I saw them for the first time only a couple of years ago. Then there was a thing on the news about how the country was going crazy for them. They are a new breed. They are expensive because they don't keep well, they don't travel well. And they are only around in the fall. But when they are good, they are just the best thing you have ever tasted in an apple.

j

Congrats to you, RachelSk8er!!!

Fresh Honey Crisp Apple:

Back to my home rink... and everyone else is quite happy and relieved to be back working (particularly my secondary coach since it was a MAJOR inconvenience for her to teach at the alternate rinks. )

I miss my old FS crew too!!! So happy to see them all at the rink!!! (I even have one gal who returned after a few months of recovery from an ankle injury. So happy to see her back on the ice!!! )

Still A Little Green:
My skating!!!

I am having trouble cross those legs on the scratch spin, though there is some "ripeness" in that the spin was pretty centered. I need to practice skating on very straight (as in locked knees) spirals!!! And as for the Chinese spirals, we've discovered a "physical limitation" with my back (DUH!!! NOW she finally believes me!!! ) and says I need to stretch the back so I arch my back more. (Which means for now, laybacks are out for me too!!! ) Needless to say, she will put my personal trainer to good use. (Keep in mind... I am the secondary person my personal trainer has to keep happy! My SECONDARY coach is the one to please!!! Ironic that in the end *I* have to do the work, huh??? )

I also have to practice my cross strokes. I got a good exercise to practice the underpush part of the cross strokes too! (Needless to say, I'm FAR from testing Silver Moves at this point.)

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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!!!

[Fresh Honey Crisp]
Coach gave me a new drill to do to help my axels and while I am still not landing them, they are feeling better if I focus on the feeling of the drill. I am hoping that I can bust out this axel soon and test my juv free and then start either coaching or registering to coach with my club to get the reduced price ice.

Moves are going well. Still working on pattern #2!

[Just a little Green]
Not skating related, but went to get the milk out of my fridge this evening and found that the outlet that it is connected to got tripped somehow and everything is spoiled. I e-mailed our associate director to see what can be done because the only other thing attached to that outlet is my microwave, which I never use and haven't used in over a week, so there is no reason why the outlet should have tripped.

Only got to skate about an hour this evening. Other than that, it's the same ole', same ole'.....that stupid axel!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Mix of the past two days---

Honey Crisp Apple
-Had my first lesson with my new jump coach. He is a guru. Honestly, he's seen every problem there is. The lesson went really well, but it was exhausting on my right leg. We did lots of double loops and double loop combos.
-Moves have gotten about a million times better in the past week. My primary coach finally explained something in a way to make me understand it. What used to be one of my worst moves is now, as my secondary coach says "A really good move for [me]." Still worried about hitting the wall though. But yeah, my secondary coach said she was really, really pleased with all the progress I had made and that I was clearly working very hard. I was!
-On a side note, I was talking to one of younger skaters at the rink, starting to say how much I felt my moves had improved, but before I said that it was my moves that had gotten better, he went, "Yeah, you've gotten MUCH better." So maybe all my hard work IS paying off with the rest of my skating.
-Jennifer Kirk was at my rink yesterday, and today there was a guy doing triple axels

A little green
-Double flips were off yesterday. I didn't do any today as my hip was really bothering me.
-I hurt myself demonstrating a SHOOT THE DUCK! It was for Ballet on Ice, and I was showing a shoot-the-duck in a sit spin position (back straight, leg turned out, etc etc). I was skating on my left foot, right leg extended in front of me and my entire quad just cramped up. Now I can hardly walk. I'm sure it's totally minor and will be fine tomorrow, but it just brings back memories of when I tore my quad freshman year and spent months and months healing.
-Now that I have three coaches, I have no idea how I'm gonna pay them. Right now, I tutor one kid, three hours a week, max. However, he usually ends up canceling one day because he has no homework, has a doctors appointment, stuff like that. But lets just say every week, I tutor him 3 hours. That's $150 (yeah, I'm a pricey tutor--that's my discounted rate too). Sometimes I'll teach a class or two of group lessons. But generally, I'm pulling in 100-150 dollars a week. With three coaches, 30 min lesson each, thats $120. Since I'm testing soon, I'll probably want a second lesson with either my moves or primary coach. That's $160 dollars. I think you guys can do the math...

So basically, I'm broke.

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Youtube Videos

Fresh Tart Crip Mac Apples (I don't like sweet tasting apples.): Coach said that my edges have improved since my first skills lesson.

Loop: is landing on one foot but I can't glide out yet and end up doing a loop on the ice before getting out.

Waltz: higher and more flow.

Toe Loop: same as Waltz

Salchow: finally is popping into the air again.

Flip: didn't have time to work on the flip with coach, he had to leave.

Pretty Green Still:
LFI op Mo and LFI3's are head trips for me. Need to work on my grey matter so that it doesn't matter.

Second half of the Waltzing Mohawk Skill in Prelim Skills, I get to the point of the first LFI op Mo and I freeze. For some reason, I can't do the second half at the same speed I'm doing the side with the RFI op Mo. But so what, the LFI op Mo are new for me.

Waltzing Threes Skill: I keep forgetting to do the forward step before changing feet to do the next 3. But it was the first time, I've learned this skill. What I wan't to know is why couldn't they have made it so that we could step on to the 3's from a preceeding backward step. That would make it so much easier to do them. Having real issues with the LFI3. Help!

Fresh Crip Apples:
Ran through my freeskate and did mostly a better job with my jumps except that I left out the Lutz because the other skater was passing behind me when I was going to take off.
Did 1 and half revs on the camel before changing to a 2 rev sit before changing to a 3 rev upright to end my freeskate.
Got my freeleg to cross just below the knee during my sitspin. I can feel that I'll be getting my sit to clean up soon.

Change edge spiral: changing the edge a little better. Gaining more control.

Bad Apple: My back is giving me issues on RBI edges during skills and after changing from RFI to RFO during my spiral sequence. I'll be seeing my chiropractor after skating today to fix it. (Yes, I haven't gone to bed yet.)

I've got really weak forefeet. Are there any exercises to strengthen my feet?I hadn't noticed how weak my feet were until I've started learning skills. After skating my feet were really tired and sore.

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"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

If it's just the front part of your feet, my sports med guy gave me a couple of really good exercise. Take a hand towel and lay it out flat so the length of it extends out in front of you when you are sitting on a bench or chair or the side of a bed. Put both feet so your toes are on the end closest to you. Now use your toes to grab the towel and continue gathering it up by scrunching up the fabric with your toes.When you get the entire towel scrunched up, lay it out again and do the same thing with first one foot, then the other. (Is this explanation clear?)

The other exercise he had me do was to pick up marbles using just my toes. It sounds easy.. but by the time you get to about the 20th marble... well, it's not quite so easy. He had me do 25 marbles per foot.

Not only do you have to do the work to satisfy both your personal trainer and your coach.. you have to PAY both of them too for this privilege too! Good thing you like to work hard and keep them happy.

I've been up since 4:30am and I am very tired.

MITF - meh. Struggled with inside spirals and every three turn in creation. Gak.

Spins - meh. I can't find the spin spot on my regular spins unless I do a sit spin. Backspins are okay.

Still getting used to the 1/2" ROH. This may have been a bad idea.

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It's all about control. I think that's the focus of the skill actually on the sheet, control of forward 3 turns. If you turned into the three from another rotation, it primes the turn and it flips around, which, yeah, is easier. By having to step off one lobe onto an edge that *begins* the next lobe, it shows that you have control of the actual 3 turn.

