Ice Skating: January 2016

Hello It's Lily Z again! This time I'm really excited to share my passion and life as an ice skater! It started when I was about four years old as my family was scoping out different activities do do on the weekends for fun, exercise, and to keep us busy. I started off in kokokahi gymnastics every Saturday morning but, unfortunately we quit a year later because one my sisters and I weren't really that interested also because my one of my sisters kept laughing the whole entire class. Later we found hula! I took hula every Sunday, it was such a hassle for us and, we were required to go to many of these hula shows and competitions that it just became to much. Also my dad thought we weren't really learning anything and it was a waste of time and it was. Next we found Ice Skating! Well we kind of popped in because we actually knew about ice skating lessons ever since my oldest sister went public skating with Auntie Donna and she loved so we started signing up. So my dad and my sister started in a beginner class about beta. Sadly my dad quit because he kept falling but it's hard sport so I can't blame him at all. A year later my other sister and I started in tots which we learned how to do swizzles, forward wiggles, and marching. After a couple years I was stuck in Alpha for about 1-2 years because my left leg use to be week so I had trouble balancing on it But, I never knew I had a week leg until this sport appeared in my life because one thing I never realized the truth about when I was adapted I was very sick and malnourished about 17.5 pounds at age two because the orphanage didn't take very good care of me I was dirty, and skin and bone, this lead to a feeding tube for a few years (please don't judge) and me having trouble walking up stairs and hills for awhile. I was scared of everything loud noises and people. This is probably because I was abused in the orphanage. Over time my father would always use help practice walking up the stairs and our drive way. I couldn't start walking up these things until around five. All these things affected me academic wise as well I started school later then usual at age four first year of pre school I started in a public school when everybody already could speak hundreds of words I could only speak thirty words. We deiced to transfer to LJA because it would be better for me also because the people told my mom that I would never be able to talk well like I would be sent to a special school boy was my mom at them. When it came to crossovers from movement it was very hard for me to balance I used to always stop then crossover from a stand still. This is when my family decided to start private lessons, we started with Coach Connie! We started Coach Connie was always a nice, patient, and fun to be with. Luckily this was huge bonus for all of even though it took many blocks I never gave up on this sport because I knew even if took another year or so I could get a crossover over another one. My parents always remind how important it is to try our best because if you never try you'll never be able to reach your goals in life. This encouragement made me want to keep trying until I got a crossover then finally got crossovers one public skate it felt so accomplishing it's like being one of those Olympic champions! My dad saw me doing crossovers just like everybody else from the bleachers he smiled at me as if he was saying "I knew you could do it. This is the reason we stayed in ice skating because you stayed committed to this." This naturallymade my oldest sister get into the sport ever since then she loved it and she still does. After that huge pause in skating I started leveling up so quick. After a few years I met another Coach Robyn which my sisters had a while before me. She was very helpful towards building me into a skater. A couple years later I wasn't able to take from my Connie because I passed her level. I was sad to have to lose her as a coach but today we like to talk about skating or other. This leads to today. Now I enjoy jumping and spinning mostly spinning. Anyway my favorite spins are the sit spin, and pancake and my favorite jump is split jump.
An extra thing I enjoy is skating in LA with professional coaches like Frank Carrol, Linda Fratianne, Victoria etc. I enjoy this experience because it improves me as a skater not only that but they understand how it works. Though I never took from Frank but my sister told me that he told her you can't make someone do the jump, you can help someone but they decide in their mind if they're going to land it. Victoria would tell me the of dynamics of creating a spin and she told me that you don't have to be one of those people with their name on the wall to enjoy skating. She enjoyed spinning a lot but her name didn't appear on the wall. Another coach that I'm so glad I met her is Heather! I so glad because she is very fun, nice to talk to. Also she knows my coach Robyn. She use to take lessons from Robyn, This helps through communication especially because she makes a great effort to be upbeat and cheerful she helps plan our lesson schedule and we like to share humor.
Another Coach was Tiffany Stiegler she was a pair skater with her brother Johnny! She enjoys sharing her passion towards skating. She gave me great tips on how to improve she helped with my posture. Unfortunately I won't be able to take lessons from her for a while because she just recently took off with a new baby.
I'm glad I turned into a skater because I think it's a unique sport and it's very fun. I love the challenges in ice skating and how much effort it takes to become more advanced. Also I like how you can do so much like invent or make famous like what Linda Fratianne did she made up a Fratianne spin.
Thank you for reading!