I actually had my first official practise with a judge coming to watch us... it was cool, although I fell on my axel. I have to work on my footwork sequence more also...competition coming up soon! I'm so excited

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Tidesong

Hi,
Something to add to Mika's post on spirals and such. One thing I tell my little kids it that skating will "follow your nose". Many of us remember the fruit loops ad with Tucan Sam. Anyway your body will "follow your nose" - for good or bad. Like Mika said, if you look down in a spiral, that's where you'll land - on your nose. But also if you are having trouble with an edge, look where you want to go, and your body will follow.

Nice: went skating last night and did a bunch of flying camels from the new entrance, and they were fine. - Now to do that in a competition! Also just back from the PT. She located the problem (part of my vertebre is not closing properly), so we're working on it.
ta,

DancinDiva -- I'll echo what mikawendy said about weight distribution coming from a dance background. I danced for 15 years and have a great deal of difficulty wrapping my brain around the fact that the blade is longer than my foot and that I do have to use the back of it.

I know that it's because you simply can't turn flat-footed off the ice, but it's super hard to break that particular habit, at least for me! I was working my forward outside edges for the Delta test and the instructor had to remind me each time I changed feet to get my weight further back on the skate. I also have to think really hard about not setting my foot down turned out -- can cause sudden and very clumbsy falls (so I'm told!)

There is a bonus, though -- my upper body and arms are always in position and my feet are always pointed when I pick them up. I anticipate doing killer spread eagles and ina bauers because my hips are open and turn out naturally. I'm one of the few beginners that isn't reminded to bend my knees every time I try something. I have a kick-butt lunge. And, regardless of how terrible I'm skating, I usually look great and graceful doing it!

Sunday/Monday:

Nice: Got a salchow/toe loop combo going after my second footwork section in my FS. Not High but it works.

Still know the Dutch Waltz even though I haven't danced it for over a year. Need it because I'm demostrating it along with the Canasta Tango and Baby Blues for our year end Pop Concert.

Not so nice: I have to switch from Dutch to Canasta to Baby Blues one after the other as the music changes during the demo. I've been praticing but sometimes I forget to change and I get a good clip going and find myself going 3 times around on the Dutch or twice on the Canasta before changing to the Baby Blues. I change right after where the intro for the Dutch ends for each segment. I'm also finding that I push harder than before surgery now and I'm going faster and running into the walls even when I've adjusted where I start. I need an Olympic rink now. LOL What happens when one becomes healthy.

Foot work in both my FS and interpretive is faster and I'm also having problems with fitting it in. So I've had to take some of it out to end at the right place to fit in my jumps. Otherwise, I'm in trouble.

Nasty: spinning is way off. I'm on vacation with my spins. I think I'm travelling to Timbucktoo. LOL

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

Uh well, today I went to my private lesson, which I've been taking for a few months now. Lemme try to remember.....

Nice: My instructor was helping me on a spin, which is improving. She seemed more impressed with me than usual. Instructor told me that she'd like me in the spring ice show and she said "This time I won't take 'no' for an answer". That's good, I guess?

Nasty: Hmm... I fell twice - which, might I add, I hadn't done in awhile before today. Once when I was trying to spin today, I leaned forward too much and nearly fell flat on my face! (She seemed glad that I recognized my mistake on my own - leaning forward too much.) Also, my legs were getting kinda weak and shaky during part of the lesson.

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Andrea

Nasty: Da' weather----cold, freezing, icky!! Plus the "bas relief" map of an alien world on the ice this morning. Gee, this ice is lower, so this must be the oceans, and this area is higher, so this must be the land!!!!

Nicey Picey: Finally did my whole footwork program to the music, did all the elements, missed nothing and ended on time!!! Whoo hoo!!! Its a little sloppy of course, and ice coverage could be better, but the big battle is won--I know I can do it. Its really cute and tap dancey--of course, what would you expect with a song called "Happy Feet?" I really like this program, but Paula was right--it is exhausting--more so than my free program, which is half a minute longer.

Conquered the "bad spiral free foot position demons" today, courtesy of my coach and Nancy Kerrigan. No, Nance wasn't there!!! It was her book, "Artistry on Ice." I read some of it on the planes to Chicago/Dallas last week, and her statement of how the weight has to be on the BACK of the blade on the skating foot during a spiral caught my eye. Paula agreed with Nancy: We then did spirals out of simple one foot glides, and I was able to position my weight properly and get the free leg into position better. We also discovered that I get a better free leg position if I lift the free foot into attitude position first and then go into the spiral. Overall, spirals were pronounced 100% better than before, so the attitude trick goes into both programs.

Worked on elements for competition: Waltz jump, spiral and two foot spin, in that order for Freestyle 1. Not bad for the first couple of tries. I'm already more comfortable with these than I usually am with Elements: Of course, I don't have to demonstrate THREE TURNS this year!!!

I highly recommend "Artistry on Ice" to everyone. Its designed for the intermediate and advanced skater to help improve basic moves, jumping and spinning skills, and does have chapters on pairs, dance and synchro. Nancy and Mary's descriptions are spot on, and the pictures of Nancy demonstrating moves are really helpful--especially some of the "in air" positions. You can get it for a nice price on Amazon--I recommend it.

This is how I was taught spirals from the start. I still practice just raising the free leg from a T position as far as it will go. Doing it this way also prevents lower back strains as you are using the gluts to raise your leg instead of your back.

Nice
Finally got to the outdoor rink at 8 AM. Daughter has started at a new school, so I'm driving her and going straight to the rink. It was gorgeous out

Managed my three obligatory waltz jumps, all from B crossovers, and all were pretty good, with landing on toe pick and good check.

Did my obligatory 10 iterations of (two footed) FI alt three pattern. The R one are beginning to feel like real turns with the free leg just barely skimming the ice, and the L actually felt a bit better too.

Best of all, I met about 6 other adults. Most of them don't take lessons at present, but did in the past. It was nice to have some adult company.

Nasty
Going this afternoon to change my blades from Majestics to Coronation Aces. I'm going back to the outdoor rink after to begin the adjustment process. Wish me luck.

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dbny: Without a book to guide me, I don't know the radius/curvature on the Majestics, but the Aces are quite "curvy." I went from Comets to Aces--yes, I know that's kind of backward, but it was a good change.

One big thing--I caught the toepick a lot at first with the Aces, due to needing time to adjust and find the right spot on them for stroking, etc. as the curvature was different. Take it easy at first, they will feel different. You will probably grow to love them like I do. Here's a BIG ray of hope: My three turns are MASSIVELY improved on these blades!!! I even get a decent entrance edge coming out of fairly speedy stroking!!!

Your comment on the muscles used with attitude into spiral also explains why my left leg (free) aches a bit after today's workout on the ice. Ahh, more stretching for me!!

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes.

Hugs,

Beth

Had lesson last night and I felt like I had finally come out of the recent month long deep freeze! But prior to that I went for practice Sunday and Monday eves with no specific expectations except to get on the ice after almost 10 days off due to neck strain and right knee arthritis flaring up (could it have been the new Power pulls??) And to give final evaluation to the new orthotics - they don't work, so back to my old one and feeling much better...$200 down the drain.

So I was energized - coach said let's start with back outside 3's as she caught a glimpse of me trying them while she was in another lesson. Well, the one side wasn't much success but the other side was perfect and I thought I was going to have to pick my coach up off the ice!! She was so thrilled and wanted to know when had I learned it and why hadn't I told her when I made the breakthrough. And had she seen me do it she would have screamed with joy across the rink!! Geesh...All I could say was I just keep working on them and it started to happen 1-1/2 months ago. So we worked on the bad side to see what the difference was. On the bad side, I need a deeper knee bend and to cross the free foot further over the skating foot.

