wow... congratulations and respect!

For me:

Old-Timer: Worked on the free dance and all the bits that didn't work on Wednesday are working now.

Newbie: Still unsure of our start on the Canadian cha-cha; meant to work on it after Husband had left but - er - didn't.

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

Old-timer: hmmm...my RBI 3 turn is now larger than a dinner plate.

Newbie: I worked exclusively on the silver moves 3-turn patterns today, and they are so far from passing! In fact at one point my left shoulder was heading for the ice and my right shoulder the roof. I have all sorts of upper body weirdness and I had to laugh. Also need more power - I find it hard to do these BI turns with any power. So, practice, practice, practice needed (which is hard to do when you only skate once a week. I'm giving up HBO and am looking into what else I can cut). Won't be able to test these moves the next session at this rate, but I still hope to in the fall.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

[Newbie]
Been working on starting to break in my new skates (Harlick Finalists with Pattern 99s). I commented to my mom that I had forgotten what a PITA breaking in skates was...I've skated in them for about an hour total, mainly just stroking and doing crossovers. The change in blade is significant (old skates had Comets...I feel as if I am forced to have better technique with the new blades...because the toepicks aren't there as a safety net....) and I can feel it when I switch back to my old skates. I think today I'm going to skate the entire hour and a half in my new skates, but I really want to break these in the right way, which, according to Harlick means 5 hours skating lightly in them (no jumps and spins) and then after that being more aggressive.

[Oldtimer]
While my axels are not "perfect" yet, they are getting so close.... I keep saying that but it's true!! I just need that AH-HA moment!!

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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

Oldtimer: I had a decent practice today that was much better than the one I had on Tuesday. Maybe because there was no footworky stuff at the beginning of my lesson today... Anyways, After I tightened my skates, my jumps were okay and my camel came back from the dead.

Newbie: I'm late with my program music. There is a long intro that we haven't choreographed yet, and I just seemed to always start late after it! Hopefully it will work better next week.

Oldtimer: I was able to hit all my elements in my program! Well, at least all the jumps, my choreo is off with the music/forgotten, but at least all the important stuff is there.

Newbie: After run-thrus of my program, my coach and I started working on FS6 stuff again starting with the spins... I just *love* spins... For some reason, my trasition from sit to back sit is just gone. I can do both, just not together. Maybe it's because I haven't worked on it for a LONG time. It's been two or three months, if not more.

Old Timer:

I had another really good skate today! A group of girls from our PE group went up there this afternoon as a reward trip, and I stayed on after most of them had left. Things were working really well today...I always seem to skate better when there's stuff to worry about that I want to forget...


Newbie:
Most people weren't very impressed with the things I could do...so yes, my 3-jump's kinda puny and my spirals weren't very high because I was in jeans...but honestly, I showed them my step sequence - 'is that it?'. I'd like to see them try it...


Old Timer:
Someone told me I made my landing positions look really nice and easy And everyone was strangly impressed with a one foot glide...

Oh! And I managed to get one girl, who was clinging to the barrier at the beginning, to skate in between me and someone else. I was so proud of her

I bet your new blades will help your axel takeoff a lot. Since Comets are so flat, it's probably harder to roll up over the rocker to the toe and take off straight up off the pick, but that will be easier to do on the new Pattern 99's. Just point your toes hard on takeoff and you'll spring straight up! Come to think of it, I landed my first clean axel not long after getting new blades with a rounder rocker. . .

Oldtimer
I completed every element in my program this morning, including both axels and the flying camel. Also had good lesson with my primary coach on takeoff technique for double toe and double sal. I ended up with a perfect double toe takeoff (now I just need to do another rotation in the air instead of doing a toeloop-loop) and we also figured out what I've been doing wrong on the double sal takeoff. I may be ready to get that 2Sal back now. . .

Newbie
Rushed the transition into the pancake position on my combination spin and got fewer than 2 revolutions in position as a result. Also tried lutzes from the traditional back crossover-glide entrance and was a total spaz. I haven't done them that way in ages!

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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

I hope so! I can feel that these blades are much faster as well... I just want to be able to do it NOW and not have to break in the boots....oh well, that's the price I pay It will happen soon.... I'm so impatient....

And yes, it is hard to roll up and jump straight off the pick on the comets because there is nothing to roll up on!

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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

Oooohhh. . . I can feel that axel on the way. . .!

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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

I think my coach will pee her pants when that happens...and I think the other coaches will throw a party...I think they are sick of seeing me being sooooo close, yet soooooo far.... Coach has already thrown a tantrum like a 2 year old because I am so close....

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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

Today was my first day back on the ice after a year off and having a baby, and surprisingly, it went really well. At first I just spent some time stroking round the ice. After about 10 minutes of that, I did some forwards and backwards crossovers, which came back to me pretty easily, so no problems there really, except the back crossovers were a little bit scratchy. Three turns were another story. The forward outside three turns were ok, but definitely not great, and the inside three turns were horrible. Will definitely need to work on those. I was a little scared to attempt mohawks at first, but they were still fine. I got about 5 revs on my two foot spin, but my one-foot was non-existent, even though I did some pretty good spin entries from back crossovers. Forward inside and outside edges on a line were a little rough, but I blame that a lot on the fact that my blades were in serious need of a sharpening, and I was skidding on the edges. The back outside edges were great, but I'm going to need to put some serious practice into the back insides. Did a lot of good waltz jumps, some half flips, and some teeny tiny toe loops and salchows (pretty much just walk-throughs.) I'm so glad that I won't have to start over from scratch, and now I'm even more excited to be skating again.

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Jessica

http://ilove2skate.livejournal.com/

http://www.myspace.com/sk8fabulous

[Oldtimer]
Skated the full hour and a half in my new skates....

[Newbie]
Didn't do any jumps because I really want to take my time breaking these skates in to do it right...But, did some serious work on moves (and did some refreshers on some previous moves - 5 step mohawk and 8 step mohawk). Felt comfortable enough in the boots/blades to work on the novice moves as well...counters are going to be the equivalent to brackets, I think...maybe just the back ones....

I also did some spins...just scratch and some back scratch spins, just to figure out where to spin on the blades....because of the difference in rocker, spin entry is a little different...on my old blades I would grind against the toepick, with this, I feel as if I can't do that, which is probably a good thing because then I won't slow myself down as much...

I can't wait to start jumping in these...but I've only skated in them for 2.5 hours and Harlick recommends 5 hours of lighter skating, and then progressively starting to work on jumps again (their web site has different information...4-6 hours with only the bottom 2 hooks done, then another 4-6 hours with the bottom 3 done, then finally jumping)...but I want to jump NOW!

I'm glad that I didn't change boots today...I am feeling a lot more comfortable with the blades now....

Limited skating next week due to a vacation (well, not really a vacation...I'm visiting a friend who just had a baby and helping with their 4.5 year old)...we'll see if I might be able to make it to the rink on Saturday of next week to visit with the folks from West Michigan...

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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

A couple things, Kim -
I am on my fourth pair of Harlicks and I start jumping as soon as I feel I can lace the third hook without pain (lace bite, blister, blood...). Usually for me, it's day 2 (hour 2), and I usually have a lesson that day which means Axels and doubles. I have never prematurely broken down a pair of skates or broken them in funny, and for those that know me on this board, they know I am hard on boots. Their suggesting is more for kids that us.

For the back counters (well, all the counters actually), think about riding the edge on a diagonal towards the turn versus coming across the circle. This should eliminate any change of edge before your turns and if you check properly afterwards, voila! Perfect counters, every time.

Newbie: Need to clean up my CW crosscuts forwards and backward so that they look neater for testing. Need to stretch my back crossing leg in position 4 times a day to stretch out my hip joints to help with my crosscuts, especially CW.

Need to get more speed in my spiral sequence so that it will fit within the time frame of the music. I also need to change which hand grabs my skate blade on the RFI catchfoot of the change edge spiral. I've been using my right hand to grab the left skate blade but I'm thinking that it somehow twist my body weirdly and somehow makes my skating foot's blade skid on the ice slowing me down before getting to my second part of the change edge in the spiral sequence. Need to pop up my freeleg higher and faster after letting go as I'm changing edge to the RFO spiral so that my freeleg doesn't go below my hip at any point.
Need to wear my skates inside the house more to break those boots down enough so I can bend as much as I need to for testing (Friday was the third day that I did my skates all the way up since I bought them. Wish they would have had a boot that was an in between stiffness between the Jackson boots I have now and the ones that are one step down from what I have now. Those would have been just right for me.

Oldtimer: Showed off in front of coach that I could do my change edge spiral without touching down anymore. Did all my corkscrews fast and dizzying (sinus troubles because of allergies). Almost down far enough with all the hooks done up on my skates during sitspin. One of my camel attempts had 2 rotations but I never got my head down. Yup leg was in the right place but it looked like a combination of an attitude spin and a camel spin. Loop jump fully rotated and landed on one foot with just a slight touch down 3 or 4 times. Getting close to clean. Soon I'll be cleaning up my flip and lutz. Cleaned up the backward steps in the Fiesta Tango including the cross and the closed Mohawk was clean. Did a stag jump straight into a RFI catchfoot spiral with no steps in between right from the stag jump. Did the same with the split jump too. Coach wouldn't try it. LBI catchfoot spiral now has speed and a good curved edge finally.

Curious? What level would the following spiral sequence be with the freeleg being just 20 degrees above the hip with all positions held at least up to 4 one thousand? RFI Catch foot CE to RFO let go of skate blade open mohawk 2 RBx to LBI catch foot spiral covering the full ice pad on definate edges ( no flats) in a serpentine pattern? This is what I'm striving for at the Adult Bronze/Silver level in my freeskate and interpretive programs. I'm trying to get that 3.4 in CPC (COP [ISU], IJS [USA]) for my spiral sequence as the jumps in Adult Bronze and Silver are worth next to nothing.

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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

It would be level 4 until June 1, and level 3 after June 1 (after June 1, the variety of edges is a requirement for level 3 or 4, but no longer a level-raising feature). That's assuming the following: (1) the catch foot positions are called as difficult variations by the technical specialist at your competition (if the entire free foot is not higher than the head for 3 seconds, it might not get credit); (2) you are counting correctly (Counting to four-one-thousand from the moment you think your free leg is above hip height might not actually be 3 seconds in position); (3) the change of edge is completed without the free leg dropping below hip level, and, after June 1, the change of edge must be completed within 1 meter.

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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

I seem to have forgotten how to skate. I had yet another bad fall today- once again catching my toepick (while trying to check a back inside 3 turn). At least I'm not catching them while doing stroking. It has been confirmed by a coach that while I scrape my toe picks on almost everything I DO NOT toe push.

Anyhow- the fall was at the very end of class and was bad enough that I couldn't get up on my own. I bumped the side of my knee and I just couldn't get it straight. A coach helped me to a hockey box, and I tried to breathe deeply so as not to cry. A friend came over to check on me, and her hug made me start crying, but then we started laughing and that made me catch my breath well enough that I tried the low freestyle class. It still REALLY hurts. I hate falling in singles- synchro falls are always so much better because I'm moving fast enough that I slide.

Okay skating report:
Just got back my skates. I need new blades NOW. These ones are completely shot. Rather than having that "new sharpening" feel to them they just felt completely off. I have totally lost my backspin. I skated for about 45 minutes during freestyle. Mostly stroking, progressives, crossrolls. Spins and jumps were so frustrating so I barely did any.

Specialty class was nice today (except the fall). We worked on field moves. Started with crossovers in a figure 8. The left side forward is SO difficult now that I am getting strong pushes. I do each side of the circle in 3 pushes (I remember when thinking getting down to 5 was impossible) but I'm so unsteady with that power. The right side is getting good. Backwards felt great- not as scratchy as normal, but scratchy. Got told to turn my palms down- guess that's going to be another one of those things to remember to do differently on Tuesdays than Saturdays. I kind of like them up- I feel like I'm channeling Kristi Yamaguchi and it makes me think to take a big wide step like a figure skater. I don't really know if she holds them upward though.

Did power 3s next. I got complimented for staying on the axis, but not much else was said about it. We did them "synchronized" which made it impossible to build up power, because I had to stay with the counts, which weren't getting faster- but then the instructor admonished us for dragging our toe picks which slowed us down. Urgh. Maybe he was just counting what the people nearest him were doing, rather than acting as a metronome. 3s in the field were my downfall- literally. I can do them on the back outside, but not on the back inside. My knee looks like it has a second knee cap- it has a huge red/purple bump on the inside.

Freestyle was next. I took low freestyle and we started with scratch spins. I was getting 8-10 revolutions, but the problem was I could count them really well- I was traveling insane amounts. Then we worked on inside edges, and I moved on to cross rolls.

Also taught girl scout groups and that's always fun. Now I need to go ice my knee. Stupid toepicks and stupid back inside 3 turns.

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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)

Thanks for the suggestions!!

With the boots....I am just wary because my previous pair of Finalists (my 2 or 3rd pair) broke down in just about 6 months...I bought them before I stopped skating and never broke them in....then came back with a vengence last September and needed new boots in March...don't know what I did...

My forward counters are getting better, but back turns always give me issues at first...I will just need to work on them some more...but I will test out your suggestion

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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

Could be the old pair's leather was dried out if you didn't use them for awhile which would make them break down faster.

Anyway, good luck with getting them broken in.