Flexibility/stretching tutorials

I was asked recently if I could share some of the YouTube tutorials for stretching that are out there, so here are a few links for anyone it might help.

I'm not a coach and not qualified in anything of this sort, so if anyone qualified is reading this and sees any issues with any of these videos/tutorials, please do let me know.

Stretches for getting your splits:

Back stretches:

In fact, all of Lisa Maree's videos are pretty good - her channel is here: BalletLisa

"The Frog" is really good for opening hips (although it's not the most lady-like of poses!!):

Another for stretching the legs and improving hip flexibility:

If you're really at a beginner level, this is a great video showing you some starter stretches:

I hope these help!

7 figure skating scenes in movies and TV shows NOT about skating

The Ice Princess, Cutting Edge, Blades of Glory...every skater has seen at least two out of the three I'm sure.

I think skaters are pre-programmed to seek out films, TV shows and even adverts that feature figure skating - despite knowing they'll be angered on some level by the unrealistic elements and timescales contained within. Of course everyone can knock out a double axel after three weeks of lessons, right?

But how many of these little gems did you notice? And are there more? Please do share your own in the comments.

1) Orange is the New Black

Uzo Aduba (aka Crazy Eyes) in her skating days, left.

This scene featuring my favourite character Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren was the inspiration for this blog post, actually. When I saw the episode a couple of weeks ago, I just had to Google the actress, Uzo Aduba, to find out if she was a figure skater. No non-skater could land that lovely off-ice axel, I thought. Sure enough, it turns out Uzo skated for 10 years as a youngster. No surprise.

2) Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The first time I saw this scene was long before skating was on my radar, and I recall my younger self thinking what a lovely skater Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) was. Now I recognise the simple but elegant turns for what they really are :-)

10 things I learned from watching BACS (British Adult Championships)

A couple of weekends ago, I went down to Sheffield with friends to watch the British Adult Championships. I try to go every year because it's so inspirational to watch other skaters my age and older competing. It was a fantastic event, as usual, and all the skaters were brilliant.

Here are some things I learned (or had reinforced in my mind) this year.

1) Adult skaters are paranoid. 

Not ALL adult skaters are paranoid, of course. You can't lump a whole bunch of people together like that, but certainly among skaters I know, this can be true.

I, and many others I know, often feel judged when we skate. Maybe we are sometimes. But at BACS, there's nothing but admiration for other skaters to be heard. When any skater is called out onto the rink at Sheffield, whatever their ability, skill level, or however long they've been skating, the only comments to be heard are positive ones, or occasionally "constructively-intended" criticism. There's not a bitchy word to be heard. It's refreshing when competitive sport can often be harsh.

2) Adult skaters are extremely supportive of one another.

Basically, see above.

3) Confidence, or lack of it, shows...

It's true. A confident skater is instantly judged to be a good skater. If they believe in themselves, it comes across. A lack of confidence does the opposite. If a skater skates out onto the rink with head held high and a beaming smile, the audience (and no doubt judges) are already making assumptions about what's to come. First impressions count.

4) ...BUT if you fake your confidence, it still shows.

Confidence is a state of mind - but it's also an outward impression. If you don't feel confident, try to come out with the head held high and the beaming smile anyway. Who's going to know you don't really feel it inside? The answer is - only you. Those first impressions will still be one of confidence, instantly colouring the audience's and judges' opinions of your skating skills.

5) Posture makes all the difference...

This point is again related to confidence. A slouchy skater looks to lack confidence, and therefore skill. If Mao Asada skated out onto the rink with a hunched up back, looking down at the ice, would you have been as impressed?

But this point also goes further than that. As we all know (or should know), the placement of the upper body makes a world of difference to our skating. My coach must have told me a million times that having my head looking up and in the right direction means I'm more likely to be on the right edge, or not scraping my toepicks, etc etc...

6) ...As do nice arms...

Even at some of the lower levels in which a skater doesn't yet have the confidence and/or ability to "do" too many "pretty arms" in their program, a nice, straight set of arms looks so much more confident than those with a bend at the elbow, or floppy arms. I see why my coach is a big fan of shouting "ARMS!" at me now. :-)

7) ...And finally - shoulders. 

I actually never realised until very recently what a difference shoulders make to a person's overall posture and look. Even just holding the shoulders a little too high (which happens a lot with nerves and tension) can make a person look ungainly or lacking in confidence.

8) If you forget your program, make it up as you go along and don't let on.

One girl I know had the "mind blank" issue on the day. I imagine she wasn't the only one. The thing was, we had no idea, watching her, that it had happened, until we saw her afterwards and she was upset about it. It's not an ideal situation, but try to remember that the only person who knows you've messed up is you. Unless you make it obvious, of course.

9) The golden rule: If you fall, get up - as fast as possible - and carry on.

Unless you've broken a bone, of course. Although, even then, if you can carry on, do. You can pass out later ;-)

Everyone will admire you when you carry on. Even the best skaters fall in competitions. It means you're skating to your full ability and pushing yourself. Good for you.

10) A bit different, number 10 - take a damn blanket.

Man does it get cold, sitting in an ice rink for maybe 12 hours, for two or three days straight. And a rink that was warm last time might not be this time ;-) You have been warned.

Those weeks when you seem to go backwards

We all have those weeks, those bad skates.

But I don't think my tough Russian coach believes in such nonsense as "a bad skate". I distinctly remember saying to Coach A recently that I was "having a bad skate today" and was met with the simple, ever-so-serious response: "Why?"

It's a fair question when you think about it. Why? The ice is still ice, your boots and feet haven't been altered overnight, so it must all be in the head, right? So although it's definitely not as simple as "Well, don't have a bad skate then" (which was the next thing Coach A said to me, haha!) - it's surely worth a word with yourself about whether you can get your head out of that mindset.

Think I've needed a few of those words myself this past week.

So with that in mind, I'm sharing this video of my program practice from about a month ago. It's not great - pretty poor show, in fact, but even this is better than I've been coming anywhere close to this week, so I'm trying to remind myself of what I was capable of just a few weeks ago, and kick my own butt into gear ready for my next lesson!!

10 reasons you should take up figure skating

People often think of figure skating or ice skating either as a fun activity for children/teens or as something there's no point in taking up seriously if you didn't begin aged five.

Here are 10 reasons to take up skating as an adult - share this with your non-skating friends and encourage them to try something new!

1) Fun

If nothing else, skating is fun. Huge bags of fun.

And the better you get at skating, the more fun you can have with it.

Say no more.

2) Friendships

As an adult, it can become very difficult to make new friends, and many of us have found ourselves in a situation where friends have moved away, got married, lost touch etc. 

Taking up a new activity is a great way to make new, lasting friendships with great people. It also means you can start skating alone, because you'll quickly find skating buddies to keep you company on the rink.

3) Health and Fitness

Trust me, when you start to love your new sport, nothing will stand in your way to get fit and eat more healthily, and you'll look and feel great for it.

Not even chocolate tempts me, most of the time ;-)

Additionally, scientists say regular exercise makes immune cells more active and ready to fight off  infection. People who regularly exercise take fewer sick days than couch potatoes.

If you can, why aren't you?

The title of this one says it all, really. This is the question I've been forced to ask myself, and I'd encourage every other adult skater to figure out if they need to be asking themselves the same.

I don't know about you, but I think a great coach is one who not only teaches you the physical elements of skating (or any other sport), but also motivates you and/or gives you a metaphorical kick up the bum when needed (on a regular basis, in my case!).

Who knew? Your coach was right all along...

It seems like forever since I posted anything here! It's been mainly because I've been on a minimal skating regimen for the last couple of months so I feel like I haven't even done any skating to write about really.

I put myself on a skating "time budget" before Christmas because I had two injuries that just refused to heal - neither caused directly by skating, but continuing to skate was probably the reason they persisted as long as they did.

So I decided that, as the rink would be busy out of term time anyway, it would be a good time to cut down skating to literally my half-hour lesson once a week plus one other short practice session (usually an hour), and I banned anything that really pulled on the muscles, spirals, for example.

The hip flexor injury's not bugging me anymore, but four months down the line I'm still suffering with a strained adductor..however, it's feeling like it's on the mend finally after the rest(ish) period, so, although I'm not overdoing it, I have gone back to "proper" skating this week.


I've been making sure I warm up properly before every skate (I was often guilty of getting straight onto the ice before) - running to get my heart going then stretching before I even get my skates on, and I think I've discovered an interesting side effect of the warm up: I skate better.

It's a strange little phenomenon, because as I'm running, and getting out of breath, and my legs are starting to ache, I'm always thinking "This is a terrible idea. I'm going to be too knackered to skate!"

But then every time, I've found that by getting on the ice physically warm, not shivering, and already with loosened-up joints, I instantly feel much more energised, and therefore seem to skate a little bit faster, bend my knees more and "bounce" a bit easier (I'm usually so stiff-legged).

Who knew? What our coaches are telling us is actually right - you really do seem to fare better if you warm up before skating. Haha!

*A year in pictures - 2014 edition*

Not one to break tradition, here's my skating year in pictures for 2014 - hope you enjoy!

I'd love to see some of your favourite pictures from your skating year so please do share them in the comments or on Facebook.

I actually haven't taken many skating photos this year (maybe partly because I've had a lot of time off the ice due to injuries). Must fix this in 2015!

At the end of March, I got a fantastic opportunity (through the work I do) to go to the Dancing On Ice live tour's opening night and also the after party. I took along a friend and we had a great time. I have so many pictures from the night but here are a few of my favourites:

14 Christmas gift ideas for the figure skater in your life

It's Chrrrrrisssssssssttmmmaaaaaaaaaaasss! Ok, well, it's December - close enough.

We skater types always love skating-themed gifts at this time of year. A new pair of Chloes, a skirt, a dress, a hoodie, a jacket, new soakers or blade guards....the possibilities are endless. But putting aside the obvious, what else could you get for the skater in your life? Here are 14 (well, more really, as some categories have a few items in them) ideas for all budgets:

1) JEWELLERY

Do you know any girl who doesn't love a new necklace or pair of earrings? There are quite a few bits of skating jewellery out there to be found if you look hard enough. Here are just some ideas.

Right are Jerry's silver-coloured and gold-coloured necklace and earring sets. I can't find what these are made from, but at £8.99 from Nice Ice Baby (a business local to my rink, and very reliable) they'd make a fab stocking filler.

There aren't many places you can have bespoke skate jewellery made, but one designer close to where I skate makes fantastic pieces, and still very affordable too. If you caught her very soon I dare

say you'd just make it in time for Christmas. The one-woman company (where everything is handmade) is Best Bejewelled, run by Val, and I love working with her to have her create exactly what I'm looking for.

This, pictured left, is one of the bracelets I've bought from her, but I know she can also do skate earrings, necklaces, keychains, mobile phone charms, etc etc. Well worth a look. She doesn't have a website at the moment, but for info, you can email her on bestbejewelled@gmail.com.



For another cheap-ish but cute necklace, check out this one from Iceventure - I personally think the blue's lovely.


2) BOOKS

Irving Brokaw's The Art of Skating

Irving Brokaw was the first American to compete in figure skating at the Olympics in 1908 (the first Olympics to include it as a sport). Including lots of illustrations and pictures, Irving Brokaw's book charts the history and

10 signs that you're an adult figure skater

If you're one of those skaters who juggles real, adult, life with a hobby more often geared toward children, you'll no doubt recognise a few of these...

1) When friends invite you out and the main factor in whether to have a few drinks and risk a hangover is if you need want to skate the next day.



2) Your definition of success is: Finding that perfect outfit that can work both in the office and on the ice for those skating days when there's no time to change....

Hand care for figure skaters (or anyone who spends time in the cold)

Ok, this post is a little different to the kinds of things I usually blog about, but it's getting to that time of year where the combination of the freezing cold ice rink and my centrally-heated home, plus pulling on rough laces three times a week, is beginning to show on my poor fingers.

It's probably not just me with this problem, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite products.

An important thing to note is you really shouldn't use harsh scrubs or products on cracked skin, but I do as long as it's not broken to the point of bleeding. I'm not advising you from a medical/dermatological point of view, purely from skater to skater and sharing my personal favourites.

It's important all year round to look after your hands, after all, they do a lot of hard work on a daily basis. The skin on the hands and feet is thicker than other parts of the body, which is why you can get away with more when it comes to using household cleaning products etc. But in the winter (and especially in the cold rink) they need a little extra help.

1) My favourite all-round hand cream has to be Hand Food by Soap and Glory. This contains Shea Butter, Macadamia Oil and marshmallow (!) - and no, you can't eat it, as tasty as it may smell.

I use Hand Food on a daily basis. All hand creams work best just after you've washed your hands as they're designed to lock in moisture. The best time to do that is after your hands have been wet (but thoroughly dried too), because they've just absorbed water into the skin. The cream will then lock that in. This is especially true for oily products.

Can you really improve flexibility as an adult?

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece and not to be taken as any kind of medical advice. Always see a professional if you're planning to change your workout routine, or it's at your own risk!

The truth is, you don't have to be flexible, strong or fit to be a figure skater, but it certainly helps. When I started skating three years ago I was none of the above. People have always assumed I'm fit because I'm slim, but the two don't necessarily go hand-in-hand. I'm just lucky to have ridiculously good metabolism (though even that's starting to struggle more with age).

As I'm sure was the case with many others out there, I quickly began to realise getting in some sort of shape was going to be necessary the more my skating progressed. It's not so much of an issue when you spend

It's all in the name: no excuses

I'm very aware that I haven't posted for quite a while. This is mainly due to life getting in the way - between work, freelance work, family stuff, friend stuff and, of course, skating, there isn't a lot of time left over for posting.

However, I read a really interesting article on another blog today that I wanted to share with

Ok, manned up....now man up some more....

I probably posted about me trying to be a new, braver me and feeling like it was working. I still do think it's working to some extent...I'm certainly doing more on the ice now than I would have dared even just a few months ago. It may sound like nothing to a lot of people, but for a nervous ninny like me, mohawking at any speed faster than standstill is a great achievement.

So now my coach has started putting together a program for me, I feel like these things are really starting to come along because (most of the time) I just do it. My new principle is to embrace the fear, if you like. I feel the fear, ignore it, and do it anyway, then panic afterwards (while overheating through the fear sweats). A few months ago I would have felt the fear and stopped dead in my tracks, the end.

Ok - it didn't quite work out in one of my lessons last week. In a rather amusing moment, I panicked and chickened out of a move - three times in a row. What it meant was, instead of doing the mohawk-thing I was supposed to do, I two-foot turned. A big no-no. I recall an earlier conversation with Coach A where he said "what was THAT?". My reply of "a two-foot turn" was greeted with "Excuuuuse me? What level is that on? (4) and what level are you on? (Gold).....ahem." *Cue face of disappointment*.

This time, that two-foot turn just happened to be at a point EXACTLY in front where he was standing, watching from the barrier. Bad times. "Oh come ON. Really?? I'm standing right here." Fair point, Coach A, fair point. To be fair, I fixed it. What choice was there?

Anyway, so in my most recent lesson, Coach A very kindly, I must say, called my backward crossovers "absolutely brilliant". Those words will stick in my head for all eternity I think, since I never in a million years would have expected such an accolade. He then politely pointed out, however, that I don't do them in my 'brilliant' way if ANYTHING comes after them. On their own, yeah, great. But they slow down to a snail's pace in anticipation of what's to come next if I'm expecting a jump, spin - well, anything really. And he's totally right.

So guess what I'm going to try working on this week....cue many splats. Anyone got a spare ambulance ready?

A new generation

Brace yourselves - this is going to be a controversial one. If you're easily offended I suggest you look away now.

Of course I'm always interested to hear differences of opinion - after all, this blog is just one person's opinion and there's nothing to say it's fact - so disagree to your heart's content. There's nothing wrong with a bit of debate on a subject.

For a while now, I've been debating whether I wanted to tackle this subject, then a news article I read today made my mind up for me. I'll link you up to that shortly, but here goes -

This one time, at skate camp...

This weekend, two friends and I headed to Sheffield for this year's NISA adult development camp. I came back three friends better off and having tried my hand at not only skating, but also at being a showgirl, a ballet dancer and so much more.

Ok, so I also had it reinforced to me that I'm (stealing a friend's term here) severely choreographically challenged (!) - but I actually didn't fare as badly as I would have suspected.

If you haven't been to a camp and are thinking about it, I would absolutely urge you to grab a couple of friends and get yourselves there. We had an absolute blast from beginning to end.

The classes

Out of my comfort zone

Remember that program I was so excited about finally getting? Well, my coach has started to put it together for me now, and it's definitely the massive challenge to my confidence that I thought it was going to be.

But I have to say, I'm really enjoying it. It's great to have something else to work on; I like that I'm being forced to do my best to skate "with flow" (I suppose that's the phrase), and faster - though when I used that phrase to Coach A he did get his serious face on and insist "this is not fast" :-) I'm inclined to agree with him, but, for me, it is!

When you first started to put things together into a sequence of any kind, above just the skate uk level you need, did you

Cheer Up Tuesday

I'm not sure this actually really needs words; this guy just cheered up my day by being so phenomenally random. There's clearly a fella who can actually skate a bit underneath all that crazy-eyes-thing, and he's certainly bringing a smile to some faces - if slightly wary faces...

Cheer up Tuesday

I'm sure we've also seen videos like this before, but I loved this one. She's just so pudgy and little...and fast!

Her music is irritating beyond words, but this little skater is ever so cute. I'm not sure I like whatever those "forward" jumps are that they seem to have the tiny ones doing at this competition - I do fear for their lives I'll admit. But I would love to see competitions (or even just showcases, not necessary that they compete against one another) for really titchy skaters in this country in the future - it's got to be great fun for them and a great introduction to competing.

Enjoy!

Don't be your own worst enemy - there'll be plenty of volunteers for that role!

If there's something I constantly have to work on when it comes to skating it's my confidence. Well, not even my confidence really, just my willingness to make a fool of myself. I've never been one who handled humiliation well - I've had to work really hard in my adult life to be able to laugh at myself rather than just getting embarrassed.

I actually thought