Warm rink or arctic circle -- practice 6/29 - 7/5

[Kat12]

Arctic circle: Skating was so-so yesterday. Crossovers on the crappy side, and my two-foot spins as well.

Had some errands to run tonight so got to class a bit late. Oh well! Instructor liked my progress on backward stroking (as did I; it just sorta "clicked" on Sunday) and had me try a few backward crossovers...yeah, that wasn't so good. At all. My backward stroking/gliding and then edges need more work first, I think.

Warm rink: Everything else improved though on Sunday! And I managed to avoid at least 4 or 5 kids with ice walkers, and no one died.

At class tonight, backward stroking still improving...I sorta almost "got" forward progressives/advanced crossovers...two-foot spins (the couple I tried at the very end before the zamboni driver literally kicked us off the ice by driving the zamboni out) went better than Sunday. And, the skate shop called today and had gotten my message and said their power was out due to recent storms since last Thursday. No wonder they didn't answer the phone! And no wonder I was confused because I knew they were supposed to be open! So I'm getting my new skates on Wednesday. *crossing my fingers*

[flo]

Warm - had a good practice with my partner tonight. We had lots of room, so worked on some throws and a couple of death spirals at the end.

Arctic - was going to do to session, but was in traffic for one of them.

[BatikatII]

Warm rink: we have a very warm rink at the moment and it's not a good thing. Like skating in a sauna and just drains you of energy so with my warm rink = bad viewpoint my field moves seem to have gone awol and the double 3's that were so good just a week ago are now proving troublesome.

Arctic circle: being good compared to the sauna situation. Can make a few revs on a pair spin now and although coach wanted to make it much harder I think she realises that is a lost cause for the moment.

Did one really nice salchow-loop combo.

[Mrs Redboots]

Warm rink: Which it was! One of the few sessions I was able to skate in just a T-shirt (well, I did have trousers on, before anybody makes silly comments). Loving my new blades today - everything was so smooth, and the edges are wonderful and feel incredibly stable.

Arctic Circle: However, a lot of elements have yet to reappear; the blades show up all my bad habits, and then some, so I was very tentative trying some things.

But I can see that when I get used to them, I'm going to adore them even more than I loved my old ones!

[SkatEn]

YTD

Arctic Circle: I just realised how cold the rink was. The temperature difference between a crowded session and a regular-not-so-crowded rink is so different! But my trusty frosty tights are so good at keeping me warm, but my fingers were freezing!

Warm rink: Was rather wet when I just reached, and then I fell doing a shoot the duck. My WHOLE back was dripping wet. Wore a jacket and made the jacket wet.

Arctic: camel went on a long vacation. Toe loop went along for fun (gosh I think I can't remember when I had a good single toeloop done solo).

Warm Arctic: AWESOME sit, all centered, and they travel a little when doing variations with arms!

Noticed a trend: If my scratch is fast and centered, sit will be travelling. If sit is centered, scratch will travel. Is it a mind thing?

Axel is closer, but the more I rotate, the harder I fall.:frus:

Good session in all. BUT I think bunion is growing. :cry:

[PinkLaces]

Skated yesterday. Left knee is at abou 80%. I was prepared to get off the ice if I felt any pain. Not sure if it is stiff from not exercising or from the injury.

Artic: worked on Bronze moves. All patterns small and not able to get enough knee bend. Did not attempt any jumps as I am CW skater and left leg is landing leg.

Warm: Backspins - 6-9 revs per spin. One spin had 4 centered revs out of 6-7. I was able to keep a couple revs with the foot crossed instead of popping out after 1 like I usually do.

[Petlover]

Pinklaces, good to hear the knee is getting better, and congrats on the good spins!

Arctic: Horrible rain again on the way to work. I drive across a bridge over Tampa Bay every day, and the wind was fierce.

Warm: I rechoreographed some of my pre-bronze program, and coach loved it, just added some polish. Falling leaf stag jump in the program was huge.

[Morgail]

Warm Rink:

-Lutz was HUGE! Not sure where it came from, but hope I get to keep it:)
-Axels felt decent.
-Camels were great. I was adding combinations like crazy.

Arctic Circle:

-2 screws fell out of my right skate on the ice. Didn't even know they were mine until I was wiping down my blades at the end of the session. I tried to tighten the other screws, and they just went round and round. This is not good...I'm afraid new boots are in my near future. I don't dare jump now. I keep thinking the entire blade will fall off the boot.

