Rats' tails or smooth curls: 14-20 March 2004

[Mrs Redboots]

I really thought I was going to feel depressed again about our Interpretive - I still don't know that we're going to do it. If we can get it choreographed, we probably will - but at the moment, we are only managing the first few seconds. Not helped by the fact that the elites all hog the music, and although we could probably share headphones when we are dancing in waltz hold, this would not work when we come to the shadow skating part of the routine! Which is about as far as we have got at the moment.

Rats' tails: While we can just about do a sort-of pairs spin from a standstill, doing one coming up out of our hydroblade sequence (R does a clockwise back hydroblade; an anti-clockwise forwards one, on parallel circles, then we rise up and the idea is that we come together into a spin) is quite another story, and usually ends up with my bottom in the air, looking and feeling off-balance!

Need to choreograph the shadow skating sequence - this is where, in the acting part of it, I am skating off in a huff because he has groped me (which he did anyway, without having to act, at the end of the pivot-spiral!), and need to work out what we are doing at the very end of the piece.

Also worked on the Festival Quickstep, and both the coach and Robert were most unencouraging about whether I would be able to do it. I don't think I'm too bad, as a matter of fact - I can certainly do one sequence now, without too much of a struggle, and there is still 2 months before the competition!

Smooth curls: I think we are going to get the mohawk-into-pivot-spiral to work, I still feel I'm standing on two feet for half an hour (okay, one beat!) while Robert gets into position. We discovered that part of the problem was that we were trying to get at each other from the wrong angle!

Oh, I do hate pairs! But at least Interpretive Pairs can have all sorts in it - dance, pairs, shadow skating, acting....

[hermione_on_ice]

Ooooh. Shadow skating looks *great* in pairs programs! Or dance programs for that matter. Does the pairs program need to be ready in two months, like the dance, or do you have more time to work on it? Either way, reading about it, made me realize I miss skating pairs. Should get my butt in gear and start working on that with coach after spring break.
Which brings me to my rats' tails... Went to intercollegiate skating competition, where I skated about as badly as I ever did in competition. I've been skating for about 4 years and even though I compete at the lowest level, there are still plenty of other skaters who've been skating for 8 years or more. Ironically enough, I skated against the same skaters and did really well, (top half!) last time, without being able to train all that much. This time around, I was better trained, some of the skaters who placed ahead of me at the last competition weren't even there and yet I managed to screw things up royally. Ugh! Not a good feeling. Especially when I saw the results and I *knew* I'm not half as bad as the results would indicate.
I know I shouldn't beat myself up about what happened, since there's nothing I could do about it now, but I just felt the need to vent. On the bright side, one judge decided to place me third, despite the fact I left out my lutz, fell out of a toeloop and could not get into the second part of my sit back sit combination spin. Wheeee! (what program were they watching? I want to see myself skate a medal-winning program, too :twisted: )
Now, is there anything I could do to make sure I don't mess up my sit back sit back scratch in competition? It was working suspiciously well in practice, but when I tried to push into the back sit in warmups, I kept falling out of the spin.

[AstarZ41]

Another not so great practice. I went to a public skate because there usually are few people skating this time of the year but apparently a large group of young kids rented the rink to have some lessons. I saw my old coach there and she told me she was one of the coaches giving lessons there. She said I could go ahead and practice in the center of the rink but look out for little kids crossing.

Well, nothing spectacular aout my skating today....my blades are dull...I kept skidding. I think this was my last time skating in my old skates...or I hope so! I want my new blades!!

Toes and Sals were alright, even though I had some wonky 3 turns going into those.
Loops are sorta getting there. I still two-foot them, but I quickly switch to one leg. Anyone have tips for landing the loop on one foot?
Forwards spins ok...nothing too great but at least I could get 5-6 revs.

Rat's tails:
I think I'm joining the back spin misery club! I do the 3 turn into it and can hold it for maybe one revolution before losing it.

[96.23??]

