hot or melting 23-28

[flo]

In honor of the early heat wave here!
Hot - my sister has put up some photos of Lake Placid. The photos are of the skaters from the Ice Club of Baltimore and Coco - my pup. http://www.geocities.com/lakeplacid2004/index.html
melting - my frappachino

[Debbie S]

Hi flo! I'm looking forward to seeing your pics - there was a message at the link saying the site was temporarily unavailable - I'll try back later.

Hot:
Did a couple of real camel-sit spins in practice Saturday, including one during my program run-through. I may make it to Bronze in Wilmington after all.

Ran through the partial footwork sequence my coach has choreographed for my Bronze program and I think I may have rediscovered how to do a LFI mohawk - to go along with my RFI one.

Finally got the loop after umpteen tries.


Melting:
Sal-loop not there yet, even after I rediscovered the loop.

Backspin nowhere to be found. My coach has me doing it after transitioning from a forward sit spin. The problem is that I'm going so fast (well, not that fast but fast for me!) that it's hard to set the backspin and I end up trying to spin on my toe.

Also melting: cicadas. Well, I wish they would melt already. Only 5 more weeks, fellow east coasters!

[batikat]

Hot
had a good skate day to day. I normally skate on patch at 9.30am and it's usually pretty cut up after the kids but today I swopped wth a friend who skates lunchtime patch session. I'd forgotten what really smooth ice was like.

We started with some compulsories as despite the fact I never practice them I am going to compete them in the club comp tomorrow and the Adult Opens next month. My problem is this year its Dutch Waltz and Rythm Blues which i tend to get confused. I go round the the first corner and freeze as I cant remember what to do next. (May not be too bad though - I got my best ever marks for a Rythm blues in to which I had happily inserted the DW's outside swing rolls instead of RB's inside Swing Rolls) :lol:

Then we did my Rhumba OD and I surprised myself by the speed of my drag turn - it goes way faster on clean ice 8O so I struggled to control the following steps but just about managed it.

The best bit though was after when my coach said "I don't know what you did there for the highlight but don't change it - it really was a highlight" :) :D This was for a bit where I stop and do a bit of fancy 'on the spot' footwork. I'd struggled to get what it was my coach wanted me to do but this time I just went with how I felt and really used my arms and body to feel the music (sounds pretentious but it really worked). My only problem now is that I am not sure that I can repeat it as I'm not really sure what I did :?? C'est la Vie (we have a French exchange student staying so the old school French is coming out of retirement :lol: )

Sometimes I can be quite good at what coach calls 'live programming' i.e. the programme you actually perform is not actually the one he taught you and certain bits of it can be different each time. ;) :roll: :lol:

At lunchtime patch I also got to skate with a couple of the high level teenage freeskaters which is always fun. I'm sure having them there helped to inspire my jumps to be higher - the music they brought, 'Muse' was also surprisingly motivational! I even managed to get another 15 min lesson to practice my freeskate. I must learn not to rush this but I enjoy doing it.

Melting:

I had such a good day today that even the bad things didn't seem so bad so I'm not putting anythign in here. I just love days like this - pity they tend to be quite rare!!!

[NickiT]

Melting

I'm suffering with piriformis syndrome at the moment after going running on Sunday. It totally messed up my skate on Monday and it took four attempts to skate my programme clean. I hoped it would be better today as we have a club competition tonight, but I'm still in pain. I'm going to skate this morning and see how it goes. In the meantime it's ibuprofen and stretching for me.

Nicki

[jenlyon60]

Hot: Did 2 patterns of Paso (first time ever) to the music today in my lesson, with my coach. Restart was definitely easier this time because I knew what to expect. Also did 3 patterns of Blues to the music with my coach. Choctaws were pretty good...on time and not too much of "CHOP-taw"

Melting.... Intro-3s. What else is new. Did them to the Blues music BEFORE my lesson, at my power and flow, using an abbreviated intro, and they worked (and coach saw them work). But could they work in my lesson? Of course not. ALso I did them solo to Paso music in my lesson using a very abbreviated intro, and building back. Lots of work to go on these in the next 2 weeks.

[NCSkater02]

Hot: My coach came yesterday (she ususally comes on Thursdays) so we did a lesson, working mostly on toe loop, scratch and one foot spins, and a few waltz jumps. Since we haven't worked on toe in a while, mine had learned some bad habits, and I started relearning good ones. I can do the correct sequence, but it is slow and straight up, as opposed to forward (across the ice). However, I relearned it, which is better than not relearning it. The scratch is coming along, actually got the free foot to my knee once and did a full turn, then felt like I was leaning back, so I bailed.

Melting: Me--it's darned hot here! Actually, I had a really good session yesterday, so I can't call anything melting, unless I count the scratch that I don't think I'll ever get.

[batikat]

Melting:
Well I should have known better than to be so pleased with myself yesterday. Today everything was absolutely appalling. Nothing worked - I couldn't jump or spin properly and it took 3 goes to even remember the first quarter of my OD - and when I did get that bit right I then went flying landing flat on my back after completely losing it on the way up and out from my drag turn thing. just as well I had my hair in a pony tail with a bouncy scrunchy or I might have done more damage as my head touched the ice. The competition is tonight adn if it wasnt' for there being so few people in it that if I pulled out they'd have to cancel I dont think I woudl bother. Oh well.

coach says I am just going too fast into everything - it doesn't feel fast but it's obviously too fast for my level of control as yet.

Hot: Not

[flo]

Hot: last night. I was on my way to the rink and stopped to pick up a couple of things when an amazing storm hit. I stayed and shopped until it let up, and by that time it was too late for the session.
By the way, if anyone is looking for a different summer skating dress, Target has some cute terry cloth beach cover ups. They would work well over a leotard and tights.

[quarkiki2]

Nothing was really hot, mainly lukewarm everything.

Lesson: Worked FI mohawks and FO3s, both on both sides. Still improving, but not getting there as quickly as I'd like. I think it's time for more off-ice training as I'm sensing a real weakness in my core muscles and that's leading to wobbliness in my upper body. I can either get the feet right, or the arms right at this point in time, not both at the same time. Patience! But this is honestly what I wanted to do -- rebuild my basics correctly and get them down solidly. My three turns were easily the most succesful I'd ever done, though. I have an unfortunate tendency to drop my left hip when skating backwards on a RI edge (as in the end of the mohawk and FO3) -- must work on that. :frus:

Practice: I actually spent most of my practice time on stroking and forward and backward crossovers. My forward ones are getting stronger and I'm really working on bending my knees more. Backwards are improving, too. I used to get terrified after three consecutive ones, but now I'm not feeling panic until 12-13 of them. Also getting more power on R-over-L side because I'm using better pushes.

I did a couple of two foot spins, which attracted the attention of a young fella (8 or so) who wanted to show me his two-foot spin. This little guy doesn't really know the "rules" on the ice and skated through the middle of my lesson 8-9 times both last week and this week. Now, I've never talked to this kid and I realize that I am an extremely approachable adult, but he was following me so closely that I didn't even feel comfortable extending my arms to set up my spins because I was afraid I was going to conk him on the head. I think that if this is an issue next week, I'll have to have a little talk with him about safety and lesson protocal -- as in the people having lessons get the right of way. It's not just my lesson as there are three lessons on the session. It is a public skate, so we're fortunate we can have lessons then, but for his own safety, he needs to know what's supposed to happen. And I'll probaby have to explain to him that adults need a little more room than kids because their arms and legs are longer. :frus:

All-in-all I feel pretty good about what I'm doing. I was terribly concerned that I was forming bad habits and was not really happy that I was passing through learn-to-skate classes with skills that I didn't think deserved to pass. It's good that I'm re-addressing this now when I'm skating with much more confidence that when I was actually learning the stuff.

As a side note, I must have been bending my knees more in my stroking and crossovers, because my quads are stiff this morning!! ;)

[mikawendy]

Melting

I'm suffering with piriformis syndrome at the moment after going running on Sunday. It totally messed up my skate on Monday and it took four attempts to skate my programme clean. I hoped it would be better today as we have a club competition tonight, but I'm still in pain. I'm going to skate this morning and see how it goes. In the meantime it's ibuprofen and stretching for me.

Nicki

Hugs to you, NickiT--I had piriformis syndrome for a long time. It really is, as they say, a pain in the butt!!

I think there's a thread from about a year ago in this forum on piriformis syndrome...

Feel better soon.

[CaraSkates]

Hot - Got on the ice at 12:50 today! We have both numbers for the show almost worked out. Thanks to the people who suggested songs! Now we have to work out costumes.....My aunt is pretty sure she can borrow three more Irish Step Dance skirts....(her girls already have them) that and black 3/4 sleeve leotards will be for one number...now to find a way to make it look different for the four of us who are doing the 2nd number also!

Melting - Ice was extremely crowded. Coach made a scheduling mistake, so the Mennonite school was on the ice at the same time as the homeschoolers. So no total ice for the lesson. :( By 3:30 when it was time for show practice (and everyone had left) the ice was so chopped up.

[icenut84]

I skated on Tues.

Hot: Most was ok. Stroking & edges etc felt pretty good, did a few ok 2 foot spins. Tried a few backspins - the first 2 weren't bad at all, got maybe 1.5 revs on the edge, but the ones after that didn't work. They're difficult to learn! Also waltz jump was fine.

LFO spiral MUCH better. :) Also did some right foot (just forward flat) spirals, which worked too. :D (Last time, I couldn't do a spiral on my right foot at all - don't know where they went.)

Not really much difference in 1 foot spins.

Melting:

My heel hurt on waltz jump landings, so I didn't do any other jumps.

My RBO3 decided to go on holiday. Hmm. I managed a couple, but even those ones weren't brilliant, and most of them just didn't want to work at all. Hopefully they'll come back soon! I've been able to do them for years, have been trying to improve them so they're as good as my LBO3s (my good side).

There was more skaters than normal on the ice, including some very high level ones, so it was hard to practice things without getting in the way of people setting up for jumps, e.g. triples. Had to keep moving out of the way, so it was hard to get through a pattern of anything.

[flo]

Hot: made it to the rink before the evening storm! We all had a pretty good skate. I worked on double sals - trying to be straighter in the air. Also worked on camel-jump-camels.

Melting: our rink - it will be closed down later this summer for the big melt down and repairs.

[mikawendy]

Melting: our rink - it will be closed down later this summer for the big melt down and repairs.

Oh, no! Does that also mean that the adult show that your club puts on in late summer will be canceled this year, flo? Say it isn't so--it's a great show to watch, as I don't get to go watch many of the competitions and usually only see certain skaters since I'm usually doing the same sessions each week.

[vesperholly]

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot: I have been working on CCW back camels from a forward upright spin for only a few weeks now, felt ambitious and decided to try a camel-back camel since my camel has been so nice and steady lately. Not once but TWICE I got 3 good revolutions out of the back camel in the camel-back camel! The rest of the times I did near-illusions instead and stepped out or fell. :P But still! Just a few months ago, I wouldn't even have dreamed being able to do it. :::silly happy dance:::

Also, got a new dance coach! :)

I'm Meeeelllllting: Axel. Bad. Evil. Jump.

Also, old dance coach is MIA. :(

[NCSkater02]

Hot: Had the rink to ourselves, just me and my coach today. We worked on my toe loop again, and I did a couple with both height and distance. I was impressed with myself. However, I am sure it will desert me by Saturday. Also, we did not work on spins! We did do my free skate, and finished in time to the music. I did work on my scratch after my coach left, and am starting to fairly consistantly get my free leg to my knee. This may work yet.

Melting: I realized yesterday that Dogwood is next weekend, not the one after. I thought I had TWO weeks to practice and I really only have one. Yikes!! I guess I better get the most out of what time I have left. Since school is finishing this week, most of the public time will disappear, and I'll have to pay for freestyle ice--more money and shorter sessions, but no Gretzkey wanna-be's.

[flo]

Hi Mika,
The rink's adult show will probably not be held this year. Perhaps the club can take it over. The rink use to close down each summer in June, but they haven't for a few years, and now the ice is in really bad shape. We'll also be setting the date for the fall/winter show at the next board meeting, so I'll let you know!
For anyone in the Baltiomre area, the Ice Club of Baltimore does not have summer Ice, and we'll start up again in September!

[CanAmSk8ter]

Hot: A friend told me today that her coach was saying how much progress I've made with my new coach. Always nice to hear, especially since my friend's coach is currently ranked in the top 5 in the world. I was 8O !

Also hot: Competition in two weeks. Confidence is up. Lessons are going well.

Melting: I'm sore and unusually tired for some reason. I took it easy the first half of the week due to scheduling issues, but I only made it through one session today. I hope after the long weekend I feel back to normal.

[NickiT]

Hugs to you, NickiT--I had piriformis syndrome for a long time. It really is, as they say, a pain in the butt!!

I think there's a thread from about a year ago in this forum on piriformis syndrome...

Feel better soon.

Thanks for the hugs. Yep it quite literally is a pain in the butt and it's very frustrating. It's something that comes and goes from time to time as I have a twisted pelvis and therefore my piriformis muscle on my right side is very short. Fortunately with the help of ibuprofen and stretching I was able to compete on Wednesday and came second out of three, and I'm happy to say the pain is easing now. I will go and hunt out the thread about it from a while back. It would be interesting to see it!

Nicki

[Tessie]

Hot - got my waltz toe loop today, okay so the actual execution is luke warm :)

Melting - Salchow just can't check that three enough, gotta slow it down :evil:

[Mel On Ice]

Hot: I learned how to twizzle in synchro yesterday! I'm relieved I there's still a few tricks out there I can just get instead of practicing it for three months and only doing it half right.

I also was reacquainted with sharp blades after *ahem* going a full year without a sharpening. The pro at my rink who usually sharpens them insisted I didn't need a sharpening, even though I was skidding on BO edges. Whoa...! It took a good 15 minutes for me to get used to cutting and edge, then I started testing the holding power of the edges, leaning farther and farther...

Loop is still being landed between 33-50% of attempts. Harder this week with the sharpening and my left knee is hurting, so I'm trying to skate around it.

Melting: I'm in a minor panic because coach and I have revamped my Bronze program, I'm competing in 3 weeks, and my regular rink closes for two weeks for the diving trials. I have to find ice at other rinks, I think I can hit three others, but one of them has only open skate, but I hear it is usually just ice skaters turning it into a freestyle.

And I have sunburned shoulders from gardening for 4 hours yesterday. Ow.

[NCSkater02]

Melting: I'm in a minor panic because coach and I have revamped my Bronze program, I'm competing in 3 weeks, and my regular rink closes for two weeks for the diving trials. I have to find ice at other rinks, I think I can hit three others, but one of them has only open skate, but I hear it is usually just ice skaters turning it into a freestyle.


I can identify with this because my coach likes to do this just before a competetion and then desert me. The last time was just before my first competetion--she added in arm movements at the end of my lesson, then was out for surgery, up to the day of the competetion. I worked on it, but left it out because I wasn't getting it right. This time, she added in arms again, and is leaving the country (Dogwood is next weekend) At least this time, I wrote it down and may get at least part of it in.

Hot: Both compulsary and free skate runthroughs went well. I had to do the free during public, so I had to avoid others, but I was able to get most of it in with only one restart. A lady from a church group told me I was good (NOT) and wanted to know my secrets. She didn't seemed surprised when I said lots of practice. And, one of the other coaches asked me if I have lost more weight--said my face looked thinner. :) (She's an Olympic silver medal winner)

Melting: Nothing really today...or at least anything I worked on. I'm sure that will be next week as I shuffle my regular schedule to account for working 3-11 Monday.

[batikat]

Had a lesson Thursday after the competition on Wednesday night - just a club one as a 'warm-up' for our upcoming Opens.

Concentrated on the jumps as this is what let me down on Wednedsay evening - just coudln't do them when confronted with a competition scenario and real judges (I never even tested any Free programme with jumps in due to the strange and anomalous way the NISA went about determining old and new skate test equivalents when they changed the system.)

Didn't feel very motivated though and spent most of the time chatting with coach about the competition. My compulsories had also been pretty awful and the only thing that went OK was the OD which I won (out of 2!). I did have to make bits of this up and change them as I went along when certain things didnt' go quite to plan but at least with OD's the judges don't know what you intended to do!

Still felt a bit down about my Free programme on Friday but hopefully will be able to work on it next week and be able to perform it at the Opens a bit better than Wednesday.