Old thread was getting kind of outdated. This one should take us into Thanksgiving week (US).

Spinning:

First lesson with my coach since my injury. We nitpicked my flip, which is my absolutely favorite, and strongest, jump, but has been getting a little scratchy. Worked on the backspin also, and it was cooperating well. My coach was pleased especially given the amount of time I was off.

Splat:

My coach agrees that I seem to be a bit gun-shy on back outside edges. Which is understandable given that my fall happened on the 8 step. We spent half my lesson doing remedial back outside edge exercises.

My lutz. OK, I didn't splat it but that's because it doesn't even get off the ground. Part of it is my edge-o-phobia. Part of it is my timing was almost non-existent on it...bringing the back arm through WAY too soon. A teeny TINY part of me would like to blame the early morning hour...it was my first AM skate since this summer as well. But realistically it has been just as erratic in the afternoons.

Spinning: I am now able to do the splits!!!! So excited!!! Did it once over the weekend, and again yesterday. Gaining flexibility over the past couple of years. Bonus! My back flexibility is starting to come along more and more.

Sit spins are now consistently low. Yay. Consistent on my entry into my camel spin and scratch. Not traveling anywhere near as much as I used to.

Able to do consistent waltz and salchow jumps since my ankle injury. No pain yesterday with my ankle either! Only had some calf muscle uncomfortableness, but I think its because the muscle in my calf wasn't used to all the major moves I was pulling out yesterday. It had been about a month now.

Forgot to add, I actually did a real back spin one time last night. I saw the traveling circles, 3 of them. First time they were that decent. Couldn't do it again though.

Splat? No flip jump. Mental games were getting to me yesterday. Booo, hisssssss. Crowded session full of kids. And coach didn't show.

That's awesome about the splits!!! Any word on why your coach didn't show??? Is this the first time? Do you think that maybe he/she was sick?

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

Wow! That's awesome!

Spinning I passed my Bronze Moves and Free Skate tests this morning! Coach was pretty certain I'd pass the Moves, but wasn't sure what the standard would be for the sit spin. Ironically, I did a good sit spin and the backspin which has been good for the last 2 weeks was weak. I had to retry it. But I passed and am sooooooooooooo happy!

Yay on passing Bronze MITF and Freeskate! That's my next test...probably after Adult competition though. Thanks for the congrats on the splits. I've been working my rear off to get them. Its improved my back catch, too.

I am not sure why my coach wasn't there. Its not like her to NOT show up and at least give me a heads up. Kinda worried about her. BUT, I know Midwestern sectionals is underway and I am wondering if she went to Kansas. Also, a family member passed away a couple of weeks ago. So I am wondering if that came into play this week for the memorials service. I'll find out soon enough.

Spinning: I skated last Wednesday woohooo! I was SO happy.. it was the first time in 2 weeks I had skated, and then before that 2 months! and I'm used to skating every day! or I was.. well anyway.. my spirals felt really bad so I asked my mom to play it back and I literally collapsed when I saw it. I was SO sure that it had deteriorated into nothingness from not stretching at ALL for 3 months.. It wasn't the best position and it was far from perfect, but for ME.. I was expecting soo much worse. I was SO thrilled that it still looked decent. SO happy. (how many times do you think i've said "so" in this paragraph? )

oh here's a video.. you can skip the first minute or so it's just me talking and saying thanks and showing people an autograph I got at SA this weekend. well not me personally, it was very generously given to me.. but.. anyyyway:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrlFNxvcL2I

everything felt surprising awesome. I was obviously very off and so far from where I was before but, like I said, it was so confusing to me how quickly my body got used to the ice.. I was centered in spins, they were fast, my sit was getting 8 rotations and I remember when that was a HUGE deal, it was my record, 8 rotations.. and I got 8 without even trying to hold it very long so that.. was an accomplishment for me my just plain back sits were.. amazing. not amazing to anyone else watching but they felt amazing to me. I was extremely proud of myself and my body for being able to do them as well as I was considering the circumstances.

Splat: okay so, because of my illness.. I'm fatigued all the time, so skating.. is hard.. let's just say that haha. I can only do one move at a time and then I have to rest and drink for about.. 2 minutes. so I literally did this:
scratch spin ->rest, scratch spin->rest messed up sit->rest, sit->rest I mean... even in between spirals.. in between artistic moments like doing ina bauers and footwork. It was insanely difficult for me to pace myself and be patient with my body and not overwork it. Because I want to do SO much more.. so much more than what my body is letting me do.

camel spins.. let's.. not talk about those LOL. they were not.. good. I was too tired for them.. and.. it was just badness.

CoE backspin.. bahhh I want to be able to do these really badly! I just change edges and then fall over to the left.. i try to lean to the right more but.. that doesn't help!

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Yay! Congratulations!

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YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CONGRATS!!!!
Beautiful!!!! Don't worry about having to take frequent breaks, eventually the skating will get longer and the breaks will get shorter! Welcome back to the ice!!!! (don't overdo it!)

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

Welcome back to the ice, Tazsk8s and xofivebyfive!