One foot spins are coming along but I need to keep my arms open longer. I have a tendency to bring them in too soon and the faster spin scares me and I either bail out or I start wobbling on the rocker with loss of control.

It was a wonderful lesson and I felt like I was off the plateau at last. I think coach was actually disappointed that I had not let her know about the back 3 as we have worked on it for years! But boy was she surprised and thrilled...one of those special moments for a coach when the student finally gets it!!

Finally, I am so glad to hear others are getting Kerrigan's book and finding pearls to help their skating. If you haven't seen it yet, get thee to a book store asap! Even my coach is getting a copy after she borrowed mine.

Slightly off topic but I just wanted to share another thing. There is a senior level skater at our rink who recently started working with a second coach (skater does freestyle and now is working on dance) who recently came back to our rink so I knew her (the coach) from years past. Well, I'd noticed that the skater, when she is working with new coach, is looking so happy, she smiles all the times she is working on the posture exercises with great speed, they laugh together - just a joy of skating sight. I find her smiling an inspiration to me mentally - her skills are waaaay above me and many at the rink. So I quietly went up to coach and told her that I had never seen skater smile so much and it was such a pleasure to see her skate with such joy. Coach was deeply touched and thanked me for sharing that observation. I told my own coach about it later (the two coach get along quite well.) My coach told me that so often it is just the skater that gets all the attention and no one ever says anything to the coach, except of course the parties involved, and that it is really meaningful to have someone 'outside the circle' make a positive observation and say so. I'm glad I did it. We are not what you would call a close family of rinkers.

Have any of you ever done such a thing?

Yazmeen, thanks for the encouragement. As it turned out, the sharpening was a bigger hurdle than the new blades. I found the most difficulty with FO edges, of all things. I had to do the FO edge pattern to get adjusted and then I was fine. No toe pick problems at all, thanks to my old Majestics being half ground down, I think. It took me a few tries to get the FO threes to stop scraping and to find my new spin point. I'm absolutely thrilled that what I was afraid would be a big setback has turned out to be none at all.

We stayed at the afternoon/evening session till after the 6pm cut so we could sample the clean ice. I did F and B cross strokes and was able to see my tracings so clearly: nice deep edges, and hubby said I made the B look easy, though I had to ask him not to talk to me while I was doing them It was so beautiful in the evening, like a country pond scene.

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Skateflo: be careful with those power pulls; they are the one thing that makes my knees hurt almost more than anything, and I daren't do them much. Not that I'm able, you understand, but....

DB: I envy you your back cross-strokes; a skill I have yet to master. Glad you are liking your new blades.

Well, today's practice. It being Friday, no lesson, but we were able to practice together. Started with Robert getting on the ice before me, as he takes less time to change than I do. So he was working on back cross-rolls and back cross-cuts, and I yelled at him to bend his knees more (his legs were practically straight). "I'm bent double" he yelled back. "No you aren't," I said, "Or if you are, it's at the hips.....".

Anyway, after a joint warm-up, we were very good and practiced our runs (progressives) round the circle, both directions, Kilian hold and reverse Kilian hold. Interestingly, when we were in reverse Kilian hold going clockwise, Robert said I needed to have my right shoulder back a bit. So we ended up doing them separately, and found we both have awful problems that way round. I actually prefer to do runs with my shoulders the "wrong" way, i.e. facing out of the circle (we are taught to do them both ways), but the main problem was that both of us found it really hard to slide our right feet under our left, and we were both toe-pushing. Some work to be done there, methinks.

Anyway, we then worked on our chasses and swing rolls in waltz hold - I don't know whether we just get worse and worse at them, or whether we become more and more aware of just what we are doing wrong! The latter, I hope - Robert is much more aware of his mistakes now, which is terrific!

He had to go off to work, and I spent some time working on turns, and then a long time chatting to a friend who isn't back skating yet after an operation, but was nevertheless in to watch the group number rehearsal (she's to be Official Understudy), and another friend who was supposed to be in the rehearsal but had personal problems and was too distressed to skate. And so it goes.... Did go back on the ice to work on my waltz 3s, which were depressingly similar to the way they were in my lesson. I think I will work on them with a crossover in between, instead of a direct push - that ought to help. Did a bit of European waltz steps, too, and found it easier to hold back. All in all, a good morning!

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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!

Our rink was being used for tests today, up to novice level and primary.
I didn't get to skate but went to watch anyway.
Not many passes I'm afraid.

I got a signed photo of Stephane Lambiel today, with a message on the back from him.
I will be smiling for a week!

My pic of Stephane Lambiel

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Today, I just had ice time again. I did four complete run throughs of my program!! I can't believe I got through that... I was so tired! My jumps were on and off and so was my flying camel. I hope I have better practises soon...

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Tidesong

I just had to post on today's lesson for DancinDiva, because once again we spent half the lesson on, you guessed it, crossovers!! Also worked on BO edges, which are still a work in progress (some day I WILL be able to hold them without tipping onto the flat after the first second . . .). Wish I even had nasty BOs, as I really don't have any to speak of yet.

Crossovers were nicer. D2, to put it into perspective, I can only skate an hour a week and have a private lesson about once a month. I started learning crossovers two lessons ago and have had about ten practice sessions between then and today. I figured today I'd really show coach my stuff, as I was feeling more confident in both directions, but he dove right into showing me several new things to work on to execute them properly (and I strongly suspect that there is more to come), like working on a smaller circle to get the feel of really pressing down on the outside edge to get some power from that second push. He also changed my arms (inside arm was too low). Honestly, I felt like I'd been taught a whole new skill today -- who knows what's in store for next time. I think what keeps me from getting frustrated about this is that the attention is 100% on me, which means that the instruction is adjusted for my own peculiar strengths/weaknesses, so even when we're micromanaging a skill, I feel progress.

-- wannask8

Nasty -

Well, with my usual sense of good timing, my aductor muscle got inflamed on Monday, and, of course, I have my first competition on Sunday . I don't really know why it happened - just a remainder of the December injury I guess. Monday my leg would not hold jump landings, and Tuesday it hurt to even skate. So I took Wednesday and Thursday off to heal.

Nice -

The muscle, which is not 100%, was better today. Had my lesson and did my final program run-through. It went well and coach was pleased - did every element except the axel. Haven't done an axel since last Saturday - didn't put it into the program because I was worried about the force of the landing. I'll try one tomorrow on its own. May not put it into the program Sunday if my leg doesn't feel good enough - I'd rather finish in last place here than really screw things up for Wyandotte/AN.

Hey DancinDiva - I'm adult gold and guess what one of the things we worked on today was? A string of fast, forward clockwise crossovers from my program. Coach said I wasn't bending my knees enough. You'll never get away from those darn things .

I asked coach how many times in the last nine months he has told me to
bend my knees and how many times he's told me to check. Thousands, I'd guess!

It's hard to divide my lessons this week into nice and nasty. I enjoyed trying all the old and new stuff which was nice but I guess most of the results were pretty nasty!

Annies Edges class was fun - now I am finally getting my weight off my toepicks more I can see the diference in smoothness and speed on all my backward skating - still along way to go to perfection but it is improving!

Redid much of my Free Dance to incorporate twizzles (not that I can do these yet!!!!) and replaced some of the nasty (because I can't do them well yet) and difficult steps in my step sequence with even nastier and more difficult steps - but with practice I hope this will result in better speed and flow through the sequence. My back spiral where I circle my arms to touch the ice and back up is feeling more secure and if I can just get my weight a little further back off the picks it will have enough speed to end up where I need it to be.

