Sharp blades or blunt and sliding (Practice Thread 19-25 June 2006) [Archive]

Mrs Redboots

06-20-2006, 05:48 AM

Because I was going to get my blades sharpened on Sunday, only to discover that my coach's man has retired. He has, however, trained up John Hamer, the current British champion, to take over his business, so it looks as though I'll be getting my skates sharpened by the British Champion in future!

Sharp blades: We had our lessons with Coach2 today, as Coach1 is away on a seminar ("Oh, it was nice," she said. "No moaning, and I got to have the television remote all evening long!"). She made some sensible comments about our free dance, which has given us some food for thought, but whether we can change it enough in a week, I don't know. But we can try, and then there are several months to polish it for the British. We also tried to run through our Couples' Interpretive for the Lambeth, but really that is a work in progress, and it shows. In my private lesson, she diagnosed the problem with my spin, which is great!

Blunt and sliding: We didn't get a chance to do our compulsories, which are just going to have to sink or swim next week, I'm afraid! And diagnosing faults is one thing - correcting them is another! She agreed, alas, about my cross-cuts, but has a slightly different view of the problem to Coach1 - she thinks the main problem for both them and the cross-rolls is that I don't finish off my edges properly. But then, what part of my skating do I finish my edges off properly on?

Skittl1321

06-20-2006, 07:15 AM

Sharp blades- Best lesson ever! I feel like I learned so much. We started on backwards crossovers and much to my suprise I was flying. At the end of the lesson the instructor took me aside and explained how to do the 2 different pushes and to also make sure I was pulling my blade. So I must have been doing well enough that she thought I could move on to the more advanced crossover.

We also did spirals (on a flat blade) at the end of class, and I was pleasantly suprised that my spiral is as good as my arabesque (which isn't saying too much). I love doing both of these things!

Blunt blades- Still haven't heard back from rainbo sports so I can't order my skates yet. I want my new skates.

AndreaUK

06-20-2006, 09:12 AM

Sharp blades Yes glory at last, I have managed to do the left forward 3turn without putting the free foot down. I just need to work on a right 3 turn now and im happy. Also Im allowed to skate on patch now so got my first book of patch tickets today.
I dont think Im doing too bad considering I have only been skating for 6 weeks.

Blunt blades I still cant do those blasted forward crossovers properly, Crossovers going forwards and backwards are causing me to despair. If I work on them as hard and as determined as i did the three turn, I may well just get them

Andrea xx

rlichtefeld

06-20-2006, 09:43 AM

Sharp Blades
Back on the ice the first time since the Mountain Cup. I was giving my left knee a rest. I had tweaked it during all the lead up to US AN and MC. It was feeling pretty good going up stairs, which was almost impossible while in France.

Blunt and Sliding
The knee hurts worse! Waltz jumps are the worst. Back crossovers going into Lutz is pretty bad. Sit spin after I get down far enough is not too bad, but coming back up is.

I'm making an appt today to see what is going on. I hope I can get this straightened out before Peach.

Rob

Debbie S

06-20-2006, 10:02 AM

Given my skating experience last night, I was thinking the connotations of this week's categories should be reversed - lol!

Sharp Blades: Got a couple of good backspins, landed both loops in my program run-through (why couldn't I do that on Saturday? :frus: ), had a good sit spin in run-through (again, where was it over the weekend?), and landed some (probably technically incorrect) flips. I also did the power pull pattern and found that on my right foot (both forward and backward), I can actually maintain power for the half-length of the ice for that foot -woohoo!

Blunt: Definitely not my blade (I guess I don't need a sharpening after all) that gashed my right leg on a backspin attempt. It was right at the beginning of the second session, and I couldn't even skate after that - had to go home and get a much bigger band-aid than I had in my skate bag (fortunately, I got the session fee credited to my skate card). I've nicked my leg before but this is definitely the worst I've done. Yuck!

I hope I can skate on Thursday - I have a lesson and we need to begin working on my CM program for Wilmington, and improve my loop. On top of the leg, my right arm is not at its best - I had a doctor's appt yesterday and needed bloodwork, and when the tech stuck the needle in, I could tell right away that something was wrong b/c it really hurt, and then no blood started flowing, so she had to jiggle the needle until the tube started filling up. Grrr - why do I always get the most incompetent lab techs? :roll: Today, I've got a large bruise and my arm hurts when I bend it or pick things up. :twisted:

FrankR

06-20-2006, 10:20 AM

I haven't done one of these in a long while so I thought I'd give it a go.

Sharp Blades: I will be the first to confess that I am usually a total jumping bean as a skater. From the time I landed my first waltz jump up until now I've always preferred jumping to just about anything else in skating. However, I think that may be changing now. I haven't been doing as much jumping lately because my coaches and I are in the process of taking apart my axel and putting it back together again. The goal of this whole process is to make my axel lighter and floatier and also to get myself comfortable with bringing my free leg through on my salchow and toe-loop take-offs for when we start working on doubles. 8O (Eeep! Have mercy!) I also haven't been jumping as much because I've been feeling some pinching inside my landing hip when I land. (More on that later) Well, I now have plenty of time devoted to spinning and my coaches and I have pretty much gone insane trying different positions and variations. Normally I'd be grumpy about it but lately I have been so happy to try all these different spins that I find myself sneaking off to a corner to work on spins when I probably should be working some jump drills. :D I've been working on layover flying camels, camel/change camel, forward sit/change camel, a mushroom variation in my forward sit, camel/upright/back into camel (that's just sick and twisted :twisted: ). Now, all of these spins are still works in progress but I'm feeling so excited by working on them that I really don't mind that they're not perfect just yet.

On the jumps, today I think I may have had a breakthrough in correcting my axel take-off technique. By the end of the session they felt floaty and big and not as spinny. Let's hope it lasts.

