Phenomenal/Pants 27th-3rd June-July

[icenut84]

I skated today - only an hour, no lesson, but...

Phenomenal:

My skating (ie. stroking) felt great. All my turns were fine, edges felt good, and it just felt great. :D I did some field moves too (that I learnt in a lesson ages ago and are apparently in the third field moves test [i haven't worked on any field moves tests yet]) and they were nice :)

Waltz jump was pretty good, and salchow & toe loop were good too (when they worked)

My spirals were back to normal :) I also tried a couple of different catch-foot ones, which felt better - and I felt more confident on them than normal. My pivots were quite good too, and couple of other moves that I've made up.

I also went through my "programme" a few times - a short section that my coach gave me to practice for my Skate UK Star gold free test. It was much better. :) I really want to start having choreography and music though...

I had a great time on the ice :) , and when I came off at the end, I just thought "I'm so glad I started skating". I love it when you feel like that. :)

Pants:

Not all the salchows or toe loops worked, and although I did a couple of ok spins, they weren't really centred.


Edited to add another good thing - due to practice times being veeery limited this week, the session was quite crowded, with people of all different levels - there was even someone who I think was trying quad toes, and triple-triples. Why is this a good thing, you ask? Because even though I was on the ice with so many talented skaters: for maybe the first time, I didn't really feel intimidated and I didn't feel inferior, like I normally would. Obviously I'm not as good as them, but I just felt good - if anything, they were inspiring. :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Skated this evening, so that Robert and I could work on choreography together.

Phenomenal: We might even have got the middle 30 seconds roughly sketched out! That was the step sequence - the easy bit! We have also some ideas for parts of the other two sections (we are dancing to the Caledonian Ball sequence I did as a solo free dance a couple of years ago), but whether or not they will work out in practice is another story!

Pants: Our pairs spin! I don't know what we are doing wrong, but we don't seem to be spinning around the same axis at all, at all, at all.... oh well, it'll sort itself out, I dare say.

Plus I am so-o-o stiff this evening. That, too, will pass.

[TashaKat]

This is for yesterday evening ...... class five of six (I think ..... it may be four :roll: ).

Don't know what they're called but it's like lemons/swizzles/????? but when you bring your feet back in you cross them over and then go straight into the next one ...... this was done backwards and forwards.

Then onto lemon swizzle (sounds like a lollipop) and go into a teapot/shoot the duck when you come back in again.

THEN onto lemon swizzle, cross feet over, KEEP THEM THERE and go down into a teapot shoot the duck! DIFFICULT and tough on the knees 8O

Few circles of slip chasses and then onto spins (two foot and then upright ..... I HATE two foot spins :twisted: ).

After that it was onto the 3-jump/waltz jump which unfortunately (for most people) was hindered by idiot guy that I've mentioned before, going on jumping through everyone else's attempt EVEN when we were doing it one by one :evil: I just carried on because I know that he'll fall harder than I will but it's really not fair to the others who are just learning the jump and are still feeling a bit shaky. The coach is quite young so is not very assertive but even when he's told he doesn't listen and just carries on doing what he wants to do :evil:

After the lesson I tried my hand at some of the *old* stuff ..... well remembered by the head but not so well remembered by the muscles :frus:

Tried hydroblade (ha ha ha ha ha), turning drag (well, it turned but it wasn't a pretty), sal, toe, loop and flip. I hit the deck on the second floor but it was my own fault, I'm still not confident going into them so don't get the speed that I used to get which throws off my (remembered) timing. ALSO had a go at the axel attempt from yesteryear, it FELT ok though it's still not an actual axel. Surprisingly it felt the LEAST shaky of the lot. I DID wimp out of trying a lutz, think I'll wait until I'm happy with the others before I have a go at that again.

I NEED to seriously think about what to do now. My last class is next week (or the week after) and I don't think that another adult course will be that beneficial but at least I get some ice time .......

