Vote or No Vote: Nov 1 - Nov 7

[dbny]

I don't think I've ever started one of these before. Those not from the USA will have to excuse the title, as I'm overcome with election mania here.

Vote
For the first time, in my lesson today, I actually rotated and held the FO edge and executed the FO three where I wanted to. Why am I so scared of this? I've always had to more or less swing into the FO threes, which creates all sorts of problems.

For the first half hour today, I was the only one on the freshly cut ice! I could see all of my tracings, so I noted that I had large and evenly sized lobes on the prelim B crossover to BO edge pattern, and deep enough, but could be deeper edges on B cross strokes. Best of all, I got the urge to do some figures. Not much, believe me, but I did FO and FI eights and BO eight. I loved being able to see the tracings and was pleased to see that they were all the same size, though not exactly.

No Vote
The FO three that I managed to hold was the R. Totally chickened out on the LFO three, still swinging into it.

I've been skating the prelim spiral pattern without the spirals, just extension, because of my hips and also to work on power. For some reason, all of a sudden, I'm having a lot of trouble with the RFO edge. We spent almost half of my lesson on this :evil:

[Mrs Redboots]

DB, I'm seriously impressed! I still have trouble doing 3-turns at any kind of speed, and as for pushing into them, forget it! But they are beginning to happen, and I can usually do them where I want as long as I don't try to rush. It's inside 3s I can't do where I want them, and I'm pretty appalling at checking them too - twizzles are much, much easier, if you ask me!

Anyway, had a lo-o-ng practice today (2.5 hours, with breaks!). We had been going to skate tonight, but Husband has to work late, so we went this morning instead. With Husband, worked on the first 30 seconds of our dumbed-down free dance, and finally discovered why our feet never match on one of the steps - he's doing it totally differently from me! Then we worked a bit on our Interpretive Pairs routine, but it's not really ideal, as yet. I need to sit down and listen thoroughly to the music, to know what steps go where - we have changed the choreography slightly. Also, we had been starting in front of the judges, and we found out the hard way that our skating has improved to the poioint where, if we do that, we have to put the brakes on or we'll go into the boards before the end of the first step sequence! :lol:

Yes Vote: Had I been starting the thread today, it would have been called something like, "Honey, I shrunk the rink!" as, quite suddenly, I seem to be skating with more speed and flow than ever before! Still can't manage 4 strokes up the long side, but six works well - not backwards, alas, where it's more like 12! On my Russian stroking I was really moving, and as for the changes-of-edge - I've never done so few!

But what really impressed me today was my backwards cross-rolls. This is a skill I'm only just mastering - but today I was seriously on back edges (better, even than in my back stroking), and moving so fast I was seriously surprised to find the second blue line going underneath me! I dare say my coach will have a lot of corrections to make on them when he sees them tomorrow, but I dare claim that I "have" this skill now, even though I know there's lots of work to be done on them before they are even remotely testable.

No Vote: This is sort of a "yes-vote", too, so perhaps "On the Fence" is a more accurate title. The other move you have to do for Level 3 Field Moves is back cross-cuts, where you cross in front to an outside edge. One lap of those with crossovers round the ends. The good bit was that I discovered exactly how I needed to be to be able to do them - really sitting on my blade, shoulders back, leaning slightly backwards. The bad bit was that I can't control it! I can start like that, but after about 4 strokes, I'm hunched forwards again. Maybe it will be another year before I can do Level 3 Dance Moves, after all! Husband's coach wants our joint coach to look at his moves, since she thinks he's now ready to be entered. So he might end up testing when we test our free dance, which would be nice.

I am still feeling so jazzed that I'm actually tempted to skate again this evening..... husband's working late.... but we are skating twice tomorrow, so perhaps not!

[vintagefreak]

Hi there,

I voted today :) I didn't have to wait at all. Hmm.. That could be good or bad.

