Hot and Done or Give it another hour...practice 11/24-30/2008

[jskater49]

In honor of that age old question...IS THE TURKEY DONE???

Hot and Crisp - I was cooking in power class today...had to take my sweatshirt off right away ...jumped when she said jump. Only opted out of lunges. I think I'm done with lunges. Not so bad getting down, I just can't get up anymore.

Give it another hour - I'm still trying to go straight into a 3 turn after my bunny hop without skidding to slow down.

So we had the boom box on the edge of the boards that the coaches use when they are choreographing and it was playing LOUD...then we have a monitor playing music over the loud speaker....seems to me the person with the vest and the loud speaker should have the music louder but it was getting to be a contest and when I had my Swing music on I was shouting "ONE TWO ONE TWO" to help me focus on my music. It was a zoo.

[Mrs Redboots]

No turkeys on this side of the pond! We wait until Christmas for them. Although there is a school of thought says we ought to give thanks for getting rid of you lot.....

Hot and done: Competition will be on Saturday; if we aren't ready now we never will be, and the ice this morning helped by being cold, hard and brittle, just like it will be in Dunkerque!

Another hour yet: Of course, three days before competing so I have tweaked a small muscle in my ankle. Am icing it.

[sk8lady]

Just took a week off from skating to attend a conference on prosecuting sex offenders, so between that and reading the "happy pimp birthday" thread I don't think I can cope with the title of this thread! So I will just refer to it as:

Done: Got my skates sharpened while I was gone for the first time since September and suddenly was able to land a clean loop every time I tried!! Hopefully it'll actually be a permanent change and not just a lucky accident. They were pretty dull.

Give it another hour: Got a call last night canceling my lesson today. At some point over the last week the class that allows us to use daytime use for figure skating was canceled for this week and my coach thought maybe we could still use it but when she checked last night found out that we can't. (Since the rink actually has a specific policy about that...not to be mean but DUH!) Too late for me to reschedule as I've already booked up the rest of my week and I don't want to cancel appointments and my students' lessons at the last minute. Luckily I had already scheduled a 15 minute lesson with another coach on Sunday because the ice is canceled next week, too, although the class is now going to meet next Thursday...so to have a lesson next week I now have to spend this morning rescheduling everything I had scheduled for next Thursday! (Of course, since I didn't get notified till last night, it's too late to move that stuff to today, when I now have nothing scheduled!)

Gad but I'm whiny this morning!! But I am really happy about my nice sharp skates!

[Rusty Blades]

HOT: That move I didn't know I could do (catch-foot spiral)? Apparently I can do it with either arm, inside or outside grab, so coach has already put it in the program. :roll:

Half Baked: DAMN it was COLD in that rink again!

HOT: ... but my favorite morning man was on duty and got me on the ice 25 minutes early! (Love that guy! He knows I take time off work to skate so he makes sure I get on early ...... Do you suppose my employer is paying him to do that? LOL!) I got a full 1.5 hours this morning with lesson in the last half hour (after I am already a bit pooped!)

HOT: Came the closest I ever have to a real honest-to-gawd Sit Spin! Love the "ALRIGHT!" from coach.

HOT: Upright spins were coming together today ..... another "ALRIGHT!" from coach. (God I LOVE those! :) ) "Now we need more revolutions...." she says. Okay, who's going to stop me from falling over when I come out of those?

HOT: Back cross-cuts are improving.

..... and all this on the first day of my skating week! :mrgreen:

[doubletoe]

No turkeys on this side of the pond! We wait until Christmas for them. Although there is a school of thought says we ought to give thanks for getting rid of you lot.....

Yeah, and thank us for taking Madonna off your hands while you're at it, LOL!

[jazzpants]

Hot and Done


Loop and loop-loop was decent enough.
Sit spin was okay, not great! He wants me to be more aggressive on the spin entry.
Salchow... sometimes "spinny" but thankfully not the majority of the time...
Waltz jump is pretty good


Give it another YEAR:


My flip and my lutz... meh.... :giveup:
Toe loop... still fixing the "toe waltz" problem... AND primary coach wants more attack on the toe loop. *sigh*


Give it a DECADE:
Camel spin... :frus: I don't think I'll ever get this spin... :x

[jazzpants]

For this morning's skate:

Hot and Done


I did this sorta alternating inside edge exercise where I do half lobes down the rink. Key thing is to bend the ankle to the point where I can hear a GRRRRROWL!!! And I sure did on at least one of the foot (my left foot.)
Alternating Forward crossovers: Not on auto pilot yet but when I am conscious of it, I do skate better on this move.


Give it another hour


Alternating FO3-back crossover - Both are on the same lobe but you start a new lobe on the crossover. Not that great... I have trouble with stepping forward. Having weight on my back crossover foot/ankle (BI edge) seems to help a lot.
Back power pulls!!! YIKESSS!!! Okay, I sorta got the general sense of the ankle bend, the shoulders, deeper edge, and the timing of the free back leg (when to pull in and push out) but ONLY if my choreographer was right there for me to hold on to if needed!!! 8O No growls yet... but not too bad!
Ummmm.... I am not that awake? :halo: :P :lol:

[Mrs Redboots]

Hot and Done: Ran through everything. Husband has grasped the concept of what Coach1 meant when he told him to "bounce" his salchow-loop, and landed a really good one today, except he let his arms go everywhere. Coach1 fixed my clockwise progressive runs, which were catching in the middle, because, he said, I was letting my shoulders go. Sure enough....

Still cold and raw: Husband had the pre-competition panics today (it happens to us all!) and nicked almost all my private lesson! Oh well.... His camel has gone off to find a nativity play somewhere again, but it should come back if he remembers what to do! And although the ice was somewhat better today, the music system went down!

