Easter Eggs or Rabbit poop - lessons/practices 11-18 April

[Mrs Redboots]

Wot, nobody's started a thread for this week? I suppose everyone's at Nationals.....

Did skate for an hour this morning, but felt sluggish and lethargic (too much chocolate, I dare say!).

Easter Eggs: Programme run-through went well, and did most of my exercises....

Rabbit poop: forgot (ahem!) to practice backwards skating. Couldn't find ice to practice my new 3-turn exercise, and when I did, I'm sure I was over-rotating the FI 3. Oh well.... lesson tomorrow.

[Elsy2]

This week's title gave me a much needed laugh.....thanks!

Last Saturday's skate? Pretty much all Rabbit Poop! After 2 weeks off, I couldn't spin for anything.

Easter Eggs - Jumps were only moderately bad! My dance partner finally showed up after injuring his shoulder in an on ice fall several weeks ago.

Rabbit Poop - He's still in pain, so Swing Dance was the only one we could do.....sigh....

[dbny]

Easter Eggs
With only a few breaks to watch the kids' programs, I skated the entire 1.5 hrs, which is unusual for me, especially with the hip problems I've been having. Another Easter Egg is that the hips are feeling better every day!

FO threes are improving, but still do not have the control I need. FI threes are getting less scary and I've got a little footwork sequence that I stuck a RFI three into for fun.

Forced myself to do Juv 8 step Mohawk pattern, and was surprised that CCW was actually moving rather well.

Discovered watching the Worlds that devil rolls (B cross fronts onto BO edges) actually involve a push! It's the same BO push as in B cross strokes, but sooo much harder not to scrape those toe picks.

Rabbit Poop
The session was crazy, as there were a lot of kids practicing their programs for an upcoming show. I didn't have the nerve to do a full pattern of the B cross strokes. Will have to work on looking back every third stroke or I'll never be able to do these without a "lookout".

[jp1andOnly]

Rabbit Poop: Why can't I lift my leg high enough in a camel spin. The spin is going to be the death of me

Still working on the timing of the lutz to get it nice and high. The way I was doing it was ok, but my coach and I feel it can be better. This means ALL my jumps are gettin some tweaking which means I splat a lot more than normal

Easter Eggs: Learned how to do a flying camel. Can do one rotation and the leg height just might be higher than my camel spin

Can now do my loop jump without the inside 3 turn. Was working on loop loop combos

Skating is getting stronger all around. Just need to keep pluggin away

[jazzpants]

Wot, nobody's started a thread for this week? I suppose everyone's at Nationals.....Not everyone... :cry:

Rabbit poop:

Forward Power 3's still SUCKS, though now at least I'm starting to get them going again. Ain't no way I'm gonna pass Bronze Moves and move on to Bronze FS if I keep doing these the way I do now.
B Xovers to BO edge is a bit shaking at the beginning.
First couple of forward spins sucked -- BIG TIME!!!
Easter Eggs:

B Xovers to BO edge was better towards the end. Too bad I had someone blocking my way during the public session, so I could finish the back crossovers going all the way around the end. Otherwise, I was surprised
I was also surprised at the end of the session, I tried the forward Xovers and they were probably the FASTEST I've ever done!!! The speed skater ice guard was surprised too!!! 8O
The rest of the moves are just fine. I should have no problem passing these. (Well, maybe a bit of trouble with the 5 step. I definitely will get some comments on those.)
Spins were better towards the end of the session... and hey, I even got one "semi-camel" with 3 revolutions. (Meaning that if my back position was better it would have been a REAL camel.)
One small Easter egg: I'm getting much closer!!! There IS a chance that I will pass these tests and compete. There is hope that I will be eligible for AN 2005 after all!!! :)

[sk8pics]

Stupid computer just lost my reply.... but anyway, I'm here, too!

Rabbit Poop My practice and lesson on Monday. Just a bad day, and I was nervous about a very tiny kid in a lesson right where we needed to work on my program. She's a perfectly nice little kid, but because she's so young she's really wild and unpredictable, and I kept envisioning turning to jump and then falling over her. Didn't happen, but that didn't make me feel better. Then, with 2 minutes left in our session, while my coach and I were running through my program, one of the hockey coaches (for the group classes immediately following the session) dragged some barriers right across the ice directly in front of us! :evil: :evil: He looked right at me and just kept going. I mean, what did he expect, I was going to just jump over the barrier? It was unbelievably rude. I was so mad and it was also dangerous! My coach was pissed too, but it was too late to do anything about it. I complained to the program director, so we'll see if it happens again next week.

Easter Eggs Practice yesterday was much better. The ice was nice and not crowded. I did a lot of crossovers, also the perimeter crossover stroking exercises, lots of crossovers in combination with mohawks. Very fun. Also made some progress in not freaking out over my waltz jump. (Lately because of traffic conditions I sometimes freak out and when I step to jump, I end up NOT jumping, which is NOT good!) I'm sure it will be better today even.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

[jenlyon60]

Worked on Paso Doble today during my lesson...