Smooth Curls: I passed my Gold Skills!!! :D

[sk8er1964]

Originally posted by 96.23??
Smooth Curls: I passed my Gold Skills!!! :D

Way to go! Do you get a gold pin for that? (We do in the States for the senior/gold tests).

[luna_skater]

Originally posted by 96.23??
Smooth Curls: I passed my Gold Skills!!! :D

Congratulations! That one looks like such a marathon. I'm not looking forward to it! :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Originally posted by 96.23??
Smooth Curls: I passed my Gold Skills!!! :D Brilliant! well done!

[erdehoff]

Smooth curls: I landed my axel in competition for the first time! I'd tried it once, when I was about 12, and didn't land it that time; yesterday was the first one I'd attempted in competition since then.

Rats' tails: I was so thrilled to have landed the axel that I forgot half my choreography! :) Oh well, fair trade!

[icenut84]

Originally posted by erdehoff
Smooth curls: I landed my axel in competition for the first time! I'd tried it once, when I was about 12, and didn't land it that time; yesterday was the first one I'd attempted in competition since then.

Way to go! :)

Rats' tails: I was so thrilled to have landed the axel that I forgot half my choreography! :) Oh well, fair trade!

Lol :)

As for me:

Rat's Tails:

Travelling spins, dodgy salchow, not getting solid enough on a couple of spirals. I also didn't feel totally 100% on my feet, stroking etc. Don't know why.

[B]Smooth Curls:[B]

Did some pretty good spirals! :) Starting to love the LBI. Much-more-advanced skater saw me do one and said she couldn't do that! (I reckon she could though.) Also RBO feeling much easier.

I had a good time. :) (Well, got a bit frustrated first when some things weren't as good as I wanted them to be.) But later I just started going fast and doing spirals, and my spirits rose. :)

BO3s much better, I think.

[Mrs Redboots]

Himself didn't come to the rink this morning, as he skated at Slough last night - the timing for getting to Slough is just wrong for me with my new job, so I'm leaving it for the time being, much though I'd love to see my friends who skate there. I could change my hours, mind (it's only a matter of making Monday's hours the same as the others).

However, I did skate this morning, and am feeling much more positive about our Interpretive Pairs, there is only a very little bit left to choreograph. The problem will be, of course, getting Robert to learn it!

Also worked on my Ladies III Interpretive, which is not yet coming-along-nicely, but beginning to take shape, I suppose.

Exercises all went fairly well, too. So not a bad practice, for once.

[jenlyon60]

Had a pretty good practice and lesson this morning. Can now (at my own power and with fewer intro steps than my coach uses) get into the Blues on time to the music. That was my project for pre-lesson practice today. Next time I'll add in another step and gradually build back. Also realized I was shaping the lobe with the flare wrong, plus my internal timing was much much different than the music. So time for lots more "to the music"

In Lesson...

Rats' Tails: ALternating back crossovers to back outside edge...today was not its day. We are working hard on me consciously pulling down on the right side when it's the free side (i.e. I'm on the LBO edge part of the MIF), so it's in concentrate and rebuild mode, which always throws things off. 5-step was mostly there. Forward power 3's were pretty good except I bombed the RFO3 segment right in front of my coach, rest of the pattern was good.

Smooth Curls... Well I guess. Coach said it's time to start thinking about putting in my papers to test my Bronze MIF. We've been puttering around with them for about 15 months, but only really seriously concentrating on them for the last 3 months. And they've come a long way... (They're starting to feel okay at 6:15AM, which means they're probably just about test-worthy.)

[icenut84]

This is from skating yesterday.

Smooth curls:

I had a freestyle lesson, and passed one of the elements on the silver test :D (LBO spiral). Coach said it was much improved (I had had to work on lowering my upper body more). We also spent some of the lesson working on spins (which I need a lot of help with, really). Plan to carry on working on them next lesson.

Tried a few teapots (shoot the ducks) - I'm still not low enough, but I did actually notice a definite improvement, which I think is due to me doing things off ice, trying to get my body used to the position etc.

Spirals :D (They're fast becoming my favourite skating move now! RBO was much better too, my upper body looked low enough in the reflection, and it was solid. LBI was great too!)

