I thought of this since Christmas is on it's way and the Toronto's Santa Claus parade was on today. Is your skating on the Nice or Naughty list? So Nice is for good things in skating and Naughty is for the not so good stuff.

__________________
2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

This is a very appropriate thread for my practice today!

Naughty: I was discouraged by my backspin (lack of) and I left early. That is really not a good thing to do. I should have just taken a break and stayed. But, it was a very crowded public session and eh, I took off. So I was naughty.

Good: Good sitspins today! One was really fast. I didn't get to do all that much else in the program but I was happy with those.

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Good: just being back on the ice with a leg that I can feel beneath me and without pain was wonderful! After show practice, I worked through some things. Spins traveled a bit but were decent.

Naughty: Being out of practice for over a month was really showing...3-turns were really off, skiddy on my left leg; jumps (only did the waltz, salchow from a mohawk, and toe-loop) were weak; backspin was non-existant...

after skating 2 hours I had a huge cramp on my left side and my toes were really cold so I left, rather than run the risk of a fall.

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

Naughty: That darn scratch/back scratch combo spin...it is so awkward and I am having difficulties with it...

The ice was really crowded today as there is a competition in two weeks. And there is a big divide in the levels of skaters who skate on the ice (a large number of upper level skaters, or skaters who skate with some power like myself, and a good number of low level skaters), which makes it difficult to get anything done between the two, but, one of the coaches tripped and fell over one of the low level skaters who wasn't watching and he hurt his back. It was only a matter of time before this happened. We'll see if people start watching when they are out on the ice...I just hate knowing that there is an accident waiting to happen.

Didn't get a chance to run through my program with all of the people on the ice though

Nice: I did some really nice, big flips and flip/loops. Lutzes were good too! I practiced my footwork a lot and hopefully it's getting better And...I did the full sequence with the spiral, and I heard someone say, "OMG, that's a good spiral" hehehe

Moves were actually quite good today. I need to work on some of the speed on some of my elements (the brackets for one, which, thank goodness are much better! Although, I do need to work on making sure that I am not doing them on a flat).

I won't lose any time on the ice due to Thanksgiving which is good

This afternoon I've decided to try out the Embarcadero Ice Rink (our major holiday rink.)

Naughty:

First thing: Small rink! Second thing: LOTS of skaters!!! (It's intended to be a touristy rink where people just go around the rink and not for jumps and spins.) Third thing: Ice felt weird. Fourth thing: The weather turned cloudy towards the end of the session. Not as pretty a scenery. Certainly doesn't make me feel energetic.
Loop-loop is so NOT happening!

I found that I don't do backspins as well at this rink. Not that my backspins are great in the first place but I don't feel myself doing as well with it.

Camel spin not happening. Too crowded!!!

Nice:

But it did start to behave itself later on... My backspins and back sit went okay towards the end.

Loops and flips were there... well, I had to adjust for crowds and the size of the rink, so I've entered the loop this time lengthwise rather than width-wise. Don't think I did the flip the way secondary coach wanted me to though.

Sit spins were pretty decent, as was the scratch spin.

Did a few catch-foot spirals towards the end of the session. Got LOTS of attention... particularly from a cop who was keeping an eye on the rink to make sure things are in order.

I made sure I got in some time to do some footwork. My bracket exercise is getting better, though it will be cutting it close whether or not I will have something to show my NYC coach when I have a lesson with him again. BO3's were decent. FO mohawks were non-existent.

Intended to be "Nice" but I was really "Naughty"

Stranger guy: "I saw you do all these jumps and spins didn't fall once!!!"
Me: "Then I guess I'm not trying hard enough then..."
Stranger guy: "I don't blame 'ya! I would want to have my butt on that slush today." (It was quite wet, I must admit...)
Me:

I am supposed to be falling at least once a session. It's supposed to prove to my coaches that I'm pushing my limits. I did almost fall on my backspin though but caught myself in the end. Does that count?

__________________
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!!!

Definitely, Jazzpants! Anyway, a visit to a holiday rink is for play, not work!

As for us:

Naughty: We didn't go. With no lesson appointment booked, that idiot Husband of mine was like "Do you really want to go skating?" This when I was still snuggled under the covers and hadn't even had a cup of tea - I mean, what did he expect the answer to be????

So we had, for us, the most unusual experience of not getting up until it was nearly time for Church!

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

Nice: Wow, great practice/lesson today!! Ran through the whole program with music and made mistakes but it really wasn't bad at all. Did two sit spins that were killer for me and one was in the program. And actually did a whole bunch of legit backspins today - no more than 3-4 revs, but it's a zillion times better than it was. Maybe that switch has finally turned on. I'm obsessive about practicing these, including on my carpet at home. I thank the comment about Alexi Yagudin practicing them, our backspin thread, the Foo Fighters for writing "Best of You" my favorite skating warmup song, and Johnny Weir for kicking butt in Cup of China and inspiring me this a.m.

Naughty: Well I two-footed my loop for no reason at all this morning. My loops have zero height, too. Some of my connecting steps are awkward. My spiral skating leg was slightly bent and I didn't know it.

__________________
Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

I'm sorry, palm-tree lined ice rinks are just wrong.

__________________
It's all about the dress!

Skipped skating the public after DD's lesson this afternoon, so went to the sunday night adult session at another rink. Haven't been there since the opened for the season. Got compliments on improvement since the last time they saw me, which was very nice.

naughty - me for not drilling backspin and change-foot like I should be.

nice - one really fab salchow, learning to do my footwork at speed without freaking out.

__________________
It's all about the dress!

Monday Night

Nice:

-my Star Light
-my solo
-my elements
-my artistic
-my double lutzes
-my double flips
-my double loops
-my death drop

Naughty:

-forgetting to do my lutz, falling leaf double loop (I just did the lutz, I was so distracted cause I had just earlier in my solo landed a beautiful double salchow, toeloop ((the double salchow id my least favourite jump!!)) and I had just recently moved from doing an axel, falling leaf, double loop but now I'm doing the lutz, falling leaf, double loop)

-falling on my combo spin: front sit, layback, back sit, back mushroom, splat, I didn't even get to do the back tompson but I pulled the back mushroom around to much so I fell right on my butt!!

__________________
2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

Naughty: After an eventful month keeping me off the ice, I'm trying to get back into skating and I seem to have regressed with just about everything. Plus I've determined my blades got messed up with my last sharpening and 2foot spins have become near impossible now. Stupid recreational skates...

Nice: Skated at the downtown rink on the first night it opened. Free admission and TONS of people. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to skate faster and a lot more stable than everyone else on the ice. Went to the same rink today and had the ice practically to myself. A little embarassing though, since I'm rusty and I know things look bad. But some little kids watching nearby were very impressed! Also, 2 more weeks to go until my new skates arrive!

__________________
My Blog - FINALLY updated!
Living out my childhood dream

For yesterday:

Naughty
- My axels. I landed the first one I tried, but after that I forgot how.
- My double sal. I don't remember the last time I tried one. I keep just not getting around to practicing it. Oops.

Nice
- On a whim, I tried a reverse upright spin into a forward sitspin, and to my surprise, nailed it on the first try! Now I can just do that instead of the reverse sit I've been having sooooo much trouble with! (I wonder how long I can go without doing a reverse sitspin in my program, LOL!)
- The stretching is working! Yesterday I was told that I am now getting the free leg up to maximum height much sooner on my spirals!
- I did a program run-through for the first time in 3 weeks and to my great surprise, didn't feel tired and actually did a cleaner run-through than usual! I even landed the lutz from the brand new entrance for the first time in my program.
- Did much better on the dreaded back power 3's (and it was at the rink where I'll be re-testing next month).

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

You and me both. I hate back sits. Backspin to forward sit, you say?

Good:
Landed first axel and axel-loop I attempted, and then I didn't do any more. It took me a lot of willpower not to repeat them ad nauseum. So I did some double toe exercises and managed a few respectable attempts.

Did full program runthrough, nailed all the elements including the change-edge spiral ...

Naughty:
... except for a really bizarre fall on the camel-layback. What was that?!

I've never seen the embarcadero rink anything but wall to wall people. Paige told me once that if you go early in the am on a weekday you can get decent ice. But, as you observed, the quality of the ice there is pretty bad. It's fun, though, to show off for the tourists.

I skated there on Christmas eve once. That was kind of special.

And that... is pretty much what I ended up doing Sunday!

Yeah, I wish I could go there early weekday, but as you already know, I'm not a morning skater!!!

Speaking of which, I have to get to bed now (lesson tomorrow!!!) ... so my report for tonight's skate will have to wait...

__________________
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!!!

i expected to skate very poorly today, but it wasn't too bad!

nice
double loops! i landed some amazing ones! it felt sooooo good.

i hit the outside edge on a camel today! it was so funny. one of the younger girls was talking to me while i was spinning, going "I'm cold." Suddenly, i burst out "I'M ON AN OUTSIDE EDGE! I'M ON AN OUTSIDE EDGE!"

I received a compliment on a double axel attempt today! I did it, and first one girl was like 'that was good!" I just kinda looked at her and said "for a double?!" and she said yeah! then her little sister said it was good too

had practically private ice for a while! it was so cool. the rink was empty

I also did a really nicely centered scratch spin. i never really work on them, but i decided to try and it was good!

naughty
took me a while to do an axel. i kept popping them. i think i got on the ice today expecting to skate poorly (i had a reeaaally emotional night last night) so I automatically popped axels. but they got better. we played the "how many axels can you do in a row" game which was fun. I did 9 :-/ my old record (from before I quit) was 27 or something. it really is a good game for axels tho. as you get tired you really have to concentrate on the knee bend and not whipping around

no music! one girl broke the first CD player, and then someone else broke the replacement!

double toes weren't really happening today. i kept popping. i finally landed one but put my foot down and decided, eh, good enough

__________________
Youtube Videos

Naughty:
My health. It's not co-operating. Actually, it all started to go down hill a two days after I got the flu shot.

At first all I noticed was that my throat felt puffy but not sore like I couldn't get that funny feeling to go away (Wednesday).

Thursday found me not feeling much different except that when I was at church music practice when I was singing I wasn't able to hit my higher notes (G up to E above the treble clef) like I normally do without cracking. I was starting to suspect something was up but thought it was that I didn't have my usual water bottle with me during music practice.

Friday found me waking up with a headache and slight swelling in my jaw glands. When I got to the rink, I thought that if I would just skate maybe I could get my sinuses to loosen up and get my headache would go away. Not to be. Instead I was feeling my gums burning and hurting. my glands began throbbing. My ears were paining me. I was chilled all over instead of being hot as I normally am ater freeskating. My feet were frozen. That never happens. I sat after the session was over holding my head for what must have been about 15 minutes before taking off my skates and packing up to head home. When I got home, I search the phone book for a medical clinic that was open. Called to make sure they were open. I took my tempature to find that it was 96.5 F or for those who only know metric 35.8 C. Luckily I found a clinic that was open and went straight over.

Saturday give me even more soreness in my gums and my jaw started to hurt. I was forced to stay home because of how sick I was.
Same on Sunday.
Today I couldn't take it anymore and am thinking that it might be teeth related. So I called my dentist but I won't get to see him for a week. In the mean time I'm hopping the antibiotics work and get rid of what ever is really bothering me healthwise.

Good:
Thursday's practice with secondary coach went well. It's in last week's practice thread.
Getting to see a doctor on Friday trying to take care of myself instead of putting it off.
Saturday, Sunday and today I stayed home and rested.

Later this week, I don't know if I'll be better by Wednesday or not. I'll have to take it one day at a time.

singerskates

__________________
"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

**Hugs** Singerskates, and I hope you get well soon.

For us, Naughty: Day began with a huge fright when we couldn't find the car - Husband said it wasn't in the garage. After massive panics and nearly making ourselves late for skating (when, for once, we had been early), the car was discovered exactly where it should have been - in the garage! Husband had looked in the wrong garage (they are being left unlocked at the moment as they are supposed to be being painted)!

After which little episode I felt a bit like a piece of chewed string.....

Nice: Good runthroughs of everything. Husband did one of the best loops I've ever seen him do in his programme, let's hope he can repeat it on Sunday. Our dances were okay, they aren't great but they're getting better. I expect we'll come last on Sunday, but we'll have fun trying not to and there is one other couple we just might beat.... we'll see....

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

Whatever it is, I hope you feel better soon!! The swollen glands in your neck sound pretty typical of when the body is trying to fight off something like the flu (which is exactly what you got a dose of in the flu shot). If that's the case, I would think fluids and anti-inflammatories like aspirin or ibuprofen should probably help both the flu-like symptoms and jaw ache.

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Nice:
- So just get this clear: a scratch spin is like, free foot crossed over the standing foot, pushed down to ankle level right? Cuz I did one nice one today. My spins were pretty powerful and good today (something's clicked, cuz I can now do a spin from just a 3-turn too and those were dramatically uncentered before) so I decided to try and it worked. I don't care what the club says about them being harder to control, crossing over the free foot centers my spins, period... Oh and I can have my hands stretched out above my head while spinning, which is kinda cool cuz in april I was keeping them as low as possible or else I'd just fall over.

Naughty:
- okay it's official. I will never learn the sit spin.
- the ankle hurts and clicks and feels weird, stupid weather changes!
- 2 kids were following me around *all session* asking to teach them new stuff making it impossible to practice camels, they didn't get it when I said I was gonna go skate by myself for a while. So I taught them a 2-foot spin, shoot the duck and lunge and told them to go practice it when I was sure they wouldn't kill themselves doing it. Which bought me about 15 minutes of practice time. Then when they started playing tag with me while I was practicing edges, I decided to call it a day. Do I look friendly or something?! Also one of those kids was jumping around like the energizer bunny half the session begging the mom to put her in skating class.

Hahaha LOL Sessy you are too funny!!!

Good: My sit spin is finally developing!!! I hate this spin with a passion because I always wind up break dancing but I actually did 2 sit spins very well. They were fast, centered, and somewhat low. Best forward sit spins I've ever done. I'm actually starting to get really close to having my thigh parallel to the ice. It still a work in progress.

I finally got the hang of this toeloop problem I've been having. I finally understand what my coach means by "letting the edge come through." Putting your weight on your picking foot too soon is what causes a toe axel. Maybe now I won't have to worry about it being downgraded.

Towards the end of my lesson, I landed 6 clean axels in a row today which means that I am building up some endurance and technique. My coach taught me how to ease my way into the jump so that I don't put so much effort into jumping up but rather let the edge deepen to "carry" me up. It created a much better flow out of the landing and it made the jump very consistent and effortless-feeling. I didn't think the axel could feel that "easy." I think this is key to landing the double axel. I am now a firm believer that technique will always trump strength and it explains how little Mao Asada can rotate a triple axel. My coach really changed the way I think about jumps. I am a tough student to teach. He's awesome.

Naughty: Flying camel went flying!!! I have no idea what happened. Double salchow is gone too and I have no idea where it went. We didn't even try double lutz; just lutz-loop combos. It's okay though. I had a great day of skating.


BlackManSkating

__________________
Proud to be one of the few black men out on the ice

Goals
Pass my Silver Moves Test
Finish Choreography for Silver Program
Land a Clean Double Toe and Double Lutz
Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

Nice a good skate day today. Even managed a 3 rev backspin on first try though I couldn't repeat it for my coach. I do finally feel it is within reach and can put in for my level 2 test pretty soon.

Jumps were good today. Coach asked for all singles to Flip - no problem, then all singles with a toe-loop on the end and amazingly I managed this including flip- toeloop with a proper toe-loop on the end not just a mangled step and hop.
Then all jumps with loop on the end and all these worked too, including salchow-loop which I've found to be an impossible combination in the past but today it worked just fine. Loop-loop is becoming a fav. combo even though I don't always manage it. I never thought I would ever be saying that given how long it took me to learn this jump in the first place.

naughty:
only my programme wasnt' so great as I lost time somewhere and finished after the music but landed jumps so not all bad.

Naughty: We are about two weeks out from a competition, so the ice was really crowded tonight. If I would have thought about it, I would have skated the first two sessions instead of the second two. I wasn't able to go through all of my moves in the field, and I didn't do my program But I'm skating on Friday at the rink on campus which should be pretty much empty, so I should be able to do some run throughs...

Spins were not all there Had some nice camels, but beyond that...yuck! I'm still struggling with the scratch/back scratch

Nice: Soooo....jumps were nice and big...the last 20 minutes or so of the session, I worked on axels. Coach saw some of them as she was giving a dance lesson and reminded me to pull my arms in (which is a big issue with all of my jumps). And....I actually landed one on one foot (and promptly fell on my butt, but still!!)!! I have NEVER, ever, ever, landed an axel!! Not even when I was younger I am super-de-duper excited!!! It's kinda' disappointing that Thursday is Thanksgiving and there is no ice

I can't wait until I can work on axels with coach again, but, I think we have some other things to work on first...like my program and the things I'm going to be testing in February....but, that is also exciting

Good: being able to skate today
Naughty: finding a BUS in the parking lot when I got to the rink for public skate....then finding a bunch of kids that had NO idea how to skate in a rink made me think that I'm insane...and feeling VERY EVIL

Good: a crowded rink and kids zippiing EVERYWHERE makes good practice for fast footwork
Naughty: a crowded rink and kids zipping EVERYWHERE makes me nervous and wish my 1/2 workday was on another day

However, I sucked it up and did accomplish a few things. The ice did not get zammed 1/2 way so it was fairly rutted up. Since I'm still rehabing my leg I stuck to fairly safe things and only did a few jumps and spins (and poorly at that) to which some young girls asked me if I was a professional....um, no.

Good: club session later on, nice ice, nicer crowd and after 20 attempts at backspins, 1 good 5-rev one!!!!

Naughty: um, even waltz jumps were BAD!!!!! Ever sit on your legs and they go numb, then the feeling comes back and it sort of prickles/tickles???? Well, that was how my leg felt by this session. And weak.

Good: no cramps on my leg only a little bit of numbness. I'm fairly happy. 3-turns did NOT skid!!! Only had to put my foot down a few times.

Ok, I'm done boring everyone. I did listen (finally) to my competition music....it's cool!!!! If I can't get in shape for FS4, then I will do spotlight and this music is nice!!! only one minute (1:30 for my exhibition) so I have to cram a lot in it. I am also looking for a chair appropriate for my number. Guess I'd better start on my costume!

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

Good: It is take-it-easy week before competition Sunday and I am only skating one early session (Thursday) so I took tonight to drop in on the adult session at another rink and meet a bunch of adults I had only heard about. They are in an adult group lesson and many of them have really good basics - many better than mine!

Naughty: That was the WORST ice I have skated on in my memory!!!! It was as hard as plate glass and as rough as a gravel road It was harder than my outdoor ice in the depth of winter! I couldn't even get strong cross-overs going without skidding and my sates are SHARP - the ice just flakes and shatters. Spins turned easy and fast but were hard to hold on to on the hard ice. I could get crazy speed on stroking but too fast to do cross-overs around the ends without skidding.

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