Blunt edge: At this point, I'm most frustrated with the aforementioned pinching sensation in my hips. It happens in both hips intermittently and it's not always just on jump landings. Sometimes as I set up a spin I'll be riding the back inside edge after the crossover and I'll feel the pinch. Thankfully, I think the decrease in jumping is helping a bit but I'll be glad when I don't see stars when I land jumps anymore. :P ;)

Mrs Redboots

06-20-2006, 10:46 AM

Blunt blades I still cant do those blasted forward crossovers properly, Crossovers going forwards and backwards are causing me to despair. If I work on them as hard and as determined as i did the three turn, I may well just get themAnd as soon as you do, they'll take them up a level and make them more difficult! I was working on back crossovers this morning with coach2, who seriously didn't like mine (so why doesn't she deal with Husband's? His are worse!)...

Congratulations on the 3-turn, by the way. Now you have to do it moving, and that's much harder.....

sk8pics

06-20-2006, 11:33 AM

Sharp Blades The other day in a lesson with my primary coach, I finally did several correct toe loops independently! It was very exciting. We've worked very hard for the past several months to break me of my toe-waltz habit and it seems to have finally worked. I showed one of my other coaches yesterday, and he was speechless. Then he said, "Do it again" so I did and he high-fived me. There is still work to be done, obviously, but it's exciting nonetheless.

And the big news and an incredibly Sharp Blade: I am adopting a little black kitten! My coach found this kitten under the hood of a car at Home Depot, so he rescued it and took it home, but didn't feel he could keep it. The kitten met my cat last week and they both survived :roll: so once he got a clean bill of health today I said okay! I'm supposed to get him on Thursday night. He will be named Leo. He's adorable and feisty and I think he and my present cat will have fun together, once my cat gets over her indignation at not being an only child any more, LOL!

cutiesk8r43

06-20-2006, 01:37 PM

Sharp baldes:
spins were good today and ballet was fun

Blunt and sliding:
had to do 30 push ups because of popping double salchows.
~cutie;)

tidesong

06-20-2006, 11:10 PM

Sharp blades:
Still landing a decent number of double salchow at every session.

Blunt and sliding:
Need to stop being lazy and start choreographing my program in detail... and just to grit my teeth and work through the crowd.

aussieskater

06-21-2006, 04:15 AM

Blunt and sliding: my little 7yo daughter has managed to catch the awful gastro which has flown around her school and is home sick (and being sick!), so no skating for me...hopefully she'll be better by Friday...:cry: She's been really good about being so sick too; my heart goes out to her.

More blunt and sliding: while daughter has been ill, hubby has been working late so has been coming home too late for me to get to my gym (which closes at 7pm). Feeling really lethargic and fat here...

Still more blunt and sliding: my skates at the end of last week - no edges at all, I swear. Couldn't even manage a 3turn (unfortunately, they're not at the standard that I could do them in rental skates without thinking! :P ).

Sharp blades: they are now. Can't wait to try them out. It's only 3 weeks since they were last sharpened - what am I doing wrong??

Mrs Redboots

06-21-2006, 05:38 AM

Blunt and Sliding: Last night we skated a bit; I was really annoyed because I'd planned to meet the Husband at the rink at 6:00 pm to practice with him, having already skated for over two hours that morning, I didn't really want to do any more work on my own. So, of course, he was late! And then it was the draw for the Lambeth Festival on Sunday week, so that took up 20 minutes.... still, we got some useful work done.

Literally blunt - I don't think I can now get my blades done before the competitions, as I think he's going tomorrow, which is fine, except that he's not in on Friday mornings - and we really can't afford to miss a practice at this stage! Oh well, they aren't that bad, they'll last (I hope - Batikat and/or NickiT, what's the ice like at Bracknell just now?)

Sharp blades: Good practice this morning, too. Ran through both compulsories and then spent a long time working on our free dance, taking into account coach2's comments yesterday. Watched our opposition, too - their step sequence is far more complicated than ours, technically harder, but I think ours is faster. Our coach likes simple steps, done well, rather than harder steps done not quite so well, which is what I think the other couple has. Wonder which the judges will like....

Have also found a place where we need to change our free dance, but that can wait until after the competition!

quarkiki2

06-21-2006, 08:25 AM

This is from Saturday, but I've just gotten around to posting

Sharp Blades: I have all the parts of my forward scratch spin -- unfortunately, not ever in the same spin, d'oh!

Worked more on brackets and choctaws -- I like these, but somehow end up on the wrong edge on FI brackets -- I'm going FI to BI. It's because I seriously dislike BO edges.

Blunt and Sliding: Three turns are working at slow speed, but with proper pushes and lobes the right size, I drop my free foot again. Grrr! Worked alternating threes on the line in MIF class. And the choctaw is the best part of this exercise for me.

In other news, made the mistake of mentioning to my coach that I might like to try a program for the Christmas show. What in the world am I thinking? I don't have any elements, LOL! People will really enjoy watching Quark skate in a circle for a minute and a half. Yep. I've got a random assortment of half jumps (flip, toe, loop, lutz), some pivots, spirals, almost-a-scratch-spin, and some accidental footwork. Should be interesting...

Coach also decided I really need to skate faster -- if I can fill the rink doing a solo cha-cha, I should skate that fast all of the time. Riiiiight...

I think we're learning the Canasta Tango tonight -- any pointers?

Isk8NYC

06-21-2006, 09:26 AM

I've got a random assortment of half jumps (flip, toe, loop, lutz), some pivots, spirals, almost-a-scratch-spin, and some accidental footwork. Should be interesting...Throw in some waltz threes (American or European) with a tilted, majestic head and some very graceful arm movements. It'll be lovely!

Skittl1321

06-21-2006, 09:36 AM

People will really enjoy watching Quark skate in a circle for a minute and a half.

I'll be there with bells on!

(and if your coach thinks you're ready, I'm sure it will be great)

icedancer2

06-21-2006, 10:55 AM

I think we're learning the Canasta Tango tonight -- any pointers?

Point your toes!!!:D :D

Rusty Blades

06-21-2006, 11:13 AM

Blunt and Sliding:

I NEED ICE!!!

