YAAAAAY!!!!

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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!!!

(((((Terri C)))))

I'm so sorry to hear that you've lost your mother. I hadn't read it elsewhere, don't know why, so I'm glad you posted here.

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Terri, I'm glad you posted that here as I hadn't read it anywhere else. Huge comforting hugs - it's awful to lose someone close to you. Maybe there is some comfort in knowing that she's finally at peace?

Terri that's awful! My most sincere condolences.

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

I add my condolences to Terri as well.

Flowers: I passed ISI freestyle 4 this past weekend! I was passed by one of the toughest judges in Ohio, or so I have heard. I only really struggled with the dance step, and she made me do it 3 times. Actually she made me do everything 3 times just to prove I could do the elements.

Afterwards, I had a GREAT time celebrating with friends in the Detroit area, complete with a leisurely afternoon at the pool, pretty much acting like 12 year olds.

Weeds: I just got home from Detroit. I worked as a volunteer at the All Star game festivities. While this was AWESOME (I worked with the mascots, primarily the Padre from San Diego), the 6:45am to 10pm shifts were a pain, and I ripped up my right heel with my tennis shoes. I haven't skated since Saturday, so tonight's lesson will be an adventure.

Ew, and also, now that I'm a 4, I know I will be stuck here for a while, with the rest of the adults working on their axel, something I've done maybe 3 times, mostly in jest - flying~camel can attest to that! I'm used to winning at the 3 level, I'd better be prepared for some USFSA-like results for a while in ISI.

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

(((Terri C))) I'm sorry to learn about your mother.

Terri, take care, and we'll see you soon.

Flowers: Had a good session Monday night, and will skate again tonight. I leave for the pairs camp Friday.

Terri, I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. Sending huge hugs your way.

Flowers
I had the best lesson today ! Well, the best since competing three weeks ago anyway. It looks like I'm coming out of my post-competition slump and getting back the enthusiasm and motivation that I temporarily lost. It helps that I've been feeling a little more energised too. I was simply too tired for a period after the competition, probably because I was rushing round with my daughter who had two competitions the same week!

Anyway my jumps were great today. The lutz-loop felt good as did the flip-loop and loop-loop. My camel-sit was good today too. In fact my coach remarked that it was a lot better. I just need to be able to do it like that in competition, since I tend to hold back a bit on the push into it and this results in a poor position. I also did some decent change-foot sit spins.

My programme run through went well. I did a decent camel-sit in it, probably the best I've ever done in my programme. I landed all my jumps cleanly too. We decided not to do it again since it was so good the first time. That's my first clean run-through in two to three weeks!

Before I had my lesson I forced myself to run through the first two exercises of my bronze field moves. Having not done them in a while I lost them a bit but now that I've been doing them each time I skate for the past week I'm finding they are coming back to me.

Weeds
Nothing apart from a coach load of kids booked onto the public session so I only did patch today.

Nicki

Flowers:

Secondary coach is back and we're back on working on my program!

Weeds:

I had a collision with a skater. She's okay. (Just another hip bruise to add to her collection of other hip bruises...) I took it on the hip and on the cheek got a bruise and some cuts on both. Nerves are shoot right now, but I'm determined to just get back to business as usual (but with some makeup on it though... I don't want people to think that my husband's a wife-beater!!!)

Terri C: And I hope you'll find the strength to continue on and compete well for your mother. I'm sure that's what your mother would have wanted for you.

__________________
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!!!

Terri -- I am sorry to hear about your mother. I lost my mom last year and found my greatest solace in going to the rink. I hope you give yourself time just for yourself at this time.

Flowers : I am finally getting the Power 3s (the right side -- my hard turn back to front -- I guess it's a mohawk). By paying attention to my left hip and making sure it is secure under me, I can turn forward. This is a HUGE breakthrough for me.

Also can use the same concentrating on my left hip technique for the 5-step mohawk -- the left-mohawk side, which has this difficult back to front.

Now hopefully I can incorporate this into my dances -- most of the solos have been lost because I can't turn from back to front going in that direction and most dances past the Preliminaries have this step!!

Weeds: My coach is still out of town. Hopefully will be back at the end of the month.

Also having more trouble with sore hips/legs -- need to stretch more before and after skating, but I just can't wait to get on the ice every time! Must be more patient.

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

Flowers: I'm finally starting to feel at home at the new rink. Went this morning and started spinning right away. After a couple duds, every single one of my spins attained 9 or 10 revolutions, and *fast*!! I finally figured out just how to get a center with the arms out (though I can't do this with the leg straight yet), and then bring the leg farther across to start gaining momentum, and then pulling the arms in *just so* to really gain speed. My blade made that wonderful spinning sound that I always hear the good spinners making, and my tracings were tiny little circles, and didn't travel more than a foot or two - in several cases I couldn't even count the number of revolutions because they were properly centered.

Then I tried a corkscrew spin and reached a new record - 11 revolutions!! I kept doing more spins expecting them to go downhill, but they didn't - almost every one was 9 or 10 revolutions, pretty centered, and fast! I'm so happy! I was also just generally more competant on the ice today, and almost everything went off without a hitch. Apparently I was doing pretty good, because 3 different skaters came up later off the ice and introduced themselves, asked where I was from, when I started skating, etc.

I did a bunch of weight exercises in the gym at the rink, and was pleasantly surprised to discover my arms have already gotten stronger from the workouts I've been doing. I got on the bicycle machine and put it on "fitness test" with the level set at 15 (maximum was 20). Punched in my age, weight, and gender, and biked hard for 5 minutes while it monitored my heart rate. Heart got up to 180 beats per minute and I was getting REALLY sweaty and knackered by the end of it, but was very happy to see the screen flashing at me: "Fitness level: 58 - ELITE". After pretending that meant I'd be an elite skater someday for a moment, I got up to discover I could barely walk! Tired of exercise, I actually made use of the ballet room for the first time - and wow, that barre REALLY helps for stretching! The room is also floor to ceiling mirrors, so you can see exactly how far you're stretching very easily. And both the gym and ballet room have windows facing the rink, which is great entertainment!

I'm really happy about my skating and workout today!

Weeds: Was doing forward power pulls on my left foot (the weaker one) and tried to do a 3-turn into back power pulls like I'd just done on my right foot, and failed. Ended up landing on my bum, which sent quite a jar up my spine. I stood up and stretched and I swear every single bone in my back cracked. I didn't feel so good. but I stretched a couple more times, then did a fast lap into a huge waltz jump, so all's well that ends well, except it kinda hurts to sit on the right side now.

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

Terri--
So sorry to hear about your mother. Condolences to you and the rest of your family.

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

I feel your pain...I have the same problems, with the same sides! Another thing that helps me is to remember to keep my left arm checked all the way back. I have a tendency on both sides of the power 3's to turn my back arm too far in, and then I start wobbling and can't hold the BI edge until the axis line.

As for the 5-step, I will try your advice tonight. So far, I've focused solely on getting more knee bend, but I need to turn in more to the circle in order to stay on the FO edge. Currently, whenever I get the smallest amount of speed, I end up stepping to a flat. I guess it all goes back to the upper body and lower body needing to work together.

Casey S, I envy you with a gym at your rink. Talk about effective time management! I found that as I increased my skating practice days, I basically gave up on the gym b/c I either had skating in the evening or something else that I had to do that precluded exercise. But I think I lost muscle strength that I needed to make more progress in skating. I'm currently trying to go to the gym once a week (hey, it's a start!).

Debbie, I can't tell you how much I love the rink! It's got so many good things going for it, it's an olympic-sized surface, extremely well-maintained building, amazing zamboni that makes ice like glass, the gym and ballet room, lots of very good skaters and a history including olympic- and national-level competitors, special flat-rate pricing for adults who join USFSA through their club, and is only 4 miles away from my place where I have nice cheap rent.