-Right ankle is acting up. It's been achy after skating the past few weeks. Last night it hurt even more, and it makes weird clicking noises. I wish this whole getting older business would just stop ... I'm tired of complaining about aching body parts :lol:

[dance2sk8]

Warm Rink: I got the camel spin down now!!!! Fixed my foot so its turned out every time I go into it and it keeps me centered and balanced. So excited! Spins were good as well as getting height off of my jumps.

Arctic: Back spin. My coach told me it was much better today...I just don't see it. LOL

[aussieskater]

Good session in all. BUT I think bunion is growing. :cry:

Please DO something about it before it gets beyond the point of no return!

[liz_on_ice]

Warm Rink - first lesson with Summer Coach, working on pre-bronze moves. Nothing I can't do, but need to get the sequences down pat.

Arctic Circle - flip is history again, chickening out of lutz, despite knowing I can do it perfectly well.

[dbny]

-2 screws fell out of my right skate on the ice. Didn't even know they were mine until I was wiping down my blades at the end of the session. I tried to tighten the other screws, and they just went round and round. This is not good...I'm afraid new boots are in my near future. I don't dare jump now. I keep thinking the entire blade will fall off the boot.

-Right ankle is acting up. It's been achy after skating the past few weeks. Last night it hurt even more, and it makes weird clicking noises. I wish this whole getting older business would just stop ... I'm tired of complaining about aching body parts :lol:

A good skate technician can plug the screw holes for you if the soles are not completely rotted through.

Sorry about the ankle. Have you tried Salonpas? They are inexpensive medicated adhesive pads available OTC in drug stores. They deliver aspirin directly to the affected area and have saved me many times when my feet hurt after skating.

[blue111moon]

Matches (the unburned ends) can be used to temporarily fill in the holes and tighten screws until you can get to a skate pro to fix them.

Warm rink: Happy days, we're back at our home rink. The management company is running the summer freeskating sessions in the afternoons (hockey clinics take up the mornings) and they're cheap and so far not crowded. That could be just because of the holidays and may get more crowded next week. My concern is that if there aren't "enough" [people on the ice, the management will cancel the sessions. I've paid for the summer though so we'll see what happens.
If I don't pay ahead I find excuses not to go.

I'm finally back to doing free skating rather than just dance. Coach and I worked on spins (upright and sit) and focused on snapping the entry and arm position. Then did waltz, salchow and toe loop jumps. It's been so long since I did jumps because of my ankle and tendons that it's like learning from scratch again. That's not a bad thing since I've changed coaches and the new one has a slightly different technique. I'm not really changing things, I'm learning them fresh.

Artic circle: I cannot keep my head up and I have absolutely no clue what my arms are doing while I'm thinking about my feet. Which makes for some very odd positions in spins.

And while the right reconstructed ankle feels fines, now that I've had the boot puched out to accomodate the new bone shape, the left leg is decidedly grumpy - bursitis in the hip and cramps in the calf, even though I warmed up off-ice. I see my doctor next week though so I'll mention the aches and pains and see what he says - other than my getting old. :)

[Mrs Redboots]

Arctic: Tried to run through our programme. Big mistake. I appear to have lost most of the elements.... and have no way of compensating for either my own bad habits or my husband's.

Warm: What I can do is massively better, just limited!

[Kim to the Max]

[Warm Rink]
Had an amazing lesson yesterday....double run thru of my program went well, minus the 2 foot a single sal on the first run thru :roll: -- of course, that was right after I landed the axel....

I also landed a few 2 sals for coach...she got way too excited about that...

Worked on 2 toe a little, they are getting to curvy, which is causing issues...

[Arctic Circle]
Someone is not on my side...did I do something to someone?? Is Karma biting me??? I was going to test my Juv free at my club's test session on August 6th, however, just my luck, my department scheduled a retreat that day (which is not optional with no chance of being able to scoot away). So, I asked the test chair what time she was starting the test (because if it was 7am, I could do it), and she is starting at 8, so that is a no go. Come August 14th, I have no life and will be off the ice for 2 weeks (I am going to try to skate 2 mornings a week if I can), which stinks, but it's the way things work with my job. So, I need to either find a test session on a weekend for end of July/first weekend in August, or something in mid to late September. Boo....I just want to take this test...I feel ready for it :( (which is monumental since I NEVER feel ready for tests...)

