THOUGHTS - "No, I wasn't kidnapped
by the mountain bears again..."
May
31, 2003
I feel like I'm juggling 15 plates right now but
slowly I'm setting them down! Good news is I am
assigned Skate America and Skate Canada! What
great events.... What's up with Elvis Stojko and
Yagudin coming back? I'll just have to show'em
what I got!
I went to a reception at the USFSA for Chuck Foster
(the new President) last night and was able to
feel out headquarters thoughts on the new judging
system. John Lefevre (Executive Director) basically
likes it and there is a "wait and see"
view of it. So, I'm almost certain the USFSA won't
be doing any bold moves soon. After hearing George
Rossano speak last week at the PSA Conference,
I don't like it at all. It appears mathematically
as a regression from our current systen. Now I
need to learn details to prepare programs for
the Grand Prix Events.
Speaking of programs, we (Tom Dickson, Diana Ronayne,
and I) are finally getting those settled. For
the short I'm skating to a combination of two
pieces. The beginning is a Chopin piano and violin
duet. The piano is very classical but the violin,
performed by Luke DePonty (sp?), is almost improvisational.
Then it cuts to a piece that I found called "classical
graffiti" by a new group called the Planets.
They're kind of a Bond type of group with modern
instrumentation like guitar etc. The long we're
still working with a Brazilian motif. Difficulties
are finding non vocals and doing it in a manner
that people won't think it is African! We're still
looking for a lyrical samba type beat for the
slow part before we can put that together. We
see it as very modern dance-ish and should push
boundaries a bit!
In other good news, I received my World Team ring
last night! It is gold with the 2003 Worlds logo
on top with the words World Figure Skating Team
circling it, then the team logo on one side and
Washington D.C. on the other side. Now when I
have a challenging day I'll look down and remind
myself what I can do!
I'm setting up foundational things for this year's
training which are very necessary but burdensome
in an already tight schedule. Some examples are
a goals sheet with steps how to accomplish them,
a practice list so that I make sure I'm covering
everything, identifying and working through different
psychology issues that came up last year, scheduling
summer work and skating, periodizing my off ice
workouts so I know that I'll peak at the right
time, and coordinating with the different people
on my "team" that help make all this
work! I am also trying to set up physiology testing
at the OTC to see where I am with my fitness level.
Then in a few months I'll test again to see what
improvements have been made to make sure my training
is effective. I've basically hit a wall with trying
to accomplish these things while still training
full
time, running a coaching business, and my own
household needs. Nevertheless, I see the light
at the end of the tunnel!
Tomorrow is my first anniversary!!! Yep, it was
a year ago! What a sweet year it has been. I'm
never going back to being single:-) Since we were
engaged at the Broadmoor Hotel, we have reservations
for their Sunday brunch. What's even better is
that it is virtually free since
I received a certificate for two from the hotel
for brunch because of my placement at Nationals!
I love the perks :-) So, lunch is out on the terrace
and then we'll reminisce around the lake....
I attended the PSA Conference May 19-26 and it
was a great experience for several reasons. First,
my oral ratings exams went superbly so I passed
my Certified FS and Registered FM tests. For FS
I still have the Senior and Master Ratings to
go. It is crucial as a coach to have
official accreditation from the PSA. I'm pretty
sure my Sports Science and Medicine exams passed
as well but I don't have the results back yet.
Secondly, it was helpful to have so much time
to think about basics and theory and hear other
people's expertise. For example, I heard a presentation
on basic spin theory and then I would think, "How
does this apply to my quad?" I also demonstrated
for several days on ice and was successful in
performing my jumps with
little warm up. That was especially gratifying
since I hadn't been skating all that well. I also
heard a presentation on athlete development by
a director at the USOC. He spoke strongly about
the
need for recovery and not simply training. His
mantra was "It's not how hard you train,
but how well you recover." That really got
me thinking about how to train smart this year.
I'm generally of the mentality that "I'll
train harder than anyone else". Now I realize
that's not the only issue on the table. Lately,
I've been putting in hard work off ice to build
my strength foundations etc. to increase my potential.
The side effect is I've been dragging on the ice
and not recovering from day to day. Now I'm trying
to get the best of both worlds.
Lately, skating has been in the duldrums (my performance
not desire) but thankfully I know why. Since I've
been doing all this other stuff I haven't been
putting in the time to walk through jumps, watch
videos, etc. I can't wait to get back on track
again. I feel competitive skating is my primary
focus and I want to do everything I can to be
the best competitor this year!
My apologies if some of this doesn't make sense.
I confess in advance that this email is a combination
of some others I wrote earlier today! Sneaky,
but true. That's got to be an email faux pas if
there is such a thing :-) I just couldn't bring
myself to writing it twice...
Thanks for your interest in my life.
Ryan
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