I bottled the Foxtrot at our social dance session and didn't do it, and don't know the Ten Fox. The Willow felt great, and was covering far more ice than before, but I can still feel places where it could be a lot better, and if we are allowed to skate it in the recreational match on Sunday, we'll need a very lucky draw. The 14-step is beginning to happen, but only beginning. However, the Swing Dance and Fiesta felt great, and we were fast and covering more ice than ever before, and the Riolado Samba (a dumbed-down version of the Silver Samba) was fast and furious, too, as was the Festival Quickstep (dumbed-down version of the Quickstep). And of course we are keeping our Riverside Rhumba and Golden Skaters' Waltz current for our next competition.

Strikeout: Sadly, one of the most regular skaters at that club didn't feel at all well and had to go home. I danced a pre-planned Hickory Hoedown with her husband, who stayed on, and proved to my satisfaction that I really can't do that 3-turn! I knew I couldn't when dancing it with my husband, but wasn't sure if it was him, not me. Alas, it was me! And I'm still not happy with my solo Canasta Tango, and don't know what I did on the last Dutch Waltz I danced, but something went wrong and I very nearly fell heavily - managed to save myself, but shook myself up rather.

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

Home run:

My spiral is as high as the teenage skaters. woah! really? I say.

Strike out:

Dance. This whole dance thing. Why on earth do I do dance. (hmmm, long flowing edges, pretty dresses, well okay) I've been working on the Willow for about a year and it's fine, but haven't done it to music in a long time and I was skating on freeskate sessions all summer. Last night we had our first dance session and not only is my timing off on the Willow, I have completely forgotten all the steps to any dance I ever knew. All my dances are some sort of 3-turn chassee swing roll cross behind generic thing. A little bit of tango, a little bit of waltz, some blues, you name it. My dance partner is not going to have an idea of what hit him, literally !

Home Run:

• Got a much needed break from moves for today. Well, not too much... I did some crossovers and 3turn drill that Jay put together...

Strikeout:

• Unfortunately I'm gonna have a LOT of work to do to get my pre-Bronze program ready for Skate SF (in a month.) Primary coach is going along with the secondary coach's placement on the ice. (He also thinks it's better too...) Of course, I'm going slower than before b/c I'm not used to the new placements and not fun trying to get that and the timing of the program at the same time. (WAAAAAY too confusing for this skater...)
• Tried loop jump... eh, what LOOP jump?
• Tried to do a lutz... blanked out on which foot I was supposed to pick from. (Hey! I don't do jumps often. Definitely not this particular jump...)

Base Hit:

• Flip is a little bit better. I am landing those more than the loop...
• Camel is getting better. I'm consistently getting up there... I just don't STAY up though. (This one's a second base hit...)

__________________
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!!!

Homerun: Loops have gotten really good! I finally got a grasp on the timing for really getting my hip over my skating leg, pressing into the ice, and using my free-leg knee to jump up. Hardly any pick-noise now, and more height. Yay! Flip has become consistent again. Discovered that most of the problem before was not getting my LFO-3 entry just right. Lutz is getting better, but I think I'm still flutzing just slightly. Jump has more speed going in, though! Spins...working on about 50 different ways to try and get me to do a sideways leaning spin, lol. Getting there in baby steps.

Strike-out: Salchows are feeling professively suckier. I think I'm trying to force the height instead of just letting it happen. Haven't really been practicing axel entry or sit and camel spins; need to get on that. Backspin might be a lost cause.

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I love skating. Just wanted to share.

Okay, practice notes!

Home Run Lots of good things today in private lesson. My coach saw me land good consistent loop jumps and a couple decent flips. I couldn't nail the lutz jump in my lesson but he told me what I was doing wrong and I managed to fix it on my own later and landed two gorgeous lutz jumps on my own that my friend saw. Coach asked to see a wide variety of spins and the only one that really stunk up the joint was, of course, the camel spin.

I actually have a backspin now. Like my coach did this - - when he asked to see my backspin and I pulled out a nice one, complete with check out. Of course nothing is ever good enough so now he wants me to pull in tighter and I'm like....but that will make me go SO much faster to which he got this look - - on his face.

I did a nice spiral that coach loved - largely because for the first time in history he didn't need to yell at me for bent knees. They were LOCKED UP baby. And, I had "sasha height" as my friends like to call it.

I did another good Biellmann spin today - I got about 3 revolutions in the final Biellmann position. Problem - grabbing the blade FREEZES my hand and I can't do more than one at a time. I need to contemplate going back to gloves just for this move, like keep a glove in my pocket or with my guards or something.

