Flowers or Weeds: July 11-18, 2005 [Archive]

NCSkater02

07-11-2005, 06:48 PM

My morning didn't get off to a great start--didn't sleep good, dragged myself out of bed and to the rink. Nothing felt right, even after I got on the ice.

Flowers: However, nobody else showed up for the 6:30 session! I guess one reward for getting up before Dawn's crack is the empty ice. I did every full-ice pattern I know without fear of running into anyone. What a blast. And, with all that room, I was able to really work on crossovers. Since I got my blade fixed, those CCW crossovers that I've been skidding for months were solid as a rock, and at full speed. I can trust my edges again. Thank you Pat!! :bow:

And, I did two (not just one) perfectly centered 2-foot spins. Of course, there was not a soul there as a witness!

Weeds:Not a thing! Except that I wish I could have skated another hour!

Then, I stopped off to get my coffee, and my frequent purchase card was full, so I got it free. :D

icedancer2

07-11-2005, 08:11 PM

And, I did two (not just one) perfectly centered 2-foot spins. Of course, there was not a soul there as a witness!

So, are you saying: If NCSkater02 did two perfectly centered 2-foot spins, and no one saw them... they didn't happen?

LOL :lol: 8-)

Sounds like you had a great skate! :)

MusicSkateFan

07-11-2005, 09:08 PM

WEEDS: Bronze moves test in less than two weeks! Back cross overs to landing position was sort of a mess tonight during lesson. We worked on some things and they got better. Back crossovers needed help too....coach got me on track!

FLOWERS: Jumps and Jump combos were just so easy tonight! I landed lutz,half loop,flip. Flip,loop,toe loop,loop. Lutz,loop,toe loop. Sal,toe,loop. loop,half loop,sal. Loop,half loop,flip. Flip,waltz,loop.

I am also getting a good start on back spin. After being off the ice for 5 days while away visiting parents I was very happy with the way I skated tonight.. hitting moves at 6am tomorrow!

Debbie S

07-11-2005, 10:28 PM

Jumps and Jump combos were just so easy tonight! I landed lutz,half loop,flip. Flip,loop,toe loop,loop. Lutz,loop,toe loop. Sal,toe,loop. loop,half loop,sal. Loop,half loop,flip. Flip,waltz,loop.

I am also getting a good start on back spin. After being off the ice for 5 days while away visiting parents I was very happy with the way I skated tonight.. hitting moves at 6am tomorrow!

You are my idol, MusicSkate Fan. :bow: Seriously, wow! Those are some jump combos. I'm hoping to land a sal-loop or loop-loop sometime this year, or maybe next year, or.... And moves practice at 6 a.m. is quite commendable.

For today...

Flowers: Moves weren't too bad, but I think my lobes on the back perimeter crossovers are a bit wonky. I think I'm doing the crossover too early, even though the pattern comes out right. And I've got to stop scraping my toepicks! Waltz-toe felt pretty high, and the salchow felt good, too. The loop was OK - landed a bunch of times, but I know it needs to be higher. Sit and scratch spins were held for a while, but I know the sit spin needs to "sit" more.

Weeds: Backspin - what else is new? Oh well, I'm comforting myself by reminding myself that I can't take FS until I pass moves, so what's the rush? I just wish I was able to pass it. :frus:

jazzpants

07-12-2005, 01:03 AM

Weeds:

During rehearsal for the Fire & Ice I was trying to dodge another skater and I ended up hitting my hand against the wall and broke part of my nail. Lucky for me, it wasn't in the middle of the finger so I could just cut it back and all is well again. But that particular finger is bruised up tonight. :cry:
Was the "clueless gal" again for rehearsals. I'm learning a new ensemble program and was trying to keep up on the routine but half the time I couldn't hear what I was supposed to do. I know what I should do now though... and I should say, it's very cute!!! (Very Betty Boop...) But I sure didn't make it justifiably "Better Boop"-ish...
And yes, I will be in a cuties bright red skating dress... if you want blackmail pictures, here's your chance!!! :twisted: :roll:
Couldn't practice much of the Bronze moves b/c it was a very crowd public session tonight. EEEEEEK!!!!
Camel spins are bad.
Loop jumps and flips for the most part were bad. I did land ONE flip jump though!!! (I envy you, Debbie!!!)
Flowers

Sit spins were good.
Salchow, waltz jumps and toe loops with minor corrections were okay.
Backspins itself was good! Come out of the backspin was CRAP, but the backspin itself was good...
Could do ISI 3 change foot spins now. :mrgreen:
Okay, this is probably a "Flowers" though it sure don't feel like it. Primary coach wanted me to do a half lutz. Tried to do a half lutz and accidentally did a full rotation -- therefore, gaving away my secret that I have secretly been playing around on getting a full lutz. Ooops!!!! :oops: Coach goes "Ooooh, I didn't know you could do THAT!!! Do that again!!!" Well, to make a long story short, I'm now officially working on a LUTZ and already I'm very close to landing it!!! 8O

Casey

07-12-2005, 02:07 AM

During rehearsal for the Fire & Ice I was trying to dodge another skater and I ended up hitting my hand against the wall and broke...
Oh no!!

...part of my nail
Oh jeez, what are you complaining about? *phew*

giving away my secret that I have secretly been playing around on getting a full lutz.
You shouldn't keep so many secrets! Especially from your coach! LOL.

skaternum

07-12-2005, 08:39 AM

And yes, I will be in a cuties bright red skating dress... if you want blackmail pictures, here's your chance!!!
No thanks. I don't need any additional blackmail pics. I have a couple I can use already. :twisted:

Mrs Redboots

07-12-2005, 08:43 AM

Hi Annabel: Here in Canada, for Interpretive, we are tested for quality of edges and turns, skating skills, use of the ice surface, flow and ease of movement in time to the Music, expression of the character of the music and originality. Jumps are not required and can only be used if they fit in with the mood, flow and theme of the program, and doubles are not allowed at all. The emphasis is on creating a mood or interpreting a story.Excellent - I take it that it was the programme you did in France, or was it a dumbed-down version thereof ("Simple steps, beautifully done!" is my coach's mantra for such occasions).

As for me, no skating yet today as there were tests which over-ran. I normally have my lesson on Wednesdays, but my coach isn't in tomorrow so it was booked for this morning. However, we are planning to be in this evening and my coach is hoping he can fit me in then.

jazzpants

07-12-2005, 10:51 AM

No thanks. I don't need any additional blackmail pics. I have a couple I can use already. :twisted:Yeah, yeah! Har, har!!! The peanut gallery again!!! :twisted:

Trust me! The one you have is NOTHING compared to the one for this one number for the Fire and Ice costume -- *THIS* takes the cake! It's so cute, it's SICKENING!!! http://instagiber.net/smiliesdotcom/otn/other/pukeface.gif And besides, if all goes well, by next April, half the adult skating community would see jazzpants in a skating dress anyway...

Oh jeez, what are you complaining about? *phew*HEY! It still HURTS, 'ya know!!! :twisted: :P Being the trooper I am, I skated thru the rehearsal with it still hurting and nail split. I put a Band-aid on during the ice cut and cut back the nail when I got home, so all is (almost) well again.

