I can't believe I'm starting this thread!!!8)

Splaaat: The first 10 minutes on the new skates, as usual...I managed to "toepick" on a simple squat/teacup and ended up looking like a Muslim in prayer...except I doubt that said person would be turned over in this pose and giggling...


Splendiforous: Worked hard on the kharma of back edges today, and like forwards, am beginning to truly find the edge. OHHHMMM..

Its amazing--even though I'm re-finding old skills, this is so amazing. I'm finding that the subtlest change in arm or free leg position makes such a big difference. I LOVE THESE SKATES!!!

Well, off ice for a week as I'm off to San Diego for a conference (unfortunately leaving hubby behind, but looking forward to the break and seeing the Zoo!)

Happy skating, y'all!!!

Beth

Hehe, I was here before but I couldn't think up a good title...

Splendifourous

• Again, my highlight of practice was the other skaters. I suspect that one of them was Nicholas LaRoche (!!!) but I think he's supposed to skate at a different rink...? (It looked like him from photos on the Internet I looked at afterwards and he was wearing an All Year FSC sweatshirt, but I really can't be sure), Anyways, he was doing really big double flips (straight-legged and completely open ) and practicing cantilevers and apparently liked to do reverse flying sit spins. He had a huge triple flip, and I'm sure he did some more triples, but those big doubles are what dropped my jaw, LOL.
• I finally did an entire forward scratch spin today! I still traveled, but boy, was I happy to pull in without major difficulties!
• I've never been so happy to be able to do a sit spin in my entire life, LOL. Last week I injured both my knees while broomballing (being on the ice is dangerous without skates ) and I couldn't bend my left knee for days. However, it's healed nicely since then and I was surprised that I could get all the way down!
• One camel spin I tried was so steady it felt like it could go on forever! The others were eh but overall it was better!

Splaaaat

• I had my first real private lesson today, and SPLAAAT was one of the first things I did in front of my new coach, LOL. (It became pretty obvious that I couldn't stop properly ) Oh well. Waltz 8's are evil - it also became pretty obvious that I have serious 3-turn checking issues too. Sigh. Must work on them...
• Backspin. I have to practice the entrance on my floor spinner or else this move will not work. Sigh....

Anita

Skated the freestyle session right before my girlfriend's synchro practice (which I always watch and critique).

Splendifourous: Hmmmm... Nothing to right home about, but it was terrific being on the ice. I don't usually skate this session but just had this nagging feeling that I needed to skate.

It's a fully enclosed outdoor rink (i.e. no heat, but no wind). It's built on sand (the ice pops and cracks as you skate on it). IT WAS COLD IN THERE.....Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

My right and left mohawks are almost equal. I think this is the only element I have that is almost equal both sides.

Splaaat: Nothing on the ice. As I was getting off the rink several of my girlfriend's synchro team mates asked if I was finally going to join their team (since I had skates on). Some of them have never seen me skate before (not that I'm terrific or anything). I had to tell them "no" as I'm still trying to deal with my rotator cuff injury. It was nice to feel wanted, though.

I had an MRI last Thursday and am supposed to get the results Tuesday. Then I'll have some idea as to what I need to do or needs to be done to give me my left arm back. As of now, I have maybe 5% range of motion without pain. Fingers crossed!!!!!

With my two children in tow (school holidays) we all traipsed off to the rink a half hour later than I normally do alone.

Splendiforous
The ice was lovely and not many of us on it....no big holes from the boys, or elite skaters!

The usual warm up for programme. I gave myself 2.5 mins then went off the ice for 5 minutes.
I realised I hadn't done a flip. splaaaaat

When I went back on the ice, I put my music straight on and started my programme. I bottled the flip! splaaaat!
Right in front of coach! double splaaaat
In the event of a missed (element) - in this case the flip - I have to change the salchow to a loop, and put in a salchow at the end of the steps.
I forgot to change the salchow for a loop, and had nowhere to put the loop, resulting in a major error - a missed element - which I would've had to re-skate in a test. splaat, splaat!

In my lesson, the programme went ok.
The flip was there, the sit was good, the loop-loop was fine, steps ok.

The lutz is still not behaving itself, although it's there, the rotation is there and the landing, but the position in the air is somewhat tight!
So the lutz has gone backwards aesthetically, anyway.