Next week my coach said he's going to start me on the layback. This is like, a dream come true. I've been wanting to do a layback spin since I was a little girl and I never thought I'd see the day. Is it next Thursday yet? If I had the money I'd pick up a lesson on Saturday just to start working on it sooner

Strike Out Nothing really bad happened tonight...I fell out of some loop-loop combos a couple times trying to get more height and better timing from back XO's. My coach had to laugh at my ability to stay upright on the funkiest landings...he said I have very cat-like reflexes. I took that as a compliment, but I'd rather just land the stupid jumps the right way

My sit spins are a bit travelly at times - other times they're perfectly centered. I can't figure out why the lack of consistency, but I think its blade control and coach agrees. At least I'm able to count my revolutions when I travel - I average about 10 revs

Camel spin is...ick. I need to just practice it more I think. Keep the chest down, straighten the knees. It's just hard to practice camels because I go to mostly public sessions.

I was very sad when the session is over. I've been having SUCH a great time at the rink these days that I just want to skate every day. Oh well - at least I can skate on Saturday for four hours!!!

After 17 days off the ice because of vacation, everything felt weird today! (and much much slower!) I have my work cut out for me before Halloween Classic!

Strike-out: Pretty much everything was wonky at the start of the session. Mohawks were especially bad. Spins travelly. First flip I attempted was horrendous. (And my luggage still hasn't arrived because of a strike in France. My knee pads and bungas are in that bag. Thank goodness I didn't take my skates with me on my trip!!)

Home run: Toe loops (my least favorite jump) were cooperating beautifully. I was finally able to do decent loops at the end of the session, and I had a total inverse coach moment with the flip in my lesson--correct timing and better height than I can normally manage. My spins felt rusty and my legs felt weak, but the jumps that did cooperate felt a tad higher than before I went on vacation.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
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Strikeout: There is a small concave section on my right blade, right where I SHOULD be doing my backspin and back 3-turns.
I've had two coaches look at it and both said some variation of "How are you skating on this?"... so that means I need new blades to the tune of about $400. (No, we're not going to go into 'what kind of blades are best?' I'm going to get what I had before because I like them.)

Homerun At least it's not JUST me botching the backspin and RBI 3-turn! Also, the guy who sharpens my blades admits he must have caused the problem during the last sharpening .. so he's chipping in to pay for the new blades
.

This is for private session on Wednesday:
Homerun: Spirals...Can I build a program completely on spirals? Ok, well they aren't perfect either, ("can you try to straighten that leg?") I did manage to do some toe-loops in practice yesterday!!! And I did learn the 1/2 flip! I like that jump! (ok, sort of skating related-I found a special fabric for the ice show!!!!! I was afraid I wouldn't be able to and we would have to go to plan B; plus, it was 50% off!)

Strikeout: Everything else! backspins, Salchow (yes, it was going well...), mohawks, spins ("try to widen your circle"), Salchow, waltz jumps-I'm in jump remediation (I was trying to remember soooo much stuff, I was forgetting to "spring" up), Salchow, back inside edges (although they are much better). Did I mention my Salchow really sucked!! my free leg is refusing to cooperate and then my body freezes....total mental block after the 3-turn. And I learned this mohawk footwork thing that has me tripping up all over!

PS-My coach told me (for now) to keep my arms out to the side while doing my toe-loop. So I did a few like that. This 4 year old skated up to me and told me that "teacher said you hug yourself when you jump-you better do it!" It was too cute!!! She is a little

I have group lessons tonight-don't know what we have in store for us. Probably jumping, since last week was spinning. Maybe my Salchow will return....

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

Strikeout: Got some kind of Lurgy (there's one going round here), and can't skate! Hope I will be able to by Sunday, we've got the last Recreational match of the season, and while I wouldn't at all mind missing it, the Husband is keen, so.... Plus it's at our rink so we are hosting it!

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

HOLY BAD BLADES, Thin-Ice!!! At least your blade sharpener admits his mistakes.

Maybe I should have someone look at my blades and tell me whether the blade is the cause of my skating on my flats instead of an edge? (Just kidding! I know it's ALLLLL me!!!) Ditto for my lack of a LBI3 either. (I have an inconsistent RBI3 though now. Believe it or not, I'm JUST learning them now... )

I didn't skate today but I have one Home Run... I don't have to get up early the next morning this weekend to test!!! I can skate tomorrow as a SANE HOUR!!! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA (Mr. Head, meet Mr. Pillow!!! AHHHHH!!!)

__________________
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!!!

Jazz, believe it or not I don't have back threes, period!

Went to the small rink today to see if the Bronze Moves test would be testable there next month. Made the decision in uh, about 10 minutes.
Looks like I'll be waiting to test in December at my regular rink. At the smaller rink I literally have to cram everything in and I'm not comfortable with that, plus there are a few things that I feel need cleaning up before putting this test out. I want to keep the "tradition" I've set for myself in passing the moves tests the first time around. The freestyle test, well, that's another story.