Oh, this is about skating. No vote: I fell about 1 minute into my practice session just warming up (stroking) because I got caught on something on the ice. The fall jiggled my brains and was hard and unexpected so the rest of the session I skated tentatively due to pain and nerves. I had a lesson and felt it was a waste time and am peeved about $ not well spent.

Yes Vote: Uh, well maybe one good spin out of a bunch tried. Tomorrow is another day....... ~~AF

[Mrs Redboots]

No Vote: I might have known it! Did my back cross-rolls in the lesson, only to be told that I was turning my feet the wrong way - they should be turned out, not in! :x But coach did agree that they were infinitely better - but I do find them really hard with my feet turned out. Sigh. :roll:

Plus back cross-cuts: really worked on these with my coach, but still no joy. I see exactly how to do them, I know exactly what I'm doing wrong..... but..... it's really about getting into landing position after the push, and I'm finding that really hard. On my back edges exercise (stamina training) I don't have a problem, since that is with-body, and my coach makes me throw my shoulders right open and back, but these have to be counter-body ("If you go too far, you won't be able to get back" he explained), and I find my free leg behind tends to act as a counter-weight, so I hunch forwards - and I can't get the timing of the backwards push of the shoulders. It will come, I dare say, but it's seriously frustrating right now! :frus:

As for my waltz 3s, :roll:. I chose the wrong circle, I think, as the ice was a bit uneven, and when I focussed on technique, I didn't get enough speed to have any flow out of the 3 for the rebend on to the back push, and when I went fast, I lost my technique and totally lost the check! :giveup:

Yes Vote: At the start of my lesson, my coach asked how things were doing, and I had to admit that while my forwards stroking was fine, my backwards skating was seriously cr4p so far. So that is what we spent nearly the whole lesson working on, one exercise or another (see above). And after about 4 laps I finally got some speed and flow on my back outside edges! Took awhile - coach pointed out that I was pushing badly, not bringing my free leg up above my tracing quickly enough, so that by the time it got there, I had been pulled off the edge and had lost flow. I also found I was having trouble controlling my shoulders. What helped was remembering to re-bend before the push - this seemed to solve both of those issues almost simultaneously, but I still needed about 10 pushes to cover the ice. Oh well. Coach was pleased with my back inside edge exercise, though, and didn't make me do more than one lap.

Didn't stay on to practice, as I'm skating again tonight, at Tashakat's former rink.

[KatieC]

Well, you always have to find something good when other things go bad so,

No Vote: My sit spin has deserted me entirely for two days now. Most annoying - although I did try curling my free leg around the bent one and discovered that my arms will come into the body and the fingers curl up - I'm calling it my Hallowe'en spin! I totally feel like an old crone when I do it! I get terrific speed out of it too :roll:

Yes Vote: Yesterday I tried a double three by first doing the LFO, but I just don't have the speed or momentum or balance to add a LBI three turn. So today, I figured, well, why not try the reverse? I did a back crossover, into a LBI 3, LFO 3, repeat. It Works :) It's really small, but I'm just so delighted that I can do it. And, my nifty little footwork practise is coming along rather nicely - it's a forward mohawk, mazurka, forward mohawk, half toe jump (?) repeat.
Life is good.

[Mrs Redboots]

KatieC - how odd, I'm the other way round. I can do a double 3 from a forward 3, but not yet from a backward 3! We should get together and pool our skills - or do you think that would mean we couldn't do a 3-turn at all?

Last night, in North London, we started off with the stroking class.

Yes vote: I found I was well keeping up with most people during the easy exercises. We then had to do an exercise involving an American 3-turn (i.e. American waltz 3-turn) which I'd never done before, so the coach had to show me how to do them, followed by a back crossover. All very well, but I don't think my coach here would let me do that, as one of the things we are focussing on is bringing my feet back together before the back push! Hmmmm......

No vote: Couldn't really do inside 3-turns in the exercise involving them. The other coach (this class has 2) showed me how to do them again, and I can more or less do LFI3s properly now, but still not RFI3s. Odd, since my coach accused me of doing inside 3s instead of Mohawks in my Mohawk exercise yesterday morning.....

