Seems to be my turn to start the thread this week. Sunday morning being the day we practice together, then Robert has his solo lesson and then we have our couples lesson:

Windfalls: Our Variation Rhythm Blues is coming-along-nicely now, and we managed to get through it without too many mistakes. We spent a lot of time working on our Canasta Tango as we have a RIDL match this evening, and the final run-through was not at all bad. We started work on the Cha-cha for France, and it went reasonably well.

Wasps' Nests: It was perhaps unfortunate that people were practising the Westminster Waltz when Robert did a Golden Skaters' Waltz with his coach, as they looked slow. And we kept having problems on the restart of our Canasta, but once we realised that we were bringing the chasse too far in - it should be going more-or-less straight up the rink - it sorted itself. I was told my back extensions, as usual, were poor. Especially on the runs - I never seem to find time to extend. Oh well, if we are drawn against a couple who skate better than we do, we'll lose; if not, we'll win. Unfortunately, the former is rather more likely.....

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

When are you leaving for Bordeaux, Annabel?
Are you staying for the whole thing?

World Ice Challenge, Bordeaux

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Windfalls:

The fall lessons at my rink started yesterday. We worked on toe loops, the waltz-side toe hop-waltz combo, back edges and spirals. My instructor's helper (I'm the only freestyle level 2 person - group is Free 2 and 3 - so the main instuctor spent the time working with the 3s and never made it over to where I was working with the helper - but he assured me at the end that next week he would) had me work on keeping my upper body low on my spirals - which was scary. But, I am able to do both FI and FO spirals on both feet, albeit with one side better than the other.

We also worked on the RFI turn to get more speed and less instability going into the toe loop.

Since I hadn't had any practice for two weeks (since Todd Eldredge's skating clinic) - a combination of evening commitments, a trip to NYC, and a nasty cold - I was just glad that I didn't fall. I felt unsteady when I first got on the ice for pre-lesson practice, but I was able to get back into the swing of things, so to speak.


Wasps' Nests:
(ouch!)

My backspin is nonexistent. My instructor said we'll work on that next week, but that it's something that takes about a 1000 practices to get right.

I feel quite insecure on my back edges, particularly when landing jumps. I occasionally feel almost like I'm on my inside edge instead. I've been wondering if my blades need sharpening, and if I should get a deeper "cut" next time.

As you can imagine, my BO and BI consecutive edges are pretty bad. I kept trying to swing my leg back and push off like the helper said, and did, but it's not as easy as it looks. Add the feelings of insecurity to being off the ice for two weeks, and I was struggling just to keep my arms and legs working in conjunction with one another. Oh well, I suppose regular practices will help somewhat with that.

Windfalls:

This was my first time skating in three weeks. Yikes. We did not have ice at my usual rink for all of August and part of this month, and I have been so busy with school that I haven't found much free time. I was wondering how I'd do having been off for so long, but...coach was thrilled with what I was able to do today and she also mentioned that I am a strong skater. Once I get back on a regular schedule I'm sure I'll actually feel that.

Camels were still very good. Not as fast as they were before the break, but good form nonetheless. Attitude spins also felt great. And the big news of the day is that my layback has finally arrived. Wow. I just set up the spin, and freaking did it. I capped off the lesson with a super-fast, centered scratch spin!

My form is also getting better on the loop. Keeping that free foot in front where it belongs now!

And...we have officially begun off-ice axel practice.


Wasps' Nests:

Toe loops. Yuck. Don't like this jump. Just don't.
Sit spins. What's new there.

__________________
All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Wasps' Nest (this is suppose to be bad? where did youi ever get this saying?):
Toe loop has left me. I am not bending my skating leg before take off and the whole thing messes up. I swear it's a head thing. Salchows are hit and miss. Spin enterances suck. My Freeskate sucked big time today.

Windfall: Better posture today. Waltz was OK. Right foot didn't hurt that much today but the right shin was painfull. Got the first part of my US Interpretive down to a science but then after the waltz jump, I haven't a clue what to do.

Other note: I have to come up with a game plan for the person who plays the music for us skaters because I have three programs and I'm never sure which one I'll get. We decided that I will number them 1, 2 and 3 and then I just have to hold up the number of fingers that correspond to the music I want played.

Brigitte

__________________
"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

This is from Saturday morning (first chance I've had to post it). Most was pretty much the same, but not as good a skate as last week. It's so frustrating how I only get to skate once p/week and it's always so busy, so for someone paranoid of crashing, it ain't good when you're trying to practice jumps
I didn't try a single loop, and only tried one or two salchows and toe loops. When it's really crowded, I don't know why but I hardly ever have much motivation for practicing jumps and don't really go for it. I have to fix that. The only good jumpy thing was my waltz jump - I was doing a few from standstill (the aim is to get it to feel more natural to really kick through with the leg etc).

