Twizzle - I learned a flip last night! Got it on the second try. (like the loop) although after that it wasn't nearly as consistent as the loop. I 2-footed about 1/4 to 1/3 of them, and they feel (and I'm sure look!) really ugly, but I'm doing them and landing backwards, so that's half the battle, right? Now I just have to make em pretty. And, doubletoe, you're right, I do love them

Also, after a few more loops from RFI 3-turn, coach had me do waltz - land with foot in front - loop. that was a lot harder (of course!) but I did manage a few.

Fizzle - barely worked on spins at all! All this jumping is fun and exciting, but I think my spins are getting left in the dust. I really need to work on them a lot more.

oh, and one more Twizzle - I have trouble retrogressing on 3-turns when I do them on the line, so I read Coach PA's article on fixing them, and the 4 shape with the free leg really seemed to help a lot.

Audryb - I'm jealous - got your flip on the second try! I've been trying for a long time (since I was 13 actually, but with a 30 year break in the middle).

Twizzles this week. I have finally been losing some weight, and exercising more consistently again and already I can see it in my skating. I'm just able to get up off the ice more, I'm faster, I'm getting a camel spin and my spiral is higher. Woohoo! And here's the big news - I just noticed that I'm not afraid to jump anymore. That is a big step forward! I'm so excited.

Twizzle: Had a good lesson today, coach fixed my (hopefully) last remaining issue w/ the Viennese, so I think that now with LOTS of work I'll have it ready for ANs. We also re-did the intro steps which I like a lot better now.

Fizzle: This was my last lesson for an undetermined amount of time, as I haven't had much work coming in (I'm self employed) and I can't afford them anymore. So it looks like I'll be working coachless for the next few months--and hopefully it won't be any longer than that!!

I'll just have to try to keep everything pulled together as I work towards ANs. I'm thinking I'll make a habit of taping myself so I can hopefully make corrections or see mistakes before I get into bad habits.

twizzle all the way - 5th skating day in a row of AXELS!!! landed them all clean

mostly thanks to doubletoe for your tips!!

__________________

Twizzle:
Had a really good lesson today, after not seeing my coach for the past two weeks. I can still spin! I hit every one foot spin I tried. This is a huge improvement over about 6 wks ago when I had to try 6 or 7 times to get any kind of one foot spin at all. FO figure 8's were on. For some reason, I always get right over the edge at this rink, whereas at the rink where I work, I always have to struggle for quite a while, sometimes stopping to do F cross strokes to get myself aligned properly. Wish I could figure out what it is.

Fizzle:
My L hip still hurts from the blues choctaw practice. Took a nice strong prescription NSAID with dinner and hope that will take care of it for now. If anyone with closed hips has tips for the choctaw, I would love to hear them. If you have nice, open hips, please do not reply.

__________________

Maybe that rink is tilted ever so slightly.....

I'm not allowed to comment on the blues choctaw (I have open hips), but I'll whisper: think grand plie' as you do the choctaw.

You know, I've actually skated on a tilted rink! I think it might be my home rink that's tilted. I've tried the figure in two different places and found one easier than the other. Maybe I have to find the right place.

Thanks for the whisper . My dance coach has very open hips and demos the choctaw slowly with both feet on the ice at the same time, a lovely scissors motion. I'm sure he does not really grasp the fact that there is no way I will ever be able to do that. At least he doesn't say "it's easy" like my old coach used to do with mohawks.

__________________

YAY!!!! So happy for you!!

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I have had several lessons on the blues choctaws, my coach also has open hips and makes them look very easy. I have no problem with the edge going in but the edge going out, I need more than 2 beats to get it all organized. I do 2 laps of tight small blues choctaws and that has been helping along with doing the blues pattern around the hockey crease full speed its fun and if you do it wrong you hit the wall so it has good postive/negative reward component.

My regular choctaws are much slower but deep and steady.

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

But I loved your free dance last year, and will look forward to seeing it again. Most of us keep our music for two years, if we can.

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

Thanks, Annabel. Maybe this year everyone can yodel along.

And I get to wear my pretty dress again. Which is, of course, the main reason to compete, right?

If I understand what you're saying, it could be the temperature of the ice. Figure skating ice is warmer than hockey ice, and lets you get an edge better. Hockey ice --which is a couple of degrees colder-- is much harder and makes you work for your edges.

I had the opportunity for a week to skate on true figure skating ice. It's like butter, doesn't get much snow and the divots aren't as bad.

__________________
Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I know about ice temps, and I don't think that's it. I'm leaning towards something mental. Maybe I just set up better, or feel more relaxed, or something like that.

__________________

Seaport has a noticeable uphill side towards the river. I thought at first it was the wind blowing me to the other end, but no, it is sloped.

__________________
It's all about the dress!

The one I've been on is Christopher Morely, in Nassau county. One direction is clearly uphill, and when the wind is against you while you're skating uphill, it can be a struggle .

__________________

But of course!

All fizzle for me this week - didn't dare try to skate this morning as I was preaching later and the timing was just wrong for taking any anti-cough or anti-cold stuff - I could either take it and it be fine while I skated, or take it to be fine while I preached, but not both. So I chose the latter and still had two mega coughing-fits in the sermon... sigh...

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

fizzle I am okay in my figures on the right foot-position,timing, edge. But the left foot is bad. I tend (bad hip) to lean too far forward, go sway backed, and have a bad edge. Coach tells me to get my hip over the skate, tuck my butt, and straighten up my posture--all this is correct, but for some reason keeping all the pieces together defeats me.

twizzle An ice dancer at the rink watches me and says "Put your boob over the skate and keep it there."
This effectively forces me to put my hip over the skate, yadda yadda. It's the same thing coach is telling me with different words--but for some reason, I can do it. It's not as if one little hint made me perfect, but one little hint shifted my attention away from my 3 things onto 1 thing and it helps.

fizzle i am so groggy, I just go home after an hour and collapse into bed.

__________________
Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Twizzle: Had a very short practice today but I worked on my loop setup quite a bit, because it's felt awkward in my program. I think I get how to get in the right position from the steps before (which aren't complicated whatsoever but for some reason I've just been...tilted). Am having some good luck with sit spins and backspins lately, hope that's consistent!

Fizzle: This jump sequence at the end of my program - looks MUCHO labored. I think...it feels labored, anyway. Would really like to get that right because I completely screwed it up in my last competition! Was bummed today that my flip is out of the program for now and for Easterns. Oh well, there's nothing I can do about this right now so hopefully the program as it is will go well and people won't notice there's no flip in there But really, people I skate with have a camel spin, flip, lutz and those in combination in their bronze program, so ugh, I feel like an underachiever...somewhat embarrassed to be bothering...but it's at my home rink and all.

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Hey I'm competing with you next week and don't have any of that stuff either... and the loop is off and on for me. It's okay. We all have to start at Bronze somewhere!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

At the rink where I skate, it has been established a looong time ago that skating is ALL about boobs. You tell somebody to turn their shoulders into the circle, or face the circle, or whatever - doesn't work till you mention boobs.

LOL.

__________________
--renatele

So what do guys do?

__________________
Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I don't know what they do, but we still tell them it's all about boobs

__________________
--renatele

Oh yeah! You are right - it'll be fun, I can't wait to meet you and the others!

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

What if you have um, less than impressive boobs ?

Maybe that's why one coach, a long time ago, told me to focus on my shoulderblades...

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)