Equinoctial storms or spring flowers: 23-29 March 2009

[Mrs Redboots]

Wot, no practice thread yet? Obviously nobody's been skating this week....

Equinoctial storms: Was sore, stiff and tentative today after the fall on Sunday. Coach recommended a hot bath...

Spring flowers: Not a lot today; it wasn't a good skate day.

[Isk8NYC]

I wandered around on the ice yesterday, but I don't consider it a practice. I'll try to actually skate today, but no promises are being made.

Equinoctial Storms
I really have to do something about my skates/blades. I don't want to take them to the guy who handles skates at my rink because he'll "level the boot" by sanding off the bottom. Still, there's something wrong with the alignment/placement and I don't know how to fix the problems.

Arrrgh.

Spring Flowers
Bit of footwork - brackets, figure loops, twizzles, tango stops.

Both of the twins passed Pre-Preliminary MITF this weekend!
Now they're dogging me to work on Prelim MITF with them, lol.

[antmanb]

Equinoctial Storms

Skates are with a a gentlemen my coach trusts to sharpen them which means i am without them til my session on Thursday so no skating.

Spring Flowers

I have resumed my old regime i had three years ago of off-ice jumping on matts when i'm in the gym and have found that all the old drills i used to do came back quickly enough. I've lost some of the rotation I had then but am sure i can build it back up again so that was very positive.

I have added to the regime and practice holding camel and sit positions off ice and transitioning between them. Nearly broke my quads doing it!

And finally I have made room after my gym work outs for much more stretching - i have extremely tight non-flexible hamstrings and spend a good 15 minutes stretching my legs out last night after doing two back to back cardio classes and today my legs are tired but not aching like normal! Should have really paid attention to stretching much sooner than now!

Ant

[liz_on_ice]

Equinoctal Storms - utter failure to get on the ice Monday (or I'd have started a thread).

Spring Flowers - I was desperate enough for practice time to schedule a half-day off today and spent the morning on a deserted public session. Did many program runthroughs and worked on the rougher edges. Feeling much calmer now. The Camel part of the camel-upright spin may not be so pathetic by Monday.

[jazzpants]

Well, I have no excuse for not starting one other than I have to job hunt (and my hubby is expecting some progress in my strategy on how I job hunt in the next couple of weeks. I have to prove him wrong... and that my strategy DOES WORKS!!! :twisted: ) but here goes....

Flowers:
Landed a few good flips at the beginning of the lesson

Storms:
Couldn't land any GOOD lutz at the beginning of the session, much to my primary coach chagrin, which is why the primary coach moved on to flips.

And later on I couldn't land ANY flips except the last one, cleanly. We left it at that.

Program at the beginning has been changed. My CCW back crossovers is quite sucky compared to the other. :giveup:

And no runthrus today. There was a HUGE group of about 50 high school kids coming in to skate at our nice quiet public session DURING my lesson!!! GRRRR!!! :frus:

And LIZ_ON_ICE!!! I am VERY VERY HAPPY that you finally passed ISI FS 3!!!! You definitely deserve that pass!!! :bow: :bow: :bow: (Yeah, I know. The change foot spin SUCKS for me too. In fact, my backspins STILL SUCKS... and I'm a BRONZE FS lady!!! :frus: )

[Stormy]

Storms: Axel, where art thou?? Since Easterns, it's completely gone. I can't seem to stop swinging it around on the takeoff, and I don't drive the knee up enough either. :( I have a competition this weekend and with ANs coming up, I'm in a bit of a panic about it, which dosen't help when I'm trying to practice it.

I'm also having blade issues. My Phantoms are dulling very fast. I just got them sharpened three or four weeks ago, and with skating 2x a week, they're already dull and I'm sliding around, which is making me much more tentative pushing in crossovers and into spins because I'm worried I'll just slip off the blade.

Flowers: Really worked on improving overall polish and presentation in the program and I think it's coming along nicely. Spins are also still inproving, including the flying camel. I usually have a lot of problems with it in the program because I rush it, but I've been able to hit it more often now that my chorographer gave me a point of reference to jump to, which makes me wait to snap into it.

