Hi,
Have not had the opportunity to begin a week before this!

Edge: thanks so Mika, I have newly sharpened skates! Went skating on Sunday and all was reasonably well. Doubles are doubling, and I have about 15 seconds of my new program to practice.

Flat: Ooops! Fell and have a banged up knee.
On to Halifax!

Edge: Only three more weeks before I get my new boots! Hope they fit!

Flat: Toe picked a forward spiral, still no coach for my winter rink.

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

Edge: Hopefully. I am having a double lesson tomorrow to get a list of all those things I should work on when I hit Lake Placid later this week and all next week.

__________________
Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Edge--
Practiced on Saturday at a public session and was able to FINALLY get all of the elements I need for my upcoming freestyle 1 test (the BO3s and spin entry had been problems before, but I was finally able to get them!!! Hopefully I'll be able to do them on Wednesday as well!) Even the timing of my waltz jump is getting better.

Got to meet flo's two cats (adorable) when I dropped off her sharpened skates (thanks, flo, for the painted silk scarf!)

Flat--
Not much, really....

Edge - happy that my back and legs were free of enough pain to skate. :-) Had a pretty good skate, took it easy on myself.

Flat - nothing really, having to skate less because of pain but am hoping that new chiropractor and possible MRI can help.

__________________
Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Edge: Once I got the motivation to do anything... Mohawks were much improved on both sides, and 5 step worked out quite nicely. Timing was FINALLY even on all of my edges. Double threes and alternating threes were pretty decent, considering. Jump patters are getting completely comfortable -- too bad I can't jump for another week.

Flat: Every little bobble and I bail. Hard. It's so annoying that I'm so scared of falling (on the cast and in general) that it's causing problems. I know it's going to take time, and the head coach is really helping me get over it. My coach just got back in town and I've only seen her for five minutes, so I haven't even gotten to talk to her about it yet. Oh well, it can only get better

__________________
"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

Edge
I'm getting more and more very controlled multi-rev one foot spins from wind up. F and B cross strokes are still there, and I'm able to look behind me on the back ones at last. Narrowly avoided a nasty collision doing so. B power pulls are really coming along and feel very good on both feet.

Flat
Everything else. Three turns and mohawks feel very stiff and unsure. All crossovers also feel awkward, but I think they are technically OK. This time I seem to have really suffered from being off the ice for a month. I think it may also have to do with the 5 pounds I gained and my general lack of exercise while on vacation. I blame all the rain that kept me off/out of the water.

Edgy news
My coach had her baby, an adorable little girl, on June 28th, and will be teaching again after Labor Day. Can't wait.

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Edge: Coach taught me all of the parts to the Swing Dance. What fun!!! Unfortunately, after practicing all of the elements, we didn't have time to put it all together in sequence. I'm sure we'll do that the next time I can grab a lesson. Backward swing rolls feel a bit strange, so I need to work on my technique. At least I don't feakout on the mohawk.

Flat: Nothing really other than I spent most of the rest of the session on my cell phone parenting. Nothing like handling teenage problems while practicing 3-turns.

Edgeower 3s, crossovers, alternating 3s outside, aternating 3s inside coming along nicely. waltz jump, except I got to stop looking down.

Flat: Salchow..bad case of over rotating. Help!!! For some reason I keep dropping and swinging my right shoulder. Some day it will all come together!!

__________________
Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Edge: These days I'm a lot more flexible than I ever used to be. Seems even my back, which has always been tight as a drum, is more "bendy"--even good enough to one day soon get a Biellmann (sp?) spin!

Flat: Yesterday morning, I wasn't awake enough to run through my program as cleanly as usual. I didn't feel too bad, though--it seemed everyone else had the same problem.....

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Flat:

My skates are still not right. They've felt "off" for a few weeks now, both the boots and the blades. I don't know why, but it's bugging me. They were better after retying them a few times though.

My spins needed their own passport.

Majority of salchows and toe loops were a bit dodgy. Felt like I was toe-waltzing on the toe loops.

My feet hurt (heels and baby toes etc) , and one of the landings on my waltz jump was actually a little painful, up my whole leg, hip and body

Edge:

Waltz jump fine, and I made myself try a few toe loops and salchows (I haven't practiced jumps for ages). Some were ok.

I spent some time towards the end practicing turns at speed, which lifted my spirits a little.

