Motivational Monday

I love Rocky. I could watch Rocky every day of the week. In fact, I liken my travails in skating as a cross between Rocky and Flashdance. And did you notice in those movies, they don't really "win?" There's no big "winning" scene where they stand over their antagonists triumphantly, with the music playing and confetti everywhere. Rocky doesn't win, he just stays in the game.

Sometimes, that's all you can hope for. Staying in the game.

Stay in the game, skaters! Keep moving forward!

ISI vs USFSA;

I've had a lot of parents ask, "What is the difference between ISI and USFSA Curriculums?" And I see this question a lot on various forums and Ask Boards. Here's my opinion on it:

ISI is Goal Oriented.

USFSA is Process Oriented.

Let's say the Goal is forward Crossovers... okay. This seems reasonable. It's a concrete thing; we can look at a skater and say, "Yes, she is doing forward crossovers."

But by focusing on the Goal/Element, we lose the Process. I've never stopped working on forward crossovers. Instead of just putting one foot over the other, now I have arm position, body position, free foot elevation and free foot turnout, placement and holding of the skating foot/free foot, and head position to think about. If my butt muscles hurt the day after, I know I did it right. Because Forward Crossover isn't itself a Goal, it is a part of the Process to a Progressive.

USFSA likes the Process of a Forward Crossover, because the process begins with "Glide on one foot," then "Glide on an FO edge on a circle," and finally, "Cross over." The Process makes it easier to graduate to a Progressive; since you're already so comfy on that FO edge, you're more willing to let it slide out behind you on that Progressive. It doesn't seem so insane when Coach has you try it.

ISI just goes for broke and says, "Cross over." And then is when we see kids gliding on a LFO and trying to cross Left over Right and getting confused and frustrated. ISI sets a list of given goals, and assumes that a skater will "connect the dots" so to speak, and intuitively Get the Process as they go. And some skaters can do this and do it very well. Others, like me, need more. This isn't saying one group is dumb and the other smart, it's simply that people learn differently.

I, for example, would have really appreciated some serious time devoted to two-foot turns before I spent six months struggling with FO3's. Now, I take a page from USFSA Basic Skills and spend time on Back to Forward Two Foot turns, just to get comfortable with the motion. I have no intention of repeating the same agony with Back 3's as I did with Forward 3's.

My old coach hated Shoot the Duck. Said it was useless and never had me practice it to any degree.

My new coach made Shoot the Duck as part of my warmup. I do them forwards and backwards on both feet.

Why the difference?

Sit Spins. Shoot the Duck is a part of the Process of doing a good Sit Spin. I knew this from the get-go, and practiced Shoot the Duck anyway, even though Old Coach told me not to bother.

Shoot The Duck is not itself a Goal, it is a part of the Process towards an element down the line.

In fact, one of Old Coach's Former Students called the Sit Spin the $3000 spin, she had so much trouble with it. Could it be that a critical part of the process (learning to do a solid one legged lateral squat in skates) had been omitted?

There are those who disagree with me. That's fine. I can agree to disagree. But I can say what has worked for me, and that's a Process Oriented method, one that doesn't focus on completion of individual steps and elements. Anyone can balance on one foot in skates. Not everyone can do Edge Pulls with ferocity, which is really the only way they get done. Anyone can do crossovers, not everyone can graduate that into pretty Crossrolls.

That having been said, this should answer another question I get asked, "What level are you?"

My rink operates with the ISI curriculum. I don't like it, so I try to operate outside of it. I'm not interested in testing through ISI. I'm gearing up to test USFSA Pre-Bronze MIF (and possibly Freeskate if I can get a Salchow and my spin happening with regularity) this year. I can do elements up to Adult Silver MIF, which is great but I need to get on this whole Jumping bandwagon pretty soon. My best jump right now is a Toe Loop.

So, the answer to that question is, "Don't know, don't care." I can skate pretty good, so let's go with that.

Freeskate Friday

Grace isn't just physical. It's a state of being.

And let's say that not every skater can walk into Nationals without a coach and finish on the podium.


Unlike some other skaters we know...

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

So, I always say, "As long as I'm talking, I'm happy. Even if I'm bitching, I'm happy. When I stop talking, I'm unhappy."

This blog has been quiet for a long time. And it's because I've been unhappy. Unhappy to the point where skating got very, very hard. Not hard as in "can't do this element" hard, but just plain hard. Hard to maintain motivation, hard to keep up a smile, hard to fathom just why I was throwing so much into it.

I loved skating, don't get me wrong. It was my love of skating in general that kept me going, but love only gets you so far. There was only so much plugging away I could do before I started getting frustrated, knowing I wasn't where I wanted to be or on the trajectory of getting there. I had started to dread lessons.

I used to love lessons, but what had once been a weekly session of checking in on tips from the previous week and learning something new had become a drawn out drag of the same thing, over and over again. Shifu complained about the hour, and when he didn't whine about the hour, he cancelled outright. My skating calendar was full of "Cancel/Reschedule," over and over. Makeups were missed, and by the time I got to a lesson I was so strung out I could barely skate. I had no schedule, and without a consistent schedule of Lessons and Practice Time, I was literally just going in circles.

I had to make a change.
I let go of Shifu.

There's more to it, more of my opinions as to why this was happening, but the bare bones is that I could not train without really knowing when my next lesson might be, or if it would be cancelled at the last moment as so many of them often were. Without consistency, I would continue to struggle. Shifu blamed me for being unable to skate on "Normal Sessions" at presumably normal times, or on sessions where there were lots of other skaters for me being unable to train. It's true; I don't like crowds and I have anxiety issues with crowded spaces. But that didn't make much sense, as I was already spending upwards of seven hours a week on the ice. Working as much as I do, my schedule is what it is, and fussing at me for having a job and a family that interfered with what Shifu considered reasonable was hurtful and a waste of time. And if there was ice that was empty, I'd be a complete fool to pass that up anyway. Besides, the one "reasonable hour" I could get to, he had already promised to other people. My best efforts to work with Shifu were consistently failing, and not through any fault of mine.

So I had to let him go. And it was hard, and it was messy, and I wish with all that is in me that it didn't have to happen this way. But I felt horrible, for so many reasons, and the Horrible Baggage was literally dragging me down.

I hired a new coach. My new coach is a breath of fresh air. He's on time, he's consistent, he doesn't spend any time at all with useless personal chitchat on the ice. He's always got something new, the past three lessons have all had new things. I'm challenged constantly, and when I'm in fear of falling that's good. And while I only have Coach for a half hour instead of a full hour, it feels like the same level of instruction given that he is on time and we aren't spending upwards of 20 minutes talking about non-skating things. In this regard, new coach is less expensive and of a higher quality. For the first time in over a year, I am sore after lessons. I came out ahead.

And I'm happy again. I look forward to lessons again. The change in my confidence alone has made a drastic difference. I'm no longer dragging myself to practice, looking for something, any glimmer of why this was fun. I have things to do, the hour isn't enough. It's not just new skills, there are changes to be made to old skills; my crossovers are getting a makeover and my turns are being pushed to the forefront.

What's more, I'm seeing a sports physician/chiropractor for my hip and knee problems. While I may never have the same flexibility on my left side as I do on my right, I am not in pain anymore. I also see a massage therapist to help manage the physical manifestations of my stress, and I'll be working with an off-ice coach come springtime. In short, instead of waiting for someone to treat me like an athlete, I'm treating myself like an athlete. I think I lot of my frustration was coming from waiting and wanting people to recognize my efforts. I realized that this won't ever happen, and it's up to me to treat me like an athlete. If I don't, no one will.

I get just as much instruction from Shifu as I once did, but it's in a much less expensive and much more stringent format: It's in a class. It's harder to be late/bail on/spend half the time allotted talking idle drama in a class. He still doesn't wear skates, which makes things confusing sometimes, but again, it's much less expensive so it doesn't bother me as much. And maybe one day he'll realize just why the entire class is confused. (It's the lack of visual demonstration. A lot of people need visuals, I'm one of those people.)

New Coach is in skates, and I have to chase him. We spent a morning on forward crossovers; he was pulling my free leg up and back, way higher than I'd ever thought possible. Being physically grabbed and maneuvered into proper position while at speed will take some getting used to. The past three lessons have been packed with new fixes to old problems, I have tons of skating homework, and I'm already feeling better about things. What's more, I don't feel the need to run to YouTube to get a visual of what an element is supposed to look like!

I'm happy again. And my skating is about me, not anyone else, and I can't and won't apologize for that.

What to wear, a rebuttal.

Gonna have to argue with Xan's last post regarding adult skating wear. Black? Modesty? Where am I, Afghanistan?

