First off- on Sunday when I saw this thread I freaked out thinking I missed Mother's Day. Dh thought I was crazy, as it's in May here.

Mothers who skate Fantastic fantastic lesson yesterday. In group lesson we worked on spins- and I actually did 2 nice combo spins (3 fwd, 3 bwd, 3 fwd) enough that the instructor came over and asked why I wasn't crossing my feet. I don't cross because usually they are rubbish- they were rubbish for the rest of the night after that.

Then I did some work on camels, which are laughable and always seem to end up with me sitting on the ice, while the other high level in the class did sit spins. I later worked with my coach and he said my problem with the camel is solely that I don't have my body weight over my spinning foot, and everything else is more or less where it should be.

Then we did 8 step mohawk, which is a million times better than 5 step mohawk. Possibly just because I can practice just my good side if I want. So yeah- not actually better, but we only did one side last night and that was fantastic and fast, and only one almost scary fall, that I caught myself from.

Then in private lesson I learned my program (to "Execution" from Pocahontas). Then at the end of the lesson I had the ice to myself and did the program and it went okay. I love love love back outside spirals. That's the best part. I moved the ISI 3 footwork off the center circle, and suddenly I can't do it anymore. But my coach and I both thought it would look better to the judge if I created my own circle instead of needing to guide on a hockey circle. I just need to stop practicing on those circles and get used to it elsewhere and it will be fine. I end the program in a scratch spin, so i have a second chance at the combo if the first ends up going terribly wrong. it's a pretty good program I think.

Skating Mothers Freestyle group class had some new kids move up into it, and the levels are just SO far apart. When we worked on scratch spins the instructor found out two of the kids were still doing 2 foot spins, and so he had to teach them 1 foot spins, another kid had never done a wind up into a 1 foot spin, so he drew that out, the other adult and I have been doing scratch spins for a long time but they aren't great, and one other kid above us could drill a hole in the ice with her scratch. So I think he was really frustrated with the mix of levels.

At the beginning of class we worked on back outside edges, and he quickly moved the other adult and me to a different line and had us do inside instead (yuck) while he taught basic edges to the kids. The skate director told me she might seperate the class next session- which would be so awesome. I don't mind the crowded class as the instructor is just that good, that it's worth it for a few minutes of advice.

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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)

Mothers who skate: Boot break in coming along, they are really starting to feel like they are mine now its week 3. Today MIF is flowing better (still stiff on that left inside mohawk, though, in the 5-step), and I'm getting my spin back. Yesterday I did some jumps and I think they are getting close to what they were in the old boots, but they feel much more secure as my heel is not lifting. Yeah!

Skating mothers: backspin, backspin, backspin.

[Skating Mothers]
I am absolutely OVER intermediate moves. Done...finished...ugh!! I have a week and a half before I test them again, and I just want to be done with them...that bracket pattern is the devil and the slide chasse pattern is so not working, grrrrrrrrr....

Camel and Camel/sit were not happening today had a friend count revolutions and I'm not getting my 6 I need...that spin is off and on anyways, but I really need it to be on right about now....

[Mothers who Skate]
Jumps were okay today.

I did my program twice and did one clean-ish run through...

Nothing was truly horrible today, but nothing was really all that stellar either...

Hoping for the best case!

Mothers who Skate:
Very dull blades seem to improve my three turns. I've even been doing some RFI / RBO threes, which were unthinkable just two weeks ago. Now I'm afraid to sharpen. Think I'll just spruce them up with the Pro-Filer. Went to the rink early today to practice and ended up picking up a lesson, but managed to just fool around with FO and FI three turns as I skated afterwards, which was very nice since I was able to just do them casually and checked them all pretty well. That put them into the category of fun, which I definitely need more of!

Skating Mothers:
I had planned to get up early and skate outdoors this morning, but could not sleep until 7 AM , and we had a huge rainstorm and warm weather, so skating outside was not an option anyway.

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Mothers who skate:
In CanSkate today, I got to work the whole session minus the warm up with the Yellow group and started to choreograph them a program to the Mickey Mouse Club theme music. For the most part is was a lot of fun except for this one little skater who seems to not want to listen to instructions. This skater also does not stop at all. I'm wondering if they're mentally challenged because when I look right into her eye's and then tell her something she at least tries to do what is asked.

Salchow wasn't as sour as last time and I was able to do it in combination. Toe loop and waltz jumps rocked. Did a fast centered forward scratch spin which I couldn't even count the rotations but it sure felt good. Then I did another scratch with about 5 or 6 revs and was able to change position to a back catch foot spin with another 2 revs. Not bad for day 3 of breaking in boots.

Skating Mother:
Had to get off of the ice 10 minutes early because my ankles were killing me but at least I don't have any blisters yet. I've been putting on "Nu Skin" on my feet before skating.

singerskates

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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

Skating moms: Work schedule left little time to skate this week. Felt crappy all day prior to skating, so of course skated like crap too. Learned side toe hop in class today. I must have put way too much thought into it. How does something so simple turn into something hard?? I have to turn off my brain sometimes...

Moms who skate: Learned Ballet Jump today and it came pretty easily to me. Nice cute little jump which would look even better if I dropped 40 pounds. 3-turns are improving, even the LFI3. I'm off work this weekend and will work night shifts next week, which means more time to skate!

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Mothers who skate: I've done my entire program, all the jumps and spins, for the past three days and wanted to die at the end less each time!

Mothers Who Skate
I had a great class last night-I learned how to do a toe loop right the first try!

Skating Mothers
The skating mom who I've had issues with before is now definitely unhappy with me, since her daughter (who is 6) has taken a liking to me and partners up with me in class. I help her with her jumps, she helps me with my spins. Her mom thinks I'm keeping her daughter from learning how to do things the right way. She complained to the teacher last night, but she told her we've both improved more since we started helping each other. She was furious! HA Ha ha!

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deannathegeek
"It's like trying to do a toe loop in hockey skates-you have to have the right tools for the job."

Started antibiotics Tuesday for inner ear/sinus infection -

SM (Boy that can be taken the wrong - but still appropriate - way!) I swear the pills are contaminated - they smell and taste like solvent! - but with only 2 skating weeks to Nationals, I am taking them ANYWAY! (Until I get a chance to get back to the pharmacy today.)

MWS Felt a little better this morning than I have for the past week and wanted to get the revised Free choreography out on the ice. Spins weren't happening (no surprise with inner ear problems) but everything else (except toe loop) wasn't too bad and the new choreography seems to work except we have to rearrange a little to get the spiral sequence back in.

There's hope - not much time, but hope.....

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

You're doing this child a favor, teaching her to be accepting of others. Good work!

I blew off my lesson and practice on Tuesday for a sickly child. Looking at the calendar, I can see there's a "Tuesday Sickly" pattern...hmmm...

Did off-ice exercise yesterday and even jogged on the treadmill. Woohoo!
Supposed to go skate this morning, but I'm dawdling.

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Forgot to post yesterday:

Skating mothers: There is so much of our choreography I just plain can't do yet! And much more that I do very badly. But it will come.

Mothers who skate: But I now more or less have all 8 3-turns! Although the back 3s are more like 2 1/2 turns.... but they are coming! And my coach was really impressed with my FO3s for some reason, although I am not sure why.

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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!

Mothers Who Skate:
I found some time to practice early this afternoon, and did two rounds of Prelim power threes - a move that has been defeating me for a very long time!
I even managed the intro LFO three in the pattern. Played around more with FO and FI threes and even did a few going faster than I'm used to. Did the BO edge exercise for backspin and then tried from a RFI three and got one rev. Can feel that I'm standing straighter (not breaking at waist). Later, before leaving for the day I did some FO threes with arms behind back. Coach did them for me ages ago to demo the importance of shoulders, and I said in no uncertain terms that I was not going to do THAT!

Skating Mothers:
Got home to find message from coach that she has to cancel my (and DD's) lesson tomorrow . Will go anyway and practice hard.

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[Skating Mothers]
Power circles...they have gone down the toilet they have no power and the timing is off, even with the CD...don't know what the heck happened because they were doing so well....

Brackets were horrible...e-mailed coach and told her that whoever thought those were a good idea needs to have their head checked....she thought I was kidding...

Program was not good today I can do each of the elements singularly, but putting them all together is just not happening...

I need to slow down and work on my entrance to my camel spin...I'm doing something funky...

[Mothers who Skate]
At the end of the session, I was goofing around because I didn't want to do axels or double sals (I have a HUGE bruise on my right knee and I do not want to fall on that again), so I did some laybacks which were okay...I need to lean back more, but they are feeling better. Then I did some catch foot spirals and ina bauers and attempted spread eagles...it was cute because one of the younger skaters said to her mom afterwards, "Kim can do so many cool things that I need to learn how to do!" and told her mom that I "pinky swore" (to which her mom looked at me and said that it must be pretty big if I pinky swore...this girl is 10 years old, so that is a HUGE deal), that if next year, I don't have something for work, that I will do the ice show (I'm going to be in Atlanta during our show this year for work)...her mom actually said that that would be really good (I am the ONLY adult skater that I know of with the club...and I'm there every day but Saturday). That was just super cute and it made me feel really good

Are your blades dull? I find I have a much harder time getting power on those pushes with duller blades.

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SM: Sunday was a terrible skate. Couldn't do anything. I hung around just for the cardio. Couldn't do any decent axels in the lesson today. Coach is pulling his hair out because I'm so close and keep screwing it up. My loop has gone on a long vacation and didn't bother leaving a forwarding address.

MWS:Toe loops have come back from vacation. Landed the first one in lesson today. Also (sort of) landed the first salchow. Camel spins have been getting more consistent. Half the reason of going to lessons is to show coach I can do it. The other half is to actually learn something. Does anybody else feel the same way?

Skating Mothers:

Well, let's just say that my coworkers have consistently tried to schedule important meetings that I have to attend RIGHT ON THE DAY that I was supposed to WORK FROM HOME!!! This week was no exception! A luncheon to celebrate a software release was moved from tomorrow to today to accomodate 3 developers who usually work from home on Fridays!!! Of course, *I* wasn't an important part of the release (even though I've put in weekends and evenings on it the past month!!! ) And they were gonna let me skip this luncheon if I can't reschedule my lesson around the luncheon

Mothers Who Skate:

I am VERY VERY THANKFUL that primary coach was kind enough to schedule his time around my situation. THANK YOU JAY!!!!

Skating Mothers:

Both of my run thrus of my technical were CRAP for various reason. Luckily for me the SECOND of the two runthrus was better than the first.

Mothers Who Skate:

Okay, it's probably royally cheated, but I landed serveral lutzes today. YAAAAAAY!!!

Time to go to bed...

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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!!!

Oh but thats great practise! Way to go!

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~
Tidesong

Not sure which category this one goes under ...

Did my program for the last time before I leave for Easterns. Nailed the opening choreo and the axel ... then downhill. Fell on the lutz-loop (I never!) and was so late getting up I had to completely leave out the camel-layback, landed the last lutz on two feet and fell out of the layback. Ended up getting all :drama: and upset (PMS + competition nerves = bag of tears).

But I had my coach videotape the program, and watching it, I was stunned that it didn't look nearly as bad as it felt! So I suppose that even my worst nightmare-type program, which this was, isn't that terrifying.

I should be relieved, actually. The worse I skate before a test or competition, the better I end up doing! But boy, does it feel like crap still.

Maybe...it has been 3 weeks...thanks

Hey! Maybe it's going around... That happened to me today, too!!! I hope it's not too contagious! You have such great edge quality and overall skating that it probably won't matter anyway! Your falls look better than my landings!


Here's for today and yesterday, my last practices before Easterns:

SM:
-botched the toe loop AFTER landing the axel in my program.
-As mentioned, struggled with the lutz-loop-loop
-didn't feel as strong as I'd like on the overall skating and choreography
-struggling a little with the first axel in the program
-a little tired today, and my program lacked energy
-flying camel hasn't been as fast as it used to be

MWS:
-landed a total of 3 out of 4 axels in 2 program run throughs
-had a great, really fun lesson!
-layback has returned to me- and I know how to keep it, now!
-the final combo spin, now a sit/ change/ variation is much stronger
-Actual thought during a run though: Wow, am I really almost done? That was fast!

Skating Mothers: It's almost funny how horrible I am at remembering choreography. Really, it's funny-tragic. We totally revamped my footwork sequence and my poor coach had to deal with me not getting it after she showed it to me oh, at least five times. That woman has the patience of a saint.

Still no camel but it's not in the program anyway.

So stressed out about work that I was very shaky on the ice for the first 10 min of warmup. (made two really, really dumb mistakes at work yesterday)

I don't know if this should go in the other category, but the lutz is out of the program for now - can't get it in time for competition. It means I'll lose but I don't care, my goals for this comp are: 1) don't make fool fool of self, and 2) skate clean program. Lutz, schmutz. Oh and twice I forgot to add the toe loop at the end of the flip (oops)

Mothers who skate: I did at least five flips today! YAY Only one of two in the program but progress is being made. I finally got the hang of waiting a beat after the 3 turn and toeing in.

Good sit spin and really good front scratch to back scratch. I was thrilled. Loop is consistent again. I think once I remember this footwork I'll be good at it.

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

Grandma On Ice: Must have had a good workout yesterday 'cause it took awhile to get the stiffness out. (That's ok, after being sick for a week, I NEEDED a good workout!)

Warmed up jumps (so-so) and spins ( which still aren't happening since the ear infection), edges and crossovers.

In lesson, we went back to finish the Interpretive choreography. First determination was to cut the music to minimum time - it's too long and will get boring. Another challenge is to find a "low" opening pose that I can actually GET UP from! (Hey, I'm 58 - gimme a break!)

Lots of work yet to do on the Interpretive, lots of practice needed on the Free program, and only 10 skating days left..... EEK! MOTHER!!??

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

haha - great thread title, glad I'm actually getting to post to it.

I've been bearing a much stronger resemblance to a skating mom than a mom who skates lately, with one cold after another. I posted two weeks ago that I'd gotten better and had my lesson - and promptly got sick again. Work is way to busy to stay home unless I'm running a fever, and I wasn't, so I went in and just took that much longer to get better.

Today though, I'm a skating mom. I had a day off and went to the later freestyle where there are actual human beings besides myself for company. I had a total blast. Jumps were good, edges good. Spins not so great. I've lost a few pounds and I find weight changes throw me off. Especially since my spins aren't that great to begin with. Program runthroughs were great, elements are a little shaking after so much time off ice, but I felt mentally refreshed, and I really got into interpreting the program. I feel like it's really going to look good.

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It's all about the dress!

Skating Mothers: Rink politics! Which meant very little got done, as people were upset and just talking.

Mothers who Skate: I do have a new skirt, and am going to have a lovely outfit for my free dance!

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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!

Thursday's practice:

Skating Mothers:
Ice was HORRIBLE!! Hard, rough, rutted...just horrible. So I gave up on spirals - they were slow and shaky - and that was on my good leg.

Mothers Who Skate:
So I took the opportunity to work on my three-turns and mohawks - and something about them really clicked! I think it was the arms...but they were really working today. And, I worked out how to do the entry to a waltz jump!! So I did the entry, jumped, and exited...so I've decided I can now say I have my first jump.

Skating Mothers:
Took two nasty falls - ended up with two elbows bleeding everywhere. Quite funny actually - I got up covered in ice, in the middle of doing my ten RI three turns, and what did I think? 'Oww I'm bleeding'? Nope - 'Damn - I've lost count now'!