I'm testing this week so... I feel this is rather appropriate.

PASS: I got up and skated this morning. I hate hate hate getting up in the morning! Nothing should ever be scheduled before 9 AM. haha.

Retry: My moves sucked today. My backwards crossover/stroking hit outside edges instead of inside; I fell on a 3-turn and most of them were off pattern; I forgot some of the patterns... It was horrible.

PASS: Practice got better as the hour wore on. I actually did a decent set of outside and inside 3-turns at the end and my power pulls got better (not passing, but better).

HELP!!! I need positive energy. Stronger abs wouldn't hurt either.
Now I'm going to do some crunches...

Pass: had a great time at my coach's show this weekend. The ensemble numbers were very well done, and there was a good mix of soloists. I skated in the Saturday show and Mika and I helped out on Sunday. The group lesson kids were too cute!

I've not had too much chance to practice as my knee is still not great. I'll take next week off, then start on a new interp program and pairs.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Tee hee hee... I'm testing next week and skated the early session at another rink. Both this morning and last Friday I have done my program at 8am. This morning.... had another 99% clean program- this time it was the ending scratch spin.

Also took some time toward the end of the session to work on basic stroking, crossovers and three turns. I need to clean up what I have now if I'm going to compete at AN next year, much less Bronze level.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Wow, this thread title sure is ironic, at least for me...

Retry: My Silver MIF test Saturday. This was my 3rd attempt, and I thought I had a chance. But my 8-step was scratchy (although the judges didn't comment on that, just uneven cadence) and my BI 3's were skidded and early, esp RBI. I also put my free foot (well, more like free toe pick) down briefly on one of the forward power pulls, although 2 of the 3 judges still passed me on them.

What was surprising was one judge failed me on my spirals, saying that I only held the right one for 3 secs instead of 4. I held it to the center line, but I tend to skate fast into the spirals, so I guess it took less time to reach the center. I'll just use fewer intro steps from now on, but it really bugs me. If this judge had passed that move, then I would have been within 1 tenth (b/c this judge passed both the power pulls and the FO-BI 3's, which my coach couldn't believe) and I could have had a reskate on something and possibly passed. Both of the other judges passed the spirals, one over.


Pass: Even though I failed overall, 1 judge passed me. And I was only off by a couple of tenths with the other 2, which is closer than I was on my previous 2 attempts. I passed the cross strokes, power pulls, and FI-BO 3's (and the spirals) which made me happy. I'm feeling much more confident that I might actually pass this test someday. I really need to get those BI 3's working correctly.

I may ask my coach to start working on some of the Gold moves while we continue to work on the 8-step and 3-turns. But then again, I'm planning on entering the Chesapeake Open for CM and Spins, and I want to be ready to retry Silver soon. But I think that working on some of the Gold MIF, like the power circles, will help me. I'll see what my coach thinks.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Retry: The alarm went at 4:00 a.m. - I went back to sleep! I woke up again at 4:45 and thought “Why am I even considering getting up at this hour to skate on a Monday off?” Because I enjoy it? No. Because it’s good for me? So is SLEEP! And then I got up.

Pass: The rink was DESERTED! Even by the time I took to the ice at 6:50 there was NOBODY around. Perfect! I put on my 1960's Rock & Roll and went to work.

Retry: Spins still aren’t back and jumps are uncoordinated

Pass: Edges are smokin’! I’m really getting into this 5/16 RoH! My edges are just SO secure Did a bunch of FXOs working on DEEP edges, arms, and “presentation” - SMILE stupid! - alternating FO and FI edges, and BO edges, again with presentation. The back outside edges are improving by leaps and bounds. Spent some time on backward stroking, making sure to stay on an outside edge, and that’s improving to.

Retry: Still suffering from energy depletion (from the bad cold) and using paper towel (Kleenex just doesn’t cut it!)

.... but aside from wheeze-over-the-boards breaks it was a good skate!

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

How frustrating! I am sure Carolina Kostner would fail her spirals under that judge because there's no way you can go into a flat spiral with any speed and hold it for 4 seconds without covering more than half the length of the rink. Frankly, I didn't even realize you were supposed to hold it for 4 seconds; I thought it was just end line to center line. . .

I think it 's a great idea to work on a few of the Gold MIF. The back inside double 3's will make your back inside 3's feel easier, and the power circles will really improve your overall stroking.

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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

Sorry about the retry Debbie S. At least it looks like you might pass the next time.

Pass: Spins are back! yeah! blade finally in the right place. And I love that feeling when my hip and leg come around at the same time. Woohoo.

Jumps are good too, loop is progressing. Double foot every 5th time instead of every time. Well... they still are very very tiny, and not entirely landed on the toe, and probably cheated, but I can see that someday I'll be able to do this jump!

Retry: Power 3s - yuck. Skidding on 3s and back edges sometimes too deep and ending up on toe pick. Especially on the right foot. So maybe that is still a getting used to the blade placement issue. I hope.

DD passed her Prelim dances this weekend - good for her!

PASS - I passed the Rocker Foxtrot and the Tango this weekend - on to the Pre-Gold dances! It was a good skate - the partnered versions were awesome, and the solos went well too. All three judges passed me - over the average on the Tango even, which was the less comfortable dance for me.

RE-TRY: Ice shut-down season. Need I say more.

GL to those testing this week!

Good to hear you have some good practices before May 14. Keep at the practice!!! "No mind" (ala the Last Samurai) to May 14. You are just doing another "practice session!" Got it?

Debbie S: I'd hold off on the Gold Moves 'til after Chessie Open... way too many thing on your plate there!!!

The next open test session? Get on it!!! And practice those areas!!! You're SOOOOO close!!!

Pass:
I did a few good loops. One good loop-loop
I did a few good flips
I did one very good lutz...

Retry:
...and then the rest are DUDS!!!

I'm trying to get down lower on that sit spin. So far, no go!!! Gotta keep trying 'til I'm sitting way down at the bottom there.

Pass:
Nice easy start... did forward crossovers 'til the cows come home. Did my 3turns on the line. Trying to get my FI mohawks at even faster speeds so I would have no hesitation on it. I would not do any jumps or spins 'til the last 20 minutes of the session, cuz this is what I came to do!

Retry:
My FO-BI bracket sucked on my left foot.

Pass:
The right FO-BI bracket is okay though

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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!!!

PASS:

Skating Basics:

• Practiced forward crossovers again 'til the cows come home. Primary coach watched me while he was teaching another student. Seemed impressed... but don't know if it's b/c of the crossovers itself or rather it's b/c I *AM* practicing those forward crossovers on my own..
• Practiced all 3 turns... yes, including the dreaded BI3's!!! I'm making some progress. I managed to eek out one or two wimpy ones...
• Practiced faster FI mohawks... SCARY SCARY!!!

Spins:

• One foot spin is good
• Sit spin is okay, am aiming to go down a bit more... Started getting there after I warmed up a bit.

Jumps:

• Loop was good
• Flip was okay
• VERY FIRST lutz of the night was good again...

RETRY:
And then afterward the rest were DUDS again!!! I just don't know why the lutz just plays with me like this!!! (Okay, I landed a couple more but they were royally cheated on the takeoff.)

Camels are non-existent!!!

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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!!!

I'm sorry about the retry Debbie - better luck next time. It sounds like you are getting closer.

Well done and congratulations saras! Way to go.

Pass

I did too! Passed first dance test late last week (Dutch and Canasta) with (mostly) nice comments. I loved testing - I didn't have to share the ice with 8yo's in rentals going all over the place.

Even better, DH passed his dance test too. Now we're both on to E2 (Fiesta and Swing).

Retry

Nothing - I'm still on a high!

PASS: The fever I had Saturday night and all of Sunday lifted. I was able to go to the rink to skate for at least an hour of my 1 hour 50 minute session. Bunion and ankle are almost all healed up. Sinuses are starting to actually clear.

First half of the hour all my corkscrews and sitspins were on. Sitspin was again 90 degrees but not as low as Friday. No coach to compete agaist today. LOL Waltz jump was nice and flowy. Salchow was solid. Toe loop only had one time when I forgot to pick in with my toe pick and slid. Starting to get in the habit of keeping my head up and off of the ice when executing my jumps. I keep thinking look into the audience which helps me to stop the break at the waist.

