Yea, anybody that wants to jump in next week and think of a thread name...wont' hurt my feelings...

Standing Tall

I just had a very good practice session today. Worked hard in power....practiced by freestyle that I think is just getting better and better. I think I've really improved by 3 turn into my half flip....I'm very happy with it. Looks like there's only one other adult for freestle in our competition - bronze...I'm going to just make it one group let her beat somebody for her gold medal - but I'm very happy with my program - I'll put it up against a bronze skater. No problem.

I'm also happy with my artistic, worked on cleaning that up...adding little touches. This will be my last time doing it - next I'm going to do Reba McEntire doing "Going to wash that man right out of my hair" Coach already has some funny ideas for it.

Slouched over - only negative thing about my session was that there was no one to play music but both times I played my music fully intending to run out like a banshee to get to my starting place in time, someone volunteered to paly it.

j

jskater49: One of the skaters at our rink did two versions of his program; one normal and one with a 5/10 second silence gap before the start so he could press play and get in position for the start.

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Skate Free

Someone at ISI Artistic did that for their artistic too!!! I think it was like a production number or something. KEWL program!!!

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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!!!

Standing Tall: Tried out a new rink this afternoon, just 20 minutes from home. They have a huge block of ice Monday's, which is convenient because I get every other Monday off work (which means less time to make up). They have ice from 3 p.m. to 8:30 and I can skate any 2.5 hour block I want so that leaves me time to get home, feed the dog, and get to the rink on working Mondays.

Their sessions are pretty light and virtually deserted by 7 so I had a good workout tonight. Spins and spirals were good, edges were good (as always )

Slouched: I am still stuck on where to go with my choreography about 1/2 way through, following a RFO spiral and an upright spin. I come out of spins dizzy and need something stable for a few seconds..... Oh well, we'll work on that Wednesday, back with my coach at my regular rink.

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

That is actually a very good idea since there are many days we are without a monitor!

J

I've made CD's with 5 second delayed starts for practicing too but this year, I've only had to have my programs start closer to where the CD player is so that I can start my own music. Because of this, I now have time to get the program started on time and sometimes, I even get to wait a few seconds in my starting position.

Who says you have to start your program in the center of the rink or down at one of the ends? There's no law to where a program is suppose to start.

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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

RB, getting dizzy after spinning means that you're spinning faster than you use to do. Give it time and you'll get use to that speed of spinning. Once you get use to that, it's time to speed up your spins again. Keep up the good work!

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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

Standing Tall
-Had a good lesson. We changed my footwork. Naturally, it's harder. I come right out of a combo spin, step forward in twizzles (RFI), then into CCW scotties. I can do the footwork by itself alright, but I haven't been able to try it out of the spin because I can't currently do the spin due to my hamstring.
-Jumps were good in my lesson too. I did 2flips, then 2flip+1loop+2loop and 2flip+2loop.
-I worked on moves for a while and they're coming along nicely. I'm working on the presentation bit, and I think they look nice.
-My coach wants to start putting together my novice programs!! I still have lots of tests to take, obviously, but she's clearly confident that I can pass all of them since she's ready to start on the programs Now I have to pick music We both want something that I can identify with and bring character too. She thinks I'd be good with West Side Story, but it's just so overused. I like the intro to "Funeral for a friend/Love lies bleeding" by Elton John. Idk. I have time, but I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed.

Slouched Over
-Hamstring is still messed up. I did do axels, 2sals and 2toes today, so it's getting better, but I still didn't dare try a camel.
-Idk if I'll ever get part of my footwork down. I go, RBI rocker, RFI mohawk, LBI rocker. I can do the turns, but I just feel like it takes so long.
-Had some scary falls in the beginning of the session. My skate was tied a little too loosely, and I kept coming down HARD on jumps and falling completely over to the inside edge. I'm glad I didn't bust up my knee or leg, because my lower leg was falling totally to the inside while my upper body/thigh were falling to the outside.

But overall, today was good. Jumps were fine once I retied my skates, and moves were good too. Except for when I crashed into the wall My friend was like "What happened?! I see you, you're standing up, skating, I look down, look back up and you've hit the wall!"

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Youtube Videos

For those of you that don't have a Facebook account (or hasn't friended me yet on there...)

Here is my video from ISI Adult Champs!!! Yes, I know I have to work on those spirals and back crossovers. And yes, I know I'm supposed to have ice coverage too. (My choreographer is SOOOO gonna KILL me for this!!! )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wKT_qza-5o

Standing tall:
Not much.

