since no one else started one for today (ahem!!!! its the 22ND!!!) i decided to... so...

flying leaps -learned another routine, sit spin was very low, camel spin was best ever, figured out what i was doing wrong and how to fix my lutz, dance-step sequence was faster/smoother, flip went flying practically halfway across the rink..., i could actually almost complete a sit-sit... it was an awesome practice day

crashing falls -coach told me my fs routine was slow... what does she expect for me trying to do 8 things for the next comp.... ,
my loop sadly is still lost... i hope i find it soon... my change-foot spin was off but o well..... so much for a day's practice...

__________________
~Dreams Can Come True~

Flying Leaps: Change foot spin is, well...changing and spinning! Did pretty well with the sit spin today, after not trying it for a few months. Coach thought waltz jumps looked aggressive, flips and lutzes were good. Loop is getting better; I'm slowly getting the hang of crossing my free foot over during the entry.

Crashing Falls: Despite the flying leaps above, I felt overall useless today. Spent all day on the ice yesterday for a synchro seminar, and my body is hurting today! I have tomorrow off to rest, and hopefully will be in better shape by Wednesday!

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Flying leaps:

• Starting to feel better. I managed to last thru the whole entire public session, skating pretty much the entire time... and NOT get too tired!!! WHEEEEE!!!!
• I'm starting to manage a wimpy RBI3 now! Let's see if I could get the LBI3 by Wed. morning!!!

Crashing Falls:

• Still very congested... had a horrible time sleeping last night b/c of that and am going to bed early tonight to make sure I have enough now...
• Monday nights are getting really crowded now! LOTS of kids!!! (School is back on again!) At least ONE isn't watching where she's going and her mom should know better to have her coach teach her little girl to WATCH where she's going!!!

__________________
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!!!

Flying leaps - have just returned from the comp with a pretty bronze souvenir in my hot little hand...and had the absolute best time. Nearly all of us (18 in all) left spouses and kids behind and went for "a good time, not a long time" - which we managed in spades!!

Other flying leap - Dear Husband has said that he wants to try dance - with me...any hints from jazzpants or Mrs Redboots on how to manage this successfully while maintaining a good domestic relationship??

Crashing falls - none yet as we now have the week off before our season starts again and we start work on next year's program. Will report more in due course. We saw some very interesting manoeuvres (sp??), which we will try to incorporate - even my rather cloudy crystal ball can foresee some crashing falls about to happen here...

My DH does NOT skate with me! In fact, he makes it clear that skating is MY thing and not HIS thing! That's how we managed a SANE domestic relationship!

__________________
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!!!

posted by jazzpants - My DH does NOT skate with me! In fact, he makes it clear that skating is MY thing and not HIS thing! That's how we managed a SANE domestic relationship!

(Sorry forgot to quote before signing in...)

Sorry Jazzpants - I think I might have picked the wrong person by mistake. I know Mrs Redboots dances with her DH and I think there is someone else who posts here who also dances with her DH - I thought it was you but was wrong. Do you happen to know who it is, or am I completely off my tree??

Flying leaps: My field moves test was good, Im testing them tommorow! (wish me luck!)
Crashing Falls: I couldn't do a double salchow to save my life today during my lesson but I landed one on sunday during open skate quite easily. Its just not fair!

__________________
SKATING: It's the feeling you get at the end of a hard practice when you pushed yourself to the limit. It's a part of YOU, something you LOVE and HATE. A bond that NO ONE ELSE understands, but that's okay, because every time you get out on the ice it isn't just you; it's all the friends and coaches, all the practices, the pain, the tears, the memories,the laughter, the "off" competitions. It may seem, skating is really a team sport, it's more than just a sport. IT'S A WAY OF LIFE."

Flying leaps: Landed more double salchows. Landed a "double loop" but still a bit underrotated. Landed more Axel-Halfloop-flips, but the half loop I still dont have good control of...

Flying camel and flying sit spin was there after a few tries, but not what I was doing a few weeks back

Crashing Falls: double toe double toe double toe

__________________
~
Tidesong

Flying Leaps:

All coaches but two were gone to Sheffield yesterday so I had the rink nearly completely to myself (only one other girl was there with her coach).

Today was the first day of a 3-day skating school. Despite being an only adult among the pre-teens, I quite enjoy it. I like the pace - they just do one thing straight after the other and you don't have time to think: "stop, I haven't done this before!" In half an hour I went through waltz - salchow - toe - loop - flip (well, the last two weren't quite jumps yet but at least I now know which leg goes where ), and then waltz / toe. Scary!