Home Run: Will be going to watch the Falling Leaves competition tomorrow in Richmond!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Mrs. Redboots - guessing a Lurgy is some kind of illness. Sorry you have got one, hope you feel better soon.

Thin-ice - I sent you a PM about the best prices on blades, if you are interested.

Homerun:
Finally felt like a skater again today! I didn't get much practice in, but FO threes are back and I did manage a little bit of the R side of Prelim power threes for the first time since the spring. Keeping the discussion on F cross strokes in mind, I did them concentrating on smoothness. RBI edge is finally coming back in spite of the orthotics.

Strikeout:
Evidently boots were laced too tightly because my left toes are still burning about 4 hours after finishing up. Forgot to do spiral stretches, and that is something that I really need to do every time I skate.

__________________

(Then again, back threes weren't a priority for me... it was a priority for my SECONDARY COACH for some reason though... And primary coach seemed particularly interested also in the back threes whenever we end up with 90 screaming kids at the public session that I take lessons from. Thankfully NOT that often during the school year...)

I have no clue whether or not I can "clean up" whatever the judges wanted me to clean up by my Dec 3rd deadline but... I've got my orders to keep working on them and improve on it!!!

Here's to the Pre-Bronze Peanut Gallery push for a "Bronze" finish!!!

Meanwhile... UP YOURS!!! LOL!!!

__________________
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!!!

And you are not the only one, I don't, either. Although my BI twizzles are way better than my FI ones (can't do BO twizzles for love nor money, as yet).

Strikeout: Still off skating, although I'm feeling better today, but I've now developed a cough! I'm just hoping that I'll be fit to skate tomorrow, since I plan to skate tomorrow, whether I'm fit or not! Still, it's a good excuse not to have to do too much social dancing on a crowded rink!

The Husband did go this morning, as he's decided to enter the solo Intermediate compulsory dance class at Oxford. I wouldn't let him enter the solo Elementary, as I'm doing that (probably my last ever solo dance event!); the Intermediates are Fiesta and 14-step, and I've only recently started working seriously on the 14-step, although right now my Fiesta solo isn't too awful. It's all very well for the men - their steps are a great deal easier! Will be interesting to see where he finishes, especially as he'll be taking on Other Woman head to head.... they had half thought of doing the Intermediate couples compulsories together (Willow Waltz and 14-step), but that's not happening. So anyway, he wanted to practice those.

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

Another sheepish pre-bronze skater confessing to not having any back 3's. There's just so many other things to work on!

Home run Great, great practice yesterday. Ice was good, not too crowded and it really emptied out for the last 30 minutes. I did all of my programs (there's 3 right now ) several times, although I didn't do any of the jumps in my new interpretive. The choreography is still giving me some fits, but apparently it's getting better because one of the college kids was all smiling at me as I finished. She'd been watching and she said it was good, which was really nice of her. My compulsory moves program is coming along and I was able to do my free skating program with the changes we made last week. My coach will be happy about that when he sees it tomorrow. (We put a spin at the very beginning, so I had to get used to coming out of the spin and then skating into my waltz jump without falling on my head because I was dizzy, LOL!)

Oh, and one of the coaches who was there working with a friend of mine gave me some sit spin advice (don't do like this because you will fall over, as he demonstrated the wrong technique), and I will have to try to remember that for the distant future when I am working on my sit spin! It was pretty funny actually, because I was only practicing upright spins, but I guess it occurred to him because he was working with his student on sit spins (hers was awesome!)

Happy skating everyone!
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Ok, I don't have back anything's yet either---no 3's or backspins but I've got time before I test pre-bronze.....

Friday night's lesson went well-we arrived early for public skate which was crowded with kids (ok, there were only 25-30 max).... and all but 2 behaved.
My back edges are much improved, which got me an "atta girl" from the coach. Then, for the 2nd week in a row, we worked on spins.....AAAGGGHHH!! Ok, they weren't that bad. I did manage to eak out 3 good centered spins. She did ask if my private coach had started on camels (no). I did some crappy sits for her (why can't they be nice when someone's watching?) But, I really wanted to jump. So I did a few jumps. Then coach saw me and we ended up working on jumps. Even the new "kids" (they worked at the wall).

My waltz is getting higher-when I remember to bend deep and push up hard, and if I remember really flex my backgliding foot, I don't hit the toepick and grind to a halt .....

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

[/B]Rain Delay[B]

Mehh.....today I just wasn't feeling all skate-like today. I stayed up late last night and I had to leave early today anyway so my heart just wasn't in it.

Group lesson was fine - we worked on the same ol stuff, except now he wants consecutive mohawks but with a weird cross behind/kick forward thing. I can do the first part of it, I'm just not getting how to push into the second part. I'll figure it out next week.

I worked on jumps and spins for a little while. Both were fine, no change since Thursday really. My loop has gotten much better, but now I'm having a hard time doing a loop-loop combo. I'm not landing so that I'm set up properly for the second jump...maybe some off ice would help that.

I did a couple of good flips. I think the trick for me is to raise the free leg even higher right before checking out.

I spent a lot of time standing around...bad me! I think my coach noticed this because in his lesson he flagged me down and asked me to show his student a scratch spin. I looked at him like he was nuts and I pointed to a girl who has a far superior scratch spin and he said "no, I want her to see YOURS". SO either that was punishment for not skating hard today or he thinks my scratch spin is suitable. Either way I took it as a compliment.

Backspins are scaring me...I try pulling in to go faster but I'm just soo afraid to go that fast yet so I chicken out of them.

The good scratch spin girl showed me what I think are twizzles...It's basically a bunch of RFI/RBO 3's in a sequence without stopping - or a travelling spin, however you want to look at it. I dunno if they're twizzles or not but they're fun.

I found out the information on the holiday show today. There is going to be an adult precision number with stepout spotlight things...I'm thinking I might want to do a solo or pairs routine with a friend of mine too but I've never choreographed skating before, only dancing. Should be good experience.

I've also been making my own skating dress...not for the show, but if this turns out okay maybe I'll wear it for the show. In any event, its the first time I've ever made anything like this and so far so good. My friend is making one too but she's not using a pattern. I'll post pictures of it when I'm done.

Okay, time to go run right back out the door for a party. I hate skating days like this - but I know that Tuesday will be better. At least my skating technique didn't suffer because of my poor attitude lol.

BI threes are eeeeeevil.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

Speaking of eeeeeevil....

Strike out:

• My moves practice session!!! WAAAAY too many kids!!!
• My program practice session!!! WAAAAY too many kids!!!
• (Actually, many of those kids ARE eeeeevil for skating thru the middle!!!)

Home Run:

• Not much... got one good loop and two smaller flips!
• Got a couple of good camel tries!

__________________
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!!!

A question to the USA skaters, at what point do you have to do back 3's for a moves test?

I'm in Canada, we don't have learn them, although we sort of pass over them in Canskate learn to skate, we don't have to learn them until Junior bronze and then they come with a change edge back 3. It's secretly my reason for dawdling on my preliminary skills test, so that I don't have to do back 3's because I can't do them and I don't even try. Too many other fun things to do!

Yesterday:

Strikeout:

Video. Sigh. I know it's good for me but eek! I can't even talk about all the things that seem so perfect in my head and don't seem to appear on the video.

Dance. Well. Hmmm. Dance guy has pulled out the marker and drawn the steps on the ice, yet again. It's got something to do with corners, they must have amnesia because no matter what the dance, I bottle (I love that term Mrs. Redboots) the corner steps.

Homerun:

I'm jumping pretty high once I got past the visuals. I might not have technique, but the will to fly is there.

In terms of the adult tests, I think they first show up on the Adult Silver test as alternating back and forward threes, for example, RFI3/LBO3 and LFI3/RBO3, and RFO3/LBI3 and LFI3/RBO3. I think that they then reappear on the Adult Gold moves test as double threes, but I could be wrong. I'd check in my rulebook but it hasn't come yet! I don't know the order of elements on the standard track tests as well, so I couldn't tell you quite when they show up there. Probably Pre-Juv or Juv, but I'm not sure.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

Yes mikawendy, you have it right... BI & BO 3-turns show up on the "3-turns in the Field" on both the Adult Silver and Pre-Juvenile moves.

Now, why is it when I took the Pre-Juvenile Moves test I managed to squeak through on these.. and now that I'm working on Adult Silver I find them SOOOOO difficult??? Maybe because I don't like to practice them??? At least I'm enjoying my brief respite from them until I get new blades! Even my coach said not to bother working on them with the not-quite-right blade!

And dbny, thank you so much for the tip on where to buy blades for less! I just LOVE how people on this board help each other with info on costumes, technique, stretching, psychology and financing this sport!

I was also thinking of buying blades from the place dbny recommended the last time I needed to buy blades. However, all of the places near me that do blade mounting charge a higher fee for mounting blades not bought through them, so the total cost would have wound up being higher!

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

Once again, I'm fortunate.. the guy who mangled the blade in the first place has said he will mount the new blades for free... no matter where I buy them!

Either they are charging way too much for mounting "outside" blades, or their blade prices aren't so bad to begin with. I've never heard of charging more than $10 for mounting - and that's at Chelsea Piers.

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