In honor of our homegrown tomatoes, which are just starting to show signs of ripening. Guys, if you haven't ever had homegrown tomatoes, you have MISSED OUT!!! Find a friend or farmer and sample some truly ripe tomatoes!

Factory-Bred: Spins this morning. Coach said, "geez, I think I won't even let you warm those up on test day" because they got progressively worse the more I tried them. Flinging, speeding, flailing = me.

Homegrown: PB 3-turn pattern was judged "pretty good," which is high praise from coach.

Factory-Bred: EVERYONE in the rink is so thoroughly sick of whatever they've been practicing for the test session on the 12th. . . You can feel the nerves and boredom and last-minute tweaking frustrations!

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Homegrown: I finally put my program to my music. It works out fairly well, and I finish pretty much when the music ends.

Factory Bred: But on my runthru, I completely biffed my axel. I wend to take off, but somehow left the ice sideways... I can't remember how I landed, just that I ended up rolling at least once. I did manage to get up and finish my final spin however...

Homegrown: I can finally semi-consistantly land my 2sal from "speed" (aka backwards crossovers...). I still don't feel completely confident with my actions, but it's a start. My spins worked out well today, too. I got my sit-sit-sit and camel-sit-sit both to feel pretty good.

Factory Bred: My coach winced at my double 3's. Granted, the set she saw weren't all that great, but it's not like I fell over or anything. I just forgot about the second turn and had to force it. Pretty sure I was still asleep during my warm-up. I got yelled at two or three times to remember to look. How am I supposed to look backwards when doing cross-strokes!?!?!

Ugh. Don't talk to me about tomatoes. With all the flooding, my plants sat in water for weeks and they have blight early and I'm not going to get more than a handful of tomatoes....(pout)

Drove 3 hours to Omaha today for a 45 minute dance lesson. This was back to basics day. We worked on progressives. She also teaches freestyle and she makes all her students do progressives rather than crossovers. I was actually able to get down in my knees with these. Then she said she saw that I could have good straight legged extension so even though a lot of adults have bent legs, I'm capable of straight extensions so there will be no adult pass for me when it comes to extensions.

We did stroking exercizes, really working on bend, push, extend, rise, feet together, bend first, then push...Then a couple of strokes and gliding, down in my knees, down more more, down, hold the extension, then up. Then a kind of pulsing bend up bend up bend up. "Can you feel that? Does it burn?" "YES" "GOOD!"

Back swing rolls. With forward swing rolls I'm very good at keeping my upper body facing down the rink the entire time, but it just seemed impossible going backwards...then she skated with me and it seemed pretty natural so I sort of got the hang of that. Told me I needed more knee action. I thought I was going down more than I had ever done before but not enough and I have to come up higher so the rise and bending is noticable.

I'm sore tonight. I'm to ask my regular coach to work with me on my two foot transistions.

j

I've had homegrown tomatoes!!! Trust me! They are GOOOOD!!! (Sadly since I lost my job, I no longer have my favorite source for tomatoes. I'll just have to buy some at our farmer's market.)

Homegrown:

• I'm starting to conquer my back power 3's entry to the loop jump!!! Still needs more control over faster speed (so I can keep going fast into it!) But overall, I CAN do this move now!!! (Have to skate the move like it's my signature move and make it MINE!!! ) I even tried this move with a loop-loop and I had no problems here too.
• Flip was a bit shaky tonight. I landed a slew of them at the beginning but towards the end of the session my body just wasn't in it.
• Lutz was "in da HOOOOZE" tonight!!! (Too bad my PRIMARY COACH left the rink right before I landed the slew of them.)

Factory-bred:

• WOW!!! Word travels fast about my recent unemployment! Primary coach said "So when did you lose your job???" (No, I did NOT tell him about it. One of his SPIES must have told him!!! )
• Camel spins sucked!!!
• So is that one foot spin exercise my secondary coach gave me last week. (I'm trying NOT to have my butt stick out so much!!!)
• Forward crossovers on the CW direction SUCKS compared with the others!!!

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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!!!

Homegrown:

Skating camp the past three days. Seriously, every time I go to this camp I emerge a completely different skater. I went in with a used-to-be-able-to-land-every-now-and-again-but-can't-land-at-all-now double flip, and finished the last two days of camp by landing my first four double flip attempts of the session, along with another one later on, and then my final one in demonstration, alone, with all the other skaters, parents and coaches watching! My double toe is just heaven right now, axels are getting stronger and bigger, double sale are slowly returning to me, and double loops are gettng more and more consistent!

Factory-Bred

Oh dear. I damaged the sciatic (sciatic?) nerve in my left leg during off ice at skating camp, doing the splits. It was the last off ice session of camp, just before the last on ice session, and it completely popped. I have never been in so much pain. I couldn't walk, but being determined as I am, I tried to do the last on ice session. Got skates on took one step, collapsed. I spent the whole session, while everyone else did axels, double flips and camels (my favourite), tryng to do forwards stroking, occasionally trying a back crossover and collapsing in pain. I haven't skated since, as I've been on holiday, but it has been 4.5 days and I can just about walk okay. Running is a big issue still, and I can just about do some off ice 2 footed jumps. I am so worried though. I am sure my splits are gone, and who knows what else.

Oh yes, also, Milton Keynes rink has a leaky roof. The water drips down onto the ice, creating holes. These are either left to get your toe caught in during spirals, or filled with ice, becoming a bump which is especially fun to spin over. Sigh.

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Factory-farmed: My whole body was just not co-operating today! Grrrr.

We did our Variation and it varied between 9.5 and 11 bars....

Coach1 wants us to change another part of our free dance to something I'm not sure about and we couldn't practice as Husband had to run.

Home-grown (and I agree, what is nicer than a home-grown tomato picked fully ripe and eaten without even taking it into the house to wash!): Erm.... not a lot, today. We made it through both our Variation and our Free dances without too many problems, even though neither is quite ready. Well, that's okay - we aren't competing until the beginning of October, so.....

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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!

Gaak, test session schedule just came out. Why do they have the higher-level skaters go first (int moves, Novice & juv FS on down to me)? It will make me look worse than I actually AM!!! Getting nervous now. . .

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Your test chair is probably from the "traditional school" -- and there was a real reason the upper-level skaters tested first. It dates from when we still did figures. Obviously, the highest level skaters had the toughest tests... so they were allowed to choose to lay-out their figures ANYWHERE on the ice they wanted, which was a big advantage for some of those really horrendously hard figures (except they couldn't use a red/blue line or circle to lay-out). So you would usually see all the figures from an 8th test laid out in different parts of the rink, on different axes. Also the more experienced testers usually knew just where the rink slanted every so slightly, or where the dark spot on the ice was so they could place their turns on/near that spot. At some rinks, when they had a lot of figures, they would have a portable ice resurfacer... which would clean up the figure patches trailing the testing skater by about 2 or 3, so the next skaters could have relatively clean (but often wet) ice to test. If a club didn't have that, think about the preliminary or first or second test skater who had to find a place that wasn't already covered by figures to lay out their tests! Good luck on your test!

Homegrown - I love home tomatoes. Yum.
We're working on our artistic pairs program and loving it. The choreography has lots of fun moves in the mix and really interesting to learn. My partner has really picked up the pair moves quickly, and we're both having a great time.

Gina - hope you feel better soon.
Jazz - way to go on the lutz!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Warm straight from the garden home grown beauties!! Today was one of those magical days when everything was easy & I was totally centered & balanced, and fear was something that wasn't even in the building. I ROCKED my moves patterns, and did Killian pattern after pattern better than I've ever skated it before. Call the judges!! Get them here NOW!! This may not last longer than just for today!

This is why I really envy the ISI skaters, who get to send in a video tape to be judged for testing!

Factory canned: Right knee did some very weird popping last Fri. during lesson and has been sore ever since. Wore a brace today which def. helped, but hope it isn't anything serious/long term.

The last time I tested, they did the same thing. When I asked about it, they told me one of the higher level judges needed to leave early for an appointment, so the higher level tests needed to be judged first. Normally, they start with the lower level tests and work their way up.

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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

I also always looked at that as a bit of a reward system--the higher you get, you don't have to wait & stew so long.

Of course in dance, it's also done to spare the partners, so they do all the hard stuff first before they're too tired.

And they like to give the higher level tests clean ice - and sometimes depending on judges' (and coaches' and skaters') schedules, they may start with lower level (or dance) tests first, and then wait and do the high level (Nov through Senior MIF, etc) after an ice cut.

I've seen test sessions organized in ascending, descending, and random order. It usually depends on judges' schedules (if one has to leave early) or coaches' schedules (if one can't be there until after a specific time) or if there are contingent tests (MIF and FS at the same level - obviously, the MIF test has to be first). And at the test sessions where I've tested that have started early and gone all day, I've sometimes asked to test after a certain time (say 11 a.m) so that I'll be able to practice on an FS session before, b/c I've learned that I need more than 10 (or 8 or 6) minutes to warm up. The test chair is usually accommodating, esp since my tests have always been low level that could be judged by judges at any level.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Or she is following the Test Manual sent out by USFS that has a specific order for tests - dance first (they get the cleanest ice) then moves, highest to lowest, then freestyle, highest to lowest. I've known test chairs to get chewed out by referees for not following it

j

After 5 weeks of summer school back outside edges are finally starting to be comfortable. Sailing along on a LBO, hips and head turned out of the circle, free foot behind, it felt like all I had to do was plant my toe pick and there would be a double Toe right there....... I didn't try it but it has been nearly 40 years since I felt that.

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

Factory-Bred: Group lesson starts at 6:15- Unfortunately I didn't get to take it. I didn't have any one show up for my LTS class at 5:15, so didn't do anything. At 5:45 I helped teach a class. Around 6:10 we hear a huge gushing water sound that gets louder and louder. We're told to get off the ice. It's not a broken pipe, there is no water. Finally we assume it's the compressor. After about 15 minutes the sound stops and an odd smell gets worse. We officially cancel LTS, and ice for the evening. Then the compressor repair guy tells everyone to leave quickly.

Coach and I go out to dinner since no more ice- a hazmat truck is pulling up. At 8:00 we go back to the rink to get my car, there are 3 hazmat trucks, 2 fire trucks, 2 police cars and an ambulence. Hmmm... that doesn't seem good.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I am new to skating so this is my first practice thread post. I just started classes three weeks ago.

Homegrown: I did crossovers for the first time tonight! I have always been scared to try these on my own. Right over left (sorry I don't know the correct short hand for these yet) was significantly better than left over right, but I managed them both.

Factory-Bred: Stopping. I just can't get the hang of it.

Yes, left over right is easier for me too.

What is the problem with stopping? Most of the time, people who have trouble with this are not putting most of their weight on the stopping leg..bend your knee and put most of your weight on the stopping leg - not the leg that is moving out. If you put too much weight on that leg you will do a little spin.

j

Welcome to skating forums (or at least to the practice threads). I agree that left over right is much harder for crossovers. I feel like my thighs get in the way, which is weird, because it's the same thighs on both sets of x-overs, just in a different order.

Stopping can be tough for beginners. If you have your own skates, sharp blades can sometimes be the culprit. Otherwise it's usually the knee bend. You just can't do it on a straight leg! A lot of my beginner students will try to do a one foot snowplow where the foot trails behind- that snowplow stop needs to lead ahead of you slightly to work. Good luck!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

You'll be just fine, you wait and see. At our rink, normally they start with the Level 1 babies (of which I hope we'll be two soon, doing our Level 1 Variation, but not for a few weeks!), but if there is a high-level skater who needs 2 judges they get put on first if one of the judges needs to get to work (our sessions start about 6:30 am and have to finish by 10:30 am).

Goodness, how scary! Did you find out what happened?

As for me, today, mostly home-grown beauties as Husband stayed an extra 30 minutes and some kids were playing random dance music, so we danced! Which is always great fun.

Factory-farming-battery-hens: My issues with the step to forward don't go away, or if they do, I don't know why, so not much cop there. And tweaked my back leg doing my back spiral, and it's now sore. Not badly, but enough so's I feel it.

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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!

An R-22 leak (the refridgerant the rink uses) according the the local newspaper.
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pb...808060331/1079

Thought that article makes me laugh. A "pro noticed a noise"- since it sounded like Niagra Falls- everyone noticed!!!

I'm really hoping we have ice tonight though... I can't afford to miss practices!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Holy cow! I hope we have ice tonight, too!

Homegrown: Moves just fine for the most part. Coach is nitpicking only and said fwd edges were "quite nice."

Factory-Manufactured: Spins? Gag. I can do 1 or 2 that are good and the rest are crap. Apparently instead of using my arms to grab an imaginary beach ball I'm using them to try to hug a walrus. Shoulders are, unfortunately, going along for the ride, throwing the whole thing off. Also for some reason I'm having trouble with the start of the waltz 8 and not getting on a good solid edge so that the 3-turn is forced. Coach is all "This is why we had figures; without figures you can't learn the control" etc etc etc.

I think the test order could be any of the reasons mentioned. What I am not thrilled about now is having to skate alongside the pre-pre youngsters, whom I probably outweigh by about 100 lbs. I feel like a COW next to those girls! Oh well, I'll just keep saying "I'm not a cow, I'm not a cow. . . " (All the more motivation to improve my skills so I don't have to double-panel next to the skinny-minnies!)

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Homegrown: My skating itself was good, despite my coach not being there last night (he's still overseas).

Factory-built: I skated before work this morning, so I brought a change of clothes. Getting dressed at work, I put on my trousers and realized that I'd brought the wrong ones. I brought ones where the hem on one leg had fallen. So I had to staple it up for the morning. Gave me an excuse to buy new pants at lunch, though.

Actually, that's good. It means that by the time you skate, all the higher level skaters and their parents will have left. Less of an audience, perhaps less nerves? I actually like it.