The time has come to work on the program in preparation for competition! Practice makes perfect, right? Well, sometimes it’s not enough. You can practice for weeks, but there’s always that one thing that you can’t really practice for and it can get in the way. However, it takes time to fix it.
Victor said to Katsuki that “you’ve shown you have the skills to win. Why can’t you?” Katsuki responded, “Probably because I do not have a whole lot of confidence.” Yup…you can’t really practice confidence. It takes time to build it. Sometimes it comes and goes. So many different things can lead to lack of confidence: intimidation of others, fear of failing, nervousness, really anything can affect it for a split second or longer.
When I’m by myself at the rink, it’s easy to practice because there’s nobody watching. However, I’m not always alone during practice. Sometimes there are kids or those at a higher level than me. Honestly, when I practice at the same time as them, fear takes over. It’s not even fear of whose better or worse. It’s fear that because I’m not as skilled as them, I might crash and injure someone. Basically, I lost my confidence in my ability to control my skating direction. Not sure what’s worst, driving a car and looking in the mirror to make sure you time your lane change right or practicing a jump and praying that you don’t land on someone.
It’s not only during practice that I experience this, but also during warm up time before I get on the ice to compete! All skaters in a group share the ice to run through their programs or elements as a final lap before their turn to perform in front of the judges. Yes, sometimes skaters crush or we end up being in the same area on the ice. The fear of crashing or an actual crash can affect your performance. Fortunately, I have not crashed into anyone, but still…I am trying to shake off the nerves before show time.
As the episode continues, Victor decides to work with Plisetsky on the choreography, while Katsuki works on his basics. Plisetsky is talented in his technical abilities, but the hard part in skating is the artistic side. For me, it’s about your ability to be a performer on the ice. “When you skate it’s about what you feel, not what you think,” said Victor to Plisetsky. When I heard that statement, it reminded me of what my coach said to me: “Do you feel what you are doing?” Obviously, I was like “huh,” but I knew what he meant. I couldn’t just lift my arm and pose, but I had to express the music in a way the judges can feel the emotions expressed by the piece through my physical actions. No, NOT EASY!
Then all this can lead to hearing your coach saying “Hm, do it again” and you getting frustrated and respond with “Just tell me what I’m doing wrong,” which is exactly the communication between Victor and Plisetsky. Now, my coach makes me repeat my steps, and he does tell me what to fix. However, my frustration comes from me not being able to execute his corrections automatically. I think to myself “put shoulders back, point your toes.” Otherwise, I’ll end up performing the posture completely wrong or not remotely close.
Now besides being taught, there will be times where you end up teaching others. Well, sort of. Remember when Katsuki asked Plisetsky, “Will you teach me how to land a Quad Salchow, please?” No, I don’t do quad jumps. I have a skating friend, who started skating in 2015, and she always ask me about random skating moves, especially jumps. We met at an Adult Theatre On Ice (TOI) performance group. I remember her having trouble with a step sequence, and out of the kindness of my heart, I ended up offering to help her with it. No, we didn’t have a secret practice because the coach of the TOI knew about it. Heck, this wasn’t the last time I had to teach someone in the TOI group; TOI coach asked me to teach someone else. The person forgot the steps to the routine. Oops!
Last, but not least, in every routine choreographed, there’s going to be a costume that goes with it. Minako Okukawa, Katsuki’s ballet teacher, asked the skaters, “What kind of costumes are you wearing?” and from Victor’s costume collection, Katsuki chose the costume described by Victor as “trying to suggest both male and female genders.” As someone who cosplays, I chose to design and make my own. My program last season was Song from a Secret Garden, and I spec ifically wanted colors and gems to represent a forest. If the costume you have doesn’t help you with your skating, you might as well toss it. Not only do you have to feel physically comfortable in your costume, but you should be able to say to yourself “this is the one, this will be part of my program.” It will help with your confidence, which should result in a clean performance. “Should.”
Come back the next day for episode 4!
© 2017 Linda Thai Photography by Linda Thai For more pictures, check out the Something Deeper: Anime, Manga and Comics Page on Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment