Just starting a new thread and quickly giving a quick post...

Marching Proud:
Worked with my "spin coach" on the spin entry. He thinks my bad turn the foot to spin problem is finally getting fixed. Again, I will make sure it's consistent before I even let him go on to anything else.

We did go on to something else since he's really bored with spins and it's something he really wanted to do.... JUMPS!!! So off we go to try my jumps up to a flip! I did definitely have him watch me do a waltz jump though to make sure I'm on the right track to work on an axel.

Wounded in Battle:
The flip SUCKED!!! Literally. I mean, the toe loop and loop needed some work but overall he's happy with it. But the flip?!?!?!

So I don't think I'm anywhere near ready to try an axel. I have to get the flip and the lutz fixed first before I proceed. (Yup! More BAD skating habits to work on.... GRRRR!!! )

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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!!!

Gah, haven't posted here in a while. Practice was spotty for a few months there, with daughter-related time-sucking activities, injuries, and weather!! Anyway. . . .

Marching Proud:
I did get ONE (I think) halfway decent sit spin done today, and it may even have gotten around 3 times. Just concentrated like heck on getting that free leg out, toe pointed, and back arched--as pretty as possible, in essence.
-8-step mohawk is getting better. Not so scrapey on step 4 and not falling off pattern so badly on step 5.

Wounded:
-Of course, that approach worked only once. Spins before and after were crap.
-Been working on the backspin since summer and it STILL sucks. I just CANNOT find and stay on the right part of my blade. Not even from a 2-foot spin. Not from an inside 3-turn. Not from a back pivot. I do not like this, Sam I Am. I simply grind to a halt and that's that. My poor spin coach. I feel sorry for her!!
-Power pulls have gotten progressively worse in the last few weeks. It used to be that I'd slow to a crawl; now I can't even make it the length (well, half length on each foot) of the rink. . . .
-Loop jump still scares me, and at least one of my tracings showed I'd gotten around a whopping 180 degrees.
-Got a scribe (yay!!) and it just provides further evidence that I don't have much control over my back edges

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

Sunday My second ever competition...first one with the upgraded elements.

Marching Proud First half was really strong. Flip was good. Hit the the salchow loop combo. Backsit to forward sit not particularly low, but 3 revs each. Spiral good.

Wounded in battle Went into the camel and it felt totally weird. Couldn't hold it and could bare get into the sit. Looked down before my footwork and my skate lace was loose. Not totally undone but loose. Wasn't sure what to do, but decided to keep going. Too footed the landing on my loop and blew the next camel.

Ended up second. One of the 3 judges gave me a first so I was pretty happy about that. Also happy the skate didn't totally come apart. I could just see myself breaking an ankle.

Today

Coach thinks I need better spins so I spent lots of time working on spins.

Marching Proud Made lots of progress on the backsit. It is lower and I was getting 3 revs consistently. Also getting a lower front sit when I was transitioning between the back and front. Keeping my arms lower has helped a lot. I was even able to do backsit/frontsit/scratch spin with the arms up over my head. Woot! Flips were good. I even did some decent flip-toe loop combos.

Wounded in battle Camel spins have gone away. I couldn't do more than 1-1.5 revs. Argh! I used to be able to get 2-3 revs and now bleck.

Marching Proud: Had a mostly nice practice yesterday. I was in "the zone" on the sitspin...they were nice and fast, and at least FELT low even though they probably weren't.

Survived working on spirals without another kneeplant. For the moment, I'll take it.

Jumps mostly decent, the flip was a little iffy but I made up for it with a couple of loops that felt big, and the lutz which decided to play nice.

Wounded in Battle (mortally): Seriously, it was the "dead camel" spin yesterday. Really irritated me because the rest of my spis were going SO well.

Axel. I was kind of expecting that though. Between my right knee getting smashed a couple of weeks ago, and my left one just plain bothering me these days, I haven't felt up to trying axels lately, so the rust factor kicked in. No sense of timing whatsoever. Think I need to go back and just work the exercises a bit, but I needed to get off the ice a couple minutes early yesterday so I could switch out of my "skating skates" into my comfy old "teaching skates", so I didn't have time yesterday.

Marching Proud My spins They did not travel to Siberia. My jumps I finally know what it feels like to fly My bielmann spiral attempts Overall today was a very good day.