[dbny]

Both of the twins passed Pre-Preliminary MITF this weekend!



Congratulations!

[ibreakhearts66]

Mix of the past two days...

Spring Flowers
-Pretty good jumping day. Everything felt pretty big, but double flips felt AMAZING. Every practice that jump makes me happier and happier. I was so upset about losing it a month or so ago, but now that I've switched to the mohawk entrance, it's so much more consistent and SO much bigger. Did nice 2flip+2loops with solid landings instead of the usual slow checkout.
-A skater asked me to do a camel spin for her after my secondary coach mentioned that I was getting the hang of doing a change edge further back on my blade. I did it and another, rather picky, sometimes nasty skater said, "She has the best camel spin in the rink" :oops:
-Split jump double toes are feeling nice. My coach said my air position on double toes is getting much better.
-I've got triple toe to half turn short when I go for it. I've only been working on it for a week, so maybe a triple really is in my future!
-LBO power 3s for intermediate were the best I've ever done them.

Equinotical storms
-FI brackets have a dimple on them most of the time. I don't know if it's bad enough to warrant a retry, but it makes me rather nervous
-Double axels are painfully close. On Monday I almost had them fully rotated, only to open up a fraction too early and crumple to the ice. Had some pretty epic pops too. One of them, I swear, I blacked out in the middle of the jump. I went up, and suddenly I was flying with my legs apart, headed straight for the ice. My coach asked me why I popped it, and I told her, honestly, I don't even remember opening up :giveup:
-2lutzes are slight 2flutzes. I don't know if it's bad enough to get me an E or even a ! though. The mark on the ice shows an inside edge, but on video it doesn't seem too obvious.
-My right ankle has really been bothering me again. I know it's always going to hurt, but when it flares up, ugh. 2loops hurt the most.

[Bunny Hop]

Equinoctial Storms: Back outside edges have disappeared entirely since I last practiced them (there's probably some sort of correlation there...), and I just can't persuade myself to hold the free leg in front for the first part of the curve, even though I am perfectly happy to do so when I do back chasses! :frus: Also can't persuade myself to actually jump when practicing three (waltz) jump.

Couldn't do any dances in lesson as a third of the ice was being used for broom ball. :roll:

Spring Flowers: Backward inside edges feeling more stable and starting to curve more. In fact, having a session quiet enough to practice backwards anything was good! Also feeling like I'm starting to make progress on spinning. I may get there one day!

[Mrs Redboots]

Congratulations to the test-passers!

Storms: Only a short session this morning. We can't work out why we can't do the rechoreographed start of our free dance.

Flowers: Worked on Mohawks with Coach2 and know what I am doing wrong now. Whether or not I can correct this is another matter.... Or, not so much I know what I'm doing wrong, I know what I'm doing to make me do it wrong, does that make sense?

[SkatEn]

Equinoctial Storms: Back outside edges have disappeared entirely since I last practiced them (there's probably some sort of correlation there...), and I just can't persuade myself to hold the free leg in front for the first part of the curve, even though I am perfectly happy to do so when I do back chasses!

B]Spring Flowers:[/B] Backward inside edges feeling more stable and starting to curve more. In fact, having a session quiet enough to practice backwards anything was good! Also feeling like I'm starting to make progress on spinning. I may get there one day!
If that keeps happening, check for the dullness of the blades. And good luck on spins! If you have a spinner, use one to get used to the dizziness. When I started learning 1foot, I would step on newspapers and spin on the tile floor. :lol:8-) Personally prefer not to spin on socks because I don't have the choice of getting out of the spin!
--------------

I skated for the first time since 7 days ago!
STORMS
I popped about all my loops in the second half of the practice. Skated so much that my legs refused to do any more toe jumps. Camel deserted me, and all the progress I made on it is gone. Lutz is landed when it's landed, but with the knowing that my flip needs fixing, I think most lutz attempts had me changing my mind. Sat most of the sit spins when I started spinning. 8O

SPRING FLOWERS
AND I didn't lose TOO many stuff. The loop on video looks better, and spins feel better too. I'm starting to lose consistent centering on scratch but there are more revolutions, and awesome speed. Sit spin got better and I could count to 6. Probably not 6 rev though. Friend showed flip, and she really made me realise what's wrong. The video helped that too. I now know what's to be fixed, and can fix it when I'm doing it stationary, but not when I'm moving. No point, eh?

