I already wrote this once! Daft computer froze on me

This is for yesterday morning:

Lovely Jubbly:

Had a great skate! And a great freestyle lesson! 2 foot spin was apparently 6 revs , and 1 foot spin from back crossovers worked!!! Yay! I was only meant to do the entrance and exit because I haven't really got the FO curve yet, but it worked! Lol. I didn't spin because I didn't pull in or anything, I told my coach I hadn't expected to spin and that's why it went wonky, lol. Second time it worked too and I spinned! Also we did things I haven't practiced for ages, like bunny hops, teapots (shoot the ducks), drags (lunges).

I am officially a rinksider. 8) Why? I STARTED LEARNING THE BACKSPIN!!! Lol!! One of the elements on the gold badge is a one rev backspin. Apparently I did it right the first try, but it feels really weird! Will practice it along with the forward one.

Learnt brackets, which were fun and I didn't find too hard. Also double 3s were good, all my back 3s were good. I like 1 foot turns a lot more than 2 foot turns such as mohawks.

In practice, 2 foot and 1 foot spins were much better. And it was definitely a good jump day! Toe loop was 100% consistent and felt great! Salchow was about 75-80% consistent I think, and also felt pretty good. Waltz jump was fine too, and I also did toe-toe and salchow-toe combinations.

Pivots (especially BI) good.

Plonker:

Loops were all either 2 footed or landed on the wrong foot. Hmm. Needs more practice to get it more consistent.

Teapot not as low as I'd like it to be - I'm not used to it and I can't really bend that much in my boots yet! Lol.

Spirals didn't feel as secure as before because I haven't practiced them for ages, and I still get pain when doing a RF spiral.
---
Rachel

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Oh, so we're in Peckham, are we (not far from Streatham, as it happens!)

Lovely Jubbly: Oxford Seniors is NEXT WEEK, oh help! Hmm, maybe that should have gone under the other heading.....

We ran through most of our dances; I'm quite pleased with our Rhythm Blues variation - it won't "do" anything at the competition, because it's too simple, but I hope we will skate it well. At the moment, we are still a bit tentative in parts. Good Golden Skaters' Waltz, and our Riverside is much better than it used to be.

Plonker! Yes, well, the same cannot be said for our Fiesta Tango. I think it is worse than it was last time we competed it. Oh well.....

And Oxford Seniors is NEXT SUNDAY, oh help.....

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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!

Lovely Jubbly:

Had my second lesson (of the 6-week Freestyle 2 series) yesterday. I worked on back edges (if I don't pass this level at the end of the series, it'll be b/c of those blasted BI edges!), the back spin (my instructor taught me to do it w/ my left toe pick in the ice behind me, and to use that to propel me into the spin -it actually worked, except that I tend to go a little too far forward on my toe - got to work on that), and my instructor gave me some good tips on my toe loop. I've got to hold the FI edge longer before the turn. But it's looking better.

Plonker:

The previously aformentioned back edges, especially the inside ones. My instructor showed me how to hold my arms to hold the outside edge longer, but we didn't get a chance to go over the BI ones. He spent the first 20 minutes of the 1/2 hour lesson working with the Free 3s, and then came over to go over the spin and jumps. I ended up with the teenage "helper", who was trying to get me to hold my edges by doing 3-turns while showing me her drawing abilities (wonky turn outlines and smiley faces on the ice) with her magic marker. Sigh.

Congrats on the spins, Rachel.

btw - what's the origin of the words used in this week's thread title?

Lovely Jubbly
Thank the Skating Gods that I skated better today (compared to Friday, when I was about to quit!)
I started off with a warm up for the programme.
Some of the jumps were still popping out (can't explain why)but the rest of it was ok.
I got the first lutz out, so Coach left it there..on a good note!

Plonker
The first play of the music, and I bottled out my first jump!
During the lesson, I managed to pull it together, but STILL missed the flip and didn't manage to put any other jump in its place. I scraped through the rest of the programme without any errors, but if I'd done that in the test, I would've panicked and skated badly.

I've been practising change foot sit spins again.
Can someone tell me how to do the change?
I know it's supposed to feel like pushing on to a back outside edge, but I cannot get it to spin that way. Especially not if I have to turn both feet inward (like being hen-toed) first.
Invariably I end up on the flat of the blade, near the back. Plus I can't get nearly as low as I do on my ordinary sit position.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Sunday: Third outing with the Klingbeil's

Plonker: Just the start of the session--it all still feels so new each time I go out.

Lovely jubbly: Stroking is massively improved, and forward crossovers now feel much more natural on both sides. I spent a great deal of time on forward edges--I'm not having any trouble with them, I just wanted to "get to know" them... No, I'm not kidding!!! I want to get the feel of them, especially the outsides. I don't have to fight for outside edges the way I did before, with the inside mounted blades on my old boots, so I found myself experimenting with subtile changes in body and arm position to see how it affected the edge. They went quite swimmingly. Didn't get to back crossovers, ran out of time.

Best of all, I lasted the whole hour in the boots with no breaks, no adjustments to the lacing!!! They are still quite stiff, but they're definitely softening up. The more I skate the better I like them. I even just casually spun around on two feet--no effort at a real spin, and got two to three revs with little to no effort. I think coach is right--these Aces do make spinning easier. I'm going to ask her to work with me on two foot spin on my lesson tomorrow.

Rachel, I know what you mean with the teapot--I think my butt is totally in the air with these new boots!!! It keeps lowering, though with each try.

One question: What exactly does "jubbly" mean?

All in all, a great skate!!! 8)

Beth

Practiced at night Sat, don't like skating at night as much but it wasn't that late.

Plonker - tried some loops, so not my jump!!

Lovely Jubbly - my posture when I am stroking is really improving. I am sucking that belly button to my spine!! My lutz and flip are ohsoclose and my waltz-toe was quite nice. Spinning is still hit or miss, sometime I get 2 or 3revs sometimes 5 or 6. Alternating 3's were good and my brackets are really shaping up. We do the alternating brackets and I still have to cheat to be able to set up the next bracket but it's getting better. Alternating inside 3's are good and my LFI 3 is SO MUCH better, I have a nice big lobe now, still not always controlling my momentum but they used to be so touch and go.

"Lovely Jubbly" and "Plonker" are from the TV show Only Fools And Horses (starring David Jason and Nicholas Lyndhurst). For those that don't know, it's a classic British comedy set in Peckham, England (hence Annabel's comment about Peckham). Delboy used those phrases a lot. (This program was also the inspiration for the "Gordon Bennett" title a few weeks ago! )

Thanks for the congrats on my spins too Hope they still work on Saturday!

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

This is for sunday.

Lovely Jubbly
Outside Edges - They are working well, but i have to make sure my arms and in line with me feet and i have to make my circles bigger.
Inside Edges - I have to make my circles bigger for these aswell.
Forward Inside Mohawk - Both ways, I fell like i am getting much more confident with my mohawk, yippee!
Forward Spirals - Ok, my legs felt really high, but i don't know if i did get them high. I fell on one of my spirals and i was shocked! I got the toe-pick caught in the ice!
3 Jump - Oh My God, this feels soooooo good and high! I don't think it is really high, but it feels higher than normal. I have to swing my arms in towards me when I jump, so i have my speed. I like the 3 jump!

Plonker
My spins - I feel sooooooo freeked out now after spinning on sunday. I went into a spin and i fell over and it was a very hard fall. It wasn't that i hurt myself (but i did), it was the shock. I think i went into shcok. I just skated off the ice and was crying i was soooooo scared. I couldn't even breathe properly! i had to take a break for like 20 minutes i was soooo freeked out. and also everyone saw me fall and i was embarrassed as well, but i don't think i really cared. i went into shock so i couldn't care.

Nutty-Ducky - count me in as someone else who has fallen on spins and it hurts and it's shocking because you cannot control the fall!! I fell once really hard on backspin attempt and my hip was bruised for weeks. I fell out of scratch spin attempt and thankfully landed on the fatty part of my hip and broke the rest of the spin with the arm, came close to hitting my head but just avoided it. I've also fallen hard on a spiral, I looked down, big no no and fell on my shoulder, just avoided doing a somersault, really hurt and was hard getting up. Just Sunday I almost did a Charlotte, I was doing a back spiral and got carried away with trying to get my leg up, just caught myself in time.

Second lesson on the new skates:

Plonk, plonk, plonk: I hate the first few minutes out, stroking. I get so wiped out (ankles) so fast!! Its just that stroking and swizzles really push on the ankle/tongues of the boot, the one part that is super stiff, and it hurts. After a bit though, I adjust and I'm fine.

Jubble, jubble, luverly: Forward AND back crossovers were pronounced MUCH better today--overall, not just on the new skates!!! I seem to actually have better flow and speed, even on the new boots--actually, I think they and the blades are giving me the speed and flow. The second push with forwards is so much easier now with the curvier blade (no more obnoxious toepick scrape). Even backs flow better, although they are tougher with the bend required, which I ain't quite getting at this stage in the game with the stiff boots. Forward edges have pretty much lost all their previous flat spots, and we tried backwards stroking and edges today. Back outsides improved as I was trying them, insides aren't too horrible.

Best of all, I tried a two foot spin--Its shaky as I'm now just starting to find the sweet spot on the blade--but what's amazing is, very little effort gives me as many revs as I used to have with my old skates!!! That was quite a pleasant surprise. Once I get stronger and break down the boots a bit more, they should improve.

Once again, I got much stronger in skills and even the time spent on the skates. This isn't easy, but I have to say I'm enjoying the living heck out of it. Its fun to find the edges and adjust them more easily and not have to push and struggle for every edge. I can also feel the support now from the boot and realize why some skills are better even though they're still a little shaky.

Geez, my old boots weren't only too big with wrongly set blades, I realize now that they were totally SHOT. Why, why, WHY didn't I get these new skates sooner????!!! Oh, well, live and learn...:?

Beth

Dance club last night:

Lovely jubbly: Managed to go through everything we'll need for Sunday; Fiesta Tango seemed better than it had in our lesson, but still not good. Worked hard on my Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango soloes - solos? can't think - and my thigh muscles were very stiff afterwards! Even today I am aware I have quadriceps, which is a Good Thing as it shows I was working hard. And as always great fun, especially teasing one of the couples we'll be skating against on Sunday!

Plonker: Not a lot, really. Rob and I need to work on changing hold in the Swing Dance, to help me get a decent BO edge before the step to forwards (quite the scariest step in the dance, I fear). And I must, must, must remember to point my toes in the Canasta Tango. Also noticed that in the LFO swing rolls in the Dutch Waltz my right shoulder didn't swing through properly, which meant the swing didn't speed up. I just hope that doesn't happen in the competition....

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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!

JDC1 - god, it sounds as though u have pretty bad falls too. i would not like to fall on my shoulder doing a forward spiral! but i have fallen over doing a spiral (got my toe-pick caught). its good that u avoided doing a somersault!

Lovely jubbly and plonkers????? Doesn't sound masculine to me.

My Monday evening skate is very special to me. I have many friends at the rink throughout the evening both young and old; and my coach, whom I'd marry if she already weren't , is there. Last night was no exception.

I mentioned previously that I had signed up for an Adult Intermediate group lesson on Mondays. My coach informed me that I was the only one that signed up, so asked if I would mind taking the Adult Beginners lesson with another coach. I agreed, but felt a little dismayed at taking a beginners class.

Lovely Jubbly: Had a terrific time with the three new beginners in the class (2 hockey, 1 figure). Yes, I am much more skilled than they, but I went through all of the skills they were trying to learn with them. Offered tips when they had trouble and skated with them after the lesson so they could practice what they had just learned. It was good for me to get back to doing some basics.

Plonkers: I haven't done that many swizzles in a l-o-n-g time. My inner thighs are really aching today.

Nutty-Ducky - I do take some hard ones! I bruise my knees alot lately so I've considered getting knee pads. I actually really hate pain (no one likes it but I am not even stoic, I will cry if it hurts) and I keep skating despite the falls so I know I really love it!

Monday practice and lesson -

Lovely Jubbly - First private lesson in a month! Wow. Worked on spinning forward and backward. Starting to get the feel of it. Worked on improving the waltz jump and that was good because I'd developed a bad habit that needed correcting. In group lesson - Worked on loops briefly - I know I need a really tight 3 turn with flow out of it or there's no go, I also tend to rush my jumps. Worked on Flip - VERY GOOD AND VERY CLOSE to getting a one foot landing!! Hopefully by this week-end I'll get it!! Worked on new 3 turn pattern - was very hard but good to practice, I'll work on them Wednesdaynight.

Plonker - I am really not a natural spinner. But it's okay because atleast I seem to catch on to the jumps quickly. :-) My back inside 3's are pretty weak so I am definitely going to practice the excercise from class.

LOVELY JUBBLY

Got the cast off today

PLONKERS

It feels worse than when I first did it!! I knew it would be stiff and sore but didn't reckon on how much!!!

