Elephants

The ice was bumpy but not too busy.

Oh the backspins.....they are improved slightly, with 1 going right for every 4.
I tried a few change foot sit spins, but flopped about and fell over on a couple of them otherwise I managed 2 or 3 dodgy revs.

I could NOT get a loop on the end of a salchow. I didn't try hard enough.

I think I should change the parallel spin for a sit spin in my programme - again. My sit spin could probably generate more marks for me, because it is faster and quite low down. My parallel is a hit or miss and sometimes I struggle to keep the revs going.
The only thing about the sit spin (and it being faster) is that it makes me dizzy, and I'm supposed to go and do a flip almost right away.
What do you think?

I omitted lutzes, because I take up half the rink and can't see where I'm going. Any excuse will do!


Elegant

I suppose the flip and loops were quite good today.
The field moves moved along alright too.

Which do you think that you'll be more comfortable with in the test? I voted for sit BUT ..... is this for Inter-Bronze or whatever it's now called? Be careful hun as the rules say something to the effect of '2 spins of IB standard or above!!' The sit is used in tests BELOW IB .... it may be worth checking that you won't get a 'not skated' mark for doing a 'lesser' element!!!!

L x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Love the titles, Mel

This is for this morning:

Elegant:

Alternating FI3s (which were much better than the FO3 equivalent)

Practiced a lot of inside (open?) mohawks, practicing stepping to the instep as I tend to put my free foot down at the heel (closed?), which I'm not meant to be doing, lol. MUCH better.

Waltz jump

Spent a lot of time practicing one foot spin. MUCH better from standstill, I'm still travelling a bit but not as much as before and it's a bit scratchy, but I'm definitely getting there. Still having trouble with the "hook" from the FO glide though. (Just an added thought - I'm CW and when I travel, I tend to travel to the right. What does that mean? Anything?)

Spirals (The weirdest thing!! I went to do a left forward spiral, it didn't work as I wasn't balanced right, then I went into it again on the same foot, and it was only then that I realised I was on my right foot! Hmm. Should know the difference between my legs by now, dontcha reckon?

Back cross rolls and cross cuts (and forward cross rolls)

Elephants:

(Well, I like elephants. Just so you know. )

Alternating FO3s

"Hook" of 1 foot spin (from the FO edge).

Outside mohawks in group lesson a bit dodgy! That's what you get for only practicing them once in a blue moon. Must rememeber to do them more often, especially on my right, which has always been my weaker side.

I gave myself a 15 minute block during practice to practice jumps - 5 for salchow, 5 for toe loop, 5 for loop and half loop. Got bored and stopped after 4.

Ice was pants

Didn't have a private lesson. Might never have a lesson with my coach again. I'm going on holiday for 2 weeks next week and when I get back he'll only be there for about a week or 2 before he's leaving. Am sorting out a freestyle lesson with another coach though. Still have to ask a dance coach.

(Unless I can get there at any time in the first half of next week, no more skating for at least 3 weeks!! )

Rachel x

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

The test is for level 2 and 3. I'm keeping same programme as it fulfills both tests - so I'm assured!


In the rule book it simply says (for level 3, IB) minimum of 2 diff spins (min 3 revs), so it doesn't specify.
As long as they're centred and have plenty of revs it should be ok.
I could do a parallel instead of the upright spin in the level 3 test, but that comes at the end.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Well I was pleased last night to landed my first ever lutz. I actually landed 2 of them! The first one was a bit low on the landing and I had to work to get my free foot behind, but I pulled it out. The second one (which came two or three tries after the first successful one) went much smoother with a fairly easy check out and good flow on the outside edge coming out of the jump. That one felt pretty good.

So I have now landed the toe, sal, loop, flip, and lutz. Unfortunately all of them are inconsistent at the moment except for the toe loop. The loop, which I had somewhat consistent last December, has pretty much disappeared since that time. I'll have to get working on it more. I'll be anxious for the next month to pass by quickly so I can get back to school and have regular ice time again (I live too far away from a rink during the summer to get much more than a couple of visits in each month).

