The thread title is to honour the start of the Tour de France from London this weekend ("Lanterne rouge" - "red light" - is the traditional name for the poor cyclist bringing up the rear, and, of course, the winner traditionally wears a yellow jersey!).

Yellow Jersey: Ice very empty for a Sunday (our coaches couldn't come in because of the Tour), and almost all dancers, so lots of dance music was played.

Lanterne Rouge: The couples' spin we learnt yesterday has vanished today! Ah well.... And we will not discuss our Foxtrot or our 14-step.... but we had fun trying!

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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!

Yellow Jersey:
-Lutz! I did so many of these today, and about 90% of them landed on my right foot and then immediately tapped in my left toepick in front. I don't need to do that! I don't know why I do. But, wow, it was sooo great to be that close to getting it today. I felt very good about it
-combination jumps - worked on getting some flow out of the loop as the second jump. I also did toe loop-loop-toe loop. That was fun Landed a loop-loop also, and that's my hardest one (aside from waltz-loop, which is oddly difficult for me, and flip-loop which I can't really do yet).
-Did a killer sit-change-sit, and a couple of other decent ones.
-Camels were good, as were camel-sits. My camel now has 3 strong revs, and an occasional 4th weak one.
-Moves were good today. I really worked on fixing my 3-turn pattern. I got all my lobes sized the same except for the LFI 3-RBO 3. I can only fit 4 patterns on that side for some reason. Worked on putting the 3s on the top of the lobe too.

Laterne Rouge:
-I don't think my spirals were really on. Maybe I should practice those earlier before I get too tired to hold my leg up
-I tried some catch-foot spirals. I can do same side ones forwards decently, but if I try to do opposite sides (ie. left hand - right leg), I feel as though I'm going to fall forward and bash my chin on the ice. So I don't think I pulled my leg up far enough on those. Backwards ones are fun but I can only do same sides on those, and I go up on my toepick after a little while. Can't do opposite sides at all going backward.
-8 step Mohawk - could've been better. I have a hard time bringing my feet close together for the mohawk, and I tend to push myself onto inside edges.

Lanterne Rouge: What muscle did I pull, why, how, and when will I stop walking sideways and get back on the ice?!

Yellow Jersey
I did my very first level 2 spin today!! I've never considered myself a great spinner, so this was a major milestone for me. It's going into my program! I also made a breakthrough on another difficult variation that will give me a second level 2 spin once I get to the point where I can really hold onto the position.

The toeloop takeoff was clean, clean, clean today on every one I did! Daisies--a gold judge--said so, so I believe it! That Ice House camp really did do me some good!

Lanterne Rouge
No outflow on double sals, just my blade stuck in the ice (backward, at least) on the landing. I also didn't get up the gumption to try any axels, which have been my nemesis for the past several months. I need to get over that. . .

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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

Yellow Jersey - I can now enter a scratch spin from back crossovers!

Today was test day in Learn to Skate but I said I didn't really care about passing - I can't do a back 3 turn and I don't care, the only reason I took this class was to learn to enter a scratch spin so could we please get to it?

Once I was fairly consistent in practice with the entrance edge from a T position I started doing a 3 turn and backward crossovers into the entry but coach hadn't seen me do that before and she was impressed with my progress. I just needed to make sure I don't get too twisted around from the crossovers and make sure my left arm is in front when I step onto the edge.


Laterne Rouge: Coach told me if I had tested my waltz jump would be borderline and I was like "How can that be when I passed it for the judges for my pre-bronze test years ago" and she got a wicked look and said this was her territory and if I wanted to pass the waltz jump I had to jump off my toe which I refuse to do.

We worked on the half flip and she said my 3 turn was getting better but it is still sooo hard for me to do it and she said that is because I've been doing it wrong for so long.

Yellow Jersey -

We went on to some Freestyle 2 stuff - like waltz 3s which I really enjoyed doing. Also outside and inside spirals on both legs and while I favor my left leg, right leg wasn't too bad. She also had me try stretch out for the inside spiral and looking behind me, which I pulled off pretty well. If only my leg were higher! Oh well, that's what I get for refusing to do off ice work!

In my freestyle program I have what I call "the pretty part" where I just ride an inside edge and hold a pretty arm position, two foot turn back mohawk into my spin which was just entered from a pivot. Now - I do my pretty left inside edge, right mohawk, back mohawk, 3 turn back crossover into the spin. Coach said I've come a long way from only two foot turns in my program.

But the best part -- I CAN ENTER A SPIN LIKE A GROWN UP!

j

Yellow Jersey: Hurt my back and went skating anyway

Lanterne Rouge: Hurt my back and went skating anyway

P.S. Why is the Tour de France in London??

Kevin, what the heck are you doing skating with a bad back???? You should be resting!?!?! (How did you hurt your back anyway?)