[CoachPA]

Warm Rink: One of my skaters landed her first axel today, completely clean and everything, about 8 times (out of 10 attempts)! She's only been working on them since February with exercises and all and attempting the actual jump since about mid-March. I'm so proud of her, plus she is my first student to land an axel, so it's kind of exciting for me as well.

[doubletoe]

Warm Rink: One of my skaters landed her first axel today, completely clean and everything, about 8 times (out of 10 attempts)! She's only been working on them since February with exercises and all and attempting the actual jump since about mid-March. I'm so proud of her, plus she is my first student to land an axel, so it's kind of exciting for me as well.

That must be so gratifying! Congratulations!!

[Petlover]

Warm Rink: Coach wants me to make my 3 turns in footwork bigger, and they really spread out this morning. The ice was wonderful this morning except for:

Arctic: Huge raindrop holes in 2 places in the rink. Patching the roof is an ongoing effort, and it just poured this morning. We actually had to put buckets instead of cones on the ice holes but:

Warm Rink: Except for the raindrop holes, the ice was smooth as glass and superfast.

[PinkLaces]

-2 screws fell out of my right skate on the ice. Didn't even know they were mine until I was wiping down my blades at the end of the session. I tried to tighten the other screws, and they just went round and round. This is not good...I'm afraid new boots are in my near future. I don't dare jump now. I keep thinking the entire blade will fall off the boot.

Wow! That's crazy...especially since your lutz was so huge!

Warm Rink: One of my skaters landed her first axel today, completely clean and everything, about 8 times (out of 10 attempts)! She's only been working on them since February with exercises and all and attempting the actual jump since about mid-March. I'm so proud of her, plus she is my first student to land an axel, so it's kind of exciting for me as well. That's really exciting!

I was going to test my Juv free at my club's test session on August 6th, however, just my luck, my department scheduled a retreat that day (which is not optional with no chance of being able to scoot away).

That bites! I hope you can find a test session that works.

Petlover - hope there is less rain in the forecast!

[PinkLaces]

Knee is at 90%. Yea! I woke up super still this morning, but by mid-day I was feeling no effects of the fall in my daily life. I skipped the FS group lesson yesterday, because we had a board meeting. Saw that coach tonight and she said she was really worried when she didn't see me last night. Showed her my ugly bruises.

Warm: I did some jumps tonight. Waltz, salchow, toe-loop - decent. Sit spin felt very good. Back spins felt good too.

Artic: Bronze Moves - had more knee bend tonight, but patterns are still too small. Loop jump - 2 footed all, but one teeny tiny one. Scratch spin still feels a bit tweaky on the knee when I try to get the crossed leg position.

[Kat12]

Warm: I got my new skates tonight!

Arctic: I can't post pics because Photobucket sucks and uploading isn't working!

[doubletoe]

Warm: I got my new skates tonight!

Arctic: I can't post pics because Photobucket sucks and uploading isn't working!

So how do they fit??

[ibreakhearts66]

warm rink
-we've been working a lot on figures in camp, and my coach said that everything she's been working on with me is really starting to sink in. And she's right! We did lots of 3s on the third, and she said mine were "pretty good." nowhere near passing, of course, but I'm still quite pleased with pretty good.
-Double axel is excruciatingly close. It's going to happen soon, I know it.
-Worked briefly with another coach today during camp. He was very helpful with both moves and double axel.

Arctic Circle
-all of the little munchkins at camp were driving me absolutely insane today. They were talking the whole time and not watching where they were going, resulting in numerous collisions and very near misses.
-Tweaked my knee pretty badly on double axel today. My body is just not meant to cheat jumps. I twisted it pretty badly coming down short on the stupid jump.

[Morgail]

Wow! That's crazy...especially since your lutz was so huge!


I know! Maybe those lutzes did it in.

Matches (the unburned ends) can be used to temporarily fill in the holes and tighten screws until you can get to a skate pro to fix them.


Good to know!

A good skate technician can plug the screw holes for you if the soles are not completely rotted through.
Sorry about the ankle. Have you tried Salonpas? They are inexpensive medicated adhesive pads available OTC in drug stores. They deliver aspirin directly to the affected area and have saved me many times when my feet hurt after skating.

I'll have to check out the Salonpas. Thanks!

I found out my coach's son is a whiz at fixing skates. Don't know what he did, but the blade is super secure now and the screws are in place.

[Petlover]

Warm: No rain today until after I got to work, and then it poured!

