Well, nobody else started a new week yet, so what the heck!

Maggot Food: Well, this actually belongs on last weeks, but due to this that and what not, I missed three days of skating. This week hasn't gone all that well either. Woke up too late to make it to the one session, but did make it to the other rink for their session. Was thinking of going anyways to see one of the adult skaters I haven't seen in a while, but alas, she didn't skate that day. Supposedly I had a coach today, but she didn't show up or call, so I haven't a clue as to whats going on. Ice was ok today, but feet are still getting a bit sore, and the boots have a ways to break in yet by the looks of it. She started me on Waltz jumps last week, and while I have been able to play with them, I think I'm still a bit off with them, and I had really wanted to do more spins. We also were sopposedly going to discuss some things such as testing, ah well. Now I'm starting to think my purple outfit is jinxed, as twice I've worn it, and twice she hasn't made it.

Caviar: Unfortunitly, I have nothing good to report, yet.

Steven

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

LOL I love this week's title!

Maggot Food: The rink keeps messing with our ice time. I was all excited about being able to skate more than I had originally planned; now they're taking that ice back. I keep reminding myself that this isn't the time of year to worry about it, since I don't compete again until February and the two tests I want to take before then are both coming along nicely, but as a general rule I don't like change and I was really liking the different schedule. Oh well.

Caviar: Pretty much everything is going well, considering how badly I need my skates sharpened. The only dance I really was having problems with was the American, which I didn't feel like practicing today (or yesterday, or last week) anyway. Hopefully I can get my skates done tomorrow or Thursday.

Also Caviar: I competed on Sunday and placed 8th of 11 skaters. That's the highest I've placed yet at my current level. I thought I could have been a bit higher, but I haven't watched the videotape yet, so maybe it wasn't as good as I thought. We only had three judges instead of five like usual, so maybe with a bigger panel I would have gotten a couple of higher ordinals and pulled up. The judging was a little odd in all of the dance groups, although my group wasn't as strange as some. I had a friend who won her event with a second, three firsts, and an eighth. That was par for the course for that group. But I've now managed to complete an entire season with no events blown due to nerves. A year ago I was contemplating whether I should quit competing because I couldn't seem to get my nerves under control no matter what I did. But this season, after Adult Sectionals anyway, I've done clean performance after clean performance, and consistantly placed quite a bit higher than last year.

__________________
Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Good job, CanAmSk8er. The mental is always the biggest hurdle, and to come from almost quitting competing to being happy with your performances is a great thing.

Maggots: My back hurts. In the last weekend, I skated 4 1/2 hours (2 hours more than normal), golfed 18 holes, and canned lots of tomatoes (which involves a lot of heavy lifting). So that is probably the problem, however I wonder if it is not mental, due to the fact that I am scheduled to compete in 3 weeks. 3 weeks before my last "first" comp I hurt my hip flexor (of course, that injury turned out to be very real and very serious). I'm ok on all jumps except the axel, and all spins except the sit spin. I know I need to not do axels, but my competitive mind is screaming "you must practice them in the program!!! (Just like the footwork/flip-loop wasn't working until I did them nine zillion times - now it is fine.)

Caviar: Oh joy! Got rid of a part of my program that I always hated. This is the same program that I did for AN (no time between my moves test and now to do a new program) and I always hated this cutsie move. I am not cutsie. Before AN between my injury and the lack of time we never had the time to tweek the choreography. Now that awful move is gone! Yeah!

__________________
"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Yes, I agree, this week's title is brilliant!

Last night was pretty mixed - you pays your money and you takes your chance - we were tired, I think, and the first efforts to rejig our OD into a FD were a bit disastrous. We both agreed that we couldn't think on the other leg! But when we tried to do our back chasses in the other direction, it was even more disastrous and we kept ending up at the barrier, so I think we'll have to think with our other legs.... if that makes sense (i.e. start the dance in the opposite direction, so what was Left, Right, Left-chasse-left, right-chasse-right becomes Right, Left, Right-chasse-right, left-chasse-left, etc).

Then it was figure club so we couldn't dance any more (although I did see Robert working on his Blues quite a lot), and I was choreographing my new Interpretive. Well, most of that is okay but I had a mental breakthrough that has left me rather frustrated. I realised that when I jump - which I rarely do, but you have to sometimes, even when you're a dancer - I either push into my jumps and then wimp out of them or don't push into them, which makes for respectable jumps but with no flow and they probably look as tentative as they feel. Same applies to my 3-turns.

