sparkles and glitter... that's what inspired me for this thread! but I have nothing to put on it until Monday. maybe someone else will tomorrow!



p.s. the date thing... LOL i'm so stupid

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Can you change the dates on it? It's not November yet.

Sparkly
Back 3's are working neatly, so is the scratch spin.

Dull
Backspin gone for some reason suddenly. I suspect I need a blade sharpening.

*Sparkly* * It's very easy to get deeeeeep knee bend with the new skates. I really like sinking in my knees going backwards. Scratch spins seem to be somewhat better in the new skates too. The new skates are ultra-comfortable. Even though I have only a few hours on them, they feel better than my well-broken-in old skates. * *

__dull__ ...Well, I'm afraid the comfort comes at a cost. The soft padding in the boots lets my foot roll around inside, and that causes the blade to buckle under on jump landings. I feel the buckling also when attempting fast bracket-brackets, and then they scrape. I tried a simple, easy hockey stop, and the blade rolled upright, caught, and over I went.

I'm hoping that the padding compresses soon, and allows a bit more control of the edge.

Anybody else with new style Riedell Gold Stars experiencing anything like this?

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Bill Schneider

Sparkly: O gee I hope our power coach doesn't read this board - after b**tching about how boring it was last week, this week she did interesting stuff - not just stroking.

Could have been dull but I shined it up When through my artistic to music and fell - but I got up and finished the program so I figured that was good practice. It is a jam packed program - my freestyle is a walk in the park compared to this. Coach says if an artistic is done right, it will be MUCH harder than a freestyle, even with no jumps. My only jumps are a mazurka and a half lutz and I am exhausted when it's over.

j

Sparkly: Rink added a new freestyle session! More skating time, yay!
Dull: It's 6-7:30am...oh well I shall live. Good start to the week right?

Sparkly: Backspin continues to get faster, I think it is now the same speed as my scratch spin. Laybacks were good, I did one decent camel-sit and one good camel-layback. Camel sits rub my skating heel in my boot. Time for new ones perhaps? Lutz jumps felt really nice today. Not sure why...but I'll take it.
Dull: Apparently my axel doesn't like to get up early since it was no where to be found. Same with my Juv MIF...they had been starting to feel good last week and now...*poof* all gone!

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

So does gym practice count? Cuz I'm doing that too since today (it's very cheap for students here).
We have to first take an introductory course with a sports teacher explaining everything. They even have flyers with suggested exercises for people just starting to exercise.
Anyway it was pretty ridiculous. Can a person have a heartbeat of 78 doing a crosstrainer? I doubt the machine was working properly. I'm not in THAT good a physical condition, no way. So how are you supposed to do cardio if you don't know your heartbeat?

It's nice though, cuz I didn't get tired from it, just got a little energy. I could do it for a half an hour every morning or so I guess. Or just on the days I don't skate.

At any rate I can press like thrice as much with my legs as I can pull up with my hamstrings so I guess I really should train them more.

Is it true you can't stretch after weight exercising for a day? Won't I get very inflexible from gym training then?

Sparkly: part of the footwork in the new program has back 3s (since I had to do them for ISI) and I can do them in this sequence and it feels pretty good! Hope it looks good. 8-step mohawk seq. was good yesterday. Yesterday did a ton of toe loops trying to get them back and I think I did one good one.

Dull: Yesterday did a ton of toe loops trying to get them back...and I think I did one good one. :-/

(I don't think I ever did them correctly when I first learned them)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

sparkly - the bright sunshine off the lake which is the Rockefeller rink today!

Still, I skated anyway with both my kids. The younger one, who is nearly 4, claimed she wanted to try skating. She's tried a couple of times before but didn't like it - "I fall down." This time she really took to it. I spent a little while with her holding her arms and catching her when she slipped. I didn't want her getting soaking wet which is what would have happened today if she went down. After about 1/4 of the way around she got the hang of board crawling and proceeded to have a blast. Didn't want any more help, just lots of clapping and appreciation, which she got.

Wheeee! I see more ice time for mommy if both kids want to skate. I can tell DH I'm doing him a favor, taking the kids out so he can sleep in. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

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It's all about the dress!

When my physical therapist was making me do exercises to build my hamstring strength (on the leg curl machine and also exercise ball), she would always have me do the exercises and then stretch the hamstrings really thoroughly afterwards.

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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

Good good good Thanks doubletoe!

Here you can see the depth of the water by the wake left by this back pivot. The feet are mine

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../index.html?hp

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It's all about the dress!

Hey, you made the Times! I also notice the byline of the writer - Winter Miller. I can imagine the city editor assigning the story because of her name

Sparkly again today: Skated the afternoon session too. It was HOT in the rink with unfrozen parts, but not as bad as the photo in the NYT story. Scratch Spins are WONDERFUL in the new boots. I can enter them from all sorts of unusual steps - a twizzle into double brackets on the R foot, then step into a deep LO edge to a scratch spin. Still need to polish the exits though.

I LOVE the flex notch in these boots. I can sink very deep for all the knee bend a coach would want of me. That part of the boot design is PERFECT.

Dull: I believe that my right boot is oversize, and that's why the edge is collapsing under me on jump landings and edgy moves like brackets. I've always ordered size 7-1/2 boots, but the right one feels more like an 8. I'll give them another couple weeks to completely break in, then see the fitter for fixes.

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Bill Schneider

Glad my rink is not outside, 'cause it was over 90 here today!

Dull - ok I'm trying to come back from a week off with a cold, and maybe pushing the envelope a little. I'm just pooped. Today I did 20 minutes on the precor and 30 minutes with the weight circuit, then I tried to skate. But the rink was packed with everyone practicing for regionals, and I was pretty tired. So when my daughter fell and hurt her hip, I packed it in too after only 30 minutes.

Sparkly - nice newly sharp blades - love that feeling.

My, oh, my! That is one melted rink! As much as I complain that my rink can be frigid in the mornings, I'm glad that I don't have to swim through a pond to skate in the 90 degree weather!

Hey, nice pivot!

I would NOT want to fall on a day like that - that would be an uncomfortable subway ride home soaking wet...

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Had a good lesson today

Sparkly:
Double 3s on my right foot are consistent.
Coach was pleased with camel attempt.

Dull:
Bronze moves...yuck! My new nemesis along with the evil sit spin is the power 3. I'm not a fan.
Lutz. I overrotated that bad boy something fierce today. I landed two of them facing forward which of course involves kissing the ice.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

sparkly: waltz, sal, toe, loop, flip (!!!) even my friend's dad was like, "OMG you're getting good". LOL. also backspin was veeery sparkly.

dull: sitspin. my coach still hasn't shown me how to do it, so I am probably doing it wrong... therefore not doing it at all...
waltz/loop combo. same story as sitspin, not taught yet.

QUESTION: Re: flip. I'm not actually sure if I'm doing it or not. The flip is self-taught, feels easy... but I'm not sure how much of a flip it is. It feels more like a salchow, but with a toepick tap, and without the free leg going through. is this a good feeling?

re: melted rinks... I did a loop, and fell right in the middle of a puddle!!! eew. I was having to wring out the water off my shorts.

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I think you should wait on the flip and the sit spin so you don't teach yourself bad habits that must be undone. The flip should not feel like a toe salchow. If it does, you are not taking off the picking foot.

From my "Group" lesson last night (our adult class has a grand total of 2 students - me, who is working on jumps & spins, and another lady who is working on crossovers and backwards swizzles! Needless to say we get LOTS of individual attention! ).

Sparkly: We identified a major error in my backspin entry (which I knew was there, but not how to fix it ) and whoa! what a difference when I fixed it! With the inside 3-turn entry, I was not keeping my free leg back, she had me enter the 3-turn from a line and as I crossed the line, do a tiny toepick drag with my free leg, which kept my leg back just enough to make a HUGE difference in the stability of the spin. I was so excited! now I just need to get enough speed going in to get more than 1 or 2 rotations . . .

Dull: yeesh . . . didn't have much going on as far as LIFT in jumps last night. We worked on the beginnings of a loop (excercise consisting of backspin + hop + landing position) and walked through the flip (excitement!) but I'm still too chicken to leave the ice.

Somewhere in between: This was so funny! I fell on something during lesson, don't remember what, and I didn't think it was much of a fall, myself, but it scared the HECK out of my instructor and she GASPED . . . I jumped up as quick as I could and said "I'm OK!!!" She apologized for her reaction and said it was because she'd never seen me fall . . . (obviously she doesn't stick around for public session practice!)

This can also feel like a toe salchow, which is incorrect, if you are not picking in directly behind your free hip (if you are picking out to the side instead). You need to really try and extend that picking leg back nice and straight, so that you avoid that whippy set-up and take off.

I actually tell my students to think: set-up/glide - push into three- turn/pause - turn your three-turn/pause - reach back and pick in - and the polevault your self up and back, which will help with height and minimize the whippiness that can make this jump feel like a salchow.

DULL! Had a VERY busy weekend and was STIFF and very tired this morning - coach was NOT happy We only have a couple of weeks to get the Freeskate program ready for competition and I still don't have a good solid Waltz jump, my Toe Loop is non-existent, my Upright Spin doesn't have 3 full revolutions and my Sit Spin is feeble! Then I have the nerve to show up at practice tired and stiff

Almost Sparkly At least I made a little progress on the sit spins and my coach commented my back edges are improving. The head coach had a compliment for my speed and power on the forward cross-overs, IF I believe her

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Yikes...

DULL
Our rink was dry today, but they let anybody on during public hours, including hockeyers, who decided to have a game... Well needless to say practicing inbetween that was pretty impossible and no fun at all so I left after 45 minutes. Sit spin refuses to join me.

Sparkly
Did some pretty good 1-foot and changefoot spins though. Camel was gone at the beginning of the session, then returned. Did some good backward cross-rolls (forward didn't work so well) and...

surprise!!!

I can suddenly do a backward bielman spiral! And I can get the skate definately over my head now on the forward one. Well on 1 side.
Yayyyy!

Dull: Husband was having a bad skate day and was a bit tentative to dance with. And he had a splatty fall - don't know how I managed to avoid going over with him, it can't have been graceful!

Sparkly: Coach pleased with our Fiesta and didn't give us any corrections. We all know it isn't perfect, but he doesn't want to break it at this stage before we need it for two competitions next month!

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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!

congratulations!! this is my dream right now... I can do it off ice, but not on it...

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