There wasn't one new thread yet so I decided to make one.
New = good
Old = bad



After yesterday's mediocre lesson and the last few weeks in general, where my ankle was growing stronger but kept hurting and it seemed like I was only loosing stuff and not learning anything new, I was just about ready to just quit for the rest of the season.

But today...
Holy schmoly. New and shiny! I did a biellmann spin.

Well, sorta. It wasn't *over* my head and it was only 2 revs but... Seriously. I was just fooling around, quite not expecting to be able to do it. It went about as high as my biellmann spiral is on a bad day with muscle ache. Best part, it was repeatable! I think I've got to thank the ballet teacher for this one to be honest, it's his last 2 lessons that made me conscious of the fact that I have muscles in my back which I can use to stabilize my biellmann and spirals.
I'd like to think it's the universe's way of telling me not to quit. I also did 2 sit spins which were sitting and a bunch of backspins which were better than anything I've ever done before, backspin-wise. Everything *was* travelling, but I think that's just remains of the flu.

New

Went skating on the outdoor rink in Hyde Park yesterday .

It was actually much better ice than I thought it would be. Didn't get much practicing done admittedly, on unfamiliar, crowded ice, but I did squash in a couple of drags, back and forward crossovers, and a few lengths of cross rolls. I got some very admiring looks in a rink full of beginners in dodgy hire skates, clutching the barrier and each other, and falling over .

Old:

Skated at the Pettit Center in Milwaukee, and the ice is softer than what I'm used to...which meant that moves sucked...my back double 3s had no oomph...and I just got my skates sharpened, yet I'm sliding all over the place! I was sliding especially on my back power 3s. Either the problem is that I need a deeper hollow, or it's a problem with my technique; the latter is probably the issue!

My scratch/back scratch left me again

New:
Jumps were good Spins were decent. Camel and camel/sit were quite good.

I get my car back on the 2nd from the shop (however, the "old" part is that I will be $500 poorer due to my deductible...darn crappy weather and darn students who don't know how to drive!). But...having my car back means that I can go to my lesson at noon and then to the freestyle session that night yay!!!

Lots of skating this week, seeing next week work really starts again, and I'll be back to a "normal" schedule (or semi-normal...next week I can't skate on Thursday/Friday nights because of training)...however...I was selfish and scheduled my staff meetings around ice time this semester I just hope that another night meeting I have won't be scheduled for Tuesday nights!

Last practice of 2007, had the day off from work and went to 9am freestyle.
changefoot spin was somewhat shiny, as was dance step. Jumps on the dull side.

new and shiny - I bought myself a pile of crystals and a stone setter, I'm going to tart up that turquoise dress for competition. Wheee!

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It's all about the dress!

I too was off from work and skated at my morning session.

New and Shiny:
My Bronze CM program is coming along. I found that I have a better transition into back crosstrokes when I go into them from a RFI mohawk, so I canned the RFI3 entrance and it felt way better and less awkward.


Old and Dull:
Did my freestyle program for the first time since the test- jumps were fine, spins were awful.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Ohhhh shiny!!!

I love that expression.

Ahhh, so that's where the Bedazzler went... tsk, tsk.

Bought some more exercise toys and worked out off-ice.
Still can't do more than one rev on the spinner using my left (CCW) foot. What gives? I'm fine with a backspin - three revs, even.
Waiting to see what DD's schedule is going to be for the week before I plan my own skating.

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Great job Sessy, that spin is crazy hard!

Old:
I'm testing retesting junior moves next week, so I need to get in some full run throughs of the test. However, with the kids out of school, all of the freestyles are mobbed, and I'm lucky if I get in half of a pattern without having to dodge somebody.

sshhhhh, don't tell numbers I snuck it over to another forum!

I have to get my spinner out again and try it on backspins.

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It's all about the dress!

Old: Still two footing most of my jumps. My scratch spin seems to have gotten the sudden urge to travel.

New: Had the day off and went skating Landed a couple good sals. Had 3 or 4 right on axel attempts. I'm jumping out a lot more and swinging less.

Kevin

OLD

7 days until the rink re-opens. Have now had to go without 3 of my regular sessions, and am really feeling it, talk about withdrawal.

My whole body is missing it, I just want to JUMP!!! I can live without spins or anything else, but I need to jump and rotate in the air. Even find myself doing off-ice loops, and I rarely do jumps off-ice in case I wrench my landing knee. I have a skate spinner, but it isn't spinning I miss.

I don't normally go to the Monday night club session, but will try to on the coming Monday, just because it's the first day the rink is open, and I just don't think I can wait any longer.

Aaargh, why do they do this to me!!!!??

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

{{{HUG}}}

I know what you feel. You WILL survive, believe it or not.

(On the 4th of 4 days off myself.)

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

new and shiny - I got a changefoot spin for my birthday
I've been working it and the backspin hard all week, and it came together for a couple of good ones today - even got speed and 3 revs on one of them.

old and dull - back to work tomorrow - no more skating almost every day.

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It's all about the dress!

Very dodgy hire skates - we went up there for a walk round on Sunday and were amused at the vivid orange hire skates - never seen them that colour before!

Old: No lesson for us as coach1 didn't have enough pupils to come in, and coach2 didn't arrive until just before Husband left. I decided not to bother with a solo lesson from her, although I could have had one had I wished.

New: We realised that, although we are doing the same old exercises, we are actually getting very different corrections - coach1 never used to worry about where our hips were, or where our free legs were pointing.... now, he does!

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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!

Shiny:

1 - The 'biellmann' spin thingy is still working, but it seems that if I try to pull my blade over my head I get up on my toepicks, so getting it high enough to count is gonna be a problem. Revolution-wise it was going better than yesterday. I'm gonna try it some more for a couple of days, then film it if it doesn't disappear in the meantime. I had somewhat of the same problem on the forward biellmann spiral so I guess if I improve that, the spin will improve too. Cool stuff.

2 - I met a skating friend at the rink today, so I actually had a witness to this "biellmann" thingy.
I never see her anymore because I don't skate at her rink anymore, and she never skated at my rink before. I was very surprised and excited to see her. She had her 13 year old sister with her, whom she was teaching, that sister is packing some *serious* talent. She's also extremely jumpy and has very nice flexibility. Must be a family thing there.

3 - This skating friend taught me a back sit spin. I can't do a forward sit spin, but a rfi-to-backsit is apparently not a (big) problem...

I wonder if it's okay to test a *back* sit spin for interbronze freestyle? We only have one testing track, but our interbronze MIF is exactly the same as your adult pre-bronze MIF, so is there a sit spin on your adult pre-bronze MIF and if yes, is it required that it be a forward one? Or is one actually free in the choice?

There is a sit spin required for the Adult Bronze free skating test.

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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...

Dull: ME! YAWN! Sure would like to have stayed in bed this morning! Couldn't though - coach's last session for a week - she is flying off to a warm climate for a week in the sun, so is head coach. And here I thought there was no money in coaching

Stuffed up sinuses didn't help spins! Even the upright spin was still on holidays. Actually pretty much EVERYTHING was still on holidays!

Shiny: The lesson - not me! - was VERY productive - good critique on a lot of things:

Sit spin - take my time on the entry and get the free leg strongly out in front!

Waltz jump - get deeper in the knee and more spring on takeoff (had one nice one, lots of height - coach saw it! LOL!)

Toe Loop - start deep and don't start to rise until on the picking foot - keep arms tight thru check

Back XO - found out my problem is I am not comfortable on BO edges - get better BO edges with my back into the circle

I think she has left me with enough to work on for the next week!

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

Shiny:

- My program run-throughs! I did my freestyle program with music for the 1st time in a month and it was totally clean (a bit behind the music, but clean nonetheless)!

After watching the program, my coach decided to replace my footwork sequence with a spiral sequence and change my final sit spin to a back spin with a change of position (for added difficulty).

I also did 2 run-throughs of my new interp program which were both clean as well!

Dull:

- My blades! I so need a sharpening! Good thing our club's sharpener will be in town tomorrow!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Shiny:
-This weekend, I had two good practices. Finally fixed my backspin, thanks to vesperholly's help

Dull:
-Yesterday's skate. All of it. The ice was SO bad, and my ankle was huge and achy from doing so much standing at my new year's party the night before. Moves were sluggish - no glide at all from the ice. Spins couldn't happen because I kept catching my blade in ice ruts and my ankle was just not in the mood to hold up a spin. Jumps were okay but not great (lutz was especially bad). Dances were okay. I felt very discouraged even though everything was beyond my control. It was the first time since I started skating again in Jan. '06 that I was counting down the minutes until I could get off the ice.

There is a session tonight and tomorrow night, but I'm thinking that it's not worth my time, money, and sanity because I'm sure the ice is going to be awful again. I'll think I'll just hold off on skating until my lesson on Friday, and start practices again this weekend (hopefully with better ice).

Shiny Again:
-To try to be positive, I did make some progress last night, despite the icky ice and angry ankle. Improved my timing on the salchow, slowed the 8-step mohawk down to work on keeping a good rhythm, and worked on getting down in my knees for back cross strokes.

New&Shiny:

I just filled out my test application for my Intermediate Moves for a test session on February 1st. We will do my Pre-Juv Freestyle at the one on February 29th. I just need to check with someone at my club to see if they need to sign it (I am technically an individual member, but I have an associate membership with a local club, and I will be doing a home club membership with them next year). I also need coach to sign.

Scratch/back scratch made a reappearance for my lesson at noon today.

Old&Dull:

Fricking brackets! The RFI and LBO are the only ones that would not pass a test at this point Tonight at a rare Wednesday club ice, I will have to work on these...

Lutz is still MIA. I have always freaked out at the lutz (no clue why, it just is) and today they were a complete mess. Part of it is technique, and needing to get control over my upper body and part of it is mental...

Also need to get quicker at the skating/footwork between elements in my program and also start to "perform" the program. At least I have a little more time to perfect that one. Part of that problem is just general stamina!

New:
Jumps including double sal and double toe have been fairly consistent for the last few days when my program music isn't playing.

Old:
The double sal and double toe disappear when I try to do my program with the music.

I hear you on the RFI-LBO brackets! The LBO bracket was the one I always got stuck on. What fixed it for me was imagining I was doing the bracket on an imaginary hockey circle. I push straight back, then look into the imaginary red dot in the center of the circle until I reach the bottom of the lobe and do the turn. Another thing that seems to help is keeping the free leg almost crossed in front of the skating leg on the entrance edge and never letting it open out.

Speaking of brackets and lutzes, have you ever tried a lutz from a LFI bracket? It's something I started doing in an attempt to convince myself that I wasn't wasting my time working on Intermediate MIF, LOL! It's actually less scary than you would think, and it doesn't involve that long LBO takeoff edge that messes with your head. Another good thing about it is that it puts your body in the right position for a good takeoff. Your right shoulder is already back, and bringing your free foot to the heel of your skating foot on the exit opens the hip out so that you stay on an outside edge as you reach back to pick. The longer and flatter you can make the bracket, the better it works!

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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

New!!!!!!

Went skating tonight again wow, I haven't done two separate sessions in one day in a long time!

But.....I LANDED TWO AXELS!!!!!!! Now, they weren't pretty or good, but shoot, they were on one foot! I started this jump wayyyyyy back in 1994 before coach #1 moved to Hawaii and left us, haven't landed it since.

Moves (minus the brackets of course) were pretty gosh darn good...even was able to do the power circles the way coach wants them

Woo hoo!!!!!

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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