Was this Brian Joubert?
http://www.scratchspin.com/2006/worlds06/06011296.jpg

Or Stephane Lambiel?
http://www.scratchspin.com/2006/worlds06/06010348.jpg

Lambiel is actually Swiss, but he probably speaks French. Interesting that he (or Joubert) is working with a coach in Dallas. I find it amazing to watch the speed of elite skaters up close and in person. And as techskater pointed out, they usually have no problem moving out of anyone's way, although I always move to the boards when I am on the ice with one and they are doing their program, b/c I don't want to get in their way and they move so fast, anywhere on the ice could be "in their way" in about 3 seconds.

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

Strong and Sure:
Actually made it to freestyle this morning for the first time in two weeks. I missed it!

Can do 2-footed and 1-footed spins in both directions now-- my strong direction-- CW and the direction that I jump-- CCW. See weak and wimpy for the rest on spins, tho.

Despite the fact that I never get to practice them (because public sessions are ALWAYS CCW, even when I request that we switch direction! argh!), CW crossover, mohawk, step behind, back crossover, repeat felt so solid today, esp compared to the CCW ones.

Weak and Wimpy: Despite the fact that I know I can spin in both directions, I was unable to spin at all today . It might be the extra few pounds I put on this week throwing me off or something that I can;t figure out. Painful, because I really need to practice the scratch spin!

Half loop thing-y. Trying to wrap my brain around jumping off of the toepick that's behind me is proving tougher than I thought. And when I do, I rattle myself so much that I land towards the back of my blades!

And finally, my balance was off the entire session, as if I were about ready to pitch over my toepicks at any second. I've been slipping those insteat heat packs into the toe section of my skates for the past few sessions because of the intense cold-- could that be enough to throw me off?

Strong and sure
- As the schools have been on holiday this week I have been doing a skating course every morning at my rink. A lot of the exercises which I was told to do were challenging and the jumps way above my level but I kept an open mind and gave everything a go.
- Off ice I nearly landed a double cherry
- I played around a lot with FO double and triple three turns. I have never learnt these properly but they didn’t feel too scary. I am sure that I am doing them very badly but I am pleased with myself for being able to get around the turns at all.
- Three jumps felt quite nice.

Weak and wimpy
- I didn’t do many spins this week but the ones which I did do were terrible as usual. I fell over doing the sit-sit, wobbled on and off the toe pick doing camels and didn’t even begin to fly on the flying camel.
- On my attempts at all of the double jumps I failed to get the quickness and ‘spin’ which is needed. My coach said that technically I am fine but then I jump and just don’t do anything. This is often translated into my coach thinking that I am not trying. I know it is silly but I am still scared of falling over. By the time I try and pull in, I have already landed. I just don’t know HOW to move my arms and legs any faster. I have also been skating with kids as young as 8 who can land doubles – they make rotating look so easy!

Strong & Sure:
AN program is getting better! I got all the way through it a few times yesterday, through w/ some touch downs & faking my way through little sections. I keep imaging the supportive audience everyone always talks about at AN. Please be nice!!

Weak & Wimpy:
So bad in lesson today, can't even talk about it.

Nope - the French skater in question is Yannick Ponsero, he was about 11th at Europeans this year. He is quite amazing! I am tempted to take DD out of school early to watch him train, as he is getting off the ice at 330, right when we get there each day. Looks like he has been getting some major shopping done in the mall attached to our rink though!!!

Is Yannick working with Allen Schramm?

Sk8Rx: Yes, Yannick Ponsero is working with Allen while he is here. Allen used to train skaters in France and is his former coach. The story is that something was happening to Yannick's home rink for a few weeks so he came to work with Allen in the meantime. Today I had my freestyle lesson and again Yannick was working with Allen at the same time. Not a good day for the lad...quite a few misses in his 4 1/2 minute programme. OMG, when he falls from one of his jumps it is huge! No crash pads! (could bounce a quarter off his butt though). He was fine..but you would have been taking me to the hospital after the first one.

Too funny but I did a few run throughs on my programme with my coach. Yannick stood at the boards and watched me...I felt it was burning a hole in me...and proceeded to miss every jump combo one after an other! Coach asked if I were feeling ok...lol. Second time went better but I am very distracted by where he is on the ice. HE IS 20! I am a total perv! giggle.

Allen gets to transition from Yannick to me...I have my lesson with Allen in a about 2 hours...I bet that is a hard transition!

Ooh ooh I want to play

Dance lesson today

Strong and sure

Impressed coach with my speed in dutch waltz, she says I have command of the dance, got the timing. My extensions were really good

Weak and wimpy

Edges could be better. One thing I do well that she says she can't get her higher level skaters to do is move my lower body apart from my shoulders for swing rolls- but I over do it so I'm checking to the point of interfering with the lean of the edge.

Strong and sure - in the cha cha I tucked that leg behind real well, slid it down my leg and then...

Weak and wimpy - chickened out and put it behind so that it's much more dangerous than the right way

Not so much weak and wimpy as stupid - Forgot my skates, had to drive home and missed ten minutes of my lesson (my daughter and I share an hour lesson so I took the second half hour)

Strong and sure - bought the last half hour of ice to make up for lost time, hardly anyone on and just made up moves to the radio rock playing and got cheers from the other coaches.

j

Weak and Wimpy: Skated half-heartedly in the cold Monday morning 6 am session. Work took it all out of me by Monday afternoon, so I didn't do the evening session.

My Wednesday morning ice was cancelled due to the ice storm. I decided that Friday afternoon I'd sneak out of work a bit early and finally get some time to skate.

WRONG!!!

I got to the rink and found that a hockey tournament runs all Friday and throughout the weekend, with no ice for lessons or public skating. Drove home and sulked.

No "Strong and Sure" for me this week.

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Bill Schneider

That is so cute, LOL! My coach has recently reunited with his long-time student and former U.S. Silver Medalist Trifun Zivanovic, who now skates for Serbia. He is taking him to Worlds later this month, so I'll be out a coach for about 10 days between Sectionals and Nationals, but it's for a good cause. I actually wish Trifun would practice on the same session as I do. After seeing him do a triple axel, I always tell myself if he can land a triple, the least I can do is land a measly single. It tends to work, LOL!

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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

Weak & Wimpy! I intended to skate today but I was too pooped, so I did something else that has a big effect on my skating - REST! Probably skate tomorrow (since I have figured out how to skate and watch the Four Continents broadcast to!)

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

Weak and Wimpy! I had a make up lesson on Friday at 6:30 pm. The session starts at 6:30 so I had no warm up. This was a complete mistake. At the end I apologized to my coach for wasting his time. I was terrible- normally before lessons I teach for 2 hours and then skate an hour. This is necessary for me to have ice legs.

I'm making excuses but my legs were in terrible condition from the stress of the weak. Trying to do edges my legs and foot were spasming and visably shaking. My coach, nicely, took the opportunity to correct my upper body- but I could not concentrate at all on upper body when I could barely stand up straight. I asked to not do back edges, as precision work was a complete waste of time.

My one foot spin was good, and we started more work on the cross leg spin. My utter lack of flexibility and complete lack of strength made the fan kick very difficult. Off ice training is going to be essential.

Then we worked on height of waltz jumps from a stand still. It's hard to jump without first a glide!

What a waste of time!
(Although it was fun to watch my coach try to convince my husband to come dance with me! "She pays for the time, not the person, so you're welcome to follow along any lesson, and then we'll work on the two of you together- you're a perfect height!" Husband said no way!

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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)

Strong and Sure: Just got back from a public session where I tested out my newly sharpened blades-- what a difference! I don't think I've ever had such a great skate. (Sharpener said that my blades were incredibly dull, the baldes themselves were loose, the edges uneven, and he made the hollow a bit shallower-- whew!). Since the ice was too crowded for much else, I worked on stroking and crossovers, mohawks, 3-turns, and spins. Edges and crossovers were amazing. The spins felt sooo good, and thanks to actually having an edge, I knew when I was too far back on the blade. Even stopping wasn't that bad after the first tentative snowplow stop and the first necessary hockey stop! Suffice it to say that I'm going to make sure that I don't ever let the blades get that dull again.

Also, they finally skated CW on the public session, and I got a chance to cut loose. I'm definitely a CW skater and miss being able to practice both directions consistently.

Weak and Wimpy: Getting that foot aaaa-round on the scratch spin. I usually end up, for some reason, whacking my leg with my blade instead and going into a high 1-foot spin instead (like the foot is in retire'). It's so wierd and I don't know why I keep doing it.

I had a little girl with a death wish who seemed intent on skating towards me no matter what I was doing. Had to bail painfully out of the set up for a waltz jump, and nearly fell on a few spins. I have no idea what could possibly have been going through her mind

They're not thinking about danger - they want a closer look! LOL You would have been within your rights to ask her to watch spins from the cones or the wall because you can't see her when you spin.

Weak and Wimpy:
Kept crossing others' patterns while practicing MITF on the lines.
That resulted in many sets of five or seven circles instead of an even 4 or 6.
No time/ice for spins or jumps yesterday.

Strong and Sure:
Except for LxR crossovers, everything *seems* solid and I'm pointing my toe.
Just need to break my bad "donkey foot" habits on the LxR ones.

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doubletoe: Cool that your coach has a world champion. But ouch what a critical time for you to be without your coach. I have no doubt that you will do well anyway!

Unfortunately, my weekend rink doesn't cone off the center circle and, as my sister's boyfriend observed when he came for a "Visiting" skate, "Wow, don't these people believe in the sanctity of the inner circle?" There'd be more chance that the girl or her parents would go complain to the guards and then I'd be kicked out of the center...

It was a tiny bit of an ego boost that there were a ton of little girls trying to imitate me in the center last night (quite a few dizzy-looking girls!), but most at least kept their distance! Maybe I should have taken a page from your book, Isk8NYC, and taught her how to do a 2-footed spin so that she'd be more preoccupied with herself than with me!

(At one point, when she careened off-balance towards me, I had to bite my tongue to keep from asking "Do you have a death wish?!?!?", and bailed again.)

It is cool, but he is not a World Champion, but a World's competitor. And a very good skater with a great coach, I might add.

It's all in the details.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Same here at my local rink. Even the stewards wander erratically through the centre, even when I have been using the circle to practice elements, mind you, I guess that is the downside of public ice ...

Weak and weedy:
Just about everything today, since I am full of a nasty cold (aren't all colds nasty?) No energy, and the fine tuning just isn't there. I dare not even think about practising spins.

Strong and sure:
Completed Learn to Skate UK 10 and comfortable with all the elements. Have re-enrolled just for fun, whilst I wait for a gap with my preferred coach (being fully booked talks for itself)
Meanwhile, I have been volunteering assistance with the LTS lower grades, it gets me noticed by the coaches and other staff anyway.

My first post ... and as you may have noticed from my spelling, I am from the UK ...

True, not exactly a world champion (24th at worlds last year, if I remember correctly), but triple axels are always inspiring, LOL! Fortunately, my coach isn't leaving for Worlds until after Sectionals is over, and he'll be back in time to help with my last minute axel and flying camel emergencies during the week before AN (thank goodness!).

And now, in regards to yesterday's competition, where PattyP and I were the lone Gold Ladies (and Patty managed to keep her butt off the ice, which is more than I can say for me, LOL!)

Weak and Wimpy
The first minute of my program was a disaster, since I had missed my 5 minute warmup (I hadn't been aware of the slight schedule change that had my group taking the ice 6 minutes earlier than originally scheduled). I messed up on my opening camel combo spin, fell on my double salchow, then botched my flying camel, putting me 0 for 3 on my first three elements. Thank goodness I managed to get my feet under me after that because I was really beginning to feel sorry for the audience!

Strong and Sure
After failing to land even one axel in my warmup earlier in the day, I miraculously landed it in my competition! That gives me a desperately needed boost of confidence, since that jump has been a real head trip for me lately.
The last minute and a half of my program was basically clean, with the only major bobble being a wobbly back inside spiral.
Since I got my program videotaped, it provided me with some valuable technical feedback that should help me to avoid making the same mistakes next time, whether I'm warmed up or not.

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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've always liked Trifun's skating, though I haven't seen him skate much. There was a guy who skated in Bronze Men at this year's Halloween Classic that reminded me and my coach of Trifun a bit...

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

Oh ok...well anyone competing in the world events is a champion to me! <grin>

Doubletoe: How did I miss you were competing yesterday? I am so impressed that you pulled it together after missing the first three elements. Congrats on landing the axel when it really counted! I hope when (notice not if) I miss the first few elements of a program I will have your presence and grace to turn it around. My coach makes me continue no matter how bad my program is from the start to practice for that very occasion. .


Derek: Welcome! Smart to wait for your preferred coach. Sure makes a big difference in the overall experience. Hope to see lots of posts from you! I love following everyone's progress!

Thanks for the welcome Dallas ...

I noticed this board has a good content of mature skaters (in age AND ability) so feel comfortable here. As to my abilities, well I have completed the LTS UK programme as already explained. Currently I am trying to work beyond my comfort zone, picking various elements to stretch myself. The passport will just be some formal recognition of that really, the coach will do what coaches do, make me better I hope. Not easy, since I am now in my sixth decade ... hope that is enough for now

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UK Passport (figure)
Bronze : PASSED 13-Oct-07 Woohoo
Silver: PASSED 08-Dec-07 Yippee
Gold: Backspin PASSED One Foot Spin ____ Toe Loop ____ Programme ____
The impossible is just a journey away ...

Strong & Sure: I'm sure that I'm so tired of my program!!!! I feel that strong about it <g>....ok, joking aside, I told my coach I could not face working on it because I was getting tired of it (really, after almost 2 years, my ears hurt from the tune).

So, we worked on the.....loop (again)....which was

Weak & Wimpy: but it's getting there. She had me do the edge thing...where you do an inside edge, then 3-turn-backspin. I feel dumb because I can't do them. Then we were back to the backspin-hops which I can do. Then we did the loop....which is soooo close. Then she said "loop then do a backspin" so I did but it didn't really work until the 2nd time!!! I LANDED A LOOP ON ONE FOOT! this is becoming a once-a-week trend! Of course, I could not do it again...after 5-6 more tries, we moved on to sit-spins, which were also weak and wimpy. She said something about my behind not being low enough....yup! But my overall positioning is a bit better.

Coach's comments: She said that my skating has improved dramatically since last year!!!!!!

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

Yay, Skate@Delaware!! It may be once a week now, but soon it will be 50% of the time, then 75%, then. . . 95%. Way to go!

Mikawendy, it's nice to see that there are a few people who remember Trifun. The one thing I must say about him is that he is the NICEST, most humble person, and it was one of the highlights of my life to go to Torino last year to wave his new country's flag and give him his own little cheering section. And I am beyond thrilled that he has reunited with my coach, who coached him from age 7 all the way up to his U.S. Silver medal in 1999. I adore both of them!

DallasSkater, thanks for the positive take on my competition, LOL! I didn't make a big deal about it since I just considered it a "warmup competition" for Sectionals. I seriously hate competing, but I never regret it when I do it because I always take away a valuable lesson that serves me when it matters, KWIM?

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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

Doubletoe: I figure, if I learn ANYTHING from each competition, then my coach earned her money and I learned another lesson. I go through a mental picture of my skating and make a list of what could have been better...then I work on it for the next one (along with everything else ). It's good you have such a positive attitude to prepare you for sectionals!

At my last competition, one of the girls from my rink had a good skate, but did not come in first (I'm not talking about my daughter, but another girl). She was very upset and her behaviour showed it, to the point of being un-sportsmanlike. She would not receive her medal when her name was called. This earned her a discussion with the coach.

I guess that's the difference between adults and children (hopefully!).

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