Oh dear guess you are all stuck with my title again. I think these are our fall choices out in the midwest so far. Today looks cool and crisp.

Cool and Crisp - during power while doing backward crossovers coach calls out to me "Hey Joelle I don't even have to tell you to straighten up" "Yea I had a dance lesson this weekend" "I love it when you have a dance lesson!"

Funny thing we didn't even talk about posture during my dance lesson but I do tend to straighten up for dance.

Damp and Dreary - power pulls. Just don't get it.

Otherwise practices for my three events coming up all went well.

Do you downhill ski? Same exact thing, but on one foot. After skiing two years ago I had the best power pulls ever. Unfortunately, I didn't keep a them, so they're no longer that good.

Damp & Dreary:
Didn't have much work yesterday, so I planned to skate with a friend today, which meant I couldn't back out when I woke up finally really feeling my cold. The rink was exceptionally cold, and I couldn't get myself moving enough to warm up. My body was just unwilling. Then my R ankle started hurting every time I focussed weight on a RF edge, which pretty much ruled out most of what I had wanted to work on. There were just enough kids there to make me nervous on B power XO's and B cross strokes.

Cool & Crisp:
Since I couldn't spin on my R foot, I decided to do some work towards a CW backspin and found that I could see myself in the glass very nicely. Did quite a few B pivots watching myself, and it did help keep the weight over the L toe. Being on the ice is better than not being on the ice, even if one isn't getting much done!

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BWAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

The short answer is no. The long answer involves me refusing to let go of the tow rope and having a bunch of people run into me, not being able to get up with my skis on ...taking off a ski to get up, the ski going down the hill without me...shudder...bad memories...

j

Heh! That fairly well sums up half of my skiing experience. I finally got a little better later, but your description really brought back memories!

Cool and Crisp:
Got to skate this morning finally. We put in longs days Saturday and Sunday at the office to shepherd a student photo project along, so that meant no skating for me.

Last week the rink was hauling two compressors in the front door to replace two broken/worn-out units that failed. I was told this morning that they found that ONE of the new compressors alone keeps the ice 10 degrees colder than two of the older units. I suggested that once they got the second compressor hooked in that they could now run the rink all-year. Won't happen though because of a bleak university budget. Sigh.

Damp and Dreary:
The ice was very hard this morning - great for hockey, not so great for figure skating. See paragraph above to see how this happened.

I've come to the realization that some of my skills have departed for good. I was reasonably close to testing Gold moves two years ago, but I've gotten worse since then. Being coachless probably is a significant factor. Either I get a coach ($$) or I resign myself to a slow slide into the sunset.

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Bill Schneider

Me, too! I've only skied once, and it took nearly the whole afternoon/evening to graduate from the bunny hill, and even then I was terrible and the boots hurt my feet. The only reason I didn't give up in frustration was that I reasoned that if I could skate, I *should* be able to ski. In theory, at least.

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Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

That must have been a sight. How did you manage to get down?

Today was really, really great.

Cool & Crisp
-Had a GREAT lesson. We worked on my juv moves because my hamstring is still all messed up. 8-step went quite well, although I had to think a little too hard for the CW direction which slowed down the rhythm a bit. My coach got me to finally understand cross strokes. The power 3s were REALLY good on my left side for the first time, oh, ever? The double 3s on the third were pretty good considering it was pretty much my first time doing them. I definitely think I'll be ready in 5 weeks.
-Double axels! THEY'RE ALMOST THERE! I hadn't worked on them in ages, but was inspired today after doing really good single axels. I'm really excited to work on them tomorrow, especially if I can get to them in my jump lesson.

Damp & Dreary
Not much! My ankle was bothering me, so double doubles didn't happen, but other than that, everything was great! I guess the only bad thing is that I realized my leg won't be healed enough to do an exhibition on Wednesday (it has two split jumps in it), but I didn't really want to do it anyways.

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Youtube Videos

It was a short bunny hill, I just made my way down. I did eventually get to the point where I could snowplow my way down and did get up the nerve to let go of the rope tow but I never got off the bunny hill. This was back when I was a teenager and I never had any desire what so ever to ski again.

j

But that is exactly what I was going to choose, or very similar, had I been the first one on the thread!

It's all in the knee - if you have knee issues, avoid these like the plague. If you can do 2-footed slaloms, it's actually very similar, only, of course, your weight needs to be over the skate you're on. I can't do them well, but I can do them - and they are the one and only move in which I find backwards easier than forwards!

Cool & Crisp: Coach1 thinks we just might pass our level 1 Variation - who knows? If, apparently, we correct all the faults he spent most of the lesson pointing out to us.....

Dark and dreary: Still no news from NISA on whether we are on the next test session. Sigh.

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

I both agree and disagree with this. I used to think that it was indeed all in the knee, and pulls also used to hurt my knees sometimes. Now, however, I have a much stronger feeling that it's about shifting weight at just the right time and the knees aren't stressed if you've got the timing right. The power comes from that shift of weight, which creates a one footed push. It's possible that power pulls are stressful for the kness while learning, but once learned, not so much.

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If the body isn't aligned over the hip/knee/foot correctly, especially during the pressure/release, then a lot of improper stress may be placed on the knee. Stress that can risk messing up the innards of the knee.

But that is true of many aspects of many sports, especially for females (since mature females often have a larger "Q angle" between hips and knees than mature males).

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

I agree with this statement...

It's not JUST all about the knees. It's the timing of when to rise and when to bend and push those knees. I say that b/c that is my current problem with the power pulls right now. I don't quite get the bend right and that's why I can do the power pulls but not well. (And usually what happens is that I end up slowing down after switching legs...which is NOT what's supposed to happen!!! It should either maintain speed or speed up!!!)

Damp & Dreary:
Oh, dear, my footwork is CRAP for my technical program... at least I think so!!! Of course, I wish I had my primary coach to tell me how to fix it but unfortunately HE caught a bug or something and went home after skating school!!! No lesson!!! REALLY bad part about this is it's two weeks 'til Skate SF and my technical program is still all in crappy pieces. Not good... I'm tempted to pull out of the technical event now. It's just NOT ready!!!

Cool & Crisp:
Not much... at least I could still do flips and lutzes. I just got adjusted by my chiro and the lower back is recovering right now. It's not in so much pain right now... at least not compared to Monday morning when I woke up and can BARELY walk! (D*** SCIATICA AGAIN!!!) Thankfully, I had an appt. to see my chiropractor that morning too!!!

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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!!!

Cold & wet Life is in a turmoil, the world is upside down. Things are changing (undoubtedly for the good) but it will be awhile before I know where the chips are going to land and what the future may look like.

So I told my coach this morning that I am giving up competition for the time being and just want to work on 'improving my basic skating' for a couple of weeks until the dust settles and I decide where skating fits in my new life.

About the time you get settled in a comfortable rut and think you know what lies ahead, Fate throws you an abrupt right turn and everything that was neatly on the shelves is scattered all over the floor

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Power pulls were my trouble move for pre-juv. These are the things that really helped me.

First of all, a technical kind of description. The first half of the lobe of the power pull is you setting the edge. The second half is you rising in the knee and ankle to finish the edge.

Two. Keep your butt up! Don't let it drop. You'd be amazed (I know I was) at how much faster I went when I remember to keep my butt up.

Three. Unweight your foot after you set the edge and prepare to change edges. I can't exactly describe how to unweight your foot, but it's important!

And I agree with Mrs Redboots--two foot power pulls are a really good exercise to help with the timing.

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Youtube Videos

[QUOTE=Mrs Redboots;377296]But that is exactly what I was going to choose, or very similar, had I been the first one on the thread!/QUOTE]

It's all in the knee - if you have knee issues, avoid these like the plague. If you can do 2-footed slaloms, it's actually very similar, only, of course, your weight needs to be over the skate you're on. I can't do them well, but I can do them - and they are the one and only move in which I find backwards easier than forwards!

I get it on two feet, but once I pick up my foot - I'm using my free leg as a rudder, I'm all over the place. That's why coach is having me slowly, little by little shift my weight off one foot after starting out on two feet. And she has me just do the knees because I tend to go crazy if I try to get on the edge. If I get the knees right...I can lean just a little bit but one foot I just can't get the rhythm. Two feet - no problem.

Cool and Crisp Group coach complimented my loops today- the first day we've worked on them in group lessons. I got more than one "good".

Damp and Dreary I'm having trouble with the chasses sequence we are doing in group class. In synchro we chasse with the foot more behind/in front of us (depending on direction) and the coach wants it very much to the side. Since I'd kick someone (or else wipe them out) if we did that in a line, it's not at all what I'm used to, and very hard to get the balance correct.



I sent the paper work in today to participate in the club ice show. I'm very nervous about this decision, mostly because it's expensive, and I hope it's worth the cost (it would buy a good number of lessons.) I also don't even really know just HOW much it costs, because ice time and rehearsal fees are up to the individual coaches (and costumes, and gas to the city the club is located in, and tights, and ...). AND they can't even give you a rehearsal schedule ahead of time, so there is always the chance I'll get put in a number I can't make rehearsals for due to work. Crossing my fingers that doesn't happen. I just hope it will be a fun experience. I like performing, and don't get to that much, so it was a good chance- and to meet some of the other club members, since I don't skate at the home rink, I don't know many.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

wait, i'm confused...i thought proper skiing involved sipping hot chocolate by the fire and oogling the ski instructors??????

ok moving on:
cool & crisp: todays session was formerly a freestyle-now-it's-public-skate but for $5 who am I to complain? not when things like the waltz-8 finally happen EVENLY AND ON PATTERN!! Yeah, I finally managed to get back to my beginning spot on both sides (sheesh never thought it was that hard before...).

One good backspin; some good jumps; no hockey pucks ended up my way (there was a hockey lesson on one end of the ice-no big deal).

damp & dreary: change-foot-spin still makes me feel like puking, but after 5-7 attempts, there was one "real" one in there.

Loop jump: this is my new nemesis....why can't I LIFT MY FREE LEG? WHY DO I KEEP PUTTING IT DOWN???? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I need to work some off-ice stuff for this one I think.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

As a child growing up in Colorado I was a mogul/bump skiier to the extreme, every Saturday without fail my mom would hurl my sister and I onto a bus at 5am and we would go skiing for the day, she would get us at 6pm. We never knew what she did while we were away but I guess it involved sleep.

Cool & Crisp
Skating is starting to gel slowly but surely, still need lots of work but what I can do is getting better and some skills are starting to appear. Choctaws are better, spinning especially camels are getting stronger, free leg at least looks like it wants to straighten. Spiral sequence is getting more difficult as leg gets higher and balance point shifts slightly.

Damp & Dreary
Back sit is stuck at about 110-100 degrees which is still much better than with hip version A & B. Still having some timing issues and extension issues. Very frightened of my harder jumps and flying camel, they don't hurt but I am still not confident in them.

On the good side, no pain meds needed, just taking multi-vitamin and glucosamine, no advil, valtoran, indomethacin, morphine or vicodin. My stomach is very happy.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

accidental double post

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Unweighting is when you rise up a bit to take the pressure off the edge. It's necessary to transition to the other edge. I had a lesson last time I skied since it had been 30 years, and my instructor told me to slow down and not push the turns, but let my skis point downhill before turning. I think that is what clarified the power pulls for me. The dynamic is the same in both sports, you have to take the pressure off the current edge in order to smoothly shift your weight onto the other edge. Skis are much bigger than skate blades, so it is more pronounced.

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Also, if the free foot/leg is dangling to the side instead of being in front over the skating foot/tracing, that may (most likely from my observations) cause the skater to drop the free hip. This then not only puts undue stress on the skating knee, it also makes it very difficult to execute the move correctly without moving many other body parts (arms, free leg).

I had a coach who used to make me try the forward power pulls with arms behind back. The higher level skaters had to do the forward power pulls with free leg extended behind (as in normal stroking).

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

What helped me "get" the move - and this is going to sound ridiculous - was watching the Gold skaters at the Mountain Cup doing backwards bracket/3s, and trying to do them, too - which I couldn't, but found that the movement wanted was just exactly that for power pulls! And although the bracket/3s didn't happen, the power pulls did. We call them one-footed slaloms in the UK; I forget what level they're on but they are certainly part of our Moves, too.

As for me, today, it was mostly dark and dreary, as I have been having one of those days when I'm really, really tired. Thought I was just having trouble waking up, but alas.... so didn't do much on the ice at all.

Cool and crisp: Today's weather, which is glorious! And Husband and I did waltz 3s round each other and found a lot of errors and "why-this-doesn't-works", which is always good. Also, despite everything, good lesson - am working on my shoulders, which is hard.....

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

Cool & Crisp: Sit-change-sit good today, as long as I take my time and THINK on the change of foot (and not come up too much, step on the wrong part of my blade, lean forward, or let my L hip open up too much so I lose control or fall over), I'm fine. I have such strangeness with this spin, some days back sit-forward sit is much better and others forward sit-back sit is better. It's the last spin in my program so I guess I'll decide what to do based on how warm-up goes at Buckeye. We moved a jump up in my program to give me more time at the end to really think about this spin and not feel rushed, so that should help. That also pushes my axel back to the last jump of my program, so I can decide based on how my other jumps went (i.e. if they were clean or not) if I have the wiggle room to attempt an axel that will probably be two-footed or just do a plain lutz.

Did some really nice loop jumps and loop loops until my R knee started bugging me and I had to stop.

Rockers on JR MIF were nice, that was the only pattern from the test I did today (should have taken advantage of having the ice to myself for the first 45 min and after that it was just me and one of our intermediate ladies training for JNS and one of our Junior ladies headed to Mids and worked on the diagonal patterns. But I didn't). Outsides are very strong, insides are getting better, L forward insides still the weakest out of all the turns.

Learned how to do a flying camel! My coach breaks them down and teaches them in a way that makes them so easy! It isn't pretty yet, but they're not cheated and I can hold onto the spin for 3 revs. Once I get comfortable with the concept I can be more aggressive.

Damp & Dreary: Lutzes today. Ugh. I don't even want to talk about them. Not sure what happened to my layback spin either, they were getting much better a few weeks ago but have now gone away.

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

Cool & Crisp - another bright beautiful morning for outdoor skating and my lesson. I'm going to try to hold onto this feeling in February. BI3s coming along decently, spins slooooowwwwwwlllllly improving. Got some tweaks to improve my salchow and toe loop.

Damp and Dreary - still too chicken to flip and not coordinated enough to loop

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It's all about the dress!

Cool and Crisp - Coach was very happy with my artistic and free skate program. I've come a long way.

Cold and Damp - that edge entry into a scratch spin....by the time we were done, she said I'd improved, but I couldn't see any difference and if the entry is better, I'm still not pulling into the spin right so I'm not really spinning. I'm sick of it.

j

Damp and Dreary:
My technical program... I want to withdraw from the technical event at Skate SF but I think my primary coach would have a cow about it so I'm gonna have to resort to pull the program out of my @$$ again. That said, I did a run thru and had two false starts before going thru the runthru. It was a DISASTEROUS runthru!!! Given that we lost training time b/c of my SIL's wedding and his being ill this Monday, I'm gonna push for withdrawing from the technical FS event. )

Cool & Crisp:
I showed my secondary coach the footwork to the technical program and she agreed that the footwork needs to be changed to make it easy for this particular comp. (We can always change it back for Adults National.) But she does agree that eventually she wants me to do twizzles in my footwork in my program... and we ended up working on back cross rolls instead. (Primary coach had me doing "twizzles" right into a back cross roll. I was like "Are you CRAZY!?!?!" )

So I got to working on those back cross rolls and I went from back cross rolls that were slowing down to a grinding halt to ones that KEEP MOVING towards the end!!! No, renatele... it's NOT the shoulder thing. In fact, she told me NOT to worry about that -- she said it will "naturally happen." Dbny sorta hit around where the secondary coach was addressing today -- the foot weight transfer and the timing of when it's supposed to happen. Only thing is... it's not just a "fall back" thing... it's a "weight transfer" where I'm supposed to be heavily on the foot that I'm pushing off on. (This is to help me do a good scrull on the push off.)

I'll see if I get it tomorrow... but towards the end of the lesson.... WHEEEEE!!! I can't believe I went from stalling to MOVING on those back cross rolls in one lesson!!!!

Other funny note:
Secondary coach is on a major weight loss quest and made me stroke around the rink a few laps along with her to help her get some cardio in. The idea for this morning is that she's gonna make me skate FASTER THAN HER... and expects me to skate faster than her now b/c she's not fit and I am!!! (SAY WHA!?!?!? She should KNOW by now that I'm already catching on that good stroking technique trumps all and doesn't require that much energy!!! )

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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!!!