Flowers:Whether or not I can correct this is another matter.... Or, not so much I know what I'm doing wrong, I know what I'm doing to make me do it wrong, does that make sense?
Is that what you meant?:P

Lesson learnt: DO off ice positions when not skating for a period of time!:bow:

[Isk8NYC]

When I was a kid, I used to turn around and around until I got dizzy, lol. Maybe that's why I spin so well on the ice? I can use the spinner for a backspin, but the forward spins elude me on the spinner. I lose my balance too easily.

Equinoctial Storms: (I used copy-and-paste to put this title in my posts - I can't spell it, otherwise!)
Toe loops, mazurkas are all crappy. I just can't pick in right to get up in the air and now my ankle hurts.
MITF - While the rink wasn't crowded, I just felt uncomfortable with weaving in and out of the skaters.
Forward power pulls are very weak and my mohawks are awful!
I wish my change-foot sit spin were better. I keep missing the change - can't get the toepick in right.
I tried a few Bell jumps. I hate landing forward. *shudders*

Spring Flowers:
Spins were pretty good; having some trouble with the back scratch, which is strange and unusual but I have a good cross-foot spin coming along.
I'm really feeling the pull back on the forward camel spins and my change-foot is good, but I'm losing a lot of speed on the back camel.
Flip and Loop weren't landed cleanly, but the rotation's there. Split and Split Falling Leaf jumps were good - need more stretch.

Stupid blade alignment problems. I have a lead on a skate tech not too far away, so I'm going to give him a try at some point. I have to have the twins' blades moved to their new boots, so I'm up for a day at the pro shop.

[Isk8NYC]

I'm also having blade issues. My Phantoms are dulling very fast. I just got them sharpened three or four weeks ago, and with skating 2x a week, they're already dull and I'm sliding around, which is making me much more tentative pushing in crossovers and into spins because I'm worried I'll just slip off the blade.Do you still have the hard-steel edge or are they just at the end of their life?

[LilJen]

Because of schedule changes at my rink I only start my practice week on Wednesday!

Storms: I have to decide how I want to do my tests next month. I can take my bronze moves at 9:30 am and the Cha Cha at 2:15 (sit around the rink all day and must find an option for dd, who's on spring break). OR--I can take Cha Cha at 2:15 and moves around 2:30--only, if the schedule is behind by more than 15 minutes, I'd have to wait until the 3pm FS session to do my moves tests, with other skaters in the way. . . and probably no warmup. What to do?? Practices have been going pretty well, with coach only nitpicking, but . . .

[jazzpants]

Both of the twins passed Pre-Preliminary MITF this weekend!
Now they're dogging me to work on Prelim MITF with them, lol.CONGRATS to the TWINS!!!! :bow: :bow: :bow:

So my secondary coach asked me this morning what I wanted to learn today. My choreographer was sitting nearby coaching another student when I said (loud enough for him to hear) "I wanted to learnhow to do hockey stops well enough so I can spray ice at SOMEBODY!!!" (Gesturing at choreographer.)

Storms:
She said "<Choreographer's name> sprayed ice at you? GOOOOD!!!" :twisted: :lol: (So much for moral support.... :roll: )

The lesson ended up being a loop jump day... and the purpose of this mornings lesson was to HAUL ### around the rink and then do a loop jump, land clean and GLIDE like I own the edge!!!

Storm:
Ummm... didn't quite end up that way for most of the loop jumps. In fact , I landed funny today on the very last loop! Luckily no sprain ankle or anything like that but scary enough that I basically called it the day today!!!:giveup:

Lower back is slightly sore and it's tell me to "take it easy already... or ELSE!!! :twisted: "

Flowers:
Choreographer liked the very first loop jump landing. (The guy yelled to my secondary coach "Did you see the flow coming out of that loop jump!?!?!" :mrgreen: ) (Note: He was working on the flow of my program last week... the coaches here at my rink like doing the "Look what I made Jazzpants do today!?!?!" thing... )

Storms:
Unfortunately, secondary coach was NOT happy.... b/c today she has the need... for SPEED today!!! So off I go trying to do some fast back crossovers to build up speed and then land a BUNCH of clean loops that glides effortless when I land it. Most weren't that great (almost dead stop), but some were decent! :)

My assignment this week is to go into the loop jump from back crossovers much faster and land it clean on a nice flow and glide!!! OH, and of course, she wants it consistent too!!! :twisted: 8O

[Bunny Hop]

If that keeps happening, check for the dullness of the blades. And good luck on spins! If you have a spinner, use one to get used to the dizziness. When I started learning 1foot, I would step on newspapers and spin on the tile floor. :lol:8-) Personally prefer not to spin on socks because I don't have the choice of getting out of the spin!
--------------Regrettably, although my blades are getting towards the sharpening stage, I know in this case the problem is me and not the equipment. A lot of my skating issues are in my head. As for spinning, I'd be happy with a decent two foot spin, never mind one foot! I'm consistently getting two-two and a half revolutions these days though - would probably do better if I could persuade myself to use more push going into the spin! My husband was showing me the one foot spin entry on Monday, which was fun to try, even if I can't really get the spin part! Fortunately I don't have much problem with dizziness, though with only 2-3 slow revolutions, that's hardly surprising! Haven't used our spinner for ages - should try it again.

[FlyAndCrash]

Storms: I fell really hard on a spiral last Friday and it took until yesterday for me to get the motivation to go to the rink again. And then, when I got there, the coach accosts me about where I had been all week...

Flowers: I did manage to do some decent spins at the beginning of the session last night. I had a really good catch-foot that was complimented and a good sit-bell-backsit.

Storms: During my program, my spins fell apart. I had a weak entrance into my camel-backsit-sit that made my sits really high, had a high sit-bell-backsit, and bailed on my last spin. I really need to work on my endurance more and on thinking through each element better.

Flowers: I got complimented on my jumps, loop in particular. It was really high and pretty (aka in control). My landings have also been very consistent and strong lately. My flip-toe (and I hate toes and think mine are horrible) even improved and was said to look decent.

Storms: My lutz-loop-loop feels really tiny. I worked on it from the entrance in my program, and I think that I lack speed... Thus, the loops are small and spiny in order for me to fit them in.

Tornado: Double run-thrus for nationals start next week!!! 8O8O8O I am going to DIE!

[liz_on_ice]

Flowers - came in early and took a long lunch to practice my program for Monday. Worked jumps and transitions, put my music on the rink system and had a really good runthrough - despite public skaters and rutty ice. 8-)

[Skittl1321]

Spring Flowers After not having a lesson yet this March, we finally started my Bronze test program this week (designed to be tested hopefully while the year is still 2009, but no time soon). We got the first 30 seconds or so into it- loop jump, footwork, and sit spin so far. Originally that also had my waltz-toe combo, but it was just SO fast that it wasn't going to happen. (I was balking at it, and my coach gave me a "you can do it" sort of speech and then went to do it herself, but in my direction. She skidded out of the waltz jump entry and said "oh, maybe not ... we'll move it"). The beginning of the program is a fun game of "hide the loop". I'm happy with it because I'm really confident with this set up I'll be able to do one as well as I possibly can. Basically we set it up so that I'm doing nice footwork into the loop (back crossrolls ending in a BO3 then step into a push, then 3-turn for the loop)- so that hopefully THAT will be nice and "impressive", and the judges won't realize it's an entrance designed specifically to not make me speed up so that I can do the jump. Then my footwork gets much faster, and I do a wind up into my sit spin- placed such that my adult knees aren't dead by the time I get to that element!

And the nice thing is that so far, it fits the music pretty perfectly! I have an hour scheduled on Saturday to, hopefully, finish it.

Synchro also went really well - with multiple really great program run throughs. We've been doing really really poorly, so it was really nice to have a good practice. Everyone has been focusing on ISI Synchro Nats, about a month off, and most the team had forgotten we have a show next weekend! So we have the programs at the "not embarassed anymore" at a show level, and now we just need to clean them for the comp.

Storms Arm STILL hurts, not sleeping well. But not really skating related, except my arms which are usually strong aren't really being used to their fullest.

[Petlover]

Flowers: I drove to North Carolina last weekend, so I got to skate with Looplover on Sunday, it was so much fun! This week my spins have just been fantastic for me, I'm hitting that sweet spot, getting a consistent scratch spin, and really going fast. It only took 12 years....

Storms: First time I skated my footwork program today, my coach reamed me out about my posture through the mohawks and 3-turns. She was sooooo right, sigh. She rarely gets mad at me, but this time she had every right, it was the first time in years my posture had been so bad.

Flowers: Second time through my footwork program, I fixed my posture and coach was happy.

[jskater49]

left at 5:30 am to drive 3+ hours to Omaha for a dance lesson with my daughter.

Started with the Swing - Storms - I'm still two footing my pushes with my back swing rolls and chasses. But coach said I was too strong a skater to do this and this was just a head thing, that I was capable of pushing with one foot. After while I got the hang of it and I think I'm going to kill that habit

then I decided to go back and work on my Rhythm Blues. I think I will compete it. I'm tired of competing dances I'm still working on and dont' feel totally comfortable. this is a dance I think I might be able to do well. Spring flowers - she said I had beautiful progressives - storms-- I was taught it wrong (and passed anyway!) so had to relearn some steps....not so bad.

storms - still rushing the mohawk.

j

[dbny]

(((((FlyAndCrash))))) Ouch! Glad you've recovered.

Flowers:
Was back on the ice today to teach, first time since I got sick on Sunday, and was pleasantly surprised to feel really good. Except for some shortness of breath, everything I tried (not much) seemed to still work. I even nailed my FO eights on the first try and did a pretty nice CCW one foot spin (I'm CW) demo for a student. I just felt so centered - maybe from watching 6 hrs of Worlds yesterday.

Storms:
Had to cancel my usual Thursday ice dance lesson because I knew I wouldn't have the stamina for it. Saw coach at rink, and he has come down with something. He'll be away on a cruise next week. I hope he'll be able to enjoy it.

[LilJen]

Flowers: Decent lesson yesterday. Coach says Bronze moves are just above passing at this point, so I should be good to go. Need to remember to turn out my free leg and point the toe on the FW power XOs and BO edges

Storms: Coach says there's still some wacky stuff in the Cha Cha--jerkiness--so I'll have to smooth things out a touch by 2 weeks from today.

Funny what ibreakhearts says about "dimples" on her brackets. I have dimples on a lot of my 3s (FO power 3s). . . coach says it's that I'm getting onto my toepick. Having a tough time simultaneously standing up very erect (always afraid I'll fall over backward, so I tend to lean forward) and getting into the knees enough on the power 3s. Thus, the toepick--getting too far forward on my blades.

[aussieskater]

hopefully THAT will be nice and "impressive", and the judges won't realize it's an entrance designed specifically to not make me speed up so that I can do the jump.

:lol: :lol: The things we do to hide from the judges!!!

[Thin-Ice]

The beginning of the program is a fun game of "hide the loop". I'm happy with it because I'm really confident with this set up I'll be able to do one as well as I possibly can. Basically we set it up so that I'm doing nice footwork into the loop (back crossrolls ending in a BO3 then step into a push, then 3-turn for the loop)- so that hopefully THAT will be nice and "impressive", and the judges won't realize it's an entrance designed specifically to not make me speed up so that I can do the jump.

As a judge, I know I'm always relieved to see a loop come out of footwork.. since so many skaters decide to barrel down the ice as fast as they can, not paying any attention to actually skating so they can appear powerful going into the loop. So you may actually get credit for being more creative and not skating poorly to get into the jump.

Just relax and enjoy that pretty entry, and it will make the judges more relaxed.. and happier... and happier judges are usually more generous judges.;)

[antmanb]

Storms

Freshly sharpened blades felt very keen so i was struggling to stop at all. Kept catching edges left, right and centre.