Yay on your first lutz, Aaron! I tried mine, and I landed a couple, but more often I landed on my butt, and OY those hurt, even for a seasoned faller like me!

Okie, on with the important stuff...

Elegant:

• My backspin is coming back! Yayayayayaya!!! Now, if only I could just get that entrance consistent and get it to go faster..
• Scratch spin is getting better too! As always, still need that entrance to feel comfortable...
• Got around 2 revs on the camel, but I'm still leaning too far forward....oh well, I suppose it's just one of those things that eventually "clicks" on you one day..
• The loop is great fun when you're going fast! You just fly up and to heck with the landing, LOL!
• I just saw one of my old skating buddies yesterday, who used to be in the same class as me, and I finally got to see how aggressive I really am, LOL. The poor thing was trying out loops and flips from nearly a standstill, and scary ol' me was trying loops at full speed and flips from errr, a little less than that. (Not that I was more successful, but my jumps were a whole lot bigger! Whee!) I think skating has taught me more about "going for it" than anything else I've done in my life, LOL.

Elephant

• Tried the lutz seriously for about 15 minutes two days ago, and man, I've fallen so hard so many times in my life! My butt's sore but I'm still okay with it since I did manage to land a couple of good ones. The thing that frustrates me is that it feels like I'm getting enough air time - I just can't get around! Arghggghhg...
• I've totally lost the sitspin. Can't even get the entrance anymore - I probably have to pull myself over my axis since I've been leaning to the right as I turn and it throw me off....and it was soo good last week! Waaaaaahhhh!!!!
• Salchow. Hate it. What's new?
• Flip. Still hate that 3turn. Whenever I try to go "up," I lean over to the right too much and fall over on the landing. I have to manage with a tiny flip so I stay upright, but I really really want to get it bigger....sigh.....
• Not feeling the waltz jump this week. Oh well - I suppose it's just one of those things...

Anita

Wish they'd stop changing the rules! These new tests only started in January 2002!!

Here is the reference that I've got, nothing to say it hasn't changed, though! Piggin typical

[/b]

Mind you, you only have to look at the 'straight line step sequence including forward and backward 3 turns' to see how logical they are!! Surely a step sequence which is looking for a number of 3 turns should be a serpentine or circular? Oh well ......

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Yes, that's what I've got too.
So I can do any spins really, so long as they are good enough to pass the standard.
My sit spin is the better standard (by quite a bit) so I'd better stick with that. Maybe I can put the camel in at the end.

The steps start off with a RFO 3 onto LBO, then LBO3 mohawk.....there's another two 3 turns before the end.

This is my old programme, that was adapted to pass both level 2 and 3.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

This is for this morning (Sunday)

Elegant: It's actually quite difficult to divide up what happened this morning into good and bad as, like the proverbial curate's egg, it was good in parts. I liked what our coach had us do in our lesson, and told us to practice doing, though, which was to divide our various dances up into tiny bits, and work just on a couple of edges at a time. And when we really focussed on doing that, we could find out what was going wrong, and why, for instance, in our first run-through of the Dutch Waltz, we were fighting each other all the time. And also made it easier to feel when one of us was anticipating.

Elephants: We really did do a couple of dreadful runthroughs of the Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango, the latter mostly because Robert was far too tense when he held me. And his RFO swing rolls, and thus his RFO-I changes of edge, weren't really working - he doesn't seem able to bring his free side around the way he can when doing a LFO swing roll. Perhaps it's as well that my weaker side is LFO! :? I am not sure if it is bad habit or inability, but we need to work on that.

Oh help! I've just realised it's only three weeks until Bordeaux, and we are away over the Bank Holiday. Help......

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

I was on the ice today, not skating, but chaperoning my children.

The small one seems to have a natural ability (even at 4) and an attitude of "I'm staying right here on the ice till I get chucked off!"

Tuesday's my next skate day.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Elegant:
Moves in the field and jumps. I didn't skate much over the summer because of my crappy job and the two and a half hours I spent every day traveling to and from it, but my jumps and moves in the field have remained semi-decent.

Particularly good was the double threes (juv moves), axel (only a little cheated), and the one random double salchow I landed (again, slightly cheated) as the Zamboni came out. I was off the ice entirely for three weeks for various trips, so I'm pretty happy.

And, I go back to school tomorrow, which means I might get my first real lesson since early May!

Elephants:
Spins. In general. Camel was decent yesterday, non-existant today. My nice fast sit spin got left behind in Austin, Texas. My normally dead on layback (with a nice turned out free leg) - somewhere in California. Grr... The 8-step mohawk sequence going clockwise could be better. I want to test juv moves in October (insert laugh track here), so I would like to get that cleaned up pretty soon.

Melanie - go with the sit spin. Think about what testing nerves will do: your shaky camel spin might not spin at all, but your fast sit spin will probably be a bit slower so you don't get dizzy. I always think you should go with the comfortable elements for a test, as tests are so scary anyway!

Elegant:

My toe loop and waltz jump are much improved from even a couple of weeks ago. I'm getting OK height on them. Yesterday in practice, I landed a toe loop/toe loop combo.

Well, in preparation for my Freestyle 1 test on Wed., I practiced the scratch spin out of crossovers. The first couple of times were good, but then, I kept messing up. How is it that I can do something fine one minute, and then not fine for the next 30? Ugghh! So frustrating!

Worked on the BO turns. They're not as hard as I thought they'd be. We just learned them last week, so I think I'm making good progress - I just need to stop coming to a complete halt as soon as I step on the FI edge.


Elephants:

The ice was crappy (can I use that word, Adrian?) again today. I felt like I was constantly getting stuck. I also noticed more ice stuck to my blades than usual. Is this b/c the ice was too soft or too hard - well, anyway, I sure hope it's improved by Wednesday.

Aforementioned scratch spin problems - ughh! - my nemesis!


I decided to practice just the skills I need for my test, so I didn't get to work on the layback or sit spin - just as well, I suppose, considering my general spinning problems. I've given up on the salchow for now -perhaps I just need some distance from it.

Good luck to everyone in their practices and tests this week. Wish me luck for mine on Wednesday!

Elephants: Ick. Hamstring is worse. Missed the gold pair test by 1 revolution on the combination spin. I knew that my leg was not happy about holding the position in the cammel, but I figured I would try.
The new pair competition structure will not go into effect until at least 2004, so there's no rush. I'm doing the gold moves now, as it's something I can work on while mending, but I don't think I'm going to test until I need to for pairs. I'd like to see how the moves play out and evolve.

Almost Elegant: ran through the gold moves. The biggest problem will be remembering them.

Elephants: I tried the double axel about 15 times but fell on most of them. The rotation was there which I was happy about but those I did land were fairly messy.. the best one I did was two-footed. Very discouraging because I landed 7 last week. I could feel some muscle cramping in the last half an hour but still tried the double axel.. however it was still bothering me in the back of my head. I also worked on the triple toe.. two footed a few times with quite a a lot of under rotatons and ice stains (falls). I had a runthrough and it was quite not what I was looking for.. fell on both my double axels.. managed to land the flip but then did some silly mistakes on the second flip, loop, salchow and tow. I'll try harder next week I promise.

Elegant : Landed my double lutz.. I haven't done them in a while and I did two out of five which is plenty for me. Haha! Got my double loop much more consistent.. landed my double flip most of the time and got my single axel 100% for the first time. Working on my spins and trying to make them Stephane-Lambiel-quality and they're getting there. Haha.

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Oh, all that I know.. There's nothing here to run from.. 'Cos yeah.. everybody here's got somebody to lean on.

I was on vacation last week so I don't remember the dates of whenn I practiced.

Elegant - waltz jump, every time I do it it gets a little bigger, almost wiped out on a landing but I held on. Learned a little bit of the Dutch waltz (boyfriends niece is an experienced skater and she taught me some of it) it was fun and I really like cross rolls but I have issues with progressives, still considering changing to ice dancing. I guess having no fear with the flip is good but I still can't rotate around once. Edges felt good and "learned" an Ina Bauer - compliments of the niece again. Watched a little girl (9-12) do her program and she was quite the little jumper, lots of doubles and a couple of double doubles but her spins were weak, it was fun though.

Elephant - could not rotate ONCE when trying the LFO into one foot spin. EEKK. Got so frustrated. The "niece" actually was irritating me on this she kept pushing and pushing and wouldn't understand that someone with bursitis in their left hip has less mobilitly, that is in part what's hampering my learning this spin but not much I can do about it but just keep at it. :-) Anyway, she meant well but it got irritating but I just stopped the spinning and did stroking so I wouldn't get too mad.

Flo, bummer about the pair test, but I'm impressed you got that close with a bad hamstring.

Thanks loops. At least it's not my landing leg. Camels, L spirals and eagles are out for a while. Lutzes and loops are pretty much on the right side, so they're ok. Aside from those, what hurts most is walking!
I have foam in my left shoe to absorb the impact. Oh well - PT tomorrow!

Oh no. Sorry to hear about your hamstring. I hope it's doing better very soon. I can sympathize since I have a bad hamstring too (right leg) that limits me sometimes; I just have to listen to it when it's acting up and not irritate it.

Still, good job on trying to go for your pair test. It is, I hope, still a feeling of accomplishment for you to at least have attempted it.

__________________
All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Elegant:

My ankle and knee were feeling pretty good today, so I jumped. 2loop was back (for the day anyway). Still most likely cheated, but I was jumping up and landing fairly smoothly!!!

Axel was also coming back. I didn't try to land it - just worked on doing the correct take off and rotating with 2 foot landings for now.

I even tried a few 2flips and they seemed pretty good. No landings, but apparently I was at least nearly all the way around and was straight.


Elephants:

Skipped moves as I saw 2 people collide just at the beginning of the session. My ankle hurt just thinking about someone falling on my again. Luckily it wasn't me in this collision.

My coach is gone for nearly a month - just as I'm finally getting better. The person I want to work with most likely doesn’t have time – he’s too good and busy – so it may be a long month.

Salchows and 2salchows just weren't happening. The take-off just puts too much stress on my ankle for now.

Kim

Elegant
The FO3 turns I learned last week did not disappear into another dimension as I had feared. They weren't as nice, but they're still around.

Elephant
My LFO edge is horrible. I can feel the blade slipping all the time. I looked at the tracings and I can see where it sort skips a bit. I worked and worked on my edges but it doesn't seem to help. My coach thinks I may need to have the blade moved towards the inside.

First of all, Flo, what a bummer about your pair test! Very brave for trying with a injury!


Elegant: Almost all of my Pre Bronze moves, EXCEPT those FO3's from H#@$%! I did notice that when I don't force the turn that it will happen on it's own. I also managed to straighten out the three turn on my salchow! Had the ice to myself for a ENTIRE HOUR today, and worked very hard!

Elephants: I need, need need to do off ice work for my sitspin to get it lower! And why is my backscratch consistently centered , when my forward scratch is not! Flip is not really that bad, just have to get more height and lock free leg! Ran freeskate program- my coaches and I really need to work on this to get it competitive!

Will have to cancel lesson on Thursday, due to car repairs!

Good luck to anyone testing this week to beat the deadline!

Sorry to hear about your pairs test, Flo!!! Agreed... very brave for going out there to test with a bad hamstring. The spins are usually the first to go, followed by 3-turns... (Guess how I know???)

Anyway...

Elegant:

• Scratch spins... pretty decent here...when I get it!!!
• Sit spins: Ditto...
• Waltz 3: Not bad... Much better flow and power on the RFO3 than the LFO3 though.

Elephants:

• Loop and Flips sucked BIG TIME!!! Primary coach decided to "leave it alone before I start reinforcing a bad habit..."
• One flop on my boot on a spin entry. And of course, my primary coach cheered "YAY!!!! She fell down on the ice!!! YAY!!! YAY!!!" (I know. Strange coach...)
• Trying to do a proper back swing roll. Didn't happen... I ended up doing back cross STEP instead!!!
• Backspins....

Cheers,
jazzpants

First lesson in over a week, and 2nd time skating in over a week (I was out of town on a holiday.)

Elegant:

* Alternating Back Crossovers... Coach was very happy with them for the most part. Only some minor nits.

* European Waltz the last time we skated it today... Nice, close partnering, good timing, fairly quiet 3's. Only real problem was that my left boot was a bit loose so I was a bit wobbly on a couple of the turns.

Elephants:

* right side of Forward Power 3's: Still need more work.. holding the edge longer before turning the 3-turn and checking the 3-turn stronger. But the choctaw was better.

* 14Step: Totally deserted me today. Could not get the setup for the end pattern right the way coach and I wanted.

* Misc aches and pains (aka life of a skater)... ingrown toenail (left foot), plantar fascitis on right foot, some sort of bad internal bruise near the top of the tibia/bottom of the patellar tendon on the right leg.


--jsl

Back on the ice after a week. Took a mini-vacation, 5 days, and took my twin 15 year old sons to the St. Louis Ram's training camp in northern Illinois and then on to Chicago for museum tours and deep-dish pizza.

Elegant: My Monday coach worked me through some of the early MIF sequences. Stroking was fine; found my front edges again; BO edges were better than passable; BI edges didn't go through a space/time continuum warp, but got as far as Andromeda before I caught them; crossovers were crossing; and outside threes were there, not perfect, but there.

I actually kind-of did a decent hockey stop without breaking or dislocating something.

Elephant: FLI 3's. My fault as I kept my balance on the flat of the blade instead of toward the toe. Scraped a lot of ice in the tracing. I need:
PRACTICE - PRACTICE - PRACTICE

I also need more ice time. Thankfully September will be here soon and evening ice will be more readily available.

This was the wildest, most frustrating, nerve racking, but very best lesson and skating day of my life...

Elegant: FO3's are coming along quite nicely as to improving their form, and I started to GET the motion of beginning the one foot spin properly--I was bringing the arm and leg around together properly for the first time. Next week: Working on keeping it going!!!

Big, Clumsy, Stumbly, PINK Elephants: The Dreaded Left Forward Inside 3 Turn from the Black Hellfire of Dante's Inferno. (Gee, get the impression I'm not fond of this move? :?

Today we broke it down and fought with it---bit, by bit, by bit. And I kept trying to finesse it, and we tried different things. I guess I should explain, I can do a "passable" ISI Delta LFI3, but its short and forced. I'm trying for a full fledged "testable" USFSA LFI3--doggone it, I want to do the thing well, not just barely. My frustration level started to build, and finally I just teared up and lost it. I was so mad at myself, I had promised myself I would NEVER, ever cry or get pissy like that with my coach, but the frustration level just built up and I couldn't hold it back. God bless my coach, a warm and wonderful woman who brushed off my apologies and told me to just cry it out--she said you have to let go of the tension sometimes. We worked on just going around a circle with C pushes and going onto the back edge and holding it to "memorize the feel" of that position. Then we had our biggest breakthrough--less arms. My arm motions were too flailing and were throwing me off. It was quite a session, but it made a big difference. They are nowhere near great now, but I at least had a major breakthrough. And I'm actually glad now that I just let go and cried. I feel like I've let go of a year's worth of tension on that stupid move. I was actually able to go into them after that without tensing up.

And of course it was funny afterwards when me moved on to spinning and she looks at me and grins and says, "Now forget everything I just told you over there--here we need more arms!!!!" The laughter that resulted was a big relief, too!!!

AND...ITS TIME TO MAKE MY APPOINTMENT WITH MR. KLINGBEILL!!!! Paula took a good look at my boots afterward as she wondered if I was having some trouble with the LFI3 from boot breakdown. They have been bothering my feet more than usual, and she was surprised that I'd gotten three years of use out of them. She pointed out major creases around my ankles, so its off to New York. New boots and blades, as my Comets are majorly worn and a bit flattened from three years of use. Wow, I'm excited!!!! This will be my first pair of new boots.

This was one emotional, tough, but great day. It really was the best lesson of my life, and reinforced to me what a great coach I have.

Sigh,

Beth