Wedding on Ice

Planned to practise today in the morning when there weren't many people. However, it turned out to be Alex's, one of the coaches', wedding. I always like watching wedding ceremonies, thus I decided to stay as a public audience. It was kind of a short ceremony (well, compared to all the other ones I've attended), yet pretty special.
So after that, I started my practice for today. But not long after, the rink was packed again. Didn't really do much besides lapping around. At first I was a little disappointed and bored, especially Eva and Sally were not there to keep me accompany. But then Wai Chai told me I could take this chance to practise my stability to skate in-between people. It's indeed quite true, since I found out lately I got less and less confidence on the ice due to the lack of ability to stop properly, thus, whenever the rink was packed, the fear would overtake me to a point that I didn't even want to skate. So I just lapped, squeezed in-between people, and indeed, it was not as bad as I thought. But I gotta practise more on any kind of stops; snowplow stop, T-stop, hockey stop, whatever extreme-stop, you name it....... I gotta ask Andy to teach me all. hehehe.....
Oh, by the way, so glad that Wai Chai's recovered and back to work. :)

Forward Outside/ Inside Edges -
Tried both forward outside and inside edges, it was quite nerve wracking when I brought my free legs to the front. So instead of doing a continuous left and right pattern, I did a single loop of left/right foot outside/ inside each time. All of a sudden, I got this idea of imaginating myself doing a forward crossover, and then I could do it a little better, and could kind of tie them together at the end. Also, I found out my arms position played a significant effect on my stability when I brought forth my free legs. I have to make a mental note to myself to ask Andy on Wed about the correct arm position.

1-foot spin -
Hey, seemed like it's getting back to me. Would it be because of the smoother surface? (I tried doing a couple spins first while the ice was still waxy). After the ice was re-surfaced again in the second session, I tried to do a couple more at the little alcove between the stage and the perimeter. Then something weird happened. I didn't know whether the ice was too slippery or what, I started to travel before getting into the spinning momentum. The traveling motion dislocated my axis. I had that weird feeling of the ice sliding or tipping over. I couldn't figure out why. So my conclusion is, I still can't do a 1-foot-spin.

Lesson 16

IT WAS SO PACKED TODAY!!!!!
Arrived at around 3. At 3:30, I decided I'd just give up and read the novel instead. Glad that I did bring Persuasion with me. Then at 4:30, went back out to the rink again. Oh, no, it was more like walking on a snowy road, flaky all over the place.
Andy said he'd just give me a free lesson today since he was late. Feeling bad since he always gives me extended lessons. But indeed it's just up to me to inform the office or not. I'd just leave it as a paid lesson, nobody knows. :)
So today, since the rink was packed and the surface not too good, I was not up to the mood.
As if Andy has read my list of items to be refined, we did forward crossovers on both sides. Still need a lot of works on my clockwise one.
Then prolonged LFO3 turn & RFO3 turn. No problem on the LFO3 one. But it was only when Andy was holding me, I could do the prolonged RFO3 turn.
Then we did something I don't even know how to name it. It was like LFO3, then a sideway bunny hop or something, followed by a RFO3, and then a sideway hop again. It was really tricky. So we just did something looking like how you measure distance from a map with a compass. Swang around w/ one foot fixed on the ice, then swang in another direction w/ another foot.
Forward outside and inside edges at last. Once again, w/ fear of my former fall, I could only do them when Andy gave me a hand.

Alright, my goal before the next lesson.
LFO3 & RFO3 - at least covering half of a circle.
Clockwise Forward Crossovers - steady w/ my free leg raising up high and my waist straight.
Forward outside and inside edges - not asking for too much now, as long as I can make it looks more like it.
Waltz jump - more speed, more height.
1-foot-spin - well...... maybe I'll try a couple, but will just leave it for now.

Today at practice

Wow, I've written so much today. Oh well, better write them down before I forget any. It was today's practice urged me to keep a skating journal. Here's a list of items I have to refine.

Forward Crossovers -
counterclockwise: make it fast and clean. lean lower towards the center. spiraling into and away from the center with ease.
clockwise: make it steady. raise my left foot higher with each stroke. use the whole blade instead of weighing on the toepick.
alternating foot: I guess I saw someone did it, haven't tried it yet.

Backward Crossovers -
counterclockwise & clockwise: make it fast and steady. use the whole blade.
figure 8: same as above.
alternating foot: oh well, haven't tried it yet by myself.

LFO 3 Turn -
prolong gliding before making the turn. next goal would be doing it with momentum instead of a standstill position.

RFO 3 Turn -
make it smoother, it's too abrupt now. prolong gliding before making the turn.

LFI & RFI 3 Turns -
Still need more practice.

L & R Mohawk -
smoother and faster. still have no idea when I would need them. how they would link to other moves.

Forward Outside Edges -
fast and steady. I fell a big time doing it last month, gotta get it back on track without fear.

Forward Inside Edges -
have I even learned it yet?

Snowplow stop -
stop in a snap.

