Back on the ice, having had to miss Sunday as I wasn't well. And there are tests tomorrow, so ended up with all my lessons today! A whole hour, 30 minutes with Husband, 30 without him. Am I tired, or am I tired?

Foggy: The silly thing is that I know that 3 months ago we'd have killed to be skating at the level we're skating now; we've improved so much this season! But we are so unsatisfied - we know what we're doing wrong, it's driving us mad! Mostly not extending, not pointing our toes, not bringing our feet back together, not pushing on every step - all basic, baby stuff.... But at least we can feel it.

Husband came off the ice saying that he had serious issues with his Fiesta and 14-step - and I know he is dancing better than I've ever seen him!

In my private lesson it was all exactly the same thing. Although I did find I could do my level 3 Dance Moves reasonably well - at least, down the less-used side of the ice! It wasn't a fluke last week. But they are still several months from testing, but better than they've been.

Oh, and I'm getting muddled with my spins again - which foot do I spin on, and which way do I turn? I always get it wrong the first time, except in the one couples spin we can actually do!

Fair: I actually found an outside edge on the 2nd swing roll in the Riverside Rhumba - and I'm sure I've never found one there before! And, let's face it, we are better than we were, certainly in Scotland.... and just one more competition to go this season. Which is actually sad, as we'll be giving our free dance its final outing! But I'll not be sorry to pack up the Riverside Rhumba for awhile! I don't dislike it, but it's not my favourite dance.

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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!

Foggy: Ahh, Silver moves . . . what can I say? I'm going to be at pretty much "status quo" on these for at least a few months. That means:

- FO/BI & FI/BO three turn sequences -- turns are noisy and I'm way off the pattern.
- Crossrolls -- I'm having trouble pushing correctly on the forward ones and the back ones need more power
- Power Pulls -- forward and back ones both need more power and stronger edges, particularly the forward ones.
- Eight Step Mohawk Sequence -- literally, not up to speed. And the speed at which it's supposed to be done? Scary.
- Spirals -- generally, pretty good & effortless. I'd like to get that 'wow' extension though.

I'm hoping to see some sort of marked improvement by springtime. Up until now, most of what I have learned were actually "re-teachings" of things I had learned as a kid. But most of the elements on Silver moves are a whole new world to me.


Fair: I managed to squeak out a few forward power pulls, which are definitely the "nemesis" move. They were definitely baby pulls, but the edges were distinct and the pattern was fine. The eight-step mohawk wasn't too bad either. I slowed it waaaay down, but kept an even tempo.

Foggy: Still can't do a camel spin due to my L. leg ham string.


Fair: Everything else! Landed some axels today. Did a decent run-thru of my program after 4 weeks. My coach was very happy. We are good to go for Skate SF! I just made my flight reservations.

This was for yesterday:
Foggy:
My first program run through since Peach. Coach asked afterward, "When did you last run this?" I said sheepishly "Peach".
Methinks I have a lot of work to do and Thank God Central Carolina Adult Classic is NOT until February!
Oh and by the time it's time for my lesson the ice was terribly chewed up!
Coach had this great "idea" for me to get a waltz loop combo to put in the freeskate program at Carolina! For heaven's sake, I'm retiring my current program there! Save it for the new program!



Fair:
My new possible program that I'll start after the competition in February.
The music, while not cut yet is going to be TOO COOL!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Foggy: Still have not gone on the ice and prepare any programs, elements, or anything for this competition. + battling a cold and fever

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Tim David's Website

Fair - The internal heel lifts from last week are working brilliantly. So coach this morning tried me out on what I found out later were Westminster choctaws ("down - cross under - up - extend back - down - feet together, turn - up - extend back"). To his surprise and my delight I managed them. Both sides. Weee!

Foggy - these suckers are s-l-o-w. Soooo slow. My pet arthritic snail would have beaten me doing them. Ditto the plain vanilla mohawks coach wanted at a scary speed. (He didn't get them.)

Lot of work here. (So what's new?)

Also, the heel lifts have for some reason opened up more room around the sides (not the back) of my heels, particularly in my right boot. What can I use to fill this out? Having my heels slipping around in there is disconcerting, to say the least...

Forgot to say for yesterday that the coach was even critiquing our warm-up, pointing out that our left edges were better than our right..... which I discovered was due to the hold, somehow I'm not taking the left half of my body with me, don't know if it's him, me or a combination of the two of us.

So anyway, today there were dance tests, but I still got in just under an hour of skating, and got to watch most (but very far from all) of the tests, too.

Foggy: How come I get up at 06:15 when we are both skating, and tend to get to the rink a little before 08:00. This morning, because i was in no rush, I got up at 06:45, and still arrived at the rink just before 08:00! Duh.....

Dutch waltz relatively okay, relatively; Canasta Tango pretty dire, kept discovering places where I wasn't pushing (so what else is new?), and then when I did try to push there, someone invariably got in my way so I had to abort my pattern anyway (that is the trouble when there aren't that many skaters on the ice, and those that are are all having a lesson or judge's critique, as was the case this morning).

Had a go at the level 4 Dance Moves; my outside Mohawks are awful! Still can't step to forwards without awful scrapy toe-rake noises, and that includes on the FO3 exercise, but at least I can do that one!

In other drills, back crossovers to landing position (aerobic exercise) also scrapy and not nearly fast enough. BO edges too shallow. FO swing rolls as dire as always. Spin didn't. Spiral probably looked as though I was extending, for once.... cherry flip didn't leave the ice....

Fair: Level 3 Dance Moves weren't too bad at all; I'm actually getting a bit of flow on the back cross-rolls, and even the cross-cuts survived their lap. They are still not testable, of course, but another couple of months' steady work should do it, I hope.

Spent most of the rest of the hour just skating around, doing various edge exercises - surprised myself by how fast I can go on BI edges these days, but my BO ones aren't steep enough. Variable-speed progressives/runs okay, as were anti-clockwise back crossovers, and even the clockwise ones weren't as awful as usual - beginning to be able to get my weight fully over my left hip, but only beginning. Still, it's a start. And my "Russian stroking" was okay, too, except I kept planning it badly and running out of rink!

There are times when I find this sport so frustrating.... especially when you see a Senior couple having a judge's critique and being called on for the same sort of things that we get called on....

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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!

25 Oct 05: Fighting a Cold-not sure who's winning
Fair: Salchow (yeah, I gotta post my video-been busy) at a speed faster than slow. Managed a few good ones, one-foot landing; although one screeched to a stop...
12-year-old taught me to shoot-the-duck!! Of course, I had to grab my free leg at the knee, but it wasn't bad. My behind hurts today-need more stretching-glutes must be tight.
Spirals were great-yes, the knee was straight!! Skating leg was pushed forward, back leg was pushed back and hip was open, back was as arched as I could get it, head up. Nice!

Foggy: Spins! Hooking and wobbly and crappy. Trying to get deeper, not look down, lifting free leg, etc. Waltz was only so-so today. Didn't feel like jumping much. Had to use my inhaler and that makes me really jumpy and wired feeling-which makes me accident prone...better not to take chances when I'm driving my kid around without an alternate driver. Backspin not happening at all.

PS-getting new used boots in my size (from Ebay) so that should help my jumps-won't slosh around and won't have to tie so tight my circulation is cut off! I'm hoping to get them in a week or two. I'm putting these on Ebay when the others are worked in.

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

fair: my coach fixed my lutz! I've been so worried about my feet and legs that I've neglected the upper body tension necessary to jump. Now, as I pick in, my brain barks "ARMS!" and I pull in and properly rotate, correct edges and all!

Since I have started working on the camel/sit and camel/back sit, my actual camel spin has improved much. Same with the sit spin. Can't say c/s or c/bs or s/bs are worth a scratch at this moment.

And I don't know if it's work with my chiropractor or just the fact I'm concentrating on it, but the sit is lower and that errant free leg is FINALLY crooking slightly to the spinning leg to the point the spin is really taking off!

foggy: the new entrance on the loop is still freaking me out. A new twist to my loop dilemma: I'm taking off on two feet and landing on one instead of vice versa. So instead of two footing the jump, I'm cheating the jump. And all this experimenting with the loop has rendered the loop/loop combination MIA.

Also foggy is runthroughs of my bronze program and the as yet undecided interp for this year. My coach loves the concept, but not the music. THEN I came up with a new idea and we are both in a flux of indecisivness. Argh!

My biggest goal for this season is to polish up my elements so they don't look crappy: runout on my landings, pointed toes, expression to music, etc. And that goal is both fair and foggy.

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

Wang chung!

Fair: I learned a pre-preliminary pattern, I think. stroke-stroke-stroke
crossoverstrokeothercrossoverstrokecrossoverstroke all down the axis and then crossovers around the corner and then axis down the other side wheee and now I'm going faster than I can stop!

And I learned to put my leg out to the side on a one-foot spin. And I almost accidentally did a toe loop, which is what happen when you try a mazurka at speed. I just popped into the air and finished the mazurka.

My waltz jumps are still retarded, but they may be mainstreamed soon.

Fog: I have one side of back crossovers CCW where I feel lurchy and weak. I think I need to push more with the pushunder, but I can't figure out how to do that without clicking my blades. I can do them the other way no problem.

Foggy:
The weather here!!! It's foggy and rainy and just plain YUCKY!!!

Was working on my loop and was two footing the landing. Secondary coach calls me over. "How long has it been since you've been landing on two feet?" Me: "Ummm... for quite a while?" Secondary coach: "You know you HAVE to this loop in your program right?" Me: (My "Ummmm... tell me something I don't already know" look...)

So the secondary coach made me go thru this drill along the wall of doing a mini loop along the wall and forcing me to land on one foot. Yeap! No problem when I do them near the wall... but for about the next 10 loop attempts, when I went out there, I couldn't land them on one foot. No problem. The secondary coach made me go back to the wall again and do them continuously near the wall until I could land them... Then...

Fair:
As I kept doing them, I thought "Okay, not bending the knee enough out there." "Okay, not keeping the back straight..." "Not enough rotation..." and I gradually got them so I land on one foot but hopping, and finally..."

NICE BRIGHT SUNNY DAY!!!
Landing and gliding out!!! WHOO HOO!!! I did land my loop in front of my secondary coach and another coach that was standing nearby. Now I have EYEWITNESSES!!! And not just one but maybe about 3 or 4 of them! It's still not consistent. But I was landing them more and more towards the end of the session. Ended my lesson with a cleanly landed one too!!!



Foggy:
My lower back on my landing side is NOT happy coming off my lesson. OWWWW!!! (I must have done maybe like 20 loops or so this morning.)

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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!!!

I'm still trying to figure out how to get 5 crossovers into the figure-8 pattern on the moves thingy!! I can only manage 4 but my coach wants 5....
PS-my waltz's are retarded too!

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

Crayonskater, it sounds like what you learned was the forward perimeter power crossover stroking pattern from the Pre-Juv MIF and Adult Bronze MIF tests. (or maybe I just have that move on the brain?)

Foggy: Went to Skate America this weekend and returned with strep throat - oh joy. Obviously, I "caught" it before SA, probably from some kid I was skating with/near. Ugh! Last March, I got bronchitis, and now this. Does anyone else find that they're picking up illnesses more often now than before they started skating? I felt so bad Sunday morning at SA, I couldn't even stay for the exhibition - grrrr. And there's nothing worse than a 3-hour drive when your throat feels like it's on fire and you're hot and have chills.

Fair: After starting on antibiotics (and getting the fever down Mon aftn), I went to my lesson (it was too late to cancel). Not the most productive practice I've ever had, but my coach helped me straighten out my problems with the 2-foot spin for my spins program for HC (since I never do 2-foot spins any more, I'd forgotten how ) and we worked on posture and crossovers. I tried to work on jumps but decided it was not a jumping day, so I stuck with spins and moves. I was pleased that my backspin and sit spin haven't deserted me.

It sounds like your hips may be too square to the circle rather than being right on the circle. Try moving your "pushunder" hip back a tad -- this is how I got over the "click-of-death" syndrome -- it works!!

You are probably doing that on the other side without even thinking about it. I know I was...

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

I've found just the opposite to be true. The regular exercise has strengthened my immune system, and I get sick less often. However, I must say that when I did get sick last year, it was often from my pairs partner. Bad pairs partner. I washed & washed, and would still get his colds.

Sorry to hear you were sick at SA. Strep is evil. I had it one time when I went to the World's Fair. It really drags you down. Hope you feel better soon!

To Debbie S: (((((((prayers, hugs and well-wishes to you)))))))

I caught an extremely virulent strain of strep throat in the beginning of October and it took me three full weeks till I felt human again.... I understand how dragged down and weak you feel right now. Whatever you do, take it easy and allow yourself time to heal COMPLETELY. Skaternum is right - strep is eeeeevvvvviiiiilllll and you do not want to mess with it. I wasn't even able to skate for 18 days because not only was my throat affected but the infection moved up into my inner ears and I had horrible vertigo. I fell down every time I just stood up. Not good for skating at all

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

Thanks for the well wishes, skaternum and Raye! Wow, Raye, what happened to you sounds awful. Thank goodness you've recovered! I think I just got the run-of-the-mill variety of strep. My doctor gave me that Z-pack thing, where you take 2 pills the first day and one each for the next 4, so you finish meds in 5 days instead of 10 - I had the same thing for bronchitis. My throat is feeling better today and I can swallow w/o pain - yippee! I may go skating tomorrow afternoon.

Foggy:
Kiddies would not stay out of my way today on lesson and I almost hit two or three of them! These are the little ones who are just soo excited to be on a freestyle that they are CLUELESS!!

Fair:
Moves were great on lesson today, even with the crowd!! I could actually hear a ripping sound when i did my forward power crossover stroking and my threes and five step mohawk were fairly good too!!

Sunny:
Landed a loop and pulled back in for a backscratch!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Would this forward power crossover stroking be known as Russian Stroking?

Fair:
I've been skating pretty intensely since school started and my body is feeling it (maybe a touch of that virus/throat thingie too). So this week I declared that feet shall not leave ice since there is no ooomph in my legs. I've quietly been working on 3's and mohawks, inside and outside. Considering that my most scary elements are inside 3 and outside mohawk, I'm quite please to report that inside 3's are not so scary and the outside mohawk, when brain is in motion, seems to be working, even the most awful way, which is my personal death element.

What's so weird, in that skating way, is that I can do outside 3's until the cows come home(truth! , that would be my neighbour's dairy farm) and I am growing to like the European Waltz, however, since I NEVER do the inside 3 of the way I don't like, it was like I'd never done it in my life before. I suppose it's the one thing that's good for you in doing Skills, that you have to do all the turn thingies on all sides.

Foggy:
Coach has disassembled my loop. It no longer exists and I would declare that I can not do a loop. I can't even do it the old way anymore, coach has messed my head up on that too. So, when I get to the point in my program where I have to do a loop, I shout LOOP and continue on. What else is is a girl to do? (try it says the coach, hmmmmpfff, says I)

Foggy - Hope all are feeling better soon!
Fair - I started working on the counter move pattern. I had counters in a program last year and I wanted to work on them again in the hopes it would help me get finer control over these new skates! So we figured since all of them were in the pattern, I may as well work on that.
The interp program is going ok, and I'm practicing the spirals for the team event.
Take care!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Make a bigger circle... i.e. skate slightly straighter on the first crossover so there's not quite so much curve to your circle and it will force you to skate a bigger circle, then you will NEED five crossovers to get all the way around.

Fair Nearly-empty rinks this week thanks to South Atlantics. Had a good practice and lesson with my spin coach, who was happy with my progress. And good run throughs of both programs, although on the first run through of my free program I had to stop part-way through because I was too dizzy! Never try to do a salchow while you are looking to see if the coach with the skater who can barely skate is going to wander over to your landing spot. Anyway, we just started again and it was fine.

Foggy My coach yesterday said I am just chickening out of holding my spin longer when I'm out in the center of the ice, because I hold the position longer when I'm near the boards. Gotta work on that. Also the ice was crappy because they skipped too many cuts because it wasn't crowded... just can't win!

Debbie- Hope you feel better!

Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Thanks! I will try that.

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

Remember, nothing says you HAVE to use the 2 hockey circles at the end of the ice, or that you have to use the short axis of the rink.

You can always use the long axis and base your circles around that. However if you do, make sure you know where your center is, so that both circles start and end at the same place, and are the same size.

Also when you submit your test app, if you plan to do the circles using the long axis, it might be a good thing to let the test chair know in advance, especially if your test chair single-panels the tests and puts multiple Pre-Pres/Pre-Bronze tests out at the same time (with different judges).

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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...

Ooh, I learned the figure eight, too. And today I counted and I pretty much do it in 4, too. My coach hasn't said anything about doing five, but he mostly taught me the pattern to give me something to do with crossovers that wasn't going around in circles. Trying to get me to think of them as a connecting step that can be varied rather than a mechanical pattern. You can also do shorter crossovers that have good extension but don't push as much.

And it is the pre-juv power forward crossovers that I learned. Man, I get going fast. Better learn how to stop soon.