My stroking and turns felt good. I also practiced doing consecutive inside mohawks and consecutive FI3s, trying to make both those turns feel more natural, especially at speed. I think it really helped, so I'll continue doing those exercises.

The choctaw on alternating 3s was a bit better too (I don't have to learn those for a test or anything, but they have always been quite hard so I'm just working on them).

Did several nice 2-foot spins. My pivots were good too.

Rat's Tails:

Although I could land a few salchows (not been consistent at all lately), it's not *big* enough. I need to get more jump in it. Plan to practice it off-ice, hope that works. Also, when doing both those and waltz jumps, my landing heel (left) hurts. :( I think I'll have to get a kind of ankle/foot support, see if that makes any difference. My right ankle was really hurting by the end too, don't know why.

I started to get a kind of pain in my left hip/groin area - the muscle/tendon/whatever between your body and the top of your upper thigh. (The one you can feel when you try side splits, you know.) I've had a bit of pain there before too. Hmm. :(

1 foot spins.

[Mrs Redboots]

Definitely smooth curls this morning! First of all, managed to get down to the rink early, so had 1/2 hour practice with Rob before he had to go to work, and we finally managed to sketch out all our Interpretive Pairs number! Which is great, as I was feeling really despondent about it last week. Whether we'll remember what we agreed to do, I don't know - and some of the steps we find really hard! It wants lots of polishing, but there is time now.

Also got stuck into my solo interp. number, with a bit of help from my coach towards the end of the lesson. He was most complimentary about my spin - which is dire, but as he said, much better than it was!

In my lesson, I think I did the best changes-of-edge I've ever done, my cross-rolls were smooth and flowy, although if we were being hyper-critical about them, we reckoned they were slightly more cross-steps than cross-rolls! I could put my free foot down a tad earlier, I think - must work on that. But he said they were okay. My B O edges are getting more flow, especially if I don't think about my free leg. "But you must think about your free leg!" "But if I think about my free leg, my weight comes too far forward and I lose the flow!" Coach says I need to work on both aspects. For the first time, he had me try to hold a BO edge round the hockey goal, which I can do easily on forward edges. Quite nearly able to do them on back edges, but he said they weren't very steep. So what does he want, fries with that???? :roll:

Mohawks were better than usual, although still not quite as controlled as we would like them ("we" being me, mainly, although of course coach points out every time that I'm not controlling them, which I said wasn't very helpful when I knew that!). But when he held my hand, of course, they were brill. I can nearly do a decent inside 3 now, with a good check....

[luna_skater]

Smooth Curls: Passed the Starlight, Paso, and Senior Bronze Skills today! I have to re-try the Viennese, but I still consider it a "Smooth Curl" because the only problem with it was a small timing error, and I know I can skate it great once that is fixed. :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Wow, congratulations. You must be a superb dancer! :bow:

[icenut84]

Smooth curls:

Passed two more of the elements on the silver Star Skate dance test! :) (Didn't have time to go through the last one). In my lesson we also worked on things like posture, bits of technique/detail, and also extension during crossovers and progressives. :) My progressives felt great.

Spirals were fine, plus I also tried a LFI one (I havent' worked on FI ones before). I only did it slowly, but I think it has promise, if I can spend time practicing it.

All turns were quite good too. :D Again I practiced consecutive FI3s and consecutive inside mohawks. I wanted both of those turns to feel more comfortable and I think they are.

I did a few nice 2 foot spins too (though they are not completely centred). Does anyone have any tips for making sure 2 foot spins are centred?

Rat's tails:

Nothing really! I didn't have time to practice any jumps though, too busy doing everything else, lol. Oh yeah, and my left knee hurt again afterwards. :( (It doesn't hurt when I'm skating, but recently it's been aching afterwards/in between practices. Don't know why.

[batikat]

smooth curls:

Felt like I was finally doing a decent salchow on Tuesday and even getting some speed in to it and getting the timing right.

