Storms

Freshly sharpened blades felt very keen so i was struggling to stop at all. Kept catching edges left, right and centre.

Camel and sit spin were mostly missing due to the re-grind - it feels like the bottom pick has been shaved back a bit and it feels like it's much further away now so i couldn't hook the spins int eh same way as normal. and i couldn't even begin to try the footwork we'd started workgin on last week.

Flowers

Edges were gripping much better and despite taking a little while to find the right spot all forward and backward three turns were working well.

Did some great upright spins both crossed and uncrossed.

Losing some of the bottom pick meant that it made it more difficult to engage it on a backspin so I actually managed to get it to spin for a rev or two.

Ant

Flowers - Coach is happy with my program runthrough, she says I'm ready. She asked to see my loop, which isn't in the program so she hasn't seen it in a while, and announced it was much better.

Storms - still nervous, wishing for more rehearsal time. I velcro'd my raincoat, including the belt, so I can escape from it rapidly, but it's still a sketchy thing to get back into the program in time to land the first jump where the music wants it.

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It's all about the dress!

STORMS:
I injured my right shoulder in dance for the upcoming freshman orientation. And my right hamstrings have been injured again. Last time it took a few months to heal.

I can land flip, I can land lutz, but the way I do them is very weird. I don't take off on one foot only, but two foot. Coach is working on my flip technique which resulted in me getting very hard falls and disliking STUPID TOE JUMPS.

I can't do spirals with the right leg on the ice because I'll hurt my hams. I can't pull my right leg up for the Y spiral. I can't do a middle split anymore. ouch.

FLOWERS SPICES AND EVERYTHING NICE:
Coach said loop improved a lot from the last time he saw. All he did was to fix my arms, and boy, they need some serious fixing.

I BEGGED him to give up on flip and I'll work on it my own, and he worked on waltz-backspin! Stationary single-legged waltz was different from the normal entrance. He said waltz-backspin was nice!

Gosh. What's with my extremes?

Scratch was awesomely great, many revolutions, good centering, and good open position. Backspin was good, so was sit. Camel is still BLAH. spinning but terrible position.

HAVE FUN AND SUCCESSES WITH EVERYONE'S SKATING!

Flowers: Got to skate a second time this week, as had a day's annual leave that had to be used by the end of this month.

Storms: Both patch and public session busier than I like. Between making sure I keep out of everyone's way on patch, and trying not to get taken out by people not paying attention on the public, my skating was very hesitant.

Limp Flowers: My husband is doing his best to keep my single skating going whilst I'm only able to have dance lessons. So he's trying to teach me the beginnings of a proper spin entry, with amusingly wayward results, as I can't seem to hold an inside edge for more than two seconds when coming out of a back crossover, but I'm enjoying trying - which is good coming from someone notoriously spin-challenged. Three (waltz) jumps still no more than hops - the "you're going to hurt yourself" bit of my brain is too firmly in control when it comes to jumping, but I'm still trying.

As for dance, he randomly decided to teach me the steps to the Fiesta Tango - which I'm sure would be great if there wasn't a mohawk and back runs in it... I did eventually manage to turn to backwards, but only by coming to a complete halt first and not being in hold! Don't think I'll be getting that dance in a hurry!

Also did videoing duty for my husband and his competition partner - really looking forward to seeing them compete. But we need to get a move on and sort his costume! Time is marching on.

Storms:
Did not feel half so good today for my lesson as I did yesterday. Felt just a bit of vertigo and did not recognize it as I've rarely felt it, so decided to spin. Big mistake. Got maybe 4 revs and was so dizzy on exit that I nearly fell and had to stand completely still with legs apart to stay upright. DH saw and came over to ask if I was alright. The vertigo stayed with me most of the way thru my lesson. Since I don't have any stamina yet, we worked on simple FO and FI edges trying to improve my pushing, which was not helped by seriously dull blades. I'm hoping to get them sharpened tomorrow. Also worked on holding arms higher and really stretching through the chest. I'm inspired by worlds and want to look better. Uh Oh - just remembered reading on my antibiotic directions that they could cause vertigo. Five days to go.

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Flowers: I watched Men's free all last night until about 1 am and got to see Evan win gold.

Storms: I decided I was too tired to skate this morning and had to skate on afternoon ice instead. It was much busier, but I still managed to get a decent amount done.

Flowers: I did my program twice (once fully and once with just some parts). The good part is that I wasn't that winded after the first run-thru and know what I need to work on. The bad part is that it was a very messy run-thru and was nowhere near polished.

Storms: I agreed to help out with the test session on Sunday, from 7:30 to 10:30 am before church. I have no clue how I am going to get up for it.

Flowers: Team Bonding! We had a posters/bday party today, our show is next weekend, and we are having an after party. Super excited.

Storms: Didn't skate yesterday as had a bad sinus headache. Today, bottled the lift first time of asking. Still having trouble with Willow Waltz.

Flowers: Did good runthrough of Free Dance to music, INCLUDING both the moves we've had falls on recently - didn't even bottle the lift, although we went into it at a snail's pace! Reckon we will do it at Bracknell, although it won't really be ready.

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

STORMS: Went to the afternoon public skate, which I thought would be relatively free of kids. For the most part i was right, but they HAD SHOW PRACTICE ON PUBLIC ICE!!!! There were about 20 kids zooming through people (there were about 15 people there for public skating) and I saw several near-collisions! Talk about careless!

One little girl had the audacity to tell one of the ladies to "MOVE" as the lady was watching her little girls skate...I told the little girl to mind her own business, that it was a public session and the lady PAID for her ice.

There were other things going on. I'll be writing a letter as it was NOT RIGHT.

On the other hand, I did manage to get some of my own skating in and have a somewhat productive session.

FLOWERS: I "graduated" from physical therapy today, which means my continued recovery is now completely in my own hands (now that's really scary!) and I still have a lot to do! Although I ranked myself as 95% recovered compared to before the therapy, I am actually at 150%....almost to my pre-injury stage. I just have to deal with some lumbar disc degeneration but that's another story.

My other rink is closed for the season, so now I'm back at my "home" rink. I have one more competition and that is next saturday (April 4th). Then my coach, I believe, will come over here to teach. (Actually, I hope that's the case, since this rink is going to be open until June 14th).

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

Spring Storms (Cause I don't know if it's good or bad)
First lesson since I got back on the ice. I'm much improved on my push from a T position for my figures so I can now make it around the 8 on a single push from each side. On the other hand I'm on the flats
Conversation while I'm skating edges-imagine two elderly women yelling back and forth at each other over some g**awful rock song.
Coach: Put yourself to skate on zee pinkee!
Me: I am on the pinkie! If I'm more on the pinkie I'll fall over!
Coach: You're still on the flat, don't get so much in zee knee.
Me: I'm too deep in the knee! No skater's ever heard that before!

Much adjusting of knee and other stuff. I now have a good T-push AND I'm back on my edges.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Storm:

Got stuck in morning commute. I have a feeling also that there was a local memorial (4 cops got shot and killed and there was a HUGE memorial in Oakland) that caused a HUGE back up coming in. Of course, doesn't explain why the commuity college and state university aren't crowded on Mondays but are mobbed on Fridays (and both are in downtown SF.)

By the time I got to the rink, I only had enough time to essentially warm up... no time to skate. Decided to just go and pay my choreographer and leave.

Spring Flowers:
Got to meet SkateGuard for lunch. She is working locally here for a few months. Glad to finally meet her after all these years!!!

I decided to go to what kander affectionately dubbed as the "Wacko rink" since I'm in the area and have my skate clothes on and all. Not my home rink, but better than no ice right?

Storm:
WRONG!!! The rink is just weird. It's not balanced in certain spots and the ice wasn't smooth even though hardly anyone was on the ice when it opened and it was only opened for an hour. The ice felt grainy too. Couldn't land any jumps other than sal, toe loop and waltz and just BARELY too! Just not a great ice to jump...VERY weird!!! Not sure I want to go back again to skate there.

Flowers:
Will get a good workout Sat. (in a few minutes! ) and REST SUNDAY so I can watch a local comp 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!!!

Spring Flowers Finished my program today for my Bronze Test. I love it to pieces, and it fits the music perfectly.

Equinoctial storms But I can't actually do it. My footwork doesn't cover enough ice, my entrance to the salchow is too fast, etc

And why is it snowing?

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

SPRING FLOWERS DAISIES AND BUNNIES

I love today's practice. I was pleasantly surprised that the rink was rather empty for a SUNDAY! The ice was pretty nice too. Much better than Friday afternoons.

Loop was all great. Whether from 3 turns, double 3s, mohawk, it's all great. Good distance and loop-loop has good distance and were rotated too. I can almost assume they are higher.

Flip- better distance, and somehow, better feeling. Sometimes, the pick is a little behind.
|
|
(
..'

and not
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( .

or worst
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( '

That's the tracings on the ice for flip. Normallly it's the second one. I get more of the last than the first tracings too. So having the tap slightly behind is really great today.

Sit spin was more controllable today, and backspin felt faster. I still can't get up all the time from sit, but I can go lower and continue spinning... Still not 6 yet. Getting closer...

STORMY SKIES
I got caught in the rain as I'm going home.

I scraped my elbow because i landed my waltzjump for Waltz-backspin too towards the end of the blade. Fell, obviously.

Off-ice was fine, but I CAN'T GET MORE THAN ONE REVOLUTION! Does it take core muscles? Arm muscles? Anyone? Help?

I'm flutzing too. But coach only taught lutz once, and I'm not very confident of jumping and picking, so... hopefully it's not permanent...

Should have exercised more often...

Having the take-off edge come around in front of the flip usually means you are swinging around too much on the take-off and pre-rotating the upper body. Focus on checking the 3turn and keeping the whole jump nice and straight rather than swingy and curvy.

Equinoctial Storms
-Skated on Saturday after not skating since Tuesday (I usually skate quite a bit), and I felt really off at first. 2toes were especially wonky, and I fell on one right in front of Mirai Nagasu, practically under her feet.
-2axels continue to drive me insane.

Spring Flowers
-Once I got my feet under me, 2flip and 2lutzes were, by far, the biggest they've ever been.
-Change edge back camels are really, really coming along! I managed to do a few flying camels that changed to a FI edge, then pulled into a donut (and changed to a BO edge again), then pulled up into a catch-foot.
-Flying sits were better too. I've been avoiding them since I pulled my right hip flexor, but I was feeling good, decided to do some, and while they weren't spectacular, they were definitely decent.

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Youtube Videos

storms......

I've been having flashback freakouts and thinking OMG-what if my competition is on OLY Ice?????? WTF do I do?????


I'm trying to stay calm but it's not working to well, plus, no coach contact till saturday (day of competition) cause my lesson rink is closed already.

man, i hate feeling like this!!!!!!

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

Storms
I missed my skating practices and lessons all week. I skated for an hour and 15 minutes last Sunday, then an hour and fifteen minutes today, but missed two lessons and 3 practices in-between.

Flowers
But it's all because I spent the week volunteering on practice ice at the World Championships! I think it's the most fun I've had in my whole life!

Flower buds
Inspired by an unusual and beautiful axel setup I saw at Worlds this week, I spent the better part of an hour working on it today. It's tricky, but it will be a perfect solution to the transition problem I'm dealing with in my program, so I've decided to put it in and just trust that I'll get it if I just keep practicing it.

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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