Glum or gleeful - 6-12 June 2004

[Mrs Redboots]

Now that we are back from the Mountain Cup, our first priority is our Artistic Couples routine for the next competition in a couple of weeks. So hard work is the order of the day.

Glum: How do I get my husband to understand that I can't practice it without the music as I don't know how many beats I need to hold various edges, and/or how many bars (especially at the end) we have to put in various steps? Plus how can I get him to remember the steps? :frus: :roll: :frus:

Plus our pairs spin is still not working (but it is beginning to happen now), and our 3-turns weren't working until our coach tweaked them.

And I still haven't finished choreographing the extra piece in my solo interpretive; it's all very well my coach saying "it's all acting, don't worry about it", but I can scarcely stand there on 2 feet "acting" for 20 seconds!

Gleeful: However, it is beginning to come together, and the more we practice it now, the better it will be. The elites are at squad camp, so the ice was pretty empty, which was nice.

[1lutz2klutz]

Glum- Just got a call from my coach telling me that the rink blew its compressor and our ice is now a swimming pool. No ice until at least Thursday, since they have to ship a part in from East Overshoe or Timbukto or somewhere :cry:

[skatingatty]

Sorry to hear about the rink becoming a pool of water! Let's hope everything is ok in a few days! Mrs. R- at least your husband is willing to skate. I asked my husband again if he wanted me to get him some ice skates for his upcoming birthday, and he declined since he is too clumsy.

Glum: Had the worst competition experience yesterday at the Dogwood Open competition in silver free skate. I had stupidly volunteered to wake up early to pick up a judge from the airport. afterwards, i tried to sleep in my car but couldn't, but it seemed like a waste of time and gas to go home and then go back out to the rink again. My coach was at the competition, so I had to wear this big poofy tutu that she had made for me to wear for the Swan Lake program. Fell and messed up a lot in the warm-up. Messed up on 2 axel attempts. Flailed around after a spiral.

Gleeful: despite feeling dizzy, sleepy, disadvantaged by new boots, and weighted down by the big poofy tutu (can u tell I can't stand it-- plus it makes my butt look even bigger!), I won the freeskate. I think it was my spins that saved the day. I ended up also winning compulsories (once again not doing an axel, though it turned out to be better to be cautious) and the showcase w/my "butt-wiggling hermaphrodite" program. :) Well, that was a fun competition-- state games is next Sat.!

[jazzpants]

1lutz2klutz: Sorry about the new swimming pool!

skatingatty: My husband's the same way... and with good reasons too! He has no hand-eye coordination and he's a tall guy! :P Part of me wishes he could skate so he could skate with me. Other part of me is very glad that he isn't into the sport. (No need to worry about taking him to the ER for any skating accidents.)

Congrats on winning your competition. You know, those poofy tutu thingies are exactly why I HATE skating dresses!!! Thank goodness the rules have changed! Now I'll have to overcome another obstacle for wear pants to skate -- my coaches!!! Primary coach is probably cool with it. Secondary coach, OTOH, would probably prefer I not be a "trend setter." :roll:

[TashaKat]

(HOPEFULLY) GLEEFUL

Starting skating lessons tonight :)

GLUM

Can't find any of my stuff (apart from my skates), can't find leo, tights, gloves or pants! Oh, found skirts but not much good without the rest ;)

[jazzpants]

Oh, forgot to post my skating practice for today:

Gleeful:

Ice session for the most part has been pretty sane!!! No Wayne Gretsky wannabes 'til toward the tail end of the public session and I was already leaving then. :P
LFO3's for the forward power 3's are better again today! And they actually got better going into the one hour mark. I didn't attempt fate after the last good power 3's by doing it again or do any consecutive waltz jumps! :mrgreen: I even got very slow intro 3 to go along with it!
My RFO3's on the forward power 3's are getting STRONG!!! If I could get my LFO3's to be halfway as strong as the RFO3's side now, it will be a slam dunk on the Bronze Moves test! :mrgreen:
The rest of my moves seems to be better, with one exception probably...
Landed a couple of flips today!
Waltz, toe loop and salchow are all intact for the most part.
Glum:

The backwards alt. back crossovers aren't improving much and I don't know why. It's okay. It's fast, but the edges are the way that I want it and I'm not showing as much POWER as I should. (It was tiring me out to do the moves. When done right, it should take little to no effort to do them. If I'm running out of breath to do the moves, I know I'm not doing it right.) Thankfully, my back crossovers around the hockey circles seems to be intact.
Backspins and loops are gone!!! :cry:
Missed most of my flips. Oh, well! Just as well. My coaches haven't gone over jumps with me in ages. (At least a couple of months!) Everything pretty much took a backseat to the Bronze moves test!!!

[Mrs Redboots]

(HOPEFULLY) GLEEFUL

Starting skating lessons tonight :)We will want a FULL report, mind!

GLUM

Can't find any of my stuff (apart from my skates), can't find leo, tights, gloves or pants! Oh, found skirts but not much good without the rest ;)I never bother with a leotard - just wear a T-shirt and black M&S big knickers over my tights under my skirt, if that makes sense. Anyway, for the first time I should think you could wear leggings, no?

[quarkiki2]

Practice Saturday morning:

Worked on stroking, FI mohawks, FO3s. Nothing really glum, nor really gleeful. RFI mohawk settling in and getting faster, LFI not so much -- I keep dropping my hip and that makes my exit edge really curve around. FO3s are a little better. I'm somewhat afraid to twist as much as my coach wants me to so they're kinda wobbly for that reason.

I discovered I'm completely not using the second push in my forward cossovers, though I am bending my knees more. Why can't I co-ordinate these things better? Either I bend my knees or I push, but somehow I can never do both...

Oh, this is better than gleeful -- it's GLOWING! I got my first on-ice compliment from a stranger today. On CW backwards crossovers, of all things! She was an ice dancer visiting her friend who always skates the Saturday AM freestyle and she said I had terrific form on my back crossovers. Well, I was terribly impressed by her confident footwork myself and very shocked to hear someone compliment me. Especially on something I've really struggled with and, to be honest, wasn't skating all that well that morning. Yes, I manage to stay off my toepicks (amazingly that hasn't ever been a problem for me going backwards) and was finally getting some rip on the outside push, but I wasn't sure my feet were actually crossing and was also pretty sure I didn't have too much power going, either, LOL! The rhythm did feel good, however, maybe that made them look better than I think they actually are???