You shouldn't keep so many secrets! Especially from your coach! LOL.Hey! I wanted it to be a surprise for him... well, it wasn't exactly the right time, but I got the desired effect anyway.

There is one more secret that's he hasn't seen -- my artistic program!!! But... he'll see it soon enough... especially if he does make it to the rink earlier enough on Wednesday. (Which he won't... he likes his sleep too!) :lol: :P :twisted:

Debbie S

07-12-2005, 11:02 AM

And besides, if all goes well, by next April, half the adult skating community would see jazzpants in a skating dress anyway...

Actually, AN next year is in March. Shall we start the countdown now? :P

Hope your finger feels better soon! Congrats on the lutz!

jazzpants

07-12-2005, 11:31 AM

Actually, AN next year is in March. Shall we start the countdown now? :P

Hope your finger feels better soon! Congrats on the lutz!Oh, yeah! I forgot! And I better go back on the Peanut Gallery thread and get an update on everyone who's trying to make it to AN... (It's been a while, huh?)

Mrs Redboots

07-12-2005, 03:55 PM

Flowers: Coach was free at 6.30 pm, so I was able to have my lesson. The ice was a lot slower than it is in the mornings, which was a nuisance, as I didn't get enough speed & flow, or less than I wanted, anyway. Nothing too bad, but not too great, either. Beginning to get the feeling of the back cross-cuts, now, but only beginning. The back cross-rolls were not as good as last week. Then I had to do that exercise where you sprint up one side of the rink, run round the end, and then push and hold your extension all the way back down to the bottom again, and repeat on the other foot, which would have been a lot better had the rink been less crowded!

Afterwards it was Figure Club, as it was my husband's turn to be on duty, but all we have to work on is dance, so we worked a bit on choreographing our free dance. He also worked on his back edges.

Weeds: Whereupon I retailed to him all the corrections I'd just been given on mine - and the [expletive deleted] promptly did them much better, and actually looked good doing them. He was able to put the corrections into practice, which I can't, always.... Grrrrrr.......

samba

07-12-2005, 04:09 PM

Wot, no back-spin? 8O

Raye

07-12-2005, 05:47 PM

Excellent - I take it that it was the programme you did in France, or was it a dumbed-down version thereof .

Hi Annabel: Yes it was the 'Cat' solo I skated in France, but the longer version of it because in France we were limited to a minute fourty seconds, but for the test the time needed to fall between two and three minutes. The long version of said programme runs two minutes seventeen seconds, and it feels like an eternity.

Flowers: That cat solo is my favourite solo ever

Weeds: The time has almost come to say goodbye to the cat. After Ottawa and SF I will need a new Interpretive

*JennaD*

07-12-2005, 06:17 PM

Flowers!!!: I landed a few axels! They were a little bit cheated and my position was kind of...strange...but I still landed a few!

Weeds: I learned back 3 turns today for the Jr Bronze skills (even though I still haven't passed preliminary :?? )...they are way harder than they look!! lol Those are going to need some practice!

jazzpants

07-12-2005, 06:20 PM

Weeds: The time has almost come to say goodbye to the cat. After Ottawa and SF I will need a new InterpretiveHi, Raye! By "SF" do you mean that you'll be skating at Skate San Francisco in Nov??? Just curious...

NCSkater02

07-12-2005, 06:29 PM

So, are you saying: If NCSkater02 did two perfectly centered 2-foot spins, and no one saw them... they didn't happen?

LOL :lol: 8-)

Sounds like you had a great skate! :)

Hey now--don't rain on my parade! Considering I've only been spinning again for a month, and struggled with it before I broke my ankle, I thought it was pretty good.

Besides, tracings count as evidence. :D

Now, I just need to start trying scratch again. :roll:

Terri C

07-12-2005, 06:42 PM

Flowers:
Skated very well given the fact that I've been off the ice dealing with illness/death in the family. Did a almost clean runthrough of my freeskate and for the first time ever hit all three spins (sit, forward and backscratch) in program. Then coach and I looked at a old artistic program that I will do at Peach for Interpretive (it was my mom's favorite). Coach says that if I can look at the video, I may get what I've forgotten back.

Weeds:
Simply put and I apologize for posting the news for the upteenth time, my mother passed away yesterday. After having a open cholecystectomy in March, her 71 year old body couldn't take it anymore.

As for the rink today, too many little ones and beginners on freestyle!

Raye

07-12-2005, 08:21 PM

Hi, Raye! By "SF" do you mean that you'll be skating at Skate San Francisco in Nov??? Just curious...
Hi Jazzpants: Yup, I am planning to compete in San Fransisco in November. I have never been to SF before and skating is a GREAT excuse to go. See you there! :) :) :) :) :) :)

jazzpants

07-12-2005, 08:26 PM

Hi Jazzpants: Yup, I am planning to compete in San Fransisco in November. I have never been to SF before and skating is a GREAT excuse to go. See you there! :) :) :) :) :) :)YAAAAAY!!!! :mrgreen:

dbny

07-12-2005, 08:57 PM

Simply put and I apologize for posting the news for the upteenth time, my mother passed away yesterday. After having a open cholecystectomy in March, her 71 year old body couldn't take it anymore.

(((((Terri C)))))

I'm so sorry to hear that you've lost your mother. I hadn't read it elsewhere, don't know why, so I'm glad you posted here.

aussieskater

07-12-2005, 11:23 PM

Simply put and I apologize for posting the news for the upteenth time, my mother passed away yesterday. After having a open cholecystectomy in March, her 71 year old body couldn't take it anymore. Terri, I'm glad you posted that here as I hadn't read it anywhere else. Huge comforting hugs - it's awful to lose someone close to you. Maybe there is some comfort in knowing that she's finally at peace?

Raye

07-13-2005, 03:24 AM

Weeds:
Simply put and I apologize for posting the news for the upteenth time, my mother passed away yesterday. After having a open cholecystectomy in March, her 71 year old body couldn't take it anymore.

Terri that's awful! My most sincere condolences. :cry:

Mel On Ice

07-13-2005, 05:36 AM

I add my condolences to Terri as well.

Flowers: I passed ISI freestyle 4 this past weekend! I was passed by one of the toughest judges in Ohio, or so I have heard. I only really struggled with the dance step, and she made me do it 3 times. Actually she made me do everything 3 times just to prove I could do the elements.

Afterwards, I had a GREAT time celebrating with friends in the Detroit area, complete with a leisurely afternoon at the pool, pretty much acting like 12 year olds.

Weeds: I just got home from Detroit. I worked as a volunteer at the All Star game festivities. While this was AWESOME (I worked with the mascots, primarily the Padre from San Diego), the 6:45am to 10pm shifts were a pain, and I ripped up my right heel with my tennis shoes. I haven't skated since Saturday, so tonight's lesson will be an adventure.

Ew, and also, now that I'm a 4, I know I will be stuck here for a while, with the rest of the adults working on their axel, something I've done maybe 3 times, mostly in jest - flying~camel can attest to that! I'm used to winning at the 3 level, I'd better be prepared for some USFSA-like results for a while in ISI.

Moto Guzzi

07-13-2005, 08:10 AM

(((Terri C))) I'm sorry to learn about your mother.

flo

07-13-2005, 08:26 AM

Terri, take care, and we'll see you soon.

Flowers: Had a good session Monday night, and will skate again tonight. I leave for the pairs camp Friday.

NickiT

07-13-2005, 08:39 AM

Terri, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. Sending huge hugs your way.

Flowers
I had the best lesson today :) ! Well, the best since competing three weeks ago anyway. It looks like I'm coming out of my post-competition slump and getting back the enthusiasm and motivation that I temporarily lost. It helps that I've been feeling a little more energised too. I was simply too tired for a period after the competition, probably because I was rushing round with my daughter who had two competitions the same week!

Anyway my jumps were great today. The lutz-loop felt good as did the flip-loop and loop-loop. My camel-sit was good today too. In fact my coach remarked that it was a lot better. I just need to be able to do it like that in competition, since I tend to hold back a bit on the push into it and this results in a poor position. I also did some decent change-foot sit spins.

My programme run through went well. I did a decent camel-sit in it, probably the best I've ever done in my programme. I landed all my jumps cleanly too. We decided not to do it again since it was so good the first time. That's my first clean run-through in two to three weeks!

Before I had my lesson I forced myself to run through the first two exercises of my bronze field moves. Having not done them in a while I lost them a bit but now that I've been doing them each time I skate for the past week I'm finding they are coming back to me.

Weeds
Nothing apart from a coach load of kids booked onto the public session so I only did patch today.

Nicki

jazzpants

07-13-2005, 11:36 AM

Flowers:

Secondary coach is back and we're back on working on my program!

Weeds:

I had a collision with a skater. She's okay. (Just another hip bruise to add to her collection of other hip bruises...) I took it on the hip and on the cheek got a bruise and some cuts on both. Nerves are shoot right now, but I'm determined to just get back to business as usual (but with some makeup on it though... I don't want people to think that my husband's a wife-beater!!!) :lol: :P

Terri C: :cry: And I hope you'll find the strength to continue on and compete well for your mother. I'm sure that's what your mother would have wanted for you.

icedancer2

07-13-2005, 01:44 PM

Terri -- I am sorry to hear about your mother. I lost my mom last year and found my greatest solace in going to the rink. I hope you give yourself time just for yourself at this time.

Flowers : I am finally getting the Power 3s (the right side -- my hard turn back to front -- I guess it's a mohawk). By paying attention to my left hip and making sure it is secure under me, I can turn forward. This is a HUGE breakthrough for me.

Also can use the same concentrating on my left hip technique for the 5-step mohawk -- the left-mohawk side, which has this difficult back to front.

Now hopefully I can incorporate this into my dances -- most of the solos have been lost because I can't turn from back to front going in that direction and most dances past the Preliminaries have this step!!

Weeds: My coach is still out of town. Hopefully will be back at the end of the month.

Also having more trouble with sore hips/legs -- need to stretch more before and after skating, but I just can't wait to get on the ice every time! Must be more patient.

Casey

07-13-2005, 02:01 PM

Flowers: I'm finally starting to feel at home at the new rink. Went this morning and started spinning right away. After a couple duds, every single one of my spins attained 9 or 10 revolutions, and *fast*!! I finally figured out just how to get a center with the arms out (though I can't do this with the leg straight yet), and then bring the leg farther across to start gaining momentum, and then pulling the arms in *just so* to really gain speed. My blade made that wonderful spinning sound that I always hear the good spinners making, and my tracings were tiny little circles, and didn't travel more than a foot or two - in several cases I couldn't even count the number of revolutions because they were properly centered. :D

Then I tried a corkscrew spin and reached a new record - 11 revolutions!! I kept doing more spins expecting them to go downhill, but they didn't - almost every one was 9 or 10 revolutions, pretty centered, and fast! I'm so happy! I was also just generally more competant on the ice today, and almost everything went off without a hitch. Apparently I was doing pretty good, because 3 different skaters came up later off the ice and introduced themselves, asked where I was from, when I started skating, etc.

I did a bunch of weight exercises in the gym at the rink, and was pleasantly surprised to discover my arms have already gotten stronger from the workouts I've been doing. I got on the bicycle machine and put it on "fitness test" with the level set at 15 (maximum was 20). Punched in my age, weight, and gender, and biked hard for 5 minutes while it monitored my heart rate. Heart got up to 180 beats per minute and I was getting REALLY sweaty and knackered by the end of it, but was very happy to see the screen flashing at me: "Fitness level: 58 - ELITE". After pretending that meant I'd be an elite skater someday for a moment, I got up to discover I could barely walk! Tired of exercise, I actually made use of the ballet room for the first time - and wow, that barre REALLY helps for stretching! The room is also floor to ceiling mirrors, so you can see exactly how far you're stretching very easily. And both the gym and ballet room have windows facing the rink, which is great entertainment!

I'm really happy about my skating and workout today!

Weeds: Was doing forward power pulls on my left foot (the weaker one) and tried to do a 3-turn into back power pulls like I'd just done on my right foot, and failed. Ended up landing on my bum, which sent quite a jar up my spine. I stood up and stretched and I swear every single bone in my back cracked. I didn't feel so good. but I stretched a couple more times, then did a fast lap into a huge waltz jump, so all's well that ends well, except it kinda hurts to sit on the right side now. :P

mikawendy

07-13-2005, 03:36 PM

Terri--
So sorry to hear about your mother. Condolences to you and the rest of your family.

Debbie S

07-13-2005, 03:42 PM

I am finally getting the Power 3s (the right side -- my hard turn back to front -- I guess it's a mohawk). By paying attention to my left hip and making sure it is secure under me, I can turn forward. This is a HUGE breakthrough for me.

Also can use the same concentrating on my left hip technique for the 5-step mohawk -- the left-mohawk side, which has this difficult back to front.

I feel your pain...I have the same problems, with the same sides! Another thing that helps me is to remember to keep my left arm checked all the way back. I have a tendency on both sides of the power 3's to turn my back arm too far in, and then I start wobbling and can't hold the BI edge until the axis line.

As for the 5-step, I will try your advice tonight. So far, I've focused solely on getting more knee bend, but I need to turn in more to the circle in order to stay on the FO edge. Currently, whenever I get the smallest amount of speed, I end up stepping to a flat. I guess it all goes back to the upper body and lower body needing to work together.

Casey S, I envy you with a gym at your rink. Talk about effective time management! I found that as I increased my skating practice days, I basically gave up on the gym b/c I either had skating in the evening or something else that I had to do that precluded exercise. But I think I lost muscle strength that I needed to make more progress in skating. I'm currently trying to go to the gym once a week (hey, it's a start!).

Casey

07-13-2005, 04:50 PM

Casey S, I envy you with a gym at your rink. Talk about effective time management! I found that as I increased my skating practice days, I basically gave up on the gym b/c I either had skating in the evening or something else that I had to do that precluded exercise. But I think I lost muscle strength that I needed to make more progress in skating. I'm currently trying to go to the gym once a week (hey, it's a start!).
Debbie, I can't tell you how much I love the rink! It's got so many good things going for it, it's an olympic-sized surface, extremely well-maintained building, amazing zamboni that makes ice like glass, the gym and ballet room, lots of very good skaters and a history including olympic- and national-level competitors, special flat-rate pricing for adults who join USFSA through their club, and is only 4 miles away from my place where I have nice cheap rent.

It's a bit tricky getting over the intimidation factor, as so many of the skaters there are working on doubles and triples and many have bling-bling parents who are shelling out $10/1-hour freestyle session, but I'm coming to really enjoy it - more and more each time I go. Now I just have to catch up with everyone else! ;)

sk8pics

07-13-2005, 06:25 PM

It's a bit tricky getting over the intimidation factor, as so many of the skaters there are working on doubles and triples and many have bling-bling parents who are shelling out $10/1-hour freestyle session, but I'm coming to really enjoy it - more and more each time I go.

$10 for an hour? That's cheap to me! During the summer here it's $12/40 minutes or 50 minutes, depending on the rink. But hang in there; you have just as much right to be there!

Terri--So sorry to hear about your mom.

And flowers for me: just got my skates sharpened and boy what a difference! My moves coach told me my backward perimeter crossover stroking was "150% better" and that I was skating fast! That's what a good sharpening can do for you!

Happy skating,
Pat

stardust skies

07-13-2005, 07:27 PM

$10 for an hour? That's cheap to me! During the summer here it's $12/40 minutes or 50 minutes, depending on the rink. But hang in there; you have just as much right to be there!

Haha I was thinking the same thing!! Ten bucks an hour is the cheapest ice I have ever found. Anything up to 14 dollars is acceptable by me.

Kit kat

07-13-2005, 08:19 PM

weeds :: i have beginner blades so its easier to get on the toepick.. i couldnt do my camel

flowers:: i landed loop loop, flip loop waltz jump, loop toe loop , on my own.. im not sure if those are real jumps! but it was fun! :D

jazzpants

07-13-2005, 08:46 PM

Haha I was thinking the same thing!! Ten bucks an hour is the cheapest ice I have ever found. Anything up to 14 dollars is acceptable by me.C'mon over to SF Bay Area!!! We're about $10/per session with a punch card in SF and $12 walk-in.

And if that's not cheap enough, at my weekend rink in Berkeley, your drop in is $10 and coupon of 10 FS session is $7.50/per hour session!!! 8-)

I can't believe I actually paid $19/per 50 minute session at Chelsea Piers... 8O (Then again, I was just visiting and my coach at CP made it all worthwhile for me! He showed me a great time!!! And when I do visit my in-laws again, I'll be back... and will be looking for him too!) 8-) :mrgreen:

jenlyon60

07-13-2005, 08:47 PM

Walk-on for 40-minute freestyle sessions at my rink is $10 (which comes out to about $15/hour). With the rink's debit card, it's $8 for a 40 minute freestyle session.

They also have an Intense ice payment program that is more economical for anyone doing at least 2 freestyles per day 5 or 6 days a week. I don't know the current price for that, and in any case, the price is different in the summer (it's priced by the week in the summer and by the month the rest of the year).

Haha I was thinking the same thing!! Ten bucks an hour is the cheapest ice I have ever found. Anything up to 14 dollars is acceptable by me.

icedancer2

07-13-2005, 09:04 PM

Wow -- there's one good thing about living in Portland, OR -- our freestyles, and dance sessions, too, are $7 -- I think at one of the rinks it is $6.60!

Public sessions are $7 and you can stay on for hours and sometimes there are only a few adults -- it is fabulous!

Yea, Portland!! :lol:

stardust skies

07-14-2005, 02:18 AM

C'mon over to SF Bay Area!!! We're about $10/per session with a punch card in SF and $12 walk-in.

And if that's not cheap enough, at my weekend rink in Berkeley, your drop in is $10 and coupon of 10 FS session is $7.50/per hour session!!! 8-)

I can't believe I actually paid $19/per 50 minute session at Chelsea Piers... 8O (Then again, I was just visiting and my coach at CP made it all worthwhile for me! He showed me a great time!!! And when I do visit my in-laws again, I'll be back... and will be looking for him too!) 8-) :mrgreen:

Haha actually living in SF has always been a dream of mine. Do you love it up there?

Mrs Redboots

07-14-2005, 02:44 AM

Here, we pay £5.00 (which is about US $8.80) per "patch" (teaching ice) session, but there is an option (which we take) where you pay £15.00 (about US $26.50) per week, 52 weeks a year, and can have as many sessions as we like. Works for us, as we usually skate at least 4 sessions per week, and often more. We pay an extra fiver for Figure Club and/or Dance Club if we use their ice.

flying~camel

07-14-2005, 06:59 AM

Flowers:

Test program run through went pretty well. I wasn't able to get as much flow through it as I would have liked, but that's because I had to concentrate so much on dodging the little ones. But, the elements were all there and felt pretty solid :)

My coach told me that she's going to work on cutting my new music this weekend, so I may very well start working on a new competition program during my next lesson :)

My new competition dress should be arriving within the next week or so and I just found out that I can order a matching scrunchie to go with it (I've been having difficulty finding a scrunchie for this dress, so this is a major find for me!).

Weeds:

I found out that the test session at the end of July, on which I was going to test Bronze FS, has been cancelled because we couldn't secure any judges. So, now it looks like I'll have to wait until the end of August :??

Skate@Delaware

07-14-2005, 08:41 AM

Our fall schedule just came out, and the price for drop-in is $7.50 for 1.5 hour session (which we now have 2/week in the evening)....hopefully, they won't be too crowded so daughter and I can drop-in for moves & coaching..... :roll:

flo

07-14-2005, 08:41 AM

Flowers: had a nice session last night on our private ice. Debbie is a quick study in pairs! She looked great.

Weeds: One of my foster dogs got returned to me last night, he didn't adjust well to his new home, so now the weekend sitter may have 3 pooches! Thanks to Mika for also volunteering so I can go to the pairs camp.

skatergirlva

07-14-2005, 09:30 AM

Flowers: Only flowers! I had my first private lesson this morning, since my son was born in May. It was quite fun. I worked on my Novice moves again. I did all of them, except counters (which I hate anyway). My coach even told me that my quick rocker-turn sequence was good. Woo Hoo! The first session of the morning didn't even seem early now that I have a baby up at all hours. :) Happy skating!

jazzpants

07-14-2005, 10:19 AM

Haha actually living in SF has always been a dream of mine. Do you love it up there?Well, I've been here for close to 30 years. That should tell 'ya something!!! :P

LOTS of rinks and good coaches!!! :P LOTS of good food too!!! :yum: Of course the BIG MINUS is that living here is expensive as all heck!!! :evil: I can afford it thanks to a combination of rent control in SF (when I was younger)...and home ownership (as of a few years back...) :mrgreen: But if you're new to the Bay Area, good luck finding an affordable place to leave in SF... :evil:

AnnM

07-14-2005, 11:40 AM

Flowers: I had the whole rink to myself this morning. I love it when that happens --- it makes me feel like an Ice Diva. 8-) As for my actual skating, sit spins, back spiral, outside pivots and jumps were all good. I also made myself do three run throughs and each one was better than the previous one.

Weeds: I fell on back crossovers! I haven't done that in ages; I had to laugh at myself after getting up. I was pretty low so it was more of a "slide" than a "thud", but I bet my knees will have bruises tomorrow. My attitude spin is definitely giving me "attitude" -- it just comes and goes as it pleases without consulting me.

luna_skater

07-14-2005, 01:06 PM

On the price topic...I'm currently paying $15.00/session (1 hour or less). $10.00 is a bargain!