Rabbit Poop: I'm getting a good deep change edge after the slip-steps, but then I'm flattening out the next few steps before the step-forward. Because.. a. I'm not turning my head in direction of travel; b. I'm not keeping my right shoulder open; c. Right hip is closed (it's FAVORITE position)

And of course more cross-rolls. They are getting closer, although they're steppy on the left-over-right side (I have problems getting a true edge on the left-over-right side and have occasionally come very close to stepping on the toe of the right foot.) Right-over-left side is MUCH better.

Played around on my own with 5-step mohawk and forward power 3's, trying to do them faster yet good quality. It will be a challenge but not one I can't overcome. Also played with the Blues flare into the choctaw, working on keeping my right hip more open and making sure that my right toe is near my left heel BEFORE doing the choctaw.

[Mrs Redboots]

Lesson today. Sigh......

Trouble is, since my new job started, my lesson is 15 minutes earlier than it used to be, at 8.45 instead of 9.00, which means that I have all the less time to warm up. By the time he came for me this morning, I had really done very few of my exercises.

Easter Eggs: Changes-of-edge went well. And my back edges improved through being made to do back crossovers round the circle and then hold the BO edge which would, as I pointed out, have been a lot easier if my back crossovers were less clunky! But I finally doped out that I was meant to be looking into the circle, not out of it (who knew?), and managed either to control my upper body or my lower body, but not both! Still, even such a small drill did improve my backwards stroking. I'm working on really getting some flow into it, and it's just beginning to happen, which is gratifying of it.

Rabbit Poop: In my programme, I hold on to a plastic wine-glass, and, of course, today I managed to drop it in the middle of the spin! So I had to stop to pick it up, because it was pretty transparent, and I was afraid that someone would skate into it and have a nasty accident. Coach said "If that happens in the real thing, you must carry on!" I said "If that happens in the real thing, so what? Nobody's going to skate there until I've had a chance to pick it up!" But at least I jumped and spun - well, sort-of spun ("You would spin much better if only you would pull in!" said my coach. Yeah, well, that's scary, isn't it?????).

Still not quite sure of the step sequence at the beginning; I'm not sure my twizzles are quite good enough yet.... we shall see.

[skatingatty]

Easter eggs: My coach is pretty much done choreographing a new program for me to music from Swan Lake. She hasn't said anything else about wearing a tutu for it. :) My new custom Klingbeils felt terrific when I tried them on last weekend. I'm waiting for the blades to arrive and get attached-- hallelujah! Thank you, Lori, for recommending Klingbeils!

Rabbit poop: the too-tight Harlick boot is still squeezing the heck out of my right foot and it's bleeding slightly under the callous. I tried to do some of those double 3 turns for the pre-juv moves test and they're horrible. I don't know if I'll ever take the gold moves test. Ordered a pretty ivory camisole dress off ebay and it was too tight around the arms- ugh. Come to think of it, none of the skating dresses I bought on ebay have fit.

[dbny]

Lesson today. Sigh......
In my programme, I hold on to a plastic wine-glass, and, of course, today I managed to drop it in the middle of the spin! So I had to stop to pick it up, because it was pretty transparent, and I was afraid that someone would skate into it and have a nasty accident.


Just a thought about the plastic wine glass - can you color it red on the inside so it looks like it has red wine in it? Then it will be more visible as a prop also.

[jazzpants]

Rabbit Poop: I spent all this time working on Bronze Moves... and I get BACK SPIRALS and one foot spins this morning in my lesson!!! AUGH!!! (To her defense, since everyone gone at AN this week, this is probably one of the better weeks to practice it.)

And the gal was DEMANDING!!! EEEEK!!! "Lift that leg!!!" "Straighten that knee!!!" "Turn that foot!!!" "MORE!!! MORE!!! A LOT MORE!!!" and (here's the clincher!) when I tried to do one at a time she says "I want it ALL NOW!!!!!" :roll: :lol:

Easter Eggs: Well, at least I had fun having my secondary coach torture me... and I did managed to push myself a bit more and keep her happy (since she commented that I DID make an effort and that in itself is "progress.) And in the end, she's doing me a favor, since I know my spiral sucks!!! I haven't done back spirals in a lesson in a real long time (beyond my primary coach telling me to "try this out in a program.") And I did pretty good considering that I only do this when I have time and "just for fun." (The last three words were my big mistake. NEVER admit to your coach that you do something "just for fun." S/he WILL make it into WORK for 'ya!!!) :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :P

[Mrs Redboots]

Just a thought about the plastic wine glass - can you color it red on the inside so it looks like it has red wine in it? Then it will be more visible as a prop also.
When it comes to the real thing, it's going to have red jelly (Jell-O, in the USA) inside it.

