We Don't Just Excel, We Axel

From my lesson today... Tammasaurus : Backwards outside 3 turns. Me : Sure. I've never taken the time to detail in my blog what these are, but, essentially, they're your bog standard 3 turns done backwards instead of forwards - the post I linked to mentions them towards the end as there was a time when I thought of backwards 3 turns in horror... In truth, I'm still mostly terrified of them. The key difference to the backwards version is that instead of using the front part of the blade (the rocker) to do the turn then you have to use the considerably spicier  heel section of the blade. Much like the rocker, the heel part of the blade minimises the amount of blade contact with the ice so that rotating your foot is easier. The spicy part comes in that you have to sort of lean back into the turn, put all your weight in your heel (with its deliciously minuscule amount of blade contact) and just hope you don't go over backwards onto all manner of delicate body part...

Upright spin . The most basic and trivial of spin techniques, yet one I stubbornly continue to struggle with a year and a half into my skating career. It seems so odd that I can be practising to do the hardest single jump and yet still completely floundering on the basics of spinning, but hey ho. Lately, the Tammasaurus has been pulling all sorts of tricks out of her playbook in order to get me to make some semblance of progress at spins - I strongly smell the air of desperation, though more from myself than her. She remains as professional as ever, despite my string of floundering attempts at spinning. Something I've noticed with learning spins is that every time we try a new method then I immediately do it fairly well first time round. Fantastic. Of course, I am then completely incapable of repeating my beautiful first execution ever again. It's almost as if the thrill of the new drives me forward and then my body has a taste and is like " we've done that now, gi...

This story comes courtesy of a conversation I had with one of the excellent, lovely, talented, senior-level ice dancers that is now turning his hand towards coaching at our rink. Why include so many praising adjectives about this wonderful young man? Well, because of him, I now know that I have achieved a degree of notoriety at the rink, and I LOVE  that fact. Gaining notoriety means I'm now officially a badass, right? I'm well known at my rink for throwing myself into the jumping aspect of free skating with rather more zeal than is strictly necessary at my level of learning - you could say that in my quest for bigger and better then I compensate for a lack of skill with misguided effort. Scenes of me smashing into the ice are relatively common, so I often hear jokes from my friends and the rink staff about how I'm going to injure myself next. I haven't done any real damage to myself until relatively recently , but no need to worry about that! Not to be deter...

Previously in my quest for the vaunted single Axel , I experienced an unpleasant series of injuries and MY GOODNESS did those injuries become the bane of my skating pretty much over the course of the last two months. It turns out that you can't drop hard on your hip as an adult, twice, without repercussions, which is a shame, because like all reckless, young men (I'm not sure I can keep claiming I'm 'young' but hey ho), I like to think of myself as indestructible. In the weeks following my injuries, I endured pain in my hip whenever I climbed stairs or tried to do basic stroking on the ice. Life was sad and skating was making me miserable. I had no motivation to try anything because I was in pain and not trying anything meant I wasn't progressing, which made me not want to come in and practise, which set my progress back even more. I confess that the reason my blog's posting rate suffered lately is almost entirely because I just haven't been in the ...

My face every time the Tammasaurus asks this: PLEASE TAMMASAURUS, I LOVE YOU, DO NOT MAKE MY PRACTISE MY SPINS. I KNOW I NEED TO, BUT I AM AN INCAPABLE CRETIN THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO SPIN! And she just looks at me...

I've finally sustained some injuries in my quest for Axel. I've always had a rather gung-ho approach to skating, frequently throwing myself around and trying things to see how they work, so it was basically inevitable that this would happen at some point. Plus, learning ice skating, jumps in particular, is definitely a process that can be accurately summarised as follows: I've been getting better at Axel prep exercises, so the Tammasaurus optimistically said " why don't we try a little 3 jump into backspin?" Anyone with a passing familiarity with my blog will know that I loathe spins, not because I don't think they're great fun and all that, but because I just cannot do them for love nor money. " I think that's a little optimistic," I reply with a laugh. However, I've never been afraid of a little challenge, my pivot into backspin has  been improving so I figured I'd give it a go. First try and I land the jump but, unsurpr...

My quest for the Axel jump has officially begun! Strictly speaking, it unofficially began a month or so back when I started practising 3 jump + loop jump combination as prep work into the Axel, but as of a week or so ago I'm officially into the territory of "I throw myself forward and hope I make it round the necessary rotations for the Axel." For the uninitiated, the Axel is the hardest jump at any given amount of rotation because you have to sneak in an extra half rotation alongside the standard number at the level you're doing (so a single Axel is 1.5 rotations, compared to just 1 for any of the other single jumps). You're still landing backwards, like all the jumps, but it's the only jump you take off facing forwards in order to get that extra half rotation in. Ironically, despite its difficulty, the Axel has perhaps the simplest looking opening of all the jumps, you pull both arms and your non-skating leg back while gliding on your skating leg and ...

That is all. But seriously, a while back , I wrote that "the first rule about my spins is that we don't talk about my spins", but I can't hide from them forever so it's time to write something about them. When I first started skating, I would watch the little girls practising their beautiful spins - so many dazzling rotations - and I would dream of one day being able to do the same. Alas, that day has still not come. With everything else I've learned in skating I've seen even the smallest amount of improvement almost week on week as long as I make sure I give it a go for even just a few minutes each time I go to practise. But spins? Nah. I've been at this a year and a half and my rate of progress has been sloooooooow . For the uninitiated, there're a ton of exercises to get you going on a basic upright spin (which is the most primitive of the spin variations), I know because I've had a million thrown at me in an attempt to ge...

Rink regulars tell me I should get some programme music, I'm all: But inside I'm all: The search begins, late one night so that plausible deniability remains intact... Initially I'm all: But, after several hours of suggested playlists, everything starts to sound the same... Then anytime I walk into ANYWHERE that's playing ANY SONG, I'm all: I drop by the Tammasaurus for advice, she's all: Which I know means "Choose something you love... but 90% of your choices will be..." And so the search goes on...

"THIS IS OBSCENE!" I cried for the tenth time that session. About a month ago, the Tammasaurus and I started seriously working on the Lutz jump. I've said before while learning the Salchow that I thought it was a fairly contrived piece of nonsense at the time (it's actually one of my favourites now), but anyone that's familiar with the Lutz will I'm sure agree that it is a similarly insane piece of body shenaniganary (not a word). It's also the Tammasaurus' favourite jump, so I mentally prepared myself to disappoint her for a while as I got up to speed with it. I'm currently writing up a humorous description of the execution of the Lutz in a separate post, but the general gist is you glide on a back left outside edge and twist your top half (arms and all) round to the right, far beyond what you think would be comfortable for any human. When settled in this position ("settled," hah!) then you reach back with your right foot and smack...

A combination of nagging from the better skaters and their mums at my rink; my growing obsession with obscenely long run ups to my paltry, single jumps and starting work on the Lutz jump with its absurd entry all came together to push me into moving my lesson and regular training schedule into a patch session instead of public sessions. Some people find the prospect of transitioning to patch a bit daunting as it's where the serious folk go to learn to skate, but when I talk about "the serious folk" then what I really mean is mostly girls aged 8-13. Most adults are afraid of the judgement that might come from this group, however one of the first things I discovered when training on patch is that it's a bit like going to the gym: all the regulars care about is their own work out and they're happy that you're making the effort to be there yourself, whatever your ability. So I got started by trialling myself on the busier after school session, just to see how...

"You've dropped some money there," the Tammasaurus noted as my body crashed into the ice, another spectacular fall during a loop attempt gone wrong. I knew, rather than saw, that she was referring to the two pound coins I'd had in my pocket that I'd heard clatter to the floor as I fell. I have some trousers with zip pockets to stop stuff like this happening, however I hadn't had those to hand when I'd dressed that morning. "Well, strictly speaking," I began as I picked myself off the ice and started to look around for the coins, "they're yours. At least, they're part of what I was going to pay you with this week." The Tammasaurus bent down to collect her money off the ice. People talk about paying for ice time, but here the ice was paying for her time. I had intended to be chivalrous and collect the money from the ice for her, but she was already at it so there seemed no point in stopping her. I retrieved the rest of her pay...

"Okay! Crossovers in a figure of eight!" a typical warm up exercise in my lessons with the Tammasaurus, "... and finish with a landing glide," she calls as I'm completing the last backwards clockwise circle. I reach the straight and obediently raise a leg as I glide backwards on the other one. I was actually pretty pleased with the final product: I felt it had good leg elevation, a decently straight back and good bend on my gliding leg, plus I was holding the glide confidently with my arms nicely outstretched. I steal a glance at the the Tammasaurus who has a pained look on her face. "Ooooowennnnnnnnnn," she whines in a scolding tone. " WHAT? " I think, " THIS LANDING GLIDE IS EXCELLENT! " I'm internally outraged but I defiantly continue to glide along, holding my pose, awaiting the incoming critique. "Come on now, what leg do you land on?" she asks wearily. ... Oh yeah, my right leg... and I'm currently ...

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...

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...

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...