Sunday Best or Rags & Tatters - Lessons/practices 13-19 April 2003

[Mrs Redboots]

Well, after such a good skate day on Friday, I suppose the let-down today was inevitable.

Sunday Best: Robert and I had a pretty good warm-up and did all our compulsory exercises (figure 8s of runs/progressives in both Kilian and Reverse Killian hold; chasses and swing rolls in waltz hold with each of us taking it in turns to go backwards or forwards) and some of our voluntary ones: outside and inside swing rolls in Kilian hold; cross-rolls in Kilian hold and in Foxtrot hold (yeurch). We didn't do badly, and his back swing rolls were much better than on Friday (which, to be fair, wouldn't have been difficult). And while he was having his solo lesson I did some good practice on my Artistic programme, although I didn't feel I skated it as well as I had on Friday, and later after our lesson I did a good run-through of the slow movement of my Free Dance.

In our lesson, our Swing Dance was "For you, normal to good" - but he's never yet told us that "For you, that was good", which I wish he would, once in a while. But after that, things rather went to

Rags & Tatters: because in the next dances we worked on - Golden Skaters' Waltz, Canasta Tango and Canadian Cha-Cha - I kept blanking out. The GSW wasn't too bad, actually, but he had a correction to make on the end pattern, especially about pushing into the chasse, and then we did a Canasta Tango. Now, both dances finish with a cross-roll swing in the same place on the ice, more or less, the difference being that in the GSW you then do a slide chasse before the run on the restart, and you don't in the Canasta. Guess what? Yeah, that's right, I did! And then got lost..... and I don't know what happened in the Canadian, but someone else was in the way, having a lesson, and both he and his teacher were so concentrating on what they were doing that they weren't at all looking what anybody else was doing, and we had to avoid them, and that put me off and.... well, that dance never really took off at all! But we walked through it afterwards and it wasn't too bad.

But really, all in all, not such a great skate day, and my backwards edges were nowhere near as good as they'd been on Friday. Deep sigh. Although I did feel I was on an edge quite a lot of the time in our exercises, and also when we did the Canasta Tango (when I wasn't getting muddled!). Robert admitted that he used to do the CT in very straight lines and was only just learning how it curved..... I must say, it was easier today!

[dbny]

Sunday Best
Skated for the first time today in two weeks, as I made a rush road trip to Boulder and back last week. To my delight, everything was still there. My coach came in early to make up some time owed us, and I hadn't finished my warm up yet, but my F crossover pattern really flew anyway with good power, speed and progressive style crossovers. Today my coach told me I am really a Silver skater and that I should get over my fear of FI threes so I could pass Pre-Bronze and Bronze moves (which she claims I could clean up in a week) and get on with it. I can tell she is frustrated with the fear holding me back. I can do the threes fine if I have a spot, but am just terrified once I get out there on a nice fat lobe. I'm to try them on teensie little lobes and coach will spot me for two repetitions in each lesson to see if that will help.

Rags & Tatters
FI threes! Everything is right except that I refuse to pick up my "free" foot and do the turns one footed. I still don't have the waltz-8 back either. It's still the second RFO three that is the problem.

[garyc254]

Rags & Tatters:

One of those skates where my body and mind were not going to cooperate. Felt very weak, tired, and wobbly. Only skated for 45 minutes of the 3 hour session.

It's either the cold I have, the medication I'm taking for the cold, or I'm still exhausted from the weekend at the ISI Synchro Championshipa in Chicago. Either way, it was best I got off the ice before I hurt myself.

I'll try again tonight. :D

[icenut84]

I skated today - first time in 2 1/2 weeks!

Sunday Best:

My turns were all pretty good. (All threes, double threes, inside & outside mohawks, combinations and sequences etc.)

Waltz jump and salchow were ok (though not the height I was looking for).

Crossovers were nice... Spread eagle was quite nice too, and pivots were lovely. :)

Rags & Tatters:

Quite a lot actually. :( I think the ice was softer than I'm used to (different rink), it certainly felt like that. Lots of snow. Very busy until the last hour or so. Lots of little people in hockey skates trying to overtake as close as possible, grr. And people going the wrong way.

Spins! Last time I skated, I thought my spins were loads better. They were practically consistent, balanced well, and even centred some of them. Today... not centred, not balanced as well, inconsistent. :cry: I think the highest number of rotations I got was about 5, and that travelled about 1.5 metres!! My clockwise ones weren't that great either. Had been planning to work on my crossing the free foot for a scratch spin, and maybe getting adventurous and trying a sit spin - HA! Not likely.

Toe loop. Not great. Landings of other jumps weren't that good either - the ice? My blades? Me? Probably all 3. I wish I was more consistent... :cry:

[Mrs Redboots]

Rachel, where are you skating nowadays?

