My turn to start the thread then Jazzpants.

For me it is all Funeral Dirge

Off ice nursing an injury. I did something to a hamstring weeks ago, then fell heavily twice on the same sore spot. It had got to the stage where last week anything I did wrong was agony. I finally saw sense and took myself off the ice and off to a physio. Took some treatment to get the pain back to the source injury, stop all my butt muscles being in spasm. It's going to be another week at least, but realistically another 2-3 weeks.
Extremely frustrating as I feel I was progressing so well in regaining my elements.

I also had the worst ever blade sharpening experience. Never again. I have sent them away, I can only hope they can be made useable again. At least while they are gone I cannot be tempted to set foot on the ice.

The only Triumphant March part for me is watching my daughter. She has now passed her Novice 1 test in Aussie Skate, and will compete at that level at the State Championships at the end of the month. I feel really proud watching her progress.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Funeral Dirge This has been the first week of a 5-week layoff between Spring Skating and Summer Skating going into withdrawl! No ice Have to survive 4 more weeks with only my off-ice exercises.

Triumphant March It hasn't rained in 24 hours, no rain in the forecast for the next 48 hours and my rink excavation has dried up enough to work on it again so I took today off to (hopefully) finish the bulldozing before the rains turn it into a pond again. At least it is "skating related"!

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

Triumphant march:

I found a camel-back camel-back sit combo spin! Now I just have to work on getting it faster with more revs

I also figured out why I'm not getting my knee through on my axel attempts: instead of bringing the knee through then jumping, I've been jumping and trying to bring the knee through at the same time. Now that I've got it figured out in my head, I'll have to see if there's any improvement on the ice!

Funeral dirge:

Nothing this week!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Triumphant March: Ok, I'm cheating and putting this in for yesterday's skate. It's been 2 weeks since I've been skating (sounds like an intro to "skaters anonymous"). It took about 10 minutes this time to feel comfortable on the ice (much better than the 30 minute last time!)...

Ran through all my moves from stroking, edges, crossovers up to the waltz and salchow, with most doing great and even was off my toepick on back crossovers! Ran into some old friends, made a few new ones at my "summer rink" which is always nice! There were about 20 people there, most working on either dance, hockey, or moves. Some were just there for the public skating.

I felt really good because towards the end my scratch spin resurfaced! And i even tried a few back 3-turns which I haven't done in a year....

Funeral Dirge: My legs were shaking by the time I got off the ice!!! Yikes! I'm getting out of shape from lack of skating....I need to squeeze in another session at least.

PS-I'm going to change into my Coronation Aces when I return from my seminar this Sunday.....so I probably won't be able to skate right for a while....should be interesting!

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

Hey Skate@Delaware -- what are switching out of? I just removed my heinous MK Club 2000's for a pair of Aces last week. There wasn't a huge adjustment -- I've been on them twice with no falls and no tripping over the toepicks. My "spin" left a tracing as big as a quarter -- for three revolutions, LOL! I only have a couple of 1/2 jumps -- flip, lutz, loop and a two-footed toe loop, but they were OK, too. My turns were much more effortless, though I still find a way to drop my free foot. Gotta work on that!

I was convinced that I was going to stumble all over my toepicks the first six times I was out on the ice, but my coach laughed and said she didn't think I'd have as much adjustment as I was anticipating. Gues she was right, the stinker! My CCW back crossovers were a little scratchy, but when they got fully warmed up, I realized that I was FINALLY solidly over my RBO edge and that because of that, I was skating faster and dragging my left toepick a smidge to slow down. Once I figured that out, I did OK.

I can only hope I do as well with my switch....I'm going from Comets to Aces....8.5" rocker to 7.5 (i think).....stay tuned!!! thought about taping it and airing it for the old-time comedy show....(although my skating is comic enough)

ETA: I'm going to try them for a month or two and see how they work out, since I only skate a few times a month....I will try to skate about 4 times in June, and squeeze some extra time in July. I really hope they work out! I am hoping they help my spins a bit more. My jumps are good (well, as good as they are going to get for me)

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

Oh, God. . . Did it have to be this particular wording this week?