Did dance a bit, but my blades are so blunt now that, although I put a tiny edge on them with a sharpening stone before I went on the ice, they didn't last the session. Husband kept trying to tell me my blades weren't blunt, but he wasn't skating on them, was he? Roll on Monday, when they get sharpened (and I'll probably skate 3 more times between now and then) :(

[sk8pics]

We then had to do an exercise involving an American 3-turn (i.e. American waltz 3-turn) which I'd never done before, so the coach had to show me how to do them, followed by a back crossover.


What's an American 3-turn? or American waltz 3-turn? Or any sort of waltz 3-turn? Do you mean the waltz 8 from the pre-pre moves test (FO edge to FO3, step to BOE, step to forward and then repeat the other direction so you make a figure 8)?

Pat

[jenlyon60]

It's the style of forwards outside 3-turn seen in the American Waltz.

Basically, skater skates on FO edge with good knee bend and extension. In the dance the FO edge is held for 3 beats of a 6-beat waltz. As skater rises to do the turn (in the dance, the turn is executed on the 4th beat), the free leg stays straight but is brought next to the skating leg (almost like a brush), so that momentarily AS the turn is executed, both legs are together and straight. Then immediately after the turn (as it is checked) the skater extends the free leg strongly while maintaining a straight skating leg.

What tends to happen is one or more of 3 things (order not important)...

1. the free leg is brought in and bent slightly...which ruins the look.
2. skater whips the turn and hardly brings the free leg in towards the skating leg at all (this happens some with the kids and a lot with adults working on this dance).
3. skater doesn't rise all the way on the skating leg (no super-obvious "up"/"down"...

AW passing criteria call for the dance to essentially be a 2-level dance... "Down" in the knee or "up" in the knee... with quick transitions between the 2 levels (unlike European Waltz which has neat drop-3's and a continual rise and fall through the turns).



What's an American 3-turn? or American waltz 3-turn? Or any sort of waltz 3-turn? Do you mean the waltz 8 from the pre-pre moves test (FO edge to FO3, step to BOE, step to forward and then repeat the other direction so you make a figure 8)?

Pat

[KatieC]

Mrs Redboots - I'd love to pool our skills - another odd one is that I can also do the left forward inside 3, but the right is cheated so badly! I can even do the left forward double 3 starting inside. Anything inside three with the right foot always ends up a really disgusting backspin - which of course I hate, so I rarely do them. I have a cute little circular footwork practice that involves FI3's and mohawks, but you have to hum Tea for Two while you're doing it or you ruin the timing :)

[sk8pics]

Thanks Jenylon60! It never occurred to me it was a particular 3-turn in a particular dance! I kept thinking, American 3-turn? Is there a British 3-turn? A Canadian 3-turn? Aren't the 8 3-turns we have enough? LOL!

[sk8pics]

Had to share this combined Vote/No Vote moment in my lesson today...

Was working on moves with my secondary coach. We often laugh hysterically during my lesson, and today, he was chit chatting with me as we worked on the alternating back crossovers to back outside edge move, and he was lightly holding my left hand at this point, and I was just doing crossovers around the end of the rink, dodging people. Well, as I came around the corner, I got distracted or something, and did a GIANT click of death with my blades, then gave a little hop and landed on my feet. My coach (bless his heart) THEN yelled, "OH MY GOD!!! I'VE GOT YOU!!!!!!!" and bent his knees so he could fling both arms around my waist! :lol: :lol: I started laughing at that point and said, "It's okay, I'm on my feet!" as he was still clutching me around the waist. Then he let go and the two of us just laughed hysterically. He said, "I wasn't going to let you fall! I thought you were going straight backwards!" I said to him, "Why do you think all my coaches are male pair skaters? Because when they say they have me, they do!" :bow: And he laughed for a couple more minutes at that.

