Dude, your lutz jump is amazing! And the height you get ... wow!

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Lion: My singles coach called me a few days ago and asked when she would next be seeing me. Beats me! I think I've only had 3 lessons with her this year.

The usual rink where Loops and I skate weekend freestyles has canceled sessions for a couple of weeks (because of hockey?), so again, another week goes by without a program runthrough. How many weeks till Nationals?

But that's OK, 'cuz Loops and I have a comp next weekend where we're only doing singles FS, so it's good to focus on singles a bit. Loops and I decided not to hunt for freestyle ice (I think there was one today a whiles away in Maryland) in the further reaches of the Beltway.

Lamb: So I snuck to my training rink, and whom did I see upon entering the lobby? Loops! What was she doing at *my* rink? Grrr. Nah, it was funny. I was planning on concentrating on some of my program elements. Also, I hadn't changed my program in a few weeks, so it was about time!

The session was a bit crowded but not nearly as bad as one would expect on a weekend public. Anyway, I spent at least an hour doing singles skating and felt like a live wire--amazing what 10 hours of sleep and proper eating will do for you! Loops helped me come up with some new entries to my flip in my program, and she aided me in designing a new spiral move.

We did end up doing some pairs elements--as if we could stifle ourselves! Did a few throws, pair sits, sbs jumps, one-handed death spirals, and some lifts. It wasn't nearly as dangerous as one might think. When people see us barreling down the ice, they tend to move. And I think some of our elements were the best we've ever done them or at least this year. (I mean, where did that tango camel come from ... in a public session on chewed up ice? And I got 1 or 1.5 revs on ONE foot in the pair sit? The mind boggles. )

When I got off the ice, a few public skaters said they enjoyed watching my singles and pairs skating. Aw, how nice!
After the public skate, my club has a dance session, and I was recruited once again to do dance. (Note: Steve does not do synchro or dance. )

Anywho, It was good to have a good skating day. It was long time waiting for this ...

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Nova--I'm glad that you had such a good practice.

I did too--worked on power threes in my lesson. Compared to the alternating threes, I really like the power threes! Somehow they're not as evil! But I will have to stop freaking out after the BXO!

I also enjoyed watching the other skaters on the session today--there's an adult who's working on her intermediate moves, and a young skater with a GORGEOUS double lutz and a split jump that's a million miles off the ground. I wish someday I could jump that high!!

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Thanks for your reply Melzorina - it sounds a bit like what you're calling "cross cuts" is what we call back cross rolls in front (as opposed to back cross rolls behind)?

I'm very bad at explaining these (and anyone reading this, please feel free to correct me if I didn't get it right). A back cross roll in front is a bit like a confused back crossover, in that you use the free foot to push in front of the skating foot, rather than behind the skating foot as you would with a regular back crossover. The skating foot is on a BO edge rather than a BI edge as it would be with a normal back crossover.

Once you have completed a single complete move in one direction (say, CW), you do the next complete move in the other direction and so on. When you're doing them right, you move down the rink in a series of quite marked and graceful arcs (as opposed to when I do them and move down the rink in a series of toe-picked straight lines - where's the BO edge when you need it??)

By contrast, a back cross roll behind is a little more like a series of (supposedly graceful) regular back crossovers, except that the skating foot is on a BO edge, rather than on a BI edge as it is in a back crossover. Once again, having completed one complete move in one direction, you do the next move in the other direction, and move down the rink in a series of arcs. Does all this make sense?

They are also called "cross strokes", I think - where you cross in front to an outside edge while going backwards. We have to do a lap of these as part of both our Prelim Field Moves or Level 3 Dance Moves, and I would really, really like to be able to do one or other of those tests before the end of this year when they are going to change the system again. Somehow, I don't think this is going to happen....

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I think you can often do things on slow ice that you can't do on fast ice, because the body is "Help, NO-O-O-O-O" when it's fast.... I have things I'll only do on slow ice!

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Perhaps ... but what I was getting at was that I was in a bubbly mood, was well rested, was injury free, and--maybe the biggest reason of all--there was a public watching! Hmmm, that inner performer couldn't wait to give the public a show. Also, it was nice not having to skate early in the morning; my body is loathe to put itself in imminent danger before noon!

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Just remember, next Sunday is early!!!

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Yeah, but there's no danger in that competition--I'm only doing singles there.

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
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LAMB: I went to an afternoon public session yesterday, which I normally never do because of all the birthday party groups. Well wouldn't you know that yesterday afternoon I finally landed a proper loop? It came to a dead stop after I landed but it was a bonafide one foot takeoff and one foot landing. The last time I actually landed this blasted jump on one foot was well over two years ago! Icing on the cake during practice was a perfectly centered scratch spin. I wished I had a camera to take a picture of the tracing. It was a breakthrough practice session because after landing the loop, I got the extra bit of confidence I needed to be really secure in my toe and salchow combos.

LION: My other fourteen attempts at the loop were two-footed. And my arms don't want to come in on the flip; they just don't.

Congrats on the loop, Ann! I've been working on that jump for 2 years, and I'm finally getting to the point where I land it on 1 foot more times than I land it on 2. Unfortunately, it's usually a bit cheated, but my coaches tell me I'm getting close and just need a bit more speed and height (yeah, easier said than done). In my new program, my coach has me doing 3 crossovers into the loop, to get more speed. Yikes!

And yes, I have flip problems too. I think I'm getting all the way around, I just can't seem to land on 1 foot.

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