Neatly Pressed:
I'm making progress to single edge 8's.

Hung Out to Dry:
Am regaining skills from my year off the ice, and adding the FI3 which I never mastered before. Maybe I'll get a bracket before the end of this year.
Once I get a bracket, it will only be a few years until I have a rocker and a counter.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Neatly Pressed - last lesson with winter coach today, I haven't seen as much of her as I'd have liked this season, but despite everything, I detect some improvements. Spin entrance is seriously better, sit spin is starting to sit and camel spin is starting to take shape. I've done a lot of work on basics this year, and very little on elements - but the basics are paying off and the elements are improving with less effort.

Hung out to dry - no lessons till end of June or early July. Have to keep myself focused without help - and that is going to be tough, work pressure is seriously crowding out skating lately.

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It's all about the dress!

Neatly Pressed:
Skated today for the first time since my surgery exactly a month ago. Felt a little unbalanced at first, but quickly got my legs back. Then, I actually picked up a private lesson, and the girl was very good and loves it. The mom called me later to say they want lessons every Sunday! I didn't skate much for myself, and I have a feeling my own skating is not going to happen until I'm done with chemo in the fall, as fatigue is a real issue.

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Neatly Pressed: My pairs partner and I had a lesson yesterday! It was great! We learned:
-handholds
-crossovers
-tracking
-exiting crossovers
-beginning pairs spinning
-throw waltz

Hung Out To Dry: We were on the public session prior, I got "zinged" by some hockey boys skating too close and I tripped over my toepicks and fell down, skidded...and to protect my face from slamming into the boards I put up my hands, and ended up jamming my fingers. It hurt like a mother! I could not get myself off the ice without help, I sat out for a bit. By the time I got home, my right middle finger was swollen twice the size. Ice and a compression bandage helped. My knee was ok. They both hurt. Oh well.

Neatly Pressed, Starched: Had dinner with Sk8Pics!!! We had a great time! I'd like to meet up again (let's not let it be years before the next one).

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

Neatly pressed: not my laundry. Finally did all my skatng clothes I took to Oberstdorf. Skated a couple times since I've been back and it feels pretty good.

Out to dry: still getting over bug I caught in Germany. At least now I don't have to push it!

Skate @ Del. Hope you enjoy pairs!!!

Best to all.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

See, I told you we should have gotten some ice for your finger at the restaurant! Anyway, hope it feels better soon! And yes, let's have dinner again before years go by!

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August 22, back on the ice!

I never seem to EVER catch up on laundry....ever! So far, we LOVE skating pairs! I loved the throw jump & the other elements! And my partner will NEVER wear spandex!
It would have been hard to eat though! I will get some of those "instant" ice packs to next season for my skate bag though.

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

First day skating in almost 2 weeks. I usually do freestyles on Mondays and Fridays and a public over the weekend, but the Memorial Day holiday got in the way, plus my coach being gone last week for the PSA conference. So I wasn't sure if I'd be well-rested or rusty at lesson today. Fortunately the rest seemed to do me some good.

Neatly Pressed: Skipped working on pre-pre moves in my lesson today. I didn't mind because we have been hammering at them for the last several weeks. Instead we started with spins. Had one where she loved the tracing of the entry - stepped back into the circle very nicely. Camel was working well and she decided we should start a camel/back camel. Kind of fun to start something completely new (never even tried those before my injury). We decided one of my goals for the summer is a new spin of some sort...either camel/back camel, or maybe a good attitude spin. (Not really interested in working on a layback...back flexibility just isn't there for me and I don't want to have an ugly one.) Hopefully start on a flying camel later in the summer.

Flips were HUGE today. Eeked out a couple of flip-loops and an okay lutz.

Hung out: Most of my axel attempts were "whippy". I've learned that on my whippy axel days to just leave it alone and work on the entry by itself.

Skate@Delaware and flo - Feel better soon!

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Thanks! Flo, hope you are over your bug!

Pressed/Hung/whatever: skated today, only one session. Tried out an outfit that seemed to work. Seems to me, the older I get it gets harder to lose weight ((sigh)). A skirt that was too big is now very snug. It will have to do. At least the 2 girls I asked said I looked "very nice" and "put together" so that will have to do.

My test on Sunday morning will be skated in the very center of the rink, possibly to include my crossovers. For my 3-turn pattern, I will have the rink to myself. Yikes! Major freakout! Another coach reassured me that, based on my skating that she has seen so far, I should pass. I'm buggin' about it anyway.

Skated everything 3 times through. Debating about going tomorrow morning....part of me says "you're ready, give it a rest already" another part says "one more time"...it's club ice so it will be chaos; not sure I'd really accomplish anything anyway. I'm already taking a day off from working out (legs & all-don't need to be sore, might just do yoga instead).

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

Good luck. My daughter loved having the ice to herself because she knew there would be no interruptions in her patterns. Maybe that thought can help you with the jitters.

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Good luck S@D!! I know you'll pass with flying colors!

I'll try to relax, my only thought when I do that **** 3-turn pattern is always "don't fall, don't fall, OMG don't fall" LOL!
Thanks! I will post ASAP after my test with the results, it might be a short post as it will be from my phone and I can't type well on it.

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

It's official, I passed my pre-bronze moves test! Details to follow.

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

Congratulations!!

Neatly Pressed: Junior moves are making even more progress. Coach is being uber picky because that is what seems to be happening with the judges.

Hung Out to Dry: Not skating this weekend since I am in Milwaukee and I wasn't going to be here long enough to warrant bringing my skates. I will be back in Syracuse on Tuesday with just enough time to head home, change, eat something, and go to the rink.

I am ready to get back to Syracuse and my own bed and my car...

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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

Woo-hoo!! Congratulations! Doesn't it feel goooood?! Now, on to Bronze!

High fives all around! Feels good, doesn't it?

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Bill Schneider

THANKS, EVERYONE!!!!!

Kim some of the judges today were EXTREMELY PICKY! Even our skating director/top coach was upset about some of the fails. The judges had their microscopes out.

Ok, here are the results from my test: (I will put what my judge wrote in)
Forward Perimeter Stroking: w/blade push & knee action for power & crossovers (I'm thinking she was mentioning the crossovers on the end-pattern)
Basic Consecutive Edges: Steady 1/2 circles (she noted back outside edges were a bit small), for back inside edges: steady on 1/2 circles with correct push
Forward & Back Crossovers:
-Fwd: power & flow, smooth
-Bkwd: a bit scratchy but with decent flow and ccw a bit stepped over (my coach disagreed but, meh)
Waltz-8: Small circles but with control of 3 + back outside edge (my circles were -meh- but my timing rocked FINALLY)
Forward 3-Turn Pattern: R/L-with control of 3's on edge (the whole time I was thinking: don't fall, don't make "the face", turn the shoulders, and stay down in the knee!!!


AAAAAHHHHHHH Big sigh I'm glad it's over! My friend tested the Dutch Waltz but messed up a step so she will retest next month.

Lesson tomorrow night, on to Bronze!!!! (no rest for the wicked or weary)

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

Congratulations, Skate@D!

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

Thanks, Debbie S!

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

Neatly Pressed:

Broke out of the Bronze moves plateau by making some major progress on the right-side power threes. No scratchies and even managed some flow and control. Perimeter stroking is just fun and I love doing the bck Xers to outside edges—no problem in getting motivated to practice these. Made some major progress in the sit spin, in the sense that I can actually do them now! I bonked my head about 6 weeks ago and it took awhile to lose the fear. Now I quite enjoy them, though I do blow it about 50 percent of the time. Loop jumps are getting springier and the flip is about the same. Learned the Dutch Waltz but haven’t practiced as much as I should.

Score one for the figure skaters! Because so many coaches were away this week and because of impending rink closures, a whole bunch of us showed up for a public. Naturally, the place was crawling with pre-teens who were flinging chairs all over the ice (they claim they need them to “learn” to skate!) and leaving them willy nilly in the middle of the rink. We all got on the ice and simply grabbed the chairs and starting putting them away. Only one obnoxious Mother objected, informing us that her son (who was happily skating away about 10 feet over) needed the thing since he “Could. Not. Skate.” I replied, “then why did you come to an ice rink?” She didn’t appreciate the logic. (BTW, no guard on duty) Still, in the annals of public session horrors this one was a win for the figure skaters.

Hung out to dry:

The five step Mohawk sequence would be much easier without the darn mohawks! This is my bête noir. Because of coaching weirdness and rink weirdness I won’t be able to test until 2011. I was striving for Christmas but oh well, c’est la vie.

Yay! Congrats!

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August 22, back on the ice!

CONGRATULATIONS!

The Dutch Waltz is part of the Preliminary Dance Test, and as such, is quite specifically an "encouragement" test. I think it is just bad judging and nasty to fail a skater for messing up "a step", as two patterns are skated. I saw a Dutch Waltz test where the skater forgot the steps (meaning at least 3 in a row) and still passed. She got them right on the second iteration.

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Congratulations Skate@Delaware!

Neatly Pressed: Working on forward jump entrance and I think I got it (it's the most difficult thing for me... I wish waltz/axel didn't exist, TBH).

Skates feel good (they don't leave me wishing I had stayed home 5 minutes after putting them on again). Training's going generally well, I'm just not getting much coaching time, ATM, but that is something I must discuss with the applicable person.

Hung Out: I'm still extremely one-sided. Having some issues with looking down, and my shoulders have a mind of their own, apparently... They are quite violent when they decide to go the opposite way they need to go... Any tips?