It's all very well starting the thread on Sundays, but as Sunday mornings here is anything up to 8 hours earlier than it is in the USA, means I end up starting it! This week's title is because I have just been to Peter Pan on Ice.

Flying: Husband's lesson. He toe-pushes on his clockwise runs (in perimeter stroking), which might explain why we have such trouble doing them round the circle in hold! Everything else is working well, but his spin isn't quite perfect, although passable. His coach said the judge will probably comment on his runs, but not fail him because of them.

Together we did a Dutch Waltz, a Swing Dance, and one of the best Willows we've ever done. Even though I'm far from in practice on that dance, it's already infinitely better than last time we competed it as a couple, two years ago! I am still scraping quite dreadfully on my back edges, though, especially the long back edge, but it feels so much easier than it used. When I bend my knees to try to get off my toes, I stick my bum out! Sigh!

We also did the end of the 14-step round the circle and it's beginning to happen now. One of these days we'll manage the full dance. At the moment I still have trouble really pushing into both the forward run and the Mohawk, and I'm rather apt to jump the Mohawk, which is not, of course, done in the best circles!

Falling: We also did a Canasta and I don't quite know what went wrong on the re-start, but I strongly suspect that Husband stepped up the rink when we were facing down it! Anyway, I nearly got pulled off my feet.... but we'll get there. We must start working on the Fiesta again soon.

And I couldn't make myself practice my back cross-cuts. The cross-rolls were a little better, I think - I managed at least 4 pretty good ones, I thought. Whether the coach would have agreed is another matter!

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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!

Flying: Although i missed several days due to the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a good skate. Klingbeils still giving me the fits on rt. boot, but am dealing. Did a pretty great camel-sit, back sit, and then tried a camel back sit. Worked on some split jumps, and although still not perfect, got much more height!

Falling: Still gotta get those boots looked at AGAIN! It's messing with my head and with my gold MIF. Ugh. Fell some, but not too much considering i was off the ice for days. Looking forward to trying my lutz-loop and getting in consistent, and working on axel!

SPLAT! Since the angry dressing-down about my forward stroking not being up to snuff and working my a@@ off to clean it up, and then yesterday’s dressing-down about upper body control, I found myself simply “gutted”. Ok, I am not very good, and everything I have (however pathetic) I have worked damned hard for and what I lack in talent, I try to make up for with determination and hard work. But today I just did not want to skate, I had no zip, no drive, it was all broken. After fifteen minutes of skating aimlessly around the ice I packed up an left before the tears.

I felt, for all the world, like chucking my skates in the waste bin. I wont, of course, but I felt like it.

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

I've certainly felt that way! I like to either take some time off and do other things for a little while, or to try another rink out of town and just skate for fun. The change of pace lets me come back to skating renewed.

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Bill Schneider

I've been having those thoughts as of late as I prepare and train for my upcoming test a little over a week from now.
Bill S is right- sometimes a break is in order.

But with all that feeling of discouragement, there is a fire in me that comes roaring back that makes me more determined.

As for today, nice quiet club session. Was able to do multiple patterns of moves practically in peace. That will change tomorrow with the rink run three ring circus and zoo freestyles.

The thing that was falling was my sitspin. Lately, as I get into position I feel like I'm literally on my toepick and can't stay in position.

But

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Mrs Redboots: I love the title this week!

Rusty: There is no doubt that you have worked hard and with considerable determination. We all have skate days like that. Mine was yesterday...but today was a new day! Hang tight. It only gets better.

Flying: After yesterday's crowded rink, multiple falls, and extra holiday "fluff" leaving me feeling like Free Willy is the perfect song selection for me (someone save the whale!), I was prepared for a short skate to just maintain my skate legs. Instead I found a rink that had fresh cut ice, no crowd, and skated the best I have in a long time! I decided I needed to concentrate the toe loop since it was a repeated disaster yesterday. I made sure my migrating pads were in appropriate position and wham....nailed it with what I thought was my best one ever! I tried again...and no, THAT one was the best one ever....again...and no THAT one was clearly my best. Moved on to the salchow and felt easy with good height and timing. Stayed 2 1/2 hours practicing everything I know so far. (Apparently a gazllion pieces of pumpkin pie with whip cream facilitates good skating!)

Falling: Not a thing! Today was a perfect skate day.

Flying: finally got the routine for my other number for Nutcracker....and the show is in 3 weeks and it's basically blah (4 sets of figure-8 back crossovers? come on!!!) but we have it. We all agreed we might tweak it here and there because we agreed it's stupid! And I was complimented that "finally, you are able to keep up with us and are the same level as us" which I thought was nice as I was able to keep up!!!!

Falling: I need to get mileage dollars for my spins......I only centered one today and I was barely able to enjoy it-during our program run-through so it was spin-jump-jump-jump!! I came back for adult skate to work on my program, only to have hubby take up all my time (sigh) with his stuff-today he was extra-needy. So, to be me I taught him the toe-loop. He refuses to work one-footed on 3-turns, although he did them last year...he is insecure and he keeps "forgetting" to wear his pads.

And I got over-charged admission because stupid boy was mad at me because I said we had our own music (and I have the rink manager's blessing, which he knows) and that ticked him off-he was going to skate and run through his stuff (which is not allowed). So, I get to talk to the manager tomorrow

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

Ugh! I know that feeling!! It might be a good idea to take a few days off, then come back and skate for just an hou, doing only do the things you do best and love to do. And if possible, make it a public session so you'll see how much better you are than the average person!

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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

Oh double toe...that is some good advice...that will do it!

Falling:
*sobbing profusely* Will I ever loop? Will I ever flip? sit spin? back spin??? Nothing went right today.

Flying:
*sniff sniff* double chocolate hot cocoa with marshmallows.

Congratulations on your perfect skate day! I agree about the Thanksgiving carb loading method (geez, what we'll do just for skating, eh? ). I skated pretty well today, and I attribute it to the carb loading, a day off from skating, and 9 hours of sleep last night. Funny how that seemed to make my camel entry position work, even though I wasn't doing anything differently. Rest is important!

FLYING: Not only did I do two program run-throughs, but on the second one, I actually finished with time to spare, even though I normally struggle to finish on time and not go over my music. I think my stamina is finally there now, all 2:40 of it! Landed the axel in both run-throughs and in one of them I also completed the flying camel-back sit, which has been very inconsistent for awhile. I skated almost 3 hours total.

FALLING: Double sal is still under construction. Sigh. . . And although I nailed the only two double toes I tried, someone with a very trained eye told me the one she saw was a toe axel, so apparently I'm still having that problem, too. Then I expected to practice my MIF -- especially back perimeter power 3's--on the public session, but forgot it was now officially "Christmas season" and it would be too crowded. I never even got one full pattern in.

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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

Hang in there RB-- This is what my skating has felt like since LAST SUMMER!!! Then miraculously two Wednesdays ago, everything fell into place. I have NO idea what I did differently-- but spins, jumps, even the 3-turns in the field on the Silver Moves test were working... in fact they were going so well, I had a half-thought about testing them at a test session where I was judging and EVERYONE was passing. The test chair would have let me -- if we'd had time.. but of course that would have been a VERY BAD idea... since I would have been the last skater and all the judges would have been tired and wanting to go home, instead of squeezing in one extra skater... but it shows you how encouraged I was by the way things were going. The following Friday's lesson was also going well.. so think of this timeframe as your "down period" that will show you how well you DO skate when you get there. If everything went really well all the time, we wouldn't realize how much progress we've actually made. Go out and have a "fun skate" -- where you don't WORK on anything.. you just glide and feel beautiful and do what you feel good about. You can get back to WORK on things next week. Instead, enjoy yourself for a session or two... since that is really why we skate.

Did you enjoy it? My eldest daughter is one of the skaters. I am waiting for it to get to Nottingham.

I know exactly how you feel. That's me entirely this week - and I didn't even get a dressing-down.

Hang in there RB.

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Doubletoe,

I couldn't help but chuckle at your remark about skating off the pumpkin pie. I think that stuff should be banned! just kidding! I gained 5 POUNDS with just taking the days off around the holiday and eating that stuff.

We had this very discussion last night at the adult session...dispairing over the sloooow progress we make as adult skaters, but realizing that, compared to the skater on public session, we really are much better than they are. Slow progress is better than no progress at all!!!!

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

Been there, done that, read the book, bought the T-shirt..... when I feel like that I've learnt to go and do something completely different, often figures (my coach taught me the basic ones for just such occasions), or something that I find relatively easy (forward inside swing rolls are about the easiest thing I can do).

"Keep on truckin'", as they say. Anybody who knows me - and an awful lot of people on here do - will tell you that I'm the world's worst skater, but that doesn't stop me having a great deal of fun with it.

Yes, it's brilliant! Is your daughter one of the ballroom dancers/mermaids/flower fairies? You should have seen my 83-year-old father sit up and take notice whenever they came on, especially when they were dressed as flower fairies, it was seriously funny! But the show is wonderful - well worth going to see.

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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!

Yup. I was having a frustrating week last week on moves (and may have another this week), so I dragged myself out to what turned out to be a very quiet public session last night so that I'd at least have a chance to assimilate Friday's lesson before I see my coach again today. There was one LTS girl having a lesson at ~ Basic 4 (where I was about two years ago) and a couple of young adult ladies wth their own skates but who weren't skating backwards at all, plus six or eight people on rental skates, so I felt like Evgeny Plushenko by comparison. I find that it's mentally helpful to skate a session like that once in a while to remind myself that I really have made some progress.

Meanwhile, it's back to trying to figure out what makes the LFI3s so hard to do in the APBM 3s pattern; everything else seems to be coming together tolerably, albeit slowly.

Rob

FLying:
so I can't get my backspin and traveled 6 feet on every fast scratch, I did 3 decent change squat spins! (that would be change sit if you have A LOT of imagination)

Falling:
like Rusty, I'm constantly fighting my body. No kidding but the thing that makes me breath the hardest is 2 lengths of 2 footed alternating turns (imagining FI bracket, BI3) while keeping my head up enough to look at my reflection in the glass

Lyle
P.S. Rusty - when I'm down, I play with the kids, they always cheer me up

Flying:

We started the new choregraphy for my new freestyle program and it is going GREAT! My coach has really been paying attention to where we place my jumps & spins to make sure we have good ice coverage.

Flips have been feeling so much bigger and better and I'm landing my lutz more consistently.

Falling:

Spins! For some reason, my camel & layback spins have gone on hiatus and my back sit just doesn't feel secure right now. I'm really hoping the problem is the result of dull blades and not that I have just completely lost them!

I've just had a lack of energy in general over the last few days. Maybe it's because I skated a total of 6 hours over a 5 day period and I've started doing a lot of cardio aerobics classes in the last 2 weeks, but either way, my skating has suffered and that has been discouraging.

Thanks for the encouragement everybody.

Today I woke up with a tod in da hed (sniffle, cough!) so I guess it has probably been dragging me down for the last couple of days. The back gate fell off in my hand this morning so I had to make a new one so my doggie can have the use of her yard, there's a major winter storm coming tomorrow so I have to put up some snow fence so my rink doesn't get buried, the storm may cancel Tuesday skating, and there's no Wednesday skating this week. I sent my coach an email saying I need some positive feedback as well as constructive criticism so we'll see how she takes that. So, all in all it is shaping up to be a wonderful week. Might as well get all the crap over with at once!

We will survive. We WILL overcome

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

That's a great idea, and hopefully, she is already aware that she overdid it with the negatives. I was thrown completely off track by an angry tirade from my coach, and it ended our relationship and really sank my progress for a good year and a half.

Flying:
Our local outdoor rink is open! I managed to get myself up early today and got there by 9:15. I had a wonderful skate, part of which was getting to see much of the adult weekday morning contingent again, and part was the free feeling I get on that ice and the glorious weather we had. The graceful and accomplished Helen C was there, and encouraged me, saying she saw real progress in my basic stroking, posture, and FO threes. Those threes are progressing slowly, but surely. I am making myself start over with spins, and even though I didn't nail any one foot spins, I do feel I made some progress in just tackling them.

Falling:
I have no endurance at all! Still leaning to the right on the one foot spins, and still dizzy after just 2 or 3 of them. Discovered that one of the scary things about FI threes for me is that I tend to drop my ankle on the R one, causing a scrape and risk of catching the edge.

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AAACK! NOT what I want to hear! I have committed myself to a major competition in the spring and I WILL be there with a coach or without one! It would be a lot easier WITH one.

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

Flying: Edge quality is coming back, can do counters and rockers reasonably well, not as well as before the surgery but much better than last week. Have selected music for this year will work with goals for better grace, flow and posture in overall skating. Spins are good, attempted first camel back camel not bad but still limited on back camel leg height, back sit works well just need more sitting.

Falling: Actually, not really supposed to fall, and still can't jump edges on more difficult moves and still a little skiddy and stepping quickly to the right inside edge is still difficult.

Started doing weights after skating since the doctor keeps encouraging me to get stronger so the jumps go better. We'll see...

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

Annabel you are NOT THE WORLD'S WORST SKATER, and many of us who know you would agree with me. I was impressed at this year's Mountain Cup with the improvement you had made in the year since last year's MC, and I expect to be impressed again at MC07.

You also have the biggest heart of any skater I know.....

Please stop putting yourself down - you are awesome!

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.