Nah, just think of melting the snow in Lake Placid!!

Healthy:
Had one nice HUGE toeloop!!
Starting to come up from the sitspin in the scratchspin position.

Junk:
Why is it that it seems every time I go to do my program, there is a issue with the sound system? I must have wasted a good 5 minutes or so trying to get the plugs right from the soundsytem going from playing a iPod to the CD player. When we got it working, and I went to do my program I had several people get in my way and I had the damn sash on!
Had a nasty fall when I tripped over my blades in a attempt to re-skate a sitspin.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

bittersweet - Last lesson today with Summer Coach. Of course that also means that the first lesson of the season with Winter Coach is only a week away. I can't wait to show off everything I've learned since she saw me last.

healthy - Ran through all my jumps, halves and singles, and they were good. I've *finally* got that salchow. Not that it's pretty or anything, but I've stopped hitting the ice with my free foot, or gouging huge ruts with my toepick when I panic and chicken out at the last second. Toe loop is also recognizable, verging on halfway decent.

junk - backspin. Of course. Better after we worked on it some though. I think I actually got 2 or 2 1/2 revs on one.

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It's all about the dress!

I just don't function at that time in the moring unless i've had more than one coffee so wondered if maybe i should skate with a coffee in hand to help me out!! I once gave myself whiplash because my body just wasn't awake at 6am and while practising some straightline footwork i tripped myself up and fell backwards hitting the back of my head on the ice. The sound was awful but i was fine, except for the next two or three days with a very sore neck and lump on my head!

Ant

This is for last night....

Healthy: my little group of kids! I picked up another class for Wednesdays and my 2 classes rocked! My first class-these girls were picking things up FAST they said they have never skated...well partway through the lesson they told me they roller skate so that figures why they were so good!

Because I wasn't at my best, we did the dance steps for ISI ???? Can't remember. It was nice: crossover (i.e. progressive), step, outside mohawk, step, step, step behind (or was it in front?) turn to front...

My coach had gone to a coaching seminar, and picked up something new so she hit me with a new approach to the backspin entry! instead of the one-foot edge glide then 3-turn, backspin....we (I) did a 2-foot glide, mohawk, push backspin....and it actually worked!!! The first few times I got AROUND! I think it helped a lot more than the other entry.

My scratch spin had backslid a bit, but she reminded me to keep my feet more together before I push off.

Junk: I had a migraine (been cooking with it since Tuesday) so I wasn't at 100%, probably running at 50%....so certain things weren't my best, and my back was KILLING me so I was more like 25%

My salchow 101 lesson continues....we fix one thing then have to tweak something else! It is one of my best jumps and tweaking it is something that has become an obsession with both of us-this will be my double.

We worked on shallowing out my 3-turn entry, a stronger check, and arm positioning.

New assignment: 3-turn on the line and hold............then jump.

I have decided: if my back is not improved by next weeks chiro appointment, I will ask for a prescription for physical therapy. This is holding me back tremendously. i should be 75% better by now and I feel I am only 25% better. At least if I get some massage, it might help.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Healthy: Attention! I've finally (after years and years of struggling with this) crossed my feet in my double salchow! This may seem little to some of you guys, but I've had the most difficult time getting that feeling of crossing in-air, but after doing some step/hop/cross/step/hop/cross exercises with my coach, it just clicked! Kinda the weirdest feeling in the world, but I hope it stays...now only to maintain that in-air position! I mean, it can be done though...I finally began hitting in in the axel last spring; now I just have to apply that to all my doubles!

I'll be posting all about this is my skating journal (see link below) sometime today, so check back if you want all the juicy details...

Can you maybe elaborate on the step hop cross thing btw? I'm really curious, I've never seen anything like that at our rink.

Healthy
-my skates are approaching broken-in state. I can do crossrolls in them now and even attempt sit-spins (although they need to give a little more before I can really try those again).
-Bunch of hockeyers yelled at me that "you figureskaters" were ruining "their" ice, and also kept telling me how much I sucked at skating but I realised - I don't care! I didn't feel the need to explain myself at all. So when I don't care at all, that's my clue that I'm really confident at what I'm doing so that's really good. Also I didn't feel the least bit self-conscious putting together the programme for the artistic in january.

Junk:
- Feet cramp, I need to learn not to tie up my skates so hard.
- 3-turns aren't working in my programme (even though as an exercise I can do them).
- Slashed 2 of my fingers open on my bielman, didn't really notice so everything is bloody now. I hope I can put the laces in the laundry or something.

Ow!! Hope your fingers heal soon!!
BTW, I don't know how high up you have been lacing your new boots, but if you have stiff boots, it's best to leave the top hook unlaced for awhile, or if you can't get enough ankle bend, possibly even the top two hooks unlaced. As the boots break in and you feel the need for more support, you can lace up one more hook. The second hook on my boots is offset and not too far down from my top hook, so I have never laced my boots all the way up to the top hook, even though my boots are over 2 years old and the right boot has started to break down a little.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Junk! STIFF today! But managed to work a bit on footwork, figuring out what I might be able to do.

Coach was in early and her other skater didn't show up so we went back to choreographing my Freeskate program for next month. Now all I need it to be able to DO the Sit Spin and Toe Loop required for the program!

At the end I was saying how I noticed the top skaters do a "cross-behind" ("Cross in front"? - keeping one foot on the ice all the time) as opposed to a regular BXO (where weight is fully transferred). She said that's true, that it is more powerful than normal cross-overs but most beginning skaters don't have the leg strength to do that so they teach regular XOs first.

Healthy! So I tried it - it IS super FAST and I find it easier than regular BXO's. Judging from the look on my coach's face, that's going into my program. (Me and my big mouth ....)

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

You probably don't skate at the same time as they do, but there is a flourishing ice dance club at your rink, with several very accomplished adult dancers - you're in the same Recreational Ice Dance League as we are, and your lot almost always beat us hollow!

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Mrs Redboots
~~~~~~~~
I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Can you please elaborate on this new technique. I've never seen it done before and it sounds interesting.

Junk:

NO WAY can I afford to go to adult nationals. It's absolutely impossible. Sigh. Probably not sectionals either, so I think I'm going to have to try and get over my AOSS a bit and perhaps just do one competition a year locally. Totally bummed out, but it's really hard to pay for skating as a single adult...ugh.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

LOL, almost everyone at our rink that is above group lessons does it that way. it is way easier. except you can click your blades... and then you're down! teehee. (although I've been managing to save my clicks of death lately...)

Mrs Redboots, that's interesting! They train on Saturdays, I think. But I thought that dance teams were like synchro type people... and also, the no talking rule only applies to patch time. and the dance team train on public session.

anyway, who said we're working together? what? we've been doing exactly the same things for half an hour? what a coincidence!

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Well, I fairly suck at explaining things but i will try. the normal way taught is on one of the lines you do an inside edge then go over the line, then 3-turn....blech!

Anyway, it wasn't quite working for me, so she tried something else:
This is the normal way taught, starting on the LFI edge...


this is the new way, two-foot glide, inside mohawk (really it's a push off the left foot). I like this way much better!! When you hit step #3, your left foot is off the ice by the time you hit the line.


sorry the pics are so big, i could not shrink them down.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Thanks! Yes I know, I used to have Risports which are very high-cut boots, I never could lace those up all the way - not even when they were broken down! But Graf is low-cut and I kinda like the support.
Trick is that I can't find the balance between jamming off my toes and having too much toe space just yet. Takes getting used to My feet are a different size and the skates aren't, so that's complicated.

So how do you get ehm... Well inside mohawk would be on the right foot right? So then you don't put down the left foot at all, not ever doing the actual mohawk, right?

Wednesday Night

Healthy

-Amazing double lutz

-Amazing spins

Junk

-Nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

Well, it's not "technically" a mohawk, it just "sort of"! You start off doing a 2-foot glide, then you push off of the left foot onto the right (that is the "sort-of a mohawk" move).

told you I wasn't good at explaining!!!!

But it makes sense to me!

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Wow, I thought they had already tried out ALL of the possible backspin entrances on me but this one is a different one . . . will give it a try!!

I know what you mean! My left foot is 1/4 size bigger than my right foot, but the boots only come in half sizes so it's just enough to make the left boot a little uncomfortable. I have brand new customs sitting in the box, already waterproofed, but I feel guilty switching over to them when my current ones aren't broken down yet. . .

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Haha, I'll do the best I can explaining, but as with many things, it's easier to understand if you see it...BTW, this is more of a step/turn/cross, I guess. Coach had me do it first time today & it helped bunches!

For CCW jumpers:
- Begin by gliding forward on your left foot with your left arm in front, right leg behind.
- Take a tiny step forward so that you're on your right foot (do not twizzle - this is to be more of a slower snap to backwards).
- Immediately bring the arms in (like in axels or double jumps) and cross your left foot over your right; try to cross back of your left calf over your right shin/top of boot. This is when you should be gliding backwards.
- Keep repeating this by step by doing step/turn/cross/step forward/step/turn/cross. You'll probably find it's easiest to do this on a circle, although it can be done on a straight line as well...

Hopefully that helped, but I doubt it. It's hard to be clear about skating exercises/drills without seeing them in person, but maybe you can walk it out and it'll click.

Healthy: My new program is really awesome. I'm really going in a different direction this year, based on my hugely unsuccessful season last year. It's really calm and pared down, leaving me lots of time to spin and hold landing edges. The new footwork is so fun, and much less tiring than last year's!
Also, I think I may have gotten all the way around on a few double sals today. I immediately fell, probably from shock, but I think I had the idea.

Junk: Well, my axel success from last week disappeared like good ice on a crowded session. I just hate that axel.

Healthy:

Had a good lesson with Primary Coach today, who informed me that she has put me on the list for testing in December. This will most likely be my last chance to pass Bronze free for AN '08.
Was able to fight for and do all three spins in program- coach was very pleased.

Junk:

Ice was crap again today with fog and condensation bumps all over the place. It aggrivates me that we pay beaucoup bucks to skate on this muck.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

So are you saying this is a RFI 3-turn with a pull-in of the arms and free leg as you execute the turn? If so, do you stay backward, or does the pull-in make you turn forward again so you do a little double 3?

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Hmmmmm yeah customs would be nice, but it was difficult enough getting anything other than risport or edea around here at all (and a few years back, when mom got her skates, ALL you could get here were risports)... If I'd ask for customs I think the skate shop owner would start crying lol! Besides I'm fresh out of money after these graf's.

The feet difference: reminds me of my mom. One of her feet is a half size larger than the other as well, and one time she went to a shop during a sale and got some shoes that were worth like 200 for like 5... Why? The two shoes in the box had exactly 1 size difference between them, and the smaller one was for the foot that she, indeed, had smaller.
She's still wearing them, says she will untilt hey fall apart on her feet.

I don't get it though, if so many people have differently sized feet... Why aren't shoes sold by the boot instead of by the pair!?

Synchro, do you mean anything like Irina Slutskaya's loop setup here around 3:05-3.11?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJDa7X-O_zk