Had lesson this morning, and at least I wasn't half asleep...

Nice & Straight:
Today was one of the rare occassions where my coach wanted to see my spins. He confirmed that he could see the change-edge in the combination spin (back camel - back upright change edge - bla bla bla). Did one decent layback + haircutter - the one and only attempt at the layback today!

Bent & Twisted:
I am doing something really strange on the Salchow... On the single, coach tells me my R shoulder is too high. So I adjust... then on the double, he tells me I'm dropping my R shoulder! I did land a few eventually, but they still don't feel right.

Well, this is my last lesson before my coach goes away for 3 months...

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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Well this was yesterday, but Isince I was out of practice all last week, I considered this to be a new week of practice and posted here.

Nice and Straight
Finally got some videos of me skating- last time I did this was 4 months ago. I'm pleased to report I leave the ice when I jump, but only barely. I'd love some feedback if you'd like to watch the videos. (The spin from T position is old, the rest are new)
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Skittl1321

Bent & Twisted My waltz 8 yesterday was horrible! And I wasn't able to do good crossovers- I'm blaming that on jeans, but it's a bad excuse. (I was in jeans because I was going shopping immediatly after DH videoed).

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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)

Nice & Straight: I forgot to reset my alarm last night for a skating day (4 a.m.) and woke up at 4:08 (gotta love that built-in clock!).

Seriously Twisted: OMFG I was TIRED this morning, dead, beat, wiped, sleepy.

Nice & Straight: The ice was empty when I arrived so I did an abbreviated warm-up, mostly stretching. Surprisingly, I was getting 3/4 of a revolution on the off-ice 2-foot jumps - that's better than previous!

Seriously Twisted: I hit the ice early (6:45) and found I was really weak and wobbly on EVERYTHING .... pretty much everything that's less than a year old was down the tubes :-(

Nice & Straight: Since everything was in the toilet, I decided to move over to the boards and just try "rotations" - getting the one-foot balance for 3-turns and spins. My goodness! I found the "sweet spot" and actually started hitting a good axis. I was getting one and a half rotations (1-footed) with good rotational speed and almost descent form before each spin fell apart. Considering how absolutely drained I felt this morning, I am mightily impressed with what happened with the spins.

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

Seriously Twisted: The zamboni broke, so the ice had not been zammed since last night. Lots of lumps, and sticky ice.

Nice & Straight: At least we had ice and they let us skate - after waking up at 5 am in the morning, it was worth it! Change foot spins were good, and so were salchows.

Good job!! As you feel more confident and secure on your waltz jump, you can focus on using your arms to help you on takeoff. Look at any video of an axel takeoff and you'll see that the arms come down and back as the skater pushes out onto the takeoff edge, then they come up and forward as the skater starts to take off. For a waltz jump, once you have left the ice, you can just hold them out in front of you, slightly rounded.
For both the waltz jump and salchow, you'll find that you get more spring if you bend your takeoff knee deeply just before takeoff and then really point your takeoff toes hard as you leave the ice.
For the salchow, you can also give yourself a bigger and more controlled jump by checking the 3-turn exit (i.e.,holding the 3-turn exit edge with your free leg back and your takeoff side arm and shoulder forward) before actually jumping. A longer, less curly 3-turn with a checked exit will allow you to go into the jump with more speed and still have control over your 3-turn exit/takeoff edge.

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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

Nice and straight: Finally decided to have a brief lesson for the first time since I broke/toruqed my right foot. My foot still hurts, mind you, but it was TIME - I got 15 minutes with my primary coach. I find that i actually get more out of 15-minutes with her than I do if we go longer because we just have to get into it... started off correcting forward cross-strokes, counterclockwise forward cross-overs and 5-step mohawks. All fixed now .
Moved on to some dance turns - foxtrot mohawk, killian choctaw, blues choctaw. All fixed now. Then she finished up with my posture on figures - MUST THINK ABOUT CORE! Oooh, that makes the turns easier doesn't it?

Love her.

Twisted: Won't skate until Thursday - have a yoga class tomorrow morning and the group from hell is scheduled to come to the rink on Wednesday, so Thursday morning will be it.

Hopefully will have a lesson with the dance coach this wekend (if I'm not too tired from juding tests and the competition on Saturday...)

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

nice n straight:
landed toeloop clean!!!
landed salchow (heck, I jumped on the salchow! wow.)
landed really good waltz jumps. 2 in a row too!
forward upright spin improving
backward spin getting there to the spinning part...
loop entry starting to work

I have to start picking music for my first program! woo!

twisted:
my feet. from new skates. well - not twisted, but hurting a little. ah well
loop jump. how do you get so much power that you leap up, around, and land on the same foot? hmm.
my camera. it doesn't work in such cold conditions as an ice rink. ARGH!!! i hate it.

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BENT and TWISTED: ->Me! you just described ME! LOL going to gym after work to rehab my inoperable hip injury, my totally worn out knees not to mention my back postop, sigh.

Nice and straight: this is my goal for skating for the next several months - my main focus is go back to basics and just line up the body. As I told my coach:

standing up straight just isn't natural!

Lyle

Nice and Straight:
Jumps and forward crosstrokes and power pulls!

Bent and Twisty:
Today was a awful spin day for me. Will I ever get my spins to where I can pass the Bronze free?

Do any of you feel like you are taking up ice space at your rink during freestyle? Lately I've been feeling like I'm just in the way no matter what I'm doing on the ice or where I'm going. I make every effort to look out for skaters in lessons or doing programs, but hey I've got to practice too!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

YES! That's why I don't skate freestyle. I've skated freestyle twice and both times it was awful (one I even had a lesson on that I pretty much took cold because trying to warm up was so awful. On lesson it wasn't so bad because my coach watched space for me.)

But I just feel like I'm not fast enough to be on freestyle, but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get fast enough to do freestyle because I can't practice speed and power on public sessions.

(And we have relatively uncrowded freestyle with mostly preliminary skaters and a couple juvenile. Occasionally a pair team- and they move FAST!)

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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)

I thought your 'spin from T position' had a very nice position. When you did the wind up, the spin started off very nice, but you let loose instead of getting into the same position as the other spin.

I'm sure you'll get it soon enough!

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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I used to, when I was skating with "the general population" of youngsters. Early last winter I moved to the "competitive training centre" and started skating with other serious competitors (mostly under 20) and was very pleased how well I was received despite my "beginner" status and rudimentary skills. There is a "mutual recognition" and respect among competitors that I never saw at other rinks/sessions. It is quite pleasing to see Gold level competitors clear the ice for an old beginner working on a Nationals program (and to applaud the effort!). I have to say that everybody watches out for everybody else - everybody knows a fall or collision could put an end to one or more competitive "careers". Now I am so SPOILED by this "professional atmosphere" that I am really loathe to return to "normal" sessions.

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

Goodness! I must be the only one skating this morning! (I was the only one on the ice to )

Bent: Thanks to hot humid weather the ice was littered with speed bumps (from the dripping roof) so I did my on-ice warm-up by doing serpentines among the stalagmites while waiting for the resurfacer operator show up to do a flood.

Straight: After the flood the ice was PERFECT FIGURE SKATING ICE!!!!!! I have not seen such nice ice in 36 years! Not concrete hard, almost NO hockey ruts - absolutely WONDERFUL! I stretched my session as long as I dared and really did NOT want to leave that beautiful ice!

Twisted: 3-turns were weak

Straight:Back edges and glides had returned and the super spins were still there (well "super" for a beginner like me)! - I even did a few for my coach and I think she was as surprised at them as I was yesterday Ok, it's official - I HAVE A WITNESS! I even managed a 2 revolution spin. Now, if I can find the nerve to do a complete tuck and let them rip at full speed

Good session, absolutely wonderful!

Bent: Only one more session left before the June beak

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

Nice and Straight: I splurged and bought the photos from the pro-am on Sunday, so I had what amounted to a stop motion look at the two dances. I therefore had something to discuss when I went in for last night's lesson, even if it was a review of some rather basic items. So, better this week, so far: toe pointing, stroking...

Bent and Twisted: Still struggling to have all the moves patterns for the APBM test (now delayed due to irreconcilable schedule problems, again) looking nice on the *same* day. Looks like Friday's lesson has a theme.