Started choreographing a Rumba OD for Bracknell Adult comp which I think will be fun to do. The hardest bit at the moment is where I go down into a drag (lunge) and sort of spin around and up (I guess it's a drag on the left foot then a LFI3 while still in drag position with the free foot still on the ice - then you dig the blade in and swing the free foot around on the ice as you rise up - dont' know if there is a name for that!!!). My problem is I need to get up and push off into a LBO and it is really hard to get any power going into that back edge.

rat's tails:
everything went wrong today - my salchows were not as good as Tuesdays . I think the difference is, when I start to get scared of them I tend to bring the free foot in close and bent and mess up the timing. When I can manage to keep the free leg straight as i bring it around and through it goes much better but it takes more confidence.

Was supposed to work on my Rumba OD in my lesson and finish the choreograpy but discovered i'd managed to leave my music at home - Rats!!!!

Tried to work on my Free programme instead but ended up feeling like i should quit skating altogether - it was terrible!! Tried to change one of the bits I have trouble with but all the alternatives seemed to be worse!!!

The only smooth curl of the day was a couple of 9 or 10 rotation nicely centred upright spins - I love the feeling of a good spin!!!

[Debbie S]

Smooth Curls:
Well, my moves coach noted that I have improved on the alt 3s and BI edge tracings. Now if I could just stop putting my free foot down after the RFO turn!

Got a couple of good camel spins. And I think I may have done a camel-sit that was actually a camel-sit, as opposed to a camel-squat.

Landed a couple loops in practice last Sunday, but not so good on Wednesday at my lesson. But it's no wonder, with all the time I've been spending on moves, that my loop jump is stalled somewhere.

Really, really smooth:
Last Sunday, during the early FS times, there was a whole group of skaters who normally train at the University of Delaware rinks. There apparently is no practice available in Delaware on Sundays, so many skaters have started coming to my rink (about 45 minutes south of U Del). We had an Eastern Novice competitor (who is coached by Priscilla Hill, who also coaches Johnny Weir), some other up-and-comers, and the reigning U.S. Junior Ladies champ (Kimmie Meissner, who lives in the area). But even more amazing, Renee Roca and Gorsha Sur were there, choreographing a free dance for a local dance team, demonstrating lifts and other moves as they worked. I've never been on the ice with national ice dance champions before, so it was a challenge to concentrate on what I was doing and not spend all my time watching them. :lol:

Rats' tails:
Alt 3s - what else is new. My coach thinks I might be ready to test Pre-Bronze moves by April 19 (next test session in the area), which is my "deadline" if I want to compete in the Chesapeake Open. That's if I can stop putting my free foot down and/or falling out of the circle. And being able to do 6 perfect lobes in a row is a plus, too.

In my goal to get lower on the sit spin, I think I have completely lost my ability to do it. Now I'm banging my free foot on the ice when I start spinning.

[triple twist]

I've been really frustrated on the ice lately, I dont know why but I find it a real burden to go the rink (only to dance). I'm fine as soon as I see the people there...maybe I'm just moody or need a change :cry:

[triple twist]

Does anyone here skate synchro? I'de like some info on it if anyone can give it to me.

[luna_skater]

I skate synchro, Triple Twist. You can PM me if you like. I've been a synchro skater for 13 years, so I'm sure I can help! :)

Smooth Curls: Learned the Argentine Tango and the Quickstep today, and both feel quite smooth already. Also started Junior Silver Skills, which are easier than I had anticipated!

Rat's Tails: The loops in the Jr. Silver exercise are definitely going to take some time to learn! By the end of my session I could do the forward outside ones, but the actual loops were huge, LOL. These are going to take some serious dedication!

[sk8pics]

Originally posted by Debbie S
Really, really smooth:
Last Sunday, during the early FS times, there was a whole group of skaters who normally train at the University of Delaware rinks. There apparently is no practice available in Delaware on Sundays, so many skaters have started coming to my rink (about 45 minutes south of U Del).

Actually, last Sunday there was a hockey tournament and so no ice all day at either the UDel rinks or the Pond nearby. Normally there are Sunday morning freestyle sessions at UDel, except during the summer. But they can be quite crowded, so maybe that's why people are coming to your rink.

As for me, I guess it's Smooth that my coach has starte choreographing my new interpretive program, and I like it, but it's hard! And fun! Hopefully we'll get it finished in another week or so, so that I can actually get comfortable with it before I have to skate it! Plus, he's still on his speed and flow kick, so that's challenging in itself.

Debbie-- Congrats on your moves improvements!

Happy skating,
Pat

[jenlyon60]

Rat's Tails: Unhappy Tummy yesterday afternoon, so didn't feel comfortable skating full out. So did the next best thing... Picked a couple trouble spots (one from Blues and one from Paso) and coach and I worked on those. Well, coach corrected, I skated.

Anyways. We worked mostly on my inside edges. The RFI at the tail end of the flare in the Blues, and the LFI before the choctaw in the Blues. I realized very quickly I had some very bad habits, which would partially explain why I had problems setting up the choctaw when I skated the dance with my coach.

Then moved on to the Paso cross-rolls. I am still dropping my left shoulder slightly, which is contributing to my not crossing the left edge as much as the right edge. And my posture is less than optimum, but I can feel it wrong (which gets me partway to fixing it).

So, my homework for Monday is to work on the FI edges in the Blues, continue my work on my intro-3's, and then I'm going to work on bits of both dances to the music, solo.

[Magz]

Smooth Curls - After skating ALL of March Break I managed to get my spins pretty good which I'm pretty happy about. And I passed my 14-step and the Junior Bronze elements.

Rat's Tails - I failed my solo for the junior bronze because I completely messed up my camel and didnt get credited for it so I only had 1 spin and 2 spins are required.

[AstarZ41]

Smooth Curls
Firts time skating in my new skates! The boots feel great, nothing hurts. It's a little hard to bend my knees so I had to leave the top hooks unlaced. Otherwise these boots felt really strong and supportive. I'm loving my MK Profs! All the turns felt a lot smoother! 3 turns were effortless. Forward crossovers felt really smooth and easy as did back xovers. All my jumps were there (except the loop which I didn't try)

My coach can do triples! (at least 3 toes) They look so easy..haha yea right! We learned a new spep sequence with various turns and toepick hops. I can do all the steps in it except it took some practice to memorize!

Rat's tails
Spins were aright....I guess they are getting better but it sux when all the other people in my group are doing scratch spins and learning laybacks, and I'm trying to center my open position spins. Coach started us on flying camels...haha I might wanna get the back spin first! I was able to do the entance though, so that's a plus.

I need to make sure to keep my right arm back on the toe loop entrance! Shouldn't be too hard to fix, I just gotta beat my muscle memory.

[jazzpants]

Smooth Curls:

I'm back on the ice again after another two weeks. I had no pain going into the rink and do my LFO3's like it was never injured. (Which means it's not great, but at least I could do them.) :P
I did not lose much of the Bronze Moves, except for the LFO3's towards the end of the session. If I get this part of the moves... I'll be ready to test Bronze moves!!! :)
Rat's Tail:

I should have quit after an hour of skating. (I stayed for another 15 minutes instead.) I started getting that "tweak" around the ankle/calf area. My legs were getting tired and I felt it was time to call it a day (before I do further damage.) :cry:
My skating buddy who was skating with pulled his left hip/butt muscles this afternoon. He said that he was just gonna skate around for a while to let it heal. THEN he tried to do a waltz jump and you could see the cringe when he lands on the jump. He was off the ice in less than 30 minutes. Poor man... :cry:

[jenlyon60]

I got a critique of my Bronze MIF today... focusing on 5-step and the "alternating Back crossovers to back outside edges" MIFs (since my coach and I figured those were my weakest).

The biggest thing I was told I needed to work on was to be quicker on both (which also means quicker on the other 3 MIFs as well). Coach and I had worked on speeding up the cadence on the first 2 drills on the test (alternating forward crossovers and alternating back crossovers) but now I need to speed up the rest. It WAS easier doing the 5-step faster... I just have to get my brain used to thinking faster, since I've drilled it slower for so long.