[Terri C]

This week was nothing but rabbit poop, since the kiddies are on spring break, rink management made ALL of the freestyle sessions in the morings when I was working. To top it all off, I'm off tommorow, but no ice at all!! :twisted:

Then again, my feet needed the break- I'm coming off a competition!!
Mailed my balance for my new SPTeri boots to them this week- will be seeing new boots soon! :D

[Mrs Redboots]

Rabbit Poop: Zamboni has broken down again so the ice was pretty dire for dance club last night. There were tests this morning so couldn't skate. Plus I was pretty tired last night, so although I put my skirt and boots on, I spent most of the hour propping up the barrier and discussing Spring Harvest* with a fellow-skater who'd just come back from it!

Did the Golden Skaters' Waltz with Robert and was annoyed to find that I can't get the knee-bend right in the wide-step, so I tend to lurch forwards in my upper body. Did the Canasta Tango, and wished he would partner me as well in the rest of the dance as he does at the end. I find it - not scary, quite, that's the wrong word - disconcerting, I think, is the right one - that if I get my posture exactly right in that dance, I land up on the running edge, which means I cover more ice than I think I'm going to!

Easter Eggs: Did a Swing Dance and was pleased that my mohawk was better than usual. And it was just good to be there, as always - social dancing, really, is what it's all about. Various people were there who aren't always, it being school and college holidays, and just general pleasantness. And I was delighted not to find myself too exhausted to skate - I'm adjusting to my new hours!

* An Evangelical Christian camp that takes place at several different venues each year over Easter.

[NickiT]

Easter Eggs

Had a great skate today. Fortunately despite the school holidays the morning patch was relatively empty especially by the time I got to do my lesson on the last half hour.

My programme is feeling so much better now. I've got through the "new programme" feeling and feeling a lot more comfortable with it now. Landed all my jumps and my spins were good so all in all I was pretty happy. Since my coach concentrated more on the finishing touches I can say that I'm getting there with it now!


Rabbit Poop

Nothing apart from the fact that I'll not be able to skate at all next week due to the Opens being on all week.

Nicki

[AnnM]

Easter Eggs:
I had the ice to myself for a whole 1/2 hour this morning (not even a coach!). And when my coach came in at my lesson time, there still weren't any other skaters out there. I had one awesome scratch spin with all the circles just right on top of each other. I also tried sit, attitude and camel spins, which I haven't done in ages, and didn't do too badly. Finally, my salchow is starting to regain its old form; I felt the "hang" in the air.

Rabbit Poop:
Apparently I picked up a bad habit somewhere along the line. My spin entry is all wrong which is causing traveling. I know what I need to do to correct it, but it is so darn hard to relearn it! I have never thought so hard while going into a spin.

[jazzpants]

When it comes to the real thing, it's going to have red jelly (Jell-O, in the USA) inside it.Psst, Annabel. I hear there's plenty of red (strawberry) jelly over at Patsy's Parlor... :P :lol: ;) :twisted:

Rabbit Poop...no lesson with primary coach, but I need the break anyway. (All you guys still at AN, please cheer him on for tomorrow's Master's Men event!!!) ;)

[luna_skater]

Rabbit Poop: Loops. They are the bane of my existence. I will be working on them for the rest of my natural life.

Easter Eggs: DANCE! Quickstep has improved miraculously since last week, so I am breathing a huge sigh of relief for test day next week. Viennese and Argentine feel great, as long as I remember the hold change in the Argentine. :D

[Jess-ka]

Easter eggs i passed my novice moves and my Tango, was very happy, passing the moves was seriously an act of god or some sort of higher power

Rabbit poop i didn't pass my kilian (i guess i was only allowed one act of god) but i wasn't expecting too anyway, i was having major issues with this that dance on the practices and lessons all this week so going in i wasn't really expecting anything. but now i know what i need to do to fix it so i guess my rabbit poop has a silver lining

[jazzpants]

Easter eggs i passed my novice moves and my Tango, was very happy, passing the moves was seriously an act of god or some sort of higher powerCONGRAT to you, Jess-Ka!!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

"Nervous Moves" are HARD to pass!!! As one young lady said when she first started working on them: "Novice Moves?!?!? NO! NO! SCARY, SCARY!!!" :lol: (Of course, this was a while back. She has since passed her "Nervous Moves" too.) :mrgreen:

[jazzpants]

Easter Eggs:

I can go back to doing jumps again for the first time since my calf injury!!! WOO HOO!!! :mrgreen:
Speaking of which, waltz jumps and salchow are still sane!!! :)
Sit spins were pretty good!
Managed to complete one round of forward power 3's after going through LFO3's FITS!!!

Rabbit Poop:

Except for the very FIRST loop (which I did land right!), all my other loop were two footed landings!!! :frus:
Backspins were on the inside edge again (after starting out on the BO edge.)
Scratch spins were traveling all the way to New York. (Too late to catch AN!!!) :P
Flips were non-existent for the most part.
Toe loops aren't that great either.

[Mrs Redboots]

Jess-ka, many congratulations!