Arctic: Parts of my pre-bronze program were horrible today, I blanked and missed the music cues, and the landing of the half loop was so bad I didn't even try for the flip.

Warm: Parts of my pre-bronze program, the first half was right on beat, loop was decent, back spiral was good, stag falling leaf was huge.

Even Warmer: Per UPS, my new skates will be delivered today, can't wait to get home from work!

[dbny]

Warm Rink:
My day began with the delivery of one of the dresses I bought on eBay. This one is an older GK style that I thought would be good because I have a similar one in size XL that no longer fits me. The new one (actually used, and only $10) is a Medium, and fit perfectly and looked great. The neckline is more flattering than what appeared online. I got to the rink to first give a private lesson, and found that there is a Mommy & Me class for me, that the director forgot to tell me about 8O. There were only two kids, and it went really well and made us all happy. Then I gave the lesson, and moved on to my ice dance lesson. By that time, two adults that I know from my old club had come in and were skating. One had recently passed Juv MIF. When my lesson was over, they came over and told me they had been complimenting me :D. In my lesson we did edges as usual, then the Prelim dances, once each, and then, for fun (my idea) F cross rolls in kilian (coach's idea). It was also his idea to do them one per beat at close to Paso Doble tempo. He commented "not bad", and I said I had surprised myself, and he added "me too". I'm taking that as a compliment. So, my adult friends had seen that too, and were duly impressed. Considering the fact that I will probably never be able to pass Prelim MIF, I needed that!

Arctic Circle:
My right hip really hurt afterwards, and my PT appointment for tomorrow was cancelled, since they decided to close the office for the holiday. I'll heat the hips myself tonight.

[LilJen]

Warm Rink: Solo Swing Dance performed to music for the first time today in lesson was pronounced "not bad" by my coach. Which pretty much means "yeah, you are close and it should pass" in coach's language. On to partnering work tomorrow 8O

Arctic circle: Yeah, spins just not happening today. 8-step mohawk: I can see from my tracings that my outside mohawk is very, very, very, very shallow. . . barely even done on outside edges. Bleah.


PASkate, congrats on the student landing the axel!
Petlover, your description of your pre-bronze program scares me. . . I have only a sal and a toe-loop, and my coach has suggested I skate up to bronze (and no, I can't do a sitspin or a backspin either)???? How is it you're not Bronze level??
KimtotheMax: Can't recall where you are--New England? If you're anywhere in the Midwest, come to Fort Wayne. August 11th test date.

[Kim to the Max]

LilJen: I'm in upstate New York...I said something to our club president tonight, and she started thinking, so maybe something can be done....but I'm not going to count my chickens...there is a test session in the end of September that may give me enough time once I get back from my 2 weeks off the ice.

[Warm Rink]
Did back to back run thrus and while the 1st one pretty much sucked (2 footed the SINGLE sal :frus:8O, fell on the camel/back sit, and missed the loop on my flip/loop....yet I landed the axel?), my second run thru was clean :D:D:D

Double Toes were MUCH closer today...I think I was able to fix (for tonight at least :roll:) my issues with picking, and they were getting close to being landed, so I'm getting excited :)

[Arctic Circle]
Double sals were not happening tonight and I don't know why....I was leaning and falling on the landings...but that's okay :)

Starting next week, I need to adjust my skating schedule and either skate less during the week (and substitute with running) or I need to skate Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday/Saturday instead of Sunday-Thursday...we'll see...I could probably drop down to Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday since I don't often get a lot accomplished on Monday/Wednesday :) it's usually a much less intense practice...

[Bill_S]

Warm Rink: Well, lacking any ice and air-conditioning, the roller rink is warm in summer by definition!

I didn't do too many exciting elements, although my spins are improving on my PIC skates. I hope this leads to better on-ice spins in 2-1/2 months when we have ice again.

I also practiced moves and generally had fun.

Here's a very short video (perhaps 4 seconds long) showing a RFI double-three turn on my PIC skates...

http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~schneidw/skating/images/skating_dows_june09-004p.avi

I need to lose weight! (Videos - AARRGH!) The trim person shown skating in the background of the video looks like they are in their 30's, but George is actually 70. I need to discover his secret!

[Mrs Redboots]

Warm rink: I do think these new blades are quite the best teachers I've ever had! I absolutely have to have the correct posture, or else!

