Just starting the thread. My little goddaughter got baptised today at a BIG church (Grace Cathedral, if you're curious), thus the lesson/practice theme for this week.

I would have something to type in, but I'm not skating 'til tomorrow.

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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!!!

Not sure which category... but I'm off the ice for at least 2 weeks to try and give my right knee time to heal. Am planning to go to a GP doctor and try to get a referral to ortho and/or physical therapy.

In Pro-Am I continued my proud last place tradition (well mostly..) Last, Last and next to last.

Oh, poor Jen!

I had actually started a thread, called "Woeful or Wonderful", so I'll quote what I had written in it here:And just to add, we drew our match. Robert had to skate several times as he was one of only two men in our team, both Juniors! He won at least one of his matches, lost one and drew two, I think. Or was it won two, drew one and lost one? And he danced the European Waltz in the Seniors, but as it was the first time he'd tried it with a partner, it didn't exactly work! He is now under Strict Instructions from our team captain to get his Tango and Blues up to the point where he can at least look as though he's dancing them!

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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!

Hell - I had to miss my group lesson last night, due to a nasty stomach bug that made me feel like I had an alien baby inside of me! Luckily, it's gone through so I think I'll be able to make it to the 10AM public ice session that is nearly empty this time of the year.

Holy - My daughter Icy passed Freeskate2 last night, she was so proud! I think she did the whole level in 6 weeks, while her old mother has been on it for the entire year, sigh... And now she's talking about getting through FS3 during our next 3 lessons!

Schmeck, off to think about going over to the rink - hopefully the alien baby is gone, but there's a gurgle lurking in my stomach, so I'm not sure

Did I read "next to last"? Hurray! That's a start!!

Take care of that knee. Poor Jennifer!

Holy
This was one of my best practice sessions ever! I managed half the way across the rink on power pulls on each foot. Managed about 6 one foot spins from wind up, with delay in bringing free leg in, for at least 3 revs each - my personal best. Cross strokes, both F and B were good. I even attempted the 5 step Mohawk pattern and was OK till someone freaked me right before last LFI Mohawk. Practiced both FI threes and was able to convince myself to actually do the LFI a few times. With spot from hubby, did RBO three, RFI bracket - it was easy, but won't do it yet without spot. It was a pretty hectic freestyle session, but I felt like a skater today.

Hell
Why can't every practice be like this one?

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Due to various reasons I had a lesson on Saturday past, practice session Sunday, and a lesson today instead of Wednesday.

Holy - not there yet.....

Hell - a couple of things. I realized I am not ready to do my program with the music on in the rink for the first time during a mixed session (99% kids) so will wait till next week's am session as I will be on vacation. I know, I am just one of those very self-conscious older adult...

Hyperextension spasms of my toes has returned!! Took a double dose of calcium yesterday. I still can't figure out what I am doing while skating that brings these horrible spasms to return, even while watching tv!

So tonight's lesson I complained that my one foot spin from a circular pumping stays centered with small circles, but when I initiate it from back crossovers, the tracing has a 3 turn, then the circle moves to the side by almost a foot. I did learn that it was because of my blade placement after the 3 (I set down too much blade, so it arcs into a large circle.) coach said to set down blade right behind the feel of the pic during the 3-turn. We worked on hip placement, leg swing etc. with some improvement. But when we went to the boards and I just stood on my left foot, placed my free leg at 6 o'clock and brought it around, I found that my skating knee bent inward and my foot at the ankle severely pronated onto the inside edge. Duh! By the time I got my free leg around, the position damage was already done. We decided I need to work on some off-ice exercises to keep my knee over my 2nd toe. Ironically, I just read an article that many injuries are occurring for just this reason - skaters are not keeping their knee and toe aligned and need to work off-ice to correct this.

Any suggestions?

Doris

Hell:
Not a good lesson with my coach today. The freestyle session was moved to the hockey rink because of the infamous 'odor of reconstruction." We have a new rink owner and he is remodeling parts of our rink ( good thing) .
Spins were off and so were my alternating 3's ,but my coach just attrubuted it to being on a condensation- heavy surface and me being off the ice for a week!


Holy:
Why oh why is it that everything you blow in your lesson is done perfectly when your coach isn't around?? The sitspin showed up after my coach left the building!!!

Haven't been on the ice consistently because of 2 back to back cases of sinusitis, infection and then an ear infection. Not been a very good 2 months.


Holy - Went over requirements for Adult moves and realized if I REALLY focus I could pass up to Silver, had no idea we had gotten that advanced. :-) However still have to start with pre-bronze. :-) Coaches are pushing the adult group class to test, we'd all pass up to bronze no problem we're just either lazy or chicken to wear a dress. :-)

Hell - NEVER try to spin when you are getting over an ear infection, I almost splatted on my back. I still have crazy arms that fly all over the place!!

