We got told off for "disturbing the other guests" in the hotel (with our loud laughing at 11.30pm) and for setting a toaster on fire at breakfast.
Yeah, that was us.
If you've never been to a skate camp, you really should go - if you're anything like us you'll have such a laugh, and probably learn a fair bit too.
Last weekend, four friends and I went to NISA's first adult development camp at Sheffield and I'm pleased to report the organisers did a really great job. A small kink or two, but it WAS the first one they'd organised and overall it was a great success. I do hope they'll run more of them.
We did all kinds of things, from learning little choreographed sequences to working on improving crossovers, spins and jumps. One of the things I really enjoyed was a class on Annie's Edges - something I've never seen done before, though I'd heard of it. For those who've never heard of it, it's a series of drills/patterns set to music, different exercises to help improve your edges. Most of them were way out of my league, but I enjoyed giving it a go and I'm going to keep practising them because I do think they'll really help me build up a bit of control. I suppose some of them are probably quite similar to old-style compulsory figures, which I kinda wish was still done to be honest.
There was the odd new thing I tried there too
, including backspin - something I'd never tried to do before. It was a major fail, but at least I tried. I seem to find a new, braver me at camp. That's another reason to go if you're a bit of a nervous ninny like me. One moment I enjoyed was when our group was practising toe loop jumps (which I was only shown for the first time by my own coach two days before). One of the coaches there watched me do it and exclaimed: "Good girl!", then laughed at himself and apologised to me with "Sorry...you're not 12!" He then said "That was a really good jump" which obviously delighted me since it's a fairly new thing. He must have seen some pretty shoddy attempts elsewhere, that's all I can say!! Haha!
, including backspin - something I'd never tried to do before. It was a major fail, but at least I tried. I seem to find a new, braver me at camp. That's another reason to go if you're a bit of a nervous ninny like me. One moment I enjoyed was when our group was practising toe loop jumps (which I was only shown for the first time by my own coach two days before). One of the coaches there watched me do it and exclaimed: "Good girl!", then laughed at himself and apologised to me with "Sorry...you're not 12!" He then said "That was a really good jump" which obviously delighted me since it's a fairly new thing. He must have seen some pretty shoddy attempts elsewhere, that's all I can say!! Haha!
The thing that was nice about this particular camp was that at no time did we feel like second-class citizens, as adults often do. One of the coaches there actually said he hates the phrase "adult skaters", saying "A skater's a skater". I liked that.
It's been a busy few weeks actually. The week before Sheffield, my hubby and I went down to Blackpool for the weekend to see Hot Ice (it was our wedding anniversary), which was amazing as always. If you've never seen it, you really don't know what you're missing out on, it's spectacular.
Then this weekend, today in fact, I went to a two-hour "skate school" held by some of the Dancing on Ice professionals at our local rink, which was a LOT of fun - and hard work too! I wouldn't like to think Dan Whiston was my coach - I think my legs would drop off! He is one hard taskmaster.
It probably didn't help that my my friend and I - inspired by the off-ice classes at Sheffield last week - bought ourselves "wobble cushions" and spent a few hours on Thursday night doing spirals, teapots and core exercises on them, so our legs were already jelly before today even began. If you don't know what one is, it looks like this:
Basically, it's an air-filled cushion - very hard to balance on. Fun though!
On another subject, does anyone else make extensive notes after their lessons? I'm a bit obsessive about it. It doesn't help that my memory's shocking so if I didn't write it down, I'd probably forget it.
Reading over my last session's notes did make me giggle though. Poor Coach A must be despairing that he ever took me on as a student at the moment:
Oh dear. Bear in mind that the "extra toe down" in my step sequence is also after a 3 turn (one done from backwards).
Well after looking at that, today I practised for an hour-and-a-half (following skate school) and the only thing I did was alternate 3 turns, over and over and over again. It's still no better, so I'm going to do the same tomorrow as well. Hate disappointing people!
Oh, and one final thing - good news! I've been discharged from physio for my broken wrist, finally! It's not fixed, but it's a million times better than it was, and I got 45-degree extension, finally (normal is about 90, but 45 is classed as "functional"). Yay!
No comments:
Post a Comment