LFO spirals felt great!

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

Flat: Back crossovers again weren't that great. I had to learn to turn my head doing back crossovers. Both my coaches are gonna have a cow...

Everything else was not as good as can be. I'm half asleep and I'm skating w/ a lot of people buzzing by me. Oui vei! Mornings are gonna be rough for a while...

Edge: My secondary coach said she was surprised that I actually got into the rink at the beginning of the freestyle session to warm up. So am I!!! (ZZZZZZzzzz....)

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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!!!

Flat: Woke up late, had to pay my equity line, drop off paperwork, almost cought up on bills and now car insurance is due. Was hoping it would rain so I could go home early and catch up on things, but doesn't look like it. My workers are late and it's been a blah week so far.

Edge: Tommorow is another day I guess.

Steven

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

At Public (unwatched= no skate patrol) Skating Today:

After coaching my friend's son on some basic skating skills because he desperately needs them for power skating for the first hour today, my other friend came to watch me skate. This is what she saw me do.

Edge:
Tried doing another LBI spiral into a salchow and was only successful on the first attempt in my program. I must have been nervous the second time today because there were some public skaters just behind me where I was going to land the salchow.

She diffinately can confirm that my forward spins are twice as fast as last year and have 6 revs.

My friend also said that I'm now jumping 4 inches to 5 inches off of the ice in my jumps as oppose to March/April where I only got a centimeter off of the ice. Also had this light flowy waltz jump that just floated down from 6 inches one time and the landing was so soft, I didn't even feel it and the exit was awesome. (Got to keep this a secret from my coach because then she'll have me try axels as soon as I get back on club ice.)

Flat:
Now if I can just stop over rotating on my salchows and toe loops and check harder that would be great. It seems my hips just want to keep on going around. Just wish this would work for my loop, flip and lutz.

But at the moment, my spins are on vacation and love to travel just like I do in the summer. LOL Now really my friend said that I'd do 3 revs on the spot and then my right shoulder would come up and I'd do the other 3 revs travelling. I think that's because last year I was only doing 3 revs until just before COS Adult Spring Skate and my head says to me, "It's 3 revs. It's time to get out." I have to train my brain to want to keep in possision(sp) until the end of the 6 revs.
Only got one rev on a back spin that turned out to be a 1 rev backspin combo 3 rev forward spin. LOL. Oh well, I'm on vacation. LOL

Brigitte

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"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

Edge: Various jumps slowly improving, I'm actually pushing the jumps higher, instead of merely hopping from one foot to another.

Flat: I haven't spun decently for 3 weeks now, before that I swear it felt almost perfect. My boots are starting to annoy me, they are pronating onto an inside edge (especially on spins) and I keep having to tie them tighter about 5 times a session because of my ankle wobbling. Unfortunately no one around me believes that I need new skates, because I am using a pair of Risport Diamante's which are far above my level.
Wait wait - before you agree with them - These boots also belonged to my coach for god knows how many years before I bought them off her March 2002. So they were already heavily broken in when I got them, unfortunately now I'm feeling the effects.

A very foggy Tuesday evening - you could barely see one end of the rink from the other! Various skaters loomed out of the fog, some fast, others slow, and one young lad with total disregard of all the rules of caution!

My lesson was okay, but I do prefer to have lessons in the morning when I'm fresh, and not at 6.00 pm when I'm knackered! So he says "What have you done so far?" and I said "Very little", but when I came to list what I had done, it wasn't actually true. He pulled my shoulders apart (almost literally!) on changes-of-edge; he made me do inside edges with the free leg tucked under; he made me hold outside and inside edges all round the hockey circle (I could hold both FI edges all the way round, which surprised and please me; the LFO edge went 3/4 of the way round, and the RFO edge was a bit disastrous, but all right once I got my balance). Then I had to work on forwards and backwards chasses, at first round the circle, then alternating. Which were horrible because he kept on at me to keep my feet together, and my feet don't go together, my thighs are too fat! Actually, they go together better when I remember to bend my knees, and we discovered that what works for my chasses is if someone reminds me to bend my knee on the chasse step.

Gary, the secret of back swing rolls - and forward ones, come to that, is not to swing wide. And we all do swing wide - I was reminded of this on my back chasses, which were fast and covered the ice, but oh-so-flat, and my coach said it was because my free leg was going way out to the side.... This, by the way, is disastrous if you try it in Kilian hold, as you kick each other.

Robert was supposed to come down for us to practice and we were to have stayed on to Figure Club, but he didn't turn up because of this wretched virus. Which I wouldn't have minded if he'd let me know.... MEN.....

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

Also, remember to keep your toe turned out, not in, on the swing rolls. I constantly forget, and as soon as I remember, the swing rolls improve 100%.

edge: get a day off bc of the Jen. robinson seminar today.

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beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

Gary, I'll share something with you that I just "learned" or atleast remembered to do!! First of all Mrs. R is totally right, do not go swing to the the side, yes I have the same tendency AND also on the upswing tighten your abdominal muscles and use them as you straighten your leg, maybe you already do, but I wasn't and the difference was obvious immediately, they became much crisper.

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Thanks for the tips.

I know the first time I tried the back swing rolls, my coach smiled and politely said "Uh, that's not it."

She did work with me a little more on not swinging too wide, but I'm sure I'll need to tighten them up a lot more.

I went skating for 1st time in months - took my children.
The place had a smell of paint about it but other than that, nothing's changed.
We went to a horrid public session.
My feet didn't hurt at all in my boots. I didn't wear my trustee bunga pad (only need it to land jumps).
I didn't jump, no 3 turns, no crossovers, no spins, nothing, nada.
Didn't try, as I had little one's hand to hold on to plus it was far too busy.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Edge: First lesson since I've been back! Coach was pretty good about the fear factor. Worked on all of the moves that I'm getting ready to test. Most were pretty good. Willow waltz felt great, timing was just a bit off. Started playing with Starlight as well (yes, I skip up randomly). In my lesson with my secondary coach earlier in the day, forward crossrolls rocked as I finally figured out how to strike just right. Was banned from trying them backward until the cast is off.

Flat: Closed mohawks were giving me problems. Anything on the right foot that involved turning just did NOT work. I always hate the 4 o'clock session as it's much more crowded than the 3, but I split ice with another of my coach's students and had to fight for space. Luckily, it turned basically into a moves session after awhile.

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

Edge: Lots of visitors to Dance Club last night, and we had fun! I enjoyed dancing the Prelim Waltz with a friend; normally I chicken out and do the Dutch Waltz.

Flat: Robert and I got there early to work on our Tango, which has got to the horrible stage where nothing works at all and you wonder why you bothered (I do know from experience that this will pass, but it's horrible while it lasts). Then, doing a solo dance right at the beginning of club, I tripped on some soft ice and fell rather hard, banging my right knee and (of course) jarring my back. Which was fine yesterday - I danced all evening, once I was over the shock - but today I can barely move, and it takes me a few minutes to straighten up when I stand up. So I think I'd better not skate this afternoon, although that would probably loosen me up.... all the same, tomorrow is another day!

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

For my practice yesterday:

Edge: All my basic 7 stuff is really good so my group coach had me work on the stuff in basic 8, and what I worked on I found really easy! My waltz jumps and waltz-waltz and waltz-waltz-waltz jumps were all really good!

Flat: Because of a VERY annoying skater who is 9 or 10 and in my group (shes one level ahead of me in basic 8 but doesnt pay any attention) wouldnt leave me alone during free skate because she wanted to play tag (who does that) and i was trying to practice. Because I wouldnt play tag she was skating directly in front of my and stepping in my way everytime I tried to do something! This made it virtually impossible to do my salchows, and scratch spins! I was so close to finishing my scratch spin cleanly (which I have yet to do with check out yet) when she purpously ran in to me to make me step out! Kids these days!!

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~*~always, sonia~*~

Edge: Nothing again! Well, I shouldn't say that... I was majorly working on my back crossovers (or rather my "non crossovers.") This week's work was mainly on making sure my head and shoulders are in the right position when I do my back crossovers. My primary coach says that he's seeing some improvements already b/c of the adjustments. But his main concern for my lesson is alt FO3's, which has been majorly sucky as of late. Backspin is STILL almost there though!

Flat: I still got quite a ways to go on my back crossovers and, at the rate I'm going, I'm not sure I'm gonna be taking my Bronze Moves and FS in time for the deadline for AN.

As for backspins, "almost" never counted (both my coaches!!!)

__________________
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!!!