Hi

I thought that I might as well start this thread for the new week, as I went for ice skating practice this evening. My coach won't be back from her holiday, until next Monday. So my lesson is scheduled to be next Tuesday, at 6:00 p.m.

Frustration

Bacspins: currently cannot do more than 1 revolution and a bit. Does not seem to be able to find the sweet spot for this spin. Arggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tried Gina's youtube video method, a bit better, but still not 3 or 4 revolutions. Not even get past 2 revolutions.

However, I am holding longer on the spin, which means that my coach can perhaps try to improve my number of rotations when she comes back from holiday next week.

Did not practise the program my coach devised for me, as not sure if I am allowed to practise the program, without the coach's presence.

Scratch spins a bit crappy at the start of the practice.

Swimmingly

Forward and backward crossovers are better. Getting there with the understroke.

Spins not so bad after the first few crappy ones. Seems to be somewhat centred.

Can do back upright spin, of up to 6 revolutions. Why is back upright spin easier for me than backspins?

Change foot spins pretty much still there.

Practised all the jumps, toe loop, waltz jump, ballet jump, half flip and salchow etc. Even practised salchow and toe loop.

Tried to do loop, well, will ask coach about it when she comes back from her holiday next week.

Practised sit spins, can still get my butt lower. Still working on this.

Practised spirals on my right leg, seems to be somewhere getting along.

londonicechamp

Frustration - flips flipped out and loops were loopy, and not in a good way

Swimmingly - Coach approved my testing Bronze moves Oct 7, I've given in my test application. It's not a given that I'll pass, but I've got two more weeks, and some really great advice. I have a whole page of notes to work on in practice. If I can make those corrections automatic by then, I'll be fine.

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It's all about the dress!

Hi liz on ice

Good luck for the preparation leading up to your Bronze test moves, on Oct
7.

londonicechamp

Good luck on your Bronze Moves! I'm looking to take that test in November.

Swimmingly Nice empty ice for me to work on Bronze Moves....especially on the backwards patterns. Trying to get the Power 3's down to 4 each instead of 5 as I'm practicing on Olympic size rink and will probably test on a smaller size rink. Went through the waltz jump, salchow, and toe loop. Did loops from the 3 turn and then started working on them from the cross-over. I landed 2 good ones from the cross-overs. YAY!!!!

Ice Dance class was fun. We have 6 adults and 1 kid(my DD - she is the demonstrator). We learned the Dutch Waltz tonight.

Frustration Spins have been crap for the last 2 weeks. Scratch spin is normally very centered, but has been wandering lately. Sit spin is not low enough. When I try to get it lower, I roll up on the toe pick. Camel has ben 1 - 2 revs. Very frustrating because I had some really nice 3-4 rev ones about 3 weeks ago. My flip has been a flop lately.

Frustration: Hubby has "banned" me from the ice until after my doctor gives the ok to skate again. This after I went to a second public skate, wearing wrist guards, and took two falls. Both of them were garden-variety, no big deal falls, and with the wrist guards, I didn't even feel them. I was stupid enough when I came home to actually mention how well the wrist guards had worked, though, prompting a half-hour @$$-chewing from hubby.

More frustration: Flip was not my friend when I went to the second public. Usually it is my best jump. Loop was a mess also, but I've learned to expect that.

Swimmingly: not a whole lot. Spins were ok, I guess. And the ice was fairly empty with mostly adults, so I got to talk to a few new people and that's always fun.

Doctor's appointment is tomorrow so hopefully I can retrieve my confiscated skates from hubby then. I am not particularly thrilled at being treated like a small child.

Hi tazsk8s

Hope that your doctor's appointment goes well tomorrow, so that you can retrieve the confiscated ice skating boots from your husband.

Your husband is probably just concerned about your health, hence the confiscation of your ice skates.

londonicechamp

Swimmingly: skated on public, only 3 others on the ice! Ran through my pre-bronze moves which went fine. Even stayed on pattern for the waltz-8. Backspins were really good, I even managed one where my free leg went down my skating leg (as in a scratch spin) before I exited! Other jumps were ok, I'm still trying to wrap my head & body around the toe-loop and getting the free foot to slide up to the picking foot. It was ok though.

Frustration: scratch spins! I had "adjusted" my left blade, thinking it wasn't in the right place but doing that made it worse-even the 3-turns and edges were all over, like a car with a tire out of alignment. So, with only 15 minutes left to the session, I adjusted it back to where it was before. It was better and I managed two centered spins.

