Hi, momsk8er! Another CW skaters here!!! And yup! I know EXACTLY what you are going thru and at times I still feel kinda awkward skating in a FS session that is mainly CCW skaters!!! I'm better about claiming space now but I still am learning.

jskater49 - now you get me worried!!! I'm learning the back cross strokes from Silver/Juv Moves and live in fear of losing an edge on those!!!

Nice and Straight:
I'm playing partial hooky today at work... well, not really! I was waiting on work to come and said that since I'm just sitting at my desk doing nothing that I'd rather just go skating at the not so crowded coffee club and have a nice cup of very warm java (and some really heavenly chocolate donuts with NUTS sprinkle on top! )

I did a lot of footwork and edges today, since the majority of skaters out there on the ice are ice dancers. I'm starting to get a little bit of the Schaffer push exercise but I still need to do them about 100,000 more times to get them to the point where I can actually do BO mohawks comfortably and good back cross strokes, which BTW, I did practice on those.
Primary coach came by and handed me my CD for my artistic number!!! He also complimented me on my footwork sequence for my FS program is MUCH better b/c I'm finally getting a LOT of "curves" (meaning that I'm skating on strong edges and NOT on flats!!!) He better!!! I've been working A LOT on those!!!

Bend and Twisted:
Didn't do much jumps or spins today but...

More Nice and straight:
I landed TWO loops... one at a pretty decent speed. (Okay, it was slightly shaky and SCARY on the landing but I did it!!!)

Minor Bend and Twisted out of the last "Nice and Straight":
Too bad primary coach didn't noticed that I was doing that... even though I landed it RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM at the penalty box!!!

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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!!!

Well if it makes you feel any better, I wasn't doing a cross stroke, since I can't, I was going backward, thinking "Hmmm...what shall I do that's like a back stroke, maybe swing rolls?" and boom I was down. I have no idea what happened. Guess I should be grateful I didn't end up in a pool of blood like doubletoe!

j

Don't worry, Jazzpants, it was really just a little puddle; "pool" would be an exxaggeration! But seriously, you've already passed Bronze MIF, which means you understand edges, both forward and backward. When I had that fall, I hadn't even done Pre-bronze yet, and did not yet understand how to keep my weight on the balls of my feet and push diagonally onto my edges. You should not have that problem.

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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

Didn't skate well on Tuesday as I was in the grip of a vicious cold and felt pretty lousy. Just did footwork with the coach and he started trying to get me to do some more complicated moves (eg LFI3, RBcross in front, transfer weight to LBI and perform LBI3 to forwards and repeat, then on other foot and then alternating! ) Was beginning to get the idea but BI3's need a lot of work.

No dance lesson Wednesday as coach is still away.

Free lesson today:
nice & straight - made a better effort at the complicated footwork from Tuesday.

Did a well nigh perfect flip for coach - well it felt good to me and he seemed pleased.

Ran through programme landing both loop and flip again

Bent & twisted:
Ran through free dance after lesson. Haven't had a chance to do this since the adult club competition last week and it was awful. If I can't make some drastic improvement real quick I think I maybe tempted to pull out of the upcoming adult opens. Still love my music though - just couldn't manage to remember what I was supposed to be doing to it or keep to correct timing.

That's right. My back edges were poor when I had that fall. If you do start to fall just sit down. I fell on a back outside edge on Monday and it was the wimpiest non-painful fall I've ever had! Just sit on it...

And when you do get those back cross rolls you'll love them. They are my favorite moves now.

Hey! I understand edges! Really I do!

I think was an ice zit that got me...

j

Yes, the best trick anyone ever showed me was to extend your free leg behind you but out to the side, then bend the skating leg (the front leg) deeply, point the free foot and bring it down at 7:00-8:00 for the left foot and 5:00-6:00 for the right foot. Slide the new foot into place at a diagonal towards 6:00, then push onto it. That's how the new foot ends up behind where the old one was; you don't actually lift up the foot and cross it behind. Hmm, this is starting to sound like the "progressives" topic!

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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 have been gone from skating for most of the winter and started back up today. The bad, but not at all unexpected side, was that I completely forgot how to do the backward edges that I had worked so hard at getting down last fall. My three turns were really weak as well, but will come back quickly. On the good side, I did some OK waltz jumps and the teacher figured out what I need to do to avoid wobbling all over the place on my two foot spin. So I actually did that better today than I ever did before.

I had one of the sit-down falls on B cross strokes last year when DD said my edges weren't deep enough and I got a little too enthusiastic. I really surprised myself by sitting down on it and not getting hurt at all.

Bent and Twisted:
For various reasons. I just haven't gotten in much practice in the past two weeks. I gave up my lesson last Fri because I worked 7 hrs on Thurs, and woke up with jelly legs. The thing that has suffered the most is my one foot spin. I had just gotten to the point that my middle automatically tightened up and now I have to think about it again.

Nice and Straight:
I woke up this morning from a dream of effortless double threes. In the dream, I was telling myself "just stand up". Later, at the rink, my LFI threes were feeling so good that I told myself "just stand up" and followed a LFI three with a LBO three. I was doing these very close to the wall, so that on finishing the LBO three, I was within reach of the wall. I'll have to do a lot more of these and work on the check two footed before I have the confidence to move away from that wall, but this is a major step for me. I think the real message of "just stand up" is to feel no fear.

One foot spin is starting to improve again, but I still have to think about sucking in my belly button. CCW FXO's are starting to feel more natural at last. F & B power pulls are starting to feel like fun, especially when the music has a varied beat so I can vary the speed of the pulls with it.

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Twisted: the weather outside, check it out (it's not my video, but it's the same all over the country the past few days)
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/7...4d01092d37.htm

I mean I've rollerbladed in a thunderstorm once, but I'm not rollerblading in this weather!
I went to get my bike out of the basement a few days ago and there was 3 inches of mud and water on the floor. Yikes! I'm getting The Day After Tomorrow ideas here.
Now we're used to this sort of storms in the Netherlands, but usually in october-november. Not in june!

I've been reading about all kinds of freak weather recently... sorry that its happening to you too Sessy. But yeah, I think best not to rollerblade outdoors in that kind of weather. But do you have any nice indoor places you can rollerblade?

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~
Tidesong

Nice & Straight: Thursday June 14th, 2007

Waltz jump (landing with free foot infront getting ready to try Waltz/loop)
Toe Loop also landed with free foot infront.
Same with Salchow.
Combinations waltz/toe, toe/toe and sal/toe all were landed with proper arms, longer landing edge and with free foot first being infront and then brought back. ( I use to have a bad habit of swing my left arm around; CCW skater and I use to go to the next step as soon as I landed the jumps. That hurt me big time with CPC at Adult Canadians this year.)

Upright spin is starting to be more centered.

Tried and did twice 4 rotations after grabbing my free leg from the layback set up with my other arm behind my back. These were actually centered. No way.

Bent & Twisted

Still sick with infection though it's starting to get under control but went back to doc and got more meds to clear it out.
Everytime I jumped Thursday, my chest killed me.
When blowing my nose my ear felt like it would pop off.

Got to run to the gym now.

singerskates out......

__________________
"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

Ugh! Welcome to global warming. Good thing we don't have to ice skate outside! The worst that can happen in our protected little indoor world is a Zamboni breakdown. . . which is exactly what kept me of the ice yesterday morning after already being off the ice for 3 days! I got a call from my coach yesterday morning at 6am telling me not to bother coming for my lesson because our Zamboni spilled oil all over the ice. Thank goodness we had a spare machine, so I got to skate this morning. . .

Nice & Straight: Progress on the new double salchow takeoff (RBO3-mohawk, jump). My coach was excited, even though I wasn't able to hold my edge on the ones I landed fully rotated (even fell on one of them). Heck, as long as he's happy! I also seem to have gotten my axel back on the floor, which may help me get it back on the ice. Also succeeded in doing my new flying camel combo for my coach. I think I finally *started* to figure out how to get both torque and control on the flying camel takeoff, instead of just one or the other. Let's see if it was just luck or if I can repeat it tomorrow!

Bent & Twisted: Double loops on the floor were really off this morning, which is unusual. Also, my back was so stiff from 4 days of inactivity that there was just no way I could get enough back bend to get my foot higher than my head on my catch foot spirals. When I pulled my leg up higher, it pitched me forward and I had to pull out of both of them in my program.

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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

Well this isn't exactly nice and straight, but
I FELL TWICE ON SITSPINS TODAY!!
My coaches are on a rampage to get my sitspin to that "thigh parallel to ice" position that the judges want. In order to do that I will have to take some falls.
Jumps were fine as well as forward and backscratch spins.
Another thing that secondary coach worked with me is on BI3's. I had never done them before and the first time I went to try one after she broke it down, I did a bracket!

Bent and Twisted:
Due to next week's whacked freestyle schedule and work commitments, I'll be lucky to skate once next week!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Spent today's session working on those accursed bronze moves. They seem so simple in theory yet are so difficult to execute correctly.

Nice and Straight-
I understand said moves. I just can't do them.

Bent and Twisted-
Just got word that the synchro team that I am joining this year is moving to adult so I have to pass them soon. Looks like this will be the summer of bronze moves.

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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

Hey are you going into the spin low enough, or are you trying to lower yourself in the spin? I'd been falling on them as well and one of my problems was trying to lower myself already in the spin, slightly leaning forward, then rolling back a little and just falling over.

I just got my sit spin back by going in really low and focusing on keeping my shoulder blades together (doesn't always work).

Now if only I can get my flip back!!!!

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Bent and Twisted: Most everything this week. After a correction on my spin entry from crossovers two weeks ago, I can't get into ANY spins from crossovers. It's back to spin basics for me.

My toe loop has been on vacation. I think I've been pushing my picking leg so much in ballet that when I try to pick, the heel drops and I hit the flat (old injury...). Frustrating and scary.

Nice and Straight: After a few frustrating attempts at getting me to jump a salchow, my coach called in her husband as backup. He has me doing these drills on ice, no jumping, that have totally improved my centering, rotational inertia, and entry. This coming week we tackle the jumping part. Yay!

My coach was running through some of the PB freestyle requirements with me and asked me to just show her the one footed and two footed upright spins. I spun CW on two footed and CCW on the one footed and had her cracking up on the ice-- she's really curious to see what would happen if I do that when I take my test!

On a semi-skating note, I noticed in ballet class how much stronger and higher my jumps are, how much more centered and controlled my pirouettes are, and how much easier developpes have become. I think I'll definitely trade the confusion with spotting and the few bad habits that I've picked up from skating for the power that it's infused into my dancing!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

he he he!! sitspins....HA!!! I swear that I WILL get one!

no skating on real ice, just the fake stuff and that doesn't really count as we only have enough time to do show stuff before we are shooed out.

So I was at the gym, I've been kicking it up really hard this past month...trying hard to get stronger and I had a thought break through this hard head of mine. To work on the sitspin off ice, I actually have to simulate the position ON ICE! Doh!

Off to the back room I went, got an aerobics step block and put it behind me. Positioned myself in front of the mirror and away I went! Just as though I was entering a real sit spin, sweep down low, reach forward, lock leg etc.....positioned so the block was behind my butt for when I fell back. I managed to get really low (a fear of mine). My quads cramped a bit but I could hold it a bit.

Did 2 sets of 3-4 each side (hey, I will need to do a back sit).

I could hardly walk out of the gym....I was walking funny....and my legs really hurt!

http://tkahline.sk8rland.com/TKahlin...0Video/Videos/
look at the bottom, they are titled: sitexercise.avi and sitexercise.mov

as always, please save to your desktop first, then play. They are rather short. Please excuse the cruddy quality of the video...my cell phone is crappy and dying.

Enjoy!

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

Nice&Straight: It's been a good week. I had another good lesson working on my moves yesterday, so I'm looking forward to taking the APBM test someday when I can get it to fit my schedule. I also had a try-out with a potential dance partner, which went pretty well. Today, my son is taking his friends out skating for his birthday, so it won't be a great practice session, but I ought to be able to get something done.

Bent&Twisted: The only real problem this week has been lack of time; hope to do something about that next week...

Rob

Thanks! One can never have enough tips. What has helped me is the Natalia Dubova Stroking Exercises on Ice video. She demonstrates the move on the ice, but without her skates on. I love her accent. She talks a lot about the hips and where they should be. My problem with this move is hitting the toepick when I place the skate on the ice. I need to work on the sliding part I think.

Yeah, I had those too on the backsit recently too! I still have the bruise mark from last Monday. (But at least I can sit on my bruise mark now... ) Jay concurs that to get down lower on a sit spin, you'll need to take a few falls... but as I've mentioned before to you, the lower you try to go, the less impact the fall on your butt and hip! (Doesn't mean it won't hurt still... but it will hurt a LOT less!!!)

I assume a BI-FO bracket? Those are hard!!! I can't do them yet. I could do FO-BI ones though.

__________________
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!!!

Nah, but I'm just doing it to practice my crossovers and stuff anyway, it's not that huge a thing. It just always makes me a bit edgy when I haven't had my daily exercise. Not to mention I start doing other stuff instead, like over-doing a few stretches (my back kind of really hurts today).

No kidding! There's still 2 outdoor rinks (open half a year) in the netherlands, and 1 semi-outdoor one, I don't know HOW they do it with all that rain in winter!

Nice and straight: I did it! I did it! The cross-behind step on the Rhythm Blues! I've been doing laps of them for 2 days, and now I can do them without holding on to anything! Even managed them in the dance with my coach this morning, and almost got them in time when I did it by myself. Then she taught me the cha-cha. Also did some really good lutzes this week!

Bent and twisted: This morning was not the greatest spin day I have ever had. I guess even my bad ones are better than my best ones used to be, but nothing felt quite right this morning.

Question: When there are only 3 people on the ice, how is it that they still all end up in the same place at the same time?

Nice and straight: My freestyle coach loves my new lightweight skates! She said that I have so much more speed and flow and that my skating's just all around better. She was quite impressed with my double salchows and flying camels as a result.

Bent and twisted: It's not so bad, but my coach wants me to go faster and faster into my doubles. Aghhh, scary! Okay, so it's actually a lot easier jumping with more speed and all, but still...I feel a tad bit out of control. That's gonna take some getting used to, hahahaha!