It will come. For the majority of skaters, the LFI 3 turn and also the LFI mohawks are the tough spots. Don't worry about calling it an open mohawk either, some sort of steppy change foot step (my judge friends are cringing at the moment) will do. The idea is to get power from that step, and the key point in that exercise is not exactly the mohawk, but the push back or landing position step that follows. Practice mohawk in to landing position stretch back, both ways.

Honey Crisp Synchro was a lot of fun last night. We learned our new block footwork, and I didn't die doing the bunny hop! It's actually a lot more secure holding on, then on my own. We get to do arms off the end during our chasses, instead of just holding them down, and I love that. I also got picked to do a move in isolation- a scratch spin with another girl. I'm SO excited about doing this, because I have such a rough time with synchro sometimes and it's nice to be able to be recognized as good at something. Of course, its kind of sad that I get to do the spin, because I'm replacing a new member who isn't going to be able to skate with us after all due to competition conflicts with students he coaches But it's still a fun spin, and I learned a new entrance for it- from a 3 turn instead of crossovers.

A bit green Of course, now that I'm doing that, I no longer am IN the pinwheel to start, but have to CATCH the pinwheel- and even though I more or less wait for them to get to me, rather than catching them- OMG are they going fast when they pick me up. That's going to be the hard part!!!

My knees still hurt from Tuesday, and I have a lesson tonight- but I am so ready to rock my test on Saturday...

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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)

Green:
-Running score: FO power 3s: 2; Jen: 0. Detailed stats: one blade click of death, one pitching over backward & sideways & flying backward to land (fortunately) on my bum to scare my coach (who was sure I'd broken something). Lordy, lordy, lordy.
-For the last few weeks I have NOT been able to spin. At all. Two feet or one foot. Managed ONE 2-foot spin today but only from a standstill. 3-turn entrance? Forget it.
-coach accused me of trying to hide my crappy salchow. I guess I am just not getting my weight over the takeoff foot. Just standing in place on the takeoff foot with hips/shoulders/arms all in the right place? I can't even hold that!!!!

Honey Crisp:
Learned (sort of) the Fiesta Tango, thanks to dance buddy. Cha cha coming along.
Worked with coach on 5-step mohawk & much improved. Much need for practice but a much better idea of where I need to be.

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

CONGRATULATIONS RachelSk8er

Honey Crisps:
Forced myself to go practice today and got in a good hour totally alone on the ice! Prelim power threes are almost back to their best, which is passing for Bronze, but still short of passing Prelim. Did two sets of spiral stretches, with the second one better, as usual. Worked on figures, including BO eight, which was OK. Did F & B power XO's for fun, and also cross strokes. Had to do the B twice because I was a little hesitant the first time. Even worked on F power pulls a little.

Green & Bitter:
Spinning is so bad that I set myself the task of just doing 2 foot spins from one end of the rink to the other (on the narrow hockey lines) so I could see my tracings clearly. The object of the exercise was to feel everything tight and in place and focus only on that. Was going along fine until I did FI threes on the line and then back to spins. Somehow got scared during the threes, nothing happened, just got that bad scared feeling. Went to begin another row of two foot turns, stiffened from the fear, caught an edge and fell on my L hip. I was already down in the knees so it wasn't too far to the ice, but I felt it jar all the way across my pelvis. I made myself do one more spin, which was quite good, then left, as once I'm scared, it's not safe anymore. Going to take a nice strong prescription NSAID now.

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Slept in? Around here days start at 4 a.m., except Sunday, then I sleep in until 5:30!

Fresh: I am going to have fun with my new Interpretive It is going to be a blast!

Green: Me! Started coming down with a cold yesterday.

Fresh: But I skated anyway and started the choreography for the new program.

Green: The other 3 skaters on the ice were getting ready for a competition so it was program music over and over. Wouldn't have been so bad except they had it so LOUD I couldn't hear MY music with ear buds and my MP3 player turned up full!