Spins. Oh, man... why can't I just "get" this thing? Everyone else does!! I'm still not getting the FO curve to hook properly, no matter what I do. We spent the whole of my freestyle lesson on spins, practicing numerous things including the spin itself (1 foot), the FO curve on it's own, a 1 foot spin from a 2 foot spin (better, and more balanced at least), exiting on a BO edge (I haven't been told to do that before), doing it from back crossovers, doing it from back crossovers and putting the free leg down to assist the spin starting (2 foot) than lifting for a 1 foot (much better, actually, but still not exactly amazing), and doing a 2 foot glide into it. I need more practice but I just can't get any more

We did a weird new step sequence, where you do a FI3, crossover, FI3, crossover, etc, so you're going in a straight line and facing one side the whole time. Kind of got it after a couple of goes.

Hppe next week is better

Rachel x

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Debbie,
I would definitely have your coach or another experienced skater to look at your blades, it does sound like they need sharpening and possibly you do need a deeper cut. How long since they have been sharpened? (In skating hours?)

For Me:
Windfalls:
Finally have the glandular fever under control and am back on the ice, which is great, gee I certainly missed it! I have a lot of extra time when I don't skate!!
Had to take it easy since I've been unwell, so still no jumping for me most days now.....
Just generally good to practice, went to the public session and it wasn't very crowded which was good. Laybacks were for some reason excellent and got some "oohs and ahhs" from onlookers which was great!
General basics were great.
I was told the I have good extension by someone I've never seen before but could be important!

Wasps Nest:
Sit spin, fell on my bum twice, tried to get too low and that was it!
Tried the double axel and the end of the session and double footed, decided to keep trying till I landed one clean but would have been there the whole night the way I was going, left disappointed.
Got distracted after going to the loo and tried to get onto the ice with my blade guards still on....16 years of skating and I do this....gave the onlookers a laugh at least. pps:

Tomorrow's my jumping session.....yay!

Er - Bordeaux was three weeks ago! I'm sure I posted about it fairly copiously on the various forums we both read!

Well, I don't like wasps' nests particularly - I was trying to think of an autumnal "w" to go with windfalls.....

It was the last RIDL match of the season last night; Robert and I skated the Canasta Tango for our club. When we saw who we'd drawn to skate against, we knew it would be useless, and it was - but one judge gave us a draw, which surprised us, as that particular judge is not known for over-generous marking, in fact, rather the reverse!

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

Congratulations!!! 8)

I actually haven't had them sharpened since I got the skates in February. A few month ago, I asked the woman at the pro shop if they needed sharpening - asked her about the fingernail scratch test - and she said that I should just run my fingers (lightly) over the edges on the blade and see if I could still feel them - in other words, did they feel sharp or smooth. She said another sign was if my feet were sliding out from under me during crossovers. My crossovers feel fine, but I have been skating about 2 hours a week since I got the skates, so I would think the blades would need to be sharpened by now.

I think I'll ask my instructor next week - he's very knowledgeable about those things.

I totally feel your pain!!! I don't know if your coach has had you do this yet but as a last ditch thing my coach had me do the following -

Get on a LFO edge like you are doing a 3 turn but instead doing the turn at the end of the lobe bring your right foot in front of your left foot. And as you do this just bring your arms sort of parallel and out to the side don't keep them in the 3 turn position. Make sure your lobe is small but that you have a nice deep knee bend. After about 3 weeks (?) of this I actually now can get the hook and spin maybe 75% of the time. I worked on trying to spin for 6 MONTHS and just like you NOTHING was happening and I was getting so frustrated. But breaking the spin down really helped. Don't try to do anything but bring the leg in front and you'll notice after about 2 weeks you have a little more power or snap as you bring the leg in front.

Wasps nest - Hmm. nothing really horrible, I 've been ignoring my jumps and working on edges, partially because they need the work and partially because my knee and back were getting sore. My salchow is still pretty much there but needs tweaking but we haven't done these in class for a while and I haven't had any private lessons this month. My toe loop is fine and my waltz is fine. My flip and lutz I still land on two feet no matter what I do. Haven't worked on those in a while in class so maybe when we do my instructors can help out.

Windfall - My alternating threes and my mohawk sequence is getting better and my spiral is getting faster and lasting longer. Am actually spining about 75% of the time on the forward scratch and about 30% of the time on the backspin. My body feels better since I've cut back on the jumping so that's a huge plus.

Windfall
* Lutz has definitely improved. Better runout on the landing and better air position (I'm not doing it with my feet side by side anymore).
* Tried a new spin combination, and it worked (well, once or twice anyway)! Camel-sit-layback-back sit-back scratch. I'll have to keep working on this to see if I can get it consistent.

Wasp's nest
* Left ankle was hurting so I couldn't work on axels, double sals, or flying sit. Waah!
* No progress on double loop. Major cheat with two-foot landing. Yuck.

Windfalls
Straight on the ice and a loop, a flip, back spiral, steps and sit spin.
Not very good but managed to do it.
Ice not too busy - 5 of us eventually.
I managed a semi ok change foot sit spin (from the change and spin point of view - but ugly as far as position is concerned!)
Some backspns worked well.

Wasp's nests
Some backspins were pathetic, on the inside edge, or back of blade.
Back spiral is being really nesty at the moment.
I was made to do flip-cherries, yuk yuk yuk. This was in a practise with 2 others.
Then I had to do waltz, half-loop, change foot, toe loop. Not good.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Windfalls: Had a lesson with my coach (that I have not had since May).
The club sessions have begun and have turned out to be far better practice time than the rink's freestyle sessions. We have moves, fs, dance, open skating and program time. There's also group lessons available for moves, fs and dance. There were two of us in my fs "group" and we started on death drops which were interesting. I also had my private lesson and did a couple of nice doubles and cammel jump cammels.

Wasps nests: Much of what I worked on this weekend involved a real workout for my crash pads.

5th Lesson, Adult Beta

Windfalls
Well, after not being on the ice for over a week I expected to start out all stiff and jerky, but to my surprise I was relaxed and very comfortable. We warmed up on forward crossovers, instructor thinks we're doing OK enough that she taught us the undercut (aka Second Push). Well, this was good news for me -- I don't know if you'll recall, but I struggled for a while on my forward corssovers because I was doing the second puch and not the first. And I finally feel vindicated! I had been telling hubby that the reason my crossovers look different than his is that I am a) bending my knees and b)doing the second push. He insisted that crossovers had to stay where they were in Alpha with the stinkin' pinky-toe-to-pinky-toe-two-foot-glide (which was difficult for me) and lo and behold! I was right! Plus, our instructor INSISTED that he bend his knees, LOL! As I've said before, I don't know how he does anything on skates as he is allergic to bending his knees. (Instructor thought this was funny!) This was the second week in a row where my BAD side (L over R) felt better than my GOOD side (R over L).

We then did back crossovers and my right over left are getting more consistent and even -- less like I'm tripping over my own feet. Left over right are still non-existent, though I did one. Yes, one. I'm not sure I'll be ready to pass Beta in two weeks, but they tend to teach Beta and Gamma together and I think I should be able to pass them both next session, I hope!

Backwards stroking next. This is mostly a windfall, though I'm dragging my left toepick a bit. Hubby still struggling a bit with this -- tends to do more of a swizzle than the one foot push. But his crossovers are marginally better than mine.

T-Stops -- ok here. Maybe need to shift my weight back a little bit on the right side, but I think they're probably passable and I do stop -- so they work.

FO3-turns: I'm thisclose to getting these without the wall. I have both sides to where I just use the wall to steady myself after the turn -- with pretty much my fingernail. It's all in my head. Instructor says my form is good -- no wild hip swinging, good outside edge into the turn, even lobes, etc. Now I just need to do them! Maybe on Tuesday in our makeup lesson (we missed our lesson last week due to medical reasons).

Hubby and I cracked up our instructor as we practiced our weenie spirals holding hands -- she thought it was too cute and completely hilarious. Gave us a few tips on our spirals. Hubby's issue is that he gets no height in his free leg, mine that I'm too chicken to lean over. My upright spiral is almost hip high, but I'm a dork and have a hard time putting my weight back in the blade. I blame it on ballet -- you're never supposed to have your weight on your heel in ballet.

Wasps' Nests:
Backwards crosovers. If I don't get these in two weeks I won't pass Beta. I don't think I'll get them in two weeks -- at least not to where I'd actually use them if I was skating and not being told to do them. Plus, they have no power and I feel pretty insecure with them. This is a sign that I'm not quite ready to pass Beta. Unless I get a mystery injection of courage! I'm convinced that it's mostly a fear issue. But what isn't?

JDC1 - thank you. I'm gonna copy what you wrote and print it off for Saturday. (I only skate weekly but I first started working on a 2 foot spin over a year ago. It's getting beyond a joke! ) Thanks again!

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Windfalls: I'm still protecting my left shoulder, so am skating with my arms down and little upper body rotation. Felt very comfortable on the ice, though. Almost too comfortable. This strange notion of "deep edges" enveloped me. I suddenly felt like I could really trust my edges. That was until I realized my skates are way overdue for a sharpening. So I backed off a little. It's amazing what are minds can talk us out of when we think about the "fall factor".

However, front and back crossovers and edges, swing rolls, and mohawks were in pretty good form. I'm learning to adjust to "no arms". Even tried a couple of inside and outside 3's. Not too bad considering.

Had a wonderful time socializing with my "young" friends and their parents in the warming room before their Learn To Skate classes.

Also had a "cool" conversation with an exceptionally good skater about hockey vs figure skates. He's 11 and can regularly land triple toe loops. His brother is a hockey player.

Wasps' Nests: Nothing really bad at the rink. My shoulder seemed to be slowly healing. Unfortunately, the wasps stung at 2:30 this morning when I rolled over in bed and somehow strained my shoulder again. Had to get up and pack it in ice as the pain wouldn't let me get back to sleep.

Only one solution: Stay awake 24-7

This was for last night's dance club:

Wasps' Nest: Left five minutes later than normal, so of course missed all the buses, and had to wait for ages. Walked up to the stop where they start, and even then had trouble getting on one. So of course was late. And Robert's other partner was caught in traffic and arrived so late that it wasn't worth her while getting on the ice at all!

Thought it was the Canasta Tango when it was, in fact, the Fiesta, so ended up soloing a Canasta when we needed to practice our Fiesta (mind you, I need to practice my solo Canasta as well!), and then when we did get a chance to practice the Fiesta, bottled the Mohawk on the first pattern. Deep sigh.

Windfalls: Danced really quite nicely; realised where I was going wrong on our Rhythm Blues variation. Did a great plain Rhythm Blues, and most other things were passable, I think.

Was able to put our skates in for sharpening. Not looking forward to skating them in tomorrow, but it can't be helped!

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

Wasp's nest
Axels were bad. Only two attempts were even close. Moved on to double loop; made some progress staying over my right side in order to stop two-footing them. Didn't work on flying sit; I think I overdid them last Friday which led to a sore ankle.

Windfall
Finished program for preliminary fs test and skated it three times. I'll definitely be able to test it in early November. Also skated my silver program, clean except for twice when traffic got in my way and I had to abort things. Grrr.

Wasp - fell once hard on my right knee out of the dreaded loop. Spins haven't gotten any better but I am getting some feed back on what I am doing wrong once I actually spin so hopefully I can improve on that.

Windfall- I am SO CLOSE to getting the lutz!! Woo hoo. I can rotate 3/4 to all the way around most of the time, I just need a little more oomph and then I can land on one foot. Apparently I really get up high on my lutz but I really have no idea where I am in the air. It's funny because I was afraid of the bunny hop and still have moments on the waltz jump but on the lutz very little fear. I did manage 2 or 3 cheated loops but as that's better than I have been doing I consider that a step forward.

Second time out on the new Klingbeil's and Aces, first lesson on them:

Stingin', piggin' Wasps: This can be described in one word:

TOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-PICK!!!!!!!

Yes, boys and girls, the Ace is DEFINITELY much curvier than the Comet, with a shorter radius. Skater Beth pushed off for stroking, rolled forward on left blade, hit the pick, down on the knees, arms out and down and slid into home plate-------SAAAAAAAAFE!!!
Actually, I'm surprised my coach didn't actually yell, "Safe" because I did look like I was sliding for a base hit!!!! So, stroking now had to be reworked...no more partial toe pushes like with the big' old toepick Comet...

Everyone knows its Windy: Stroking is now reworked to look like proper stroking, pushing from a nicely turned out inside edge. I still feel a little shaky with it, but its much more proper than with the old skates, and no more pick scrape. Crossovers also have to be reworked--again, deeper inside edge push with the forwards, better inside C push with the backwards ones. Forwards have improved already, backs are beginning to look promising--biggest problem is getting the knee bend for the skating (non-crossing) leg. Suddenly Left Back is better than right, because right is my dominant side, stronger leg, I'm already bending better and breaking in the skate more there. (Landing leg too, so that's good).

Positive, wonderful, hurricane force winds: FORWARD EDGES!!! Pronounced WONDERFUL by coach--suddenly there are no more flats, just smooth, curvy edges. Again, I still feel a bit shaky because they feel different, but I hardly have to make an effort to make them good. Now I'm beginning to see why she wanted me to change blades. 8)

Overall, while its very humbling to sort of "learn to skate" all over again, I've made definite improvements just in the second session. Looks like the learning curve won't be too bad. And the skates, while stiff, are wonderful. Aside from ankle ache, they really feel GOOD. I'm now becoming convinced this was the right way to go.

MelUK: Thank you for the suggestion to avoid the back hook (grommet) for the time being--that helped me skate better today and bend better. Coach agreed--lots of time at public skate just swizzling, stroking and crossover-ing to help break 'em in.'

All in all, a "winder-full" day 8)

Beth

Windfalls

I landed a dumb-luck double toe. Don't know how it happened. Don't know if it will ever come back. It just popped and rotated.

Axels are getting much better. I'm still toe-tapping but the landings have become much softer with nice run-out. Coach has me tack on a toe loop so that I really think about the landing position. Now if I could just get that free leg firmly in front.

I started working on off-ice double loops. It's about 2/3s of the way around. On ice, lots of loop combos and hopping out of backspins.

Looploop: I'm working on the same spin combination: camel-sit-layback-backsit-backscratch. I did a really good one this morning. I'm a lousy spinner so that made Coach very happy.

Wasps nests
I pulled my groin on an axel attempt. So now everything hurts.

Coach has been trying to jazz up my program so I've been attempting different spins (martini glass, catchfoot, etc.). All these things seem to do is emphasize how poorly I spin. I nearly lost my dinner in a layback this morning. The spin would be gorgeous if it were not for my arms, which tend to resemble dead wasps upside down. Sigh.


Edited for grammar.

Here's what I have for this week:

Windfalls: Spins are getting more consistent! I'm actually riding a edge before rising up! I figure it's either that or my coach will make me lie down on the ice again!
Toe loop- actually getting a little bit of a one foot takeoff!
Flip: For some reason, I have better height on my flip attempts than on my half flip!

Wasps nests: Regionals fever has hit our rink, resulting in very crowded freestyle sessions. As a result, I've decided to not skate again until Friday afternoon, when the non- qualifying kiddos are gone!

Also, coaches will be gone for 1 1/2 to 2 weeks, because of Regionals, thus no lessons! At least I can work on my Pre- bronze moves and free style program, and play with music for a interpretive program!

Wednesday
Windfalls & wasps' nests

Horrible hard, sticky & rutted ice.
I had to come off half way through for the ice to be cleaned.

Bits of the programme without music.....not a good way to practise - I was aborting the whole thing when I did things wrong, which is the worst thing to do.

Change sit is better....still going on to an inside edge 50% of the time but otherwise I can get 4 max on the other foot.
The backspin from 3 turn is the pits today. Only 25% came out passable.
Sit spin is better.
One 17 year old lad - who is learning 2axels and has attempted 3 salchows - told me (almost disbelievingly) that my sit spins were faster and lower than his.
Yes, but he can do an ultra fast backspins, better camels, flying camels and axels, and all doubles!!
I'd rather have all that than a faster and lower sit spin, wouldn't you?
Anyway, his compliment made me happy....at least I know I'm not completely crap!
Not too happy about waltz-loops recently. I haven't been practising them often enough, obviously. When I land the waltz, sometimes I freak out....it doesn't feel safe, and the loop is small with no height.

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

This for this morning:

Wasps' Nest: My skates had just been sharpened, so they totally didn't feel like my skates. Was a bit late arriving, and so hadn't as much chance to warm up as I'd have liked before my lesson, and it wasn't until right the end of my lesson that my blades began to feel like themselves again. I do try not to blame my equipment for my inadequacies as a skater, but today it really was!

My Canasta Tango solo was very small and rather slow - I wasn't really able to push as much as I should have liked. The first time I ran through my Free Dance it felt very tentative. The second time was better, but there was a patch of snow exactly where I wanted to do my twizzle, which didn't help!

Worked on changes of edge, and he kept on at me about my shoulder position. At least he didn't squeak about the edge, which he usually does!

Windfalls: I finally managed a couple of good runthroughs of my dance, but of course, I can't stop yet (sharp blades), which makes a nonsense of two bits of it.... oh well, that'll improve by the time I really need to. My Dutch Waltz was okay, and I discovered that I don't hold back my free leg before the re-start, so I can concentrate on that. The edges on my changes-of-edge were okay. Did two laps of outside swing rolls, the first not very good, the second much better. Also a lap of inside swing rolls that were actually very nice, if slow.

After I'd finished skating, I was chatting to a mother in the pro's room when my coach's wife (who is also my husband's coach) came in, exhausted, and accused the mother of having "evil" daughters. It turned out that she had been doing double flips in her new boots and they had been criticizing her and not letting her get away with anything that she wouldn't let them get away with! Of course, we roared with laughter..... whatever did she expect?

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