[liz_on_ice]

Hot and done - all of yesterday's lesson. More like wet and cold and never even started. Blech it was bad. Ice was wet and soft, and eventually bumpy as raindrops froze to it. Couldn't spin, couldn't jump, edges sucked. All the corrections from coach were just making me anxious and not fixing anything. Should have stayed in bed.

Give it another hour - went this morning and erased the bad memory. Bright crisp late fall day. Jumped till sweaty and running on endorphins. Actually got a decent backspin a couple of times. Just stood on that spot and watched the world whirl by. One of these days, coach will get to see it. :giveup:

[Isk8NYC]

Hot and done -

I do like the new-old-shorter blades. I can spin really well on them and my backspin is slowly returning.

Didn't try any jumps other than a few waltz jumps since I still have the temp screws in.

Spiral patterns weren't too bad, but change-edge were very weak.

Give it another hour -

Still struggling with turns to the right on both feet. Brackets were meh, three turns were scary if I did them on pattern. sigh

Didn't take Advil before skating, so my knee was twinging the whole time.

Dropped the skates off to be sharpened with my 3/8" preference. Hope they come out all right.


Taught a group lesson last night. There are five instructors. I was early since I set up the clipboards, etc. One of the young ladies arrived just as the lesson time was beginning to put out cones. Two more were late, which is a constant pattern and the rink manager gave them a warning. So they're in a snit now. The fifth instructor never showed up and no one received a call AFAIK.

Fortunately, I thought to grab her students while I was warming up my own two-level group of students, so they received a good workout and lesson. It was difficult - I had three different group levels in one class!

[jskater49]

5:45 Lesson today - DD came home last night and I offered her my lesson time and last night before she got home she said she wanted it but this morning there was no signs of life from her room so I let her sleep

Hot and done - My gala program - shaping up pretty good. When I take my time and stretch and glide, the RFO 3 that's been scaring me is just fine...

Give it a few more hours - working on 3 turns...first inside then reveiwed outside....coach noticed it's not the side I favor but the direction to turn - which is clockwise. She thought it was because it's easier for me to stretch my right shoulder back than my left shoulder.

Except it doesn't work that way for back outside 3 turns...right now it seems easier on left foot and that does have my left shoulder back. Who knows? So for those I need to concentrate on tighening my buttucks - not letting my hip rotate and bending my knees AND coming up on the back of the blade. Whew- that is a lot to think of!

Give it a few months but I'm excited: For our spring show, you get a solo or feature based on how much ice you contract (plus volunteer work and testing and competing - yea it's buying a role but it sure helps to sell the ice time!) and I am applying for a feature role in our show which is the Wizard of Ice Theatre this year. I expect I'll be Auntie Em...but we'll see! Don't believe an adult skater has had a feature role before. I'm also hoping to get in the Flying Monkeys group number!

[Skate@Delaware]

Hot and done: the temp in the rink was up so it was almost too hot for skating by the time I warmed up! I had to strip down to a t-shirt!!!

Everything is going well, (except for those items noted below) and since school is out for the holiday, there was about 6 kids skating.

Give it another hour: not sure another hour is enough, my loop is still getting landed on one foot (yay) but the rotation is not there....I'm not getting down enough in the knee for springing up. I'm hoping that it will come together better.

And what was up with my toe-loops? they were really crappy and instead of (again) getting down in the knee and picking in they were really waltzy.

Under either/both categories: scratch spin "exercise" which is just weird. Enter the spin like normal, but keep free leg LIFTED UP and don't bring it in. try it, that is HARD TO DO!!!! Hip flexors need more strength I guess.

I only skated for an hour, I was worn out by the time I finished!

[jazzpants]

I forgot to mention yesterday that ankle bend is HEAVILY REQUIRED on he back power pulls!!! In fact, right after my drill on back power pulls with my choreographer (which results in some much better back power pulls. :bow: ) I said "WOW!!! I just found another area of my body that I rarely exercise.... my ANKLE!!! And WHOA do I feel it!!!"

I then thought of my personal trainer's exercise Monday morning about doing sit spins requiring a LOT of ankle strength to hold the low sit spin pose. We did a little bit of testing where I squat halfway down and then go all the way down on the sit spin. She asked "Which one requires more work to hold?" I said "Both are equally tough." That's NOT the answer she expected. She then realizes that on the full sit is that it requires a LOT of ankle strength but next to NOTHING in leg strength to hold the pose. Yup!!! I was thinking of her when I did back power pulls. OWWWWWWEEEEEE!!!! :giveup:

That said....

This turkey's FROZEN SOLID:
So this morning secondary coach says "Show me your left foot!" I showed it to her. Then she said "No, put it up on the boards" So I did. Then she said "I have a SURPRISE for you!!! :twisted: " When I saw the ankle weights and she puts it on me, I was like 8O. She then said "I have to live up my title and rep as the EVILLE secondary coach!!! :twisted: " It was 3.5lbs, but it felt like 10lbs when I skated with it!!!

And what's the drill today? SPEED DRILLS!!! She first wanted 3 laps of GOOD stroking and forward crossovers and let's just say she "has the need for speed... :twisted: " Then comes forward and back pumps around the hockey circle and she wants to see a LOT more speed coming out of me. Then it alternating FO3 tap toes down the length of the rink (which I'm sucky at already WITHOUT the ankles weights!!!) Then she said "I want to see FAST forward crossovers. When I tell you to... LIFT into a spiral ("and it better be a good spiral with high free leg and straight legs for both!!!") and STAY on the spiral position until I tell 'ya too (which is pretty much when I'm slowed to a grinding halt!) Then it was back crossovers for 30 seconds as FAST AS I CAN!!! Stop for about 10 seconds and then back on there for another 30 seconds set. BOTH directions!!!

Hot and Done
She FINALLY release me from the ankle weights and told me to stroke around fast again for a couple of laps. One of our Master level skaters said to EVILLE secondary coach that "She's definitely noticeably faster!!!"