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

Fresh Honey Crisp Apple: went to the rink for drop in freestyle and was the only one on the ice! Was a bit down today...stressed from work/school/hubby/kid etc.... and it was REFRESHING to skate for ME!!! and alone at that! Things that were good today: Waltz jump (always working on that one), salchow is going well now that I'm holding the back edge of the 3-turn and trying to kick through on the jump; and then there is the jump I'm finally falling in love with: TOE-LOOP!!! I did a few that were so smooth and truly vaulted!

Still a little green: spins......yeah! Still having big issues with them. Not sure what's up with them-I remember (back in the day) when I used to do scratch spins like the dickens! Ok, so now I can't even center them unless I hold the entry edge longer, ARCH my back, and really try to hold my free leg up higher...sheesh! Backspins were bleh..got a little dizzy and managed a few at a whopping 3 revs...whatever.

then there is the loop jump. At least it doesn't freak me out do them; and I didn't catch my pant leg this time (no I didn't wear just leggings <g>) I just keep putting my free foot down. But on one, I landed on the right foot then tapped down, so I guess that's a bit of progress?

And I'll put this under "green" because I'm still working on them-crossovers. forward and backwards. I'm still too far back on my heels, but I didn't feel uneasy and did about 10 loops around the circles for fwd/back. Tried to get 5 crossovers around each circle. I'm sloooowly getting there.

Good session, still jazzed about the toe-loops! I remember when I HATED doing them, because I hated 3-turns (really I didn't do them well).

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

[Fresh Apples]
Had a lesson with coach today...although, she took me earlier than she normally does, which just screws me up...

[A little green]
We worked on moves not freestyle...

[Greener still]
Coach mentioned testing my novice moves....IN NOVEMBER...

[Even Greener]
The rocker/choctaw pattern is just giving me horrible fits...

[Extremely green]
We did my program...I forgot all of the fluff we put in...and the footwork sucked...only marked jumped, but I also need remedial forward double-3s...I'm not really "skating" my program yet and coach wants to see it start to flow...which, at this point, I'm not worried about the program, I'm more worried about the actual jumps and spins...

[As Green as Green can Be]
My axel...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

lol I am NOT a morning person - my 4:30am would be the equivalent of 1am for you! I can't believe I actually got my feet to move that early and I didn't get hurt. The iPod helped and I stuck to easy stuff like moves.

I coached one of my private students tonight during the freestyle. On the same session, I watched one of the guys with whom I teach groups doing beautiful alternating FI twizzles down the ice. (He also did a bunch of beautiful change-edge spreadeagles. Spreadeagles are the sexiest thing a guy can do on the ice, IMO. There's just something attractive about a well-done spreadeagle on a guy. But, I digress.)

After we finished teaching groups later, he and I spent a few minutes working on twizzles. Could the the blade sharpening, could be the different check he had me use, but I'm satisfied either way: My RFI is not half-bad and I managed a few LFI's without touching down. Only managed one rev on each, but they're really fun! They're back on my practice list again!

(I still miss you, Lov2sk8! You're my good-luck charm for most things, lol.)

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Yeah... isn't this just AWFUL!!?!? Darn AOSS!!

ETA: Just got my skating dress... and the SPANX undergarment that I *will* wear along with it. (Oh, dear!!! The rest of me is okay but the paunch... )

__________________
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!!!

The passing mark for both Preliminary and Bronze is 2.5... the power threes should be considered as passing at the same level for both tests. Are your judges really giving that much leeway to adult testers? Around here, if the standard varies, it's usually a bit higher for adult tests! (even though they are supposed to be the same)

Fresh: Got my sit spin even lower and more turned out - so much so that the outside of my boot was skimming the ice!



Green: Didn't eat enough yesterday and as a result I wasn't as energetic this morning.
This has just been rectified why do they bother putting calories per cake? - just tell me how many for the whole box!!

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Skate Free

What's with skating at the moment? We had a fantastic practice, too, with only two other skaters on the ice, and nobody else wanting the music! And after Husband left, I was alone on the ice for about 20 minutes.

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

Congratulations RachelSk8er !

6 am Moves class

Green - crosstrokes and doubles 3s for me translates into swing rolls, 3 turn, two foot turn and even those were horrible.

Then she goes to brackets and I've had enough doing a baby version of these hard things and ask if I can work on 3 turns. "Only if you try a couple of brackets on two feet - this will help you with your 3 turns" Okay. it wasn't so bad.

I tell her about my problem doing 3 turns at speed so she has me go on the circle, do two crossovers, and then a 3 turn...This actually helps, but I won't figure out why until our lesson...

Lesson - Green 3 turns turn to honey crisps

So in my program I do a half lutz - LO3, Mazurka, half flip and the 3 turns in this sequence are the worst part. So she reminds me about how I did the 3 turns on the circle and I realize that doing the 3 turns on the circle reminded me that I have to set up those 3 turns ON AN EDGE...in my program I was trying to turn going straight and flat. No wonder. So I tried it by slowing down and thinking first about setting up the 3 turn, on the edge, very much like I set up for my mohawk in the Swing Dance. Walla! Instant improvement. Man I love those quick fixes! Instead of thinking "I have to do a mazurka or half flip" I need to think first, set up the edge for the 3 turn. Again, as in many other problems that I thought "oh I'm too scared to do a 3 turn going fast" - no - it's not fear, it's that my body is set up so incorrectly it is IMPOSSIBLE to do the 3 turn. Set it up, 3 turn happens.

We went through the program and we had to fix my waltz jump after my back spiral - same problem, not setting up the edge and trying to do a walz jump going straight on the flat. Can't do it. That was a little harder to fix because I just have problems with the waltz in general, but we're getting there.

And I end with a two foot spin with my arms over my head and she reminded me to straighten out my elbows, head up, but shoulders down. I really like the detail. Some coaches will say - put your arms over your head...but my coach explains exactly how to do that so it looks pretty. Doesn't come natural to me so I appreciate the details.

Still a little green Last 5 minutes "pick a move" she says - so I say back crossovers. I'm making progress, I'm on the middle of my blade rather than totally forward but she wants me back more on my heels. She suggested thinking about pressing my back arm down more.

j

I skate a competitive session, 7 -9 weekdays, and they are usually quiet. Except immediately before a test or competition, there are usually less than 6 skaters. It is awkward, because I have to make up time at work, but there is SO MUCH mutual respect you never have to worry about what is behind you or where somebody else is going ..... BOY AM I SPOILED!

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

Honey Crisp:
My cold has improved enough to return to the ice. Worked on power, footwork and spins yesterday. Not terribly great, but not shabby either. I left satisfied and very tired after 1-1/2 hours.

Two freshman skaters showed up to practice synchro. It looks like the university rink has enough students interested this year to form a synchro team once again. That's nice to see.

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Bill Schneider

honey crisp - did both lesson and practice this week, which is way more skating than I've gotten any given week the last few months. Worked with coach on spins, BO3, and my loop. Didn't land the loop but have plenty to work with trying. My spins are improving - forward and back - since I've been paying attention to advice given and practicing them hard.

still green - starting on sit spins - which with summer coach means doing something like a squat spin (two foot). interesting. feels pretty awkward and dorky, but I'm willing to believe in it.

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It's all about the dress!

Fresh Honey Crisp
I patted myself on the back this morning for skating a nearly clean program even though I was a little tired and had only skated my program twice in the past 4 weeks. I was also proud of myself for making good headway on my new combination spin and finally fixing the wonky flying camel (looks like the fix is for real this time!).

Still a Little Green
Although made a little more progress on fixing the takeoff and air transition for the double sal, I was too tired to really go for the double and see if it was going to work. I'll test it out Sunday when I'm more rested. . . It would be nice to have that jump back.

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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