Parallel was good....both coach and onloooker told me I had nice position. I wish I could get it faster though.
Backspin was splaaat today. Hardly showed itself, but there's always tomorrow!!
I have to go in early tomorrow.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Splendiforous:

I think I mastered those awful BI edges! My instructor watched me and said I was doing fine except that I needed to work on the "push" when switching my feet. BO's were also good.

I got a full rotation on my back spin.

FI turn into toe loop is getting better -at least it feels more secure, and I can hold the edges before and after the turn longer. The next step is actually getting height off my toe pick jab.

I may master the salchow after all. I practiced it with the higher-level group and my instructor tells me I have the right idea, I just need to stop leaning inside on the turn.


Splaaat:

I had a nasty fall while practicing a spiral in my pre-lesson warm-up - I leaned too far forward and fell on my toe pick. My prize: a really ugly, multi-colored bruise on my left knee (it hit the ice first). But other than that, knock on wood, I am OK. I mentioned it to my instructor when he had me practicing spirals and he said to keep my arms in front of me, so that if I ever fall, my hands will help - I guess they could prevent me from whacking my face, which thankfully was not affected in this fall.

BO turns have regressed. I was practicing those while the higher-level group did BI turns. My instructor pointed out that I was leaning away from the circle and should be leaning inside. What's confusing is getting the arm position down - when I learned them during the last lesson series with a different instructor, she had us hold our arms "away from the circle", and my current instructor (whose opinion I trust more) had me do it with my arms open toward the circle and then switching them upon turning. Got to work on that.

My left leg was feeling much better but ofcourse just to make life interesting I fatigued/strained my right groin friday by doing the breast stroke for 20 minutes and not stretching properly afterwards!!

Splaat - Saturday was one big splat, couldn't do much right and so I just started working on crossovers. No bad falls as I was so stiff I avoided trying anything beyond a toe loop and a salchow.


Splendiferous - Sunday was very nice. The rink was so crowded, I guess it's a combination of colder weather and fear of then sniper, I live in the Northern VA area and life is changing around here till they catch the person. I mean there was like 75 kids on the ice!! Anyway, I became the guarder of the circle so I could get something done. Still can't do a decent scratch spins but I am getting around a few times. Took a hard splat on a back spin attempt. Had some decent flip attempts and 2 really high lutzes, I think it's my rotation that's holding me back. When I finished one lutz I looked up and this little kid was just staring at me in awe. It was sweet. Had a couple of really nice waltz jumps where I actually had decent hang time and could feel the "height" when I landed. My body felt okay and I was very happy because Saturday was really not good.

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

Splat: I went to the public session to get in a quick practice before I left town, and found that the public schools were closed for a conference or something. So there were tons of kids, but actually they were really well behavied, and had a great time.

Splendiforous: Got in a few good doubles and ran through some edges.

DebbieS: Hope your knee is better soon. Do you remember the ad for Fruit loops? The "follow your nose" It's the same thing on ice. when it goes down, so do we. But fortunately, we can also use it to get into turns more easily. My partner and I were in a pair spiral and we were suppose to go on a flat for a while, then a deep outside edge. He was having a hard time making the turn, so I suggested to him that when he wanted to turn, to simply look in that direction. It worked. Where the nose goes, we follow. Feel better!

Splendiforous/Splaat!: Started learning the 5-step mohawk sequence. Can do it except for the mohawk, LOL! Instructor says she thinks I'll have mohawk very soon, that I just need to be more confident on my weight change. Back outside edges are still a splaat! but forward outside edges were pronounced "Very good!" I guess that's why the FO edge in the mohawk sequence was so easy. I have a much easier time turning from backwards to forwards. T-stops called "Beautiful!" I was also told I have a very good position setting up the back crossovers, but as soon as I pick up my foot it's a splat and I get all out of whack. I know it's because I get my shoulders out of line because I panic when I lift my foot. Bad quarkiki! I am confident that in another eight weeks I'll be able to test Beta and Gamma and be OK.

Mohawks and 3-turns at the boards deemed excellent! I tell you that if there was such a sport as wall-skating, I'd be a champ! If I could just have a little hunk of wall next to me the entire time I was out there I'd medal in every event I entered!!!

