Heartless or Generous? (Practice Thread 11/25-12/2/2007)

[Helen88]

Nice

Passed level 7 (Skate UK) :)
Three-turns were *slightly* better (I passed them, anyway)
Didn't crash into anyone this week, and back crossover are getting better each session.

Naughty

Had that fluey thing that's been going around - off school Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - probably shouldn't have gone on Friday, doubt I'll get there tomorrow. So I didn't get down to practice on Thursday, and only managed a half hour lesson and about forty five minutes practise. So most things were a little shaky. But I passed :D.

EDIT: Just realised I posted under the wrong date *rolls eyes*.

[Morgail]

Nice:
I went skating!!!
I only went for about an hour, and took a few breaks to rest the ankle. I didn't do much - wouldn't let myself try anything too difficult. No spins or jumps. And I was very cautious and slow.
-Stroking was good after I got over my initial hesitation.
-Crossovers and most forward 3-turns weren't too shabby.
-Power pulls were there (although slow).
-Ankle didn't hurt at all, though now it's a bit achy.
-I was SO happy to be back on the ice, even though I couldn't go all out. It felt like coming home:D

Naughty:
-Anything involving the LI edge was not secure (specifically RFI mohawks and left foot 3s).
-Cross strokes were sad.

[icedancer2]

Nice:
I went skating!!!
I only went for about an hour, and took a few breaks to rest the ankle. I didn't do much - wouldn't let myself try anything too difficult. No spins or jumps. And I was very cautious and slow.


Congratulations! I'm glad you got back on the ice -- it seems like only yesterday you were injured - when was it anyway???

it sounds like you did a lot for the first time back. (I have been known to hold onto the wall for those "first 3-turns after an injury" - so it sounds like you are doing great!

Happy skating!:bow:

[Sessy]

Well mine's quite the opposite of Morgail. Goes straight into the heartless category by all means.

I'm off the ice - heaven only knows for how long. They didn't quite wipe the ice after the sunday afternoon freeskate session, I got stuck in a hockey cut in the ice, fell with my right ankle (yeah, that's the been-broken one) underneath me out of a change-foot spin (which were doing really well up until then by the way, I had the controlled foot-change-straight-to-back-outside-edge down on that spin)...

Yeah real fun. :roll:

It feels swollen, achy. Coach-parttime-physiotherapist says I'll be fine by the sole grace of my rock hard edmonton skates in terms of bones and all, but it's looking like a sprain to me. We iced it of course, I still had to go home by bike, but I iced it more afterwards.

So, anybody wanna bet on how many more bad luck I'm gonna have with the ankle?

Sorry to sound all bitter and cynical, but right now, that's about everything I can be.
I just sat on the ice and cried and then I cried some more in the changing room and then when I got home I was soaking wet from the rain and I didn't give a darn. I don't seem to give a darn about anything at all anymore right now.

Here's how rock hard bottom feels.


Darn it, I did a toeloop on friday and it didn't hurt on saturday. Why, just, why?
I've cancelled all appointments so I can stay home all week, I called a friend with a car to bring me groceries, I'm not going on the department field trip on thursday, I'm not going skating until it's better. I'll have to go to the exam on friday but I'll take the bike. I'm gonna be all sensible now, let it recover and whatever, I've learned that by now. It's not about the time off the ice, I've known all along this season would be pretty much shot. It's not about that.

It just hurts you know? Not physically, it hurts deep inside, way more than it physically ever could. And I've not a clue why.


I've gone through something like this before, I thought I wouldn't feel it anymore another time around. But, there's the cruelty of the way that sorta things go down. Making sure you feel just enough and just in time to make sure it really, really hurts.
I don't think I'd be this shattered about it if it wasn't for that toeloop on friday.


Well, at least I'll have *great* grades for my upcoming exams in the next few weeks I guess, with all the spare time now and all. Isn't that a peach.

[jskater49]

Nice

Passed level 7 (Skate UK) :)
*.


Congratulations!!!:bow: :bow: :bow:

[Rusty Blades]

I was in my second (ever!) skating competition tonight.

Heartless: I finished LAST, again :(

Generous: At least this time, "last" was 3rd and I got my first piece of hardware to hang on the kitchen wall.

(It was a local competition so I was competing against one lady who is a coach and another who has been skating 10 years so 3rd place is ok with my not-quite 2 years on the ice.)

[Isk8NYC]

Passed level 7 (Skate UK)

I got my first piece of hardware to hang on the kitchen wall.

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH!

[dbny]

Nice

Passed level 7 (Skate UK) :)


CONGRATULATIONS!

Nice:
I went skating!!!


CONGRATULATIONS!

You really had a great return skate!

Well mine's quite the opposite of Morgail. Goes straight into the heartless category by all means.

I'm off the ice - heaven only knows for how long. They didn't quite wipe the ice after the sunday afternoon freeskate session, I got stuck in a hockey cut in the ice, fell with my right ankle (yeah, that's the been-broken one) underneath me out of a change-foot spin (which were doing really well up until then by the way, I had the controlled foot-change-straight-to-back-outside-edge down on that spin)...



I'm so sorry to hear you've hurt your ankle again!

You can put me on the injured list too, and I wasn't even practicing! I was teaching today on a public session, skating slowly backwards, when I suddenly noticed something wasn't right, then I realized I was falling straight down. I hit hard on my L hip, the part you sit on, of course. I had caught the tail of my blade in a big divot. The rink had ice, but no plastic bags, and I had to finish the lesson anyway. Now I'm sitting on a big ice pack at home, but as soon as the cold wears off, I'm in pain. This happened to me last spring, but this one hurts worse and I know it's going to take at least a month to heal. Gotta work tomorrow anyway. Older DD, who is coaching also, sprained her ankle Fri night, and I'm the one who has to find a sub for her, which feels like insult added to injury. I may as well cancel my Friday lesson right now :roll:.

At least this time, "last" was 3rd and I got my first piece of hardware to hang on the kitchen wall.

CONGRATULATIONS!

[Sessy]

BTW my ankle's "okay" today. It's not hurting, feels swollen and "locked" but it only looks swollen where I didn't ice it (2 small spots off the main area on the outside of the ankle). Everything absolutely typical of every other ankle sprain I've had. I'm hoping it'll heal like one too. :)


A divot?

Sorry to hear about your hip. :( That just sucks about no bags. :( I hope you heal soon(er than expected).

[liz_on_ice]

generous - I dragged myself out of bed to the 6am freestyle this morning. It was soooo worth it. Practiced everything in peace, and even program run-throughs went well. Now I'm at work with a goofy "skated my cares away" grin.

heartless - it won't make it to lunch :roll:

[liz_on_ice]

I'm off the ice - heaven only knows for how long.

I'm so sorry to hear about your ankle Sessy, I know you must be going nuts :(

dbny and DD too, wow the body count this weekend was high!

Big congrats to Helen88 and RustyBlades!

[jskater49]

Generous -

IT's ALL GOOD today

Power class - I haven't been on the ice since last Wed and that was only for my half hour lesson because I've been sick so it was a challenge to keep going...but

I DID ONE REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS POWER PULL! I could hear the rip.

On to my Dance lesson...I CAN NOW DO MOHAWKS! I can now hold the mohawk edge--I was rotating on the inside edge so much I had no choice but to rush the mohawk - used to have similar problem with 3 turns, so we got my hips squared and my shoulders steady so I can control it. I even did the Swing to music, on time, mohawk and everything. Only one pattern though because I was just too tired.

But I was quite pleased.

j

[flo]

Generous: Congrats to all!

Heartless: My club decided they will not have a holiday show this winter. The party line is that the board and the pro's decided not to have it. One pro said that would provide more time to "teach" the "invaluable" group lessons. It's pretty lame. The kids loved having a Christmas show and so did the parents who got to see their kids skate. I had always organized the show, which was primarily solo and two skater programs with a couple group programs for the kids. Our primary show was in the spring. Now no one wants to put the time into it (I left the VP spot last year). The kids I spoke to and another coach are pretty dissapointed. I do believe it's possible to learn AND have a show.

[jskater49]

Generous: Congrats to all!

