In honour of the season!

Mists: My poor coach's wife had her handbag stolen yesterday, not from the rink but from the swimming pool. Horrible for all concerned.

Meanwhile, we skated this morning, and actually had a really good run-through of everything, but I still can't do back cross-cuts. Sigh!

Mellow Fruitfulness: You know, we might actually be about to peak at the exact right moment for the BAC in ten days! Our free dance was one of the best run-throughs we've ever had, and I just feel so much more confident. Oh dear, famous last words....

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

good luck at BAC Mrs. RB!

Fruitful: had a GREAT time at the ISI Adult Champs, winning two bronze and a silver. I competed at the 4 level for the first time, and wasn't expecting to win, but was surprised to finish as well as I did. I had a clean compulsory event, two footed a turn on the dance step and two footed a toe loop in the freeskate, and had a firecracker of a performance in artistic, the only mistake was cutting a loop to a half-loop, but it was in a footwork sequence and I did it so fast, I made it look like I meant to do it.

Mists: competition hangover. After a long weekend in Vegas (I know, sounds terrible, doesn't it ), hubby and I came home cashed. We took the red-eye in to Michigan and I was supposed to make it to work at 8:30 am yesterday, and called at 8 am while still in baggage claim.

Also, what can you do to get over the idea that once someone beats you, that they will always beat you? I want to give credit where credit is due since I got beat soundly by three gorgeous ladies in all three of my events, but know what? I'm a gorgeous lady too , and want to give myself props and not take an attitude of "Christine/Judy/Karen is entered in this event, better hope for second place" into each competition. It's an inferiority complex I'd rather no carry around with me. Any suggestions?

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

First thing, congrats on ISI Adult Champs! You've kicked @$$!!!

Second thing, YOU GO, MRS RB!!! KICK some @$$ at BAC!!!

MYOS = Mind Your Own Skating!!! (And yes, I get those "Oh, so and so is in this event! Better hope for second place" feeling too.) But you can't control what they do, only how YOU do on the ice! If you concentrate on what you need to do in your program, you may find yourself in a position doing much better than you think. And striving for your personal best is the key to success in skating, right?

Of course, this is coming from someone who has come in last place!!!

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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!!!

You just have to get over it. I have seen adult competitions where there were two events in one day, skated by the same three ladies.

First competition: Judy/Cathy/Suzie

2nd competition: Suzie/Cathy/Judy

(of course, Cathy is asking herself, "Why do I always come 2nd?" But really anything can happen, even with the same group of skaters!!

Good luck and have fun!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Mists: Group coach noticed that there was "air" between boot and blade-gotta put some screws in... but still fighting the battle of the too-big boots and these blasted things are new! and I haven't lost that much more weight!!! dang!

Fruitful: practice today ROCKED! (didn't put the screws in yet) It was one of those days when several things clicked:
back crossovers-getting off the toepicks involved pushing through the heel and not looking under my arm....but over with peripheral vision
long entry into the spin involved a very bent knee (this went well until the rink know-it-all came over and I lost my rhythm )

Also managed to do some sort-of sit spins from t-entry with several revs (okay, about 2) each; cool!

ps-came home and put in a zillion screws....that should make everyone happy-hope I can skate this afternoon (if we end up going, daughter had an errand that might keep her and if so, I won't go).

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

This is for yesterday that was nothing but fruit!
First of all, the sitspin has returned from vacation and the backscratch keeps getting better.
Jumps were very fruitful too, Coach commented on the lift I had on my waltz jumps- it's the biggest she's ever seen from me.


Coach asked (strange at this point in the season, but oh well) if I was going to keep my freeskate music. While I told her that I'll keep it for the rest of the season, I gave her some ideas for me for next year.

Now me wants more fruit on the ice tomorrow with Coach#2!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Mel,
Please read my signature for a good idea on how to alleviate this. I went into my freeskate at Peach with this approach and had the best freeskate of my current program to date!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Mists With the hurricane and all the rink was still open but I got DRENCHED getting from my car to inside the rink - I turned into a popsicle out on the ice and it took me slightly longer than normal to warm up. Brrr...

Consecutive brackets on the left foot, blech. I don't do them great on the right foot either, but at least I can get in 4 or 5 before almost falling over. Left foot, I got nothin.

I had no pop in my jumps today - especially toe jumps. Lutz was 1/4 underrotated sometimes - other times I was landing kind of flat, but I had two good ones. Took a not-so-bad-but-looked-bad-fall on the last lutz of the day that caused my friend some alarm.

Because of the storm my friend also left her video camera at home. Gah, one of these days I'll just drag the boyfriend out to the rink again.

Fruitfulness

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Some BIG developments for me today. I'm managing 2-3 revolution backspins - not three turns, but backspins! They're so slow and ugly, but you gotta start somewhere. Better than NO revolutions on Thursday.

Loop jump - although I need my blades sharpened I think I figured out what I was doing wrong on my entry. From back crossovers I was sitting in the prep too long, so now after I get speed from crossovers, I stand up, THEN sit and jump all in one motion. I had good speed, good flow and despite slipping off my edge every 5 seconds I landed MANY good ones today.

I tried a split jump but man is that thing scary. I'm going to wait for my coach to help me out there.

I actually grabbed my otther hand in a Bielmann twice today - I need to work on getting a little more flexible. and looking BACK on the spin, but my friend was ultra impressed. Now I just need more speed and revolutions. Yay Bielman spin!!!

CAMEL SPIN - Mark it down in history folks, I'm putting my camel in the GOOD category today. I figured out that if I LOOK in the direction of the spin with my head that I'll keep rotating. I did several 4 rev camels, one 5 rev camel, nice and centered. A bit slow, my legs could be straighter and my chest lower but it felt GOOD. On the first one I did my friend was like "I didn't think it was going to end!" Man - this could be the start of something beautiful.

I actually feel like I made PROGRESS today - I'm figuring stuff out and writing it down immediately in a little journal so I can remember just what it was that I figured out.

I'm hoping that with a good blade sharpening that I'll be able to get a grip on my takeoff edges on edge jumps and spins. I'm doing pretty good though.

I'm excited because if I get a semi decent backspin soon and my loop stays consistent and I land my lutz a little better - AXEL BABY! I'm stoked to start working on it

I'm thinking of adding a 15 minute MIF session with my coach. I'd like to start getting more speed on my moves and maybe test Pre-Pre...

Skating = LOVE

fruitfulness-

-camel spin (actually felt right... i was spinning)
-back scratch... after about a year of barely 3 rotations, somehow *poof* i got it perfectly! my coaches were thrilled and now i can do a perfect one the lasts like maybe 15 rotations!!!!!! woooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!
-flip... i tried it again knowing it would be bad and somehow i landed like 10 of them cleanly with plenty of speed!!!

this was a good day!

mist? ok i dont get the whole "mist" thing.... is it supposed to be bad?

-loop... still not there
-lutz... two footed
-sit... not as low as i wanted...

Have an AXEL-LENT day!

__________________
~Dreams Can Come True~

fruitfulness : I GOT ON THE HARNESS TODAY. YAYY!!!!! it was harder than i thought, but i landed the axel once! i was waiting for this day for SOOO long!!
camel spin was good and flips are good. i did only ONE good sit spin today
mists : i lost my lutz and sit spin after the good sit spin. I think it was because the ice was really messed up. but its okay cause getting on the harness made my day

Warning - long post (sorry!)

Mellow fruit first

DH is back from his travels (work sent him overseas so we missed a few practices and lessons), and we had our first joint practice in a little while this morning.

In his absence last week, the dance coach gave me a basic stroking exercise for us to practise together and solo. I've been doing it solo, so today we tried it together. Once I managed to keep the head up / keep the free leg extended / keep the toe pointed / keep the arm stiff (in Killian hold) / keep the count correct; *and* track properly (all at the same time), we didn't do too badly for beginners.

Put it this way, no fewer than 5 strangers came up to us at different times during the session. The blue-boot brigade all said we looked "awesome" (equals "can stand up and proceed forwards on one foot", I suspect); while a couple of strangers stood at the end of the rink and as we came round for another lap, told us (forcefully) to point our toes. Obviously coaches or former dancers, but not familiar to us. Nevertheless we took their advice, since I figure you can never point your toes or bend your knees too much!

Anyway, we're obviously making progress. (Mind you, DH got rather bored doing lap after lap of basic stroking in Killian hold, so when I said we had something else to do, he perked up, but was less than impressed when the "something else" was the same thing in reverse Killian! See, Mrs Redboots - we are doing it both ways!)

Mists (more properly, full-on storms)

Our adult synchro coach informed us about 2 weeks ago that we would be competing (with our last program) in a local competition in mid-October. Everyone said "OK", thinking that our last program was the one we'd just presented, and he would merely delete sections to cut it down from 3min30 to the required 2min for this comp.

We found out last week that, no, he was in fact starting on next year's routine (to be ready by Nationals in Aug 06), and *that* was what he is planning to compete in 3 weeks' time! We're trying to learn this routine to the same music, so apart from anything else, I for one am trying not to get confused and do the "old" step on the music cue, rather than the new one (and how hard is that??).

Not only that, we can currently practise only once a week as a team, and for not one of those practices do we have a better than 70% turnout. Reason - everyone thought that, as in previous years, the period from end Aug until Christmas was not synchro-focused, but was a period when we could improve our individual skills while at the same time *start* setting the following year's routine in various individual and small group practices. So everyone made other arrangements for what was our regular practice night.

Then I had a big whinge because I'm a CW skater and for once he has a section in the routine which requires CW skating, and where am I? On the CCW side. And it's not as if he has CW skaters and to spare either.

My extended family are supposed to be coming to watch this thing (they missed coming across the country to Nationals), and I'm really annoyed because the way he's structured the whole thing, he's really setting us all up for unnecessary failure.

There - I'm over it now.

Mellow Fruitfulness: Well, bring on the competition, I think we're ready. Of course, we have another ten days to go.... why does this always happen? I seem to remember it happening last year, too, longing for it and dreading getting stale or getting an injury!

Great run-through of our free dance, one or two untidy bits still, but I think it'll be fine on the day. The new transition into the step sequence is really working now, and means we don't have too much of a stop. Must stop rushing the lift/assisted jump at the end of it, though.

Mists: Posture, posture, posture, posture and posture! Don't know why both our friend who was watching our run-through of the Golden Skaters' Waltz and my coach decided to give me the same exercise today... I suppose I msut have been worse than usual. Sigh! Husband, who did it with me off-ice, reckoned he'd practice while waiting at the railway station!

Back cross-cuts. Still can't do them most of the time - and on the rare occasions I can, I have no idea what I am doing differently and why they are working! Grrrrr..... frustration.....

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

Tuesday PM Update: Managed to get to 2nd practice session---think I'll have to move my skating days around as I'm getting a bit worn (although I'm sleeping better!); and because we were late to the session, no charge!

Ok, screws really made my skates feel better! Guess they were a bit "off"

Tried different insoles (memory foam), yuck! I'm going back to my other ones. My daughter tried some others also and her arches hurt (she has flatter feet and needs the ones without an arch...) poor ducky! She ran through the beginning of her program (without music) and it looks good!

There were only 4 of us on the ice so after I warmed up I worked on back crossovers (as well as I could with the yucky insoles) and waltz jumps (with some speed-which got some positive comments from my skate buddy)!!! Didn't feel as though I got much height, I'm not doing something.... but I'm not pitching forwards! The posture lesson is working (you know-pretend ya got a string through your head pulling you up..)

Worked on some spirals-inside and outside edge, then the salchow walk-through...very good. Can't wait until lesson time and see what's up her sleeve!

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

Fruit: Finally managed to not be a total waste of skin on the ice for the first time in a week! Got my flip back, barely. It's not as confident as before, but it's almost there. Made some improvements on the loop, as well as sal-loop and waltz-loop. Even managed a toe loop-loop, which is rare!

Edited - I forgot to add my eureka moment! I have discovered that my jumps are much better when I concentrate on what my free leg is doing, instead of my skating leg.

Mists: Am definitley flutzing my lutz. Need to fix this before it's too late!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Fruit
It's official the sitspin is back!!! Had a good spin again today and jumps were just as good. Secondary coach had to make little,if few corrections.
I also had the best freeskate runthrough that she has seen so far and she's had me as a student since March.

Mists
Had a nasty fall on a camel attempt. Coach wanted me to lower my upper body and raise my free leg and in doing that, slipped on a edge and fell onto the left side with my elbow hitting the ice. Elbow now has a ice burn and left "rump" is sore.
Also had a "click of death" and fell on back crossovers. thus setting the record for the number of times I've fallen in practice/lesson.
Then again, it's said that if you do not fall, you're not working hard enough on the ice.

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Ouch, Terri, I hope you're OK! Congrats on your sit spin!

Fruit:
Had a great moves run-through today - actually, I got to do many run-throughs of certain moves that were giving me trouble, since there weren't that many people on the ice. The back perimeter pattern felt really good, and I felt like I was covering the ice well. Same with alt BO edge glides. Power 3's were fine when I did them along a line with the corrections my coach wanted me to make, but then when I actually did the moves pattern, it seemed like everything went out the window!

Mists:
My forward crossovers feel completely off-kilter. I'm trying to do less step-over and more push-under, but I feel like I'm wobbling and sliding a lot. (I imagine my blades needing to be sharpened may have something to do with that.)

Had a very good lesson from my "own" coach last night. Ice was crowded though and it was difficult to find "holes" to jump in. Now I know how the ice dancers feel!

We settled the issue about competitions, HC is out, several ISI's are in, she is scouting around for some, as well as our in-house exhibition in December (which is an open one)...

We worked on spins first and I showed her my entrance. She had me do it without the windup (weird-no arms!) and it was ok, then we added arms and it was ok, then she had me pop up on my leg and it was ok. So we added back crossovers and I rushed it and it was crap....so I did a few more and it was better but not ok....so that's something I need to work on. But I'm getting there. Popping up in the leg is something I'm not used to doing, but it's helping.

Next was the Salchow! She showed me the "check" which I never understood but she explained and now I get it so we did a few and I've almost got the darned salchow! Amazing! After one year of frustration and she helps me get it after 2 lessons.....We moved on to the toe loop and 3-turns and more checking. Again, I've almost got that one.

Waltz jump: these were a bit off-I was nervous about the number of people on the ice, esp the little kids who don't know the rules about where they are supposed to be. I might recommend a place for them to skate be coned off, as they were all over & not looking where they were going. Anyway, she had me set up a pattern for my jump, so I need to practice that, with more speed and "oomph" which I didn't have much of last night. I did some Tuesday that rocked....Have to remember to push up from my leg and roll off my toepick for that height. She did remark that I approach my jumps "aggressively" but don't know if that is good or bad (I'm thinking bad-more like rushing...)

For some reason, I had the shakes. Don't know if it was nerves or blood sugar. I did eat something about 3, then something just before skating so I'm not sure what it was (maybe nerves). Not my medication because my toes weren't tingling...

Then, to wrap up, she asked me to skate certain things for my routine (she liked my music). So, I did a lunge (straighten that back leg); did a spiral-waltz-spiral; outside edge spiral (get more on the edge); lots of arms stuff while on an outside edge. These are all stuff to work on for the upcoming week, as well as the jumps. I feel that I will have a full rotation jump if I get enough speed and height going. I would really love that! Anyway, before we ended, she asked me if I'd ever seen a video of my skating and I said yes, "yuck" which she thought was funny. She wants to video a lesson and point out some things during an upcoming lesson. Oh boy....

I just love having a coach of my own! I like her and the way she explains things. And I like my group class, with the other adults. This is going to be a great skating year (any year on the ice is a good year!)

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

Fruit
Loops-I worked on my program today with Nick. He added some really fun connecting moves and a little new footwork, but he said that he didn't think it looked to bad at all. I will show you on Monday.

Mists
I have a 4 blisters from skating without socks because I was running late to teach and then I skated afterwards the other day.

Mist
Came in late for my lesson. Oversleep and was half asleep going into my lesson. Coach says "Why are you late? And you look AWFUL!!! You look like me... and that's NOT a compliment!!!" Wanted to go back home and sleep after that comment...

AUGH!!! It's bad enough to do RFI3 at higher speeds after doing a Chinese spiral but do it AND make it look pretty too??? (Yeap! Extension, extension, extension!!!)

Fruit:
That I was at least awake for my lesson??? Actually we also worked on my Chinese spirals and extension on my spirals and 3 turns. There were some improvements but boy, they are HARDER to do than it looks!!!

A treat after the session -- a couple of skaters from Disney On Ice came by to practice on our rink. One guy did these BEAUTIFUL (figure) loops as part of his warmup. One skater commented, "He makes it look so pretty that he could easily beat us in a competition doing his WARMUP as a program!"

__________________
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!!!

Pardon the ignorance, but what is a chinese spiral? I've heard spirals called different things - champagne glass, charlotte (although I know what this one is), and now chinese...

Pardon me for embarrassing you, TashaKat, but here is a beautiful example of a Chinese spiral... (I can't raise that leg up that high yet, unfortunately...) It's better known as a "catch foot" spiral.

__________________
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!!!

Mel,
I just read your post and have to tell you my story. A good skating friend (who is 15 years younger than me) has beaten me for eight years. A couple of years ago she even said to me "You have never beaten me have you?", of course after she said it she realized how offensive it was and gave me her heartfelt apology. Well, last June, she beat me in the first three programs, but in the Spotlight program, she skated right before me and had a wonderful skate. I skated after her to "Play That Funky Music" with a wild costume and a toy purple guitar and skated the program of my life! I guess I've always wanted to be a rock star, and this was my chance to act like one! When the results were up, I won! The first time in EIGHT YEARS I came in ahead of my friend - who, by the way, was a great sport about it, and was really happy for me. Don't ever give up!

Fruits: I finally have a loop! My coach, who didn't want it in my artistic program for the Brandon competition said Tuesday that she wants me to leave it in, it's good enough!

Melons: That darned outside mohawk. Ever since I took a bad, tooth jarring fall on it, I've been afraid of it. Oh well, it's still in my program, it's just a bit rough.

Fruit: Big progress on the axel prep! We've been working on waltz-jump from a standstill, into a backspin on the landing. Only started this last Thursday, and I didn't practice it all week because I was so freaked about losing my flip. Anyway...worked on it more again today. When I we got to the point where I was on a deep LFO edge, then sprung up and pulled in right away, what a difference! I was basically over-rotating the waltz jump, and could see an evil gleam in coach's eye. Shouldn't be long before I'm splitting my head open on actual axel attempts!

Did some work on hip placement, which improved backspin, loop, and waltz-loop. Made some nice improvements on forward spin, too. My leg is much higher and more forward, making me spin faster.

Landed some flips and lutzes for good measure!

Mists: Salchows SUCKED today, after being so good yesterday. Oh well, I guess it's a small price to pay for the improvements in other areas. I think if my coach takes a look at it, we'll get it sorted out. Also, still flutzing. Arrrgghh!!! Don't practice the lutz too much, for fear that I will get into a bad flutzing habit.

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Mists:

I walk in expecting a nice quiet public session, only to have the rink manager ask me "You SURE you wanna skate with 90 kids on the ice???" I said "where are they?" and she pointed to a HUGE slew of kids putting on their rental skates on the side!!! HOLY S***!!!!

THEN primary coach comes up and says "You turned off your cell phone!!! B/c I left you a message saying "There's 90 kids on the ice right now? You wanna change your lesson time to the afternoon FS session???" I told him "To hell with the kids!!! I'm HERE NOW and I'm SKATING!!!" (With the attitude of "Kids, GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! This Bronze Moves is MINE!!!" )

Mellow:

Lucky for me the majority of those kids stayed hanging near the wall (they're beginners for the most part.) and I managed to get thru all FIVE moves with only one time where I actually had to stop for one of those kids. Primary coach was still beating me up on those details but the majority of the time he was quite complementary about it and was quite calm about it. (WOW!!! I might actually have a chance of passing this sucker at long last!!! )

__________________
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!!!

Mists: Last night I had hoped to have a run-through of the free dance with Husband, but was held up in traffic and only just got on to the ice in time for Dance Club. Can't do the Foxtrot. Can't do the 14-step. Sigh......

Really tired this morning; only went skating because I was meeting a friend who had promised me a bag of tomatoes from her allotment!

Why does every coach in the rink have to yell "Point your toes!!!" at me.... no, don't tell me, I know - I need to point my toes more! Oh dear.....

Mellow Fruitfulness: We did a really great Prelim/British Waltz! Felt fantastic and fast, and covered the ice. Why don't I need that dance for anything now we're getting good at it????

This morning, we had good run-throughs of everything. The Junior couples were working on their Westminster Waltz, which was great because it's the same music as the Golden Skaters' Waltz, so we were able to have several run-throughs to the music. Only went badly out of time once (I think!).

After Husband had gone, I worked on one or two things - managed to get music for both Dutch Waltz & Canasta Tango as someone else had a dance lesson, so did those solo. And I really think I've had a breakthrough on my back cross-cuts - I was watching a coach and his pupil (who is still at the stage of holding his arm 90% of the time), and found I was doing them far better.... obviously, the secret is to keep my head very still! I then did a couple of lengths focussing on a specific spot, and they were infinitely better than they've ever been. Still not great, and I still can't quite manage a whole length without grinding to a halt, or leaning forwards, or whatever, but it is obviously going to help!

Oh, and the tomatoes are delicious!

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