And on that note, I came off the ice VERY HOT (as in my t-shirt was DRENCHING IN SWEAT!!!) and very DONE!!! (As in when I tried to put my blade guards on to step off the ice, I realized that I could BARELY lift my knee to bend to put the blade guards on... and instead of walking, I was "skating"/shuffling off ice.) GEEZ LOUISE!!! I made a decision right then and there that "I DO NOT NEED TO GO TO THE GYM for a workout -- I just GOT one!!!" :giveup:

My personal trainer was in the middle of her lesson so she wasn't paying much attention... but the coaches at the penalty box where my secondary coach was SURE got a GOOD chuckle!!! :P

Interesting visitors I had at my rink today. Les and Ellen were at my rink. Apparently they're in to visit relatives but wanted to stop by to practice at YB!!! Too bad they've picked the WRONG DAY to come practice their pairs stuff. There were at least 15 people during my lesson (which is the latest FS morning session that they also got one.)

Then in the middle of my lesson, my old group lesson coach, Jordan Wilson, showed up! But not to practice this time (sadly I don't get to watch his triple axels) ... he had a young student there! But very happy to see him. :bow: At least NOW he can see that I got my FO 3turns!!! LOL!!! (The memory of him that sticks to me when he was teaching FO3 in my group lesson. We were all struggling. I told him that "he made it look easy!" He said "It *IS* EASY!!!" I said "Yeah, right!!! EASY for you! :roll: ")

[ibreakhearts66]

This is a combo of the past two days

Hot and Done
-Moves are feeling pretty good. 8-step seems good in both directions. Clockwise has actually been easier for me. Forward cross rolls feel GREAT and my coach has been really pleased with them. They feel nice and easy, I have the rolling sensation, and get a good rip too.
-Doubles were nice and big. I couldn't actually LAND all of those because of my ankle, but they had really good lift, distance and timing. Coming down just hurt.
-Donut spins are getting more consistent :D

Give it another hour
-Took a lovely splat on a spiral. Toe-pick=>belly flop :frus: Hadn't done that in a long time. Lovely scrape on my hip bone from the bad ice.
-Living at the doctor lately. I just found out that I have a pinched nerve in my spine at the L5 level, so I'm having an MRI for that. Plus, I have to have an MRI of my right hip, because I'm still showing symptoms of a labral tear. And my ankles are totally messed up from my skates. I can't WAIT for my new boots. The ankles hurt most right now. They're tender to the touch, so just being in my skates hurts. My right ankle also hurts on the outside, so I'm actually taking it easy on the jumps. I'm focusing on using 2toes as the second jump of combos instead of 2loops--easier on my right ankle. I'm getting a little overwhelmed right now though.

[Thin-Ice]

(snip) since school is out for the holiday, there was about 6 kids skating.

LUCKY YOU!!! School is out all week here and on Wednesday the rink was FULL and we had a waiting list to get onto freestyle ice! So my coach decided this was the perfect day to have me skating FASTER and threading through the other skaters to do kill drills (skate as fast as you can then do a loop jump at one end, land it, hold it for three counts, then skate as fast as you can to the other end and do a flip, land it, hold for three counts, then skate as fast as you can and do a jump (she calls the jump when I'm about midway down the rink starting with the third one). I thought I was going to kill someone... maybe me. But during the entire hour I only had one bout of interference from one kid who ran into me while I was spinning (I was even centered). She just wasn't paying attention. But I did have to abort several lutz attempts when one of the other kids decided he needed to wander all across one-third of the ice, looking for the perfect place to practice his camel... and would always seem to settle near the lutz corner! :frus::roll: I told my coach I can hardly wait until the kids are back in school.. but she just laughed and said "Christmas vacation is less than a month away...."

[vesperholly]

-Living at the doctor lately. I just found out that I have a pinched nerve in my spine at the L5 level, so I'm having an MRI for that. Plus, I have to have an MRI of my right hip, because I'm still showing symptoms of a labral tear. And my ankles are totally messed up from my skates. I can't WAIT for my new boots. The ankles hurt most right now. They're tender to the touch, so just being in my skates hurts. My right ankle also hurts on the outside, so I'm actually taking it easy on the jumps.
This sounds really serious - why are you even skating?? :(

[phoenix]

Ugh, asked to work on Viennese Waltz on a day when all the kids were out of school & therefore at the rink! Bad idea--that dance is mostly backwards, and makes unexpected changes of direction, and has a very weird shaped pattern. Bottom line--I was in everyone's way, almost got killed once, and kept "half-skating" because I was trying to watch out for people behind me.

However, with all that, there have been some improvements, and my 2 forward outer edges are now actually edges--not deep enough but at least it's a start. That is one difficult dance, and I'm really interested to see everyone else doing it at AN! I have a feeling I'll be with lots of skated-as-child dancers, so don't expect to be anywhere near the podium. Still looking forward to it though!

[mikawendy]

-Living at the doctor lately. I just found out that I have a pinched nerve in my spine at the L5 level, so I'm having an MRI for that. Plus, I have to have an MRI of my right hip, because I'm still showing symptoms of a labral tear. And my ankles are totally messed up from my skates. I can't WAIT for my new boots. The ankles hurt most right now. They're tender to the touch, so just being in my skates hurts. My right ankle also hurts on the outside, so I'm actually taking it easy on the jumps.

This sounds really serious - why are you even skating?? :(

Umm, yeah, what she said. Labral tears are nothing to mess around with! Be careful--you don't want to do even more damage to that hip that could make the rehab time even longer.

[flo]

ibreakhearts66 - ouch!! Been there - ouch!!!

To injured - take tme to heal, the ice will be there wen you get back.

thawing: Looking at music for nats - working on matching up our strengths.

Done - having a great time trying things!

[BatikatII]

Hot and Done

last week I was thinking about giving up free skating as I was stuck in a rut and didn't seem to be progressing much.

This week I've really been enjoying it though. A good lesson on Tuesday followed by starting on a new programme this week. I really like my new music as it is a bit different (from a group which I first came across when they were busking outside the Pompidou centre in Paris - now they are getting well known but I've not heard anyone skating to their music yet)

The programme is really challenging with a few combination jumps that I really cannot do yet but that makes it more exciting. Even better, one of the newer skaters at our rink was very complimentary about it afterwards (even though I thought I did it pretty badly, as I was struggling to even remember what we had just made up - I guess it still looks good to a beginner!):lol:

Probably finally deciding to put behind me the bad experiences with another skater at the rink has helped me feel better about skating too. In future I will just try and avoid contact with her and her 'toxic' personality.

Another hour - hmmmm - no, today was all good!:D

Oh, apart from going to pay and finding my water bottle had leaked all over the contents of my bag - urgghhhh!!!

[Skate@Delaware]

LUCKY YOU!!! School is out all week here and on Wednesday the rink was FULL and we had a waiting list to get onto freestyle ice! So my coach decided this was the perfect day to have me skating FASTER and threading through the other skaters to do kill drills (skate as fast as you can then do a loop jump at one end, land it, hold it for three counts, then skate as fast as you can to the other end and do a flip, land it, hold for three counts, then skate as fast as you can and do a jump (she calls the jump when I'm about midway down the rink starting with the third one). I thought I was going to kill someone... maybe me. But during the entire hour I only had one bout of interference from one kid who ran into me while I was spinning (I was even centered). She just wasn't paying attention. But I did have to abort several lutz attempts when one of the other kids decided he needed to wander all across one-third of the ice, looking for the perfect place to practice his camel... and would always seem to settle near the lutz corner! :frus::roll: I told my coach I can hardly wait until the kids are back in school.. but she just laughed and said "Christmas vacation is less than a month away...."
I'm expecting the rink to really fill up-the good thing about skating in the daytime is the fact that most parents are still at work and not able to get their kids out and about. No way do I attend the night time sessions!!!!
This sounds really serious - why are you even skating?? :(
Yeah, tears can become fully torn and then you are talking MAJOR REHAB if not surgery (and downtime).

I did skate with a pinched sciatic nerve last year (due to the herniated disc in my back) only to keep up my muscle tone...it was hard because my leg was totally numb.

Be careful and be sure you are fully warmed up AND don't push yourself as hard.

on another note:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!

[Kim to the Max]

[Give it Another Hour]
I was in a horribly crabby mood yesterday which of course affected my lesson, which I feel horrible about...

Axels were crap....I feel as if I am never going to land that jump. I don't know if coach understands how extremely frustrated I am with it...which of course doesn't lend itself to a positive attitude about it, so it's this vicious circle...I'm sure she is frustrated too, I just don't know what else I can do :(

[Hot and Done]
Spins were quite good the last few days...of course, I get in my lesson and can't do a nice layback to save my life, but it's okay...I at least know I can do it....and coach did say that I have great position, it's just that I tend to drop my right shoulder....

[Thin-Ice]

I'm expecting the rink to really fill up-the good thing about skating in the daytime is the fact that most parents are still at work and not able to get their kids out and about. No way do I attend the night time sessions!!!!


I only skate morning sessions, too, since I work an overnight shift and then go directly to the rink. These were an 7:45-9:45 sessions that were crawling with kids. But again, they ARE back in school next week.. and I will be back to quiet ice I share with about 8 other people and we are all pretty much aware of each other. I admit it.. I'm spoiled with not many skaters on the ice most of the time.:lol::halo:

[ibreakhearts66]

This sounds really serious - why are you even skating?? :(

Umm, yeah, what she said. Labral tears are nothing to mess around with! Be careful--you don't want to do even more damage to that hip that could make the rehab time even longer.

I'm expecting the rink to really fill up-the good thing about skating in the daytime is the fact that most parents are still at work and not able to get their kids out and about. No way do I attend the night time sessions!!!!

Yeah, tears can become fully torn and then you are talking MAJOR REHAB if not surgery (and downtime).

I did skate with a pinched sciatic nerve last year (due to the herniated disc in my back) only to keep up my muscle tone...it was hard because my leg was totally numb.

Be careful and be sure you are fully warmed up AND don't push yourself as hard.

on another note:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!!!


I'm skating still because I have a test in ten days and, really, because none of my doctors have told me I have to stop. The doctor who did the EMG said my nerve isn't dying or anything like that, so I can keep training, but it might just take longer for my symptoms to go away. She figure skates, so she understands the mechanics of the sport more than most doctors. She did tell me to wear my crash pads more :oops:

The possibility of a labral tear is what has me really down. I had surgery a little less than a year ago to fix the torn labrum and reshape my socket, so I'm going to be really upset if there's another tear. I'm hoping that it's just leftover soreness from the surgery, but I guess I'll find out next week. I'm not sure he'll recommend surgery right away though. An MRI of my left hip also showed a torn labrum, but they decided to treat that with PT instead of surgery. Since the last surgery took care of the impingement that would make it hard for any labral tear to heal, hopefully surgery won't be the first step if I do indeed of a tear.

[Stormy]

[Give it Another Hour]
I was in a horribly crabby mood yesterday which of course affected my lesson, which I feel horrible about...

Axels were crap....I feel as if I am never going to land that jump. I don't know if coach understands how extremely frustrated I am with it...which of course doesn't lend itself to a positive attitude about it, so it's this vicious circle...I'm sure she is frustrated too, I just don't know what else I can do :(

[Hot and Done]
Spins were quite good the last few days...of course, I get in my lesson and can't do a nice layback to save my life, but it's okay...I at least know I can do it....and coach did say that I have great position, it's just that I tend to drop my right shoulder....


If it makes you feel any better, I know EXACTLY how you feel about the axel. I spent years thinking I'd never land it, and now that I do, I know it's wrong, which is even more frustrating. The takeoff gets cheated and I've failed my Gold Free test twice because of it. It's :frus: times 1,000. I've so been there, still there, done that! It's so mental at this point. Anyways, my point is you're not alone!!

