Not really. The only way it's good is if you can demonstrate sufficient control to change edge during the spin at will. If you are trying to do a backspin and are on the FI edge, you don't get full credit.

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I decided to show up at today's public session (I've not been going to it since most homeschooler's have been using it as a reason to bail on school or for gym credit). And I wanted to work hard on some stuff, but one of the skating club teens was there...hanging around me so it sort of was a hardly working session. Oh well.

Working Hard: did manage to hit the spins from a t-stop. Managed a few with looooong entrances but not doing a circle. That is really hard! I'm popping up too soon. Cheated at the end of the session and did 3 scratch spins and they were centered. I was in one and I saw a kid skate really close but I did not bail and he did not collide with me!

Hardly Working: Jump combo was weak but I will cut myself some slack. Did manage to do all in combo without forgetting the steps!

Towards the end of the session, tried 2 loops. They were actually pretty close but no cookie.

I was very tired by the end of the session-forgot to pack a sandwich and the lunch I managed to buy locally wasn't enough for me!

There were a lot of homeschoolers there so it really was difficult to get anything done, without worrying about hitting anyone!!! (accidentally, I mean!)

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

Oh, okay, got it, LOL! Actually, if you do a backspin from a RFI3-turn and do two turns on the inside edge and two turns on the outside edge, then you won't have a level 3 but you will have a level 2! So keep doing both, LOL!

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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

Do you mean a T-push? I can't imagine a spin from a T-stop.
I'm working on the T-push entrance also, but my biggest problem is letting the free leg get too far out and too high so it pulls me off center before I've really begun the spin. Oh yeah, I also get too much momentum to control at this point. Congrats on not getting freaked by the kid!

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Working Hard This week the program went much better than last (when I left in tears). Coach says its at a point where I could perform it and not look like a complete fool, but if I want to perform it well- I need to work on a lot. And I need to skate more to the music and less with music in the background, but hey- it's only the second lesson I've done it- and I never practiced on ice in between. The biggest problem is spacing on the ice. I keep running into the show curtain. Since right now the curtain is an invisible line, I imagine I will be less likely to do so when there is a real curtain.

Did ALL- yes ALL- my 3 turns today. Did awesome BO and finally got some BI.
Also learned brackets today. I can do one. Then I get stuck.

Hardly Working Had a very very heavy snowplow sam student who nearly knocked me down today. Normally I will only hold onto one hand and help them march on a first lesson, and only help pick them up after a couple of tries that is slowing down the class, but only assist. This kid couldn't even "stand like a statue" for more than a few seconds, and would lunge right towards me. He was big enough to nearly knock me over doing this. Then he couldn't set a hand down onto the ice to help him stand up, so he wasn't ever able to be able to do it on his own. The fact that he would flail because he though it was funny did not help my back. After a few times, I ended up kneeling on the ice to pick him up, because there was no way I could do it standing without using my back or falling over. I did tell his parents next time figure skates- I wish they wouldn't rent hockey skates to snowplow 1 kids- it is never a good thing.

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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)

Working Hard:
-Flip jump!! Didn't land any on one foot for my lesson (of course ), but I did finally get the crossed-leg motion going. I did one flip where I'd actually crossed my legs so tightly that I felt like I was doing a double (and then I thought - "Wow! I've finally crossed my legs! This is great. Wow, this jump is big!" - and then I promptly tripped myself on the landing and scraped up my right boot because I forgot to uncross my legs).
-Loop jump from long edge is getting ever so closer to working.
-Change foot spin. I haven't tried one of these since getting my backspin consistent. They're much easier when you can actually backspin!
-Back cross rolls are slowly improving.

Hardly Working:
-Back 3-turns - all of them! Can't seem to make myself stand up straight when I turn.

Hey Rusty--

Sounds like you're really getting into the ADULT competition spirit. I hope you had fun, but didn't party toooooo hard... after all, you have a program to perform!

Best wishes!

Thin-Ice

Hardly working
My dances are lousy. All of them.
Okay, so last night's hard ice did make it more difficult to hold edges, but really that's no excuse. I don't practise them enough - then I complain 'I'm rubbish at dance!'

Working hard
Surprisingly, most other stuff has been better than usual:

-back threes: I now have a reasonable RBO three and seem to be on the way to a reasonable RBI one...
-backspin has got better again (even though it's still not very good)
-Loops and loop-loop combinations starting to get a little more height
-Spins: Fingers crossed this is a good spinning week. Camel is quite consistent, sit is sitting, managed a couple of laybacks with about 3 revs, and last night came out with a camel-sit-cross-layback - CENTRED!!
I nearly photographed the tracing. Big fluke, but felt great all the same.
-Flip: I hardly dare say this because this jump has been the bane of my life for nearly 10 months...but recently it seems to have progressed from 'total crap' to 'not quite so crap', and it was the best I've ever done it last night.

Fingers crossed that this 'good skating vibe' lasts - and holds out for 7am tomorrow morning for my programme lesson.......

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

Mythical - My contracted ice is Mondays and Fridays but I was going to do walk on this morning since I haven't skated since Sat. 4:30 am the alarm goes off. I turned it off and went back to sleep.

6 am - daughter who has 5:45 am lesson calls "Mom, I forgot my lesson wasn't at 6:15" (her other lesson is a 6:15)

Must be because she's so spoiled and indulged. (ooh- just can't resist the sarcasm..)

j

Working Hard:
Back spins - still scratching with the toe pick, but at least I still have a good entrance. Figured out the exit problem - not checking out the arms early enough - I wait until after the foot uncrosses and pulls out; has to be at the same time in one motion.

Loop jumps - started from scratch since I never learned the RFI3 entry. That's a tough entry, but the skill set is great. My arm checks are okay, along with my knee bend, but it's very difficult to keep that free foot crossed in front through the whole jump. (One change: have to DO IT SLOWLY because I was getting too much distance. LOL)

Did a bunch on the wall, but I was comfortable enough to step away later on and actually got a "good!" from the coach.

Other spins at the end were traveling. Still favoring that shoulder, I guess.

Hardly Working:
Still starting each lesson with fwd/bckwd Prelim crossover circles that give me arch cramps. See what happens when you DON'T get in the habit of pointing your toes? LOL Best foward ones seem to be when my underpush rolls off the toepick with a 'flick.' Back ones were a comedy routine this morning: when I change circles, I either do the landing position right or I turn my head right. Never shall the twain meet. HAHAHA

Rule of Ten: Tango stops better; have to add LBO3 and back double threes to the list.

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Hardly working: Tried to run through our dances, but somehow the ice was very busy and we kept nearly running into people. The elites were working on choreography - I wish I knew how they could do things without one of them saying to the other, "What did you do? Which foot were you on? Which edge were you on?" which is what seems to happen when we try. Even such a simple thing as finishing off the Swing Dance tidily.... Do We understand "LFO, RFO, LFI slide chassé with arm beautifully extended and smile at the judges?" We do not! Grrrr.

Working hard: However, we are beginning to cover more ice during our warm-up exercises, which is something I really want to shoot for now, and I've asked our coach to make sure we do - he usually makes us do one or two exercises before we start working on any given dance. We can do four pushes easily when in Open Kilian hold, so why can't we in any other hold?

Spent a lot of time in my lesson working on bracket-3-brackets, mostly on 2 feet, as he wants to get the "twist" in my waist going. I am not complaining - I still need to lose another inch off of it!

Also did forward accelerating cross-rolls ("Good, but don't hunch your shoulders when you accelerate"), changes of edge ("A bit diagonal!") and the extended edges exercise from level 3 ("No, not quite passable - you need to take the edge out towards the centre more as you're finishing it too close to the barrier, and your forward runs are horrible!").

Nevertheless, it was a good lesson.

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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!

Working!: Learned something about a good toeloop->
the toe pick is with the inside edge of the rake, not the top (eg for a FLip) and you really reach out a little to the side (coach said 7:00). I was toe down and straight back and couldn't get any draw, but a little to the side and (contrary to what I imagined) I could really sit back on it and draw around on it much more!
Lyle

Do you mean accelerating speed or accelerating frequency of strokes? Or maybe both? Sounds interesting.

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Both - you start with holding each edge quite a long time - I usually count 4 beats, and then gradually reduce the number of beats until you are just doing one-beat edges, and your speed does increase - you have to be careful to turn before you crash into the end barrier!

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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!

It sounds like fun, but I would have to be really on to do them one beat each! That's Paso Doble timing. Are there any dances skated at less than 100 beats per minute? I don't remember. I'll give it a try tomorrow.

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I didn't realize there WAS anything GOOD about toeloops!!!