Sorry - in withdrawl 8O :cry: Only skated 1 hour since May 27 - get to skate 2 hours on Friday - then nothing until July 4.

I NEED ICE!!!

Did I mention that?

Sharp blades:

I get to skate again in 53 hours, 29 minutes, and 6 seconds.

Did I mention I NEED ICE!!!

kiwibabe

06-21-2006, 03:39 PM

Blunt and sliding: Was doing a drag on Monday night and hit a rut and twisted my right knee. I went to the physio and I have torn my medial meniscus. The physio says its not looking to hopeful so I'm off the ice for 3 weeks to see if it will heal otherwise I'm probably going to need keyhole surgery.

Any ideas on any exercise I can do that has low/no impact on my knee? I know I'm allowed to do pilates.

Sonic

06-21-2006, 03:55 PM

Sharp blades:

Doing my first competition on Saturday.(only a Spin, Spiral and Jump but in my head it's the olympics lol!) Had a practice this morning - spiral went like a dream, held it all the way round the rink, did a very well centred spin with a good 6 revolutions - and pulled off a half-decent loop.

Rusty blades:

Okay here goes
-bad dress rehearsal, good performance...right? worried that this works the other way round?
- only a few minutes warm-up...then sitting there...then pulling it straight off?
- I will look silly in a skating dress?

S xxx

jazzpants

06-21-2006, 04:00 PM

dbny

06-21-2006, 05:37 PM

Kiwi - sorry for your injury. Hope you heal up soon!

Sharp Blades:
I finally got myself to do some meaningful work. I've been so out of shape that I'm out of breath after one iteration of almost any pattern, but did get through Pre-Juv B power XO's pretty smoothly. Friend said they looked very stable, and I know the edges were good. I also made myself start spinning again, and managed two fairly fast, nicely centered two foot spins before getting too dizzy to continue. FO threes and FI threes are beginning to come back, and I actually got across the line with Prelim power threes on R foot, getting the Choctaw twice. This is a move that I had given up for dead.

Blunt and Sliding:
No stamina at all! This is what I get for being sick all winter and slacking off on top of it. I used my boot problems as an excuse. B cross strokes are not so comfy anymore, and power pulls both F and B are almost gone. I'm two footing them just to rebuild my quads.

Rob Dean

06-21-2006, 08:18 PM

Blunt and Sliding: I mentioned in last week's thread that I was looking forward to Friday's lesson. Well, it was a good one, as long as one doesn't mind the prospect of doing more work, as my coach decided it was time to correct my posture and my progressives. I hadn't quite realized that I was that far off, and I'm on a business trip this week, so away from the home rink as well.

Sharp Blades: However, I decided I'd bite the bullet and carry my skates, after scouting the web for local rinks, and I got in an hour's decent practice at a lightly attended public session (in Salt Lake City). Like at home, most of the freestyle ice out here is apparently during the day, but unlike at home, I can't take a few hours off to get to it. )-: Anyway, I am again looking forward to the next lesson, feeling like I've made some progress. Back to off-ice exercises tonight; next window of opportunity looks to be Friday night.

Rob Dean

mikawendy

06-21-2006, 08:34 PM

In other news, made the mistake of mentioning to my coach that I might like to try a program for the Christmas show. What in the world am I thinking? I don't have any elements, LOL! People will really enjoy watching Quark skate in a circle for a minute and a half. Yep. I've got a random assortment of half jumps (flip, toe, loop, lutz), some pivots, spirals, almost-a-scratch-spin, and some accidental footwork. Should be interesting...

Accidental footwork is the best kind! :lol: Every once in a while, I'll trip over my feet or have a moment of mohawk anxiety and wind up doing a little unintended Riverdance moment on the ice!

I hope you enjoy your show! Have a great time with it--everyone is there to cheer each other on.

Mrs Redboots

06-22-2006, 05:01 AM

still, we got some useful work done.What I forgot to say was that we also scared ourselves silly - we were working on our interpretive piece, during the course of which we do our lift over by the far barrier, opposite the judges. So we were doing it when all of a sudden the youngest member of the power-skating class skates backwards towards us, fortunately not very fast ("power", in her case, is a misnomer. The older ones were looking what they were doing!). I was able to get my foot down in time to not drive my blade into her head, but it was a close-run thing, and she didn't even realise, but blithely continued skating right into us! Nobody fell and nobody was hurt, but it could have been horribly different.

Raye

06-22-2006, 02:34 PM

Sharp Skates

My granddaughter (age 7) has landed her FLIP JUMP this week. According to my daughter - over and over and over ......... in other words, it is already CONSISTENT.:bow:

Blunt Skates

She has beat me to the flip jump, thus overtaking and passing me in freeskate. I still don't have mine yet and I have been working on it WAY LONGER :frus:

Consolation Prize (helps somewhat with the bruised ego)

At least it will be a long time till she catches up with me in dance, she's on the Dutch and I am on the European :halo:

Skate@Delaware

06-22-2006, 03:02 PM

Sharp Blades: I got to skate today....although it took waiting through a 15 minute traffic backup to get there! scratch spin was still on mark, as was waltz jump and salchow!

Blunt & Sliding: Believe it or not, my stroking felt sloppy! I think the spasm in my shoulder made me feel blah and my shoulders were slumpy...and i've had a bit of the stomach bug that's been going around. I missed work yesterday because of it. I didn't really feel well enough to go and do my normal stuff. It was all I could do to drive home! Next time (on a Thursday) I do plan on working on the loop and maybe the flip.