Hi to everyone It's good to see you all working hard

L x

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The best whisper is a click

ALRIGHT!!!!! GOOD FOR YOU!!!!

Yes, I know about the stiff and sore part. It will take time and physical therapy to get the full range of motion back and for the pain to completely leave.

After I got the cast off of my broken wrist, it took about 3 months before I had my full motion range back. My doctor kept me on 1600 mg/day of ibuprofin for the next 6 months.

It will get there, though.

Welcome back!! Going skating soon???

Congrats Lynne on the cast removal! It will feel wierd for a while, but think of what's next - skating and not lugging that cast around everywhere.

Lovely - doubles were more consistient. I'm getting pretty bored with the moves, so my coach gave me some advanced footwork to work on that I can use in a program. I really have no plans to test the moves until all the competition rules are set and I see what gold moves will place me into.

Plonker - have a cold. ick.

Lynne, I'm delighted to hear the cast is off, but that means I won't be able to sign it come Sunday.... oh well.

Lovely Jubbly: Good lesson today, running through everything I shall need for Sunday. Had to work hard on my extension, and then did a really good Dutch Waltz, best I've ever done (OH my poor quads! ), but my Canasta Tango still isn't what I want it to be. Oh well. If I finish last on Sunday, then I finish last. But I'm seriously hoping for a top ten finish in all classes. This will not be difficult in the Variation and Zimmer classes, as there are only 7 and 5 couples, or is it 5 and 7, but there are 17 in the solo compulsories, 15 in the solo free and about 13 in the couples compulsories. I think I will probably have to settle for top 15....

Plonker! My old man! No, he isn't really, but he is in our Variation when he anticipates the change of hold by a mile..... We had quite a good practice, nevertheless, and were able to earmark stuff that we want to work on after Sunday - but we have a lovely holiday first!

Forgot to warm up my twizzles, will everybody PLEASE remind me to do that on Sunday, and they slowed me right down in the free dance. Coach would only let me do it once, saying it was as good as it's going to be for now.

The lights had failed in the rink, and although some of them, and the main clock, had come back by the time I left, the ladies' loo was still Stygian. One woman firmly shut the door as though nothing was up, but I'm a bit claustrophobic and left it open, thinking, as did another friend, that if anybody came in one could quickly slam it shut and sing very loudly.....

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

JDC1 - I take hard falls aswell! after skating on sunday i woke up on minday and everything was aching me. i am still aching, i think it is becasue of all the falls. i cry sometimes when i fall, especially if i get a hard fall and i don't expect it to happen.

Lynne, congrats! It only gets better now. Ask the physiotherapist for exercises to do on your own and you will recover quickly. Do you have the OK to skate yet?

JDC1, get some slip-on elastic and foam knee pads at a sports store for about $6. Mine once again saved me today from what would have been a painful fall. I have discovered that most people don't notice them under my black leggings.

Gary, try doing swizzles with a good deep dip when your knees come together. I learned that at the Annie's Edges class and do it every time I skate just to burn the calories.

Lovely Jubbly
My husband and I had our first dance lesson today. We learned all of the holds, some of which I remembered from roller dance. We did consecutive swing rolls together, learned a dance style FO three turn, worked a bit on FI Mohawks, and last, but hardly least, attempted FO closed Mohawks. Skating with our coach was wonderful. It took me right back to my roller dance years, and I felt that I was really skating again.

One of the first "rules" we learned was that if you are falling, let go of your partner. This came about as my husband fell and took me down with him doing forward swing rolls in Kilian hold. Bless those knee pads! Fortunately, we both got up laughing.

Plonker
I do wish hubby were a bit more advanced. He can do some things better than I, but in general he lacks form, especially in things like extension, and bringing his free leg through in close, instead of in orbit around Jupiter. I'm afraid he is going to tangle up our legs at the least.

We were both pretty tired, having been on the ice for two hours before our lesson, then our coach kept after us for forty minutes. Neither of us had skated for the past week and a half, and I have had a miserable cold for most of that time. As a result, hubby started falling and took a few bad ones. I plied him with ibuprofen the minute we were off the ice, and we told our coach that thirty minutes is our limit. He was a Ukrainian national dance champ and is thrilled to be teaching us, since all of his other students are strictly freestyle.

I really don't know how I am going to practice dance and moves. I don't have time for what I have already started, and now I'm doing this too. Guess I'll have to figure out which sessions are better for dance. I'm definitely not attempting it on a crowded freestyle session. Any tips are welcome.

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Fabulous for you, Lynne-no more piggin' cast!!!

Trust me, my hubby went though it with his wrist--it will take a bit, but it will get better, and quicker than you think.

A great day--won a lovely skating dress from my "skating mom" Joanne (Icings) on eBay, and Lynne gets her cast off--life, she is good!

Many hugs,

Beth

It's been kind of a hit-and-miss week. No axels or good double loop attempts, but spins and moves have been pretty good. I'm testing preliminary FS (just for the heck of it next week) so I've been working on that program, which is slightly different every time I skate it.

But last night was fun! I have a friend that I skate with once a week (male) and we mess around with pairs-type things...side by side jumps, spiral sequences, etc. Well, my FS coach was at the session teaching someone else, and after that lesson we got him to teach us a throw waltz jump! THAT was cool.

Dancers have the same problem here. Usually at freestyle sessions, one side & corner of the ice seems to be used more often by freestylers than the other. Our dancers figure out which length is clearer and then practice a single pattern, then stroke to their original starting point and do it again. It's not a perfect solution, but it does let them practice.

Skated a public session last night. Usually this session isn't very crowded, but hockey must be starting. Lots of young hockey types to deal with. Most were polite and gave me room to practice, though.

There was a female hockey instructor giving a lesson during the session, too. I had not seen her nor any female coach before. When I mentioned it to my girlfriend later, she told me that there were two female hockey coaches at one of her rinks and that it was probably one of them. She asked me what the coach looked like and if she was attractive. "Uh, well, she had dark hair and BEAUTIFUL LONG STROKES".

You know you're getting old and that your priorities have changed when you look at someone of the opposite sex and all you can remember are their skating abilities.

Wednesday night practice - was feeling kinda cranky. The ice was pretty yucky too.


Plonkers - Didn't have much luck spinning til towards the end then got around a few times.

Lovely Jubbly - Did bunch of MITF and it felt good, I am slowly learning how to hold my body out of back 3 turns to get a little more flow, must be using the toe pick less. Finding out that my favorite edge is the inside edge, particularly on my right side.

Gary - I describe everybody at the rink by their skating style! There's one skater in my group lessons and I was telling someone "she's very gentle and controlled and has lovely flow" :-) LOL. There's this one young woman Wed night where I practice who has the funniest way of getting into her jumps, it's hard to describe, it almost looks like in the old movies how people were moving really jerky and fast. :-) Also almost all her jumps look like a variation on a salchow. However, she very easy to share ice with and very aware of others so more power to her. I'd rather share the ice with her than with a perfect ice princess who continuely cuts me off when I am trying to skate.

I had a fun and interesting practice last night. Club ice, so about 20 skaters of varying ages and levels. Hubby and I have decided not to sweat our Beta test this Saturday. I think he'll pass and I know I won't, so I'm not going to stress out about it. It's ok -- he can't take the next session of classes and I can so I'll retake Beta and we'll be back together afer the holidays. Or maybe I'll be a sneak and work really hard and pass Beta AND Gamma (they usually combine these classes). I'm inches away from the FO3s and the inside mohawks. Already have the hockey stop.

So, anyway, we were just going to have fun for the evening. We started stroking around the rink and I took a little break at the boards to stretch a bit when one of our club's few ice dancers approached me. "What are you working on?" she asked. I said that I was trying to get my back crossovers. And she gave me a quick lesson "becasue it looks like my partner's not coming tonight." Worked on BO edges for a bit, then forward stoking and FO edges. Then backwards stroking. I had been doing the 1/2 swizzle and lifting my foot (what I was taught in class) but she showed me how to push with the inside edge (more similar to forward stroking). Then she guided me around the rink twice like that. Tremendously helpful for me as I'm still a chicken about going backwards -- I really was barely holding her hands. She even complemented me -- said "Oh, my, you are quite talented, aren't you! I make one suggestion and you do it right away!" If only my talent would vanquish my fear, lol! Then she helped hubby for a while and, miracle of miracles, GOT HIM TO BEND HIS KNEES!!!!

Here we had gone to the session to be social and support the club, but we got a free lesson out of it and made a new friend! I did admit to her that I absolutely love watching her and her partner fly around the rink practicing dances -- they look like they are having marvelous fun!

So it was very nice to have a stroking lesson -- and fun! I'd been getting so stressed about my stinkin' left over right back crossovers and really appreciated the help and the fun!!!