I need to try and think positive though I’m not feeling great about it.

Most of my problems were caused by poor concentration and reaction to outside influences. There was someone on patch from my old rink that I didn’t want to see there and they kept staring at me when I was in my lesson. As I result I felt pressured and rushed my entry into my difficult combination soon and couldn’t even get into it. The other problem is in the third position (sit spin with foot crossed behind) my foot was not turned out enough, high enough behind my knees and my core wasn’t bent over enough. I’m trying the broken leg spin with a core twist now, which I think I will be able to do once I get over the dizziness.

I got the first part of my new step sequence for my program so I need to practice that. I also need to practice counters and rockers more.

Coach wants me to do an axel-half loop flip combination to get more points so I need to practice that from now on.

I had one good double salchow attempt where I did it on two feet then II lost it and fell awkwardly so coach moved on to double toe loop. I landed double toe but then put my left tow down a little on the landing. I tried again but every time I tried to jump there were people in the way and I couldn’t find enough space to jump. As I was worried about people being nearby I kept then rushing the jump completely and not taking off properly, which led to more dodgy falls and my coach suspending jumping for the day.

I left the ice a little early, feeling a little dejected and I think my coach sensed it as he came over to chat to me.

I need to learn to slowdown and not rush when under pressure, and to try and concentrate well and block out outside influences. I might see if there is a weekend Patch ice on this week and if there is, go for a session as I know I could have done better and so I feel like I have unfinished business.

Here is a link to a video of my broken leg sitspin.

Yesterday’s practice was very productive (yes I fell asleep in the evening again when I was supposed to be writing this).

I landed multiple double toe-loops (legs uncrossed) though some don’t strictly count as I put my left toe down on landing very slightly. I didn’t need to, it was just habit as I expected to fall over.

Spins are improving but the combination spin I’ll do in competition needs the most work as it still doesn’t ways happen as I lose balance or get dizzy so it needs stabilising.

 

 

 

 

Here are my Christmas presents to myself in preparation for this year’s training. I bought a beautiful kingfisher blue skating dress which the picture doesn’t do justice. It looks lovely and bright on the ice and I wear it with a white wrap over cardigan and white gloves.

The skateguards I’ve bought are colour changing ones. They are pink when warm and purple when cold so they change colour while you are on the ice.

I also bought myself soakers to protect my blades and I chose ones that are shaped like rabbits. I also bought a bubblegum pink and blue Edea skate bag for my skates.

Yesterday’s training session was good. (I’m late writing about it as I was busy all day and then fell asleep at 7pm). My axels are nice now. I can still fall on the  sometimes but usually that’s because I’ve rushed the takeoff or not set up properly and they are minor topples. I now know what I need to do to land nice ones now. I don’t think it will be long (hopefully) till I land my double toe-loop as my coach gave me some tips that have really helped. My spins have improved as well, though this is partly because my legs have had a rest because I didn’t train on Monday due to having an injured neck.

We will be starting to make my new competition program soon and my coach has said that he really wants me to win as his students are usually on the winners podium. So no pressure then…!

My coach is away on holiday and I have to admit this did affect how I approached my practice. Without my coach there to see me falling I spent most of the practice trying to do double salchow and double toe-loop. Though I am fine to practice these I shouldn’t really have devoted so much of the practice to them, especially at the detriment of spins I am supposed to be practicing.

I landed both doubles on two feet using the legs uncrossed method. While this is still progress, I also feel ike the jumps are far away as there’s no way the jumos are stable enough for me to cross my legs on yet. I had problems specifically with the double salchow as my entry was not at all right and to avoid falling I had developed the bad practice of trying to spin before I had properly jumped and brought the free leg through. I’m hoping my coach will be able to shine some light on it when he gets back. The quality of my axels wasn’t great today and I fell on some. I think this was partly due to the fact that I made the bizarre decision to start practicing the doubles before I’d practiced axels and the repeated dodgy takeoffs for the doubles probably impacted my approach to the axel takeoff when I got around to doing it.

Overall, I think I need to develop more of a planned structure to my practices to avoid the temptation to overly focus one certain elements to the detriment of others.

Today got off to a rocky start. Despite checking my skates last session, I was a screw missing in my left skate and the blade was rocking. Luckily my coach did an emergency fix so it wasn’t too bad.

Today my axels were perfect and as smooth as butter so we did axel loop combination. My coach asked me to show it to a couple of people and this time I didn’t fall.

We tried double salchow but I wasn’t managing to so the things needed to rotate it properly. My coach is (re)teaching me to do it on two feet, which is how he taught it to me the first time around. The trouble is, because I used to be able to do it properly and remember what that felt like, I keep going into autopilot and taking off for a proper cross-legged one but I can’t do that any more so it doesn’t end well. I’m going to practice the two footed version off ice this week, remembering to turn my knees and foot in, keep my left hand in front and pulling my arms fully in. 

Ladies and gentlemen, today I managed to fall in my lesson on a single Lutz. Enough said. However, it wasn’t all bad. I managed to land a few axels with my coach and we also tried double Salchow but leaving legs uncrossed and landing on two feet. I don’t know why I put my other foot down at one point as I could have landed it on one leg.

In addition to the crazy spin combination he wants me to do, he now wants me to do a back sit spin with a twist. Unfortunately the twist ended with me lying flat on my back on the ice. My Russian sit spin is not there yet but it’s on its way. My flying camel is back fully which is good news and my footwork is still improving.