It's a bit tricky getting over the intimidation factor, as so many of the skaters there are working on doubles and triples and many have bling-bling parents who are shelling out $10/1-hour freestyle session, but I'm coming to really enjoy it - more and more each time I go. Now I just have to catch up with everyone else!

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

$10 for an hour? That's cheap to me! During the summer here it's $12/40 minutes or 50 minutes, depending on the rink. But hang in there; you have just as much right to be there!

Terri--So sorry to hear about your mom.

And flowers for me: just got my skates sharpened and boy what a difference! My moves coach told me my backward perimeter crossover stroking was "150% better" and that I was skating fast! That's what a good sharpening can do for you!

Happy skating,
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Haha I was thinking the same thing!! Ten bucks an hour is the cheapest ice I have ever found. Anything up to 14 dollars is acceptable by me.

weeds :: i have beginner blades so its easier to get on the toepick.. i couldnt do my camel

flowers:: i landed loop loop, flip loop waltz jump, loop toe loop , on my own.. im not sure if those are real jumps! but it was fun!

C'mon over to SF Bay Area!!! We're about $10/per session with a punch card in SF and $12 walk-in.

And if that's not cheap enough, at my weekend rink in Berkeley, your drop in is $10 and coupon of 10 FS session is $7.50/per hour session!!!

I can't believe I actually paid $19/per 50 minute session at Chelsea Piers... (Then again, I was just visiting and my coach at CP made it all worthwhile for me! He showed me a great time!!! And when I do visit my in-laws again, I'll be back... and will be looking for him too!)

__________________
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!!!

Walk-on for 40-minute freestyle sessions at my rink is $10 (which comes out to about $15/hour). With the rink's debit card, it's $8 for a 40 minute freestyle session.

They also have an Intense ice payment program that is more economical for anyone doing at least 2 freestyles per day 5 or 6 days a week. I don't know the current price for that, and in any case, the price is different in the summer (it's priced by the week in the summer and by the month the rest of the year).

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

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

Wow -- there's one good thing about living in Portland, OR -- our freestyles, and dance sessions, too, are $7 -- I think at one of the rinks it is $6.60!

Public sessions are $7 and you can stay on for hours and sometimes there are only a few adults -- it is fabulous!

Yea, Portland!!

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

Haha actually living in SF has always been a dream of mine. Do you love it up there?

Here, we pay £5.00 (which is about US $8.80) per "patch" (teaching ice) session, but there is an option (which we take) where you pay £15.00 (about US $26.50) per week, 52 weeks a year, and can have as many sessions as we like. Works for us, as we usually skate at least 4 sessions per week, and often more. We pay an extra fiver for Figure Club and/or Dance Club if we use their ice.

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

Flowers:

Test program run through went pretty well. I wasn't able to get as much flow through it as I would have liked, but that's because I had to concentrate so much on dodging the little ones. But, the elements were all there and felt pretty solid

My coach told me that she's going to work on cutting my new music this weekend, so I may very well start working on a new competition program during my next lesson

My new competition dress should be arriving within the next week or so and I just found out that I can order a matching scrunchie to go with it (I've been having difficulty finding a scrunchie for this dress, so this is a major find for me!).

Weeds:

I found out that the test session at the end of July, on which I was going to test Bronze FS, has been cancelled because we couldn't secure any judges. So, now it looks like I'll have to wait until the end of August

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Our fall schedule just came out, and the price for drop-in is $7.50 for 1.5 hour session (which we now have 2/week in the evening)....hopefully, they won't be too crowded so daughter and I can drop-in for moves & coaching.....

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

Flowers: had a nice session last night on our private ice. Debbie is a quick study in pairs! She looked great.

Weeds: One of my foster dogs got returned to me last night, he didn't adjust well to his new home, so now the weekend sitter may have 3 pooches! Thanks to Mika for also volunteering so I can go to the pairs camp.