Cracked
Having been gradually improving my field moves of late, they were not so good today. I don't have a clue why, but my legs just didn't want to do as they were told!

Also the frustration of doing my camel-sit in my programme. I generally have very little problem doing this in isolation, but stick it at the end of my programme and it just never goes right. Some days I can scrape a reasonable one but today I just couldn't get it to happen. Of course after my lesson I was able to do them without too many problems. If anyone can throw some light as to why I can do this element well on it's own but not so well in my programme, I'd love to know. My theory is a combination of two things - one is that by the time I reach that point in my programme my legs are starting to turn to jelly, and the second is that I don't get the timing quite right. Whatever, it's very frustrating.

Chocolate
Apart from a not so good camel-sit, I skated my programme twice and both times went well. Also landed my lutz-loop both times....yay!!!

Nicki

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 49 ( OR WAS THAT 50, OR 52 ? ) what ever, sounds like your skating a the 25 level great to here someone doing so well on the ice and improving. Have a great day.

Nicki, I had that problem all last year. The camel-sit was the last element in my program and I missed it in competition more often than not. For me, the problem was that I couldn't concentrate quite that long. I'd just let go mentally and lose the timing on the spin entrance. So this year I have the camel much earlier in my program. Can you try changing the order of things to see if doing the camel-sit sooner helps?

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

Figureskates - Happy birthday!

NickiT - I also had more success when I moved my figure loop. It was after a spin, when I was far too dizzy for the control needed, so now it's at the beegining of the program.

Debbie, hope your knee is ok.

Cracked: major crack, I'm not going to be able to do Germany and France. Too many problems with an out of touch PI and then there's the matter of no skates. Grrr. Major, major crack - went to our favorite local bar last night to lament and found out it will be sold. Those of us in the over 25 crowd are in mourning. It's one of the few local spots with a good mix of people and only 1 tv at the bar (and the sound is usually off!).

Thanks!

For me it was a question of getting up enough confidence to sit right back on the RBO edge and get my weight over it and let it take me round - when you get to the point you can't beleive you are not going to fall over - you wait a little longer and then bend the knees and spring up. Oh it sounds so easy!!!!!!

I am RBO edge challenged, so it has been incredibly difficult for me to get this.

The coach from the jumps class has me go into it very, very slowly, start to lean into the RBO edge and hold it til I had turned almost 180 degrees on the ice before letting go bringing the right arm across to meet the left one. Of course springing up at the same time. it's all in the timing and it's very hard for me! learning to get the weight over the right hip and keeping it there while jumping is hard too!

Hope success come to you faster than it has to me - but have you tried the Lutz yet - now that was invented by a very evil and twisted mind!!!!

__________________
'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Chocolate: Had a great lesson yesterday--sit spin is getting lower and my backspin is finally getting more consistent like it should. I just need to get some more courage to spin faster, but the good news is that I finally know where that sweet spot is on my back outside edge. I had been spinning on a very tight forward inside edge for so long, and relearning this was a bear. Something enlightening I did notice though was that this came easier after a year of focusing nearly solely on moves. Everything is coming easier now, even those elements that I thought I wouldn't remember how to do. But they are at least as good, if not better, than where I left them.

Also had a great time with my freestyle coach--my moves coach was out of town so I'll see her later this week for that lesson. Anyhow, my fs coach was teaching a young girl and both of them were getting a little frustrated. My coach called me over to help with the lesson and we made it sort of like a game for the little girl where she and I took turns doing different simple freestyle elements. I showed her spreadeagles and Ina Bauers and this little girl is now totally enamored with the Bauer--she told me at the end of her lesson, "You taught me how to do my Bauer!!!" and she was so excited about it. That is one of the reasons I love this sport so much.

To wax philosophical for a moment, I was reflecting on yesterday and reading my journal this morning and one of my friends posted thoughts on the Ice Princess movie. IMO, the movie's silly, but it got me out of the house and away from my dissertation writing for a while. As I wrote a reply to my friend's journal entry, it made me wish for some sort of medium to show off skating as a healthy lifetime activity. That's a side of our sport that the public doesn't often see and it makes me want to do something about it--if only I had the time to write about it!!! I so would if I knew where to start...

Cracked: Ok, I feel very very stupid for admitting this, but I have forgotten how to do a half flip. I can try full flips just fine, but half flips...nope.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

LFO3 entry, pick, up in the air and turn around, land on RI edge!!!

Then again, my body "forgot" how to do a FI mohawk either...

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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!!!

Cracked: FI mohawks!!! One side is okay. Other side's hip is totally screwed. GRRRRR!!! And I still need more extension on the rest of the 5 step mohawk sequence too!!! (My body doesn't want to do them this morning. It's too cold.)

Chocolate: Got to pick music for the artistic program for this year. I will have my secondary coach do the choreography for the artistic this year (and my primary will do the technical.)

But anyway... secondary coach picked out of six songs the one I expected her to pick... (Had a variety of pieces and I KNEW she would pick the most ethereal and floaty one... BORING!!! But it's okay! I like the piece too and I wouldn't have put it on there if I didn't like it.) Without giving away my pieces (okay maybe one), I'll mentioned the ones that I had on the CD...

1. From the same realm as the one she picked but not as floaty. Not enough stuff going on... and too quiet.
2. Jazz piano music... she liked it for technical... and I might reconsider doing a new technical piece anyway since I'm getting bored of the Yanni piece now.
3. Jazz male singer... too slow blues soul for her.
4. Classic Rock piece... now this one everyone else liked to do. It's one that you can REALLY rock out too. Secondary coach goes "I like listening to this song, but not for skating an artistic program!!!"
5. Fallen - Sarah McLachlan (Like the piece but everyone's doing this piece and it's well overplayed on the radio...)
6. The piece she picked... Very ethereal and floaty...

I had hoped she'd pick 4, but *sigh* maybe when I'm really fast on my skating...maybe my primary coach would be a better candidate for that piece.

__________________
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, we are now working on Starlight on Wednesdays. Mondays are Tango days and Fridays are Paso days.... lesson-wise.

So this is for Starlight... today was the first full serious lesson on it. I knew the steps (mentally) so we were able to start with working from the closed mohawk down through the re-start.

Cracked: End pattern (the bit that starts with the lady's step-forward into the pull-through). On top of needing lots more kneebend and push, I have to remember to lead with the correct shoulders all though the beginning of this stretch, until the transition into Killian hold (and not yank on coach's left arm while doing the cross-roll swing before the waltz-3). Otherwise I think I can fairly say that rather than merely being CRACKED eggs, it will be a full example of Humpty-Dumpty for me (aka the "had a great fall" part).

Chocolate: I was able to do the alternating mohawk stretch (the 2nd side of the dance) by myself with reasonable power and at my coach's tempo/power with him. I was also able to do the 2 LFO3s into the closed mohawk in hold with coach, and do 1 LFO3 into the closed mohawk solo with some flow. Learned a couple of tricks to make that part a bit easier (the setup into the closed mohawk).

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Cracked-extensions on all bronze dances need working according to the critique I got, not terribly unexpected.

Chocolate-landed several sequence jumps w/ a beautiful clean 2toe. So happy, changed combo spin to add layover for multipositon camel. Field moves only need work on present, choctaws are actually on edges.

Had a nice day, played w/ the Sr moves double 3 quick rockers kept good speed and fit 3 onto full ice, also getting the sustained edge step down, but as w/ the JR still need the fit and finish.

Working on loops, slightly cracked.
la

Chocolate:

