Melting or Nicely Frozen (Practice Thread 11-17 June 2006)

[Mrs Redboots]

Because too many rinks melt in the summer......

Melting: I am quite sure that since the coach altered the entry to our lift (to enable the rotation), Husband holds me lower - I don't feel nearly as secure as I used.

I don't know if it is the Husband, or me, or both (probably), but we simply can't hold our backspin quite long enough. I am usually quite comfortable with it, and could carry on, but Husband seems to grind to a halt. And this was the problem in our change-foot, too, which we are hoping to put in our very thrown-together couples' artistic.

It was far too hot to face wearing my 100-denier tights this morning, so I put on a pair of footed Danskins someone had passed on to me, but they were just too small (size C), not very comfortable! Won't wear them again unless I really do lose more weight, which is unlikely.

We messed up our run-through of the free dance, and I don't think we've quite mastered the changed choreography at the end, either. Sigh. Less than 3 weeks to go until it gets its World Premiere at Bracknell.

Nicely Frozen: Our Dutch Waltz came back, thankfully. I did have to yell at us both to PUSH!!!! like a woman in labour, but once we started pushing, it was fine. Fiesta okay, Husband's solo is, to quote his coach: "The dance is great; your timing is awful!" and his partnering is as bad! He - husband - was like "I don't do arms" at his coach (they were discussing his free programme), but I pointed out afterwards that if he did do arms, it would help his partnering, since he wouldn't just plonk his hands where they're supposed to be (or worse, where they're not supposed to be, like on my bum in reverse Kilian hold!) and leave them there. So this afternoon, if he can stay awake, we are going to watch The Magic of Style. And just maybe Physics on Ice, to help his hydroblade.

Had great fun roughing out our Couples' Artistic - I can't finish choreographing it until after Wednesday, as I won't have any props until then, and I don't know how they will work. But as long as we work on the important stuff first, we can work on it each session after Wednesday....

[Rusty Blades]

One Big Puddle! Haven't skated in 2 weeks, since the end of "spring school" :cry: :??

Perfect Ice! I have rented a rink (1 hour this week and 2 hours next) and it looks like there will only be 4 of us skating! It is going to be DELIGHTFUL to have the full ice without worrying about kiddies under foot or advanced young hot-shots taking up the whole rink! I am tired of hugging the boards :twisted:

[Casey]

Nicely Frozen:

Went to visit sk8pdx in Portland, skated at two different rinks and had a generally good time in between. Am going to pursue pairs lessons and hopefully start going down every weekend and learning loads of new skills. While I was there, talked to my fitter a bit more about the new skates I'm getting - I think I'm going to go for parabolic blades as most people seem to say good things about them, though I hadn't wanted them initially...

Melting:

Realized that simple-looking pairs things, even just crossovers, are not as simple as they look, and we can't really do much without coaching. Of course, on the weekends, the coach we'd like is another hour and a half away after an already 3 hour drive. But...once a week...for pairs training... I think that's worth it. ;) :D

But yeah, I feel like a complete newbie to the rink since pairs stuff is so totally different.

[Isk8NYC]

Melting:
Well, I didn't really skate much this weekend, I taught instead. (All my favorite students, too! Shhhh...Don't tell anyone.) I did get in a few good spins while teasing my students. "Okay, now you do the sit spin!" (This to my Basic 2 group class - hahaha)

Nicely Frozen:
Had a great time skating with DBNY, her DH, Jazzpants, and Sk8pics on Saturday. Afterwards, we went out to eat and talk. DBNY is supposed to post the picture she took with her new toy... (Hint, Hint.)

[Skate@Delaware]

Nicely frozen: ok, I tried out the new blades today, Coronation Aces; which are a switch from the Coronation Comets. So, I ran through my moves to check out how they felt. Everything felt very nice with no real difference until i got to the scratch spin....I did a 13 revolution spin! Wasn't terribly centered but I did manage to get the revolutions up. the other spins were decent (finally!!!!!)

And my back crossovers were NOT scratchy!!!

Everything else felt really good: crossovers, 3-turns, edges, swing rolls.
Jumps: waltz took a bit of warming up to do, and you guys were right about having to push a bit more in the heel (thanks!) and the salchow was the same story (I'm still trying to hold the check more on that one...rushing it as I found out during the seminar and Dartfish analysis). Worked a few toe-loops (i know i'm bending my picking leg, I'll fix it a bit later). Didn't try any loops, I'll do them later.

Final Verdict: I like Coronation Aces! Wish I'd switched LAST YEAR when I wanted to!

Melting: Didn't really do much on my weak items, no sit-spin attempts (will try those next time). However, I did manage to rip two rather large holes in my pants on a backspin attempt! And I still can't accomplish that durn backspin! UGH! I'll have to go back to the book and read my notes, maybe figure out what i'm doing wrong.

ETA: i did some waltz jumps on my trampoline today, but i'm not really sure if i'm doing it right. I did manage to do a loop though and i was happy about that. Gee, it really does help to bring your arms in!

[WhisperSung]

Nicely Frozen: I skated a bunch last week and summer ice starts next week (=5 days a week at least skating!). I had some great double lutzes today in practice (compared to where they're normally at), and I'm just glad to be out there skating.


Melting: My blades are dead. The tempered edge is completely gone from the toe pick to the ball of the foot. This makes anything loop or flip related incredibly hard for me. I fell really hard today on a double salchow-double loop attempt (my toe slipped out on the double loop part).

I wear MK Phantoms which run around $450. With mounting, I'm up to $500. . .and I'm just going to have to pay for mounting again in 2 months when I get new boots. What a waste of money! :?? Looking forward to the new blades, though. No more slipping and sliding!

[Sk8pdx]

Melting:
:cry: it is very uncomfortable sitting today. (too many failed attempts at backwards shoot-the-ducks).

Nicely Frozen:
Positive outcomes with Casey this weekend to explore pairs skating. 8-)

[chantelly]

[QUOTE=Mrs Redboots]

We messed up our run-through of the free dance, and I don't think we've quite mastered the changed choreography at the end, either. Sigh. Less than 3 weeks to go until it gets its World Premiere at Bracknell.
[QUOTE]

Melting - less then 3 weeks omg! I'd better start sorting my legs out!
Frozen - i can finally remember the steps to my 2 compulsories although I did think I had a bit longer! I just have to tidy it up a bit now!

[Terri C]

Melting:
Forward power perimeter crossovers- now Coach and I know that I can hold the undercut, but like to step onto the inside edge before the axis.

Frozen:
Right forward outside threes- need to thaw those out!
For the moment, all but one move of the Bronze moves is being worked on the short axis, akin to getting demoted? Why? To break the moves down and get them right and passing!

[Skittl1321]

Nicely Frozen: New rink, new lessons, new instructor. Todays lesson covered all of Adult 2- and he told us we all were good enough at everything to pass so we would start Adult 3 next week. This thrills me, because I have done everything in Adult 2 except chasses (really? Just picking a foot up?) and pivots (those were not good), but it confuses me because as an overall the class does not have mastery of the skills. But since I really really want to work on the Adult 3 stuff, I'm very happy. The instructor is amazing- he demonstrates and explains well and has a very fun attitude.

Melting: Instructor comment "You're too good of a skater to not bend your knees" and the new rink is freezing. My hands were almost frozen solid by the end of the hour (must bring gloves next week- I've never skated in gloves before) and 2 hours later my forearm is still spasming from the cold.

So- any tips on forward pivots? I can do backwards ones no problem. I'd love a PM if you don't want to thread jack.

[doubletoe]

Nicely frozen: ok, I tried out the new blades today, Coronation Aces; which are a switch from the Coronation Comets....I did a 13 revolution spin! Wasn't terribly centered but I did manage to get the revolutions up. the other spins were decent (finally!!!!!)

Woo hoo! Told ya! ;)

[Mrs Redboots]

Nicely frozen: Skating was good - stayed at the rink until the end of the patch, an hour longer than usual, although I did take a bit of a break in the middle. In our lesson, we worked a lot on our spin - for a wonder, it was Husband who was going wrong, not me. We ran through our free dance twice to music, both times better than we've ever done it before, which is actually not saying much!

Worked a lot on my spins; it irritates me that I know what I'm doing wrong, but can't correct it. Thought I had done a 2-revolution backspin, but actually think it was a 2-revolution clockwise spin instead, which is equally okay, but not what I'd planned to do. And did get one good conventional spin, too.

Dance moves okay-ish, not quite a whole lap of them, though. Also worked on Russian stroking, plain vanilla forwards stroking and changes-of-edge. Ran through my Artistic, of course. And someone had a pupil doing Level 2 dances, so I did a Fiesta and a Dutch Waltz solo - so not as good as with Husband, but I was pleased with them, all the same.

Melting: I hear John Watts blades have gone bust.... guess what I have?! Oh well, I don't need new blades yet, and will cross that bridge when I come to it.

[NickiT]

Melting: [/B]I hear John Watts blades have gone bust.... guess what I have?! Oh well, I don't need new blades yet, and will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Hmm... I heard that. My former coach's husband set up the John Watts business alongside the Watts family. Turns out there was a big family bust-up. However I'm confident that given time, Chris will have something else set up blades-wise. I'm not on JW blades but my daughter is and she's very due for a new pair of skates so I think she'll be having a new make of blade this time around.

Nicki

[Mrs Redboots]

Hmm... I heard that. My former coach's husband set up the John Watts business alongside the Watts family. Turns out there was a big family bust-up. However I'm confident that given time, Chris will have something else set up blades-wise. I'm not on JW blades but my daughter is and she's very due for a new pair of skates so I think she'll be having a new make of blade this time around.I hope something like that will happen; Chris is in the USA now, of course, which must make a difference. Although the best blades still seem to be made here in the UK! I am sorry the "Freedom" blade has disappeared, though - not that I would ever be of the right sort of quality to use it, but those who were did splendid things with them!

[jazzpants]

Nicely Frozen:

The ice over at Chelsea Piers during FS. And I'm back working with my Chelsea Piers coach again. I had a wonderful time! I got lots of pictures and videos. He sees that I can clearly do the moves. He loves the speed and the edges!!! :D

Melting:

He thinks that my main obstacle for Bronze Moves is power 3's. Turnout problem again! :frus:
We ran out of time for 5 step mohawks!
My heart... when I realized that I have to leave and go back home to San Francisco the next day. I'm missing him already again. :cry: He really is a wonderful coach and I really enjoy my lessons with him when I do take one with him. (The fact that he's easy on the eyes also help too! :twisted: :lol:) But I look forward to seeing him again around Christmas. :D

[Sk8pdx]

Jazzpants,
sounds like you are making great progress on your Bronze moves. You go girl! :bow:

Melting:
spins. :frus: none of them seem to be progressing at all. Will see how they fair tomorrow in my Jump and Spin class. :?? :giveup:


Nicely Frozen:
I am finally glad to be saying good bye to the pre-bronze plateau and only 1/2rotation jumps. I am in Loop, Flip and Lutz immersion with my primary coach. I will have them very soon. We are working on Bronze MIF patterns.
5 step mohawk is my favorite. Just for fun, we even worked on brackets. Recent skating events have broadened my scope of things to come. I am enjoying learning new things!

[blue111moon]

Melting: Left foot is still bad so outside edges are painful, which severely limits what I can do comfortably. Spent lots of time circling the rink and chatting with people.

Frozen: Spins were working since I spin on the right leg. I got my sit down as far as my body will allow and it's still a couple of degrees short of the Magic 90-degree angle that Mr. Inman said is needed for it to count as a sit under IJS. Note to self: question the tech specialists I know about whether the LEVEL of the skaters is to be considered at all when calling elements.

Back to icing The Foot.

[AndreaUK]

Nicely Frozen - I managed to do my left and right forward 3 turn by getting the correct body position and turning.

Melting - I cant seem to help throwing the free foot back to the ice after Ive made the turn. I have a fear of gliding backwards one leg, however I think it will come

Andrea xx

[Terri C]

He thinks that my main obstacle for Bronze Moves is power 3's. Turnout problem again! :frus:

You have company in the "Power Three Turn Challenged Club" Jazzpants!
For me the LFO3 is easy, yet the RFO3 is difficult. Primary coach says that with that, she knows I'm jumping and spinning in the right direction. Being that you are a clockwise skater, do you find the RFO3 easier?

Today rocked!
After a parent made a complaint to rink management that the ice was not only not cut, but there was no sound system at all in the rink we are usually in ( the condensation issues I've been posting about the last few weeks). After that we were moved to the front rink, which the ice was verry nice (:D ) and there was a sound system.
Now can they keep us in the front rink??:roll:
Lesson was good today.

[jazzpants]

You have company in the "Power Three Turn Challenged Club" Jazzpants!
For me the LFO3 is easy, yet the RFO3 is difficult. Primary coach says that with that, she knows I'm jumping and spinning in the right direction. Being that you are a clockwise skater, do you find the RFO3 easier?
Well, initially the RFO3 was easier for me. But since I've been practicing the LFO3's a lot, the LFO3's has NOW become my stronger side! :twisted: The speed is JUST fine though... just that I don't trust myself to turn out to the correct edge w/o tripping over! (And the Stalen Island crew, particularly ISk8NYC, can attest to that.)

NYC coach gave me something to shoot for, so we'll see if that helps. Essentially it's an adjustment in arm position and a foot turnout going into the LFO3's. Nothing new really. Secondary coach mentioned about this before too. :roll: But the mindset of how to achieve it is what's new.

[Skate@Delaware]

I remember when I had just learned power-3s on a Friday, then that Sunday they were added to a show routine! We had to do them down the long axis of the rink!!! And quickly!8O why me? So, they put me at the end of the line.....Anyway, if i was seen on the rehearsal ice NOT doing power 3's someone would yell across the ice for me to do them....it got to be pretty embarrassing!

I worked on those suckers every show practice. Mine are ugly...when my coach ran me through moves as a "get to know what you can do" thing, she had this look of astonishment on her face and shook her head; partly because I had the "scared rabbit" look on my face (yeah, i didn't have my show-face on)...something else to add to the list later!!!
:lol:

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! You will get it and when you do, they will be beautiful!

[quarkiki2]

Melting: Still a little chicken going into choctaw on one foot spin. Can do from very slow, but not from wind up (which finally has some power -- woo hoo! Ripping on the crossover!!) Also can't get more thatn two-three revolutions before I drop my right hip and step out, grrr!!! They are, however, two or three very nicely centered revolutions -- as in tracings the size of a quarter or, at their largest, a tea cup saucer. It's ok -- one day it will all click and I'll get into the spin with enough momentum and not drop my hip and, hopefully, stay as centered as I have been and I'll have a rocking scratch spin. Hopefully that one day will be soon...

Nicely frozen: Doodled around with brackets and double threes in practice before Synchro. Had fun!

And, here's the best part... We learned the Cha-Cha in Synchro! So much fun! We're doing a program with Latin music and one of the rhytms is the Cha-Cha. Coach thought it might be a good idea to learn the dance to get a feel for the rhythm. Again, so much fun!!! There's hardly anything in skating that I can say I'm the first person to "get" it, but I "got" the cha-cha right away. After 15 years of tap, you bet I can count! So I mainly worked on making the pattern the right size -- and, I'm proud to say -- I filled the rink doing it solo!!! I feel like I'm flying off the world on the LFO swing roll, but I went for it. I was so excited when the coach turned the music on, I just took off and repeated the dance non-stop for 20 minutes. And, yes, my thighs are reminding me today, LOL! Makes me wish we had ice dancing classes here. So, that's my little brag -- I get so few opportunities to do so...

Skate@Delaware -- glad your new blades are working for you!

[Rob Dean]

And, here's the best part... We learned the Cha-Cha in Synchro! So much fun! We're doing a program with Latin music and one of the rhytms is the Cha-Cha.

Oh yes. My coach, who's been seriously competitive, has strongly implied that this is the first of the low level dances she finds fun in itself--and it certainly looks like she's having fun with it when we're working on it.

This has mostly been a "Nicely Frozen" week for me, with a good lesson yesterday and another scheduled for tomorrow. I've been working on the Swing Dance, and can finally take the turn at something like the proper tempo without flinching, so it looks like the Bronze dances will be in the future.

The only "melting" part is that I've got a business trip all of next week, and it's pretty iffy as to whether we'll be finishing up early enough in the evening to find any skating time. I'll take the skates anyway, though.

Rob Dean

[TimDavidSkate]

:halo: This picture is so awesome just want to share it

My answer: Nicely Frozen

http://timdavid.org/dreamrink1b.jpg

[Mrs Redboots]

Melting: Back cross cuts, as usual. Sigh.

Nicely Frozen: Back cross-rolls now officially passable! Yaaay! Not much cop, though, if I can't do (which I can't) the cross-cuts to match.

Programme run-through okay.

Made my coach dance with me, as it was my birthday - we did a Prelim Waltz as someone had put on the music, and I managed to surprise him with how much I'd improved since we last did it! Yaaay!

[Casey]

Melting:

A friend of mine has gotten tendonitis after a few months of skating, to a worse degree than mine ever was. She's seeing a doctor for it, who has told her that she needs custom boots. Don't know how much ice time she'll be getting in now...

Nicely Frozen:

Went rollerblading at a roller rink again. Did more stuff this time around on the horrible no-rocker rental inlines... Managed to learn forward 3-turns (harder than backward ones when there's no rocker) and...*drumroll*...loop jumps! Most did not get landed cleanly, but a guy on nicer pic-like skates wanted advice so I did what I could. Anyways got a good workout in (everything take...and then last night I went ice skating again and...wow...

Yes, dealing with the horrible yet challenging rental inlines has apparently worked out muscles that are not used as much in ice skating on rockered blades, but boy did it help, especially with jumps. I think maybe because you have to be a bit more precise with flat blades because they won't shift to compensate if you're off... Anyways a trip to the roller rink is I think going to become a weekly activity for me (there's no ice rinks with Monday evening sessions anyways).

Melting:

Learned the hard way not to wear a certain sweater ice skating. After finding myself covered in an unusual amount of sweat, I looked at the tag and read, "100% Acrylic". Absolute evilness, I say.

[Skate@Delaware]

Learned the hard way not to wear a certain sweater ice skating. After finding myself covered in an unusual amount of sweat, I looked at the tag and read, "100% Acrylic". Absolute evilness, I say.
I'm the opposite...my skating sweaters need to be 100% acrylic! I like the softness AND the warmth of them without the weight! I don't sweat, though. (really, I don't, I have a lower body temperature, being a woman). My weirdness with them is getting the ones that zip up the back...and wear them backwards so the zipper is in the front because otherwise they are too tight; I'd prefer v-necks but they are impossible to find.

Do you usually wear cotton sweaters?

[Rusty Blades]

Nicely Frozen ABSOLUTELY FANDAMTASTIC! It was $100/hour ice ('cause nobody else showed up) and I had the whole rink to myself for an hour. I had forgotten how MUCH a body can skate in an hour, how much you can get done when you're not always looking over your shoulder or wondering who's going to step out in front of you! (And how much you can get done when you realize it is costing $1.67 a minute!)

Since I had been going into withdrawal after being 3 weeks off the ice, that was the perfect "fix" 8O I stayed on the ice until two ringette teams started looking for a rope! (I was going to get every minute of MY hour :twisted: )

Soggy Around The Edges $100/hour! Three weeks away and my backward skating all but evaporated and my left forward edges deteriorated. Fortunately the forward edges came back (somewhat) by the end of the hour.

Toward the end of my hour, I asked myself when was the last time I had a rink to myself? It was 36 years ago, the day I blew my axel landing and tried to put my knees through the boards 8O the last time I skated until January this year. It took 15 years for my knees to get back to normal. Nope, no axels yet, not for a LONG time! (Never, if I am smart, but "smart" has never been one of my strong points ;) )

[Mrs Redboots]

Nicely Frozen: We now have our props for our Couples Artistic. We were having fun trying to choreograph the routine this morning, with everybody wondering what on earth we were up to (I had the music on my MP3). We will have a proper lesson on it on Tuesday with Coach2 (Coach1 is away next week, so our lessons are all with Coach2), if we have time after she's had a look at our free dance!

Melting: Ran through my solo Artistic, too, with C yelling at me that my wig was crooked.... oh well. First run-through was a disaster, but second run-through okay. Back cross-cuts.

[flying~camel]

Nicely Frozen:

We continued choreography on my 1st-ever interp program this week. It's hard and pushes me out of my comfort zone, but that's EXACTLY why I'm doing it!

I also landed almost every lutz I attempted and even landed the 2 lutz-loops I tried! I feel like I'm building more confidence on this jump, so I hope to get it completely consistent soon.

My camel-change-back sit is also coming along quite nicely. I'm getting more speed throughout and, hopefully, more revolutions per change.

Melting:

Since I haven't gotten my skates sharpened in 3 months, my edges slide all over the place! But, I'm going to be ordering new skates next week and am being stubborn about spending the money to get my current skates sharpened when they'll be replaced by the new skates shortly thereafter.

[blue111moon]

Melting:

Just got the grim news from my doctor who says that the radiologist has spotted a fracture on the recent x-ray of my left ankle. Which explains why the swelling and pain have not been getting better. :cry: I have to pick up an air splint this afternoon and get an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for next week. Mind you, my left foot is The Good Foot, at least compared to the damage existing in the right one, so I'm not a happy camper just now.

OTOH, I skated last night, in no more pain than I've been in for the last couple of weeks. Two of "my" students from the adult class will be coming for an hour on Thursdays to work with the pro coach who took over for me for the spring session, and I was able to spend a few minutes with one of them, working on her three-turns. So it wasn't a total waste of ice time for me.

[Mrs Redboots]

Melting:

Just got the grim news from my doctor who says that the radiologist has spotted a fracture on the recent x-ray of my left ankle. Which explains why the swelling and pain have not been getting better. :cry: I have to pick up an air splint this afternoon and get an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon for next week. Mind you, my left foot is The Good Foot, at least compared to the damage existing in the right one, so I'm not a happy camper just now.Oh dear, BlueIIIMoon, I do hope you heal quickly! Poor you....

[Casey]

Do you usually wear cotton sweaters?
Usually I wear lightweight thin cotton sports sweatshirts. I don't really need too much warmth in most rinks, but I hate skating in short sleeves because the air against the skin makes me colder. There is one rink where I do prefer short sleeves, but they have heat blowing down from above. :P

I used to wear a t-shirt underneath but then I get too hot.

My legs are significantly less picky than my upper body, probably because they actually have some strength in them (yeah, I need to work out more...). :P

[Casey]

Soggy Around The Edges $100/hour!
That's actually pretty cheap for private ice! Around here it's $285 or something.

