Tavern: Usual rink has limited ice for THREE WEEKS due to hockey tournaments. Ugh. Skated at another area rink after work today. Just had skates sharpened and much to my surprise was skidding all over the place! Going to wait to skate on my normal ice (probably Friday morning) before I take them back and inquire if something has changed, or if maybe the other rink has unusually hard ice or something. (Because it's never the skater's fault, right? )

Did my first workout on Saturday with my previous off-ice coach. Lots of core and leg strength work, some upper body work. Felt like someone had hit me in the ribcage with a baseball bat from the core work. Legs were sore, but not ridiculously so. I was hoping for a good skate today, but uggggh. Knees were very unhappy. I think it's just a matter of getting used to the off-ice again.

Most of my jumps were just off today, even the flip which is usually my friend.

Lotsa: Ummm, not a whole lot. Spins felt okay, not great, but okay. And I did one nice loop that felt like "ahhhhhhh".

Tuesday

Lotsa Went through program with coach in lesson. She liked most of it. Camels are better. Sits are a tiny bit lower(I'll take every mm I can get ). Flips were decent. The loop after the footwork is much improved. I have to remember to wait and set it up properly before jumping. Working on holding the endings and not rushing into the next element.

Tavern The part of my program where I finish the sit spin, do a spiral, then do the lutz-toe loop is bad. My free foot toe tends to droop on the spiral and the lutz is all kinds of crazy bad. Coach wants me to work on this section and have it "perfect" for my lesson on Friday (Ha!)

Thursday

Lotsa Nice quiet session. There were 3 of us adults and 1 kid with her coach. Camels were good. Flips were decent. Scratch spins are back to being centered again. Ran through program without music and it went pretty well. Ran through it with music right before the end of the session. Seemed to go well. Other skaters thought it looked pretty good except....

Tavern for the lutz-toe loop. Ack! Had nice speed going into it, but totally chickened out. I worked on that spiral-lutz-toe-loop-camel section a lot. It seemed to get worse rather than better.

I was a barfly at the Tavern this week. I didn’t stop in for a drink—I camped out there, Eugene O’Neil character style, Meryl Streep singing in Barfly style. Caught a toe-pick while pushing into a three in the Bronze Moves Three-Turn pattern and went down hard on my knee. Our rink (like others?) is pretty macho about injuries, there’s a culture of no-crying or whining. The pain was unreal and I sobbed like a baby. Later that same session, I sat back on a sit spin and –for the very first time—bonked the back of my head. I let out a huge, “Yeee-ouch!!” and looked up to see half a dozen concerned faces looking down at me. Coach said, “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to land on your head?” I followed up this display of extreme gracefulness by failing to do anything right.

Lotsa: But I kept skating. Got the program in shape and went through it to music. All the jumps, spins, and footwork went well, though I have the most problems with those connecting moves, like back cross-overs and power threes. I feel like I’m skating on sand. Still, I have a t least enough experience to know that these things smooth out over time and more practice. Did some nice loops and mediocre flips. I started to feel a bit like a real figure skater by the end of the week.

Tavern:
Ugh! I haven't had a lesson or practiced in 3 weeks and the antibiotic I'm on for my sinus infection makes me ever so slightly dizzy, so we really didn't so much and I had a major lack of confidence. Did some edge work, which was OK, then worked on FO and FI threes, which is where I really felt dizzy.

Lots of Green:
At the very end of the lesson, I suddenly felt really good, and solid, and wanted to spin. I did just one very, very nice one foot spin from a T push. It was centered and about 5 revs. If I had ended it just one sec earlier it would have been perfect, but I waited and did rock back just a bit, forcing me to end the spin. Nevertheless, I was very happy to get that one nice spin in.

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Tavern:
Skated an hour. Coach cancelled.
Blech of a week.

Lots of Green:
Got my boots fixed so the big toes are popped out. My skate tech was tech for the US team at Vancouver, heard some cool stories. Nope, not going to repeat them.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

Yay for you! Luv spins like that!

Tavern-no skating this week....ended up at a real tavern for a one-beer-study-break. I have two big tests on Monday and a skills sign-off (sterile wound culture & dressing change), then two more days of clinicals before spring break. I am hoping to catch up on some skating during break since the college will be completely shut down (no way to practice trach care at all).

Yeah. My plan to test next month-pfft! out the window. Oh well, there is always May, and the session after that (July). I'll keep trying. to find time to skate.

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

Lotsa Green:
Got to Klingbeils and they were able to adjust my skates. Didn't have a chance to try them out yet, so *crosses fingers*

Tavern on the Green:
Ordered new boots but I also need new blades. Big bucks.

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Count yourself lucky. My friend the Big Guy goes through 2 pairs of boots and parabolic blades a year. He's so hard on boots he keeps them in rotation so one pair is winding down while the other is breaking in.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I've been in sort of a holding pattern this year so haven't posted much - but I finally worked up the courage to test the first two Preliminary dances - the Dutch Waltz and the Canasta Tango - and passed both yesterday.

Judge's comments mentioned my weaknesses in the two parts I always have trouble with so no news there but my "timing and expression" got "OK" for both dances - which is extraordinarily good because generally I suck at both.

Anyway, a "P" is a "P" and I'm happy that I don't have to worry about the Dutch Waltz any more.

congratulations!

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Way to go! CONGRATS!

Tavern Lutz is giving me fits. I hesitate. I chicken out. Spent some time working on it. Turning my head into the circle seems to help keep the outside edge. Had a couple of friends look at it and they said when I don't hesitate it's not bad. Flips were also a bit tentative. Need to attack those jumps more.

Lotsa Ran through my program twice. Both run throughs were pretty good with the exception of a missed lutz-toe loop. I wasn't even too badly out of breath on the first run through so that I went again after a junior freeskate program.

I am not at all surprised you passed! And I can't think why you say your timing and expression suck - I've seen you do these dances, and you've been absolutely fine!

Onwards and upwards, and the horrible cross-behinds in the Rhythm Blues (are you doing Preparatory-level at the Mountain Cup, as we are? I don't have too many issues with those dances and it frees us up to concentrate on our free dance, which is at the why-did-I-think-this-was-a-good-idea stage).

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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!

Yup, it's the Canasta and the Rhythm for me at Mountain Cup. Jean too, since we don't know the french-only dance that they've picked for the Preliminary level.

I don't have much trouble with the cross-behinds - I find the three easier to do than the optional two. It's that dumb down-up step down the side that I dislike and the off-count timing around the corner confuses me. At least the tempo is slower on the Rhythm Blues than on the Canasta.

Are you doing the solo dance too or just the partnered one?

With all the changes in MC's rules this year, I have no clue whether my free and interpretive will fit in. We'll have fun anyway.

Tavern Couldn't get out of the tavern last night. I ran a 4.5 hour test session. Then went to the rink 3 hours later. Ugh. Everything was bad. Couldn't go a loop to save my life. The salchow I did was scary when I looked at the tracing.

Lotsa Not a lot. I could still do scratch spins okay.

Tavern - I don't drink, but I should start. Skates are meh, not better, not worse. Just fit a little better and are more balanced. They're super-sharp, so that could be part of the problem. Forward brackets were fine, but back brackets are scraped and uncomfortable.

Lotsa Green - I can center a forward spin now, so that's a good thing. New skates are on the way - even better. FI Twizzles were pretty good, even the "wrong" way.

I *wanted* to go skating yesterday at coffee club, but my coworkers sent me a ton of work that had to be done right away, including a conference call mid-session. I was so ticked off, it showed.

Looks like I charmed the development team vendor into doing an upgrade for free, though. Yay!

Maybe tomorrow, I'll get to the rink.

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I got to skate in our club's show this weekend and got to see the tot number I choreographed. It was a ton of fun. I screwed up my axel and 2 sal both nights...don't really know what happened. I think both nights I was rushing the jumps...

The tots were adorable skating to itsy bitsy spider and they totally stole the show. They didn't do much of what I choreographed, but that's okay. One of them was so cute and giggled loudly through the entire program, which made the entire audience giggle I have a picture of her mid giggle which just makes me smile

Here are a few photos of me
Not my best layback...




My spiral

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Wow! You look great--just fabulous!! Thanks for posting these pics!

ITA! Beautiful spiral!

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I love the spiral picture, too! And your layback is WAY better than mine!

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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

Thanks everyone!! The show was fun and it was an excuse for me to stone a new dress!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Just the partnered, but I do have an interp - and, since yesterday, a costume for it (long story).

The trouble is, the French federation has finally sat up and took notice. Which would be fine, and in many ways is good, but I do wish ISU would set standards for Bronze free dances and pre-Bronze compulsories, as it is making life very difficult. However, our free dance should be adaptable to NISA requirements come the autumn, and the compulsories are what they are, and as long as they don't want too much in the way of ten-foxes and hickories (we have competed the latter; it was just that with fewer lessons this year, there wasn't time to polish up these two dances AND do a new free dance, so we dropped to Preparatory for the compulsories).

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

Hi

Well, I will post the practice thread for this one short, as it was a long time ago, due to the Easter holiday, and I was too busy with the Easter play preparation in my church for the Good Friday.

Lotsa green (the good bits)

Forward one foot spins (well, at least hitting 32 revolutions max.) Jumps are getting better. Finally getting comfortable with my loop jump, and trying to get down lower with my sit spin. Getting there with my backward cross-rolls.

Tavern (the bad bits)

Backspins (cannot cross yet, but can do the leg wide open). Brackets- still finding this weird.

Due to the Easter school holidays, and also the kids preparing for a competiton two weeks ago, jungling competitors with students who are having lessons are never a good idea.

Give some of the basic jumps a miss, as needed to work on the ISI freestyle leve 3 and 4 elements.

londonicechamp