Shut down:
jump plateau. nothing more to say about that.

Open for Business:
Had a lesson today. Worked on Bronze moves. Alt. Back Crossovers to Back Outside Edges made more sense after todays lesson. I think this is my weakest move (yes, even worse than power 3' s believe it or not) Love 5 step mohawks. It keeps getting better and better. Started my new program today and went over a little of the choreography and footwork --oh my!
Did a fine attitude spin today.... just treading along the journey on my way to a beautiful layback someday.

I can only do it on one side also, strange isnt it.

Yep that's one of the phrases mum used to use, along with if you keep pulling that face it will stay like that, hmm, answers a lot of questions.

Samba

Today is my coach's 50th birthday! So he was in a good mood, which helped, I think.

OPen for Business: We spent a lot of time working on the dance moves very small, along the red line, which I know will improve them when they enlarge. Was aware, when doing them before we started (if that makes sense) that I was beginning to rock over on to a steeper BO edge. I also realised that one thing that will help enormously is backwards grapevines - I always used to do forward ones when working on forward X-rolls.... duh....

Shut down: In our practice earlier, got really annoyed with Husband for saying that tracking was only with the blades, not with the shoulders - er, I don't think so! And in our free dance I did exactly as I had been told to do and said "Now!" just before we needed to start the end pattern, but he still got it out of time, which is proof positive that it is him, not me, whatever the coach says!

All the same, the dance is coming now, I think. We are probably going to have to change my position in the lift to make it easier for us both, as Husband's back isn't going to like the old position, but that's not hard; coach will show us on Tuesday, I expect.

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

Open for Business

This is my favorite lesson day: the first lesson after a competition! That's when we get inspired and upgrade the program for the next competition. This morning I showed up to my lesson with a big brainstorm to try out: adding one more position at the end of my spiral sequence, then changing the jump that follows it from a flip to an axel. I tried the new spiral position and transitions to the music and it worked!

Shut Down

Nothing that I would actually call "shut down", but I do anticipate a big challenge trying to land that axel 2:15 into my program from a setup I'm not used to. Fortunately, I still have 6 months to work on it!

Shut Down: Working on Figures 1.. Back outside figure 8s are not pretty...not pretty at all. I see a lot of work and practice in my future!

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

That's pretty cool! My scribe has been patiently waiting next to my skate bag for "figures school" which will happen whenever the director can squeeze it in......Of course, we do have someone else at the rink that knows how to use one....so I might as him-he'd get a kick out of it I'm sure! (he's a pair skater from the 50's and he is an advisor now...doesn't skate anymore since his is in his 80's).

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

Open for Business:
My coaches have contacted me and I'm going to have lessons again starting tomorrow!!! YAAAAAY!!!!

Shut Down:
The lessons are at other rinks! YB is definitely gonna be closed for a while. They have to jackhammer the concrete to get to the pipes to fix. AI YI YI!!! Needless to say, it will be a MONTH before I'm back at my beautiful home rink again. My lesson now are Thursday nights at Oakland and early Friday mornings at 7:45am at yet another rink!!!

Secondary coach joked that I should come early to learn to appreciate the 8:15am spot that I normally go to... (WHA!?!?!?! Like I don't make it on the ice before to warm up at least 20 minutes before that!?!?! What more does this one want anyway?!?!?!)

But needless to say, I'm thankful that I'll have lessons again!!!

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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!!!

Yay!! Jazzpants has ice again!
Go celebrate with a big round of flips and loops for everyone!

Depends...you settle for two footed landing???

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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!!!

No. Do you?

LOL!!! Didn't think so!!!

I'll do my best!!! I landed a couple clean flips yesterday... but I couldn't reproduce it again after that! And then there's the LOOP!!! *sigh* More BO edge and BO3 exercises...

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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!!!

I landed a few today... of course this was after my lesson with Primary Coach, who worked with me the last three minutes of lesson on it.
The rest of the lesson was Open for Business in that the way my coaches want me to turn shoulders, tighten lobes, etc is making what my coaches want me to skate on these moves make more sense!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Open for Business: No lessons tonight...just homework! Worked all the way through my list and for the most part, the corrections are sticking. Mohawks are better and I was able to add a crossover for speed on the ones ccw. Crossovers were good, once I warmed up enough (did the off/on ice warmup she gave me and it was nice). So my lobes were deeper and my strokes were faster. Only tripped up once but didn't go down. Back crossover exercises were "interesting" because I forgot which leg to glide on. Got a tip from an advanced person.

3-turns were really good. Went up and down the line just doing one after another at a nice rhythm and checked hard...they were good-sized and AS EVEN GOING OUT AS THEY WERE GOING IN!!! That was nice!!!

Jumps were ok...still skidding a bit but I'm also breaking at the waist and not bending my knee enough when I land...so of course I skid a bit. Salchows were much better after the 3-turn exercise! Waltz jumps were tentative but ok.

Back spirals are coming along. Of course, having to watch behind me slows me down a tad...Front spirals are good and I'm working on both legs right now, trying to get the left leg as good as the right.

Shut Down: spins generally sucked. We are not working on the camel yet so I have not hit that. Not the sit either. That leaves the scratch and the back both of which sucked.

Toe-loops have been better but also have been worse. My leg is bent when I reach back and my skating leg is not bent enough.

Ran through my routine 2 times. Ran out of routine before I ran out of music. That's ok, since I'm working on speeding up my moves and stamina etc. I'm actually doing much better than I did on Sunday. My music is 1:30 and my guess is i'm still skating about 10 seconds beyond. That's not too terribly bad.

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

Shut Down is what the ice should have been until it was reflooded. It was the worst I've ever seen for condensation making bumps, lines all over the ice. Usually when the condensation comes it's only in about six places. This was almost everywhere. I was skating forward during part of my program near the beginning of the session and actually got my toe pick caught in the bumps and I'm skating near the back of my blade when I skate forwards. I just about killed myself twice. After that I had to revert to just doing elements out of my program and keeping my eyes down on the ice to avoid all the bumps.

Open For Business:
Had some decent jumps in combination and by themselves but didn't risk anything I didn't have down pat because of the ice conditions.
Spins: didn't try the camel because the bumps made me nervous. Upright was so so most of the time. Sit spin was a happening spin. I even started playing with a forward sit/broken sit/change sit. Didn't get too far on the change part but it was the first time I really tried. I got one rev after the change and then lost balance. I read how to do the change sit in a book but they must have left something out. I'm working towards a forward sit/broken sit/change to back sit/pancake sit as one of my one position spins. I did do a great fast forward sit/broken sit/upright spin of 10 or so revs but I sure wasn't use to spinning that fast.

Can't wait for decent ice. Hope I get it tomorrow.

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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

Shut Down:

• Rink air was especially cold, and I wore a short-sleeve sweater and non-warm pants.
• Didn't skate well, probably because of worry about falling
• Nearly died on way home - somebody in a pickup truck stopped on the side of the freeway decided to get on the freeway right in front of me as I was going 75. If I hadn't changed lanes very very quickly, I dunno if I'd have ever skated again.

Open For Business:

• Didn't die
• Skated today
• Didn't hit finger when I fell
• Didn't hit finger when I ran into the boards (eh?? how did I do that AGAIN???)
• Showed a guy from the roller rink lots of stuff. Got his edges a bit better and at the end of the session he no longer believed T-stops were impossible - he was doing them.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Casey: I am delighted that you did not die! giggle.

Attended bridge program last night as well as the first ballet class that is associated.

Shut down: Still struggling with a cold that has implications to my balance in spins. They divided us into small groups to work with different coaches switching once in the middle to a different coach. I had a ice dance coach first. He taught us progressives and a dance thingy that I now do not recall the name. I did understand the concept of a progressive vs a cross over but don't think I did well (might be because it is difficult while coughing! ..lol). I canceled my private lesson due to the cold but will be attending my other skate classes on Friday. Bummed.

Not sure about ballet class. I did not hate it, but had a hard time appreciating it's value to me. Will try to keep an open mind about it and reserve final judgment to when I have had more exposure to it.

Open for Business: Next was a freestyle coach with spins. She was very helpful with my one footed spin. Interesting how it is all in a few different words a coach will use that seems to make a difference in what I understand. Able to stay off the toe pick in a one footed spin most of the time.

Casey: Also glad you did not die!!! We need all the cute guy skaters we can get!

Dallas: I hope you feel better soon! Keep up with the ballet class....it takes a while but soon you will get "it" as far as the value of the class. I felt the same way but now I do my ballet exercises (at the gym, in front of they guys, no less!) and can tell when I don't do them in a while.

The progressives will kick in also....they were hard for me vs. crossovers but now they are easier.

Glad your spin is working for you! If you have some extra mojo left over, send some my way as my spins are crapping out

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

Ballet is one of those things whose value really exists in the repetition. It's not so much a matter of *knowing* what the positions and movements are; it's more about having done them so many times that the movements and positions become second nature for you on the ice.

Open for Business: I'm only 5 seconds behind in my program!!!! I did 3 run throughs at the end of the session today (I save $$$ and skate on cheap public skate) and for the most part it was pretty good going. With only a few people to dodge I had no problems. Back spirals were good!!! Helps having no one to dodge!!! Mohawks and 3-turns were sweet!!! I think if I go skating on Sunday I might hit the 3-turn pattern for pre-bronze moves....if I go (I'll be getting back from camping with my son and his cub scouts, so we will see how I feel). Waltz, salchows, and toe-loops were decent (I know I bent my free leg on the toe-loop but the rest of it was decent).

Shut Down: It's official...my rink now has it's own condensation bumps!!!! Although a lot of them were shaved down by a very helpful hockey guy (isn't that nice) there were some that were pretty treacherous!!! Yikes!!! I told the zamboni guy and he just shrugged his shoulders....it's been warm and humid lately so I guess we can expect them for a while.

Spins still suck, mostly. Drunken Sailors (in my routine) are on shore leave....

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

Shut Down: I'll add my voice to the condensation crowd!! It was dripping on our heads all evening and then dodging the bumps was interesting...

I'm happy to say that everything else was...

Open for Business: Finally managed decent CW crossovers continuously- good knee bend and actually pointing my toe fully into the circle. Yay!

My backwards skating- the source of much of my frustration- is showing definite improvement. Coach says he is pleased with how much more confident I am now going backwards- I no longer have a look of horror at all times

Clare

doubletoe: That makes sense. Thanks for saying that as I can anticipate value later. I really do want to look more graceful skating since I have interest in someday competing just to have something to work towards.

Skate@Delware: giggle to doing your ballet at the gym in public. I saw your video that had a nice ballet looking position in it and your work in ballet does show! Hope your spin returns soon. I think mine will be better when the cold is completely gone but it has really come along over the last 30 days or so. I bet I have done a million rotations by now! Very exciting that you are getting so close to pre-bronze!

Clare: Always good when the look and feel of horror kind of skips town! lol

Shut down: Still stuffy and sick! I have not jumped in a week due to breathing...I tried a simple half flip that I typically do well....about fell! eeeek...hope not jumping for a week or two is not doing too much damage in my jumping progress! Was too chicken to attempt anything else after! Still nursing my hip bruise that is now in the shape of Florida! (Keys are going the wrong way..in case you need a visual! ..giggle). Total coughing fits when I allow myself to get too aerobic. Two classes tomorrow should be interesting!

Open for business: Did take a 2 hour lunch to get to skate a bit today. Only 3 people on the entire ice. Wish I was feeling better but how wonderful to have the space to really open up. Spins were mostly centered and no toe! I am so pleased! Really working on getting a smooth transition from a backward cross to a one foot spin now...I can do it but seems to have fewer revolutions. Attempted some progressives..I seem to sense a tiny bit of improvement though I think I have a long way to go to make them as comfortable as a cross over. I tried just really going slow as possible and getting the foot to pigeon in enough to slide over. Seemed to help to be going super slow.

Thanks, Dallas....I'm hoping things get better once my allergies clear up a bit and the muscle spasms in my shoulders calm down (if they ever do). Take care not to overdo! You don't want a relapse of your cold and end up with pneumonia!!!!

And as far as the ballet goes, my personal trainer does some of the stretches and ballet moves with me now! It's quite a sight! He is also helping me with some PNF techniques, which has been very helpful (although slightly painful).

You will find that slow is good at the beginning and you will find yourself building speed as you become more comfortable with the moves. It is a natural progression, which you know. When you become too comfortable and don't push yourself, you become complacent and sloppy (been there too) and don't improve.

Clare, I'm glad you are skating calmer...no looks of horror unless it's Halloween!!!

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

Trust me, you will! I took ballet for a year when I was about 9 and for another year when I was 13 or 14 and now I'm over 40 and still noticing the benefits. I took my first skating lesson at 27 and I was probably 28 when we were taught how to do a spiral in our group class. Well, I got it almost immediately, while everyone else seemed to be struggling. It later occurred to me that it was because the position felt so familiar: It was the arabesque position from ballet that I didn't even remember learning! Same with arm movements and body positions/posture. I'm finding that they're still in there!

Open for Business:

FINALLY!!! A LESSON!!! With none other than my wonderful primary coach too. And apparently he's in a better mood since his alternate rink is only 8 minutes from his home!!!

He asked if besides Sundays at my weekend rink if I skated at all. I told him I skated SATURDAY and SUNDAY Berkeley actually... and yes, I also skated at YB just before the rink closed and at my alt. weekend rink midday. He says "Oh, I'll bet it's quiet when you're there huh?" I said "Yup! ALMOST PRIVATE ICE in fact!!!" He was like then "Hmmmm???" (Uh oh... I see a look like maybe I should go and practice there midday too...)

Spins are still there and I'm getting better on the camel spin now... not quite to position but at least he sees I'm trying to get into position and at least I'm spinning. It's very close to being MINE now!!! (Don't know why I'm better at spins than jumps... or why primary coach wants to spin and jump in MY direction now!!! )

Best news of all... the outgoing message says that they're hopeful that they can get the rink open by NEXT MONDAY!!! (Okay, I suspect that it will likely be like Wednesday/Thursday next week, but I will be back home very soon!!!) Rink manager asks me to think "good rink opening thoughts" for her... maybe I can get the Parlor in on this too, but everyone please think "good rink opening thoughts" for YB!!!

Shut down:

NO LOOP!!! GRRRRR!!! (And it's not from lack of trying either, doubletoe!!! He sees that I'm trying to do and I have been practicing my loop edge exercise though... he says "SOOOOOO CLOSE!!!" at one point...)

No lesson with secondary coach tomorrow. Just as well... I really need to catch up on my sleep and don't care to drive in to her alternate rink at 7am in the morning to skate on a weekday commute time! She is trying to reschedule our lesson for another time and day which is more palatable for 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!!!

Shut down: I must have had some kind of “bug” tonight - feeling weak in the legs, no fast reflexes at all, and I’d be sweating one minute and cold the next. All the turns (except two-footed and back Mohawk) deserted me totally and it took half an hour to get on back edges again so I worked on “posture” in forward edges, forward stroking and back Mohawks. In the lesson in the second hour we were supposed to do 3-Turns and Mohawks but my coach was feeling sorry for me so we stuck to the stuff that was working and turns were delayed to Saturday.

My God, it’s half way through September! Only five and a half months to competition. I have GOT to get busy and get these turns working so I can proceed with the choreography!

Open for Business: I didn't break anything?

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )