December 5th, 2011

A small update!

I really haven't been in a writing mood the last few days....

But I wanted to update about my skating lessons... because they have improved =) And that is a very nice feeling! The crossovers are going quite smoothly. She's added a bunch of new moves and there are a lot of details to the techniques to remember! Today, we moved from gliding a combined Christmas tree-crossover, to something truly difficult: the enchanted waltz!! It is soooo pretty when my trainer executes the moves! She is so fluid and graceful and completely at ease, so fearless.

Luckily, I managed to get it down the very first day! Which, seems to a bit of a miracle to my trainer. The waltz is a spinning, dancing glide in a large loop. There are three technical points to it - the Troika, the spin, and the landing.

Spinning was something we've been working on. It was actually one of the very few things I knew I wanted to learn when I started my lessons. I could NEVER figure out how to go from skating one direction (forward) to flipping around and skating backwards, while never losing my forward momentum! Well, after a lot of trials and errors, I finally conquered the science of spinning backwards, then forwards, on two feet tightly tucked together. Last lesson, we worked on spinning around on one foot - but that is really difficult!!

The enchanted waltz is a beautiful procession out of a crossover, spinning around to skate backwards, and pushing off on one foot into a "landing" position to glide outstretched, then turning to face forward and start it all over again!

The initial move, the Troika (Russian for "three") comes from the blades cutting the number 3 in the ice with thier movement. The rest of me, however, has to work on swinging my arms and shoulders in the correct degree to propell my single skate to turn, swirling 180 degrees, while the other leg is outstretched in the swallow's stance. For some reason, I have a hard time not shoving off and about whacking my trainer with my outstretched skate when I make the spin. "More relaxed, more fluid, and much slower!!" she coaches, inching away to safety from my karate-speed kick.

After I complete the troika and come out of the spin dizzy-headed, the wonderful "landing" takes over, skating backwards, arms outstretched and one leg, too. Toe pointed like a ballerina, it is one smooth transition to leap backwards and be facing forward again, ready for another waltzing round!

The lovely thing is the landing, it is so much fun and I passed on my very first try!!! =) Yeah!!! Svetlana, my trainer, informed me that the landing is essential for all the rest of figure skating, especially the jumps, because the landing helps them transition from spinning through the air to on to whatever other move comes next. Yay!!

The bad news..... I caused my first accident on the rink today. =(( I felt awful. =((

Some Speedy Gonzalos thought he'd whip around behind me - while I was coming out of my spin into the landing, and didn't know that I was about to thrust out my leg behind me. Haha! What a shock when my boot and very sharp blade was suddenly in his face!!

I never saw him... I was coming out of the spin going backwards, but I heard Svetlana gasp, "Oi!" and then she grabbed me and propelled me forward. The kid, luckily, swerved abruptly but lost control of his skates. He went flying into two girls innocently skating along the loop, and the three of them went crashing. =(

He hurt his arm and the girls were very shook up. I felt really bad. But Svetlana made sure they were okay- just bruises - and warned him about going to fast without calculating distance between him and other skaters.

Sigh. =(

I have a lesson on Wednesday and Friday... only 14 days left till John Steven will be here!!! =) I am so excited!!! I hope that he is soooo surprised.... definitely not expecting his little baby sister to be able to spin through an enchanting waltz! =D Soooo happy!!

P.S.

Please pray that I do not fall and break my neck or arm before he comes. That would totally ruin this!!! =)