[TashaKat]

We will want a FULL report, mind!

I never bother with a leotard - just wear a T-shirt and black M&S big knickers over my tights under my skirt, if that makes sense. Anyway, for the first time I should think you could wear leggings, no?

When I said that I couldn't find anything I meant ANYTHING!!! All of my stuff is in storage anyway (in Hertfordshire), I gave my tracky bums away to my niece in a fit of 'I'm sick of wearing these all the time' but gave no thought as to what I was going to replace them with or HOW! and I'm too fat for everything else :roll: and didn't want to wear my 'usual' skate attire for my first lessons (couldn't find it anyway!). Ended up with Yoga Pants (which thankfully are wash, shake out the creases and wear), Mickey Mouse top from pj's and had to buy sports bra (need it for riding anyway .... horrendous things, hope I never pull while I've got that on ;) ) and support tights (more substance than normal tights).

GLEEFUL

Got onto ice, didn't skate, one of instructors came up to me, looked at me and said "you're a skater". I spoke to her afterwards and explained that I wanted to ease back gently without pressure and she said that it was obvious from just looking at me that I was a fairly decent skater :D

Did mohawks, back crossovers, back edges and drags (and a 'norty' 3-jump). It's a bit slow but I'm so pigging wobbly that it's good not to be under pressure to perform.

GLUM

The rest of my life! Got a phone call tonight to say that a doctor that I've known since I first went down to London (a long time in other words) had died over the Bank Holiday weekend, he was found in his office in front of his computer on Tuesday morning. Other stuff has happened and is happening too ...... it all seems to be doom and gloom at the moment :cry: I just feel like going to bed and staying there right now.

[jenlyon60]

Lesson today was almost totally GLUM

I did manage one good intro 3 at speed with coach. The other 3 (1 Blues, 2 Paso attempts to the music) were totally garbage. I work again with my secondary coach on intro 3's tomorrow afternoon.

Blues was lousy... I chopped the choctaws and didn't step the way coach wanted on the LFO after the 4-beat RBO in the corner. But I did do all 3 LFO3s at the end of each pattern.

And then Paso sucked also. I was mushing the back breakout and then brain farted on the chasse sequence across the end of the rink.

But coach and I looked at our pattern afterwards, and it wasn't as flat as we thought, except for the cross chasse sequence and the last cross roll (going into the ladies swing mohawk). On the NHL rink, it should actually cover a decent amount of ice.

So I'm hoping that this means that next weekend things will work a bit better. I hope so. Given that I'm generally the "guaranteed last place", I want to at least look presentable.

[NCSkater02]

Given that I'm generally the "guaranteed last place", I want to at least look presentable.

I thought this was my position :lol: At least it's usually where I end up.

[jazzpants]

Gleeful:

The pleasure of finally meeting DBNY and her friend in person!!! :mrgreen: I introduced her to my primary coach and a few friends of mine. (My favorite comment from her was "There's more male skaters in this public session than all the male skaters in her area!" As primary coach points out, there were actually quite a few guys MIA this evening for some reason. I added "And that's just the public session crowd!!! There's also the freestyle crowd too!" :lol: )
The rest of my moves are okay. The back crossovers to BO edge could use more extension on one side, but the flow and speed was nice.
I had both scratch spins and sit spins to show DBNY, thankfully! She claims my sit spins are lower than most adults she's seen testing for the adult tests. (You should see some of the test sessions in the Bay Area rinks! Mine are actually not that low compare to some of the adults!) :P :lol:
Oh, and THEN she says "Let's see some jumps!" :lol: I managed to get out a waltz jump, a toe loop, a salchow and a loop for her, even though I really don't practice those much in quite a while.
Managed to scramble up a couple of backspins for DBNY as well, so I have a witness now! :P :lol:
I saw some of DBNY mohawks. When she's in "teaching" mode, her FI mohawks are better than mine!!! (I better get cracking on my technique. :oops: Ditto with her forward power pulls!)
Glum:

Loops disappear after the second one. Thankfully, DBNY didn't ask for more! :P
Flip disappeared after the first one. Thankfully, DBNY didn't ask for more! :lol:
My LFO3 was better (at least I did 3 this time but it still SUCK!!! I only have flow on my RFO3 side. I have NUTTIN' on my LFO3 side!) WAAAAH!!!
Long work day! Very tired!!! Want sleep NOW!!!

[Mrs Redboots]

Tashakat, it's really awful when things like that happen. I'm so sorry..... makes us remember we are mortal.

Practice this morning was mostly Gleeful. In this weather, 2.5 hours in an ice rink is really wonderful! Arrived in time to run through our programme with Robert, before he had to leave, although we didn't have time to do it to the music. It really is coming together nicely now.

Spent most of the morning trying to choreograph the 20 extra seconds in my programme - it really is a lo-o-ng time! It's all very well for my coach to say "it's only acting", but I can scarcely stand on two feet waving my arms about for that length of time. There's just one phrase that I'm not sure about now. I finish the new section with a RBO spiral into a cherry flip (toe loop), which I am very pleased with, and hope he doesn't take out tomorrow!

Spent some time doing an edge exercise posted on RSSIR - you strike a FO edge, hold it for 1/2 circle, then change edge and hold the inside edge for a full circle; then push on to the FO edge on the other foot and repeat. Coming back the other way, you strike and inside edge, and hold the whole circle on an outside edge. You're supposed to be able to do it backwards, too, but.....

Glum: If I had a job, I could have afforded another 15 minutes of my coach's time. He wasn't doing anything.....

Tempted to go back this evening, but husband has a meeting and wants supper for 7.30, right in the middle of Figure Club, so can't. Oh well..... tomorrow is another day, and a lesson day.

[sk8pics]

Gleeful Had a nice relaxing practice after having had a crappy day (got into a minor car accident in the morning; I'm fine, the other driver is fine, my car is fine, hers has only minor damage, but still :twisted: ). I can't much remember now what I practiced, except I did do some of the perimeter crossover stroking forwards and backwards from the Bronze MITF test. Still have my waltz jump. Did sections of my program including the salchow out in the middle of the ice where it's supposed to be.

Glum Nearly killed myself by nearly falling over this very tiny kid in a lesson who first made me abort my pattern and then as her coach was calling to her, started flailing around skating backwards not ever looking in the direction she was going and not going in the direction her coach was telling her to go in. I'd stopped my pattern and was trying to get around her to pick it up again, and it was like she was drawn irresistably to me-- backwards, of course!-- and I finally had to put out a hand and stop her from running into me. :frus: :frus: :frus: She's a perfectly nice little kid, and her coach is very nice, too, but if she's too little to follow instructions and will start flailing around and spiraling inward in random patterns, maybe she shouldn't be out in the middle of the :frus: :frus: ice all by herself! I'm just glad I didn't fall over her, as I probably would have if I'd been skating backwards.

Sigh. Also I've only had one lesson since my coach has been away, about 10 days. I have a lesson today with a new coach so hopefully that will be helpful.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

[TashaKat]

Bit that I forgot from my report ..... you usually get ONE know-it-all, we got TWO!!

Firstly there was the one that turned up half an hour late, dressed top to toe in BRIGHT red, no sleeves, DEEP v-neck, mid 30's, not slim ...... and proceeded to bat her eyelashes at and flirt with the no-more-than early 20's coach! THEN there was the guy that turned up in SHORTS and was learning Waltz jumps. He proceeded to fall all over the place whilst jumping right across our patch of ice! He then stood up, looked at us and said "you don't hurt yourself when you get more experienced" ...... I just looked round and said "come back to me and tell me that in 5 years time" at which point the Lady In Red and him started on about when I'd been skating as long as them (less than 6 months I would say) I would understand that you can learn to fall and never hurt yourself. Mmmmmm ..... whatever!

Apart from the Arrogant Twins everyone else was really nice, the coaches are great and the facilities are clean, spacious and user friendly :D

My inner thigh is HURTING today ..... we were doing drags/lunges ..... now the body knows what to do, as does the head, but the muscles aren't quite up to speed yet! I am SO ouchy today 8O


http://img48.photobucket.com/albums/v146/TashaKat/Drag.gif

[Cinderella]

Gleeful - My lesson and practice this morning were as sweet as candy. Started off with jumps today, and quickly zoomed up to the axel. Imagine my surprise when my coach suddenly asked for a loop/loop. Hmmm, I thought, didn't she really mean a salchow/loop (preparation for my non-existent 2sal), or a toe loop/loop (preparation for my equally non-existent 2toe)? But no, she meant loop/loop, as in preparation for my never-tried-before-in-my-life 2loop!!! Of course, the results were actually more comical than athletic, but somehow it just made me smile to think I was breaking new ground in my skating career. I finished up my practice working on my also non-existent layback spins, but lo and behold, they are starting to exist! Yes, coach saw me while she was working with another student and commented that they were really starting to come along. So yay and yay and even more yays.

Nothing GLUM about today!

[Mrs Redboots]

Glum Cannot get the new step sequence in my routine to work. It is sort-of working now, and I have it placed on the ice. But it's very hard to get something going that will push me into some speed for my back spiral into cherry-flip combination (okay so I stop dead as I pick in, but who cares? Coach said I need to be very definite on the pick-in, or it won't jump, even my tiny jumps). And I feel the start of the new sequence is very slow. Coach said only because I'd only just finished it before my lesson.

Once we left that and went into exercises, my LBO edge was dreadful, and when I did held edges around the circle, so was my RBO edge. Sigh.

Gleeful: Quite a lot of things did work well, though. Forward cross-rolls (a.k.a "ball-crushers", according to someone last week!), changes-of-edge, and, before I left the rink, our run-through of our Artistic Couples, which went really well, except that Robert forgot it was a slow chasse and did a quick one, so was out of time.... men.... his coach says he simply can't hear it so it's no good getting cross. But it really is coming together now, and I think will work on the day. It'll have need to - it's a fortnight tomorrow!

Forgot to say that we got nearly 2 full revolutions on our dance spin - we'll have 3 revs by October, you wait and see!

[alhrayth]

On Monday night I went for the first time to skate at another rink - which is way too far from my home to be comfortable, but it's the only one still open in the area around Milano... All the others have closed before the end of may, while this one will work till the second weekend of July (10/11). Then, no ice till mid-september.

I had a lot of fun! Basically this is not a class - it's just a group of dancers renting the ice, we put on CDs music, and the couples can work on their dances, while the single girls can either work on specific elements or on the dances by themselves.... There's also my private coach coming, so I plan on asking him to give me a lesson too, next week.

I started by warming up a bit by myself, finding my edges, the 3s, the mohawks, etc.... then with a couple of girls I went through the sequences of a couple of dances - the American Waltz, the Starlight Waltz, and the very beginning of the Blues... The best part was that I actually had a chance to skate a few times at least part of the Starlight with a guy I know, that was there without a partner, and was patient enough to make me try a little... OMG it was fun, but it is sooo different than doing it solo, or from skating in a formation with the synchro team.... the positions are so unusual for me, it was really strange... but I loved that!! Now, if only I had a guy to skate with... why are they soo difficult to find???!!

Anyway, now I plan to focus on learning some of these sequences by myself, to be able to try some of these with a partner when the occasion may arise (it is usual in this dance club for the guys to some times leave their partner for a moment and take turns skating with the single ladies too, to give them the chance to try skating with a partner). I know I have several technical issues to fix which I hope to tackle with the dance coaches in the stage we'll do for a week in july and later in october when I'll start the class - with the team we just weren't that accurate with the steps we learnt/practiced - but for now the biggest gap I have to fill is my ignorance of the sequences of the various dances.... wish me good luck!

[jenlyon60]

GLUM

EVERYTHING. Nothing wanted to work right this morning (which was my last real lesson before Pro-Am).

I did do one decent pattern of Blues w/o music with a really nice choctaw, but then couldn't manage a single nice choctaw or 3-turn with the music on.

Then in the Paso, my feet were weird in my boots and we started the dance and both of us nearly went down because my weight was too far back on the blades or something. And then I brain farted on the steps after the back breakout again and we ended up with what can most kindly be called "the incredible shifting Paso pattern"

[quarkiki2]

Glum: FO3s I was absolutely sucking at these on the circle, so my coach suggested I try them on a straight line and then I went from absoutely sucking to only sucking. I'm OK through the turn, but keep tapping my free foot down just after I turn, then picking it up again and finishing with a waaay too deep inside edge, which causes me to put my free-foot down and two-foot the runout. ARRRGGHHH! These darn things have me so frustrated. It's not the quality of my edge as my forward edges are strong and my backwards are getting stronger, it's literally the darn turn. If I ever get these things, it will be a miracle!!!

Gleeful: FI Mohawks. Somehow all practice I've put into these lately has paid off. My coach only had me do four of them on each foot before she declared them in "good shape: so let's work on something else.

Glummish: and that something else was the step behind from our synchro footwork (RBO with LBI stepping behind). When I do five or six in a row while using a spot the 4th-6th are right. Just cannot get the first and not really by myself, either. The good news is I'm barely touching my spot, so this appears to be a mental issue and not a technical issue. As are nearly ALL of my problems on skates, LOL!

I told my coach that I am absolutely flabbergasted at my lack of ability on the ice, even for "simple stuff" like 3 turns. I've see people way less coordinated than me do them, why can't I?? I know I'm coordinated and have good balance -- 15 years of dance lessons and 3 years of martial arts training prove that. But put the skates on and I'm a wobbly, bobbly wimp. One of these days a light bulb will go off and suddenly everything will make sense. I just hope it's tomorrow.

[AshBugg44]

Well, I was supposed to have a lesson yesterday, but my coach had to cancel, because her mom went into the ICU. I was it was because she was having her baby! lol

I went and skated at Mt. View (http://mtviewice.com) yesterday because my rink is closed for a rink for the darn Rose Festival. I mainly worked on double sals the entire time but I only landed the last one I tried. Oh well. I know what I was doing wrong so I hope to fix it today!

[icenut84]

Gleeful:

Had a freestyle lesson, and PASSED the 1 foot upright spin (4 revs, proper entry & exit) on the gold Skate UK test! Woohoo! The first one I did was the best one I've done for ages, and the second one, although it travelled a little bit, wasn't bad either. :D Coach said my teapot (shoot the duck) and backspin are getting there too ("nearly there" with backspin, yay!).

Waltz jump was fine - one of them felt very big! :mrgreen: Salchows were fine too, though not as consistent as I'd like. Also did a 2 foot spin that, although not perfectly centred, wasn't bad.

Turns were all fine I think. I also practiced some outside open mohawks (both ways), which were ok.

Glum:

Toe loop was crap, on the whole.

Spins in practice, later in session, weren't as good as those I passed the test with. But hey, at least I know I can do it.

Lots of people in the ice (mainly little kids), so it was hard to practice stuff (there were also a few fast higher-level skaters). Lost a bit of motivation, and my feet didn't feel quite right in my boots.

[NickiT]

Gleeful

I had a great lesson this morning. I ran through all my jumps and spins then proceeded to skate my programme through twice. Both times were good but the second time my coach told me I skated it my best ever :D ! Also did some good figure work in our figures class and had my own set of circles as there are now only three of us doing it. For the first time I got round the full circles on my back inside edges! Since we are losing our Friday morning patch when I'm due to have my next lesson, my coach is very kindly coming in especially to coach me tomorrow morning. Also got my skates sharpened so I have two weeks to wear them down before our Open competition.


Glum

Nothing really this week other than the fact that I had to get off the ice half an hour early in order to leave my skates with the coach who sharpened them. Didn't really mind but I was having a great skate today!

Nicki

[kisscid]

I haven't been able to post here for a few weeks so I'll sum up :
Gleeful: I have all of my half jumps back, They aren't real strong, but I can do them! My edge work is starting to get better. it almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

Glum: I can't center my scratch spin, I also discovered I can't do a 2 foot spin at all (I need to in order to advance from the level I'm on). I have worked the past 2 weeks on my 2 foot spin, and I still can't do it right UGH!
I have 2 more lessons before the end of this session. It would suck if I get held back on this level because of a lousy 2 foot spin.

Cid

[batikat]

Gleeful:
quite a good skate day today even though my motivation levels are pretty low. Did a couple of run throughs of the Dutch Waltz which I am competing in two weeks and the second one at least was fairly reasonable "you should at least try to have some control", says my coach and the second one was a lot better when I put some effort in to thinking about what I was doing. (Still dont really enjoy these low level dances but am not motivated enough to bother working on the next levels - I'd rather do jumps and spins but am not much good at these :cry: )

Did a couple of lovely fast and centred upright spins - just wish I could do it like that every time.

Ran through the OD also for the upcoming competition. I'm a bit worried as I now reckon I only have one good performance of every programme I do, in me and I skated this really well at our recent club competition - does this mean it will be bad at the Opens???????? I'm hoping it might mean that my freeskate programme might be OK then, as I skated that really badly at the club comp :lol:

Worked on some of my elements and for the first time my 3 jump was deemed to be exactly right the very first one I did.

Glum: still cant' do the loop although I almost had it yesterday - today it has sneaked off and left me :frus:

salchow-toeloop combo seems to be gettign worse rather than better - help!

Sit-spin: what is the secret to gettign this lower - other than a degree of flexibility I don't appear to possess. I'm off to do some stretching!!!

[CaraSkates]

Gleeful - Most of my lesson! Coach critized me on my arms on back crossovers - he only does that if you have the edge all right! My waltz jumps and half flips were pretty nice and high. My toe loops were not great at all - time to lift some more weights!


Glum - My best friend at homeschool skating leaves tomorrow for a month. VERY GLUM - during show practice I fell doing a simple toe tap. I landed on both my wrists. I dont think I broke anything but I jammed my left elbow and sprained my right wrist pretty badly. (yes i can type as long as I don't bend my wrist (it's in a splint) Unfortuantly I'm good at typing in a splint, I hurt my right wrist 2.5 years ago and it still bothers me off and on. I'm hoping it will be ok tomorrow for me to play in a softball game (three games left in the season).

[angelskates]

Gleeful Everything up until the *glum* point! Spins very average though, need to work on the camel A LOT off ice and am trying to get into position too quickly, freaking out and then stuffing it up. :frus: Tried out some new arm positions today and managed to stay centred, though will wear gloves if I am going to try this again (and I am!) since my hands stung.

My steps are great fun, amazing how hard they are (though it was great for someone to tell me that I made them look easy by smiling through them today) since individually they are simple, together even at half speed today they were hard, but still a lof of fun.

Jumps, :bow: hello, they have returned, welcome back....though then comes the *glum*

Glum jumped straight into the barrier on my axel, right *into* it. :cry: How I could have even imagined I had enough room, I have no idea, but I was into the jump before I realised and then it was too late! Spirals also glum, need to work on the flexibility (or lack thereof) a lot! Am brusied and miserable, but gee do I want to get back on the ice to prove I can do the stupid jump!! I was on my last of 5 (having landed 4 nice ones) after a week of them disapearing and then this! :roll:

[NickiT]

Gleeful

Another great lesson today. I seem to be on a roll right now. Just hope it'll last till the Opens in two week's time!! The rink was quiet and since my kids were off school for the day my son took a lesson which was very pleasing since he quit lessons back in March or April.

Anyway my coach had me run through my jumps, do all my spins and then skate my programme through twice. Both times went well again and my coach couldn't find anything of substance to fault on it. After that I practiced some camel/sit spin combinations.

I'm back to the rink tomorrow for jumps class and our artistic rehearsal.


Glum

Nothing :D :P !!!

Nicki

[singerskates]

Gleeful: New coach watched my sitspin and corkscrew spins and was please with them saying they were "nice". For my corkscrew I must have done about 8 revs and then asked if I could come out of the spin and he said yes.

Glum: All jump landings don't have enough of an outside edge. After my coach looked at my skates, he said that I needed to move the blade once again. No wonder I've been struggling to get right outside edges. And it's no wonder why my loop doesn't loop well, my flip is a flipping disaster and my backspin is still back at the beginning stages.

So So:I tried camel spins for the first time in a long while. Well, I can get into them but I can't get past 1 rev because I just can't keep my freeleg up. I need to develop more hip muscle strength. But I know one thing, I'm not scared of trying them.

This summer my goals are to get the choreographing of my program finished, fix the right boot problem, get the loop and flip jumps to work, get the backspin to spin at least 6 rotations and get a three rev camel spin. And if I'm really lucky, get a camel/sitspin combination. That's a lot to get done with 10 weeks once a week since I'm slowing down for the summer. But I'm going to try my best to venture forward.

Maybe in the fall, I can test the prelim FS test both parts?!

Brigitte

[Terri C]

Glum:
You all know how you go to a public session to skate and .... a bus load of kids arrive?? That happened to me and Coach this morning.
We managed to get most of my lesson done before the herd got out, especially the MIF!
The good news is that I'll be having lessons on freestyle ice during the summer- we'll be able to work on jumps then, since our rink does not allow jumps on public sessions! :twisted:

Gleeful:
After a "fight" with my sal/ toeloop combination on Tuesday, I landed one on Wednesday! All of my jumps are back!! :D :D :D

Spins on lesson this morning were centered- still need to lower the sit! :frus: :frus:

[dbny]

The pleasure of finally meeting DBNY and her friend in person!!! :mrgreen: I introduced her to my primary coach and a few friends of mine. (My favorite comment from her was "There's more male skaters in this public session than all the male skaters in her area!"

The pleasure was mutual! BTW, to be exact, it was "male skaters in figure skates". We have plenty of men in hockey skates, unfortunately :evil:
Jazzpants' primary coach was quite nice, as were the skating friends. I was
:mrgreen: that Jazzpants gets to skate with so many adults.


Oh, and THEN she says "Let's see some jumps!" :lol: I managed to get out a waltz jump, a toe loop, a salchow and a loop for her, even though I really don't practice those much in quite a while.

Managed to scramble up a couple of backspins for DBNY as well, so I have a witness now! :P :lol:


Well I had to, Jazzpants was having so much fun showing off :lol:
Yes, the backspins are coming along!


I saw some of DBNY mohawks. When she's in "teaching" mode, her FI mohawks are better than mine!!! (I better get cracking on my technique. :oops: Ditto with her forward power pulls!)


Thank you! She forced me to do the wretched five step Mohawk. Hers is quite nice, but I hadn't skated for myself in more than two weeks and can't remember when I last practiced that move - certainly not voluntarily, as I'm terrified of it. Jazzpants was nice enough not to mention the terrible state of this move when I do it! I guess I redeemed myself a bit with the demo Mohawks :lol:

Jazzpants, you didn't get to see my beloved back cross strokes, because you skated behind me as a look out! You are supposed to skate facing the backwards one to watch behind them. Then the one doing the cross strokes can look at your face as an aid in keeping the head up, and also hear you better if you yell "Stop!" I was so surprised that you were "behind" me, and also worried that I would crash into you :roll: :D

I did have a small collision at one end of the rink, but it was actually fun. I was starting a pattern and had to go through a group of guys lingering at the corner. I just took off, intending to weave through, but of course, one of them backed up, and I ended up sandwiched between him and a guy skating behind me who swooped in to hold my arm (keep me from falling etc). It felt just like when I was a roller dancer on a public session as a kid. I was fearless and flying!

I was really impressed with Jazzpants' rink. It is filled with light in the day time, and also warm while the sun is up. There were plenty of places to sit, and skaters were allowed to use the hockey boxes. Lockers were available, and the bathrooms were clean. Best of all, there were lots of friendly skaters on the ice. One of the guards even introduced himself to me and wished me a good skate while visiting!

[AshBugg44]

Yesterday I went to skate over at Mt. View again because my rink is still closed for the darn Rose Festival. Anyways...

Glum: Some of my double sals were pretty icky. Moves still suck...and I was trying not to get in the way of the like, 3 dance teams that were practicing, and another girl having a lesson on moves. It was awful. lol

Gleeful: Landed one double sal. Axels were really nice, getting good height. Spins were decent. Some of my moves were okay.

On a neato note, I saw a lady who was maybe 50+ or so, doing double sals and double toes, as well as flying camels. I thought that was pretty darn awesome!

[NCSkater02]

My daughter picked up the phone as I got on Tuesday evening, so I didn't get any online time until today. So this is for Tuesday and today.

Gleeful: As I walked into the rink Tuesday afternoon, my coach asked if I wanted a lesson--we hadn't planned one. Of course I didn't turn her down. She worked with me second, so I had a half hour to warm up and work on skills before we started. She wants to know why I can land my (1/2) toe in practice, but not in competition. I explained about the big butterflies in my stomach, and she laughed at me. We ran out of time, but she got the Zam guy to wait long enough for me to skate my free before we got off. I nearly skated into the wall with my waltz-toe, but it went ok. I worked on scratch spin and am starting to get my free leg around, but only semi-consistantly. Today, we skated on public. After I ran through the troublesome parts of my programs, she said they were fine, and I didn't need a lesson. I said I did, because there are lots of other things to work on improving, so we worked on scratch, fine-tuning my almost-get-the-free-leg-around motion. We also worked on my toeloop. As long as I slow it down, I can usually do it. Hopefully, I can do it Saturday at the State Games. She also said my 1/2 lutz and getting up from my lunge had improved greatly in the last couple of weeks. All I did was change the two things she had told me to.

Glum: The scratch spin--I don't think I'll ever do one, and I say this every time I skate. One day, I'll have one, then I'll complain about something else. Skated on public ice today with the troublesome boys from the day camp. I was trying to work on spins and jumps in the middle of the ice, and they kept skating through the circle, even while I was spinning (boys that age are so stupid) I finally asked them to skate around the circle since all they were doing was going from one end to the other as fast as possible. They did for awhile, but then started again. :frus: I asked again, explaining that one of them could get hurt if I hit them with a blade as I was jumping. That kept them out of my way! :D However, the good outweighed the bad today.

[Mrs Redboots]

Had an hour's practice last night before Dance Club, and Robert arrived early, too, so we were able to run through our Artistic Couples, horribly aware that there are only two weeks to go before the competition! It is coming now, though. Robert keeps saying "can we practice some elements?", but I point out that there's no point doing that until he can remember what they are and where they come in the routine! He'll be fine on the day, though.

The awful thing is, though, that we will have it all to do again as soon as the competition is over, when we start working on our Free Dance for the Adult Championships! Still haven't chosen the music, but I want Robert to sit down and listen to our four choices and help me decide.

At Dance Club we practiced the two compulsory dances we are to do on the Friday of the competition - no real problems, except that I think Robert may need to bend his knees more in the Canasta Tango, as it's so hard not to stick one's bum in the air...... Our Riverside Rhumba is fine, though, although I think we rush the end pattern a bit.

And we did a Willow Waltz together, first time for ages, and I actually managed the RFO3 with not much hesitation! I was well pleased.

[jazzpants]

The pleasure was mutual! BTW, to be exact, it was "male skaters in figure skates". We have plenty of men in hockey skates, unfortunately :evil: Oh, we have plenty of THOSE too!!! And one of them was doing 3turns on hockey skates. (He's a student of the primary coach.) :P

Jazzpants' primary coach was quite nice, as were the skating friends. I was :mrgreen: that Jazzpants gets to skate with so many adults. And that's just THIS rink. There's the Berkeley Iceland crowd, Oakland crowd, San Jose crowd, Ice Oasis, of course (where another RSSIR skater and her SO skates at...) I could go on and on... I also wished you got to meet my secondary coach during my lesson. You'd then see why I live in fear of this coach!!! (Be afraid!!! Be VERY afraid!!!) :lol:

Well I had to, Jazzpants was having so much fun showing off :lol: Yes, the backspins are coming along! Only b/c I keep seeing people do spins and I just HAD to do one for her to show that I'm really a freestyle skater! :lol: (And I haven't showed you what I have so far on my camel yet.)

Thank you! She forced me to do the wretched five step Mohawk. Hers is quite nice, but I hadn't skated for myself in more than two weeks and can't remember when I last practiced that move - certainly not voluntarily, as I'm terrified of it. Jazzpants was nice enough not to mention the terrible state of this move when I do it! I guess I redeemed myself a bit with the demo Mohawks :lol: WOW!!! Thank you!!! I didn't think mine were that great!!! My coaches were forever griping about my "wide stepping" the mohawk... :P

Jazzpants, you didn't get to see my beloved back cross strokes, because you skated behind me as a look out! You are supposed to skate facing the backwards one to watch behind them. Then the one doing the cross strokes can look at your face as an aid in keeping the head up, and also hear you better if you yell "Stop!" I was so surprised that you were "behind" me, and also worried that I would crash into you :roll: :D :lol: Don't worry! I watched you AND the crowd!!! The back cross strokes were actually quite nice, BTW!!! I know some adults can't even do them, so you're definitely ahead of the game. :D

I was really impressed with Jazzpants' rink. It is filled with light in the day time, and also warm while the sun is up. There were plenty of places to sit, and skaters were allowed to use the hockey boxes. Lockers were available, and the bathrooms were clean. Best of all, there were lots of friendly skaters on the ice. One of the guards even introduced himself to me and wished me a good skate while visiting! Our ice guard on Monday night is FANTASTIC!!! :mrgreen: You got one of the good ones. The majority of the ice guards here in the Bay Area are teenagers and they don't really pay as much attention. The one you met is probably one of the BEST ice guards I ever have. (Plus he great on spraying ice and giving some skater a good shower WITH HIS SPEED SKATES ON!) :lol:

And don't forget the "sharks" at 9pm!!! :lol: ("Sharks" is essentially a small group of people going very fast around the hockey circle doing just the swizzle of the forward progressives. Whoever is stuck in the middle of the circle is "shark bait." DBNY got a taste of what I do EVERY SINGLE MONDAY NIGHT! For those gals, it's a lesson in speed. In my case, it's endurance, edges, and forward progressive practice.)

[NickiT]

horribly aware that there are only two weeks to go before the competition!

You're telling me, Annabel. The Opens seem to be creeping up on us rather too quickly all of a sudden!!!

Nicki

[skatingatty]

Skated on public ice today with the troublesome boys from the day camp. I was trying to work on spins and jumps in the middle of the ice, and they kept skating through the circle, even while I was spinning (boys that age are so stupid) I finally asked them to skate around the circle since all they were doing was going from one end to the other as fast as possible. They did for awhile, but then started again. :frus: I asked again, explaining that one of them could get hurt if I hit them with a blade as I was jumping. That kept them out of my way! :D However, the good outweighed the bad today.

Let me guess-- were you at the Cary Ice House? That rink seems to have the most unruly little boys (and big "boys") on public sessions. I almost never go there anymore, now that I've used up my punchcard. They should have a rink guard like all the other rinks do. One time, these boys were even running around on the ice throwing a baseball cap around. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you at the State Games tomorrow!! Good luck! :)

[NCSkater02]

Let me guess-- were you at the Cary Ice House? That rink seems to have the most unruly little boys (and big "boys") on public sessions. I almost never go there anymore, now that I've used up my punchcard. They should have a rink guard like all the other rinks do. One time, these boys were even running around on the ice throwing a baseball cap around. Anyway, I look forward to seeing you at the State Games tomorrow!! Good luck! :)

Close, but no dice--I was at the Garner Ice house. They don't watch kids there either. Since I have group lessons in Garner, I tend to skate Garner or Cary most of the time. I will even go to my lesson tomorrow, between 9:49 compulsary and 6:59 Free skate.

Good luck tomorrow--do you have to wear the poufy skirt again?

[dbny]

Gleeful:
Hubby and I went to a public session this afternoon that had no public session skaters on it at all. They were all figure skaters whom I usually see on the freestyle sessions, and there were fewer than 10 people on the ice! The ice quality was actually pretty good too.

I felt great as soon as I stepped on the ice, unlike Monday night at Yerba Buena, where I felt off balance and the ice seemed very hard and brittle to me. I did a brief warm up, and then they played a song with a catchy beat, and I pictured Yagudin in my head. My free leg (R) just started kind of kicking forward and back, and all of a sudden I was doing the best LF power pulls I had ever done! I wasn't aggressive enough, but I wasn't on the toe either. I worked the F power pulls till the end of that song, and feel that I have finally moved to a slightly higher plateau with them.

I had such a good, easy, fun feeling the whole time I was on the ice. Everything I did just seemed to flow, and hubby said I looked very smooth. We only got to skate about 45 minutes because our arrival was delayed by horrendous traffic, but considering how little I have skated lately (hubby hasn't skated in about 2 months!), it was just right.

Glum:
Nothing except the traffic both to and from the rink. At least for much of the way home we were travelling against the out-of-town trend.

[quarkiki2]

Gleeful: Continued working on FI mohawks and my synchro footwork. I am finally getting the "step behind" better. It's not super pretty, but I am doing it. Now, if only I could do it faster... And withstand the pulling that happens when the team skated this footwork in a circle going faster than I'm comfortable. It's getting better, that's for sure, but it's still not great.

Glum: FO3s. Tried working them on a straight line, tried working them on the circle. I just keep dropping my free hip and, therefore, my free foot. Grrr!!!! I'm comfortable on the forward edge and pretty stabe on the back edge, but the turn in the middle makes me crazy!!! :frus:

[icenut84]

Glum: FO3s. Tried working them on a straight line, tried working them on the circle. I just keep dropping my free hip and, therefore, my free foot. Grrr!!!! I'm comfortable on the forward edge and pretty stabe on the back edge, but the turn in the middle makes me crazy!!! :frus:

Try concentrating on having all your weight over your skating hip, rather than concentrating on holding your free hip up. Whenever a 3 turn is going a bit dodgy for me, just making sure I think about having my weight over my skating hip makes it better. Hope that helps.

[jazzpants]

Glum:

I have my own issues with FO3's. In my case, it's doing them at speed. If I do them slow, not much problem. As soon as I try to get some speed going into the FO3, I lose that nice control I had on the slower FO3's.
Loops :frus:
Waltz jump is kinda funky. Didn't do too many of them b/c I don't want to risk reinjuring myself again...
Camels
Gleeful:

On the bright side, it IS getting a little bit faster towards the end of the session and I could get the intro FO3's a bit faster about 50% of the time.
Flips
Scratch and sit spins. :)

[jenlyon60]

Jazzpants --

You have to stop channelling me :-) :-) :-)

Chickening on FO3s at speed is my specialty. Ask my coach. It's driving him nuts.

[jazzpants]

Jazzpants --

You have to stop channelling me :-) :-) :-)

Chickening on FO3s at speed is my specialty. Ask my coach. It's driving him nuts. :lol: Not my fault. I didn't intend to channel you! (Maybe you're channeling me??? :lol: )

You should be glad that you didn't get my secondary coach on your case like she did with me last Wed. She came up to me, grabbed my hand and made me go fast going into the edge and made me do it!!! Of course, after several tries chickening out on the FO3's, she made it do it fast but two feet, which also screwed up... And on top of that, my primary coach and her were both going "She's not doing this!!! And she's not doing that!!!" I felt like a "lab rat running around the maze and not getting out..." :frus: :roll:

But apparently, it works! I live in fear of some of my secondary coach's "methods of breaking my fears." By making me even more afraid of her "methods of breaking my fears" it automatically conquers the fear that I'm fighting against in the first place! :P :lol: This afternoon, I was forcing myself during practice to practice to just do a fast FO edge and just keeping the position I'm supposed to be in prior to doing a three turn. (There is a certain "feeling" I'm trying to get consistently...) But I'm doing them faster b/c I live in fear of my secondary coach forcing it on me next Wed. (She pulled the same stunt on me when I wasn't stroking around the rink fast enough for her. Well, I'm skating A LOT FASTER now...) :lol:

Oh, and don't let your coach read this posting either!!! He might go "Hmmm?" and pull the same stunt on you too!!! :lol:

[icenut84]

Re: FO3s at speed - maybe try just thinking about doing a normal FO3, like you do slowly. Don't think about the speed. Just try to get the same feeling of the turn and even though you're moving faster, pretend you aren't, just concentrate on the technique of the turn regardless of the speed. Also, maybe it would help to increase the speed gradually, rather than just trying it at full speed.

Don't know if that will help or not, but might do. :)

[sk8pics]

Jazzpants --
Chickening on FO3s at speed is my specialty. Ask my coach. It's driving him nuts.

No, no, no, this is MY specialty! ;) :frus: sigh. Actually, the RFO3 is getting better and it's the LFO3 that is the really scary one. At least I am finally making some progress on those dreaded alternating FO3's, thanks to the efforts over the past few months of my secondary coach and the efforts of the past week of a new substitute coach. :bow: Now we'll see if I can do them with my regular coach today!

Pat

[jazzpants]

No, no, no, this is MY specialty! ;) :frus: sigh. Actually, the RFO3 is getting better and it's the LFO3 that is the really scary one. At least I am finally making some progress on those dreaded alternating FO3's, thanks to the efforts over the past few months of my secondary coach and the efforts of the past week of a new substitute coach. :bow: Now we'll see if I can do them with my regular coach today!

Pat Actually, my LFO3 are the bane of my taking the Bronze Moves test. (DBNY saw why!!!) :P My primary coach told me at our lesson last Thursday (after I went through all my other moves) that "now if I could get your LFO3's as fast as your RFO3's, you'll have no problem passing it." My response "Tell me something I don't already know!!!" :roll: :frus:

[NCSkater02]

Gleeful: I am done competing for the year--now I can go back to just learning. I did well (for me) at the State Games yesterday. I placed exactly where I thought I would, knowing my competitors. I even managed to do my waltz-1/2 toe (I usually bail out) I stepped throught the second toe, did the motion, but didn't jump. I also didn't have as sever an attack of nerves as before--my husband said he couldn't see me trembling. My daughter (who hasn't seen me skate in a long time) said she liked my "little jumps"

Glum: Missed both spins. Going into the first, I hit a spot that had accumulated on the ice from water dripping from the ceiling (I've seen it at this rink before, but since I haven't skated there in a while, I forgot about it) and it completely messed with my brain. On the second spin, I just wasn't balanced. Only finished a few seconds ahead of my music this time, but I knew it before I did the waltz-toe, and managed to slow a little more so I wasn't waaaaay ahead like last week.

When my primary coach gets back from Greece, we'll start working on moves, so I can test pre-bronze sometime this fall.

[sk8pics]

Actually, my LFO3 are the bane of my taking the Bronze Moves test. (DBNY saw why!!!) :P My primary coach told me at our lesson last Thursday (after I went through all my other moves) that "now if I could get your LFO3's as fast as your RFO3's, you'll have no problem passing it." My response "Tell me something I don't already know!!!" :roll: :frus:
That's funny that it's the same 3-turn that's the problem for both of us! Actually today we made some good progress on the alternating FO3's. I'd asked to work on them because it's that same step forward that troubles me on the power 3's. We have a system now where I do the alternating 3's and he is behind me to hold onto my arm that's behind me, and it's really helped. I could at least step forward without stopping now, and that was good progress! :)

Pat

[jazzpants]

Re: FO3s at speed - maybe try just thinking about doing a normal FO3, like you do slowly. Don't think about the speed. Just try to get the same feeling of the turn and even though you're moving faster, pretend you aren't, just concentrate on the technique of the turn regardless of the speed. Also, maybe it would help to increase the speed gradually, rather than just trying it at full speed.

Don't know if that will help or not, but might do. :) I was actually doing that (slowly building up my speed.) Unfortunately, I'm on a deadline and my secondary coach is forcing her hand... 8O

It is getting better though... but it's far from perfect and definitely NOT fast!!! :roll:

[jazzpants]

That's funny that it's the same 3-turn that's the problem for both of us! Actually today we made some good progress on the alternating FO3's. I'd asked to work on them because it's that same step forward that troubles me on the power 3's. We have a system now where I do the alternating 3's and he is behind me to hold onto my arm that's behind me, and it's really helped. I could at least step forward without stopping now, and that was good progress! :)

Pat I could do alt. FO3 turns on a line, no problem!!! But it's going at speed that I have the most trouble. I'm slowly trying to build up speed and get a feeling for going into the LFO3's. I am hoping that I could work out my torso to the point where it would be easier for me to do the turn. I also could do the power 3's pattern but at much slower speeds. Faster speeds throws off my torso position for some reason. :(

[jenlyon60]

My new secondary coach says that the "can't do at speed" issue (at least in the dance intros w/ my coach) is because at speed I am not setting up quick enough.

On my RFO3s in the forward power 3's, it's not a pre-rotation issue but more I'm leaning into the circle a bit too much. Which makes the turn uncomfortable and hard to execute.

But I am happy to say that while I continued my proud last place tradition, I did exceed my personal goal (which was to get 1 non last place ordinal). Across the 2 dances (Blues and Paso) I got 3 non last place ordinals. So maybe there is hope yet. And I was skating essentially 2 test levels higher (I have only passed through my Pre-Silvers) and we only did the Paso to the music maybe 4 or 5 times before the competition.

[Mrs Redboots]

I can't do them at speed either, and I know why - I don't push into them! But if I pushed into them, I'd be doing them too fast, and that's scary..... heigh ho..... but I am beginning to be able to do intro-3s now, and I actually did the RFO 3 in the Willow the other day without slowing down too much. It's a different matter when it comes to doing them solo, though.

Oh, and Jen - congratulations! Being another last-place-hogger myself, I do know how nice it is when not all the judges have you last!