Diary of a Grad Student Figure Skater

Aiden-he/they-FS3/4/5

[nottheiceprince]

Not a ton of news this month. There's an adult TOI team starting but I haven't got time this year and even if I did, I couldn't afford it. More cheerfully, my program is almost assembled, albeit roughly, and the exhibition date got moved up so that it is now (hilariously) only 2 days before a relevant Ancient Fandom Holiday. Also, I'm doing a tucked sit spin in it because weirdly it's easier for me to get my left knee bent far enough while grabbing my right leg behind me than it is to get my knees together in front of me without tripping over my toes. The regular sit spin is improving though...slowly. Backspins continue to be nonexistent, although it turns out that my 2-foot-into-backspin method has some promise at turning into a change-foot eventually, so for now I'm just skipping the hook entry. In other spin updates, my attitude spin has gotten somewhat better and I've resolved to at least attempt a camel or two every time I practice, even if they're not even vaguely successful yet. As for jumping, the loops and flips are gradually improving, though I struggle with doing them at speed. The lutzes are probably not going anywhere for now, since FS4 got uncombined with FS5 so I can't work on them in class anymore.

[nottheiceprince]

I'm quite happy with how my exhibition program for October is coming together, I've learned the first half and it's very graceful and fun. On the back side of things, I've made my prop and almost have the costume done, pending adjustments to make the transformation smoother. I think this program is turning out well enough that I'm going to look into whether any local competitions next spring offer Character Showcase, as that would be fun.

[nottheiceprince]

Finally got to start choreography for the new program! My coach is making me do crossover spin entries, but that's probably good practice in the long run (it seems to help wth my sit spin, but I strongly prefer a 3-turn entry for scratch spins). I'm also supposed to attempt a loop, which I need to work on doing with some speed, but should be feasible by October. And I'm supposed to do a knee slide, which is going to take some stretching. Oddly, I lunge slightly better on my left foot, even though I much prefer right for spirals (my left inside for MiF is a mess right now). Anyway, even figuring out arm stuff and feet stuff at the same time for the stuff I can otherwise do is hard, since I am rather uncoordinated by nature, but this should be fun.

Side note: I've been telling my coach about the sphere I'm making for a prop in the second half, and apparently she heard "spear," which led to a rather amusing conversation, but we're now on the same page.

[nottheiceprince]

Also also,

I somehow did 5 consecutive 3-turns today, alternating RBI-RFO

With the way things are going, I’m probably going to end up learning a clockwise back inside twizzle first? which I feel like…is not supposed to be the easiest direction?

[nottheiceprince]

ALSO

can I just say. spins are weird. I do an RFI 3-turn entry, and for my scratch spins, I don’t check my arms- eg, I step forward with my left arm back and right arm forward, because that’s what I have to do to get my leg around. I’d been doing the same with other spins. One of the coaches at classes also spins from a turn entry, and suggested while working on sit spins that I keep my left arm forward. And for some reason that fixed my right leg refusing to be all the way forward. But if I scratch spin or try to do an attitude spin that way, I trip over my toes.

spins. are. weird.

[nottheiceprince]

I’ve also been perfecting a new hand gesture while scratch spinning (surprisingly difficult!) that I want to put in my exhibition program, and today I also started seeing what I could do with a skate guard in lieu of the similarly-proportioned prop I’m making. We haven’t set choreography yet because my coach has been traveling, but hopefully that’ll happen next week, since I have an increasing number of ideas for stuff I want to do.

[nottheiceprince]

I always forget how nice Sunday night public skates are. Sure, the ice is usually bad, but they’re not too crowded, have less-rowdy public skaters, there’s no loud music, and there’s usually none of the Serious Skaters around to make one feel self-conscious. So it’s an excellent time for working on MiF (if you can do it on bad ice, it’s easier on good ice). I’ve also started taking opportunities for “interpretive skating,” aka making up programs to the background music while not thinking about it too hard, to practice stringing footwork together while doing things with my arms. It’s challenging not to be repetitive but quite fun to mess around with.

[nottheiceprince]

I just had the best idea for an exhibition program...

There's usually one in August, so I'm going to ask my coach about it this week; if not, I'm going to be travelling a lot in the fall so it would likely have to wait until after competition season

It's a bit too gimmicky to do for a competition program, and I want the option for props, and to have more flexibility with not having required elements, but the costume will be spectacular

It will also be a good opportunity for me to work on artistry and footwork, as well.

I will also actually let my coach choreograph this time, which will be interesting. I have like 3 specific things I want to include and no particular preferences on the rest.

[nottheiceprince]

Finally went through pictures from the exhibition back in April. I have no idea what I’m doing here, but it’s the one where I’m least awkward-looking.

[nottheiceprince]

I passed my pre-pre MiF!

[nottheiceprince]

I found one of the more serene public session times for the summer and had a rather better time of things today. Spins are still something of a mess and jumps when I can do them are a bit messy. However, I got one of my back three turns to where I can do the alternating forward and backward turns in that direction, which was neat, even though the other three (and LFI) are not reliable at the moment. Also, I can do an LFO spiral-turn-LBI spiral now which is very fun.

