[QUOTE=techskater]yes tech...that is why I was struggling with it...the exercises he had us doing was to correct form totally to generate the power. I think I just wrote it weird or something. Sometimes when I am given something new...I lose form for the first couple of attempts and then have to put it back together.

Labor: I woke this morning with congestion and cough. Oh no! Since I am so limited in practice times I can make this week, I went to the rink anyway. I am also sore from my falls yesterday. Giggle. Not a great combination for a skater. Was basically going to take it easy and just work on my spins. I lasted an hour with little accomplished.

Leisure: The rink was basically empty for this public session. There is a festival this weekend drawing many away from the rink. This was no time to be sick! Spins have really improved. I am able to now get a bunch of revolutions on a one footed spin though I sometimes still cheat and get too high on the blade for the toe pick! lol. However, it is so satisfying to see how much spins have improved in general. More times than not I am able to spin on the correct part and stay centered! I am thinking another week of concentration may do it!

Went to a dance store after the rink to find my "ballet shoes" for the class on Wednesday. Felt very weird in there as it was mostly little kid stuff. Found the silly little things on clearance. I had them show me some that were not on sale as I was concerned I would be getting "cheap ones" But they all look about the same...like two little piglets hanging off the end of my legs! lol (with a tiny bow ---no less). Oh woe is me to have to take ballet at this age! I could have just worn slippers or something. There is not much to them which I was assured is what you are supposed to want. Well, I never dreamed I would be skating at this age and fell madly in love with it...maybe ballet will be similar! Maybe I will develop an irresistable urge to wear a tutu and point piglets! It could happen!

ROFLMAO! Welcome to the club Dallas! Insanity loves company

Labour: I hadn't planned on skating today - I was supposed to be attending the Provincial championship in my other sport and attempting to defend my Ladies First place standing for the fourth (or is it fifth?) year in a row. Last night I got an email from the lady who organizes Fall School telling me that everyone was at a seminar and I would have the ice pretty much to myself today Damn! Do I go and defend my title in my other sport or do I skate? I tossed and turned half the night before skating won. I guess I am truly addicted! (I would love to have been a fly on the wall at the other competition when the competitors showed up and found out I wasn't entered!)

Leisure: There were only seven skaters on the ice for the first hour, and only three of us for the second hour so the ice was wonderfully open. It was a great chance to practice all the things that are difficult to do on crowded ice and I ran through my whole repertoire (such as it is!): forward stroking, glides, edges, cross-overs, backward stroking, glides, and edges, 3-Turns, back Mohawks, and then experimented with stringing turns together. With so much ice and so little worry about running over someone, it was an excellent time to work on finesse. It was an extremely productive two hours and I have no regrets at passing on the other competition. Now, if I can continue to work my fail feathers off and carve out a niche for myself in adult skating . . . .

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Leisure: YAY I can finally finally do a freaking scratch spin. After months of watching the little kids have horrible jumps and posture but are able to spin so easily, I can FINALLY do what they can do.

Labor: Ummmm.. Just bad blisters because I skated on the public session for about.. 2 hours. I lost track of time.. usually I'm only on the ice for about 45 minutes. And after the zamboni came out.. my edges kept slipping out from under me, and I leaned backwards and almost fell a lot.

Labor:

Unfortunately my weekend rink was CROWDED as HELL!!! We all thought it might be b/c school started, which I think is possible. But I think it's the COLD weather too! To make things worse, I'm not going back to the weekend rink next weekend b/c there's TEN (count 'em... TEN!!!) birthday parties at the weekend rink next week! There's NO WAY IN HELL I'm showing up then!!!
*sigh* the even sadder part was this notice regarding my home rink.

Apparently the refrigeration system has more problems than they thought. Whatever caused the ditch seems to also be the reason why my home rink is now closed. I went by there this afternoon (my gym and pilates class is right is a block from the rink... ) and all that's there is concrete and some water puddles.

It was a pretty depressing sight for this ice skater, needless to say!!! (Sorry, NoVa! I know you were looking forward to skating at my beautiful rink... but all beautiful things need maintenance to stay that way.)

Leisure:

I did managed to do my jumps at the weekend rink... and I came very close to landing my flip clean this afternoon. (It was landed but it landed to a grinding hault and I had to step out to move again...) But it's progress in my book, nonetheless.

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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!!!

Oh, that's too bad about your rink, Jazz. The rink that I skate at during the week has been closed for maintenance all summer (well, they didn't need all summer to redo the ice, but they decided that since use is lighter in the summer, they would just reopen in the fall) and was originally supposed to open this past Tuesday. It's reopening has been pushed back twice and the "new" date is this Wednesday. I sure hope it's open by Thursday, b/c I have a lesson scheduled then.

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

Jazz-you could consider it a much needed break after passing the Bronze moves. Sometimes everyone needs a break!

Jazz-sorry to hear about your rink. Once it re-opens it should be better than ever...no ditch!!!

Leisure: went skating yesterday at the "invitation only" Learn-to-Skate invitational skate. It was very nice....lights dimmed down, funky music played, not too crowded!!! Ice is still very hard but it didn't matter too much as we were there just to play and not do too much hard work.

Labor: finding the boy hockey skates. Our "pro" shop only has a Bauer measuring stick, he wears Eastons...and they take 2-3 weeks to come in. It starts Saturday. Guess it's time to trek up north to The Pond today. I know they carry tons in stock AND they were having a sale. I just hate having to spend the day doing this (although I love my son) as I was hoping to shop for a new washer and dryer.

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

At least it's only four days, Jazzpants - it could have been for three weeks!

Leisure: Skating this morning was okay - Husband had his private lesson and was busy working on his free programme, but we still managed to work together for about 45 minutes, and we think we've finally got the end of the step sequence sorted. Coach2 saw it (after we'd shamelessly nicked a pose from our Junior couple!) and said "Oh, that looks nice!" which was nice of her since she was teaching someone else at the time. So that should work, just needs a bit of practice. Good.

Labour: Not that there is much time - three weeks today we'll be on the second day of the Adult Championships, and if the time-table is like last year's, All Will be Over for us, at least, for me.... we'll have to see what the time-table is doing. Help!

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

Yeah, but it's been already closed since last Monday night!!!

Okay, it's not like I don't get ANY ice though. I've been going to other rinks (my weekend rink and my alt. weekend rink.) But I really do miss my crowd and my coaches... wait... that's a good thing, right??? (Just kidding! I miss my coaches and my lessons especially...)

You'll do fine on the Adult Championship, Annabel! And sorry to hear about your regular rink delay in opening, Debbie! That sucks!!!

__________________
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 let's see, with that combination of skills you could do the dutch waltz, canasta tango, baby blues,rhythm blues, cha cha, swing, fiesta tango (how are you with cross behinds? ) and with a good partner and a RFO3, willow waltz. Maybe even 10 fox, how's your LFO3?

I'm wondering if you've been introduced to skills yet? Nothing like figures, but having done figures makes them that much easier.

As for myself,

Labour
Have been taught all the patterns for junior bronze skills. I sort of knew them but didn't pay attention before. Now I'm paying attention. I'm two footing all the turns, that's par for the course, by the time test day rolls around in the spring I'll be on one foot. It drives my coach crazy, I can do back 3's on one foot, but not when I have to do them in a pattern. Too many things to think about. The back swing change outside 3's are simply impossible. The skills coach is more optimistic than I.

I also had time with the choreographer, my new interpretive has a twizzle series. Ugh!!! Triple Ugh!! Because it's like a dance sequence, twizzles in both directions. One direction, okay, the other direction...

Leisure

I'm really enjoying doing dance again. REALLY enjoying it! I even liked the nasty cross-roll exercise. Obviously I've been away from skating too long. I don't have clearance to jump again yet, but I don't care, it's all good!

edited, didn't quote properly...

edited again... dang laptop....

would like to know what the cross roll exercise is?

Labor: the whole lesson thing...being the first one up...being 40++++... At least the rink wasn't 40 below. Headed towards the ice walking with my coach and she brings up (again ) the "off-ice warm-up" issue....I guess I should actually start doing these things. After all, it does take me longer to warm up and if I'm up first why waste the first 5-10 minutes of valuable lesson time warming up? So, after we discussed it, she brought up the "what do you do when you get on the ice when you are by yourself issue?"-thing....so I told her what I normally do: 1/2 slaloms, swizzles, bad alternating crossovers, edges, scratchy back crossovers, then jumps and spins.

She gave me an alternative to the bad crossovers I had been doing-I need to bring my arm across my body more and really deepen my lobes ...uh huh! So I did a few of them and really, with the arm crossing in front, I was able to get better control and with the deeper lobes you pick up some speed!!!

Back crossovers were different. I was still tentative on those...not getting on that outside edge but she wants me to use the whole end of the rink (if possible) and then glide on one foot half-way down the rink....is she looking down the road to bronze stuff???? maybe.

We worked on mohawks, as mine were "broken" over the summer. My "check" had checked out. Once I had it fixed, we added speed. Then she had me do them alternating feet, with a crossover in between (sort of like my routine). Ta-Da!!!

Spins were actually ok so I wont go into them. Salchow and sal-toe were ok as long as I didn't rush the 3-turn...so she was ok with them also.

Hit the backspin...That will be slowly making a comeback. I don't know where it went over the summer. I wish it would come back. I miss it!!! We didn't even get to the camel.

We did discuss competitions and my routine. I said I was ok with no-test or pre-bronze level...whatever it works out to be. I have a lot of work to do but she said she knows I will work hard and not wait until the last minute. She said she might tweak my program a small bit. As far as the ISI comps, she might have me test freestyle 2 and skate artistic 2. Whatever that means.

So the rest of my ice time was spent sweating it out working on this stuff...I did bits of my routine and I do have tons of work. But, like last year, it will all come together!!!

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

Rusty Blades: Admit that you want piglets too! giggle. What is provincial championship...which sport? Your decision to skate was exactly what I would have done. The insanity continues to spread.

Jazzpants: Sorry about the rink having so many issues. However, I clicked on your site and have to say....What a beautiful place! It just looks so open and inviting! Hope that this fix will be the last!

Skate@Delaware: I cannot imagine a rink closing for summer. Would they just not have enough people? How nice to have private LTS ice. I wish my rink offered that! A son in Hockey? Oh no...you did not properly influence him! giggle.

Mrs Redboots: It seems you get to skate near daily! You are so lucky!

Slusher: Very cool that you reframed for Rusty which dances her skills would support!

Fivebyfive: Congrats on the scratch spin! I have that next. It has been introduced to me but I thought I really needed to just have a regular one footed spin down first.

Labor: Still too congested and low energy for getting much done at the rink. Feeling pressure as I really want to keep up with the 3 classes and private coaching though doing that really introduces a lot at once! Did not have lungs well enough to do much practice on the stuff from power stroking class. Too sore and breathing issues interfered with any attempts to practice jumps. I am surprised at how conscious I am that this semester will end in a Christmas recital. I just keep thinking I am so not ready for a public display. Trying to be positive about it and just think "snowflake" as my new best friend on here thinks that is the ideal role in such a thing!

Leisure: One public session is all that is offered on Sundays. It typically makes for a rather busy rink but again today the crowd was thin and reasonable. Spent most of my time trying to lose the cheating toe on the one footed spin that occurs 40 % of the time now even when I am concentrated. I am so pleased that there is no evidence of dropping my right shoulder which had plagued me for too long. I think I dropped that nasty habit! Practiced edges with 3 turns. There is something very serene in just doing those. A bit of stress management or something.

Dallas, we did have him try figure skating...and he just got bored! He likes the action of hockey, which I can understand. Add to the fact that he did "toepick" and hit both of his knees the first night of lessons (they were working on 3-turns and toe-loops which I had brought him up to speed on) and he was a bit of a poor sport about the rest of the session.

I have to find my "piglets" as we now have a new off-ice class starting up!!! I find classes that incorporated dance very beneficial...I never had dance as a child and still have 2 left feet at times and poor lower/upper body integration (sometimes my brain doesn't even engage properly when I skate!)

And as far as our rink staying open for the summer...it would be a wonderful thing, they keep talking about it. The first step would be to extend the season a week or two in each direction. They are also talking about getting "studio ice" for the summer, which would be cheaper. The rink building is used for another purpose (FFA/4H) during the Delaware state fair (for almost 2 weeks), so relocating them would be a challenge. There are a lot of things to consider. Although, every summer during the fair, they receive hundreds of inquirys as to when is the rink open for public skating...that should tell them something.

For the first time this summer, they had shows (and skating) on the artificial ice. I'm told it went over very well during the fair. It was all kept low-key as far as the lessons went because the surface is very small. They also had a show at our local mall which was also positively received. Most people in my state don't even know we have a rink down here

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

Slusher: Dance just doesn't grab me right now. My first objective is enough basics to do a good Interpretive by next spring. Since I am getting a bit old to be competitive in Freeskate (unless they change the requirements for us old-timers and eliminate the jumps from the lower levels), I already told my coach I'd like to do Skills and continue advancing in Interpretive.

Dallas: My other sport is "Cowboy Action Shooting", an old west flavour shooting competition. Don't worry, I wont be wearing my guns on the ice Piglets? I am not going there! My coworkers are still in stitches over ME wearing a "tutu" (as they refer to a skating dress)!

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Labor:
I still cannot sit spin.
Trying to get more height on simple jumps (waltz jump, salchow)they still seem like such nerdy hoppy little things.
Bronze MIF, 5 step mohawk and alt back XOs/ BO edges need lots of work.

Leisure:
Camel spin is cool
never really thought I would say this, but I am beginning to like my toe loop. There HAS to be something wrong with it if I am starting to like it???? Maybe I am just becoming less afraid of it.
Tried a victory stand position today while gliding forward and didn't trip. The height of my free leg is slightly above the waist but my goal is to get it at least to my shoulder level. and then.... try it spinning
In Bronze MIF, power 3s went nicely today. I am gaining more confidence.
Very quiet public session since we just had a competition.

Labor:

• Home rink is still under repair and quite quiet. But it's the weekend so I'm at my weekend rink instead.
• Did a lot of loop drills and tries for the loop. I also did a lot of tries for flips as well. Not one flip but...

Leisure:

• Landed ONE STINKIN' LOOP clean! ONE!!! Okay, it's nothing compared to how many I two-footed... but this made my day!!!
• Did some backspin drills that my secondary coach wanted me to do. I guess I'm making progress b/c the correct part of my left foot was hurting afterwards from pressing around that area!
• Rest of spins are fine. Camels are making progress again. (Have to REALLY concentrate on the spin entry some

Usually YB is just as beautiful as you see it on the website!!! Nice to be able to look at the window and see the sun shining in (though the rink does have shades for those days when the sun is shining in to the point of being annoying.)

We usually go thru ice maintanance around this time... but usually it's for 5 days at most and usually it's 4. This particular time, it's unusually long b/c of some repairs that they have to do to the freezing system.

I guess the good part of that is that when it FINALLY opens again, I will finally get to enjoy beautiful ditch-free and "smooth like buttah" ice again that I've always known YB for!!! (Plus, if it does open on Thursday like the website says, I'll at least have my lesson with my primary coach this week.)

__________________
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!!!

Had a good practice on Saturday monrning, even if the session was a little busier than normal. Our rink just installed a harness, so that sort of cut into space that we were using. One young man working on a double axel and oh-so-close to landing it. Had our usual two ice dancers and our pairs team, plus about 5 preliminary-juvenile freestyle skaters and a coach giving moves lesson to two pre-pre kids (yelling way too much, IMO, not mean, just LOUD).

So that left me a little corner where I practiced the opening to my program (without music, of course) and added some chorepgraphy to the next part. Wasn't going to play my music on such a busy session and had my headphones, but wasn't going to wear them, either. Until the session ended and the more advanced skaters got off the ice -- they were supposed to do a cut, but didn't, so I ran off the ice for my MP3 player as there were only two other skaters on the ice and they were young, small and (surprise) slower than me.

My opening choreography works and will force me to actually get into my almost-a-scratch spin a little faster -- I tend to wait forever before stepping onto the LFO edge. Once I do, it's fine -- almost crossed, but a consistent 4-5 revolutions, yay! I've been practicing going into the spin from two crossovers as that's how it works out with the music (Billy Joel's Vienna).

Decided to take my coach's advice and NOT do a ballet jump-1/2 flip combo, but do a 1/2 loop-1/2 flip combo instead. If I ever choose to compete, I'll have to make a change as I'm only allowed one skill from a different level in ISI (FS2 -- I think the 1/2 loop is FS4). So I practiced this combo. I'm not in a great position to start the 1/2 loop, so I practiced getting more over the RBO and trying to get my left foot in front on the same curve so it's prettier and more obvious that it's a 1/2 loop and not a wierd step. Checked my tracings and I AM taking off backwards and landing backwards, so was happy about that. Putting the 1/2 flip after makes me check the 1/2 loop a little better. Now, if only I could jump high enough to slide a plate under my blade instead of a sheet of paper...

Surprised myself by turning a LFO3 one one foot at speed out of my spin exit and into back crossovers before my weenie jump combo. Added all of this to the choreography and the only thing NOT on one foot is the LBO three, but it's close and, as always, works better when I'm paying attention to my arms and not my feet. So I might NOT look like a doofus if I perform this in front of people...

In Synchro last Wednesday, I surprised myself and left my team in the dust. Never thought THAT would happen. We were minus the two fastest skaters, but this may not be a good thing as they are on either side of me during the cha-cha -- which is where I took off. Not REALLY my fault as I was in the front line and the back lines are suppsed to keep up to me since I can't see them. Coach told us to use our edges, so I did. Also had speed issues in our straight line footwork sequence -- cross rolls forwards, then backwards. Coach told us to push, so I did. And then I slowed myself down when we turned from forwards to backwards to get back in line. My back cross-rolls stink to high heaven, but they apparently get more flow anyway as I again ended up about four feet in front of the team after one push. Slowed self down again before lunge, but picked up more speed on the single chasse before the lunge. The other end of the line was asking if they could do a cheater push into the lunge and I was putting on the brakes, LOL! I've never had to figure out how to slow down for Synchro before, so this is entirely new to me. I'm sure things will even out as more people remember the choreograpy, but it sure was fun to fly for a while!

My riding instructor (from waaaay back) does this and she is AWESOME!!! We see her picture in the local show paper all the time. It's a great sport!

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

We normally skate four mornings a week (out of six available ones; we could also skate in the evenings on four days, but don't normally do so), then there is Dance Club on Thursdays (which I don't often go to - these old bones get tired!) and Figure Club on Tuesdays, which Husband tends to go to to practice his free skating. He doesn't get as tired as I do.

Well, I expect we'll be seeing you play a cowboy on the ice, no? Interp is great fun, especially if you can be funny.... which I can, only I can't skate so well. And am totally uninspired at the moment for next year, so may take a year off unless my coach comes up with something great.

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

Lovely Leisure: It was great to be back on the ice again since last spring even though I was stupid enough to visit the Michigan State Fair with my allergies and asthma. I had a sinuse flare up that got badly infected this past week. I saw a doctor, got the meds, took them and now I'm fine. What was funny while I was skating sick was that even though my middle ear was a mess, I had the most centered spins of those on my session even though everyone else was healthy. I wasn't totally centered but close enough.

Labour: My middle ear was through me off in the air when I jumped making my landings land on an inside edge until Saturday at the end of the StarSkate session on which I was program assisting when I tried a waltz jump to see if my middle ear was better. Spins were Ok while I was in them Wed. and Thurs. but as soon as I checked out of them, my head killed and then I felt dizzy.

Labour of Love: I was program assisting on all of the StarSkate sessions and also the CanSkate session this week. The kids were happy to see me back and I made each thing I had the kids revue fun. Like when I had the CanSkate kids doing half sit two footed glides, I had them playing cars making the sounds. The StarSkate kids remember me from last years CanSkate and want to spend time with me even when I'm trying to get some of my own skating in because my General session on Wednesdays got cancelled making me do my skating on their StarSkate session. It's a had thing to balance, program assisting and doing your own training on the same session.

Friday's ice was cancelled do to the fact that the program director's brother and friend of mine was rushed to the hospital bleeding from the neck down suffering from coliteis. My friend is a skater/coach who was from the Kitchener area.

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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

Oh, oh -- is this still down at the Fairgrounds in Detroit? I used to ride there... and go to the fair, lots of memories...

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Yes it is. What got me was all the animals, the straw, the hay and the ragweed when I was at the fair. And what is it with Michigan treating the gravel with some kind of chemical that no human should breathe? I was going down M-14 on my way to Ann Arbour to shoot up to my husband's friends house just off of North Territorial Rd when the dust from the treated rocks came into our PT Crusier through the air conditioning and got me. I was hacking for a good half hour because of it.

singerskates
who lives in Windsor, ON, Canada.

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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