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

When I tested recently, I wore a long sleeved burgundy velvet dress which hid quite a bit in the middle. Neither of the other two adult women testing, though both were slimmer than I, wore dresses. One wore black leggings with a black leotard and a wrap skirt (she is tall and willowy, and would have looked great in a dress), and the other wore a weird arrangement of a black skirt attached to black pants. She also would have looked great in a dress. I forced myself to wear the dress to a freestyle session a few days before the test, and one little girl called out "nice dress" to me, winning my heart forever

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DBNY_
I forced myself to wear the dress to a freestyle session a few days before the test, and one little girl called out "nice dress" to me, winning my heart forever

A little one at our rink swore to me that all the adults are nervous about wearing dresses then they feel so good in them they're glad they did it. It's actually not a matter of my figure, I'm in decent shape and no area I "hate" it's just I'm a really conservative dresser and a skin tight skating dress is not conservative. However, having seen adults practice their programs in leggings and dresses I have realized most of us do look better skating in dresses so I am going to buy a couple.

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

I have the body for a skating dress but I am a very conservative dresser. My coach and friend talked me into trying on a dress one day after our skating lesson. From the moment I tried the dress on I loved it. Skating dresses are so comfortable and make me feel more like a figure skater. I always wear dresses to skate in unless I am practicing a new move and then I wear pants so I can pad up and protect myself from bruises. So go try on some skating dresses until you find one that suits you.

Holy:

Spins. All of them (save the sit...). Oh well. My camel kicked butt tonight--it was the fastest it has ever been. I finished it off with a fast scratch. Awesome feeling.

Layback finally laid back as it should have. It makes me dizzy though...

I am thisclose to the back camel. I hope I have it by the end of the summer and can get back to work on the flying camel. Next challenge is how to keep my right hamstring happy and not overextend it.

If camel spins (fw, back, and flying) and a layback are all I were to accomplish in my skating career, I would die a happy person.


Hell:

Timing on jumps is still not as I would like it to be. I took a long break from jumping after my hip flexor started giving me trouble right before spring. Resting it helped a great deal though...as well as gentle exercise. (Walking!) It still gets a little sore, and was bothering me when I tried sit spins tonight, so I don't push it if it's mad at me. Hope the weather stays on my side too--the warmer and drier it is, the better off that hip is.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Holy:

I GOT MY SCRATCH SPIN!!! It's crazy, I got my sit spin well before my upright scratch. I finally started getting it consistantly the last couple of days. YAY! It's only taken about six months. Geez. Sit spin, speaking of, is coming along, finally getting it pretty low. Back sit spin I'm getting a few more revolutions, but it's a bit shaky. Canasta is definitely at competition level, now just fixing minor details and getting Rhythm Blues perfect.

Hell:

Well, I've finally gotten to kinda start jumping again. I say "kind of" because my timing and everything is so off after nearly a month of no jumping. It feels very odd, I'm getting no height, and after too many the ribs still hurt. Oh well. Only other problem with practice the last couple of days is the fact my boots stretched when I was in an ankle brace. Now that I'm out of it, I'm trying to reform my boots, so they're a bit loose. But still skateable, so not that bad!

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

Well done on your scratch spin!

Today was my lesson day; and Robert had arranged to have a lesson with his "other woman". She, poor dear, was badly held up in traffic, so their lesson had to be rather squashed in, and they didn't have much chance to practice. They were doing the British waltz, and I suppose it was better than he-and-I would have been, but they do need practice! I don't mean to sound catty, but I am still rather disappointed that ours wasn't good enough to enter that particular class! We would have come last, but it would have been fun trying - but really, although our swing dance is "up there" now, our British waltz isn't. Ah well.

Anyway, in my own lesson I ran through both my OD and my Free Dance for Bracknell; the OD is too easy in many ways, there is one long bit where I'm really doing very little in the way of actual skating, which needs to be addressed. It wasn't too bad, though, and nor was the Free dance once I got going. Then had fun messing around and playing with turns and so on at the end. Nearly managed a 3-bracket-3 without a toe-tap, but the tracing was a bit strange.....

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

ALL HOLY!!!!

Monday night grabbed a half hour lesson with my old coach. Worked on basic synchro steps and holds. It amazes me the things she knows as she's basically a dance coach, but I haven't found anything that she doesn't know when it comes to skating. After the lesson, skated the adult public session.

Tuesday night's pillates class went better. I took a military sleeping mat with me to go under my regular mat. No bruises on my hips or tailbone today!!!

garyc, what synchro team have you joined? I'd love to be able to do adult synchro, but the closest team is about 45 minutes away - too far down the highway to drive all winter in my unreliable conversion van, nevermind the $$$...

My daughter Icy and I hope to attend a few synchro competitions this year in the New England area (we've got to cheer on her ex-teammates from last year!) so we'd be glad to add your team onto our list

New hell - just got on the ice after a week off with the alien-baby stomach bug. I've no strength in my legs, they wouldn't even do a waltz jump for me

New Holy - since I couldn't do jumps, or spins, I worked my back inside consecutive edges for about 20 minutes, and they've improved to the point where I almost get back to the center line on the right foot, and I'm cruising on the left foot. How I hate right back edges!

