Diamonds or Dross - lessons/practices 18-25 November 2003

[Mrs Redboots]

Again, nobody seems to be skating this week!

As I was working this morning, I had my lesson last night, and then Robert and I stayed on to Figure Club to practice together and separately.

Diamonds: My programme is "coming along nicely"; main problem is I'm far too depressed to actually want to be funny on the ice. But that's what acting is about.

Coach found an exercise that is helping my Mohawks - continuous inside edges, then the Mohawk. It would help if I didn't usually bottle out of the first one and have to do a slowing-down one, but he says they are much better.

Dross: The end of our pairs programme (well, it's basically our free dance, but we are calling it pairs interpretive) is still disastrous; we can't get it right at all. Oh well, still 3 weeks to go.

[AshBugg44]

I'm not entirely sure how this one qualifies but I'll say diamonds :)

We began working on my axel again. No actual axels attempted, just lots of axel exercises. It kinda sucked lol. Then we worked on my preliminary moves. We haven't worked on them since the day after I passed my pre-preliminary tests and my coach taught them to me, but I still remember them and they're not half bad! Plus, the one good thing that happened, is that my lutz came back! And after Skate San Fran, how nice! ;) lol

[kar5162]

Diamonds...passed Intermediate moves and Silver free today - onto Gold and (gulp) Novice.

Dross...never have enough time to check in here anymore.

Kim

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by kar5162
Diamonds...passed Intermediate moves and Silver free today.


Kim

Very cool - congrats! :D :D :D

[luna_skater]

Dross: Tested the Keats, American, and Rocker today, and didn't do a particularly stellar job of any of them.

Diamond: But I passed all three anyway!!! :D

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by luna_skater
Dross: Tested the Keats, American, and Rocker today, and didn't do a particularly stellar job of any of them.

Diamond: But I passed all three anyway!!! :D

Another cool!!! Congrats to you too :D :D :D

[batikat]

Congrats to the successful testers!!!

Diamond:
had a figures group lesson and then a dance group lesson today. They were OK but the diamond came afterwards when I was practising and thought i'd try those back inside 3's again. I dont' know whether it was a result of all that concentrating on edges in the figures class but I was finally able to do a back inside 3 and hold a controlled exit edge!!! YEY!!!

This felt like a real breakthrough as suddenly I seemed to have my weight in the right place throughout and it felt, easy whereas I have struggled and struggled with this before. Have to admit that the breakthrough was on the RBI only but at least I feel there is hope now.

Dross:
Still can't hold a running exit edge on my back outside 3's (which people keep telling me are easier than back insides but I dont' find them easier)

Diamond again
In my lesson on Tuesday coach asked if I wanted to put my papers in for level 1 elements test, so he must think I would pass. I still feel my toe-loop is a bit iffy and would really like to be more confident on that but it's encouraging to know coach thinks I am ready.

Dross: that toe-loop - coach points out the tiny pin-prick my pick made in the ice when I pick back on this jump and then shows me the massive crater left by one of his other (male) pupils earlier. He wants a bit more force in the picking so I am really vaulting up and around - I just cant' seem to do it :??

[dbny]

Originally posted by kar5162
Diamonds...passed Intermediate moves and Silver free today.

Dross...never have enough time to check in here anymore.

Kim

Originally posted by luna_skater
Dross: Tested the Keats, American, and Rocker today, and didn't do a particularly stellar job of any of them.

Diamond: But I passed all three anyway!!!


Wow! :D Congratulations:D to you both!

[mousey]

diamonds: my solo's basically done, which is just in time to compete! also, the figure skating team at my school's basically official!:D

dross: i REALLY need to get my skates sharpened now... but i dont seem to have time to get them done:(

[CanAmSk8ter]

Diamonds: Word has it that the upcoming test session is filling up fast, so coach had me put in papers for the Tango two weeks ahead of the due date. He must feel good about my chances if we're not waiting until the last minute like usual. Now if only I felt as good... but I'm trying to be positive. I'm not quite ready, but I have more than three weeks. I think I'm nervous because usually when the papers go in I have about two weeks, and I keep forgetting I have longer this time.

