Practice-only day today, the beginning of the marathon sessions (4 days a week for 3 weeks) - 1 down, 11 to go -

Worked on RFO3 a LOT, alternating with back edges and glides, with some forward crossovers and forward edges to remember what it's like to skate forward.

Warm Sun: I actually started to turn some of the RFO3's later in the session though I seem to come out on a REALLY deep RBI edge - but at least they were 1-footed For the RFO3 practice, a CW twizzle starting from a RBI seemed to work nicely - RBI3/RFO3/RBI3/RFO3 .... and at that point I'm dizzy Any attempt to extend the sequence would result in a frog splat!

Cold Puddles: Spins weren't working today - just not "snapping in" right, and the reach-back-and-pick exercise is still feeling strange. I also wasn't hitting the pick on "landing practice". Oh well, back tomorrow to try again.

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

I skated for 40 minutes today. I wish my boots would let me skate more than that.

Warm Sun Hey- ice skating! On Monday! Today I was actually able to do good perimeter stroking in both directions!

Cold Puddles My waltz 8 is so almost there- but the right outside edge isn't strong enough- so I can't go fast on it, but if I go slow I don't have enough power to get to the center of the 8, and have to put my foot down to give me a push!

My 3-turn pattern is so almost there- but my right inside 3-turn (I think inside) sucks.

I still hate picking my feet up on backwards crossovers, but they are getting better. How much power do judges expect a pre-bronze skater to have on these? I'm fine until I get going really fast, then I tend to click and go sliding across the rink.

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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)

Hi - I'm new here, just joined. The French Open is in a rain delay.

I've always enjoyed reading the feast or famine posts.

Cold Puddles: the rink let us on early but didn't make new ice for some reason. I'm always somewhat leary of forward power pulls with used ice, didn't have any mishaps though!

Warm Sun: got some tips on my neglected loop jump, closing the free hip when I jump. My double 3s are coming along nicely. Been skating to Daughtry and it's very motivating. Haven't sharpened my blades since October and still feel like it's not a problem. I'm skating more early to mid-afternoon skating sessions and enjoying that. The 10:00 a.m. ice in New England is not fun for me anymore.

Happy Memorial Day to all. Please bear with me while I get used to this new format. Look at all the smilies, whoa!

JEANNE!!!!

WELCOME! WELCOME! WELCOME!!! I guess you either found that RSSIR is pretty much comatose or that WJLServo pinged 'ya to come by here, huh? (I'll post my "feast or famine" post when I skate later on tonight.)

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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!!!

Sunny.
I figured out another thing messing with my spins!!! I was doing spins on a spin trainer and I filmed it, and I noticed I was pretty far back, balance-wise, and also that I was looking to my right when our group lessons teacher says to look to the left more. And I am trying to, but apparently still looking a little to the right. And I finally figured out what my hips exactly are supposed to do in a spin. I'm thinking I might actually center these buggers someday now. Had something like that figured out before, but not really exactly, when that clicked, I was like WHOA, so that's where my center is. automatically got on the ball of my foot when I did that, when normally I've got to focus on getting on the ball of the foot instead of on the heel.
And once I figured that out I also figured out exactly what my ballet teacher meant with some of his comments on my layback and camel. My camel's all twisted to the right, when I got it more to the left, I wasn't falling "over" my toes (which would be toepicks on ice) anymore.

Puddles: the stretching thing... *sigh* Not the stretch for the bielman, that one's coming along, the legs aren't stretching though.

Thanks a bunch! Yes, RSSIR is dead and I need to talk skating!! I'll look forward to reading your post.

As promised....

Very unusual day for me! Today my spins are crap but my jumps are good! Uusually, it's the other way around!!! WEIRD!!!

Warm Sun:

• Nice to be back skating today. I didn't skate yesterday b/c of "Auntie Flo's" arrival! She is, as usual, a PAIN!!! So it's nice that at least she's willing to cooperate well enough to let me skate tonight!!!
• My flips are there. My loops, not as much but it's mostly there.
• My other jumps (Waltz, salchow and toe loop) all present and accounted for.
• I had ONE good back sit tries today... good enough that I have a few people watching and going "Hmmmm...." tonight.
• Also had ONE good backscratch spin!!!
• Footwork for my new FS program is cooperating with me nicely!!! And yes, I am still on track to compete at Skate SF this year!!! My fellow Bronze III lady will be quite happy to know that she will be guaranteed a competitor to compete with her. LOL!!!

Cold Puddle:

• Camel were NOT there today. It doesn't feel like being there tonight b/c the ice is kinda rough by the time I got around to getting on the ice anyway. (I came to the rink about 20 minutes into the session b/c dinner pace is slower than usual. )
• Very unusual. My forward spins are okay but not great today...
• My sit spin also didn't want to go down any lower 'til well into the session. Seems "Auntie Flo" doesn't like sit spins. My other back sit tries weren't as good as that one that I did make. But meh... I'm happy about that one!!!

__________________
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!!!

LITERAL COLD FROZEN PUDDLES!!

The ice had not been made this morning (5:30 am mind you!) and it was not only tore up but had water bumps all over it and was down right dangerous. Terrible!

While running through my program with music I fell doing nothing on one of those bumps - it's one of my main jumping passes with a half lutz, mazurka, half flip...fell before the half lutz - got up, managed a half flip and kept going and actually finished with the music so I felt good about it.

Warm sun - had a second run through about an hour later and landed everything and ended on the music. I've added a toe loop to my second waltz jump. Coach hasn't seen it - she may well say it's so cheated I shouldn't bother.

We skated two hours today. I'm not used to skating two hours and after the first hour my body was programmed to quit, but once I pushed through that I was rather disappointed when the second hour was up - felt I could have kept going.

Toe loops - I know they are cheated but I'm just going for it and working on jumping as high as I can for my jumps competition and projecting a "Arent' these wonderful toe loops?" attitutude.

I've replaced my spiral in my spins program with my lunge. It doesn't count, but it's so nice and since I can't do my compulsary (grrr... ) at least I can show it off here.

j

Pold Cuddles: (Sorry! I LOVE Spoonerisms - LOL!) Second day in a row and 3 Turns had pretty much deserted me today didn't start getting close to the RFO3's until the end of the session and almost-twizzles didn't get beyond 2 consecutive turns

Sarm Wun: Worked on backward "quick stepping" (change-of-foot) instead, focusing on hitting the edge and balance quickly - that's really coming nicely Also worked on backward change-of-foot on a deep edge and with speed - that's also coming nicely I should have my blistering backward speed back by the end of spring ice - LOL!

I also watched a young man do some REALLY impressive footwork OMG! I love it! Even more than jumps and spins, I'd give my right arm to be able to do that one day!

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

Warm Sun - Spins were on today. I got a 10 revolution forward spin, camel spin while only getting 2 revolutions was in position, and sit spin is coming along. I'm actually managing to spin in position for a rev or 2 before sitting on the ice.
Spiral looked nice today.

Cold puddles - Jumps were offensive. Warmed up with waltzes and salchows which were okay. Loop was giving me fits. I didn't even bother with toe loop, flip, and lutz attempts.

All in all a very good skating day!

__________________
Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Cold puddles
Stupid water bumps on the ice - 2 inches around and an inch high! That is just plain dangerous! Plus there was water dripping on my head!

Those water bumbs were making me very nervous and I was not putting my heart into warming up. I had a half hour skate before my lesson---I knew we were going to work on my jumps program and my freestyle and I kept puttering around till I saw the clock and that I had only 10 minutes and had not warmed up anything but a few half hearted half lutzes so wratched it up and tried to do all my jumps, spins, spiral and lunge before my lesson.

We mapped out my jump program. Coach tried to place the toe loop in a place where the cheating will be less noticeable...but I think to really hide it, I'd have to do it in a tent. At this point, just for me to jump and not do a toe walk is the goal.

Warm sunshine- went through my freesyle, coach was very impressed with my mazurka and can't understand why I like those and not bunnyhops. Duh- Forward vs backward. Says I have good flow in my program. For my waltz jump I need to remember to look where I'm going and try to hold the edge long enough to get some knee bend before jumping.

I showed her my waltz toe which she said was more like a toe walk and that she saw me jump in my jump program so she knows I can jump and I should try to do that. Also - I never actually had a lesson in these -...so when she told me I need to land the waltz with my arms in position for the toe loop rather than out to the side and I found it is much easier to jump that way.

I also got a much better position with my ending two foot spin with my arms over my head. Also since putting my arms overhead tends to slow me down she suggested I hold the spin with my arms lower until the music ends and end with a few revolutions with the arms overhead.

And the warmest sunshine of all - Ames rink opens next week so this was my last time getting up at 3:30 am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

j

The rink I used to skate at all the time (and will shortly resume skating there some of the time) has a big problem in the summer with ice zits. Big ice zits. They had a flat hoe type thing that they kept near the Zam, and we would grab that last summer, and spend a few minutes of the first early morning FS session chopping down the ice zits.

If you hit them just right with something like a flat hoe, they will break off nicely and while the ice will still be rough it won't be a major bump.

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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...

You know, when I'm paying $10 + an hour for ice, I guess I just don't feel like I'm the one that needs to bring my flat hoe to break up ice zits at 4:30 am....

j

Warm Sun: Third day of 4-in-a-row and the ol' bod' is holding up pretty well (considering it's age - LOL!)

The head coach said I would see a marked difference in my progress from skating daily and she's right! All the backwards is improving by leaps and bounds Back stroking on the circle was really strong CW and shaky CCW - go figger - that's opposite from yesterday! (Darned old ambidextrous body - never know what to expect one day to the next! )

Cold Puddles: 3-Turns pretty much deserted me today and no almost-twizzles today. Spins just wouldn't "snap in".

Still, with the improvement in backward strength/speed, I can't complain. Now, if I just had a nice Split Jump to connect that fast backwards to the fast forwards

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

Lots and lots of puddles:
I had a horrible, terrible day today. I got up at 4:45 so I could go to the 6 AM session for a lesson with my coach. I have a rough day ahead of me in school so I thought working on mitf with her and maybe a few new things would help motivate me. So I get there and after about 20 minutes my mom calls her and apparently she was sick last night so she had just fallen asleep at like, 4 so she wasn't going to come. So I'm not angry at her, I'm just pissed that I got up so early for nothing.

I couldn't get my spins centered, although I did do 3 good camel/layback/sit/change sits, even though it hurt so bad to do the
backspin. I did all the mitf for preliminary and I think everything was solid except the back crossovers to back outside edges. I have to ask my coach about something with that. I did a few prejuv things like 3turns in the field and tried baby F and B power pulls, but nothing extraordinary happened there except that I could do the back 3 turns pretty smoothly.

I hate boots. Getting new boots was supposed to be the solution to all of my ankle problems, and now they're just worse! I have like, burns on the outside of both of my ankles from rubbing, tendonitis gets worse because I have to tie my boots so tight at the ankle to keep from wobbling(which is why I got new boots in the first place! to fix that!), big toe on right foot is so cramped, so huge blister there, huge blister on right heel because everytime I lift my foot, my heel moves. LSKDJFLKSJLKSJFD.


Tiny bit of sun peeking through the clouds: I did do one or two good high flips, but like I said, extreme pain happened.. so I stopped. Since I was on a low session I thought it would be easier but with all the 10 year olds jumping and spinning so easily I got really angry. So after about 45 minutes I took my gloves off and did what I call "angry crossovers". Which is basically me doing crossovers until I reach the wall on the width of the rink and then switch so I can keep going. I did two laps of those(I had amazing speed and power.. really scary actually how powerful I was) and all the little girls like stopped in their tracks to stare because I was going so fast and also, they didn't want to get hit. So yeah. That made me feel a little better. After I got off I started crying hysterically. It was really sad.

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Gives xofivebyfive a BIG HUG!

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

(((xofivebyfive))))

Cold Puddles: I landed a salchow in a very small hole in the ice, caught my toepick, and almost fell. So I go to do it again, and land in the very same hole!

Warm Sunshine: The third salchow was the charm, landed away from the hole, good check, and good rideout. My change foot spin had some problems, but I remembered the instructions coach and one of my teenage buddies had given me a few weeks ago, and the change foot spin worked beautifully.

Warm Sun: It's early in the week. My first practice session, at least, went well. The rink was pretty empty Monday for the holiday, and I was able to run through all my PB moves patterns; the back crossovers in particular are often very hard to do on pattern because of how much space they take up. I'm hoping to sign up for this test (finally) for the 22nd of June. The sign up deadline is the 8th, so it's not a given yet...

Cold Puddles: Yesterday, everyone was back. Our rink is on ice maintenance compressed schedule (and the other one is closed outright for the same reaon until today), and I'm afraid that there was no way that I was getting in a dance lesson on a session full of Juve+ FS skaters. I talked it over with my coach who agreed, but it still felt rotten to send her home when we hadn't had a lesson in over a week and won't be able to squeeze anything in before what should have been the next lesson on Friday. Friday can't come soon enough to suit me...

Rob

Warm Sun:
Did a bunch of good loops at the beginning of the lesson.

Cold puddles:
Unfortunately secondary coach didn't know (or forgotten) about my "lower back jump quota" thing. And of course, the loop got progressively WORSE as I kept doing them until I finally said "ENOUGH JUMPS ALREADY!!! My lower back is SCREAMING now!!!"

Warm Sun:
I finally got to work on the dreaded FO mohawks with her and I ended up working more on what she calls the Schaffer (sp?... does anyone know what I'm talking about here? :S ) push. I guess I'm gonna have to do a LOT more ankle and knee bend to get to the point where I can push off correctly (on an outside edge) when I step behind to a BO edge. I'm happy to be learning it b/c I want to get this dreaded 8 step mohawk down and this FO mohawk seems to be the only thing that is keeping me from doing a correct 8 step mohawk sequence.

__________________
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!!!

warm sun:
I managed to do axel tap axel tap axel tap axel tap axel lol... was a spur of the moment thing... don't think I've managed that in a long time hehe.

Double salchow is quite fine by me, but still need to work on take offs and landings hahahah, coach wants a bit more weight shifting action.

Double toe suspects (2!) today was a lil better (I sort of did one with speed too o.O), other double toe attempt with land and falls also seem better... I seem to crave constant feedback on something as iffy as this lol... but anyhow the arm leg movement is starting to get a little more entrenched in the muscle memory so I don't have to think so hard each time. (even if it still feels wierd and nothing like the double salchow... )

Working more on straightening the double loop up in so many ways, swingy entry is alot more stable now... but still have some way to go and also need to be straighter in the air... coach says my double sal and double toe air position is much better! Its funny that my double loop still regardless feels more comfortable than sal and toe... maybe that wierd sense of comfort comes from me scrunching over??

cold puddle:
I'm not practising my spins enough

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~
Tidesong

Just spent 45 minutes of an hour freestyle trying to get a salchow

Warm Sun: I had taken the time to search on here last night and read through all of the salchow help threads for pointers. You all ROCK!

After a GAJILLION tries, I at least felt the hold before the jump, got a nice knee bend, and got some great air under me (comparatively, considering that I was going about 1/2 an inch off the ice on this jump before). I think I even managed 3/4 rotation sometimes.

Cold Puddles: I was worried that I hadn't had a real fall in ages (which I think is a bad thing... means I haven't been really trying), and oh, I fell today, hard, right at the end of the session. Problem was, I lost my balance and did something of a belly flop on the ice. Heard something pop in my back (and I'm hoping that it's just my back cracking and nothing more) and I definitely have minor whiplash in my cervical spine. I'm sure I'm fine, but since I work in the spinal industry, the hypochondriac in me has gone through every single injury I could incur from a fall in that position!

__________________
When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Cold Puddles: Finding enough time to practice my skating during my session because I was also program assisting/coaching during my session. Hard to run back and forth between coaching and doing my own skating. Sinuse headache acting up (already on meds).

Warm Sun: Dispite feeling like a yo-yo I was able to do some decent jumps while teaching another skater; waltz to single flip. I inproved and corrected the skater who was working on her flip jump by taking her back to all her other jumps fixing her arms during set up, take off and landings. I want to personally thank Ben Ferreria for working with my on my flip before Adult Canadians. I had one before my injury in 2005 that was clean but then life happened. If Ben had not pointed out to me my arm position during take off and how I was suppose to have my skating knee bent with my body core located just behind my skating leg and my free leg reaching way back, I would not have snapped and twisted my flip correctly for take off, nor been able to get my free leg to cross infront landing leg in air and on the landing. All the knowledge I learned about the flip that I finally understood, I learned from Ben. Because of Ben, other skaters at my club are getting more detailed help with the flip.


Just before getting off of the ice, I went to do a combination sit-broken-corkscrew(scratch) spin that to my surprise was so centered that the corkscrew was exactly inside the centered sit and broken spin tracings, even though my sinuses made me think I was way off. I haven't done that in a long time.

Also I an now skating like an ice dance partner in my Preliminary Creative Dance program. (Note: Had to change the intro because my partner can't handle too much spinning.) Dancing to Gypsy Kings' Tango Flamenco which starts out faster than the Fiesta Tango but then during the last quarter of the dance it speeds up even faster. The Harris Tango steps that I learned to include in my creative dance are really starting to look like they are suppose to look. I'm also getting now hold my leg out to the side at 90 degrees before swinging it forward and then crossing it in front of the other foot. That was hard at first but now with the work at the gym to gain more strength in my whole body, holding up my legs hip height isn't so bad anymore.

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

Yes, the Schaffer push is used in B progressives in dance (also in figures) and I'm guessing it has to be step 5 on the 8 step. Are you rotating your shoulders strongly on step 2? That's the only way anyone with closed hips like mine could ever manage that miserable turn. Not sure what you mean though, by "step behind to a BO edge".

Warm Sun:
Today I finally woke up after enough sleep, and no tummy troubles, so I headed off to the rink to practice. One foot spin has taken a step back due to lack of practice, but I tried entering it from a T push with free arm in front, and it worked! FO threes still feel like they are just a fraction of an inch away from being properly checked, and Prelim power threes are a bit faster. B power pulls felt really good.

Cold Puddles:
I still cannot hold the BI edge on FO threes back to the line! I think it may be a strength issue at this point, in addition to an incomplete check. RFO three has become almost impossible, as I feel my ankle collapsing to the inside on approach. I may just wait for my new boots before pushing this one. R hip is very painful, and all RBI edges seem to hurt it, such as CW BXO's, L side of Prelim power threes, B power pulls, and RFO threes. I still can't take ibuprofen! Must get to new allergist.

__________________

We call those bumps "ice acne".

Cold:

Stupid anckle hurts again after I ran to catch a train. *sigh* I hate our train company (I wasn't late, they were late - 20 minutes late!!! So otherwise I'd be stuck there for an hour.)... I just hope it gets better. *sigh*


Warm:

Ordered new skates, sorta. We decided on a size and that it's gonna be elite or elite plus, but the skateshop guy is dealing the first year in jacksons so he's got no idea what the cost will be, since all he's sold so far were lower grade models. That's actually what I tried on too, the model below Elite. So he'll call back when he knows more. Anyway of all types of skates he's got in the shop, jacksons are the only ones not hurting my feet at the back of the heel to the point that I can't "sit" in them, let alone jump. So while it might be insane to order skates without having tried them on, I still think it's the best chance to get skates that will actually be okay for my feet. I likely won't get (all of) my money back if they don't fit, but I'm willing to risk that.