Awesome coach

My coach is awesome! (my private coach, not the group coach, though she's awesome too)

So the story is that I'm working on my five-step mohawk for the bronze MITF, and I realize I'm doing the third step of the sequence for my left and right side differently! On one side I push onto the BO edge and keep the free leg forward, on the other side I extend the free leg to the back. I asked coach what that step is supposed to be and she said free leg is not specified, so either is fine. However, most people either do one or the other, and not a combination (ie. I'm odd). Coach said she wanted to guess on which side I do what. After thinking about it for a minute, she came up with the right answer! True, it is only a fifty-fifty decision, but she had actual reasoning behind the guess. She had based it off of the little things I always do and how one side of my body tends to do what.

I was quite impressed at hearing all this, I never realized that she pays so much attention to all the details of my skating, and remembers them all. I feel like she knows my skating much better than I do myself. I don't think I would have been able to come up with that answer.

I feel so lucky to have her as my coach. She knows what things should be stressed at what point in my skating skills progression. Some things that she didn't pick on before doesn't mean she's not doing her job and correcting me, it's just that at the level I was at before, there are far more important things to focus on. As I progress further, she'll start pointing out things that she now thinks I should be doing. Like right now, she keeps fussing about my check-out position, something that didn't matter as much back when my jumps were slow and small. She never used to say anything on my (lack of) toe point and extension and such, but now it's something she continuously brings up. I love how she totally knows what she's doing.

We have the same way of thinking about skating too, both very analytic and needing everything to be explained. My group coach has complained (for lack of a better word) many times about how I always want to over-think things when I should just let my body do it and feel it. But that's why she recommended my current coach when I asked her for recommendations, she knew we were alike lol.

I'm a lucky skater : )

In the harness

First time in the harness!

Our entire group class was super excited when coach announced that we're getting a go on the harness in group class! I've been itching to try it even though I don't really have anything to practice on it for, it's not like I'm doing axels or any doubles yet.

When she asked who wanted to go first, we were all a little hesitant. I said I'd love to try but I have no clue what I'm supposed to try with it. So coach suggested me to try an axel. So in addition to being in the harness for the first time, I also tried an axel for the first time!

Since I have never used the harness before (I didn't even know what I was supposed to do with it when she handed it to me lol), we went through a few basic things to get a feel, like jumping up and down on the spot, and jumping and rotating once on the spot. Then she got me to do a waltz jump from a standstill. Waltz jumps should be easy enough at this point, but not if you've never been on the harness! The fact that there was still a slight pull upwards when I'm about to land threw me off the landing timing completely, and I couldn't land at all. I want to say I fell, but since she was pulling on the harness, I sort of slowly dropped to the floor awkwardly instead. Waltz jump worked on the second try, so on to a waltz-loop. Again, that gradual drop to the ice, but two more tries and it was good enough.

We had about ten people to go in our class time of 45 min, so we each only had a few minutes to play. So fast forward to trying an axel! Of course I didn't even come close to landing one, but it was really fun. It was so liberating to not be scared at all and just throw myself up in the air. I have no clue how far in the rotation I managed to get, I wish I could have seen myself. According to coach though, I did really good (but she's always very lavishing with compliments though). Super fun group class!

I can't wait for the day when I really get to work on axels! But as I can't even do a backspin yet, there's probably still quite a while to go.