Schmeck, turning into a banana-&-saltine blob (that's all I've been able to eat and not awaken the alien-baby!)

We're a little far from your area. St. Peter's RecPlex "Sapphire Ice" in St. Peters, MO (not far from St. Louis).

The adult team had planned to go to Massachusetts for a competition in August, but too many of the skaters had plans for that weekend.

I had my first workout with them last week and it wasn't pretty. I've got a lot to learn. We'll see how this week's practice goes.

Holy:

First week back to jumping after 4 weeks off. Had my lesson today and landed a double toe for my coach. . Worked on axels and loops too - he said one of my loops justed floated up into the air it looked so good. It feels so good to be jumping - no real pain just soreness. I'm still going to be careful, though. No flips or lutzes yet - I figure the landings are enough pressure on my hip flexor for right now.

Hell:

Usually I like skating with the better kids, but today was a bit unnerving. There were just so many of them out there today. Had two kids out there working on their senior moves, one working on her junior moves, and three kids doing triple jumps. It's really hard to concentrate on brackets on a line when there's a really big guy doing triple salchows 10 feet away from you .

Lesson 2 of 6 (Group Lessons) and back up to WhateveritisSkate Bronze/Silver!

Forward and back spiral (I was especially pleased with my forward spiral as I haven't done it for ages) and the guy coaching us got me to do a slightly different line ....... left arm in front (LFO edge), right arm in a straight line behind and slightly lifted to give a 'line' with the head sort of tilted slightly ..... it was a nice position but felt a bit twisted at first.

I then learned a 'bunny hop' (I've NEVER been taught this before, I did one once and belly-flopped/face planted). I don't like this, it feels like 'nothing' .... or maybe I haven't 'got' it yet!

Waltz jump ...... his idea on technique was totally different to what I've been taught but he did pick up on the fact that I was doing a 'Biellman Waltz' when I wasn't even aware that I could get my leg up that high anymore

His speciality is spins so he gave me a few pointers on these ..... it will be nice if he takes us for the remaining 4 weeks as most coaches gloss over spins and just concentrate on jumps!

Did the Moves class afterwards ..... am now feeling that the time I have on courses isn't long enough ..... is this a good thing?

One of the exercises was the Kilian choctaw, down the rink on alternate feet!! It wasn't pretty and it wasn't at Kilian speed but I got it!!!!

Then onto the DREADED back 3's ...... the brain took over and I was pooh! EXCEPT that I started getting angry at myself for being chicken and actually managed to eke a few out on both feet AND successfully managed a few doubles!!!! Again they weren't pretty and would have had ex-Madam coach bawling at me but HEY ...... there is a glimmer of light at the end of the very long tunnel!!!

L x

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The best whisper is a click

Posted by TashKat

I then learned a 'bunny hop' (I've NEVER been taught this before, I did one once and belly-flopped/face planted). I don't like this, it feels like 'nothing' .... or maybe I haven't 'got' it yet!

You aren't missing anything!! Oy, I took me 6 weeks to do this well enough to pass and I'm NEVER doing it again!! I think the idea is to get you ready for other jumps with this "jump" but not sure. My coach told me not to sweat it.

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

HOLY: Good group lessons last night. Worked on the dance sequence (or whatever they call it) for FS2, practiced deeper edges on front crossovers, and even did a decent lunge from the "bad side".

I agree Gary, this is hellish for everyone involved, but I am a part of the team, and it hurts to see you bash us publicly on this board.

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

Wang chung!

Not bashing the team. The majority of the team is there for the right reasons: to skate and have fun. If it wasn't for that majority, there wouldn't be any reason for me to join.

I'm not joining just because my girlfriend is a team member. I've seen the team have a lot of fun and skate some terrific programs.

You're right. Quit my whining and edit accordingly.

Holy: I spent time at another rink this morning with my ol' coffee club crew that I used to skate with when I was working. Miss them a lot!!!(ask8ngcat, where were YOU??? I wanted to watch you get abused by Mistress Coach!!!)

Along with that, I see that my moves are definitely getting better, (though still not at passing standard for the Bronze Moves test.) Certainly WAAAY better than when I lost my job!!! Camels starting to come to. Oh, and wait there's more!!! Though it wasn't perfect, the fellow who was trying to correct me on my spin entry saw one that he said was MUCH BETTER, (though still broken...)

Best part...I finally landed a couple of loops today!!! YIPPEE!!!

Hell: HELLO!?!?! Where were my moves later in the afternoon at my home rink during my lesson?!?!?! I guess it decided to stay at the other rink! (Well, that and I was on my SECOND ice session... AND I was skating on SLUSH in the FS session during my lesson... EEEW!!!) Actually the lesson wasn't THAT bad. I think it's more that my coach is pushing for even MORE stuff. If he keeps this up, I'll won't be testing Bronze Moves by the end of this year!!!

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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!!!