Only 15 days till Christmas, where will skating time come from?

shopping - got to early freestyle this morning, edge drills had that lovely rrrrrrrrrripppp sound, three turns felt controlled. I wore a dress and felt pretty

dropping videotaped my program runthroughs. always a humbling experience.

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It's all about the dress!

The club had their holiday show last night, and I was out late. Because of that, I skipped the early morning practice today and just went to the evening session. Even that was quiet for the first 45 minutes. I guess that everyone wore themselves out last night for the show - or celebrated too hard afterward.

I wasn't in the show. I had photo duties for the club as usual. Still, one of the adults brought a Santa hat and toy bag for me to ...ahem.., pose with.



Happy holidays everyone!

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Bill Schneider

Shopping: I finally got music for my freeskate! I've been waiting for it for 7 months. I was starting to think that I might have to skip mids and nats this year because I wouldn't have a program, so I'm thrilled that it's finally started. The IJS choreographer my rink uses is in town, and I'm hoping to finish layout of the program tomorrow. We started today, and I love what we have so far, my combo spin, spiral sequence, and axel. Now we have to fit 5 more jump passes and 2 spins into 1:30...

Thanks! Hope you have a wonderful holiday season, too!

What a great holiday card picture! We have a friend who was single until the ripe old age of 46. He traveled a lot for business, family (Greece/Cyprus) and pleasure. Every year he sent out a photocard of himself in one of these places - tripping over rocks at the Parthenon, snake-charming in Morocco, walking across the street (barefoot) at Abbey Road. Wonderful, funny, surprising. This is one of those photos - thanks for sharing it!

Shopping? Yep, instead of skating. And wrapping, and cleaning, and decorating a bit. But tomorrow's another day and the Coffee Club will be fun!

Dropping? Not too bad - it was very warm today, so I went for a walk in the sunshine and worked out on my spin trainer. The Maxiflex is wrapped, so I can't play with that anymore. lol

Great thread title, BTW!

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Great photo! I agree with Isk8NYC - you should put it on your cards!

shopping
we had our christmas show this past weekend. i just did a group number with some friends, and everyone seemed to love it which was nice.

double flips are getting closer. i've decided to work on them a bit even tho i need my new blades. still have issues on checking my shoulders and such, but i'm getting the rotation pretty well. i think i'm pretty close to getting it.

dropping
me! didnt get to skate today. i was busy getting ready for school and i fainted! i was just looking in the mirror, thinking about how nauseous i felt, and all of a sudden i woke up on the floor. threw up afterwards. so not good for my already sore throat (i'm getting over a cold). i'm not terribly concerned, but it was totally bizarre!

can't control the rotation on my double sal to save my life! even when i hardly pull in, i'm a quarter turn over! i don't know why my body thinks it's time for me to do triples...

hurt my hand warming up for the holiday show. i pulled in for a double sal, and managed to dig my nail into the webbing between my pointer and middle finger. took a chunk out. it was especially painful bc my hands were so cold

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Youtube Videos

First the Dropping

Been really unwell with a nasty cough and chesty cough. Managed to do my part as Frosty the Snowman in the Ice Show, but it was a struggle. Have only skated twice in past 2 weeks.


Shopping
My first sessions back I didn't have much energy for jumps and spins, so worked on gentler things a fair bit, and achieved some moves I have never before been able to do. Mostly some footwork patterns, but also change edge spirals for the first time ever.

So excited that at age 48 I am still learning new things and improving as a skater!!!

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Shopping:

Last night was the last session of our group class - we did testing which was sort of odd, we don't test every time, just once in a blue moon and I guess it was one of those times!! Since the last time I had tested it was just to check off the Adult 1-4 levels, the coach tested me for FS 1, the only iffy thing was the backwards 3's which I haven't worked on tons, but was able to pull them off OK when we went through them. Also the scratch spin from backwards crossovers, I got my 3 rotations but she wasn't sure if I had all of them in the crossfoot position, so I said I would give it another shot and try to show her a clean one, well, I pulled in and it felt pretty good and darned if I was going to fall off the blade!! So through sheer force of will I kept everything in balance somehow for 4 1/2 rotations in the crossfoot position - it was pretty humorous!! And I got my check mark!!

Did salchows in public session that felt pretty good! And DS showed me the mohawk entrance to the flip jump . . . now I just need to get the guts to rotate it . . .

Oh yeah . . . and I did a BAUER! I've worked on them before but never had one really solid and with distance . . this one did . . . it was fun!!

DS came to the public session with me for some extra practice for the Christmas show (this Sat) - his last practice in Sat. freestyle was awful - he fell a couple of times on the lutz and then got really frustrated and upset with himself and everything just went downhill from there. But last night he was like a different kid, he finally relaxed and just had fun with it and the difference was AMAZING!! (whew!!)



Dropping:

Didn't get a ton of practice in for myself because I was trailing DS a lot of the time while he rehearsed his program! But what I did work on felt pretty good. No complaints.

Shopping I finally signed off My Skate UK passports after passing gold Free today. I now have the Both dance and free completed and can now concentrate on to NISA Level 1 field moves, and dances after Christmas.

Dropping I'm full of a cold and didn't skate as well as I hoped so I feel a bit lost and empty after all the preperation and now its all over. never mind, onwards and upwards!

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Level one Field Moves......PASSED 05.06.08
Level one Free dance.....PASSED 02.10.08

GOALS FOR 2009

• Level One Compulsary dances.......PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Elements.....................PASSED 10.07.09
• Level Two Free dance.................PASSED 19.02.09
• Level One Free...........................
• Level Two compulsory dances.......

Loving it, Loving it, Loving it!!!!!

Haven't posted today's practice - it went ok - but just in a general funk. Later....

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

Congratulations! Will we be seeing you at competitions next year?

As for me:

Shopping: Good lesson and some useful pointers from the coach.

Dropping: Some things I thought were down to Husband were actually down to me.... alas....

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

Dropping:

• The amount of jumps I do during a session. I'm still recovering from lower back problems from last Thursday and want to limit the amount of jumping I do.
• Even if I was able to jump all I want, it would have been moot anyway. Monday night this week was REALLY crowded... to the point where our Silver level guy freaked out and cancelled his lesson right at the beginning of the session.
• Back sit could be better...
• Camels sucked for me. Then again, it's crowded and I didn't want to play Ginzu knives with someone's head there.
• Oh, dear! My bracket exercise for NYC coach is sucky. Could be b/c the ice is slushy though... but I really shouldn't use that excuse.
• I could do my footwork for my program, but couldn't push thru to speed b/c of the crowd.

Shopping:

• The few jumps I *did* were pretty solid. Loops and flips were fine. Loop-loop was a bit shaky though. I even managed to try a few lutzes just to see if I could land them. It's still a bit cheated, but all in all, I got 'em!!!
• Other spins were fine.

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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!!!

shopping - second freestyle morning in a row today, after three weeks of very little skating, I finally made some forward progress. Worked on some of the harder bits of my program, then had three good runthroughs - including one changefoot spin that might have been passing!

dropping - jumps were low and slow

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It's all about the dress!

Shopping:
Had a fairly good runthrough of my test program with Secondary Coach today. Not as nervous going into test day as I was last May when I last took this test.

Dropping:
My sitspin. I swear, if the bookies in Vegas were to see me skate, the odds would be 20:1 on me having to reskate the sit on test day. My goal is for that to be the only re-skate.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Shopping - Jumps were two-footed, but takeoffs were decent.
Moves were decent, esp. spiral patterns. Back XO were single-sided.

Dropping - I hate my skates (j/k); the blades need adjustments, but I can't get an appt. Grrr.

Spins were traveling, only managed 5 or 6 good ones. (Opposite spin was better)

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Shopping: Had a lesson with coach Wasn't planning on it, but she had some cancellations! Did 15 minutes of freestyle...worked on program and freestyle. We also figured out our crazy schedules for the next few months...which may require us to have lessons over our lunch breaks from our real jobs.

Did some okay scratch/back scratch spins...not up to my standard, but they are getting better.

Dropping: When started going through our calendars, it was almost comical that I'm going to try to test in February and there were may be 2 weeks leading up to that that we would be able to get together on our normal lesson time...

I was screwing up my lutzes today. I was on the wrong edge and just not doing well. And, I was rushing my flips...grrrr....but we did 2 run-thrus of my program, which is going pretty good. I need to work on moving quicker and actually performing the program...it's been a while...

I need to get my skates sharpened...we'll see if I find some time during work tomorrow to run that errand...

shopping - lesson with coach finally (missed two weeks for different stuff). I tuned my program a bit more the last two days, and she liked it. Salchow is better, we worked some more on the changefoot spin and fixed a problem with my threes that should make many things work better now. She really thinks I'll be ready to test in January.


The rink is pretty with the tree up!

dropping speed is not up to scratch at all

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It's all about the dress!

Dropping

Got stuck in my driveway --AGAIN. With my daughter driving and me pushing, I did get it out but I was too late for my lesson. Coach was nice enough not to charge me.

DD couldn't get out at all. Had to drive her to school.

j

DOH!!! Sorry to hear that, jskater49.

Dropping:

Me... I slept thru my alarm clock again. Hubby is sick and was dead asleep also. Not only could he not act as my backup alarm clock, but he also could help get my stuff together for preparing breakfast for me, so I had to do everything. GRRRRR!!! (Luckily for me, I had it set up in the fridge itself late last night figuring that whenever hubby is sick or has his various health ailments that I have to take care of myself AND him.) Still no mercy from secondary coach (or her team coach) for that matter. (It's okay. I can take it.)

Shopping:
True to her words, secondary coach made me warm up stroking, then with my jumps, before I did a runthru of my FS program. And given that I know that she wouldn't let me continue on with the rest of my program w/o landing a loop clean, I HAD to do it!!!

And just to make her point, she made me do the beginning of the FS program AGAIN thru the loop jump and made me land it clean again. (Well, it was a shaky clean landing... but only b/c this second loop jump ended up being much higher than the one on the first runthru. Or at least that's what secondary coach told me... )

Dropping again:
Footwork after the loop jump got really sloppy!!! Had to clean that up!!! GRRRR!!!

Also... had to clean up my toe loop too! Guess what? We're gonna relearn my toe loop YET again so I wouldn't toe-waltz. Wish me luck!!!

Had to skip my flip at the end in order to make my scratch spin at the end. Primary coach hasn't gotten around to trimming the footwork off my FS program in order for me to make the time towards the end. And besides that, the time for the setup for my loop jump to be clean took up some precious seconds off also.

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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!!!

Shopping:
Got on ice for first time with new hip. Still alive!!

Hip doesn't snap like last surgery, moves really well...absolutely terrifying. Can do nice deep edges, good cross rolls, 3 turns and good cross over forward and back. Managed about 40 minutes in skin tight jeans, tennis socks and skates I had not worn for over a year.

Dropping:
Realized I need to build strength up significantly. Only 3 weeks until I start back slowly with Adult Pre Bronze moves

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

Ahh! I was just PM-ing you to ask how you were doing! I am excited that your new hip is working so well! I'll have to remember to get one at the same place if I never need one, heh heh.

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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

Shopping -

Scratch spins are centered and strong.
Coach changed my flip entrance slightly. She has me holding back the push with my free leg which is making it less swingy and more controlled.

Dropping -

My loop has gone on vacation.
I am starting to despair over the sit spin. I may be pre-bronze for life.

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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

NIIIICE!!! Glad to hear about it!!! I'll definitely ping 'ya if, God forbid, I ever need a new hip too... (Jazzpants praying she will never *need* surgery to continue skating...)

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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!!!

This is a great picture Bill. Nice extension on the spiral! My coach would ask me why mine isn't like that :-).

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Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

Dropping: Husband couldn't skate for more than about 20 minutes this morning due to work issues, so it ended up being a solo skate for me.

Shopping: Coach was complimentary about my Russian stroking! Makes a change...

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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!