I skipped 3 days of skating this week because my beloved kitty--whom I've had for 14 years--died early Tuesday morning. DEFINITEY funeral dirge.

I was back on the ice this morning, but a little spacier than usual, which I guess should have been no surprise.

Actually, it's just a 7' rocker, so that's an even bigger difference. But once you stop rolling forward onto your toepicks, you'll probably get several more revolutions on all of your spins right away. Just remember to push your heel down really hard on your jump landings, since you'll feel like your heel doesn't want to come down.

Hey, that's a great spin combination! Any tips on getting more power on the transition into the back sit? Is it just a matter of having more momentum on the flying camel, or is there something you can do during the change of position that helps? I make it about half the time, and the other half, I don't have enough momentum getting into the reverse sitspin and I end up falling back on my heel and sitting down.

Back camel into back sit is the first part of my combo spin. Try to keep your free hip lifted as you flip over from the camel to the sit, and keep your shoulders and back locked into place until you're ready to snap into the sit position.

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

(((doubletoe)))

I know what you're going thru. I had a similar thing happened to my neighborhood kitty (aka "Stalker Kitty") and I miss him very VERY much!

Triumphant march: My secondary coach is quite happy about my moves, though not perfectly happy with it! She sees that there's power though she wants even MORE power on the forward power 3's. The 5 step mohawks are good on the second try and my back crossover to BO edges are pretty good again.

And to throw in a bit of incentive... I'm going back to NYC again!!! And yes, I'll be back to see my wonderful coach at Chelsea Piers again, so I am really working on improving my extension so he'll see that I've been paying attention to him.

Funeral Dirge: Well, it's sorta in a coma... my scar on the knee still looks gross, so I think I'm keeping the bandage on for a while. (Hey, at least the hockey guys will think I'm KEWL b/c I have this big 'ol ugly scar now...)

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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!!!

LoopLoop, thanks for the tip! I'm going to pay attention to the free hip and see what's going on there

Jazzpants, thanks for the e-hug. When is your MIF test?

When I drop down into the back sit, I give myself a little toe push to get more speed

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I've got mad salchow disease!

so far, I will try to turn it into a march!

dirge

Sometimes as an adult skater I feel 'in the way' of the really high level kids and then I skate like absolute crap, and that happened this morning when I ran thru my program and it was atrocious...was nervous and horrible even though these high level skaters have aways been really nice to me, and I'm mid level myself. Grr, it's not them, it's me.

march

My sit spin was nicely centered despite my still screwed up left arm, it just needs to be lower and faster.

Funeral- I still don't have my new skates. My fitter said it would take 2-6 weeks and its been 4. I want them sooooooooo bad!!!!!!

Triumphant March- I LANDED MORE THAN 1 DOUBLE FLIP TODAY!!!!!!!!! this is the 1st jump that I have learned that I have not landed within the week of learning it! It was awsome i landed a few a quarter cheated but I also landed some CLEAN!

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SKATING: It's the feeling you get at the end of a hard practice when you pushed yourself to the limit. It's a part of YOU, something you LOVE and HATE. A bond that NO ONE ELSE understands, but that's okay, because every time you get out on the ice it isn't just you; it's all the friends and coaches, all the practices, the pain, the tears, the memories,the laughter, the "off" competitions. It may seem, skating is really a team sport, it's more than just a sport. IT'S A WAY OF LIFE."

doubletoe, {{{{{hugs}}}}} to you. That's so hard to lose a beloved pet.

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

Which toe pushes, and how??

Doubletoe,
Sorry to hear about your kitty . I cried for a long time when mine died (he came into my sewing room, laid down and died....). Every so often I call the other cats "Rocky"......


and thanks for the tip for landing heel-down with my new blades. I'm sure I will only forget to do that a few times

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

Today was a major Funeral Dirge:
Had first lesson with Primary Coach since she's retuned from the PSA Conference. What she tends to do when returning from conference is get pickier and break down everything. She broke down the forward power perim stroking and left me with orders to not skate it on the big axis until she sees a consistent LFI edge following the right over left forward crossovers.

It does not help that our compressors in the rink we skate in are broken and since the rink owner is out of town, will not be fixed for a week or two!

Spins- now that Primary Coach is back, the sit has gone back into hiding!!

BTW- doubletoe- I'm sorry about your cat. Muffin and I send condolences.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Sorry 2toe......We used to have four pets. Two cats died after quite long lives, one dog at 13.5, and our last doggie is now 14.5. I'm still not really over losing our first dog. The cats died much longer ago, and I still miss them. I would be foolish to say "I understand how you feel", so let me say I understand how I felt, and my heart goes out to you.

To make this post thread worthy , despite my various dirge-like skating elements, I was planning to test AB Freeskate in 9-06, "shooting for it" per coach. This week, after lesson, coach told me I'm testing in 7-06. So, guess that's sort of "march". In a sick way, of course!

[QUOTE=jazzpants
Funeral Dirge: Well, it's sorta in a coma... my scar on the knee still looks gross, so I think I'm keeping the bandage on for a while. (Hey, at least the hockey guys will think I'm KEWL b/c I have this big 'ol ugly scar now...)[/QUOTE]

Oh yeah, Jazz, they LOVE the war wounds and battle scars! Show it with pride!

((DoubleToe)) Sorry about your beloved cat.

Triumphant March:
Did some power skating today with a huge crowd. It's so nice to actually skate.

Coolest move: forward power pulls into a RFI three into backward power pulls. (Well, I impressed myself and the elder statesmen of the crowd! )

Got to try out some power cords - very cool tools to use in teaching alignment and body position. They also had these little ankle "socks" with a pressure-sensitive noisemaker in them. The theory is to teach kids how to cross their feet properly on jumps, which results in a cow moo, a monkey sound, or a chime. I can just imagine a freestyle session filled with these noises!

Funeral Dirge:
I strained my right knee two weeks ago, teaching lunges to a new student. Like an idiot, I tried to keep up with the off-ice workshop I went to yesterday. As a result, my knee was KILLING me last night, so I was very careful today.

After traveling in a pack during the power skating workshop, I stood out of the conditioning on-ice workshop and just took notes. They were really moving, and it was really crowded for the first few exercises. Interestingly enough, the pack size shrunk as the exercises went on! In the end, only the demonstrators were left!

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Good luck, e-skater! You can do it!

My condolences on your kitty, doubletoe.

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

(((doubletoe)))

Triumphant march

The CCW spin is coming, at last. So are an exercise we got on Thursday: RFO 3turn, step forward onto LFO edge then immediate LFO 3turn etc etc. I managed the turns OK, but the sequence was supposed to travel down the rink, and I over-rotated the turns so they went in a rather messy circle I gather it's about checking the turns...

Just started learning the 3turns in the European Waltz (it seems we call them European 3's down here): whee! what fun! (Now about the checking of each turn... We ended up going ever-faster in an ever-shrinking circle...and wondered why we got dizzy. The power of centrifugal (?) force! )

Coach gave us the choreo for another 2 seconds ( ) of our first baby FD. At the rate we're learning it, it will take 12-18 months to even get it laid out...

Funeral dirge

Alternating twizzles are bad, bad, bad: I suspect thanks to the lack of proper checking!

Do you get the idea that checking is a problem??

[QUOTE=doubletoe]
I skipped 3 days of skating this week because my beloved kitty--whom I've had for 14 years--died early Tuesday morning. DEFINITEY funeral dirge.

Oh, I'm so sorry doubletoe! That has to be really hard to take.