Aaaaah: I think I can confidently say that all my jumps are consistent (I have my singles through lutz, and everything in combo with a loop). This week was rather hellish (I DETEST incompetence!), so I didn't get to rink for extra practice...thus, hadn't worked on free skate since last Thursday. But I could do everything just fine on the first try. There is some slight variance in quality, but if I was asked to go and do x jump with no warm-up, I could do it. In the spin department, coach says my backspin is actually a spin now, instead of little turns. However...

Aaarrrggh: I've learned that spinning in general is NOT my forte. Feels like every spin I work on is one step forward, two steps back. *sigh*

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Aaah: Had a very nice uncrowded session today! Notwithstanding the crappy music we have to listen to now (radio with TONS of commercials) because they've locked the music cabinet.....the usual crowd of over-40-year-olds was missing (hey, guys, where are you?) So, for once, there was 4-6 people on the ice at the most! Glad I brought my mp3 player! Ran through my program several times with and without music. And, was able to "speed it up" so I finished before the music did (so I added a back spiral...just messin' around).

Did a very nice toe-loop (not in my program, but afterwards) that was less waltzy! I tried to do it again, but couldn't, darn it!... And, when I did my spiral on my program run-through, the little girl on the ice with her mom said "Mommy, look at that lady, isn't she pretty?" Wow, that made me feel really good!

Aaarrrgggh!: Ok, I bailed on the salchow part of my program, the beginning pose is a bit awkward (it's just me), I bailed on the toe-loop and my exit to waltz jump going into back crossovers has me turned around and I'm stepping on the wrong foot! Sheesh! But....

Aaah: After having that nice talk with my coach about goals and testing, I feel more at ease now! More settled and not feeling like I have to hurry and get everything done by April (when my rink closes for the season).

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

Aaah:
did some really good sit spins, coach liked my axels

Aaarrrgggh:
Need major work on split jumps camels are horrible and failed my dance test in the dutch waltz (sighs) oh well maybe next time i guess

~Cutie

__________________
Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

Aaah:
Well it's good to be taking lessons again, even if they are rare for the time being. And even if I haven't learned lots of fancy new things super-fast, I'm enjoying skating a lot, and that's the important part.

Have been focusing more on edges and moves, and I feel like it's paid off, I feel a bit more stable.

I wondered randomly into the rink where I bought my skates where it's very difficult to catch my fitter as he's always skating or not there, and miraculously, he was there and able to do a much-needed sharpening. So hopefully no more horrible falls as mentioned below...

Aaarrrgggh!:
Apparently it's just a matter of time until the nearby rink closes it's doors for the last time. The city is widening the highway it's on at some point (they're already working on it farther south), and has apparently already bought the buildings that will have to go. Yeah, the rink is old and dilapidated, and yeah, the other, nicer, rink will still be close. But it will be very sad to see it go. Maybe they'll be able to rebuild and reopen, but I don't know if their finances will allow it.

During my lesson, my coach had me do a flip...I don't know what exactly happened - I think it was related to my dull blades - but after takeoff my lower body moved forward a lot faster than the rest and I landed directly on my right knee, and then onto the right hip. It was one of those fun falls where I couldn't get up for about a minute. A little boy skated by and gave me the helpful advice that I lost my edge. No really? ;-) Then, frustrated, I finally did get back up, and went and did another one right away, though a bit wobbly because of my knee, I didn't fall. My coach probably thought I was nutters because she thought I should ice it, but I suppose people thinking I'm nutters is nothing new. Anyways 2 days have passed, and it's only a wee bit sore to the touch, so no serious harm done.

Aaarrrgggh! Still can't do a lutz. Aaarrrgggh! Can do some great half ones though.

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Aaaaah!!!

• Looks like toward the end of the session I was able to start getting some of the mojo back on the first two moves!!! And it looks like once I'm warmed up a bit, my lower back doesn't hurt much.
• Went to see my chiro tonight... my lower back is back to normal again!!!

