Good luck on your test! What level/discipline are you testing?

Congratulations! That's fabulous!

I don't take moves lessons at all. My coach looked over them, and they were passable then. I didn't test against the wishes of my coach. She signed off on the test, which she wouldn't have done if she didn't think i could pass. I just don't think moves lessons would have helped because (I think) I just choked. Oh well

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Youtube Videos

Are you talking about a separate moves class that you didn't take --because surely your coach taught you the moves and went over them with you?

j

Well done! Were you doing Moves, or Elements/Free? And isn't it a lovely feeling when the judge extends their hand and everybody cheers?!

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

Congrats to Helen88!!! WHOO HOO!!!

FlyAndCrash: Good luck on your test Friday...

Stormy: Well???? Well!?!?!? Inquiring minds wanna know...

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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'm testing my pre-juv free next week. My last free test (prelim) I totally choked and was lucky to pass. I skidded on a power-3, barely did a backspin, and had a really crappy sal and waltz-toe. It was just bad, but I had only worked on it for about two weeks. That said, I should have been able to do all the elements at a much higher level. This time around, I will, hopefully, be much more calm and able to get through my program without any major mishaps.

And someone (not my coach but rather a skater that I'm friends with and does some coaching, well... I hope not my coach) thinks I should get my juv moves learned, tested, and done with before I go off to college in the fall.

AARRRGGH! Phooey, phooey, nuts! Got another retry on Gold free. My axel took a vacay yesterday and I only landed one on the warm up, and I two footed it in the program. But I smiled and said to myself to not give them any other reason to fail the program and I did every other element strongly. So of course I had to reskate the axel and the judge said I could warm it up and do it, or just do it. I said I'd just do it. I didn't want to do it twice. And I did land one, not wonderful but landed. And, apparently, cheated. Because I got retrys from two judges saying it was cheated, BUT, everything else was great. The judge that did pass me did say to work on a clean axel as well. At least everything else was good. And I'm not nearly as upset as I was the last time. I'm dissapointed, but oh well. I'll just do it again. It sucks because my axel was really strong, clean and consistent a couple weeks ago. Why do they dissapear at really inconvenient times?

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

But you have your juv free so you get to compete gold next year regardless Not that you won't get it by then anyway. I've seen you do plenty of clean axels.

That's like when I decided to test silver free right after getting back from AN and my body decided it didn't feel like doing camel spins on warmup, in my program, or on the retry, so I failed despite everything else in my program being well above passing standard. And the judges on my panel all knew I could do a silly camel spin, they had seen me do them before, but couldn't pass me (one did). Such is life!!!

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Such is life!! I know I don't have to have the test now, but I just want to have it since it's an accomplishment to me. Although I do ask myself how I passed Juvenile free with a worse axel than I have now, but fail Gold twice. Such is skating!

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Stormy, I'm sorry to hear about the retry...that sucks But, just keep trying! It will happen...

For yesterday....

[Awesome]
Did some good axels...they are starting to feel better...although, I am still pulling out too soon so they are a tad bit under rotated and I think I only landed one on my toe last night...

Starting to get the feel of the back camel...

Moves are starting to come along...which makes me very happy

The rink on campus opened on Saturday, however, my friends who went said that the ice is very fragile and soft...they have about another 1/4 of an inch to put on, which means that we all could screw up the ice easily I'm not going to go there until Wednesday, so we will see...they put the athletic symbol (women's hockey just got Varsity status here) instead of the school seal...although, they painted the studio rink ORANGE...

[Plain Awful]
Double sals are still not quite going right...they will come, I just need to work on them..

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

from 6/15:
Awesome:
my Pre-Bronze MITF are getting closer to being ready for test. Not sure when that will be, but I don't even mind working on them
I like being able to work them out on my own, and then show my coach. It's much easier than starting from scratch.

Awful:
The thought of testing *bronze*. Sit spins! Oh My!
And jumping.

MEH:
I have to get a skating dress! eiw!

correct, i didn't have any lessons with a specific moves coach

anyways, just got back from the rink, and skated fairly well.

awesome
-Landed all of my doubles through 2flip. Didn't try any 2lutz
-Did a nice camel-change-camel with lots of speed

my coach had an awesome explanation for why all of my joints have been aching. I blame a CFS flare-up, but I do prefer her reason--my jumps have gotten so big that the impact is harder on my body.

just plain awful
not a whole lot. the general achiness was no fun.

i did have a painful fall. I decided to try to land the 2nd 2toe of a 2toe2toe combo on a sideways edge. those don't usually work too well...missed my hip pad too

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Youtube Videos

Awesome:
Had some good spins today. Landed a sal toe combo on the first try.

Awful:
No loop today. Ice was not cut and the crap that goes on at my rink gets better. Starting in July they are going to have contract ice and it needs to be paid up front. The prices are going up as well. Now keep in mind that this rink has tried and failed at the contract ice arrangement several times because RINK MANAGEMENT will "cancel" or cut sessions at the last minute. Oh and they cut the ice whenever they feel like it.
Good thing is is what was the Little Rink in town is renovating to a regulation size rink that will reopen in August. Needlesss to say, several of us will make a move there then.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Awful: I am super exhausted. I skated this morning and went back on the ice tonight. It was fun, but an extra 2 hrs on ice and 1 hr off ice after 1 hr this morning was draining. And the fact that I haven't eaten in 8 hrs...

Awesome: I was able to land my double sal tonight. Most of them were 2footed though. It is completely a mental thing. GRRR... And my axel is semi-fixed so that it is kicking through more. It definately needs much mental persuasion and a dose of confidence wouldn't hurt. Whenever I don't land it or take a break from it, my take-off usually loses the kick because I'm hesitant and scared...

Awful: I did two run-thrus tonight of my program, but they both sucked. I gave up halfway on the second run-thru and skipped a spin and all of my arm stuff... I really need to work on the endurance. I blame it on a killer off-ice session and having skated so much today.

Awesome: The contract I did tonight was really empty: just me and another girl. And she is also testing on the same day I am, so she is going to give me a ride to and from the rink!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Stormy, I'm sorry about your retry, but it sounds like you kept it together and did as well as you could have done with the axel acting up. Those axels are definitely very temperamental creatures. I had two on my Gold test program, just in case I fell on one of them, which I did, LOL! Thank goodness I landed the second one and held on by a toepick!

Ugh! I'm so sorry, sweetie! Test-taking is a whole separate skill in itself, especially MIF tests (trust me, I know, LOL!) It's not that you can't do the moves, it's just hard to do them perfectly when it's dead silent and all you can hear is the scraping of your toepicks as your knees shake. But it's a lot easier to work through the nerves if you do the moves over and over and over in practice, especially if you make yourself do them cold, with no warmup, to simulate the stiffness you get from nerves. As my MIF coach always says, "You have to have them 130% over passing, because you lose 30% just from nerves". So don't let this beat you! You can lick it! But a belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY anyway!!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Stormy and ibreakhearts66: Sorry to hear you didn't pass your Gold FS and Prelim Moves test, respectively...

Stormy: Try again... I think if axels are your only sticking point that you will pass it on the next test session. I know you can do this test!!!

ibreakhearts66: I know of one kid that get a retry on the pre-prelim moves. Unfortunately the kid didn't know the waltz 8 pattern, even though the coach had instructed her before. She did pass it the next month when she took the test again. Also, I know one other person who probably can't pass her prelim moves test now if she took it... ME!!! (Those spirals are KILLER!!! I would not take it myself until those spirals are up to snuff. The power 3's need work too! They are a bit rusty, but they're not bad.

Awesome:

• Waltz (Nice kick thru!!! WHEEEEE!!!)
• Sal
• Loop
• Flip
• Lutz (beginning)
• Sit spins at the end of the session
• Practice beginning of the interp with reflection of glass. Not bad...
• And since I probably have to test for the ISI Adult Champ... I can do the ISI FS 3 change foot spin easily!

Awful:

• Oops! Forgot to do toe loops!!!
• Lutz (After about 4 good lutzes too... I think I got tired.)
• Camels
• Sit spins at the beginning
• Back Sit. Still squatting.

__________________
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!!!

Awesome: Finally finished re-editing my freeskate music; Ever After Suite (Utopia, Ever After Main Title, Danielle's Wings, Ever After Main Title, Marguerite, Going To the Ball, Happily Ever After) in 2 mins 4 secs.

Plain Awful: Lost an hour of ice time because I waited for my music to be finished.

Awesome:
Got to have a lesson with my coach for the first time since he went off on vacation right after testing at Spring School.

Coach said my spirals are much higher and stronger than before. Yeah, right. Not in my spiral sequence in lesson.

After practicing my edges and stroking for the last two weeks they way they are done in part of the Junior Silver test the way my coach has shown me them, my edges are much, much more quiet and stronger. Coach likes the improvement of my forward and backward crosscuts. Left side is still weaker but my edges and crosscuts miles above what I did at Adult Canadians this year. We're really working on the PCS (presentation scores in 6.0 ).

Did my freeskate opening with power in lesson and surprised my coach with an almost clean but fully rotated high loop from the Mohawk entrance. He's never seen me do a loop from the Mohawk entrance. This is something I worked on by myself while he was away on vacation.

While warming up before my lesson, I landed about 7 almost clean and fully rotated loops from the Mohawk entrance but felt frustrated that I kept doing either a backspin on the landing (one foot) 4 times before I could ride out the edge or I did a slight two foot 3 times.

Did a really big flowy Waltz jump that just rode the exist edge like what seemed forever. Went back to check out the exist edge and found that I covered a quarter of the ice with the exist. Cool! Now why can't my other jumps ride out that way? Hmm?

Spins, coach was impress with my corkscrew and sit spin speeds and asked me if I was dizzy. I said, "No."

Plain Awful:
My spiral sequences attempts in my lesson; my skating hip was locking on me and would not allow me to change edge with my freeleg up in position. I got so frustrated that at the end of one of them, I did a one footed show stop and then slammed my free foot's toe pick hard into the ice in disgust. I was mad.

Had a problem with my camel spin too. I could not transfer my wait over into the camel position. My hip just locked on me. How maddening!

Flips just were out of control yet fully rotated. My arms just kept on going on the landing making me two foot the landing even though they height. The first one I did was a severe Lip.

I only attempted one Lutz which was two footed on the landing and Flutzed.

I have an idea, what if I were to say my Flip was a Lutz and my Lutz was my Flip? Would that fly with the judges? LOL Curious???

Plain:
Toe Loop was OK.

Attitude spin (not quite a Layback because I can't seem to get my head back) was OK.

Spiral Sequence came back so-so after I remembered to do the crossing under stretches my coach showed me (really for the crosscuts) and the bringing your free foot over and to the side of your skating hip alternating to stretch my hips out. It wasn't strong but at least the edge finally changed again and within the count of 1, 2, 3. I also practed doing straight spirals down the length of the ice and doing power pulls in spiral position. This also helped my spiral sequence. I was so desperate.

Awesome:
After coach was gone and I had stretched out my hips as said above, I tried my camel spin again and finally got into position to do one and a 1/3 rotation before doing another rotation to exist in an upright spin.

LBI Catch Foot Spirals are getting cleaner (almost no toe pick at all) and on a definate crisp edge covering a good amount of ice.

Awful:
Rink had piped in music so my coach couldn't play his boombox to play my freeskate music.

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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

Nothing awful today!

Awesome: Summer skating started today (technically yesterday) with me skating the 6 a.m. session, which meant that I had the ice all to myself aside from one or two other people.

I did a few run-throughs of the Viennese Waltz before my dance lesson; all patterns felt really powerful and edgy, so maybe I'll actually pass it when I [re]test sometime in July (depending on who/where a Gold panel is).

I also squeezed in a few spins before my lesson, mainly camel-sit-back sit and flying camels. I've decided that I'm not that strong a spinner in the morning (perhaps because I'm not awake, LOL!), but that despire my tiredness, I'm still able to pull out several 7-8 revolution flying camels. I'm pretty sure they're consistently hitting that mark too, so I'm going to aim for 10 revolutions in them by the end of summer.

Combination spins were decent too, but I've done stronger.

Dance coach taught me the last of my Gold dances: the Westminster Waltz. She really likes the way I'm "powering it out". We started learning the introduction steps to the music, but for now I'm suppsoed to focus more on the pattern and steps, which we'll put to the music maybe next week. So, I officially know all my Gold dances!

I've never really spent a ton of lesson time on moves either. I started working on them as a teenager (I was 16) and by that point I had already been on a senior synchro team for a few years, so I was a strong skater and found the moves very easy (this was the mid-late 90s before moves tests were required and a lot of us didn't really test a lot--especially since cross skating was more common so you would skate intermediate or novice and also junior or senior...kept us busy enough)! I only did one hour of dance/moves (total) each week, with a 15 minute lesson, since that was all I had time for and also all we could really afford outside of synchro, and I wanted to spend that time working on dance partnering. I'd sometimes have my coach show me the moves when I first learned the test, but after that I worked on them on my own, maybe having her look at them when I was ready to test. I got through novice when I was 18 and then pretty much stopped working on them when I went off to college, just picked back up last fall (when I was 26).

I've gotten a little more work with a coach for junior, but not nearly as much as dance or freestyle. (I get a 3-40 min lesson a week, only every other week in the summer, and we spend at least half on dance and haven't touched moves in a lesson since probably November.) I'm close to being ready to test so I'll probably work with my coach a little more. I've yet to fail a moves test, so I want to try and keep that streak going through senior!

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Wow...I think coach and I do moves at every lesson...I only do 1 45 minute lesson a week (I wish I could increase that, but until my salary triples and Coach gets more time in her day, that's not going to happen).

It is rare if we don't do at least one of the moves from my level a week...but, Coach and I are trying to get me passed as many tests as possible...especially now that I am out of Intermediate H*LL

__________________
Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Oooh, good luck! I'm sure you'll do fine this time around.

And, I definitely agree about learning/test the Juvenile MIF if only for the fact that you'll need to have them passed before you can take your Juvenile freestyle test.

I also agree with testing the Juv moves...if you think that you might possibly skate Synchro in college, you may need your Juv moves depending on if the teams is Open Collegiate or Collegiate (open does not require the test, collegiate does). We have a skater at the college where I work right now who wants to skate on the collegiate team, but needs to pass her juv moves...hopefully she does that this summer!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

LOL, I was gonna add that!

Even if you do decide to join a team, it helps to have as high of your tests passed (freestyle, MIF, dance) as possible.

I did an open-collegiate team the last two years of college and all of us had Senior MIF passed and at least our Intermediate freestyle. The division, while "open", is getting highly competitive with some of the teams out there, so the more tests (MIF, dance, freestyle) you have, the better advantage you'll have.

And, I believe (though I may be wrong) that the open collegiate team may start requiring MIF tests in the near future. I'll have to check on this for sure or perhaps someone else can confirm...

Haha yeah it was great, thanks . I was testing moves, probably starting elements next.

Thanks for the info. I don't think I'm going to be doing synchro, but it's nice to know. I really want to test up to my juv free. I could probably eek out a pass if I worked on it for a few months and got the will to work on my layback (which I HATE!). And that is the only reason I would ever consider doing juv moves. I've heard that they aren't that hard though... And there aren't that many patterns.