Tested, and I passed my Baby Blues. Getting the feel and the atmosphere of that dance is a tough one, other wise it's an "easy" dance, considering it's all forward skating. It was the first dance that wasn't just a technical exercise and I had to think 'blusey'. Now on to the Swing, and that lovely mohawk, aaaaahhhh. (mohawk? you mean NOW?)

Singerskates, good luck in finding a coach, if you can get a guy, great, but don't expect him to use the harness, I have a guy coach, who I bet I outweigh by quite a bit, so I would never think of asking for harness. He's not a harness person anyway, more of a jump, try it, analyze in great detail (sometimes too much detail) and try again. Which is why I can't sit that well on my right hip today. I much prefer the total analysis approach to skating because I tend to be a "what the hell, I'll try that" sort of person, and I tried too much on my own before I got straightened around by Mr. Picky.

I'll hold you to that!!!!

have a great holiday!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Floating: Had my private lesson today, and we worked on that stinkin' scratch spin--I was right in my thinking Tuesday and am straightening up at the right point. My coach pushed me, and I was able to get my free leg to my knee a couple of times, but not able to push it down. We also worked on one foot spin, and with a change in arm movement and position, it worked better. As I always tell her, I get it one piece at a time...Eventually.

Flopping: My waltz jump had completely deserted me. I hope it comes back soon, because I'll need it at Dogwood.

Dance club last night was mostly practice with Robert.


Floating: Cant' remember; it certainly wasn't all bad, but I'm mega-stressed right now trying to pack, I hate packing..... I can't even decide what CDs to take in the car in my new CD case (the one that says "Skating is for Life") and I can't find the spare copy of my Interp. music and I've lost my folding mac, and can't find another one anywhere, and....

Oh, we were talking about skating, weren't we? I'm depressed by realising that even after 9 years of training, I still can't turn reliably at speed, especially not solo..... and our Dutch Waltz goes way out of time on the end pattern, which I never realised before last night, which is a disaster..... oh dear.....

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

Slucher, I found a coach. I hired the top coach (head coach) at my club. Any body know Karey Rudling? He's a great coach and a fun person. He is a very technical coach and knows how to get the job done. I've watch him for a long time this year. He's good with everyone no matter your style of learning. But there's one thing I must do after he helps me learn how to make the snow fly higher in my hockey stops. Snow him for all the times he snowed me during CanSkate when we were teaching it together. ROTFLOL I've got him shaking in his boots already. Or is he thinking of ways to get me back already. LOL Anyway, it's going to be fun and very rewarding working with Karey.

One thing I know he will be doing because he's already made comments on it, is the noisy state of my back crosscuts. He's going to force me to fix them. Then I know he's going to get that stupid backspin fixed if it kills me. That's the one thing, I try and try and I've got no where other than at most 1 and half revs. It drives me nuts. Why oh why can I do six revs in almost any kind of spin on my left foot but not on my right foot. What is going on here???
I just don't get it.

Brigitte

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Tasha, I've been dealing with the dingbat issue for over a year now!
The dingbats at my rink would sell freestyle ice to skaters even though the ice wasn't available. They also won't allow jumping on public sessions ( they say it's been policy for a year now but they just started enforcing it.They also don't know how to cut ice!

Floating - My feet didn't hurt as much. My mom bought some cheap-o Dr. Scholl's arches at the grocery store, cut them and stuck them in. My feet still hurt a little after an hour of skating but not even close to as bad as they did on Wednesday after 2.5 hours (and no, I can't change the amount nor do I want too. I have two 30 min lessons, hour practice, 15 min snack, 30/45 min show practice) My half flip jump is really high most of the time and I'm almost gettign all the way around on the flip and toe loop.

Flopping - Me falling!!! I fell hard three times during my 30 min lesson today. Once on backwards cross overs, I was flying along, doing great, then nicked my blade with the other blade and BOOM! Next thing I knew I was still flying....across the ice on my side. When we were working on scratch spins I fell twice too - on my tailbone! OUCH!! I think I'll need a hot bath tomorrow.

I think I need to get my blades sharpened...maybe this weekend. The edges are just starting to not feel as sharp.

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

Skated three sessions today.

First was Ticket Ice. Had a friend on the ice with me. She was working on her technical program when I had put her music in the CD player just in case she was ready to skate it again after I was done skating mine. Then lightning hit the arena or close by and knocked out the power. When the power came back on her horror flick music came back on and scared her. She said she'll be freak out from now on when she has to skate to it because of the weird happening. Anyway, we all laughed about it when the storm died down. I skated my program about 5 times or so with the music on. I had trouble getting in place with the music. Either I was too slow or too fast because I didn't have someone to play my music for me. Most of my jumps were bang on and my spins, I can't believe they were decent too.

My competitive ice: Started out well because I had a break to get something to eat in between ticket ice and my ice. There's another competitive ice scheduled before mine. I was nice and loose. Got some good air time in my jumps and my spins were easy to do. The program was clicking.

Stayed on for Junior ice to work more and burn a few extra calories to fit better in my skating dress on Sunday when I compete at Ann Arbour Spring Skate in Adult Bronze: I was starting to tire out. Sometimes I was bang on and other times I don't know what hit me. I sort of hung out with this one coach who is getting honoured on Saturday for 50 years of coaching for the Junior stroking and then migrated to my first ever coach. And what ever she had her students do, I demonstrated. But when they kept on doing the same old, same old after a while, I took what they were working on and put a series of elements together like they are in my freeskate; RF change edge spiral, RFI mohawk, LBI spiral, salchow/toe loop. Did them over and over getting faster and faster ice coverage. At the end though I was soo tired that I couldn't do a proper corkscrew or sitspin anymore. LOL it was time to slow down and work on the Fiesta Tango.

Brigitte

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Flopping: I was such a SPAZ today on the ice. At school, we had sports day and all the kiddies were outside in the pouring rain, which meant the teachers too. I was tired and wet and went skating after work. I drank a pop around lunch time which is bad for me. I don't usually drink caffeine in the afternoon because I get wired and shaky. Well, it kicked in when I got to the rink and I literally fell while I was standing. I think I frustrated my coach but I just couldn't get my feet under me. I even was spazing on my flip jump, which is usually my best jump

Tried one axel today and felt so shaky I told my coach I would show them to him next week.


Floating: though I had a bad skate, I had a fun time falling all over the place. Another girl was the same way so we spent most of the time giggling and falling. She was doing doubles and trying triples, whereas I was doing singles.

Camel spins, though still my weakest element, are actually getting a bit stronger

Did a couple nice sit/change sit's. I flopped on a few of them before doing 2 nice ones in a row.

Backspin actually had a nice exit to it all session. Usually I struggle a bit with the exit ,but today it was a piece of cake

slusher, the Swing Dance isn't that bad, it's not a fast mohawk and just try not to look at your feet. My problem with the Swing is I put my foot down right away after the mohawk, not because I have to but because my stupid brain thinks I'm doing waltzing mohawk skill pattern when I do a mohawk! Although I just passed prelim dances, I know Swing, Fiesta and Willow and will test them after some polishing up on the partnering.

Speaking of coaches, I had a meeting this AM (if I could call that a "lesson")with coach to go over the past year, and I settled up all my bills FLOPPING. We talked about freeskating, I don't do it much and have actually never taken a formal lesson but mess around with things on public ice. Apparently it's been noticed. Well I literally got called on the carpet and demonstrated off ice my waltz, salchow, and loop. I couldn't do a toe loop in sandals, heh and collapsed in giggles. I've been asked to think about freeskating for next fall. FLOATING I'm not afraid of freeskating or falling, I had some really hard, spectacular falls in stroking this year but my ice time and funds are limited and I did what I could with my lesson time. Adding freeskate will mean another 30 minutes a week plus an extra day that I don't have.

Singerskates, have an off ice meeting with your coach first and set goals, five things are sufficient. My list for last year was modest because I was just starting in my first year of skating lessons and I got a lot of stuff on it, except for "fix my stinking crosscuts" which took most of the year and they're still stinky but my technique is now correct.

Floating - actually making some small progress with my inside 3 turns in preparation for altering 3's on the drat test - if I ever decide to take it..... did find some space to just do the forward and backward crossovers on large circles and was quite pleased with how much I have improved with technique and speed as I haven't done them in many many months.

Flopping - my knee is really painful again and finally decided to see a different orthopedic MD on June 1st. It is really throwing me off on so many elements but I keep trying. Have lesson Sunday, so hopefully with Advil I will rise to the challenge. Plus my right shoulder is pitching forward again and blocking me from turns and checking. Time to start exercising it yet again - I get so tired of trying to fit in rehab type exercises, work full time, maintain a house, and now spring gardening chores. I WILL conquer those inside 3's!

Today was my group lesson. My regular coach was at the beach, so I had a sub. She's not been skating much longer than me.

Floating: While working on my scratch spin (after my lesson) I was able to actually touch my free foot to my skating knee. Yipee! Maybe I will master it yet. And my waltz was back.

Flopping: While it is coming along, I'm still struggling with the scratch spin. And it was hot in the rink--like 60. It's a good thing I wore my tank dress, and it was just about too much.

Floating:

• My LFO3's (not at speed.) It was quite smooth, but only at slower speed.
• All my spins, including my backspins AND my camel spins, are coming along well!!! YIPPEEEE!!!!!
• Rest of Bronze moves are okay.

Flopping:

• My LFO3's at speed.
• A bunch of city kids came in to the rink and they have ABSOLUTELY no regards for the center of the rink being reserved for "figure skaters only" I told a fellow skaters that if I were in hockey skates and decided to take out "checking" penalties for all the kids that went through the middle of the ice and got in my way, I would be out the ENTIRE GAME!!!
• Most of my jumps, not that I expected much anyway since I rarely jump these days.

Other notes:
The announcer at my weekend rink announced that everyone should stop (in the middle of the public session), turn around and skate counter-clockwise! The problem -- everyone was ALREADY skating counter-clockwise as it is! I yelled out "HEY! You mean CLOCKWISE right!!!" After a brief wait (and a lot of confusing from all the kids b/c they don't know what counter-clockwise or clockwise mean. Guess everyone has digital watches now, huh?), he goes "Erm... clockwise I mean!!! CLOCKWISE!!!"

Then he adds "And everyone please remember that the center of the ice is for FIGURE SKATERS only!!! Please do not pass through the middle of the rink unless you're doing jumps and spins." I yelled "THANK YOU!!!" (I was getting royally pissed at the city kids who kept going through the middle.)

There's more.... THEN the announcer said "The person who raised her arm up and ISN'T wearing the uniform... she could skate anywhere she wants!!!" (OOPS! He was referring to me!)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

How cool is that!!!!

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