1-foot-spin -
I can't do it. :( How come? I thought I got it already, but.......

waltz jump -
Oh, yea, getting better. make it faster, higher, more steady and more consistent.

half-flip jump -
still can't quite bring my right foot straight out, straight down after the 3-turn entry.

My skating friends

Thank you Heavenly Father. I'm so happy to have this chance of learning to skate. Really, I love it a lot, and the skating rink is a place where I can find solace whenever I'm down. When I stay focus on practising the moves, I'll just forget about all the troubles. Indeed, what troubles am I having? I know I'm so blessed already. Thank you Lord.

Also, thankful for a good coach and the skating friends I've made, Eva, Sally, Wai chai, little Alvina; nice staffs, Emily, Amy, Fei Chai Yee .......

A place with joy. :) Thank you.

Lessons followed

I've been skating for 3.5 months already. I'll have to track my memory for things I've learned in the 10+ lessons before I forget.

Lesson 2 : forward crossovers, backward swizzle, backward wiggle.

Lesson 3 : backward crossovers, LFO 3 turn, refined my snowplow stop, lunge.

Lesson 4 : refined forward crossovers, LFO 3 turn (still couldn't quite get it)

Lesson 5 : almost like a revision of everything I've learned in the past 4 lessons. I guess I was getting there.

Lesson 6 : half-flip jump. Oh, well, I couldn't even jump at the spot, let alone making a half revolution.

Lesson 7 : waltz jump. Seemed to be a little easier than the half-flip.

Lesson 8 : 2-foot spin. Refined other moves, couldn't quite remember now.

Lesson 9 : 2-foot spin again since I was not there yet, did a little of waltz jump w/ a 3-turn entry, RFO 3, LFI 3

Lesson 10 : 2-foot spin w/ a forward pivot entry, forward outside edging
AND...... I GOT MY OWN SKATES. :)

Lesson 11 : wow, what was going on? Tried to get used to my new skates. Couldn't quite keep track of what I've learned already. I guess I learned RF mohawk. Also refined my forward and backward crossovers to have deeper edges.

Lesson 12 : Mostly re-learned forward stroking since I tripped on my toepick quite a lot due to the bigger toepick plus my bad skating habit.

Lesson 13 : 1-foot spin.

Lesson 14 : 1-foot spin again, refined waltz jump.

Lesson 15 : 1-foot spin w/ acceleration, I did it, I did it. Thank you, Andy, you're the best. :) Then refined my waltz jump again. Did the half-flip after putting it aside for so long, and haha.... I didn't really get it. Andy kept telling me to keep my right leg straight after the 3-turn entry, but I'd be jumping like a 彊屍 if I did so. Oh, well, all about practices.

Lesson One

I started my very first lesson on Sept 5, 2007, at 11am. To tell the truth, I was so excited that I hardly felt asleep the night before. I guess I slept for about 4 hours in total.
Arrived at around 10:45, the rink was almost empty except for a couple mantainence guys, the skatecop and one more skater.
My coach, Andy Chan arrived. Well, I had a whole bunch of imaginations of him beforehand. I knew nothing about him except a photo in the skating school's website. Would he be mean? Would he yell at me? Would he be reluctant to teach such a stupid over-age?........ turned out, he was pretty nice.
So what I learned from my first lesson?

One foot glide - Andy told me it'd help me to glide faster; however, I just felt the tension building up on my feet trying to stay upright.

Forward swizzle - Wait a minute, I thought that I knew how to do it, but sorry, no. Gotta re-learn.

Snowplow stop - Yes, I have to know how to stop. Andy said it's not an easy task. Some would learn it in 10 lessons, yet some in 1. He said I could probably learned in 2. Did it mean that he didn't think I was stupid? Or he was just trying to be nice in the first lesson? Anyway, I'd just take it, and added to my confidence level.

30 minutes passed swiftly. I stayed in the rink to practice. Yea, snowplow stop was pretty tricky. Didn't quite get it.

Get started

My very first skating memory dated back to the 80s, when I was still in elementary school. I went to the City Plaza ice skating rink with my sister and cousins. It was still located at the Phase I building back then. I couldn't remember much, did I fall? did I learn fast? Most of my skating memories were wiped out already. Then it was those with my high school friends. I guess I was skating pretty steady already in the high school years. The skating rink became one of the places we hanged out. Then one more time in Oregon, and a couple more in Philly. That was it. I wouldn't even dream of myself learning to figure skate. Afterall, I'm over 30. It'd be a joke among my friends. I was not even dare to tell anyone when this idea of learning to skate struck in my head. Thanks to Grid, she gave me the courage to carry it out. So here I am, registered for the private lessons in the City Plaza Ice Palace skating school.

My skating journal

I've been reading quite some skating journals, and today, I felt like I wanted to create one of my own. A place where I can record my progress, my ups and downs, even my falls. I have no idea how long I'll keep skating, but as long as I'm still into this sport, I wanna give my best.
For those of you who care to read this journal besides my regular dairy, you'll see a more serious Edith than the mischievous one you know, this is Edith at work. :P