On another note: my Aces are wonderful blades, they were sharpened to 1/2" so I could get used to them being new and all that, now I need to get them sharpened again because they feel all "blunt & sliding" but I did notice that the hand-held sharpener does not come in 7/16" roh, only 1/2, 3/8 and some other size that's even deeper. Should I have them done to 3/8 and get the 3/8" sharpener? I'm looking for down the road when I go back to my home rink, my sharpener will only do 1/2" so it will be very long between sharpenings.

dbny

06-22-2006, 04:53 PM

cutiesk8r43

06-22-2006, 05:01 PM

Sharp blades:
Had a dance lesson!!! it has been awhile so it was nice to have my coach back.:D MIF are getting better finally:roll:

Blunt and sliding:
started power class today. oh God dont get me started about that 8O. i swear that teacher enjoys torture:evil:
~Cutie;)

jazzpants

06-22-2006, 05:13 PM

Sharp blades:

First two moves were pretty good. The B-Xovers to BO edges are pretty good too!
All spins except camel at the last few minutes were okay. Nothing great but nothing bad either. I should pass Bronze FS with those spins, no problem!!!
Primary coach is reminding me to keep up with what I have for just A LITTLE WHILE LONGER!!! He thinks I'll pass it this time!!! (Then again, he said the same back in October... :roll:... however, SECONDARY COACH and NYC coach now thinks I have a good shot at it too!!! :mrgreen: )Blunt and sliding:

Had a few bad starts on the power 3's. Part of it is that I didn't want to crash into other skaters in the way... Once I tried to push my edges and almost killed myself going on a toepick instead!!!! 8O 8O
5 step mohawks... well, they're not that bad!!! I have the extension and all. Coach wants a FASTER cadance though. (And how the heck am I going to have a faster cadance when all I wanted to do is drop from exhausion and the heatwave that is hitting us right now in our neck of the wood???)
Don't quite get this camel spin for some reason. Probably eventually I'll get it. But then again, I was REALLY tired trying for it then...and then the Zam came out to chase us off the ice!!! :lol:

Skate@Delaware

06-22-2006, 05:21 PM

I had the same dilemma, and have decided to go with 1/2". 3/8" is pretty steep and I'm not jumping, don't have landing edges to hold onto, and don't think I would need that unless I were landing Axels and doubles anyway. I'm planning to use the pro-filer to keep my edges freshly sharpened on the theory that a sharp 1/2" is better than a dull 7/16".
well, that's the other part of the equation; if I get the 1/2" then it can be used on my daughter's and husband's skates, as well as the boy's hockey skates....

doubletoe

06-22-2006, 05:53 PM

well, that's the other part of the equation; if I get the 1/2" then it can be used on my daughter's and husband's skates, as well as the boy's hockey skates....

Exactly. A frequently sharpened 1/2" sharpening should serve you much better than a dulled 3/8" sharpening (it was 3/8" you wanted, right? I don't have that post right in front of me).

Skate@Delaware

06-22-2006, 06:02 PM

Exactly. A frequently sharpened 1/2" sharpening should serve you much better than a dulled 3/8" sharpening (it was 3/8" you wanted, right? I don't have that post right in front of me).
Well, i could go 1/2" and be fine with that, as i've skated on that for almost 4 years. And I really like sharp edges (get mine sharpened about every 20 hours)...the 7/16" was nice and sharp but so is a fresh 1/2"

jshbo724

06-22-2006, 06:02 PM

Sharp Blades: Worked on getting my back sit spin today, did it a few times, but the other tries were hopeless. ALMOST got into a back camel, but the back camel is TOTALLY puzzling to me at this point.

I get to start learning my axel on Saturday. Was going to last Saturday, but 5 minutes into the lesson, and I got injured, LOL. So that equaled two weeks off the ice.

Blunt & Sliding: Was EXTREMELY off balance today coming back from a two week absence. It was early, and I was tired. Jumping was a definite no no. Landed MAYBE 1 flip out of a bunch when flips are almost always my best jump. Grr. :x

Hopefully Saturday will be a success, and hopefully I won't end up with another injury..... 8O

~Jess

slusher

06-22-2006, 06:16 PM

Sharp Blades:

I thought I was completely out of ice until a friend found a rink with publics but it was a bit of a drive, for the pleasure of skating oh once a month it was worth the drive. There were three other people on the ice. Heaven!

I tried all my elements and they were still there. Not great, but not completely forgotten. Okay, I can calm down now.

Blunt and Sliding:

As I said above, skating once a month, if I can even find that, is going to make me very cranky this summer, there are just no rinks with publics and the private clubs are very costly.

The public skate music was loud and hideous and the rink guy wouldn't change it. He liked it. I had a headache afterwards. I don't know what's worse, having the compulsory dance music embedded in my head (club sessions), or annoying 1980's hockey anthems (public skate).

doubletoe

06-22-2006, 06:47 PM

Sharp Blades: Worked on getting my back sit spin today, did it a few times, but the other tries were hopeless. ALMOST got into a back camel, but the back camel is TOTALLY puzzling to me at this point. ~Jess

If it's any consolation, I can't do a back camel and I have a hard time doing a back sitspin from its own entrance, but I can do a flying camel-back sit combination spin just fine! Just about everyone I've talked to agrees that the flying camel is easier than the reverse camel, and once you're in the spin, it's much easier to get into a back sit than doing the back sit from its own entrance (you don't even have to switch feet!).

Casey

06-22-2006, 08:17 PM

On another note: my Aces are wonderful blades, they were sharpened to 1/2" so I could get used to them being new and all that, now I need to get them sharpened again because they feel all "blunt & sliding" but I did notice that the hand-held sharpener does not come in 7/16" roh, only 1/2, 3/8 and some other size that's even deeper. Should I have them done to 3/8 and get the 3/8" sharpener? I'm looking for down the road when I go back to my home rink, my sharpener will only do 1/2" so it will be very long between sharpenings.
I personally don't like skating on anything duller than 3/8". I had them at 5/16" last fall, then took to honing my own skates inadvertantly making them a bit duller by and by, then when I finally had them machine sharpened again they were dulled down to more than 7/16" so the sharpener decided to make the transition to sharp "easier" by sharpening them at 7/16". It felt slippery after the first couple days, especially on hard ice, so now they're at 3/8" (the sharpener still doesn't want to adjust it too much at once...*sigh*), and that's pretty tolerable for me. I still want them at 5/16", though... :twisted:

It's largely just a preference and/or based on your size and skating style - try it and see. :) However, I have discovered that it's not only a personal preference, but depends on the quality of the sharpener too. My new sharpener uses one of the Skateology ones (http://www.skateologist.com/BladeSharpener.html), and whether it's the machine or her, the end result is a much more pleasant and sharper-feeling skate than my previous fitter/sharpeners provided.

dbny

06-22-2006, 09:21 PM

It felt slippery after the first couple days, especially on hard ice,

Now you've mentioned something that I completely forgot about, but is certainly important. If you're skating on hockey ice all the time, you will appreciate sharper blades and a deeper hollow than if you have the softer figures ice most of the time.

flying~camel

06-22-2006, 10:15 PM

Sharp blades:

I got new skates!