I dream of one day buying an hour though, late at night, blasting my favorite music at ridiculous volume, and skating around like a complete loon. Not yet though, to be sure. Maybe if I ever get an axel AND make it consistant I will do that to celebrate. :D

Congratulations on your hour, it must have been really fun!

[Rusty Blades]

Around here it's $285 or something.

YIKES! 8O There's no way I would have bought 3 hours of ice at that price!

[Joan]

Our rink has literally been melting this past week, due to a broken part needed for freezing the ice.

Hopefully we'll be nicely frozen again really soon!

[Debbie S]

Nicely Frozen: Competed in the Chesapeake Open today. LoopLoop and Allskate each did a great job in their event. I had never done this comp before, and I'm glad I did - it was great to only have to travel 25 minutes for a comp. And competing in your home rink is always nice.

Melting: My performance. OK, I guess it wasn't that bad - I landed a loop; unfortunately, I had 2 loops in the program and totally flubbed the first one. My sit spin, which has been giving me trouble lately, went haywire, and then immediately after I was finished the spin, right before the footwork, my music started skipping and making weird sounds. Oh, swell. But the music problem was only temporary, thank goodness. I felt very slow and tentative. I have no idea why I was so nervous - I went into the comp knowing that not only was I skating up to Bronze, I was also competing against a very strong group - one is planning to test up to Silver after this comp, and the other two are probably closer to Silver level than Bronze level, too. I knew that I'd probably finish last no matter what, so why was I nervous? :frus: Oh well, a learning experience I guess.

I think I'm going to keep the 2 loops in my program for my Bronze test to give me an extra chance to land it, and put my toe loop at the end of the footwork. Now, if only I could squeeze in an extra backspin opportunity....

I'm debating whether to test up in the near future, given my placement and performance today, but I feel that after competing in Pre-Bronze for 3 seasons, it's time for a change, and I did pass the blasted moves test, so I might as well.

[mikawendy]

This is for Thursday, as I took Saturday off:

Nicely frozen--
Forward cross-strokes feel stronger, with better flow. (However, my backward ones are scratchy and slow and belong under "melting"!)

Backward power pulls also feel stronger, especially on right foot. (And here, my forward ones should be filed under "melting") :lol:

CCW backspin has been cooperating lately (however, CW has not!)


Melting--
BO3s are a bit wonky on the FI edge after the turn, and they're slow. BI3s are VERY ehhhmmmmm "interesting" in that they grind to a halt after the turn.... but at least I feel like I can get my free hip up during the preparation for the turn--previously, anytime I'd set up for a BI3, my free hip would drop (the kiss of death for these).

[Casey]

Nicely Frozen:

sk8pdx drove to Seattle today! Yay! Not only that, but a pairs skater from another Seattle rink visited and taught us a bunch of basics. I feel like we made a lot of progress and now have a variety of stuff to work on until the "coach inavailability" situation remedies itself in a couple months...we worked on forward and backward pair crossovers, waltz lifts, and side-by-side spins and jumps. Still plenty of room for improvement but we're definitely doing a lot better compared to last week and slowly getting better at getting the timing down. This pairs stuff is WAY harder than it looks, but a bundle of fun!! I can't describe how great it feels to actually be pursuing pairs skating, even if it does make me feel like a complete skating newbie.

I paid for my new skates today... I'm kind of scared to admit how much money I spent (okay, I guess I'll just spit it out - a bit over $1300), but I figure a good set of well-fitted custom skates will be worth every penny in the long run. Today I misplaced my four bunga pads that make my skates bearable and skated for an hour and a half or so without them, and my feet were in utter agony.

A small bit of background, my last fitter told me I needed size 11 stock Graf boots, which would be a good fit for my feet. I instead bought the size 10.5's that they had in stock, which I quickly realized were still too large. Not only are they too long, but the toebox narrows in an uncomfortable manner and the heel is too wide. After being fitted for the new skates, we discovered that I would need an 11" blade, even for a toe-to-heel mounting, compared to my current 11.75" blades. Oh well - live and learn...

Melting:

Tried a few lutz attempts today, got ridiculous amount of power and height from the entry, but could not for the life of me rotate the darn thing all the way and ended up with half-lutzes. The flip (usually my best jump) was really off today, I think I must have been picking at the wrong angle because I wasn't getting enough height and landing sloppy as a result.

Realized the hard way that I haven't tried any back pivots in about a year. Need to start working on those again, because apparently those silly pairs death/etc. spirals require them... ;)

DIY Compressor Plans ( ;) ):

I'm going to try to start going to either the gym or freestyle sessions at a rink bright and early every weekday morning. How exactly I'm going to be managing that when I hate mornings I'm not sure, but I'll figure it out. Am going to be driving to Portland most Saturdays in order to work on pairs stuff with sk8pdx, excepting the times she can drive here. Working full-time during the days again is a bit frustrating, because I can't skate my beloved empty daytime public sessions, but on the bright side it allows for new skates, regular lessons (soon), weekly trips to Portland...

[jazzpants]

Nicely Frozen:

Did get in a lot of Bronze Moves practice towards the end of the session.
Spins were good, well what little bit I've done.
Jumps were okay to do. I had ONE clean loop!!! :D out of 4 loop jump attempts!!!
Alt 3's from the prelim moves test were progressing. :DMelting:

Lots of kids at the beginning of the session but I still managed to get thru the crowds of kids for the most part in my Bronze Moves practice.
Tried spirals from the prelim moves test. Ummm....next?
I got one gossip bit: I was on the ice with a gal who's definitely ummm... not in her right mind. She was trying to pick fights with EVERYONE on the ice. When I was approacing her like any new skaters (friendly), she came off antagonistic towards me. I said "Okaaaay...", turned tail and avoided her the rest of the session. I found out thru a regular at the end of the session that the woman on "medication" and had said some not so "kid-friendly" words to the regular's 11-12 year old daughter. OMG!!! 8O

[Hannahclear]

Nicely Frozen:

Forward perimeter
Backward perimeter
Power 3s
Back crossover to BOEs

All of these were pretty decent. My left set of three turns could have been a little more steady, but all in all, I feel these four moves will be test standard or above, even with nerves.

Melting:

5 Step Mohawks: I'll be thrilled just to get a 2.5 here and I'm not counting on passing this move. I'm counting on my other moves to be good enough to guide me through. I have timing issues, can get a bit choppy and my edges are questionable at times.

I went up for a lutz/loop today and got a bit stuck on the landing. Managed to kick myself right in the shin with the back of my blade. Will have nasty little bruise I'm sure, and a little cut. At least I know I was in the proper rotational position though! :P

[jazzpants]

Hannahclear: you're essentially having the same issues I have here with the moves, so I'll go on with the rest (of my entry here.) Good luck with the test and let us know your test results and stuff. I'm quite curious to hear about it. :)

Nicely Frozen:

WOW!!! Nice empty ice! Only about 7 people on the ice. :mrgreen:
I guess this counts as a good thing -- since I have empty ice, I got thru my Bronze Moves elements in a shorter time. Of course, I also got more TIRED in a shorter amount of time too... :roll: :P
No crazy lady skater!!! :twisted: (And apparently this crazy lady skater is quite well known at my weekend rink too! :roll: )Melting:

Something's wrong with the Zamboni. The water stuff wasn't coming out evenly and you'd see patches were it was like a dry cut and patches where it was smooth! EWWWW!!! :roll:

[lovepairs]

Casey and Sk8pdx,

A BIG CONGRATS TO YOU TWO ON YOUR NEW JOURNEY INTO PAIR SKATING!
VERY VERY EXCITING!!! SO GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOUR TRYOUTS WERE FUN AND SUCCESSFUL! :P

Lovepairs ;) and Pairsman2 8-)

[flo]

Congrats to all on the Chesapeake open. Was it well attended?