How weird. How old is she? If she's an adult, is she going to AN? If so, want us to throw tomatoes on the ice when she comes out to skate?
But seriously, what you said about warning other skaters about the pattern you're about to do (which I also sometimes do) gave me an idea. What if you were to ask this skater to let you know if she's going to be doing something right where you are so that you can stay out of her way, just like you warn other skaters? Either she will be more responsible and start telling you what she's about to do, or she will be a snot and continue doing exactly what she's doing, in which case you can feel free to NOT move for her and let HER be the one to abort her element.

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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

WOW!!! That is great that you get to skate with all those names!!!

I had something similar to that happened to me once when I was visiting NYC's morning FS session. (Not this recent time though but 1.5 year ago when I was thisclose to testing Bronze Moves for the 3rd and last time.) It was ummmm... interesting given that at my home rink I'm "not skating aggressively enough", yet here in this particular rink and FS session, I was "too aggressive?"

Thankfully, my NYC coach fixed that and said (in a nice way) "Screw 'em! You're in lesson with me and I WANT you to skate as aggressive as you possibly can!!!" (Love my NYC coach!!! )

OH!!! OH!!! GOOD LUCK on Friday!!! (I had to read further down the thread there!) Go kick some ice BOOTAAAAY out there!!!

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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!!!

She probably is going. Nah, she's not worth it.

I'm from New York. I give as good as I get. rofl

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Nice programs, and beautiful dress!! Also very ENVIOUS that you get to do gymnastics. At 38 I suppose I must be approaching that "ohmygosh I'm getting old--what can I still do" stage and I want to see what all I can still do (did gymnastics as a kid and into my teens). I know I can still do backward & forward hip circles, can probably muscle a pullover, mebbe a kip. Nice cartwheels, check; but the back is not currently flexible enough for back walkovers (one of my favorites) and I don't know if my wrists could handle a flipflop (back handspring). I should really ask at my daughter's gym if I could just have 15 minutes on the bars, balance beam, floor. . .

Oh, and doubletoe: Now I can see why you have so many good tips and such a good handle on the technical side of skating--seeing skaters of that caliber practicing on a regular basis?????!!!
[floating bubbles]
-Two program runthroughs today, and I could actually remember what came next.
-Decent runthrough of PB moves (empty ice most of the way, woo hoo!). Coach said the other day that there will be a test session at the end of March, which would be just peachy.
-Actually pulled off a 1-footed spin, without really even trying today. Could I replicate it? Heck no, but if I can do it once, I can do it again.

[bursting bubbles]
-well, if those runthroughs weren't the wobbliest, trippiest, clunkiest things ever. At least there was almost no one else at the rink at the time. And I think I was probably over my maximum heart rate afterward, and pretty much useless for much practicing as well. Back to the gym, for sure!
-Spins got markedly worse as the session went on. I think I think too much?

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Thanks, Jazzpants and Isk8NYC! In my lesson this morning I totally nailed the CW back power 3's for my coach (I think she continues to be amazed). In fact, she said my CCW ones are actually looking a little weak in comparison now.

Isk8NYC - I am so proud to know you will go "New Yorker" on that hotshot-wannabe, LOL!

Jazzpants - I hate to admit it, but I think I'm getting a little jaded. Instead of saying, "Oooh! John and Rena are here!" I'm thinking, "Oh crap, John & Rena are here." Pairs teams take up waaay too much ice, and the faster they skate, the more time you need to spend figuring out where they're headed and getting out of their way! (Nothing makes you move faster than a projectile human! )

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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

Foating bubbles: My new blades (used) that I got on ebay (MK Dance -same as before but newer.. different Rocker - slightly longer...) - I FINALLY got new sharpening on them - what a difference the correct hollow makes!!

Nice smooth clean edges - no wonky skating here!!

Plus the ice was good today at my main (hockey) rink, and they left the lights on which was good.

Had a lesson - we are still trying to work up this RFO-LBI 3 for PCAS Figures competition - the deadline is Friday for the registration, so I'm going to have another lesson on Friday and decide then whether the figure is going to be salvagable in 6 weeks or whenever that competition is. Felt better today.

Part of the problem with doing figures is that since no one does them very much, it is hard to get in your head the body positions you need to be in to execute them. They are NOT MITF!!! - so I watch my coach go through her memory banks to try to find a way to make it work for me - it is kind of hilarious!!

Bursting Them: REalizing that because the ice has been SO bad on my main rink that I've gotten into the habit of looking down when I'm working on turns and steps - and that now I can't do the turns and steps because I am always looking down. So I'm keeping my head up and trying to re-learn how to do a bunch of stuff that has gotten really bogged down by looking down all of the time!!!

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

Thank you! Testify!

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[floating bubbles]
Nice and easy skate tonight. Did freestyle and no moves...didn't want to ruin the feeling from my lesson this afternoon.

[bursting bubbles]
Spins weren't as good in the program as they have been in the recent past. There is something about doing the things in a program that just has me all flustered I just need to start drilling it...

Okay, I so need to go pack for my business trip tomorrow, but I just don't want to!!! I won't be on the ice again until Saturday/Sunday depending on when we get back. Then it will be test mode....

Monday Night

Floating Bubbles
-My lutz are amazing, I didn't fall on one!!
-My doubles are completly consistent
-My mom let me try the Pre Novice
-My mom going keep letting me try it
-(this is sunday's skate, which was a test day) I passed my gold skill!! and my Jr Silver Free!!
-Wonderful program

Bursting Them
-(this is sunday's skate, which was a test day) Failed my Pre Novice, but I had a horrible skate and I just laughed it off!!
-Nothing from Monday night

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2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

Floating bubbles: Have choreographed maybe the first five seconds of our new dance.

Bursting: But only in my head; woke up this morning with a temperature and feeling really grotty with this cold, and in spite of cold relief meds and a hot shower, knew it wouldn't be safe for me to skate. Did go out to the shops awhile ago as my new spectacles had arrives (my new contact lenses came today, too ) and could barely make it! Grrrr. I hate being ill, and I've been it far too much this winter already.

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

There's been a lot of what I call "the creeping crud" (i.e. cold, sore throat, achey-ness, fevers, etc.) at many rinks this year.

I hope you feel better soon, Mrs. R!

Wierdest floating bubbles:
I must be seeing things... but it appears that I've been actually doing lutzes (as opposed to flutzes) all over the place... when I remembered to look at the tracings they all looked correct o.O

Bursting them:
Woah... talk about a bad session yesterday... I think my skating is so rollercoastery at the moment that well I just don't know what to think. At least I did land a few of my harder jumps... but its definetly very confidence damaging to be skating like this...

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~
Tidesong

Bursting bubbles - It was sooo cold and I forgot a jacket to skate in, I ended up skating in my street winter coat which isnt' great.

Lesson today - we started with back perimeter crossovers from Bronze moves. I started out with my heel slipping under me and falling in an awkard manner. Coach said if I'd have just sat down I'd have been much better off.

Good news is that I have a lot of speed and power in my pushes. Bad news is that I may have to slow it down some so I can work on what I need to work on - which is crossing my left foot over my right, I'm not staying on the inside edge and not shifting weight enough.

On to mohawks. We broke them down and are going back to the basics - the inside edge. She just had me work on pushing my pelvis out, stretching my arms out and just being comfortable riding out that edge. Otherwise I lean forward, wobble and get twisted up. So my assignment for the week is to just do the inside edge and concentrate on pushing my pelvis forward. If I feel like changing feet and doing the mohawk I can - but only after the edge feels secure.

Then I had ice monitor duties for the next hour and the space heater wasn't working. Fortunately I keep lots of blankets in the car and I brought two of them in.

Floating bubbles - We are driving up to Minneapolis to watch the Senior dance compulsaries at Nationals today and Original Dance tomorrow!

j

Had an ice dance lesson today

Floating bubbles:
Finally managed the difference between the two types of crossovers in the dutch waltz.
Did a lap of the dutch waltz without turning it into the rhythm blues.

Bursting bubbles:
Coach brought out video camera. The sea floor is spreading at a faster rate that I skate.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Bursting
Botched attempt at a loop-loop (tried to land it and if I just keep my back straight on the landing of the 2nd loop I would have just had one runthru. Sure enough, secondary coach stopped the music and I had to start again.

Floating
Then I did the runthru again and landed the loop-loop this time.

Bursting
But barely landing the flip clean!!! And I am still ending behind the music and secondary coach is not too happy with my doing the new footwork that primary coach just gave me last Thursday. I'm not too happy with it either but I'm just learning it now and am having trouble with it.

And if this day doesn't get any worse.... the next few weeks, secondary coach wants to work on my SPIRALS!!! She said it's really weak (DUH!!!) and gave me this particularly painful stretching and strength exercise off ice where I'm supposed to be in a spiral position, legs straight and stretched out, free leg above hip, etc. and I'm supposed to fight my coach's hand pushing my free leg down by pushing against her hand with my free leg. Then rest for about 5 seconds and then she raises the free leg higher and does this pushing thing again.

Needless to say, by the time the exercise was done, I could barely feel my legs from the butt down... it's shaking like JELLO!!! (And yes, apparently it was great entertainment for the REST of the freestyle session too, since I was certainly in great amount of discomfort while doing it!!!)

But WAIT!!! There's MORE!!! I was supposed to then go back out on ice to do better spirals, but I said "I can't even FEEL my legs!!! It's like Jello here!!!" Another coach whack his wooden sticks (he uses it for training) and says "No WHINING!!! " I said, "Get those sticks away from me or I'll break 'em in half!!! " (His response: "WHOA!!! Feisty!!!" Secondary coach's response was "Yup! She's definitely in pain now!!! LOL!!! " )

It's better spirals, but secondary coach is STILL not happy with it.

Bubbling:
I survived it for today! Time to hit the showers!!!

Bursting:
MORE EVILLE spiral exercises are coming up and my personal trainer was watching what was happening...and probably thinking of ways of torturing me off ice on those spiral too! Best part for her is that she can pin secondary coach as the "bad guy" for making me do the torture. )

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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!!!

Please do be careful! On this side of the pond, we have pneumonia going around. Called a friend last night for info on getting a neti pot, and found out she has pneumonia and came down with the same time that I did (haven't seen each other since Oct). Don't wait to see a doctor if your fever lingers, my friend waited a week, and is now sicker than I had been.

Floating bubbles:
I'm back on the ice! Only teaching, until Friday, when I will have my lesson. Gave a half hour private lesson last night as a test run before starting groups, which require a lot more energy. Did fine, and even managed a very nice one foot spin demo for my student. Will teach half hour group tonight, then half hour private lesson tomorrow morning, and another group in the afternoon. Not going to try to get in any practice, as I don't want a relapse.

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Floating:
Got to skate today Rink was quite busy actually...found and corner and worked on my 3-turns for a bit. They'll always need a little more work...

WALTZ JUMPS!! From skating as opposed to stand still, correct landing, higher, I LOVE them!! They're my first real jump, and I think I can say, I landed it today

Spirals on my weak (right) foot were better today, getting my leg higher, as were my inside edges.

Bursting:
Ice was a bit dodgy...spirals kept hitting my edge and veering, but they've never done that before so I'll just blame the [lack of] Zamboni. Only skated for just over an hour today as our car hasn't been fixed yet, so I had to bus it up there.

Bursting bubbles:
Terribly sick with a cold this week, so aside from synchro, I haven't been skating freestyle or dance. I'm hoping that I get better in time for this Saturday -- my synchro team's competing at Easterns! Looks like it'll be plenty of R&R for me until then.

Floating bubbles:
No falls this week, which you would know is a great thing if you saw what a rough week I had last week. I'm going to blame my oncoming cold for those, LOL!

Our last synchro practice before Easterns went fairly well, despite the fact that I felt like utter crap. Now if we can only keep working as hard in off-ice and hold it together during the competition.

LOL - agree. This week it was sooo great to have everyone off at Nationals.

Bubbles not just broken, but vaporized: I haven't skated for a week because of my back pain and because of my work schedule.

I was a complete beginner today splatting all over the place doing NOTHING. I attempted one sit spin that started to go bad and I thought I'd do a flying exit into a back spin. That's always shakey because I can't backspin very well anyway.

This time, I somehow got completely sideways on the flying change, and smacked the ice while still spinning in the air sideways. That got the attention of everyone there.

Next attempt at a sit spin resulted in an awkward exit (commonly called a "fall"), and I sliced a 2" gash on my left calf with my right blade. Bloody mess.

At least Nationals are on TV this weekend and I can skate vicariously. Maybe it's time for me to hang up the skates.

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Bill Schneider

Ouch! Don't you dare quit on us! Just take it slower.

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Yeah... until ADULTS Sectionals and National closes in!!!

Bill_S: If you quit, I'll come after 'ya with MY purple skates and you don't wanna mess with me here!!!

Seriously, rest up... deal with your health issues (your calf and back) and then come back again and see what happens.

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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!!!

Hey, we match - I have one on my left shin from falling out of a back sit years ago! Did you need stitches? Get well soon and keep skating!

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Bursting bubbles: yeah i'm popping these babies....had my visit with the surgeon today and I was in a funk the rest of the day. I knew surgery was 99% probable....but hearing it out loud by HIM really hit home. AND I'm still on skating restrictions...no "torquing spins or full-revolution jumps" and that really bites!!!

Floating bubbles: so we worked on my routine, added some "fluff" to an area that needed something.....and evidently EVERYONE loved the routine (especially the chair)....

then we worked on backspins, which don't torque me around (little cheat but that's ok). I managed some decent ones so we moved on to change-foot. for some reason I get VERY dizzy doing them. weird, huh?

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

Oh, come on now! To quote the Black Knight,

"It's just a flesh wound!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMkth8FWno

We expect to see you back on the ice next week, and no later!

Go, Skate@Delaware!

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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