My problem has been bending my leg before I pick in; so the "fix" (or punishment depending on your point of view) has been to approach it with lots of speed. My coach has a very interesting way of doing things that scare the he!! out of me!!! (and yes, I do them!)

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

Working hard:
Lutz-toeloop-loop and loop-loop combo: getting stronger. Need to relax and not overpick the lutz, which helps maintain even speed between jumps.

Back XOs: sitting deeper, getting smoother without losing speed. Left over right (weak side) slowly getting stronger. Need to work on keeping body weight over skating leg. Need to work on stamina/leg strength (gym).

Camel-attitude: stronger, mostly. Need to dig into LFO entrance. Need to arch and look left - coach says it should engage whole back. Ow!

Hardly working:
Layback: cannot find sweet spot. Can't get hips forward. Feel dorky.

Axel: can get around 1x, but not more. Pike in the air out of fear; can't pull in arms tightly. Need crash pads/gear (fat doesn't seem to help cushion enough, sadly).

Back 3 patterns: seriously lame. RBO 3-turn is skiddy, scary, sketchy. Can only practice 15 mins. when public session starts. Must practice then - but ice is so clean, I want to jump instead. No self-discipline.

Ice time: some extremely rude homeschoolers have discovered our lovely public session. The kids are just defiant and drive the nice (older) skate guard up the wall. We need a tougher monitor. Very disappointing - and dangerous. Manager is really nice, so perhaps he'll intervene soon...

Hardly working: Reply@Team Arthritis: No wonder then my toeloop isn't working (well, it is working, just not as the second jump in any combination). I'm trying to do the other-leg version of the flip. BTW, I got told to get off the ice for the first time in my life by our group lessons coach! I was discussing our competition programmes with 2 other girls, but on ice. Our coach also yelled at a girl who was taking a rest at the boarding though, so I'm guessing she just wasn't in a good mood. Though she's right, ice is too expensive to waste. Still.

Working hard: My flip is officially back & better than he was before the anckle injury. Didn't try any lutzes in the past few weeks, I don't think I'll be working on them this season anymore, I'll be practicing for the test and the competition and I don't need the lutz for either of them. Besides we have so little space on the ice now and the only time I could practice it is during the free half hour in which everybody practices their programme with mp3 players on, so it's plain dangerous to practice the lutz in the middle of all that chaos.
Also, I GET TO TEST! You needed to score 12 points out of possible 14 on "slangenboog" (changing of edges at speed on 1 leg), waltz, toeloop, salchow, falling leaf, crossrolls and 1-foot spin. I had one of the worst lessons ever (slipped on the changing of edges and barely kept the landing edge on the salchow and toeloop, I think my skate wasn't on properly) but I had 12 points so I get to test!

yeh I was doing that too because I just couldn't see how I could draw the free leg around on the ice if I wasn't picking across behind myself. Turns out that once again coach was right - pick a little to the side seems to give the free skate a more steady path to get into follow so you can get that swooping arc set up.

Oh and congratulations - getting thrown off the ice means coach is taking your skating seriously!

LOL coach once asked me why I put on extra pads for our lesson. I just raised one eyebrow and she blushed

But what's wrong with bending the free leg a little before you pick? My coach has this TLoop warmup where you do 1/2 rev LBI pivot, the switch into RBO pivot, sit on the L pick and then jump! Boy I find that one tough but helps me commit my weight to the picking foot.
Lyle

Hardly Working:
My hips.

I decided to try a freestyle session this morning, and ended up quiting early after doing barely anything thanks to too much pain from my hip and glute.

I kind-of knew that it wasn't going to be a good skate from the fact that I felt off-balance even before I got onto the ice!

Couldn't even do a mohawk without feeling a twinge, and my balance was completely crud so even stroking was too toepicky (on my injured hip leg) or waaaaay to far back on the blade (on my glute side). I'm hoping those were the culprits!

So i stuck to 3-turns and crossovers and basically getting in everyone's way...

But:

Working Hard: It still felt nice to be back out onto the ice. And, since I forgot my work clothes, it was good that I left early-- because I lost an hour this morning driving home and changing!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

"Slangenboog"!! I love it! I am never ever going to call them "edge pulls" again. Thanks, Sessy!

(See Sessy's post @ 7:46 a.m. to see the context...)

Blues is 88, which would make Rhythm Blues about the same. Foxtrot & 10-Fox are around 100. Swing Dance might be slow-ish too.

As for me....
Working Hard: Waltz for AN is coming along very nicely, I'm loving having such a completely different thing to work on. I've been doing every bracket/3/bracket exercise I can dream up to try & help get through that section of the footwork. The rest has improved though & I'm starting to get a *little* more speed through it all. And look up! And not be on my toe picks all the time! And do *something* with my arms! And....and....and...

One thing I've really gleaned from watching all the adult sectionals videos is what a huge difference it makes if you just *extend* your free leg all the time! A bent free leg makes you look very tentative. So I've been really focusing on that everywhere, not just the easy places.

Hardly Working: Found out my part time job is likely going to vanish in a few months. The biggest thing about that is it leaves me without health insurance, so I'm going to have to scramble to see what I can come up with. Meanwhile, need to start conserving money, so will have to drop to one 1/2 hour lesson a week, boo hoo! I hope I can at least keep that!

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!

Okay let me clarify why I'm so hyper. I had a dream last night, that the ice rink in Breda (a neighbouring town, 45 minutes by public transportation from where I live - I've got a free travel card for public transport because I'm a student) decided to stay open for the summer. Now, a few weeks ago I had a dream in which I got out of Europe on summer holiday but couldn't seem to find my passport to get back into Europe and it turned out my passport was only valid through july 14th while we were planning on going away for the entire month of july. So I decided - what if this dream is true too? And I checked the website.

THEY'RE STAYING OPEN! Well not for the entire summer, but till april 14th. And considering I have to test on april 13th and compete that day too, it really helps if I can train someplace more than once a week like currently.

WOW!

I mean it did grow busyer at the rinks with this whole ice dancing with the stars and stars dancing on ice figure skating shows, but these are the first visible effects! Both our rinks added over a month to their usual opening times.

This is just FABULOUS! Whee!

Working Hard:
I tried Mrs Redboots' accelerating cross roll exercise today, and found that much to my surprise, the more difficult ones are the longer ones! I was able to do it, and really enjoyed it. I am getting across the rink doing the alternating FO threes on the line! I'm getting two in a row of the FI threes on the line! Skiing seems to be the magic I needed for the F power pulls. If I just stop and remember skiing downhill with short, quick, rhythmic turns, the F pulls feel pretty good! Got a couple of decent 1 foot spins from T push, and more from pivot. The discussion of cheating on the back spin has me wanting to do them, so I tried today, by the wall, just to see where I should be balancing on the blade. Not sure if I'm ready to ask coach to start me on them yet. I'm having fun with consecutive FI/BO Mohawks in a circle. Turn, step, turn, step, etc. Now if I could just do an entire hockey circle of them without getting dizzy, it might look like something.

Hardly Working:
That darned little flip of the blade before pushing forward in the alternating FO threes ! It really does make a difference in being prepared for the next turn, and it is giving me fits. I really hate having to deal with this in my lesson, but that's what I'm going to be doing tomorrow.

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Working hard:

• Loops are there, well under certain circumstances.
• Flip was there too... under certain circumstances too. (Yes, my secondary coach knows what those circumstances are too!)

Hardly Working:

Too bad for me, primary coach wants me to go OUTSIDE of the bounds of those circumstances!!! Loops I did get them landed. But flips... I could land them before and RIGHT AFTER my lesson... but NOT DURING!!! GRRRR!!!!

REALLY WORKIN' IT!!!

• Primary coach is playing "I wonder if she can..." today with what looks like it's gonna be my straightline footwork. Oy vei! There were some that will take some practice to finally get the flow down and there some where I just can't do them well at all but that's just enough excuse for primary coach to say "It's not that bad! Let's put it in there! Just practice it this week!!!"
• Primary coach wanted me to demonstrate that I can land and glide on a RBO edge after a jump with flow by doing waltz 3's. Needless to say, I thought he meant right after the loop landing. But the good part is... he thought it was a good idea to put it right there into my program b/c it had a lot of flow and it's not just straight forward stroking to my footwork (plus the Gold guy saw it and said "Oooooh, I LOVE IT!!! Leave it in there!!!" )
• Primary coach's comment when he had me do forward stroking was "What went on in your head that made you skate faster AFTER passing your Bronze Moves test or even your Bronze FS test! Did you have an EPIPHANY!?!?!" (Ummm... you ever tried having your secondary coach yellin' at you to "HAUL @$$?!?!?!" It's now SCREAMING in my head now!!! )

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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!!!