I've skated twice since last I was on-line, the teatime patch yesterday and this morning's patch, during which I had my lesson.

Sunday Best: Robert and I were able to run through our warm-up exercises last night, and they went really, really well; even his back swing rolls were okay! Most of last night's practice, though, was taken up with helping a friend just coming back to the ice after more than a year off with injury - she was still in quite a lot of discomfort, but it was lovely to see her persevere, and by the end of the session she was really beginning to look loose and flowy again. I do hope she will have been able to get out of bed this morning! I did run through both my programmes, though, and they were okay. As my coach said this morning "You know quite well I'll never say it's perfect, don't you!" And, of course, it never is. This morning he made me tighten up the first fast bit of my free dance, so I may have to put another step in there, as I got to the turn early! And it is so difficult not to put the brakes on....

Today was a really good forwards-skating day, and about 75-80% good back skating, but I had trouble jumping! I always do have trouble jumping, mind, but at least my 3-jumps (waltz jumps) usually leave the ice. They didn't really want to today..... But when I was warming up, I was loosening up by raising each knee in turn - sort of walking on the spot - and was fascinated to find I could do it without moving my upper body at all - and that translated on to the ice, which pleased me!

Rags and Tatters: Mostly me! I mean, I really ought to be able to spin now - I do know how - but whenever I find myself going into a spin, I step out of it! I just am terrified of doing it - I am so afraid of feeling dizzy and out-of-control. Oh well. My coach reminded me that I should pull my foot in, not my knee, or my foot sticks out. And I do put the brakes on totally unnecessarily in places. Deep sigh.

Did some really, really, really fast inside swing rolls, and was told off for allowing my free leg to swing wide..... you can't flipping win in this game.... but that's why it's so fascinating.

Had great fun playing with a friend - Robert's other partner - towards the end of the session, we were messing around and trying things, which is always fun. But oh, I am going to be stiff - I was stiff enough before I went skating yesterday.....

Edited to add:

Forgot to say that my coach and his wife had the harness out this morning, and were helping a couple of their younger skaters to get the feel for doubles by using it. I hadn't seen it in use before, and my friend, who has tried it, says it's utterly terrifying! I know some folk find it worse than useless, but my coach's kids seemed to have made good progress with their jumps by the end of the session.

[garyc254]

A much better skate last night than on Monday. I had a little more energy.

SUNDAY BEST: Front and back edges are in fair shape. Mohawk sequence, after a couple of hip adjustments, went very smooth.

RAGS & TATTERS: I may never get 3-turns on a half circle to work. Takeoff is okay and the turn is fine, but no matter how much I attempt to keep my hip and shoulder back I'm over rotating and cutting the last half short.

I've decided I'll NEVER be able to do a lunge, much less a shoot-the-duck. I'm blaming it on bad knees. I attempted to get down low enough to drag my boot several times on the ice, but no luck. After I got home I decided to try some deep knee bends to help strengthen my quads. I got down, but couldn't get up without sharp pain and popping in my knees. I'm afraid I'll never pass ISI Delta.

[wannask8]

Sunday Best: Had an “on” day despite having missed last week due to a lousy cold and despite sharing half my session with about twenty little kids having a birthday party (!) – they were a nice bunch and mostly clinging to the boards and easy to avoid. Forward crossovers are smoothing out (oddly, I am doing the second push well enough while doing a very wimpy first push – fear of speed, perhaps); back stroking felt uncharacteristically stable/comfortable, as were back crossover drills (not the actual C/Os themselves yet, mind). Knees felt very good today.

Somewhat tattered: I’m trying to learn one-footed forward power pulls, and they are so lame – but not as lame as my pathetic attempts at a change edge pattern. I can change from FO to FI, but going back the other way is somehow much more difficult.

garyc, I am worried about your knees. Popping noises are so not-good. My orthopedist and phys. therapist have me doing strengthening exercises in which my knees are never bent more than 45 degrees; perhaps you could try that and work your way up gradually if your knees can take it. My coach and I both know my knee problems will rule out some moves, but that will just leave more time for the stuff I can do!

-- wannask8

[sk8er1964]

Sunday Best:

Had one of those wonderful days on the ice today. For much of the hour I was alone on the ice. I put on Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits and simply skated to the music. Did whatever came into my mind/body - no work, no worries - just pure enjoyment. :D

[jenlyon60]

Sunday Best:

on Monday: Alternating forward power crossovers (or whatever its called)... coach was really pleased with them.


Rags & Tatters:

forward power 3's: working on these again now that I'm past the EW. Actually they were better from all the EW work, especially if I take my time and don't try to race through them.

Rocker Foxtrot.,... the most UNCOMFORTABLE to skate dance I've done yet. I hate the bit skating into the mohawk. Coach had us do the bit from the mohawk through the end pattern over and over in a circle and that helped some, but I swear, the dance is an exercise in semi-contortionism. Give me the Silver Tango any day...

[CanAmSk8ter]

Originally posted by jenlyon60

Rocker Foxtrot.,... the most UNCOMFORTABLE to skate dance I've done yet. I hate the bit skating into the mohawk. Coach had us do the bit from the mohawk through the end pattern over and over in a circle and that helped some, but I swear, the dance is an exercise in semi-contortionism. Give me the Silver Tango any day...

I'll make you a deal- I'll take your Rocker for you if you'll take my Tango for me! I hate that dance. I know exactly what you mean about that mohawk, too. I had a huge breakthrough on that this morning. Make sure you let the partner get a hair ahead of you going into it- it turned out I was cutting him off and getting my weight so far back I felt like I was going to fall on my head.

Sunday Best

-Rocker is much better, coach said I should have "no problem" passing it in two weeks

-Coach still thinks it may be worth having me take my American that day too. I think he's crazy.

-Started working on Viennese and Quickstep in anticipation of competing Junior at Lake Placid this year. Coach's reasoning is that we don't want
to spend the entire summer practicing the Rocker or the European since (hopefully) I will have passed them both, so if I can get the right dances down reasonably well I might as well go to Junior. The Novice groups are huge compared to the Junior groups, so hopefully the practices will be smaller too. Both Viennese and Quickstep received a "not bad!" during my lesson.

-Started working on Starlight in anticipation of it possibly being moved to Pre-Gold. I don't know the whole dance yet because, get this, I'm the first student my coach has had to teach it to! He got about 3/4 of the way through and realized he didn't remember the rest of the girl's steps. Said the pattern wasn't bad, and I was more or less on time.

Rags and Tatters:

-Rhumba is still giving me fits. I did one choctaw perfectly earlier in the week but haven't repeated that since. I get into it ok, but I get stuck:oops:

-American solo still feels iffy. According to my coach, it's not nearly as bad as I think it is. Partnering I think probably is ready to test- if I take it and fail, mark my words, it will be because of the solo.

[jazzpants]

Originally posted by jenlyon60
Sunday Best:
on Monday: Alternating forward power crossovers (or whatever its called)... coach was really pleased with them.


KEWL!!! Those are my favorite actually... :P


forward power 3's: working on these again now that I'm past the EW. Actually they were better from all the EW work, especially if I take my time and don't try to race through them. Speaking of EW... forward power 3's -- EW!!!! EW!!! EWWW!!! :P (see my next post on this thread... )

[jazzpants]

This is for Monday night!!! (Well sorta!!!)

Rag and Tatters:
ME!!! Sunday I went and did a tough workout...was already starting to feel sick when I did that but I kept going on the workout. My legs were SORE from Sunday night through Tuesday!!! And I was even MORE sick (some stomach bug...) on Monday night. Just couldn't skate much at all!!! Could hold much food down either...
Well, b/c of 1. I couldn't do much but socialize...and edges. The LFO3 got worse and worse to the point where I could even do them!!! Should have called it the night then!!! :P
Sunday Best:
Okay. I did attempt a couple of spins...the one bright spot of the night was that I was able to do a couple of pretty decent (my decent anyway!) camel spins!!! (I hoped my coach saw it but I doubt it since he was teaching another student) Too bad I couldn't carry it through to do the sit combo yet... :P
I am now mostly recovered from the muscle soreness. The stomach is also much better too!!! I should be ready to go back on the ice tomorrow!!! :D

[Mrs Redboots]

Jazzpants, I wish you better. JenLyon60, I agree with CanAmSk8er - the Rocker Foxtrot is much easier than the Tango! I could probably stumble and kick my way through the Rocker if I had a decent partner, but no way could I do so through the Tango. My coach hates the Rocker, though, and won't let me play with it.... it's back to the Swing Dance (which in the UK is done to Rocker Foxtrot tempo and music, and yes, I do know that's 8 beats per minute faster than it's done in the USA!); but then, I might pass the Swing Dance/Fiesta Tango level one day and I don't suppose I'll ever get up to whatever level the Rocker is here (Level 8 part 1, I think).

CanAmSk8er, as for the Rhumba Choctaw - well, :bow: ! I simply can't imagine ever being able to do it, certainly not fast enough.

No skating today, as it's Maundy Thursday and I shall be going to Church instead; we hope to skate the morning patch tomorrow, though, and then we are going away for the weekend. Someone else may start this thread next week, as I won't be skating until Tuesday!

[96.23??]

icenut84:::

Quite a lot actually. I think the ice was softer than I'm used to (different rink), it certainly felt like that. Lots of snow. Very busy until the last hour or so. Lots of little people in hockey skates trying to overtake as close as possible, grr. And people going the wrong way.



i hate soft ice more than ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love love love hard ice!
:)