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!
