I've been practicing the Fiesta, having learned it from the rulebook. It's similar to the roller version or at least a dance I half remember from the roller version. I have no problem with the BI Mohawk, but the same turn is in the Juv eight step Mohawk pattern, which must be done in both directions, and I have a lot of trouble with it CW. One tip my coach gave me, which does help, is to regard the XF before the turn as a crossover only when your foot leave the ice, so that you don't just pick up your (CCW here) R foot to step forward, you also push with your L at the same time, just as in a crossover. I think it helps because it puts your weight firmly on the foot you are stepping from.

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April flowers:
The moves are moving along! I actually did one full lap of power 3's today!!
I've restarted work on the camel and did one with 2 revolutions!

Showers:
Coach says at beginning of lesson:
"I know you wanted to work on freestyle, but can I see some power 3's first?" (Terri is not suprised but, ugh!)
The sitspin, the sitspin, the sitspin !

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Spring flowers: my coach and I got along famously. I actually had fun!!!!
Also my sister is better now, so she got a lesson as well. As for thursday, I worked on spins the whole lesson! And finally I got the opening right! Now my spins are a bit more centered.
Also my coach started me on camal spins!!! they looked awful tho!

Im going to start dance week after next!!!

April showers: My crossovers as usual! Also my left leg hurts behind my knee (does anyone know how to cure this?) Its the area behind my knee but more like the hamstring. Also my back has been killing me!

happily skating,
~kittie

Kittie067: I don't know about you but I'd go see a doctor about that leg pain. Better safe than sorry... your back too for that matter...

Spring flowers:

• Alt forward crossovers are okay. Minor toe scratches but he thinks the judges will pass with the one I did in front of him. (It was smooth and fast.) But I want a kick @## one for "insurance" to offset my weaker elements.
• My power 3's towards the end. I had a problem with stepping to a FO edge on my usually better RFO3 side, but somehow I managed to fix it and MAN, I was moving thru those power 3's on that side afterwards!!!
• More power 3's: My weaker LFO3 side is still slow but at least I'm now stepping onto a FO edge and not doing what I was doing with my RFO side this afternoon!

April showers:

• Got some this afternoon getting back into work from the rink...
• Primary coach did NOT noticed the change on my LFO3!!! Secondary coach wanted me to see if primary coach notices that my body is better aligned on those LFO3 now. I did DO them correctly right in front of him, but he didn't noticed. *sigh* (Guess I really have do them A LOT faster to get him to notice, huh?)
• MAJOR THUNDERSTORMS on my alt back crossovers and the back crossovers to BO edge!!! Very (Better work on my back crossovers this weekend...)

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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!!!

Gee, I'm sorry and hope it gets better in time for your competition! I don't know anything about them, but it sounds like something that would really *hurt*. What does the doctor say?

Spring flowers

At last proper back cross rolls came and paid a visit. Not very good ones (I can't manage a full half-circle with bite each one yet), but I can feel that they'll get better fairly soon with practice (although I may yet have to eat my words - which would be a "storm" subject in a "sunshine or storm" report....).

Also, I've been working really hard on getting a decent step fwd onto the right foot from back XO's (left side [ie: CW] is fine; as usual, it's the CCW version giving grief). Last night, my coach had me doing the back XO with my left arm raised vertically in the air, to try to stop the left side collapsing out of the circle as I step forward ("We'll try anything..."). Well, I am happy to report that it looked peculiar (to say the least) but it worked! Now to work out how to achieve the aim without the arm...

April showers

Got to the rink and asked (as is my wont on a Thursday night - I've been caught too often) "Any groups tonight?" "No." Got on to find many dozen teenage boys, few of whom knew how to stand and fewer of whom could competently stop or turn, gouging holes in the ice and chucking snow at anyone who moved. And where was the rink guard? Chatting to his friends in the office. Grrr.

Sorry for those who may have seen this message appear and disappear several times over the past half-hour - I posted it half-written by mistake, and then accidentally logged out twice looking for something on the board...so had to re-type it!

Very busy today, so of course had to skate for an hour! Husband didn't skate. Worked on step to forwards in Fiesta - yuck

Spring Flowers: Someone put a tango music on, and was delighted to find I could keep the rhythm of the Fiesta & not bottle the Mohawk, although I don't think I was quite as fast as I could have been.

April Showers: Did a Golden Skaters' waltz when the music was played and despite several lessons on it recently, still didn't get the slide-chasse widestep combination properly.

All I've time for - must rush!

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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!

Showers: Lost an hour of ice to hockey tryouts, plus obnoxious hockey kids crowded into box ten minutes before the end of our freestyle session, making noise and swinging sticks at each other. No coach in sight and the one adult male in the bleachers did nothing to control them. One almost hit my coach in the head with his stick. She looked at him and asked "Are you a girl?" He left. Quickly.

Flowers: I have a change edge spiral!!!! And it's fun. I have crappy spirals to begin with and generally avoid them but this just fits the music in my new interp program and since I can do change edge figures easily, I figured why not try it. I like learning something new and I love learning something new that I can do! I even got a couple of hand-slaps from the kids I skate with. Yay for me!!!

We also finished the choreography on the interp program and I found the perfect props at Toys R Us on my way home.

Usually skating the week after the club Open is a drag for me - I'm too tired and sick of looking at the rink. But the weather changed abruptly to spring and I fell pretty good so I'm glad I skated. Tonight may be another story, since I may be losing my figure patch ice to learn to skate classes. Last week, though, I managed to get a decent double three layout and a pretty decent change three as well. The ice was super-good. which helped a lot, but I think I'm actually getting better at the darned things. Loops are still scary, especially on the right foot but my coach seems to think there's still hope. MOuntain Cup, here I come!!

Congratulations! I'm quite .

Today I tried to put in at least one spiral on each side, and did get the RFI high enough. Then another adult skater asked me about spirals, so I showed her the stretches at the boards for spirals. I was a little surprised that she could not easily hoist her free leg onto the wall, as she is younger than I, and thin. It was good for me to see that I have made progress, even if it's primarily in doing the stretches without so much effort.

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Spring Flowers: Had the best lesson of my life today. We actually worked on waltz jumps as apparently I am not getting enough spring out of my legs which is why my salchow is so little. I finally managed to cross my foot and push down in my forward scratch spin. It isn't consistent by any stretch of the imagination but it is definitely coming.

April Showers: Have you ever had one of those days where you can't skate to save your life? Had one this week. Apparently your blades need to actually be sharp if you are attempting to hold an edge on the ice and it is 80 degrees outside. Go figure

Went to a different rink today, as my regular rink doesn't believe in Saturday freestyles.
It was weird, these kids were not on the ice maybe 5-10 minutes and they were jumping. At my regular rink, everyone warms up with moves first. Therefore, trying to do one complete moves pattern was impossible!
I did do power threes, though with extra practice on the starting and end patterns and yes, I did a few camels.
Sadly, I'm having better, but not much balance on the camel than the sit, wonder why that is!
What I can say is that I had fear issues of both power threes and camel spins a few weeks ago that have since gone away!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

showers: Spins are a pain but I think I am making some progress. 5 step Mohawk is also a pain but it is getting better.

Flowers. Two new 3 jump combos have all of a sudden become possible. Lutz, loop, toe loop and the flip, loop, toe loop. Landed both of them today!

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Why are you skating so slowly? Get out of my way!

If you skate faster, it makes everything look better!

Showers Ice show last night...made it through..felt like I was just pushing my blades. Missed the toe loop, there was a waltz jump couldn't remember if I did it or not. Spiral was good. Final spin I ended facing the back wall not the audience. Fortunately, it was a group number.

Flowers I got out there! Passed FS 3 (USFSA)!

This is for yesterday (Friday)... Paso day.

the focus at first was on the back break-out. I am trying to get more curve/depth on the rest of the back break-out. I get a good change-edge after the slip steps, but the rest is pretty flat. Coach had me do something similar to the wicked back cross-cuts... it was hilarious, I had free leg and arms going everywhere. Can we spell CHEERLEADER imitation with my arms?

Then we worked on the cross-rolls into the swing mohawk, and I got my body re-arranged on how to get more depth on the last cross-roll before the swing mohawk. Back to the pattern with coach and I did the infamous lady's Paso fall (on the swing mohawk). Luckily, I managed to turn (or continue turning) as I fell and fell on my "built-in axel knickers" aka my backside. Bumped the right elbow a bit, but nothing was permanently sore. I still want to be able to do the swing mohawk solo.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Sunday morning:

April Showers: Lesson not bad, but why, oh why, won't my coach correct Husband when he is wrong, but insist on focussing on what I'm doing wrong? I mean, if I'm so bad that Husband looks good by comparison, I ought to hang up my skates here and now.... okay Husband isn't that bad, BUT.

Oh, I don't know.... some things improve, slowly, but once again we'll finish last in every single competition we enter this year, doubt we'll score more than 1.0 in any single dance. I don't know why I bother, I really don't.... except it's such fun. And you always think "Well, maybe this time", even when you know it's a triumph of hope over experience!

Spring Flowers: I really am looking forward to seeing the pre-Bronze dancers at AN, and see what their standard is. I do wish my coach would, though, so he'd see what we're up against, I don't think he realises! Plus Husband will dance better with other people than he does with me, but maybe if he danced with me the way he does with them, we would improve.... we'll see.

Oh, I nearly forgot - I actually managed a double BI twizzle on my right foot - why is that my best twizzle???? Weird, or what?

By the way, Nicki, if you're reading this, you're skating 3rd in your class on Tuesday & Lesley is 4th.

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

Thanks Annabel. That's great. I'm glad I'm not first - it's bound to happen one day but I would hate to have to skate straight after the warm-up. Lesley will be pleased too!

Nicki

Showers: Isnt very much showers.... besides all the falls i did on my double loop....

Flowers: my supercool footwork is coming along!

showers: might not skate because i have birthday party to go to!!!

as for my back i think its due to things other than skating, plus its feeling better now.

i dont know about my leg muscle, i wiah i had a physical therapist or something! im always getting these strange aches and pains!

~kittie

P.S i took my ACT yesterday!!
Hope i did well!

April showers: The cherry flip is not a jump that agrees with me. In my group lesson, I learnt it a different way, and found it kind of easier. I kept practising it, and fell flat on my a$$! Thank god I didn't sprain anything, I just had one very sore bum! I sat out for a few minutes and got back on the ice. It felt fine after a bit.

April flowers: Started to learn combination jumps! I tried a three jump, cherry, and a salchow, cherry. I was also advised to play about with a cherry, cherry, but as it's my most hated jump I ignored that advice. I don't like the loop either. My instructor knows me so well, I kept moaning at these combo's because they were weird, and he commented that I didn't like learning new jumps, but I loved it when I could do it. He's so right. Knows me too well.

Getting my skates sharpened, I can't get them till at least 9am on saturday, and I want them earlier so I can get used to the blades before my lesson, and I'm having a half hour lesson later on, so blunt blades are kinda wasting the lesson, so my instructor is picking them up for me so I can get them earlier. I'll be stuck at the rink for an hour before he gets there, so I might do a lot of stretching and running about. I have to remember to send him a message to remind him to remember to collect my skates!!!

That'll be tough.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Spring Flowers
I skated today for the first time since straining a muscle last Wednesday and with the help of Ibuprofen and lots of off-ice warm-up and stretching, I was able to have a decent practice and ran through my programme three times, ending on a perfect run-through! I now feel as ready as I can ever be for tomorrow's competition at Streatham!

April Showers
The downside was that several of the local schools haven't gone back today (as my kids had) and so there were a few extra bodies on the patch and the session afterwards was pretty busy. Luckily I did a few lutz-loops on patch because by the session it was impossible with all the kids.

Also found out our rink's hockey team has folded. I'm not a hockey fan and I complain about them taking figure skaters' ice but still, this is a huge blow for Bracknell Ice Rink.

Nicki

Spring flowers:

• That bad habit I had on last Thursday with my power 3's on the RFO3 I managed to make it go away...
• Spins did make an appearance...
• Was at the AN send-off freeskate session watching my fellow skating buddies (from my freestyle session) who are going to AN do their final program before leaving for KC. They're looking great!!!

April flowers

• ...but my LFO3 still has that nasty habit and I'm still not going fast enough. GRRRR!!!
• Have to get myself to face up to my fear and just stroke fast into the intro 3 on the same move...
• Hard to practice the rest of the moves in its entirety b/c of the crowd. I'm now seriously thinking of doing more FS sessions now.
• My lower back was aching enough that I didn't attempt any jumps!!!
• Spins did make an appearance...but so did the drippy nose too!!! EWWWW!!!
• A slight sadness for me since I won't be at AN this year...again!!! And I'm feeling discouraged now since it's been over 3 years and though the Bronze moves are much better, they're still crappy... Ain't no way I'm testing with these moves as it is now.

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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!!!

It is indeed - what league were they in, do you know? Mind, you may find another team comes along to fill their place.... there seem to be hockey skaters everywhere these days, and no matter how often you suggest they might prefer skating with a woman to with a stick, they always come up with a good excuse not to: "Sticks don't argue/if I break my stick, it doesn't matter...."

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

All showers for me this week. I got new skates that don't fit (see the thread I started) and couldn't do anything (except for a few moves) in practice Thursday. The one thing I tried was a spiral and I lost my balance (b/c the skates were so wobbly) and fell. I woke up Friday morning and could barely move - my back and neck were killing me. It's been that way mostly since then.

I did get the owner of the place where I bought the skates to verbally agree to let me return them - the problem is that the shop is an hour away and in addition to my packed schedule this week, I'm not in any shape to sit in the car for that long. It's going to be torture to drive the 45 minutes or so to school tomorrow. This morning I did go to an interview with a headhunting agency - I'm not sure if I was extremely brave or extremely crazy. I came home and bonded with a heating pad, on and off, for the rest of the day. It's a good thing I'm not going to AN.

I'm starting to wonder if I should give up skating or, as my mother recommended, be a recreational skater. My fall on Thursday was hard, one of those judo takedown-type falls right on my rear end/lower back area. But I could have that kind of fall practicing jumps or anything else. Do I want to risk being out of commission, and in pain, for days? And then there's my problem of finding skates that fit. Oh well, I'm not going to be skating for at least a week, so I'll have plenty of time to ponder the situation.

Good luck to everyone going to AN!

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Debbie --

Last year I took an unplanned fall backwards onto my backside and ended up having my lower back tighten up really bad, to the point where just about any movement was painful.

What really helped me was to go get a deep tissue massage focusing on the tight muscles in the lower back/base of the spine. It was very painful while the massage therapist worked out the kinks, but within 24 hours after I had the massage, I was basically back to normal.

And it was cheaper than going to the doctor and taking lots of motrin.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Good for you. I have one of those heated massaging pads that also has a car adapter, and it got me through a three day car trip a year ago when I had a neck problem. Can you borrow one?

Noooo, don't quit! When you have the right skates you will feel better about it all, and you will also be cutting your risk of a bad fall.

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Flowers:
My alternating FO threes are soooo close to being properly checked! It is going to happen. Power threes began to improve again today. The R are actually starting to gain a little speed, and I've regained the lost ground on the L.

Showers:
Still can't do the intro three on the power threes. FI threes did not want to cooperate today. I am still working very hard on spirals, but that Prelim pattern is just exhausting!

Does anyone else find that spirals take a lot of energy?

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