Moving on Up or Falling Back Down - Aug 18-24

[FlyAndCrash]

Less than two weeks til I move on up and out to college, so I thought it was appropriate!

Moving on Up: I skated this morning and I landed most everything!!! 2/3 of my on-the-pattern 2sal, both axel seq, lutzes, flips, and loops. YAY!!!

Falling Back Down: My spins sucked. I had a really off transition from the front sit to the back sit and I was literally falling down. :oops:

Holding Steady: I'm testing tonight!!!

[Thin-Ice]

Holding Steady: I'm testing tonight!!!

Good luck with your test!!!

[Isk8NYC]

Holding Steady: I'm testing tonight!!!GOOD LUCK TONIGHT!

I need to skate. Plans are on for tomorrow night, whether or not anyone joins me! (A public session's better than nothing, right?)

[jcookie1982]

Good luck with your test tonight!

[RinkRat321]

Holding Steady: I'm testing tonight!!!

good lucK! you'll be great :D

moving on up: my doubles were pretty good today! :)

falling back: spins were not.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2eG6-DhPRSw from practice

[FlyAndCrash]

I passed!!!

[Skittl1321]

I passed!!!

Congratulations! Which test was this?

[FlyAndCrash]

ISI FS 6. I've been working towards it all summer.

[doubletoe]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's a fairly challenging test, isn't it? What were the required elements?

[kander]

Moving on up: The cashier let me in for free on Sunday. Skating always feels better when you don't have to pay for it :) I worked through some double toe and sal problems.

Falling back down: I've been having trouble with toes and sals. My axel has totally deserted me. Actually it's still there, but I just can't pull the trigger. I haven't been able to do it since a really hard fall a couple weeks ago.

[jazzpants]

Congrats, FlyAndCrash!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Falling Back Down:
I had a few bad camels and sit spins today... Camel didn't spin much and sit spin was not low enough.

Moving on Up:
I did get better on the camel once I remembered that I was supposed to "slap someone across the face" on the spin entry. I thought of someone who definitely deserves it. :halo:

All jumps seems to be in tact, though kinda wimpy by my standards.
Waltz - check
toe loop... meh... I'll let my secondary coach look at it. :twisted:
Salchow - check.
Loop - check (and at faster speeds too!!!)
loop-loop - check
flip - check
flip-loop - check (but it's still scary for me to land those!!!) 8O
lutz - half check (flutz entry, but fully rotated and cleanly landed!)kander: Yes, skating is always good when it's free. (I've had a few freebie sessions before...) ;)

[ibreakhearts66]

Congrats FlyAndCrash!!!!! I'm thinking about taking that test. I haven't tested ISI in years, but would like to move up in their levels. ISI FS tests are HARD! The FS 10 test is way harder than the Senior test.

Moving on Up
-All of my forward rockers were good today
-Jumps all had nice height and landings. I only went through 2loop as my knee was bothering me, but they still felt good
-We were working on flying camels into donuts or catch camels. I always have a hard time grabbing my blade on the back camel as my hamstring tends to cramp just as I reach my blade. Well, this time I reached my blade, but my brain was going "Ok, what now," but my coach was applauding and said I was almost in a donut position.
-My homework last week from my secondary coach was to look up with my eyes as I do my axels. I'm getting better about it. It helps a ton with the height, but is a scary feeling.

Falling down
-Painful/slightly scary/slightly amusing incident with my right knee today. We were doing forward sit->pancake to back sit->back pancake. I started to rise out of my back pancake when my right knee locked up. My coach came to try to help me unjam it. She was pressing down on my leg up near my hip while I was manipulating the knee. All of a sudden it unlocked, and apparently my coach could feel it up near my hip. I turn to ask if she could feel it and she goes "EWWW I felt that all the way up here!"

[Thin-Ice]

I passed!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's a really tough one!

[Helen88]

I passed!!!

Congratulations!!

[cutiesk8r43]

Moving on up:
-just passed the swing dance, and on to bronze dances!
-one more test today and hoping to pass it as well.:??

Falling down:
-havent worked on double salchows in awhile.
-novice moves will be the end of me!8O

[chowskates]

ISI FS 6. I've been working towards it all summer.

YAY!! Congratulations!!
And, have fun in college!!

[FlyAndCrash]

Thanks everyone.

FS6 had a 2sal, axel-1/2loop-flip, sit-sit-sit- or layback or crossfoot spin, combo spin w/ change of position and foot, split jump, split falling leaf, and serpentine step seq. w/ a rocker, counter, two brackets, and lots a twisty (as in twisty in the core, not twisty on the ice) steps at the very end...

YAY!!! I'M DONE!

CONGRATS CUTIES8ER on your swing dance! ;)

[looplover]

ISI FS 6. I've been working towards it all summer.

WOW that's a tough one!!! Congratulations!!!!!! :bow::bow::bow:

[Isk8NYC]

ISI FS 6. I've been working towards it all summer.Wow! Great achievement. (Sigh for what might have been)

Moving on up:
-just passed the swing dance, and on to bronze dances!
-one more test today and hoping to pass it as well.:??
Congrats and more good luck!

[jazzpants]

(Writing on DH's Crackberry so I'll fix the format later.)

