Yay for you! I'm working on pre-bronze (again) with some bronze mixed in. If you have 30 minutes 3-4 times a week, you can get conditioned (no gym required, minimal equipment).

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

scratchy toepicks: Had horrible allergy problems and congestion, so when I tried to spin on Tuesday, I scared both coach and myself. Coach told me not to spin this week. Unfortunately, this is an ongoing problem, so Coach knows how to pace me.

growling edges: Since I had dizziness and stamina problems, Coach and I worked on edges, 3 turns, and other technical basics. I made some big progress on my edges Thursday, and Coach was pleased. We skated through some program without the music, and Coach made some really good corrections.

Sneaky growling edges: I felt a lot better this morning, and Coach wasn't there, so I tried one scratch spin and one change foot spin, and both were really great, YAY! No dizziness or balance problems, the congestion has cleared up a lot. So, I know next week I can go back to working on programs, I have an ISI competition coming up June 19.

Coach is back from PSA and I got a serious dose of coach eye. I swear she can look at me from the parking lot, through the glass front of the rink, through the hockey glass, to where I'm doing a figure all the way at the other end of the rink and I'll fall.

We're working on Figures 1 Serpentines. There's a lot of complicated carefully timed leg swinging, arm moving, edge changing on the fly. Plus it takes up a huge amount of space. I really can only practice it during almost empty sessions. The kids may know moves patterns but they have no idea what I'm doing. I'll be on lesson, with coach, and they'll skate right in front of me and do a spin.

HEy! I can do my FO3s where I want them-consistently. I can only hold the back edge for about 2 feet, but I'm getting better.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

We had show practice tonight-kind of hard to do when only the adults in the number show up (we are 4 where there should also be 8 kids). Oh well!

Growling edges: Class tonight...strong points were toe-loop; got some good tips for my backspin (in which I'd been keeping my foot out to the side instead of more to the front); loop jump, where I need to roll off my toe more (and I did a few from a 3-turn I figured, hey why not?)

Scratchy toepicks: we did moves-crossovers on the circle and mine were really bad (haven't worked on them); dance class was bleh, I think because EVERYONE in the rink is dancing (30-40 people) and it's very busy (like the highway during rush hour-at least in my neck of the woods).

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

Sounds exactly like my Intermediate moves test. I had one pass me .2 I think over, the other two .3 and .4 under. What one judge liked, another had issues with. I'm just paying more attention to the two that failed me since they're two of the tougher judges in my area (actually, the one who is considered the toughEST is the one that had me .3 under, where the slightly easier but still quite tough had me under by .4 )

Growling Edges
-My moves coach came back from the PSA conference with some new stroking exercises from Brian Boitano's "Speed for Free". They helped quite a bit with my forward power circles. I was more secure AND more powerful (except for the one sliding across the rink fall )
-Worked on some new spins positions. Instead of grabbing my blade on a foward catch camel, I tried grabbing the top of my boot instead. I can get better extension and it's a little more original.
-Coach gave me a new entrance for my axel in my test program. When she came up with it, she went, "Heh heh heh, this is going to be hard." I tried, I love it, and it's creative! It goes LFI choctaw, cross in front to LBO edge (like for a lutz), cross behind to RBO double 3, push straight into axel.


Aaand best of all, DID FULL PROGRAM RUN THROUGHS WITHOUT HAVING TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL!!! On Tuesday I did partial run throughs, but today was the first day I tried full ones. The last run through I'd done BEFORE Tuesday landed me in the hospital for 4 days.

Scratchy Toepicks
-However, none of those run throughs were clean.
-I suppose this is half scratchy and half growling, but oh well. I get so much speed out of the beginning of my program, I get scared to do the 2sal+2loop combo! It's just like, "wait, I'm supposed to JUMP now?!" I'm slowly getting used to the speed, though.
-A silly little piece of my footwork gives me so much trouble! I go from a LFO toe-assisted twizzle type step, then put my right heel in and push to a forward pivot with the heel in the ice, then push up to a LFO counter. I just don't feel secure pushing on that LFI edge for the pivot! It's so frustrating! I can do the rockers and counters and everything else with no problem, but throw in a pivot and I'm in trouble.

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Youtube Videos

Scratchy toepicks: Or, more like, NO toepicks! Decided last night to try out the rink within walking distance of where we live; it's somewhat ridiculous as their public session on Saturdays STARTS at 9 p.m., but what can you do, and I figured maybe it'd be pretty quiet at that hour (unless, I suppose, the local Loud Teenage Contingent decides that is THE time to skate). The boi decides to drop me off and go get food (he couldn't go with as he still has a painful rub spot from the last time we went, and it doesn't help that he decided to pick off the scab like a dummy), but we arrive and notice the place looks dead. No cars in the lot whatsoever. So I tell him to wait while I go check, and yep, the doors are locked. On the inner doors I see a sign saying there's no Saturday night skate. Thanks for putting that on the website, folks. *eye roll* So, no skating for me this weekend; two nearby rinks have Sunday skate times but we always go to his parents' house on Sundays, and there aren't even any rinks near them, so there you go. Blegh.

Meanwhile, I'd also planned to go next weekend and get fitted for new-to-Kat skates...until my mom told me that instead of this weekend, she'd decided to hold her yard sale next weekend (she's moving from her house to an apartment, so has to get rid of a lot of stuff). So guess who gets to go help with that instead of getting skates next weekend? *sigh* Which also means no skating next weekend either. But at least the weekend after that I'll have plenty of time for both, as the boi will be out of state for a bachelor party and so I'll be bored anyway...

Thank heaven for my usual Wednesday late-lunch skate at the school rink.