What, no practice thread yet this week??

I have yet to post for Sunday's synchro practice. Will just share that:

[annoying static] coach "hates Christmas"; all three of our teams were a bunch of bumbling idiots, having forgotten/gotten out of practice/etc over the holidays. It *was* frustrating.
[annoying static] dished out checks totaling about $250 for ice fees, costume fees, competition fees. . .
[lovely music] once I got over the "eek!" factor (this took quite a while) I was starting to feel quite comfortable with jumping. 2-footed spins were also continuing to go around 6+ revs fairly consistently.
[annoying static] must work with coach this week in the TAJophobia. I think I've never quite gotten the timing thing down on the toepick-assisted jumping anyway--I know I've only distinctly felt that "pop!" when the timing is just right only once or twice, and with my timidity surrounding the pick, well, it just needs work! I know that slamming the pick into the ice isn't the answer, and besides, it hurts when I do that!!

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

noisy static - no skating since wednesday - catching up at work, kids sick over the weekend. I found out yesterday that somehow I've completely overlooked the fact that the cf spin has two foot changes.

lovely music - coach is back from vacation, lesson again tomorrow.
Got to the 6am freestyle. I really wish they'd flood twice after late night hockey - there are still genourmous ruts in the morning, smooth edged from being zamboni'd but pretty deep.

Practiced the cf spin a whole bunch with the third spin in, it's actually coming along ok. Put my program music on set for repeat and did at least six runthroughs. Wish I had more stamina, it's getting ragged at the end. The return of spring and park running should fix that up around March.

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It's all about the dress!

Static: Still have a bit of a head cold which effected my skating - sweating a lot once I got warmed up and still subject to vertigo from spins, particularly sit spins.

Lovely music: Nonetheless a couple of the sit spins were right on! WAHOO! (Hey, when you are 58 years old and overweight a sit spin is an accomplishment - LOL!) Couldn't get them consistent though - not getting the spinning foot under me enough. Is a sit spin supposed to be on an outside edge? Seems to be the only way I can get the skating foot under me enough.

Upright spins and jumps were so-so (pretty good considering how I am feeling!), forward edges and XOs good, back edges so-so, (as usual)....

Static: ..... and back XOs ....... what "back XOs" - LOL!

Guess I will have to go back again tomorrow and TRY to make more progress before my coach comes back and thinks I have been dogging it for the past week! Maybe have to pick up a day and skate 4 days a week until the February competition ..... sleep is over-rated anyway

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

Lovely music: Back on the ice again after another cold/bad throat/virussy thing. No stamina or speed, so we worked on the European waltz.

Static: We worked on the European waltz. That is not an easy dance!

We had fun, though.

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

Lovely Music
This morning at 7:00am I had my first MIF lesson since my unsuccessful Intermediate MIF test on Dec. 14. In the weeks since my test, I finally managed to come up with a dependable fix on my nemesis move--the CW perimeter back power 3's on the left foot--and it seems to have really solved the problem (knock on wood!). I told my MIF coach about it this morning and she said, "OK, let's see it." I knew she had her doubts, and I think she was genuinely surprised when I totally nailed it on the first try! She said it was the best she'd ever seen me do that move. And it was on rock hard ice with dulling blades.

Annoying Static
Had much more trouble than usual on the brackets, probably a combination of neglecting them for at least a week and the fact that my edges were slipping. Chasse part of the slide chasses was also a little problematic, as were the BI double 3's. Hopefully they will all be better again after a good sharpening.

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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

Lovely Music:

-I went to my first early a.m. (5:50) session. Wow, it was early. But I got a lot of practice in, and felt great afterwards. At least it was warm today...I'm not looking forward to skating that early when it's 10 degrees outside!

-Also finally had my first lesson since August! Worked on Moves and dances. I have a lot to practice now

Annoying Static:

-I thought I was going to die in the middle of the early session. I got tired very quickly. I'll eventually get used to it, I suppose.

YAAAAY!!! Back to work for you, Morgail!

Lovely Music:
Filling out paperwork now for Adult Nationals!

Annoying Static:
Filling out paperwork now for Adult Nationals! (WOW!!! So much to fill out!!!)

Lovely Music:
It's nice to be back on the ice at my home rink after being in NYC. It's wonderful at Chelsea Piers and I love having my NYC coach around and having the oppty. of training full time with him and working serious towards our goals, but I miss my Monday night session and my coaches are ready and dying to get their hands on me on whatever torture they have in mind for me. (Ummm... maybe I should go back to NYC... )

Plus, I need to get back to work to pay for it all!

Annoying Static:
Of course, I don't miss the HUGE CROWDS of holiday skaters that are still coming in to skate. *sigh* I guess I'll wait 'til college is back in session and then I'll have a more "peaceful" session then.

Lovely Music (at least in primary coach's ears... well, sorta...)
I practiced the stuff that NYC coach gave me on the toe loop. I think I'll need secondary coach to look at this and see what she thinks.

I also practiced my new foot position on the loop entry and trying to get my free leg across when I jump up and rotate. I'm happier about it so far. I'm landing the jump more often now b/c of this fix and I managed a few more loop-loops b/c of this change. (Since I'm "feeling lucky...PUNK!!!" )

I also practiced shoot the duck down the length of the rink and tried to stay on as much as I possibly can. Primary coach is pleased that I'm finally trying to get down further on my sit spin.

Annoying Static:
Of course, he now wants me to turn the free foot more and THAT is partially what's throwing me off on my shoot the duck. Oh, well! My pants are soaked enough to appease the primary coach... so...

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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!!!

Uh oh! And your coach didn't correct that either???

__________________
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!!!

Static: the ice. I wiped out on my camel because the ice was so hard that nothing would grip at all. I guess with all the figure skating ice last week they decided to make up for it with extreme hockey ice this week. I also couldn't center anything and I'm not sure if it was the ice, the fact that they didn't sweep after shorttrack practice, or the large number of wild hockeyers getting in my way.

Music: Grabbing the leg for the spin with my foot biellmann-ish is becoming easier.

Other than that I spent the session teaching mom bunnyhops. Which went reasonably well. She's daring to do them by the boarding.
I tried her skates on at her insistance (OUCH my ankle bones hurt now, dear lord! I'm glad I don't have to skate for the next 2 days) and the mounting of the blades is fine now and I'd not say the skates are too hard, I could spin & power pull in them fine (despite them being a size too large for me). She claims not to be able to bend the ankle though, so I showed her ways to break in skates faster, which she could do at home. Not like she's breaking RF3 down skating once a week anyway.

I think the main problem is that she's "hanging" on the skates' boots instead of pushing on the edge - how does one go about fixing that anyway?! - and that just in general, she's attempting to use as few muscles as humanly possible, keeping no tension on anything. I spent a lot of the session being angry at her for it, and in the end, her spiral did improve majorly. She even started to push on the heel just a little bit.

Lovely Music: more backspins in the right position...Yay!!! toe-looooooops!!!! I'm starting to get the weight transfer and getting that "pop" into the air. My routine (with chair AND purse) went well today. No one crashed into the chair....that was good. And it did not stick to the ice, which was really good!

Annoying Static: Scratch spins-sucked. what else is new. Loops did not happen. foot work in routine is still dorky and got me all tangled up. Oh well, at least the date got moved for the exhibition so I'm ok with having more time.

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

[lovely music]

As predicted, coach saw a few of my axels today as she was in other lessons and pulled me over and said to do it again....no pressure there! Of course I choked when I thought she was watching...that always happens...but when I thought she was watching someone else, I was okay... I think she was a little amazed from the look on her face They are still not completely rotated...I need coach to take a look at them in a lesson to make some corrections (even today the few she saw she said I was sticking my butt out, and I can feel that I'm breaking at the waist a bit), however, I don't think that's going to happen until March because of testing...we'll see what she says on Thursday during our lesson...

Coach signed my test form, so I will send it off tomorrow! I also need to bring coach chili on Thursday for our lesson...I had said something about needing to time things with our lesson (we are skating at noon) because I'm making Chili for 20 (gotta' provide dinner for the students I supervise...we have training Thursday/Friday/Saturday), and she said, make that 21...so I need to bring her both some vegetarian and some meat!

Skating tomorrow and a little Thursday at lunch because of work stuff...I have training starting at 5pm on Thursday going until probably 10pm that night, and then Friday from 8am-6pm and Saturday from 11-2 probably....can't wait to get back to a normal schedule! Which won't be until February...maybe...if someone will take my duty for me

[annoying static]

The sessions today were crazy busy...and the ice was cruddy from skate school...

Still doing something funky with my lutz No clue what it is...

Scratch spins would NOT center today, and I just can't get onto the ball of my foot when I change to a back scratch....ugh!

Didn't get a chance to run through all of my moves today because it was just too busy...did the back power3s though...

Looked at our duty schedule for work (we all take part in an on-call rotation for a week at a time) and the person who did the schedule this semester put me on for the week before my test...I now need to find someone to either switch with me or to hold the phone for me for about 3 hours for 4 of the 7 days I'm on duty....hopefully someone will help out....

Lovely music: I finally sent my applications for Sectionals and ANs!! I'm officially competing now!

Did a huuuuge axel and then axel-loop in my lesson for my coach. After all the lessons of tears and miserableness because of the axel, it feels so great to have them consistent.

I asked my coach to look at my traveling layback and really crappy back sit, and I got great feedback. The free leg in the layback needs to be curled behind more, back sit is wide-stepped and the free leg isn't crossed enough, which is pulling me off the spin.

Annoying static: My ribs are so sore, and I have no idea why.

I've been asked to teach FIVE learn to skate classes at my rink, in addition to the 1.5 hours I'm teaching at another rink Saturdays. I'm really happy for the experience and income of course, but I am going to be so tired. It's a good thing that three classes are on Saturday, when I don't skate for myself. And I thought I was at the rink a lot before!

Lovely Music: Healthy again.
Annoying Static: Strength is not yet back.

Lovely Music: Adult Public ice on Tuesdays at Forest Glade Arena (person in charge lets us adults do anything we wish). Met a few other adult skaters during the session. They were from the Adult Rose City Rhythms who train at Forest Glade Arena on Sundays. I was quite surprised that I spun better then them but then, they haven't been working on freeskating for a long time.
Had the room at the end of the session to run through my freeskate program once from beginning to end.

Annoying Static: Because I'm still on the weak side ( was sick from Christmas Eve until last Saturday so I couldn't go to City/Ticket Ice to Freeskate ), my jumps didn't have much in the way of height especially my split and flip. I totally just bailed on the Lutz and skated through it. Second half of my RFO ce RFI spiral during my spiral sequence was too short because of a lack of speed going into it. My forward corkscrews still thought it was the holidays even though I was cracking 10 revs. Same goes for my forward sit/broken sit. On the sit, I know that I'm not getting my free leg close enough to my skating leg in the first part of my sit.

Lovely Music: Back catch spiral on LBI edge is much smoother and travels a good distance down the ice diagonally to my split/flip/toe.
Still can do my LFO spiral/lunge move into my corkscrew without any steps or turns in between which is the last thing I do my my program.

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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

Annoying static

I've decided I don't like freestyle anymore - which is a little inconvenient, considering I'm competing both a freestyle and artistic next week. It showed when I ran through my freestyle for my coach. It was the worst run-through of my life - I just gave up. She was pretty disgusted with me.

A little better music - I ran through it again with music after my lesson and did a better job, artistic wasn't too bad.

Also she says my back spiral is better than my forward spiral - my leg is actually hip level and I don't bend my knees at all. Othere than that, nothing good.

Dd had her first dance student, I thought she was so cute in her coach's jacket. Made the mistake of tellining her that and got the eye roll.

j

Lovely music: Skated for 90 minutes today (not all of it hard by any manner of means!), first time I've been able to do that for months. Not working has some advantages. Not many, but some!

Static: Coach laughed at us when we were practising the European waltz before my lesson.
I don't push myself nearly enough when skating solo.
Still hate FO swing rolls solo.

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

Dead Silence!!! Some days are better forgotten!

Woke up today physically and emotionally exhausted (rough day yesterday!). Normally, when I take to the ice I am able to leave everything else behind but not so today - no spark, no energy, no nuthin! Absolute waste of time......

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

Lovely Music:
I passed junior moves today!!!! Apparently, the third try was the charm. I'll post details on my blog: http://myste12.blogspot.com/.

Annoying Static:
I fell on a forward power circle and hit the boards feet first at full speed two days ago. It didn't hurt at the time, but my left ankle hurts something fierce today. I was really lucky to make it through my test today. I can't point my toe at all, and I don't have words to describe how painful FI rockers were. I've confined myself to the computer chair and couch for the rest of today in hopes that I'll be able to skate tomorrow. I've got a lesson, and I want to start my senior moves darn it!

CONGRATULATIONS!

Still no practice for me, but this is the first day I've started to feel better, so I'm hoping for tomorrow.

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Lovely Music:
Managed after a couple of dud loop jumps in my warm up to get my loop mojo back...

Annoying Static:
...'til I did my first runthru. Of course, I didn't land the first one and the coach stops the music right after I two foot the loop.

Lovely Music again:
Then I finally started the program again and the first run thru was quite smooth. I managed to even finish the program on time and land my flip at the tail end of my FS program!!! Nice!!!

Then I went back and started the beginning pose and did the section all the way to the loop, expecting that when I step out that my coach was gonna stop the music right after that since I did land it and our usual training regiment was that after the first completed runthru, we do the program again but only to after my loop jump. I expected the music to stop but I didn't stop b/c I'm trained to do the program all the way 'til the music stops.

Annoying Static again:
... but the music didn't stop!!! EVILLE secondary coach decided to make me go do a DOUBLE RUN THRU!!! AUUUUGH!!!

Lovely Music again:
So I just concentrated on pushing thru my program and just kept going. And I managed to get thru that runthru and finish it. I was a little behind at the ending with the last spin... but I DID land the flip jump at the end on the SECOND runthru as well too!

Annoying static:
But we still have to fix my toe-waltz in my jump sequence! Apparently, we found out that I could do them in isolation but not within a jump sequence. NYC coach had trained me to do them in isolation (i.e. toe loop by itself), so secondary coach had to finish that grim task of making me go thru his drill, but in a jump sequence. I have MORE stuff to practice this week... EEEEK!!!

Thankfully, I DID managed to actually do toe loops now, so secondary coach knows that I have worked on this with my NYC coach... so a BIG "Thank You, NYC COACH!!!" (I'll be sending him a box of chocolate soon...)

Lovely Music:
Secondary did say that overall, she's glad I went off to NYC to train with the NYC coach! I needed that different perspective... and I needed that "working with a new coach and being on my best behaviour" factor. Of course, I did joked when I skated up to my secondary coach "You're not <NYC coach's name>!?!?! AUGH!!! I'm going back to bed!!! " (Her response was "Yup, it's just funny looking me!!! DEAL WITH IT!!! ")

Nice to be back home!!! LOL!!!

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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!!!

lovely music - coach is back from vacation this week and my lesson didn't get rained out. Somehow over the holidays I made a big breakthrough in my waltz jump. I'm taking off and landing on the edge like it's supposed to, the jump got big and the takeoff leg is straight in the air like it's supposed to be. Coach was impressed

annoying static - lots of work to do on CF spin and toe loop. corrections on a bunch of other things too. I took copious notes so hopefully I can fix them by next week.

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It's all about the dress!

I have been so wiped out this week, I left the Coffee Club session early yesterday. Not that I was skating badly, but I was exhausted and achy all over. A good night's sleep has helped, but I'm going to take it easy today.

Annoying Static:
Spins were okay, but I didn't try anything more than the basics.
MITF practice was okay, except the dopey threes-on-the-line. I kept touching down, no more or less than I usually do, but still ticking me off.
Figures were terrible, but so was the ice. I have to remember to start focusing on my centers instead of the ice in front of me - that was always a bad habit. However, I can do the change-edges much more easily now, sloppy edge tracings, though.

Lovely Music:
Had a very short and productive MITF lesson yesterday. I really liked the coach and he's got very sharp eyes at spotting what I'm doing wrong. You really can't see yourself skate objectively.

Jumps were excellent. I had moved the left blade inward and tada - my salchow is suddenly much easier and has a clean takeoff! I only tried half-flips, but they felt great. Waltz jumps are a bit lower, but now I can do combinations with toe loop and two-footed loops without feeling terror.

Crossovers are all cleaner and stronger, even with the creaky knees.

Congratulations!

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CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Congrats! Hope the ankle is feeling better.

Annoying static: Someone, clearly, has stolen my waltz 8. It's been quite secure and dependable for a while; but for the past week it has totally stunk. Don't really know why; the 3s are fine, the BO edges are fine, the FI edges are fine. Will have coach diagnose. Also--two skaters who really should know better spent the better part of an hour talking at center ice. I think they were trying to work out a routine together, but there was a whooooooooole lot more talking than moving around. I did ask them if I might take the center hockey circle for a bit to practice my waltz 8s (they did graciously cede the space to me since they were not skating at all) but they just moved their conversation to another part of the middle of the rink and stood there instead--did not get the message that standing around mid-rink ain't a great idea.

Lovely music: Good practice yesterday, with emphasis on moves and very few jumps, as all my jumping on Sunday made my ankle a bit sore--too much too soon.

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

Congrats myste12!

LilJen- I love your signature line, LOL! My ankle cost me closer to $30,000 when you count the complications and the removal of the screws... oh dear. Actually, it cost my insurance company most of that!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Static: More injury! I've been off the ice since Saturday when I somehow sprained my back reaching for a jar of pickles in the fridge I can't even put on my socks without wincing in pain, let alone lacing up skates and tossing myself onto the ice.

This is the third time I've pulled something in my back since summer. I'm beginnning to suspect something is wrong.

At least this time away from skating gives the bumps on my heels a chance to heal.

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Bill Schneider