My current (now old) pair were 12 years old, severely broken down and the blade had been sharpened flat. So, I went to see the fitter at my club's competition tonight, expecting to have to pay at least $800 for boot & blade.

After measuring my feet, he tells me he has a pair of lightly used skates (Harlick Hi-Tester boot & Ultima Protege blade) that he think would fit me perfectly. I tried them on and they felt like a really comfortable (yet, extremely supportive) slipper.

So, I bought them - for $275! If I don't like the blade, I can exchange it within 30 days and he'll give me a credit towards new blades.

I'm really excited, albeit a little nervous, to get on the ice with these!

Blunt and sliding:

I'm not able to skate in aforementioned club competition this weekend due to an out-of-town family obligation and won't be able to really try out the new skates until Wednesday :??

Mrs Redboots

06-23-2006, 07:03 AM

Blunt and sliding: My knee hurts! It "clicked" yesterday, as it sometimes does, and was still sore this morning. I was rather dreading skating, but luckily it wasn't too painful. But I was glad to get home and anoint it with Tiger Balm, and maybe I'll put some Ibuprofen gel on later. If it's still sore on Sunday, I'll wrap it before skating, but it ought to be okay.

Other than that, not a bad practice this morning. The No 1 Adult couple was out, practising for next week.... Their Dutch Waltz is better than ours, but I think our Fiesta is just better.... should be interesting. On paper, they should win and we take Silver, with the other couple from our rink coming 3rd, but we all have such issues with the Fiesta that it could go any way. I think they'll take the Free dance, though - theirs is beautifully graceful. No 3 couple's has harder footwork, but they don't do it very well yet. They will!

We took advantage of their music and did a Fiesta but I wasn't properly warmed up and the Mohawk made a horrible noise! But apart from that it was okay - we don't normally have problems with the Mohawk, unlike the other two couples. Our problem comes with the step to a RFI edge at the end of the dance, which the other couple do quite beautifully smoothly.

In my private practice, as always, cross-cuts! Grrrr. Tried to do 3, then hold the edge, which was okay on my right foot, but was I on a LBO edge as I should have been? You guess! Grrrrrrrr..... Cross-rolls were working well so I didn't try that particular exercise with them. Maybe on Sunday.

Sharp Blades: Worked a lot on our free dance. I think it'll be okay on the day - it'll have need to be! Husband, having been persuaded to consider his arms in his free programme, is now more aware of them, thank goodness, so we have been able to "fine-tune" them for the free dance.

And also worked on our Artistic - it's almost all choreographed now, except one tiny bit which, if we can't think of anything to do in it, we'll ask our coach! Hope we can remember it.....

Oh, it was so funny, though - we're doing Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, and I've borrowed some decoy pigeons from my father to use as props. Trouble is, they are very, very old and worn-out. So I pulled mine out of my waist-band at the appropriate moment in the music, and the head flew off.... Husband said we were decapitating pigeons, not poisoning them!

My individual Artistic went well, except that on the first run-through I didn't jump my 3-jump, just stepped it. Having actually jumped it at the Mountain Cup (I was so pleased that I fell out of character for a moment), I don't want to just step it next time.

Spins are actually beginning to happen now that I know what I'm doing wrong.....

Isk8NYC

06-23-2006, 07:13 AM

Oh, it was so funny, though - we're doing Tom Lehrer's Poisoning Pigeons in the Park ... What a funny song to choose - I love it!

quarkiki2

06-23-2006, 09:07 AM

Sharp blades: Learned the Canasta Tango. I found this dance to be a little harder to get to the right size on the rink than last week's Cha-Cha. I think I need to sharpen my blades as I wasn't quite able to get my swing rolls on a deep enough edge, though my slide chasses were "pretty" according to our guest dance coach. I have, once again, benefitted from my past life as a dancer -- counting and remembering steps is very easy for me, so I learn the dance quickly and have more time to practice. Though I do have to dodge teammates who aren't moving as fast as I am (when can I ever say that??).

Practiced on a freestyle before Synchro. Worked on my "spin" over and over. Managed to get a couple with four rotations, doing better on the choctaw entrance. Actually, I convinced myself that I wasn't practicing the spin, but was working on the choctaw. Seemed to help if I was concentrating on my entrance edges.

Milo had fun -- a friend was pushing him around the mall while I skated. They came up to the rink just as we were finishing and he recognized me in the crowd, pointed and started blowing kisses. They cam around while I was taking my skates off and he wanted to get out onto the ice in the worst way -- made a break for it every time my friend got him away from the door. He did walk out on the ice for a minute -- was fascinated by how cool it was out there. He wanted to go out in the middle of the rink (the ice was empty), but I wouldn't let him. This made for a little bit of a protest until he realized he could flirt with the other women on the team, LOL!

Skittl1321

06-23-2006, 09:27 AM

Though I do have to dodge teammates who aren't moving as fast as I am (when can I ever say that??).
Glad you picked it up well- any plans to start an ice dancing career?

Milo had fun -- He did walk out on the ice for a minute -- was fascinated by how cool it was out there. He wanted to go out in the middle of the rink (the ice was empty), but I wouldn't let him. This made for a little bit of a protest until he realized he could flirt with the other women on the team, LOL!
Sounds adorable!

sk8pics

06-23-2006, 10:14 AM

Sharp Blades
Skated yesterday for 50 minutes totally by myself and with freshly cut ice! :D :D Did lots of stroking, spirals, crossovers, mohawks with crossovers, every jump. Had a blast. Did about 75 toe loops. :D :D Days like that come along only rarely so it's nice to enjoy them while you can.

Happy skating everyone.

dbny

06-23-2006, 03:12 PM

Sharp Blades - Like Razors!
I can't believe it, but after two years of not being able to do one foot spins, they are back! Now I know for sure that it was all a boot problem. I did still lean a little to the inside today, but was in total control every minute. I did three one foot spins from a deep LFO entry, and exited each spin deliberately, not falling out. At least one spin was four revs. I have been soooo discouraged by my boot problems and lack of coaching that I really thought maybe the spins would never come back. Same goes for LFO threes! They are back finally. I even forced myself to work on FI Mohawks, which are definitely getting smoother. I also had noticeably more stamina today, and was able to get in a few power pulls. Tomorrow I'm giving a private lesson on a public session and won't be able to work for myself, but I now have much more confidence.

Blunt & Sliding:
Still don't have the stamina and strength that I used to have. Must start scouting summer skating. Today was the last Friday afternoon empty public session for the season. I'm going to miss my friends at that particular rink, and also the skating, of course.

mikawendy

06-23-2006, 03:55 PM

Blunt and Sliding--FO mohawks! I keep tucking the back foot behind because I have a blinking choctaw in my program (which I can't do correctly either).

Sharp Blades--LBI threes are actually improving. Normally, my left foot is my "stupid" foot that doesn't do things as well, but my LBI threes are actually now better than my RBI threes--less trouble with the free hip dropping.

Lutz attempts feel good--getting so close....

Rusty Blades

06-23-2006, 09:20 PM

WAY TO GO DBNY!!!! Doncha just love those moments :mrgreen: I had one myself :mrgreen:

Sharp! Tonight was my 2 hour personal session (nobody else showed up) and I worked mainly on my forward edges with a little on backward two-foot - my balance just wasn’t on enough for backward one-foot. As I was skating around working on the depth of my edges (which is getting WAY better), I suddenly became aware that something had finally “clicked” - my body was back! Everything from the ankles up had come together and I was skating like I did 36 years ago - tight, controlled, smooth, graceful, and powerful. Holy sh!#, when did that happen??? Suddenly there was full-body awareness and control and MY GAWD did it feel GOOD :) Of course the posture and control had a very positive effect on all my forward skating and tightened up my backward skating as well (even though I was just doing backward sculling).

Dull Nobody else showed up - that was $300 worth of ice 8O

Sk8pdx

06-23-2006, 10:54 PM

Sharp:
Worked on Bronze moves today. 5 step mohawk is coming along nicely. Can't wait til my coach returns from vacation to help with more refining. I am liking Bronze moves. I am inching towards progress on my flip and also scratch spin. I am excited to try more pairs skating tomorrow.

Blunt:
Loop is still such a nerdy hoppy little cheated thing off of a RFI 3. It is making me bitter! :twisted: I just haven't become friends with my RBOE yet. I am still hopeful it will come but I want it now!:frus:

Mrs Redboots

06-24-2006, 04:23 AM

Blunt:
Loop is still such a nerdy hoppy little cheated thing off of a RFI 3. It is making me bitter! :twisted: I just haven't become friends with my RBOE yet. I am still hopeful it will come but I want it now!:frus:Lots of practice of backwards edges!

My husband does his off a forward spiral, comes up, does the 3-turn, and then the loop. It works well if he remembers to hold the edge for a breath - if he rushes it, as all too often he does, it's a disaster. Big test will be on Thursday when he competes it again.

NickiT

06-24-2006, 04:37 AM

Blunt:
Loop is still such a nerdy hoppy little cheated thing off of a RFI 3. It is making me bitter! :twisted: I just haven't become friends with my RBOE yet. I am still hopeful it will come but I want it now!:frus:

Keep practising. I first learned to do a loop from a RFI3. I now do it from backward crossovers and I love the feeling. I couldn't go back to doing it from an inside three turn now. It's important to really hold and sit on that back outside edge before you take off.

Nicki

phoenix

06-24-2006, 05:33 AM

Competition today. Wish me luck!! (we need a nail-biting smilie)

sharp:
Yesterday's practice went very well, we made it all the way through our tango for the first time EVAH (whew!), now just have to do it again today! And found out we only have to do 2 patterns each of the compulsories (I thought it would be 3 & 4, respectively), so I'm really happy about that!

dull:
New dress (yeah, it just won't go away!) finally arrived yesterday (they made me a whole new one), & I fixed it up a bit & stoned it so it's ready to go.....but the skirt is huge, full and heavy---& since I haven't had a chance to skate in it, I've decided not to risk it today. So I'm wearing the black one I found at Penny's, which I like a lot anyway.

Skate@Delaware

06-24-2006, 07:02 AM

Loop is still such a nerdy hoppy little cheated thing off of a RFI 3. It is making me bitter! :twisted: I just haven't become friends with my RBOE yet. I am still hopeful it will come but I want it now!:frus:
We spent a WHOLE group class session just working on back edges...but if you incorporate them into a warmup during every skating session, you will be more comfortable with them.

-do back crossovers then hold a back edge
-just practice the entrance and exit edges to jumps (that way you get used to holding them longer and not rushing them...my particular sin!)
-because you will eventually need to have good back edges when you least expect it (I love those bits of choreography...."you want me to do what?" which usually involves something i haven't learned yet or don't feel comfortable doing-which is just about everything!)

But, like Mrs. Redboots & NickiTsaid, ya' have to practice them!!!

