Thank you Daisies! [Archive] - skatingforums.com

Thin-Ice

07-09-2007, 07:55 AM

I took my Silver Moves test Friday night.. and one of the things that helped me stay focused on what I was doing was pretending to channel Daisies taking this test. She's SO far beyond Silver Moves.. so I figured she could do this on a really bad (for her) day. The "reception" wasn't very clear.. but just the idea seemed to help and I PASSED!!! (This after "being invited to retry" this same test at a different rink 5 weeks ago.) One of the judges was the same from last time. He had me down by .3 the last time and passed me just at the passing level this time... but I was really happy with a .3 improvement in just a little more than a month. One of the other judges had me down by four-tenths this time and the other judge had me pass by .1 over. The funny thing is I am one of the least flexible people you will ever meet (despite working on stretching 4-5 days a week)... and ALL THREE judges had my spiral (the straight spiral with the change of foot at mid-rink) UP by .1!

I thought I skated a better test this time and I DEFINITELY would not have passed me the first time I took the test.. but I felt pretty good coming off the ice after this time. I wasn't sure it was passable by this tough group of judges... but I met my goal of skating better than I tested last month.

I didn't get to look at the test sheets right away since I was judging the next group of testers... and the test chair walked up to me just as I was sitting down to judge and whispered "congratulations!". I was SO surprised and happy! I've been working on this test on and off for 5 years.. and at least a half-hour a day, five days a week for the last 7 months.

Next goal: Passing Juvenile Moves at some point in the future. But since two of the four moves on Juve were on Silver... I know what I need to improve on to make everything passable. The biggest difference of course is Silver Moves passing average is 2.7 and Juvenile is 3.0! So MORE power will be one of the things to really work on.

Joan

07-09-2007, 09:06 AM

flo

07-09-2007, 09:21 AM

Congrats!
http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/froehlich/e035.gif

jskater49

07-09-2007, 09:32 AM

:bow: Congratulations!:bow: :bow:

Mrs Redboots

07-09-2007, 09:59 AM

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u31/newdawning/congratulations.gif

Isk8NYC

07-09-2007, 10:04 AM

Congratulations!

dbny

07-09-2007, 10:06 AM

CONGRATULATIONS!

Thin-Ice

07-09-2007, 10:35 AM

CONGRATULATIONS:D

I've been working on Silver MIF for more than a year and I still need at least 6 months before I will feel ready to put them out in a test session. Which pattern did you find to be the most difficult to master? I have two that are giving me trouble: 8-step mohawk and 3-turns in the field.

Thanks so much to Joan and everyone else for the kind thoughts!

Seven months ago I HATED the 3-turns in the field. I had passed them on Pre-Juvenile Moves and was so relieved I'd never have to take them again... :roll: then of course, they instituted Adult Moves. I would just shudder when my coach would say "now the 3-turns". In the last month or so they moved up to be one of my favorite parts of the test.. especially the FI->BO turns. I'm sure at least a couple of the back turns were early.. but none of them were scrapped!

I didn't like the 8-step to start with.. I took a couple bad falls on it, and I actually tripped on it going the clockwise direction during the first test.. talk about a confidence-deflater!

But for the actual test, I had a hard time with the forward power pulls and back cross strokes. I was rather stiff through both of them.

Hang in there, you'll get this test.. if I can anyone who is as stubborn as me can. Good luck!

jazzpants

07-09-2007, 12:07 PM

Congratulations!!!

http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/musik/c040.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/musik/a030.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/musik/k055.gif http://www.cosgan.de/images/kao/musik/c035.gif

KNEW you would pull it off!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

(I'm not even THINKING about taking the Silver Moves test right now short of playing around with the moves. :lol: I have no stinkin' back 3's of any type and the 8 step mohawks will probably be the death of me -- death from the "Click of Death" on the FO mohawks.)

doubletoe

07-09-2007, 12:16 PM

Okay, so I already congratulated you on CAS, but it's worth repeating,
WAY TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :bow:

Scarlett

07-09-2007, 12:23 PM

Congratulations!

Debbie S

07-09-2007, 01:35 PM

Morgail

07-09-2007, 01:44 PM

Debbie S

07-09-2007, 02:08 PM

Did you stop in between the two sets of 3-turns in the field? After the FO to BI ones and before the FI to BO ones, I mean.Well, they're 2 separate moves, so there is a break between them. Different coaches have different ideas about what to do (as I've noticed at MIF comps :) ) but generally, you'll finish off the move (some coaches, like mine, will have you stroke forward to where you started the pattern and glide out, and other coaches will just have their skaters do a T-stop right after the last turn) and then either go back to your coach for instructions (or water, or kleenex), or just move to the starting position for the next set. And then look at the judges to make sure they're finished writing before you start.

daisies

07-09-2007, 07:38 PM

OMG congrats Thin-Ice! That's so awesome! And I am so flattered that you thought of me! :) :)

Looking forward to seeing you sometime soon, I hope! (Missed you this year!)

Thin-Ice

07-10-2007, 03:49 AM

Congratulations!!!

Could you give a rough estimate on how high your spiral was (like the angle)? I realize it's hard to describe that online, but I'm interested to know how high (or other qualities, like speed?) it has to be in order to be marked above passing. I'm working on Silver MIF and I'm hoping to be marked up on that move as well. ;)

That's weird about not getting to see your test sheets. At the clubs in my area, you get xerox copies to take home with you. It's helpful to look at the comments as you start the next level of moves, to see what you need to work on.

A friend who saw the test described my leg/back/shoulder angles as "very shallow champagne glasses".. meaning slightly above hip height but probably not more than a couple inches with my shoulders mirroring that angle. On another board I was told the .1 up probably had to do with the steadiness and edge control. (Thanks Lauren!). My coach has also said I have a better arm and head position than most of the kids she sees test... as in my arms are not "airplane arms", more like I'm trying to pinch my shoulder blades together and my arms are kind of trailing to the sides at a narrow angle and my head is WAY up... I'm actually looking at the top of the hockey glass when I do this (to avoid pitching forward onto my toe picks) and I think I have reasonable speed on spirals -- I give a really big push into this and another on the transition to the second foot.

Oh, and I DID see my test sheets AFTER I finished judging the tests that followed mine. I just didn't see them right after I tested.. so I had no idea how well/poorly the judges thought I skated until about an hour later. I also have the photocopies and have already gone over all the judges' remarks and made lists for my coaches of what we really need to work on!

Like I said, if I can pass this test, ANYONE who is as stubborn as I am, can also pass it.

Thanks again and good luck!

Thin-Ice

07-10-2007, 04:01 AM

Congrats!!!!

I'm taking this test near the end of August, so I love to hear that it is possible to pass it:)

Did you stop in between the two sets of 3-turns in the field? After the FO to BI ones and before the FI to BO ones, I mean.

I actually stopped between ALL the sets of 3-turns. I know when I'm judging the turns I want time to be able to write comments about the RFO->LBI before I have to start focusing on the LFO->RBI. As a skater it also gives me a chance to give a good push into the next set of turns and think of this as a clean slate, no matter how well or badly the previous set went. I know they are two separate elements.. but when skating them, I tend to think of them as FOUR separate elements. And although I did learn to like this element, the judge who "invited me to retry" did not like how I executed any of the 3-turns patterns.... so lots of things for me to keep working on. If I had it to do over again, I would hope to have bigger lobes than I skated (figure-sized). I was pleased that most of my turns were at the top of the lobe... although I had two BI turns that were early and all the judges commented on that. I would also encourage you to push as hard as you can to get good flow on these... at least that's one of the things judges here look for and I had comments from one of the judges that I had enough flow into the forward turns -- but not as much into the back as if I were using the push from the forward turn to get into the back turns as well (which I was... I have a hard time pushing onto the LBI 3-turn because of an ankle injury).

Oh and the other thing I think I did well and may have convinced the judges this was a passing test was I (looked like I) had lots of confidence and toe point and stretched arms and held the position coming out of every element.. as if it were a performance and they were grading everything from the moment I stepped onto the ice to test. I remembered the comments from a much earlier thread about "dripping with attitude"... so combining that with thinking of how Daisies would skate the test were part of the performance. And I know this sounds silly, but I also "dressed up" for the test... not in a costume, but wore my best practice dress -- pretty velvet, chiffon (flowy!) skirt, in a color that makes me look good and shows up against the ice, matching jacket and gloves, clean skates, new tights, hair very neat, but with some of it down to show the wind blowing through it when I went fast on the 8-step and back powerpulls (the forward ones are never as fast when I do them). In essence I was trying to show I belonged in the Silver category -- at least as far as Moves go! Maybe it was all psychological.. but I know something worked!