Yellow Jersey:

• Landed my loop and my flip clean... well, some of my loops and flips anyway.
• Had one decent back sit today. Most of the attempt were "back squat spins."
• Some of my camel attempts were decent.
• I've been playing with this FO-BI bracket exercise near the barrier for a while. This past week I've been making some headway on those not hanging onto the barrier. Today I tried it on the blue line and found that if I can get the FO bracket to to stay on the blue line on a BI edge that I CAN do a BI bracket... and all this AWAY from the wall! I hope it's not a fluke... I am hoping to get this by Christmas so I can show it to my NYC coach!

Lanterne Rouge:

• Okay, I have problems with landed the flip clean until I force myself to keep my entry very straight on the blue line. Then I was landing them clean again.
• Can't do straightline footwork at speed partly b/c I'm chicken and partly b/c I had a crowd at public session. Yes, I can give a skater an easy half rink (lengthwise) head start and can still easily catch up to them doing the footwork.

Minor chuckle:
Got caught doing a jump outside the middle of the circle. One of the skate guards caught me doing it and said "I'm supposed to pretend that I'm doing my job to warn you to keep your jumps in the middle... or at least just outside the middle, but if you HAVE to do your jumps out of the middle, PLEASE don't do it right in front of the Pro Shop at least..." (Okay I was nice to him. I kept most of my jumps in the middle. But not that nice -- footwork was right along the path of the other skaters on the outside b/c the middle is FILLED with little 6-8 year old beginning FS skaters who are oblivious to what's going on around them! )

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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!!!

Definitely a Yellow Jersey Week!
Workshops with the Russian cruise ship show skater again, and I feel I have learned so much! Some really simple little faults. Weird thing is that I can recall my coach mentioning almost every little one at some time or another, but somehow the message got through this time.

My only worry is whether I can remember all this stuff when I get back on the ice again on Wednesday night.

Having a different coach for just for two weekends has really changed how most of us skate. It's a good thing, and now I just want to keep up the momentum and really put what I learned into practise.

I suppose my Red Lantern would be that she has gone now until January. Happy with my coach though, and really enjoying my skating.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Laterne Rouge: Medication makes me loopy and extremely dizzy to the point where I literally can't see after a spin. Um, leg strength was fine but I was just dizzy and my head hurt.

Yellow Jersey: I have no idea how, but I had 10 revolutions on my sitspin, a personal best. And my jumps didn't suffer too much, except a few shaky landings.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mauEpZnABqw

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Yellow Jersey: GREAT GREAT lesson and practice today

I think I will pass moves after all. My waltz 8 had two circles and not triangles, and we figured out what was going on with that three turn pattern (um I had been moving the axis everywhere...)

prebronze freestyle stuff was good, had a good sit spin today that could have been faster but was really low, did a loop that would have been very high but I let my arms fly up.

Lanterne Rouge: not much today except that I really have to do a flip at every practice to get over my mental block and I didn't do one. should have done one at the end of the session today because I was feeling good, didn't think of it until skates were off.

Oh. And I'm horrified at the financial expense of skating. Hm. Buy a house, skate. Buy a house...skate...I choose skate?

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Lanterne Rouge:
Our rink freestyle is supposed to start at 7am, so why do they think the ice can be cut at 7am, resulting in the session starting late, and then they kick us off promptly at 8:50 for the precious hockey players!!
Both coaches vetoed my idea of my retrying Bronze free next month, so, I'll compete both Bronze compulsory and Pre bronze free next month at a competition in NC.
Still having issues on the three turn check for the salchow!
And guess what arrived in time for me to be on vacation this week (this is for the females only!)


Yellow Jersey:
Spins are more consistent and in a good way.
Getting more height on the toeloop and loop!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

yellow jersey - coach said my back pivot is coming along nicely, said to just keep it working on it. We worked on cross-behinds and I'm getting the hang of that too, getting past being scared of it.

lanterne rouge - backspin, worse than last week despite practice. sigh.

Yellow Jersey - I skated with IceT yesterday, and she has the most gorgeous edges!!!!! Thanks to her help, my edges were much improved this morning. The change foot spin just keeps getting more and more comfortable.

Lanterne Rouge - my left outside 3 turn for the waltz-8 is still very subpar, oh well, the right one is getting much better.

yellow jersey:
started program
back 'ducks are good
loop is rotated!!!!! OMG!!!
backspin is even better than before


lanterne rouge:
ice was TERRIBLE not much different from a public session, all scratchy and bleugh
sit spins worse.. but got one promising attempt
back spiral -> back 'duck = WHAATT? how???

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Yellow Jersey

• Axel and Double Sal were really good today. probably did the best double sal i've ever done before
• spiral on my bad leg is getting higherr
• got like 3 rotations on my back camel ah usually i only get like one, but i can do alot when i do flying camel
• Alternating 3s were good.
• worked really hard on improving MITF and got to skate for 2&1/2 hours

Lanterne Rouge:

• new ice is terrible, it's like a centimeter thick yuckk
• MITF weren't so great.
• my scratch spin of all spins was travely aha
• i was afraid of double loop because the ice was so thin i thought it was gonna crack aha

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Terri C - You've got the Yellow Jersey and Lanterne Rouge reversed!

Yellow Jersey:
In spite of having a miserable cold, I went to the rink today to continue getting used to my new skates. I really can't say "break-in the boots" because they were so comfy right from the start! Ran into a couple of adult skater friends there who told me the problem with my L skate is not me, but just that the blade is so sharp. Amazingly, as we were speaking, it started to feel better (thank you, HelenC). I was able to do F cross strokes, a few B cross strokes, F and B XO's, and actually began to do very small snowplow stops, both F and B. One foot spin was amazingly balanced the first time. FO threes seem like they will be a breeze once the blades have dulled just a bit more. Still no marks on my feet after this hour of skating. BEST OF ALL - The pronation problem with my L foot is 100% fixed!

Red Lanterne:
Blades still too sharp to do a two foot spin. Scraping something awful on FO and FI threes. Second one foot spin I tried was off balance, but I think it's because I'm sick and just didn't tighten up in the middle at all.

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Yellow Jersey: Had a lesson today. Let me start off by saying the session was amazing! It consisted of me, my coach and one other skater who spent most of the time in the hockey box. (I was expecting so many more people considering it was about 97 degrees out today.) Anyway, moved onto half flip and half lutz. Kind of awkward, but there is jump in my jumps now.

Red: Because of said heat, my boots did not fit very well today. Coach was a little late today but, we definitely made up for it. Any tips for waltz 8, the circle going CCW is fine, the circle going CW not so much

haha, I know the feeling exactly. I got there *just* in time for our skate school recital. I'd been entering from a forward pivot till a couple of weeks before the date.

-Liz

I've been spinning from a pivot for five years! I was very motivated to learn this.

j

Yellow Jersey: 14 revolutions on sitspin and scratchspin! YAY. And I almost landed a double salchow. My coach was saying, "oh that looks like it has enough height to be changed into a double! Why don't you try one." and I was thinking are you freaking nuts.. but I tried and holy crap I almost did it! I think I had 1/4 more of a rotation to get and needed to not fall.. but holy crap. I'm so excited!

Lanterne Rouge: First day of XC yesterday. That wasn't fun. My stomach also was so upset so I took a 3 hour nap in the middle of the day! LOL. And my camel spin's free leg just wouldn't stay straight.

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Yellow Jersey: Spins were great and coach was pleased. One foot spin off one foot is really getting comfortable, I just have to remember to really bend my entry knee.

Lanterne Rouge: Jumps were good, but exit rideouts were pathetic, coach was not pleased.

wow, Laura, congratulations!!! doubles... wow!

have you got a really good axel?

good luck with the sal!

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I don't even have my axel yet.. Which is very weird.. but yeah.

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What a pain to have to stay inside the middle hockey circle to do all of your jumps and spins! Don't you have club ice on which you can skate during the summer? Or at least figure skating ticket ice? How can you get any speed going into your jumps? How many of you figure skaters were stuck in the middle with hardly any realestate?

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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

Yellow Jersey:
Finally got my first lesson in 4 months since Adult Canadians (had been working on dance during sping skating school) with my coach. Wow, what a difference one lesson made.

Before today, I had lost the decent corkscrew spin I use to do before the work place injury back in Feb. of 2005. I'm not sure how many revs I got on my corrected corkscrew (scratch for US skaters) but I know that it was at least double 6 revs because I haven't gotten dizzy from spinning in a long, long time.

As far as my waltz, salchow and toe loop went they were 95% there. Once in a while I had to bail and one time, I managed to land a waltz jump on an inside edge. Weird! These jumps during the second session during my lesson and afterwards where landed with speed because my coach pushed me to skate faster into them and out of them.

Lanterne Rouge:
All but two loop jumps were not fully rotated. I think I totally messed up the timing of the jump. OH well, maybe next lesson my coach will fix this for me.

Camel spin: I could get in, rotate one rotation but then the poor camel died. ROTFLOL Hey, I haven't really tried to do a camel spin for a year and a half. And this was done in my lesson. The only good thing about getting out early from the camel is that, my coach now knows that I can do a camel/upright combination spin with a proper check out.

Body: Left hip is tight and sore. Right adductor muscle is still stiff. Right hamstring is still tight from off-ice with competitive kids and I've got shin splints in my left leg mostly but also in my right leg. My coach told me that taping my legs would help. He said there's this all natural stuff that you rub on is suppose to get rid of shin splits. I just don't remember the name of it. My friend who is big on the natural remedies got the name from my coach and is looking this info up for me. Hey if I find it, I'll send it to Skate Canada to give to Joannie Rochette who also gets them.

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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