Try them near the barrier; not holding, but keeping your upper body parallel to it, and where you can grab it if you have to. Then your body will remember what to do. They are the easiest double - even I can do them, so they must be easy!

If I knew, I'd bottle it and make a fortune, as 95% of my problems are to do with fear. I simply can't turn round and go backwards at any sort of speed!

Oh b*gg*r, I knew we should have gone - we love figures! But we are still very tired after the competition and aren't really skating this week. Himself went in for a bit on Tuesday morning, and to our dance club last night (I couldn't go to that as I had another meeting, but wasn't too sorry), and I went to my lesson on Wednesday and just might go this afternoon. But really, we are for all intents and purposes having a few days off. But doing figures would have been fun.

Lynne, you are coming to Bracknell, aren't you?

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

I had my first sojourn into synchro last night. It was an open practice where those interested in joining the team could skate along. We also had a guest team that came to skate with them. So combining the two teams we had 24 skaters.

23 of those have been doing synchro for a while. 1 of those (me) had never hooked up arms before. In other words, baptism by fire!!!!! Okay, so I don't know what "step-cross-wide" means; if your in a circle you should focus on the fifth person in the direction you're going; that at some point in a proper travelling circle you will come to a dead stop (and could fall down like I did); or that most people do lunges with their left leg forward (I've always used my right leg).

Thankfully, skaters from both teams were more than willing to give me hints as we skated. I have a lot to learn.

It was a lot of fun. I'll be back next week and hopefully do better.

sweet:
my coach couldnt come today but i worked on my jumps and spins and other elements and was doing pretty good but a guy skating named hecto who is "weird but harmless" acording to my friend saw me working on my salchows and having a little trouble and came over to me and offered to help! he was so nice and i think it did help me a bit!

sour:
feel several times on my salchow before i got helped ... of course i didnt have my sweatshirt on when i was falling s i was soaked! my loop jumps were horrible and my spins from back crossovers (i think they are scratchspins) are still in desperate need of help

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~*~always, sonia~*~

Wow. Not much practicing this week. Lesson on Wednesday went well, but I couldn't do much. It kinda hurt.

Today:
Sweet: Canasta Tango went beautifully. My coach was surprised at how well it has come along since Wednesday's lesson, and we're finally ready to add arms and such. Couldn't clean Rhythm Blues as there were too many people, but we went over the problem areas, and she was happy.

Sour: Unfortunately, my coach put me on a "no jumping and if I catch you doing so I'll kill you" rule. My jumps are already off from so much time off, then I haven't been able to do them for a week. I was literally walking through waltz jumps and got yelled at. Granted, if I jar my ribs it hurts and could crack them further. But I wanna jump!!! I'm getting sick of just stroking and simple dances.

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass

I just finished a 4 week doctor imposed no jump period. It was a major pain. (I need to be really careful tomorrow, by first day jumping again, to not go overboard )

Anyway, if your coach says no jumping, please listen! Work on not just your stroking and dances, but the actual feel and quality of your skating. I'm working on the (US) Intermediate MIF's, and doing them for 4 weeks solid can get pretty boring, but I started focusing on the quality of my skating and the time not only went faster, my coach says that my skating quality has really improved.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, I finally got to try out my new boots this week! In general, SP-Teris take a rather long while to break in, but I got used to mine pretty quickly! Even my coach could tell so he, too, was pleased.

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Been there but not with cracked ribs but with a sprained Achilles Tendon. I managed to sneak some jumps. But if you keep sneaking them, you'll not just be on a "no jump rule", you'll be off of the ice for quite a while. Be thankful you're on the ice at all.

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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

Sk8er1964 and singerskates,
Don't worry, I'm definitely listening to my coach. Only thing I've been doing is some small walkthroughs (literally walking, not getting off the ice at all). My coach pulled a guilt trip on me about the whole thing, and I'm making sure I don't let her down! Plus, I don't want to be off ice forever! It has given me a chance to perfect my technique and better my fundamentals, which is great. It will definitely help my overall skating to get me ready for putting the jumps back in. Yay! I think she's going to let me start again either on Wednesday or Friday, if I can prove that it doesn't hurt anymore, and it's nearly there! I just can't push myself, and I'm finding my limits really quickly.

Thanks for the concern though! Hope your injuries are all healed as well and stay that way for a long time!

~ Tre

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"Without a struggle, there can be no progress" ~ Frederick Douglass