So today in my lesson we worked on waltz 3s, until I decided that it was the back edges as much as anything, so we then worked on alternating 3s, which I was very pleased with (no toe-tap!!!), and then the Mohawk sequence, which I haven't done for years and never used to be able to do. Then I showed my coach what I'd done with my Interp, and he liked it a lot, and had some interesting comments. We agreed it was still sketchy at this stage.

Pure caviar: Then we worked on my back edges, and although he kept yelling at me to bring my feet together on the push AND to open my hips (two instructions I find mutually incompatible), I managed to get round the rink without losing speed although they were a bit flat! I was delighted. And my back inside edges weren't bad, either! Not quite what they should be yet, but they're coming!

So that was a high to end with, and as I was very tired, I called it a morning.....

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

Well, I guess the subject line isn't all that great given the so few replies so far, or did everyone just take off this week?

Maggot Food: Once again my coach had something come up and had to cancel lessons once again, and next week she is going out of town. So I am getting even further behind then what I already am, on top of missing the stuff she wanted me to work on and what I need to do to move ahead.

Caviar: Honestly? I can't think of anything other then just getting some practice in, and having two people guess my age as being under my actual age.

Steven

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

Well, you know, maggots are kind of gross - of course, IMO, caviar is even grosser! (I'm just teasing, SD)

Caviar - I complemented a young skater (10-11 years old?) on her program. She has very nice presentation. She in turn complemented me on my axel. Warm-fuzzy. Landed the axel-toe in my program, too. Maybe I will actually be able to stay on my feet at my comp in three weeks .

__________________
"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Maggot Food
Why do I find FI brackets less scary than either FI or Fo threes? Still having fits with the threes.

Caviar
One of the other coaches at the Mommy & Me sometimes also skates afterwards, and yesterday we spent an hour sharing tips from our lessons (we have different coaches). Even better, she had me do FI and FO threes in tango hold with her. It was great for quelling the fear, and I was able to do the turns at speeds much faster (that's not saying much) than usual. And....my one foot spin seems to be on its way back!

__________________

Caviar: Falling on a toe loop! Actually, my coach and I were using the harness to rework my toe loop. It was working pretty well and gave me the confidence to really go fo the jump. Well, on one jump I landed pitched forward on my toepick and as I tried to regain my balance, my coach pulled up on the harness. That pitched me forward even more and I fell over sideways, actually in a perfect fall, and landed on my hip and butt. I was pretty surprised, he was laughing, and it was all fine, and it was HIS fault anyway! And that was my first fall on a jump, ever! So actually I thought it was kind of cool. Weird, I know, but it made me feel even more like a skater.

Happy skating everyone.
Pat

well here's my week - I haven't contributed up to now as I am still shattered fom my 21 hour day on Sunday at the British Adult Championships. We were up at 5.15am to get to the rink for practice ice between 6.30 and 7.30, skated compulsories at 8.45am had a long wait til 3.40 to skate our OD's and then a 3 hour wait for results, presentations (which I had to stay for having got a medal - whoo hoo!!) at 8.15pm and then I had a 4 hour drive home. Didn't get to bed til gone 2am and then had to get up to go to college on Monday.

caviar
getting a 3rd place medal on Sunday!

decided in my lesson on Tuesday to convert my march OD into a Free dance for the next competition on Oct 19th which means I get to wear my dress again and hopefully someone will manage to catch my performance on video this time.

Caviar flavoured maggots
went to the jumps and spins group class. Only 3 of us there adn she had us trying to do some things I woudl not have dreamed of trying normally. Backspins which I can't do, parallel spins which I can't do, sit spins which are OK so she decided we should try change foot sit spins, the change foot parallel and then - at which point we were wondering what on earth she was on this morning - the flying camel!!
Strangely my camel change camel was closer to success than my sit change sit but neither would have been recognisable to anyone watching I dont' think.

very fat and grungy maggots

The loop - what is it with this jump. I still say it is physically impossible. Ah well - one day.........

hmm okay new at this....
maggot food my asthma was really bad yesterday so out of the 3 1/2 hours i was supposed to skate i could only do one...one really lousey slow practice and every muscle in my body hurts from off ice yesterday...not to sure if this is good or not yet.

caviar i did off ice with these two other girls i am friends with and yeah it was a blast, and i didn't have to go in the pool instead i got to get stretched and i can almost touch my feet to the floor when i lay on my back and pull my legs down into a straddle type thing! I was excited...now if only i could be as strong as i am flexible.....=/hmmm

LOL! I won't diagree with you there, I was trying to think of something that would be considered a delicacy, unfortunitly, thats the first thing that came to mind! I've never had it however, so I don't know how good or bad it tastes, course maggots are considered a delicacy in some parts of the world, ah well.

Steven

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

I skated today, and had a freestyle lesson.

We did a couple of exercises first, then started a few jumps (I haven't jumped in months). We only did waltz jumps and salchows. My waltz jump was fine - some were pretty good, and I also did 3 in a row. My coach wanted me to do this weird arm thing though, which was bringing both my arms forward in front of me as I'm on the BO edge and turning my body round a little (in prep for the take off), then moving both arms back & down as I step forward (pulling them in like normal for the jump). I don't get the arm thing - it feels weird to bring my arms forward and together first. Hmm.

My salchow was ok. Coach said the preparation and the three turn was good, and that's normally what people have the problem on, but I checked it well. I just need to make sure I have a good curve into it and take off right. They were all ok though.

Then spins. Coach said that I should jump & spin in the same direction (I've been practicing spins both ways because the opposite way is usually a little better than my normal way). I've been having lots of trouble with spins, but the first one I tried for him was actually one of the best ones I've done for a while! (It was only about 3 revs, but the centring was much better, and the entry curve was better too, and I finished it properly, rather than just putting my toe down when I lose my balance which is what's been happening lately for the most part.) I think the main problem I'm having is not holding the entry edge quite long enough, so that's one of the things I've got to work on now. They were a little better though.

As soon as my lesson was over and I was practicing on my own again - they were gone. Why am I better in lessons than when I'm on my own? It's so frustrating sometimes.

Gave up eventually, and started practicing the exercises I was given in my dance lesson on Monday, which were quite good, so that's something! One of the other skaters was trying to land double axels and ended up in tears. Poor girl.

Not sure when I'm skating/having lessons next. The timetables go a bit skee-whiff for the next couple of weeks.

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

What's a parallel spin? I don't have a rulebook and I don't think I've learned these yet. Is it an upright spin? Is it a one-foot spin with the free foot held at the ankle of the spinning foot but NOT crossed as in a scratch spin?

Caviar--
Got to practice on Tuesday on the all-adult session that my rink just started offering. It was nice--not very crowded. (Thanks for the ride, flo!)

I worked on my forward and backward consecutive edges and am getting better flow from all of them; BI still feels wonky but is improving slowly.

Worked on FI3s and RFI3 is coming along. I can do an eensy double 3, but the middle lobe (BO edge) isn't really the same size as the other 2 lobes, so I know they aren't TRUE double 3s yet.

Maggots
LFI3s. Ugh ugh ugh. I must make myself practice these every session until I can do them without a two-foot assist so that I can start to work on the alternating FI3s from the Pre-Bronze MIF test.

Didn't have time to practice spins or jumps at all, I was working on edgework so much. I really want to work on my spins more because I still really haven't been able to consistently get to the sweet spot on the blade of the spinning foot in my new skates. It feels like the sweet spot is farther back on my new blades than on my old ones, which had less of a rocker.

Caviar. I love caviar pizza!
I had a pretty good practice at the adult session with Mika. It's a good one to work on programs and edge runs that fill the ice. Mika looks great, and is moving along. My coach adn I refined some of the program, and he's suggested a very strange change of edge move for the ending. We'll see!

A parallel spin is another name used in the UK for a camel spin.

Sorry Mikawendy - I get confused with the differences between American and British terms. A parallel spin is exactly the same as a camel spin. We always seem to call it a parallel here unless it is flying as 'Flying parallel' just doesn't sound right whereas 'flying camel ' just trips off the tongue. I've started confusing my friends here by talking about waltz jumps - they look at me like I'm from another planet til I realise it's an Americanism I've picked up from these message boards and quickly explain I mean a 3 jump.
My toe-loop gets called a 'cherry' (as in cherry flip) yet my (as yet non-existent)'flip' could also be a 'toe-salchow'. As far as i know there are no alternatives for Loop and Lutz.

That's the axel take-off procedure .

__________________
"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Maggot: Still don't have my music completely done. Had it on my computer but then got a new mother board. When I moved my files over to the D compartment before reformatting the C compaartment, my skating music was deleted, just my programs not anyone elses. So, I had to get the MP3 I left at my CAS yahoo group and change it back to a .wav form to work on it. When I did that, I lost the opening music and first word of the song. I guess it was compressed too much as an MP3.

Then yesterday, I couldn't get my loop to work. I also had a hard time to remember what my choreographer did to my program last time.

Just when I got the waltz/toe combo from a forward take-off from practically a dead stop after one stroke at the very beginning of my program. It was erased from my program. Now I have to do a waltz/toe/toe from a series of crossstrokes.

In my program, my salchow was heavily cheated (see below the weird take-off set up).

Backspin wouldn't go beyond 1 and 1.5 revs.

Did't do any flips.

Caviar:
Today, it didn't matter as my choreographer once again changed my program. He's changed where I begin my program on the ice. The opening waltz/toe combo has been moved to another part of my program. So now I start sort of in the middle of the ice heading towards the judges with two strokes and then a bunny hop, then mohawk to deep backward edge with left leg extended forward and then I turn forward with a few crosscuts into alternating crossstrokes into a waltz jump/toe/toe loop combo with extended landing exit into R back crosscuts into a R back spiral, step forward to do a slide lung and then change direction into a salchow from mohawk, and then do a few back strokes and then step forward to a three turn on my right knee and get up backwards. That's as far as we got and it's not even through the first verse of the song. "When You Believe" interpretive for Adult Canadians.

I finally got the waltz/toe/toe from a series of crossstrokes at the end of my session. Phew!

During my warm up at the beginning of my session, my waltz, toe and salchow where decent.

Did practice flip take off and landing positions without rotating.

Yesterday:
Sort of Caviar and sort of Maggots:
Practiced the flip jump like mad. Never made it cleanly all the way around but did get 3/4's twice even though I landed on my outside right edge and nearly fell over except for my fast feet. The flip is getting there.

On Tuesday this past week, my coach said that she'll put me in the harness this coming Tuesday for my backspin and flip and maybe the loop as well. I think it's all a head case with me not getting the flip, loop or backspin and so does she.

__________________
"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

Although some people say "Rittberger" for Loop jump (and I've noticed most older skaters/teachers say "loop jump" to avoid confusion with the figure of that name), but that's German, really.

Don't forget also drag for lunge, and teapot for shoot-the-duck.

Rob and I are having a couple of days off skating - we've overdone it and need a break. However, RIDL match tomorrow, deep sigh....

Steven, Caviar is delicious - not that I've had the real thing, only lumpfish roe....

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

Here in Finland loop is also called Rittberger, however nobody
really calls it that but it is usually shortened to "ritti".
It is called loop jump as well, but that is even longer in
finnish ("silmukkahyppy").

Really?? What, you mean bringing your arms together in front of you before you step forward? If so, that's very exciting! lol

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Yep. You bring your arms forward before stepping forwards (actually, the way I do it, the arms coming forward are all kind of mixed in with the start of the step - hard to explain in writing), then back again which helps you set up for the knee bend/upper thrust/arm movement you need to get the axel take off!

__________________
"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Thanks, batikat, for the info. I've heard people use the term 3 jump before. I even read somewhere that one can do a jump that matches every one-foot turn in skating and that people used to do these much more than they do now. For example, one could do a rocker jump. I think I saw someone do one (or maybe a counter jump) in U.S. Nationals last year--possible Jeff Buttle? Personally, I can't imagine doing a rocker jump because I'm not yet able to do a rocker turn!! :O)

Caviar--
Worked on waltz jumps in lesson today--our instructor emphasized the path of the free (landing)leg during the jump, which was good since I'm so stressed about taking off on a secure FO edge that I don't even have ANY awareness of my other leg during the jump!!

I also worked on spinning during practice and lesson today. I did a few two-foot to one-foot spins just to feel where my weight should be on the blade. They felt good--fast and centered. But scratch spin with BI-FO entry was TOO scratchy--my weight is just too far forward. I think that it has to do with me getting used to my new Jackson boots. The heel is higher, pushing me farther forward, and I haven't yet gotten to the point where I'm getting all the knee bend I want from the boots.

Maggots--
Must get more knee bend!!! I feel so much more secure the more I can bend my knees.

caviar: talked to the hot guy at our rink, and had a good lesson, also i had another really good off-ice lesson,i got to use the big green ball and yeah it was fun i had a good practice this morning but it was a tad crowded but oh well. we worked on all of my dances today on my lesson and once i figured out where my partner should be i was able to do them fine^_^

maggots: hmm there was none WHEEEEE!^_^