No Practice = No Progress?

It seems the Universe is conspiring against me these days!  I'm still trying to get ready to take my first tests in June, and am just now coming off of almost two weeks of being sick and not skating.  That's definitely a prescription for progress, huh?  :)

I finally got back to the rink on Wednesday for my partnering lesson with Anna - at that point I decided I was done sitting on my butt and had to get out and DO something - as if just "deciding not to be sick anymore" would just magically solve the problem, right?  The funny thing is, even with not having skated since my last lesson with her, we still made some progress.  The same thing happened at my lesson with Will two days later.  This seems to run counter to logic, but not necessarily.

One thing I learned as a dancer was that sleeping on a new move from a class, or some new choreography for a show, nearly always made a difference to both my retention and performance.  It's as if the body needed a day to digest the new stuff and incorporate it before it was ever going to be permanent.  Invariably, the day after a hard class or really long rehearsal, things were somehow easier.  I've found that happening in skating as well - I can spend a whole practice session on something and really struggle, just to come to the rink the next morning and toss it off like it was nothing.

Interesting thing, the brain.  Turns out, "digestion" is essentially just what's going on here.  The same thing happens with academic learning as well.  That sleep time allows the brain a chance to solidify new memories.  Many athletes do "mental practices", running through visualizations of their movements, as well, and there's some research to suggest that these visualizations trigger the same areas of the brain that would actually perform the movements in the real world.  These also seem to 'work' - I do them myself with both dance and skating.

So bottom line, even though I didn't make it to the rink much while I've been down with the flu, I did make some progress.  You can't make a habit of that, of course :)

Serious illness as a weight loss plan

I've finally discovered what it takes for my chubby cheeks to go away.  It's called "stomach flu". 

Downside: Sick as a dog for three days and completely ready to just die and get it over with.

Upside: Didn't couldn't eat anything for three days and my cheeks are once again concave.

Back to the rink in the morning.  Will be interesting to see if I've lost any strength.  My luck, probably....

Not the best way to finally start dumping weight, but hey - at my age you take it how you can get it!  :)

Just what I needed

One of the other adult skaters has been trying to get me to come to Blue's group abs class on Tuesdays.  You remember Blue, right?  My twenty-something-underwear-model former trainer?  Yeah - that Blue.  Seems he's back in town from a big photo shoot and back to showing off his ripped abs and negative body fat.  Even better (if you can call it "better") he evidently has another underwear model friend from France staying with him right now.... love the name - "Christophe".  Sounds like a men's fragrance, doesn't it.  "Blue Christophe".  :)

Am I going to put my 48-year-old body in a room with the fragrance boys and their abs?  Am I going to slit my wrists and sing christmas carols at the top of my lungs while walking on the freeway?  Same chance.

Just what I need.

Sigh.

Ok - as for the actual skating, things went really REALLY well this week.  The extra lessons with Anna are having an impact and my fundamentals are getting stronger as a result.  I'm working my butt off (figuratively, if not actually) and starting to see movement again.  For a while there, I felt like I was plateauing, but this was just the kick I needed to start making progress again.

Turns out, I'm really getting the hang of partnering - at least in the simplest dance position, "Killian".  Then, just when I was showing signs of being able to skate with someone without being a hazard to their health, Anna throws the "reverse Killian" at me this week.  Everything is the same, only different.  In Killian, she's on the right side.  In Reverse Killian, she's on the left.  Give me just a moment while I tear out my brain, turn it around, and jam it back into my skull.  Thank you.

It took me a little bit, but I think I finally started to understand it by the end of the session.

I've really been working hard on getting my body positions right - the sessions with Anna highlighted where  the problems are, and I've focused on those during my technique practice sessions.  That bore fruit during my lesson with Will today - he actually complimented my knee bend.  Yes, it's the end of the world.  Are your feet feeling a might frostbitten?

Of course, that stupid mohawk in the Swing Dance was still driving me batty.  Will figured that out today - and just like the 3-turns, I was trying too hard.  He got me to let go and just let it happen and suddenly the last of my problems dropped away.

Sometimes, all I need is for someone to get me to take a deep breath.

Just what I needed.  :)