Congrats, Cutiesk8er43!!! WHOO HOOO!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Movin:
First runthru of interp went swimmingly well :mrgreen:

Fallin:
Literally... during warmup. Nothing bad. Just weird that I end up falling in front of choreographer going into a spin again right at the beginning of the session. (Which really tells me I need to really get my skates sharpen!!!) :P

At least NOW I have a second coach besides secondary coach who can tell my primary coach that I DO FALL on the ice :twisted: :roll: :P

[Terri C]

Moving on Up:
My Bronze program now looks like and feels like a program. I skated it for the first time for Secondary Coach today on lesson. Not a bad runthrough given that the session was busy and there was a celebrity skater coaching on the session.....Ryan Bradley!!! :mrgreen::yum:. Will go to the rink's show on Friday night to see him skate.

Falling Back Down:
Secondary Coach tried and tried to change my loop to the traditional back entry. He even enlisted the help of another one of the guest coaches (not Ryan thank God- I would've had heart failure!) and well once he saw that I was better at the RFI3 takeoff for the loop, he decided to let me keep it.

[singerskates]

Tuesday
Moving on Up:
Realized and finally fixed my orthotics for my skates. Found the reason why I've been leaning to much on my inside edge even when I'm trying to be on my outside edges. I've also found the reason to my spiral sequence problems with this too. What was wrong with my orthotics was that the back part behind the ball of the foot to the heel was made to wide and was curving upward on the outside edges of both orthotics. This was tearing up my muscles in my hips and knees. I was always wondering why I was locking at my knees and hips. Picture yourself, trying to lean on to an outside edge and feeling your orthotic pushing your body to move to the inside. You end up a twisted mess tearing muscles. I got out the original footbeds for my Jackson Elite Plus (have finally started to get creases in them) and compared them to my orthotics and saw how much extra footbed the orthotic had. I think the orthotic guy used a hockey skate to try making the orthotics. In any case, I marked what needed to be trimmed away and cut it away. Now my orthotics finally fit properly inside my skate boots and I'm able to get our outside edges easily. I'm also able to do my inside ce outside spiral in my spiral sequence.

Falling Back Down:
My hips is still sore from last Friday but at least my knees have calmed down. I'm not tearing my hip muscles anymore but I hope the two weeks before Albert Viviani is enough for my hips to heal.

Had to retrain myself for my spins and jumps because my weight in my skates is different now.

Moving UP:
My jump landings are more curvier and run out better since fixing the orthotics. Hopefully I'll get the loop, flip and lutz fixed. Otherwise, I'll move the flip to the end wher the lutz is now and replace the flip/toe a waltz/toe so that I have more clean jumps windows in my freeskate.
My scratch spin centered itself today (circles on top of each other for a change not travelling at all).

My sitspin was not exactly centered but it was better than my coaches (I think he made is bad on purpose to make me feel good because on the very next session he was doing perfectly centered backscratches to show a student what he wanted although I'm not so sure about his spirals because when I did my left outside spiral, he said that he couldn't touch mine.).

Falling Back Down:
Both my coach and I didn't notice that we grabbed the wrong version of my US interpretive (artistic show number) and so, I wondered why was having trouble getting through it. It wasn't until I got to the car that I noticed that it was 45 seconds longer. Even my coach thought that it was longer than 2 minutes because he skated to my music just for the fun of it. The correct length and the original length CDs were next to each other in the CD case. I've moved the wrong length CD away from my FS music and put the correct length next to my FS music. Not going to happen again.

[cutiesk8r43]

thanks everyone! :D
and congrats FlyandCrash!:bow:

Moving on up:
passed the other test as well.

Falling back down:
now i have to be able to get through a two minute freestyle program without throwing up 8O

[Kim to the Max]

-novice moves will be the end of me!8O

Join the club....those counters just won't go right for me....but, I just keep thinking to myself...at least I am not still stuck in Intermediate H-E-double hockey sticks....

[Thin-Ice]

thanks everyone! :D

Moving on up:
passed the other test as well.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Sounds like you're having a really good end-of-summer!

[Skittl1321]

I'm not sure anything went well in my skating yesterday.
So my positive is that my new snowplow sam class I help with is full of adorable kids who did great on their very first day on the ice. I also am teaching one adult, who is in adult 1, but will probably start on adult 2 tomorrow. She doesn't speak any English, so corrections are a challenge, but she was very eager to skate.

So my skating- a big fat Falling Back Down-
First group class- we worked on a footwork sequence and my back inside 3s just do not work. I can do them if that's all i'm doing, but in the combination, not there at all. Then in the combo there is a choctaw, that I can do if I don't think about it, but I can't get enough power out of it to do the next step. The only thing I was doing well was toe runs (thanks Saturday coach!)

Then we did jumps. My waltz jumps are awful. I lost whatever height I had when I switched my blades. I feel so ungraceful. I used to lift my arms too high, so now i'm trying to hold them lower when I pull in and my balance is off. Just not good. Then salchows- those were miserable! I'm skidding off my toepick. The coach worked a lot with me on the entrance edge, and some of them got better, but even the "good!" ones, when he came to look at the edge, it was still skidding. Toe loops also no good- I'm closer to not having a toe waltz, but the only way I can do that pivot is if I'm not actually pivoting- that is, my toe isn't in the ice yet. Once the toe is in the ice, there is no pivot, so picking on the toe loop is awful.

