Wednesday already, where does the time go. Very quickly, as I'm going out in a minute, just wanted to report on a great skate:

Whee: Everything was suddenly better! Especially my back inside edges (these, in our Field Moves, are rather like power 3s but without the 3 - you must get all your power from the edge, and may not push), which I suddenly got the knack of. Then when I did waltz 3s, I finally got enough control to bring my feet together into a T on the back edge after, so as to get a really good push off into the next 3! My coach said my technique was massively improved. I said "too slow!" but he said, "Yeah, but you used to do them at that speed and your technique was vile!"

Have chosen my theme for the current year's Interpretive/Artistic/Creative programme! Not saying anything yet, but the coach liked the music and agreed we could do something with it, so he's taken the CD away to do the cutting....

Whoa: Our Tango run-throughs were pretty good, BUT there are a couple of places where either Robert bottles it or I do, and it's too slow. The silly part is, they are on relatively easy bits of the dance - the difficult bits are coming along just fine! Such is life.

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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!

Whoa:
Skated after really tiring day at school, kept it short in case I get too tired and fall badly (learnt a lesson from that already)

Whee:
Jumps: Axels still there, squeezed in one double salchow
Spins: Nothing new

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~
Tidesong

Whee - skated for the FIRST time with a partner!! He's a coach who'll be at our rink for a couple of months so I am going to work with him and my regular coach. It was SO different skating with him, particularly...cough...ahem...the swing rolls, they swung baby.!:-)

Whoa - swing rolls by myself still need some work and I need to PUSH more at the beginning of the Dutch Waltz.

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Whee: Did double run-throughs of my Bronze MIF in my lesson Monday. Coach was relatively pleased with the Alternating Power Crossovers (both forward and backward)..although he would like me to increase the speed. He threatened to have me skate them to Paso Doble music. I asked if we could work up to the Paso music.

Whoa: I was as exhausted mentally after the end of the double run-through as I was physically. The last third of the last run-through of 5-step was definitely laggy.

At Friday's lesson I get to skate with the kids again (oh joy ...NOT...). I don't mind skating with the teams and the high freestylers, but our rink allows all levels (from barely out of ISI Delta to Junior Dance/Junior FS) all on the same FS sessions.

Hey is this a chat for like how your skating lessons go for the week? Well I'm new! I've done synchro for the past 5 years but now I'm off to university so I'm just going to dance one night a week and try to get my diamonds (i already have my golds) but I haven't danced in 5 years so should be interesting! Today I'm planning on going to the Minto skating club (if I can find my way there) and register and stuff!!

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There is no try, only do.

This is for this week so far:
Whee: I made progress on my flip on Tuesday morning!

WHOA::
Our rink was taken over by a former pro hockey player in June. We (our club board) met with him on Tuesday night to discuss concerns with him i.e. specialty classes offered, but cancelled, freestyles being cancelled at the last minute, etc.
He told us that the figure skating parents were the ones with the attitides and there were not enough skaters on the freestyle sessions. I and other figure skating parents have had rude attitudes experienced with the front desk staff !

Bottom line is that if there are not at least 10 skaters on any given freestyle on a consistent basis, the time will get cut next month! On the other hand, if we can fill up our freestyles with 20+ skaters, he won't have a choice but to give us more ice!

Yikes, Terri!

Practice:
Whee: I practiced everything in the level except the jumps as it was club ice and pretty crowded.
FI Pivot: Pretty easy and fast on both sides.
Arabesque: Getting steadier. I like playing with different arm positions on this. Makes me think less about my feet.
Forward Spiral: Well, I must admit that I'm cheating a bit on this as both of my legs will go to hip height without any upper body lean. I need to quit chickening out and lean!
Two foot spin: I got a couple to feel "weightless". Practiced the exit edge a lot.

Whoa:
Back edges. I can't really say more than that. They sucked. I spent quite a bit of time working on them to no avail.


Synchro:
All Whee! I am really enjoying practicing with the team. We listened to the first cut of our music and tried a few formations. As I am somehow TALL (at 5'5") I got to be on the inside of one of the formations. The we did a pass through and I was on the end of the line, so I hit it every time, LOL!

Whee: As I'm attending a conference, which is local, I was able to skate this morning. We worked on a lot of our Tango OD and ironed out a lot of the bugs in it.

At the conference (this is germane, don't worry), I learnt about the stages of learning:
Unconscious incompetence, when you don't know, and you don't know that you don't know - who knew what a lifelong process learning to skate would be?

Conscious incompetence: The stage we are all at about some things - I, for instance, can't do the bronze Foxtrot and know I can't.

Conscious competence: That's when you can do it, but it's really hard work (and, in skating, looks like it!).

Unconscious competence: When you make it look easy!

I doubt we'll get beyond conscious competence in our Tango OD by 28 September, but I hope we do.

Whoa: We still can't get the ending right.... oh well....

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

Hi everyone! Due to my hectic schedule the past few weeks (I just started business school, so between orientation and the first 2 weeks of classes, things have been rather crazy), I haven't had a chance to come and post often.

But I did get a chance to skate last Wednesday (for the first time in 2 weeks) and yesterday, I had my first lesson with a coach (as opposed to group lessons).

Whee: Got my blades permanently mounted on my new skates and joined the skating club at the rink where I take lessons (so now I can test).

Worked with my (new) coach on the pre-Bronze MIF skills. We only had time for the stroking and crossover patterns - I needed a lot of corrections! But it went well and she said we would spend some time on FS skills next time. Of course, she hasn't seen my alternating 3's yet.

Whoa: In my practice, I couldn't land a loop jump properly to save my life. And where did my flip go? I had it last week. Oh well. I definitely have lots of things to practice.

Started jumping in my skates, and to my chagrin (or maybe just concern right now) it seems that my right heel isn't fitting right in my boot. I'm not sure whether it's slipping, or if the heel is too small (I realize those are completely opposite scenarios, but all I know is that my heel feels like it's rubbing up against something when I land jumps). Maybe it's just that the boots need more breaking in. They do still feel cement-like. Anyone else had this heel problem with new boots?

Whee!
The season's begun! Had group lesson last night and it was great to see everybody again.

We got a new coach! A young competitive Canadian ice dancer who is a lot of fun. We're all trying to find how we're going to keep him here when this season ends. Now we can have ice dance lessons, synchro and finally we've got an extra coach working with the adult group. Now we're split into three groups which is great for those of us who are no longer beginners but still not ready to join the advcanced group.

It was fantastic to be back on ice so that makes everything a bit 'whee!'

ETA: Back crossovers were definitely 'whoa!' but that's no surprise. They're totally out of control, I can't keep my edges and they're going faster and faster and faster... (And that's not good, that's an accident waiting to happen!)

Whee! My new skates finally came in! (SP-Teri Supers) I went in this afternoon and tried them out, and wow! What a difference! I do hope this solves a lot of my inability to get a good feel of what my feet are doing and progress further. And I won't need to wear covers or over the boot tights either!

Whoa! Due to work and what not, I won't be able to skate till Monday, I'm not sure about skating on club ice yet, as I haven't been tested by one of their coaches as to meeting their minimum requiments. My new coach hasn't called me back yet, I was hoping she had found some ice time we could skate on before the week after next. I'm hoping work picks up this winter, as skating is not exacly cheap! My designer thinks I should go down to the Buckeye open, but I haven't a clue whats all involved, and of course, the cost issue comes into play.

Steven

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"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

WHEE: Had a good, organized "long" practice today (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I skate a 45-minute pratice in the morning, and a 90-minute practice after school). Got through everything I wanted to without spacing out and forgetting what I needed to do next. Also got my skates sharpened, which they needed desperately.

WHOA: Took a nasty fall on the mohawk in the Rocker Foxtrot. Luckily none of my friends were there to witness it. The worst part was that it was toward the end of the session, so my jacket was off and my forearm got ice burned. It hurt at the time, but I don't see any bruises. Probably tomorrow. Luckily, I stopped sliding about a foot short of the boards.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

WHEE: I had the whole rink to myself for
an hour today so I didn't have to worry about collisions or anything else.

Worked on edges, alternating 3s, power 3s, crossovers and even did patch since I am now the proud owner of a scribe.

Salchow is now more consistent, still need more height and distance but that will come with time. Waltz jump is definitely my signature jump.

WHOA: Tried some toeloops. Another gentle reminder of what a klutz I am.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Please excuse my ignorance, I only know of one patch, and thats patch ice, but I'm unclear as to what a scribe is in skating and how it relates to patch.

Can someone enlighten me?

Steven

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"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

A scribe is used to make the circles of the figure eights so the skater can get the feel of the size and shape of the circle. It adjusts so you can use it for skaters of different heights. The same general idea as a compass, but when it is extended out it is shaped like an "L", with the short bottom end of the "L" in the air as the handle (if you can picture that). You stick one end into the ice on a point, and the other end has another point that draws a line into the ice. The skater then traces the line. For testing and competition you had to do the figure eights without the scribe.

OK, as for "patch". Skaters in the olden days used to call figure eights "patch", short for the patch ice that you mentioned. We all had scribes back then, and in fact I think mine is still in my parents garage . We used to do patch at 5 and 6 am, before school, because that was the cheapest ice times. It was COLD!!! I, myself, had enough of patch in the 70's and 80's .

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Thank you sk8er1964!

Steven

__________________
"A sure sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." - Albert Einstein
"A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai Stevenson
"Got Edge?" - Steven J. Arness - Coachless, two years and counting.
"He who carves himself to suit others will soon whittle himself away."
"Sometimes you get what you want but loose what you have."

Whee: Saturday patch is always very busy, so we didn't even try to run through our Tango completely, but worked on bits of it we find difficult. I was and am very tired (when we came home, I went to sleep for a couple of hours, and wouldn't mind doing so again!), so got off the ice after about 30 minutes and went and gossiped with some cronies. Got back on again to run through the Riverside Rhumba with Robert - we are still having problems, no, correct that, I am still having problems with changing back to Kilian hold on the RFO swing. I don't bend my knees enough, I think.

Robert, meanwhile, was doing some really great work on his back edges; my only criticism was that his bum was still stuck out, and his upper body too stiff. But his feet were great! Then he showed me how another coach at another rink had showed him how to do back chasses, and I do wish he'd always do them like that... it would help!

Whoa: Must remember not to let him make coffee before we go out - it was cat's pee, just hot water.... horrible! And my banana was over-ripe; it really wasn't my morning! What's more, I couldn't think why I could barely see - I might as well not have bothered to wear my contact lenses, it felt as though I'd forgotten them. Of course, when I got home, I discovered I'd only had them in the wrong eyes, hadn't I? Sheesh.....

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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!

Whee: My loop is back to stay this time *crosses fingers*. It took me the entire session before I landed one, but they've been so inconsistant landing the few I did was miraculous. MITF are really getting there.

Whoa: SPINS SPINS SPINS SPINS SPINS! I simply cannot get off my toepick no matter WHAT spin I try. Sit, Scratch, back sit, camel. Any of them. My flip and lutz are starting to come back but I just cannot get them past the 2/3 rotation mark. I don't know where the other 1/3 has decided to go.

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

Whee: Well, the coach has transformed our Tango start, just as I hoped he would. We were just standing there hand in hand, as he said "it could be anything!". So now we start in Tango hold, then I do my 3-turn and into Open hold for the start.... and we have finally choreographed the end, too.

Now all we have to do is skate the [expletive deleted] thing.... which is another story! Only one really awful place now, actually, but still....

Whoa: BUT there are only 3 weeks to go, and we haven't had a chance to work on our compulsory dances at all. Which isn't much cop. Plus the ice was crowded with elite dancers this morning, and it's very difficult to get a look-in at the music or even get to skate round without being interrupted.... oh well.

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

Whee!
--Got my blades permanently mounted on my skates, so now I can spin. My pro also took a look at my old boots and unbent the blades (until my first resharpening, they had been mounted temporarily and I hadn't even known it).

In the same trip (my pro shop is 1 hour from my house), I skated on a freestyle session at a rink near the shop and took a power stroking class.

The class was fun and focused on speed and power. Some of it was over my head (power pulls and back cross rolls) but it was still a great learning experience and the speed kept my mind off my stiff new boots.

I have my first private lesson on Tuesday (I'm very excited but I may have to cancel if my banged-up knee is not feeling better by Monday--see below)

Whoa!
During class, I tripped on my toepick (during simple crossovers, not even during the hard choctaw move he had us doing)and banged up my knee. I didn't have crash pads on because I didn't have time to order them before my recent vacation (and even if I had ordered them, I wouldn't have had them with me because I have all my parcels shipped to my work address and I haven't been at work). So now I have a very sore left knee. I've been icing it as much as possible and taking a lot of ibuprofen and it's improving quickly. I had been planning on doing a lot of yard work in this beautiful weather, but shucks, now I just have to sit around and read and rest my leg! I had also been planning on doing a lot of paperwork on my computer but it's been acting up, too (Microsoft Excel and Windows keep crashing on me but somehow I'm able to surf the net!)

Ouch, Mika! I hope your knee feels better soon!

Hello, all! I had a lesson on Saturday and decided to practice on Sunday, so here's a report from both.

Whee! Two-foot spin gets about 3 revolutions 85% of the time and I always try to exit properly. Spirals and arabesques getting more steady on both feet and I even tried leaning a bit on the spiral. (I've been cheating as my legs get hip high without a lean). Practicing a pivot into the arabesque into the other pivot into arabeasue -- one ot the womeon in group lesson said "Oooh! Pretty!" Back outside edges are ever-so-slowly getting better. I can almost dp a complete lobe on the left with the upper body rotation and usually get the puish correct when I change feet, though the right side comes to nearly a complete stop almost immediately.

Whoa! Back edges are not improving as quickly as I want them to. I'm getting a little more confident on my outside and can do them quite well when the instructor is holding my hands and assisting me with momentum, LOL! Inside edges are correct, but tiny, tiny, tiny and I don't understand completely the upperbody rotation.

Big WHOA!! Waltz jump and half-flip are not jumps. They are weenie steps. I can actually jump the waltz jump at the boards, but get me away from them and I'm a dork. Half-flip is nice and tight off the ice, but absolutely miserable on the ice. Although practicing it has made some of the footwork from our synchro routine better and easier, so I guess there is a benefit!

WHOA: I had foot surgery Thursday (it was planned) and will be off ice and all exercise for about six weeks. It's already driving me nuts! Vicki is not a happy girl without ballet and skating!

WOW are they still teaching that? I got that in 1988 at the start of my psychi training!!

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MEL
Absolute Skating