Wow: "Now that you are getting so much better....." said our coach! He did, he really did - even Robert heard him! Mind you, this was because he wants us to start practising waltz 3s in waltz hold - gack!

Actually, our swing rolls weren't too bad today, and we are "getting to grips" with our figure 8s. They kept being interrupted as the new schedules (starting tomorrow, but obviously they impact on today) meant there were more people than usual on the ice, and Junior Worlds is coming up, so the couple we are sending there were very busy. All the same, I discovered they were better if I don't try to lean into the circle, as I lean my shoulders in and stick my hips out if I do! I'm better trying to stay upright....

Whoops: Yes, well, doing waltz 3s in waltz hold needs a bit of work yet! They are a lot better than they were a year ago, but I, for one, have trouble tracking Robert, as he does me. It's almost impossible not to over-rotate, and of course, that's fatal.

However, they are not nearly as impossible as the latest bit of torture which was, in fact, introduced last week and I blanked out it was so ghastly: forward cross-rolls in Foxtrot hold. Don't even go there.....

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

I can't get to the rink there's a foot of snow everywhere!! It's beautiful though.

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

Well, the bad news is that I didn't pass my Rocker. The good news is, I skated it like cr*p and only failed by .2. That tells me that if they had been judging, say, Friday morning practice, I would have passed. I expect no nerves going into it the next time, because I know I'm capable of doing it to standard. I honestly thought after I skated that my scores would be 3.7-3.8, but I had one 3.8 and all the rest 3.9. I only need 4.0 to pass. I don't know what happened except that I must have gotten more nervous than I thought. Oh well. On to the American to prep for Syracuse. At this point, I'll probably retake my Rocker at the end of April, unless my other rink gets a test session together before then, and take my American the same day.

No lessons at my rink yesterday b/c of the annual Basic Skills comp, so I journeyed to flo's rink to check out their club's ice time as a guest - this rink is actually closer to my house than the one I normally skate at.

Wow:
During the 15-minute lesson you get as part of the club time, I got some good tips on spinning from the instructor. She told us to look to the left (if you're CCW) instead of the right to avoid having our shoulders drop and pull us off-balance. Makes sense to look in the direction you're going - I don't know why I never thought of it. I made an effort to do this when I practiced during the open time, and lo and behold, it worked. I was able to get lower on my sit spin than I had before. Scratch spin imporoved a little but still needs a lot of work. It's weird - I thought the sit spin would be impossible, but now that I've learned it, it's easier than the scratch spin - go figure (no pun intended).

I also got some good tips for my salchow and (currently nonexistent) loop from the instructor, and some good tips from flo during the practice. Thanks, flo!

Toward the end of the practice time, when I got too dizzy to keep jumping and spinning, I worked on LFI 3's. My RFI's are reasonably good, b/c I do that for the toe loop. But the left ones are terrible. They were OK when I had to do them for my Basic Skills classes (levels 6 and 8). but since I never really use them, they've deteriorated. I figured I should work on them b/c they're required for pre-Bronze moves. Has anyone taken this test yet? How are you supposed to do the alternating 3's?


Whoops:
The loop jump (again!). I suppose I'll get it one of these years.


Hopefully, it'll stop snowing here by Tuesday so I can get to practice. It started overnight and we've got at least a foot on the ground now, with it not supposed to stop until sometime tomorrow. I consider myself lucky to have located my newspaper this morning after only a few minutes of trudging through the snow on my driveway.

CanAmSkater, that's rotten luck - nothing more awful than skating badly, knowing you are skating badly and being totally unable to do anything about it, especially when it matters! Been there, done that (in competition, though, not test - and a far lower-level dance than the Rocker, which I don't yet do).

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

School holidays! equals no lesson and no field moves.
Also means "fight for your space, and always lose it!"

Left early with nothing to report.
Should have stayed in bed.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Wow:
My flying camel actually got better today... slightly though... It felt a million times faster and I just saw the rink go round and round and round... but I think I only got four or five rounds on the good one... oh well...

Whoops:
The axel came back for a while and left again... I did some comfortable easy axels and then they disappeared! I had to force my way out to land after that... so awful... I wonder how long I will take to get a consistent comfortable axel...

The double sal is still two footed... wondering why I cannot rotate finish when I lift my free leg and why when I rotate finish I can't lift my free leg...

Tried double loop again because I was tired of trying the double sal, (I kept losing control on the three turn into the jump) The double loop has a long way to go and I was falling all over the place.

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~
Tidesong

This is for yesterday:

Wow!:
2 - foot spin is working quite well considering I have new blades and I trired spinning on them on Saturday and it felt so weird. I have to remember to push the right shoulder forward and lift the leg up, no out to the side to go into a 1 - foot spin. I have to get the upright spin before I can start working on my program!
Worked on forward and backward crossovers and I feel like they are improved because of my new boots. I have to work on the forward and backward crossovers going CW, it's my weaker way.
Worked on my spread eagle and apparently it is very good, I think it feels very good, and now i am putting my my left arm above my head and my right arm to the side of me.
My forward inside and outside edges are quite good, but I think I need to work on them more even though they are good, but make sure my arms and shoulders are in the right position.

Whoops:
I was trying to do the ina bauer in my lesson and it was really hard as you have to straighten the left leg and bend the right leg. When I do it I try to straighten my left leg but it then it goes to the side of me and not behind me!
I tried a salchow right at the end of my session last night and I fell over and landed right on my right hip! It was a really hard fall and I think I am gonna have a big bruise soon!

Try arching your back slightly when you do the bauer. I know it helps me.

Wow!

My son had no school today and I had no work, so what's a skating family to do? Go skating, of course. My little hockey kid wanted to try figure skates. He did about 20 minutes on them, could do a waltz jump, a two foot spin and a spiral. Not bad for a kid who has only been on figure skates once in his life when he was in learn to skate. Then other hockey kids his age came out and I lost my budding figure skater to the hockey skates.

Whoops.

In a nutshell, my $%#@%^* leg still hurts. Couldn't jump without quite a bit of pain. Sigh. At least I'll have excellent footwork and spins in my program, since that seems to be all I can do right now.

WOW: Awesome lesson tonight! I was the only one in my group to show up tonight (bad weather...but I didn't let it keep me away!), so I had the instructor all to myself tonight. It was great. I had his undivided attention for a half-hour. I'm definitely not going to like it when I have to share him next week! Anyway, we did crossovers first, then back swizzles, back half-swizzles around the circle, and then I learned something new! My instructor showed me how to change direction from foward to backward, then backward to foward. I did it in both directions, but clock-wise is going to need a LOT of practice. There is no doubt that I am a counter clockwise skater by nature. I find that odd since in dance I prefer going clockwise. Oh, well. I had so much fun tonight, I can't wait to get on the ice tomorrow to practice my new skill!

Yesterday

Wow, got my toe loop back but not the way I want it yet. Can do my salchow out of footwork consitantly with or without music now.

Whoops, everything else as far as elements go. My spins got better with my coaches help but my head and body just couldn't take the spinning. Must be the middle ear thing.

Today,
stayed home. Too much snow and my kidneys started hurting again and I've got chills and fever. So no skating for me. I'm on meds now for 5 days. This must be some wicked infection/germ to have me down this long. Usually I bounce right back.

Brigitte

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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

It was a good and bad (sad) night tonight. The ice was in great shape. Seems there is a dance test this week, so the freestyle session had several couples extra plus a pro dancer from Canada working with a couple of skaters on their international dances. It was fun to watch, but I really had to watch my back so as not to get in their way.

One of my skating friends (she's 74) took a tumble on the ice while dancing with her son and ended up with a large goose egg on her head.

Also found out one of our younger skaters (age 12) died from a brain aneurysm this past week.

Makes my blistery feet seem pretty darned unimportant at the moment.

Whoops:
The first half of the Monday night session!!! Don't feel my edges very well... I'm lucky to get any alt FO3's today...

Didn't do much jumping... I did land ONE loop on one foot, but I didn't land on the toe pick -- rather I landed just before the rocker. Impact was quite painful on my lower back since I have sciatic pain on both sides now!!! OWWWW!!!

Wow!
Scratch and sit spins are okay, though it could be a lot better. Backspins away from the wall are not as good but the ones near the wall are a bit better. Didn't attempt camel.

Crossovers, FO3's and mohawks were better during the second half of the session.

Unrelated to skating but very WOW... I finally got DSL!!! WOO HOO!!! No more slow 56K modems!!!

Overall, an average to not as good a skating session. Tomorrow is another day...

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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!!!

Oh, goodness, garyc254. I hope that all in your club are coping well and keeping him or her in your hearts and your memories. I'm sure that it's a difficult time for everyone involved; just hearing about it breaks my heart.

Once again, it shows how skating is a community. Even those that didn't know the girl were sad at the news and wanted to send their sympathy to the family. The skating director posted the rink address for those who wished to send cards that she could forward.

Sorry for being so depressing in my last post. I had just returned from the rink and the news was still heavy in my heart. I needed to share with friends.

Gary, what a shock. How awful.
Certainly puts all trivial problems in to perspective.

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Thanks for the tip sk8er1964, I will try to do it next time I skate.

*Wow* I'm told that my arms/torso position during x-overs improved...I feel so twisted though lol Like my upper body is in the circle and my legs are going in a completely different direction...hmmm Well my coach says that's how it's supposed to be so ok!! hehe Two foot turns are pretty good in both directions, outside edges improving. Hmm, my back x-overs on the hard side are getting better...I don't feel as shaky anymore!! My good side is getting pretty smooth too

*Whoops* On my bad side my back x-overs feel really akward...as if my upper body is going one way and my legs going the other. It's really hard to stay on the circle. Anyone know what the problem could be? Maybe it's the arm position again, but I try to really look into the circle.. Mohawks are so hard!! I tryed them just for fun Sunday cuz they seemed fairly easy when I read about them in my skating book...I was wrong I can hold the inside edge but I just can't change direction...Hmm, also I'm having a mental block against waltz jumps. I go through the take off and then just skate right through it..ahhh I used to be able to do them just fine but not anymore

AstarZ41: it's not only you, it's everybody! Ideally, one should practice crossovers with one's shoulders in both directions - say 4 with one's shoulders facing into the circle, and 4 with them facing out. However, everybody is "one-sided", and finds one way easier. We were working on anti-clockwise runs (similar to crossovers) today, and I was finding it much easier to have my shoulders out of the circle. Which is fine, but doesn't help when you are trying to do them with a partner!

Having started on that, I'll continue:

Wow: Robert and I ran through all our exercises together: swing rolls in waltz hold, both forwards and backwards; chasses in waltz hold ditto; figure-8 runs in Kilian and Reverse Kilian holds; forward cross-rolls in Foxtrot hold and waltz 3s in waltz hold. The Cross-rolls actually worked - my, when they do, they feel so slinky! Brilliant. But we only managed one length of them - we lost concentration after that, so left them. The waltz 3s weren't too bad, either - I think Robert understood what I meant by "over-rotating" the 3, so we were focussing on staying checked. We managed several going anti-clockwise, and even a few going clockwise. As it's coming to the time when we will need to start working seriously on this year's dances, I think we want to try to make a warm-up routine out of the above, so that in our lesson we needn't waste time doing anything we weren't having trouble with.

After Robert left, I had a breather and then my private lesson. We worked on figures, on the step to forwards in the Swing Dance (at my request - I have trouble with that), changes of edge, waltz 3s and backwards skating. Oh, and back cross-cuts.

Whoops: Partly because my blades needed sharpening (the pro who does that was in, so I have left them for him to do overnight), my changes of edge weren't working nearly so well this morning. And I still have trouble with my LBO edge; my clockwise waltz 3s were awful - the 3-turn was fine, but the back edge afterwards..... I was practising these after my lesson, and noticed I had an audience of small children, waiting for the start of the public session at 10.30! They looked seriously impressed.....

Still can't really do back cross-cuts - luckily, nor can't Robert; we both tend to rock back and forth like Weebles..... Oh well. He can do back cross-rolls, though, and mine are still far to seek.....

All the same, 2 solid hours' skating this morning has left me exhausted - I'm too old.....

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

I did 6 - 7 a.m. ice today for the first time in about 4 years! Way too early! I need to get ready for AN's and decided I need more practices so I'm going to do the early morning once a week. I am so not ready for AN's!

Wow- Not much...I did a few good lutz's for that early in the morning, landed some lutz-loops too, but not with much speed coming out of the jump. My artistic program went pretty well, there are still some timing issues to work out, but it's going much better than my freeskate.


Whoops- My freeskate program is terrible. I don't have enough time to cram everything I want to do into a minute and a half, so I'm not ending on time. It's not consistent at all. AN's is what, a month and a half away? Panic is setting in...

Oh well...

Hi all,
Been snowed in - first day back at work since Friday. Mika, have you dug out yet? The only plows I've seen have been on tv, and my street looks like a mountain range. I'm really glad I got to the rink on Saturday for club, since I haven't been able to get out since then! It was great to see Debbie S there - those loops will be along in time.
I ran throught my program and did some doubles and they went surprisingly well.
I might venture over the hill to see if the outdoor rink is open.
Take care.

Whoops
Demoralising: My programme. I am useless.
My car : had a puncture when I came out of rink. No spare tyre. No money, no credit card. Luckily got it fixed by kind mechanic at rink. Luckily my mum had arranged to collect my daughter from nursery.


Wow!: Other than the 3 I did in my lesson, all the other camel spins were reasonable/good (for me).

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Melanie, it sounds like you need a long, hot bath and a massage! Poor girl!


I FINALLY had a WOW lesson. I took a make-up lesson last night as I was snowed in on my normal Saturday lesson time. And, for once, my normal instructor was also teaching this lesson so I didn't have to go through the "this is what I'm working on, this is what I can do, this is what stinks horribly" routine. She knows what I stink at and that's where we started: FO3s. Actually improved -- she says my position going into the turn is perfect. I actually did one to the right and was so excited I dropped my foot, but they were definitely more improved than last lesson. I think I *might* get them this evening or at Saturday's lesson. I'm making my official wish to the 3-turn fairy right now!

My instructor then went to help another classmate and I decided that I was feeling good and bold and why not just try FI3s? Amazingly, I can actually do them on the right, the left turns all the way around but I think I'm rocking up onto my toepick and it screeches to a halt. I didn't think that was too bad for a first attempt!

Worked inside open mohawks. Right side proclaimed "Really good!" I need to transfer the weight a little more quickly on the left side, but both sides in the combination are better than when I do them alone. Then we tried closed mohawks, which I could do on the left -- not particualrly well, mind you, but a respectable attempt.

Then we did lunges. Easy for me and I actually stood up the way we're supposed to for the test with an arabesque instead of grunting sloppily back to my feet. Should pass the test!

As a treat she showed up side-toe-hops and ballet jumps. Side-toe-hop hops a little, ballet jump not so much. She said this was working up to bunny hops. I tried an bunny hop and it was more like a bunny limp, but it was fun!

Then she showed up power 3's which, probably because we're allowed to put our free foot down, I could stumble through pretty easily. We ran out of time and I was only able to try the left side. I'm finally able to make it back to club ice tonight, so I'll try the other side this evening.

Whoops:
Boy, I hate these school vacation weeks! No early morning sessions at the outdoor rink and crowded public sessions instead of freestyle at the indoor rinks.

I started off by getting hurt at a public session on Sunday when I was there to give a lesson to a student who didn't show. A rather large kid was zooming around out of control (what else is new at that place?) and slammed into the boards near me. I told him to slow down. The next time around, he hit the ice right in front of me, causing me to slam into the boards sideways to avoid him. The side of my head hit so hard that my neck was bent severly sideways, scaring the daylights out of me. I have a nice green bruise around the outside of my eye, and my neck is starting to cramp up. All the other pains are gone. It's been a real ibuprofen week.

Hubby and I showed up at a "bubble" rink today for a lesson only to find that it was closed due to problems with the snow. Of course we travelled 45 min and paid a $7 toll for this. After a few calls, our coach agreed to meet us at another rink that also had a public session today. It was mobbed, and there was no way I was going to attempt any patterns other than the alt threes on the line at the back. Even those were constantly interrupted. We left immediately after our lessons.

Wow:
My one foot spin is getting to be somewhat consistent, and I'm able to lift up on it too, as opposed to the very bent knee I've been spinning on. Entry from wind up is good, but I have too much speed to handle. Coach wants me to work on backspin (we need a smiley for FEAR.)

I actually did two really good RFI threes in the alt three pattern! I'm getting closer on the LFI, but still too scared to do them except by the boards or two footed.

__________________

Add me to the "I hate half-term" chorus - added to which, if I hear the phrase "But it is half-term!" used just one more time, I think I'll scream. The thing is, both the Central London Congestion Charge and the Regime Change at our rink were introduced this week, probably because it's half-term, to give them a chance to bed in while people are away - and everybody is using the fact that it is half-term to explain any glitches.....

So anyway, last night was the first Dance Club under the new regime, and - because it was half-term - lots of people didn't come, as they were away. But several people did, including a new member who had been attracted by my publicity poster! Of course, lots of irritation trying to implement new systems - the new duty manager didn't know us, and didn't know we'd need the keys to get into and out of the music room to get our stuff; because we weren't having an interval, when would we pay our subscriptions; does the new tape turn straight over or need to be run through first; all that sort of minor detail that you don't notice once it's up and running, but is like sand between the sheets until you get it up and running!

We now don't have an ice-cut, although that's not going to be too awful; the ice is used, but not as bad as it was when the Zamboni broke down and it wasn't cut directly after a public session! Also, we go straight on while the tea-time patch is coming off, so we are hoping that some of them will be intrigued enough to want to join us.

This seems more about systems than about skating - but that is really what was concering us! As for the skating, my blades were newly ground. Enough said! We did manage not too badly, though, and did a decent Fiesta and even a half-decent Swing Dance. I think it has finally sunk in that Robert needs to push me round him if I'm to do my Mohawk in the right place...... And, of course, great fun doing all the other dances we do, even if I did forget the steps of the Riverside Rhumba half-way through....

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