Zircons:
Still working through those pre-competition jitters... I was watching the events today because my event is tomorrow... and when people started throwing out their jumps I started getting nervous thinking about mine.

Diamonds:
Everytime I got a bad mental image of falling or messing things up, I quickly countered it with a good one (with all the good technique things I know I can do and have to keep in mind)

And tomorrow is my competition! I'm competing in Adult Ladies Gold! I had a very very sweet and short nice 5 minute practise after the events were done and the rink not yet opened to public. I hit my axel and double salchow twice straight off the bat, and then went through my other spins and jumps. My flying sit I did twice iirc also was to my liking. And then I went and did a messy axel and popped a salchow Anyhow, I know I got distracted after all that goodness, silly me. I felt it was enough and I couldn't afford to tire my muscles the day before competition so I left the ice in a pretty good mood. Plus my friends were all there and being so positive and helpful.

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~
Tidesong

Congratulations

Diamonds - Had my LTS Artistry in Motion class today. Have I mentioned how much I love this class

We have two adults (we're about the same level, I can do a little more) a 9 year old pre-pre girl and a little 6 year old from basic skills, that I'm not really sure why she's in the class, but she's having fun--technically this is for for skaters past fs 2 but then I probably shouldn't be in either

We went over edgework and footwork today. - she gave us an easy sequence - mohawk crossovers -2 foot turn for those not comfortable with mohawks -- I did my easy mohawk on one side and 2 foot turn for my bad side but I'm going to practice this with both mohawks. The pre-pre girl got brackets and turns - slips, spiral, lunge, 3 turn, mazurka. Then each of us had to add arm motions to a section. I got the 3 turn and mazurka so I just put my hands on hips for 3 turn and one arm in the air for the mazurka. We all brought music that we are eventually going to choreograph a program to but today we had to do the footwork to everyone's music. Mine was Dean Martin's "Marshmallow world" I want to do a solo to it in this year's holiday show. The sequence went really well with the music.

I'm going to try to remember to practice the mohawk back crossovers - they are fun and good way to make me do mohawks.

j

Congratulations, CaraSkates

Diamonds:
Hit one really good, 5 rev one foot spin from T push in my lesson, and we ended the work on it after that. I started flattening the BI edge on the Choctaw in the Prelim power threes, felt it, fixed it, and skated both sides very nicely in my lesson (still on the blue line). FO threes on the line are very close to being checked properly - I've got the shoulders!

Zircons:
I'm starting to feel a little fear of the one foot spin from T push . Gotta banish that or it will hold me back. Position on backspin entrance needed corrections; I was letting my L shoulder rotate past my L hip. Still not doing the power threes with any speed, but coach showed me how to double foot the scary parts so I can start letting the speed happen and practice the pattern down the length of the rink.

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Good luck tomorrow, Tidesong! Trust that your jumps will be there tomorrow when you need them. And it doesn't matter whether you land it in the warmup or not; you can still land it in your program!

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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

Diamonds:
Yesterday, finally a lesson with Primary Coach. We went over the elements for the Bronze freestyle test, which I hope to re- take for the 5th time (4 retries before Adult MIF) in May. We still need to tweak the loop and backscratch some, but I'm confident that I can pass the test this time. Ran program after lesson, as the public session I was on turned itself into a freestyle session.
Today went to another rink to skate the 8am freestyle and there were 4 ADULTS on the ice, including myself. It was so nice to share the ice with adults for a change.
Did my program again, and the stamina is getting better.

Now for the big huge diamond.....
I WILL BE GETTING BACK TO MY NORMAL WORK SCHEDULE WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK OR TWO AND WILL FINALLY BE BACK TO SKATING ON A REGULAR BASIS!!!

Another diamond..
Got a new computer, complete with high speed Internet and signed up for Ice Network- I have died and gone to heaven!


Zircon....
Backscratch and loop refused to cooperate today...
Was delayed in getting high speed internet, because the cable company didn't take out all the filters!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Diamonds: Oh, did I mention I passed my Pre Introductory Interpretive test at the Adult Championships last week? Well I DID! My very first ever competition and first ever test (at the over-ripe age of 57 - LOL!) I was also only one point behind the Bronze medalist in my category

Zircons: Having passed Pre Intro means I will have to compete one level higher next time

I figured I would "crash" after the competition . . . yup . . . After busting my britches for 14 months (since I first took to the ice) and skating up to 8 hours a week (except last June), I thought I would suffer whiplash when it was all over . . . yup Today is the first day since a year ago January that I have had absolutely free and uncommitted. It is a dreary, cool, and overcast day and I have ZERO energy or zip. I feel about as gray as the weather

Diamonds: Spring School starts on Tuesday and my coach suggested I do a local competition in August so I imagine my spirits will perk up when I get back on the ice and start working on a new program.

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

Yay! Good for you! I started skating a little less than three years ago at the age of 14. Actually that was one of the questions from the judge at my Prel MITF test, how long had I been skating. Holding out on testing Preliminary Freestyle till I land the axel and double sal...still cheating both on two feet.
I am in a MITF group class but at the moment there are only two of us in the class and we both just passed Prelim moves (tested at the exact same time! both got complimented too!). So our MITF coach congratulated us (she doesn't take us to test sessions), hugged us, let us tell her about the test for two minutes then it was onto Pre-Juvenile.
Thanks everyone for the congratulations! I really like MITF. Can't wait to skate on Tuesday and work on them some more!

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

just a quick little post...just got home from my rink's 2nd annual Basic Skills competition....I worked as a runner and man, am I WIPED OUT!!!! There from 9:30 a.m. until 8:30 p.m.!!!!!!! My son had his hockey stuff first (after his normal Saturday hockey scrimmage)

I'm really tired.

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

Sounds like my day. Except that our Basic Skills comp was only 9 to 4, and I ended up only "running" until about 1, so I got to watch most of the FS events. It was my first time helping out at a comp, and it was interesting to see how the results get entered and tabulated with the accounting software. And the kids generally skated well, so most left happy.

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

I kinda did the opposite... I think I landed my first ever double salchow in the warmup. Then i fell in the program. But I (think I) rotated it, so I'm happy with that bit at least. Still have yet to see the protocols.

Anyways... I got a whopping 30 points I think the judges were being reallly lenient (throughout the whole competition) but I'm happy.

(I don't believe I can get anything close to that if it were an international.... is it me or judges just love to give out marks at home? lol)

As for placement I got second out of three people and its an improvement from last years three out of three

edit: the program component scores were given a factor of 2 instead of 0.8 no wonder the scores seemed lenient. I take back my comment about leniency.

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~
Tidesong

Congrats to all the competitors and testers out there!

Diamonds:
Decent Prel MITF spiral sequence and power three's. The double-insides are helping.
Crossover Circles - I do believe I've got the idea now - there's a set place for the actual cross that keeps me from hitting the wall!
(Although, I watched a test session where the skater had to skate the pattern on center ice. As if we didn't have ENOUGH to remember. LOL)
Threes on the line were better, moreso on one side.
Waltz/Toe/Waltz-Toe were good.
Started beating the sit spin into submission. Sat on my butt a few times forcing it lower and lower.

Zircons:
Didn't try more than a handful of loop jumps.

I've choreographed too many programs in the last few weeks - I keep repeating elements and mixing up the routines. LOL

I think my blades need sharpening again - keep sliding sideways on my right heel. Checked my calendar and it doesn't make sense.

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When I took Pre-Pre MIF I watched my friend and another girl I kinda know test Prelim MIF. It was single paneled so they were on the ice together. The girl I kinda know requested to do her crossover circles in the center. My friend did hers at the end, around the two hockey circles. This was only almost a problem as she and my friend came close to hitting when they would pass each other.
So, when another friend and I were working on these, our coach made sure we could do them at either end or in the middle. Once again, the test was single paneled but this time the judges specified that we would be at either end!

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

YEEEE HAWWWW! A good day at work and a nice computer with high speed Internet to watch Ice Network!!! (Jazzpants needs a new computer. She has her DSL though...)

Diamonds:

• Have both flips and loops with me at my last skate at my weekend rink (and despite the fact that I was having "women's issues," if you get my drift... )
• Spins were decent including surprisingly the camel spins. I also had some pretty decent tries at a back sit. And I found a hip hop/dance song that the city girls wants to shake their booties and dance to on ice... but I can top THAT -- I had the footwork!
• Was at a memorial skating show for a fellow adult skater and skating judge that recently passed on. It was a very touching tribute... and my primary coach was one of the performers. One of the adult skater's mom (who was sitting next to me...) says "The next time you see Jay, would you tell him "hello and that she's so happy to finally see him skating again." (You guys going to AN in Chicago... don't worry! If you watch the Master's Men Interp, you'll get to see his program too!!!)

Zircons:
I was at the VERY last session for the weekend rink. It's now officially CLOSED!!!! I gave the ice a good pat before I left the ice patch... and took a SLEW of videos and pics. And with that, a fond farewell (hopefully not for good though) for Berkeley Iceland.

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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!!!

Diamonds:

- Smooth and mostly fast camel spin - pretty rare for me, I have no clue how I managed that.
- Landed all my single jumps through flip cleanly most of the time; lutz still missing.
- Got 2 rotations in my back sit!
- Nailed 99% of the scratch-change-scratch spins I've tried.
- Almost got the hang of the outside spread eagle, and leaned back more in the Ina Bauer.
- Layback; 3-4 rotations while looking at the ceiling, and leaning back (a lot of traveling though!).

Zircons:

- Traveled a lot on scratch spins, though they were very fast.
- Struggling with lutz, kept doing a half-lutz instead of a full one.

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What do you mean SOFTWARE?????? We did all the tabulations BY HAND!!! then one of the guys left (I'm like WHAT????) then an hour later the girl left and that left the 14-year old and ME and I DON'T DO MATH (I have had a math learning disability since middle school).... ....it took me 15 minutes to do EACH PERSON'S SCORE because I had to do it twice to make sure I got the same number....and I was tired!

math sucks but my daughter does high level algebra! isn't that weird?

but i got to watch my daughter's spin event, but not her interp event ; my son medaled silver for his NHL hockey event so that was cool!!! They used a radar gun for the "fastest shooting" event!

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

Well done!

Get yourself an inexpensive calculator! I do math, but use the calc on my PC all the time. It's easier.

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Yikes! Your rink didn't get a USFSA accountant? He set up shop (meaning there was a table for his computer and printer, and a chair, etc) in the pro shop and I would bring him the score sheets from the judges, and he would enter the numbers. He used the USFSA accounting software and had everything programmed (I guess it's the accountant who prints out the starting orders and the judging sheets with the names and the elements on it), with a separate file for each event, and he would enter the numbers from each judge for each skater in a grid/spreadsheet format and the software would tabulate the results and he would print out the sheets. He signed them and then I took them to have the referee sign off, and then I'd post them on the wall. Actually, there were 2 copies of each generated, b/c he would keep a copy for his records along with the score sheets.

It was a challenge when posting b/c I'd have 2 copies for several events (but would post just one), plus I'd have score sheets from events that I'd picked up while having the ref sign the result sheets from the previous events, so it was a lot to juggle. I dropped the score sheets once while trying to tape papers at a place on the wall above my head, but fortunately they fell into 1 big pile that I could easily pick up as kids and parents gathered around me to check out the latest results. I was relieved in the afternoon by 2 sisters that I skate with who have helped out at comps previously, and they had running down to a science.

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