Well, the UK Skatingforums crowd has covered itself in glory today, with the exception of 2loop2loop, who was just there as a spectator/coach!

Would you believe it, Batikat, NickiT and Samba ALL won gold medals in their various classes!!!!! (The equivalents, respectively, of Bronze Ladies 2, Silver Ladies 2 and Silver Ladies 3). Plus Batikat & NickiT were in a small group number that came 3rd.

As for me, I skated "Circuit Training" better than I ever have before, and was delighted to place 7th out of 9, ahead of the skater who took Bronze to my last place at the Mountain Cup!! So I was very pleased.

Although numbers were well down on last year, it was lovely to see some new skaters at their very first competition! Hope it will be the first of many, and that they'll become as familiar round the circuit as the rest of us!

Tomorrow life is a lot more real & earnest as it is the dance day. I think it's only Samba & I, of our crowd, who are competing (me dancing with my husband, of course) - anybody else, please identify yourself! I'm seriously not expecting more than two last places - hoping, of course, but not actually expecting!

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

Congrats to you guys! Good luck tomorrow.

WAY TO GO!

HIP HIP HOORAY!

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Whew! What a day. I'm absolutely shattered, but it was so worth it. I skated reasonably well. There were things I could have done better, but I landed all my jumps including my dreaded lutz-loop combination, even if I did nearly go through the barrier with it! All in all I'm pretty pleased with how I skated. I never skate as good in competition as I do in practice due to severe nerves. I'm thrilled not only to win a medal but to come first and bring home the cup! It's taken a long time but I finally made it onto the podium for the first time with my solo free skating.

The small group artistic went really well too. We couldn't have done it better if we tried and Batikat and I were amazed to see that we'd managed to synchronise our jumps and spins so well when we watched the video of us.

I'm back up at the rink tomorrow but it's dance competitions so I'll be helping up in the results room. Looking forward to seeing all you ice-dancers strutt your stuff tomorrow!

Nicki

CONGRATS to the UK SkatingForum Crowd!!! YAAAAAY!!!

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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!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Yay! 3 medals today! I am feeling pretty pleased with myself for once

I was a bit surprised to win my Freeskate class really, especially since I made a right mess of my normally totally reliable upright spin...but the rest of my program went well and my jumps were as good as they've been and I LANDED MY LOOP - not great and no real runout but definitely on one foot and held, if briefly. The other competitors all made mistakes too and so my performance was good enough to win - this time! (my second Open comp doing Free skating)

I then competed in Improv. where all competitors listen to the same piece of music for 15 mins and then go out and skate to it. Elements are limited to one jump (at my level, only salchow or toe-loop or 3 jump) and 2 spins, so there is emphasis on moves,edges and interpretation of the music. The ages were combined in this and two of the competitors were from the younger age group so I didn't expect to beat them (and didn't!) but despite falling on my back drag move, I came third which was nice (and the fall didn't hurt!)

The weird thing is I could have predicted where I would come in each competition simply from the draw for skate order. My whole family seems to suffer from the curse (or blessing occasionally) of placing wherever we draw - therefore I am one of the few people who on drawing first go "oh goodie!!! I'm in with a chance!!!!" and if drawn last I wonder whether it's worth even going out. True to form I was drawn first in my freeskate group (which I certainly did not expect to win) and third in the Improv group and placed accordingly. It's getting pretty spooky now as it's happened so many times.

Our artistic group number was brilliant if I say so myself - just a shame for us that the judges preferred 'pottering about to nursery rhymes', to a well skated and interesting programme. But artistics can go either way and a different panel would have different results. c'est la vie! We still got bronze out of 6. Nicki T and I managed to brilliantly synchronise our jumps and spins - you'd almost think we'd practised it!

Nicki can be particularly pleased that she beat a man in her competition as the guys always seem to win - she did give us a heart-stopping moment though as she lutz-looped her way almost through the barrier but she landed in control and her programme is lovely.

No dance for me this year as I will be busy at college on Friday, stewarding an exhibition of work as I finish 4 years (parttime) of 'craft & design'. Hope all goes well for those who are skating.

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Nice way to start the summer!

Congratulaltions to all the Brits!!!

Congratulations!!

Didnt see the results for today competition but i was there... Very good skaters. It looked just a tight as the free, even if the judges were being evil to a few of the couples. What was it with the 0. scores. Evil! I thought everyone skated really well. Well done!

Well Done to all of you that skated at Bracknell!

Hannah

Having been at the rink all day today helping out with the marking, I had a chance to see the breakdown of our marks for our artistic. We should be be very pleased with ourselves as we scored the highest for both the technical mark and costumes and props mark.

Despite being marking all day I don't know the final placings of skaters who post here, but well done again to everyone who competed yesterday and today.

Nicki

Well, Samba (who won't be travelling home until tomorrow) didn't have the greatest day today - she hasn't entered a dance competition for some years, and it showed, rather. But she was out there and she skated, and now she's qualified for the British Adult Championships, which is what mattered.

We had a great day. I went out for the warm-up for the Golden Skaters' Waltz and there were all these whispers in the crowd. I gather some people didn't even recognise me! And there were certainly whispers that I was skating much better, which I was. Alas, when it came to skating it in anger, as it were, we got into one of our silly things where we are both aware we are skating far too slowly, but neither of us is strong enough to help the other really push and get out of it and go fast. All that happened was that we got out of time with each other. Sigh! But we skated clean, and were on edges, and in fact finished that dance 5th out of 6th. Typical of skating, we skated the Riverside Rhumba infinitely better, one of the best we've ever done it, but finished last! Ah well.....

Then in the free dance, we suddenly both relaxed and enjoyed it. I messed up my twizzle, which I never mess up, and we just mistimed the lift so that Husband had to put me down rather suddenly with his back to the judges instead of completing the rotation, but it wasn't too bad and, best of all, we finished in 4th (out of 5) with one judge having us in 3rd and we beat our friends from our club who are far & away better than us in the compulsory dances! So I'm well pleased.

By the way, does anybody know - the ruling that adult skaters may compete in trousers, was that ISU, or just USFSA? Only one skater, at her very first competition, appeared in trousers (she is from a culture where women don't wear short skirts), and the referee sent a message to say she must wear a skirt or she wouldn't be allowed to compete! She was able to borrow a practice-skirt from someone which she tied round her waist over her trousers, but I think she ought to be able to take this up with our national association. If it is an ISU ruling, she will most definitely have a case, but not if it is a USFSA one, as our national body can quite reasonably say that what the USFSA does doesn't concern us!

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

Firstly well done on your skating today Annabel. You and your hubby did yourselves proud.

Secondly, as for the young lady in trousers today, I really felt sorry for her. I heard mutterings about the not being allowed to wear trousers rule, however we recently ran a judge's seminar at our rink in which Ann Findley came and talked to us about rules etc. It was for free skating rather than dance, so maybe that makes a difference, but I clearly remember her telling us that ladies are now permitted to compete in trousers. I hope the whole experience hasn't totally put that lady off competing again. She was very brave to go on in the first place - we all know how nerve-wracking it is to get out there!

Nicki

yes the ISU pants rule is for freeskating (singles/pairs) only. Although they may have made an exception for the Latin OD for dance this coming season.

Otherwise, I thought there might have been a USFSA-specific rule allowing adult ladies to wear trousers for any discipline, but I can't find any rule citation or any documentation in the ROA write-up from the most recent GC meeting.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Well done to all who entered at Bracknell!!

Thanks to everyone on the forum for the kind congrats, I had the best day on Thursday, I just felt more confident than ever before some how and I guess it showed, as with the other end of the spectrum with my dance which as Annabel said also showed.

Many thanks to the forum members who supported me and a special Thanks to Mrs Redboots who was a rock for me especially on Friday. I was very impressed with Mrs Redboots performances both Thursday and Friday, I havent seen them skate for a while and the improvement is imense, well Annabel you can no longer claim bottom, youre on your way up!! anyway thats now my place in dance.....but you have inspired me.

Well Annabel as you can see I'm home now, husband came to pick me up as I wasnt very well, think I just got dehydrated which is a lesson to be learned next time, I just didnt drink enough in the heat and I seemed to be sweating more than normal, guess I got so nervouse it was the last thing on my mind.

Anyway it was overall a good experience for me and I learned lots including drinking plenty of fluids.

Now going back to bed to catch up on some zzzzzz's, poor husband is exhausted doing two trips in one night, guess he really loves me awh!! Guess I will hold on to him after 36 years.

Cheers
Grace

Thanks. I just wish we'd been able to do the Golden Skaters' Waltz better - I'm very pleased with the other two dances. Well, there are two more competitions between now and the British Adults, and we haven't yet decided whether we'll do both, neither, or one of them (I now know I'm free to do both, which is great!).... hopefully we'll get over this problem, which is just down to nerves.

She was indeed - and, as you saw, she was more nervous than most! I gather she is still very much a beginner, but it's all there, and I hope she'll go on, as she'll definitely make a dancer some day. I told her so, afterwards, too! Her free dance, for someone of her skating experience, was brilliant!

But it is difficult for skaters who come from cultures where legs aren't shown in public. It seems ridiculous that they must tie a frill of material around their middles - she looked lovely in the costume she was wearing before she had to tie someone's practice-skirt on (I wished I'd had mine with me, which is plain black and would have looked less silly, but I didn't bring it), and rather ridiculous with it on. NISA could lay themselves open to charges of racial harassment if they aren't careful......

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

Thanks! I'm just wishing we'd skating that first dance better..... and one day we'll really end up half-way up the rankings, but our opposition yesterday was just too good! All the same, I was really pleased with how we skated our Free Dance, it wasn't quite clean, but we had fun doing it and that showed, too, I think. It needs a couple more "tweaks" before October, though....

I'm just glad you're feeling better - I hated letting you go back to the hotel when you were feeling so rough. Thank you for all your support - and to the others, too. Batikat, hope your exhibition went well.....

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

Annabel, read my lips "I'm fine thanks" nothing anyone could have done, the more I think of it the more I put it down to plain nerves and there's no cure for that, I will just have to make sure I am more confident with what I'm doing next time.

Thanks
G

What was her costume like? Was it a suitable competition outfit (a bit glam and glitzy)? How come her coach didn't advise her? Was her coach there?

Sorry, but I must out and say I don't have a lot of sympathy for her, or for politically correct attitudes which may apply reasonably in the workplace, but are unsuited to sport. I wouldn't attempt to enter a belly-dancing competition dressed in a mac and wellies (or even with my navel covered because "my religion insists on it"), and neither would I attempt to compete at Wimbledon tennis wearing black sports gear. Tradition is important in sport and art.

In addition, coaches need to see a skater's bodyline, and I suspect that her trousers were too baggy for that. Why on earth did she stop at wearing trousers, and not insist on a headscarf, yashmak and jellaba gown... ?Then the judges would have fun trying to judge her skating.

I find the "trousers are part of my culture" line totally spurious. What about respect for other people's culture?

And anyway, what does the Koran have to say about women dancing in public - if a faithful follower, shouldn't she be at home cleaning up after her father and brothers??

The new rule allowing adult skaters to skate is USFSA only. ISU has not changed their rules regarding that. (Such a shame too, since they don't know that there are women who just don't feel comfortable wearing short skirts, for cultural or whatever reasons...)

Meanwhile, I'll continue wearing my jazzpants... (that is until my coaches says "Oh no, you DON'T!"...and trust me, I don't mess with my coaches!!!)

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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!!!

Well done to you all It sounds like you had a really great time

I just wish that I could have been there with you, I'm really missing skating and still can 'see' skating routines when music comes on .... sigh.

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The best whisper is a click

*Patsy brings The Parlor's congratulations to Mrs. Redboots and all the other skaters*

Thank you, Patsy! It's the biggest Adult competition of the year, and the second most important (the most important is the British Adult Championships in Sheffield in October), so it's quite a big deal.

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

The Koran says nothing of the sort. Indeed, Arab women were granted many more rights as a result of the Koran, and were certainly not treated as well before the adoption of Islam. There is a very good movie called "The Message" which is about the history of Islam from when Mohammed first claimed to have received messages from god up until his death. It's *very* insightful and I recommend it highly to anybody unfamiliar with the Islam religion. Don't believe everything the Bush administration and religious leaders in this country want you to think - blind faith is far worse than any faith you disagree with.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Does the Koran have anything to say about women having to wear trousers to skating competitions?