I also started on preliminary MiF in lessons and we figured out how to fix my free leg refusing to turn out before stepping, so honestly I’m probably not more than a few months away from being able to do that test if I work on it fairly often. And that ought to help with being generally better at things. I’m not testing pre-pre FS any time soon, though. I’m still on the fence about which level to compete under next year, because I should be able to do enough singles for pre-pre but I’m not sure about spins.

[nottheiceprince]

I'm kind of frustrated with skating at the moment, unfortunately. I can't get my right leg forward on sit spins without wholly forgetting how to spin for the next several minutes, or if I close it more gradually my foot flips toe-in. I can't do loops from crossovers because I balance mainly on my left foot for CCW back crossovers, and if I leave my left foot down I jump off of it (like a weird swingless salchow) and get nowhere, and if I pick it up early and jump off my right I pivot on my toe instead of my heel and pre-rotate. And I still. can't. backspin. My backspin attempts have actually been getting worse, because for a while I could get twice around from a 2-foot and one and a half from a hook, and now it's like one either way if I'm lucky. And FS4 still. has. backspins. I can change feet and it doesn't make my backspin any worse, so objective accomplished I guess? It just still isn't working.

And that all would be much less frustrating, if I didn't have a skating friend who started a year later than I did, started private lessons the same time I did, and can do all of those things much better than I can, and they're letting her start coaching some of the beginner classes soon. It's not a race. And I know I'm medically diagnosed with sensory processing disorder of the "what is balance and coordination" variety, and I'm here to have fun and not so much to be good at things, but ugh, it sucks to not be a "jumping person" or "spinning person" or "moves person" but just "kind of useless at everything."

I also feel like I've been spending more and more of my practice time launching myself out of the way of children, freezing, spooking out of spins, turning in circles to try to find a hole in traffic, going to somewhere with space only to promptly have someone else encamp there, and being generally anxious and on-edge. I partly blame not having designated traffic/lesson/practice areas, even though that can be nice for doing patterns when it's not busy. It's mostly the packs of children who just get in the way, via either not paying attention or having no sense of personal space. Then, there's people who do not seem to understand that if there are people practicing at one end, you go to the inside of the circles or the outside of the circles instead of skating straight at whoever is trying to do something. Because use your brain please? I just wish I could get some space to practice now and then without being stressed, because I go to skating to...not be stressed! Sigh!

It's just...I like skating. I do. It can be peaceful. My ideal skating vibe is doing spirals at the end of a session with only a few people around, or messing around with things that I'm not supposed to have learned yet, because then there's no pressure to have learned them (if that makes sense?) Heck, I even managed to enjoy some of the less stressful parts of my MiF test. It's just that skating become a bit of a chore right now and I don't know what to do to make it not a chore. Skating on sessions with people I know is much less anxiety-inducing in terms of potential collisions, because we can all sort of be in a corner and most people have the sense not to get near three people spinning at once. However, it tends to make the comparing worse because they've all made much quicker progress (everyone who started a year or two before me is an LTS coach and competes in prelim or pre-juv; everyone who started after me is ahead in classes). I also know that I probably don't have the constitution (knees) for doubles and after a certain point I probably won't progress in terms of freeskate things, but that's also a lot less visible than being the only one who can't do a darn backspin after a year of trying, and somehow slower than even the FS1-2 elementary schoolers at doing crossover circles in conditioning class.

Sigh.

[nottheiceprince]

Well…pre-pre MiF went okay. I ended up re-testing but my coach said the first attempt was better, (and the stroking and edges were definitely a bit wonky on the second) so we submitted that. I wish I could’ve used the waltz 8 from the second go (I switched feet a bit early on the first two circles of the first attempt) and everything else from the first one! Still, I’m optimistic about passing. I’m not sure if I’ll be more or less anxious about testing in the future after this.

[nottheiceprince]

Testing tomorrow…my waltz 8’s and BI edges are a bit hit or miss, so I’m nervous, but here’s hoping

Also I have been doing some …reading… lately and the phrase “the skating echeladder” just appeared in my head…

which is not an inaccurate description…

[nottheiceprince]

Learning the secret trick to skating faster is all well and good until you catch a toepick and get a nasty whack on the knee

Also I’m testing in nine days so it’s a lovely time to be limping about

[nottheiceprince]

Did my first proper scratch spin in an exhibition!

[nottheiceprince]

finally watched my competition video. The arms are...not good. Whoops.

On the other hand, I ended up on a quiet session after class tonight and worked loads on my program. I ran through it about six times (not consecutively), alternating between the Official Version and (attempting) the Difficult Version. Some things, like the back wineglass spiral with dramatic free arm gestures, I'm confident about. The opening flip and the lutz are hit or miss. The salchow on the toe-half loop-salchow is wonky, and I think it's because I tend to spin the edge. I have a similar issue with the mohawk entry, so I've been working on that as well. The flip-toe usually isn't happening, and when it does, the toe loop ends up severely underrotated, which is weird. I also really ought to video my jumps to see if I'm doing anything bizarre, because I'm not working on them in lessons. Also, I'm indecisive between doing a scratch spin and attempting an attitude spin. I can usually get three revolutions, but not super fast or centered. Since this isn't for competition and the audience is friends, the main message here is "look how bored I am in group classes" and it can be as ambitious as I want, really.