Sunny: BlueIIIMoon, I'm really looking forward to competing against you again this year - I see we're on Saturday afternoon again! My Interp is still in the "I don't like this and I'm never going to get it right!" stage - I do like it, but it's not quite what I want yet. And I haven't finished the costume, either. Well, most of it, but I still have to finish one BOOTCOVER!!!! So no dress rehearsal as yet.

Stormy: But I am disappointed to see that yet again pre-Bronze dance is just us, and Other Woman and her husband. Come on, you American & European dancers, and the rest of the British Level 4 & Under crowd, where are you all???? Mind you, those I saw at Adult Nationals would have (with one exception due to age) left both of us standing, so perhaps it's just as well. And, who knows, maybe we'll manage to take a dance off Other Woman and her husband this year? We very nearly did last year, very nearly.....

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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!

That's brilliant Annabel. Huge congratulations to you!!! I bet you feel a great sense of achievement - I know I do when I nail another test!

Sunny
It was my third lesson with my new coach today and it went well. I finally managed a clean programme run-through for her. Not that I've messed up that much before but I've missed the odd jump here and there! I guess I'm starting to feel more relaxed in her presence. I was so worried that having a new coach after all these years was going to make me nervous, but I only had a few mild nerves on the first lesson with her.

My camel-sit resurfaced today too though it wasn't at it's best in my programme. It's amazing how once I start working on change foot camels I suddenly have no probs doing a camel in the first place though my back camel leaves a lot to be desired!

New coach has taken over the role of jumps class coach so we got back to that today. I worked on all my jumps with no problems and finished off with some decent cross-toe spins.

Stormy
I can't think of anything stormy from today. Yay!!!

Nicki

Stormy:
Someone please tell me that the reason I still feel like the world's biggest klutz is because I got my blades sharpened on Tuesday. Today was a little better, but I still can't stop well except for the T stop. I use the F and B one foot snowplow all the time, and I feel almost crippled without them. Even two footed B threes feel impossible now.

Sunny:
Not much. Hubby made me show him some of the show moves today and made me practice the things I'm afraid of very slowly and build up the speed. I think until the blades wear down a bit, I'm not going to feel very confident.
FO threes have not regressed.

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Stormy:
First of all, it is stormy here in Virginia Beach, we are in the midst of a northeaster!

I dragged myself after work to our club ice session. Didn't do much- as the freestyle portion is only 50 minutes long and afterward we have a stroking class that I will not do. It occured to me that I need to suggest to the club board (and I'm a board member) that the classes need to vary a bit.

Sunny:
My spins! I had a centered forward scratch and a steady sit! I'm also planning a day trip to DC on Sunday to do some skating there for a change of scenery and a "day getaway."

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Sunny: Tango was better today. Coach and I did a couple 2 pattern run-throughs to the music and on one run-through, other than accidentally kicking coach right after his quick rocker, the 2nd pattern was actually better than the first.

Coach #2 commented afterwards that one of my bug-a-boo spots was much improved. I credit the improvement to tenacity and working on the Paso and Starlight (both of which have a similar cross-stroke).

Stormy: My left ankle has been swollen lately. Started out it seemed to be mostly afternoons, but yesterday/today it has been more swollen and slightly painful (albeit not sore when shoved into a skating boot). The swelling is right around the ankle bone. So I put some ibuprofen gel I brought back from my London trip last fall, and I have it elevated. Think I will try to wrap it or get one of those ankle compression bandages to see if that helps. Not sure what I dinged up or how/when I did it.

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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...

Back on the ice after our test, and a good long practice session.

Stormy: Saturday patch is always rather crowded, and collisions not infrequent - husband actually made physical contact with another couple, but luckily they were all strong enough to stay upright. As far as I could see there were only 2 elite couples this morning, but there were three adult couples! And, of course, hordes of free skaters.

Husband & I spent 90% of the time trying to rechoreograph our free dance, but with singular lack of success. We reckon we'll get a higher tariff if we do twizzles rather than 3-turns in one section - I'm more confident on my twizzles, but himself covers more ice.... and I can do BI twizzles better than FI ones, and his FI ones are better.... plus he likes to start on his right foot, and I like to start on my left..... oh well, we'll get there one day!

My back cross-rolls are dire - we spent a mighty long time just doing cross-rolls in waltz hold, but I'm not sure that we wouldn't be better to do changes-of-edge instead. We'll see.... lesson on it tomorrow.

The one time they put a Willow Waltz on, Husband's laces came loose, so we weren't able to do it!

Sunny: We actually managed a lift! Only we weren't moving - we seem to be able either to move, or to do the lift, not yet both! And later on we did a Fiesta Tango to the music and a Swing Dance, and both went well.

And in spite of me having written more "stormy" things than "sunny", on balance it was a good session and we got some solid work done!

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

Congratulations Ms. Redboots!

Sunny - My salchow is back. I managed probably the best forward spin of my life and I can actually get 2 1/2 rotations on my back spin.

Stormy- My boots. Had to run off the ice twice to relace them. In order to get them tight enough to be secure I almost cut off the circulation to my feet. Even as I'm sitting here typing my arches are complaining. Time to make the call to the proshop.

Stormy - Changed my mind about doing a waltz jump while air borne nearly fell flat on my face. Waltz jump in general seems to have left me, My preparation and entry are fine (says coach) but for some reason I halt right when it's time to swing my free leg through.

Scary (I know it's not a category this week) - trying a loop jump for the first time.

Sunny - Hmmm...

Skating was sooo crap today.
I just had an off day. I could do most jumps, but my heart wasn't in it.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Ooh, I hope to see you at Reston tomorrow ..

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Tessie - I l-o-v-e loop jumps. Mine seems to come and go these days, but then again, I haven't been practicing jumps. It's a fun jump, once you get the hang of it. Hope you "hang" one soon!

Sunny:
Taught a birthday party lesson, which was the usual madcap frenzy. The better skaters drift away, and one of the newbies takes a spill and gets hurt. Also taught a couple of kids from our group lesson program, just to be nice. Maybe they'll be in one of my groups another time and they'll already adore me!! LOL!

I MANAGED TO DO THE DIPPY STEPS RIGHT! It only took three weeks for me to master such a simple little thing. I think it took me less time to learn an illusion!

Stormy:

I actually skated very well, although my feet are still killing me from the skates. Perhaps the foam inside is heat-expanding? I had to take the skates off twice to relieve the pain. Maybe I should put some of the Parlor jell-o in them -- it couldn't hurt!

Fell out of a sit spin, but I have to say that regular practice is really bringing it back strong.

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Hello all,

It's been a while since I posted one of these so I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try. Here it goes!

Stormy: I've been working on gold moves since about November of last year. However, I had put them on the back burner, so to speak, as Adult Nationals drew nearer so that I could focus on my freestyle elements in my program. So, for the past couple of weeks I've been working on them again. Some moves are far better than others. I still haven't gotten the hang of the brackets yet. So that pattern is still in disarray. In general, my forward power circles are better than my backward power circles, but my counter-clockwise back power circle is still feeling rough. My moves coach and I are still trying to break down my technique on my back crossovers so that they're not scratchy and both the pump and the under push are utilized fully. Needless to say I've frustrated him and myself a ton this week as I don't seem to be able to produce back crossovers that work like we want them to, on a consistent basis. On the whole, for a couple of weeks back on the ice after a big event it hasn't been catastrophic but let's just say I have plenty of work in front of me.

Sunny: The forward double three's have been working well just about on every session. (Phew! That's at least one move I can sort of do without too much trouble.) I've been putting in a lot of work on the back double three's. I can at least get through the pattern now so that's why this particular move is listed in the "Sunny" portion of the post. The turns can still be scratchy but considering how these looked Tuesday of last week it's a vast improvement. The inside slide chasse felt ok today. I'm trying to work on not doing the right back outside three too early before starting the slide chasses. I don't seem to have this problem on the left side, just the right. I think I was holding the RBO 3 a little better today. Let's hope that continues to improve. I have been working a little bit on freestyle. I usually devote at least 3/4 of each session on moves and the last 1/4 of each session I do some freestyle. I've come back from Adult Nationals determined to improve my spins and they're still a work in progress. However, I am trying some pretty ambitious spins! Right now, the big spin projects are a forward catch foot camel as well as a flying camel, catch to donut spin. The latter is coming along better than the former but I did manage to do the forward catch foot camel once today. I also tried Marna's idea of doing a sit spin and seeing how many times I can change feet. I have to say that I've never been great at doing change-foot spins. That's the reason I didn't even try one at Nationals. However, I was pleasantly surprised that I manged to do a sit/change back sit/change forward sit a few times so far. There's hope for me yet! I've been purposely staying away from working jumps too much because I tend to get a little carried away with them and stop working on everything else. Still I have managed to land axels consistenly (about three axels or so) in the last few minutes of each session. Today, I had a lesson with my freestyle coach and we decided to start working on doubles. I did many double toes and a few double toe/double toe combinations but they tend to get toe-axelly. Urgh! There's another thing to fix. We started working on double sal. I managed to land one of these but the rest of my attempts were pretty sketchy. Still, I'm actually pretty pleased with what I've done so far.

So that's been what's going on with me. I hope everyone's well and happy mother's day to all the moms out there.

Frank

Yeah, I'll be there! And how was your skating this week???

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Wahoo Mrs. Redboots!

Stormy: Had 2 awful falls. My right back inside three is horrifying and I had one of those very painful crashes down. Nice bruises on my elbow and lower back. Everyone at the office very impressed with elbow bruise and laughing at my old lady walk. My only question? Why did no one offer me an excellent painkiller (one of my co-workers eats them like candy)? I made it through though and feel much better today. Oh, then I caught another edge on the 8-stop mohawk -- that's actually where the lower back bruise came from I think.

Sunny: Not much -- really over tired this week from hectic business trip and missed practice -- next week will be better. I can do those horrendous back threes BARELY (which is good) while just practicing them but cannot transfer them into the field. Still enjoyed myself even with falls. Had a couple of okay spins.

FUNNY: I think I got the Dance Factory Outlet link from this board. Long story longer, my pain pill popping co-worker and I ordered the same dance pants for only $10 (she takes salsa). I wore them and towards the end of my lesson while my coach and I were trying to make my toe waltz into a toe loop I had one of those sit down falls, and totally ripped my pants! Up my butt. OMG. My coach felt bad for me but all I could do was laugh. They're not very sturdy pants but it was toooo funny. Couldn't wait to get to work and tell co-worker to not wear pants to salsa! We had a good laugh about that for the rest of the week.

Sunny: I managed 45 minutes of laps/pre-bronze stroking pattern today. My goal was 30, so I did good. I felt more relaxed, therefore, I skated better. Still a few problems with the balance, but after so long off the ice, I'm not complaining!

Stormy:Not a thing...unless you count the fact that I'm only allowed to skate with both skates on the ice, and no jumps or tight circles (so no spins) per MD's orders.

Skating has been going well. I had thoroughly been disgusted with my lutz jump since AN, but I landed at least 10 yesterday and then did lutz/loop/loop and lutz/loop/loop/toe. So I'm hoping the lutz and its many combination forms have finally come back--we'll see tomorrow!!

And Loops and I have been doing some pretty interesting things on ice (besides coming up with new insults to throw at each other).

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.