Anyway, I kept laughing even after I got off the ice, found my primary coach and told him, and he laughed hysterically, too. So, we all got our laugh for the day.

Whew!

Happy skating,
Pat

[luna_skater]

Vote: Third-last practice before test-day. Yikes! I was discouraged at first, but it ended up going well. My rockers exercise is still really good. I'm glad that one is first, so that it will be like a warm-up for the others. Multi-threes and brackets was looking like a big No Vote at first, but it was much better by the end of practice. I had been really hung up trying to get the timing, but my coach said that the judges don't care so much about keeping time to the music as they do even pacing. That I can do!

Also learned another gold skills exercise--the one with double-threes and those psycho spinny turns....I have no clue what they are called. Surprisingly, I've got the rhythm pretty well, but getting up to speed will be another matter!

No Vote: Back-outside double threes in the gold skills. Coach wants me to go into them with my arms facing inside the circle, which feels entirely backwards and out of control. BAH.

[Mrs Redboots]

No Vote: I thought I'd show off this morning and wear a shirt that was too tight a month ago and is now loose enough to skate in. BIG MISTAKE - it was absolutely freezing in the rink, and I've never been so cold. I should have worn leggings, a polo top and knitted boot-covers instead of a practice-skirt, shirt and stretch covers! I was wearing a fleece cardigan, but even still.... brrrrrrrr........

Husband (in T-shirt, and pretending not to be cold, but for once I don't believe him) and I worked on our waltzing cat routine, and couldn't do the spin. As usual. My fault, mostly - we are going into it far too fast for my liking, and so I bottle out.

Blades still blunt. Turn exercises pretty ghastly, but did stumble and kick through them.

Got off the ice after only 2 hours as was so cold!

Vote: Actually managed some reasonable inside 3s on both sides, but from a standstill - all the same, I was pleased. My blades are too blunt for good turns, though. Managed a good lap of back cross-rolls with my feet pointing in the right direction! And one of the elites helped me with my back cross-cuts, and showed me how to keep my tummy over my skate..... I am going to have sore abs tomorrow, I can feel them already! Good. Anyway, working on them I managed about 1/4 length before running out of steam, which is longer than before (from the red centre line to the blue line, and just past).

Back stroking worked well, as did stamina-exercise. Forwards stroking wasn't quite as powerful as it has been, not sure why. I think partly very hard ice and very blunt blades! Russian stroking fine, and still very even, I'm pleased with it.

It was a skater's 21st birthday, so we were having fun with him, too.
But oh, it was ~c~o~l~d~!~

[luna_skater]

Vote: Rockers exercise and expanding exercise are ready! Both are really strong. The multi-threes and brackets exercise isn't great, but I think if I just relax and concentrate, I can do it well enough to pass. Worked on gold skills some more. Have much more control over the double-threes than yesterday! And the rolling turns are coming along, too!

No Vote: This is sort of in preparation for a "no vote" for next week. My coach will be away at Sectionals next weekend, so today was my last lesson before test day. He reworked part of my brackets, and I'm worried that next week I will revert to doing them the wrong way!

[Mrs Redboots]

This isn't exactly a practice, but last night we watched the video of our performance in the Scottish.

Yes Vote: It wasn't nearly as bad as usual - we are improving, very slowly! Our Rhythm Blues was even quite graceful, and you could see that I was really trying to keep my head up, and trying to extend. Start position of the Canasta Tango was (I thought) rather better than that of our opposition! 8-)

No Vote: I thought I was smiling (that's not obvious from the video, but from the photographs!), but I'm not, and I look exactly like my mother when I'm concentrating! :?? And is that really how I do a FO swing roll - one is, surely, supposed to bring one's free leg across the tracing, not out to the side. And point my toes, point my toes, point my wretched TOES! :cry: Guess what I shall be doing next practice!!!! Plus I look fat (but that may just be the effect of television, as I have lost weight). Plus our free dance was awful - I knew we had danced it badly, but some of it was a lot worse than I thought it was. I do agree with my coach, that step sequence will have to be changed before we test it! I can normally do our cross-roll sequence, but I missed it there, and if I'm not to miss it in the test, we must dumb it down.