Heartless: My club decided they will not have a holiday show this winter. The party line is that the board and the pro's decided not to have it. One pro said that would provide more time to "teach" the "invaluable" group lessons. It's pretty lame. The kids loved having a Christmas show and so did the parents who got to see their kids skate. I had always organized the show, which was primarily solo and two skater programs with a couple group programs for the kids. Our primary show was in the spring. Now no one wants to put the time into it (I left the VP spot last year). The kids I spoke to and another coach are pretty dissapointed. I do believe it's possible to learn AND have a show.

Well that really sucks! We do an informal holiday exhibition as well as a big spring show. And kids are getting ready for a competition in January but they still manage to cope. :-/ We are doing a fun adult number to Richard Simmons "It's the most fattening time of the year"

j

[flo]

"Well that really sucks! We do an informal holiday exhibition as well as a big spring show. And kids are getting ready for a competition in January but they still manage to cope. :-/ We are doing a fun adult number to Richard Simmons "It's the most fattening time of the year" "

Great idea!!!!
I think it has more to do with no one wanting to put forth the effort than taking time away from group lessons. There have been a lot of changes in the club recently, and there's a perception that everything has to be a major event or not at all. They're really missing out on the basic need for the members to enjoy skating and include everone. Even if we just had the little tots march out to "trim up the tree" they enjoyed it!

[doubletoe]

Well mine's quite the opposite of Morgail. Goes straight into the heartless category by all means.

I'm off the ice - heaven only knows for how long. They didn't quite wipe the ice after the sunday afternoon freeskate session, I got stuck in a hockey cut in the ice, fell with my right ankle (yeah, that's the been-broken one) underneath me out of a change-foot spin (which were doing really well up until then by the way, I had the controlled foot-change-straight-to-back-outside-edge down on that spin)...

Yeah real fun. :roll:

It feels swollen, achy. Coach-parttime-physiotherapist says I'll be fine by the sole grace of my rock hard edmonton skates in terms of bones and all, but it's looking like a sprain to me. We iced it of course, I still had to go home by bike, but I iced it more afterwards.

So, anybody wanna bet on how many more bad luck I'm gonna have with the ankle?

Sorry to sound all bitter and cynical, but right now, that's about everything I can be.
I just sat on the ice and cried and then I cried some more in the changing room and then when I got home I was soaking wet from the rain and I didn't give a darn. I don't seem to give a darn about anything at all anymore right now.

Here's how rock hard bottom feels.



Oh, Sessy, I am SO SO sorry!!! :cry: I know I would feel the exact same way. I am very relieved, though, to hear that you did not break it again. Thank goodness for your new boots!!

(((((HUG)))))


DBNY, I hope your hip gets better soon, and more get-well wishes for your daughter's sprained ankle.

Helen88, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Here's my Heartless or Generous for yesterday:

Heartless
Barely made it through my program yesterday. I only skated it once in the past week and did fine then, but I hadn't skated it for 3 weeks before that, so now I know my limit. I can only go 3 weeks without losing stamina, and then I need to skate it at least 2-3 times a week.

Found out I wasn't using correct technique when going from backspin to forward spin. My coach is a stickler, and I got sick to my stomach from practicing this transition over and over. It's still very hit & miss. I don't have it down at all.

Reverse sitspin back on hiatus again, except for an occasional apearance.

Generous
Landed 3 axels from the setup I'm using in my program. Could the axel hangup be gone, or was yesterday an exception?
Landed 2 clean double sals and several that were very close. I hadn't even tried one in at least a month, and before that, I couldn't land one to save my life. Yay!
Back power 3's are getting much more consistent. I sure hope they stay that way when I step in front of the judges again on 12/14.

[Morgail]

Congratulations! I'm glad you got back on the ice -- it seems like only yesterday you were injured - when was it anyway???
it sounds like you did a lot for the first time back. (I have been known to hold onto the wall for those "first 3-turns after an injury" - so it sounds like you are doing great!

Thanks! It was Sept. 2, and I had the surgery on Sept. 6. It seems like forever ago to me:lol: And I did my first 3-turns yesterday holding onto the wall ;)

BTW my ankle's "okay" today. It's not hurting, feels swollen and "locked" but it only looks swollen where I didn't ice it (2 small spots off the main area on the outside of the ankle). Everything absolutely typical of every other ankle sprain I've had. I'm hoping it'll heal like one too. :)


I'm glad it's not hurting you too much! That's so frustrating. I had visions of myself doing something like that yesterday. I hope it gets better very quickly!


Passed level 7 (Skate UK) :)


Congrats!!


At least this time, "last" was 3rd and I got my first piece of hardware to hang on the kitchen wall.


Congratulations!


You can put me on the injured list too, and I wasn't even practicing! I was teaching today on a public session, skating slowly backwards, when I suddenly noticed something wasn't right, then I realized I was falling straight down. I hit hard on my L hip, the part you sit on, of course. I had caught the tail of my blade in a big divot.


Ouch! There's nothing like those falls that catch you completely unaware:roll: Hope it feels better soon.


I DID ONE REAL HONEST TO GOODNESS POWER PULL! I could hear the rip.
On to my Dance lesson...I CAN NOW DO MOHAWKS! I can now hold the mohawk edge--I was rotating on the inside edge so


Yay! I love hearing the rip sound:) And yay for the mohawks too!

[Laura H]

Had group lesson tonight . . . not quite sure what to expect since I had some problems last week with fatigue (turned out it was from anemia . . .whoops) but have since been taking iron supplements (well, and sleeping a lot over the 4 day weekend!) and just starting to get some energy again . . . but didn't want to miss my group lesson :oops: it went fine though.

Heartless: bleagh . . . not really doing a great job on "collecting all my body parts" (as I put it) in jumps . . . I keep forgetting to pull in my arms and you would think I would have learned something from hearing coach get on DS about that CONSTANTLY during his lessons. . . maybe it's just in our genes! :roll: Or, my favorite, when my free leg goes wild and I end up doing the spread eagle thingie . . . but anyhow . . .

Generous: I did manage to get it together for some decent jumps, we worked on the waltz, salchow, toe loop and then the instructor had me try a salchow-toe loop combo (that's a first for me, I don't know WHAT brought that on that request from her??) but after a couple of humorous aborted attempts I actually DID get through the combo of the two - yahoo!! So then she asked what I did with our sub instructor last week and I said that we had done a little of the flip prep exercises (setup and toe in and jump/land with no rotation) . . . so she wanted to see the prep setup and then next thing I know she is headed for the harness . . . yipes!!! So I got to do some flips in the harness . . . and boy was I glad I was in the harness because I certainly would have had some good bruises without the help on the landings . . . but very cool to be able to work on the flip . . . if I can just get my arms coordinated and helping out to get me higher, I think I might be able to do this!

Public session wasn't too bad except that there were lots of younger figure skaters playing around with group routines for the Christmas shows . . . once I figured out their basic pattern I was able to divert around without too much trouble. I think DS is going to skate to the Grinch music ("You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch") which should be lots of fun for him . . . I had it on my MP3 player tonight just to see how it would be to skate to, and it is lots of fun!

[dbny]

BTW my ankle's "okay" today. It's not hurting, feels swollen and "locked" but it only looks swollen where I didn't ice it (2 small spots off the main area on the outside of the ankle). Everything absolutely typical of every other ankle sprain I've had. I'm hoping it'll heal like one too. :)


A divot?

Sorry to hear about your hip. :( That just sucks about no bags. :( I hope you heal soon(er than expected).

I'm glad your ankle is better today. How long did your other sprains take to heal? DD is hoping to be back on the ice by Sunday, which is also her birthday. I'm hoping she'll be back by Friday so I don't have to cover for her. Neither one seems realistic, I'm afraid.

"divot" is borrowed from golf: the cavity left when a piece of turf is cut from the ground by the club head in making a stroke. From the looks of it, the one that caught me was not from a toe jump, but most likely from some miscreant on the public session kicking the tail of his blade into the ice for fun :evil:.

I woke up feeling so much better than I had expected! As long as I don't sit directly on the L hip, I'm OK. It doesn't even hurt to skate or do other ordinary movements. I am, however, scared to skate backwards in the area where I fell. I was teaching tonight, and about to demo B cross strokes, when I realized it would put me right through that area. I had to stop and skate elsewhere, with an apology to my student :oops:. I found out who to see about supplies for the skate rental (where they have the plastic bags and latex gloves), and they have already been replenished.

[ibreakhearts66]

generous
no sexual predators on the bus today

did a decent double loop double loop combo. and i'm getting so comfortable with my double loop that i'm even pulling off the iffy-takeoff ones.

got a lot of height and distance on all of my doubles tody. triples will be fun, i'm already overrotating my doubles like a 1/4 of a time.

heartless
ahh the injury gods are angry

first, i came down forwards on a double (triple?) sal. it was a half-turn over-rotated, and as i came down, i fell realllly hard. cracked my arm on the ice right below the elbow, right where my arm was most likely broken from about 5 weeks ago

my ankle/leg is a mess :( i had surgery on the ankle like 8 months ago, and i still have a lot of pain. i'm finally going to go to the doctor tomorrow, cuz its not good. just walking and standing really hurts. and i also have really bad pain on the outside of my lower leg. pushing off my toes sends horrible pain up my leg, so loops, double loops, even back spins hurt.

[Sessy]

Well my previous ankle sprains took usually 2 weeks before I could participate in school gym, of course, at the time I wasn't skating. Besides I'm not entirely clear on how one can sprain an ankle in stiff skating boots but apparently anything is possible cuz it really was the outside swollen yesterday - the swelling is down today, but it still feels "locked". So I've no clue how long it'll take.
I'm taking at least 2 weeks off ice entirely I think, and I'm obviously not going to try jumping again in december - after that, I'll see how the healing goes.

DBNY, good to hear it's not as bad as originally thought. Still sucks obviously.
Ibreakhearts, sorry to hear about your arm & leg. Sounds like a mess. :(

[Mrs Redboots]

Sorry to hear about all the injuries! Get well soon....

As for us:

Heartless: Why we were skating today? Actually, of the seven skaters from our rink who competed this weekend, four of us were back on the ice this morning. Husband and I thought we were a bit stupid, really, and should have cancelled out and taken a week's rest. He must certainly not jump for at least a week, as his knees know that he's overdone the jumping lately. But his coach wants him to work on moves anyway, this winter, so he can rest the jumps for a bit.

Generous: Working on partnering, as always in the winter - each winter, we learn more and more about what isn't happening, but whether it will actually ever start happening is another story! I hope so.... meanwhile, we are to work on the British and European waltzes, which is great!

[BatikatII]

Sessy: so sorry you've hurt your ankle again. it is so hard tokeep off the ice and not jump when you are injured but it really is the only way to heal. Hope it's quick and you can be back jumping but dont' rush it this time!

Healing vibes to everyone else with injuries too.

Heartless: my coach making me do level 5 field moves. I couldn't even follow what he was doing on some of them let alone do it. Did have a bit more of a clue by the end but am not convinced he is teaching what they actually are as opposed to what he thinks they are. They've all changed recently and he is notorious for interpreting them differently to everyone else!

Generous: did a bit of jumping at the end and loops felt easy. Did loop then loop-loop then loop-loop-loop and got as far as 4 in a row - wayhay!

Even flip worked first time but ran out of time to practice lutz.

heartless: Am not enjoying practising our group number for christmas show. We've been given very little time and have had just two rehearsals mixed in with other groups. Coach has put in some complicated on the spot dance stuff at the very end which we do not have time to make look good and none of us can even remember, so I'm not going to do it. I dont' mind practising skating but this is ridiculous. Then the higher level skater in group does not want to compromise what she does to accomodate the lower level skaters and being in the middle I'm having to adapt what I do to try and accomodate both. Then just when I think something's been decided the person in front of me reverts to something I thought we'd changed and I have no idea which version to do. I dont' mind which we do, I'd just like to know! Ah well. It'll probably all change anyway as we have to interact with one of the principals and we've not even been on the same ice as him yet.

[Isk8NYC]

Heartless:
My right foot. :roll: There's definitely something wrong with it - outside edges are better, but still PITA's.

Back crossovers near the wall - hate them!

Three turns on my left foot. Every one was a miserable piece of trash.

Almost went down on a 'click of death' but managed to keep my sorry butt off the ice.

Mediocre:
Threes-on-the-line. LoR back crossovers - again with the right foot. (RoL are outstanding and fast, though!)
Camel spins were pretty weak and couldn't do any combinations with them.
Back spins - better, not great. Sit spins were wimpy - knees were tired.
Tango stops - managed 3-4 good ones.
Twizzles - well, RFI only. Good if I keep my arms up; managed to keep the free foot in front once or twice today.

Generous:
Jumps - another 1/4 turn and I'll be landing a loop and a flip. Waltz jumps were good.
Made the world's biggest divot today practicing the lutz. I patched it before someone else tripped.
Layback - I think I actually laid back this time instead of doing a fancy attitude spin. Managed a sideways-leaning spin, too!
Right foot three turns were all excellent and controlled.
Managed several decent spreadeagles and started working on an Ina Bauer!
(Stretching is really helping.)

Have to work on bringing the free foot back before stepping from BI to FO edges.

[Kim to the Max]

Heartless: There were a ton of people on the ice tonight because there is a competition this weekend. I normally don't skate on Tuesdays because of a work commitment, however, I canceled that meeting for tonight (the perk of being the boss :) ), and when I got to the rink and remembered the competition, I wondered why I went! I could hardly get anything done because I thought I was going to take out one of the younger kids. The competition also means no lesson on Friday, which is a big bummer because I look forward to my lessons and spending time with my coach.

Generous: Because it was so crazy, I didn't have a chance to work on moves, so I focused on freestyle. Did some good forward/back scratch combos...let's see if I 'll be able to replicate that on Thursday when maybe the ice will be less crowded.

I am getting to a "don't get mad, get even" point with my axels. The majority of them feel good on take off, I get the full rotation, I think my legs are even in the right spot, and then...sorry, no go....I two foot the landing...not even horribly two footed...just a little toe touch....it's frustrating :twisted: But...I will not get mad, I will get even, and I will land this freaking jump!

I also did some really big flip jumps :) which make me happy...I do enjoy flips...lutzes on the other hand, were just mediocre today. Oh well...

[xofivebyfive]

Heartless: It's been a while since I last posted here. But anyway, with all of my lyme problems, the worst is getting up in the morning, because I don't fall asleep until 6am and I have to wake up at 7 to go to school. So, I will be getting home instruction at least through december, possibly into January depending on my situation at that time.

I couldn't even get my freaking scratch spin centered at my group lesson tonight. It was really frustrating. my spins were just not their usual quality. And I got.. 30 minutes of sleep today, so that probably didn't help LOL.

Generous: My flip was really nice and high. And I don't have to be in school again until January! Except I love my teachers and how they teach and I'm really upset that I'm going to miss out on experiencing their teaching for 6 weeks.. I don't know whether to be happy or frustrated. Or both. Ah well. No school for the rest of the week for me because the tutor thing doesn't start unti Monday. Good news for skating because it will open up a lot more hours and options to choose from instead of only 3:15-4:15. yeah.

OH And I'm taking gymnastics classes with my friend. Yeah I know, I'm too messed up to be in school but I can get do skating and gymnastics? The answer is yes. It's two totally different things. If school started at 11 then I could be in school fine. So. yeah.

If you want to see what I'm currently doing in skating.. have a gander: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHbwwh1IEhI

[Sessy]

It's probably best to catch up on that sleep some other time then, because not getting enough sleep really does your immune system in, and you need every inch of that you can get right now. I couldn't sleep for whiles at all either, I'd wake up in pain and then I just couldn't fall asleep, at some point I was studying at night and sleeping by day after school.

[Mrs Redboots]

Generous: Very quiet ice this morning, and a good practice and lesson.

Heartless: Husband's spins work now! What would have been wrong with the weekend? He's banned (by me) from jumping for at least a week and preferably a fortnight, as he overdid it on practice ice on Friday and his knee has been bothering him, so he's working on spins and moves when not working on dance holds with me.

British Waltz went a bit over-curved due to over-enthusiasm on his part.... we can fix that!

[Scarlett]

Heartless:
Had final lesson with coach this morning as he is moving across country. :(

[icedancer2]

Heartless:
Had final lesson with coach this morning as he is moving across country. :(

Oh, man, that is too bad - I had that happen to me a long time ago (his students wandered around for months but then actually something good happened and a really good set of coaches came to the rink to replace him!)

And my current coach has decided to suddenly retire and so I am feeling that sadness also - when your coach leaves you feel kind of like a ship out of water, wandering aimlessly around...:(

[momsk8er]

Heartless - feeling kind of stuck in my skating - I've improved a lot since a year ago, but it really seems like I've been polishing what I already knew from childhood skating, but not learning anything new as an adult. All the moves I had as kid are coming back, and some are better than ever, but can I move beyond that to learn really new things? No, it doesn't seem so.

Jumps - could do waltz, sal, half jumps and toe when I was a kid, and can now do them nicely again. Never could land one footed loop or flip and still can't.

Spins - could do scratch, sit (but not all the way down), and camel as a kid. Now scratch is almost back to as good as then, sit is too (Still can't get low enough), camel is coming (stretch that leg up). No one ever taught me backspin when I was a kid. Working on it now but I get one or two revs if I'm lucky.

MIF - lol! they didn't even have these when I was a kid, so maybe I am learning new things, but they are just the edges, 3 turns and mohawks I learned in figures and dance. I passed the waltz 8 in prelim figures, and here I am working on it again for Adult Pre-Bronze! At least the 3's don't have to be on top of each other now! :D Never got to back 3's as a kid, and maybe one day I will get those.

Dance - can't even compete with where I was as a kid yet, but not really working on it. Saving that for my 60's ;)

Plus, my knees hurt this week. Getting old sucks.

[Sessy]

A spinner/spin trainer *really* helps with the backspins. Especially with the outside edge, so long you position the outside of the ball of the foot on the middle.

[jskater49]

Heartless - asked coach to help me learn to do real power pulls since we do them in power all the time. We started with two foot slalloms to get the knee rhythm and she has ordered me to stick with two foot for now and that is what I am to do in power class. I know it's for the best but it's BORING.

Generous - coach was VERY generous with praise for my forward perimeter crossovers - said my pattern was big, good inside edges, smooth crossovers, I look like I know what I'm doing.

Backward are doing well to, I just need to stretch and push more. Once she told me where to look - watch for the red dots - I'm keeping on the axis. That works much better than just putting my foot down whenever I feel like it.

Power 3s - those are really shaping up well, we just worked on keeping my head up, holding the shoulders so I control the rotation, again keep my eye out for the red dots and the axis is not a problem.

j

[jazzpants]

Heartless:
My right foot. :roll: There's definitely something wrong with it - outside edges are better, but still PITA's.Like this PITA???

http://www.byblosbakery.com/images/pita.jpg

:P :lol: (Sorry! Couldn't resist. I was just thinking of FrankR today... :twisted: :lol: ) Hope you get your right foot/skate thing resolved soon.

Generous:

Well, sorta generous... I'm starting to make progress on my back scratch spin technique. I've been spinning on the FI edge a lot and secondary coach is trying to correct it today. Now it's starting to go on the BO edge again and THEN flipping onto the FI edge. (If only I could do this in a controlled fashioned, I would probably get better IJS scores for spins!!! :halo: )

We're making some notable progress... though it's not there yet. I hope to eventually get a true backspin soon... THEN I can fix my back sit spin problem!!!

[jazzpants]

Heartless:

My body being stiff... it's been cold here in the Bay Area and it's taking a longer period of time for me to warm up to skate. Needless to say, my skating was crap during maybe the first half hour. Lucky for me I opted for just doing moves stuff.
Missed primary coach for the last two weeks. Last week he was sick with food poisoning. This week, he was there but since he didn't have any lessons tonight during the public session, he just took off and went home before I got there. It was pretty empty for a Monday night public session. (Wait! That last sentence is a "generous..." :P )Generous:

Got some okay camels.
Land clean some good loop jumps...can land some loop-loops clean too (albeit they were kinda wimpy too...)
Got some good flips (though there were some "heartless" ones too.) At least I'm kicking thru and getting some nice lift to it -- now I have to keep my torso squared and my free leg straight throughout the jump.) Lots more work in progress, but it's already improving since last month.

[blackmanskating]

Heartless:
Had final lesson with coach this morning as he is moving across country. :(


Hey Scarlett!!! I chatted with your coach thanksgiving morning at the rink. Yeah it kinda saddened me too to hear about him leaving for Cali. Don't worry we'll see him on TV at U.S. Nationals this year. I hope he does well. It was crazy to see him do a clean triple axel 10 feet away from me. It gave me something to aspire to. I'll probably never get a triple axel but it doesn't hurt to dream about it. :mrgreen:


Generous: Well my Bronze test is this Sunday and my field moves feel pretty good. It looks like I actually know what I'm doing. LOL My free program went okay. All of the elements were clean but I stumbled on the brackets and the ending pose. Maybe I was just tired.

Heartless: I don't know what's going on but skating is starting not to be as fun as it used to be. After this Bronze Test, I think I'll be taking a break from skating for a little while. I don't dread coming to the rink in the morning, however, I do not leave feeling good either. Is AOSS wearing off already??


BlackManSkating

[Sessy]

Nah, you just need a holiday.

[jazzpants]

Hey Scarlett!!! I chatted with your coach thanksgiving morning at the rink. Yeah it kinda saddened me too to hear about him leaving for Cali. Which part of Cali? (My guess if he's working on triple axels, it would be LA...)

Generous: Well my Bronze test is this Sunday and my field moves feel pretty good. It looks like I actually know what I'm doing. LOL My free program went okay. All of the elements were clean but I stumbled on the brackets and the ending pose. Maybe I was just tired.Remember... you don't need the brackets to pass this test, only to keep your coach happy! :lol: (But yeah, I would work on those anyway... since you want to keep your coach happy! :twisted: )

If we don't chat before your test, good luck with the Bronze tests... (doubt that you NEED the luck but... hey, won't hurt to have it either. :P )

Heartless: I don't know what's going on but skating is starting not to be as fun as it used to be. After this Bronze Test, I think I'll be taking a break from skating for a little while. I don't dread coming to the rink in the morning, however, I do not leave feeling good either. Is AOSS wearing off already??Well, I would recommend a short one week break after the test to recouperate. I have my moments where skating isn't as much fun as it used to be too. (i.e. when I'm frustrated with an element and nothing but nothing seems to make it work right... or if I'm just plain tired from all the training, gym workouts, work, home, yadda yadda...)

Come back after then... and if you STILL don't "feel the joy" of skating after that, talk to your coach about it. (Talk to us too... so we can talk you OUT of hangin' up your skates! :twisted: :lol: :P )

[icedancer2]

Heartless: I don't know what's going on but skating is starting not to be as fun as it used to be. After this Bronze Test, I think I'll be taking a break from skating for a little while. I don't dread coming to the rink in the morning, however, I do not leave feeling good either. Is AOSS wearing off already??
BlackManSkating

It gets harder the better you get because you realize there is so much more to it than you thought when you were first starting out - but mainly you have just reached a little plateau, which is also kind of normal before (and after) a test, so things are bound to get better again. I think competing is going to be really good for you.8-)

Hey, blackmanskating - is that your myspace page on your signature line? I don't see anything about figure skating on there!

Heartless: My skating right now - had such a sinus headache this morning that I could barely skate, but it was okay because of the

Generous: people of our area who worked hard to get my coach to come back to teaching!!!! I went to the rink this morning (my dear old hockey rink) just to see her and to set up a lesson for the end of the week - and here I thought she was gone for good!

What a time - it's amazing the role our skating teachers play in our lives - as skating teachers and friends and people who go through stuff with us, etc. I really love her!!!:)

[doubletoe]

I don't know what's going on but skating is starting not to be as fun as it used to be. After this Bronze Test, I think I'll be taking a break from skating for a little while. I don't dread coming to the rink in the morning, however, I do not leave feeling good either. Is AOSS wearing off already??


BlackManSkating

Actually, that's a sure sign that the AOSS is setting in even DEEPER! :mrgreen: You know you're truly addicted when there's more suffering involved and the highs are not always as high but you still CAN'T STOP!:twisted:
But seriously, the pressure always gets to everyone the week before a test or competition, so you are in good company. Once you pass your test, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment and relief, and then you will have loads of fun just playing and skating for fun the next time you skate! You'll do great!

[Rusty Blades]

But seriously, the pressure always gets to everyone the week before a test or competition, so you are in good company

LOL! I always get everything backward! I am as cool as a cucumber leading up to a competition and take to the ice like I own the place (which really amazes the coaches, who wished I could teach that to their competitive youngsters) but for a few days after competition I just don't give a .... darn.

Three days after competition now and I am not really looking forward to going back tomorrow. It is the beginning of a 10 week drag to the next competition and two new programs to develop. This is the low spot for me, but the A.O.S.S. will keep me going.

[blackmanskating]

Which part of Cali? (My guess if he's working on triple axels, it would be LA...)

I'm not sure which part of Cali he went to. He's had a Triple Axel for a while. I believe he's working on his quad now. But it probably is L.A.

Remember... you don't need the brackets to pass this test, only to keep your coach happy! :lol: (But yeah, I would work on those anyway... since you want to keep your coach happy! :twisted: )

If we don't chat before your test, good luck with the Bronze tests... (doubt that you NEED the luck but... hey, won't hurt to have it either. :P )



Thanks for the vote of confidence!!! I'm going to do the best I can!! I just can't let me nerves get the best of me.

Actually, that's a sure sign that the AOSS is setting in even DEEPER! :mrgreen: You know you're truly addicted when there's more suffering involved and the highs are not always as high but you still CAN'T STOP!:twisted:
But seriously, the pressure always gets to everyone the week before a test or competition, so you are in good company. Once you pass your test, you will feel a great sense of accomplishment and relief, and then you will have loads of fun just playing and skating for fun the next time you skate! You'll do great!

This skating slump I've been feeling has been happening for about a month now. I am not sure what's causing it but I am convinced I need to take a step back to take two steps forward. Thanks again for all of the support. Finding this website has been one of the best things for my mental preparedness for skating.


BlackManSkating

[Skate@Delaware]

Heartless: Ok, I admit tonight I was "grumpy old lady" on the ice...the little kid bop music really aggravated me...and the SAME music from Nutcracker is bothering me...so I only took one kid out!!! Actually, i was skating and she swerved INTO my path at the last minute. I screamed and so did she and I went squeaking between her and the wall...it was a near miss that shook us both!

I am afraid of crossovers at this point. I did not do them yesterday. I was afraid my left foot would roll out from underneath me and that my ankle would get hurt. My confidence is shaken. I did manage them but they were not something to be proud of. I need to wrap my ankle until the strength in my ankle and leg is back.

Generous: Jumps!!!!! Using my WHOLE leg instead of just the lower portion, I did manage to jump! All except the toe-loop (which is only 2-3 jumps) were pretty decent. The toe-loop gave me problems with the picking in because my foot wanted to go sideways (again a strength issue).

We did an exercise with the salchow. I am to add a back glide then do the 3-turn then jump it only after warming up with: 3-turns, mohawk/salchows, 3-turn/salchows.

Backspins were kickin!!!! It's finally clickin!!! Then we tried from a one-foot spin into a backspin and that rocked! maybe got 2 revs on the backspin but it's a start! Why does it feel like I'm spinning in the opposite direction when I switch feet????? I get really disoriented. Weird.

I'm happy! I taught classes (yay, we are spinning on two-feet, my favorite!) and had a great time AND had a wonderful session tonight!

[doubletoe]

This skating slump I've been feeling has been happening for about a month now. I am not sure what's causing it but I am convinced I need to take a step back to take two steps forward. Thanks again for all of the support. Finding this website has been one of the best things for my mental preparedness for skating.

BlackManSkating

I totally understand, since I've been in a slump for several months now myself. But I think these are the things that test what we're made of, KWIM? You end up learning so much about yourself and what you are capable of by reaching that point of hating skating and hating yourself, then deciding you need to change something from the inside and seeing it all start to turn around again. If that doesn't make sense yet, I'm sure it will at some point. This journey is totally worth it. :)

[singerskates]

Heartless:
The infection that won't go away completely that's logged onto my voice box all because the first doctor/clinic gave me a kid's perscription the first time and the wrong instructions written on the bottle. Yesterday when I finally went to my normal clinic the doctor they caught the mistake the first clinic/doctor made. My normal clinic doctor check me out to find that the infection had moved to my voice box and chest and returned to my ears even through it had only been two days since I had finished the medication from the first doctor/clinic.

My energy level. I couldn't do a full run through of my program. I had nothing left after only doing 1/4 of my freeskate program. I also had young skaters who don't know any better and don't watch for the person who is skating to their music, so I had to ditch an element or too to avoid them.

Gernerous:
Since seriously working on my 3 turns Tuesday/yesterday, my 3's look like real 3s and they no longer throw off my elements.

Waltz - good speed, height and flow

Toe loop - good controlled 3 going in, decent toe in that wasn't cheated and was finally properly placed, decent height and good flow on the landing.

Salchow - 3 going into jump controlled, proper take-off (no over rotating and doing a toe axel), more height than I've done in a long time, good flow on the exit.

Loop - 1st attemped I had a brain cramp and almost did a toe loop. Good 3 going into jump, but jumped one second too early and forgot to go down in the knee before jumping, still got good height and all the way around but didn't have enough time to get my free leg back and landed on two feet.

Flip - I'm not picking close enough to my skating leg and that causes me to not get the skating leg to cross infront of my picking leg as I'm jumping up and so I end up only getting all the way around but I also land on two feet. Need lesson tomorrow to fix this.

Camel - didn't attempt one because there were too many kids on the ice who were just the right height to cut off their heads with my blade since they keep getting in my way.

Sitspin - shockingly fast, low enough with free leg extended and close to skating leg, was centered like a drawing of the lid of a peanut butter jar.

Sit/broken sit - sit was centered but broken the first attemped travelled, 2nd and there after were decent.

Forward Corkscrew - centered and so fast that there was no way to count my tracings, so I gave up counting them.

Neither:
With 20 minutes left of the session, myself and two other skaters who can actually do programs, slummed it and joined the pre-prelims group session even through it was way beneath us. Why? One of the skaters had a competition in which she won a Silver medal out of 8 or 9 skaters on the weekend and today was her meltdown day after having such a great skate. The other was tired and I had no gas left in the tank. But we had fun.

[Skittl1321]

Generous
LOVE the new blades. I feel like I go SO fast with the same amount of push. It's required a lot of adjustment, because at times I feel like I'm going too fast to securely change my weight. But yesterday doing moves I got a "great power, work on your extension now". Never ever before have the words "great" and "power" been used in the same sentence to describe me (it's generally "lacks power"). YAY. Also- turns on these are fantastic, most of my moves are back to as good, if not better, than they were before the blade switch (having problem with alternating forward crossovers because of that going too fast thing). My spins are almost back to as good as they were- when I hit them, they are better, but I have more misses I think. I did a few good-for-me backspins, which hadn't been happening at all on the old blades. I'm still a bit scared of jumping, but I don't really like jumping anyway. I've really only tried waltz jumps on them- and that's gone great.



Heartless Still not sure about the boots. I've been losing feeling in my feet- but when I skated in my old boots the same thing happened, and it doesn't usually. So I think it's just cold cold ice.

Worked mostly on moves yesterday. My back outside edges from crossovers need work on the left side. I'm like a tippy bird on them. And I can't turn my neck all the way due to my fusion, and it makes me very insecure on these- because I can't see my path at all.

My legs are so sore I can barely walk today- and my feet still hurt from yesterday. I ususally do 1 hour freestyle and 1 hour synchro on Wednesdays, but yesterday we added in 1 hour of christmas show. That was too much for my poor feet. I don't know what it is I did that hurt my legs. I guess all the back outside edge extensions?

Syncrho- I love love love the synchro team, but I'm having a hard time deciding if it's right for me. Longer journal entry on this if you are interested. I don't really want to type it up here.

[Rusty Blades]

Back into the regular swing of things after competition on the weekend.

Heartless: Two new programs to do for February - 1 Interpretive, 1 Bronze Free. I think coach is skeptical I can do two programs in 8 weeks.

Generous: I think I can ..... I think I can .... I think I can! :mrgreen:

[Isk8NYC]

Skittl - the new boots-and-blades might be a bit heavier than your old ones. Maybe that's causing the pain? Give your feet a good stretch and a warm soak after skating.

Heartless:
I couldn't figure out the placement of the power back crossover pattern. I swear I'm going to hit the wall! lol At least they actually have some power - I'll hit the wall with an impressive slam! rofl

Rotten right foot. I think the blade needs adjusting now that I have new insoles, tongue placement, and corrective sharpening. It feels like it's set a little too much to the outside. Now to find a skate tech.

Stupid loop, flip, and lutz jumps. Still need another quarter turn. At least I can use the new loop entrance (RFI3) with confidence - it's almost better than the old LFO3-RBO edge. (Still like the feel of that one, though.)

Mediocre:
My split jump gets good height, but I've noticed that I'm doing a straddle split instead of a front split. Same thing for the split falling leaves - not front-to-back but side-to-side. Bad habits die hard.

Started working on reverse direction spins. The one-foot upright is actually decent, but the backspin makes me incredibly dizzy and off-balance - right onto the heel. Very scary.

Generous:
Figured out that putting the crossover circles across the middle lets me skate bigger circles without the wall fear. Well, it's something.

Waltz jumps and Cabriolet Waltz jumps were good.
Spreadeagles, tango stops, and Twizzles (RFI, RBO) were okay. Someone suggested the opposite-direction backspin as a way to get better at the left-foot twizzles, so I'll give it a try for a bit.

Spins were good, but nothing fancy. One really nice layback, a handful of camel spins and a wicked fast sit spin combination. (There's a song in there somewhere: "On the first day of Christmas...")

[Skittl1321]

Skittl - the new boots-and-blades might be a bit heavier than your old ones. Maybe that's causing the pain? Give your feet a good stretch and a warm soak after skating.


Thanks for the advice- I think the ice is just getting really cold- since I skate barefoot. It did it in both of my boots yesterday. (I'm still wearing the old ones for synchro and power class until the christmas show is over- so I have the same feel I've been rehearsing with.) And it was just a long day skating for me. But it's nice to have a remedy to really really painful feet!


One really nice layback, a handful of camel spins and a wicked fast sit spin combination. (There's a song in there somewhere: "On the first day of Christmas...")
That sure beats a partridge in a pear tree anyday! (What does she do with all the birds?)

[Muskoka Skater]

Wednesday Night

Generous

-absolutely everything, can't wait till my competition this Saturday and my test day this Wednesday

Heartless

-Nothing

[Sessy]

Wow, I was just cleaning up my harddisk and I found a video of my skating precisely 1 year ago. Talk about toeloops and salchows without getting off the ground, sheesh! :o
Makes me feel a little bit better about myself :)

[jazzpants]

Heartless:
Time for my LOOP to go on vacation! I can land them usually clean but no flow comes out of it. And my primary coach wants a loop-loop??? 8O :giveup: I just didn't want to jump after that...

Generous:
Of course, my primary coach made me do a flip after that... landed my first one clean and he says "That was a good flip. How come you can land that but not the loop?" I said, "Might be a lucky flip???" Primary coach goes :roll: then says "Try another then..." I did another nice clean one, came back and said "I guess I didn't make my case of lucky shot that well, huh?" :oops: He said "Not only THAT, but...you got to fix your arms on that last flip!!!" :twisted: (Murphy's Law of Skating in action here!!!)

Camel spins are definitely improving. "It was pretty good... well good for you, anyway..." primary coach says! :P

Sit spin was low...

Heartless again:
...but now I have to turn out my free foot too!!! :P

Practiced my 3-turn entry from a standstill to a backspin.... it's not working today!!! :frus:

[liz_on_ice]

ugh, heartless - got up early to skate Rockefeller Center under the newly lit tree. When I got there, the zamboni was jammed up on some bit of rubble from the celebrations and there were all kinds of tassles and doodads frozen into the ice. No way they were getting it skateable before I'd be late for work, so no skating. Sniff. Tree was pretty though.

[Terri C]

Generous:
Primary coach was pleased with program runthrough today, though I'd have to re-skate the loop and sitspin if this had been the test.
It was also not bad considering I had to skate this without the music!

Heartless:
Our friggin sound system is down again!! Just last week it was working to where I knew when my music would start and this week- shot again!
GRRRR!

[sk8pics]

Ahem....all Generous I skated today and had a lesson! It was great! Actually, I felt slightly wobbly at first because the ice was actually smoother than I have been used to, since I'd only been skating public sessions with crappy ice, and this was a freestyle session with only semi-crappy ice, LOL! But it was great. My coach was great, and we ran through all kinds of things, basic, but fun. My left ankle and foot have gotten so much stronger, I was able to hold a backward one foot glide on it and go perfectly straight, straighter than I could go on my right (never broken) foot! Just like before I broke my left ankle!

The best part: I did forward crossovers. Okay, so they were clunky (although the left over right ones were somewhat progressive-like), and they were halting, and I had a death-grip on my coach's hand (and he had a good grip on my hand and arm as well), and I was terrified, but I did them!:mrgreen: So cool! I have really not stopped smiling since I got back on the ice.

Since today was my first day back at my regular rink, I got to see lots of people I hadn't seen in a while, and that was great, too. And in fact, when I walked up, my regular coach was standing outside talking with the guy who was my spinning coach before the broken ankle. Both of them gave me big hugs, which was sweet. And my regular coach couldn't get over how much stronger I am, and was commenting on how fast I was walking, and how I looked totally normal (he meant it as a compliment, LOL), and my balance was totally back. I also showed them how I can even jump up and down now, and he was commenting on the spring I had. It was all nice to hear, because sometimes the progress seems so slow, and it's good to be reminded of how far I've come!

[jazzpants]

SOOOOO glad to see that you're well beyond recovered from that broken ankle, Pat!!! SOOOOO glad!!! :mrgreen: :bow:

Does this mean that if I have a NYC skating meetup this year that you might be able to join us too!!?!?! :mrgreen: I know, long shot question... but given you did make it to Staten Island a couple of years back... This year's meetup will probably be at Aviator again... :P

4 more weeks 'til my visit to NYC!!! WOO HOO!!! :mrgreen:

[badaxel]

I haven't posted in a while because we finally moved into our new house and I haven't had time to skate until this week!

Heartless:
-My spins haven't been so fabulous. I really have not wanted to practice therm, either!
-Ran my program for the first time and I ended like 20 seconds too late. Hmmm...
-I think Intermediate moves are going to have to wait until after sectionals. Maybe I'll just start messing around with Novice so there's still a chance I can pass them both by the end of the summer.
-My spiral are hideous. I must stretch and work on them more!

Generous:
-Still landing the axel pretty consistently! Now it's just getting it into the program...
-I landed TWO double salchows that only had a 1/4 cheat. It won't be long now!
-I love my new music and footwork. I'm really working on slowing down and really skating everything well.

[Isk8NYC]

Ahem....all Generous I skated today and had a lesson!
Congrats! I'm so happy for you!

I used a Elliptical machine yesterday for the first time in ages, skated this morning's coffee club for 1.5 hours, then taught a 1/2 group lesson this evening. My legs feel like the calf muscles have turned to stone.

Advil and Ben Gay for me tonight - which reminds me of something not so nice. This past spring, a young (17!) track runner died suddenly in her sleep. The coroner's office ruled that the death was caused by an overdose of muscle pain reliever. The girl had been using the rubs, the pads, and some other method (not stated) often. Very unusual, but thought I'd ask our skaters to be careful with this stuff and avoid methyl salicyte poisoning.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19144600/ (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19144600/)

[Kim to the Max]

Generous
Oh the joys of pretty much empty ice :) even though there is a competition this weekend, there was NO ONE at the rink...it was quite nice.

Ran through moves, and they were actually pretty good. Back double3s, power3s and brackets were all good. Power crossovers were also passable, although, I need to work on making sure they are not so loud :oops: Slide chasse pattern was okay as well, but I always mess up the last lobe...I think it's because it's so close to the end that I think I'm going to run out of room.

It was a good spin day :) Did some good scratch/back scratch, good camels, sits, and laybacks.
Did some big loops, flips, and lutzes...still need to work on the lutzes and getting them up to the quality of my other jumps...there is just something about it though...

Worked on axels a bit...still very close...I can't wait for the day when I can land that jump.

Measured myself today, and it appears that I have lost an inch off each of my thighs, and a few inches off my hips, waist, and chest :D I am so excited about that! However, I do need to start going to the gym in the mornings before work to work on my endurance and making sure I don't keel over in the middle of my program.

Heartless
Did a program run through on the empty ice (so that I wouldn't knock anyone out!)...it was very slow, and I was very late, but not too bad. I need to keep running through it to build up endurance. I should also try to make it to the gym...ugh...the gym (dang, I said that horrible word again!)! I am so not a fan! I need to also drill my footwork...I keep getting "stuck" on a bracket-bracket that's in there...I can do it, it's just that it takes me a while to get set for the second one. :roll:

Talked with my mom today...some days she is supportive of me skating again, however, on others....not so much...today was one of those other days...it's frustrating to try to share something that I love with her and she doesn't want to hear about it. Today she said somethings that made me believe that she thinks I'm too old to be skating :( And I, of course, believe that as long as I'm happy and able to skate, I will be on the ice!!

[singerskates]

Heartless:
Infection creaping in to my skating. That is to say the infection that I'm fighting for the second week in a row has travelled down to my glands where my torso joins with my legs. LOL Not LOL , ... LOL After my skating lesson with my secondary coach (I have him on Thursdays), I went to do another full ice Change Edge spiral which is part of my spiral sequence only to find out painfully on the change edge that I couldn't do it because of the stupid infected gland. I was hunged over after that. LAMS (means=laughing at myself)

First attempt at salchow, I nearly kissed the ice because the infection has left my right foot and my foot isn't swollen anymore which means my foot is sloshing all over inside my boot.

Gernerous:

Didn't fall on the first attempt of my salchow today even though I just about touched the ice with both hands, was very deep in the skating knee and the other leg was way back but somehow I had the strength to fight falling and jumped up out of the wacky landing to save myself. I really thought I was going to kiss the ice with my head, I was so close to the ice. I was surprised but my coach was even more surprised that I pulled it out.

Forward Scratchspin (for us Canucks Corkscrew): Fast but not as fast as yesterday.

Sitspin was good for my coach but when I went to do it after lesson, somehow I got freaked that I couldn't see out of my glasses after 6 rotations and just stood up and didn't ride out the exit. Must either get new contacts or learn to close my mouth during sitspins so that I can see. LOL

Coach loved my spiral sequence which covers the whole ice but said that if I were to get even more speed going in, I could get around faster on the second part of my CE spiral so that I will hit my third position(LBI catch foot/beillman type spiral) in time with the music so that I would have the rhythem for my half flip/flip/toe combo which starts from the edge of my LBI spiral.

While working on my footwork which I'll be using for my connecting steps into my lutz, we played with different turns to see what would work the best with the music with what I felt comfortable doing.

Coach introduced me to counters and brackets. He makes them look easy. But I tried them at the boards to get a feel for them. They rip your butt and hips apart. He wants me practicing them at the boards all the way around the rink one foot at a time and then the other direction on the other. These babies are what made it imposible for me to do my CE spiral at the end of the session. My body is still feeling these.

By the way is it true counters and brackets are StarSkate Gold level?

[Rusty Blades]

HEARTLESS!!!! COLD BITTER COLD! OMFG was the rink COLD this morning!!! Outside it was -34C (with the wind-chill) and I swear it was colder inside! Couldn't get properly warmed up, couldn't be comfortably warm even with my winter coat over my skating jacket, over an insulated vest, over a t-shirt! By the time lesson started, 45 minutes into the session, I couldn't feel my toes. Now, an hour later, they are still tingling.

Generous: Worked on back cross-overs - started to catch on to those - maybe if it wasn't so friggin cold that my knees wouldn't bend, maybe I would have had them. Spins (wearing two coats = lots of extra mass) went on forever (for me).

With all that clothing, I sure wasn't afraid of falling LOL!

Generous: It don't get much worse than this, even in this part of the country.

[Terri C]

Heartless:
Rusty Blades, I too froze on the ice this morning!! I went to another rink in the area and it was bitterly cold, so cold that I left the ice 10 minutes early because I still couldn't feel my feet after stroking!!

Generous:
While the rink was FREEZING at least they had a working sound system. I feel a lot more secure skating my test program when the beginning of it is audible.
Got ahead of the music during the first half of the program and this gave me time to set my sitspin up properly.

Two weeks to go until test day, people!!

[Laura H]

I left work early yesterday so I could watch ds' lesson (oh, and since I was there anyway, figured *I* might as well skate too . . . :halo: ).

Heartless: I don't know where my spin went. I think now I am overanalyzing it . . . I may just go back to a 2 foot spin and start from scratch!! :roll: I am consistently rolling way too forward on my toepick. Can't seem to correct for that without falling out of the spin. grrrr.

Generous: but everything else went pretty well!! My whole family was on the ice and I got DH (in hockey skates no less) to go around the rink with me in killian position . . . fun fun!!!

Jumps - I'm really trying to jump UP and not sideways or whatever it is that I have been trying to do. the flip is so close I can TASTE it. (I'm still working on the exercise where you set up, pick in and jump without rotation . . . but it's getting really high and solid on the landing . . . exciting!).

DS' program is going to be neat! . . . he's skating to the Grinch theme song and there's a cool little swirly pivot to start, there's a stag jump and a kind of neat spin variation that his coach caught him fooling around with on public session and told him it was going in the program. It's just a forward scratch spin but instead of pushing his free leg down he grabs his blade and brings it all the way to his left side with his leg parallel . . .sort of like a donut, but not in the camel position, he's upright?? And LOTS of jumps . . . I saw a salchow-toe loop combo and a lutz so far and I'm sure there will be a flip in there somewhere too since that's ds' favorite (aka: highest) jump. Coach was trying to stick in a mazurka after the pivot which DID look cool but DS really REALLY doesn't like mazurkas so after much negotiation (aka: whining) they substituted a couple of bunny hops instead.

Coach's other student that has the lesson right after my son's is doing Frosty the Snowman and her routine is SUPER cute . . . right down to the "melting" at the end (flat on her back).

but sigh ::: but back to myself . . I just want to take off work for a few days and be at the rink nonstop so I can *get* the flip . . . so hard to build muscle memory when ice time is limited!!

[Scarlett]

Jazzpants - Yes he is moving to LA.

Generous-
Rhythm Blues should be testable in January.
Managed a decent change foot spin.

Heartless-
Still lamenting over loss of coach. Yes I will get over it one day. But not this year.
Forward squat spin is still awful.

[doubletoe]

Wow, I was just cleaning up my harddisk and I found a video of my skating precisely 1 year ago. Talk about toeloops and salchows without getting off the ground, sheesh! :o
Makes me feel a little bit better about myself :)

See?! Isn't video the best?! Sure, it is downright PAINFUL the first time you watch it, but without those videos, we wouldn't have any perspective on how much we actually do improve every year!

How's the ankle doing, BTW?

[icedancer2]

Generous: My coach is back! My coach is back! My coach is back!!

Heartless: Oh no, she is back - now I have to start working again! We mostly did figures - I want to compete figures at Pacific Coast Sectionals - the figures I have to do are front serpentine - this will be no problem... And then there are the FI3-B03 - she wants me to do LFI3-RBO3 - that LFI 3 kills me but I think I can get it doable by March -- and the BO3 on my Right foot is much easier than my left, so we are working on all of that. Also tackled a bit of BI3s -- for the Silver Moves and also just for my skating....

Generous: the old hockey rink - it was cold, but at least they left the lights on for us - they like to "save money" by only turning on the lowerst of lights and we generally skate around going, "hello? Hello? where are you?" But today they left them on after hockey. Yea, yea, yea.

I also kind of decided to maybe try to put together an interpretive program for Coasts - I don't freestyle at all, but I could string together a bunch fo dance-stuff and make it work I think - like an "All-footwork" program (boring... I know!). Now I have to think about music - I am sure my coach will come up with something that I might not like...

[sk8pics]

SOOOOO glad to see that you're well beyond recovered from that broken ankle, Pat!!! SOOOOO glad!!! :mrgreen: :bow:

Does this mean that if I have a NYC skating meetup this year that you might be able to join us too!!?!?! :mrgreen: I know, long shot question... but given you did make it to Staten Island a couple of years back... This year's meetup will probably be at Aviator again... :P:

Thanks, Jazz. Not sure about a Christmas NYC skating meetup. I'm actually already pretty booked, and I usually only skate about 40 or 50 minutes at a time. But, we'll see... Keep me posted!

Isk8NYC --Thanks!

[dbny]

Heartless:
What's almost worse than falling right on your butt? Jamming the middle of the front of your thigh into the large hook the doors in the boards latch onto!
Our sound system is controlled from a booth on the boards that has access only from outside the ice (smart, huh). The door opens out to allow more room inside. There was a group of kids in front of the partially opened door, and rather than shoo them away, I squeezed by and attempted to step into the booth, resulting in a very painful collision with said hook. The worst is that the darn bruise is right where my shoulder bag hits if it swings forward (which it does a lot), and right where the heavy radio I have to carry most days, bangs into my thigh from my jacket pocket (yup, the jacket is huge). It also takes a hit when I close kitchen drawers with my thigh, which is a habit that I've just about broken.

Got on the ice before my lesson, and could do almost nothing - not even a two foot spin! Then I remembered to suck in the belly, and spins happened...duh!

Generous:
My CW FXO's have been much better than my CW's ever since I practiced them more learning them, because they were harder for me. Yesterday, I suddenly realized why. I'd been assuming that it was the crossing foot that was the problem, but it's the under foot. I haven't been pushing all the way through or supinating my ankle enough! Showed coach, and she agreed and had me slow down the FXO's to practice. I think they will finally become as smooth and fear-free as my CW's.

Great progress in FO threes today. For the first time, I experienced the initiation of the turn by just a small forward movement of the leading shoulder.
If everything is right, then you cannot keep from turning when you push that shoulder. Duh! This is one of those things that simply does not exist on quad skates, and shows me that if I hadn't had that roller training when I was young, I would be super klutz on the ice now.

Butt is feeling much better, and what I thought might be bursitis starting, has eased up. DD is walking without the Air Cast now, and ankle is much, much better. She thinks she may be back on the ice by Monday, but I'm going to encourage her to take more time.

[frvanilla]

Heartless:
All heartless. I'm not back on the ice yet with my busy work & school schedule. I'm still trying to balance a life (as if I have any) without skating.
Fooled around with FO mohawks and ina bauer, which are not going anywhere.


Generous:
The weather is finally cold enough in here and the outdoor rinks are running. May take a trip down to skate under the xmas lights!

[patatty]

Heartless: I have been battling a nasty back strain for the past month, and it has come back with a vengeance - probably due to having my skates sharpened, and making everything "stickier" on the ice. No more jumping or spinning for me for while now. At least the chiropractor didn't tell me to stop skating altogether. Pain stinks!

Generous: I have been working on Gold moves for a year and a half, and my coach has never mentioned actually testing them until now. I was so proud of myself when she said, "When you feel like testing these, let me know, and I will look into test dates". Usually her comment is: "That needs a lot of work!"

[Sessy]

See?! Isn't video the best?! Sure, it is downright PAINFUL the first time you watch it, but without those videos, we wouldn't have any perspective on how much we actually do improve every year!

How's the ankle doing, BTW?

No, actually, the first time I watched that video I was pretty proud of just "doing" jumps and pointing toes and looking up on 3-turns and mohawks.

Ankle: Not good. :(

Worst part: this puts a real dent in my plants to compete at a jump-free artistic skate in the new year (well I suppose I could but I won't risk it, way too expensive to go with a programme that isn't ready - at least for perfectionist little me.) AND in my plans to go skiing indoor for a week in january with mom.
You know it's funny. I laid out cards last year on Russian new year's eve (mid of january, it's a very traditional thing to predict future on that night - even Pushkin wrote about it in his works) asking what skating would be like for the next few years for me, and the answer for this season was "nonexistant". At first I was like, yeah right, like *anybody* is gonna keep me from skating, but I'm beginning to realise the cards were right. The answer for next season by the way was something like "focus on metals" - I'm gonna guess the interbrons MIF, freestyle and maybe brons MIF? (as in, bronze is a metal). Or, I could just get new blades, LOL!

[Kim to the Max]

Heartless:

Axels just weren't happening last night.

No lesson last night because of the competition, and then I found out yesterday that an event for work that was scheduled for December 14th at 7:30pm got rescheduled for 7:00pm, which means that I won't have a lesson that night either. ugh! I really hate it when work gets in the way of what I would really be doing! And unrelated to skating, I have 18 evaluations of staff members to write this weekend that are each 7-8 pages long :( And of course, I'm procrastinating...

Generous:

Maybe, dare I speak to quickly, I have the scratch/back scratch...
Did my program, it was better than it was on Thursday :) While I didn't complete the footwork sequence, and I didn't land the flip, and the spins weren't the best, but dang it, I got through it! I still need to work on it a bit more to get it polished, but, it's a start! And, coach wants to add more once I can get it up to speed.

[*JennaD*]

My skate was extremely weird today....

Heartless:

Well, I lost my axel last week...its coming back...SLOWLY....but my coach told me that axel is the only jump you REALLY lose...the rest might not be as good as usual on one day or another, but you don't actually lose your ability to do it, like the fricken axel!!! Oh well....

I'm testing my American next week...for the 5th time, might I add...ahh...anyone have any tips on how NOT to freak out and get nervous for test day? lol

Generous:

My double salchow was pretty good today and I fixed my double loop! I can't land it but I fixed my entry to it so I don't go flying to my butt every time anymore ;)

My dance coach also complimented my dance this mornign..and he's pretty harsh...but he said that it looked really powerful when I was doing it with my partner and he was so overwhelmed by how agressive both our edges were that he forgot to watch for mistakes :D I guess that'sa good thing? lol

[Skate@Delaware]

Heartless: it was C-O-L-D in the rink this morning!!!! BRRRR!!! I estimate it was about 15 degrees colder than normal because of a hockey tournament coming up soon.....I hate when they do that! Which meant I really needed the under armour top that I left at home!!!

Generous: salchows from 3-turns, mohawks, and back crossovers; CHECK! Show rehearsal was good as well!

Heartless: forward crossovers are still scary because my left leg is weak and it was cramping because of the cold today. And I had a hard time backspinning. And Scratchspinning....

[jskater49]

Heartless

I have six inches of rock hard ice on my driveway, and I got stuck. I had a show meeting after skating today so I made sure I brought everything. Got to the rink at the time my class was supposed to begin and I FORGOT MY FREAKEN SKATES!! I just about cried. Not only did I have a group class, I've been sick and this was going to be the first time I could practice our adult group number for the holiday show in two weeks. I was ready to say, forget it, I can't be in the show and everyone was like "no, it's easy" and they had me stand at the boards and watch them practice while the coach talked me through it. And we will have a practice this friday.

Really ticks me off though - Sunday ice is expensive (and it's contract ice so it's paid for whether I use it or not) plus the cost of the lesson and I missed last week due to being sick. UGH!:frus: