Gorgeous/Gargoyles - Lessons and Practise 16-22 June

[TashaKat]

I'm not skating today but am picking up my [size=24:460c2d2e78][/size:460c2d2e78][color=blue:460c2d2e78][/color:460c2d2e78]NEW BOOTS[size=12:460c2d2e78][/size:460c2d2e78][color=black:460c2d2e78][/color:460c2d2e78] in nine hours time :D I can't wait .........

[img:460c2d2e78]http://www.harlick.com/special/thumbnails/leopardboot2.jpg[/img:460c2d2e78]

Ok, so this is NOT what my boots will look like ........ but they don't have boots in my colour on their website :(

L x

[melanieuk]

I'm not skating today either......tomorrow. :D
I've got beige skates, but would go white next time I think. Dead boring, me! :roll:

[Mrs Redboots]

I, contrary to my country-women (meta-country, Mel!), have already skated today, and will be skating later, too, at the RIDL match at Queen's.

[b:9087eab872]Gorgeous:[/b:9087eab872] "Oh, that was [b:9087eab872]MUCH[/b:9087eab872] better", said our coach as we proceeded to demonstrate our hard work during the week on skating in waltz hold. He did transform it by pointing out that we needed to be very slightly offset from one another - the person going backwards should be slightly to the right of the person going forwards. Of course, he then proceeded to pull the rest of our Swing Dance to pieces. Robert and I are seriously working on using what he calls "synchro hold" in the side-by-side bit, which they teach at Slough and Oxford, rather than the hand-in-hand version we learnt.

[b:9087eab872]Gargoyles:[/b:9087eab872] We practiced the Dutch Waltz as though we were at Queen's, which is [i:9087eab872]tiny[/i:9087eab872] (produces superb dancers, though, so it must do something right!). Well, if they have to scrape me off the barrier.... I just hope we aren't drawn against local skaters. It is so weird being told [i:9087eab872]not[/i:9087eab872] to push - normally it's quite the reverse! Well, we'll see. I'll let you know, unless I'm recovering from being squished.

[TashaKat]

Good luck at the RIDL, Annabel. You'll probably be up against some of my old Queen's friends ...... I really must go down there again soon!

I got my boots :) They're GORGE ....... not to everyone's taste probably but BEAUTIFUL :) I've sno-sealed them and now all I need to do is get blades fitted .....

L x

[Mrs Redboots]

Where in the USA you have your dance weekends, what we have is the Recreational Ice Dance League, or RIDL. These are competitive matches between five clubs at a time, and each evening follows a similar format: there is about 3/4 hour of social dancing, then the Junior competition, then more social dancing and/or refreshments and/or an exhibition, then
the Senior Competition, then more social dancing, and sometimes the refreshments happen at the end of the evening.

The competitions have much the same format. There are two low-level dances in the Junior Competition, and five high-level ones in the Senior Competition, of which each club skates four. Each club is given a letter, A to E, and the gentleman wears the letter pinned to the back of his shirt. Then, after a warm-up, two couples at a time take to the ice. The Junior competition continues until each club has skated against every other club for that particular dance, and then again for the second dance. In an ideal world, each club fields eight separate couples for these dances, and four separate ones for the senior dances, where each club skates each dance once, against one of the other teams. After each pair has skated, the judges hold up a letter representing the team who, in their opinion, won, or an X if they wish to declare a draw. I think the teams get 3 points for a win, 2 for a draw, and 1 for a loss, and the Junior teams have all sorts of complications about age and you can play a joker (shades of Jeux sans Frontieres), and so on.

In an ideal world. What happened last night was rather different, since Robert was the only man to turn up, and there were only three ladies, one of whom was me, and none of whom was a senior dancer! It started off badly enough with the Dutch Waltz - Robert danced it once with each of us, and twice with me - since, whether through our incapacity or just luck of the draw (you can get drawn against really good couples when people think "Why are they dancing juniors?" or against couples who can barely stumble and kick their way through, it's pure luck), the best we could manage was one draw and three losses.

After that it went downhill, since the second Junior dance was the Festival Cha-cha, which Robert didn't know! One of us women - the acting team captain - did know it, luckily, so was able to teach it to Robert during the social dancing, and they stumbled and kicked their way through it four times, getting better each time, but not good enough to do anything other than lose.

As for the Seniors - well, improvisation was the order of the day! Fortunately one of us knew the Ten-Fox, and Robert had learnt it once but never danced it, so they were able to stumble and kick round most creditably. They decided not to even try the Rocker Foxtrot - that Mohawk is really too dangerous unless you know your partner - so they did a Swing Dance instead (in the UK, this is done to the same music). Robert is actually quite good at the Starlight Waltz - but none of us women were at all able for it. In the end, Robert and the acting team captain did a *very* fast Golden Skaters' Waltz, and Robert and I did an ordinary Golden Skaters' waltz instead of the Westminster (again, the same music is used), as did another team who had been wondering what on earth to do. Sadly, we were not drawn against them, or it would have been another draw.

We were not the only team with only one man, but the other - a good friend of ours - is a far better dancer, and also had at least one senior woman, so they were able to manage!

It was really hysterical. Of course, had it been a school story, we would have swept the board - but real life isn't Like That!

[melanieuk]

[b:c164bb7793]Gargoyles[/b:c164bb7793]
My first time back on the ice in almost 3 weeks, and my foot is killing me. I did go to GP who felt it and said it wasn't (stress) fractured - I truly admire those doctors who claim to have Xray vision.
She told me it was inflammation which would go away.... well it hasn't.
In fact it was quite painful to land jumps. Right on the bone (underneath) below the big toe - the sesamoid? :cry:
Anyway, the only jumps I did were loops and flips which were painful and not easy.

I've an appointment with foot doctor/podiatrist on........August 13th
(foot will have fallen off by then!)
But hey.....that's the NHS for you. AND I have to pay £ 20
for any ortho thing. Gee thanks. I've nursed for the NHS for 15 years, :roll: and you certainly don't get any preferential treatment because of it! :evil:
Moan moan, whinge whinge.....mutter...mutter.... :roll:

[b:c164bb7793]Gorgeous[/b:c164bb7793]
Backspins, parallel spins were the only hope shown today! :roll:

[db]

[b:32d87f57b0]Gorgeous[/b:32d87f57b0]
Had hubby watch my FO alternating three pattern today, as I am having trouble placing the turns at the top of the arc, especially on the right. I seem to have to turn early, or not at all. He took one look and told me my free leg was not over the tracing, but considerably outside of it. By just touching my free foot the my skating foot, I was able to fix the problem. A major breakthrough for me!

In my tiny fifteen minute lesson, coach asked to see my cross strokes, and was pleased with the F ones.

[b:32d87f57b0]Gargoyles[/b:32d87f57b0]
And then said: "What about the backs?" Alas, she hit me with the dreaded three-cross-strokes-hold-for-a-whole-circle-and-begin-again-in-the-other-direction exercise that I can barely manage forward. I did a few with coach spotting me. I'll try them on my own tomorrow.

[Yazmeen]

Gargoyles: Went to my lesson today on a grand total of less than 5 hours of sleep. I got home last night at about 6:30, planning to grill up a couple of lovely marinating salmon steaks; however, I got a call for an emergency GI bleeding scan, so back to the hospital I went, and late to bed I was.

Gorgeous: There actually is an advantage to a lack of sleep--I was too doggone tired to overthink anything!!! :lol: After demanding no three turns from my coach (hey, I was too tired and wired to get overly frustrated) we went to "spinland" and waltz jumps in the harness.

Worked on two foot, and then two foot to one foot, and then one foot spin. Got a couple or so revs off a short entrance edge, then moved to a longer entrance edge and promptly lost it; however, it started to return. Yeesh, just like with three turns, there is so much to remember--Don't drop the shoulder, move the free arm and leg together--but coach said I managed two to two and a half revs and made much progress considering I've only really worked on this once before!!! :) Then it was off to the harness. Within that session my entrance edge to the waltz became longer and I was really beginning to jump. I also knew I had been bending my free knee on the exit outside edge, so we worked on keeping the free foot down and toe pointed, both in the jump and by practicing LB crossovers into extensions. The neatest thing? I was told by Paula that I am making major progress in my jumps and spins because my edges are so STRONG!! :D

I'm really beginning to understand (and more importantly, feel) exactly where edges play into all of this. I learned something in an odd way at a competition. I watched another skater competing her elements, one of which was a waltz jump. She just stepped around and didn't really jumped, and was credited (actually, not credited) accordingly. My coach explained that she did not start the jump on the correct edge. She did it on a flat and then couldn't get the position to jump and bring the leg through and land on an edge. Edges, edges, edges, they are so important!!! Overall, it was a great lesson, although I hope the hospital doesn't contribute to my skating progress with too many more emergency scans!!! :?

Mel-uk: PLEASE, take it gently!!! Don't overdo.

db: Isn't it great when someone can see something you can't? It can really help.

Grin,

Beth, the "edge goddess" (at least trying to be one!!!) :P

[Anita18]

[b:6c6a93fdb3]Gargoyles[/b:6c6a93fdb3]:

[list:6c6a93fdb3][*:6c6a93fdb3]I really need to sharpen my skates. Badly. Couldn't land a single loop properly today, and forget about the flip, LOL...Must get in touch with skating buddy so we can both go together, LOL...

[*:6c6a93fdb3]When they called everyone in for a desperately needed ice sweep, I tried to do a T-stop by the boards, promptly lost my balance and fell straight down on my butt. This was when a lot of little kids were watching and I was easily the best skater there. Man, it was [i:6c6a93fdb3]smooth[/i:6c6a93fdb3].. :roll: A couple more of those falls and I'm ready to tackle some new footwork! (I usually refrain from learning brackets and such because of the straight-down falls that result from them.)

[*:6c6a93fdb3]The fact that school is out. The good thing about it is that I can go to the rink early, when it opens. The bad thing is that everyone else can too. :( A group of summer camp kids came by and there must have been 50 of them. 8O Yikes....
[/list:u:6c6a93fdb3]

[b:6c6a93fdb3]Gorgeous[/b:6c6a93fdb3]:

[list:6c6a93fdb3][*:6c6a93fdb3]Because of the lack of other freestyle skaters, a lot of little kids went up to me and said, "Wow! I really liked what you did there!" :o I also saw some schoolmates, and it was fun showing them how to do stuff.

[*:6c6a93fdb3]Spins were better. Well, they still sucked, but they sucked less than before. :lol: The bevy of little kids flailing around forced me to center my spins. :D These are probably the kind of conditions Lucinda Ruh had to learn to skate in. A couple more sessions like this and my traveling spins will be fixed! :D

[*:6c6a93fdb3]Salchow. Well, it was better - not necessarily good, but better. I just need to press my heel down on the BI edge and I'll be okay..[/list:u:6c6a93fdb3]

Anita

[jazzpants]

Tonight is mostly spin night for my lesson! But I got SOME jumps in.

[b:8d44984ba8]Gorgeous:[/b:8d44984ba8][list:8d44984ba8][*:8d44984ba8]Loops! Still there!!! WOO HOO!!![*:8d44984ba8]Salchow...the flow is getting much better than earlier this year. I think when I do get the flow that my primary coach is happier.[/list:u:8d44984ba8][b:8d44984ba8]Gargoyles:[/b:8d44984ba8][list:8d44984ba8][*:8d44984ba8]One foot spin wasn't that great! I screwed up the spin entry again!!! However it was good enough that primary coach wanted to move on to other spins.[*:8d44984ba8]Sit spin was okay. He's beating me up again about keeping my hands open and stretched, instead of giving him the clench of death there. :lol: [*:8d44984ba8]Toe loop is still toe-waltz! :( [*:8d44984ba8]Camel still no good, but better.[*:8d44984ba8]Backspin is still on the inside edge but only after 1 3-turn into a one jar file added. :x[*:8d44984ba8]Masochist coach tip of the week...do a LFI3 cleaning and glide on BO edge...then bring the free foot forward and in front while still staying on the BO edge. (Now I'm doing double 3's instead of a straight FO 3-turn[/list:u:8d44984ba8]
Cheers,
jazzpants

[melanieuk]

[color=blue:4b346e64a8]
Gorgeous[/color:4b346e64a8]

I have found a "cure" for my sore foot.
Amazing that I didn't think of it before! :roll:
[b:4b346e64a8]Bunga pad[/b:4b346e64a8]! :lol:
I bought them last year for my ankles (in my old boots).
I've not used them since last year.
What I did today was put one inside my sock, underfoot.
It worked a treat.

I did all my jumps up to lutz.
My camel and sit spins seem improved according to coach.

I'm happy now. My foot still aches, but at least I know it won't hurt like crazy when I skate. I'm keeping the bunga on for walking too.

[b:4b346e64a8]Gargoyles[/b:4b346e64a8]
For some reason, only during my lesson, my loop-loop had a curl/tail/flick on the tracing before the 2nd loop.

And on the parallel sit spin, it took so much effort, but I still couldn't get it to stay spinning at the same speed, or make a good transition from the parallel into the sit. :(

I feel so out of shape with no skating - or exercise - for 3 weeks.
I'm happy I'm skating though. :wink:

[Mrs Redboots]

[b:d89b319c1e]Wednesday 19 June

Gargoyles:[/b:d89b319c1e] Robert's [i:d89b319c1e]breath[/i:d89b319c1e]! Which I am sure you really don't want to know, but it was a bit off-putting when we tried to practice stuff in waltz hold. However, we persevered, and worked our way through the Swing Dance as best we could. But there were edges whose exit didn't match their entries, and so on and so forth. We had hoped to stay closer together by using a "synchro hold" in the promenade section, but have been told that one particular judge [i:d89b319c1e]hates[/i:d89b319c1e] that hold and always marks it down - and sods' law he will be judging the British Adults! Ah well....

[b:d89b319c1e]Gorgeous:[/b:d89b319c1e] Actually, most things, it was one of those days! To start with a couple of champions were practising the Westie, so we got to do the Golden Skaters' Waltz, which we are working up to competition level, and did a really good one. At least, we thought it was, and there was nobody to tell us different! Then Robert had to go and it was time for my lesson. I showed my coach my incipient back cross-rolls, and he said they were really much better, and to keep practising them, and also my forwards closed chasses. I did ask him how to [i:d89b319c1e]move[/i:d89b319c1e] on the back cross-rolls - at the moment they are step, step, with no flow, and he said it was a push on the outside edge, but that I wasn't to try that as if I did I would inevitably stick my bum in the air - "Just carry on as you are for now!"

My [i:d89b319c1e]Puppet on a String[/i:d89b319c1e] routine was as good as it ever is, which isn't very - it's not fast or flowy enough. Oh well, it's as good as I can make it. My [i:d89b319c1e]Caledonian Ball[/i:d89b319c1e], on the other hand, was better than it's ever been, and I really think that if I can do it like that next week, I shall be very pleased! I [i:d89b319c1e]must[/i:d89b319c1e] go and finish making the costume for it - I loathe sewing, so have been putting it off and putting it off.....

[flo]

Gargoylees: With my injury it takes a good half hour to warm up. Still not trying doubles or outside eagles/bauers.

Good: Hadn't been on the ice for a week, and the rest was good. It felt good to be practicing again. I worked on the footwork sequence for the pair test. Because we do it holding hands, I also tried it while attached to a friend. He skated forwards while I did the footwork.

[quarkiki2]

Third lesson, Adult Alpha

Well, I worked on crossovers for 29 minutes and backward stroking for 1 minute. I'm not kidding! Then there's 15 minutes of "play time" after group lessons end and before the Skate and Pizza Night begins.

Gorgeous:
For the first time trying backward stroking, I don't think I did too badly. I can do the 1/2 swizzle and pick my foot up for a split second, no push yet, but I do get my weight transitioning from foot to foot.

Gargoyles:
If I ever get my feet completely crossed over in a crossover ... I think we pinpointed the problem, though. I am getting my foot over, but then I'm straightening my back leg, thus pulling my knees apart and making me look like my feet are one in front of the other and not crossed. My instrictor asked me to work on keeping my thighs together, and they certainly were together, but my knees weren't. So now my job is to keep my knees bent and try to get the front one placed so the back one nestles right inside it. Ugh! I think I'll start a topic asking for help on this one.

Because this is a group lesson and there are other groups practicing, it can get pretty hard to find a circle on which to work. Last lesson, we had center ice, so I got the big circle all to myself. This lesson, even though no one else needed a circle, we didn't get one so I spent the whole lesson on the smaller circles on the side. I'd go around twice, then have to switch to the other circle because the Tot class was working on moving across the ice. But I'm guessing that all of the other kids are feeling more confident on the ice, because during playtime after the lesson when they usually stick to the wall they were all over the ice. I'm glad for the kids, but, once again, I couldn't find a circle that was open for more than 45 seconds. Grr! I just want to get these crossovers so badly!!

[TashaKat]

Equipped with knee support (I gave in), new boots and blades (not yet fixed together) I went in for my lesson

Started with Inter-Bronze elements .... not bad, took 2 attempts at the backspin but everything else was ok. The one comment that was made, however, was that I put far too much effort into everything .....

Then went onto Inter-Bronze programme .... VERY suprisingly the backspin AND the camel worked in the actual programme! The jumps (loop, flip and toe-toe combo) were fine but I was absolutely knackered in the last 10 seconds and nearly buckled on the flip landing .... I didn't though The step sequence remains the worst bit of the whole thing but on the seconds go was 'better'. I ran through it twice with music, on the second time the backspin was pooh BUT I went straight into another one which worked AND didn't throw my timing out!!!! You probably don't realise what a breakthrough that is for me unless you followed my trials and tribulations with spins in general but the backspin in particular on F$W. Even ATTEMPTING a backspin was a hardship ..... attempting one in a programme and then CORRECTING a bad one ...... phew ..... must have had the wrong body on today

As I haven't done the Lutz since March (due to not being needed for next test and knee injury) my timing was totally off today ...... managed to eke out one landed one on the third attempt but wasn't smooth or flowing Will work on Lutz tomorrow .....

Hoping to get new boots to wear tomorrow .... YEAH!!!!

[Anita18]

But finally got my skates in to be sharpened, and the guy said the blades were really dead! :P So it [i:67883f4e65]wasn't [/i:67883f4e65]just me when I couldn't land any loops yesterday! I'd go up into it okay, expect to land it and then kind of teeter around on the edge....Well, will get 'em back tomorrow and see how much my skating has come back with the re-emergence of my edges! Yay!

Hehe, also forgot a gorgeous aspect of yesterday session: skate guards came apart and I figured out that house keys made for a pretty good screwdriver! :lol:

[Figureskates]

Had a mid ice collision during my lesson today. I was working on my back outside edges when I got whacked by this young lady who was just skating around and not watching where she was going (and who clearly doesn't understand rink ettique). I got whacked in the left cheekbone below my eye by her wrist and she got an earful from my coach................she definitely came out on the losing end!!

Nothing serious, at least I didn't get a shiner!!

[sk8pics]

I just found out that my warm up for my pre-bronze freestyle test will be at 7:40 am next Friday! There will be 3 of us on the ice for the test, me and two little kids doing their pre-pre free test. I was just a little nervous before, but now knowing I have a time slot I'm really nervous! My sweetheart of a coach tells me I have a good chance of passing, but I might not (I only have 2 revolutions on my 1-foot spin, and there's always the possibility of freaking out on my jumps). I told him, though, that I don't want to humiliate myself, and he said I could never do that, and I shouldn't feel that way, and "if anyone has any problem with your skating, you send them to me!" It was really heartwarming the way he was so protective of me! Too bad he can't be with me for the test, but substitute coach #2 will be there, and he's also very encouraging.

So wish me luck... still have a week to practice, maybe I can get the 3rd revolution and clean up everything else. Help! (really just a rhetorical cry for help, not expecting any of you to actually do anything!)

Pat

[garyc254]

Two weeks off of the ice for rink repairs, then one lesson followed by a minor back injury which meant three more weeks off of the ice. I was ready to get back on. Even my feet seemed happy to feel the boots on again. :lol:

I'm still taking it carefully as I'm still going through physical therapy for the pain, but WOW!!!! Oh how I missed the ice!!!! :o

Very unsteady until my knees remembered they had to bend. Stroking, front & back crossovers, a few mohawks, even my dreaded RO3 felt like heaven. Not much power yet, but it's coming.

During a healthy time the practice would have been a 4 on a scale of 10, but after some time off it felt like a 9. :lol:

I could only skate about an hour as the muscles started tightening up and wisely got off the ice.

I'll be back at the rink Saturday. No fail.

Also, going to see Champions on Ice this Sunday. By Monday's lesson, I'll think I'm Todd Eldridge. :lol:

[melanieuk]

[b:5aecbf4d16]Thursday[/b:5aecbf4d16]

[color=red:5aecbf4d16]Gargoyles
My foot was sore today despite bunga in situ, but I managed to do my programme well enough, [i:5aecbf4d16]once[/i:5aecbf4d16] in my lesson. I did it a 2nd time and it was the pits. :roll:
The backspin was coming and going.[/color:5aecbf4d16]

[color=darkblue:5aecbf4d16]Gorgeous
A few parallel spins.
I managed a couple of sit change sit - although I don't know about the aesthetics of them. :roll:
[/color:5aecbf4d16]