Slouched Over:
I'm now nursing a slight sprain on my ankle. Foot got caught in a missing brick hole and I took a tumble. Could have been worse too!!! My knee and hip could also have been smashed too. Thank goodness for learning how to fall onto my butt! (One guy saw my fall and thta I was starting to get up. He yells "Stay down! Stay Down!!!" I said "Why?" He said "Sue the city!!! Sue the PANTS off of them!!!" )

That said, it wasn't enough of a sprain that I stopped skating!!! But I was a bit more cautious tonight not to tweak the ankle further. I was tring to follow along with primary coach's new straightline footwork seq. Ummm... WAAAAY too confusing!!! (But he won't listen to me anyway so... )

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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 have made a copy of our free dance with 10 seconds' of clicks in front of it - I thought, if I just put silence, I'd be forever wondering if it was going to come on or not, but Audacity has an option to "add click track", and you can adjust the timing so it is 1 click per second. Worked well for us.

Standing tall: And so on to the next competition. We ran through our Fiesta Tango and Willow Waltz, and Husband ran through his free programme; then we did our Variation in the hope of having it testable.

Slouched Over: I do wish we'd been able to do our variation in front of the judges - they were all people I know well enough to have asked afterwards if it was testable. Our coach thinks not, but for Level 1? I don't know!

The Fiesta and Willow are very out of practice, and I'm still nervous of them until I get my legs underneath me; however, the Fiesta is already coming-along-nicely. The Willow isn't - as in the Prelim, our hold collapses as soon as we try to turn, and I end up on my toes. The trouble with both dances is that Husband is really good at them solo, and this impacts negatively on his partnering ability in them.

Oh well, we have several weeks!

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

slouched over - everything this morning - spins were wobbly, springs were not wound - I couldn't jump to save my life.

standing tall - the last few minutes of the session I finally started getting some jumps. Upper body is spastic but lower body is starting to do the right thing - I'm getting enough height that I could definitely make it if I could get my arms and shoulders coordinated into the effort. Flip is also just a squeak away. I'm having trouble bringing my arms in to rotate the jump - just cowardice really. Plus burning that many calories is never a wasted morning.

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It's all about the dress!

jazzpants -- Nicely done!

Mrs. Redboots -- sorrya bout the travel situation. I hate being flustered over things like that... Good job anyway!

Nice job JP.. you must have hidden all the "bad parts" behind the metal posts. I'm really impressed at how much smoother you look... and nice choreography. I can hardly wait to see this program in "real life" -- you ARE doing Skate SF, right?

Wow, there's a blast from the past! That's a great music choice, though! Did you think of it yourself?

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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

Nope, my dad thought of it. He's pretty knowledgeable when it comes to music. I really, really like it though.

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Youtube Videos

Funny, there was such a huge generation gap in musical tastes between the baby boomers and their parents (my mom and dad hated rock and even lots of pop music because they thought it was rebellious), but there doesn't seem to be much of a gap--if any--between baby boomers and their kids. I think that's so cool.

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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

Standing Tall: Our Variation is definitely coming along when we think what we're doing. And we are beginning to work on our waltz hold.

Slouched over: But oh, I can so not do the first STF in the Willow - I can't find where to step. I know one's supposed to step towards one's partner, but where is he????

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

Back to my home rink today, the glassy smooth deserted ice ..... oh the hardship!

Slouched: Only did 45 minutes this morning. After 1.5 hours Monday and with a choreography session tomorrow, I had to leave a little for my coach.

Standing Tall: Some of my upright spins have really come together. I used to be lucky to get 3 revolutions - now, if I hit it right, I can hold the spin until it runs out of steam - not even sure how many revolutions

Last January I was getting somewhere in the neighbourhood of a sit spin - that went away in February and hadn't been see since. It seems that is coming back now - still not low enough to count but recognizable as an "attempted sit"

Have hit a few Waltz jumps well - that's also something that disappeared last winter

Best Of All: My knees are fine! I guess the physiotherapist was right - just needed to build up those muscles Still skating 'way down in the knees' and my knees aren't bothering me (aside from the normal fatigue of a strenuous workout)!

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

Standing Tall Did some nice salchows yesterday. Well, at least my group coach told me they were nice. I still feel like I'm going nowhere. I really worked on entering with more speed, but it's still not much speed.

Also managed to cross my foot on the backspin almost immediatly (no 14 minute warm up this time!) Now my problem- I have to spin forever once I get started, because I can't exit this spin!!!

I also got a fantastic compliment from the adults I teach- they really like my class and my teaching style. It made me feel very good. One is moving to Adult 3, which I will still teach, but the skate director will come when she starts back crossovers- that's not a move I'm comfortable teaching, since not only are mine not good (in a weight shift point of view), but I don't understand what it is I'm doing wrong. My mohawks aren't perfect, but I know why- so I can teach that because I can explain what they should be. Since I had already done the test for the adults last week, we had "fun day" and did spirals, and two foot spins, and pivots and they did great.

Slouched Over
Crash pads came in the mail- and I'm doubtful they'll make much of a difference. (I tried falling on the kitchen floor...) Maybe on the tailbone it will help, but on the hips, it seems to feel the same. I was also suprised at the weak construction, since they cost so much money. There are openings on the inside (I presume to take the pads out for laundering) and they are just cut- but the opening isn't finish. As someone who sews, that is really shocking to leave it unfinished like that, even if lycra doesn't ravel, for $70 it just looks cheap. But I promised my coach I would launch my waltz jump across the ice- and I WANT big jumps, so I'm going to do it. I'm tired of stupid weeny jumps.

I taped some laybacks and sit spins, but then I didn't turn the camera off and the batteries ran out on the way home, so it deleted the videos I really want to know what my laybacks look like (probably nothing like a layback...)

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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)

I had another good day today. We've changed my lessons to 5:45 am Wednesdays because that works better for both of us. THe way it was I would have Moves class and a lesson on Friday am and no time to practice, this gives me a chance to practice as well as have a lesson.

Coach is very happy with my Artistic. In fact, she doesn't want me to retire it. She really likes it. She was impressed with a change I made - toward the end I skate down kicking out to the side and marching - I changed it so I do halfway going forward and half going backward. I think it looks kind of funny with me marching backward.

And my freestyle went well too. I'm actually getting off the ground with my jumps

Slouching - 5 minutes left for moves. I chose back 3 turns which I'm still doing on two feet. We just worked on trying to get up on my heels. I don't like that feeling one bit.

j

Gak. I really don't like the 1/2" ROH - all my turns are skidding, even my spin entrances. Now I remember why I switched to 3/8" in the first place. Guess I'll go back to it next sharpening.

MITF were good - the spiral patterns are okay except that first inside spiral. When I step into it, I feel like I'm about to crash, lol. I really like the 5-step mohawk sequence - I'm stomping all over the place on the mohawks, but it's a bouncy little step sequence.

Did a lot of spreadeagles today - including a few with the charming young guy I ice dance (badly) with, hahaha.

Jumps were okay; still struggling along, but my takeoffs are much better and I've got some hang time. If I could just get the landings clean again...

Spins were AWFUL. It's the skidded entries - I just can't hook or center the spin. Only my faithful sit spin was decent, but even that rocked a bit.

The highlight: actually skating parts of a program to loudspeaker music. Talk about a good laugh...

Ah well, there's always 6am tomorrow. *shudders*

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Slouching Over: Today was the first day I made it to the rink---had sinus headache that left me with the chills on Monday and Tuesday.

Can't remember the steps for the second half of the waltzing 3's or the end steps. Need to bring a printout to the rink of the waltzing 3's and waltzing mohawks so I learn where the steps go.

Didn't practice loop jump or lutz.

No lesson today because my coach wasn't there.

Standing Tall:

A matter a fact I had the whole rink to myself.

Worked on landing on my toe pick with my waltz, salchow, toe and combos with these jumps. It took a while but I got the top pick to hit the ice first on these. This made my landings light and quite sounding even through I had the same height as when I was landing in the middle of my blade. Now I have to work on getting the loop, flip and lutz to do the same.

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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

My kiddos are going to skate in a Basic Skills comp next month. That means a whirlwind of music, dresses, etc. etc. I love preparing for competitions.

I spent my ice time this morning basically goofing around and having some fun. I practiced MITF, brackets and twizzles (which are getting better all the time) but my heart and feet weren't in it.

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Slouched: Slept in 1-1/2 hours! PANIC!!! Had choreography session planned, new program to debut in 6 weeks! PANIC!!! Left the house 40 minutes late (I think I fed the dog???) PANIC!!! Made up 30 minutes by the time I got to the Tim Horton's (good thing there is no radar on the back roads in the middle of the night!!!) and got to the rink 10 minutes late. Did an abreviated warm-up/stretch and was on the ice 5 minutes later than normal (which was still 10 minutes before the session officially starts!)

Slouched: With a MAJOR competition this weekend my normally deserted 7 a.m. session was BUSY! Lots of skaters, lots of coaches, and music so LOUD I couldn't hear my MP3 player with earbuds unless I clamped my hands over my ears! Didn't get much choreography done before coach arrived at 7:30. Even then it was hard to do much but.....

Standing Tall: ... we did get a couple more segments tentatively scripted (pending review with the music), so at worst there is only 20 seconds of choreography missing.

Standing Tall: I am glad skating is done for this week - I am STIFF!

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

standing tall - coach pronounced my B03s entirely acceptable and started me on BI3s. He also said my proto-sitspin isn't nearly as bad as I think.

slouched over - having trouble keeping my shoulders and hips square on backspin and loop entry, to detrement of both.

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It's all about the dress!