Weekdays I wear pants. I have a pair of black and a pair of purple velvet. The velvets look great (OMG they are NOT BLACK!) but they have to be cleaned before I wear them out as they attract cat hair. Lots. Of Cat Hair. But after reading this post, I have a sudden and fierce urge to burn every pair of black skating pants I have and never again make another pair. I wear pants not out of any "modesty" but because I practice at ungodly hours of the morning. I don't have the luxury of sensible practice hours, and in the winter I'd wear my jeans over them. I need something I can get on in the dark, and something I can get out of fast to put on my day clothes and get going. Often I'm in a "normal" shirt so I can skip that step when I'm doing my quick change after practice. My jacket is black only because I paid $6 for it at a resale shop. After reading this post, I'm stepping up the search for a colored jacket, and I do have a purple shrug and white shrug for summer.

Which isn't to say I don't rock dresses and skirts. I just save those for the weekends which are more leisurely. I like wearing skirts. It's rare for me to actually get to wear them in real life, because the days I do, I usually end up in the shop, doing shop-type work which is completely incompatible with skirts. Wearing a skating dress or skirt, I can actually feel feminine for a change. I made a practice dress, a few skirts and a leotard. I own one prefab leotard, given to me by my friends at IDS. And wow, does that backline plunge! Sorry, Xan! (No, not sorry.)

Also, I made a pair of burgundy boot covers which I will wear with my black pants (OMG they DO NOT MATCH), and also with my jeans when I am a Rink Guard.

My ice show dress, which was the first true skating dress I made for myself, broke a whole slew of Xan's modesty rules for adults. It was black, because we were told to wear black, (ADULTS MUST WEAR BLACK) but:
It was really short. I mean, short. It rode a good few inches above that mid-thigh. It covered me, but if I did any good extension I'd be showing my ass. The one I literally ran off in before dawn in single digit temperatures.
It had a keyhole back. My back and shoulders were proudly on display. I worked hard for that muscle.
It showed some cleavage. I have cleavage. I had experimented with a supportive inner layer, and had some success. I'll know how to do it better next time, to avoid the Bra Conundrum. Two words: Halter Top. (How's that backline holding up? Ha, puns!)

All these Fashion Rules, written and unwritten, regarding Adult Skating have a theme: Be plain. Be unobtrusive. Skating clothes are for skaters, you're not a skater. Blend in. Black only. For pity's sake, cover up. No one wants to see that. Modesty! The judges like modesty? Well, as every coach I've ever conversed with regardng adult skating is so very fond of pointing out, it's not like we're going to the Olympics. If I hear one more Olympic joke I may snap. They're not funny.

Treating other people's bodies, or your own body for that matter, as disgusting things that do not belong on display is the worst form of body policing. And no, I don't know anything about skating, and if knowing about skating means engaging in fat shaming then I don't want to. Leave me to my practice and stop educating me on this ridiculous culture.

By all means, wear what you're comfortable in. But to be perfectly frank, this habit of Adults practicing in weird amalgamations of workout wear or jeans makes me insane. We're not running, doing yoga or playing tennis. We're skaters and we're skating. They make skatewear in adult sizes, and if it's not what you like or can afford, it's simple enough to make.

http://www.jalie.com/jalie3136-skating-dance-leotard-sewing-pattern.html

This is my pick of leotard/practice dress pattern at the moment. It's not ideal. The binding on the neckline is a total pain in the ass, and I skip it if it's just a practice dress. Also bear in mind Jalie patterns tend to run a scoche small, so make it in a size larger than your measurements if you've got anything less than a 75% four way stretch fabric. Leotards are fun, but be sure to pee before you get them on. My dress is cotton teal with unfinished elbow length sleeves and a gray skirt. The leotard I made is in a red organic bamboo fabric (I splurged on that one) and my IDS leotard is bright purple. To give myself a lining, I've simply been basting in illusion/liner fabric where I've felt it's needed.

http://www.jalie.com/jalie3025-skating-dance-skirts.html

Here is a collection of skirt patterns. I've made the full in a burgundy and the A-Line in a lightweight gray for summer. In fact, I have some yardage of *RED* velvet I found on the remnant table to make a new one. I find I prefer the A-Line. I'm simply too squared off physically to pull off a full or froufy skirt without looking silly. (Picture a Clydesdale in a feathered halter.) These go together fast, but again, Jalie runs them small. Make it a size bigger if you're unsure, you can always take it in. I did not make the long one out of principle. To make the skirt longer to your preference, simply draw the tracing out three to four inches on the length. If you can't freehand it, move the tracing paper itself.

http://www.jalie.com/jalie2920-leggings-sewing-pattern.html

This is my pants pattern. Attach the stirrup bottom sans hole for length, and cut it 2" - 3" wider than the pattern on both sides, starting at the mid-calf level so the bottom goes over the skate boot. I'm not trying to make my legs look longer, I'm trying to make my feet look smaller. A toe peeping out seems less bulky than a whole boot on the end of my leg. I'll also add elastic around the bottom of the leg, to ensure it stays on the boot and doesn't ride up.