Flowers: Had a half-decent practice yesterday, after being off the ice for a week. Made some improvements with the sal and toe-loop in the height department. Backspins are getting better.

Weeds: Loops. :evil: Coach decided that it's time to do the loop from back cross-overs instead of the 3-turn entrance. I managed to actually jump off the ice twice in about 50 attempts. I just can NOT get the timing for this! Flips and lutzes have gotten inconsistent, which is frustrating.

Another Flower: This may sound like it should be a weed, but I fell on a lutz. :D It's a flower because it's the first time I've wiped out jumping, so I consider it sort of a rite of passage. And I didn't injure myself, lol!

mikawendy

07-14-2005, 03:05 PM

Weeds: One of my foster dogs got returned to me last night, he didn't adjust well to his new home, so now the weekend sitter may have 3 pooches! Thanks to Mika for also volunteering so I can go to the pairs camp.

Sorry to hear that he didn't work out in his new home! Poor little thing. Have fun at the pairs clinic and at the scientific surplus store!

Flowers: I had a great practice on Sunday--I made some good progress on the sit spin--better, longer entry, with the free leg held back longer, and better position now. However (file under "Weeds" :D ), on a couple, I felt like I was really centered, and felt like I was at a good place on the blade, only to look down later to discover I had reaallly traveled. My weight must have been too far back or forward...

I'm looking forward to the adult skating seminar I'm going to on Sunday. 7.5 hours of ice for $75, which includes four half-hour group sessions with a pro, free skate time, and time blocked off for private lessons (pay separately). It sounds like a bargain even just for the ice time--let alone the group sessions--but I'm sure I'll be really sore the next day!

Debbie S

07-14-2005, 03:06 PM

Debbie is a quick study in pairs! She looked great.

Thanks, flo! And you are a great pairs instructor. Have fun this weekend!

Actually, a couple of years ago, a male pairs skater in a show group number I was in asked me if I had ever considered pairs - I guess b/c of my size. While it looks like fun, I am waaaay too fearful to be lifted and thrown on the ice - lol. Plus, my availability for practice is so unpredictable sometimes, I don't think I'd be able to work with someone else's schedule. I have enough problems getting regular practices in myself! :)

flo

07-14-2005, 03:10 PM

Anytime Debbie!

"I have enough problems getting regular practices in myself! "
This reminds me of when my partner and I signed up for practice sessions - the same times, but at different rinks! 8O

phoenix

07-14-2005, 03:31 PM

flowers: scary new exercises are getting less scary as I work on them! The worst was a quick bracket exercise going into it from a BI edge (my least favorite bracket), and yesterday those were pretty solid, even if not very fast yet.

biggest accomplishment to date: doing a warmup exercise for coach in my lesson, not a difficult one but he wants QUALITY in the execution......came back to him after finishing.....very serious face: "that wasn't bad. Your knees were bent, your head was up, your pushes were strong, and your toes were pointed. What the h*ll was that?!" HAH! :!:

Weeds: I gave up 1/2 my practice time this week to accomodate extra lesson time for a student who's testing next week. So in my lesson tomorrow I won't have made as much progress as I'd have liked to. *sigh* The ever present dilemma trying to coach while still in full training as well.

Mrs Redboots

07-14-2005, 04:26 PM

Flowers: Made it to dance club, and danced with husband, one other man, and solo. Didn't try anything harder than the Prelim (British) Waltz, though - bottled out of trying the Foxtrot and 14-step this evening. Actually, having said that, I did do a Willow Waltz (level 6, same as the 14-step, and one level higher than Foxtrot & British waltz). Did a couple of Dutch Waltzes and Canasta Tangos solo, with a view to competing them at Oxford - if my Canasta could get as good as my Dutch Waltz has, I might even do that! It was really nice dancing with the other man - he doesn't hold one in a grip of death like the husband does!

Weeds: Trying to persuade husband that holding me in a grip of death was counter-productive! And my solo Canasta Tango was not as good as it ought to have been. And I still can't do the 3-turn in the Hickory Hoedown (not easy when you are pointing the wrong way and being held there by Mr Grip of Death!), and made a nonsense of a Fiesta Tango - was watching a rather better couple skating it and not concentrating on what we were doing! At least I stayed upright, unlike one poor skater who fell on the same step of the Foxtrot, not once, but twice!

*JennaD*

07-14-2005, 04:55 PM

flowers: I got lots of height on all my jumps and my axel take off is better!

weeds: I two-footed every single axel I tried today :roll:

sk8pics

07-14-2005, 06:21 PM

Flowers Salchow is getting better! My coach was very happy with the way it is progressing, and I did one of my better ones in my program run through. 8-) He said actually all the jumps are better. 8-)8-) And again I did a really good spin in the run through. Again with no practice,:roll: LOL! I keep stopping after 2 or 2 1/2 revolutions for no good reason; I'll have to concentrate on keeping it going longer! What a concept!

Debbie -Pairs, huh? That sounds like fun! Some of my coaches will sometimes do pairs crossovers with me and it's fun. Lately they tell me I'm pushing them, so when I'm yelling at them to slow down it's really my fault that we're going so fast, LOL! Fast to me, anyway!

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

Terri C

07-14-2005, 08:37 PM

Flowers:
Secondary coach and I spent part of my lesson revamping a five year old program that I'll do in the Interp event at Peach! Also worked on the moves for the Bronze MIF event at Peach and they were fairly good.

Weeds:
Ice was lousy and not cut. This is what we pay $10.00/ hour with punchcard and $13.00 walk on for! :evil: :roll: Coach plans to start asking for ice cuts!

And the best flower of all:
My Peach Classic entry and practice forms went in the mail today!! :D :D :D
I'll need one blast of a time, as well as three solid skates there to make up for my tough summer!

Andie

07-14-2005, 11:43 PM

Flowers: Everything that was good last week, was good this week (the 12th). The one big improvement was my half flip/ flip. Nothing else really stands out as better.

Weeds: The rink was insanely crowded again, I couldn't find a bench to sit on where I normally sit. Coach reminded me it was a public session, which I understand, but couldn't they have the 'camp' kids skate another time? A special time for camp? The crowd always fizzles out by the last 1/2 hr of the session. As bad as the crowd was, my consolation is it's supposed to end soon and there will be hardly anyone on the ice.

And, I'm not sure whether this is weeds or flowers (maybe both?), but I really should get a job soon. To pay for/help pay for skating....otherwise I probably won't be able to continue. I'll have some trouble now considering it's summer (I might not be able to get a job at some places until the high school and college kids return to school).

Mrs Redboots

07-15-2005, 10:08 AM

Flowers: Our elite dancers are on holiday, so the rink was really empty - at its most crowded there were three or four skaters! Was able to do a lot of laps of various strokes (oh, I feel them in my legs!) as well as working with Husband. Back edges improving dramatically, and even making nice edge noises, as the ice was so good and it was so quiet! Not growls, yet, but nice purry noises.

