Frustration:

-I have three trouble spots in my program - the entry into the lutz, controlling the landing on a toe loop - loop combo, and seeing/skating straight after my sit spin combo. All were extra troublesome yesterday.

-My right ankle has been giving me fits. It cracks and locks up and hurts. I hate stuff like that. It just reminds me that I'm getting older, not younger.

Swimmingly:

-Axel felt solid, but underrotated. I'm landing on both feet with my legs crossed.

-Double sal! I did one (only one) that was about 1/4 turn underrotated.

-Catch-foot camel - I did only 2, but was able to hold the spin for about 2 rotations before going up on my toe both times.

-Flying camel was good. If I can keep it consistent, I'd like to add it to my competition program.

-I love (LOVE) the footwork sequence in my gold test program. We added some more steps onto the end of it, and it's so much fun to do.

Swimmingly: well, I had a WONDERFUL experience today at Skate Club of Wilmington getting my boots/blades worked on! Peter was awesome and I cannot express how great the experience was-he really took his time working with me and making sure my boots & blades were right. Here is what I had to have corrected:
-boots needed to be punched out (that was a given my feet are getting bony as I get older)
-my left blade was slightly crooked at the heel, off very slightly
-sharpening was off where the outside edge was worn down more than the inside edge this was more pronounced on the left blade

These two problems on the left boot added together with my imbalance issued compounded and made normally difficult things darn near impossible.

After he punched moved sharpened, I had to brave a HIGH LEVEL freestyle session (EEEK!) to try things out...and OMG!!! What a difference! I was able to do crossovers, 3-turns, and some decent scratch spins (one even centered) which made me very very very happy!

Now I can't blame my equipment for any of my short-comings... and I have no excuse now for not working on my crossovers or loop jumps. I also decided about 1-2 times per month I'll drive up and skate on the adult social session and knock out a sharpening too! Seems like a great (cold) place to skate and some of the adults that I chatted with were friendly (most were skating).

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

I went ahead and signed up for our rink competition at the end of October mostly to get myself WORKING towards something again . . . felt like I was stuck in a rut, just showing up for group lessons and that was about it. So, I'll jump back in and start posting on the practice thread! Started working on the routine with my coach this past Saturday - I'm going to do a program and compulsories at Freestyle 3 (ISI) - using same music as my last program but completely reworking the program.

Swimmingly: love, love LOVE the spiral sequence - front spiral, mohawk, back spiral - it fits really well with the music and I feel like I am flying! The back spiral is the only required part but I just really like doing the front to back sequence for some reason. Ran through the footwork sequence to make sure I was doing it correctly and it was good (except for when I had to dodge other skaters, but that doesn't really count). Practiced it lots and lots after the private and really got it solid - was even able to think about making the arms "pretty" which is always my clue that I have something down pat! Not too worried about the jumps (salchow, toe loop) since I have been doing those for about 2 years while I try to get up the courage to start working on the loop and flip - they've had plenty of practice!!

Frustrating: (but not as much as before) - the change foot spin is still sort of intimidating. But it looks about 110% better than it did before (that is to say; I keep the spin going instead of falling over as soon as I switch to the backspin). We are putting it right at the beginning so I don't enter it with too much speed (as long as I keep it under control, it's pretty solid - if I enter it with any amount of speed and/or adrenaline, things are apt to get a little hairy!).

Backwards pivots are super frustrating and merited their own thread. Sort of leaning towards doing the back outside even though it is a little harder - it just looks better in the program. I'll keep working on it - I think it will come.

Swimmingly: went to the newly added freestyle session tonight...only me and one other girl! Sweet! Newly adjusted blades were really nice. Worked on waltz-8, jumps, figure-8 pattern, scratch & backspin.

Frustratration: loop is barely off the ice (still) although I'm getting all the way around; scratch spin traveled but not too much; crossovers will take some getting used to with my newly adjusted blades but I can handle that.

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