For the forward pulls, one of my coaches teaches it as an Inside to Outside, so that in effect, you're first continuing the same lobe until the first "pull" on the new foot. Also so that you're doing a more natural push onto the new foot.

(As you probably have seen, for many skaters, if they don't get a good push onto the new foot, the 2nd side often degenerates rapidly into a series of foot wobbles.)

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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...

It is pretty hard especially since she's leaving the country and heading to Chicago. She's terrified of flying so I fear that once she's there she won't ever come back to visit us. She's my daughter's coach also and between us we have four half hour lessons per week, so of course I do see a lot of her in a week. I am really going to miss her. I do have a new coach lined up for us both who is a lovely girl and I hope that once I get used to being coached by someone new, I'll benefit from the change.

I guess I'm just being tough on myself. It doesn't help that I'm one of those people who suffers with nerves when competing and I suppose this shows, but overall I skated pretty well and was pleased to have landed not one, but two combinations so I do feel disappointed. I'm not making a decision regarding future competitions just yet. I've never really found competing an enjoyable experience (not unless I've had a good skate and a suitable placing!) but I find that having something to work to really does help in terms of progress. We'll just have to wait and see, but thanks for your input.

Nicki

I don't see how you can do an I to O at all, and still maintain the long axis, unless you make the change off axis after half a pull, which seems excessively tricky.

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Cherry Blossoms:I skated today and one cherry blossom is that my coach wasn't there to criticize my skating . I was spinning good today and my sit change foot spin is getting better.

Dead Branches:my footwork sequence is toooooooo slow .I need to speed it up to be able to do a flip after it. Another dead branch is that there were three other skaters doing axels! I felt left out
~cutie

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Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

I think most judges are just happy to see skaters change feet cleanly and not trip... I don't know of any of our judges who even look to see which edges are on the transition. But your best bet would probably be to ask any of the judges at your rink or club.

Cherry Blossom: Ummmm... how about that I physically made it to my lesson on time??? (Okay, one more would be that my LFO3 are stablizing. NOW she wants POWER!!!)

Dead Branches: Well, I thought my RFO3 side is stronger... guess again!!! (It's just faster, but now she wants it done correctly!!!) We managed to finally get the RFO3 the way my secondary coach wants it. NOW I have to fix the back crossover on that side, which unfortunately has been another bane of my existence!!! (And of course, still manage to step onto a RFO edge instead of a RFI edge and then turning the foot out.) Sounds like I have to work on turning the torso on that side while doing back crossovers in the CCW direction, so I would not be blocked and be forced to step to a RFI edge.

Of course, at that point, the secondary coach REPEATED the need for me to either do yoga or get a personal trainer to work on the flexibility (and build some strength too!) I might just go and get a personal trainer from my gym (who is ACSM certified) and have my coach feed him/her what she wants out of me!

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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!!!

Jazz- You might also consider Pilates since that will help your core strength. I have hated yoga with a passion every time I've tried it, but I really enjoy Pilates and we also do some good stretching with it. Plus my coach works with me off-ice for 20-30 minutes a week, working on flexibility and posture and choreography and so on. It's been a long, slow process but I am so much impoved it is really amazing. Good luck with everything!

Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

This is just what I heard in my lesson today. The good part was that my coach kept repeating that I have such good back crossovers....but I don't do them in the power three pattern. I'm starting to get it on the R side, but on the L, I always feel like I am going to fall into open space if I really push against the RBI edge for the Choctaw. I've been doing just the crossover and step forward heading towards the wall, so I can grab it if necessary . Trying to build a little confidence.

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Funny you mentioned that! Another skating friend thought the same...so, when I saw secondary coach later on tonight, I asked her would she consider Pilates in place of yoga or this trainer she recommended. She said "Yes!!!" So now I'm also hunting for a Pilates coach!!! I think it'll give me exactly what she's looking for.

We'll see. I haven't heard from that particular trainer yet, so I may end up taking up Pilates after all...

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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!!!

Jazz- Well, great minds think alike! Anyway, I just wanted to recommend to you that you either find someone for some private lessons or make sure any group Pilates classes you take are not too big. When you're starting out, it's easy to get hurt if you are not doing the exercises properly. Also, there are Pilates classes/lessons that are mat-based or apparatus. My teacher does a combination of both with me. Then during the rest of the week I do a number of the exercises as part of my warmup before I skate.

Good luck!
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

dead branches: my sister's cold/flu attacked me.
blossoms: finally got to the rink and managed to skate for about 45 min. Still no word on the elusive skates.

Blossoms : I can retire my AN program and work on something else.

Branches : The something else is a show program. I have learned 1/2 of it. The show is next Friday. Our costumes got tossed in the dumpster (by a rink janitor not paying attention). Things are not going well with this show.

Cherry Blossoms: Show is over/rink is closed and I can finally get caught up on much needed sleep.

Dead Branches: Our Navy routine for the Sunday show took a nosedive and sunk! Hopefully, not many in the audience was very wise to what a synchro team should really look like ! Of course, Murphy's Law states that the videographer had to tape that night....

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

Cherry Blossoms:
Skated for 3 hours today- skated 2 hours this morning when I had a lesson with Coach and then one hour this afternoon when I had to come back to the rink for a club board meeting- just came a little earlier and skated a hour before the meeting. Spins were good today!

Dead Branches:
Will I ever get this Bronze MIF test down pat? One day, I'm ready, the next, it seems like I need more work!
Also mad because while the rink CD player would play the kid's program CD's, it would not play my newly purchased ZZ Top Greatest Hits CD. Wanted to do moves to it, since the band is from Texas, where AN will be next year!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

NOW you know how I feel!!!

Dead Branches:

• I have spies for my secondary coach watching me do my 3turns and it ain't pretty. And of course, my spies is gonna tattle and my secondary coach on my case next Wed. GRRRR!!!
• 5 step was fine on the first half but really bad on the second half. Me? I think both sides were sucky... but just that the first side didn't suck as much...
• Alt. forward crossovers were sucky... but my primary coach reasoned that it's b/c I'm getting tired and tend to be lazy towards the end of the lesson (Strange?) ... b/c he's the same way. (AHHH!!!)

Cherry Blossom:

• The BI inside of the alt. back crossovers and the back xover to BO edge weren't as bad...
• He did say that I have improved this year but there's a lot to still work on.
• Did some final backspin. First one sucked. Second better. Third one was a "YAAAAY!!!"

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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!!!

Cherry Blossom: Back on the ice after our holiday. Worked out a new start and end to our Swing Dance (copying like mad, but none of the pre-bronze dancers at AN are going to be at MC, which in one sense is a pity, but in another I'm very thankful!). Also tried starting our Canasta in the same place as the pre-Bronze dancers started it, which is going to work, I think. Walked through parts of our Free Dance, but....

Dead branches: Still a bit jet-lagged, plus we have our Latin dance class tonight, so didn't stay on for very long, only an hour. Didn't run through my Interp at all, as my boot got loose and decided it wasn't worth tightening it!

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

Dead Branches: Figures are stuck in Mediocre Mode. After a spate of progerss that lasted from October to mid February, where I could see SOMETHING improving almost every week, I've been stuck at the same level for the last month and can even see things getting worse. Frustrating as all-get-out. Plus I picked up some nasty nicks on my patch blades. My coach stoned out the worst of them but I really need to get the blades sharpened. Only problem is finding a sharpener who has some experience with figure blades, no easy task in this area.

Cherry Blossoms: The Interp program is complete and fun and a couple parents who saw me run through it last night told me that I should do it in the club show just because it's so entertaining to watch. And that was without costume and with the props tied together with an old boot lace. It should be better with complete costume. Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about it. The freeskate program is another matter....

Michigan - the dumpster? grrrr.
Perhaps you can all skate in Janitor outfits.

Cherry Blossoms:

- Major breakthrough on the Paso back breakout. It's amazing what doing something as simple as keeping the foot tucked during the back change edge after the slip-steps can do... improved the shape of the bit of the dance from the break-out through to the step-forward almost totally.

- Tango slowly getting better. Working hard on ensuring neat feet with flexed ankles and good edges and flow.

- Starlight about the same. It only got about 15 minutes of time this week, other than my practice. I did do the end pattern (the 3-turns into the closed mohawk) faster solo than I've been doing it. Not yet at full power/speed solo, though (at that point solo, the chicken factor takes full control of my mind).

Dead Branches: Only twigs this week.... the only non-twig is that my boots are starting to feel like they're dying although they don't look it. I changed laces and still can't keep the left boot from going wobbly within about 10-15 minutes without lacing so tight that I cut off circulation.

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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...

And skate to this parody song:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/sil...printstory.jsp

(song to the tune of Prima Louis' "Jump And Jive and Wail...")

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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!!!

Michigan - sounds like the stuff at my rink.

We've just been informed that the management company that runs our rink has double booked youth hockey for the same time as our club show, which is already sanctioned and has been under rehearsal for the last three weeks. The hockey group is the same one who has already bumped us off club ice twice since February. Mind you, the rink manager confirmed the dates with us before we sent in the sanction request and HE didn't know about this until yesterday when his monthly schedule came from headquarters.

The management company sucks Zamboni scum.

Blossoms: the flowers are blooming and making my...........

dead braches: or my head wants to explode!
my heads been hurting all week from the awful flu/ but not flu virus, you can do nothing about!!!!!

but back to BLOSSOMS:
I'm okay as long as i dont spin or jump(my equilibrium is off besides loss of too much wait too fast)

so!
i had my first dance lesson!!
it helped my stroking so much, it's like it finally "clicked" and i was all:"why didn't any one tell me this four YEARS ago????!

but at least i think that will help my lower back problem (im always slouching).
Plus the weather has been all freaky, just ask michigan skater!
messing everyone up i think.
Ugh!

but hey at least im not the only one....

~kittie(feeling like this: and head in the clouds or sand... or under the ice?! )

Cherry Blossoms:
My new pair of boots and blades seem very helpful on my skating. My coach was very happy with me finally changing skates. ^^

First time I'm able to find the 'spot' for a spin and I was able to do a 3 rev's upright spin (not scratch spin tho... ><). I've never been able to find that 'spot' becasue with my old pair of skates either I spin on my toepick or I spin on the centre of my blades! Now I need to work on keeping the spin on the 'spot' instead of going down to my toes.

Now to jumping... seems like I am not fighting for where to land again.


Dead Branches:
Not today.

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Reach out for the sunshine ~*

Cherry Blossoms:

Skated today for the first time in weeks, I was off with injury. Being back on the ice is such a good thing I can't believe it.

I remembered all my dances. I didn't even put my foot down on the 3 turn in the Willow.

Dead Branches:

Spinning. Aaack. It's such a finicky skill and it took me forever to build up resistance to dizzyness which is now gone. I'll have to start that all over again.

Cherry Blossoms: My coach was in a really good mood .We changed my program alittle bit and she helped speed up my footwork sequence.I was jumping really good too!

Dead Branches:I still haven't gotten my axel

~cutie

__________________
Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~