Sometimes I think my coach forgets he is choreographing for a 40 year old adult learner and puts in stuff I reckon even the kids would find tough. I usually find a way of dumbing them down enough to make them possible!!!! I've always found mohawks difficult so he puts in several - a left forward inside barrel roll at high speed from crossovers, a mohawk entry into my spin, and a RFO spiral followed by Left step behind which becomes a LFI mohawk. I have discovered the secret is all in getting the upper body position correct and to do them at the speeds he wants it is a question of just doing it and not thinking about it at all, since thinking about it is terrifying!!

As for jumps and spins - well I can do a reasonable toe-loop and salchow but they are not consistent and there is much room for improvement. The flip - i can do the entry steps beautifully but then lose it once I've put the toepick in and get no lift or rotation. The Loop - well I still reckon this is an impossible jump. I can now do a single rotation backspin on the ground which I am told will help me get this jump but I'm not convinced!!

Sit spin returned a couple of times this week and I am now getting 6-7 rotations on my upright spin without much effort and even managed a couple of really fast ones where I hit that sweet spot and it felt great!

Got to practice Ice dance with a partner a few times this week - even managed a reasonable Rhumba and Swing Dance together. It's hard to improve without the benefit of a coach to tell you where you are going wrong though.

Yes, but you can do them! Look how much better your free dance always is than mine. I hope you mean Riverside Rhumba, or I'll despair next time I'm up against you in competition! Are you and your partner planning on competing this season, and if so, where?

As for me, I was wide awake at 5.30 this morning and could easily have gone skating - but Sir didn't want to, said he'd be too sleepy if he went.... so I didn't either, which was a bit feeble of me, I think!

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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!

Haven't skated since Monday. Had some massage therapy today and we noticed that most of the "hot spots" or "tense spots" on me were where the tendon meets the bone, I have no idea what this means but I am going to ask the next GP or Ortho I talk to, this can't just be a coincidenc.

Nasty - THE RINK WAS INSANELY Crowded, there has to be some legal limit!! I felt a little off as I haven't skated except monday. Foot hurt some the whole time so I was mindful of what I was doing. Totally forgot the steps on the Dutch Waltz, how isane is that?

Nice - So far my foot is not so bad, I iced my foot and my ankle and while they're sore it's not horrible. I won't skate tomorrow, give my ankle a break. It's so hard to NOT to skate but I know I need to baby this kind of problem.

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

Annabel you flatterer! I am pretty hopeless at compulsories though!

Sorry - I did mean the Riverside Rhumba - not much chance of me ever doing a proper Rhumba (did have a go at the 14step mohawk with a partner though - that's fun!!!)
Sadly the partner is not mine - I merely borrow him when his usual partner is not around as we have a lot of fun trying out the dances and I actually enjoy the compulsories with a partner - hate doing them solo.


To JDC1
I regularly forget the steps to the dances even though I seem to have been doing them for years. When I dance with a partner it is always a surprise when we both remember and do the correct steps in the correct order at the same time!!!
Last year in a competition I was happily skating the Baby Blues(solo) when I caught sight of a friend videoing me and completely lost the plot. I switched to the Dutch Waltz steps for about 4 bars down half the length of the rink but managed to pull it back to the right dance on the short barrier. As I kept going and continued to wave my arms about, I don't think the judges even noticed (it was on the second sequence) and I got great marks for it!!!!!!!!!
I think my brain refuses to commit these dances to memory as I don't find them particularly interesting to do and the lower level dances in particular are easy to confuse. I never have a problem remembering my own programmes for Free Dance or even a 2 minute OD as I love doing them.
Hope your ankle is better soon.

JDC1-
The sore spots are probably the "attachments" or the "insertions" of the tendon (I get them mixed up), but basically, like you said, its where the tendon connects muscle to bone. So if that tendon is inflamed, it would make sense that the attachment/insertion might be.

I hope it's feeling better soon. These kind of injuries can be pesky because unlike a fall, it's hard to figure out what causes the pain and how much the body can take. I'm going to a PT on Wednesday for some chronic knee trouble that I was just too busy this fall to get looked at. I'm pretty sure I know what it is and that it's not serious, and the PT said over the phone he thought the same thing.