So I've now had two partnering lessons with Anna - and WOW is this making a difference. Skating WITH someone is a lot different from skating by yourself, and quite frankly it highlights everything you are doing wrong (especially when the person you are skating with is doing everything right....). What's interesting is that I'm not only starting to get the hang of partnering, but it's actually making my solo skating a lot better. The last two weeks have been a real revelation, and I feel like I've made more progress recently than in the past few months.
It's kind of expensive having two lessons a week like this (30 min with Anna on Wednesdays and an hour with Will on Fridays for technique and fundamentals) but this is probably what I need right now in order to make the kind of progress I expect of myself. Anna and Will both harp on me for being too hard on myself, but hell - I'm 48 - I don't have TIME to be slow at this..... :)
All told, I'm really happy with things right now, and we are trying to get me ready for both the first set of dance tests and MIF tests in June. That's a lot of work, but I think I can make it as long as I put my nose to the grindstone. I have all the dances solo, so Anna and I just have to get them figured out partnered. As to the MIF stuff, I just have to get the three turn pattern down consistently and clean up the waltz-8 and I should be fine. I won't knock the judge's socks off, but I should be able to get through it.
Interesting - as a performer, I typically am not happy with a performance that doesn't get a wild standing ovation - anything less than that is a fail for me. I can see now how that is impacting skating - my standards for myself are really REALLY high. That's not a bad thing, as long as it doesn't turn self-destructive. In a lot of my practice sessions, I end up beating myself over the head because I can't make this stuff look effortless yet.
I just have to remind myself that first you fall, then you fall, then you fall, then you sort of do it, then you fall, then you sort of get it again, and after another month you might be able to do it without thinking.... and there's no real way to shortcut that.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
OCD much?
Every once in a while, I get completely laser-beam focused on one thing that's pissing me off - and I don't practice anything else. By Friday, I figure that out when Will asks me "what did I work on this week" and I only have one thing in the list.... Complete OCD moment.
This week is was those freakin' mohawk turns. A few weeks back, Will threw the first of the next "set" of dances at me - Swing Dance - and it's the first one where I have to change direction in the middle of a dance (from skating forward to skating backward). Hence the freakin' mohawk. Now keep in mind - this is the most rudimentary turn there is - I see 8 year olds doing this every morning. It shouldn't be any big deal. But it is, damnit.
First I could only do it on the left side, and the dance needs it on the right. So I started ONLY practicing it on the right. Then, I couldn't get the stupid thing to be stable after the foot switch and spend all of this week doing it over and over and over and over and over... You get the picture.
Will and Anna both tell me that I'm too hard on myself. While that might be true, I live in constant terror that I'm going to be just another lame adult skater. I've talked about that in previous posts. Most of the videos I see on YouTube are lame lame lame lame (to borrow a line from "The Incredibles"). I refuse to end up being lame. Maybe that makes me obsess a bit... ok a lot... alright a whole lot.
Of course, it only took Will 5 minutes to see what I was doing wrong (and practicing wrong, of course) all week. We went on to other stuff, which I promptly obsessed over as well. It was just one of those weeks.
Funny thing - Will (and Anna both, really) are always harping on me to bend my knees more. While working on forward crossovers this morning, I finally just got completely passive-aggressive pissy and decided to bend my knees so much that my ass was dragging the ice. Childish - but remember, I was in an OCD space this morning already. Will's reaction? THAT'S IT!!!!!!
Damn. :)
Anna did give me some more opportunties to work on partnering this morning, and I think (*think*) I made some progress. It's really tricky, and it pisses me off that it's not just coming to me naturally. For god's sake, I spent most of my dance career partnering - I should be able to just DO this. (OCD much?). We did decide that I probably need to get partnering coaching independently from my normal lesson - so I will probably start doing 30 minutes with Anna on Wednesdays. She has this uncanny ability to tell what I'm doing wrong just by what she can feel through our hands. That's cool - creepy as all hell, but cool.
Sigh. 18 months and I'm still lame lame lame lame. This is gonna freakin' drive me crazy.
This week is was those freakin' mohawk turns. A few weeks back, Will threw the first of the next "set" of dances at me - Swing Dance - and it's the first one where I have to change direction in the middle of a dance (from skating forward to skating backward). Hence the freakin' mohawk. Now keep in mind - this is the most rudimentary turn there is - I see 8 year olds doing this every morning. It shouldn't be any big deal. But it is, damnit.
First I could only do it on the left side, and the dance needs it on the right. So I started ONLY practicing it on the right. Then, I couldn't get the stupid thing to be stable after the foot switch and spend all of this week doing it over and over and over and over and over... You get the picture.
Will and Anna both tell me that I'm too hard on myself. While that might be true, I live in constant terror that I'm going to be just another lame adult skater. I've talked about that in previous posts. Most of the videos I see on YouTube are lame lame lame lame (to borrow a line from "The Incredibles"). I refuse to end up being lame. Maybe that makes me obsess a bit... ok a lot... alright a whole lot.
Of course, it only took Will 5 minutes to see what I was doing wrong (and practicing wrong, of course) all week. We went on to other stuff, which I promptly obsessed over as well. It was just one of those weeks.
Funny thing - Will (and Anna both, really) are always harping on me to bend my knees more. While working on forward crossovers this morning, I finally just got completely passive-aggressive pissy and decided to bend my knees so much that my ass was dragging the ice. Childish - but remember, I was in an OCD space this morning already. Will's reaction? THAT'S IT!!!!!!
Damn. :)
Anna did give me some more opportunties to work on partnering this morning, and I think (*think*) I made some progress. It's really tricky, and it pisses me off that it's not just coming to me naturally. For god's sake, I spent most of my dance career partnering - I should be able to just DO this. (OCD much?). We did decide that I probably need to get partnering coaching independently from my normal lesson - so I will probably start doing 30 minutes with Anna on Wednesdays. She has this uncanny ability to tell what I'm doing wrong just by what she can feel through our hands. That's cool - creepy as all hell, but cool.
Sigh. 18 months and I'm still lame lame lame lame. This is gonna freakin' drive me crazy.
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