Camel and sit spin were mostly missing due to the re-grind - it feels like the bottom pick has been shaved back a bit and it feels like it's much further away now so i couldn't hook the spins int eh same way as normal. and i couldn't even begin to try the footwork we'd started workgin on last week.

Flowers

Edges were gripping much better and despite taking a little while to find the right spot all forward and backward three turns were working well.

Did some great upright spins both crossed and uncrossed.

Losing some of the bottom pick meant that it made it more difficult to engage it on a backspin so I actually managed to get it to spin for a rev or two.

Ant

[liz_on_ice]

Flowers - Coach is happy with my program runthrough, she says I'm ready. She asked to see my loop, which isn't in the program so she hasn't seen it in a while, and announced it was much better.

Storms - still nervous, wishing for more rehearsal time. I velcro'd my raincoat, including the belt, so I can escape from it rapidly, but it's still a sketchy thing to get back into the program in time to land the first jump where the music wants it.

[SkatEn]

STORMS:
I injured my right shoulder in dance for the upcoming freshman orientation. And my right hamstrings have been injured again. Last time it took a few months to heal.

I can land flip, I can land lutz, but the way I do them is very weird. I don't take off on one foot only, but two foot. Coach is working on my flip technique which resulted in me getting very hard falls and disliking STUPID TOE JUMPS.

I can't do spirals with the right leg on the ice because I'll hurt my hams. I can't pull my right leg up for the Y spiral. I can't do a middle split anymore. ouch.

FLOWERS SPICES AND EVERYTHING NICE:
Coach said loop improved a lot from the last time he saw. All he did was to fix my arms, and boy, they need some serious fixing.

I BEGGED him to give up on flip and I'll work on it my own, and he worked on waltz-backspin! Stationary single-legged waltz was different from the normal entrance. He said waltz-backspin was nice!

Gosh. What's with my extremes?

Scratch was awesomely great, many revolutions, good centering, and good open position. Backspin was good, so was sit. Camel is still BLAH. spinning but terrible position.

:P:P HAVE FUN AND SUCCESSES WITH EVERYONE'S SKATING!:lol::lol:

[Bunny Hop]

Flowers: Got to skate a second time this week, as had a day's annual leave that had to be used by the end of this month.

Storms: Both patch and public session busier than I like. Between making sure I keep out of everyone's way on patch, and trying not to get taken out by people not paying attention on the public, my skating was very hesitant.

Limp Flowers: My husband is doing his best to keep my single skating going whilst I'm only able to have dance lessons. So he's trying to teach me the beginnings of a proper spin entry, with amusingly wayward results, as I can't seem to hold an inside edge for more than two seconds when coming out of a back crossover, but I'm enjoying trying - which is good coming from someone notoriously spin-challenged. Three (waltz) jumps still no more than hops - the "you're going to hurt yourself" bit of my brain is too firmly in control when it comes to jumping, but I'm still trying.

As for dance, he randomly decided to teach me the steps to the Fiesta Tango - which I'm sure would be great if there wasn't a mohawk and back runs in it... I did eventually manage to turn to backwards, but only by coming to a complete halt first and not being in hold! :giveup: Don't think I'll be getting that dance in a hurry!

Also did videoing duty for my husband and his competition partner - really looking forward to seeing them compete. But we need to get a move on and sort his costume! Time is marching on.

[dbny]

Storms:
Did not feel half so good today for my lesson as I did yesterday. Felt just a bit of vertigo and did not recognize it as I've rarely felt it, so decided to spin. Big mistake. Got maybe 4 revs and was so dizzy on exit that I nearly fell and had to stand completely still with legs apart to stay upright. DH saw and came over to ask if I was alright. The vertigo stayed with me most of the way thru my lesson. Since I don't have any stamina yet, we worked on simple FO and FI edges trying to improve my pushing, which was not helped by seriously dull blades. I'm hoping to get them sharpened tomorrow. Also worked on holding arms higher and really stretching through the chest. I'm inspired by worlds and want to look better. Uh Oh - just remembered reading on my antibiotic directions that they could cause vertigo. Five days to go.