Lx

[NCSkater02]

I was back on the ice today after a 5-day layoff, and it felt like forever. My secondary coach offered a lesson, and being one to rarely turn down a chance to learn, I accepted.

Phenomenal: One of my waltz jumps. I was working with my coach and she wanted me to do a waltz. I started out doing back crossovers and had to go around another skater (jumping) so I picked up more speed than I usually do. Both she and I were :o that I did it--I was scared up until I landed it. Lots of height and distance. We also worked on salchow. I'd just been learning entry, but she added jump today. I did one or two, but with minimal height. Scratch spin was last. I did one where I got my foot across, and was still spinning. Just one.

Pants: The rest of the scratch spins. I have a difficult time getting over my skating leg. I have begun to accept that it will take until the end of time to learn how. :lol:

[jazzpants]

Pants:
I started skating on my brand new PURPLE Harlicks over the weekend and it's been a hellish experience so far. First it was the hollow. I was given 3/8" hollow in the past and this isn't good on FREESTYLE blades!!! When it's sharpened, it's a B**** to skate on for a week!!! It's been adjusted to a 7/16" hollow now and I'm gliding much better on it! :mrgreen: Then the right blade is misaligned, so when I go on a straight line, it end up rolling over to the inside edge. Heck! Even going towards the right on a FO edge ends up rolling over to the left onto a deep FI edge. :evil: It's slightly better as of Monday night, but it still needs some major adjustments. I'm seeing the skate guy on Thursday so he could see me on ice and make the adjustments right then and there! (Instead of doing it and then make me skate a session to see how it fits.) :roll:

Phenomenal:
I actually managed to do LFO3 well enough that I started getting some speed in. I'll keep working on those fast LFO3's while my boots are being fixed. I also got to skate with a skating buddy from the newsgroup who was visiting from the Boston area. He LOVED my new "Kool Aid Grape" color skating boots!!! :lol: (Apparently, so did my primary skating coach!!!) :mrgreen:

And if anyone around here owns a pair of emerald green skating boots... no one can "out-gawdy" you!!! :P (I managed to "out-gawdy" another fellow newsgroup skater though.) ;)

[alhrayth]

Hi went to skate on monday night... hm... basically I didn't do anything very intersting, I was feeling kind of weak - probably because on monday the temperatures went UP a lot and my office is awfully hot, I must have lost tons of sweat - so I ended chatting quite a lot with fellow skaters, and mainly working on basic edges, FW and BW, BW runs, just a few 3s and mohawks at the end... I'm not ver proud of this session, I worked very little.
The only thing that made me smile was that some friends had just made me a lovely present - a beautiful skirt to wear now that I am leaving synchro to do dance... so that even if I can't really dance so far, at least I can feel a bit like a dancer with fabric flowing beautifully around my legs when I move... ^_^ Actually it is a bit long, and I am wearing it with the waist rolled up a little to shorten it - it is so nice that I absolutely refuse to cut it - I can wear it at full-lenght when off the ice... I really love it! And I can't wait to wear it again tonight when I'm going formy first real lesson with the ice dance club!!! We're having a 3 nights stage (tonight, and next week on tuesday and thursday) and I can't wait to skate with them as an actual member of the group! (I actually already skated with them a couple of times this season, but just as a guest to see how that was, if I might consider leaving the team for this group.... and the answer was YES!)

[Mrs Redboots]

alhrayth, for goodness' sake keep your fluid intake up, or you will be too weak to skate! Even if you think you aren't thirsty....

First post-competition lesson today. Phenomenal: Changes-of-edge (only got asked to do them once!), Russian stroking (the first lap - the second was less good), back edges, continuous back stroking - I was really, really getting some power at long last!!! :D

Pants: Waltz 3s were utterly pants (I started feeling rather dizzy doing BI edges, and although that passed, I was afraid of feeling dizzy and rather held back on the turns). So were the inside-outside 3 exercise, AND the continuous Mohawks. But doing single Mohawks "in context" (Fiesta Tango and Swing Dance) they both worked very well, so go figure..... BI edges pretty dire, too; at least by comparison with the BO ones.

Have decided already to change the step sequence I thought of yesterday - now we'll do 3-turns round each other (facing to back to facing, not waltz 3s), then edge, then into a Tango Mohawk.... I hope it will work! Told coach that I reckoned I was going to be taken to my limits with this dance, and then some, and he said very good for me..... coaches! :roll:

[alhrayth]

You really shouldn't worry about that, Annabel... I always drink A LOT!
I guess that on Monday the sudden heat was simply too much all in one moment... temperatures have remained the same for the last two days, but I must have adjusted to it, as I feel perfectly fine (well, hot but fine) now.
I can't wait to go skating tonight!!!

[flo]

Picked up my new Harlicks and skated in them last night. They seem fine, and the blades, which are test mounted, only need a minor adjustment. Now my old ones feel like slippers.
The flying camels are much better, and the camel-jump-camel is as well. It's strange to do them one after another, as the placemnt of the flying leg is different. I was trying to do them the same and .......
Looking forward to getting the blades permanently mounted and jumping.

[luna_skater]

Pants: Only got to skate for half an hour this morning. The ice was REALLY scratched up, and I felt like I couldn't get my feet under me at first.

Phenomenal: Hmm, where to start! Even though the ice stunk, there was hardly anyone on it. I've been skating on sessions of about 30 people for spring, and now that I'm at a different club for the summer, the sessions are way smaller. It's sooo nice! I can actually get a full pattern of my skills in!

Even though the session was short, we worked out some kinks in my skills. Although I miss dance now that I'm done, it will be nice to focus on JUST skills for all of July (Jr. Silver). Ran through all the exercises today for the first time in a while, and they felt not too bad. The loops are definitely the big challenge. I struggle a bit with the multi-turns, but mainly just with confidence. I can do the exercise, I just want it to be stronger, faster, and more confident.

[alhrayth]

:D :D :D
I had my first official dance lesson yesterday night, wheeeeee!!!!
Today I am absolutely exhausted! Yesterday I drove to the rink directly from work (I had gone home during m lunch break to retrieve my skating bag & clothes) because I had decided with some friends to go there early to watch the practices of the dancers training there - mainly Faiella and Scali - and it took me more than 1h 1/2 to get there in the traffic (when coming back at night after skating it's more like 20min), so I was already a bit tired when I arrived at the rink. I ate quickly at the rink's self-service restaurant (eh eh eh the same place where I had almost made Alexei Yagudin fall while he bringing his tray to his table, at Euros 98.... :oops: and I hadn't even recognized him!) and went to the rink to watch some skating. ( :bow: wow, the things these guys can do!)
At 21.30 we started the lesson... 8O it was hard! Almost everything was a new discovery for me, and I found tons of things that were new to me, or that were A LOT different from what I used to do. But I loved everything!
We started with some "simple" exercises, e.g. like one where the coaches wanted us to keep a good posture while gliding down the lenght of the rink on one foot at a time... I still have some aching muscles from that... and then we worked on FW and BW runs (I discovered I have some serious problems keeping my hips in control going CW BW), and then on to some sequences taken from some dances. Tonight was Waltz night (our coaches decided to do "theme" nights - yesterday was Waltzes, Tuesday will be "Latin & Tango" and Thursday "Rock & Swing") so we did lots of 3s, chassées and runs... now I have to add the chart for the Viennese Walts to those I already found for the American and the Starlight! The lesson was 2h long and by the time we got to the end of it, I was exhausted and drenched in sweat... but I was SO HAPPY!!!
Today I am very tired ( I got home very late, and still later I got to bed... I need some sleep!!!!) but I still have a silly smile on my face... ;)

[NCSkater02]

Phenomenal: My coach was back from her vacation, so I got a good lesson. She says I've improved so much in the last month. We went back to some basics--straightening my mohawks into flip. I tend to rush them, so they get a bit sloppy. She was impressed with my (almost) scratch spin, and my jumps.