I landed so many jumps today I cant believe it, in the whole skating session, I landed at least one of every double jump except for the double lutz and double axel. I was just so ON it was crazy, I was doing the jumps in all the combinations I've been working on. ( I didnt land all of them, still was like 33% but i haven't had even 33% on my harder jump combos in a looong time )
If I am not wrong my first double toe loop came today, unfortunately I was doing underotated ones during lesson so I cant really tell. I landed one after lesson that felt clean, but it was over so fast that I dont trust my own senses sometimes... so I dunno if thats a land or what but its crazy I'm happy!
My camel spin was surprising today, it just was not working before lesson, and during lesson it went ZOOM, I never had such a fast camel in months I think. I was just thinking i'm spinning i'm spinning lol.
Flying sit was wierdish but fine, I somehow got into the exactly 90deg knee position that burnt the thigh muscles like crazy each time I tried it and I was glad when my coach had enough of that
I also remembered to keep my back straight through out most of the skating, I think I was more consious of it entering jumps and during the start of the session, have to keep track of that, because my skating seems to have gotten alot better since I been consiously keeping it straight.
Another thing is since last week I've been skating without my ankle guards. I've been feeling alot more stronger about my ankles and I think after nearly one year in them I might be ready for them to be permanently off. I had no signs of ankle weakness or pain at all today so that encourages me more. Have to take this slowly though.
Also, after my coach told me to do ankle excersies, situps and push ups every day last week, I've been doing them randomly , might have missed some days. I dont know if such little effort really payed off, or its just a good day, or some combination of everything. I just want this to last forever and never get injured again.

Cracked:
Layback is still same old same old (back flexibility takes forever just to increase a little bit) Lol... I was half expecting it to do the same after my good camel decided to visit me, but well, cant expect so much in one session.
Flying camel wasnt spinning, although my take off was correct today, no more three turn on the ice before jumping.

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~
Tidesong

Dunno about cracked, think today's eggs were totally addled! Really awful practice, somehow - everything we tried went wrong, couldn't correct, and will somebody strangle the gentleman whose bright idea it was to put a Willow Waltz at pre-bronze (just wait until I see him, he's going to get such an earful.....). I just can't seem to get into the right place to do my Swing Dance Mohawk, and I'm not sure if it's him or me - a bit of both, I think. And he's started keeping his arm where it makes it very difficult for me to do the intro-3 (hello Jen!), but at least I can do it now, wherever his wretched arm is. But how, please, do you do that step to forward in the Willow while the man is doing his Mohawk? I just don't have room, my coach says "push", but where? There just isn't anywhere.....

Didn't even try the Fiesta.... that's for tomorrow.

Then in my solo practice, my Interp is so slo-o-o-w, it's disastrous. Barely moves an inch.... I just hope to goodness it'll speed up in time for the Mountain Cup, right now it looks like an arthritic snail, not a snappy, perky keep-fit routine!

Chocolate: However, I think I might be able to do the costume I've been thinking of, that's something. And I think the walk through our free dance went well, except Husband made a nonsense of the end of the first section.

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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!

Annabel -- I PM'd you with some ideas re Willow Waltz "Will-you Waltz"

which still beats the "Fiasco Tangle" or the "Pass-Out Double" or the "Bruise"

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Chocolate: i landed an axel just an eighth of a rotation short. sooo close!!!!!
some of the other attempts were the full one and a half turns but i didn't cross my legs and two footed them. hmm sit spins were okay today...they're finally becoming spins i can rely on. backspins too, i'm starting to really love backscratch spins!

cracked: camel spin has officially gone on a long long vacation. they started disappearing on sunday and they still aren't back. that makes it impossible to work on the camelsit combination which was going SO well! sigh.

also had some really bad falls on the axel which hurt tons. i wish falling were less painful...heh. think my ankle is slightly screwed up by all those falls but i can still walk, so i don't think anything's really wrong.

Easter Eggs
Do my "dog and pony" show and practiced FI mohawks in front of secondary coach. I did have one case where I had to practice and get around her student and I had to do them with a lot more speed than I did this morning. I managed it and she yelled out "That was much better, jazzpants!!! That FI mohawk was much better!"

Cracked
Unfortunately, that was my better side. I now have to really work on my weaker side, which happens to be my RFI mohawk -- and the side you start off at least 3 of the 5 Bronze moves pattern!!!

Easter Egg again
Included in the "dog and pony" show is me stretching along side one of the kids who refer to me as "Auntie Jazzpants." Ahhhhh..... And I managed to land a couple of flips and loops. Not bad for Auntie, huh???

Cracked Again
But this session is "weekday date night" and is WAAAAY too crowded for me to practice. Plus I couldn't spin worth a dime... AUGH!!!

__________________
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!!!

Chocolate:
Started working on Bronze moves on Tuesday with new secondary coach! Mom is coming home from the hospital today!!!

Cracked:
Will not skate today and had to cancel lesson because of Mom's discharge.
Also, the pathology report came back and there was cancer found in the gallbladder specimen. There is hope though, that the surgeon got it all!

Will not see primary coach for two weeks, as she is taking next week off. I'm getting to be like some other folks on the board who can barely get lessons with their coach! Thank God I'll have a lesson with Coach #2 next week!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Oh no! I hope everything turns out to be OK for your mom.

I skated last night for 1 session. Practiced mostly moves, a few spins, no jumps. I think my knee is OK, it's just a little swollen and bruised in the area where I fell. Fortunately, this time, my knee did not swell to 3 times its original size like it did about a year and a half ago when I had a really bad fall. That required all sorts of medical intervention (I'll spare everyone the details) that luckily, was not necessary this time.

Unfortunately, I was a few steps slower than usual and the back perimeter stroking wasn't too stellar. I did 3 full power 3 patterns, and did an extra length of right turns (my knee cooperated) to get them up to the level of the left ones. One of these years.... And what happened to my 5-step? Now I've got these weird skidding/scraping noises on the 4th step.

Of course, my problems could be b/c of my skates. Tuesday, I went to see my coach's skate guy and learned that not only are the boots way too stiff for me (not a surprise), they're too narrow in the ball and too wide in the heel. When did my feet get so weird? Anyway, he got on the phone with Jackson (I'm currently in SP-Teris) and ordered me the prescribed pair of skates. They should be in by early next week. When I explained my recent problems - shin splints, rubbing/blisters, toe scraping - he and the Jackson woman both agreed that it was b/c the stiff (not broken in) ankle area and bent tongue are pushing me forward. The good news is that aside from being (supposedly) easier to break in, the new skates will be lighter than my current skates, so maybe my spirals done on-ice will approach the quality of the spirals I do in shoes.

flo, I hope your skates arrive soon!

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

<<<Terri>>> I do hope they got it all and she'll be fine. A cancer specialist once told me that he reckons we all have some cancerous cells once we get to a certain age - but if we are lucky, our body's natural defences overcome them.

Anyway, this morning was another disaster. Not total, though, I don't think.....

Cracked, addled, and generally NASTY: Ended up storming off the ice in a huff with husband, who was thoroughly rude about my Interp, which I don't think he realises is a work in progress. Given that coach will probably also be thoroughly rude about it too, I'm just feeling like giving up in despair again. I'll never be able to skate, and I don't know why I go on trying. Coach reckons I can't, and doesn't even really bother trying to teach me any more, just goes through same old exercises, lesson after lesson, and whenever there's anything wrong with our dances it's always my fault not Husband'ss, even when it is his fault.... I just feel like I'm throwing good money after bad here..... and I do think my Interp has every chance of being funny and fun, I'm still trying to work it out (notice coach doesn't bother to choreograph it for me, I have to do that myself; wouldn't bother showing it to him if I didn't want to do it to music sometimes).

Sorry for the rant, I'm just TPO, and husband doesn't really want to change coaches.....

But there were some nice things about this morning, too, let's be fair:

Chocolate (Yes, there was some of that on offer, too, but I didn't have any as it is Good Friday): For the first 30 minutes of this morning, the only skaters on the ice were in their 50s and 60s! A younger skater and her daughter did come in later on, but for the first 30 minutes, I think I was the youngest skater on the ice!

And we did one of the best run-throughs ever of our free dance. And we did some superb waltz RFO3s round each other, much better than earlier in the week - we did so many we both got dizzy! Husband did a spin that he was so proud of he wanted to take a rubbing of the tracing (I was made to go and inspect it - then he tried again, but it travelled so far he needed a visa for it!).

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

Don't give up Annabel - we all thoroughly enjoy your interpretives/artistics and you do well with them. You can skate - maybe not as well as you'd like to be able to but then who can. You're still way better than the people who just come and skate round in circles on public skates, and you've got medals to prove it. I know the feeling though - sometimes I wonder what on earth I am doing out there but keep going and you'll have a better day soon I hope.

That's what digital cameras are for!! I do actually have some pictures of my spin tracings - my excuse is that it was for an art project!

as for me
cracked
didn't skate today as I had to help son with bonding names and numbers to a T shirt for a friendly football match - but now I won't get to skate again til next thursday

__________________
'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Today was PASO day....

Cracked: Back progressives. Not the right type of push on the first stroke for the higher level dances, and not getting enough REAL push on the 2nd stroke for the Paso. But.... it will come. I just have to do a few million repeats of back progressive, back chasse, back chasse. Repeat ad nauseum.

And having problems consistently keeping my right hip open enough after the beginning of the back break-out (after the slip steps).

Chocolate: Despite all my issues above, Paso is still better than last June when I competed it. And... I am more consistently getting my right shoulder open on the back breakout and getting more knee bend through that stretch. In fact, I can get all the way through the back break-out through to the step-forward with decent flow more often than not when doing the dance solo. So there is hope....

Mind you, we haven't worked on getting me to do the swing mohawk at the end of the dance solo, yet. That's liable to be a painful experience....

__________________
American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Mrs. Redboots,
Yes you can skate and I would not tolerate that behavior from my coach. Skating is supposed to be fun and if you are constantly being berated then your coach is taking that from you. You should not pay money for someone to make you feel inferior. If your husband does not want to switch coaches that is something you need to work on but at the very least maybe you could find a coach that will work WITH you and not AGAINST you.

Good luck and never give up!

chocolate:actually did a halfway decent sit spin! my edges are getting a bit better and my coach didnt yell at me!

cracked: fell on a waltz jump at the end of my session, and killed my hip! i felt so retarded! luckily my coach wasnt there to see it!

my right over left cross overs are still hopeless! any tips?

loops im trying not to give up on!

~kittie

Thanks Loops! I was all set to ask my coach to let me switch my spins so that the camel-sit is where the sit is near the beginning of the programme, but then I ran through two clean programmes in my lesson today and both times nailed the camel-sit. I still may well play around with switching the spins just to see how it goes, but as my coach pointed out, there are pros and cons for whichever way I do them. As she said, I wouldn't be as warmed up at the start and that could be detrimental too. I'll just have to see how it goes. I'm ever hopeful I was just having a blip with this element and that I'm now getting it back again!

Nicki

originally posted by kitty067

As a CW skater, I can tell you that according to my coach, the difference between my CW (good) forward crossovers and my (less good) CCW crossovers is that in the CW ones my torso is turned further into the circle from the waist (without altering the pelvis), and my right shoulder is therefore pulled further back. Also, I tend to break less at the waist, but lean into the circle more from the blade/ankle/knee/hip. (In the CCW ones, I have a tendency to break at the waist and collapse the whole left side down towards the ice, rather than genuinely leaning and turning the torso into the circle...Any hints here??)

kitty067, sorry I couldn't work out how to select your bit and have it inserted into this reply - can anyone tell me how to do this? Also, how to insert smilies? I tried the suggestion posted by someone a few weeks back and could not make it work - I'm a bit of a Luddite I suspect!

Chocolate: Finally a better skate day (about time too!). Bill P & his European partner are visiting, which may or may not have helped.... they came & skated and had a lesson with my coach. Meanwhile we discovered that our free dance spin has suddenly miraculously grown an extra 1/2 revolution! If it's reliable, we'll have to turn our starting position round, or we'll not be able to do the rest of the dance!

We also managed the fastest-ever Fiesta Tango, although we did do one rather slow pattern as Husband muddled his steps (yeah, right....), & a really fast Swing Dance, too, filling all the rink! Long may that last.... Plus I think mostly my Interp is going to work.... I hope.

Cracked: Had a run-in with another coach who barged in front of me with the music. Sigh.... Plus when she finally got off the ice I played my music again and of course the steps went wrong again. But I think that was because I was tired.

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