[FlyAndCrash]

Flowers: I watched Men's free all last night until about 1 am and got to see Evan win gold.

Storms: I decided I was too tired to skate this morning and had to skate on afternoon ice instead. It was much busier, but I still managed to get a decent amount done.

Flowers: I did my program twice (once fully and once with just some parts). The good part is that I wasn't that winded after the first run-thru and know what I need to work on. The bad part is that it was a very messy run-thru and was nowhere near polished.

Storms: I agreed to help out with the test session on Sunday, from 7:30 to 10:30 am before church. I have no clue how I am going to get up for it.

Flowers: Team Bonding! We had a posters/bday party today, our show is next weekend, and we are having an after party. Super excited.

[Mrs Redboots]

Storms: Didn't skate yesterday as had a bad sinus headache. Today, bottled the lift first time of asking. Still having trouble with Willow Waltz.

Flowers: Did good runthrough of Free Dance to music, INCLUDING both the moves we've had falls on recently - didn't even bottle the lift, although we went into it at a snail's pace! Reckon we will do it at Bracknell, although it won't really be ready.

[Skate@Delaware]

STORMS: Went to the afternoon public skate, which I thought would be relatively free of kids. For the most part i was right, but they HAD SHOW PRACTICE ON PUBLIC ICE!!!! There were about 20 kids zooming through people (there were about 15 people there for public skating) and I saw several near-collisions! Talk about careless!

One little girl had the audacity to tell one of the ladies to "MOVE" as the lady was watching her little girls skate...I told the little girl to mind her own business, that it was a public session and the lady PAID for her ice. :twisted:

There were other things going on. I'll be writing a letter as it was NOT RIGHT.

On the other hand, I did manage to get some of my own skating in and have a somewhat productive session.

FLOWERS: I "graduated" from physical therapy today, which means my continued recovery is now completely in my own hands (now that's really scary!) and I still have a lot to do! Although I ranked myself as 95% recovered compared to before the therapy, I am actually at 150%....almost to my pre-injury stage. I just have to deal with some lumbar disc degeneration but that's another story.

My other rink is closed for the season, so now I'm back at my "home" rink. I have one more competition and that is next saturday (April 4th). Then my coach, I believe, will come over here to teach. (Actually, I hope that's the case, since this rink is going to be open until June 14th).

[AgnesNitt]

Spring Storms (Cause I don't know if it's good or bad)
First lesson since I got back on the ice. I'm much improved on my push from a T position for my figures so I can now make it around the 8 on a single push from each side. On the other hand I'm on the flats
Conversation while I'm skating edges-imagine two elderly women yelling back and forth at each other over some g**awful rock song.
Coach: Put yourself to skate on zee pinkee!
Me: I am on the pinkie! If I'm more on the pinkie I'll fall over!
Coach: You're still on the flat, don't get so much in zee knee.
Me: I'm too deep in the knee! No skater's ever heard that before!

Much adjusting of knee and other stuff. I now have a good T-push AND I'm back on my edges.

[jazzpants]

Storm:

Got stuck in morning commute. :evil: :frus: I have a feeling also that there was a local memorial (4 cops got shot and killed and there was a HUGE memorial in Oakland) that caused a HUGE back up coming in. Of course, doesn't explain why the commuity college and state university aren't crowded on Mondays but are mobbed on Fridays (and both are in downtown SF.) :??

By the time I got to the rink, I only had enough time to essentially warm up... no time to skate. Decided to just go and pay my choreographer and leave.

Spring Flowers:
Got to meet SkateGuard for lunch. :mrgreen: She is working locally here for a few months. Glad to finally meet her after all these years!!! :bow:

I decided to go to what kander affectionately dubbed as the "Wacko rink" since I'm in the area and have my skate clothes on and all. Not my home rink, but better than no ice right? :P

Storm:
WRONG!!! The rink is just weird. It's not balanced in certain spots and the ice wasn't smooth even though hardly anyone was on the ice when it opened and it was only opened for an hour. The ice felt grainy too. Couldn't land any jumps other than sal, toe loop and waltz and just BARELY too! Just not a great ice to jump...VERY weird!!! Not sure I want to go back again to skate there. :??

Flowers:
Will get a good workout Sat. (in a few minutes! :P ) and REST SUNDAY so I can watch a local comp tomorrow! :bow: :bow: :bow:

[Skittl1321]

Spring Flowers Finished my program today for my Bronze Test. I love it to pieces, and it fits the music perfectly.

Equinoctial storms But I can't actually do it. My footwork doesn't cover enough ice, my entrance to the salchow is too fast, etc

And why is it snowing?

[SkatEn]

SPRING FLOWERS DAISIES AND BUNNIES

I love today's practice. I was pleasantly surprised that the rink was rather empty for a SUNDAY! The ice was pretty nice too. Much better than Friday afternoons.

Loop was all great. Whether from 3 turns, double 3s, mohawk, it's all great. Good distance and loop-loop has good distance and were rotated too. I can almost assume they are higher.

Flip- better distance, and somehow, better feeling. Sometimes, the pick is a little behind.
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and not
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or worst
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That's the tracings on the ice for flip. Normallly it's the second one. I get more of the last than the first tracings too. So having the tap slightly behind is really great today.

Sit spin was more controllable today, and backspin felt faster. I still can't get up all the time from sit, but I can go lower and continue spinning... Still not 6 yet. Getting closer...

STORMY SKIES
I got caught in the rain as I'm going home.

I scraped my elbow because i landed my waltzjump for Waltz-backspin too towards the end of the blade. Fell, obviously.

Off-ice was fine, but I CAN'T GET MORE THAN ONE REVOLUTION! Does it take core muscles? Arm muscles? Anyone? Help?:giveup:

I'm flutzing too. But coach only taught lutz once, and I'm not very confident of jumping and picking, so... hopefully it's not permanent...

===I'm ACHING===
Should have exercised more often...

[ibreakhearts66]

SPRING FLOWERS DAISIES AND BUNNIES



Flip- better distance, and somehow, better feeling. Sometimes, the pick is a little behind.


That's the tracings on the ice for flip. Normallly it's the second one. I get more of the last than the first tracings too. So having the tap slightly behind is really great today.


Having the take-off edge come around in front of the flip usually means you are swinging around too much on the take-off and pre-rotating the upper body. Focus on checking the 3turn and keeping the whole jump nice and straight rather than swingy and curvy.

Equinoctial Storms
-Skated on Saturday after not skating since Tuesday (I usually skate quite a bit), and I felt really off at first. 2toes were especially wonky, and I fell on one right in front of Mirai Nagasu, practically under her feet. :giveup:
-2axels continue to drive me insane.

Spring Flowers
-Once I got my feet under me, 2flip and 2lutzes were, by far, the biggest they've ever been.
-Change edge back camels are really, really coming along! I managed to do a few flying camels that changed to a FI edge, then pulled into a donut (and changed to a BO edge again), then pulled up into a catch-foot.
-Flying sits were better too. I've been avoiding them since I pulled my right hip flexor, but I was feeling good, decided to do some, and while they weren't spectacular, they were definitely decent.

[Skate@Delaware]

storms......

I've been having flashback freakouts and thinking OMG-what if my competition is on OLY Ice?????? WTF do I do????? 8O8O8O


I'm trying to stay calm but it's not working to well, plus, no coach contact till saturday (day of competition) cause my lesson rink is closed already.

man, i hate feeling like this!!!!!!

[doubletoe]

Storms
I missed my skating practices and lessons all week. I skated for an hour and 15 minutes last Sunday, then an hour and fifteen minutes today, but missed two lessons and 3 practices in-between.

Flowers
But it's all because I spent the week volunteering on practice ice at the World Championships! I think it's the most fun I've had in my whole life!

Flower buds
Inspired by an unusual and beautiful axel setup I saw at Worlds this week, I spent the better part of an hour working on it today. It's tricky, but it will be a perfect solution to the transition problem I'm dealing with in my program, so I've decided to put it in and just trust that I'll get it if I just keep practicing it.