Too close to the ice

I've spent an inordinate amount of time on the ice recently. By that, I don't just mean my feet and skates are on the ice, I mean that I fall down way too much.

Ever since I got back from my 3-week break, I've lost my jumps. The simplest ones, the waltz and toe loop are still okay, but the Salchow is iffy, and the loop is luck, but even when I do manage to jump, I don't land properly. I've been blaming it on the inadequate support and need-to-be-sharpened blades of the old skates, but now that I have new boots and fresh new blades, I've lost my excuse. Yet last night, I still could not jump. Now for someone who's first love in figure skating is jumping, that's devastating.

So I went for help the second we started jumping in class. Assis. coach A, as always, was tremendously helpful and after many disgruntling tries, she fixed my loop take off, and it felt like I was jumping again. So I went off to practice but found that even though I could jump now, I could not land, so I fell again and again and again. And again. I tried Salchows and flips and still fell, toe loop was the only safe one. Coach C came along to find out why I was spending so much time on the floor and what I kept falling on. I told her, everything. After watching me try again and fall yet again, she discovered the problem. I wasn't using my muscles, my core strength, to hold myself up. She said I was landing fine on one foot and even though I was leaning like the Tower of Pisa to the right, I could have totally held it up and not fall.

Well that explains everything. I have no core strength anymore, is the problem. For the past ten months that I've been skating for, my muscles have been building up to always match the level I'm jumping at. But not exercising for 3 weeks has killed them all, they are now almost non-existent. Coach C said that muscles deactivate (?) if you don't use them in as quickly as 72 hours. I didn't use them for 3 weeks. It's no surprise I can no longer hold up a landing if there's the slightest incorrect posture (ie. leaning), nor can I hold myself up in a sit spin and not just crash to the ice instead of lifting elegantly out of it.

Well, lesson learnt. Now it's time to do crunches and sit-ups and planks.