Was thinking of my "canine alarm clocks" who wake me up in the morning (ironically my real alarm clocks don't do it for me...)

Growling:

• WHEEEEE!!! Forward power 3's are still going at a good speed and pretty good consistent. Still not good enough to keep secondary coach happy, but I think primary coach will be happy.
• The rest of my moves are happy still

Whimpering:
My spins!!! AUGH!!! What a BAD spin day!!! I need to that those blades realigned. But I'm gonna have to wait 'til after the test, since I'm getting pretty good on the moves and I don't want any more variables to my blade until the Bronze Moves are out of the way. But still... WAAAAAH!!!!

__________________
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!!!

Hmm - what happened there? Was in the middle of typing this when suddenly Internet Explorer closed down on me! Oh well, try again!

Growling: (How is this good? When I growl, it's usually because I'm cross!) Anyway, we had our couples lesson this morning, which was great as we showed him "the story so far" about our Free Dance, and we now have a good skeleton to work on. Then Robert had to leave for work, and after a break, I practiced on my own. Everything went really, really well - even the evil Novice Mohawk sequence (Open inside Mohawk, crossover, open inside Mohawk the other side, crossover and repeat) seems to be beginning to work now. And I managed a 3-bracket-3 on my right foot without grabbing the barrier. AND I managed nearly a whole length of continuous FO3s without toe-tapping!

Also did all the usual exercises - changes-of-edge, Russian stroking, back outside edges, back inside edges, swing rolls, and even inside chassés. Am beginning to work on one-footed slaloms, which I have always refused to work on before as they made my knees hurt, but now my knees seem to have strengthened and they don't. So I'm going to ask my coach if I can work on them tomorrow.

Plus the newest rink baby was brought in to be shown off. All of 3 weeks old - but her mother plans to skate on Friday!

Whimpering: The Tango mohawk! We have put one in our free dance, and I now discover I can't do it! Again, I will need to work on it in my lesson tomorrow - I can't seem to do it at all solo, and with Robert, I kept putting my leg in the wrong direction! Ah well, it will come. Also the twirl under his arm is a bit odd - I still don't know what I'm doing! The lift is still an assisted 3-jump, not a lift. And lots of it needs a very great deal of hard work to get right, but, all the same, I'm relatively optimistic. If we can get the time to work on it, it should be okay.

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

This is actually from Sunday...

Growling: Finally I just about have that right power 3 down correctly. I used to tap my right foot down to stop my momentum before stepping forward, but now I'm getting better at keeping my balance on my left back inside edge well enough to step forward on my own. Coach says I am so close. Maybe next week... Also we put a spiral sequence into my interpretive program. It was something I'd worked out on my own and my coach liked it so much we put it into my program now, instead of waiting until after Skate Wilmington is over.

Whimpering: That left power 3, ugh. But my coach has been helping me just by holding my left hand, which forces me to step in the proper direction, so I guess it's progress, but ugh... I hate that direction... No practice this week (although I do have a couple lessons) due to the big summer competition. My coach is gonna have to do some serious blocking on the sessions we'll be on, I think!

Jazzpants-- That's great about your power 3's; keep it up!

Happy skating,
Pat

GROWLING

Rink management ...... are they all cloned in a lab somewhere?

It's SLIGHTLY better where I am now as they seem to cater more for the kid skaters BUT the adults are completely disregarded apart from the adult 'learn to skate' courses.

Not to be beaten I send a very polite e-mail to the 'boss' (can't remember his title but he's got a skating background so you would expect him to be sympathetic) asking if they had thought about making some provisions for adults who had worked their way through the learn to skate classes and now had nowhere to go. I pointed out that there were quite a few of 'us' and many others coming up so it would be financially viable ..... I got a very nice e-mail back (the guy should be a politician but at least he wasn't as blunt as the usual rink managers) but it effectively said thank you but no thanks!

I have 'advised' the other skaters that maybe it would be a good idea to send off some letters/e-mails too! We have put names forward for an adult synchro team and are generally going to be quite forceful. I did point out that I didn't mind skating with the kids (have done it before and really enjoyed it) but that the kids sessions preclude me from joining in because I have to do the work thing to get the money to skate!

PURRING

Am feeling that the adult group is too restrictive. I'm still a bit wobbly and I haven't got everything (ok, most things) back but I am starting to feel the 'freedom' of skating again

Did the usual stuff ..... it's improving ...... gradually!

WHIMPERING

Remember I said that I'd spotted a potential dance partner? Still a beginner but works hard and has potential? Looked early 20's?

Well ..... two words ..... jail and bait! We were all gobsmacked when he told us how old he was!!! I think that there was more than me eyeing him up as a potential dance partner judging from the responses. That guy is going to be one lucky guy when he gets a bit better He'll have so much choice of partners.

Oh well, back to the drawing board ...... sigh .......

x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Growling: Arrived to find the wretched Zamboni had broken down yet again, so the ice was half nice and half snowy. Very difficult to skate on, until you get used to it. Robert and I decided not to try to go through our programme to the music, but just worked on elements from it, which are too difficult. Couldn't and couldn't do the Tango Mohawk properly, not even when we changed it so that he was doing an outside Mohawk and I was doing an inside one. Of course, as soon as he had gone I realised that I was only doing an open Mohawk when I needed to be doing a closed one, wasn't I Der-brain, or what

Apart from that, most things were purring nicely. My Mohawk sequence is improving (I think that particular sequence is harder than the one from the Starlight waltz, but they say not), and everything I tried in my lesson went well. I asked my coach to show me one-footed slaloms (a.k.a. edge pulls, power pulls); I'm not too sure what I'm doing wrong, but I'm certainly not getting any power from them. The coach says they're okay for now, though, and to work on them as much as I can (I daren't work on them too much as they can make my knees sore, although they are much stronger now).

I also did a length of back cross-rolls which, although not good, "Are much better!" said the coach. So overall very pleased.

Then after my lesson I joined the kids in their stroking class, which I don't often do; as they couldn't really jump (although they worked on walleys), they had been going to practice in the harness off-ice ("He's going to hang you as high as Haman," I said!), but something had gone wrong with the harness, so the kids were on the ice and were doing clever things like loops down the ice (loops on the ice, not loop jumps), which I was amused to find I could nearly do, it wasn't quite as hard as it looked; hydroblades, which I could actually do better than they could (I knew roughly what to do, so although I can't get down as far as they can, I could at least look as though I was doing a hydroblade, which is more than they did!); then ending with a sequence of 3-turns and brackets round the hockey goal, which I certainly couldn't do as well as they could, but had fun trying. They then finished with a sequence of the Circle Cycle, but I got off then and scrounged a cup of tea from my coach.

Oh, my skates have been being very uncomfortable this past couple of weeks; I was afraid they had died, as I really don't want to afford new ones right now. But someone on this forum or on RSSIR, forget who and where, mentioned giving theirs a new lease of life by changing the laces, so half-way through this morning that's what I did, and it made a huge difference to the support levels! My old laces were rather like chewed string, so......

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

Growling: The rink closest to me has three hours of ice that I can make weekly. It's great because it's not out of my way, it's only a ten minute drive from home and two of the days are run by the rink so they're cheaper than club-run free-skates.

Whimpering: I am whimpering - with pain. I have somehow managed to develope an inflamation of the tailbone, although it's not broken and I know I haven't plopped on it at all since Mountain Cup. In turn that has led to sciatica which has gotten bad enough that I cannot sit, stand or lie down comfortably. Dr. has me on so many pain pains I rattle when I walk and I have an appointment with a specialist on Friday. I skated Monday anyway, and it wasn't too bad except that I was super-cautious and didn't try anything that might lead to a fall. But by the time I drove home, I could hardly haul myself out of the car and I spent the rest of the evening in pain. So skating this week is probably not a good idea.

Another whimper: all the music I've come up for a new Interpretive program has been - wrong: too fast, lyrics not clear enough, too dumb even for me. So I'm still questing.

And it's raining - again.

Grrrr. Did something to my calf muscle the other day, but didn't think much about it, as it felt better the next morning. Last night I was skating, completely warmed up, and thought I'd do a flip. They're a pretty large jump for me with lots of speed, so I went into it as usual. As I launced up from the toe...... ouch! Could not jump for the rest of the night, and it hurt to walk. I had a lesson after that so we worked on spins. Anyone out here had a calf muscle problem?

Sort of--I had posterior tibialis tendinitis--it's tendinitis of a muscle that crosses the ankle joint and is involved in pointing the foot. I've not had a problem with the two better-known and bigger calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus), but I tend to be very tight there. (That was how my tendinitis got started--I was pointing too much in ballet and not stretching my calves, and then it got quite inflamed.)

I know a great PT who's about 15 min. away from us. She was a ballet dancer and also has her ATC certification. Her specialty is foot/ankle/lower leg stuff. PM me if you want her info.

Does it hurt when you when you push off with your foot or when you land/touch down?

I hope whatever it is goes away soon! (((Hugs)))

Thanks Mika,
Just tried a waltz jump in the office - It hurts both when I push off the toe, and when I land. This is very odd - it's like the middle of the night cramp. Eeek.

Mrs. Redboots: Maybe I should have renamed the thread to "Barking/Whimpering?"

Anyway, until then...

Growling:
Power 3's speed is still pretty good!

Whimpering:
Secondary coach STILL says "FASTER!!!" And the worst part is that I have a technique problem that the skating judges might have a fit over and I have to fix it PRONTO!!! (And no, it's not easy to fix either.)

Worst part is that my secondary coach thinks I'm back in the "comfort zone" and I need to push my limits further!!! WAAAAAH!!! I thought I WAS!!!

__________________
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!!!

Growling: NOthing.

Whimpering: I had to stay home from work today because my ears, throat and chest are stuffed up. I've been having pain in my ears since I had the flu in June and the last two days it got worse. This morning, my back and chest were really congested. Yesterday, while I was at work, I felt as if I was not in my own body. I was sort of a dizzy feeling but not really. I'm thinking that the ears got infected when I had the flu. I haven't seen a doctor for this yet. My throat sometimes bleeds now but I think it's from the sinuses. But then again, I don't know. Anyway, I have to get this looked at soon, possibly before I skate tomorrow at summer skating school.
Spins are going to have to be kept down to 5 revs instead of 9 revs tomorrow.

Brigitte

__________________
"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

Growling: I'm on vacation, so I can skate whenever I want!

Whimpering: It's summer time, and all the kids are out of school, so ice time is taken up by hockey camps, so time is limited.

Growling: That being said, I made a FS session today. We worked on salchow. It's my newest jump, and the one I think I will pick up the fastest so far. All I have to do is flatten my 3turn, check my shoulders and transfer my weight. Other than that, no problem. I have the steps, I just need to improve them. I did a couple today that my coach was pleased with.

Whimpering: Still that scratch spin. Do I really have to learn one?

Knowing our Beccapoo, perhaps you should!

No skating news today (yet), as it's Thursday when I skate in the evenings, but I just wanted to send <<<Hugs>>> to those who are injured, have sciatica (oh, how I sympathise!) or not quite well - BlueIIImoon, flo and Singerskates, to name only those who've posted since yesterday!

NCskater02, I do sympathise about hockey camps. We will probably have one week this summer with no morning ice because of one. I just hope it's the week our coaches go on holiday, so we can have a week off with a clear conscience!

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

I'd kill for just one week--here, it's almost every week, all summer long, at all four rinks in town. Maybe they should just take the NHL Hurricanes rink, put the ice back for the summer and just do camps there 24 hours a day and leave the rest of the rinks alone. I really prefer to skate in the morning so I don't waste most of my day, but the only way to do that is to get up at 5am, and let's face it, I'm on vacation this week, and it just ain't gonna happen.

Well, I skated today.

Growling: Didn't feel too bad once I got into the ice. My toe loops were good (for me), although of course, as soon as I told myself "one more good one, then something else", that's when they stopped working. Managed some that were good though, although that's not taking into account my form - I have the feeling that my form during the jump isn't that great. Hmm. Also my turns were good (RBO not perfect, but still worked).

Whimpering: Salchow was screwy. The first one I did, I was all over the place! Don't know where on earth my balance was. They improved a little, but still not stellar. My landing heel started hurting on the landing of waltz jumps too. And I kept getting a strange little pain in the back of my right ankle, kind of like there was a crease in my sock (although there wasn't).
Also, my spins are starting to be incredibly frustrating. (Maybe "starting" is the wrong word. Hmph.)

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Since Robert's got the computer on to listen to the Folk Music programme.....

We are at the awful stage of our free dance; Robert doesn't want to dance it to the music yet "because we'll look silly" - but if we don't go through the "looking silly" stage (and who is looking at us, anyway?), we'll never get to the "looking great" stage. Sigh. Plus he's pretending he can't do the steps he did perfectly well in our Tango last year and in our waltzing cat programme a month ago.

We did, however, have a good time at dance club, although Robert was most uncomplimentary about my 14-step (I don't care; I was glad to get round! One day....). We even managed a Willow Waltz, which surprised me so much I forgot the steps on the second pattern! I also made a nonsense of the Fiesta Tango, as I bottled out of the first Mohawk (I was getting tired by then) and broke in the middle on the second. Would have liked to have had a go at the Foxtrot, but didn't, in the end. Still, it was fun, and good exercise (I'm exhausted, and a traffic jam all the way home didn't help).

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

Whimpering: I woke up this morning and my clock read 2:41pm. My watch said 9:30am, but no matter which one I believed, I had missed my lesson. I mostly felt bad about leaving my coach wondering where I was. But it's the first time it has ever happened, and he probably just gave one of his other students a longer lesson. I told him what happened when I skated this afternoon, and he understood. But I still felt rotten!

Growling: Didn't have a lesson scheduled for the afternoon, so I just worked on my own. Major progress on the back outside loops! Keeping my fingers crossed that they stay respectable for tomorrow, and then I can breathe a huge sigh of relief. Test day isn't until next Saturday, so I will still have a full week to brush everything up a bit more. Everything is passable right now, I just want it all to be the best I can get it. Multi-turns have improved quite a bit, and power threes are really strong. Flying choctaws are steadily improving, and just need a bit more tweaking. I've decided tomorrow will be spirals day, so hopefully that will clean those up.

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

GrowlingI got to spin, I got to jump!!!!!!!! It doesn't matter how pathetic they were..................I finally got to try after so long off. I started with a back scratch. Like I'd never missed a beat. Centered and all. Eh ha!!!! Forward scratch.........well, there is a reason that has never been in my program. Didn't miss a beat with that one either. It still travels to Mars. First few camels were over on the toe, but then I got it and did a pretty decent one. I did a few toes before me lesson. During lesson we did waltz. Small, but a start. My legs somehow feel disconnected with the rest of my body, so it will take a bit to get the jumps back, but it's a start. What a fun day!!!!!

WhimperingAbsolutely nothing. I'm just so happy to be skating again. Give it a few weeks though, and I'll have plenty, no doubt.

Growling: the flying camel is getting less scary (haven't had a belly splat in a while!), and I was working on flying change sits that felt pretty decent.

Whimpering: I got a mole removed on my left knee, so I couldn't bend that leg too much- just got the stitches out today. So, that was my excuse for not doing an axel attempts or sit spins. My back sit is still not low enough. It's as if the muscles are not there to let me sink down. I should go home now and practice on the living room floor.

Started with the toe loop first, Huh?

Growling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Landed two clean loops yesterday in lesson. Landed another not so clean loop in my freeskate program

Whimpering: Lack of air to my lungs and dizzy. laybacks were travelling badly, sitspins were travelling, scatch even travelled but with ear infection comes loss of equilimbrem. Not bad, I still did a decent amount of revs on my spins just couldn't control where I got out and where the spin went. LOL

Had to take my blue inhailer for each session I skated yesterday and still felt tired and out of air.

It was a mixed day. I'll take it since I did land the loop.

__________________
"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

Growling: Loops get better every time I hit the ice. Back outside didn't desert me! They aren't great, but there is a loop there...it just needs to be tighter and have more flow. Improved the continuous brackets.

Whimpering: I keep bailing on one spot in the multi-turns, and I'm getting really mad at myself. I've got one week to talk myself out of being scared of that spot! I'm getting on my toes too much on the power threes and flying choctaws. I wasn't very happy with my spirals today, but coach seemed to think they were good. I think I'm getting pickier and more easily frustrated since test day isn't that far off. I just have to be patient and concentrate, but that's easier said than done!

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Growling:

• Managed to do a complete run-through of my Bronze Moves w/o stopping for the first time. And primary coach thinks that despite the problems that it's not that bad.
• The forward power 3's -- particularly my weaker side is better. But this is the main thing I'm worried about as far as passing the test is concerned.

Groaning:

• Still fixing technique problems on the power 3's. We'll see if I make any progress this weekend.
• I don't know if I'll pass the Bronze Moves test this time around. But I was strongly instructed by my coaches to "fight for it." So despite my better judgment, I'm doing "as told."
• Backspin sucked. Fell to the inside edge again!!! *sigh*

__________________
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!!!

We didn't skate yesterday as, when the alarm-clock went off, a small voice beside me said it didn't want to get up yet, so we went back to sleep, instead. So we skated this morning, instead.

Honestly, I give up! What do you do with a partner who, on Thursday night, simply can't do the steps he did so easily in the previous programme, has never done them before, doesn't know what to do, it's too difficult, we need to change it, etc. So you change it, and make it easier. And on Saturday morning he's totally like "Well, why did you change it? Of course I can do it like this!"

So, anyway, we put the thing back to where it was, that's fine. And in fact we were able to have, for the first time, a RUNTHROUGH TO THE MUSIC! Yeah! There is a very long way to go, and there are an awful lot of bits that need an awful lot of work, but WE HAVE A FREE DANCE!!!!

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

For this week
This summer, skating on Monday afternoons will be a keeper, as the rink is EMPTY!!
My growling was on my spins and my MIF are getting a little better.

Wimpering: That #$%^% footwork that my coach is putting in my program! I spent a good chunck of practice time this week still trying to get it, but it's still not happening! All it is is mohawk, cross mohawk , cross!