Husband and I did Evil Eights, too, which are a lot less evil these days, in fact, we rather like them! I still slightly tend to turn towards husband when doing them anti-clockwise in reverse Kilian hold, but I think that was because I was having trouble getting my right shoulder forwards. Clockwise ("The worst!" said Husband, but I said it wasn't nearly so bad since I was outside!), I had trouble, as I always have, keeping my left shoulder forwards, but it wasn't nearly as bad as sometimes. We even managed to get up a fair head of speed....

Weeds: When you start to take a dance to pieces, you do get muddled! I'm sure there are things we could/should be doing differently in our Golden Skaters' Waltz.... we got confused with how you put the foot down in the cross-in-front/cross-behind - should it be turned in, as for a cross-roll, or straight? Eventually asked a higher-level dancer who is also a Level 1 coach, and she reckoned straight.

Like the Husband, I still have awful trouble with forward outside swing rolls, seems that I can't get extension behind, extension in front and smooth hip/shoulder movement all in one swing roll! Ah well.... Back outside swing rolls suddenly easier, not enough forwards extension as yet, but getting my weight further back, and far more flow than I used to have. Not quite as big or as fast as I'd like, yet.....

jenlyon60

07-15-2005, 10:43 AM

Flowers: Got over whining about my new boots and went back to "real" skating or pretty close. So it's more Tango solo work. Coach reckoned that the first part of the pattern (the cross-back chasses) is basically okay, so we started de-constructing and re-building the bit across the short end of the rink (from the long 4-beat edge through to the beginning of the promenade).

The cross-roll RFO3 has always been a bug-a-boo solo for me. It's now getting better (I can do it and maintain flow just rolling into the 4-beat edge with some speed, but when I throw in the first half of the dance like at the end of my lesson today, the chicken emerges.)

And a Major Breakthrough. I finally noticed/felt/realized that I was dropping my free side on the RBI turn exit and also on the LBO swing after the cross-roll RFO3. Which was heavily contributing to continuing my loss of flow through the end pattern of the Tango.

So now to continue to improve the flow into the cross-roll 3 solo and the flow through the bit into the promenade....

Weeds: The morning manager doesn't normally cut the ice before the early morning dance/freestyle sessions. So the ice goes all night after the closing manager cuts it. Not normally too much of a problem but today because of the high humidity, we had a case of major "ice zits." A couple of them were 2 or 3 inches high. Too high to just kick and break down with your blade. We were actually cracking jokes about how the larger ones looked like frozen breast implants.

mikawendy

07-15-2005, 11:51 AM

Flowers--had a good practice and class last night. I worked hard on my toe loop (least favorite jump) and waltz-toe combo. They felt nice and high (which probably means they were low, but probably not as low as before, lol! :D) )

Weeds--the dehumidifier in the rink was off, so I felt covered by a coating of humidity.

I'm having trouble picking in in the correct spot on the waltz-toe--I feel like I'm picking too far to the outside of the print to be able to stay on the back outside edge (I feel myself going over to a back inside edge as I pick, thus taking off wrong for the jump.)

phoenix

07-15-2005, 12:33 PM

Flowers: Had a little breakthrough w/ my repeating choctaw exercise; I can now actually do it & be on the correct edges, though I still get stuck & can't switch feet as fast as I'm supposed to. And a few of the other exercises are starting to exorcise (pun intended) some other demons, so it's fun to see them working.

Weeds: Can I just say, I hate skating early mornings. I skate in the evening, everything is loose & easy & I'm down in my knees, and then---12 hours later---I step on the ice for my early morning lesson & it's all gone, I'm stiff & tippy & even though I'm trying really hard, nothing flows & it just feels like I'm fighting against myself instead of just flowing along.

jenlyon60

07-15-2005, 01:17 PM

Even though I skate almost exclusively early morning, my coach and I have a deal that when my compulsory dances are good first thing early in the morning, then they're ready for testing. Given that these old bones are stiffer then.

Flowers: Had a little breakthrough w/ my repeating choctaw exercise; I can now actually do it & be on the correct edges, though I still get stuck & can't switch feet as fast as I'm supposed to. And a few of the other exercises are starting to exorcise (pun intended) some other demons, so it's fun to see them working.

Weeds: Can I just say, I hate skating early mornings. I skate in the evening, everything is loose & easy & I'm down in my knees, and then---12 hours later---I step on the ice for my early morning lesson & it's all gone, I'm stiff & tippy & even though I'm trying really hard, nothing flows & it just feels like I'm fighting against myself instead of just flowing along.

aussieskater

07-15-2005, 07:48 PM

Weeds: The morning manager doesn't normally cut the ice before the early morning dance/freestyle sessions. So the ice goes all night after the closing manager cuts it. Not normally too much of a problem but today because of the high humidity, we had a case of major "ice zits." A couple of them were 2 or 3 inches high. Too high to just kick and break down with your blade. We were actually cracking jokes about how the larger ones looked like frozen breast implants. Jen, that made me crack up!!

luna_skater

07-16-2005, 12:12 AM

Flowers: Finally got a few loops out of cross-overs off the ground! It's funny; every time I try a slightly harder version of something, that move that seemed so daunting before is suddenly so much easier! To warm up the new loop entrance, I do a lot of loops from an inside 3, which were just ok before. But now I have more confidence in them because I've tricked my brain into thinking they are easier. ;) Made some really good progress on the backspin. Also learned how to actually exit my spins, instead of just stopping when I'd done enough rotations. Flips came back! I was able to land them through the whole practice. Sals were good, too. Getting more height on them.

Weeds: Nothing major. The lutz seems to have lost a bit of pop, but it's getting more consistent. I would just like to work up the nerve to enter my jumps with more speed each time. I know it will come, but I'm impatient that way! I can do it in my head...convincing my body to cooperate is another story!

Skate@Delaware

07-16-2005, 08:53 AM

Flowers: skating tomorrow with the whole family PLUS another adult so I can do some jumps!! Means if I get hurt, someone else can drive home! Hey, I have to plan for every contingency-if you've seen my jumps, you'd understand! It's still flowers!

Weeds: husband is going (along with the rest of the brood); wants me to run him through some moves to see how far he is (on a public session). And teach him some more moves-so lessons on public ice...in addition to the stuff I want to do. :roll: Oh, well. He has only 4 Sunday sessions of "lessons" with me before our regular rink opens for the fall. That means he has a lot of work to do! Then there's the off-ice stuff to work on!!! :twisted: :twisted:

Casey

07-17-2005, 12:37 AM

Today I literally collected the spare change from around my house in order to scrounge up the $6 required for public session this evening. I wasn't going to skate at all this weekend simply because I have no money, but I'm not going to be skating much at all for the next 2 weeks since I'll be working every day through a labor hall in order to save for new skates, so I wanted one last good skate in. Well...

Flowers: I worked on spins, and attained a new record - 12 revolutions! They weren't terribly consistant tonight though, I worked more on varying the technique rather than just trying for more revolutions or speed, so there were lots of flops. I did some really big waltz jumps, as big as I ever have, about 8 or 10 feet. The landings felt really perfect and controlled, so I was really happy. Also did several nice salchow-toe loop combos, again the control was really good for no apparent reason.

