PeacefulOreo's Figure Skating Journey

[PeacefulOreo]

Today I went with a friend to get my skates sharpened because I noticed how my skates slide out from under me when I go on a curve and I've skates for a little over 40 hours since getting my skates fitted and sharpened. When we got there, I told the guy who runs the pro shop and he looked at my skates and said that the edge was gone and compared the sharpness of the blades to a butter knife. Thankfully I didn't wait too much longer to get my skates sharpened.

[PeacefulOreo]

Well... I had the hardest fall I've ever had so far for skating. I was doing a spiral and accidentally went onto my toe pick and fell forwards (My knees hit the ice first then my right hip and finally my left elbow). I managed to scrape off some skin on my left elbow and then after getting up, I went to the wall and actually blanked out for a few seconds (my parents were skating with me but they didn't see my fall but were able to get me to sit down in the sitting area when I started fainting)

[PeacefulOreo]

So it has been a really long time since I have updated this. Here we go with all of the updates!

1. I decided that I wanted to learn a routine that isn't too easy but isn't too hard for an ice show (including jumps and spins). In order for me to do that, I have to join the figure skating club as well as get private lessons with a coach to put together a routine that I can perform and teach me the routine. I looked at two top options for coaches, both possible coaches I've had as an instructor before. The one I had first asked was too busy to fit me in so I asked the other coach (This coach has been my instructor since I was in Basic 4) and she said that she could coach me in January.
2. I joined the figure skating club toward the end of November of 2021.
3. Early December 2021, I attended my first figure skating club meeting
4. I got an official figure skating club water bottle! (Not sure exactly when this was but sometime in December I think)
5. I had talked to the Jr. Club instructor about the private lessons details (possible days of the week, how many times a week, and how long the lessons would be).
6. My dad said that I could only do either Jr. Club lessons or private lessons, not both sadly.
7. About a week before Christmas in 2021, I passed into Free Skate 3. This was the last group of Jr. Club lessons for 2021. Somewhat sad that I couldn't continue both because I would miss the friends I had made in Jr. Club.
8. A little over a week ago today (Today for me is January 15th), I heard when my lessons would start and what times each lesson would be for all of January
9. Today was my first private lesson with the Jr. Club instructor who I now will call Coach on here. She had me work on improving my three turns (worked on techniques for control) and jumps. For the salchow jump, the new entrance to the jump that she showed me and had me today I found so much better/easier than the other way I had been doing them. She then told me that I could choose a song for my ice show routine, it has to be a minute and 44 seconds long (so either a song that is a minute and 44 seconds long or one that I could cut off at the minute and 44 second mark). I'm thinking of possibly doing a Taylor Swift song.

[BlackOak2]

Ooo... Fun!
Stack those lessons full!
Taylor Swift songs are upbeat. Good to skate to.

[PeacefulOreo]

Ooo... Fun!
Stack those lessons full!
Taylor Swift songs are upbeat. Good to skate to.

Yeah, I'm considering "A Message In A Bottle" but haven't made up my mind fully yet. I want to make sure that whatever I choose won't be something I would end up wanting to change out mid way through learning the routine.

[BlackOak2]

Ooo... Fun!
Stack those lessons full!
Taylor Swift songs are upbeat. Good to skate to.

Yeah, I'm considering "A Message In A Bottle" but haven't made up my mind fully yet. I want to make sure that whatever I choose won't be something I would end up wanting to change out mid way through learning the routine.

I could suggest picking something that the notes and the words and the beat (or a combination thereof) matches or nearly matches the strokes of your steps.
*I feel like we've had this conversation before... *
Anyway, this way it'll be easier to remember the parts of the routine and also plan the steps to each jump. You'll begin to know that you're too slow or too fast and then... well you know.

That's how I plan my music when I'm practicing, exercising, etc. to it. In fact, I often find myself slowing or speeding up to the beats when I'm listening.

[PeacefulOreo]

A massive update on how things are going and this explains my disappearance from HWO up until this point.

A.) The figure skating club said that we could do music from the 1980s all the way up to 2020 for the spring ice show (show is on April 24th which is the day right after my school's prom) so I chose "22" by Taylor Swift as that was released in 2012 and the song was approved. This all happened three weeks ago.
B.) Track has started up so hopefully that will help continue to improve my skating abilities (we have practice from 3:15pn to 5:00pm every weekday that we have school). I also hope to avoid the patellar tendonitis (I have been doing things like stretching before skating and wearing a knee brace to help prevent it from coming back)
C.) My original coach ended up getting too busy to coach me so she had directed me to a different coach who could coach me. I had my first two lessons, both were just 30 minutes. Feels weird to do some of my skills differently as the new coach wants me doing things differently than that of my original coach had taught me.
D.) About two weeks ago, my coach and I had talked about what we were going to put in my routine and she gave me a CD of the music, she had done a small bit of editing so that it is 1 minute and 39 seconds long.
E.) Just this last Thursday was my first lesson since talking about my routine because my coach had a health issue. She taught me the first half of the routine and changed things based off of what I was able to do well and what I struggled with. This lesson went very well considering that I just learned half of the routine in just that lesson time. Definitely have things to work on cleaning up (definitely not too easy but can still get it ready in time for the show which is what I'm aiming for) and then figure out the timing of all of the elements with the music. I found that I hesitated quite a bit which puts me behind where I need to be next so that is one specific thing for me to work on.
I did have a few moments, one in particular, of where I had a brain fart. I was supposed to go from my backwards spiral into my Salchow that is combined with the toe loop jump but I did something goofy, I still don't have any clue on what on earth I even did, and then did a waltz jump after the spiral instead of the jump combination


As you can see, I have been very busy. I'm hoping to try to get on here as often as I can fit into my schedule

[BlackOak2]

Ooo!
Sounds like you're enjoying life to the maximum.

The game will wait, as you know. We'll see you whenever you can swing by.

[PeacefulOreo]

So an update:

I have learned my whole routine for "22" and now it's figuring out the timing and cleaning it up. I get to end with a really cool knee slide but doing the knee slide leaves me with a decent bruise on my left knee. The spring ice show is already in around a week. I have gotten a figure skating dress (those who may not know, figure skating dresses are specifically designed for figure skating) that is red and now I'm waiting on the figure skating leggings to come in which should be any day now. I'm very excited but also very nervous about the spring ice show!


My coach has been working me hard on my scratch spin. Then just this last Saturday, she taught me how to do the next jump I have not learned to that point which is called the loop jump.

[BlackOak2]

Ooo!!

Very nice!

You may be able to cushion your knee-slide with a bandage, or even just one of those thick bandaids. Good luck though!

It sounds like it was a good song that matches you well.