Hopefully next week, I can show my coach the 3 turn pattern that I have been working on and maybe even the loop jumps. I think I'm doing a show in April instead of the competition, which is probably a nice way to end the season.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Marching proud:

* Testing Junior moves again on the 12th.
* Coach declared my layback beautiful today. We worked on making it faster, and me pulling my leg up a bit more, which in turn pulls me back further...
* Camel spin was good too....worked on speed with that too
* Coach tortured me with a spin combo....she suggested camel/sit/back sit, and I stupidly suggested camel/layback/back sit...and she enjoyed that suggestion...
* I did an axel/loop today and coach almost cried...she was kinda excited
* Double sals were HUGE!! Coach is quite impressed. We changed my take off from the typical LFO 3, to the RBO3-mohawk take off, it's helping me cover more ice and jump higher
* Coach wants to start 2loop

Wounded in Battle:
* Work drama/stressed ensued because of my test on the 12th - for some reason I thought I had all day meetings on Wednesday/Thursday when they are Thursday/Friday...well, my test is Friday and I submitted my test form under the impression that I would be taking that day off work...well, that's not happening and the person running the meeting was giving me crap...it's all figured out now - the test chair is letting me test at 4:30pm instead of 12:40pm...
* 2toe - I can't figure out how to not 2 foot them
* 2flip - slightly freaks me out
* Flying camels
* Doing moves on crowded sessions - couldn't even get my power pulls in tonight (it would have been silly to try - too many kids). One of the moms is tempted to start announcing when I do my moves like when they announce programs. I have had to restart my moves 5-10 times in a row because the kids don't watch and get in my way constantly. And it's show season and there is a local comp coming up, so everyone is skating

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Proud:
Actually centered some spins yesterday and managed a few decent jumps.
Figures were meh. Shape's good, size is okay, but the edges aren't clean.
MITF were good.

Wounded:
Edges are still unstable and RO's are double-tracking.
I think the skates are too wide - I can shift left and right at the ball of the foot. Going to try wearing socks tonight and see if that helps with the skate fit.
LFI 3-turns were awful unless I did them from a RBO mohawk.

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Wounded - rained out of lessons for the second week in a row

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It's all about the dress!

Wounded Nothing went too well yesterday. Flip was a flop. Spins were not good for my lesson. Coach threatening to remove camels and back sit from my program. Saw video of my sit spin and holy crap it was high. Totally blaming it on all the spin work I did on Monday. Camel could only get 2.5 revs max during the lesson. Salchow is usually good was crap as was my loop. Coach thinks I need to get my skates sharpened. The sharpener is out for the next 1.5 weeks.

Proud Praticing later I was able to get 3 revs on the camel a few times. Coach has me practicing scratch spin and holding arms above my head for the last couple revs which is looking nice.

Marching Proud: Last regular lesson before the rink competition on Saturday . . . did one quick runthrough of my program, then focused on my showcase piece since . . .umm . . .hadn't actually come up with a program yet for it (I just finished cutting the music last night)!! And, I really had to laugh when I realized I was handing my coach a CD entitled "Why Should I Worry?" It's a song by Billy Joel from the Disney movie "Oliver & Company" so I am just going to use the same music for our spring show (Disney theme). I already had a general idea of how I wanted to lay it out though, so it actually turned out pretty good . . . coach suggested some additions here and there and we worked on making swing rolls more "swing rolly" . . . it's a fun piece to skate to.


Wounded in Battle: Nothing much to complain about except had a weird freakish backwards fall coming out of a Bauer - didn't actually hurt myself but it was one of those slow motion falls where I actually had time to think - "boy, this might really hurt when I finally DO hit the ice!" It was overall a seriously scary freestyle with everyone practicing for the comp - had a kid skate backwards into me while I was in a spin - yikes!! She was going pretty slow so it wasn't as disastrous as it could have been, though.


Not sure if this is good or bad: I finally saw the comp schedule and I have competition!! Some out of town skaters coming in - so I have no idea what I'm up against . . . but it's good to have some more adult skaters coming in, so I'll just try not to freak out and do my programs as well as I can.

Marching Proud:

Worked on shaping up my solo dances for ANs and fixing little details (deeper edge here, more turnout there, my coach hammering me to keep my head up). Dances are feeling good, I'm actually excited for this event at ANs.

Worked on the back sit-forward sit from a RFI twizzle entry that we put in my program last month but I had to leave it out for Easterns because it was not consistent. It was much better by the end of my lesson today. Checking out of the twizzle and holding that exit edge strong enough to get around and snap into the back sit is tricky, but I'm starting to get the hang of it.

My coach also wanted to make a change to my camel-scratch-COE. Previously I went right from the camel to the COE, but he wants me to hit an upright scratch position first. He's afraid that the old way will make the judges think that's just a solo spin and I'm coming out of it when I go right to the COE, and they'll look down to write and miss that part altogether.

Wounded In Battle:
My freakin stupid lutz, I've had so many issues with this jump these past few months after my ankle injuries and they are all in my head. Still having issues with the take off. It was better after we spent some time on its own, but then when it came to running sections of my program, I chickened out on it. My latest thing is freaking out when setting one up at the lobby end of our rink because the door in that corner is usually open. Totally irrational.

New skates. I'm going to have to wait until after ANs to get used to the blades, 5 weeks is not enough time and I don't want it to cause me to make silly/costly mistakes at ANs. I jump so much better in these blades, but can't find the sweet spot to spin and can't do turns for the life of me (except for back inside loops, those are actually really easy in these blades). I LOVE the boots (Reidell 2010s), they're comfy even though I've only worn them for about an hour and a half total, the only weird thing is that the tongues on these boots are actually padded and have support, and aren't just a piece of leather with foamy stuff. Those need a little breaking in to bend properly. Otherwise, the lower profile and slightly higher heel don't really bother me or feel strange at all. It's just the Gold Star blades that are giving me a hard time.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Marching Proud
I skated a clean program run-through this morning!! (See caveat below).

Wounded in Battle
That's what a fellow adult skater almost got, but I held myself back from pummeling him. I had to skip my 3-jump combination (which I would have landed, so I still called my program "clean") because this guy was in my way, yet again. He is always spinning in the exact same spot when I run my program on Friday mornings, and I keep having to abort that jump pass because he's spinning right where I need to set up the jump. He's a good enough skater to know better, but he has not learned to watch out for me even though I finally said something to him about it several weeks ago. He doesn't compete, so maybe he just doesn't understand how important it is to be able to skate a program run-through without interference a week before the most important competition of the year.

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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 was using an empty corner circle for a crossover lesson yesterday and the reigning Jr/Sr Masters Champion asked me if she could Lutz Through. There was a clueless mary parked on the other circle doing back crossovers without looking. I guess I was the more understanding choice, lol. (She's doing well, ladies!) Sure, no problem. We moved and all was good in the world.

Try clueing him in.

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Was she sick or injured at Easterns? She looked like she was really struggling to get through her program at Easterns and that's not like her. Glad she was able to still qualify, that was a tough group.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Not AFAIK. It's a new program, that might be why.

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First morning lesson in a few weeks, after my coach and I mutually cancelled the last couple due to staying up late the night before to watch the Olympics.

Marching Proud: All of my forward spins...scratch, sit, even Monday's dead camel resurrected itself.

Nitpicked the pre-pre spirals. Of all the weird things, my coach found that I was slightly bending the *skating* knee. I've never been known to do that before. Maybe it's an unconscious defense mechanism against another toepick/knee-plant. Anyway, it was a combination of that and fixing the free hip that helped today.

Wounded in Battle: My loop decided to go on vacation today.

Dodged a Bullet: My right wrist, the one I broke last summer. In an effort to fix the above-mentioned loop we tried a different entrance. Usually I do a right mohawk, step on to the RBO edge, and jump. This was a left mohawk, cross the left foot over the right, and jump. Or it was supposed to be. Instead I got tangled up on the mohawk and BOOM, directly on the right hand. I still always skate in a wrist guard on that side, anyway (not always the unbroken left wrist, but always on the right), and I was glad today. It hurt a little, but at least it's still in one piece.

Once I recovered from that fall I did manage a couple of small-ish loops from the new entrance, and then one from my regular entrance which was better than my previous attempts.

Go through him. That's what coach #2 has taught me. A polite, but loud excuse me and a near miss where you pull close to where they are and complete the element anyway (clase: where they FEEL you going by) typically gets them to move the second time you are coming through.

For me, clean run throughs for coach #1 this week in lesson and an interp run through. Lesson on Monday with coach #2. Wonder what he's going to say to the little program change...

Okay, remember I was off the ice for over a year and I'm restarting-- almost at the beginning....
Marching Proud As long as I'm forward stroking--I look gooood.
1. Now have enough power to do slow but nicely shaped forward edges serpentines outside and in, again! Good flow, body and blade position.
2. Can do crossovers both ways, again!
3. My FO8 is nicely down if lopsided--but the body position, flow and blade positioning is good. Just not enough power to get all the way round on one push.

Wounded in Battle
Well, relearning how to stroke backwards has proven to be my biggest problem--and the problem is mostly in my head. After 3 sessions with coach, I'm at point where my strokes are adequate , I shift my weight with good timing and smoothly, and I have decent knee bend. However, I still can feel my heels occasionally slipping out from under me=== Gotta practice!

Double change step with a slight hesitation to the rear, Harch! So at the end of lesson, I showed coach my 'scary' mohawks at the boards cause I'm afraid they'll make me fall. She said "Agnes those are Choctaws! You've forgotten how to do mohawks!"

My heroineISK8NY--you work on those figures. I want to see you pass figures tests!

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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

If he's there consistently and knows your program, he needs to move. Especially since you said something to him! I think a very loud EXCUSE ME!!! would hopefully help. That is frustrating!!

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Marching Proud:
(If you call this a "Marching Proud" moment) Well, I no longer have the lack of flexibility on my free leg as an excuse for not being able to do a good high spiral. My coach stretched me off ice before I went to do a spiral on ice. When she finished stretching one of my leg, she said "Hey! Look how high your free leg is! " My response when I saw was "OH S***!!! What did you do to my free leg up there?" Secondary coach cackled at my response and prolly had this look of "Heh heh heh! NOW we get to work on STRENGTH and I'll get this old lady's spirals as high as the kids!" " (If you must know, the free leg was WAAAY over my head!)

She then told my trainer (who just got off the ice) that I now need to work on STRENGTH to hold that free leg! Trainer says I'm already working on that! Also, secondary coach says to work on my back flexibility too! I know where this is leading (and it's gonna be anoterh LOOOONG and PAINFUL JOURNEY...

Wounded in Battle:
Spirals were still CRAPPY on ice!!!

My coach had me do some back edge on a blue line (part of doing some torso control work. Frankly, I dunno what it's for. She noticed me struggling with hold the torso still while still staying on a straight line. Off ice, she went to check my posture and torso while doing the same pose to see if my hip is even and then took a look at my blade alignment!

Well, long story short, I actually can blame my crappy skating on my skates! She sent me to this guy who has a pro shop AT ANOTHER RINK to do the blade alignment! GREAT! I'll have to adjust again to a new blade alignment.

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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!!!

Marching Proud:

Today's torture was cross strokes... BOTH forwards and backwards! I have a few things to keep in mind. My forward ones are a bit better than my backwards ones though.

I practiced my spin entry, the FO mohawks and my 3turns in the field after the lesson. The spin entry is better and the FO mohawks are starting to happen, but I still need a LOT more practice to get it "naturally."

Wounded In Battle:
The 3's are a bit smoother, but they aren't as "checked" as I would like and is curving back too much after the turn.

__________________
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!!!

You would THINK so, but no. I actually shout, "Watch out!" and even that doesn't help. By the time he realizes I'm there, it's too late, he doesn't move, and I have to abort my jump pass. I will go so far as to pull out of a spin halfway through if I'm not sure where the program skater is and think he/she may be coming toward me, so I can't fathom this behavior at all. He's a nice guy and we are friendly off the ice, but he never apologizes for being in my way, either. It's like he just doesn't get it.

I would do that if I knew I could graze him without injuring *myself*, but the setup for that jump is a LFO swing rocker, and he is spinning just to the right of where I go into it. In other words, he would be right behind me in my blind spot as I exit on the LBO edge, which just invites somebody's blade ending up in somebody's shin.

CONGRATULATIONS on your clean run-throughs!!

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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

It sounds to me like ALL of this was positive stuff! Your flexibility increased with just a little stretching from your coach (meaning it will *not* be long, painful and difficult) and once your blade is aligned correctly, you should be able to do everything better on the ice!

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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

Marching Proud: had the rink comp yesterday. I did my PB program, a showcase program, and a first ever "adult interpretive" program (I did the hard sell on my adult skating buddies to sign up to do interp . . . it was SOOO much fun, and we all enjoyed it, I think!). We also did an adult "exhibition" number which was sort of sad but we muddled our way through it . . . and we had fun and looked cute (60's costumes - miniskirts and go go boot covers skating to "Ain't She Sweet.") All of my skates went pretty well and it's getting SO much easier to get out and present a program . . . coach and I were very pleased with my progress. (although I did come in 2nd in all classes . . . but realistically, the skaters who beat me were awfully far ahead of me technically, so I can live with it! ). And I got one of my other skating buds to try competing for the first time, she did GREAT, gold medals for her Adult 4 program and in the interp (I was last, so didn't get to see her skate, but apparently it was inspired!). The interp music turned out to be "I Will Survive" and I did OK and got 2nd place, but I'm just not the "Diva" type!!


Wounded in Battle: uggh . . . there were judging problems with the adult PB class - I had a GREAT skate and was after coming in last out of the field of 3 skaters . . . but was trying to stay calm about it. But, when I saw my coach, she was even more than me. As it turns out, I got deducted big time for not doing a combination jump (I actually do have one in my program, but got behind the music a little and ended up doing just the first jump to stay with the music, which changes tempo at that spot and it would have looked a little weird to still be jumping around at that point!). But, we looked at each other and I said "that's NOT required!!" Of course neither of us had our rule book with us, but I was certain enough about it that she went and got with the judges and they reviewed it, and sure enough, we were right. So they pulled the score sheets, redid them, which meant I moved up to silver, but that pretty much stunk for the lady who moved down.

Oops, forgot to mention my biggest "Marching Proud" achievement in the past week . . . I got recruited as a LTS instructor (although it's certainly possible that they just wanted to get me to FINALLY graduate from being a LTS student - I think I have the rink record for most years in LTS!). I absolutely love the whole LTS program and seeing all the kids come through, and I am excited beyond belief to be asked to help with the lower level students!