Aaaarrrrggggh!!!

• Skate@Delaware: Did you overnight my FI mohawk back? I still haven't gotten it back in time for my lesson... (Thankfully, I didn't have a lesson on 5 step mohawk.) Of course, that's b/c...
• Primary coach spent 20 minutes making sure that I get enough edge on those forward crossovers and he was adjusting me the entire time and making me feel REALLY nervous while adjusting me. And he says "No more Mr. Nice Guy!!!" When I wasn't getting the forward crossovers on the pattern, he made me do them around the circle (which he knows I HATE doing!) until he sees me doing them right, then go back and made me do them on the pattern until I do forward crossovers on the pattern the same way I did them on the circle too! Some of the other skaters on the rink was going "Uh oh!!! Jazzpants is really getting a workout now!!!"

Funny note: Primary coach knows of my plans to work with the "Moves Nazi" during my visit to NYC. Since primary coach was being particular "NOT Mr. Nice guy", I said "I guess I shouldn't have told you that I would be working with the Moves Nazi while I'm visiting NYC, huh?" Primary coach then replies "Well, all the more reason I'm being tough on you now!!! I don't want him to think that I wasn't doing my job..."

__________________
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!!!

I swear I did!!! Must have gotten held up somewhere for some reason or other (because I sure didn't have it yesterday!) Maybe you'll get it today!

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

Aaah: I passed my Bronze FS test so I can go to ANs this year! Plus, I can finally put that program to bed and start working more on my new program

Aaarrrgggh: I skated waaaaaay too much in 1 day (test + 2 back-to-back FS sesssions) and strained a muscle in my left ankle so now it hurts whenever any pressure is put on it (including socks and shoes ). Thankfully, outside of ice show practice on Sunday, I have the next week and a half away from the ice for the Thanksgiving holiday so I'll have plenty of time to rest up and get my ankle back into working condition!

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Aaaah: The ice was wonderfully empty this morning, as a lot of people weren't there. Just enough people for it not to be miserable - although at one stage I was the only person actually on the ice, as everybody else was taking a break of some kind.

Husband and I had great fun working on things that we may or may not incorporate in our free dance - various steps, lifts, spins, etc. All a bit slow, but then, we were focussing on technique this morning, not speed. Also playing with things Husband might put in his free programme, things like a toe loop from a back spiral, and a salchow-toe loop combination. Not that either of us could remember how to do a salchow, but that's another story....

I spent a further 30 minutes on the ice after he'd gone, working on my dance moves, and the Circle Cycle, as that was being played. To my delight, I was getting really good edges on the Circle Cycle, much better than I ever have before! Now I'd better start doing some backwards exercises to it.....

Aaaarrrrgggghhhh: No more ice until Tuesday, however will I survive?

My back cross-cuts were okay, but of course, Husband had to show off as his have far better edges, and then he had to be rude about my back edges. I pointed out that he finds back edges easier than I do, end of! I was miffed, though, especially as I'd just congratulated him on how good his back edges were, he didn't need to be rude about mine. Anyway, they are less flat than they used to be, even if they aren't deep enough yet.

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

Ahhhh: College hockey before club ice cancelled last night so the ice was empty for two hours and the Super-nice Rink Guy made it again fresh just for us. It was like glass! And just in time because I've started working figures again in prep for Mountain Cup and last night was my first lesson on them in months. Having perfect ice made gliding easier, speed was okay and I didn't have to worry about losing a three-turn in a hockey rut.

Free style went good, too. I'd taken a few days off and for some reason I always seem to skate better when I come back. I hit everything Coach asked for. Her watchword for the day was "beautiful" as in "Now let me see a sitspin with beautiful position and a beautiful exit." I did my best to oblige and for the most part succeeded.

So Happy Happy Day for me.

The only Argh: I haven't used my patch skates since I got back from France last spring. When I pulled them out of the terry bags for my lesson, I discovered that one lace was missing. Belatedly I remembered breaking a lace on a freestyle boot in Villard and ripping the patch lace out as a replacement. It was too short and I replaced both freestyle laces as soon as I could, but evidently I forgot about the patch boot. So I had to skate my figures lesson in my stiff freestyle boots with the blades with the flatter rocker and massive picks and deep hollow, which was severe challenge. Even figures I can do easily had major flats, which showed up clearly on the perfect patch ice.

Aaaaah
Another good session on the ice today! I practiced all my jumps up to flip, then did a few loop-loop and flip-loop combinations before working on my camel and camel-sit spin.

In my lesson I ran through my jumps again and managed another lutz. Also did a pretty good camel spin for my coach. She asked me to try my programme for the first time in 3 months. I agreed to try half of it as I've done no programme work at all and I didn't want to kill myself, so I skated up to the flip, but although a little shaky it felt better than I thought it would, so my next target is to skate the whole programme. After my lesson I landed my lutz three times, so next week I'll have a go at the lutz-loop again.

Aaaarrrgggh
Nothing really, apart from the fact that it was so cold today plus the ice was quite rutted.

Nicki

Ahhh: Well, in a weird way--I was glad when my partner didn't show up for our team lesson this week because I was really in the mood for a solo lesson!

Aaagghh: We started working on the Kilian, & I have a total mental thing with that dance. Before I went back to standard track, I was working on it with my former coach & it was one of the contributing factors in the unravelling of our working relationship; he got very, very, very frustrated with me & I wasn't understanding the dance at all, & was afraid of it--especially the choctaw, & there was even one time when he walked off the lesson in the middle of it. So lots of bad baggage & it surprised me this week when, two years later, it's still there.

Aahhhh: Wise coach knows how to make things work! I have a couple of things to work on, building up to the choctaw, which will teach me to be very balanced going at that speed. And I think then the choctaw will be easy if I'm solidly balanced beforehand. I trust him & I think he'll be willing to be patient enough to get me through this one!

Aaarrrgggh!!!

Where did my spins go??? Okay, I've had bad days before, but not like this. I went skating tonight, and my spins are *gone*. I tried and tried and just kept failing. I just had my blades sharpened so maybe that's why, but usually that helps, and everything else was fine. So whomever borrowed my spins without asking, please return them! You don't want mine anyways, go for one of the better skaters at my rink!

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

O_O Where exactly does your back get warped to?

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

This is for last night's session:
Went early for public session; ice was perfectly rutted and gouged.... Where was the smoothness from Thursday? Yuck! Of course, I mentioned it to the programs director, who passed it on to the rink director, who told the zamboni driver to take extra time (and he actually did!). So for lessons we had very nice ice!

Hubby report: Spent some time with him on edges, 3-turns and stuff. Worked on chasses, which I think will help him get gliding on one-foot (he has issues with that). With the 3-turn, he is stiff-legging it and when he goes with turn the 3, of course his blades scrape...plus, he's thinking you whip it around with your arms

Worked more on back edges, but I stopped holding arms with him as he kept leaning on me once I stopped holding on; he didn't want to do them anymore. He is soooooo afraid of falling! Annabel-why are husbands such a pain? The funny thing is, I'm such a harsh-skate-instructor (according to observers), yet he keeps coming back for more! Yikes!

Lessons: Working on Moves Stuff
Aaah: Coach liked our edge warmups so we only had to do them once.

Aaarrrgggh!: Rockers! Brackets! The rockers were easy (we had learned them last season so this was a review); brackets, well, what can I say? She had us do then against the wall, which we didn't like because the ice there is always chunky and you can't do anything there. Anyway, they are very interesting! I think I like them (so far-maybe I won't once I fall a few times) I think she said these were inside edge brackets. They do make a neat pattern on the ice! Boy are they hard! Of course, she had to say this is the one move we are certain to fall on! Thanks for building up our confidence!

Then we ended by doing spins; mine sucked because my migraine is still tagging....and I didn't want to feel spacey so I didn't take anything for it (waited until I got home). So instead I felt all wobbly and uneven.

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

Aaah: This morning's freestyle sessions were probably the emptiest in the history of Saturday morning sessions at this rink! I think everyone must have been at Wilmington. Got a lot of work done. My coach gave me some exercises to do to get on the correct edges and get more knee bend in the Bronze moves, which I need to do if I'm ever going to pass this freakin' test. I told her about NYI and the um, interesting selection of required elements in the Pre-Bronze and Bronze events, and she showed me the 8-step. It's a good thing I had her look at what I'd been doing, b/c it turns out a couple of my steps were being done incorrectly. Geez, this move is hard - after the lesson, I practiced it and was scraping all over the place. I will say, though, that it's good to have a new move to work on other than these Bronze moves which I feel like I've been doing forever, and will keep doing, b/c.....

Aaarrrgggh: My coach thinks I should wait until the Feb test session to retry Bronze MIF. I had been hoping to test at another club's session on Dec 9 in a last-ditch effort to qualify for AN. But I think my coach is right that I need more time to work out the kinks in the problem moves. So no AN this year for me . Still a card-carrying member of the Pre-Bronze Peanut Gallery.... Good luck to flying~camel and all the others who have qualified or will qualify! (and of course, my backspin was "on" today in practice)

So now, my plan is to get new skates, since I think my current ones are partly to blame for my problems with the moves. And I need to think about getting a new FS program. I would have used last year's program, with modifications, to test Bronze FS, but I was worried about the way the program was constructed and whether the judges would think the choreo (esp the footwork) was challenging enough. And I need to decide if I'm going to be brave and enter the Bronze CM and/or MIF events at NYI. (couldn't they have just picked Bronze-level moves? )

Hopefully something useful and painless??? BTW: It's supposed to be ThermaCare back WRAP!!! (Don't you love those typos?)

__________________
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!!!

Aah--Had a good double practice session yesterday--worked hard on moves, jumps, spins, fun edge stuff, program. The session would've been empty but for the synchro team practicing there, but they often took breaks, so I was able to get my run-throughs in. They offered to be my cheering section when I did my second runthrough--that was great! Most of the girls went through group lessons the same time I did. My runthroughs were okay, not spectacular (missed the loop loop and the flip). I was able to change the RFO 3 after my spiral to RFO rocker with more footwork. Hopefully coach will approve (I think it makes the footwork harder and cover more ground).

Edited to add--I worked on T stops in both directions and was able to teach myself the other direction (I used to be able to do them only on one side). I went down the rink, alternating T stops with right leg in back, then left leg in back, etc. Then I tried to work on tango stops and didn't have much luck with those!

Argh--Camel is still inconsistent, though improving. I'm still having difficulty putting loop on the end of any jump other than loop. I can tack it on to waltz, toe, or sal, but only if I do those jumps really TINY....

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

Aaah: Had show rehearsal this am-ran my costumes by "the girls" for fitting and they were (mostly) fine! Some work to on the arm things....

Finally, we got our routine for our featurette number!!! We four skate among the candy canes and gingerbreads and gumdrops in the Land of the Sweets....we have power-3's (glad I just learned them ), intersecting circles of back crossovers, waltz-waltz, scratch spins (mine sucked this morning), and a hooked-together spiral around the end of the rink! It's really COOL!!!!

And I managed several very nice centered scratch spins in the afternoon session!!! (why didn't they happen this morning during our program run-through???)

Aaarrrgggh!: Well, because I just learned (for the most part) power-3's means they are S L O W ! ! ! And, my spins really reeked this morning! We went back to the afternoon session (which was delayed because of a fire alarm) and worked on power-3's....I'm told I need to bend more in the knee of the 3-turning leg and really rip on the back crossover for more speed Yikes! Now I'm thinking about taking the power skating class a few times before the show to see if that would help improve my speed....or if I should just be a little gutsier!

And, I tried a few jumps, but they sort-of sucked today, but that's ok. I didn't really feel like jumping, I was pretty tired....

I just realized that my regular long skating day is Thursday.....turkey day.....and the rink will be closed! I'm wondering when I can squeeze an extra session in without tons of kids? They are off from school Wednesday - the weekend.....so the rink will be packed!

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

AAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!!!

• I got a speeding ticket on my way to my weekend rink. Cop must be trying to fill out their speeding quota...
• When I got to the rink, the ice was already crappy and crowded with kids...and the weekend rink NEVER took a break this afternoon to surface the ice.

AAAAAH!!!

• Well, I started building up a bit of speed doing the intro-3 and the FI mohawks. (Thanks, Skate@Delaware. I got them back this afternoon!)
• I am well enough to start jumping again. (Of course, the loop didn't come back along with the lower back, but at least I CAN jump w/o it hurting now...)

__________________
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!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
See you in Dallas!!!

Okay where do you guys get those cool little smilies & how do you put them into the posts??

Aaahh: Kilian is better! Worked really hard yesterday on my exercises & was feeling confident enough to actually put a pattern together--& it worked! The secret of this dance is to stand up straight, and then stand up even straighter. And use your knees and only your knees to get the depth of the edges. I was able to do 2 patterns several times with what I'd call reasonable speed, and twice I did absolutely beautiful clean choctaws. I think there is hope for this dance yet! Edges still need to be a lot deeper, & the whole thing needs to be a lot sharper.

Aaargh: no private lesson this week due to Thanksgiving, just a team lesson on Wed. Plus very little skating over the weekend, if at all.

Tee, hee, I sat there reading your post and wondering if "am-ran" is a word in some kind of code language, similar to pig latin! I'm a bit slow on the uptake today!!

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

That would be funny; although skaters have their own language anyway!!! Rockers, choctaws, hollows, lutz, CoP, twizzles, etc. When I mention skating terms at work---I get the blank stares from my co-workers

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

[QUOTE=Casey]Aaarrrgggh!!!

Where did my spins go???

Well, Casey, the same place mine have gone!

I just had my blades sharpened so maybe that's why, but usually that helps, and everything else was fine.

Sometimes sharpenings magnify errors in technique in spins, or at least I think so.....The sharper they are, the less you can get away with!

So whomever borrowed my spins without asking, please return them!

Hmm, could have borrowed a camel, as that one worked today. But I DO want your spins, especially if you have a sit or back spin you can give me!

Aaaah!

Had a weekend of my life that started at 8:00 on a bright sunny London day at Tower open rink - yes, me and Andrey where anong the few lucky that took part in the filming of the Christmas episode of the Bill.
(Actually, the weekend started from the mad drive to Brussels airport to just to get lost in the car park and catch the plane to London just 10 minutes before the gate closure).

And then on Friday, a plane again, this time to Paris, to see for the first time in my life, LIVE skating of top athletes at Eric Bompard. These were 3 days of sheer delight and awe, something I couldn't believe is actually happening, after all troubles with my visa (don't ask!) and a sudden last munute posting to Netherlands that made everything quite a logistical challenge: 3 countries in 4 hours on Sunday night (train Paris-Brussels, then drive Brussels-Maastricht). Wicked.

Aarrgh!

There is a rink in 5 min drive from my project site, but they have very limited patch times for figure skating - mostly hockey and speed skating popular in Holland. I still haven't talked to administration yet, but if it turns out that I can't have any early morning ice (they only time I can do it) it would be a real blow. I can't possibly drive 60 miles each way to Eindhoven, which has a really nice rink, so it would mean again weekend-only skating for another 4 months (plus a bit of public sessions at an open-air rink in Maastricht). WHat a shame - to have a rink with a pad and ice track so close and not be able to skate!

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My other car is a Zamboni