Splendiforous: Made myself do a 5 minute warmup like I will have to do for my field moves test this coming Sunday. Then ran through test. Landed 3 axels in a row (after 4 pops) and landed it clean as a whistle in my program.

Splat: Inside 3's from Novice moves still dreadful going counterclockwise. Ran Gold Moves test with coach at end of session and made it through counter clockwise and fell big time on left inside 3 on the clockwise pattern - total belly flop - hit kneecap, etc. Hate when that happens and boy am I going to be sore tomorrow. Not good for confidence going into test.

Splaaat: My European Waltz. Something's going wonky but coach didn't get around to video-taping it today because we had lots to work on. The 3-turns look more like W-turns. I think it's a combination of things, each of which will take time to fix. And it seems to happen more at full power skating it with coach.

American Waltz: On the intro 3, I'm not holding the extension long enough. I'm doing the intro 3 halfway between a true drop 3 and an open "AW" style 3. And... I'm not rising enough and stepping out of the circle enough, and such for the RFO3s, which then causes me to thunk into the LBO swing after the RFO3 instead of placing the foot down and getting a good push into the swing.

Butt..

Splendiforous: Coach did comment that the execution of the swings was somewhat better...the free leg was coming straight thru (or closer to that) next to the skating leg rather than "around"

And in warm-up, coach and I did CW progressives in open hold, for a 2nd lesson in a row. They were better this time (although they still have a long ways to go...)

Also in warm-up, coach and I did CCW back crossovers together. Lots of fun...but I had to ask him to count so that I would be consistently on the same tempo as him. It did help my back crossovers so that they were slower (tempo-wise) but with more power. Then he had me do a spiral-type exit into a step forward, and talked about holding the last back outside edge (instead of stepping forward) and going into some sort of pivot then stop and present.

This afternoon after work, I'm going to the gym to do time on the elliptical trainer for aerobic conditioning. Then, since it's PT test time again, I've got to practice my sit-ups and push-ups (full body... none of these "from the knees" type) to the clock.

--jsl

I just started working on jump-loop combos two weeks ago, and tonight I landed a waltz loop, salchow loop and loop loop! Whoo Hoo! They were terribly slow, but I'm just so darn impressed with my own self I can't stand it!

I have, however, completely lost my camel spin. Oh well, can't have everything at once.

But still......Whoo Hoo!

Splendiforous

I got to the rink about 7.45am with my children. The traffic was horrendous, due to the floods.
I met my mum in the car park and she took the girls away.

It's absolutely pouring with rain - it hasn't stopped for about 48 hours. Roads and houses are flooded, in parts of Scotland. I had to cross a small river (River Leith at Murrayfield) and it was rising steadily - only a foot to go before it bursts its banks. It happened before and the ice rink was flooded, and closed for 4 months or so.
Anyway, I digress....

In the rink, I find out that 6 people or so hadn't turned up. I rushed off to warm up and get my dress on, then my boots.
Deep purple Capezio dress, velvet, long sleeved, turtle neck, boxed straight skirt, thick Mondor footed tights (for those who need to know lol...! )

The Warm-up (2.5 mins)
The warm up was ok. I skated deep forward crossovers, then backwards, into spiral. Then it was the salchow and the steps. Next the loop, loop-loop and flip - so far so good. Finally the sit spin.

I have to go off ice now - two other skaters are before me.
It's an interminable 5 minutes or so, but I keep warm with bending and moving and do deep breathing exercises.
I was very nervous and shaking.


My test
I'd asked the few people around not to watch me, since I skate worse when my friends and people I admire watch me. It adds pressure!
So they all kept out of sight anyway.
Now I can't remember how I skated, I can only say it certainly wasn't my best, but I didn't miss a jump and my sit spin was fine. I had one stutter on the step sequence, but it just made me more determined to finish the steps without error. My ending spin wasn't a corkscrew (or crossfoot) because I realised I was behind the music by a few beats so had to cut the upright spin to the bear 7 revs.
None of my fears happened, like falling on the loops or bottling the flip or messing up the sit spin or exiting it in the wrong direction!

I got a PASS!

Average pass mark= 2.2
Passing total= 4.4

My mark Judge #1 = 4.8
My mark Judge #2 = 4.9

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

YOU GO, GIRL!!!!!

Sounds to me like you did well and made the necessary adjustments when needed. It shows that you were in control.

WELL DONE!!!!!

Congratulations Melanie!

Splendiferous - hmmm. spirals were pretty awesome last night, I am extending not just my leg but now I am working on extending my arms all the way out from my chest not just my shoulders or elbows, it feels really good and I finally saw myself doing a spiral!! We were videotaping last night, we didn't video tape spirals, but I was in the back ground praticing one and my leg is substantially above my head!! Cool.

Splaat - spins still aren't fabulous but I made some progress last night when I actually managed to get my weight up and over my left leg and not drop my hip.

INTERESTING - If you've never been videotaped it really does help. After we all cracked up watching ourselves we were able to actually see some of what we were doing wrong and most of us were able to make corrections. I landed my lutz with the barest, skimming of a 2 foot once I realized I was jumping too early.

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

congratulations!
Well done Melanie - we all had confidence in your ability to pass - so glad you proved us right!!!!

I'm still working on those level 1 elements (though I had the old Novice Free test). i am hoping they'll be up to passing standard by next summer - though my salchow has gone AWOL.

Splendiferous - got to spend 10 minutes or so running through some of the low level dances with a partner. I love the compulsory dances with a partner - absolutely detest doing them solo but all the men are taken Boo Hoo I only get to borrow this man when his partner is not around!

Enjoyed my lesson - footwork and spins. did quite a bit on mohawks - still find the open one really hard so practised it with a change of foot and swing through between.
Inside 3's with a crossover between - still forcing the turn too soon but improving
double 3's - i love practising these even though I can't do them well. Tried FO/BI and swing through - so hard to check the turn. FI/BO I can only do if i can put my foot down immediately after. There must be a way to hold that last edge but I don't know it!

Had a bet with my coach as to who could do the lowest teapot (shoot the duck). Of course he won but I'm not as far off as I was! It's not so much the leg you skate on that hurts for me as the thigh muscle on the leg you are trying to keep out straight - ouch!

This was preparation for trying the sit spin. it's coming slowly but I need to get into it faster to have enough speed for the 3 revs. One of my goals is to have a decent sit spin by next summer.

Splaat - nothing really in that I enjoyed every moment or everything since I can't do any of it that well (yet!)

First time skating in ten days...

Splendiferous: Jumps up through lutz were all good; almost every flip was overrotated though. Flying camels were really strong. Second runthrough of program (at the very end of the session) was clean except for the flying sit at the end.

Splat: axel...yuck. Takeoff is good, height is good, just checking out too early. Didn't get around to working on moves.

Mel, Congratulations!

this is for sunday, i haven't had a chance to write this:

splendiforous -
forward crossovers both ways are good, except for my fall on my clockwise crossovers. i thik my weight was way over my hip! but i think i have the right technique! yippee!
backward crossovers both ways are good aswell, but i have to work on my pushing on both feet technique.
2-foot spin is really good now! finally! i think i have the right technique but i have to work on it so i don't end up going back to the wrong technique.
3-jump is good aswell but i have to hold my back edge for longer when i land it and when i am jumping i have to push my hands down and then bring them in towards me. i can do it but i have to work on it more.

splaaat -
single salchow - this is my first ever time i have tried a salchow. i can do it off ice but i find it hard to do it on ice! i get a bit scared when i have to jump off the ice. i can do the entrance though! i guess i will work on it on sunday.

oh, and it is my birthday on wednesday. i will be 15! yippee!

Splat:

FI 3-turns. I just can't figure out how to tell my body to actually make the turn. My strongest FI and BO edges are on my right foot, so I can't figure out the problem.

I've also been practicing forward inside mohawks at the boards. I get the principle, bu when I do it not holding onto the boards, I can't get my body to switch from going forward on one foot to going backward on the other. I switch from RFI but then get onto LFI instead of LBI.

Another girl in my class hit her head HARD during our lesson when we were doing side toe hops. I didn't see her go down but heard it. She left the lesson immediately, and when our teacher went to check on her, the father had already whisked the girl off home. I hope she's okay.


Splendiferous:

Back crossovers in both directions feel pretty good.

BI edges were actually okay--my instructor had us put the arm "inside" of the circle slightly in front and to the side (instead of having it in back "hugging the circle") and that worked for me.

