Finally got back on the ice after nearly 4 weeks off. I was a bit worried I'd hardly be able to stand up but in fact I felt fine after a quick lap of stroking.
I should have been on the ice yesterday for the first club sesson of the year but it snowed here and while it wasn't a lot, it was too little to stay as snow on the road and too much to melt away so it became smooth and icy instead. Having already glided gently into the kerb trying to turn into my road I didn't feel like risking going out again.

Back to today:
Tried to remember my free Dance and practised that a little and then had a go at some jumps and spins. Still can't find the secret to the technique that allows you to center a spin properly - one day I hope to find it!

Had my first lesson of the year and coach, who had noticed me attempting my sorry leaps around the rink, decided we should concentrate on jumps today. I have to work so hard on getting height into my jumps. In the end managed a few decent 3 jumps (waltz jump?) and did a couple of OK salchows too though they still need to be higher. On the toe-loop my coach said I wasn't putting enough effort in to it so I really went for it and actually got a bit of height. They were probably the best I've ever done all the jumps and so coach decided it was time to learn the Loop.

Can't say I managed one but I'm getting there - time to work on a backspin I think.

It was a quite literally Uplifting session with all those jumps!!

Worked on 5-step mohawk sequence & forward power 3's today.

My reward was a few minutes of Tango Romantica... the part with the funky "pumping" which when doing it on pattern is a couple of lobes at the end of the rink. We didn't make it to the ladies LBI3 which follows the stretch we were working on...

On my own after the lesson I challenged myself with working on BO3s. And much to my surprise, I even did a couple baby slow back power 3's (BO3-FI mohawk). They're dizzifying when you do several of them in a row on a small circle...

Uplifting: I landed my loop/loop and lutz/loop combos today! More than once! I am so excited. I need these for my competition in March.

I am skating to american Beauty and am working on choreography with my coach. I can honestly say that I've never had any choreography that I liked before this program. I love her ideas and can't wait to start working with the music. I've got some cool connecting moves going on and a couple of decent footowork sequences.

Depressing:

Spins. Ugh....nuff said.

Today's Session.

They must have redone the ice since Tuesday. Woah, I can't believe the difference. It was so smooth today. Plus with my blades being newly sharpened, I was really cutting the ice with next to no effort. Or maybe it's because my skating is getting better.

Ran through my warm up. Stretched at boards.
Ran through all my dances once to warm up some more definitely got lots of speed and depth in edges. Gees, if I wanted to and my coach would agree, I could test all my dances; Canasta Tango, Baby Blues and Fiesta Tango. Finally got the strength to push hard enough to keep the Fiesta smooth right after the RFI op mo to the switch from backwards to forwards swing roll.

Waltz jump: oh so smooth on take off and the landing edge was just as fast as the take off. I travelled for the first time half a hockey circle before putting my free foot down.

toe loop: was there but not like my waltz jump on it's own.

salchow on the circle: very messy and only happened once.

salchow in combination with toe loop at the end of diagonal footwork: decent.

Diagonal footwork sequence: faster and cleaner. Getting use to my new faster speed. Also starting to stop looking at the ice when doing turns. Better balance. RFI double 3 cleaner and going farther.

Right Forward outside spiral: Much higher freeleg.

Left Backward inside spiral:Not bad but didn't get feedback from coach or another skater. Oh, well.


Did my session and the senior session.

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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.

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I had the ice to myself for over an hour.
I did fifty minutes of field moves!

The backspin is depressing.
Now it's about 90% on the inside edge.

Lutz and flip were ok though.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Junior had a collision on the warmup of her Pre-Juv moves test. I was watching from the observation area upstairs, it didn't look too bad, and she passed the test with a reskate on the forward power pulls. What none of us realized at the time was that she and the other skater had "clinked" blades, which resulted in the entire back half of the right inside edge being GONE, HISTORY, KAPUT. How she passed ANYTHING on that is beyond my comprehension. We had no idea anything had happened to the blade until our next practice, two days later. She kept slipping off of anything involving the right inside edge..."Mom, I can't do anything on this foot!" I looked at it when we got off the ice and no wonder!!

Alas, it was a split decision on the Juv. moves this time, but she still didn't pass. Her scores were better than a month ago when she first tried it, and last time's retry was unanimous, but she reverted to her old habit of being "hoppy" on the back cross strokes, and her normally-ok power 3's looked pretty wild. She is pretty frustrated. Can't say I blame her. Seems like these stupid moves are the only thing she's gotten lessons on for two months straight now. Right now she is taking a break from them, which is probably a good idea anyway as we're starting to get close to competitions again, and there's only just so much ice time she can get. Next time we will probably try testing them out of club, as our club is known for being rather harsh on their moves tests at times.

That's a terrific idea. Too many lessons over the same moves gets soooooo boring. Let her take a total break and work on something entirely different for a while.

When it's not fun anymore, it's all over.

I went for an early morning practice today and had a pretty good skate.

My camel spin is still somewhat hopeless, I'll have to see what my coach can do about this next week. But, my sit spin is getting better and I'm trying to create sort of a sit spin/ attitude spin/ scratch spin. Jumps were ok too, the combos are still there!

My skates on Wed. and Thurs. were the antitheses of my skate on Monday (save the layback spin). I really feel like I have a mild virus of some type, because as I am sitting here now, I have a headache, stiff neck, and my joints hurt. It came on very suddenly today at lunch. Dang it--hope it ain't flu!!!

Anyway, I have discovered the salchow/loop combo. I did it when I was dead tired and had no business jumping. This is easier for me than waltz/loop, and very fun. I feel I can get it up to speed real soon. Also played around with jump/half loop/sal combos, which I like.

Due to my lack of strength, I fell out of every camel spin I tried, and the attitude wasn't too hot either. Layback, however, worked 50% of the time, so I suppose that's a small success.

I have my moves critique and moves test on my mind. Maybe that's what's bugging me.

On a happier and somewhat unrelated note, I found a wonderful piece of stretchy oriental-style brocade fabric that I want incorporated into my next dress. I can't wait to have it made; I have sketches for it already! Coach has also agreed to help me choreograph a special piece of music for my bronze test! So even though I feel yucky, there are good things to look forward to.

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

As I didn't skate yesterday (I really intended to go to the teatime session as there is a new baby among the local skating families who was going to be there who I wanted to see, but was writing tomorrow's sermon and time ran away with me), Robert and I hauled ourselves, moaning and swearing, out of bed to skate the early session this morning. No lesson, but a good practice session. As we only had 45 minutes, I didn't feel I'd had long enough, so paid to skate on the figure club ice, which I don't normally do.

Uplifting: Robert and I had a good practice together - we did all the exercises we've been given, except for the ones in waltz hold, as we were distracted by the need both of us feel to work on our Mohawks. Robert's are better than mine - much faster, and far more controlled, but he feels he isn't controlling them very well. It is better when he remembers to keep his hips forward and to bend his knees! Mine are just beginning to happen, but they aren't reliable - I have always been able to do them, you understand, but it is controlling them, holding the inside edge as long as I want before turning it, that is the problem.

On the figure club, since it is designed for free skaters, I did work on my spin, which is still dire! I always bottle out after about 1 revolution. I tried a backspin, but couldn't find the edge I wanted at all, so it was very forced.

Depressing: Not a great deal. It was one of the nicer sessions. My back started to ache about 15 minutes before I got off, which is proof positive that, while 45 minutes is probably not long enough, two 45-minute sessions are just too long!

Edited to add an Overheard: A teenage skater two-footing her axel, and her coach clucked his teeth at her: "But I could do it perfectly at home!"

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Mrs Redboots
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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!