[NoVa Sk8r]

If it makes you feel any better, I know EXACTLY how you feel about the axel. I spent years thinking I'd never land it, and now that I do, I know it's wrong, which is even more frustrating. The takeoff gets cheated and I've failed my Gold Free test twice because of it. It's :frus: times 1,000. I've so been there, still there, done that! It's so mental at this point. Anyways, my point is you're not alone!!Amen. I feel like I am going to be stuck at silver level forever because of that pesky jump!!!

[kander]

Hot and Done: Had a great session tuesday night. Landed everything well, including (FINALLY!) a good axel.

Another Hour: Had an equally crappy session the following night. I'm not too bummed out beccause I wasn't very motivated, the ice was terrible, and I was tired. There was a fog bank on the ice that went up to my eye level. It was eerie skating.

[Kim to the Max]

If it makes you feel any better, I know EXACTLY how you feel about the axel. I spent years thinking I'd never land it, and now that I do, I know it's wrong, which is even more frustrating. The takeoff gets cheated and I've failed my Gold Free test twice because of it. It's :frus: times 1,000. I've so been there, still there, done that! It's so mental at this point. Anyways, my point is you're not alone!!

It is good to know that I am not alone in my struggle with this jump...I have struggled with it since I was a kid.....it has gotten better since coach has been a bit more diligent with working on it in lessons (there were a few months there where I felt like we didn't touch it at all and coach was surprised -not in a good way- at the state they were in when we worked on them again....oops....:roll:) ...I swear, I'm going to land my double sal and double toe well before I land an axel, and all three of them are related! :frus:

[jazzpants]

Thin-Ice: Sounds like your coach also has the need... for SPEED too!!! :twisted: That sounds brutal!!! 8O

Hot and Done
Went to coffee club for the first time in a while, visit the old coffee club crowd, some of the skater during the noon session, a skater that hasn't been around for quite a while b/c of her 3 surgeries, one skater that I've roomed with at AN last April,one freestyle skater turned ice dancer b/c she had knee and hip surgery done and she decided to take up ice dancing b/c it's less jarring on the joints. (She's an older woman... I think by now she's hitting 60?)

No donuts! No pumpkin pie either, but we had Costco muffins, coffee cake and apple pie. I was a good girl though. Then again, it was easy to resist when you have the ice beckoning you. :twisted:

Give it another hour:
WAAAAY too crowded!!! I was trying to setup my jumps but had to abort quite a few times. My flip is gone again and I had to force my lutz to show up. My loop was a struggle too. (Just too tired, I guess! Probably will take it easy for a few days to get my strength back and my sleep caught up!)

[Stormy]

Amen. I feel like I am going to be stuck at silver level forever because of that pesky jump!!!

I wish I could go BACK to Silver this year because the axel hasn't progressed like I thought it would this year. Unfortunately, I took my Juv free last year and got a mercy pass, the axel wasn't great but the judges knew I was taking the test just to have it. I wouldn't have if I knew it would stick me in Gold this season! :giveup:

[liz_on_ice]

hot and done - jumps all over the place, I was a turkey fueled jumping machine in practice :lol: Practiced backspins relentlessley - I still can't do them well, but I can do more tries without getting sick so that counts for progress!

another hour - loops are loopy, fell on a back 3, fortunately landed on well padded bits so no damage.

[singerskates]

Well, our Thanksgiving has been Hot and Done now for almost a month and half. Yup Canadian.

Let's start with the frozen Turkey:
The ice was a zoo today with all sorts of level of skaters on it during our figure skating City Ice (ticket ice everywhere else). We had skaters on there that could barely skate forwards (CanSkaters; must have been a little brother or sister of a figure skater), were low level StarSkater kids, were mid level StarSkater kids, were high level StarSkater kids, were Juvenile to Novice level skaters, was a Junior Competitive skater working on becoming elite skater (Ashley Simond; she was looking really good too. Man, she's become a really good looking nice young lady since the summer when she looked like she was only 12. She's filled out and grown about a foot at least. She's competing at the Skate Canada East/West Challenge soon trying to make it to Senior Canadians (has Junior and Senior skaters competing for the National title.).) and there was one adult skater (me). Next to no one was able to go through their freeskate or short programs as there were just too many skaters on the ice for the size of the ice.

My legs were extremely tight today, so I didn't do my spiral sequence ( like I could have gotten through it with all the other skaters in the way.)

Again too many little skaters on the ice and so I didn't attempt a Camel spin in fear that I would end up chopping off some little kid's head off. Not a good thought.

Hot and Done:

Forward Upright spin had more than one position (4 revs in basic with leg out to the right infront and another 6 revs in corkscrew position). One upright had 3 positions but I'm not sure if the third had at least 3 revs.

Forward sit had a lower position today with 6 revs in the basic position and another 3 or 4 in the broken position. Next I want to and a 3rd position to the sit. Maybe I'll do that blade grab from behind with the oposing hand with a body twist. That should rack up points for Adult Canadians.

Waltz jump has never been so solid. Sad thing is that I won't be using it in my program because of the low point value.

Toe Loop is higher, smoother on take off and landing.

Salchow is reliable again with no swinging off of the axis or late cheated jumping.

Loop has improved immensely. I've got a longer take off edge which is actually on a proper curve now with a nice flag on the ice. It's higher again. And I'm landing on one foot 90 percent of the time. One thing that I must watch for though is that I check fast and hard enough so that I don't swing my left arm around on the landing because either I end up two footing the jump or I don't flow out on a back outside edge but rather I end up changing directions and doing a forward inside edge. Need to get my arms faster for the landing. I'm starting to believe that I can get all my jumps back up to 2 Salchow (never tested for various reasons even though I wanted to test).

Split is higher and more controlled.

