Toby's in the Ivan Lendl wheelchair sports camp this week in West Hartford CT. He adores it. I adore it too - not only because it's so great to see him in a such an active sport-focussed and accessible experience, but also because I drop him off and head to the rink. There are three to choose from:
Veterans Memorial Rink. This is a great rink. I skated on it for the whole week last summer. They have long mid-day public sessions, although lots of camper kids who get on about an hour into it. I'll skate there a few times this week. Bonus - I found out last week that this is the rink where Mary Jo skated while growing up - a coach from North Carolina who I adore. Skating there knowing that? It's pretty touching.
Newington According to my skate-mom informant, this rink has the best freeskating ice around and sessions aren't that expensive - I'll head there later this week
and Simsbury home of a zillion Russian coaches and a fair
number of elite skaters. I called to see if any of the coaches had time available this week for a guest lesson with me - and yes, both M Gregory and Denis P had time.
Today I skated a single hour-long session – the first half was a lesson with Melissa G. I went into the lesson with the goal of coming out with a bit of a footwork "toolkit" - things I could play with for putting together a footwork sequence for a new program. I'm playing with new music (a Yo-Yo Ma track - it screams for deep edgework) - and I specifically want some input on pulling pieces together to get a leveled footwork sequence under IJS judging. I ended with the beginnings of a footwork sequence - it needs some more stuff added for the leveling, but it has potential.
In the video, Melissa does it first, and then I do it - not well b/c my brain hadn't encoded it yet - but Melissa was calling out the pieces so mostly that part is for me to remember it. We did a bit more after this - adding some chotaws, a LFI twizzle and a loop going in the other direction.
I thoughly enjoyed the time and the lesson. We listened to my cd/new music (thanks Mary Jo!) and
simultaneously did my old footwork sequence so she could get an idea of what I
could do. Then we just started playing – putting together things – and
ended up with a decent edgy footwork sequence that’ll probably work pretty well
with the new music – or some variant of it.
I did take a plop straight down while trying a F counter that I hadn’t tried in a long time – one of those where it just jars along your entire spine. So it’s extra hard to pick Toby up tonight – those muscles need some “rolling” with my stick and maybe some Tylenol. Aside from that – it was a really good lesson.
I spent the next few hours watching some of the other sessions. There were some really great little skaters. A friend of the family's daughter Brooklee is really quite good – lovely high fast-rotating jumps, and
really nice musicality. Her spins were awesome too – she had at least one that’s a level 4 – where she
eventually ends up in a back pancake that goes on for a dozen plus
revolutions. Holy cow. The Training Center does a good job at focusing on IJS-oriented programs - it was interesting to watch a lot of the program run-throughs.
There’s more tomorrow, then Thurs I’ll go to Newington.
Wow, looks great! I know all about getting a new routine put together. I'm back at synchro and competing at Masters Nationals in Vegas in October. Lots of work...
It's funny how backwards and confused we can get while still learning a sequence. Happens to all of us!
I'm glad to hear that Toby is at a great camp that he loves. Great excitement for him, and a great break for you! Enjoy your week!
Posted by: Sarahfish | August 06, 2008 at 09:11 AM
Sounds like a great week...I'm jealous, in CT we hear from time to time about all the stars up in Simsbury...hope you got the chance to rub elbows with some!
Posted by: lkmcland | September 07, 2008 at 09:35 AM