Kwik Sew makes an assortment of leotard patterns, but I tried two of those and hated them both. Kwik Sew may be fast, but they run really big and fit poorly. I made the first one and vowed never to eat again before I realized the pattern was at fault. I mentioned it to a costumer friend and he rolled his eyes at the mention of Kwik Sew. That having been said, I do like their wrap skirt pattern. Not a lot of fitting required there.

As for Fabric, you don't have to go black. We're not in mourning and we have nothing to hide. Yes, black is slimming, but red can set off your amazing complexion, blue can bring out your eyes, purple can set off your hair, neon green can make sure you get right of way, you get the idea. You're more than a shape, and anyone decrying that you don't look like a skater can get bent. (They're usually in the stands anyway, nursing their lattes and being judgey. Besides, the ones in their expensive clean running shoes, ill fitting yoga pants and massive Louis Vitton hobos posit a bigger fashion disaster than I ever could in a skating dress.) There is a vast selection of fabric in color and pattern at Spandex World. Go Red, Burgundy, Purple, Blue, Teal, Gray. Wear what you want. If these little girls can practice in pajama bottoms (seen it!) and skanky booty shorts, we can dare to wear color. The performance Spandex works well for pants, and cotton spandex makes a good warm leotard that breathes. At $8 to $12 a yard, and one 60" yard yielding a pair of pants, full skirt or leotard for an average size person, it's not that expensive to experiment.

To test for stretch, take the pattern with you and use the handy diagram on the back. It MUST stretch as far as they say in ALL FOUR directions. If you're buying online, the description will tell you 2-way or 4-way stretch, and the company should send you samples on request.

I had the priviledge of exhibiting at a dance tradeshow with IDS, a company that makes Ballet wear, and they are the main supplier for American Ballet Theatre. Across the aisle from us was a large booth selling a healthy array of booty shorts and crop tops in various neons and spangles. If you wanted, you could have things printed across the butt. (And I don't care what the letters are, it says, "LOOK AT MY BUTT.") Crop tops had anything from "DANCE" to "BRING IT" emblazoned on them.

I mentioned to the VP of Customer Relations at IDS that Booty Shorts were coming into vogue at the skating rink, and she shook her head. "If a real ballet student were to show up in those shorts, she'd be asked to leave."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. No serious student of dance wears anything like that," she had this great crisp British accent. "It's tawdry. Unprofessional." And she pointed to the solid color leotards and gorgeous matching wrap skirts and cardigans her company sold to ABT as the *standard uniform* of the school. Yes, a uniform, and not in the "everyone else has this so I must, too" way. **cough*Chloe Noel*cough** "It sets the tone," she explained. "You're in the right mindset to be serious. Not cutesy. You're there to work, not goof off in playclothes." Say it like Mary Poppins and it becomes an imperative. We talked a lot about costuming and booty shorts, and as a parting gift I got my purple leotard.

The kind VP from IDS is right. Just like the right suit can make you confident enough to speak in a big meeting, the right cocktail dress makes you poised to make a good impression, or the right shoes can help you to kick ass when warranted (I own two pairs of such heels. Look out when I wear them.) Wearing true skating clothing can help put you in the right state of mind. When my mind drifts to office problems or the housework I need to do, I just have to catch a glimpse of myself in the glass, looking like a skater and it brings me back. The real plus side of skating in actual skating clothing and not running clothes is that it's not so foreign when you do have to wear that "real" dress. You've already encountered and solved a lot of those logistical problems Xan brings up.

Unfortunately for my first "real" skating dress, it got a good bloodstain from where I fell and cut my chin open. As I'm terribly superstitious, I don't like to wear anything with physical memories of a bad accident. If I can't get the stain out, it may just be a pretty souvenir. Along with my chin scar. As for my Dignity, I apparently sacrificed most of that when I decided to strap on skates at 35. The rest I usually lose somewhere between mile 2, splits attempts, and crashing into the ground on "isolated rotations" during my off-ice mornings. I can sometimes find it again in the puddle of sweat I leave on my mat after crunches and hamstring/piriformis stretches. But I'd rather have my ice packs over my dignity anyway.

Wear what you damn well please.