Crashing Falls:

Despite the fact that one of the coaches keeps telling me that my spins are improving, I still think they are my major weakness. Even when I get them centered, my tracing is about 10 inches in diameter at best, 8 temes out of 10 I don't seem to find that elusive "ball of the feet"; I keep falling forwards at the end of 3-turn or backwards in the middle of the 1st rev and I have to stop the spin to hold the balance. The "perfectest" spin is about 3-4 revs.......... I can go on and on.

And it's all about forward upright spin. My first sit spin today was about 1/2 revolutions..... more like a "weird leg swing with chaotic arm movements"

Yesterday I practiced spining on my carpet untill my foot was burning. I think, I found a new enemy, after I conquered 3-turns and Mowhawks (the latter were a very nasty tribe! Still causing me trouble from time to time).

Maybe you mean me and mine? Ours is an on again/off again relationship! He gets soooo frustrated by his lack of progress (in his own mind-I think his progress is fine) and that he is just a bit behind me as far as skills go; he gives up completely. I get him going again by mentioning that "I'll get Mr. So-and-so to skate with me"....

At home, we have a nice relationship-we just don't talk about skating unless we are doing off-ice stuff or stretching and I try not to be too negative! I tell him that he is doing fine, he started later than I did and he is almost 56....
On ice, I do give him lots of attention and encouragement and take my time with him. Even daughter works with him on skating stuff...

Although, lately I scared him because I showed a video of a lift I wanted him to do-not an overhead lift-and he said "forget it!" But, he is still signed up for classes! We have Friday nights blocked as "ours" and we will be working on things before classes.

Just remember-keep skating and domestic life separate! Try not to let the two lives overlap and you will be fine!

Poor guy-yes, he still wants to do the Tango on Ice with me.....

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

Flying Leaps: Looks like I have a coach! Yay! Pre-Bronze, here I come! Feel like I'm moving up to the big-time! And, as you can read from my previous post (the novel above) hubby is FINALLY in my class! We are a cool bunch of advanced adults (we are really all over the place, but we have fun working on anything from edges to the lutz-no axels yet). Looked at my skating schedule and it looks as though I will get about 6-8 hours of skating a week (2 hours more than my doctor wants me to have but less than I had last year-oh well). Then I have the off-ice classes which are really great! My blood pressure is down!

Crashing Falls: Have to wait 2 more weeks for the rink to open but I'm ready! Boy, this has been a looooong summer! And, my sewing machine and serger are still in the shop! I haven't been able to get anything done....not that I've had anyone wanting anything made (yet-they always wait till the last minute)...
I'm hoping my spins return!!!

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

Flying Leaps:
I actually made it to the rink earlier than usual, which is a major feat for me in the a.m. Back inside three turns are still good, so the breakthrough from a few weeks ago was not a fluke.

Crashing Falls:
We were working on Silver MITF when my coach noticed that my forward inside three turns are badly overrotated and underchecked, resulting in very uneven tracings on each lobe. We spent about twenty minutes working on just forward inside threes, but I still didn't make too much progress with correcting them despite the many arm/foot variations my coach had me try out in order to fix things. So it looks like I have a very bad habit that will apparently be a b*^%h to break.

Back from the Scottish Adult Championships, where we did (for us) very well - 4th out of 5 in the Elementary compulsory dances and 3rd out of 4 in the Free dance (first ever non-default medal in dance, we were so pleased!). We were also pleased that we know why we lost marks on the compulsory dances, which is a great step forwards. Whether we can avoid making the same mistakes in the next competition is another question!

Ice was great, and our only grumble was that they changed the schedule at the last minute without telling us, and there was nothing posted when we arrived!

So back on the ice this morning, but we are going to relax this week, so the DH didn't come (he's skating tonight), and I really only did some edges and dance moves & a bit of circle cycle.

Flying Leap: Got a good length of back cross-cuts and thought I'd mastered them at last.

Crashing fall: Couldn't repeat it! Grrrr.....

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

Flying Leaps - Oh man, today was just a great skating day in general. My scratch spins were almost TOO fast - I kept stopping because I was getting scared. It's better than the alternative of NOT being able to spin so I'm breaking through that barrier. I've also got my sit spin back (mostly, see below) and I'm getting more revolutions and a lot of speed - best of all they're centered. My toe loop, waltz, salchow are all back to normal - somehow my toeloop seems even better. My flip is coming along smoothly - I'm still landing kind of heavy, but there were a bunch of good flips that landed quite smoothly with good exit flow. My friend was pretty impressed and says I've improved even from last week. Cool!

I also did 3 loop jumps today!!!!! They weren't my best, but they were off the ice and landed on one foot, which is all I'm shooting for at the moment.

Crashing Falls - Those 3 would be the only ones I would get. Like I posted in the "Confidence Game" thread, I got too greedy and lost it again. Grrrr.

I didn't seem to have any leg strength today. I couldn't push up into a camel spin to save my life, and as good as my sit spins were I couldn't get up from them. Ah well. I'm not too picky since I worked very hard for two hours today and I made a lot of progress.

I can't wait for my lesson on Thursday! Nothing but loops and backspins

Flying leaps

• my flips arent flat anymore!!
• i got alot of more revolutions on my backspin
• my waltz loops are good
• learned waltz falling leaf toe loop combo
• and landed a couple of lutz's

Crashing falls

• my spins are horribe!! i keep on going on the toe AGAIN! i thought i fixed this problem!
• my lutz's are flat still
• just bad bad bad spins.

CONGRATS MRS REDBOOTS!

[QUOTE=Mrs Redboots]Back from the Scottish Adult Championships, where we did (for us) very well - 4th out of 5 in the Elementary compulsory dances and 3rd out of 4 in the Free dance (first ever non-default medal in dance, we were so pleased!). We were also pleased that we know why we lost marks on the compulsory dances, which is a great step forwards. Whether we can avoid making the same mistakes in the next competition is another question!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! It always feels wonderful to make a break-through like that. Here's to your continued success!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MRS REDBOOTS!!! YAAAAAAY!!!

Crashing Falls: Secondary coach called. No lesson this morning! Zamboni is broken... It's getting fixed this morning!

Flying Leap: Jazzpants thanks secondary coach for calling her at home about it... and goes right back to bed to catch up on some well needed SLEEP!!!

(Hey! I'm still sick with the flu!)

__________________
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!!!

Mrs. Redboots - Way to go!

Flying Leaps- Passed my Preliminary Field Moves test today!!!!
Crashing Falls- Nothing!

__________________
SKATING: It's the feeling you get at the end of a hard practice when you pushed yourself to the limit. It's a part of YOU, something you LOVE and HATE. A bond that NO ONE ELSE understands, but that's okay, because every time you get out on the ice it isn't just you; it's all the friends and coaches, all the practices, the pain, the tears, the memories,the laughter, the "off" competitions. It may seem, skating is really a team sport, it's more than just a sport. IT'S A WAY OF LIFE."

CONGRATULATIONS ANNABEL, WELL DONE!!

Now the chain is broken, you have proved you can do it, keep up the good work I'm so proud of you.

This should inspire us all to never give up. Looking forward to seeing you at the British.

Cheers
Grace

Flying Leaps - Really gettin the hang of sit spins! Coach is very impressed with waltz jumps. Made some progress on the loop. Getting braver and going into the lutz with more speed. Change foot spin is still coming!

Crashing Falls - Camel spin has totally deserted me. *sigh*

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Yeah TwirlGirl and Mrs. RedBoots! Way to go!

Flying leaps: Well, I actually had my first real practice since June. Wow. I am OUT of shape. Skates newly sharpened! It's nice to hold an edge again.

Crashes: Just about everything. Need to work and work and work to get back; but at least I took the first step. Will skate at least 2 days a week for the next few weeks, then I'm hoping more ice opens up for the new season. I'm not even up to having a lesson right now -- maybe by next Wednesday.

More flying: skating is so fun, even if I bite the dust! And I did land some nice jumps, had some okay spins and even did a weak camel or four. My threes in the field have decided that they are still down the shore. I guess they rented for August and are enjoying Bar A down in Belmar. I mean, I took them there in July but I had no idea they'd stay! 8-step mohawk is back from the shore though, but a little hungover and slow but I discovered a smaller way to work on it and it's working for me for now. And those forward edge pulls -- well I think some of them are keeping the threes company at Bar A.

ETA: Someone is using a piece I considered using this year for a proggie! I was soooooo upset, esp. since my living room choreo is way better than hers! Sigh. I am moving on to less popular music.

Whoever offered dance as a soft option was wrong, wrong, wrong. DH and I had our first full dance practice session today, and just doing forward swing rolls, making sure each roll was a full half circle, with shoulders properly aligned, arms locked, toes pointed and no toepicks to push off was hard.

Crashing falls - the first pass around the rink.

Assisted-with-a-winch flying leaps - the last pass. There was some significant improvement. There needed to be. And there needs to be a *lot* more.

Maybe by the end of the year, we'll be able to do a respectable Dutch Waltz? (Any dancers out there, how long does it take to get the basic dances passable? Since the coach quite properly won't let us do the interesting stuff until the basics are down....)

WELL DONE TWIRLGIRL THAT'S FANTASTIC!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! What new goal are you aiming for after your latest success?