We Don't Just Excel, We Axel

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- "These are pretty good!" the Tammasaurus proclaimed with, what I hoped was, a hint of surprise in her voice. You don't get to impress your coach very often at ice skating exercises so I smiled quietly to myself while she couldn't see. We were doing consecutive backward outside edges. Consecutive edges practice is the bread and butter of ice skating basics. Anyone that's learned a musical instrument in the past will no doubt be familiar with the concept of practising things like scales (piano was my attempt at learning an instrument as a teenager). Practising your consecutive edges fills a very similar function in learning to skate. They're not particularly flashy or fun, but they're essential for getting better overall. For the uninitiated, the gist is to simply glide for a bit on either the inside or outs...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  Following on from my last post . ------------------------- I decided that things needed to change if my skating was going to pick up again and I was going to start with my diet. Since I'd started skating then I'd been dining out on a luxurious, pre-skate breakfast of hot chocolates and cheese toasties from the Costa near the rink. If you're reading this, you're probably like "WELL NO WONDER YOU HAD ISSUES IN YOUR LESSONS", but when you consider that I was getting up at 6:20am to do a two hour coach journey out to the rink then I'm sure you'll agree it doesn't seem so insane that I'd wanted to treat myself a little bit. Plus the group lessons I'd been doing prior to starting with the Tammasaurus were, comparatively, incredibly gently-paced, so I hadn't had any problems before. Quick Parks & Rec...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  The Tammasaurus and I had been working together for about 3 months now and I'd been having some troubles over the preceding few weeks. Things aren't always peachy in the skating world (as in life)! ------------------------- "Can we stop a sec?" I wheezed in the middle of another intense lesson with the Tammasaurus. "Sure," she waited for me to catch my breath. "I think I'm okay now," I said after a few seconds. "Okay, let's try for some nice big 3 jumps." I took two strokes to get going. "Nope, no good, I feel sick. Can we get off the rink for a second?" Lessons with the Tammasaurus were always vigorous, no doubt about it, and I liked it that way. They were very productive and counted as some actual exercise in my otherwise slothlike existence, but for the last few weeks I ...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- "So you see, it's more like this," the Tammasaurus proceeded to execute the step sequence that she'd been trying to teach me. When I say "step sequence" then I don't want you to imagine a complex intertwining of wondrous and challenging skating finesse, so I'll confess it was just alternating mohawks with crossovers we were doing as an exercise. As usual though, I was utterly incapable of stringing them together - coordination has never been my strong point. My mohawks were scrappy and bad most of the time, we'd been using them as the entry for my consecutive backward edge practise and I always imagined the Tammasaurus cringing as I scraped my way through the mohawk entry. Now she was expecting me to do the mohawk nicely and add a crossover on the end, which shouldn't even be that complicated...

I did a counselling course once where my tutor had to teach the fundamentals of three different theoretical models of counselling therapy: psychodynamic (mostly Freud), person-centred (mostly Carl Rogers) and cognitive behavioural therapy (known as CBT). My tutor hated CBT, he absolutely loathed it, it made him shake up with rage when he was forced to talk about it and he would rant about it at any opportunity. The mohawk turn is my CBT. I hate them. They're a nasty, horrible move designed to remind adults how inappropriate their ageing bodies are in the youth-centric sport of figure skating. If there was any move that made me wish I was an eight year old girl then it's the mohawk. Unfortunately my next HP post relies on me having a reference point for people that don't know what mohawks are so they can read up on them. So here I am, writing a reference post on my hated enemy, the mohawk turn. So what is this nonsense? The mohawk's actually devilishly simple in t...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- "Have we started the Salchow yet?" the Tammasaurus asked towards the end of my latest lesson. "Not yet, no," I replied. I tried to sound nonchalant, but inside I was jumping up and down, the Salchow! My first of the six standard rotation jumps! This was one of the skating moments I'd been waiting for since I started! Off ice, I had secretly done some preparatory reading on the Salchow to prepare me for the magical day when we started it. A lot of descriptions talked about doing an outside 3 turn then holding the resulting backwards inside edge on the skating leg while doing a scooping motion with the free leg to twirl you round as you jumped off the ice. I had tried giving it a go off ice with no idea of what it was meant to look or feel like and it seemed both insane and fiddly, but this didn't diminish my...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background: I now had new skates and they were off to the rink for their first outing. ------------------------- "I'm now officially a run-of-the-mill, bog standard figure skater," I called across the ice to the Tammasaurus, who was finishing up a lesson with one of her advanced skaters. "I even have a Coronation Ace," I added. This second part was entirely because I didn't want the fact that I'd spent time researching to go unnoticed now that I'd chosen the absolute classic of free skating blades. This tactic is also known as, "BE PROUD OF ME, TAMMASAURUS! BE PROUD!" "Ooooh let's see your skates!" the Tammasaurus excitedly skated over to visit me at the barrier. Honestly, I don't really get the whole excitement around looking at new skates, I mean, I like it when people pay my new skates attent...