After wards I did moves practice. Nothing was horrible, just okay, until 5 step mohawk. On the back edge of my better side I leaned too far back and had a really bad fall. I didn't fall straight onto my tailbone (thank goodness, last time I did that it took months to feel better) but onto a sit bone, which is okay today- but it wrenched all the way up my spine into my neck. Once I jolt my neck I'm pretty much done. I also managed to fall straight onto my toepick, ripping a giant hole into the leg of my pants and scrapping my leg really badly. I did 2 laps, 2 lobes of the mohawk pattern, and then went home. My back really hurts today from it- my muscles just went crazy tense when it happened.

It was NOT a good day.

[cutiesk8r43]

Join the club....those counters just won't go right for me....but, I just keep thinking to myself...at least I am not still stuck in Intermediate H-E-double hockey sticks....

ugh i know what you mean! the counters are soo annoying. i learned the outsides and then my coach is like okay now insides. i was all "there are insides???" 8O


Moving on up:

learned the willow waltz today! and practiced the hickory.

got a compliment on my layback :) (thats a good thing right? lol)


Falling back down:

practiced novice moves. coach tells me she wants to test them by the end of the year no matter how horrible they are...:??

didnt land any double salchows today :giveup:

[jazzpants]

Fall Back Down:

Secondary coach was EVIL again!!! She spotted me doing power pulls as I was warming up and said "Those are NOT power pulls! Those are you wiggling your feet around!!!" GRRRRR!!! *sigh* :(

So she gives me this very, VERY EVILLE exercise that she gives to her kids at the power class -- from a complete standstill (supposed to balance on one foot and NOT MOVING AT ALL!!!) do an inside edge power pull from there and then outside edge and so on. Yes, I'm supposed to generate more speed thru the pull itself. Also, I'm not bending the knee at the correct point of the curve.
Needless to say, more HOMEWORK to do!!! :giveup:

And UH OH on the interp runthrus... I'm actually running ahead consistently on my interp program now!!! WTF!?!?!? 8O I think I better figure something out.

Moving on up:
At least THIS time, I am not blanking out on this one section of the program!!!

At least my secondary coach is confident enough to give me homework that she gives her kids to do... so I'm definitely NOT being treated like an adult skater!!! :mrgreen:

[doubletoe]

Thanks everyone.

FS6 had a 2sal, axel-1/2loop-flip, sit-sit-sit- or layback or crossfoot spin, combo spin w/ change of position and foot, split jump, split falling leaf, and serpentine step seq. w/ a rocker, counter, two brackets, and lots a twisty (as in twisty in the core, not twisty on the ice) steps at the very end...

YAY!!! I'M DONE!

CONGRATS CUTIES8ER on your swing dance! ;)

Wow, VERY challenging! Way to go! :bow:

[doubletoe]

Join the club....those counters just won't go right for me....but, I just keep thinking to myself...at least I am not still stuck in Intermediate H-E-double hockey sticks....

Uh, yeah, rub it in, why don'tcha! :roll: I'm struggling through the Novice counters now, but only because I'm pretending I passed those !&%$*@ back power 3's the last time I took the Intermediate test (and got another retry).

[TiggerTooSkates]

CONGRATS to all posters who have passed tests this week!!! :bow::bow:

Movin' up: WHERE did these BACK EDGES come from??!! And WHY am I questioning it??!!! I was fooling around at a public session a few days ago and a woman that I skate in our Coffee Club with said, "Wow - you have a strong back outside edge!" And then - THERE IT WAS - about 3/4s of a circle's worth...both ways...three out of four edges (left inside still not great but much improved). I swear I couldn't do it ten minutes before that. DH was in the UK for three weeks and came home last week - he was blown away Sunday...

So to amuse myself, and because working on SOMETHING is more fun than just edges on a circle, I started toying with the crossover-back edge- step out sequence that's a waltz jump lead-in. (If it has a name, I can't remember it...) This is edge work with a purpose for me; edges on a circle bores me. But I remember when forward was impossible, and now I can complete the circle (and then some on most days), so when backwards gets that way I know it will be "cool" again.

Can't wait to shock my coach at my next lesson.8O

Falling back: WHAT'S UP WITH THE THREES??!! I think I'm overthinking them. <sigh> Back to the ice tomorrow....

[celticprincess]

Movin: My jumps are getting much better with the new entrances my coach taught me. However I swear for some reason she was candidly getting me close to doubles. I dont even have my axel yet, but with my salchow she showed me this thing called a schloop and well I was practicing it today however for some reason my leg kept wrapping and I had the rotation for a double. Only I two footed it. But still, I have to do the same sort of thing with my toe loop and that looks and feels like a double. So yeah I was two footing doubles today ladies and gentlemen.

Falling: My flip still isn't that great..even with the new arms and entrance. Im not sure what happened with it, but I only had one 'good' one.

Movin: I accidently figured out the way of the layback spin. I was running through my artistic and decided to try a prettier spin and for some reason it was a layback. At least I think it was. I was laying back alright and looking up at the ceiling and feeling very very dizzy after. Whatever that spin was it sure felt pretty.

Falling: The rest of my spins were really off today. I must have 'travelled around the world' on several of them. My backspin really stunk even though I had been getting the hang of it at my previous sessions. I think my equilbruim was thrown off due to my sinuses acting up and something else beyond my control.

Movin: Artistic programme run through went well and ready to set with music on Saturday. I was working out the kinks in it today and I finally feel confident with it. I just hope I dont get run over when I do the 'on the ice' moves. I also changed the move in which Im supposed to roll on my toes and over my skates and onto my knees....looks very dramatic without skates. But with skates it's not nearly as pretty, so Im doing the classic falling onto my knees with style and alittle slide to it. Its much less painful. Ummm....also my power threes went well for my warmup and my twizzles went well. It must of, I didn't fall on them:)


SO the consenus is....skating practice went pretty well!

[Kim to the Max]

Uh, yeah, rub it in, why don'tcha! :roll: I'm struggling through the Novice counters now, but only because I'm pretending I passed those !&%$*@ back power 3's the last time I took the Intermediate test (and got another retry).

:( You will get the Intermediate test...I know that you have been leaving them alone, but with working on the Novice moves, I bet that you will be even better at those blasted power-3s!!!

[singerskates]

After wards I did moves practice. Nothing was horrible, just okay, until 5 step mohawk. On the back edge of my better side I leaned too far back and had a really bad fall. I didn't fall straight onto my tailbone (thank goodness, last time I did that it took months to feel better) but onto a sit bone, which is okay today- but it wrenched all the way up my spine into my neck. Once I jolt my neck I'm pretty much done. I also managed to fall straight onto my toepick, ripping a giant hole into the leg of my pants and scrapping my leg really badly. I did 2 laps, 2 lobes of the mohawk pattern, and then went home. My back really hurts today from it- my muscles just went crazy tense when it happened.

It was NOT a good day.

Youch, I hope you iced it good when you got home. Hope you feel better in the morning.

[ibreakhearts66]

Moving up:
Learned my first dance today! Nothing fancy, just the Dutch Waltz, but apparently I was pretty good at it. Progressives still feel weird for me, but I love how much power they generate

I was asked to demonstrate a flying camel today :) I think I might actually have one of the best in the rink.

Learned the first bit of my artistic. It's a TON of fun, but man, it's gonna be tiring. It's to "Show Off" from "The Drowsy Charperone"

So I was really bored while my coach was looking something up and I tried an axel the other way. Ummm, I LANDED IT. It was ugly and swingy and I don't think I crossed my legs, but I landed it clean on the toe. Then I told my coach and she was like "whaaaat." So I showed her and almost landed it!

We did footwork at camp and I picked it up really quickly! It was touch stuff, rockers, counters, choctaws, loops, all that good stuff, but I did it with lots of speed.

I'm fetting better and better at the rocker choctaws on novice moves. Before I could only do it going in the CW direction, but I'm getting good at the CCW (LBI rocker, choctaw).

Falling down

Basically didn't get to jump today. We didn't jump in camp, then I had a choreography lesson, then a dance lesson, then the ice was waaaaay too cut up to do anything but 2sal.

[Mrs Redboots]

Congratulations to all those who passed tests.

Falling Down: No skating for me this week - laid low by some kind of bug. Better today, but I doubt I'll skate tomorrow. Yeah, right, I could so use a week off when the coaches are about to go on holiday for a fortnight and we have a competition at the beginning of October.

Moving on Up: At least Husband can take our lessons as solos, so they aren't wasted. And at least there's no hockey school this year.

[RinkRat321]

moving up:
my double loops are getting really consistant. i landed all of them yesterday and today. I did some with my arms over my head too which made me feel pretty awesome :D
2sals, axels, & 2lutzes were nice

falling back down:
I slippped off my heel today and for some reason my blade on my other foot slammed into my shin so now i have a huge cut on my shin, and its all swollen :(

[phoenix]

Movin' on Up: Well, tests are now looming but I feel way more prepared this time around for the Killian. I've skated countless patterns these last 2 weeks, and for the last 2 days I haven't missed a choctaw, even when warming up. Before I *always* bailed or tripped over the first couple of them. So I've been drilling choctaws to death, and it's paying off. I have a lesson tomorrow, then moves test Sat. morning (alone, can't pay coach to be there!!), dance on Sunday.

Moves could probably go either way, I know the back power 3's don't have enough power, but it's possible an extra point or so on some of the others will pull the overall score up. It will be good to get feedback, regardless.

I've actually been purposely making myself nervous all week, to have run through those emotions all beforehand so as to be calmer at the actual moment of truth. Weird, but we'll see if it helps.

Falling Back Down: Why do elements go on vacation the week you'll be testing them?? 2 weeks ago, the back power 3's were consistant and fast. Now, they're VERY inconsistent (I often put a foot down), and even if I manage to get through them clean, they're slow. *sigh* I think I worked out part of the problem this morning, but I only have 1 more day to get myself pulled together!

[dbny]

I've actually been purposely making myself nervous all week, to have run through those emotions all beforehand so as to be calmer at the actual moment of truth. Weird, but we'll see if it helps.


That's a technique I've used too! I think it does help because it simulates the actual test situation as closely as possible.

[LilJen]

Moving on up (with the Jeffersons!!): Well, we officially started on USFS bronze moves and ISI 2 stuff today. Fwd power XOs we've worked on before and I can pretty well fill up the rink with those 4 sets. Should be able to swing it pretty soon on the back XO/BO edge move as well. Coach didn't even bother with the 5-step mohawk as she figured it would be a piece of cake (??).

