You know we had to come up with that title eventually...


I had a very NICE skating practice after being sick and still a little bit so. Good power class. There's another adult that whines incessently and so my competitive streak makes me determined NOT to whine and try harder to do whatever she is whining about.

Ran through my gala number which is this Sunday twice with music - both times, did my 3 turn and everything else-no problem. Hope I don't get too nervous. This is a new thing for me - doing a solo in a show...

Nice inside 3 turns - even on my "bad" side. Back 3 turns are still Naughty.

Nice - impressed my coach by going and getting the hoola hoop with no reminder to practice holding my arms right with the back outside edge for the falling leaf jump I hope to learn some day.

j

I spontaneously decided to go to lunch skate while out holiday shopping. Actually part of the reason was because I watched 'Ice Castles' last night and got really inspired, so I literally HAD to go. I stayed on only for an hour, but here are my notes.

Nice:
-My moves patterns are getting better and more flowy especally brackets into double threes.
-Landed all single jumps at least once...even flip.
-Felt rather ambitions and tried axels, 2sals, and 2toe loops.
-My &!**in double salchow is soooo close!! I literally kept landing it on two feet rather than on the wrong foot, so thats better. BUt ughh..I can feel it, it will be landed very soon.
-My 'impossible' spin is totally awesome and one of my best combo spins so far.
-Sit spins were going very well today. I had a really nice centered one at the begining of the session.
-Sit change sit was actually going pretty well today. In fact all of my back spins and back sits were at least 75% better than last session. Not sure why, but I was rather proud of them.
-Corkscrew spins are still fun!


Naughty:
-Heh, had a good share of 'pretty' falls today:
1) After doing my oh so centered sit spin, I pulled out..got dizzy and butt hit the ice.
2)Not sure what exactly I was doing, but my toe picks more or less got caught in the ice and I landed right on my knees.. they hurt soooo bad right now.
3) After a 2minite Nestea break, I stepped on the ice, boots somehow went inward, both legs came out from under me and I did a little butt slide. That one was actually really funny! I was like..
4) This isn't really a fall, but I felt really cool after doing this. So I was doing a flying broken leg spin..got alittle too much air, was in the process of falling, I caught myself with my other foot and ended up doing a small backspin and then I was fine. A fellow skater joked: Now you're ready for Nationals since you have a change foot spin. I said: Yeah a flying change foot spin..lovely.
-Axel attemps were..eh..they could have been better.
-Skating while having a cold...not a good combination.

Im not going to award a spin and jump of the week just yet because Im going on Thursday and Saturday. So who knows maybe by then I'll land my double salchow.

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Naughty - Cold! We had a two session practice and then a 4 hour rehearsal later in the day. Frozen nose and toes all around. We have about 45 adults in our program and 8 in an additional program.

Nice - we had a great time at practice. Ran through our exhibition program and played in the harness. Our lifts are getting better as is the death spiral. We'll be starting our competition program after the show.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

All Nice! I had my first lesson with my new chorographer tonight, and we hit it right off. She's so nice and we had fun. She had me try a bunch of things I didn't think I could do (or at least do well) and I was surprised to see how well I did them!! Like camels from an inside 3 turn, and a new way to go into a spread eagle. We only maybe got through 30 seconds of the program in 45 minutes, but it's a start. Her rule is no more than 3 crossovers into anything so I have a LOT of new footwork and transitions to work on. It's a good thing, though. I'm very excited!!

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

Naughty: I haven't posted in a while on one of these, so I'll mention that I'm still getting used to my new dance blades. Despite having them for a month, work and vacation schedules have prevented my using them more than a couple of good weeks' worth. 3s are a problem, and back edges are requiring some recalibration. Tonight I quit early due to a cold, too...figured when you're making excuses instead of progress it's time to call it a night.

Nice: These blades'll be great...soon. Meanwhile, this'll be another interrupted week, but as it's a trip to Lake Placid, I'll count that as a plus.

Rob

Naughty: Swing rolls in Tango hold. Did not work.

Nice: Pivot-spiral and pairs spin beginning to come back. Other moves and holds tried, and proving possible.

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

Sounds fantastic!!

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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

Nice
-I finally got my driver's license!!!!!! Anyways...
-I'm LOVING my new boots. Custom Harlicks, double duo bond, lightweight design. The break-in period has been really easy and relatively painless (I had the ankle areas punched out). My Klingbeils made me so miserable that I love my new Harlicks even more!
-Had a GREAT lesson with my jump coach. Today was only my second day jumping in my new boots, but I'm having no problems at all. Landed all of my doubles through double lutz first time.
-Did lots and lots of double axels on the harness. It was exhausting, but really helpful and encouraging.

Naughty
-Double toe as the second jump of a combo. I can do it sometimes, but it is SO not consistent. My coach told me to try waltz jump double toe, and I gave him a look which I guess he misinterpreted. He said, I know it sounds easy, but even my senior skaters have a hard time with it." I replied, "No, it sounds terrifying." We did single toe double toe instead. It wasn't very encouraging. But I know I just need to keep plugging away and working those double doubles and they'll get more consistent.
-Not liking the ending of my Christmas show program very much. It's layback lowered into broken leg spin, then come down on my knees. Getting from the broken leg to the end pose is OK, but the layback to broken leg is iffy. I might just end up doing sit spin into broken leg. Not as pretty, but at least I know I can DO it.

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Youtube Videos

Nice - improved backspin showed up when coach was watching, for once. More new fun stuff - she started me on Ina Bauers and laybacks. Not that I expect to do either of them any time soon, but I know enough to fiddle with it on my free time.

Naughty - It rained all night. Nelson ran the zam backwards and shoved waves of water off the ice through the boards entrance. In spots it splashed high enough to get into my skates through the eyelets. Yuck!

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It's all about the dress!

That's fantastic! There's nothing better than finding that your new boots aren't going to cause you any trouble at all! Driver's license, eh? Does that mean we're going to see you every Sunday now?

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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

That is a definite possiblity

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Youtube Videos

Nice: Starting to land axels again. Yay! Every other session seems to be a great skate.

Naughty: Every other session is a lousy skate. My new skating boots trashed both my feet . I'm taking them back on friday.

I don't usually post in practice threads because I have a tendency of jinxing myself, but I've had lots of stuff happen recently!

Nice: Passed the Tango on Wednesday, thereby completing my Silver dance test. Have to brag a little here ... I'm proud that I've passed every dance I've taken on the first try (except for the Foxtrot, grr!). The streak continues! I am excited to start Pre-Golds.

My new boots have arrived and I tried them on yesterday. They feel great! Blades being mounted and I get to skate on them today. I can't wait - my old boots were really broken down. I'm going to have my old blades mounted on them and use them to teach in.

I also tried some back camels in the "correct" direction (I usually do flying camel CW, don't ask) and they were surprisingly decent for not working on them for months.

Naughty: I'm ridiculously sick, which is putting a definite damper on my skating lately. Double loop attempts were great before and now they are just rotten. Mojo completely gone on most of my doubles.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

congratulations!!!!!!!

Congrats Vesperholly!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Naughty: me, in my lesson yesterday--I was really out of sorts and very low energy. Managed to get through it without too much friction with coach. Then woke up this morning w/ a sore throat & stuffy nose--I'm glad to know I wasn't just being a difficult b*tch, but instead was coming down w/ something!

Nice: considering how blah I felt, at least I got through it & didn't give up, though I really kind of wanted to.

ETA: CONGRATS, VESPERHOLLY!!!!!

HOOORAY, HOORAY, HOORAY, VESPERHOLLY!!! Congrats to you!!!



The quest for better "basic skating" continues today with my choreographer ...

Naugthy (trying to be Nice):
The CCW back crossover to LBI-RFO choctaw step!!! I am trying to undo a VERY BAD habit on the forward power 3's and also in my forward spin entry. Needless to say, it's HELL to fix this one. Choreographer has the patience of a saint trying to set my free leg and my shoulders in the right positions where I can actually set my torso and free foot up to do these and I did get a couple of them. (But it's like when I first land my jumps. It's rare that I get them but I do get them.)

CW back crossover to RBI-LFO choctaw step is only a tad easier... Either way I need to fix these!!! I know this bad habit is like fingernails on chalkboard, so I'm trying hard to fix this so it's done correctly.

Still working on back crossovers... trying to apply some of the same principles as I do with my forward crossovers.

Nice:
Alternating Inside edges are definite crackling/growling. Swing rolls are better... I was able to do them this week at least. (My shoulders are all over the place like last week.)

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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!!!

Naughty:
So my primary coach had me doing CCW back crossovers around a circle and they were fine. So he THEN had me doing them to the pattern of my beginning of the technical program and the difference is night and day!!! YUP!!! VERY CRAPPY and SCRATCHY back crossovers!!!

Primary coach couldn't understand why? I proposed a way to fix it and tried to fix it, but I'm in a very crowded public session tonight so it was NOT fun trying to dodge the other skaters and still try to do proper back crossovers at the time time b/c I kept having to adjust myself to go around people. Primary coach is frustrated b/c he figured by NOW I should be the "better skater" and dodge the other skaters (or even assert myself if needed so people get OUT of my way.)

(Yeah, yeah! I know!!! "So what do I expect out of skating at a public session?" )

Even more naughty was working on lutz entry. I'm not *getting it* in SOOOOO many ways...

Nice:
Nothing. It's another one of those sessions where I just want to toss the skates in the trash!!!

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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!!!

The quest for better basic skating...

Naughty AND Nice:
Not me... the situation.

Apparently, my primary coach's diagnosing that I have "program amnesia" with my back crossovers is not quite correct (or at least it's not the only thing contributing to my bad back crosssovers Monday night.)

I did the same section of my program this morning as I did on Monday night in front of my secondary coach. Yup! You've guessed it!!! Back crossovers did NOT go to pot! It stayed nice, smooth and FAST!!! Needless to say about Monday night vs. today...

Naughty:
We were continuing to work on my shoulders on my forward stroking. Oh, dear!!! Shoulders are ALL over the place again!!!

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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!!!

Naughty- I had the worst pain of my life in my head today, it was not pleasant

Nice- I had my first lesson in 6 weeks and we worked on my artistic program. It feels more programy now with a lot more mohawks and two split falling leafs.

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Congratulations! The Pre-Golds are a fun group of dances and you get a great variety from the Starlight, Paso, Blues, and Kilian. Have fun with them!

Congrats Vesperholly!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I passed on skating today, as Thursdays are rushed enough and with the weather the rain and me still recovering from my fall on Sunday...blah....blah...blah....

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

Congrats Vesperholly! The swing rolls we did up and down the ice were in your honor.
We skated this morning and worked on our program for Sunday. We then played around with death spirals, spins and throws. We're looking forward to starting on a program - hopefully soon.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Thanks everyone! Lordy, do my new boots hurt! They are stiffer than the last time I got boots. Definitely more bumping out is in order. I was able to do jumps through lutz and scratch spins, but the attempts at a camel spin and axel were, erm, not good.

But boy, are they shiny!!!