There's construction at my house right now... and it's interfering with my sleeping habits and sanity. I HATE JACKHAMMERS!

Peaceful: I landed my 2sal today. It's getting there, but I have "committment" issues still. We made up a 5 min warm-up for the moves test (still have no date...) and I did a few really good sets of double 3's. My x-strokes are getting better too, especially the back ones.

Noisy: I have committment issues. And overthinking it issues. And self-doubt issues. All on my 2sal. I can do my warm-up perfectly, but as soon as I have to "go for it," I freeze up or loose control or rush or do something else really stupid.

Noisy: I can't sleep in tomorrow because construction workers are morning people... I don't think I could ever start work at 7 am!

Noisy and Bothersome: No skating for me today, which also meant that we have yet to begin choreographing my Novice freestyle. Next Monday for sure though...I hope.

Peaceful and Calm: Spent the warm, sunny weekend in Put-in-Bay, OH. Definitely worth missing a day of practice for!

On our way to Put-in-Bay, we stopped in Cleveland and had my skates sharpened, so I'll have nice sharp, deep edges for my dance lesson tomorrow!

I think the peaceful or noisy thread further down was supposed to say July not June. Anyway, I skated today....in my new boots.

Pamchenko: I survived my lesson. I only had to stop once to take my boots off. Only preliminary moves, lots of crossovers, deep knee bend stuff. When I have feeling in my feet, they are actually pretty good. There was definite improvement in my crossovers, hopefully the stiffness is helping in certain areas. My coach tried to get me to do power pulls, really for the first time, I have fooled around with them before. When I found the rhythm, they weren't half bad, granted she was physically pushing me along. Back extensions seem to be the only move to survive intact to the new boots. Power 3s were okay on one side, by the time I got to the other side my feet were numb plus the session was over.

Toepick: My poor, poor feet

Toepick into Pamchenko: I definitely like the increased stiffness/support, though getting to the point of my boots being comfortable...well enough said. I think/hope some of my psychological issues from before might have been because I was afraid of my boots giving out or something like that.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Pamchenko:
-FI-BO 3s have improved! Yay!
-jumps were good
-back camels by themselves felt decent
-hit every forward camel I tried, and worked on having straight legs
-axels have 3/4 rotation most of the time

Toepick:
-BO3s on the slide chasse pattern were off - I felt like I was jumping the edge, if that makes any sense
-BI-FO 3s were shaky
-I kept rocking and getting off-center on the sit spin in the camel-sit
-forward CCW power circles were completely off (and those are usually the easiest for me)
-I kept grinding to a halt on the back camel when I did camel-back camel combos.
-BO brackets are scary.

Yes...they are very scary, and unfortunately, these things continue to haunt you as I am finding out with the Novice counters and the Bracket-3-Bracket pattern...ugh....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Lol. It was a mistake... I wasn't completely "with it" this morning.

Anyways,

Toepick: My back power 3's suck... Alot. And I don't have another lesson for about a week. And I hate doing the 8step. Too bad I can only have one bad pattern if I want to test.

Pamchenko: My 2sal is getting more consistent and I found out why I have a habit of putting my left foot down.

Pamchenko: I made myslef work on back sits, back camels, and flying camels. And they worked fairly well.

I hate BO brackets too...

Anyways.
Pamchenko
2toes felt really nice and easy. I sat down on a few of them, but landed some good ones too.

I think I finally get RFO loops. I had the wrong arm in front

Toepick
Leg was a little sore today. Swelled up after practice, but I think it'll keep doing that for a while.

Can't do back crossrolls right now because of my leg. They press the edge of my boot into my incision

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Youtube Videos

Peaceful and Calm:

Well, loop, flip and lutz is a little bit easier today. I am still working on toe loops to make sure that it's a REAL toe loop and not a toe waltz.

Waltz jump and sal were nice & high! WHEEEEE!!!

Making some progress on the camel spin too.

Noisy and Bothersome:
Loop-loop was still a bit difficult to do, as was the back power 3's entrance to a loop that I'm trying to put into my interp program and maybe even my technical program (just b/c I want to see if I could do something more difficult...) The back power 3's are just curving in too much!!! (Any suggestion on how NOT to have it curve in too much but still stay on the edge???)

Sit spin was getting difficult towards the end of the night. Just had no leg strength left.

Don't think I'm gonna debut the camel this year either though.

A bunch of foreign exchange kids from Italy were at our rink tonight. Needless to say, the rink was QUITE crowded!!!

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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!!!

I am soooo looking forward to seeing your programs this year.. and do NOT write off the camel for the year.. geesh.. it's only July.... and you KNOW your coach is not going to let you just ignore the camel... you have it in you. You'll be a lot closer to having a camel you're comfortable with before AN.. I just know it!

Peaceful and Calm: Argentine Tango was much improved this week, especially the twizzle, since I finally had straight legs on it!

I also spent a little time working on the Viennese, and thanks to my freshly sharpened blades, I had amazing edges. Still, my coach gave me four things to focus on: 1.) change of edge (steps 4-5 CR-LBO to XF-RBIO) after the back runs; 2.) extensions of arms and legs on steps 8-9 (LFO and RFO); 3.) tight mohawk on steps 10-11; and 4.) forward extensions on steps 20-21 (XB-LFIO to XB-RFI). Ahhh...so much to think about!

Noisy and Bothersome: Walked back to my car after this morning's lesson only to find that I had a flat tire. Majorly flat. Luckily, it was able to be patched and didn't require me buying a new tire.

I think you mean July rather than June, though!

Peaceful and calm: Our Bracknell DVD arrived (thanks, BatikatII!), and I was surprisingly pleased with it. Yes, I can see what needs to be changed, but it really wasn't too bad at all.

Noisy and Bothersome: But who is that bent-over old woman dancing with my husband? Not me, I'm sure!

In our lesson we worked on steps for a variation Rhythm Blues, which may work all right when we have completely sorted it, but doesn't yet. And we worked on waltz hold exercises.

And yes, jskater49, I did work on my back crossovers and cross strokes - and have asked for a lesson on them tomorrow. They are not awful, but they aren't very good, expecially the cross strokes!

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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!

Oh dear, we seem to have two threads this week. Could a moderator merge them, do we think? I've already posted today's comments here.

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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!

for yesterday...

Toepick: My axels were really weird yesterday...I'm not sure why...but I fell on a bunch of them...hopefully I will be able to fix them today

Pamchenko: I'm really getting the rhythm down for my double sal! I still haven't gotten it back to being clean yet but it's getting really close. Also, I'm pretty sure I landed a few clean double loops yesterday!!! I couldn't see the tracings of my landings on the ice beacuse it was at the end of the session and the ice was terrible, but they felt really different than when I do a cheated double loop and so that lead me to believe that they were clean lol now if only my coach saw them...she will never believe me when I tell her that I think they were clean

Another toepick: Ahhhhhhhh dance test on Friday...I'm not ready

Yes, I agree. I didn't see the other thread when I created this one. Merge away!

Pamchenko: Still seem to have camel, backspin, camel-sit, and camel-sit-backspin (although without many revolutions!) despite having no practice ice within 100 miles.

Toepick: Can't say the same about jumps...fell twice on my toeloop, which I haven't fallen on since about 2000. Entire body freezes up when attempting loop. Also, local rink is now open but does not have any public skating or figure skating...only hockey. Drove the 1 1/2 hours to the rink that DOES have figure skating ice and paid the walk-on fee, as the club is running a camp this week and won't accept the prepaid tickets we usually have to have, only to find that the 50 minute hour of open ice that we usually get was actually 45 minutes for the one session that I could do today--but the fee was the same as the 50 minute sessions. Three hours of driving for 20 minutes of practice and a 25 minute lesson...don't think I'll do THAT again!!!

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

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Pamchenko:
-For a good hour, there was only two of us occuping the whole ice surface.
-My spins were actually pretty good...especally my flying broken leg
-Ran through my artistic programme at least 10 times
-I landed my lutz 90% of the time
-My loop is offically consistant
-Ran through my other 'lyrical' artistic programme once
-Brackets are getting alittle easier


Toe Pick:
-My knees are all sore and purple because I have a move in my artistif where Im supposed to roll over my toes and onto my knees. Well on skates its not all that graceful and I land on my knees with a loud "KLUNK" sound.
-My flip was just awful. It may have been due to my dull blades, but it was just an awful day for my flip
-Parts of the ice were really melty and slushy which caused me to fall quite a bit in the begining of the session in which I was the only one one the ice. These were more stop and drop falls in which are as graceful as could be and mightly embarressing.
-I need to learn to keep my free leg straight on my sit spin, it tends to curve inward alittle.

Peaceful and calm
I skated really well today!

In the morning I did good BO loops on both sides (left better than right, but I still did some good R ones). I also did a loop-2loop combo on my first attempt. I hadn't even TRIED one of those in years, but our coach wanted us all to try them.

The afternoon was AMAZING.

First, I think my axel is improving. I'm working on just making it bigger and more explosive, and I think I'm making progress.

I landed a GREAT 2toe. I tend to be kind of unsure on the landings and always want to put my hand down, but not this one. It was just down and OUT.

Landed the first 2flip I tried.

I LANDED 2LUTZES!!!!! I hadn't really worked on them since I came back from my 2.5 year absence. Then I tried them in a lesson about 5 weeks ago and did them fairly well. I worked on them today and landed a bunch! Most of the ones I didn't land were silly sit-down falls. So, I landed a full set of doubles today!

I also did a run-through of my preliminary moves, and I think I did them all quite well, at least to passing standard.

Finally, I got complimented on my layback AND Biellmann. I'm always self-conscious of my layback and am afraid I look like a peeing dog, but my two friends said they wanted my layback

Oh and finally (sorry this is really long), I'm gonna start being an assistant for skating school! I got my jacket and nametag and should start tomorrow
Noisy and bothersome
Besides the group in the afternoon, not much

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Youtube Videos

Noisy and bothersome: My axels were still weird today!!! I have no clue why...oh well...I have a lesson with my coach tomorrow, I think, so hopefully she can figure out what's going on with my axel...towards the end of the session today I was able to land it pretty solidly, but it was still cheated

Somewhere in between: my dance lesson. It had it's ups and it's downs, that's for sure...it started off terribly, then got much better, then got bad again, then got better again..it was pretty interesting..lol I think me, my coach, and my partner are just nervous for test day...

Peaceful and calm: My sit spin was amazing today! I was spinning sooooooooooooooo fast My double loop was also pretty good today, but not as good as yesterday...BUT, I WAS staying in the jump longer today...unfortunately that kinda threw me off so I fell on quite a few of my attempts lol...but it's progress anyway

In honor of the merged threads. . .

Noisy Toepick
Had my bi-weekly (meaning once every two weeks, not twice a week) MIF lesson and could not remember the timing and technique on the counters. I guess that's what happens when I don't practice them for two weeks and then show up for a 6:30am lesson without having had enough sleep. Once I reached a certain point of frustration, I asked if we could just work on the BI-FI 3's instead.

Peaceful Pamchenko
In this morning's MIF lesson, I made progress on the quick rocker pattern (a significant breakthrough on my bad direction--CCW) and also the alternating BI-FI 3's.
I also felt the love from two of my coaches. MIF coach refused payment for the lesson because I had helped her with something last week, then secondary coach offered to cut my lesson fees in exchange for some lesson exchanges (needless to say, the lessons from me will have nothing to do with skating, LOL!). Secondary coach also said my skating at my competition over the weekend was the best she's seen, in spite of the mistakes on the spins.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Urgh. That's all I have to say.

Hopefully I'll have a better report tomorrow, but tonight I'm just annoyed.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Great idea - love it!

Noisy Toepick
Was up most of last night fighting with the desktop app for my new stupidphone, and woke up only an hour before my lesson time. Got to the rink to see 6 school busses out in front - yes 6! Luckily, all the kids were not on the ice, unluckily, about 100 of them were . Coach and two friends arrived right after me and all got that "deer in the headlights" look when they saw the crowd. These sessions have been fairly empty till now.

Peaceful Pamchenko
I asked one of the chaperones when they were leaving, and he said between 2:30 and 3 (my lesson time is 2:30, and neither the coach nor I had much time to spare), and that he was waiting for them to clean the ice as that would make it easier to get the kids off! BINGO! I said, no problem, and let the appropriate people know about that. Had my lesson only 10 minutes late on nice clean ice .

Not having had much practice time the past two weeks, we worked only on figures and FO and FI threes. FO threes are still improving, as are the FO eights. Did some useful work on push off, gathering in and getting weight in right place quickly. Hadn't been working on the BO eights because of busy sessions, but did them in lesson not too bad, and improved on the spot. Coach flew off into a serpentine for fun, and I followed her with a little help. Haven't done serpentines on ice before. I can do the CE, but getting the distance is going to be a problem until my push off improves more. It may seem strange to some, but it was a fun lesson.

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Similar to the Intermediate Moves....this quick rocker pattern is the equivalent of the power-3s....E.V.I.L. ....just pure EVIL....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

LOL! Fortunately, my *good* direction on this one is CW and I can already get through the entire end pattern (6 turns) without losing momentum. The result is that it's making the Intermediate CW back power 3's easier! Now if I can only be dyslexic and convince myself that the CCW quick rockers are CW, maybe I could get more than 2 turns on the CCW ones, too.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Peaceful: Started brackets last night, and managed to turn a few on my own w/o having one of those takedown-type falls. We only did the FO-BI, and for some odd reason, the BI were easier than the FO - I guess b/c I'm turning into the circle on the BI as opposed to outside the circle on the FO. I also did some back double 3's w/o putting my foot down in the middle.

Noisy: The rink! Insanely crowded. Liberty is this week, plus there's a test session nearby on Friday, and everyone seemed to be freaking out over something. Also, could not seem to land a loop jump - I guess a year or so of not practicing much FS can catch up to you.

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