Pants: The silly fall I took while attempting a lutz. I was skating forward, did a two foot turn, and promptly caught the heel of one of my blades (darned if I know which one) and went down. Landed on my butt and back, sliding about 20 feet on my back. Once I figured out that I hadn't bashed my skull, I was laughing all the way. Hurt my pride more than anything else. :oops:

[Terri C]

Phenominal:
The fact that I got throught the NJ camp intact.
Worked on my program more today with Coach, as well as giving her the camp rehash. Made her feel pretty good telling her that almost all of the comments I got from camp coaches were the exact things that she'd tell me at home.
Program will be awesome once I get the footwork and half lutz- single loop combo down.

Pants:
My feet STILL HURT from camp- they practically screamed when I put skates back on Wednesday for the first time since camp!

[mikawendy]

Phenomenal--

Had a great lesson and edge class today. I started learning a camel spin and I fixed a problem I was having with my forward crossover technique.

In edge class, I was standing there, thinking about this one exercise that I really like where we stroke onto a flat, skate low to the ice on one leg, and then rise up gliding in an arabesque position. It turned out that that was the next exercise! And we got to do alternating threes with really pretty arm movements, and one of my favorites, a modified version of forward perimeter stroking. AND one of my favorite pieces of music, from the movie soundtrack for The Mission by Ennio Morricone was on the mix CD that was playing during class.

Phooey (I happen to like pants... :D )

The class started late because the ice was cut late, so there was no time after class before next cut.

[jazzpants]

Phenomenal:
Showed off my new figure skates to the freestyle folks. My secondary coach loved the boots!!! Enough that she raved about it to the other coaches, who wanted to see the KEWL new boots too!!! ;)
My edges are a bit better today, though it was still hard to do stuff. My stroking was at least okay compared with SATURDAY!!! :roll:

Pants:
My secondary coach made the convenient excuse of working on stroking and crossovers as a way to break in new boots. Unfortunately she found a LOT more bad stuff regarding my forward crossovers!!! Anyway, she drilled me majorly on the first stroke forward and then had me try the stroke crossed under part, which for the life of me I can't seemed to do... *sigh* :roll:

Dialog of the day:
Me: "Are you going out of your mind?!?!?! Oh, yes! Wait!!! You've already GONE out of your mind!!!"
Coach 2: "I was gonna say I'm already LOOOONG gone! Then again, since you seemed to understand me quite well, that tells me that you're already gone [out of your mind] too!!!" :lol:

[jazzpants]

Pants:

Blades were still bad enough this morning during my lesson that I could not do a good RFI mohawk! SCARY, SCARY!!! 8O
LFO3's are still slow as molasses!!! And I'm testing in about a month?!?!?! 8O :oops:
Foot hurt like Hades after skating an hour and a half in the new boots!!!! OWWWWW!!!! :cry:

Phenomenal:

New skate guy came to the rescue after my lesson and fixed my blade alignment. Right blade is MUCH BETTER NOW!!! :mrgreen: We'll see if this works out in practice on Sat.

[skatingatty]

NCSkater, glad to hear u weren't hurt falling. Sliding across the ice 20 feet sounds scary, but as we've seen, some of those little kids on public sessions try to do it for fun!

TerriC, that adult camp sounds like so much fun. If only I lived closer to NJ!

Phenomenal: I finally was able to do a Y-spin last night! This was right after I told another adult skater that I had been trying to do one but couldn't get up in the position while spinning. I'm only getting a few revs. in the position, but I've been trying off and on to do this (from a sit spin) for maybe 7 years.

Pants: kept 2-footing axel attempts, though I'm practicing them with a toe+loop combo at the end, which seems to help. Camel still isn't a completely reliable spin. Can't get more than 2 revs. on flying camel, but at least the jumping part is getting less scary- no belly splats.

[luna_skater]

Pants: Just the fact that my ice time is so short. On Wed-Fri. mornings, I only get half an hour. I feel like I just get going and then it's time to get off. However, I do get two hours on Monday and Tuesday, so I might end up using Wed-Fri JUST for loops.

Phenomenal: Major breakthrough on the back inside loops!! All it took was thinking about getting my hips to face the boards....voila! I think my coach was pretty relieved that we are making some progress. :lol: The loops tend to come and go, but I did a bunch of back insides in a row just to make sure I had the feel for them.

[icenut84]

I skated yesterday. I can't remember all the details at the mo (my skating notebook has gone walkies 8O ), but I do remember one of the good bits - I tried some BO pivots (I learnt them ages ago, but never really practice them, never perfected them or anything), and although not every one worked, the ones that did were the best ones I've ever done!! Woohoooo! :)

Everything else was ok too, really, although I only skated for about 45 mins, and my spins travelled (what's new?)

Oh yeah - and I got my blades sharpened the day before, but when I went to pick them up, my money was still in the boot. My coach felt the blades and said they'd been done, but that I think someone else had put double the money in theirs, so the money left in mine was owed to them. However, I'm not positive if they actually have been done - I had absolutely no problem stopping slowplough-esque, as soon as I got on the ice. Normally it takes a while. Or am I going mad?

[Debbie S]

Phenomenal:
Landed the loop in my program run-through for the first time last night (first time in a run-through, that is). I nearly landed the sal-loop, but bailed on the loop landing and 2-footed it. I did land it in practice, though.

Wore the dress for my solo in my club's show to practice yesterday, to get official approval from one of the show committee members, and got lots of compliments. It was the first time I wore a sleeveless dress on the ice, and I felt like something was missing - lol! I was worried I'd be too cold, but after a few minutes warming up, I took off the long-sleeve jersey I was wearing over it and was fine.

Pants:
I had a fellow adult skater tape my comp program and show program run-throughs (back-to-back, yes I was huffing and puffing near the end). I was hoping I had improved since my last "taped" program, that being my Pre-Bronze comp at New Year's Invitational. Yikes! I realized that what I think I look like is very different from reality. My crossover stroking has improved, but my sit spin is nowhere near as low as I thought I had gotten it. And my jumps are still tiny. And I don't even want to talk about my free leg on my camel spin - ugh! I still bend over too much on my jump landings, although I think I solved the arm-flapping problem on my stroking, most of the time.

I also realized I need to improve my crossovers even more. I tend to not push under enough, and I still "step over" on my forward xo's. One of my test judges noted that on my form, and even though she passed me, I don't think I'll pass Bronze moves skating like that. It's just so hard to get over the fear of clicking your blades and falling flat on your face (and I have actually done this several times :roll: ).

[jenlyon60]

icenut84 ...

if the guy who sharpened your skates soft-stoned them a couple times, you should be able to stop easily with a T-stop or whatever.

I always have my blades get 3 passes with the soft stone, and never have problems stopping unless the ice is super soft.

[NCSkater02]

Pants: The silly fall I took while attempting a lutz. I was skating forward, did a two foot turn, and promptly caught the heel of one of my blades (darned if I know which one) and went down. Landed on my butt and back, sliding about 20 feet on my back. Once I figured out that I hadn't bashed my skull, I was laughing all the way. Hurt my pride more than anything else. :oops:

Can I quote myself? Or is that vain? I hurt more than my pride yesterday--My left cheek hurts everytime I move it. I got laughed at at work today. One person told me I should wear hockey pants. :roll: I told them they would look silly under my short skirts.

[dbny]

icenut84 ...

if the guy who sharpened your skates soft-stoned them a couple times, you should be able to stop easily with a T-stop or whatever.

I always have my blades get 3 passes with the soft stone, and never have problems stopping unless the ice is super soft.

That must explain my similar experience after my last sharpening! Thanks.


Pants:
My rink closed for two weeks today! I was hoping to skate on a public session at a different rink this morning, but due to too many mint juleps last night, I wasn't up in time :oops:

FI threes are backsliding. This is entirely a matter of my state of mind (meaning fear), and I will get them back and make them better.

Phenomenal:
My coach came to the Wed afternoon public session that is an hour after my Mommy & Me class ends. I'm always afraid to commit to a lesson on that session, because I'm usually exhausted after getting up early and teaching the class. Anyway, I've been bringing a friend and coaching her on the dead ice, so I was still there when my coach came in and started teaching another of her students. Knowing that she often keeps an eye out for any of her students who are on the ice, and with a great beat from the music to help, I managed some LF power pulls that actually had some power! I also completed the B power pulls with speed maintained and very little upper body and free leg movement. I think they might actually be Pre-Juv passing quality. The Dubova video has been tremendously helpful on the power pulls, even though they show an ideal that I may never reach.

My one foot spin is starting to come back, and I am working on a backspin, encouraged by the RFI three and the fact that it is so easy to put the free foot down when I chicken out.

[NCSkater02]

I didn't expect to skate today because I am on trauma call and can go at any moment, so I was pleased to have a light schedule and to get to a freestyle session today.

Phenomenal: I had the ice to myself for an hour! :D The rink doesn't usually have Saturday fs sessions and it's a holiday to boot. Yeah for me! I was able to work on any thing I wanted to with out having to watch for other skaters. The best thing I did was a two foot spin. It was fast and centered, several rotations. I was SO dizzy I had to stop and reorient myself. I worked on all my jumps, including my beginning salchow.

Pants: With the ice to myself??? Nothing, even the things I struggled with were bad today, because I was by myself.

[jazzpants]

Phenomenal:

Forward power 3's on my weaker side is a bit better. And since the blade steering is fixed, the better side is still strong.
Pants:

I know! Naughty me! I couldn't help but try a couple of forward spins. I ended up spining on the FO edge part of what my new skate guy says is the "no skate zone" (between the rocker and the toe pick.) A friend looked at it and said that she think I need a new blade. (The old one is going.) I'll start another thread on this shortly.
RFI mohawk is a bit shaky. Uh oh!!! (Maybe the blade alignment is still not quite right...)

[TashaKat]

Week 5 of 6 (I got it wrong, today WASN'T my last day :roll: )

I'm still crap compared to a couple of years ago but some things are coming back, I just need to PRACTISE now!!!! I also need to loose LOTS of weight.

There's a really cute guy there (when did they start making them THAT cute, they weren't that cute when I was his age :frus: ) who is learning DANCE!!!!! Never mind the cute, the 'partner' alarms started ringing ...... he's still learning right now but where there's a will ......... :idea:

Did the usual stuff (slaloms, spirals, lemony things that cross over, waltz jump .....).

Need to start thinking about coaches now! I've got a couple in mind (I won't divulge Annabel because it will make you jealous) but I've got to speak to them first!! Maybe the won't or can't take me, we'll see :D

[Mrs Redboots]

Need to start thinking about coaches now! I've got a couple in mind (I won't divulge Annabel because it will make you jealous) but I've got to speak to them first!! Maybe the won't or can't take me, we'll see :DIf you mean who I think you mean, then yes, I am jealous - I was about to arrange for an occasional lesson with him when he moved away.....

[TashaKat]

If you mean who I think you mean, then yes, I am jealous - I was about to arrange for an occasional lesson with him when he moved away.....

Yes, I do mean who you think I mean! He was away this week so I've e-mailed him ...... fingers crossed he'll 'accept' me!!!!!

There is also a guy in the adult group who is learning dance ...... partner radar going off!!!! He's younger than me but, hey, skating toyboy :D All I need to do is convince him that he needs a partner to help him with his dances :halo: