Back on the Ice

Well I haven't done a ton of skating in the last 6 weeks, hence the lapse in blogging.

• Primarily this is due to the closing of the public rinks for spring/summer, and because I experienced an injury to my neck and I wasn't able to jump or spin for a while.
  
• This week I had terrible luck and tweaked my neck again so I had to miss a session and then two other sessions were canceled for an ice show.
  
• That would not have been so bad if they had at least let us know that the sessions were canceled, but it was a surprise to everyone even my coaches.
• I've skated 3 times with the Adult synchro team. Now I see why it was called 'Precision' in the past. It's really hard! But it's so cool to skate with other Adults and they even talk to me.
• My skills have not taken too much of a hit and I think my spins have even gotten better. I've been working on more attack in all of them and I recently started putting more work into a layback spin and a sideways leaning spin. Camel spins are still inconsistent but because they've gotten a little wild as I try to make them faster. OK, my jumps have probably gotten worse, they barely leave the ground. But, I'm doing better at bracket turns and pivots.
• I got to play a couple of playoff games with my hockey team and we even made it to the final! We lost in the final, but whatever. For the spring I am playing in a league that plays on a day that works better for me, but so far it's very disorganized. The first game was ok but in the second game we only had 6 players and nobody arrived to give us jerseys or pucks. Eventually we procured jerseys and a couple of subs but double-shifts are not my favourite way to play hockey. Fortunately the other team was not too skilled and I had a lot of chances to breathe. Had a couple shots on goal too, not bad for a defender.
• I got both sets of skates sharpened and it made a huge difference. Duh!

Here's a video of my new layback spin. My parents watched one of my practices recently and brought their camera! OK so it doesn't look like Alissa Czisny's layback spin, but it sure feels like I am bent back until my body is parallel to the ice. The camera really has a way of shattering my internal perceptions ;)