Woo hoo!! Have you taken a picture yet? I made someone take a picture the first or second time I managed to do it, just in case I was never able to repeat it again, LOL! Now for your Y-spiral, right? I've just spent the last 6 months working on mine and have finally achieved my goal: held for 6 seconds with heel grab and entire free foot higher than my head. Whee!

Congratulations!!!!

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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

I'll have to have someone take a pic of me over the weekend. I can do it again and again. I have dance, tonight as well, so I will test it one more time to ensure I really have them. But I touched the ground, and I looked down, and mouth just dropped. I couldn't believe it!!!!

I need to get video of me up as well. Slacker I be. :: Also scared of what I may look like! LOL! ::

Cool, be sure to post it! What has really helped me to get into a split more easily (which is necessary for any kind of standing split or Y position) is to start holding the split on the floor for 30 seconds each time. I either use a stop watch or count "one-Mississippi, two-Mississipi" to 30. I'm actually holding for about 40 now that it's more comfortable.

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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

Congrats dance2sk8 on the splits! And Pink Laces on the test!!!

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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)

Spinning: had a decent practice tonight, backspins were good; toe-toe-loops (is this how I say it?) were good, altho I forgot and pulled my arms in on a few.

Splat: it was a little crazy at first, little girls everywhere...then there was an "incident" over the music. Seems there was a waiting list and somehow I couldn't get on it (none of these girls are competing, I'm not either but I will take a freestyle test soon). I need to bring this issue up to the skating director and come to a better resolution than everyone pushing to the head of the line to play their music. Also, tried my sit-spin but it wasn't pretty. Oh well.

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

So I visited my home club for the first time since December. It was alright..however WAAY more expensive and crowded. I'm used to going to lunch skate for 3 dollars for two hours...but for the club it's 20 dollars for two hours. But it was nice seeing everyone and a had a pretty good practice:

Spinning:
-All of my single jumps-I really concentrated on making them look nice..you know pointed toes whenever possible, crisp arms, and well checked landing
-Okay so, I have a hard time believing it, but I think I landed my axel...from a standstill. Sure that doesn't REALLY count, but it's a step further.
-Sit spins were nice and low...and for once held for several revolutions
-Broken leg/sit spin....I honestly didn't think it would cooperate, but it went really nice.
-My closed hip hair cutter spin....I swear I had some upper level people looking at me like 'how does she do that?'...hehe
-Ran through my artisic twice
-Spirals were pretty good..not fanominal...just good.
-Made up a spin combo involving a broken leg/attitude/closed hip haircutter

Splat:
-Haha five minutes into practce and I had a splat. I lost balance on my brackets and down I went.
-I kept chickening out on doing back twizzles
-For my layback..I think I don't pick my leg up high enough. Sometimes I tend to fall back onto it and stop myself

I think that's it! Good practice

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Splat:
Had my ice dance lesson this morning for the first time in two weeks. I had to stop constantly to get my breath and take a sip of water. I lose strength sooo quickly when I'm sick. I guess that's just age, but it really is annoying!

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Well, did you take off forward and land backward but do more revolution than a waltz jump? If so, then you landed an axel! I remember having to replay it in my mind the first time I landed mine, too, LOL! And a lot of people first land the axel from a standstill, since it helps keep you aligned over your hips and makes it harder to overrotate the takeoff edge. You might want to try doing it from a side toe tap, too.

What is a "closed hip" haircutter?

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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

Fooling around with my blades has become a regular routine. My pulling out a screwdriver and moving the blade attracts as much attention as a woman knitting, lol. I had time before I had to coach a freestyle group, so I took the chance.

Today's adjustment was to move the heel stanchion more to the outside while leaving the toe aligned to the inside. This is probably what my intelligent friend Renatele suggested over a month ago...

Not a bad last-minute switch. There's hope for these skates after all.

Spinning:
I landed a toe loop for the first time in weeks and I was able to get almost all the way around on a loop jump without really trying. Doing the loop entrance hop drill was not as terrifying as it usually is on these skates. Backspins felt better, just a little too far forward on the blade.

Splat:
No falls tonight, but didn't feel up to doing crossovers because they've been so uncomfortable, so I'll try that when no one's watching. none of my spins are centered and I'm skidding into waltz jumps.

I think part of my problem might be the sharpening. I've always liked a deep 5/8" ROH, but I know that the recommendation is 1/2" or 5/16", so I keep trying to get used to the more shallow hollow.

When I've had a 1/2" ROH in the past, I found that I slipped off the edge a lot and couldn't center my spins. The same thing is happening with the 5/16" ROH on these new blades.

Just found out about a new sharpener. I think I'll check the blades for straightness and have him sharpen them with a 5/8" ROH. It can't hurt at this point.

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When you take your skates to the new sharpener, be sure they check to see that the inside & outside edges are level. My left blade was not level and that was one of the problems with my blade (along with a mis-aligned mount). He popped a tiny square on the bottom blade and wow it was off! Good luck with your new sharpener person!

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

Picked up an extra session tonight as DD wanted to pick up a couple extra sessons before her competition this weekend. We will miss our Friday lessons due to the competition.

Splat We were in one of the back rinks and they are smaller and the ice is not as nice. The session before I got on was completely full and they didn't resurface. Lots of holes and chunks of ice to trip in. I saw several girls go down doing nothing, but skating. Ugh! Ran through all Bronze Moves except back landing. Coach told me I still have to work on making them better so ran through them. Could not even get through half a pattern without an almost collision with some kid. Flips were two footed and the one I did land my foot was on the side and not in front.

Spinning Spent some time working on the RFI 3 (my weakest one) and it was getting more comfortable. Started practicing RFI 3 followed by a LBO 3 and they were getting much better. Worked on loop entry from back cross-overs instead the 3 turn. Was able to land about 1/2 of them.

Had another lesson today. We ended up splitting my time some at the beginning of the session, then my coach took a couple of kids for part of the session, then came back to me. Worked out well because it gave me lots of time to warm up jumps.

Spinning:

Sit spin wasn't too terrible today, and I did respectable backspins every time I tried one.

Lutz was better. Remedial back outside edge exercises are helping some. Still tend to bring the back arm through too soon which still caused a number of disasters, but I did land 4 or 5 of them. That's 4 or 5 more than I've landed in one session in a while.

Loop! Don't know where those came from today but both my coach and I were liking them.

Even had a couple of minutes at the end of the lesson to work on waltz-loops for the axel. Those went pretty well. And to the person upthread who asked if landing an axel from a standstill "counts"...heavens yes! I'd be thrilled if that happened.

Splat:

Toe loop. Probably my least favorite jump anyway, and today the best I could do was this tiny, whippy thing, when I wasn't busy falling on the 3 turn entrance.

Camel spin. This has had major issues since I got back on the ice so I was glad we spent some time on it. I'm rushing the entry badly. Managed one at the end that was okay-ish.

Probably won't get to skate this weekend. Too many other things happening.

This is for my practice and lesson this week:

Spinning
Forward and backward crossovers were good. Coach said that I needed to have more power on my backward crossovers, and needed to lift my skating leg off the ice, after the crossover, which I managed to do.

Change foot spin: the first two were good, scratch spin okay but travelling a bit.

Backspin: now trying to get the speed before the crossover part.

Toe loop: only got it towards the last few tries of the lesson. Needs to work more on it.

I was actually spinning so much during my own lesson, doing sit spin, scratch spin, change foot spin and variation spin etc, that I started to get a little dizzy.

Splatting
Backspin: still cannot get past the 1 revolution. Aarrrrgggghhhhhhh!!!!!!

Change foot spin: the forward scratch spin is travelling, meaning that I need to work on getting it centred.

Toe loop: belly button seemed to turn out a bit too much during lesson. Solved that problem by starting from one line of the rink, to another.

Sit spin: tried to get down lower, but managed on sitting on the butt, for 2 times. Good thing is that the number of times that I am sitting on the ice, is getting lower and lower.

No lessons for the next 10 days, as I am off to London for my Call to the Bar, at Lincolns Inn, on 26 Nov (Thur). I shall be flying with my hubby on 24 Nov, arriving there same day evening. When I come back, will have Thur and Fri lessons in a row.

londonicechamp

Splat:
First time back on the ice in 4 weeks, and it was incredibly frustrating.

4 weeks ago I was working on axels and double toes, and getting my junior moves ready to test and getting my (technically very difficult for silver) program ready for Buckeye.

Thanks to this stupid ankle injury, now I can't even do a 3-turn. Can't get a good push on crossovers. Everything hurts, and my left leg feels so weak. I can't have a skate on for more than about 20 min at a time without taking a break because my boots pushes up against where it's still swollen and either hurts or my foot falls asleep.

I knew all along that it was going to be like this, but until you actually get out there, you don't realize how emotionally hard it is to deal with. Despite all the years I've been skating, I've never had an injury that had me off for more than maybe a week at the most until now, so this totally blows.

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Splat:
I didn't realize it until I got on the ice Friday, but my ice dance lesson the day before totally wore me out and I was like jelly. I really limped through my lesson.

Spinning:
In my ice dance lesson we did hand in hand F and B crossovers for the first time. I loved it, but discovered that my CW BXO's are considerably weaker than I had thought, so I worked on them with regular coach on Friday. They have never been as comfy as my CCW's, but I hadn't been able to figure out exactly why. I could feel my upper body wasn't quite right but couldn't get past that. My coach got it right away! I was too far back on the L blade. When she made me get farther forward everything else fell into place. Now I have to practice it!

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I haven't skated as long as you have, but I do understand the emotionally distressing part. Just going from being physically active, 6 days a week, two activities (dance/skating), to NOTHING. Very depressing. I still have some pain, but managed to do everything today. Its taken 4 weeks to get to this point. I still can't flex 100% with full weight yet. I also am not taking ice dancing because that hurts the worst.

Take it one day at a time and continue to do everything PT wise off ice. You'll feel better soon. And yeah, the boot thing is a pain in the butt, literally. The boot hurt my foot/ankle for over a week to two weeks before I was finally not cringing and favoring my foot. Cross overs (going backwards), still kinda hurt, too. :: hugs ::