Phoenix: Good Luck at your competition!!! I know you will do well!

mintypoppet

06-24-2006, 12:44 PM

Sk8pdx

06-24-2006, 10:41 PM

We spent a WHOLE group class session just working on back edges...but if you incorporate them into a warmup during every skating session, you will be more comfortable with them.

-do back crossovers then hold a back edge
-just practice the entrance and exit edges to jumps (that way you get used to holding them longer and not rushing them...my particular sin!)
-because you will eventually need to have good back edges when you least expect it (I love those bits of choreography...."you want me to do what?" which usually involves something i haven't learned yet or don't feel comfortable doing-which is just about everything!)

But, like Mrs. Redboots & NickiTsaid, ya' have to practice them!!!

Sharp Blades: Mrs. Redboots, NikiT and S@D.
Thank you very much for all of your advice, encouragement and kindness. I was able to put into practice a lot of what you suggested today during my skating session and had some positive outcomes. It is suprising how even breathing, as Mrs. Redboots said, makes such a small but significant impact.

With the loop, I also haven't really felt secure with the open space outside my right shoulder in jumping that direction. It seems different with waltz jump, salchow, toe loop, --while the rotation (ccw) is the same, with these jumps it seems more of an "inward" direction while loop seems more "outside"...not sure if I am making any sense there...:?? but that mental block, or sensation, or whatever it is, is what I am trying to overcome as well.

skating pairs with Casey keeps getting better and more wonderful every time. Even fwd and back crossovers are beginning to feel very natural. We have even received compliments on them from other skaters. It has been a fun little game to play to see how close we can side by side salchow. :)

Blunt and sliding:
I had too much fun skating pairs so I will keep my focus on the positive progress for the day. ;)

TimDavidSkate

06-24-2006, 11:00 PM

~ I just had an epiphany, I will be taking ice dancing. And hopefully compete in it too :halo:

jazzpants

06-25-2006, 01:24 AM

dbny: So glad you FINALLY solved your boot problems!!! So glad!!! :D

Major edge so dull it's only good enough for soft "buttah": :roll:

Well, folks! Looks despite my original assumption, I am NOT testing next weekend!!! Seems my test chair did NOT reschedule me on the test session that I thought I would be... AGAIN!!! Secondary coach was QUITE surprised too, b/c she went thru a lot of hoops to make sure I'm on this test session next week!

Email has been sent and we'll find out what the heck is going on... as well as WHEN THE HECK I'm actually going to test. :twisted: :roll: But darn it! I want this thing PASSED!!!! :frus:

Sharp blades:
Had a wonderfully EMPTY public session and I did double runthrus of my Bronze Moves! Everything seems to be working out quite well w/the exception of the 5 step mohawks, which aren't necessarily BAD -- will probably pass with it -- but I am trying to fix some extension issues.

Spins are good. Jumps are okay w/the exception of my loop (to which I landed 1 out of 3 cleanly.)

I got bored with Bronze Moves, so I started on prelim alt 3's and played around with the prelim spirals. Oh, dear! It's gonna be a LOOOOONG time before I pass prelim moves with those GAWD AWFUL spirals!!! 8O (The alt 3's were okay, considering that I haven't worked on them in a while. Just play around with it really...) Back crossovers and forward crossovers were fine for the prelim stuff. The rest are already on the Bronze Moves test (I think...)

Am considering just keep up with my Bronze Moves, but start working on my Bronze FS program now. At the rate that I'm going, I suspect I may end up taking Bronze FS the same day as my Bronze Moves, if not the session after that. :frus:

(ETA Update: A bit of a miscommunication problem on BOTH my part and the test chairs! I've straighten it out and our test session is for AUGUST now!!!)

Mrs Redboots

06-25-2006, 09:07 AM

~ I just had an epiphany, I will be taking ice dancing. And hopefully compete in it too :halo:
Excellent! The ice-dancing world can always do with more men in it!

Mrs Redboots

06-25-2006, 09:09 AM

My knee felt a lot better today (did a lot of stairs yesterday, which seem to have helped!). I pointed out to Husband that his free programme is Under Level 1 and against one other skater, whereas his solo dances are Under Level 7 and there is a huge entry. So he sensibly spent his lesson working on his Willow Waltz. I did a crappy run-through of my artistic, but with the Lambeth next weekend the ice was packed out.

We then spent ages working on our Free Dance, with singular lack of success - after Bracknell, I am so going to change the step sequence! And the last few minutes on Poisoning Pigeons, which is coming-along-nicely if we can ever remember the steps! I think we'll have to devote most of our lesson to it on Tuesday - if we can't do our compulsories and free dance well enough for Bracknell by now, well......

Two competitions this week. Am I mad? (Don't answer that!)

Skate@Delaware

06-25-2006, 07:55 PM

Sharp Blades: The ice was smooth as glass and looked so beautiful! There was no music playing, so I could play my own tunes on my mp3 player. I ran through all my moves. I didn't do any spins until the end of the session because there 3 birthday parties and tons of little kids all around, most really little.

I also taught hubby how to do the 1/2 flip; and did some choreo for our exhibition program for September. I wanted to run through more but he kept getting off the ice (lots of kids makes him nervous).

My salchows ROCKED!!! The squats and lunges at the gym are paying off, as I got some nice height! I did remember to push my heel down on the landing, so they were solid! YAY!!! I was sooo happy!

Did some really high spirals also, that went the length of the rink. So, the person that said I'd slow down in these blades was mistaken.....yeah.

Oh yeah I wore my new skating pants (although I didn't have them hemmed yet). They worked out well, so it's hemming and bottome elastic and they are done, now to make the matching top. Hopefully, it will be a while before I put a hole in these! (yup, didn't do backspins today, didn't want to rip these babies!)

Blunt and Sliding: Well, my scratch spins have a weird thing going on...I go into them fine...when I push my arms and legs down I'm going well, but then it all goes bonkers and I end up falling out of them. It feels as though I'm going onto my heel. My spins aren't terribly centered but they aren't too bad, I'm still working on that (been an issue since last year and my accident and the muscle spasms). I'm going to video them next time I skate to see if I'm breaking at the waist or lopsided.

I didn't want the session to end!

jshbo724

06-25-2006, 08:58 PM

Sharp Blades: Lesson went very well. I just changed coaches, and this coach caught ALL of my bad habbits, LOL. Which is a good thing so I can fix them. We started out fixing things like leaning over too much on landings, arm positions in spins, and then we worked on how the axel works. She had me do little exercises that will help me learn it, and then she put me in the harness. This was my first time ever trying the axel, and we got to work on it for 15 minutes. The first tries were awful, but you gotta start somewhere, LOL. And a few minutes later I was getting further into it. There were lots of awkward falls, as you could imagine. And a couple minutes before we were gonna stop, I did an axel! Complete rotation, and punch out landing. It felt AWESOME. My coach just dropped her jaw and had me yell up to my mom to see if she saw it, LOL. She had me do another one, and guess what? I did it again!!! It was SOOO much fun. I've been waiting to learn it for 4 months now, I had to wait because of boot problems, then I had to order customs, grrr.... Took forever. I'm just so excited that I was landing axels during my first lesson for it. Of course we weren't gonna try them off the harness yet, but to me it was a huge accomplishment. I can't wait till my next lesson, and maybe we can put some speed into them and MAYBE get off the harness. I'm extatic! LOL. :D

Blunt and Sliding: Nothing really went wrong, except some of the falls on the harness were really wierd, LOL. I didn't get hurt, but they were very awkward. As I said earlier, my new coach found a lot of my bad habbits, so I have to work my way out of those, which hopefully won't take TOO long..... Otherwise, I was very happy with how my skating went.

phoenix

06-25-2006, 10:15 PM

Sharp: Competition went well! I was fairly relaxed & not at all shaky-legged, so that in itself was great. I won both my events, though I didn't have any competitors in one of them.:roll: The other was valid though, which is a nice feeling. Coach was happy with me.

Blunt: The ONE step in my straightline footwork I really wanted to actually do--I bailed on. *sigh* And though I liked my bargain dress when skating in it, the video reveals that it adds about 15 pounds on me 8O so it will never see the light of day again!!!

Also, during my massive off-ice warmup, which is my secret weapon for getting rid of nerves & jelly legs, I actually over-did it, so felt a little too tired when skating--and was actually sore today! (will not be admitting that to coach, but *will* learn from that mistake!) :lol:

Mrs Redboots

06-26-2006, 04:39 AM

NickiT

06-26-2006, 06:01 AM

Now let's just hope that Batikat, NickiT, FRBSkate, Chantelly, the Husband, I and anybody else who's doing Bracknell this year (Twinkle? 2Loop2Loop? Anybody?) will do as well!

Hmmm..thanks Mrs R!!! I must admit I'm feeling quite nervous today. I skated last night and after one good run-through I completely messed up my first two elements and landed my lutz-loop on my backside! I did manage to pull myself together for another clean skate of my programme but messing up like that sort of spooked me. Just skated and all was OK today. Just wish I could shake off these nerves.

Good luck to yourself and everyone else competing this week!

Nick

Skate@Delaware

06-26-2006, 06:52 AM

twinkle

06-26-2006, 10:05 AM

WELL DONE!

Now let's just hope that Batikat, NickiT, FRBSkate, Chantelly, the Husband, I and anybody else who's doing Bracknell this year (Twinkle? 2Loop2Loop? Anybody?) will do as well!

Yes - I will be there on Thursday for the interpretive only, not ready to do free this year.

2loop2loop

06-26-2006, 10:44 AM

I'm there doing freeskate on Thursday.

John

phoenix

06-26-2006, 11:53 AM

What was the step that didn't happen?

Rocker/choctaw, like in Novice moves. I can do it fine, but in the footwork it has to be done FAST to keep in time w/ the music, & then I have issues. I need another split second to set it up......and I don't have a split second! :giveup: I'm up to about 50% as far as doing it vs. bailing, so that's actually better than it was a few weeks ago, when I missed it every time. And the good thing is, to someone just watching, they'd never know I missed a step, so if it's omitted at least it isn't a glaring mistake. But *I* still know.....

Mrs Redboots

06-26-2006, 01:10 PM

Yes - I will be there on Thursday for the interpretive only, not ready to do free this year.Husband is doing free on Thursday morning, I'm doing Artistic Thursday afternoon. Then on Friday he's doing solo compulsory dance in the morning, and in the afternoon it's couples' compulsories and - ta-daaaaa - the World Premiere of our new free dance! Which is awful.....

doubletoe

06-26-2006, 02:28 PM

Well, folks! Looks despite my original assumption, I am NOT testing next weekend!!! Seems my test chair did NOT reschedule me on the test session that I thought I would be... AGAIN!!! Secondary coach was QUITE surprised too, b/c she went thru a lot of hoops to make sure I'm on this test session next week!

(ETA Update: A bit of a miscommunication problem on BOTH my part and the test chairs! I've straighten it out and our test session is for AUGUST now!!!)

(Always looking for the silver lining. . .) Maybe the Skating Gods are giving you these annoying delays as a blessing in disguise. I mean, August is a hot month so the ice should be particularly soft, which is much better for holding edges, and I bet all these delays will work like reverse psychology and make you totally attack this test! :D

jazzpants

06-26-2006, 08:38 PM

(Always looking for the silver lining. . .) Maybe the Skating Gods are giving you these annoying delays as a blessing in disguise. I mean, August is a hot month so the ice should be particularly soft, which is much better for holding edges, and I bet all these delays will work like reverse psychology and make you totally attack this test! :DYeah... and it's also good on the joints too!!! I won't be as stiff in the early morning times! :D

And since I'll eventually take prelim moves later on, I better keep up with them anyway. ;) Just have to get those alt 3's (which aren't too bad now! :D ) and those nasty spirals and I should be okay.

Good luck to those doing Bracknell this year!!! :bow: