Okay, it's tuesday so I figured I'd start a new thread...and in the spirit of football...

Touchdown! I had a pretty good practice today! Despite being slightly sore from working out yesterday I landed all of my jumps at least once textbook - even the lutz. I had no problems with waltz, toe loop, salchow, loop, flip and I landed a few clean lutzes. Sweet! Spins were okay too - not as fast as they usually are, still a LITTLE travelly - sit spin was fine, camel spin was...well...my camel spin or lack thereof. Are you sure I can't do a camel spin with a bent leg? I also started working on a beillman, but I have a few questions about that.

Fumble! I fell hard on one flip though - my butt is very owie right now. My blades need to be sharpened desperately but my coach and his wife just had their baby so I decided to wait until they get settled before I make any skating requests. Sure did hurt slipping off that edge on the flip entrance though...

Touchdown--My toe loops are STILL cooperating, both solo and in combo, after MANY months of struggling to do the takeoff correctly!!

My program and Bronze moves have been improving my stamina, I think. I went running the other day, and I felt great, the least winded I've been in a long time.

Fumble--Flip is all wonky. That and loop loop and waltz loop. I'm having loads of trouble keeping my weight over my landing side, even though I'm doing this okay in the loop alone. Not surprisingly, my backspin has been ever so bad lately.

FI-BO choctaws are awful

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Touchdown! I attempted an axel for the first time in 4 years... cheated and icky but I did it! woooooo! Did a couple more just to be sure

On tuesday I started working on the double loop again, got to about 1 1/2 which I was happy with.

Fumble! What is up with my spins? sheeeeeeshhh. Sit spin is the only one I can get on the right part of the blade for. And I still cant remember how to do a toe loop properly, or perhaps that's because I never did many of them in the first place!

Fumble: Couldn't get together with partner last night for interp lesson/practice.

Touchdown: Took the lesson time for myself. The jumps were going well so we played on the harness. Did a triple salchow. Prep for the festival is going well.

Touchdown: Finally getting back into a regular skating/lesson schedule. Made progress in re-working my flip technique.

Fumble: My secondary coach is crazy. We worked on spins this morning and I have two new things to work on. One is changing edge in a forward sit spin . The second is a really weird variation of a flying back sit.

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

Touchdown: Finally made it to the ice this morning - was supposed to skate last night (husband was On Duty at Figure Club) but developed a splitting headache during the afternoon & had to retire to bed. We worked on the new transition in our free dance, which still looks tentative, I'm afraid, and needs work. Then we had a ten-minute lesson, because we had been cut short on Sunday; ran through the dance to the music, and then ran through the Riverside Rhumba not to the music. Coach finally got the point about our not being totally together, free legs not quite matching, that sort of thing!

Husband then had to go to work, and I had my solo lesson; we worked on edges & extension a bit, then on the Level 3 Dance moves (I can get one length of half-decent cross-cuts now, no more - and I need a whole lap of very good ones, sigh!), and ended up playing with the Foxtrot for a few minutes.

Fumble: Husband forgot to give me the patch fee (ice time money) which we normally pay on Wednesdays, but luckily Coach is very understanding when that happens! Coach has decided that my closed chassés need attention, so I have that to look forward to, if he remembers. Must also work on Foxtrot Mohawk. Tried to work on Hickory Hoedown with Coach, but he couldn't remember the steps, and I'm none too sure of the man's steps in the end pattern.

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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!

Loops-I can't wait to see the spins. Are you skating tonight? I'll be teaching and then skating.

Touch Down
Like Loops, I'm finally getting back into a normal pattern with skating, running, and the gym. I skated Monday night and Loops helped me "make-up" a program. It was the program that I barely learned last year before I found out I was pregnant. Thanks again Loops! Axels were 50/50 and jumps were pretty good overall.

Fumble
My layback, which was working really well a few weeks ago, seems to have gone on vacation. So is life.

Skatergirl, Nick fixed my layback again this morning. Have him look at yours, I'm sure he'll figure it out.

I'm not skating tonight, I'll be home with my poor kitty who's having surgery today.

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

loops - all the best to your kitty.

Thanks, flo.

__________________
Where are those knives when I need them?
----------------------------------
I need a detachable left foot!

Loops-I hope Laslow is feeling better. Give him a kiss for me.

I'll have Nick look at my layback tomorrow and I will attempt to show him my program.

Touchdown! Why is it that so often in skating you struggle and struggle with something when the answer to your problems is staring you in the face. As an example, the other day I was splatting on all my 2flip attempts. I was trying everything, checking the three, reaching for the pick...splat splat splat. I suddenly had the thought that a flip is pretty much like a salchow and my 2 sal is completely consistent so why not think about a 2sal as I am going into a 2flip. I do that and boom, I land a great 2flip, and another, and another...

Unlike my other jumps, on the 2flip I have never had any concept when in mid-air of whether it is going to work or not even though it has been really consistent at times. It doesn't feel wrong until I am on my butt on the ice, this has meant trying to pin down the cause of the falls has been problematic. Now I finally realise that for my 2flip to work the three has to feel just like the three approaching a 2sal (even if I haven't been aware of it in the past). Why have I never thought of that before


Fumble! Having been the only skater in my class at the British Adults for the past three years I decide against entering this year (a long story) and isn't it just typical that this time there is someone else in my class that I could have skated against!

I mentioned in another thread that I have psychological issues with the 2toe. I can do it, quite easily in fact, but can't convince myself of the fact. I either pop it or do the double and my brain goes into overdrive, convinced I am going to fall, so I prepare to fall which makes me fall Anyway, a couple of days ago one of the younger skaters came up to me and said "hey your jumps are looking good today, can you show me a double toe" (she had just started working on it). I totally wimped out with some lame mumbled excuse about not liking double toes much, then about 10 minutes later I got a grip of myself and thought "what can be so hard about this stupid jump, just do it". So I tried a few, fell a few times, upon which said girl comes over and says "oh yeah, I can see why you don't like it". Uhhh, thanks! So after that I'm feeling really pumped up and I go around again and nail one, look up to see that the damn kid wasn't even watching.

John

Touchdown First lesson with my spin coach since my boots came back, and it went well! Debbie, I don't know how, but I did 4 more really good spins today for him. He was appropriately shocked and happy, LOL! (I mean, the happy is good but it's not so good if your coach is shocked when you do something well!) We did some other things too and my boots are starting to feel pretty normal again. This is just in time for getting new blades, so we'll see what happens on Friday.

No Fumbles today, it's all good!

Happy skating,

and Loops, I hope your cat is okay.

Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Fumble: First freeskate practice in two weeks....lots of stuff sucked! I did manage to land one of each single, and squeaked out a couple of combos. But nothing has the height or flow that it did before I went on vacation.

Touchdown: Spins! Pleasantly surprised that my forward spin has stayed consistent, and even improved today. I can get it centered probably 8 times out of 10. Also managed a few good change-foot spins...was worried about losing those, but they are at about the same place I left them.

Amusing anecdote of the day....Today was the first session I've skated at the University of Calgary. The two ice surfaces are in the middle of the speed skating oval (Olympic Oval). During the figure skating session, there is also public skating on the oval. Today there was a HUGE group of Japanese exchange students skating, many for the first time. Many of them couldn't figure out how to lace up their rental speed skates, so I ended up giving a bunch of them a lesson in skate lacing ....the whole time thinking, "These guys are going to kill themselves." I can't imagine my first time on skates being in speed skates!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Fumble:
Could not for whatever reason, step on the RFO edge from back crossovers on the power three turn pattern. Will get it back!
Secondary coach had me do the freeskate program even though Peach is over and I will not be competing again until February. Blew the sitspin and had the 40 something senile moment on footwork! Was asked to do it again with the comment "don't f___ this one up!"
Cannot keep free leg back on camel!


Touchdown:
Before lesson with secondary coach, did a nice fast, centered sit. Primary coach happened to catch it and was oohing and ahhing over the centering of the spin!
While working on camel, did something that could, somewhere down the road be a spin combo- camel to attitude, to backscratch.

Overall, a fairly good day on the ice!
Loops, Muffin and I send our wishes for a speedy recovery to your cat.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Fumble:

Secondary coach is sick with another rash of flu that's making its way thru the rink... and I didn't bother to look at my message again before leaving for the rink... GRRRR!!!

Touchdown:

Had a relatively decent moves runthru... was half asleep doing them though, so I wasn't as fast as I could be. (I was in the "Let's get this over and done with so I could get on with my life!" mood this morning.) They are decent enough, thankfully.

(Sending healing vibes over to Loops' cat...)

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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!!!

Fumble: New coach might be asking me to put HC on back-burner for now; her recommendation is some ISI comps to warm up on and step up to HC next year as Pre-Bronze with a strong arsenal of tricks. Especially since we don't have much time for a decent routine. I'm not too torqued about it. However, she will listen to my music and see how it is.

Also, when I demoed my spins-they were the absolutely worst I've ever done (all I could think of was Stewart on MadTV "hey watch what I can do".....AGH! (and I was nervous so of course I babbled and had a hard time shutting up....) So we are breaking down my spin and working on it piece-by-piece. I had it before the rink closed before summer, then lost it over the summer at the "host" rink and it's barely made a re-appearance. I'm to work on the long glide before turning the 3.....a really long glide......almost a full circle long......

Touchdown: New coach!!! Had me run through most everything (thankfully excepting 3-turns) and for the most part the biggest thing: POINT YOUR TOE! She did complement me on my speed!!! It takes me 3-4 crossovers to go around the hockey circle. I have 2 pages in my journal of things to work on today on everything from stroking, crossovers, spirals, waltz jump and even my scratch spin..... She had me to my waltz then she had me do it from a faster speed! Several times! Wow! Never did that before....told her I was always afraid I'd splat a little kid... Then we did salchow (my nemesis jump) walk-throughs-but we won't jump it yet until she feels I'm ready. Oh, and she gave me stuff to help get rid of the scratchy on my back crossovers!

I'm really psyched! I like her-she's quiet (where I'm loud) and she explains things so I can understand them. Friday I have my group lesson and can't wait for that either! I think this will really be a good year for me and my skills.

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

Touchdown: Started axel prep (waltz jump straight into backspin on the landing). I think I looked terrified at first, but I'm getting the hang of it! Worked on pushing up and extending through the hip on take-offs...made a big difference in heigh on the waltz and salchow. Change-foot spin improving. Landed a flip-loop-loop.

Fumble: Flip deserted me today. I thought I was past this stage, but I guess not! Got frustrated and kept at it longer than I probably should have. Finally had a really awkward fall and gave up on it for the day. Didn't bother working on the lutz; if the flip goes, the lutz is impossible. Will give it a fresh go on Monday.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Touchdown!

Good good good skating day today - I warmed up with a bunch of moves patterns someone pointed me to on the internet. I can see where some things need work, but I have some fairly advanced moves under my belt like back power 3's - wheeeee they're fun.

I did a cool sit spin with an arm variation that was perfectly centered and everyone told me looked great. I couldn't duplicate it as exact, but it felt cool.

My lesson tonight was productive - we ran through all my jumps...my loop is still...well not 100% but it's still pretty good. I think I just over analyze it at times. My flip was awesome except I kept checking out late so I'd end up in a weird backspin thing. My coach then had me do lutzes and informed me that I was getting close to the axel and said I should think about investing in crash pads soon for when we work on it. Way to freak me out coach....but I'm still very excited. He just wants me to get my loop a little more under control and my lutz to be a tad smoother on the landing.

Bonus - I did a GREAT flip right in front of my group coach who had no idea what level I was jumping at since we only work on moves in class and he looked thoroughly impressed. I just winked at him.

Fumble!
I was playing around with biellmanns again today and he told me the correct position I had to be in and then made me try it for him. It wasn't that great but he said we're definitely going to add that to the list of stuff to work on.

He started me on backspins tonight too and I just don't get it. My right arm always ends up WAY behind me and I'm leaning too far back. I suppose its just a matter of practice but it's extremely awkward. At this point I hate it more than the camel spin. At least I understand the camel spin, I just can't DO it. It's strange though because I used to be able to do a good 3-4 rev camel, now I'm stuck at 1, maybe 2 revs but from what I hear my body position is better. I can't win with these stupid spins. Can't I just jump? And do moves?

I also did a couple of not-so-good laybacks. I was only fooling around, but then I did one and it MUST have been close to being right because it scared the crap out of me. A girl there told me that when a layback is RIGHT it's not scary because the force keeps you up, but when you're not QUITE there it's scary. I have visions of falling backwards on my head. But I've always dreamed of having a beautiful layback, so I'm determined to keep working on it.

Touchdown:
Went thru a runthrough for my test with my primary coach, as well as started a "warmup program" for the 5 minutes I get for warmup. He wants to make sure this time that my warmup is well spent and organized. The runthru went well enough, though when I went thru each move individually (i.e. I had a chance to catch my breath...) that I did much better on the moves...

He says that he thinks with the change in the USFSA requirements and the improvements this year that I have a good chance of passing this time around. (I hope so...) Two weeks and one day to go (assuming my test forms are getting processed now...)

Fumble:
Oh, dear! I'm really in bad shape cardio-wise. I'm breathing hard and my legs were wobbly by the fourth move... Maybe I need to consider taking a LOT of water (or better oxygen tank) breaks between moves during the test...

__________________
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!!!

Hey Jazzpants...

You are certainly entitled to take a few moments (ok, 10 seconds or so to go to the boards, get a drink of water, use a kleenex, etc.) between moves.. and I know from standing on the other side of the boards, the judges would APPRECIATE having enough time to write down comments. Usually skaters are so anxious to just get through the test, they almost connect the moves together, leaving the judges very little time to jot down notes. You can also go stand in your starting spot for the next move, take a couple of breaths and look at the judge-in-charge and wait for him/her to say 'go ahead' or nod or wave at you before you start. Your test chair may not be thrilled with the idea, but you paid for the time so you can show the best you can do on your test... it's not a race to see who can finish a test the fastest!

Touchdown Last practice and lessons before getting my new blades today. Actually I skated pretty well! My moves lesson was good and then my lesson with my primary coach was good. We ran through all my jumps and things were as good as or better than they were before I got the new tongues on my skates. I even did a run through of my free program, the first time in probably more than a month, and it was actually pretty good! The salchow I did in the program was better than the ones I did to warm up, which is par for me. And the spin at the end was good, too, prompting my coach to laugh because it's become a joke between us now that I should never practice the spin with him but just do it in the program and it works! So I'm leaning towards doing the Halloween Classic, but we'll see how the new blades go today.

Oh, the other cool thing was that I'm now ahead of the music in my new interpretive program which is good because it means I'm getting more comfortable with the choreography but bad because there are pieces of choreography that really need to be done at the right point. My coach was all, now I have to add more things to it! We'll see.

No fumbles today!

Good luck with your test prep, Jazzpants!

Happy skating,
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Fumble: Didn't make Dance Club last night; went to the rink as planned, but was very tired. I assumed I'd get my second wind once I'd warmed up, but this just didn't happen, so I sadly went home.....

Touchdown: Today, however, was fine, and I skated hard for my hour and a half. Most of the elite dancers were away, so there were actually very few skaters on the ice, which was nice. One couple who will also be at the British Adults was there - their free dance is getting rather horribly good, since we have to compete against it!

Worked with the husband for 45 minutes, we ran through our compulsory dances and then worked on the transition in our free dance. It's beginning to happen now..... it needs to do a bit more than "begin" by 1 October!

Solo, I ran through the compulsory dances I'm planning to compete solo at Oxford, and through the Level 3 Dance Moves. Then, because I still had a few minutes, I polished my halo by working on my BO and BI edges! Felt most virtuous when I got off.

And, even better, as it was chilly this morning I wore leggings to and from the rink - so did my various toning exercises when I got in. I now have sore abs - I must do them more regularly.

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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!

Touchdown: I decided to take advantage of the fact that I go to college near the rink, and went for a patch session last night. I got quite a few revolutions on my parallel spin, and my salchow was quite nice. It's officially my favourite jump, I never work on anything else! Must work on my loop though, and stop being afraid of my toe pick!

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Hey sk8pics, glad to hear your lesson went well yesterday. Good luck with the new blades!

Touchdown:
Had a good moves lesson yesterday. My coach thinks I'll be ready to test soon. I need to work on my forward crossovers though, b/c my technique is a little wonky, and I was raising my leg too high (and too much to the side) - got a little carried away with extension - lol. I also need to work on getting more push from my BI edges in the power 3's and back perim stroking - and not rush the back crossover.

Also did some good back spins. The ice wasn't the best, b/c they didn't do a cut before the session like they usually do. I actually think my blades need a sharpening. Has anyone in the D.C area gone to Wings of Steel in Laurel? How are they? I used to go to Skater's Paradise but I don't feel like driving all the way down to Waldorf.

Fumbles:
Loop disappeared again - well, it made a brief appearance at the end of the session. And I wish I could stop traveling on my spins - grrr.

I left my top layer (long sleeve V-neck pullover) at the rink for the second time in 3 weeks. I got halfway home and realized it so had to turn around. Ugh - I used to be so responsible!