Well done and to all of you who are landing your loop jumps now.

Okay, next challenge - salchow-loop in combination. Which is what the Husband is working on, also loop-loop (I've told him to do loop-loop-loop-loop until he gets dizzy!). I can't even begin to think how to do a loop jump, although I've done one off-ice a time or two. Not interested, though.... just have fun watching the husband struggle with his loop & his flip.

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

Me neither! At times I wonder how I managed to drag myself thru morning commute traffic to a big city, find parking, get skates on, and "sleep skate", much less take instructions from secondary coach. If she asks "How are you?" and I say "Awake," it's a good day!!!

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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!!!

Ouch, I learned that this winter when I kept forgetting to take my skates out of the car. If I have time, I sit there with the heat on and aim the boots at my heater. Not good for the smell in the car, but works in a pinch.

Now that I've caved and gotten myself a Zuca (I just couldn't cram any more junk into my saddle skate bag!), I'm still working out the "carrying the bag from the car to my apartment" thing without looking like I'm constantly going on a business trip to my neighbors. Thank goodness for warm weather coming up!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Dreams
Still very excited and happy about my test pass!

Nightmare
Didn't actually skate today as my teacher was late and I lost it, finally snapped and I managed to work myself up into a state and ended up crying and having a word with him about it

But did I mention I'm still happy about my test

kateskate: sorry to hear you had a problem with your teacher - you seem to have posted about your coach not turning up a few times - is this the same coach each time? You seem to have been very tolerant so far. I'd have lost it long ago!

I still have post-test-euphoria even more than 3 weeks later! Enjoy!

dreams:Had my first free lesson today after nearly two weeks off (due to having to sort out building work we are having done and also kids half term). I often find a break does my skating a power of good and am happy to report this was no exception. Skates felt OK (even with bunion! (chiropracter tweaked it yesterday and it's really helped!!!!)) and ice was nice. Did lots of moves of the non-test kind (ones coach makes up usually) and a few OK spins, even nearly managing a back spin (well it would have been good enough for passport - not for level 2!!!). Ran through my programme with the music, that I have not skated since before I damaged my back in the summer and coach was impressed that I remembered it and even landed the jumps (well OK, I did two-foot the flip) and salchow - toe-loop combo was not the best. I realised I hadnt' actually done a spiral for about 6 months and was a bit wobbly but it ended up as a change edge spiral so it was OK All in all a pretty good skate.

We then looked at changing my step sequence to include double back 3's since I really like these now and while running through it, I landed the flip at the end. Yay!

Afterwards was chatting to a friend who hasnt skated for ages and later ended up going out to lunch with her and yet another skater friend I hadn't seen in ages as she stopped skating after breaking an ankle and doesnt' come to the rink now her daughter is at Uni.

Moseying along the local high street later I even found a flooring shop which helped me to decide what to do about the floors in our new extension!

So all good today!

Dream? : Have an appointment for boot fitting next Thursday.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Yep it is the same one. I've been very tolerant for 2 years.

Loopy skaters....I luv it!!!!

Lyle, if it's ANY consolation to you, every time I rolled over, I either hit my knee (which is now bruising and swollen) or my hip-I swear I have stress fractures from all the times I have landed on it!!!!!

And to make matters worse, I was questioned today at work if I got into a bar fight (just joking) because during my archery practice on tuesday my bowstring hit me in the face and now I have a nice bruise along my jaw... I should have said "yes" to the bar fight...

seriously needing those chocolate-covered strawberries!!!!

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

Yeah, we're all LOOP-Y skaters there!!! (Okay, who else here is ready to join the LOOP-Y club here!?!?!)

Dream:
Well, it's far from perfect and it's still slow as molasses and I can only do them in certain circumstances, but I STILL own the loop jump!!! I also STILL own a 3-rev camel, though 1) I have to warm up into it with a few duds and 2) the spiral position still sucks but it's getting there.

Nightmare:
Primary coach worked thru the beginning of my program and added on... (guess what?) A LOOP into the program!!! AI YI YI!!! I think I'm gonna ask my secondary coach to gradually work me toward a faster entry too, in addition to working on my flip. (Yes, I am playing around with a "wall flip" to get me to eventually land it clean as I did with the loop, if you can believe it...)

And to add to the good news: I've asked Jay to film my loop for "prosperity" and handed him my cell phone. He handed the phone back to me and said "You don't need that! And there's plenty of time to go and film your clean loop now!!!"

__________________
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!!!

Jazz: for the first few spins/jumps that don't turn out....you get "do-overs"!!!!!

And my coach freaks if I do anything close to the wall!!! Sometimes I do my 1/2 lutz really close...just for kicks...yeah, I'm a freak..used to do that with the toe-loop too, see how close I could get! I think she used to punish me with those darned ISI-style back crossovers (lift, place foot across, push, repeat )

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

Nice to see *someone* agrees with me here!!!

Well, at first my coaches were wary of that idea... but as I've learned thru the years, everything I learn new always starts from the wall...

I also have a "wall FO-BI bracket sequence" too. I hope it will be away from the wall by year's end in time to show to NYC coach. (I only have FO brackets away from the wall so far though. NYC coach makes it look SOOOOO easy and tells me it's EASY!!! Yeah, riiiight!!! )

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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!!!

Kateskate: Glad to hear you are still reveling in your test success and appreciating the moment!

Jazzpants: Well, the bubbly and strawberries will need to wait. Someone passed on a bad case of the cold and flu. I guess hot toddys will do for now. (a little chamomile tea with lemon, honey, and peppermint schnapps). So I feel pretty loopy enough as it is. Today it just got worse. ... I am also taking echinacea and goldenseal 2x a day.

Dreams:
I was afraid I would wake up today and forget loops but they were still there at practice today!!!

Nightmare:
Going on the downside of flu season. It is so hard to practice sit spins, Camel-sit spin with an already runny nose (eeewww!) and a stuffy head.

Dreams : My brand new skates are really comfortable straight off, I wore them 2 1/2 hours tuesday and thursday and they dont hurt!!!! and I did my best 3-jumps ever yesterday, I'm delighted.

Nightmare : nasty cold bug has finally caught up with me and the echinacea didn't stop it this time. My head is full of nasty stuff and I can't sleep

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Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

Dreams: Quiet patch, seriously good ice.....

Nightmares: The sound of toe-rakes in the early morning! Mine, of course.

Dreams: Although I did manage a totally silent end-pattern on the Fiesta Tango which was super! Husband and I worked through all our dances, as well as playing with edges and turns.

Nightmares: After he'd gone, I suddenly realised I had nothing to practice! Not that that actually mattered, there's plenty of exercises out there. But I really need to make a list of things to work through, so that I don't go and not practice something that needs work.

The things that seriously need work are:

• Continuous FO3s (kept touching down)
• Back outside edges (scrapy-scrapy-flatty-scrapy)
• FO twizzles (impossible!)
• BI brackets - kept doing counters which is fine, but not what I was trying to do!
• FI 3s, BO 3s, BI 3s
• Jimmy Young's awful cross-roll exercise where you do 3 crossrolls and hold the 3rd right round a circle. Could do it fine on the R foot but kept doing LFO3, which wasn't what I was trying to do at all! Only did the forward version of that exercise, didn't try the backwards at all. Nor the inside-edge version.
• Clockwise back crossovers

Dreams:
Things that went well:

• Back inside edges
• FI twizzles - actually did them moving!
• BI twizzles - got one double, although I couldn't repeat it!
• Changes-of-edge, especially (and surprisingly) inside-to-outside
• Anti-clockwise back crossovers (well, they need work, but....)
• Forward and back cross-rolls with increasing tempo
• Skating backwards at speed
• Forward and backward Russian stroking (the latter still too slow)

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

Dance lesson today

Nightmare

I got out the test comments from the last time I tested the waltz and canasta and coach and I went over them. What was not helpful - One comment..."good timing" another comment - "not skated to music" Okay so the judges don't all count the same Both my daughter and my coach and I agree, the waltz timing was fine and one judge was counting funny that day...and the Canasta was on and off. But all agreed that the edges were too flat

Coach watched me and said I can get a good edge, but the pattern looks wrong because I don't always finish the edge, and there is too much flat skating in between ...I need to finish the edge which will insure I start the next one on a good edge.

Tried that with the Dutch Waltz, edges better but guess what- timing was off. The good news is that I'm good at getting back on when I'm off so I'm not clueless about the timing.

I know I need both...but if I have to sacrifice one, I still think I need make sure the timing is on even if I sacrifice edge quality.

It's kind of aggrivating because I've seen 7 year old beginner skaters barely on time with little edges pass this test... grrr...

Dream Even if they aren't great, dances are looking better.

J

Nightmares: Cut this morning's session - head is all stuffed up, feeling drained. Saw my doc yesterday and she says I have a B12 deficiency and that's why I tire easily and take so long to recover from each skating session.

Dreams: I haven't got anything that will kill me and it is all treatable. The cold will go away on its own and I am popping B12's so hope to be on the ice again soon - only 3 more weeks 'til I leave for competition. COM'ON B12!!!

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

Yeh just tell em, bar fights are for Sissies! OI things we do in the name of fun
Lyle

Nightmares
Still fighting winter blue. Looking for panacea...

Dreams
Finally, I booked one 15-min lesson after my last one at the beginning of Jan. I am glad I did because I have been slacking off skating since I came back. We went over Bronze moves. I am surprised that I didn't get too rigid. A nice weight-shifting correction on the power-push of BXOR perimeter. I actually sweated when traveling down one side after the correction. It is amazing how the little change makes it work more effeciently. On BXOR to BO, coach held my hands to let me feel the speed she looks for. It was flying speed and I actually liked it. At the last minute, I learned forward power pulls. It was hard to hold a glove between thighs...But it was fun. Before getting off ice, I practiced figure-8 XORs and peeked a girl preparing intermediate moves. My XORs are a little bit faster than her power circle at full speed...

I'll give you one.... SPRING is coming!!!

Of course, there's also the "that time of the month" blues that puts a "cramp" in my lifestyle... now THAT is bad!!! (And unfortunately coming very soon for me! )

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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!!!

Dreams: After having practiced bracket - bracket - bracket on each foot at the ice rink 'till I'm sick of them, I tried it on my PIC skates at the roller rink last night. I DID IT! Right foot only though.

On ice I have little or no difficulty doing them slow and edgy on my right foot, but PIC skates are much more difficult to control than ice skates. I flipped them back and forth on the edge of control at the roller rink. Still...

I'm glad I was able to do that because doing an element on my PIC skates means I must have MASTERED it on ice.

__________________
Bill Schneider

Dreams: Had a part-day off of work today (was supposed to be a full day, then turned into a half-day, then got stuck at my desk until it became a 1/4th day... ), and I was lucky enough to go for 2 hrs to a local rink during their 6 hr session.

It was just a fun skate... everything felt solid... I was the best on the ice in figure skates-- there was a lovely woman in hockey skates with amazing skill, and the guards, of course (although it's not saying much about me because I would have been the worst on the ice in the open freestyle on the next rink over!). Kids asked me to help them spin, one footed spins were great, kinda did a scratch spin (the bane of my existence) and, wierdly enough, pulled off a good scratch spin in me bad (CCW) direction, did jumps, spirals, everything, and felt soild and pretty. No pressure and perfect.

And then, as I'm just stroking and playing with crossovers, I see, out of the corner of my eye, a familiar hairstyle on a person bending down to pick up some junk from the ice. Lo and behold... Peter Turgenev stepped in from a rink side door, picked up some of the public skate sticky labels that were littering the ice, and left again.
I think he was there to pick up one of his students for a lesson, because he was back on the ice for a few minutes a little later.

I stayed out of the center most of the time when he was back on the ice, but made sure to stroke as perfectly as possible ... and then I couldn't resist doing onnnnnneeee one-footed spin in the center, and he was gone shortly thereafter. You would think I would be over being star-struck with all of the people that I've seen at that rink and at the adult camp, but, nope

What a Dream!

__________________
When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Dream:
Managed 4 days of skating about 1-2 hours each time, 2 days with heavy jumping and in the harness working on axels and 2 sows. Getting back to usual schedule 2 pilates classes, 2 pointe classes and one class of Bikram Yoga. The yoga is hot yoga and I remembered it being uncomfortable if you wore too much so I wore boy shorts and a bikini top, worked well, drank sooooo much water I almost swam home. Felt so good after it was done, didn't do too much because skated well the next day, highly suggest it for those who want both strength and flexibility. Worked on dances today, went well, coach noticed I am actually taking instruction much better.

Nightmare:
Kittens love playing outside and they are very quick and quite, must watch them like a hawk. Both are learning to climb 50 ft spruce out back, at least Yoda already knows how to fall.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

I'm getting the blahs!!!!! Happens about this time every year...I thought by NOT doing the spring show it would not be so bad, but I think maybe it's just a combination of WINTER, WINTER, and WINTER!!!!! I'm anxious for spring! But I go on a trip to Europe during Easter break, and by the time we (daughter and I) get back, we will have missed the spring show and the closing of the rink for the season. It's a bit of a lose-lose situation.

Maybe I need more sunshine...and time outdoors.

This is sort of skating related, I switched chiropractors two months ago. This guy is starting to do me some real good! After 3 years with the other guy-I wasn't making any progress...this guy is actually giving me EXERCISES to do! I get adjusted (and they aren't cracking loud crunching ones either) and I'm sore the next few days!

I have also started up with yoga. Today was my first day back (did it 20++++ years ago). Boy, am I tight!!!! Bad news...hip flexors and knees....Yikes! That's ok, I can bend I just need time! I'm wondering if this is part of my "lack of sit-spin" problem? (I can only go down so far....)

Watch out, Doubletoe!!! I see splits in my future too! Maybe by Christmas!

My next trick is to find an eating routine that works-without bottoming out my blood sugar while giving me enough "stuff" to get by. I eat mini-meals now.

And I visit my new doctor next week-finally! It's good because I have medical tests that needed to be gotten and you have to have a Dr.'s order...keeping my fingers crossed I don't want to hear anymore negative news for a long time-had my fill for a while!!!

Hopefully I will get to skate tomorrow! Knee looks good, feels good!

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

Dreams:
Add me to the loopy club. I landed 6 of them today. I won't tell you how many attempts but even the failed attempts were actually landed on the right or in my case left foot.
Backspin is getting more consistent. It is actually my most consistent spin.

Nightmares:
Waltz 8 of doom...do they really want two equal circles twice? Who does that?
Forward spins....laughable.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Wow, awesome ways to improve your strength and flexibility! What kind of yoga are you doing? I went to a few Iyengar yoga classes (they are sticklers for correct positions, which is good) and I could definitely see how beneficial it could be. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the time to keep it up, and I already had two physical therapy sessions per week and 30 minutes of stretching I was doing every day. . .
Speaking of which, I used to go to a chiropractor, but after I got an overuse injury in my knee almost two years ago, I had to go to a physical therapist and now I know why physical therapists aren't quite sold on chiropractors. My physical therapist has taught me so much about my joints and muscles and I credit her 100% with my big breakthrough in flexibility. With the exception of chiropractic adjustments (which I still get if I have a jarring fall), my PT has given me so much more in regards to any skeletal-muscular issues. So if you ever get the chance, get a doctor to prescribe some physical therapy for you, then learn all you can from your PT!

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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