A guy asked me as I was getting off the ice what a triple jump was called, and I told him there were several different ones, and listed all the jumps. He said it's the one everybody is always talking about called the triple something. I explained again that any jump could be a single, double, triple, or quad - it just depends on how many revolutions you can do in the air. He said he thought it was the triple dutz or something, so I said he was probably thinking of the triple lutz, since that's the best jump most women skaters can do. He seemed pleased with that answer. Hehe, reminded me of when I was first starting to skate and hadn't a clue about what anything in skating was called and it seemed like soooo much to try to remember! :lol: I got off the ice for a minute and got a drink, then went back on and...

Weeds: Was doing some fast back crossovers around the end of the rink, and somehow caught my right heel and went flying, fortunately in the direction of travel as opposed to the boards, but it hurt a lot and a whole bunch of kids started laughing. Determined, I got up and went right back into what I was doing before. Did a half lap around the rink building speed, and did a big waltz jump. Caught the same heel on the landing, and fell again. It caught in such a way that it pushed the boot against my ankle HARD, and my ankle felt REALLY BAD. I got off the ice and limped to the benches and took off my skate. My ankle was swollen up on the right side. Not too much, but it's concerning because I *never* swell or bruise no matter how hard I fall. I poked at it trying to figure out if my ankle was broken. Hard to say because it hurts like bloody hell, but I think it's just tissue damage - I can still fully flex my ankle about without almost no pain. I waited several minutes and poked at it some more, contemplating going back on the ice. I then decided I wasn't suicidal, and while I can manage to work the next couple weeks with whatever damage is done, I might not be able to if I tried skating more and worsened a stress fracture that may or may not exist. My right hip was pretty sore too since I fell on it twice, so I sighed, took off my other skate, and came home early. I think my ankle's okay, I think there would be a lot more pain if it was actually fractured - it just has a dull ache now as long as I don't touch it.

It finally occured to me that both falls involved my right heel catching the ice in a really weird way which it never does, and of course the right heel is the one separating the most from my skate. I examined my skate but it doesn't look terribly worse - the gap in the heel has widened to a couple millimeters, but though I can rock it left and right by pushing on the blade, it doesn't seem to rock too far. I think that's mostly because of the stiffness of the blade though - when all my weight is on it the blade probably flexes and it moves more.

I think these boots are pretty much done for - I've ignored the problem and let it get worse for as long as I can - I'm now risking serious injury and/or a bent blade by skating on them. If I do skate any more on them I'll have to take it easy and stick to spins. I'm considering just taking them up to the fitter as soon as I can and having him send the things back right away though, otherwise I'll wait until I get new skates. I hesitate to send them off since I won't get them back for 2 months... *sigh*

Mrs Redboots

07-17-2005, 06:50 AM

Casey, if you can put your weight on both feet, you probably haven't fractured your ankle. All the same - nasty!

We had our lessons this morning.

Flowers: Coach was relatively complimentary about our Golden Skaters' Waltz, but still wants to see more lift when we extend our free legs behind. And more definite extension - to make sure we really hold our legs back.

He helped us with the step sequence in our free dance, too - just a couple of minor changes of hold, which have transformed it, so we aren't in waltz hold all the time! So that's sorted - for now. We still haven't decided whether to do our usual 3-turns, or to try to do twizzles at the beginning of it, but plenty of time yet......

Weeds: Husband kept forgetting the cross-roll swing in the Golden Skaters' waltz - oh well, it happens! Other than that not much.... he was working on his edges in his lesson this morning, which has to be a good thing!

sarahyani

07-17-2005, 07:42 AM

----------

Casey

07-17-2005, 08:01 AM

Casey, if you can put your weight on both feet, you probably haven't fractured your ankle.
Yeah, I figured it was fine since I could still move everything. It just hurt a *lot*, and I especially at first, I couldn't put as much weight on it; but I could limp along so no major worries. It's still sore this morning, I think I'm going to just rest in bed all day and do some reading. All the same I don't like what happened and consider myself lucky that it wasn't more serious, so no more real skating for me for a while. I need to get new boots ordered ASAP. One of the reasons I'm considering sending the current ones off for repair immediately is to avoid any temptation to skate on them. Stupid AOSS :P

phoenix

07-17-2005, 09:10 AM

Casey, you might ask around your rink & see if anyone can recommend a good cobbler in the area. There's one near me that people take their skates to for all sorts of fixes. You might very well be able to get the heel stabilized so you can still skate on it while you're waiting to get your new boots.

jenlyon60

07-17-2005, 10:52 AM

I wonder if a cobbler could go in from the inside of the boot with a screw or something to secure the heel. Or a combination of glue and something else.

I've seen people have that done with blades (pay a cobbler or someone to secure the blades to the boot from the inside).

It would probably be a lot quicker and cheaper than sending them back to the manufacturer.

Casey

07-17-2005, 02:03 PM

Thanks for the advice, Phoenix and Jenylon60,

I thought of this option, and my fitter also said that he could do the repair work himself too. If I was really ambitious I could drill some holes and put some screws in myself with plenty of epoxy too, but I think I would go the cobbler route.

But I want new boots anyways, and feel like making Graf fix their own mistake, and it won't cost me anything to do that either. I think I'm just going to forget about skating for a while, work like a madman for the next two weeks saving up for boots, and then for the 2 weeks or so before the boots arrive, work more like a madman to save up for blades and whatever else. I think the best thing for me is to just bite the bullet and take these up to the fitter at the earliest convenience and have them shipped back.

We'll see though, the cobbler option IS mighty tempting... :P

Skate@Delaware

07-17-2005, 06:46 PM

Flowers: Went skating today and finally met Pat! Hi Pat!!
Had the whole family with me (plus one). It was really humid there, but after about 30 minutes of public skate, I didn't seem to mind. Spins were still on vacation; worked with husband on his adult moves to see where he was. Not so bad, he should not have a problem dropping in to the adult class when they pick up in the fall.
Met another adult skater, he was really nice, I didn't get his name though.... :oops:
Worked on my waltz jumps and, from talking with one of my young friend skaters, learned that pushing off the ice, not the toepick, gives you height. Well, I did it and it works!!! Can't tell how much height I got because I'm still holding back, but it was much better!!! It was also noticed that I'm entering them faster (my back crossovers are faster and I'm not stopping or slowing down when I turn to forward). Yeah!!

Weeds: I was working on some power 3's right after the ice was zamboni'd and caught my blades together and did a good imitation of the zamboni! Wet slide about 8'! Now I've got a nice bruise on my right elbow and knee.....My whole side was wet...Oh, well. There are worse things that could have happened-at least I kept my chin up and didn't get the wind knocked out of me!

After working with my husband for about 45 minutes, he says to me "why am I doing this?" 8O I told him it was his idea to skate with me.... I don't know how this will turn out..... :giveup: (yes, there are issues here)

Casey

07-17-2005, 07:55 PM

...learned that pushing off the ice, not the toepick, gives you height.

Care to explain that one? I always just thought of it as pushing off the ice with your toepick - what's the difference?

