Flowers: Only flowers! I had my first private lesson this morning, since my son was born in May. It was quite fun. I worked on my Novice moves again. I did all of them, except counters (which I hate anyway). My coach even told me that my quick rocker-turn sequence was good. Woo Hoo! The first session of the morning didn't even seem early now that I have a baby up at all hours. Happy skating!

Well, I've been here for close to 30 years. That should tell 'ya something!!!

LOTS of rinks and good coaches!!! LOTS of good food too!!! Of course the BIG MINUS is that living here is expensive as all heck!!! I can afford it thanks to a combination of rent control in SF (when I was younger)...and home ownership (as of a few years back...) But if you're new to the Bay Area, good luck finding an affordable place to leave in SF...

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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!!!

Flowers: I had the whole rink to myself this morning. I love it when that happens --- it makes me feel like an Ice Diva. As for my actual skating, sit spins, back spiral, outside pivots and jumps were all good. I also made myself do three run throughs and each one was better than the previous one.

Weeds: I fell on back crossovers! I haven't done that in ages; I had to laugh at myself after getting up. I was pretty low so it was more of a "slide" than a "thud", but I bet my knees will have bruises tomorrow. My attitude spin is definitely giving me "attitude" -- it just comes and goes as it pleases without consulting me.

On the price topic...I'm currently paying $15.00/session (1 hour or less). $10.00 is a bargain!

Flowers: Had a half-decent practice yesterday, after being off the ice for a week. Made some improvements with the sal and toe-loop in the height department. Backspins are getting better.

Weeds: Loops. Coach decided that it's time to do the loop from back cross-overs instead of the 3-turn entrance. I managed to actually jump off the ice twice in about 50 attempts. I just can NOT get the timing for this! Flips and lutzes have gotten inconsistent, which is frustrating.

Another Flower: This may sound like it should be a weed, but I fell on a lutz. It's a flower because it's the first time I've wiped out jumping, so I consider it sort of a rite of passage. And I didn't injure myself, lol!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Sorry to hear that he didn't work out in his new home! Poor little thing. Have fun at the pairs clinic and at the scientific surplus store!

Flowers: I had a great practice on Sunday--I made some good progress on the sit spin--better, longer entry, with the free leg held back longer, and better position now. However (file under "Weeds" ), on a couple, I felt like I was really centered, and felt like I was at a good place on the blade, only to look down later to discover I had reaallly traveled. My weight must have been too far back or forward...

I'm looking forward to the adult skating seminar I'm going to on Sunday. 7.5 hours of ice for $75, which includes four half-hour group sessions with a pro, free skate time, and time blocked off for private lessons (pay separately). It sounds like a bargain even just for the ice time--let alone the group sessions--but I'm sure I'll be really sore the next day!

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

Thanks, flo! And you are a great pairs instructor. Have fun this weekend!

Actually, a couple of years ago, a male pairs skater in a show group number I was in asked me if I had ever considered pairs - I guess b/c of my size. While it looks like fun, I am waaaay too fearful to be lifted and thrown on the ice - lol. Plus, my availability for practice is so unpredictable sometimes, I don't think I'd be able to work with someone else's schedule. I have enough problems getting regular practices in myself!

Anytime Debbie!

"I have enough problems getting regular practices in myself! "
This reminds me of when my partner and I signed up for practice sessions - the same times, but at different rinks!

flowers: scary new exercises are getting less scary as I work on them! The worst was a quick bracket exercise going into it from a BI edge (my least favorite bracket), and yesterday those were pretty solid, even if not very fast yet.

biggest accomplishment to date: doing a warmup exercise for coach in my lesson, not a difficult one but he wants QUALITY in the execution......came back to him after finishing.....very serious face: "that wasn't bad. Your knees were bent, your head was up, your pushes were strong, and your toes were pointed. What the h*ll was that?!" HAH!

Weeds: I gave up 1/2 my practice time this week to accomodate extra lesson time for a student who's testing next week. So in my lesson tomorrow I won't have made as much progress as I'd have liked to. *sigh* The ever present dilemma trying to coach while still in full training as well.

Flowers: Made it to dance club, and danced with husband, one other man, and solo. Didn't try anything harder than the Prelim (British) Waltz, though - bottled out of trying the Foxtrot and 14-step this evening. Actually, having said that, I did do a Willow Waltz (level 6, same as the 14-step, and one level higher than Foxtrot & British waltz). Did a couple of Dutch Waltzes and Canasta Tangos solo, with a view to competing them at Oxford - if my Canasta could get as good as my Dutch Waltz has, I might even do that! It was really nice dancing with the other man - he doesn't hold one in a grip of death like the husband does!

Weeds: Trying to persuade husband that holding me in a grip of death was counter-productive! And my solo Canasta Tango was not as good as it ought to have been. And I still can't do the 3-turn in the Hickory Hoedown (not easy when you are pointing the wrong way and being held there by Mr Grip of Death!), and made a nonsense of a Fiesta Tango - was watching a rather better couple skating it and not concentrating on what we were doing! At least I stayed upright, unlike one poor skater who fell on the same step of the Foxtrot, not once, but twice!

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

flowers: I got lots of height on all my jumps and my axel take off is better!

weeds: I two-footed every single axel I tried today

Flowers Salchow is getting better! My coach was very happy with the way it is progressing, and I did one of my better ones in my program run through. He said actually all the jumps are better. And again I did a really good spin in the run through. Again with no practice, LOL! I keep stopping after 2 or 2 1/2 revolutions for no good reason; I'll have to concentrate on keeping it going longer! What a concept!

Debbie -Pairs, huh? That sounds like fun! Some of my coaches will sometimes do pairs crossovers with me and it's fun. Lately they tell me I'm pushing them, so when I'm yelling at them to slow down it's really my fault that we're going so fast, LOL! Fast to me, anyway!

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Flowers:
Secondary coach and I spent part of my lesson revamping a five year old program that I'll do in the Interp event at Peach! Also worked on the moves for the Bronze MIF event at Peach and they were fairly good.

Weeds:
Ice was lousy and not cut. This is what we pay $10.00/ hour with punchcard and $13.00 walk on for! Coach plans to start asking for ice cuts!


And the best flower of all:
My Peach Classic entry and practice forms went in the mail today!!
I'll need one blast of a time, as well as three solid skates there to make up for my tough summer!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Flowers: Everything that was good last week, was good this week (the 12th). The one big improvement was my half flip/ flip. Nothing else really stands out as better.

Weeds: The rink was insanely crowded again, I couldn't find a bench to sit on where I normally sit. Coach reminded me it was a public session, which I understand, but couldn't they have the 'camp' kids skate another time? A special time for camp? The crowd always fizzles out by the last 1/2 hr of the session. As bad as the crowd was, my consolation is it's supposed to end soon and there will be hardly anyone on the ice.

And, I'm not sure whether this is weeds or flowers (maybe both?), but I really should get a job soon. To pay for/help pay for skating....otherwise I probably won't be able to continue. I'll have some trouble now considering it's summer (I might not be able to get a job at some places until the high school and college kids return to school).

Flowers: Our elite dancers are on holiday, so the rink was really empty - at its most crowded there were three or four skaters! Was able to do a lot of laps of various strokes (oh, I feel them in my legs!) as well as working with Husband. Back edges improving dramatically, and even making nice edge noises, as the ice was so good and it was so quiet! Not growls, yet, but nice purry noises.

Husband and I did Evil Eights, too, which are a lot less evil these days, in fact, we rather like them! I still slightly tend to turn towards husband when doing them anti-clockwise in reverse Kilian hold, but I think that was because I was having trouble getting my right shoulder forwards. Clockwise ("The worst!" said Husband, but I said it wasn't nearly so bad since I was outside!), I had trouble, as I always have, keeping my left shoulder forwards, but it wasn't nearly as bad as sometimes. We even managed to get up a fair head of speed....

Weeds: When you start to take a dance to pieces, you do get muddled! I'm sure there are things we could/should be doing differently in our Golden Skaters' Waltz.... we got confused with how you put the foot down in the cross-in-front/cross-behind - should it be turned in, as for a cross-roll, or straight? Eventually asked a higher-level dancer who is also a Level 1 coach, and she reckoned straight.

Like the Husband, I still have awful trouble with forward outside swing rolls, seems that I can't get extension behind, extension in front and smooth hip/shoulder movement all in one swing roll! Ah well.... Back outside swing rolls suddenly easier, not enough forwards extension as yet, but getting my weight further back, and far more flow than I used to have. Not quite as big or as fast as I'd like, yet.....

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

Flowers: Got over whining about my new boots and went back to "real" skating or pretty close. So it's more Tango solo work. Coach reckoned that the first part of the pattern (the cross-back chasses) is basically okay, so we started de-constructing and re-building the bit across the short end of the rink (from the long 4-beat edge through to the beginning of the promenade).

The cross-roll RFO3 has always been a bug-a-boo solo for me. It's now getting better (I can do it and maintain flow just rolling into the 4-beat edge with some speed, but when I throw in the first half of the dance like at the end of my lesson today, the chicken emerges.)

And a Major Breakthrough. I finally noticed/felt/realized that I was dropping my free side on the RBI turn exit and also on the LBO swing after the cross-roll RFO3. Which was heavily contributing to continuing my loss of flow through the end pattern of the Tango.

So now to continue to improve the flow into the cross-roll 3 solo and the flow through the bit into the promenade....

Weeds: The morning manager doesn't normally cut the ice before the early morning dance/freestyle sessions. So the ice goes all night after the closing manager cuts it. Not normally too much of a problem but today because of the high humidity, we had a case of major "ice zits." A couple of them were 2 or 3 inches high. Too high to just kick and break down with your blade. We were actually cracking jokes about how the larger ones looked like frozen breast implants.

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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...

Flowers--had a good practice and class last night. I worked hard on my toe loop (least favorite jump) and waltz-toe combo. They felt nice and high (which probably means they were low, but probably not as low as before, lol! ) )

Weeds--the dehumidifier in the rink was off, so I felt covered by a coating of humidity.

I'm having trouble picking in in the correct spot on the waltz-toe--I feel like I'm picking too far to the outside of the print to be able to stay on the back outside edge (I feel myself going over to a back inside edge as I pick, thus taking off wrong for the jump.)

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

Flowers: Had a little breakthrough w/ my repeating choctaw exercise; I can now actually do it & be on the correct edges, though I still get stuck & can't switch feet as fast as I'm supposed to. And a few of the other exercises are starting to exorcise (pun intended) some other demons, so it's fun to see them working.

Weeds: Can I just say, I hate skating early mornings. I skate in the evening, everything is loose & easy & I'm down in my knees, and then---12 hours later---I step on the ice for my early morning lesson & it's all gone, I'm stiff & tippy & even though I'm trying really hard, nothing flows & it just feels like I'm fighting against myself instead of just flowing along.

Even though I skate almost exclusively early morning, my coach and I have a deal that when my compulsory dances are good first thing early in the morning, then they're ready for testing. Given that these old bones are stiffer then.

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

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

Jen, that made me crack up!!

Flowers: Finally got a few loops out of cross-overs off the ground! It's funny; every time I try a slightly harder version of something, that move that seemed so daunting before is suddenly so much easier! To warm up the new loop entrance, I do a lot of loops from an inside 3, which were just ok before. But now I have more confidence in them because I've tricked my brain into thinking they are easier. Made some really good progress on the backspin. Also learned how to actually exit my spins, instead of just stopping when I'd done enough rotations. Flips came back! I was able to land them through the whole practice. Sals were good, too. Getting more height on them.

Weeds: Nothing major. The lutz seems to have lost a bit of pop, but it's getting more consistent. I would just like to work up the nerve to enter my jumps with more speed each time. I know it will come, but I'm impatient that way! I can do it in my head...convincing my body to cooperate is another story!

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Flowers: skating tomorrow with the whole family PLUS another adult so I can do some jumps!! Means if I get hurt, someone else can drive home! Hey, I have to plan for every contingency-if you've seen my jumps, you'd understand! It's still flowers!

Weeds: husband is going (along with the rest of the brood); wants me to run him through some moves to see how far he is (on a public session). And teach him some more moves-so lessons on public ice...in addition to the stuff I want to do. Oh, well. He has only 4 Sunday sessions of "lessons" with me before our regular rink opens for the fall. That means he has a lot of work to do! Then there's the off-ice stuff to work on!!!

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

Today I literally collected the spare change from around my house in order to scrounge up the $6 required for public session this evening. I wasn't going to skate at all this weekend simply because I have no money, but I'm not going to be skating much at all for the next 2 weeks since I'll be working every day through a labor hall in order to save for new skates, so I wanted one last good skate in. Well...

Flowers: I worked on spins, and attained a new record - 12 revolutions! They weren't terribly consistant tonight though, I worked more on varying the technique rather than just trying for more revolutions or speed, so there were lots of flops. I did some really big waltz jumps, as big as I ever have, about 8 or 10 feet. The landings felt really perfect and controlled, so I was really happy. Also did several nice salchow-toe loop combos, again the control was really good for no apparent reason.

A guy asked me as I was getting off the ice what a triple jump was called, and I told him there were several different ones, and listed all the jumps. He said it's the one everybody is always talking about called the triple something. I explained again that any jump could be a single, double, triple, or quad - it just depends on how many revolutions you can do in the air. He said he thought it was the triple dutz or something, so I said he was probably thinking of the triple lutz, since that's the best jump most women skaters can do. He seemed pleased with that answer. Hehe, reminded me of when I was first starting to skate and hadn't a clue about what anything in skating was called and it seemed like soooo much to try to remember! I got off the ice for a minute and got a drink, then went back on and...

Weeds: Was doing some fast back crossovers around the end of the rink, and somehow caught my right heel and went flying, fortunately in the direction of travel as opposed to the boards, but it hurt a lot and a whole bunch of kids started laughing. Determined, I got up and went right back into what I was doing before. Did a half lap around the rink building speed, and did a big waltz jump. Caught the same heel on the landing, and fell again. It caught in such a way that it pushed the boot against my ankle HARD, and my ankle felt REALLY BAD. I got off the ice and limped to the benches and took off my skate. My ankle was swollen up on the right side. Not too much, but it's concerning because I *never* swell or bruise no matter how hard I fall. I poked at it trying to figure out if my ankle was broken. Hard to say because it hurts like bloody hell, but I think it's just tissue damage - I can still fully flex my ankle about without almost no pain. I waited several minutes and poked at it some more, contemplating going back on the ice. I then decided I wasn't suicidal, and while I can manage to work the next couple weeks with whatever damage is done, I might not be able to if I tried skating more and worsened a stress fracture that may or may not exist. My right hip was pretty sore too since I fell on it twice, so I sighed, took off my other skate, and came home early. I think my ankle's okay, I think there would be a lot more pain if it was actually fractured - it just has a dull ache now as long as I don't touch it.

It finally occured to me that both falls involved my right heel catching the ice in a really weird way which it never does, and of course the right heel is the one separating the most from my skate. I examined my skate but it doesn't look terribly worse - the gap in the heel has widened to a couple millimeters, but though I can rock it left and right by pushing on the blade, it doesn't seem to rock too far. I think that's mostly because of the stiffness of the blade though - when all my weight is on it the blade probably flexes and it moves more.

I think these boots are pretty much done for - I've ignored the problem and let it get worse for as long as I can - I'm now risking serious injury and/or a bent blade by skating on them. If I do skate any more on them I'll have to take it easy and stick to spins. I'm considering just taking them up to the fitter as soon as I can and having him send the things back right away though, otherwise I'll wait until I get new skates. I hesitate to send them off since I won't get them back for 2 months... *sigh*

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Casey, if you can put your weight on both feet, you probably haven't fractured your ankle. All the same - nasty!

We had our lessons this morning.

Flowers: Coach was relatively complimentary about our Golden Skaters' Waltz, but still wants to see more lift when we extend our free legs behind. And more definite extension - to make sure we really hold our legs back.

He helped us with the step sequence in our free dance, too - just a couple of minor changes of hold, which have transformed it, so we aren't in waltz hold all the time! So that's sorted - for now. We still haven't decided whether to do our usual 3-turns, or to try to do twizzles at the beginning of it, but plenty of time yet......

Weeds: Husband kept forgetting the cross-roll swing in the Golden Skaters' waltz - oh well, it happens! Other than that not much.... he was working on his edges in his lesson this morning, which has to be a good thing!

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

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Yeah, I figured it was fine since I could still move everything. It just hurt a *lot*, and I especially at first, I couldn't put as much weight on it; but I could limp along so no major worries. It's still sore this morning, I think I'm going to just rest in bed all day and do some reading. All the same I don't like what happened and consider myself lucky that it wasn't more serious, so no more real skating for me for a while. I need to get new boots ordered ASAP. One of the reasons I'm considering sending the current ones off for repair immediately is to avoid any temptation to skate on them. Stupid AOSS

__________________
Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve