This is for yesterday morning - I had a practice but no lessons. My older sister came with me though, so most of the time was spent helping her.

Groovy:

Spins better than they were last time, even though they're still a couple of steps back from where I got them to before. The backspin seems to be slowly improving too - I need to make sure I stay on a BO edge (without going to a FI one), and to keep it going. Feels a little easier and more balanced though.

I spent time on practicing jump entries (without actually jumping, I mean). It really helps. After that, I did some good waltz jumps, salchows and toe loops, and did a toe-toe combo (haven't tried one of those for ages).

All turns were good - I did some of what I think are twizzles (fast double 3s), and also 3 turns/mohawks etc. I love doing BO3s. (Does that make me weird? lol)

Spent time on edges too. The session wasn't as busy as it was before either.

Gross:

Spins a couple of steps back from where I got them too before.

I miss my old rink. I don't know anyone at this one, haven't got a coach yet, haven't had any lessons for about a month, and overall it doesn't seem anywhere near as friendly as my old one. I asked some boy where I should go to find out about lessons (he was wearing one of those official fleeces so he must be advanced), he didn't even look me in the eye before saying "I don't know" and then the people coming up to him looked at me like I was a complete freak! Probably thinks he's the next Plushenko or something.

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

Well, this is for yesterday and I haven't posted in awhile.....

Groovy: went to local rink and it was so great! Just another adult (wow!) in lesson with her coach and a girl (more advanced, about 13 yr.) so I finally had enough ice space to actually do my whole program without having to stop for other skaters. I must have done it 8 times, without the music - darn I didn't bring my tape. Found some problems, like placement of elements (kept running out of space at end of rink) and making some transitions. Was able to do the half-flip and half lutz although a little scared of the lutz if I'm going too fast. Did focus on keeping on the outside edge and not lifting picking free leg too high. Did feel a real sense of accomplishment!

Gross: only got one spin to actually work on center. I still rush bringing the free leg around, but it is starting to get better. Still have trouble going from a RIE into a LFOE to start power 3's. I think I just don't bend enough and get my left foot in under my body (too wide stepping)

The adult skater was practicing her program with a very patient coach. When she finished one time, I clapped with my mittens on to provide encouragement and said I was so glad to see another adult. Unfortunately (and I remember the feelings all too well), she was all negative and worried as she is testing on Thursday. Neither of them even acknowledged me the rest of the time. I hope she does well on Thursday!

This is for yesterday, too.

Groovy: The flying sitspin is coming along nicely, considering that I've only been doing it again for a week. Coach liked it. Started preparing to do doubles. Coach actually told me I needed to bend my knees less on the salchow entry (so I can get the necessary spring) - something I never thought I'd ever hear him say . Worked on corrections to my loop entry. We also discussed next year's goals - to go to AN again, this time with at least 2, preferably 3 doubles in my program and to pass the Intermediate moves in the field. They're big goals, but hopefully we can do them.

Gross: My flying camel is all messed up. I'm keeping my upper body upright in the jump portion, for some reason. Coach wanted me to review my AN tape and look for it - and ewwww, there it was. I'm also dropping my hip on jump landings and spin exits, something else I need to fix.

Off ice for the next week - for vacation this time, not injury.

Groovy - Finally my dance partner in crime came back to the ice after several weeks off for a neck/shoulder injury. So nice to skate with a partner again We got comfy with our Swing Dance and Fiesta Tango, working particularly on that Fiesta end pattern. Something is going whonky at the point we step over, then step forward on the right inside edge. He ends up struggling to stay close to me...hmmmm...we need our coach to look at this.

Gross - Spins....just awful. I have developed a total fear of the camel again after a nasty fall out of one two weeks ago. I think my skating foot is sort of turning in while I'm spinning. Very weird.

Skater1964....like I said to you before, that salchow of yours is begging to become a double!

GROSS: I'm still sidelined with my ankle injury but I'm seeing a lot of improvement in the last few days, so I expect to be back on the ice in another week. Yay!

Groovy- My spirals are gettin' their stretch back into them. And my ina bauers are better. Coach had me working on layback and im not so tense when im in the layback position now. i can actually just let go and relax and let myself spin. I was warming up my axel and one of the top skaters at my rink told me the jump looked a ton better than she's ever seen it before. i was totally honored by that cause she hardly talks to anyone cause shes really stuck-up. so that made me rethink that i need to treat her w/ kindness no matter what. um yeah, and then double salchows were alright. flying camels rocked tho.
Gross- Double flip and double lutz!!! arghhh, i was doing great 2footed, but fully rotated 2lutzes like a week ago, but i cant get them now. my coach told me all i needed to do was check my landing and i would have the jump, but now i am pre-rotating and i dunno how to break this new habit of mine. very fustrating.
Sk8Bunny

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~Sk8Bunny~
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"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"

I skated this morning for about an hour and I would have liked to have done more but my back was hurting ( i hurt it very seriously a few years ago and whereas i used to do triples, now i can only do doubles)so i had to stop.

Groovy: I started working on a new FD today which was ok and i'm starting to like dance, I don't find it hard its just not freeskating.

gross: i'm doing dance not freeskating.

i did a few double toes and had fun doing 3s on a harness so the landing was softer and therefore less painful- its nice to know i can still rotate a 3s- maybe if i have a good day tomorrow i'll try a 3 loop just for fun. i miss doing triples and laybacks which used to be one of my best elements- i can't even do one at all anymore but its frustrating because i know how to do i just can't get into the position any more and i learnt the layback when i was about 6.

My aim is to go to junior nats next year for dance but I'll have to work hard because i've only been doing dance seriously for 3 months, its strange skating with someone though because i've skated since the age of two all by myself so thats 14 years and now holding someones hand and being responsible for someone else as well is weird and hard but my partner Sam is great and he is ambitious and supportive and he doesn't push me if my back hurts, he'll make me stop which is what I need because I would keep on skating until i couldn't walk anymore basically.

gross: i have a sprained ankle
grosser: i dont skate in the spring
grossest: i wont be saktin till july!

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beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

Groovy: Layback spins...still spinning on a dime. Camel spins also increasing in speed, and I had a more than respectable backspin today! We worked the mechanics of the flying camel too--that is one move I really want this year.

Gross: I definitely have exercise-triggered asthma. Again, after 30 minutes in the cold, dry air of the rink, I felt like I had been hit in the chest with a truck. My doctor said not to worry about this and I won't since the feeling doesn't linger after I take a brief rest. I wish the rink were closer so I could just go skate for endurance more often on the oh-so-sweet adults only session. Between school obligations and personal matters, I am lucky to get there once a week these days.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Groovy: With 5 days to go I got all my 1/2 jumps back for my first competition Also in my one foot spin I can now get two revolutions around with my free foot crossed!

Gross: My sprained ankle from 3 weeks ago still has my foot bruised and hurting when I skate so I can only skate 30 minutes a day.

OK. I thought I'd venture back in here. I've been stuck in ISI Gamma for about 6 months due to FO3s. Grrr... But my show is ending this week and I'll finally have time to practice again! I've been working on plays/musicals since September and haven't been able to practice too much outside of my lesson. Starting next week I plan to get down there at least twice before my leson. I think I really need to spend an entire practice session going backwards as I think that's where my proble lies -- I have a really lousy backwards one foot glide.

Gross: FO3s. I'm struggling to keep my hips open after the turn. This is very odd for me as a former dancer -- my hips are naturally open but on this skill I just can't keep my foot glued to the back of my skate. I will officially begin practicing them in an arabesque position the Saturday in hopes to get the turn fully rotated and keep my hips open.

Someone finally told me to start doing back crossovers with the slide instead of the glide back, lift foot, cross method and now my brain's all confused and I can't do either. Pratice!

Groovy: The other skills from Gamma are passable. I need to work on more speed through the FI mohawk combination. I've got the steps right and I'm not relying on natural turn-out for the mohawk. Have also experimented with FI closed mohawks and can do those also but even more slowly.

Instructor spotted me on FO3s and they were "perfect": completely rotated, quiet and steady. So now I know what they should feel like. Stopped doing them away from the wall as I'm approaching the turn too fast and have slammed into the wall more than once and found that to be not too helpful. Once I got my toepick stuck in the plastic advertisement cover. Don't know how I managed that!

Because my last group instructor sensed my frustration, she taught me the Delta elements as well and some of Freestyle 1 so I've been practicing forward edges, lunges and pivots, too. Even tried a FI3 the other day when I was feeling more confident. Both sides got around but ended in a standstill.

I need to have my blades sharpened and will probably leave my skates on Saturday after my lesson and pick them up Tuesday/Wednesday when I FINALLY get back to practice. I was skidding on crossovers so I think it's about time!

quarkiki2, your post sounds almost like mine.

I've been working on Gamma and Delta elements and the FO3 & FI3 are my downfall. Had a lesson from my coach last night and she helped me get my shoulders and hips in better form. By the time we were done, I could kind of do them all. Of course, my muscles will have forgotten all of it by the time I skate tonight.

She had me doing the back crossovers, glide, and lift foot practice, too.

Keeping my hips open is all but impossible on the FI3's and I end up anywhere but on the practice circle. Either that or I get too far forward on my blades and scrape to a stop.

My FO3's aren't too bad except I'm keeping my free leg too high and giving it a little "kick" when I turn.

I've decided that I'm overthinking the whole thing. I need to get my balance, shoulders, and legs in the right position and then just do it.

Coach also told me to look down at the ice. I didn't think you were ever supposed to look down. Then she reminded me that during the days of "figures", you had to look down to see where your tracing was. Looking down seemed to help a bit.

I skated for first time in almost 3 weeks.
I didn't feel quite in synch so laid off on the jumps - only did a flip (didn't hardly get off the ground) and a couple of loops.
Backspin not so good.
Camel spin still there!
It was nice to see people again though.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Groovy:
being back on the ice after two weeks off and being able to remember my Free Dance programme.
Sit spin was groovy too.

Gross:
Felt a bit shaky when I first went on - not sure if it was just the cold or nervousness at being back on the ice - plus the ice was pretty poor as it was a public session.
3 jump (waltz) was pathetic - sadly lacking spring and my salchow had dissappeared. Hope it comes back soon.

Batikat, if you were cold in your rink, heaven preserve us (Batikat's rink is sheer heaven - really, really warm compared with ours! The only other rink I know like that is Slough).

Today was my first time back on the ice since Friday - I know that isn't all that long, but with the long weekend and everything, it feels like a long time. Went down with my husband, and we went through our exercises together, and then walked through both our Canasta and Fiesta Tangos. Not bad at all, although we differ on when to move our heads in the Canasta.... He then had to leave for work, as he is going to Birmingham today, and I spent the rest of the time working on my two programmes and various other bits.

Groovy: "You've done very well this morning!" said my coach at the end of the lesson - rare praise! But I think I deserved it. My artistic for Monday went okay - I do wish I cared about it, but as I'm 99% certain I'll come last, I can't bring myself to. I am only entering as it is our Open, and the Club chair went to a lot of effort to get adult classes included, so I feel I must. But I don't do well at mixed-age competitions, and that's and end to it. I just hope I skate it as well as I'm able.

If I skate my Free Dance at Solihull as well as I skated it this morning, I'll be well pleased with myself! Sure, it wasn't perfect, there's loads of room for improvement, but it was nearly as good as I'm capable of. Which pleased me.

It is not a good idea to practice your back chasses to the Austrian waltz - it's too fast, and you end up with no extension. At least, I did. Viennese is better...... However, that was after my lesson; in it, my back chasses were fast, and on edges. His criticism was that my feet were still a little far apart, but otherwise very good. My forward cross-rolls were extremely fast and accurate, I was seriously pleased!

Gross: Paying the penalty for improving! See my post on the thread about FI3-turns for what happened....

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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!

Groovy: My axels were really good today. I got decent height on them and jumped quite far. I can still do 2 sals and 2 loops after not doing them for a month and a half. Woo Hoo! My coach also said that my interpretive has gotten better since she last saw it, and she loves my facial expressions in it. I also helped a friend develop better technique on her 2 toe, even though I don't do them.

Gross: I could not spin to save my life! The only good spin I could sort-of do was a sit. My camels, flying salchows(that's how good my flying camels are) and backspins were horrid. My 2 flips were pretty bad. I keep dropping my right side, which makes me land them on 2 feet, giving me what I call Jennifer Robinson Syndrom (JRS for short). To top it off, the session was soooo busy too, and I'm at a different club. Grr.......I hope next week is better.

I haven't been able to practice other than just before my lesson for about three weeks now, but in this case, it doesn't seem to be hurting me. As my husband was sick, I took the entire hour lesson and loved it.

Groovy:
Had a breakthrough with FI threes using the "empty glove" trick. FO threes were up to adult pre-Bronze passing standard this time. We went on to check out the Bronze moves and I was told I was skating the slide step in the 5-step Mohawk pattern on a flat. What a difference it made to really get a good FI edge on it! My Mohawks were pretty pathetic, but at least I wasn't scared to do them. I really got into the B crossovers to BO edge pattern, getting a good push from the BI edge onto the BO edge glide.

Gross:
I need to seriously work on my FI Mohawks. I'm not checking properly, which causes me to put my free leg down too soon. FO threes need a boost of confidence to get the pattern placement right on the power three pattern, but for the first time, I did feel that I could handle the speed except for the very first one. I have to practice holding a FO edge on a hockey circle in rotated position ready to turn, and initiate the turn halfway around. At least I want to do this, as opposed to being to scared to even think about it.

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Sat.

Groovy: worked on Fiesta Tango with coach. Just need to remember the timing for the dance.

Gross: Achilles Tendon was a killing me again so had no choice but to do ice dance. Jump landings hurt too much before lesson. (coach thinks it's the weather affecting me) No wonder my loop didn't loop the way it did in competition (the only time I made it almost all the way around even though I two footed the jump). My calves were sore too so spins, travelled.

B

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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

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Gross - having to skate 2 hours straight and then teach canskate...and that there are WAY too many people on our ice time, since it's spring skating now so people from other clubs come too

Groovy - jumps were good and so were spins (even after a month long break)...and i landed my first axel on the ice!! V. V. happy! except i was too tired to celebrate...also doing a new program soon!!

Gross

I am having an awful time breaking in new skates. My feet are all messed up. What else ... hurt myself on a 2axel fall ...

Groovy

Did a bunch of clean but fallen on 2axels ... they're getting so close ... I can taste it!
Everything was solid ...
My foot (I have Mortons Neuroma) wasn't bothering me
Finished choreo of my show program ...

I took a bit of a break after Nationals, and went back last night to proctice for our show this weekend (Ice Club of Baltimore - all are welcome and there will be open skating afterwards). I ran through the program, and it felt great. Now - thinking about what to do next year???

Patty, I hope you are recovering well. Take care,

WAY TO GO!!!!!

Rest first...celebrate later.

Groovy: practiced yesterday for the first time in a week. Ran through the moves on Pre-Bronze MIF test. Alt 3s are getting better - less toe-scraping, but I still can't figure out how to do the choctaw from a BI to FO w/o making a lot of noise.
Edges were fine except the BI ones - whoever here said they were against the laws of physics will get no argument from me. Does anyone know how deep/shallow the lobes are supposed to be on the adult test?
I'm finally getting the hang of BO turns - I was practicing the FS5 move of a BO turn with 3 back crossovers, repeated 3 times. I even could do the turn on the left foot this time.

Gross: Camel spin is nonexistent. I think I got 1 rev and then the spin falls apart b/c my free leg drops and I raise my head. I know I'm not supposed todo this, but I seem to keep doing it anyway.
I can do a flip (well, a small one) from a standstill when I'm already facing backward, but when I add speed and the FO turn, I get completely twisted around and can barely get off the ground.
I think I landed the loop a couple of times, with my arms and free leg flailing for dear life. Other than that, umpteen attempts were landed on 2 feet and badly underrotated. Sigh.

Looking forward to seeing flo's club show this weekend, assuming I get there in time after my lesson Saturday.

The USFSA Adult Moves Comparison Chart (you need Adobe Acrobat Reader for this) says that for adults "expect shallow edges", so it does look like you have some latitude there. You should cross the axis at a right angle, so I'm guessing that they won't be subtracting if you don't. I've seen some extremely wobbly and shallow BI edges pass on pre-Pre.
Remember, this is an encouragement test and is graded "Pass" or "Retry".

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Yesterday the Zamboni's charger was messed up and so it had not had a full cut since Tuesday night. The ice was absolutely terrible! And since a nearby rink closed, the session was crowded with new kids and new coaches too. But my lesson didn't go too bad. My sit spin was crap (but I blame the ice) but my jumps were gorgeous! :-D

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- Ashley