One-foot spins are going well--my instructor got me onto the correct edge for the forward spin (FO) and had me make my arms more even. Voila, I was spinning better. She also taught us the proper spin exit (BO edge of the previously free foot). I'm glad she's teaching us finishing touches like this.

After Saturday's lesson, I went to the bridal shower that my office threw for me. Lots of fun, yummy food, and very nice cards and gifts. DebbieS was there (thanks again for the wine coaster!)

Congrats Mel!
Happy Birthday for tomorrow nutty-ducky!

This is from last Saturday, first chance I've had to write it up (I said that last week didn't I? Ah well)

Splendiforous:

Choctaws were better

Salchow good - still have to work in general on height but it's getting much more comfortable and consistent. Did toe-toe and half loop was a bit better, waltz jump good too.

Managed some 1 foot spins from FO curve. I'm getting there, sloooowly...

Splaaat:

Toe loop was not amazing. It was ok, but not as good as last week. All loops were landed on the wrong foot.

Spins on their own not particularly good. Whoa, shock horror there...

Didn't have a freestyle lesson, as my coach wasn't there. She always seems to fix my jumps when they go weird.

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

One more splendiferous thing:

The rails for the outdoor rink in my neighborhood are being set up, and I found out it opens in about a month. Yay!

Had a terrific skate on my Monday night session. I warmed up during the free-style session, then took my group lesson during the adult public session.

Splendiferous: My forward 3-turns were actually becoming smooth transitions instead of body jerks. They were slow, but they were there.

Splaat: I almost killed myself trying the #$%?& hockey stop. The first few tries were okay, but I tried a little speed and SCREECH, got too much weight on the rear foot and almost went over. I'll beat them yet.

On the good/bad side, went to the orthopaedist today to review the MRI I had on my shoulder last week. Sure enough, a torn rotator cuff from 12 or so years ago. It hadn't bothered me too much over the years until I started skating/holding my arms out. Now, it's going to need repairing or at least an attempt at it. No guarantees as the tissue has pulled almost an inch away from the bone and may not have enough flexibility to be reattached. I haven't got a schedule for the surgery yet. Post surgery may mean up to 8 weeks of immobilization.

The bad news: I have to get cut on.
The good news: Most likely I can be fixed.

I'm feeling VERY optimistic.

Splaaat

• Getting to a rink - I discovered that the bigger rink had recently changed the public session schedule (1:45 to 5:00 instead of 10:00-12:00) so I wandered around a bit and ate lunch. At 12:00, I went back and discovered that they weren't going to have public session at all - Disney On Ice was having a casting call! Grrrr...so I walked 2 miles to the smaller rink instead. (I had taken the bus for an hour to get to the bigger rink, so I was determined on skating, LOL..)
• Backspins. They are totally lost. Weep weep..and they were so good two weeks ago!
• My left ankle. The boot cut had been digging into the outside of my left ankle, so I tried putting heel gel pads (cut into a big circle) into my socks to ease it up. Didn't help and had to get off the ice after 2.5 hours because I just couldn't skate. Argh. I ordered some ankle gel pads (meant for skating, LOL) so hopefully they'll come in soon..
• Travelling on my spins....arghghhgggh.....

Splendifourous!

• Worked on that waltz 8, and I think that forcing the leg back during the turn really helps to check it. Yay!
• Camel spin! I could eek out a sit spin combo at the end of one too, LOL, although camel-scratch has been more successful.
• Sit spin! It was such a good sit spin day!!!! I had a couple that just spun and spun and spun! I love sit spins!

Anita

Whether or not it was "post test skate", I don't know, but I didn't skate well today - nor did I have much motivation to.
Busy ice with fast people!

Anyway, I focused on spins: camel, sit, change foot, backspins, combinations of all. About 99% of them were awful.
Oh well.
I'm having 4 days off from skating, and knuckle down to some hard work next week.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

splendidwhatsit: I got 3 revolutions on my sit spin today!! - I wasn't sure but my coach assured me I did - now all I need to do is get it lower by about a foot! I never imagined I would ever even be attempting this, let alone having some success!

splaat: won't be back on the ice for a while as I'm taking my kids and 4 of their friends off for a few days hols in a rented cottage.
If I survive the experience I'll be back a week on Monday!