Long awaited update!

Many many things have happened since I last posted here.

Since my last post, we were graduated to the Freestyle class in 2012. We were passed on the Delta test (which consisted of left and right inside 3 turns, a lunge or shoot-the duck (I did a good lunge), forward inside and outside edges and a bunny hop. We passed these all pretty easily as our coach had been working with us on those for quite some time. The downside of moving to Pre-Freestyle was that we had to go to Sat morning or Wed night classes with all the kids. This was very hard when we were used to only skating with adults. Kids have no fear but also no sense of sharing the ice and I was terrified in this class. Pre-Freestyle (even though it wasn't a set ISI level) was designed to help the transition into Freestyle levels as it set up moves for jumps and practiced edges. Mostly it was test patterns such as 3 turn and mohawk sequences, Russian stroking etc. I was okay with most sections (and the coach ticked most of them off for me early) but I really struggled with the 3 turn sequence and felt miserable that I couldn't get it. But I had a couple of private lessons with the coach and I passed. Yay!

So we were moved up to Freestyle 1 Jumps at the beginning of the year which comprised of Waltz and Half Flip jumps and Backward Outside Edges. Edgy passed on the first assessment after 5 weeks but on the second lesson, I fell on basic crossovers and cracked my kneecap which persisted quite a long time. That, combined with getting stupidly sick, I missed all the lessons for the period and so couldn't do the assessment. So I then had to do Freestyle 1 Jumps and Freestyle 1 Spins at the same time in the next 5 week period. I actually think this was good for me. Learning the Backward Outside AND Inside Edges at the same time was helpful. I struggled a little with the two foot spin (although managed to do a decent one in assessment) but I did well on the forward spiral and pivot so passed both levels pretty well.

We then moved into the Programme Class which put together all the elements we learned during Freestyle 1 into a programme. This is where I discovered I have MASSIVE issues with stage fright and just really struggled to do the programme well. I couldn't do the two-foot spin after coming out of the waltz jump so that was causing me great anxiety. The coach ended up passing me on the programme but said I needed to practice more in order to do the official assessment (which takes place on the ice alone with other judges), although I didn't need to do this in order to move up a level. I never ended up doing the assessment because of events that took place shortly after this. We began to enrol in Freestyle 2 jumps (which would have comprised of Ballet Jump, Half Lutz, Half Toe-Walley) and started to learn these jumps but then that was when the shit hit the fan.

The first major event that happened was that in October 2012, all the coaches we've grown to know and love quit! The curriculum was changed from the International Standards to an Australian system 'Aussie Skate' that a large number of current skate school coaches - including the managers - approved of (and justifiably so because I think the new curriculum is discriminatory towards adults, rushed in its teaching, misses key technical training, is geared towards competition - therefore aimed at 5-12 year olds - and doesn't promote participation. To sum up, I think it's shit!). We tried out lessons with the new coaches but I was so disappointed with the sessions and the way they rushed us into a level we weren't ready for (expecting us to do a one-foot spin for assessment when we hadn't learned it yet etc).

So we got fed up and left after one term of the new curriculum. Just picture this: TWENTY TWO people in the one class, all learning to do a full rotation jump in a very prominent curve at once in the space of the small ice! Dangerous and counter-productive. The coaches (all self-confessed Level 3 coaches, talking themselves up about how fantastic they were) were pushy, discouraging and gave you very little instruction on good  technique - or any technique, for that matter! In short, we were basically teaching ourselves how to do it and honestly, I got more instruction out of a book that I bought on Amazon.com. Needless to say, we failed the class and would have had to repeat if we hadn't found another option at another rink. A new association for recreational skating and a new skate school started up with the old coaches and even though it's further to travel, I love lessons there. The rink isn't as well maintained, it's smaller, the surface is rough as they don't have a Zamboni but I will sacrifice the smooth large ice for the good training and supportiveness of the coaches there.

However, despite me starting lessons with the new skate school, I decided to participate in the Skate Camp that was being held in January 2013 at the old rink. I thought, if anything else, it will give me a chance to practice my one-foot spin and give me more ice time. On the first day, I quite enjoyed the skating portion but the afternoon off-ice session was demoralising. During a 'planning' session of our 'skating career', one of the senior coaches (a vitriolic pathetic excuse of a human being I shall nickname "Fuckface") basically said to myself and another mature age skater that we were wasting our time if we didn't want to compete. He didn't seem to grasp the concept that we were learning for fun. We were upset and deflated and the next day, we decided that we were not going to go to the off-ice sessions to be made to feel like shit again. The second day of the skate camp, as a warm up, we were made to run laps around the rink, up and down the grandstand. I struggled with it as my knee was playing up and so was limping by the end of the warm up. So when we got on the ice, I was favouring my left side a lot to avoid bending my right knee which really hurt, and when "Fuckface" hassled me about not bending my knee on my right side, I snapped and yelled at him and asked him to leave me alone. I felt pressured that whole session to try and keep up with the rest of the people in our group, even though 95% of them were a higher level, so I was doing things a lot faster than I should have been doing or felt comfortable doing. And that's where I came into trouble.

In the last 3 minutes of the morning session, just before I was about to go home, we were doing an inside 3-turn exercise called 'waltzing threes' which consists of an inside three turn, step out, change foot and an immediate 3 turn again on that foot you just stepped on to....rinse, repeat. I was doing these inside 3s on my dodgy side. **Note: in skating, you tend to be stronger on one side than the other.

The move was done too fast (as I felt another young skater approaching me quickly in my peripheral vision and panicked) and I felt myself falling backwards. As my basic instincts kicked in, I tried to correct myself by leaning forward and I felt my right leg slide out to the side. Going into an inadvertent split, I tried to stay upright but went down and landed directly on top of my left boot and it was pushed at a weird ankle. I knew straight away I'd done something bad. The pain was excruciating and I couldn't move. I felt nauseous, had black over my eyes and I was in tears. They came and got a wheelchair and wheeled me off the ice. (The head of the skate school stupidly suggested taking my boot off, to which the hockey coach who was helping me said "NOOO! Don't take it off!!!" I couldn't believe it! How moronic!). The hockey coach took me outside and my friend who was skating with me rang my partner and said she was taking me to the emergency room. (Kindly she did this, otherwise it would have been a $1000 ambulance trip!)

I was in emergency for several hours, having x-rays, a cast put on etc, where they ascertained that not only had I broken my ankle but I had torn ligaments also. These would need to be repaired by surgery. So it was a 4 day stay in hospital and one very large metal plate and 6 screws attached to the bone!

I was devastated to be off skating for so long. It ended up being eleven weeks on crutches and another couple of months before I got back on the ice, four months before I could skate without excruciating pain and then relearning everything!

But the coaches and skaters at the new rink I skate at were so supportive and encouraging. One of the young kids who was at camp told her mum on the day it happened and within hours, I had messages from a lot of members of the new association wishing me a full recovery and checking how I was doing. Everybody knew about it when I visited the rink on crutches. It was nice to know I had support.

I was disgusted, however, to discover that not one of the coaches or staff at the old rink and the Skate Camp bothered to find out how I was. Not one phone call, message, not even an enquiry through my friend who was there. I would have expected nothing from "Fuckface". Apparently one of his elite skaters broke his leg skating and he never heard from his coach once and that was PRIVATE lessons! But I would have hoped that to save face at a time that the skate school was having trouble, the head of the skate school would have at least rung me or Edgy to see how I was. But no. So that clinched it for me. I had made a good decision to leave and learn from the new skate school, even if it was an hour drive from home to do so. Karma will see to them.

Anyway, it has been a year (almost) and I have only really started now to get back to doing what I was a year earlier. I struggle moreso with fear than anything else. It has taken a lot of confidence to do some of the things I used to but it is all because of the wonderful coaches/friends I have made through this. Every time I come to the rink, I am greeted with a smile and an encouraging approach. People ask me how I'm doing, praise me on my courage to get back out there, modify my skating to suit my still-healing ankle. It hurt really bad at first but I wasn't made to feel like I had to keep skating - they just told me to take it at my own pace. And I am pleased to say that on the last skating lesson for 2013, I managed to get more than 4 good rotations on my one-foot spin with the entry. Something I haven't been able to do, ever. So I was ecstatic. I have begun learning my toe-loop and salchow properly, I have learned the dance step sequences for Freestyle 2 and 3 which includes outside mohawks, I have improved my backward outside and inside pivots, my forward spirals, I have learned a back inside spiral. I finally feel confident that I could do my Freestyle 1 programme/elements assessment if they are able to do those. Things are finally looking up.

I know it is baby steps and I still have a long way to go in strengthening my ankle - it is still painful and there are simply things I cannot do....yet. But I'm not letting anything stop me anymore. If I can get through a broken limb and still have the nerve to put on the boots again, I can achieve anything!

Moving on...

I haven't blogged in a while about skating so a lot has happened in 6 months.

I have still been going to the evening Adult Learn to Skate classes which have served to keep me practicing more than anything else. When I got my new skates and started going again, we discovered that the number of people in the classes had pretty much tripled so it was harder to get individual attention from the poor coach who has her hands full with too many different levels. We are probably more advanced than the others in the class so we have been finding that the class in the evenings is a bit of a waste of time as we don't usually get to the stuff we've been doing until it's already time for us to leave. We passed our Gamma test back in 3rd term which meant that we were on to the Delta requirements: LFI and RFI 3 turns, FI and FO edges, lunges, shoot-the-ducks and bunny hops. However, we haven't worked a lot on them (with the exception of outside edges which are nearly impossible to practice with 20 people in the class all getting in your way!). There is also a bit of an issue with a group of hockey guys who are already in the Hockey Academy but come to Monday skate classes to practice (or should I say, stuff around!). They are quite disruptive and rude, skating fast around beginner skaters, practicing their fast stops until they cut up the ice into corrugated patches and they torment this one young girl and her mum who has been trying to practice and don't have the confidence to cope with these guys. I have many a time almost lost it with them but lately, a hockey player has been coming in to keep them in line and take them off our coach's hands, which has been much better.

I have also had the issue of my other skates (the ones that have caused me nothing but heartache!) being pretty much stolen. A girl in the class (when I started back up again) expressed an interest in buying them so to be nice, I let her take them home to try them and she got the blades sharpened etc so she could try skating in them first. I was being nice to her by letting her only pay $100 for them (when to buy them in the Adelaide pro shop would cost $595!) even though this was not in my best interests. She took them to try them and has NOT COME BACK to lessons for 2 terms! I don't even know her last name, let alone how to get hold of her because I stupidly didn't get her phone number. So if I do track her down, I am going to demand the full $595 and even if she returns them, she will be charged $100 for them regardless since there is probably now significant wear and tear on them. The mother I mentioned earlier has a way of contacting her, I believe, so I will probably have to call on her to help if I don't get them back at the start of the term. I can't believe it though - talk about taking advantage of someone's kindness! It's so unfair.

As a result, I have made a concerted effort to go to Tuesday morning sessions to practice and I have found that joining in on the classes there has really helped me polish some things with two lessons on similar things. I think my edges are getting better, although I still struggle with insides due to the opposite arm position. I am hopeless at shoot-the-ducks - I can't even balance on one foot, let alone lift my leg to parallel. Luckily, to pass Delta, I can choose either shoot-the-duck or lunges and my lunge isn't too bad (if I concentrate on pulling the leg back behind me). I can do a decent bunny hop and my RFI 3 turn is pretty good. LFI leaves a lot to be desired though!
In any case, we have probably become too advanced for the Learn-To-Skate classes now, so we just need to test the Delta stuff and then we're probably going to go over to the freestyle classes which are on different nights and double the cost. Gulp! The way Freestyle classes work is that you pay on a 5 or 10 week basis (so $125 or $250) for each class and there are at least two for each level (Spins and Jumps or Elements etc) so I'm looking at $250 a term! That's a lot for me to fork out each term so I will need to really look at getting as much work as possible this year to afford this new vice!
We have already pretty much learned how to do half of the Freestyle 1 manoeuvres (not polished, mind you!) as we have been paying for private lessons with the Monday coach over the school holiday break which has been fantastic! Not stopping the lessons has meant I have made considerable progress in the last 3 weeks. The coach has been working on waltz jumps and half-flips with us which is fun and scary at the same time. I am a little afraid of launching into the air too high so I have to build confidence for this. We have also learned 2 foot spins (with RO edge exit), forward inside pivots (which, anti-clockwise, I can do quite well) and last week, we began spirals (ouch, my back!) which I think, once I do some flexibility exercises, should be okay on both legs. I can get the leg high enough but keeping it up and turned out on the move and locking the knee is something that I'll have to work on.
I'm excited about moving on but at the same time, a bit sad to change coaches now, since we've now built a rapport with her. Oh well, onwards and upwards...

The Swing of Things

I think I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. Last night, I was a bit nervous at the lesson and was really struggling with my left-over-right backward crossovers - I didn't even really have the courage to lift my foot to glide, let alone cross. It did get better as the lesson went on but they were still very tentative by the end.

But today, I went to the morning Beta and Gamma classes and I felt a lot more comfortable and relaxed doing them. They are far from perfect, of course, because I'm still scraping my toe pick a little bit and leaning forward on my toes instead of back on my heels but the coach said that I was much better this morning because there was less tension all over and I was actually sitting properly and bending my knees. I learned how to do mohawks this morning with the other coach which were not too bad for a first go. I can now do two-foot-turns at a faster speed and my three turns are getting much better, especially RFO - I have started to do RFI and LFI 3-turns now which I thought would be harder but they are actually easier, especially the right.

I think that if I keep going to lessons on the Tuesday morning as well as the previous night, I will start getting my confidence back and that will be a big relief for me. Still a bit of pain in my feet though from the skates but it is getting better day by day and I'm tripping over the toe-picks less! Always nice not to face-plant all the time. I wore socks today; now THAT was a big mistake!

I really like the Tuesday crew - really nice coaches, lovely older skaters who are there simply because they love it, clean swept ice and it's nice to skate in the morning, when you're not tired from the day! I wish the Monday class was the same.

And best news of all: I think I might have someone who might like to buy my other ones! Hopefully they fit her (cross fingers!).

New skates, new people...

I finally went back to lessons for the first time in nearly two terms now and I am so happy. It was like visiting an old friend, but with a whole group of new people and none of the old faces I got to know. It was actually weird to have a group lesson that was bigger than just two or three of us. There were about eight in the beginner group alone, and about twelve of us in the middle class. Edgy and I are actually the most advanced of all of them - the coach really needed to run his advanced class for just us!

Whilst there were some things that were a bit difficult to master with the new skates, I was surprised at how I just slotted back in. Things that used to be a challenge for me, such as left-over-right crossovers and two-foot three-turns, weren't as hard as I thought they were going to be after such a long break. I struggled a bit with my backward crossovers due to never having really mastered them pre-new skates, and I will need to build back up to my left and right outside three turns (I think it's more confidence than anything else) but I already feel better with the new skates. I feel like I can do much more without worrying about how the skate fits (or doesn't fit) my feet or have it wobble around under me or the laces break or the blades catch on the ice because they haven't been sharpened since 1976!

I did however, manage a spectacular stack today, 10 minutes into the lesson! I bought Jackson Competitor skates and because they are entry-level competitive skates designed for single jumps, the toe pick is really big and I found myself tripping over them a lot (and discovered how much I inadvertently use my toe to push and how much I lean forward instead of back on the blade when skating backwards etc). Anyway, I was passing a slowcoach while doing forward crossover drills and I suddenly found myself falling forward but instead of going on my knees, I landed on my upper right thigh and then instantly, on my chest and winded myself! But I actually bounced back quite quickly for a change, despite knowing I'm going to have a big bruise on my thigh. With that said, I have since developed a VERY sore ankle which is swelling up bigger and bigger as we speak. It is really weird because it didn't hurt at all prior to getting out of the car at band practice afterwards and it is now KILLING ME! I don't know whether I hurt it in the fall or I have bruised it in some other way (or it is a stress bruise/fracture from the firm skate against my ankle for 90minutes) but I can hardly put weight on it at all - a bit of a stress for me given that I have only just started back at skating after such a long and upsetting wait and we have marching at State championships coming up!

In any case, bung ankle or nothing, I feel really happy to be skating again - it really does fit me like a glove. It's like coming home.

Skating quote of the day: I started skating and I kind of liked it because I could run circles around the guys that wouldn't pick me to play baseball - Scott Hamilton

Finally!

I have not been skating for over a term now because of a total skate debacle! I received my skates in the mail (albeit, a lot longer to mail than I had paid for. Grrrr!) but when I tried them on, they were wrong. The measuring chart was SO OFF that I would have had to cut a toe off to fit them. The length seemed right but the width was very narrow. I was so upset.

So I emailed the company straight away (Discount Skatewear - NEVER use them!) to ask for a return authorisation. I never received a reply. I tried ringing them to no avail (and since they were overseas, this was difficult). So I was unable to return them! And insultingly, they sent me spam three days in a row. As you can imagine, I was really pissed off!

So now, I was stuck with a very expensive pair of skates that I couldn't use. So I put down a $100 deposit with the pro-shop and committed to paying another ridiculous amount to replace them. I put the useless skates on Ebay but they didn't sell; advertised them in the paper - they didn't sell. So I still have them. My next option is to try everybody I can to see if anybody fits them and they can have them. Or sell them to Cash Converters for a pittance! So angry with that company - what a disgusting lack of customer service!

In any case, I finally picked up my new skates yesterday thanks to Edgy (they SEEM okay now - hopefully they mould to my feet like the pro-shop owner said they would and they will be fine). So finally I can skate again but I shudder to think what I'm now going to have to re-learn. But I am looking forward to the lesson next week! Finally!

New babies!

I have just ordered my new skates and they were shipped today! I can hardly contain my excitement. Haven't been to skating in two weeks because of illness and because I can't handle the hire skates anymore. Can't wait to go to the lesson in skates that actually glide! :) **happy dance!**

Enough is enough

This week, I had MAJOR skate issues. Firstly, I asked Edgy to get my skates for me so I could rush to the ladies' room. Apparently, when he asked for my skates, he got the broken ones AGAIN. (Backstory: there is a pair that has a broken lace loop so are completely useless. I have asked them several times to put them aside and either get them fixed or chuck them out as they can't be used but they keep ending up back on the rack). So he got them changed.....to two right skates! I was wondering why it felt funny to skate in them! I was getting pain in my left foot. No wonder. Because it wasn't a left skate.

So I took them back again and got the left skate, with a lace about 15m long and with three weak points in it. So as I tightened the laces, they snapped three times! So I had to tie them all together. It is now 25 minutes into the lesson. I was too worried the lace would break again so I didn't do it up tightly enough and so consequently spent the remainder of the lesson skating in loose skates. In the end, I got frustrated and gave up.

I HAVE TO GET MY OWN SKATES. I HAVE TO. Otherwise I am going to quit!