Flip is almost clean (barely a tap of the freefoot as it goes by).

Split + Flip + Toe has a good rhythem to it now. Just need to keep that free foot off of the ice 100% of the time during the flip portion.

Left overs (or not even skated and/or thought of):
Lutz was not attempted. No time or space on the ice to try one.
Camel
Spiral Sequence.

The reason I'm thankful: My skating has improved dramatically over night since I fixed the inside of my skate boots this past week. Last week, I was even having troubles with landing on a clean edge just doing my Waltz jump and I couldn't get a true outside edge to save my life for anything. I was also ripping my hips apart trying to do my change edge spiral sequence. I'd try to change from the inside edge to the outside and found that even when I could manage to change to the other lobe, I was still on an inside edge slowing down little by little with mini side stops as the inside edge was catching. I was in pain with my hips since I got the skates last March (08) because of the defect inside of my boots. I added some support where it dipped too quickly inside of my boots in between the floor of the boot and my orthotics to make the inside more like a wedge shoe. I also put a bit of padding just under the heel of my orthotic too to raise my heel. Now my skates feel great. Skate shop tried to tell me that my skate boots were fine even though they were not. Orothtics guy had not a clue what to do until I started brain storming with him and I came up with the solution and did the change. Yup, I'm thankful that the change has been done and now I can start believing that I can regain all my jumps and spins and start winning again.

[ibreakhearts66]

Our main ice surface is being repainted, so the sessions were all on the second, way undersized surface today. Lots of crazy kids. There was one kid using an EZ Skater who I KNOW can at least skate around, because I've TAUGHT him in classes! :roll: Anyways

Hot and Done
-Made some more good progress on my moves. My coach said I was too far forward on the second half of my 8-step, so once I concentrated on staying a little further back on the blade, it had a lot more flow, and she said I LOOKED much more confident. My right ankle was really hurting, so we concentrated on the LBO power 3s, which was OK since those are the weak side anyways. Those are starting to feel pretty good too.
-2flips were feeling good again. They had taken a mini vacation. I hadn't really lost them, but they just weren't as strong as they had been, but they were good and solid today, which actually really surprised me.
-Flying sits are getting really strong and consistent.
-I did ONE decent change edge back sit. Everyone else in the rink has a hard time getting over onto the OUTSIDE edge on their back site, but I have a hard time getting it to change to an inside edge (when I want it to).
-Messed around with some back sit variations, and they weren't too bad for not ever working on them.

Give it another hour
-Starting to get nervous for my test. One more week! The frustrating part now is that my ankles are holding me back. Back cross rolls and the power 3s are painful. But I think (hope?) I'll be OK for the test. We'll see...

Over all, even though today started out really badly (we started with power 3s which killed my ankle and I was afraid that was going to set the tone for the rest of the session), I felt good about how I skated and the progress I've been making. I take my victories where I can, but I think I may finally have some stand out attributes to my skating, which is not something I've ever felt before. It feels good!

[RachelSk8er]

Hot and Done:

Got to the rink this morning at 8am only to find that we didn't have ice due to a hockey tournament (in retrospect I probably knew this but just love dragging my butt out of bed at 7am on Saturdays to go skate that I forgot). BUT no one even had the ice on the one ice surface until 9:15pm, so the rink manager let me skate anyway.....I had the ice to myself for the whole hour.

Worked on my step sequence, which I keep the same in my free, compulsory, and interp. I changed it up a bit so it has some more flow and difficulty (added a swing roll before the LFI twizzle, which I'm hoping to get up to a double now that I have more momentum but my LFI twizzles stink. Took out a chase' mohawk after that and put in a RFO counter that leads nicely into the power-3s I had there).

Re-worked a bit of my program--moved my loop jump later so that I'm not so rushed in the middle and have time to relax and think about my axel-toe and flying camel-forward sit....this leads into the revamped step sequence. I didn't have a chance to run it all with music but I think it will flow much better and I wont' feel so frantic trying to hit the music cue for my footwork on time. I don't think my coach will like it that way, but too bad :)

Spins were good, centering really well today. Also worked on keeping the skating knee bent on my flips and lutzes, and not coming up in the knee too early (which I totally noticed I am doing in videos from Buckeye). That, of course, leads to much better height.

Also put together my gold compulsory for the Holiday Season competition in Columbus next month!

Give it Another Hour:

Didn't get to axels today. I was very hesitant because I was the only person on that side of the arena, so if I fell and hurt myself no one would realize it. (The ONLY downside to having the ice all to yourself and no one around.)

[ibreakhearts66]

Give it another hour
-Starting to get nervous for my test. One more week! The frustrating part now is that my ankles are holding me back. Back cross rolls and the power 3s are painful. But I think (hope?) I'll be OK for the test. We'll see...



...Shouldn't have posted that. Now it's not give it another hour but give it another MONTH. They couldn't get a third judge and I am not testing until January 10th :frus::frus::frus: At least that will give me time to break in new skates, skates that WON'T kill my ankles.

[jskater49]

Sorry for the Country specific thread title...being the one who skates at 6 am on Mondays is a heavy burden...:giveup:

so I drove to Omaha for a dance lesson for dd and I. The hot and done part of that is that a) it cost less than $20 to fill the tank these days and b) we made it home before the snow began in ernest.

Decided to work on something other than the Swing and look at the Cha Cha with it's cursed cross behind. Coach took a look at my pathetic two footed attempt and decided it wasn't terrible and if I could do the rest of the dance well enough it might pass. (although I know that once I get the rest of the dance up to snuff she is won't be able to help herself and will not put me out until I have that blasted move -it's all a ploy to just get me working on this dance)

Hot and done - Reviewed my stroking and prounounced my knee bend much improved.

Give it more time - that said, I need to bend more.