Falling back down:
-Back power XOs??? Waaaaaayyyy too small right now! Had no clue I had to do just FOUR of these, with HUGE half-circles, to fill the length of the rink. Oy!!! It ain't that I don't have the muscle and can't go fast; just haven't figured out how to use my blades to make it all huge enough to fill the rink. I have to say, too, this will be a tough one to practice on all but the emptiest sessions.
-I get the action of the power 3s, but the 3-turns are all different sizes, shapes, and placements. HA!
-A real spin entrance? 6 revs on a scratch spin?? That one is going to take a while to get!!
-Half toe walley? What the heck is that? ISI has some weird moves.
-Ballet jump? Dude, that's hardly even a jump.
-Toe loop, which I don't actually need for ISI but which coach taught me anyhow, is TIMID.
-Dance buddy, and would-be partner for dance tests (and coach's dh), has declared he QUITS. I think he's said he'd quit before. He'll likely come back but at the moment he's totally fed up with the rink and the club. For reasons that are obvious to me but will probably remain as unresolved as they have been for the last 30+ years he's been at the rink and at the club. Crossing my fingers that his quitting doesn't last very long, but I wish the stupid rink management would shape up and leave him be.

If anyone has passing vids of their bronze moves, please share!

[ibreakhearts66]

Moving up
-Landed all of my doubles (except axel) today. I had solid, strong landings on most of them, too.
-I videoed my spins and was pretty happy. My sit-change-sit is looking much better than a few months ago
-Double flips were surprisingly easy. I hadn't worked on them for a bit, so I wasn't expecting to land many, if any.
-2lutzes were feeling pretty solid too.

Falling back down
-Over complicating things, as usual. I'm now lipping my flip. I think. I mean, looking at my take-off theres a very slight outside edge tail on the end. It's only about 2 inches long, so I don't know that I'd really get a deduction...
-Back pancakes. Yuck. They looked positively bizarre.
-2toes. Um, I'm forgetting to kick through apparently. Again, I saw them on video and they're TINY. I'm hoping they're not always like that and that today was just an off day. I'll definitely have to focus on kicking through next time.
-Still struggling to center those laybacks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HM8ncSBD_s

[sk8pics]

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been enjoying reading about everyone's progress. I'm just plugging along, but doing better every week. Last night, my coach skated pairs crossovers with me, backwards clockwise (which is in the direction I like).8-) We haven't done that since before I broke my ankle and it was a real treat. He was all smiles afterwards, too, like I was. Yesterday we also discovered that my RFI mohawk is suddenly a lot better, and I was able to do several in a row, stepping forward from a RBO edge in between. Then did several teeny tiny sets of 5 step mohawks... not great, but still really exciting.

In non-skating news, I have a contract on a new house! Oy, it's all very stressful, so to have such a fun lesson was a great distraction.

Happy skating everyone!

[jskater49]

I passed!!!

Congratulations!

j

[mikawendy]

I haven't posted in a while, but I've been enjoying reading about everyone's progress. I'm just plugging along, but doing better every week. Last night, my coach skated pairs crossovers with me, backwards clockwise (which is in the direction I like).8-) We haven't done that since before I broke my ankle and it was a real treat. He was all smiles afterwards, too, like I was. Yesterday we also discovered that my RFI mohawk is suddenly a lot better, and I was able to do several in a row, stepping forward from a RBO edge in between. Then did several teeny tiny sets of 5 step mohawks... not great, but still really exciting.

In non-skating news, I have a contract on a new house! Oy, it's all very stressful, so to have such a fun lesson was a great distraction.

Happy skating everyone!

Congrats on your house and also on your great lesson...and on a year back on the ice!

[dbny]

Congratulations to the tests passers!

Good luck to you, Phoenix, with your upcoming tests.

Congrats to Sk8pics on your skating & your house!

[jazzpants]

Sk8pics: Nice to see you back on the boards and VERY HAPPY to see that you are still skating a year after coming back from the broken ankle!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

Congrats on the house too! :mrgreen: :bow:

Moving on up:
The forward spin and sit spins are still there... I have been working on my spin entries this year to get rid of a bad habit that is still plaguing me. The good part is that some of the bad habits are getting fixed now.


Falling back down:
Primary coach was late to our lesson b/c of a HUGE backup traffic jam at the Bay Bridge (where he has to go on to get to the rink.)
Backspin still on inside edge. :frus:
Sit-change sit!!! This spin combo is ANNOYING!!! :frus:
Camel - :roll: and I did imagine slapping someone in the face too!!! Didn't work much. Ice was too slushy and I was too tired to think...Needless to say, I REALLY need to work on my spins this year!

[doubletoe]

:( You will get the Intermediate test...I know that you have been leaving them alone, but with working on the Novice moves, I bet that you will be even better at those blasted power-3s!!!

Thanks, Kim, that's certainly what I'm hoping! Fortunately, I have the CW rocker-chocktaws around the end of the rink down pat (but don't even ask me about the CCW ones!). That seems to be making the CW back power 3's feel easier. Now it's the CCW back power 3's that give me trouble because I don't keep my shoulders pulled back as much on that side, LOL!

Moving on Up
Even though I was tired this morning and my back was still bugging me a little, I managed to complete my program run-through with all three spins clean and completing all 4 features in my spiral sequence. I think my head may be getting out of my way now. Everything was clean except for. . .

Falling Back Down
The only things I messed up on during my program run-through were the two axels, which are normally so consistent. After nailing both of them for my coach during our lesson, I just missed my timing for the first one in my program run-through and had to skip it, then I sort of over-corrected on the second one and ended up touching down on the landing. I need to make sure I practice that first axel with the element that precedes it, since I think that's what's throwing my set-up off. As my coach always says, "Whenever you mess something up, you need to look at what you did 20 feet before it." So true!

[Kim to the Max]

[Moving on Up]

I FINALLY got to go skating this morning and minus one other morning, I have only been now twice in the past 3 weeks or so....this is the busiest time at work (the opening of our academic year), so I have been working way too much...

Coach didn't give me a lesson, but we played around with some spins. Did some very nice camels and coach had me pull my arms back to pick up speed and we did some camel/back sit, which has completely left me...I was doing them well prior to this break, but now...ugh... we also did some flying camels. They are getting better, but I stand up too much when it comes to the "flying" part :roll:

[Falling Back Down]

We lost Friday ice for this upcoming season, which means that coach is having issues scheduling lessons. So, right now, I don't know when my lessons are going to be :(

When we were messing around, coach decided to be quite evil making me do flying camels given that I haven't really skated in 2 weeks :(

[RachelSk8er]

moving up: Literally. I just passed my preliminary free! After not being on the ice for an entire week and a half because of law school starting and weekend ice being cancelled. Not that I was worried that I wouldn't. It was actually a pretty good test, all my jumps had good height and my sit spin was decently low. The new dress from China got a lot of compliments. Now I just have to do my pre-juv free next month and I'm good to go for silver at ANs and can focus on dance tests.

It was just 1 judge, but ironically she's the same one who failed me the first time I took this test in 1993 (right before I quit freestyle)...my coach back then didn't do a very good job of making sure I knew the differnece between a test program and a competition program, so I went out there and had a great skate but with all the wrong elements (i.e. an axel instead of a waltz jump, flip loop instead of a toe loop combo). Not that the judge I had today remembered that, I only remember who it was because I found all my old test papers last week when going through some boxes, but I still thought it was funny.

[singerskates]

Thursday

Falling Back Down:

Had no energy. My hips and knees were still sore from skating with the way my orthotics use to be in my skate boots. Also, I did something weird to my neck and shoulders while sleeping, so my shoulders were all tight and sore. Asthma was having a field day with me and so even though I took all my meds, I had trouble breathing. This is why I was so zapped.

Jumps were weak for the most part even though I gave it everything I had at the time.
Brain was scattered so I kept messing up what jump went where in my FS.

Sitspin was at first hitting my toe pick.
Camel couldn't stay up. Soreness and tiredness killed it.
Corkscrew (scratch) wasn't always on.
Backspin...did't try one.

Moving On Up:

SpSq; RFI ce RFO spiral is now changing edge again everytime I do it fast enough. Now I just need to have more speed, power and a bit more height with the free leg. It's been a long time since I've done it right. Glad my orthotics are right now.

[sk8pics]

Mika, DBNY, JP,
Thanks for the congrats. And I didn't even realize that today was 1 year since I got back on the ice until Mika first mentioned it!8O Wow, it feels like yesterday in some ways, and in other ways it feels like I've been back a long time!

[Morgail]

-Half toe walley? What the heck is that? ISI has some weird moves.


I have a half toe walley in my program;) They're fun to do in combination with other jumps.


This is a combo of yesterday and today:

Moving on Up (to the East Side...):

-Jumps were mostly good. Lutz was sketchy this morning, but really good last night. And axel! I have height! It's beyond scary to punch that knee up, but it's really made a difference. I'm still not close to full rotation, but I feel like the jump has really improved this week.

-Spins were mostly good.

-Moves were great. I worked especially hard on my bad crossovers (backward CCW), and I made some progress. The trick (so my coach has told me & it's finally sunk in) is in where I have my weight. Once I figured that out, I actually get some reach into the circle and my crossing foot is more out to the side.

-I succeeded in doing some non-toe-scratching forward brackets this morning. Yay!

-Worked on toe point in the Swing dance. Now I just have to remember to do it from now on.

-Got my skates sharpened! :)

Falling back down:

-I fell a couple times last night and a couple times today. Somehow ended up with a nice big bruise on my left knee. Ouch.

-FI 3s were icky today. I think it's because my blades were dull.

-Sessions this week have been insane because of testing this weekend. There were only maybe 10 skaters on the ice this morning, but everywhere I went I ended up in the middle of someone's pattern or jumping path.

-Kept diving toward the ice on flying camels.

-I found myself humming dance tunes all day. Now I have the Tango stuck in my head. The Tango track the club uses reminds me of matadors. So I keep having visions of dancing matadors. In skates. (Which is better than the Swing tune, which sounds similar to a hand-clap game I remember playing as a kid. The one that went "Cece my playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three." etc. I sing that in my head every time I practice the Swing.)

[looplover]

Congrats test passers!!!

This is for Tuesday and Thursday:

Moving on up: Thursday lesson had some nice surprises - did a decent loop-loop after fixing an upper body problem with the loop (I really worship my coach) and did a sit spin-backspin that was quite good! The sit could have been lower though. Really trying to get that camel and got close to getting the timing of everything right, though the spin didn't really happen after that. Tuesday had lots of fun skating with ISk8NYC and some other adult skaters. Did a decent twizzle. Found terrific skating music.

Falling back down: Two words: wall flip. I get lovely height on my wall flip. The landing is solid on my wall flip. The free leg looks great in my wall flip. Actual flip - two foot it every time. I'm just not over on my skating side. My coach and I have made it our mission to relearn this jump from scratch so I will now be doing it from a mohawk just for the awkward factor.

Not bothering with the lutz yet, it'll come when the flip gets fixed.