Middle of the session I took a break from freeskate to work on my creative dance. I played around with the opening steps. Here's what I did for my opening steps. I did a RFO ce RFI swing roll into a RFI twizzle and then a LFO swing roll into a one footed side show stop. This takes up a little more than a quarter of the length of the ice. Then I went into my creative dance steps that my coach tweaked with a bit on Friday but will play with more tomorrow.

Just before I hit total melt down physically, I started working on my spiral sequence starting with the opening pose / inside spread eagle (this eagle is a baby) to L3 to alternating BX to waltz jump setup/waltz jump/ land to strong deep forward crosscuts into my RFI catchfoot spiral (1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand, 4) to RFO Spiral (same count) to BX to LBI catchfoot spiral to salchow/toe loop combination. This fills one and quarter of the ice pad. One thing I do need to do is to go into my first spiral just after the goalie area so that I can be ready to change edge from my first spiral position to the next without putting my foot down. I want to try and get a Level 2 SPSQ. I think the base mark for that is 2.30.

Then it was "REtry" time. I had it a wall physically when I went back to my spins with 20 minutes left. My salchows turned into sour cows. My loops were loopier. The waltz jump decided to waltz away. The sit would not sit down and the camel took it's humps and went down stream to drink. My body was spent. Well, I'm just getting over injury and illness. The left hip tightened up and was quite tender but the good news is that I was only in slight pain and I stopped trying to do the camel and sit so as to rest the hip for Tuesday.

I should be healthier on Tuesday and my stamina should be much better.

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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

Pass: some encouraging news from my coach is that after dusting off silver MIF, they are not as bad as reported. I'm still a bit shy on the mohawk in the 8-step but both directions are feeling okay. Straight line spirals are a breeze. I'm finding my groove on my cross strokes. Power pulls are 3/4 of the way there, I am having no trouble going backwards and can really feel the "power pull", but the forward ones are sketchy, wussy and make my knees hurt. Did a few nice flip/loops too.

RETRY: I can't even go there with the 3 turns in the field. And the theory of walking away from my lutz for a few weeks and I'll forget my bad habits is a lie, I feel like a beginner with the stupid thing, all over again. My axel attempts feel more comfortable than this fool jump.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Pass - I had so much more energy skating first thing in the morning than I do when I skate after work in the evening. Its amazing. Wish I could have my lesson in the morning. But I'm not at the right rink for my coach. MIF better today. Probably passable. Aiming for June. Jumps were good, did several loops, and they are getting more predictable (but not any bigger yet). Spins are back. Tried the silver spiral move - need to work on that though.

Retry - camel spin, sit spin after the first two I couldn't do a good one. Tried some brackets - LOL - those are going to be fun to learn.

Congratulations! I can barely stumble and kick my way through those dances; I don't even do them socially yet. So I am in awe!

Pass: A much better skate today. All the things we wanted to show our coach which were clunky, weren't! Now, if only they will stay that way. He helped us with my STF on the Swing Dance, which had gone - not missing, exactly but wide-stepped and lurchy - and reminded me about keeping my free leg back in a few places on the Dutch Waltz (I do suffer from free leg creep!). Free dance went well except I messed up the forward section of the spin, and then we spun so hard on the backspin that I was dizzy!

Then I had my skates sharpened, and they are wonderful!

Retry: Nothing much really; Husband's spins went walkabout when he started trying too hard, but other than that it was a good session. I did get a bit cold waiting for my skates to be sharpened, and my fitness trainer, the mother of one of the skaters, wasn't in - I could have sat and gossiped with her in the pros' room and stayed warm. I decided I didn't want a cup of tea badly enough to ask the coaches if I might make one, and anyway, the weather is lovely here so I warmed up very quickly when I came out of the rink!

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

PASS: My stroking is feeling a lot smoother and more controlled these days, and thanks to all the drilling, FXO and BXO both are improving as well. Plus, during yesterday's lesson, my coach praised my BO edges! She said I was getting nice and deep and well-centered on them. Yay!

RETRY: I was feeling like death the whole lesson, thanks to a springtime cold and a pinched nerve that likes to awaken periodically and torture me. But if I was skating well when I felt that crappy, think how much better I'll be when I'm feeling good!


~~taijiya

Pass:
Another 99% clean runthrough on my test program today. Secondary Coach was pleased and told me that this is the most ready she's seen me for any test!

Retry:
Was in my sitspin when I was coming up, caught the weight on the back of my spinning blade and fell during program runthrough. At least I snapped back into focus to skate the remainder of the program clean.

Asked to work on three turns in lieu of the flip today. Secondary Coach thought I was crazy, but I told her how I thought my 3's sucked and I need to get basics stronger for a potential appearance at AN 09.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

[Pass]
Axels are getting big...still not landed, but bigger and oh so close!! One of the coaches said that we need to have a cake when I finally land it because I have been working so hard on it....

Spins were really good today...

[Retry]
So, while I am excited to be finally moving on to a new set of moves, dang, am I banging my head against a wall with the novice moves....I know that I just learned them, but I really want to get them up to speed....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Expect to be for a long time with Novice MIF!! There are so many new things introduced in this test.

Sorry about the retry. I also think it's a good idea to go ahead with Gold moves. If I didn't have Pre-Juv and Juv moves to work on, I would have gone nuts with just Prelim all these years. And, BTW, I can do some of those to passing standard even though I am still not ready for Prelim!

CONGRATULATIONS!

CONGRATULATIONS to both of you!

I have bad knees, but when I do the F power pulls correctly, they don't hurt. The knee action is up and down, but the change of edge comes from the hip. Are you possibly using your knees for that?

Pass:
Went to the last 1.5 hr of an empty public session today and really worked! Started with warm up exercises including F/B two foot turns in a straight line. Towards the end of the session, one of the other coaches (elite skater) was free and we were just chatting, so I asked her how she keeps up her speed on those. We did them in parallel and talked about it while skating. Coming back from the first time across, I realized I had kept up with her! She also showed me a B power pull excercise she had just learned. You put your free toe on a hockey puck to keep the free foot close and work the inner thigh. Not having a hockey puck (or the nerve to try it), I did it without, and got more power than ever before. Did an entire length and end on one footm then realized that my quad was complaining. Worked on core body control on two foot spins and got some very tight tracings. Managed to get all the way across on the alt FI threes, but did toe tap twice on the RFI's. Finished up with fast B power XO's, emphasizing deep BI edges which I've seen more advanced skaters doing. It was great fun and scared me at the end when I realized how fast I was going.

Retry:
Alt FO threes were flying across the line, but still not completely checked . My middle still turns to jelly on one foot spins. I am really feeling it from those B power pulls! Hope it doesn't affect tomorrow's planned repeat performance.

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Pass: Lovely sharp blades and fast ice.... blissy! Run-throughs of everything mostly okay - niggles, only. Even free dance is coming-along-nicely now.

Retry: It would be nice to be able to stop.... It would also be nice to be able to do Mohawks and inside 3-turns, but they will reappear very soon, no doubt. It would also be as well to be able to control every body-part - yeah, right. Oh, and not to be out of practice on back cross-rolls!

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

Sorry can't do pass/retry I don't want to jinx any test skills.

Good Did some really nice Back Inside 3-turns. And they were easy! I did them from crossovers and as a double 3. I can do them as well on either side too. Can't say that about any of my other 3 turns.

Okay I've been making progress on my backspin, but my group lesson instructor told me my arms are wrong. I've been entering the spin with open arms, and he wants them closed. I've been working on this spin for over a year. Is it just another way of doing it- or did my old coach have me doing them wrong? All the other spins I enter closed- but I figured it was a difference of forward vs back spin.

Bad My swing rolls stink.


First dance lesson saturday! We aren't doing dances yet, just skills.

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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)

What backspin entrance are you using? That makes more of a difference. The FI3 entrance is usually taught with either open or checked arms, the pivot-and-lift entrance is easier if the arms are closed or only slightly open to the front.

I so want to go skating. But work calls.

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I do a right inside edge to a left inside edge into a 3 turn. So it sounds like either way for the arms.

The pivot and lift into spins has never worked for me. I don't understand how to get off the toepick.

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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)

Yeah, it's one of those situations where one instructor wants it done THIS way and another wants it THAT way. You're stuck in the middle.
I don't know about the "closed arms" on the entrance for that, though. How would you "pull in"?
Are you sure the instructor isn't asking to you wait BEFORE pulling the arms in closed? I find a lot of students struggle with that - they rush to pull it all tight and then the spin isn't controlled.

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