Signs of Spring: Finished my competitive season today at Skate Annapolis, which was actually held at the rink in Easton Maryland (Annapolis rink is still under construction). It was nice-although I did not feel I skated as well as I did last month at Bowie, I am pleased. My coach was very pleased with my spiral sequence and my overall skating was fairly clean so that is nice. I did remember my end pose and to curtsey to the audience and judges.

AND I ACTUALLY SKATED AGAINST SOMEONE!!!! Figures it was the last comp of the season. Very nice woman from Richmond. I hope to compete with her next season. Beats skating against the book!!! She was very a nice skater and had a solid program and nice music.

Winter Frosts: I can pick apart where I tanked...my scratch spin was wobbly because I rushed the entrance, I messed up on my mohawk step in the spiral sequence, I forgot (how many times did she tell me???) to hold the landing on my 1/2 lutz, and the ending pose was a smidge behind in the music (it's right after my finale 2-foot spin...super dizzy there!).

I did get mad from hearing comments from other skaters (from my rink ) about their placement or how they should have placed...one from someone who is an instructor at my rink. Sheesh! Be a good sport and take your placement without dissin' your competitors! Poor sportsmanship ticks me off!

PS-Now that I am done competing, I can kill myself working on jumps until the rink closes!!!! Don't have to worry about putting myself out of commission if I hurt something! Just kidding, but I can step it up a notch now!

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

Yes, but once I'm moving, I'm fine; I just can't do 3-turns fast from, say, crossovers!

These were on the old level 4 Dance Moves - the one Husband failed on, so don't tell him it's too easy! As was the Mohawk exercise on the new Level 4, which Husband could do, but looked dreadful doing. He won't have a problem with the back-3s-to-Mohawks, as he can already do those (I think they're relatively easy if you have good flow out of the back 3s), but the deal-breaker on level 4 is the extended back edges, with a back double-3 at the end of the rink, just for fun. I don't see him getting those good for ages, probably as long as it will take me to get the 3-turn exercise on level 3!

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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!

FROST: I'm checking the flip too much, according to the trainer. Which is probably why it's suddenly a half underrotated again. ARGHHH I wanna do the flip-loop in the competition I can't lose it now!!! Ugh. And I fell on a backward 3-turn and landed on my finger (that's right ladies, 1 finger!) Don't think it's broken but I won't be writing for a few days.

Spring: Did the first run-through of my programme today, that is, about 1:10 out of about 2 minutes (I think my music will be 1:52 though). Doesn't feel nearly as awkward as I thought it would feel. Figured out how to do the crossovers approach more effectively, taking more of the force from the crossovers into the rotation. Helps my camel spin immensely.

That's what I thought when I saw the video and this looked like someone had just casually thrown in a back double 3 at great speed for a laugh! The girl on the video does it all really fast and strong and then the voiceover says
"This is well above passing standard" - well what's the point of showing me that? I need to know what is the minimum passing standard - not how amazingly well some high level skater can do it!!!!!!

I thank my lucky stars that I passed this level and won't have to do these new ones!!!

JAZZ!!!!!! GOOD JOB on those jumps! So proud of you. Spring is bursting into bloom for you...all that hard work on the loop is translating (as you knew it would...) into many other fun things! Happy for ya (but please send my MIA flip to me .....maybe some of your vibes will rub off! LOL!)

Signs of Spring: Ok, skating after a competition is....RELAXING!!! Plus, no lesson!!! Here's what I did that was good:
-scratch spins were fine, not always centered but I held the leg longer and did manage one centered one that went on and on and on!!!
-back spins are good, managed a 3 rev one and worked on the backspin-hops
-loops-ok, not great, and I switched to doing the landing 2-footed.....for now but it beats hitting myself over the head for doing a 1/2 loop!!!

Rink was busy this morning, but as everyone (mostly) left for Skate Annapolis, by the end of the session, we were down to 6!!!

Winter Frosts: could not get the iPod connection working on the music box...so I put on the Shrek music, my music for next year, everyone else's music.....

-toe loops are sloppy! I need to work on them some more!
-forgot my toe-warmers so I had to get off the ice 30 minutes early...no big deal as I was getting tired anyway

I am wondering what my coach has in store for me next week!!! I'm tempted to ask her wednesday for ideas using champion cords with the loop...I think I need more proprioceptive feedback on my free leg-I still have no idea most of the time WHERE that sucker is!!! This is an ongoing issue with me and my body parts....

but I like champion cords!!! I'm weird

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

Totally agree. The exercise is backward stroking and they just sneak that BI double 3. For fun!

The other thing that annoyed me about the DVD was when they say 'This is not skated to passing standard'. So that helps me how. I'm sure I know how to skate an exercise badly! I want to see the passing standard not the failing standard or someone who is way above standard!