So every Saturday, I wake up at 6:30 am (well, I'll be honest, when I am finished with the snooze its seven) and drag my tired bottom to the ice skating rink ten minutes away. I start out every single time wondering why I am even awake, and why i even want to do this. I pull out my skates and remove the soakers (they are the cute soft fuzzy things skaters put on their skates so that the moisture on the blade gets soaked up and doesn't cause a rust/mold problem for the blade/boot. Mine have butterflies on them). Then i take my cold feet and try to shove them into a foot molded tight cold skating boot. it never feels pleasant, because you should really warm up the skate a bit first before you put your foot in. then i start lacing up my skates. it usually takes me a bit to get the tongue in the right place, and my foot in the perfect spot it has to be in- because the skate was molded to my foot. then trying to get the laces tight enough, well it never happens on the first go, because when the boot does get warmed up by my feet, then i have to retie them tighter any way. So now I have managed to get my skates laced up, I grab a head band, my skating jacket, gloves- one grey, one pink, so I can tell right from left, and my water bottle and then i head out to the ice- usually about 5 minutes late (sorry Outi!!).
Outi is my coach. She is supper awesome and from Finland. Sometimes she coaches me partly in Finnish. Today I learned the word for pink, and then I forgot it, so i can't tell you, sorry. I get out on the ice ( I love the smell of the ice, cold and crisp and refreshing- starts to wake me up) and do a quick warm up, edges, edge pulls, cross overs, cross strokes (pretty boring and i am a bit grumbley to this point), and then I start my favorite- jump ladders =). I love Jumping it is the best thing in the world. Jump ladders are basically starting out with the easiest jump you know (a waltz jump for me) and then working your way up to the hardest (so far a Lutz). Outi is trying to teach me an Axel (a 540 taken off and landed on one foot for those who don't know what that is), so when I finish my single jumps I start doing a jump combo ladder. Basically that means i do all the jumps again, but as soon as i land each of them i instantly spring back up like a bouncy ball and add on another jump, in this instance the loop (a loop is a jump where you take off from back wards on one foot and just sort of hop into the air and turn, difficult but loads of fun). When I finish that, i start working on a back spin and some other foot work things to help me with my Axel.
My goal in skating for the past 18 years has been to learn and get the Axel jump. 18 years!!! holy cow!! I have a lot of determination to eventually finish goals when I make them, but sometimes it takes a ridiculous amount of time. any way, so today Outi had me do a Flip-Loop (jump combination, too difficult to explain. maybe i will add some video) and i was going pretty big, but i kept getting too far back on my landing for the Flip. I fell hard on my butt, i fell correctly, but it hurts to sit now. I did eventually get the Flip-Loop, then I did a Lutz-Loop almost perfect on the second go, so we moved over to the harness to begin our Axel work. A harness is basically a pulley system so my coach can set me down when I do my Axel wrong and I don't have to hurt myself falling. its like training wheels for figure skaters learning jumps. Doesn't really work for spins, which is a shame because i am a bad spinner.
Any way, I started working on my Axel, and it was AWESOMENESS to the max!!! I was jumping so high, and it felt more like flying than any other jump I have ever learned. (that is why i love to jump, its like flying!!!) I still need the harness one more week before i loose the training wheels, but i am quite certain this will be my favorite jump when I get it!! my arms are still being funny, and sometimes my foot, but Outi is so good to force me to get the technique right that its going to be amazing. When I finally get it, and get off the harness, I hope all my friends will join me at the rink some morning to watch me do an Axel- the coolest single jump in figure skating, and a result of 18 years of hard work and early mornings for me.
watch this video on basic figure skating jumps, it will make more sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbfRRXHqLm8&feature=relmfu
Axel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFGLGFv8Mu0
Flip jump: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zb8C7lnYVk
Lutz:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNmTZlo0tc8&feature=fvwrel
Flip/Loop combination: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nw-6nAE93c
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