We Don't Just Excel, We Axel

I tend to make something of an effort to speak to some of the new skaters on the rink basically because it seems to be a general rink tradition that everyone's just so friendly to everyone else on the rink. To that end, I recently got talking with a new guy in the beginners' class. That's right, alert reader, a new guy , which, as will be no surprise to ice skating regulars, is a rare thing, made rarer still by the fact he's in his 20s, like me. You see -  clears throat -  LEGEND HAS IT... For every generation of skating learners (adult or otherwise) there is born just one male into the flock of women (heterosexual men take note of this gender imbalance) . It has been this way since the dawn of time and we must nurture these rare adult males who might go on to be a lonely female's ice dance partner, or perhaps they will one day perform such adult free skating wonders as the double Axel, double to--- "Yeh, so, I'm learning in secret because my missus pla

No italicised intro for this post because this is the end of the  HP posts  I've done up until now. Broadly speaking, we're up to speed with the current day and I think I've covered the most memorable bits of my skating history up until now. From here on out it's all uncharted territory... Oh god, I'll have to rely on comedic observations and bizarre stories of the Tammasaurus and I gallivanting around on the ice, me falling everywhere and her all stern faces and disapproving looks. I'm just kidding, the Tammasaurus and I always have a laugh. If you want to keep up to speed with what I'm working on at the moment, snapshot style, I've got a goals page with my short and long term goals that I'm updating as I go along. If you've come to this late then you can head back the beginning from my first link on this post! Until then, onwards!

I arrived at the rink today with my favourite waistcoat and white shirt combo hidden under my coat. I'm not ready for a routine yet, I can barely manage the basic coordination required for the simple steps I'm doing at the moment, let alone a minute and a half of flowing steps, jumps and spins, so I'm holding off until the Tammasaurus basically insists that we get on with it. However, I wanted to see what it felt like to skate in a waistcoat and shirt in case that was the sartorial route I went down when I do get to a routine. I unzipped my jacket in the cafe, the waiting eyes of the assembled skating mums lingering on me as I revealed the outfit. The cafe audience cooed appreciatively at my choice, the ladies in the locker room nodded admiringly... Some suggestions that I should add glitter and stones were made, but, for now, just the Tammasaurus's approval to go. "Looking  very nice today!" she said admiringly as she joined me on the ice for my lesso

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- One day, I hope to compete in adult free skating competitions, so when my local rink held a competition (non-adult) then I decided to go along and check it out to get a feel for what competitions looked like - as a bonus, a friend of mine was competing so I could support her as well! I don't normally go out of my way to watch free skating competitions (like the international ones) because I take the view that I'd rather be doing the sport than watching it. Also, I'll willingly confess I don't think it's that good of a spectator sport - the jumps (and falls!) are fun to watch and I like honing my on-the-fly jump identification skills, but I'm fairly indifferent about spectating otherwise. It's hard to write a concise beginning-to-end story of what went on, plus it probably wouldn't be that interesting, s

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting, see  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Avid readers will, again, notice that this post is entirely out of order with the last two, particularly in relation to my progression with the loop jump. I got the order all muddled up around here, oops! ------------------------- "You know, there is a long term plan for all this," I announced to the Tammasaurus as I finished up a continuous 3 turn exercise. "Oh, what is it? Tell me!" The Tammasaurus lit up like a Christmas tree, her excitement was palpable. In the past , the only direction I'd really given her was that I wanted to "go beyond" the curriculum that the group lessons had taught. "I'll tell you when we have a break," I reply. Given my level of fitness then these were pretty regular so she wouldn't be waiting long. I got started on my 3 jump practice. I was a bit nervous about telling her my lo

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Avid readers of this blog might recognise I detail myself as trying the loop jump before having done it with the Tammasaurus, when I explained in the last HP post that her and I were very much in the middle of the process of learning it together. That is because I wrote these out of order, oops! ------------------------- Practice, practice, practice. That sentiment never goes away in the endless quest for sporting perfection and it's just as true in all things ice skating. Lately, my Salchow had been coming along (probably thanks to time spent walking through it next to my work printer every time I went to do some printing) and the Tammasaurus had run through the toe loop with me. I kinda hated the toe loop, it felt like a clunky and nasty jump to do. For those unfamiliar with it then you basically just jam one of your toe picks into the ice and "vault&q

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. ------------------------- " Valar Fallghulis " or "all men must fall." (Or "all people" for the modern thinker, but those that don't get the reference need to pop to their nearest bookstore and look for the George R. R. Martin section!) I have always embraced the spirit of falling in skating, indeed  ' falling is learning ' has become my personal motto. It will never stop happening, even the professionals are dropping here and there, so we might as well welcome it and use it as the learning experience that it is. However, even though I know everyone does it, it still came as something of a surprise when, one typical lesson, the Tammasaurus tumbled to the ground. We were discussing the loop jump, which we'd only started a week or so ago (after I'd cheekily demonstrated that I'd secretly been practising it bef