Good luck sorting things out with your husband - I think skating with a romantic partner is extra-challenging because of the additional stress! Hopefully you'll manage, though :)

phoenix

07-17-2005, 07:55 PM

Flowers: Got a very good solid hour in today. Finally did all my bracket exercises without tapping my free toe down, and without a huge pause in between turns. Still a little scarey, but they felt pretty controlled & I'm not hopping over the turns anymore. Also finally started doing semi-decent double three exercises (coach wants them different than the Moves way of doing it, so I had to undo that habit to even begin to do them right.....not that they were ever very strong even when I did them for moves!) Now I just need to keep working on speed, speed, speed!

Weeds: choctaw exercise is still very weak, if I get the right edge I sit there on it & get stuck for a moment before I can switch feet again. And the one choctaw I can do reasonably comfortably, back outside edge to forward inside, I step way too wide as I change feet. But I think they'll eventually improve. I hope. :giveup:

phoenix

07-17-2005, 07:57 PM

I think skating with a romantic partner is extra-challenging because of the additional stress!

Yah, the one time I asked my coach why he didn't skate with his wife (they were both high level competitive dancers) he said, "Are you kidding?! We'd kill each other!"

jazzpants

07-17-2005, 08:08 PM

Weeds:

Bronze Moves does feel as stable at the beginning of the session. I think it's mainly b/c I'm afraid of moving fast b/c I don't feel I have control when I move fast and I don't want to crash into the kids. I'm still recovering from the LAST one!!! :twisted:
Can't land loop and flip on one foot w/o toe tapping the landing. As for the lutz... I'm still about a 1/8 rotation short, but I'm close...
Camel spins sucked for the most part.
Flowers:

Bronze Moves got much better towards the end. I was more relaxed and I was able to concentrate more on what I should be doing and not who I will be crashing into. :twisted:
My artistic program is slower than what the secondary coach wants but it's coming along better than last month. I think she's happier that things are moving along, but she sees other problems. (Quote her: "We're gonna work in the ballet room next week! We're gonna make you more artsy-fartsy!!!") Yeah, right! Me, artsy-fartsy!?!?!? Smooth skater maybe, but NOT artsy-fartsy!!! Good luck, lady!!! :lol: :P :twisted:
The attitude spin is on and off, but I can get it to spin towards the end of the session.
Sit spins and scratch spins are fine after I warmed up. And I had ONE GOOD camel too!!! :mrgreen:
A couple of small kids stopped me long enough to ask if I was a "star" when I was in the middle of practicing my program. Awwwww!!!! :D

Debbie S

07-17-2005, 10:45 PM

Ouch, Casey! I hope your ankle feels better soon. I can't understand why Graf would need 2 months to replace heels. When I ordered my SP-Teris, they didn't have any in stock in my model and size, so they had to make one from scratch (still a stock boot) and it only took 6 weeks, including shipping time. If an entire pair of boots can be made in 6 weeks, it shouldn't take any longer to replace one part. At the very least, Graf and/or your pro shop should provide suitable skates for you to use in the meantime. The cobbler solution might work better, especially if you're not going to be using the skates for much longer.

Flowers:
Went to a day-long "Adult Camp" at a nearby rink today. It was great - a very positive and supportive atmosphere and great coaches. I got some good pointers on my backspin - I may actually get that spin one of these days! What was really amazing was that I did a good camel spin with the position held for 2 revs! I haven't practiced that spin in over 3 months. After a few attempts, the coach called us over to go over the technique, and then sent us off to practice again. The very first one I did turned out to be the best one I may have ever done - I thought it felt better than what I had been used to, and when I came out of it, the coach skated in my direction and told me it looked good, and I asked her if my free leg was actually at hip level and she said it was. 8O Unfortunately, that was the only good camel I did - the next ones were the usual falling-over-to-the-inside bit. I think I may have just gotten lucky with the first spin and had my weight on the right spot. But hey, at least I know I can do it.

Weeds:
Still can't land that dratted flip jump on 1 foot. Oh well, I haven't been practicing it much, so I guess I have no reason to complain. And my spins still travel - although I got a nice tracing on one of my scratch spins.

After spending most of the day in skates, my feet hurt!

cutiesk8r43

07-18-2005, 10:59 AM

FLOWERS!!!!!: LANDED AXELS ALL BY MYSELF :D :D :D :D

~very happy cutie ;)

Skate@Delaware

07-18-2005, 11:15 AM

Care to explain that one? I always just thought of it as pushing off the ice with your toepick - what's the difference?

Good luck sorting things out with your husband - I think skating with a romantic partner is extra-challenging because of the additional stress! Hopefully you'll manage, though :)
As it was explained to me, you push with your whole leg (like jumping) the last thing to leave the ice will (of course) be the toepick.....I felt like a dummy when my friend explained this, but the little lightbulb lit up over my head and I finally got it! I don't know what I was doing, except maybe trying to roll my foot and propel off the toepick...which won't work (expecially for me). So, I did a few waltz jumps by pushing with my leg and 'felt air' and it was good!

I was further pumped up by the fact that I didn't pitch forward on landing it! I didn't think I had to really arch my back, unless I did it unconsciously....

Skate@Delaware

07-18-2005, 11:18 AM

Yah, the one time I asked my coach why he didn't skate with his wife (they were both high level competitive dancers) he said, "Are you kidding?! We'd kill each other!"
Yeah, I don't know if this will work out for several reasons:
1-I'm a better skater than him (really!)
2-We'd kill each other
3-We'd kill each other

One time we worked on a home-improvement project, and we nearly ended up divorced! We had to call a friend in to help intervene in order to get the project done....we swore that we'd rather hire out than work together...sad, isn't it?

flo

07-18-2005, 12:34 PM

Flowers and Flowers
Just back from the Pairs camp, and it was wonderful. Two days of pair skating. I've been to quite a few other camps, but this is the only one that I would return to next year. I really learned quite a bit and had a great time. Our instructors were Olympic champion Oleg Vasiliev and world champions Tatiana Totmianina and Maksim Marinin. They were wonderful teachers, and very approachable with all questions. The camp was limited to 10 pairs, and so we all got lots of help and attention. Manley woman was also there as our official photographer!

My partner (we call it our "blind skate" partner, as we first met when he picked me up at the airport) was great. Despite level differences we skated well together, trying everything. This was his first time doing many of the elements and he really caught on fast! We were quite happy that we managed a platter, press and even the begining of a platter-star. The throws felt very natural and we had a great time with the death spirals. I have to say that the highlight was doing a full out forward inside death spiral with Oleg. Worth the price of admission!

Mrs Redboots

07-18-2005, 12:41 PM

Yah, the one time I asked my coach why he didn't skate with his wife (they were both high level competitive dancers) he said, "Are you kidding?! We'd kill each other!"On the other hand, what happens on the ice does tend to stay there, I find! And you argue on the ice, and it diffuses off-ice tensions, too.....

We had a recreational match last night - we had to dance the Dutch Waltz, but had an unlucky draw (again); I think we actually skated rather well, for us. Rest of the evening rather dull - some dancing, but an awful lot of hanging about, and then the buffet turned out not to have been very worth waiting for.... Plus I discovered that the dress I like to wear is getting rather too big - do I put a pleased smilie here, or a sad one? - and was uncomfortable without a cardigan on, so ended up changing back into practice-skirt and T-shirt (luckily I'd put the very pretty sweater I'm now wearing at this time of year into my bag, as it got a bit cold).