Dross: Nothing really, didn't skate too well this afternoon b/c the ice was kind of crowded, but I did skate really well this morning. Got my skates sharpened after too long (as usual) so I'm readjusting to actually having edges. I also had to throw an extra innersole into my right boot, as my right foot's smaller and my boots are starting to stretch out a little. The right one always feels too big before the left one, but I've got them under control now. Don't think these boots will last much past April, though. Next pair I'm definitely going down a width. They shouldn't be feeling too wide after only six months.

[singerskates]

Sort of Diamond: Today (Wednesday) my coach had me doing triplets (3 three turns in a
row on the same foot), then cross the freefoot over and check, and
then do a twizzle in the CW direction. I was getting everything but
just had the hardest time to do the CW twizzle being that I'm a CCW
skater. This little section is suppose to go right after the backward
Alexie Yagudin type toe footwork which comes after the rocker. Does
my coach want me to win a medal or something? Do you know of any
other Canadian adult skater working on passing their prelim FS test
doing what I'm doing with the footwork? By the way, my coach said
that the twizzle thingy was from the Argintine dance. What level is
that?

Dross: Couldn't do three turns on my left foot for most of the session. Couldn't do a good toe loop or salchow. My hip is either bruised or strained. It loosened up near the end of the session but as soon as the muscles cooled down it got stiff and sore again. Couldn't do my spirals either because of it. Didn't try the sitspin this time. Did get almost two revs on my backspin though but when I heard wrong when my coach wanted to me to spin on my left footgoing CW for the CW twizzle in the footwork.


B

[CanAmSk8ter]

Brigitte: Argentine is a Gold dance (I think Diamond in Canada?) but it's not just a plain twizzle. You do like an outside swing roll on the left foot, then quickly drop to an inside edge, do one turn (forward to backward) and step onto a right forward outside. Controlling the RFO is the hard part if the twizzle isn't controlled completely. I'm working on it now. Solo it's not too hard but I have a tough time partnering it. Says a lot about the bravery of my coach that he's even willing to try it with yet. Anyway, we have a lot of dance coaches at my rink who teach twizzles to the freestyle skaters early on. I know kids who barely out of learn-to-skate who can do single twizzles, albeit lousy ones.

[Mrs Redboots]

Congratulations to those who have passed tests.

Dross: Am very tired, as I slept really badly last night and also very depressed, which is always tiring, so don't think I'll be dancing this evening. So much for a competition coming up.... oh well. Like I care.....

[garyc254]

Annabel, I hope you're feeling better soon. A little toddy might help.

Congrats to all who passed their tests. :D :D

I've skated several times over the past week. Nothing Diamond nor Dross to really report other than I took the afternoon off last Friday and went skating with my girlfriend. :D It was a public session, but we were the only skaters there. A whole rink all to ourselves for 1-1/2 hours. 8-)

It's becoming obvious that Christmas is approaching. So many skaters working on programs for their club Christmas show. It's so fun to watch these skaters working on new routines and I'm so jealous as they all skate better than I do. ;)

[Jess-ka]

Diamonds:i had an okay lesson today, we did the foxtrot and fourteenstep for an hour...but it was fun, i really like the fourteenstep and out of all the dances that one is the strongest, we worked on making everything deep since the rink i am testing on is narrower than the ones i skate on.my practice before my lesson was okay in total i think i skated for two and a half hours today but it seemed like i skated much longer than that...

Dross: i couldn't wake up today during my practice i kept almost tripping myself doing stupid stuff, but i got a new tee shirt the day before (it has a frog on it and it says kiss me i don't smoke on it) so it balances everything out.

[luna_skater]

Originally posted by CanAmSk8ter
Brigitte: Argentine is a Gold dance (I think Diamond in Canada?)

The Argentine is a Gold dance (a tango) in Canada as well.

[CanAmSk8ter]

Wait a minute... Jess, were you on a public session today at noon? Because if you were, I was the other ice dancer there! I thought that might have been you, but I didn't get a chance to talk to you after since I had to run back to school.

[batikat]

Annabel - hope the depression lifts soon - is this to do with your job? You should make the effort to get to the rink because you cannot be depressed while skating - or at least only over skating things and it helps to take your mind off the real world!

Diamond:

Back inside 3's continue to improve and coach gave me more exercises for them. Back outside 3's I still have more trouble with.

Managed a decent toe-loop for a change :D

Dross: I fell again today - and doing a LFO3 too.8O It was my own fault - someone asked me at the beginning of the session how I got comfortable doing FO3's at speed and I was telling her how I'd always liked them, they were a favourite move, particularly the LFO3 and I'd never fallen doing one. I then added that having said that it probably meant I'd fall doing one today. So I lived up to my own prophesy :roll:
In my defence it was in a fast sequence doing a back crossover then stepping into a FO3 and I think my brain just got ahead of my feet:??

I bashed my knee and hurt my wrist but not too seriously. I was still able to skate and do dance moves class after but I expect to be sore tomorrow!

[Jess-ka]

Originally posted by CanAmSk8ter
Wait a minute... Jess, were you on a public session today at noon? Because if you were, I was the other ice dancer there! I thought that might have been you, but I didn't get a chance to talk to you after since I had to run back to school.

hey yeah i saw you and i wasn't sure if it was you or not, but i was afraid to say anything incase it wasn't you and theni would have looked weird but yeah, whee we saw each other lol srry i've had two cups of coffee and now i am alittle spastic!hoep you had fun at school though:D

[singerskates]

Originally posted by CanAmSk8ter
Brigitte: Argentine is a Gold dance (I think Diamond in Canada?) but it's not just a plain twizzle. You do like an outside swing roll on the left foot, then quickly drop to an inside edge, do one turn (forward to backward) and step onto a right forward outside. Controlling the RFO is the hard part if the twizzle isn't controlled completely. I'm working on it now. Solo it's not too hard but I have a tough time partnering it. Says a lot about the bravery of my coach that he's even willing to try it with yet. Anyway, we have a lot of dance coaches at my rink who teach twizzles to the freestyle skaters early on. I know kids who barely out of learn-to-skate who can do single twizzles, albeit lousy ones.

So either my coach wants to kill me on ice or she actually believes I will be able to do these high level moves. Well, I had the change edge swingroll thingy, the triplet three turn on the left foot, crossing over with the right foot but I couldn't get the twizzle to go in the opposite direction which is CW. I could do it after I stopped but from the moves preceeding it? No. Just because this prelim skater can do a rocker or two in her footwork doesn't mean that I can actuallu do that Argentine footwork sequence. If I ever get this, my fellow competitors in prelim don't stand a chance against me. AS it is now, everyone has the upper hand on me. LOL

Brigitte

Running to choir practice now.

Bye for now.

[jp1andOnly]

Brigette,

I'll be doing AN but I don't think we'll be in the same category. I'll be in prelim 25 to whatever group. 150 bucks to enter. Yikes. Luckily I live a skytrain and bus away so I don't have to stay in a hotel.

I'm not registering until the new year as the entry money is part of the Christmas presents. I'm also having some articles written up on me because I have MS and the soceity thought it was cool that I skate. A minor celebrity ;)

[BringontheRain]

Diamonds Had two lessons on moves, since I plan on taking them next month. With first coach, worked on my sustained edge and maintaining the senior look, improved that a lot. Outside edge pulls were good. Quickstep is much improved. Worked on sustained w/ 2nd coach as well, and he found it much better as well.
Did freestyle. Axel - 2lutz all fine, 2loop2loop great. Landed a few 2lutz2toe (toe in combo is a huge struggle for me)Ran through a short, did 2lutz in combo with a 2 footed 2toe, nice axel and 2loop, did an reasonably good flying sit for once too.

Dross Inside edge pulls and spirals still need work ... Didn't get to do any double axels. Double lutz double loop wasn't working. My back hurts and the sessions were majorly crowded and I had to do moves for 2/3's of my sessions.

[plinko]

Diamond: Did a spiral just for fun and didn't fall over. Shared the rink with 3 other people it was nice and we did silly things.

Dross: My sometimes coach just happened to come by at that exact moment as I was doing a spiral and didn't exclaim how wonderful it was but instead said "do it again and hold your head up and your arms like this and point your toe and straighten your knee and can you lift your leg a little higher?" Then he ran onto the cement where I couldn't catch him.

[NickiT]

Diamonds

Had a good lesson today. All my jumps and spins were on form and I tried and succeeded in landing a loop-loop combination in my programme which made me happy!

I did some work on my flying camel, worked and made progress on my change foot camel, and best of all felt I'd made a huge breakthrough with my change foot sit spin.


Dross

My coach had me do some more axel work but has changed the way I go into it, so I feel that I have gone backwards with this now. I hope she's right and in the long run the new method helps!

Nicki

[luna_skater]

All Diamonds!! - Had one of those days where it just feels like you can't put a foot wrong. I learned the Harris Tango and the Kilian, and I feel very comfortable with both already. I'm very stoked to be working on Sr. Silver already! My goal was to be working on them by spring, so I'm way ahead of schedule. Wohoo! :D

[Elsy2]

Originally posted by jp1andOnly

I'm not registering until the new year as the entry money is part of the Christmas presents. I'm also having some articles written up on me because I have MS and the soceity thought it was cool that I skate. A minor celebrity ;) [/B]

That's very 8-) jp1andOnly! I'm glad you are doing well, and I think you are pretty brave to come out and let your community know about your MS. I'm not so sure I could do the same....

Best of luck to you!

[jazzpants]

ALL Dross!!! http://smilies.networkessence.net/s/kao/otn/pcrying.gif

I can't believe I can't even do a SIMPLE FO edge by Thursday. I've been having a hard time since last Sunday and it was at its worse this past Thursday. I was doing DECENT FO3 the week before, so my primary coach is quite buffled!!! :?? (Same with my secondary coach! Same exercise I did two weeks ago WELL, I couldn't do them at all during our lesson!!!)

I think it's partly the weather (turning COLD here in my neck of the woods) and partly coming down from last month and having to catch up on all the friends, family, etc stuff that I gave up on last month for my competition and my job! (We had a MAJOR deadline first week of Nov.) To wit: A coworker noticed how tired I look (I dozed off in my office chair) and sent me home early Thursday night. 8O :oops:

When am I gonna get time to SLEEP!?!?!?! 8O 8O 8O

[Jess-ka]

dross : couldn't have a lesson i left my skates in another rink....so tired from helping with the show at the rink that not only did i leave my skates there i cried when i found out and the lack of sleep is killing me as one by one the peguins steal my sanity....

Diamonds: has nothing to do with my skating but my friend is the prince in our show and he came down and his sister may be coming tomorrow so i am excited....

[jp1andOnly]

Diamonds: I skated for the first time on my new skates. What a difference!!! I also was able to do backspins that had quite a few revs in them. As for jumping, I even managed a lutz today. Of course it took me 6 tries to stop chickening out but i did it. Stroking on its own is much improved with the new skates. No more toe pick scratches. Oh ya, and the sit spin was fast and low. Still gotta work on centering it more but it's quite nice.

Dross: Hate the sharpening on the skates. Grrrrr.. A certain part on my blades slips. Can't wait to fly home for the holidays and have my regular guy sharpen them up for me. As much as I like dancing we had a slew of ice dancers on our session today. I couldn't seem to get rounds of stroking in and they kept running me over 1/2 the time.

[singerskates]

Diamonds:
That sitspin that I do where I've been complaining that I couldn't get my freeleg to go infront is actually a Broken Leg Sitspin. My coach thought is was really cool and was raving about it. Friday, I got 6 revs on it and then my coach had me make it into a combination spin by doing 3 revs in a upright position before exiting. When I added the upright position I found out how low I am spinning in the Broken Leg Sitspin because it felt like I had to keep going up and up and up to stand up in the upright. My coach was saying stand up higher.

It's weird that I can do the higher level things but can't seem to get a regular sitspin. What is up with that?

Dross:
Flip short on power to lift up of the ice high enough to finish the rotation (sore hip still).
Loop two footed.
Took forever to warm up the hip before I could skate properly.

Brigitte

[mousey]

diamonds: i came in 4th in a competition on the weekend

dross: i didnt have the best skate.

[Mrs Redboots]

Dross: The ice hadn't been cut when we arrived, and the young man who was to cut it hadn't been able to make the caretaker hear that he'd arrived, so things were running late. Then he couldn't make the Zamboni start, so by the time we got on the ice, it was time for Robert's lesson!

In our lesson, we were having enormous trouble with the new ending to our Tango, I beg its pardon, our Pairs Interpretive. Spent most of the lesson working on it, but to no avail. What we had been doing was, Robert was going backwards doing a teapot, and I was going forwards doing a spiral, and we were holding both hands. Then the idea was that we came up, I turned round, and we went into a pivot-spiral, with me doing a back spiral. But I was bottling out of the turn at every time. So then the coach said we should do a forward spiral instead, but, of course, I was on the wrong foot.

Diamonds: So after our lesson, I told Robert to go backwards holding my hands while I did my spiral on the other foot, to show him how awful it was - and it wasn't! So we worked a bit more, and I think this end pattern is going to work, if we have time to get it going.

We also did a Dutch waltz in the lesson, which was good, and a Swing Dance, which was as good as it ever is, which isn't very. But it has improved, I think.

[jazzpants]

Originally posted by Mrs Redboots
Diamonds: So after our lesson, I told Robert to go backwards holding my hands while I did my spiral on the other foot, to show him how awful it was - and it wasn't! So we worked a bit more, and I think this end pattern is going to work, if we have time to get it going. Annabel: isn't it weird that when you think something is awful and you show it to someone else to show how bad it is, that's when it becomes "not awful at all?" :P

[Schmeck]

congrats to all who passed tests and competed! :D

Basic Skills group lesson:

Diamonds - well, nothing I did was diamond (not even cubic zirconia, LOL!) level at all, but daughter Icy nailed a couple of nice flip jumps, and has 6 rotations on each foot in her change foot spin, so I'll just bask in her glow for a bit...

Dross - we worked on salchow today :lol: :lol: :lol: I can step through it, but actually jumping???? 8O I think I'm going to contract with a local ice dancing coach, and have him tear my skating apart, stomp on all the nasty habits I have, and build my techinique up from scratch. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Happy skating everyone, (and to the other skaters in the US, Happy Thanksgiving!)

Schmeck

[garyc254]

Saturday adult group lesson:

Diamonds: Tried several new things (for me). Warmed up with front and back crossovers in a figure eight. Forward lunges. Backward lunges (new). Going from a forward lunge to a backward lunge (new). Power pulls forward and backward (new). Extended straightline footwork sequence. Ended the class with forward and backward swizzle races.

Dross: My quads are killing meeee!!!!! Could scarcely go up and down stairs on Sunday and, of course, that's my laundry day so had to make many trips up and down.

[jazzpants]

Diamonds: Edges are back!!! Energy is coming back too!!! (I got some much needed sleep!!!) And afterwards I got freshly sharpened skates, so I won't go slip sliding away again... (It was "butter knife" when I brought them in...)

Dross:"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." and the holiday skating crowd is BACK!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: Just as well... I got plenty of basics practice b/c of that mess.

[melanieuk]

Diamonds

I went skating tonight with the children (ages 7 & 5). :)
It was a public session but pretty quiet, with a 4 or 5 figure skaters/dancers and 2 coaches.
Nice to see coach again although I saw her last week, briefly.
The children didn't want to hold my hand - which is a first for the wee one. She fell about 100 times though. We changed her skates over (in fact it was the engineer, who knows me, who said to change her hired skates, and off he went to get them for her!)
I did a few sit spins and parallel (got a row for calling them camel spins, two decades later!) spins, which I'm so happy to say were good ones, if a bit slow - but that'll come back with practise! ;)
Didn't try any jumps as no bunga pad on my sore bit of foot, which, incidentally is much better since I've stopped skating!

Dross
The only other element I tried was.........the backspin.
What can I say?
I can't complain really. It's the one thing that makes me want to return to skating on a regular basis.
On my gravestone, I will have "Gone, but not forgotten, like her backspin!"

[dbny]

Dross
FI and FO three turns, except when spotted. My self confidence. I've really taken a hit over my latest house hunting setback, which is still up in the air, but looking pretty negative. On top of that, my coach's husband will have to work 9 to 5 for at least a month, which means no more lessons on freestyle sessions.

Diamonds
F and B cross strokes. Coach said today that I'm leaning back very nicely on the B cross strokes, which, IMO, is the hardest thing about them.

[garyc254]

Monday night skate:

Dross: My quads were still sore and tight from Saturday no matter how much I warmed up and stretched. I could barely stroke never-the-less practice anything else. :(

Diamonds: Met DESIGNDIVA as she came to the freestyle and adult sessions. A lovely skater she is (made me jealous ;) ).

Also getting a hoot out of the SAM 1 & 2 classes I'm assisting with. Kids are so much fun on the ice as they try to learn.