That camel is frustrating because I can't really practice it during the public sessions. My budget does not like paying for more freestyles...

[Rob Dean]

It's all "Falling Back Down" this week.

I posted a couple of notes in the Brag About Your Kids thread on parent/coaches that give the background. Let it suffice to say that between business travel, parenting a new competitive team, and my coach's wedding, I haven't had much by way of lessons or ice time this month!

I'm dying to put on skates, so I hope that next week I can at least get in a reasonable amount of practice and get a lesson with my back-up coach.

Rob

[jazzpants]

Falling back down: Two words: wall flip. I get lovely height on my wall flip. The landing is solid on my wall flip. The free leg looks great in my wall flip. Actual flip - two foot it every time. I'm just not over on my skating side. My coach and I have made it our mission to relearn this jump from scratch so I will now be doing it from a mohawk just for the awkward factor. This sounds familiar!!! Gee, I wonder why??? :P

Okay, here's what you do... move away from the wall slightly but still be parallel to the wall. When you get it there, move a little farther way. Pretty soon, you will be doing flips away from the wall!!! :D (At least that's how I got mine!!!)

[Stormy]

Well, in the middle of moving up and falling down. Did my first IJS competition this morning and it went ok. But just ok. My axel was downgraded, but I'm not surprised about that. Tech was 9.62 and Program components was 12.37. That's SO not good! :( Just to compare, are ANs scores usually inflated at all? Because I really didn't think I was that off par with other Gold skaters. At least I know what to work on. I'm going to get the whole program re-chorographed by someone who knows IJS inside and out, because clearly my own knowledge of it isn't cutting it and my coach dosen't know it. But the technical specialists came up to myself and the other gold lady and personally gave us our sheets and were SO nice about answering our questions about what we did and why we were scored they way we were. Just getting that kind of feedback was invaluable so it made the competition worthwhile in that sense.

[Mrs Redboots]

This sounds familiar!!! Gee, I wonder why??? :P

Okay, here's what you do... move away from the wall slightly but still be parallel to the wall. When you get it there, move a little farther way. Pretty soon, you will be doing flips away from the wall!!! :D (At least that's how I got mine!!!)
In my experience you don't actually need the wall to hang on to, but to make sure your body is in the correct orientation. Plus it takes everybody an awful long time to do things just slightly differently, even if just in a different place on the ice. Most kids can only do their lutz in one corner, not the other, or their spin just here. Even we had trouble with our spin last week - same entrance, but different steps.

[techskater]

Just to compare, are ANs scores usually inflated at all? Because I really didn't think I was that off par with other Gold skaters. At least I know what to work on. I'm going to get the whole program re-chorographed by someone who knows IJS inside and out, because clearly my own knowledge of it isn't cutting it and my coach dosen't know it.

AN scores are not inflated. I do agree that having a coach/choreo with IJS knowledge is very important if you are going to skate at the Gold or Masters level.

[FrankR]

AN scores are not inflated. I do agree that having a coach/choreo with IJS knowledge is very important if you are going to skate at the Gold or Masters level.

Actually, though I also believe that scores at AN are not inflated compared to any other event, the PCS scores at Stormy's last event may have been weighted differently. Stormy, there should be a factor applied across all of the PCS marks. You'll find it listed on the left hand side of the protocol immediately preceding the list of PCS marks from each judge. This factor may be different than what is used at Adult Nationals. For example, I believe that at US AN they use a larger factor than at Oberstdorf. As a result the PCS total at US AN can be greater than the PCS total for Obsertdorf even if the individual marks from the judges are fairly equivalent.

[Stormy]

AH, ok, that explains some of it. At ANs it was 1.40 and mine was 1.20. I feel a little better now!! I seriously was bummed out and I couldn't figured out why my component scores were so off. The other girl I skated against had comparable component scores to me and her Tech was a little over 11, so I wasn't too far behind her. At least I don't have another competition until Halloween Classic so I have a little time to get the program redone.

[celticprincess]

Movin Up: My spins were definatly on today. My scratch has improved so much since my ice debut alittle more than a month ago. My sit spin is also going pretty well. Im finally feeling confident with straightenng my free leg though it's in mid spin. Dont ask Im not sure why, but whenever I try to keep it straight and whip it around....it doesn't work out. But it's definatly alot better. My 'layback' was also pretty nice too. Im not used to them so I get really dizzy after. I still think it's a layback....I'll have to ask my coach nxt lesson for the real consensus. I had a few good flying broken leg spins..I just need to hold the position longer, but they weren't bad. I also attempted a sit/sit and I must say I didn't fall out of it...so I supposed thats good.

Falling back: I'm not sure where my back spin went, but that just wasn't cooperating today.

Movin Up: My sal, loop, and toe loop were pretty good today with my new arm position. My loop actually feels alot steadier with my arm pressed back. My schloop still feels like Im trying a double which Im NOT, but it feels like it. Same with toe loop, I think if I pulled in...which my coach does not want me to do...I'd have rotation for a double. Also I attempted my axel a few times and it was pretty funny because the first time my left leg dragged and stopped me from full rotation. So then I thought about lifting that knee up and almost kicking something. That worked out better...however I was all scrunched up and it didn't look pretty at all. But I think I was closer to landing it.

Falling: My bloody flip just stinks. Yes I did get ONE good one, but that was it. I dont know whats wrong with it, but it's pretty pathetic. My lutz wasn't as 'textbook' as last Sat. Not sure why, but I landed several good ones..though I was scared to try them in combo. The whole arm pos was throwing me off. I swear if my right arm is not pressed all the way back until it hurts, then the jump just wont happen.

Stumbling: My programme was once again not set to music because...Im not really sure why. Just frightening debuting a new programme especally a modernesque one which requires me to be on the ice at several points. Plus this coach was giving lessons right where most of my 'hard' elements take place. So, I suppose I'll debut my artistic next Sat while in a lesson.

Overall, not bad sesson..I worked really hard and wasn't chattering like I tend to do. My work ethic when it comes to skating has improved by a long shot and Im getting more things done. So hooray for skating today:)

[looplover]

This sounds familiar!!! Gee, I wonder why??? :P

Okay, here's what you do... move away from the wall slightly but still be parallel to the wall. When you get it there, move a little farther way. Pretty soon, you will be doing flips away from the wall!!! :D (At least that's how I got mine!!!)

That's what I was thinking of doing, haha :D:D

Skating is so bizarre...these mental tricks...but the tricks work!!!:P

[Mrs Redboots]

Moving on up: Back on the ice today, and managed a whole hour including 15-minute lesson and complete run-through of our free dance. Spent a long time after the lesson working on the Willow Mohawk - at least, the man's Willow Mohawk, the lady is stepping to forward just there.

Falling Back: Didn't have the energy to run through our variation.

[NoVa Sk8r]

Actually, though I also believe that scores at AN are not inflated compared to any other event, the PCS scores at Stormy's last event may have been weighted differently. Stormy, there should be a factor applied across all of the PCS marks. You'll find it listed on the left hand side of the protocol immediately preceding the list of PCS marks from each judge. This factor may be different than what is used at Adult Nationals. For example, I believe that at US AN they use a larger factor than at Oberstdorf. As a result the PCS total at US AN can be greater than the PCS total for Obsertdorf even if the individual marks from the judges are fairly equivalent.AN used a 1.4 PCS factor, while O'dorf (as of late) used 1.6. What is interesting is that in 2005 and 2006, O'dorf used 0.8 as the PCS factor (I competed there in 2006). But in 2007 and 2008, they used 1.6 (1.6!!!) for the PCS. The point of the factor is to help get the TCS and the PCS to be roughly equal. That surely did not happen in O'dorf once the factor was doubled from 0.8 to 1.6. (Check out the result details from 2007 (http://www.isufs.org/results/adult2007/) and 2008 (http://www.deu-event.de/results/adult2008/) vs. 2005 (http://www.isufs.org/results/adult05/) and 2006 (http://www.isufs.org/results/adult06/).)

Incidentally, 0.8 is a "short program factor" (fewer technical elements performed mean fewer technical points so the PCS mark is weighted down), and 1.6 is a "long program factor." I find it interesting that TPTB once regarded the adult programs as short programs in 2005 & '06 but as of last year see them as long programs. To point out the semi-obvious, having a higher factor favors the skater having better skating quality regardless of technical elements performed.

[doubletoe]

Well, in the middle of moving up and falling down. Did my first IJS competition this morning and it went ok. But just ok. My axel was downgraded, but I'm not surprised about that. Tech was 9.62 and Program components was 12.37. That's SO not good! :( Just to compare, are ANs scores usually inflated at all? Because I really didn't think I was that off par with other Gold skaters. At least I know what to work on. I'm going to get the whole program re-chorographed by someone who knows IJS inside and out, because clearly my own knowledge of it isn't cutting it and my coach dosen't know it. But the technical specialists came up to myself and the other gold lady and personally gave us our sheets and were SO nice about answering our questions about what we did and why we were scored they way we were. Just getting that kind of feedback was invaluable so it made the competition worthwhile in that sense.

Yes, that is a great reason to do these summer competitions. With the rules changing every year, it really helps to see how they are being implemented in real life before putting your program out there at AN. And don't worry too much about the PCS marks unless yours were a lot lower than your competitors'. They use different factors at different competitions and it's all so much more subjective than the technical score anyway.

[doubletoe]

moving up: Literally. I just passed my preliminary free! After not being on the ice for an entire week and a half because of law school starting and weekend ice being cancelled. Not that I was worried that I wouldn't. It was actually a pretty good test, all my jumps had good height and my sit spin was decently low. The new dress from China got a lot of compliments. Now I just have to do my pre-juv free next month and I'm good to go for silver at ANs and can focus on dance tests.

It was just 1 judge, but ironically she's the same one who failed me the first time I took this test in 1993 (right before I quit freestyle)...my coach back then didn't do a very good job of making sure I knew the differnece between a test program and a competition program, so I went out there and had a great skate but with all the wrong elements (i.e. an axel instead of a waltz jump, flip loop instead of a toe loop combo). Not that the judge I had today remembered that, I only remember who it was because I found all my old test papers last week when going through some boxes, but I still thought it was funny.

That IS kind of funny! But congratulations on your passed test! On to Pre-Juv! :D

[stacyf419]

This actually happened on Saturday, but I fell 3 times within an hour. Not on my loop attempt or sit spins. On NOTHING. Just stroking. After the 3rd fall, where I really bashed my knee (it still hurts), I left because I figured there was something wrong with my equilibrium or something. Who knows? At any rate, I finally broke down and bought the unbelievably expensive ultra crash pads for my knees. I really, really hope they work for that price!