Had a dance coach that stressed to me the first step in the Cha Cha was "Crossover, NOT a progressive" That didn't seem right to me at the time, there are no crossovers in dance...but I let it go. Coach caught that right away - Yes we've had this discussion before but what we call progressives around here is about the timing ...outside, inside, outside edge...and this is only outside, inside...but as in both steps, the foot is placed on the ice along side the foot and then slid over on the ice. Some here would call it a "run" but we don't use that terminology in these parts. What's important is to slide the foot over on the ice, not set it down over the foot.

The good part -- is that I'm capabable of doing it correctly - especially that direction...as long as I know what to do.

And former dance coach had neglected the wide step in the chasse...why I don't know, it's very easy...again, once I know what to do. told DD about that and she had taught a student after this coach and said "Oh yea I remember telling her she was doing that wrong"

And we worked on me doing the slalloms better with my feet together, they don't like to stay together - my feet.

So I'm back working on the Cha Cha, a dance I really enjoy.

j

[celticprincess]

[/B]Haha whenever I see this thread the song "Hot N Cold" pops into my head...I dont know why. I love that song though. Todays practice was alright and once again my last post didn't load, so I have to type this all over..hooray:-( So now you're getting more or less a list of the good and bad things for today:

Hot and Done:

Power threes- Good speed, good control,
My custom moves pattern felt more comfortable...I changed some of the elements around and they seem to work out alot better.
My brand new custom move pattern- For first attempt they weren't bad...I just had to keep looking at my list of what order they were to go in and where. But Im sure they'll get better with time.
15 waltz jump in a row warmup!!:lol:
By far my loop is my best jump and is once again the reigning JUMP OF THE DAY! I can honestly depend on landing it all the time,
Axel attempts are getting better...now I just need to work on getting my legs crossed in the air
Spins as a whole were going very well
Camels ;)were actually behaving somewhat today...meaning I wasn't falling out of them. At first they were really...bad, but as time when on and I wasn't really thinking, I started pulling off some good ones. They still need alot of work, but hey at least it moved up to the 'good list'.
A new spin combo which I'd like to call "Impossible" because according to my coach it sort of is. Its basicly a flying broken leg spin into a sit spin, then up into an attitude or layback. My coach said that going from a broken leg to a sit spin is very difficult and nearly impossible..but I can do it rather easily. I wonder if it has something to do with closed hips, but it's alot of fun to do. I knew 'W' sitting as a kid would pay off someday.:P
Corkscrew spins are really fun to do! I attempted them today and could actually do them and had fun.:)
Sit spins were actually really good today as well...my right leg is really starting to cooperate and keep straight as I go into the spin. Sometimes I still need to bend, but as a whole my sits are really getting better.
'Music Box' runthrough was fantastic as always. I ran through it twice without music and still love it. Even though it's alittle harder to judge without music, I felt that I completed all the elements, kept up the grace and flow until the very end.


Now onto the bad things:

Needs more time:
-Had a 'pretty fall'..I was going into an axel, more or less landed it on the right foot then slowly felt myself falling and falling and falling until my butt hit the ice. I couldn't stop it, but it felt like I was falling in slow motion. hehe :P
-Flips were 'Hot N Cold' today. Meaning I had a couple good ones and a couple really bad ones. My problem is that I land too far back on the blade and fall right onto my bum.
-Sit change sits were sort of bad too. The change and back sit isn't the problem...it was the pulling up into a back spin. I can do a back spin alone perfectly fine, but after a sit...not so good.
-2sal attempts were just plain bad...they were all warpy and I kept flinging myself into them...no they were bad.

Thats about it for practice notes. My next skate day is Thursday because next Sat I have orientation for my school. Hooray for hard ice!

Later:-)

[Skate@Delaware]

Hot and Done:

Got to the rink this morning at 8am only to find that we didn't have ice due to a hockey tournament (in retrospect I probably knew this but just love dragging my butt out of bed at 7am on Saturdays to go skate that I forgot). BUT no one even had the ice on the one ice surface until 9:15pm, so the rink manager let me skate anyway.....I had the ice to myself for the whole hour.

This happened to me yesterday-but I DIDN'T know about it-it wasn't posted on any calendar/poster/board AND they didn't send an email reminder out to everyone [FUME]!!! What's the sense of signing up for notices if they don't utilize the system??? We only have one sheet of ice so there was no skating until public session-and I had another committment so that went out the window.

I did get a lot of errands run and installed my new printer on my home network, so that's something I guess.

I am planning on doing some off-ice training today (Sunday) for my jumps. It's raining outside so I'll have to settle on my living room <g>.

[sk8lady]

Hot and Done:

Got to the rink this morning at 8am only to find that we didn't have ice due to a hockey tournament (in retrospect I probably knew this but just love dragging my butt out of bed at 7am on Saturdays to go skate that I forgot). BUT no one even had the ice on the one ice surface until 9:15pm, so the rink manager let me skate anyway.....I had the ice to myself for the whole hour.



Give it another hour: Along the same lines...we had no ice Thursday due to T-giving...and then no ice Friday because the university rented our ice for their men's team since theirs was being used in a b-ball tourney--the head coach couldn't decide when he wanted to practice so the rink reserved the whole day up until high school practices in the afternoon for him. (They originally offered him a 10 a.m. practice but that was too EARLY. Not sure why they don't realize that if they said, "Any time between 10 and 1, take it or leave it," the university would take it since there's no place else to go and they're not going to leave for an away game without having had a practice first...I know the rink wants the $ but gee whiz!!) Couldn't skate Sat. since I refereed a youth game first thing in the a.m. (didn't wake up till an hour after the game ended...halfway through I picked up the puck and instead of handing it off to my partner tried to hand it off to the scorekeeper...no idea what I was thinking--although the mean away team coaches had plenty to say about it!), coached an hour of Learn to Play, and then limped back home to sit around with a heating pad on my back and I was DONE.

Hot and Done: Nothing to report, not having been on the ice in figure skates since WEDNESDAY!!

[RinkRat321]

hot and done
tried some 2axels today. they werent too bad considering i haven't oficially learned them yet and i never work on them
the rest of my doubles were really good

give it another hour
i didnt get a chance to run through my christmas program

2axel attempts on video: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=f4QFVwwGA5o

[*JennaD*]

Give it another hour: I failed my junior silver skills test today :( It's really frustrating because I was sooo close to passing...but my loops that are normally really good chose TODAY to be horrible lol

Hot and done: I passed 2 out of the 3 skills at least ! And considering that I had spent around 3 months on this skill instead of the year that I usually take per level, I"m pretty happy that I got them decent enough to try at test day today.

[Skate@Delaware]

JennaD--((((HUGS)))) keep at it and you will pass!!!

Hot and Done: given that my Sunday rink had a shorter session because of the holiday weekend, they did NOT charge for the freestyle session!

Another hour: because the session was shortened, my lesson was supposed to end early...(but we stayed until we were done since they weren't zamming the ice)

Today was "Blast from the Past" for things I've done before but not in ages....1/2 flip, 1/2 lutz, back 3's and a revisit to the loop.

Hot and Done: back 3's were ok, clockwise is so much better than anti....

Another hour: the 1/2 jumps (oh yeah the ballet jump as well); I don't practice them as much, so they stink.

And my loop-just could not get enough knee bend to propel UP....sheesh! At least my left leg does not tap down any longer.

I'm tired.

[ibreakhearts66]

I went over to Doubletoe's rink and skated with her on an adult only freestyle! I felt a little out of place since I'm only 18, but everyone was very nice, and it was a great session!

Anyways.

Hot and Done
-Skated with doubletoe! That was fun!
-Got through all of my doubles quickly. I even did a 2toe 2toe combo, which I'm not actually sure I've EVER landed.
-2flips felt like they had a lot of height. Still not a whole lot of distance though :?? But I think that's just a phase I go through in my jumps. For a while my double loop was just tons of height and no ice coverage, but now it has a nice arc. So hopefully my 2flip will start getting more distance too.
-I actually managed a couple of 2lutzes. I haven't worked on them in a while because of boot/blade problems. I fell on the first two, had to do a double 3 out of the 3rd, but then landed some pretty solid ones!
-I can do a haircutter spin now! I never thought I'd be able to do one, they just freaked me out. I didn't like the thought of holding on to my blade AND leaning back, but they're getting somewhat consistent.
-2axels were the closest they've been, and doubletoe was there to witness! I videoed some at the end, but they didn't feel as good as the ones I was doing earlier in the session.

Give it another hour
-2axels belong here too. :frus::frus::frus::frus:I wish I would just stay in and land the darn jump! But I'm getting closer...
-Flying sit needs a bit more tuck. It's not too bad, but I know it could be better
-Layback is traveling. The position isn't bad, but the centering is not too good. It's definitely leaning back more, though.

Here's some video from today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-eXAo937z4

[doubletoe]

Yep, Ibreakhearts is definitely getting close on that double axel! :bow:

Well and done
My double salchow takeoff was great in my lesson. Coach actually had no corrections and they felt like they wanted to be doubles. I guess there's something to be said for working on it with fresh legs instead of after an hour of intense skating.

Give it another hour
Now I just need to summon the confidence to pull in and turn them into doubles. I need to remind myself that I used to land double sals all the time. . .

Well and done
My program run-through was pretty good. Landed both axels and only made one major mistake.

Give it another hour
. . .but I need to be skating this program completely clean!

Well and done
I had a lot of fun working on a difficult new axel entrance. I hadn't had a new entry to try for a long time so it was kind of exciting!

Give it another hour
Got as far as waltz-loop-loop from the new entry, but didn't feel secure enough on the takeoff edge yet to go for the axel. But for the first time practicing the new entry, it wasn't bad!

[singerskates]

I went over to Doubletoe's rink and skated with her on an adult only freestyle! I felt a little out of place since I'm only 18, but everyone was very nice, and it was a great session!

Anyways.

Hot and Done
-Skated with doubletoe! That was fun!
-Got through all of my doubles quickly. I even did a 2toe 2toe combo, which I'm not actually sure I've EVER landed.
-2flips felt like they had a lot of height. Still not a whole lot of distance though :?? But I think that's just a phase I go through in my jumps. For a while my double loop was just tons of height and no ice coverage, but now it has a nice arc. So hopefully my 2flip will start getting more distance too.
-I actually managed a couple of 2lutzes. I haven't worked on them in a while because of boot/blade problems. I fell on the first two, had to do a double 3 out of the 3rd, but then landed some pretty solid ones!
-I can do a haircutter spin now! I never thought I'd be able to do one, they just freaked me out. I didn't like the thought of holding on to my blade AND leaning back, but they're getting somewhat consistent.
-2axels were the closest they've been, and doubletoe was there to witness! I videoed some at the end, but they didn't feel as good as the ones I was doing earlier in the session.

Give it another hour
-2axels belong here too. :frus::frus::frus::frus:I wish I would just stay in and land the darn jump! But I'm getting closer...
-Flying sit needs a bit more tuck. It's not too bad, but I know it could be better
-Layback is traveling. The position isn't bad, but the centering is not too good. It's definitely leaning back more, though.

Here's some video from today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-eXAo937z4


Good job on the 2 Axel attemps! All you need is a little more height on it and you'll get that extra half rotation to make it clean. From what I saw on the video, (I'm not a skating coach but I do have a good eye even though I'm just an Adult Bronze FS skater.) there are two things that could help to make the jump clean; bending the skating knee more before take-off and kicking your free foot up a tad higher in front of you after swinging through. I bet you'll have that 2 Axel in no time flat. Wish I could land the jumps that you can. Unfortunately, I can't see what I'm doing wrong on the ice as I'm doing it. If only I could see them at the same time I'm doing my elements.