P.S.

Fair Weather: I skated barefoot for the first time in my new (2 month old) Proflex and right away knew something wasn't right - back to the bench to take my boot off and find out what was digging into my left toes. Turns out that the insole was just a bit too long for the boot, had slipped forward a little, and bunched up into a fold under my toes. I have a wide foot and custom boots - looks like they used an insole for one size larger but didn't bother to trim the length. Repositioned the insole and everything was fine! (Both insoles are now trimmed and glued in place.) I wondered why my toes were so cramped in custom boots!

The rink is keeping the ice REALLY cold through the hot weather and I wasn't feeling terribly secure on my edges yesterday so I gave my skates a light pass through the sharpener to restore the edges. I LOVE having my own sharpening machine

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

Interesting doing power 3s while skating forwards only.... most of that move is done backwards, I think, no?

Fair: Ice much better today. Worked hard with Husband. Beginning to get some flow even on back swing rolls.

Foul: Coach would rather we went for accuracy over speed. Right now, this is so not what wins competitions! Speed is all....

When we did speed up, as we can if we set our minds to it, we rushed. Sigh.... We'll get there. Eventually.

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

[QUOTE=Mrs Redboots;330811]Interesting doing power 3s while skating forwards only.... most of that move is done backwards, I think, no?

QUOTE]


hehehe, well yea, but I was more worried about skating backward where I couldn't see where I was going most of the time - at least with power 3s I have a better visual of who is around me. I was worried more about running into people.

j

Given that the painful state of my Achilles tendonitis restricts jumping and that I'm on vacation next week with no skating planned, my coach and I decided to limit my lesson time to "fun stuff." Her idea of "fun" though was to try to beat the steps of the Dutch Waltz into my brain.

This is not the first time I have tried ice dance. The first two attempts, one in the late '80s and one more than a decade after that, ended in frustration. Now I remember why. While I can DO the steps, I can't always remember them in the correct order. After more than an hour, I did manage to complete the pattern more or less correctly - until they put the music on.

I remember in Europe, the international dancers not wanting to use the American dance music. Having heard three selections of the USFS official DW music, I can sympathize. Of the three selections, only one had a recognizable beat that I could hear and between trying to count, remember the steps and watch out for the other people on the ice (a couple of whom were doing the same dance, although not as the same time), there was no way I could keep to the tempo. It was extremely frustrating.

So I'm wondering if the international music is any better? Can somebody tell me where I can get my hands on some of it, if only to give our dance coaches something different to play? We're all really sick of the USFS selections we have.

The semi-good thing is that my tendons lasted an hour and half before seizing up and they're not excrutiatingly sore the way they were after last week's FS lesson.

thanks That's one of the reasons I love skating - I can't possibly think about anything else but what I'm doing while I'm on the ice!

Congrats! I still can't do a good t-stop on the right foot (never mind the left foot!). Those things are so hard. I can only do one if I'm going very slowly. I don't know how I ever passed Beta (I think I was about 8) if I couldn't do a decent t-stop.

Foul: Had a vicious UTI yesterday, missed skating, work, and ended up in hospital, where they also found a small ovarian cyst. Antibiotics and pain pills work well, but I'm really dragging today. Husband is not happy that I skated and went to work, but he was so wonderful helping me yesterday that I have cancelled all other activities.

Fair: Coach is wonderful, we worked on mohawk technique today, since I had no energy. It really helped me, and I ended up with some beautiful inside mohawks. Coach is wonderful, she is so flexible with me and has helped me through some really awful and tragic times. She offered to cancel the lesson with no charge for it when she saw how tired I was, but I really wanted to get back back to a normal life, and I can ALWAYS use work on my technique .

fair - some slight improvements in salchow and backspin. 9-step sequence coming along ok. Had fun with the back spiral. Tried back power-pulls just for the heck of it. Not very good, but it was fun.

utterly foul - the drenching rain I got caught in on my way to work from the rink. Ended up drying my shirt with a hairdryer in the bathroom.

Fair
Okay, so the axel really IS back from its 3-month vacation! This morning I landed it solidly in my program, right out of the loop landing edge. Oh, thank God! The flying camel was there in my program, too. Maybe I should always do it without warming it up first. . .

Foul
It sure would be nice for my sit spins (fwd and reverse pancakes) to take that "sit" name a little less literally. That ice is pretty cold on my butt.

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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

Keep losing my posts for some reason or I would have updated sooner about last Sunday's skate - it was an experience!!

Foul

still commuting to out of state rink to find ice
we ran out of GAS on the way!! (faulty gas gauge - now FIXED! fortunately it died on me within view of a gas station).
when we arrived at the rink - found that public session was being cut short because of private party - grrrrrrr
condensation bumps EVERYWHERE!! (and orange cones!!) BUT . . .

Fair

nice skatable ice BETWEEN the cones (which everyone else was avoiding for obvious reasons) so DS and I were able to maneuver a bit for decent ice!
DS landed his loop-loop combo clean!!
Forward spins feeling VERY nice for me - keeping left shoulder checked firmly back and right arm in front on the STEP IN is really working out great. It makes it much easier for me to center because my upper body is "already there" and my free leg just swings around and joins the party!

Future forecast

I have decided it's time to get serious on the backspin!! So what if it is scary - so were backwards crossovers - and I can do those fine now!!
Also going to try REALLY hard and figure out what I'm doing wrong on the Salchow - it's just not clicking for me. I re-read all the tips and have a few ideas to try at next skate which is. . .

TONIGHT!! It's our 20th wedding anniversary and what I really wanted to do most of all was SKATE - so instead of a nice intimate dinner - I opted for "Family Night" at the rink!! I can't wait!! ("A.O.S.S. - how bad do YOU have it??")

Fair(I guess): Monday I got to use the harness for the first time, and I really hate it. LOL. It's so awkward. Anyway we tried double loop and axel and here's a video.. so if anyone wants to help me out.. here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=3VAMHRSwmKg

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I'm having a hard time figuring out how your harness is set up. Does it run overhead in a straight line? If so, the problem on your double loop is the way it is set up in relation to the harness. If the harness is on a straight line, then your coach should only be moving parallel to that line, and needs to stay right with you if you move forward. The loop should be set up so that the RFI mohawk goes to the right of the line and the takeoff happens right as you get back to the line. It looks like you are crossing the line (if there is one).
If your ponytail is getting thwacked, it's because either (a) your coach is not standing in the right spot or doesn't have you lined up correctly under the harness, or (b) your head is moving rather than staying right over the axis of rotation. My coach calls this "instant feedback" LOL!
The axel is easier on the harness because you don't need such a round entrance. If your harness runs on a straight line, do the RFI mohawk to the right of the line and take off as you get back to the line. It looks like you are not continuing to bring your right hip, leg, arm and shoulder around after the first half turn in the air. Someone once suggested imagining sliding down a stripper pole while rotating, straightening your landing leg as you do so. I have to admit, it's a very accurate analogy! When you get it right, you should feel like you are being pulled around backwards in a circle by the outside of your right butt cheek. Have you tried the axel on the floor? It's exactly the same, and I found that landing it on the floor first helped immensely.

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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

Yeah it's a straight line. I was trying to do that, but there's like.. no room at that end.. gah I guess I'll just have to sqeeze it in. Yeah as I did the mohawk
I crossed the line.

Hmmm I don't know.. LOL. not sure what the problem there is.

I've been doing floor axels for a while. Hm.. I don't do the axel from a mohawk, I'm doing it from a standstill... which I don't know how that could possible work because there's no speed.

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Foul: That’s it! I have had it! No more ..... well at least for 10 days. I am off work, off skating, and off housework until July 31 - time to go do my annual 10 day of community service

It feels like I have spent all of July on a plateau (Ok, come on, it might not be very high but a plateau IS a plateau!) Well, ok there was improvement in my uprights pins and I did do something that might one day grow up to be a Toe Loop - but it still feels like a plateau! Hopefully after a week’s enforced “light duty” I can add another move or two - just SOMETHING to show for the summer’s work. **SIGH!**

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

Fair weather:

• Staying way down in the knees on back perim and noticing the difference. Why can't I do that right from the getgo? Must remember next time.
• Trying to do a two foot layback isn't as scary anymore, still feel naseous though
• LFI3 wasn't scraping
• BI3s, feeling great
• I now have a back inside bracket on right foot
  
  *the way I approach the bracket, LFO3, push to RBI edge and pull up to straight line, then do the brackets. Skating them in a straight line for now.
  
  Foul:
• kids playing tag
• good flip/bad flip, landed one at a complete standstill
• forward inside rocker is still a beast
  
  
  

Fair Weather:
Finding the spin spot in my new skates is amazingly simple. Likewise F three turns. Can still do LBO threes, but very, very cautiosly, as it's the LBI edge that has been catching. I think the new skates really will help my threes after I get used to them and unlearn the compensations for the old boots.

Foul:
L blade is still somewhat too sharp on the inside edge, but did get a bit better today. Still cannot do F or B snowplow stops with confidence on these new blades. Just generally still feeling a lack of confidence. Part of it is that I haven't been able to give the new skates a good workout because I caught a cold right before I got them, and then had a friend visiting from CO, who ran me ragged, so I dragged through today's practice having to force myself to do anything.

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Oh, okay, in that case, there's even less margin for error when you set it up for the harness. Anyway, don't discount the harness quite yet. Give your coach a chance to figure out how to get your pattern and her timing right, since that looks like a major portion of the problem.

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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

Foul -

Lesson today -- I usually work with dance coach on moves but asked freestyle coach to help me with intro steps to back peremiter crossovers - since I have trouble with the 3 turn....which turned into having to work on the crossovers....I can't get right into the crossovers after the 3 turn because I don't shift my weight soon enough to the foot I put down and turns out I don't ever put enough weight on that outside edge in the crossover so we had to work on those with me picking up my foot so I have to put weight on it. I didn't like it but it is a good thing for me to work on.

Fair

Then I told her I was ready to work on cross strokes but she said first we will do grapevine swizzles. I remember several months ago she tried to get me to do these and I could no way cross my feet but now I can and uncross them. It's easier for me to cross the left over right, but not impossible to do right over left. PROGRESS! YAY!

Power class. Coach is way too easy on us. The girls slacking is rubbing off on me - plus I'm still a little shy about getting run over and falling so there wasn't much power in my stroking - especially backward I tried to concentrate on getting my weight over my foot. I did have the brilliant idea that when we were doing crossovers around the circle, I did not need to be in the same circle as two novice teenagers...much safer off by myself.

She had the girls do power pulls down the rink and told me to do cross strokes. I suggested the twizzle grapevines and then started off while the girls whined and argued - I need the head start. Guess she thought the grapevine twizzles were a good idea because then she had us all do them only crossing our arms as well and had them do them backwards coming back. I didn't feel ready for backward.

When they did brackets she had me do them two footed which wasn't so good-I wasn't able to move much that way.

Oh and I gave my coach "Master of the House" from Les Miz to edit - I'm going to do an artistic to it. Maybe not the most original but I like it.

j

I did it a couple of years ago - great fun, and I got to black out a front tooth! And lovely "designer stubble"..... I'm sure I have a photo or two....

and

only you can't see it very well as it's not a close-up.

I don't know why the images don't show - they did when I put them in. You'll have to click on them.... why does the [IMG] code not work, do any of the moderators know?

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

Fair: Loop was fantastic. Coach worked me yesterday on the left mohawk, and I used the same edge technique for the left inside 3 turn, and it was absollutely easy and wonderful, the best it has ever felt!

Foul: My energy level was still very low, so I did not get as much done in practice as I wanted to. Oh well, at least most of the pain is gone.

Heh. thanks for the make up ideas. Even my coach said "Oh I've done lots of numbers to that" ...hopefully it's been out of fashion for long enough it won't make everyone too tired to see another version. Now I understand why everyone wants to skate to "Carmen" and other overused music.

j

Fair: I passed Skate UK Level 6!! And my parents finally agreed to get me a private coach after the summer holidays . Plus I got 2 1/2 rotations on my (admittedly very dodgy lol) one foot spin.

Fair weather:

• Double sals are getting more consistent.
• Axels have been feeling very good for about a month now.
• Back camel entry on combination spin is getting more consistent.
• Managed to complete both end patterns of the evil quick rocker-choctaw novice MIF sequence going the *BAD* way (I'm still in shock!)

Foul:

• Endurance. Have been working on my first Gold-length program, and it's HARD.
• I. Hate. The. European. Waltz. (Is it me, or is the American easier?)
• Left ankle has been sore and stiff for no apparent reason for 2 weeks now. I don't remember injuring it at all. Putting weight on it is not a problem--it's walking and anything involving pointing the toe. Skating is only minimally affected due to the stiff boot, but should I be concerned?

It's certainly foul weather at the moment - violent thunderstorm going on!

Fair weather: Very quiet session. Worked on an exercise with Husband that showed up a lot of our issues about speed/edges/weight change.

Foul: We forgot Husband hadn't yet done twizzles on his new blades, and they have vanished!

When I do the version of the 5-step Mohawk sequence that I learnt, I find it really hard to step to forwards after the free leg is held behind, without scraping my toe. The way I do it - probably not the way it is done in the USFSA exercise, but the way I learnt it in France - is LBI/RBI Mohawk, LBO with free leg held behind, RFO, LFI slide chassé and then repeat on the other foot. But I do scrape so....

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

Went skating Wednesday night - our family took a "field trip" to the Charleston Ice Palace (hadn't been there before) . . . mmmmmm . . . it was awesome!! The condition of the ice was great and they even resurfaced it mid-session . . . I'm not used to that!!

Fair

Everything!!! the ice was blissfully smooth and so much fun to skate on - everything was easier to do - I had fun with spins for a bit and then worked some on 3's and Mohawks just for the heck of it - then I pulled DS over and got him to help me with Salchows . . . and darned if I didn't finally get the feel of it and land a few!! I think I tend to collapse somewhat after the 3 turn and lose the check, I tried to keep a really hard straight check and keep tension on the skating leg, and I actually ended up having something to jump out of instead of just spinning around. It was pretty cool. (and I know I did them right, cause DS does NOT hesitate to tell me when I just spin through it and don't leave the ice!)

The forward spin is great, I'm finally getting the hang of getting into it and being relaxed enough to just stay in a good upright position and waiting for it to end instead of praying to get through 3 revolutions and check out, without falling over first . . . I'm actually having fun with spins now . . . who'd a thunk it??

Also got DS to show me a piece of neat footwork that I have been coveting since his coach taught it to him last skate camp - I'm not sure exactly what it is called but we call it mohawk/cross/mohawk/cross - starts with a right to left Mohawk, a back crossover, step into a left to right Mohawk, then another back crossover, and so forth. Or something like that. It really looks very cool when he does it!!

Foul

Well, not terribly foul, but I sure wish DS wasn't so self-conscious of his skating . . . if I could jump like he could, I'd sure be out there showing off!! Instead, he does something and then furtively looks around . . .
He did get off a few nice flips and loops . . . and I also saw a pretty decent sit spin at one point (this spin has really been his nemesis - he hurt his knee when he first started working on these, so he kind of has a negative feeling about it).


But overall, such a FUN skate!! I waited til the very last second of public skate to savor the moment!

Fair - Came to the rink early to get dd fitted for new skates and decided to do a walk on on the Moves class - everyone was working on something different - got a few helpful tips- keep my feet together rather than my knees when it comes to 3 turns and lock my knees more for the back edges. I did one side of mohawks pretty decently and then just chickened out for the second side.

Dance lesson - coach was THRILLED when she saw I could do REAL progressives. We reviewed the Rhythm Blues with real progressives- that was a nice choice being that the progressives are all the same way - my better side though I am working both sides. Even though I've passed that dance, I may compete it again and am hoping real progressives (around here you see mostly crossovers at this level) will trump cross behinds on both feet.

Reviewed the Swing - I got the mohawk for the entry but it is just too fast during the dance. Especially since she wanted me to concentrated on pushing more and getting more edge - I did just that and when it came time for mohawk - it was not happening.

Leaving for a church youth trip to do hurrricane clean up in Louisiana tomorrow for a week so I will be off the ice for a week. :-(

j