Good luck at the interview, Jazz!

Sorry to hear about the moves test, patatty. But good for you for getting out there. I'm in awe of any adult skater who is up to the level of taking that test. I've practiced the Juv back power 3's pattern a few times and that's scary enough - I can't imagine doing the Int pattern - that's why I'm waiting for the new Int test - and considering that I'm about a year away, at least, from passing Gold, that won't be a problem, lol.

I'm testing Pre-Juv MIF on Saturday, which could go either way. I figured I might as well attempt it, and I've decided that pass or fail, it will still have been worthwhile b/c my 3-turns have improved, and that was my reason for working on this test. I passed Silver MIF last year w/o passing either of the 3-turn moves (which I was kind of embarrassed about - I was pleased that my spirals and power pulls were above passing, but I would have liked to have passed the 3-turns) so this is my chance to redeem myself, lol. And it should be an interesting exercise - I'm curious to see if I have enough power on the 'power moves' to pass on the standard track.

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

Bummer ... but you'll get 'em next time! I am getting ready to test these suckers, but I am going on vacation soon and will probably have to relearn them after 2+ weeks off the ice (yes, my brain is that way ). When I took my gold moves last year, I just focused on each move, one at a time, instead of thinking of the test collectively. In the warmup, I made sure NOT to do only the gold moves, and I even did some spirals (and a sit spin!) just to loosen up my body. I think it really helps to think of the moves test as a competition program, where you have to sell yourself and your performance.

Hooray for you!
I thought my panel would make me reskate the axel. It was somewhere between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 (but probably closer to 1 1/4), but I did a really good sit spin, so I think they let me off the hook.

Good luck at the Trophy Comp!!!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Boo hoo - partner injured on a business trip. Hope he heals soon.
Woo hoo - had a lesson today that was all edges - like a private edge class and for most of the session there were only two other people there - then just me. Nice to get out and simply skate.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Here's a working link to the video;

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

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"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

Thursday

Woo Hoo:

Backspin - Coach told me that for the prelim test, I don't have to go into the backspin from a 3 turn. So, I went and did as few as possible forward CCW upright revs possible (6 when coach asked for only two) and then stepped onto my right foot and actually got a clean fully rotated backspin rev before jumping off of it and back onto my left for for another 3 revs. Once I get this pesky backspin, I'll be able to go back and forth from forward to backward to forward to backward (getting seasick yet?) spin as much as I want because I'm already doing this. Now to just stay a few more revs on my backspin before going back to my forward spin and then out.

Camel - so close to 2 revs clean I can taste it.

Upright (corkscrew) - fast with fast exit and then fast LFO 3; don't ask how my revs 10+ revs easy

Sitspin - barely low enough but really fast including broken position too.

Waltz
Waltz + Loop (almost clean loop, just need to wait a sec longer before taking off on loop)
Toe Loop
Toe Loop + Loop (same as above combo)
Loop is getting stronger but still need time to mature to a clean one.
Left outside spiral pleased my coach - don't know anything more about it since I didn't see it.

Fiesta Tango - started partnering it. Boy are the arm positions easy. Just a few more run throughs and it's ready to test.

Swing Dance - still got the second half down right with good pattern (forward), second half is improving and I've added the backward progressive pattern after the Mohawk to what I already know.

Boo Hoo:
Can't get into a backspin position from a three turn to save my life and stay there. I keep starting off OK but then I go to an inside edge and rotate before flipping back to an outside edge to exit.
Flip - ran out of time to do any flips.
Lutz - also ran out of time for my lutz.

Coach isn't happy with my skating straight into the jumps anymore. He wants me to do all kinds of turns and steps directly into my jumps with no set up time. Help. I'm still at the thinking stage for CW turns and steps and he wants me doing these at speed into the jumps. Help!!! What does he think I am? An Adult Silver or Adult Gold skater? I haven't even passed my prelim FS yet. Sheesh

Unless a maricle happens this week, I don't see me testing my freeskate this time out because I need to be 200% on the jumps, camel and backspin before testing. Watch me get stuff after test day. Then I'll be off the ice for at least June (Chrysler layoffs affecting family income) and maybe summer too and will have to relearn stuff in the fall. I hope I can get back to skate for the summer so I can test the prelim for sure. Once I get the prelim test done, the Junior Bronze elements should come pretty fast not including the Axel (2 Salchow is easier to get than an Axel). My biggest problem with my jumps right now are my arms, keeping my freeleg off of the ice and cross in from of landing leg in air and at the beginning of the landing in Loop, Flip and Lutz. It's like I'm on a diagonal with the head tilted to the left and the feet tilted to the right on those jumps. Must break the cycle.

__________________
"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

Woo Hoo!

Because there's been no ice for a month, I've been going to the roller rink with my nearly worn-out PIC skates (boy, do I need new boots and wheels!)

Still, it's fun exercise and I especially felt it in my thighs. The increased skating effort on wheels makes me work harder. As always, that will translate to better speed once I'm back on the ice.

Managed a 4-rev scratch spin on PICs last night. The practice on ice has certainly led to improvements here. One of the regulars commented positively about it.

At 59+ years old, I'm the second youngest skater at the roller rink on Adult Night. One skater, Thelma, still skates each week and will enjoy her 80th birthday next month.

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Bill Schneider

We only have one month of ice left, and the tears have already started (hehe but not from me!) I have already begun planning my cross-training.

Bet you rock the rollers Bill! Several of the ladies at my rink roll but I'm not one of them. For some reason, I'm not very balanced on wheels.

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

Dear Online Skating Diary:

Yesterday I spent lots and lots of time on my rear end. I think this is because I am really bad at spins, but I am getting better (second lesson yesterday with the spin coach at the rink!). Plus I tore my pants and tights on a backspin. Oops. On the bright side, I got a good nitpicky dance lesson from my coach yesterday WITH dance buddy. Lots and lots of good stuff to work on, and I like it when she nitpicks because it means (1) she knows I can do it and (2) I'm getting close.

So anyway, Bobby told Jerry who told Jessica that Samantha told her friend Angela that she might like Chris, who has a really nice sitspin. I told Samantha that she better find someone with a better axel, but then Samantha went and told Bobby about it, who told Jerry and Angela that I'm a real meanie and now they all won't talk to me at the rink.

Plus, Mom told me that I can't get that pink dress I've just been wanting FOREVER and I really NEED for the upcoming season because it will be PERFECT for my new program until I study harder. She is SO MEAN!!

More later, Dearest Diary,

LilJen

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Aw, so sorry about that.

Well, rats! You are sure to get another job sooner or later, and I'm betting on sooner. I did see your next post where you said you are able to take some lessons, and I'm really glad because I know skating is a great morale booster.

Int MIF is tough! You'll do better next time.

CONGRATULATIONS on your first Gold!

I wonder if one could get away with an MP3 player during a moves test. Probably not, but it could really help.

Good luck tomorrow!

Woo Hoo:
After my ice dance lesson last night, coach said I should look for a test session to test the first three dances. Got in a pretty good practice today, focussing on expending a lot of energy, as I have to take off a few more pounds and I don't think I can eat any less.

Boo Hoo:
He will be away for all of August, and it's already pretty late in the season, so I may not get to test until the fall.

I injured myself showing someone spiral stretch exercizes a few weeks ago, and just when it seemed to have healed, it was aggravated by working on FI mohawks. Today it got so bad that anything I did on my R foot that required turnout (everything, right?) became painful. I even had to bail on CCW FXO's! I may try my prescription NSAID daily for a week and see if that helps, along with NO F mohawks at all (that's going to be awkward).

__________________

What a great idea. I'll try that. I don't seem to fall apart mentally in competitions, despite my "deer in the headlights" look during the whole thing, so maybe that will work. NoVa, you are a much better performer than me, but at least I can give it a try. I will never be a performer, and I'm ok with that (my nicknames growing up were "poindexter" and "dewey decimal"). I was really surprised at my reskate during the freestyle test, because I was under the impression that a cheat under 1/4 turn was ok, but these judges wanted complete rotations. They failed an intermediate freeskate after me with a cheated double sal.

dbny: I wish I could have music during a moves test. Even better -played over the sound system to cover the sound of my scraping blades!!

BooHoo No Boohoos! Not that I'm doing anything perfect, I'm just doing things better!

YooHoo Coach is still rather weak after her surgery, but she still insists on getting behind me on my figures and poking me in the butt with one finger when my back starts to arch and my butt sticks out. What people watching think is going on I have no idea. I live in fear that it's going to end up on YouTube. And she's got pointy nail on that finger too. So I was in Borders and saw a gag spatula that has a pointing index finger on one end made out of rubber (it's made for kids to lick the bowl clean). I'm tempted to give one to her. Then she can poke me with a stick.

We are now working on change edge serpentines. These are the ones with the leg that swings forward as you change the edge. These are hard. There's real opportunity for falling backward and banging your head. So far I've fallen backward and hit my elbow (thank goodness for skating safe's molded elbow protectors, all I did was get a sore shoulder )

I started FI3. Now that I have confidence in my blades since they were reset, I think I'll pass Delta (?) in a few weeks since FI3 were all I lacked (they were scary with the old blade setting).

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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

ROTFLOL! thank you for that....

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

Thanks. Unfortunately, I didn't have one of my better skates. I did pass the forward perimeter stroking (almost hit the wall on the end pattern but I guess it didn't bother the judges), the FI-BO 3's, the 5-step. I got 1 pass on the back perimeter and the power pulls; the other judges said the back perim was scratchy and the forward power pulls needed more power. And my FO-BI 3's weren't good - actually, the first side (RFO-LBI) was fine, but I have a lot of issues with the RBI 3's - I don't have to hold the edge as long on the double 3's, so I should be fine with those, lol. Interesting thing about the power pulls - they were about the same level (maybe a bit better) as they were last year when I passed Silver, and got marked 0.1 over. Theoretically, Silver and Pre-Juv have the same passing standard, but there is that power vs. continuous flow thing - I guess that was the difference bet the 2 tests with this move.

My coach thinks I should try the test again, but I really want to get back to working on Gold MIF full-time. It's hard to practice 2 tests, especially since I only skate twice a week in the summer instead of 3 times, b/c my regular rink is closed. I may try Pre-Juv again after I pass Gold, whenever that will be. But hey, on Gold, at least I don't have to worry about end patterns on the crossovers, lol.

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

Friday

Was a Woo Hoo day!

I skated on 2 different sessions, Open Ice from 2 PM to 3:50 PM and on the Intermediate Ice which runs from 6:50 PM - 8:00 PM of which I planned on missing the first 20 minutes.

Open Ice:
Upright corkscrew spin
Upright backcatch spin
Sitspin (forward only)
Forward upright to backward upright (getting use to spinning for at least on rotation in backspin at speed and want to get in a few more revs)
Waltz
Waltz + Toe
Waltz + Loop (now getting the rotation on the loop but not landing on one foot yet).
Toe Loop + Toe Loop
Salchow
Salchow + Toe Loop
Salchow + Loop
Loop by itself (pretending to do the three turn on two feet and keeping the free foot down until I turn enough to take-off is making my loop cleaner)
Lutz (all the way around with slight touch down- why is the Lutz easier for me than the Loop?)
Ran through my Fiesta Tango twice.
Ran through 2 thirds of my Swing Dance twice (starting to remember the steps after the Mohawk better - note I start where the steps go forward and not at the right place because I wanted to encourage myself and learn the dance faster.)

Intermediate Ice:
Did nothing but dance and skills.

First started out with practicing my Fiesta Tango.
Actually was working a bit with my coach but only for a minute. I let my friend who needed the help more have my coach for the Fiesta because she needed it more.
The Fiesta music played about 3 times for my friend and I while we were practicing.
I was right on the money with the beat and rhythm and covered the ice well. Only thing I don't know is if I have deep enough edges.
I even danced around on the Fiesta with my invisable partner pretending to hold hands and switch hand holds when I changed from forwards to backwards and backwards to forwards. That made me work on my posture and balance while partnering.

Then my friend and I worked on our Preliminary Skills together helping each other with our bad directions. My friend skates CW and has an easy time with LFI Mohawks, LFI 3s and RFO 3s. I have an easy time with RFI Mohawks, RFI 3s and LFO 3s. So I led the first half of the Mohawk exercise and my friend then lead the second half. The Three Turn exercise was hilarious because at the beginning we both forgot what edge, foot and direction to do after the first three turn. We spent about 5 minutes stepping onto the wrong edge before we finally looked at my diagram that I had at the boards. Once we had that figured out, the rest was much better. LOL Da! Then it was time to go.

After skating with my friend, who came out to my Spring Skating School because her's doesn't have Friday ice, we went out to dinner together before I drove her over to another of our friends apartment. It's always great to skate together with your friends and then even better to go out afterwards with them.

__________________
"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

Boo Hoo: arrived at the rink to teach with no skates.
Whoo Hoo: I'm a better skater than I thought - I was able to get off the wall in the flat, edgeless rentals and teach a turns, bunny hops, a circular step sequence and stroking. I could even hold a one-foot glide, but I didn't change any edges, lol.

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Woo-Hoo
I've had a good weekend. Lessons focussing on dance at the moment, as am only competing solo dance in the upcoming comp, then testing the next day.
Watching a dvd of national solo dance (Australian) gave me one of those moments, when I suddenly understood how to do the mohawk in Fiesta Tango. Consequently doing that with coach partnering was heaps better.

Spins were pretty good this weekend, apart from camel, though I did manage a couple of decent ones. Backspins rocked !!!!

Jumps were pretty good too. I finally found the moment to jump on waltz jumps, which I lost about a year ago when I switched to Proflex and an 8' rocker. It's been a long time coming. Oddly all my jumps were better as a result (yes!)

Boo-Hoo ?

Nothing, for once.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

I remember times when I was already at the train station and then thought, where the hell are my skates!!!

Haha. At least you can skate in rentals! I won't want to touch rentals. But desperate times call for desperate measures!

Heh.. that's something I'd do!

I once showed up at the roller rink with my ice skates instead of my PIC skates.

Let's call these "Ginkgo Biloba moments" instead of "senior moments" .

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Bill Schneider

Woo Hoo Had a pretty good overall skating week. My everything has been hurting again so I did 2 30 minute practices instead of 2 one hour practices.

Boo Hoo Videoed my sit spin (see youtube). Despite positive comments from both of my instructors, I'm not sitting

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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)

Boo Hoo!!!

My skates are being repaired!! Which means no skating tonight and no skating tomorrow. I am hoping to have my skates back by Tuesday for my lesson.

My top hook I tie (I only tie the first 3 hooks...leaving the top hook untied) on the left inside and right outside looked like they were starting to pull out, so my skate person was looking at them...they were supposed to call me yesterday, but didn't, and they are closed Sunday and Monday, so I'm hoping that the owner will call me either tomorrow or Tuesday...if I don't hear from her, I will call her on Tuesday morning seeing as I have meetings all afternoon and she is only open until 3... BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Just when things were getting good with my axel

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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

Woo Hoo! Back on the ice full force now, having had a nice rest since AN. No lesson this week, but finished learning Tango Romantica on my own, w/ the book & watching videos. It's fun!! And not as hard as I'd have thought (though of course I'm just walking through it).

Also did some great exercises (hard!) to work on extension and knee bend, which is my inspiration to improve from watching the other skaters at AN. I wish I skated w/ high level dancers on a regular basis--it really does help to see exactly what you're aiming for.

Then worked on Starlight trying to incorporate those things, which I think was somewhat successful. I need to start video taping myself more.

Re forgotten skates:

Adult Masters synchro team - the only male skater on the team forgot his skates and did the entire practice in rentals. BRAVE man. He did sooo much better than I would have.

There's nothing in the USFS rulebook that forbids music during MIF tests. At one rink that is now unfortunately closed, the skating director had a student who failed her Preliminary MIF 3 times. She finally asked the student "Why do you skate your practices so well (the kid was already working on Pre-Juve and Juve MIF) but you can't seem to do them when the judges are looking. The kid said something like "I don't mind the judges, but it's just so QUIET when I'm testing and it echoes." After that, the skating director would put on Enya-type music (nothing with a specific beat or loud drums) -- played rather softly -- for all the MIF tests, unless a skater specifically asked to not have it played.. and the test schedule would be shifted so there wasn't the sense of "music on" and "music off". I tested with the music on.. and apparently one of the judges didn't like the music and called me over partway through the test and asked "Is that music bothering you?" I thought the music helped calm me so I just said "What music?". He didn't really have any reason to ask for the music to be shut off, so they left it on.

boo-hoo: was going to skate today, but won't be able to until (maybe) tonight at freestyle because I let my girlfriend's daughter color my hair and now I have to go get it corrected it isn't that bad but it looks like i did it (which I guess is bad) and very much lighter than I would have chosen (at least not pink/purple/blue etc).

And my girlfriend gave me some $$$ to compensate. Poor girl, she is trying to pass her test for her license but I'm afraid she has a long, long, long way to go!

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

Visions of the musical Grease with the beauty shop scene.

__________________
"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