All the same, the compulsory dances were a lot better than they looked as though they were at the British Open, so there is hope for us yet. But I need to learn how to bend my knees.

[Mrs Redboots]

Vote: Husband is to have his test papers signed for his Level 3 Dance Moves. They aren't perfect, but they're well good enough, and we reckon he'll pass easily. The judge will probably comment on his back crossovers (which do not form part of the test, as far as I know, but which link the two sides of the rink), which are weak, and on his posture, which isn't all it might be, but the moves themselves are fine. For the benefit of those who don't know, the test consists of one lap of back cross-rolls, with the two sides linked by back crossovers, and one of back cross-cuts (i.e. where you cross in front to an outside edge while going backwards), ditto.

Mine are a long way from that, but I managed nearly half a side of back cross-cuts this morning before grinding to a halt, so it's beginning to happen. And my back cross-rolls are coming along nicely.

No vote: Our lesson this morning! Once husband had shown off his moves to our joint coach (his private coach, the joint coach's wife, had asked him to, to get a second opinion), we spent the entire rest of the time - at least 25 minutes - working on just 25 seconds of choreography! We're trying to dumb down our free dance for test, so that it is simple steps, beautifully done. At the moment, it's simple steps, cr4ppily done, I'm afraid! The first 30 seconds is okay, but the step sequence.... sigh.... I have developed an appallingly bad habit of jumping my 3-turns in hold, and realise that I have no idea where to put my free leg in a cross-roll 3, as opposed to an ordinary one, and so on..... oh well. Part of it, I'm sure, is that Husband isn't always just quite has helpful as he might be in assisting me, but I ought to be able to do it without him, too. I can, but more slowly.

[jazzpants]

Wednesday

That's easy... I didn't have a lesson. I'm trying to get over some sort of bug that has since spread to the rest of the office.

Thursday

No Vote: I wished I cancelled, since I was pretty congested.

Vote: Glad to be working on Bronze Moves again, though I have a funny feeling that it will be Bronze moves 'til I pass the bloody thing again! :frus:

Saturday

Also, no skating! I had to work all day! It was supposed to be a 3 hour project, but someone dropped the ball and, well, a bunch of us had (i.e. my project team) had to clean up after his mess. 8O :x (For those of you who are in software QA, there WILL be a post mortem!!!) :evil:

[slusher]

Vote:
I found out my coach put my Swing dance in for test day. I'm glad that it's deemed decent enough to test but now I'm nervous about testing and don't have a thing to wear.

I also got 2 revs on a sitspin, but I'm not supposed to be thinking about freeskate for the next week.

No Vote:

It's not the mohawk in the swing, I'm comfortable with that, even doing it on my own, it's the last step on the right edge that then you turn forwards, and I am not stepping like a lady (ie knees nicely together), I am lunging like a crazed person with legs wild and apart and toepicky and off balance. Who thought one step could be so finickey? The dance coach that's who! Well, whatever it takes, I'm getting tired of hearing the music for this dance let alone doing it.

[Mrs Redboots]

Vote:
I found out my coach put my Swing dance in for test day. I'm glad that it's deemed decent enough to test but now I'm nervous about testing and don't have a thing to wear.Well, congratulations on having the test put in! Your coach wouldn't have done it unless s/he thought you were ready, so don't worry too much.

It's not the mohawk in the swing, I'm comfortable with that, even doing it on my own, it's the last step on the right edge that then you turn forwards, Oh, tell me about it.... I hate that step. Secret is to re-bend on that RBO edge, then bend some more, and then even more.... That way you can push off without too much trouble, and without lunging.

I'm having trouble lunging a 3-turn, but it's 50% bad habit on my part and 50% Husband not being in the right place (which he denies, but how come I can do it right with my coach????).