Rob

Nice and straight:

• All spins except camel were there. Actually camels were there part of the time too.
• Except for one case, the backsit is actually progressing well!
• Flips were pretty good. Loops was better AFTER I warmed up a bit.

Bend and twisted:

• Twisted definitely on my catch foot spiral. Aborted a bunch of times b/c I wasn't feeling right on the lower back.
• Took a splat on my backsit and my butt/hip has a nice nasty bruise for me to sit on...NOT!!! (Hey! My coach can't say that I don't try to take falls on stuff now!!! )
• Landing on the loop wasn't as secure as the ones for the flips. Weird! Skating School Director spotted me missing a couple of times. He said "Loops aren't supposed to be landed on two feet, you know??? You know what you have to do!!!" *stern look* Thankfully, I did land the next one he wanted me to do clean!!! Then he says "Hmmm... not bad...", satisfied that he pushed me for it. (Story behind that -- he was at my lesson when secondary coach was pushing for me to do a BUNCH of loops and land them clean.)

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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!!!

Yup, felt that way yesterday - very crowded session w/high level kids, hard to mentally get past it

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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)

Bent: The car wouldn't start (it has now been fixed, but nobody, including the garage, knows what went wrong nor what they did to fix it!), so we were late.

Straight: Worked on Golden Skaters' waltz for upcoming competitions - not at all bad, although Coach had endless nit-picky corrections. Which is good, as it means we're progressing on the dance!

Also worked on the silly couples' artistic we're preparing for competition in two weeks. Made some progress, I think.

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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!

Do they compete that over there? We've been doing it on Monday night social dance sessions this year, and I hadn't had the impression it was part of the formal structure there either.

Rob

yes! they're just so good....

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Oh my goodness, so often! Pretty much the only time I don't feel that way is my first half hour on the ice- 6.30-7am when I'm quite often the only one out there, with maybe another 2 or 3 skaters at most. My coach gets cross with that fact that I can't seem to get past that...I'm just hoping it gets easier with time. I'm already quicker at throwing myself out of the way of speeding dancers than I used to be

Nice and Straight;
-Forward crossovers were quite lovely this morning- barely a hint of a toepick and something approaching a decent free leg extension.
-Change of Edge finally feels more comfortable, except for the strange lack of control I have over my own shoulders

Bent and Twisted;
-Backward stroking was a bit wobbly for a good while this morning.
-FI3s, which seemed so close just last week, feel a million miles away again.
-Fell doing nothing more than plain forward stroking. Somehow caught my toepick and went down onto my knees like a sack of old spuds!

Clare

Nice and Straight My feet didn't hurt at all while I was skating today (including teaching- 3.5 hours)
Bent and twisted They hurt so badly I could barely walk when I took them off.

Nice and Straight Waltz jump- it's finally feeling like a real jump
Bent and Twisted MITF- nothing was going well tonight. My backward edges were particularly week and my waltz 8 was so unbalanced around the circle.




Question- on the PB 3-turn pattern, the inside edge push after the second 3 turn- does your other foot leave the ice? The USFSA video shows that, but the two coaches at our rink with adults seem to teach it with it on the ice.

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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)

Nice and Straight: Landed 5 double salchows in a row!! Managed to stay on my feet in the side split spiral after letting go of leg but I get so slow... so still work in progress... Beilmann position is a bit more comfortable but I may change it to a one hand (the easier side not the opposite hand) type beilmann because I simply get that up faster (saving precious seconds while balancing in the spiral)

Bent and Twisted: I am still TOO TIRED because I haven't been getting enough sleep so everything is still blah... landed some underotated double loops again, double toe is gone with the wind at the moment (but mostly because I was forgetting a step in the set up completely and by the time I remembered I had fallen so much it hurt so yeah...) Didnt quite get the change edge sit spins

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Tidesong

Nice and straight - Managed to eke out a couple of respectable forward and back spins.

Bent and twisted - Got to the rink and realized I really didn't feel like skating. Worked on bronze moves a bit, did a couple of spins and left.

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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

You forgot to mention you nice and low backsit...

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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umm... when the zamboni breaks here, the ice is still lovely in the morning - they water it and let it sit overnight

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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