Arctic: It was very misty this morning, it had rained overnight and the humidity level is through the roof. And I still have no backspin, and no step to forwards. Sigh. As for the thrown 3-jump, don't let's go there....

[antmanb]

Warm rink
Returning from holiday and having not skated for three or four weeks I expected the worst, but to my utter amazement everything felt fine. Jumps felt quite low at the start of the session but after i concentrated on really flexing knee and ankle and pushing hard/extending toes on take off i started to get more of a pop.

Most importantly in my lesson I landed a number of loops, a couple of 3-jump/loops and even the dreaded flip i managed to land (poorly) on one foot TWICE!!! I might even be able to remove the mandatory expletive that usual preceeds the word "flip"!

Forward spins went very well too, after failing to do anything resembling a camel spin my coach gave me two pointers in my lesson and it came back better than ever, even managed a camel-sit (though the sit was pretty poor both times). Even bigger kick was trying a change camel and getting a whole one revolution on the back camel before i panicked, flapped my arms and put the other foot down!

Arctic: the upright backspin. There is nothing, and i mean NOTHING I can do to get this going. I always, always, always come on the toe pick as soon as I try to spin. There's nothing that can get through my thick head to stop me from doing this and both my coach and I despair. I'm hoping that I'll get the feel of the back camel in the end and this will teach me where to spin when i'm upright.

Ant

[SkatEn]

Thursday

Warm:
Party! OMG it was insane insane! But once I cooled my head down, they are pretty cute kids. Just be nice to them and they're nice too.

Arctic:
The rink cleared slowly after lesson and it was freezing.

Warm:
Lesson was amazing. That was the first time in a very long time that things just clicked. Many things clicked. The bracket-3 (on both edges), sit spin position, CAMEL (which I thought I'll never get it), Camel-sit, sit-change-sit. It was just enlightening. I hope those changes will stick the next time I skate.

Arctic:
Until I solve my feet issue, I'll take breaks between skating. Like, skate half hour, rest 10 min, and continue half hour etc. Unlimited time so it doesn't matter. I think it hurts if I skate for a long time because my feet swell. Gosh. I'm spraying the leather stretch thing, but how well will it work, not sure yet.

Warm:
I think I did some awesome attempts on axel. But I'm not sure because I never know if it's a tense waltz or a good axel attempt. If they are rotated, I'll say I almost landed some. Had a very hard fall (fell and right boot went under my left thigh, end of the blade stabbed, and my lower body almost flipped over). I left the rink.

Arctic: Many places hurt but the bruises are very faint!

[kander]

Warm: The rink was empty today (my birthday!). I managed to do all my tricks. My double loop seems to be getting better.

Artic: My scratch spin still travels 15 feet. It took me awhile to get the axel going and even then it wasn't all that good.

[katz in boots]

Arctic:
the weather! - though as I'm in the southern hemisphere perhapds it should be Antarctic. Midwinter here, and feels like it. 2 hours skating followed by 2 hours judging skate school tests=frozen Katz.

Been feeling off for a few days; nothing serious, just icky tummy. Couldn't get into things today. Again, major frustration at not being able to make improvements to things new coach wants changed :frus:, though she said on Thursday that most things were "better".

Have lost all spins now, discovered toe-loop has been cheated into toe-waltz and need to fix that. And my landing knee hurts. :roll: Not a good session.

Warm:
at least I get another go tomorrow.

[Helen88]

Arctic:
Failed my level 1 dances last Monday :| it was so humid that I couldn't breathe properly. A combination of that and nerves knocked my timing off, so I'll have to retry them after the summer.

Warm:
Started on variations, they went well. Spin wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after several months of ignoring it either.

[dbny]

Arctic:
Failed my level 1 dances last Monday :| it was so humid that I couldn't breathe properly. A combination of that and nerves knocked my timing off, so I'll have to retry them after the summer.


Sounds like bad luck! I've passed on several possible dance test sessions because they were either too early in the AM for me, or on Monday, when I'm always tired. I'm sure you'll do better next time. Which are the level 1 dances?

[liz_on_ice]

arctic circle - only once chance to practice between lessons this week, and it was a crowded public I couldn't really do moves patterns on.

warm rink - since I couldn't drill moves the way I wanted to, I got out my notes and reviewed jump corrections from Winter coach the last couple of months and drilled jumps. Noticed immediate improvements in Sal and toe loop, and landed several flips which I've been two-footing for weeks now due to not seriously practicing them.