Lost both my toeloop and my salchow during lesson yesterday! Considering they're the jumps I've had the longest and that I have to test them in 2 weeks, that was NOT a good time. Had them back by the end of the lesson (problem is with the way I go into the 3-turn, I keep the arms too high - I tense up my shoulders and the whole balance of the jump changes) but I'm positively spooked now.
WHAT IF THIS HAPPENS ON TEST?

On the other hand, I did some of the best spins I ever have yesterday. I got 6 (slow and scratchy) revs on a camel and I did a sit spin so centered that it had scratched a deep little circle in the ice!

I'm also able to say, with some hesitation, that my lutz seems to be back to stay (it was there and gone and there again for a long time), and it's somehow easyer than my flip. I've no idea why, it just is although I'm pretty sure I'm taking off of a flat instead off an outside edge (pretty sure I'm not taking off an inside edge though, I've felt myself switching edge at the last possible moment twice and it feels very different from what I'm normally doing). Tried to get our group trainer to check it out yesterday but she was too busy with people who have to test and aren't able to do things for their test yet, and she'd spent time on my toeloop and sal already so I didn't really feel like I could ask for more really.

Look at it this way: now you know how to fix it! If it happens on the test, & you have to re-skate it, now you know what causes the problem so you can fix it on the fly.

Besides, you are now more aware of what causes the problem, so you have 2 weeks to build the new, correct position into your muscle memory.

Yes, I DO mean DIAGONAL!!! LMAO!!! (NOW I know what the confusion was!!! BIG thank you to sk8pics!!! ) And yes, I really did pass this Bronze Moves test. And yes, both sk8pics and ISk8NYC saw me practicing 5 step mohawks just before I took the test so they can vouch for me that I know how to do the move. However, they can't say that English is my first language.

Hope the little JPG chart I did write up help a bit better.

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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!!!

Hmm. . .maybe THAT's why my axel has been so inconsistent lately! I stopped practicing the double toeloop after realizing it was a toe axel and deciding I didn't want to further ingrain the bad habit, LOL!

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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

Diamonds:
Managed to do both sides of the Prelim power threes. Slid out on B power pulls, but kept it together and kept going. I must get those blades sharpened! Still having fun with Mrs Redboots F cross stroke exercise.

Zircons:
Pretty much everything else. DD called from Australia at 5 AM in a total meltdown, and it took me about an hour to get back to sleep, then older DD called from BF's house at 9 AM to ask for a ride home. My scheduled wake up time was 10, but I gave myself another half hour and had to rush everything, so got to the rink tired. Did not do any FI threes! FO threes still not checked properly and I'm feeling frustrated with them again. Did no one foot spins, and caught the BO edge on several backspin attempts.

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We don't get to re-skate the tests, it has to be right straight away on our tests.

Diamonds: Managed to do two good programs run throughs today. With help from my friend 'Advil' And I my coach said the axel is getting better and... the sit spin, back sit is getting lower!! Yeah!

Zircons: Did the 'Clash of Death', I think Sonic coined that phrase on a previous thread? It means while you are doing back cross overs your blades clash together producing a very painful fall - usually. But, I didn't fall just stumbled very ungracefully. And couldn't remember what leg I took off on for the axel. That provided a very funny moment for me and my coach. And now, I need another Advil/ibuprofin. Uuggh!

As long as you do a practice session somewhere on the day of your test, you should be able to identify if you are making that mistake again and fix it before your test. Give yourself some technique cue words to tell yourself as you go into the jump and that will remind you.

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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

Diamond:

• Landed 3 out of 4 flips today!
• Backspins are okay according to Jay. Now he wants me to just lift my knee up and then push out of the spin to a glide (still on spinning leg!!!) EEEEEK!!! (I tried to tell him that it's difficult b/c I'm not really spinning on a TRUE BO edge. )
• Did loop at where I'm supposed to do them in the program. At first I couldn't land them clean but I finally got them landed clean on the last 2 tries...

Zircon:

• But I still have a LOOOOONG way to go to get the loops consistently at the speeds that I normally skate.
• Jay wants me to alter practicing my FS program so that I do a flip instead of a salchow at the beginning of the program. YIKES!!!

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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!!!

This is for last night, i didn't post because I was tired and have a migraine (still do, whatever)

zircons: spin exercises are really depressing!!! I can't blame my lack of spins on anything but bad technique/procedure.....but it's getting me down!!!! For every 10 attempts, I can manage 1 good spin...

Jump combo was so-so. Had to keep bailing, as kids were zinging all around!

Diamonds: practiced back-3's...two-footed, of course! Very interesting!!!

Then, although it was hubby's night for lesson, my passing comment about giving him "laps from hell" to his coach caused her to create an exercise for the both of us (to help him increase his speed):
Lap 1: swizzle to end, crossover around end, alternating crossovers back down to her (where we showered her with shaved ice)
Lap 2: Alternating crossovers, crossovers around end, hubby does back crossovers back down to coach, again repeat with shaved ice!
I asked her if she felt like a puck in a hockey game !!!!
Lap 3: Synchronized stroking with TOES POINTED!!!!!! at speed, of course!
It was fun!!!

My lessons are finished, he has two more weeks of lessons. Then the rink closes for the season, not to reopen until September.

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

More commonly known as the "Click of Death". It's often just a little click you hear before you crash.

Congratulations on those flips and loops! I have to tell you that I have a friend who has a beautiful backspin, except that it's entirely on the FI edge. Now the good part is that when she exits the spin, it's on the spinning foot, clean BO edge, just like Jay wants you to do. Go figure.

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Zircons: Tried to remember the steps we do at the beginning of our free dance, but couldn't.

Diamonds: However, we think we have it sorted now.

Zircons: But the Husband totally can't remember what we did next, you'd think he never did the dance before in his life! I know what we did, it was just the details that escaped me.

Diamonds: After he'd gone spent a long time practising various things, and especially stepping to forward, which is coming silently now! Whether it will in hold, I don't know.

Zircons yet again: Back 3-turns with the foot in front - I simply can't get my weight far enough back when I bring my foot in front, and I can feel exactly what I'm doing wrong, it's so frustrating! I suppose more knee-bend is what's wanted. Must ask the coach next week.

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

zircons: rink's compressor (cooling system) is busted.

There's no practice session. We only have ice once a week for an hour now, most rinks are closed here already, we're lucky to even have that. For a while it looked like we'd not be able to skate for a month before taking this test.

As for cue words, I sorta have some.... Haha. My lutz and flip only work if I actually whisper "Check..." (Sessy picks, jumps, lands) "...the sucker." (Sessy tries to keep her free leg from swinging all the way back and pulling her off her landing edge). And if my loop were a dog, it would think its name was the f-word. On my sal, I often think low-low-HIGH (for the last part of the leg swing and the takeoff) only for the toeloop and waltz I haven't got anything actually.

Diamonds

Worked on Bronze Moves in my lesson today

Back perimeter crossovers...I got in on pattern, 3 lobes and they were big enough to cover the length...I tend to rush the crossover...need to hold them longer and I've gotten in the habit of flattening out the last one in order to make it to the end...if I hold my crossovers better, I can cover the ice without flattening the last edge

Power 3 Turns - these started out as zircons but by the end of the lesson I was feeling much bettter, we made a lot of progress. Same thing -- hold my crossovers, especially the last edge ...I was stepping too soon and of course that was causing my 3 turn to be off pattern. I was also twisting myself all up so that I really had no control over the 3 turns. No wonder they were scary for me! Coach told me to think of my swing rolls - that I am very good at moving my lower body and keeping upper body stll on swing rolls- do the same thing on the crossovers...did that and all of a sudden felt much more control of the 3 turns.

Zircons - okay so there's still not much "power" in the power 3s but now that I've got some control that should come.

More annoying zircons - I've always been the one to defend the kids and say how much I like skating with kids, but lately they are so naughty! Today, two girls working on their show duet - they end their program doing splits on the ice. Fine...BUT GET UP AGAIN....Had to interrupt my 3 turns AFTER coach told one of the girls to please move (she was laying on the ice posing)...then it happened again but this time I did the "EXCUSE ME" and kept going. I try to avoid yelling "excuse me" (in fact I don't believe I"ve ever done it because it sounds rude to me) but I was tired of getting out of their way when I'm the one in a lesson, doing moves and they are laying on the ice.

I'm also really tempted to play music and do my moves so that I can have the right away on my moves...

j

Diamonds: I had both of my coaches at once yesterday working on my fiesta tango. Not only was it instantly obvious to the disengaged coach what I was doing wrong, it turns out that the problem is made much easier to handle by adopting an alternative (if somewhat less flamboyant) arm position, so I will be ready to get back to this after a little break. The willow waltz wasn't too bad in the lesson either.

Zircons: None for a change! Like jskater, the sudden realization that it really was position and could be addressed rather than being completely a mental/fear issue on my part made any little irregularities completely negligible. (Now let's hope it can be repeated...)

Rob

I was doing the same thing on my (double) toeloop entrance. Now I have a cue word for the LFI edge I do just BEFORE the 3-turn. On that LFI edge, I tell myself , "Settle" which means to relax my shoulders and arms and set them into the proper position (left arm at 11:00, right arm at 3:00, both relaxed, level to the ice and slightly rounded), and also to really settle into the ice with good knee and ankle bend. It helps a lot!

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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

Managed to live through the week, just have my yoga class left and then therapuetic message, which much to my dismay has no scented candles just mobilizing my hip, which is ... painful!

Monday jumped, later had incredible pain... okay more pain than usual. Anyway made myself skate tuesday did well just no jumps at all, rested wednesday other than yoga and pilates (active rest) is what that's called. Thursday leg seemed better, did some really nice dances, especially tango (silver) and got some of my Jr moves going. Today skated program clean 2x but decided to work on spins, working on flying forward upright, yoga comes in handy for leg position, so overall a pretty good week, still not crossing foot on doubles even though they are much better on land than on ice. Can actually manage pointe without the bar, ankles seems to be getting stronger, unfortunately I was hoping for the hip.

Oh well, that's life.

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

Zircons: Oy--taped my program today. I definitely don't deserve my sparkles on my dress! Why do we look so different in our minds than in real life? I've been really thinking about extensions, but didn't see nary a one on the tape!

Diamonds: Coach wanted to focus on speed, so we went through piece by piece & found places where I can get more push & flow. Ended up having to move my start position a lot farther down the ice, to make room once I got to the corner because I was going so much faster...so that's good. Need to keep working on that. And extension. And posture!!! Oy.

Thanks doubletoe! Your advise is always gems!


Diamonds: found a concrete basketball field a few minutes roller-skating from where I live. Concrete is okay for roller skating, asphalt is not, I was looking for a concrete field for a while already but as always it took some asking around to actually find one. I tried some flips and toeloops. I'm only doing a half a flip on the (much heavyer) roller skates on which I need to do jumps from mohawks instead of 3turns because they're cheap ones and the wheels are solid and not like on real roller skates. However, I'll take even half flips for now considering I only did a 20 minute session to get used to them again. I got a full revolution on my spot from an outside mohawk!!! Okay it was sort of two-footed, but my weight was over right so that's just from getting used to the roller skates.
I know I need to rest to recover from my anckle injury in summer but at least I'll be able to practice some edges and presentation! I'm always looking down on the mohawks and such. And build some muscle at least. My back crossovers were really nice compared to what they were last summer. I can get a lot of power in them if I practice them on roller skates through the summer. Oh and best part, just roller skating there I'm already warmed up for the skating! I'm seriously thinking if I shouldn't roller skate to my ice skating rink in winter now... I'm always feeling 1 hour sessions are just enough for me to get warmed through and not nearly enough to train my fullest.

I take it that the advice also goes well with my FO3 entries to the flip too? (I'll have to try that and see if I get more consistency with the jump, since I tend to rush the entry to that jump...)

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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 hadn't thought about it, but yes, I would think so! The edge before the ones that "matter" actually matters quite a lot!

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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

I almost never post on here but this was a pretty good week so why not?

Zircons
Still cheating the axel...I need to switch my weight in the air, not on the ice. I cross AFTER I come down, not in mid air. Sitspin was bad tonight, not the awesome low fast thing it was being Tuesday and Wednesday. Worked on Pre-Juv MITF...hate power pulls, the rest of the test is ok.

Diamonds
Passed Preliminary MITF yesterday! There was a tense moment when the judge called me over at the end of the test (they didn't call the people before me over) but she just wanted to tell me it was a pleasure to judge my test. Lowest mark I got was 2.6 and the passing average is 2.5
Layback was good...Camel Sit was good eariler in the week and the first move on Pre-Juv MITF only needs a little work according to MITF coach. All in all, mostly a Diamonds week.

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

I can't even jump my flip without a lfi edge before the rfo for the 3-turn if I'm doing it from a 3-turn.

Diamonds:
Sit spins - no real traveling, but I just couldn't get down low enough while wearing chino pants.
Scratch spins - yay! Very little travel, and I controlled the speed well.
Back Scratch spins - okey-dokey. I'm getting pretty good at keeping the free leg behind for the first couple revs, then bringing it forward. Guess the control's coming back. Still not comfortable with the arms yet - I still like the free side shoulder back more.

Waltz Jump, Waltz-toe-loop, toe loop - all okay.
I'm working on height and form with these jumps.


Zircons:
All that glitters is NOT gold. I recorded a few spins since I had the ice to myself. Never as nice as you think, fortunately, I was off-camera once or twice. LOL Still, it's a good training tool.

Tried a few loops, but gave up when my students arrived.

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