I got ticked because we were booted off the ice 10 minutes early-The hockey guys next had waived an ice cut so off we had to go. I argued (with no luck) that the schedule said "until 5:00pm" but I was told that only applies if they do an ice cut. First time for everything I guess. So the scheduled "cheap skate" for 3:50-5:00 is really only 1 hour long 3:50-4:50! Oh well, can't complain for $5! Still cheaper than freestyle AND I got to jump!

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

I can't believe I never checked to see how far Fritz Dietl's rink is from my office - only 45 minutes!!! I walked onto a fairly uncrowded freestyle tonight and I'm so very glad I went - got to catch up with two friends I haven't seen in a long time. They're both so sweet and they remembered me!

Frustration:

DH always says that when God gave out patience, I got bored and wandered off.

I want my new blades to feel perfect from the get-go and that's not really happening. I forget that (1) I haven't really skated in over two months; and (2) these blades are shorter, which takes some getting used to, right?

I'm just being unreasonable: the blades have only been on the skates for three days and I have had a total of 15 minutes ice time before tonight. Need more hours on the ice before I get frustrated. I logged one hour tonight and I'm really glad I did it - I think this was a good, but expensive, correction.

Swimmingly:

Spins are traveling and digging into the ice, but I managed a few forward and backward uprights that were at least recognizable. Did about three really decent sit spins - I think that's my best chance for speeding up the adjustment process. Sit spins are my strongest spin, so getting them solid again will help the other spins come around.

I can do mohawks and brackets without feeling like I'm going to face plant. BO Mohawks are almost solid, need to get the feel for the edge more - I keep riding the heel. LFI3's are non-existent, but things are much better.

Did my first few jumps on these blades; not too bad. Toe loops are scary for some reason, but the flip and lutz entries are solid. Go figure.

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frustration: got new skates and we all know what that means Can't do much of anything and I have bricks on my feet. They feel good but so stiff. I should have a feel for them by the end of the week. I am officially the human zamboni. I have this change edge spiral I'm trying so hard to do, but because of new skates its so hard..I just tip over. It's actually quite fun

swimmingly: have 80-90% of my interp choreographed. I was able to get some nice jumps and spins inbetween not much as because of said new skates

[Frustration]
I am still frustrated that I did not get into the test session and with the communication.

[Swimmingly]
I was so frustrated, that I didn't even do anything remotely related to moves or my freestyle test I worked on double sals and double toes

Regular coach is at home with the baby and her husband is traveling, so we were texting while I was on the ice (a no-no, but oh well!) and she wanted videos. I didn't have camera, so I had one of the kids use my phone to video one double sal and one double toe. The response to the double sal...would just just stand up and land it? And I got some good thoughts on the double toe...mainly that I was going into them quicker, which is good...my picking is off, which I noticed when I watched the video and I will work on that, but I'm still okay with the fact that I was rotating... I haven't done any doubles since I sprained my ankle back in July...

Yay! for a fun, non-stressed day at the rink

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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

Frustrating:
Monday was my OFF day this week in terms of skating. Everything seemed out of whack and even my flip jumps (which I started doing consistently) wasn't even there. I got the height, but two footed each landing. Arghh!!!! My spins were traveling slightly as well.

Swimmingly:
My sit spin is SUPER low now!!! I am beyond excited about this. Just need to bring my legs a bit closer together.

My spiral sequence is so excitingly awesome! I am going from an inside edge spiral to an outside edge spiral/back catch!!! I am changing edge during the spiral sequence. Working on backwards, outside edge Y spirals now to add to the sequence for my program.

Swimmingly Last night felt like a super awesome skate night. I ran through the Bronze Moves test in order. It felt pretty good and no one got in my way making me have to stop to avoid them Then I quickly warmed up some freestyle stuff, because I had a lesson with my coach and knew we were going to start working on my Bronze Free Skate test program. I looked at the clock and saw that I had a few minutes left. We have a 45 min. session. She takes DD the 1st half and me the 2nd. Sometimes, DD gets 25 minutes and sometimes I do. It looked like DD was getting 25 today. Anyway, I started working on the dreaded flip that has been giving me problems. To my utter shock, I landed the second one I tried and the third one . The 4th one I landed, but foot position was wrong(on side instead of out front). I didn't care though, because I was on an emotional high from the other 2 jumps.

Then I had my lesson. We listened to my music once through. I was fooling around, did a back outside pivot and threw my head back ultra dramatically at the end. Coach loved that. There is a spot about 8 seconds in where it fits. So we worked on the program up until that point. Then ran through it with the music several times. My timing was on. Coach is happy. DD skates by and comments on how cool my program is so far.

Then we had to decide on the first jump. Coach said Flip. Now any other day before today, I would've been freaking a bit and tried to talk her into something else - loop or salchow. Today I was ready for the challenge. So we worked on altering her set up - adding some dramatic arms, etc - and then doing the flip. I even landed a couple with coach watching. We only got through the first 20 seconds, but I was very excited about it. After my lesson, I had to show DD who liked it a lot.

DD and I skate another 45 min. session after that. DD takes her dance lesson and I practice. I worked on what little of my program I had (moved off to the side so I wouldn't be hogging the middle the whole time) and flips. So many flips that my knees are a bit sore today. I usually spend half my time doing moves and half on freestyle. When I needed a little break from that, I worked on backspins which were amazingly on today as well.

Frustration Nothing really. Well, I 2 footed more flips than I landed. But I landed some so I really wasn't frustrated by them.

That's awesome! Where's the jealous smilie???????

Frustration
I can't get the double three turn. Well I can turn, but on the second turn I kind of scratch on my toe pick, so that I finish up in a stop instead of continue gliding. I've been working on it for many many sessions now, feel like giving it up once again. Maybe I should let my coach correct me.

Swimmingly
Taught myself the waltz jump and two foot spin. Couldn't get more than 2 and a half revolutions, and I got dizzy. It's so difficult to spot when spinning so slowly. I prefer doing the waltz jump.

Don't try to spot when you spin, it will make you very dizzy. Instead just try "gazing" out without really focusing on much, I try looking at the top rail of the boards (where it meets the glass) which helps keep my head level. My head doesn't move (side to side) it goes around with my body.

And keep at it, the dizziness should fade as you get used to spinning.

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

Swimmingly: Just back from the follow-up at the dr's office. Was pleased with my range of motion for the most part. Asked if I was able to do everything I want to and I said, "it depends, can I skate if I wear wrist protection?" And he said that was fine. He very much approved of the type of wrist guards I bought.

So now hubby has to give back my skates 'cause I'm "legal". Yahoo!

Swimmingly: Spins are coming back finally. After being on PIC skates all summer, I suspect it's like switching radius or length on blades - you just need to get used to the new feel.

While my former skating buddy has moved to UMass, another skater friend from 5 years ago reappeared. It's good to see a familiar and somewhat older face in a rink full of teenagers. (Unless you're currently a teenager, of course.)

Frustration: The ice was a mess. They had to cone off two large areas that contained logos and ad graphics underneath.

I don't know for sure, but it looks like large sheets of paper/plastic were used for the logos instead of being painted on the floor, and perhaps that insulated the top ice from the chilled floor. Those areas were definitely watery.

The limited ice area and multitude of skaters made the first 45 minutes very busy.

__________________
Bill Schneider

Frustration: Last night's session was horribly crowded. 30 some on the ice and everything from learn to skate to world champion. There was fs, moves dance and a couple trying to do synchro. We warmed up and then gave up, as did a couple others and skated on our own until the next session.

Swimmingly: The next session had a more reasonable number and we put in some good work on death spirals, split twists and throw loop.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Tuesday and Wednesday

Tuesday

Frustrated

Tried to buy a partial ice package with my own club but my club won't allow any adult skaters skate on the freeskate sessions (Preprelim, Junior, Intermediate and/or Senior). The only ice on which my club allows adults to skate is Adult Learn To Skate/Canskate. How in the world are we adult freeskaters/ice dancers suppose to be able to do our programs on that ice when there's a whole line of Adult Learn To Skaters in our way? Plus after reading the rules they have for that ice, it says you have to do whatever the coach running the learn to skate session says to do and that you're not allowed to do your own skating. I was very angry for about 15 minutes when I was turned down from buying the particial ice package and skating on the freeskate sessions.

Went to the doc and found out why I was tired all the time lately and my ears and sinuses felt stuffed. Turns out my sinuses are infected and are dripping into my ears filling them up with fluids. Got perscription but ran out of time to fill it.

Swimmingly

So after talking with my skate pal Misty, I went over to her rink and club (South Windsor Skating Club) and got approved to guest skate on the Senior Session on Tuesday with Misty. Then I was approved to buy the Tuesday partial package during the Senior Session. Maria Mann was very encouraging, friendly and helpful.

It was great to skate with my skate pal. Played Simon Says with our skating elements and then did chance with our jumps. Got to one point where we had to add 3 Toe Loops on the end of all of the jumps.

Wednesday

Frustrated

I was late for my city ice/ticket ice (2 hour session) by half an hour.
I was spinning travelling all over creation. Still had not gotten to fill the perscription at that point of the day. But even so, when it was time to drill the upright corkscrew home, I still centered it on top of each tracing. That has to be technique that saved it because if I went by my sense of balance it was way off.

Had to stop spinning and jumping with 20 minutes left to go on the session because I was starting to feel like I was going to go through and under the ice. My balance was so off from the inner ear infections.

I also 95 persent of the time froze on the take off of my best jump (according to my coach it's my best jump); Salchow. It's like the wires in my brain were missfirering. Weird.

Swimmingly

According to my coach my loop jump has improved even more. I'm going into it with speed and no hesitation and most of the time I'm bringing in my arms wihch translates to height, full rotation with an ever so slight of a cheat (toe tap) most of the time and 3 times I landed completely on one foot but I need to work on the timing of bringing back my free leg after landing to get a better flow out. It's coming.

Friend of mine used my Loop jump approach for a dance move/interpretive move for her program today.

Did 4 good Waltz jumps one after the other using the landing edge of the first to set up for the take off of the next and so on.

Did 5 Toe Loop jumps one after the other with no breaks in between.

Did 3 Salchow jumps one after the other using the landing edge of the first to set up for the take off of the next and so on. Very hard to do.

Split + Flip + Toe had small cheat on the Flip with the free toe touch on landing but kept the rhythem going.

Last Lutz was so close to being clean with good flow. I was so surprized to do it because at the last minutes of the session I tried the Lutz for the heck of it even though my balance felt way off.

__________________
"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

Frustration:

Well, I changed my mind again, switched back from my beautiful new Phantoms into my Matrix Freestyles. I was hoping to find out some things for certain about the +/- of them for me.

Call last night, rink had double booked our private ice, had a school group coming in could we come earlier. Got there earlier, to find the ice had not been done. Apparently they sometimes have problems getting water to do the ice (we don't have a zamboni). They had undertaken to call us if that happened so we wouldn't waste a trip on. But they didn't.

Lady I was skating with really wanted to practise for the comp next weekend. I agreed to skate a while because she is nervous of being on the ice alone in case she falls. 1/2 hour later we gave up. Like skating on corrugated iron. They didn't charge us in the end.

But it was rather a waste of time for me. Still cannot decide which blades to use. Love the extra length of the Phantoms, but cannot spin or jump in them. Also can't get the bottom pick for any toe-pick point steps. So that's why I switched back today.

Can't spin on hard, unsurfaced ice, but even so, my spins were better than in the Phantoms. Didn't jump at all.

Overall, a really frustrating time. And then I had to go to work and had an awful day for a variety reasons 'Some days are diamonds, some days are stones, and some are outright cr*p.

__________________
Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

Frustration:
In spite of feeling miserable, forced myself to go practice on Monday. Arrived at the rink with zero confidence and had to push myself to do anything at all.

Swimmingly:
I did manage to stay on the ice for more than an hour and did progressively more challenging things, so it wasn't a total waste. In my ice dance lesson today, we started with the Dutch Waltz, as usual, and somehow, it felt great! I was flying, feet solidly under me, the best pushes I've ever gotten, best pattern, etc. In spite of a few uh-oh moments when I leaned back on a swing roll, for example, all the dances were pretty good. Next week and the week after, I'm having my dance lessons on a freestyle session so I can wear a dress in prep for my test.

Frustration:
The test chair has still not confirmed that I'm in for the Oct. 13th test session. I left her a message last night and hope to hear soon. DH is taking a day off work to go with me, so I really need to know!

__________________

Frustration I skated on the Pro's Ice this afternoon. It was just me and the little girl. You would think there would be plenty of room on the ice, but her coach kept having her do exercises that crossed paths with my moves patterns. Plus her mom wanted to play her "skating" music CD which was the most depressing classical music ever. I have a hard time believing the kid loves that music. As soon as she got off, I had to put something up beat on.

It just felt like an off skating day. I ran through Bronze Moves in test order 3 times. None of them felt really good. I ran through all my jumps and they all felt kinda blah.

Swimingly After little girl got off the ice, I ran through my whole 15 seconds of program - a couple times. That was fun.

Firstly, I have some non skating related news...I PASSED my New York State Licensing Exam for massage therapy!!!! Whoohoo! So I went skating today in order to celebrate that. Alright so onto practice notes:

Swimmingly:-Brackets once again are getting really good
-Spirals
-Scatch spin
-Sit spins were really behaving today
-Layback spin...I had a REALLY good one
-Choreography...I started a rather 'modernesque' and very artisitic programme to the music from 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'
-Stag and half loops-they're always behaving
-Flying broken leg spin

Downing a Bit:-Lutz(started off over rotated)
-Loop was sort of off as well
-Camel/sit-wasn't too bad, but not all the consistant
-Showcase programme-wasn't the best
-Artistic programme is getting there..just needs more practice

Frustrated:-My double sal was awful today-(there was once case where I nearly face planted. It's getting height, but I sometimes forget to pull my arms in)
-Overall my skates were giving me trouble..(one felt loose while the other really tight)
-Camel spin..on it'sown sort of sucks
-Overall my jumping was pretty off while my spins for the most part were on. Normally it's in reverse...hehe.


Ah yes good times...it was fun!

__________________
[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Thursday

In lesson
Frustration

I thought my head was clearing out a bit but as soon as I started to spin, well, it got worse and I was travelling from Windsor, ON to Nagano, Japan even though I thought and felt like I was centered. Fluid in the middle ears coming from the sinuses wasn't my friend and I simply wasn't on my meds long enough yet for them to make a difference. Had to bail on the rest of the spins on coach's request.

Legs were really tight even though I tried to loosen them. Darn infection!!! Spirals weren't as good as Wednesdays or Tuesdays.

So then......

Swimmingly

we moved onto jumps.

Jumps were happening.

Waltz + Waltz + Waltz + Waltz : good height and flow

Toe + Toe + Toe + Toe + Toe : good height and flow (note: had to kill the 6th Toe because I was too close to another skater.)

Salchow + Salchow : 1st good, 2nd not bad

Salchow + Toe : good Sal but messy position on the freeleg on landing of the Toe (forgot to point leg)

Loop : improved 75% of time I'm landing on 1 foot but forget to get out because I'm shocked that I've landed it on one foot. It's like my body is in disbelief. Joked with coach that I had a new commercial, "I've landed my jump and I can't get out!"

Flip : still has slight cheat but am landing it 1 and 1/4 around. So getting around isn't an issue anymore. Remembered to pull in most of the time.

Split seems to be getting higher and higher and I have to start the flip further back each time to keep away from the boards.

Not In Lesson

Lutz : I tried 3 of them after an 1 hour & 55 mins; 1st was not so great, 2nd I landed one footed but forgot to pull freeleg around in time and third was just interesting that I lived through it.

Move from Jeff Buttle's Ava Maria program where he was guiding forward on one foot and then brought up the free leg to be parrellel with the ice to one side and arms and head to the other. Leg/hip didn't hurt anymore to do the move. Definately will be in my interpretive.

Fiesta Tango: 3/4's of pattern was on and then I felt like the ice was going over my head started to get dizzy just after stepping from backwards to forwards on the end pattern.

Swing Dance: got about half or a bit more of the pattern done and then had brain freeze after the first backward swing roll (I started from the 2nd half where you begin to go forward first before getting to where you go backwards) It was a busy pre-competition session so, dance wasn't all that welcomed on the freestyle session.

Practiced some of my Preliminary Skills.

When I got home later in the day after choir practice and such, I did 10 or so minutes of Facebook's FarmVille and then passed out on the lazyboy falling asleep with one runner on and one off. I was wiped.

__________________
"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

Swimmingly
This morning, back in my old blades, I could spin again! Yeah, a scratch, sit but backspin (as per usual) will take longer to come back.
Also able to do all singles through to flip - they weren't great & session was crowded, so didn't go for lutz.

Frustration
Still really lacking energy. This H1N1 (swine flu) virus has really knocked me around. I would skate a bit, stand at the boards & natter, skate some more. More resting than skating probably today.



It's interesting, now I question why I bought new blades. Basically I kept thinking that I could jump better on Phantoms. But when I realised I couldn't, and I definitely couldn't spin on them, I have decided to stick with what I have.

Anyone interested in a brand new pair of 10" Phantoms?

__________________
Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !