Now that we are back from the Mountain Cup, our first priority is our Artistic Couples routine for the next competition in a couple of weeks. So hard work is the order of the day.

Glum: How do I get my husband to understand that I can't practice it without the music as I don't know how many beats I need to hold various edges, and/or how many bars (especially at the end) we have to put in various steps? Plus how can I get him to remember the steps?

Plus our pairs spin is still not working (but it is beginning to happen now), and our 3-turns weren't working until our coach tweaked them.

And I still haven't finished choreographing the extra piece in my solo interpretive; it's all very well my coach saying "it's all acting, don't worry about it", but I can scarcely stand there on 2 feet "acting" for 20 seconds!

Gleeful: However, it is beginning to come together, and the more we practice it now, the better it will be. The elites are at squad camp, so the ice was pretty empty, which was nice.

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

Glum- Just got a call from my coach telling me that the rink blew its compressor and our ice is now a swimming pool. No ice until at least Thursday, since they have to ship a part in from East Overshoe or Timbukto or somewhere

Sorry to hear about the rink becoming a pool of water! Let's hope everything is ok in a few days! Mrs. R- at least your husband is willing to skate. I asked my husband again if he wanted me to get him some ice skates for his upcoming birthday, and he declined since he is too clumsy.

Glum: Had the worst competition experience yesterday at the Dogwood Open competition in silver free skate. I had stupidly volunteered to wake up early to pick up a judge from the airport. afterwards, i tried to sleep in my car but couldn't, but it seemed like a waste of time and gas to go home and then go back out to the rink again. My coach was at the competition, so I had to wear this big poofy tutu that she had made for me to wear for the Swan Lake program. Fell and messed up a lot in the warm-up. Messed up on 2 axel attempts. Flailed around after a spiral.

Gleeful: despite feeling dizzy, sleepy, disadvantaged by new boots, and weighted down by the big poofy tutu (can u tell I can't stand it-- plus it makes my butt look even bigger!), I won the freeskate. I think it was my spins that saved the day. I ended up also winning compulsories (once again not doing an axel, though it turned out to be better to be cautious) and the showcase w/my "butt-wiggling hermaphrodite" program. Well, that was a fun competition-- state games is next Sat.!

1lutz2klutz: Sorry about the new swimming pool!

skatingatty: My husband's the same way... and with good reasons too! He has no hand-eye coordination and he's a tall guy! Part of me wishes he could skate so he could skate with me. Other part of me is very glad that he isn't into the sport. (No need to worry about taking him to the ER for any skating accidents.)

Congrats on winning your competition. You know, those poofy tutu thingies are exactly why I HATE skating dresses!!! Thank goodness the rules have changed! Now I'll have to overcome another obstacle for wear pants to skate -- my coaches!!! Primary coach is probably cool with it. Secondary coach, OTOH, would probably prefer I not be a "trend setter."

__________________
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!!!

(HOPEFULLY) GLEEFUL

Starting skating lessons tonight

GLUM

Can't find any of my stuff (apart from my skates), can't find leo, tights, gloves or pants! Oh, found skirts but not much good without the rest

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Oh, forgot to post my skating practice for today:

Gleeful:

• Ice session for the most part has been pretty sane!!! No Wayne Gretsky wannabes 'til toward the tail end of the public session and I was already leaving then.
• LFO3's for the forward power 3's are better again today! And they actually got better going into the one hour mark. I didn't attempt fate after the last good power 3's by doing it again or do any consecutive waltz jumps! I even got very slow intro 3 to go along with it!
• My RFO3's on the forward power 3's are getting STRONG!!! If I could get my LFO3's to be halfway as strong as the RFO3's side now, it will be a slam dunk on the Bronze Moves test!
• The rest of my moves seems to be better, with one exception probably...
• Landed a couple of flips today!
• Waltz, toe loop and salchow are all intact for the most part.

Glum:

• The backwards alt. back crossovers aren't improving much and I don't know why. It's okay. It's fast, but the edges are the way that I want it and I'm not showing as much POWER as I should. (It was tiring me out to do the moves. When done right, it should take little to no effort to do them. If I'm running out of breath to do the moves, I know I'm not doing it right.) Thankfully, my back crossovers around the hockey circles seems to be intact.
• Backspins and loops are gone!!!
• Missed most of my flips. Oh, well! Just as well. My coaches haven't gone over jumps with me in ages. (At least a couple of months!) Everything pretty much took a backseat to the Bronze moves test!!!

__________________
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!!!

We will want a FULL report, mind!

I never bother with a leotard - just wear a T-shirt and black M&S big knickers over my tights under my skirt, if that makes sense. Anyway, for the first time I should think you could wear leggings, no?

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

Practice Saturday morning:

Worked on stroking, FI mohawks, FO3s. Nothing really glum, nor really gleeful. RFI mohawk settling in and getting faster, LFI not so much -- I keep dropping my hip and that makes my exit edge really curve around. FO3s are a little better. I'm somewhat afraid to twist as much as my coach wants me to so they're kinda wobbly for that reason.

I discovered I'm completely not using the second push in my forward cossovers, though I am bending my knees more. Why can't I co-ordinate these things better? Either I bend my knees or I push, but somehow I can never do both...

Oh, this is better than gleeful -- it's GLOWING! I got my first on-ice compliment from a stranger today. On CW backwards crossovers, of all things! She was an ice dancer visiting her friend who always skates the Saturday AM freestyle and she said I had terrific form on my back crossovers. Well, I was terribly impressed by her confident footwork myself and very shocked to hear someone compliment me. Especially on something I've really struggled with and, to be honest, wasn't skating all that well that morning. Yes, I manage to stay off my toepicks (amazingly that hasn't ever been a problem for me going backwards) and was finally getting some rip on the outside push, but I wasn't sure my feet were actually crossing and was also pretty sure I didn't have too much power going, either, LOL! The rhythm did feel good, however, maybe that made them look better than I think they actually are???

When I said that I couldn't find anything I meant ANYTHING!!! All of my stuff is in storage anyway (in Hertfordshire), I gave my tracky bums away to my niece in a fit of 'I'm sick of wearing these all the time' but gave no thought as to what I was going to replace them with or HOW! and I'm too fat for everything else and didn't want to wear my 'usual' skate attire for my first lessons (couldn't find it anyway!). Ended up with Yoga Pants (which thankfully are wash, shake out the creases and wear), Mickey Mouse top from pj's and had to buy sports bra (need it for riding anyway .... horrendous things, hope I never pull while I've got that on ) and support tights (more substance than normal tights).

GLEEFUL

Got onto ice, didn't skate, one of instructors came up to me, looked at me and said "you're a skater". I spoke to her afterwards and explained that I wanted to ease back gently without pressure and she said that it was obvious from just looking at me that I was a fairly decent skater

Did mohawks, back crossovers, back edges and drags (and a 'norty' 3-jump). It's a bit slow but I'm so pigging wobbly that it's good not to be under pressure to perform.

GLUM

The rest of my life! Got a phone call tonight to say that a doctor that I've known since I first went down to London (a long time in other words) had died over the Bank Holiday weekend, he was found in his office in front of his computer on Tuesday morning. Other stuff has happened and is happening too ...... it all seems to be doom and gloom at the moment I just feel like going to bed and staying there right now.

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Lesson today was almost totally GLUM

I did manage one good intro 3 at speed with coach. The other 3 (1 Blues, 2 Paso attempts to the music) were totally garbage. I work again with my secondary coach on intro 3's tomorrow afternoon.

Blues was lousy... I chopped the choctaws and didn't step the way coach wanted on the LFO after the 4-beat RBO in the corner. But I did do all 3 LFO3s at the end of each pattern.

And then Paso sucked also. I was mushing the back breakout and then brain farted on the chasse sequence across the end of the rink.

But coach and I looked at our pattern afterwards, and it wasn't as flat as we thought, except for the cross chasse sequence and the last cross roll (going into the ladies swing mohawk). On the NHL rink, it should actually cover a decent amount of ice.

So I'm hoping that this means that next weekend things will work a bit better. I hope so. Given that I'm generally the "guaranteed last place", I want to at least look presentable.

I thought this was my position At least it's usually where I end up.

Gleeful:

• The pleasure of finally meeting DBNY and her friend in person!!! I introduced her to my primary coach and a few friends of mine. (My favorite comment from her was "There's more male skaters in this public session than all the male skaters in her area!" As primary coach points out, there were actually quite a few guys MIA this evening for some reason. I added "And that's just the public session crowd!!! There's also the freestyle crowd too!" )
• The rest of my moves are okay. The back crossovers to BO edge could use more extension on one side, but the flow and speed was nice.
• I had both scratch spins and sit spins to show DBNY, thankfully! She claims my sit spins are lower than most adults she's seen testing for the adult tests. (You should see some of the test sessions in the Bay Area rinks! Mine are actually not that low compare to some of the adults!)
• Oh, and THEN she says "Let's see some jumps!" I managed to get out a waltz jump, a toe loop, a salchow and a loop for her, even though I really don't practice those much in quite a while.
• Managed to scramble up a couple of backspins for DBNY as well, so I have a witness now!
• I saw some of DBNY mohawks. When she's in "teaching" mode, her FI mohawks are better than mine!!! (I better get cracking on my technique. Ditto with her forward power pulls!)

Glum:

• Loops disappear after the second one. Thankfully, DBNY didn't ask for more!
• Flip disappeared after the first one. Thankfully, DBNY didn't ask for more!
• My LFO3 was better (at least I did 3 this time but it still SUCK!!! I only have flow on my RFO3 side. I have NUTTIN' on my LFO3 side!) WAAAAH!!!
• Long work day! Very tired!!! Want sleep NOW!!!

__________________
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!!!

Tashakat, it's really awful when things like that happen. I'm so sorry..... makes us remember we are mortal.

Practice this morning was mostly Gleeful. In this weather, 2.5 hours in an ice rink is really wonderful! Arrived in time to run through our programme with Robert, before he had to leave, although we didn't have time to do it to the music. It really is coming together nicely now.

Spent most of the morning trying to choreograph the 20 extra seconds in my programme - it really is a lo-o-ng time! It's all very well for my coach to say "it's only acting", but I can scarcely stand on two feet waving my arms about for that length of time. There's just one phrase that I'm not sure about now. I finish the new section with a RBO spiral into a cherry flip (toe loop), which I am very pleased with, and hope he doesn't take out tomorrow!

Spent some time doing an edge exercise posted on RSSIR - you strike a FO edge, hold it for 1/2 circle, then change edge and hold the inside edge for a full circle; then push on to the FO edge on the other foot and repeat. Coming back the other way, you strike and inside edge, and hold the whole circle on an outside edge. You're supposed to be able to do it backwards, too, but.....

Glum: If I had a job, I could have afforded another 15 minutes of my coach's time. He wasn't doing anything.....

Tempted to go back this evening, but husband has a meeting and wants supper for 7.30, right in the middle of Figure Club, so can't. Oh well..... tomorrow is another day, and a lesson day.

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

Gleeful Had a nice relaxing practice after having had a crappy day (got into a minor car accident in the morning; I'm fine, the other driver is fine, my car is fine, hers has only minor damage, but still ). I can't much remember now what I practiced, except I did do some of the perimeter crossover stroking forwards and backwards from the Bronze MITF test. Still have my waltz jump. Did sections of my program including the salchow out in the middle of the ice where it's supposed to be.

Glum Nearly killed myself by nearly falling over this very tiny kid in a lesson who first made me abort my pattern and then as her coach was calling to her, started flailing around skating backwards not ever looking in the direction she was going and not going in the direction her coach was telling her to go in. I'd stopped my pattern and was trying to get around her to pick it up again, and it was like she was drawn irresistably to me-- backwards, of course!-- and I finally had to put out a hand and stop her from running into me. She's a perfectly nice little kid, and her coach is very nice, too, but if she's too little to follow instructions and will start flailing around and spiraling inward in random patterns, maybe she shouldn't be out in the middle of the ice all by herself! I'm just glad I didn't fall over her, as I probably would have if I'd been skating backwards.

Sigh. Also I've only had one lesson since my coach has been away, about 10 days. I have a lesson today with a new coach so hopefully that will be helpful.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

Bit that I forgot from my report ..... you usually get ONE know-it-all, we got TWO!!

Firstly there was the one that turned up half an hour late, dressed top to toe in BRIGHT red, no sleeves, DEEP v-neck, mid 30's, not slim ...... and proceeded to bat her eyelashes at and flirt with the no-more-than early 20's coach! THEN there was the guy that turned up in SHORTS and was learning Waltz jumps. He proceeded to fall all over the place whilst jumping right across our patch of ice! He then stood up, looked at us and said "you don't hurt yourself when you get more experienced" ...... I just looked round and said "come back to me and tell me that in 5 years time" at which point the Lady In Red and him started on about when I'd been skating as long as them (less than 6 months I would say) I would understand that you can learn to fall and never hurt yourself. Mmmmmm ..... whatever!

Apart from the Arrogant Twins everyone else was really nice, the coaches are great and the facilities are clean, spacious and user friendly

My inner thigh is HURTING today ..... we were doing drags/lunges ..... now the body knows what to do, as does the head, but the muscles aren't quite up to speed yet! I am SO ouchy today

__________________

The best whisper is a click

Gleeful - My lesson and practice this morning were as sweet as candy. Started off with jumps today, and quickly zoomed up to the axel. Imagine my surprise when my coach suddenly asked for a loop/loop. Hmmm, I thought, didn't she really mean a salchow/loop (preparation for my non-existent 2sal), or a toe loop/loop (preparation for my equally non-existent 2toe)? But no, she meant loop/loop, as in preparation for my never-tried-before-in-my-life 2loop!!! Of course, the results were actually more comical than athletic, but somehow it just made me smile to think I was breaking new ground in my skating career. I finished up my practice working on my also non-existent layback spins, but lo and behold, they are starting to exist! Yes, coach saw me while she was working with another student and commented that they were really starting to come along. So yay and yay and even more yays.

Nothing GLUM about today!

Glum Cannot get the new step sequence in my routine to work. It is sort-of working now, and I have it placed on the ice. But it's very hard to get something going that will push me into some speed for my back spiral into cherry-flip combination (okay so I stop dead as I pick in, but who cares? Coach said I need to be very definite on the pick-in, or it won't jump, even my tiny jumps). And I feel the start of the new sequence is very slow. Coach said only because I'd only just finished it before my lesson.

Once we left that and went into exercises, my LBO edge was dreadful, and when I did held edges around the circle, so was my RBO edge. Sigh.

Gleeful: Quite a lot of things did work well, though. Forward cross-rolls (a.k.a "ball-crushers", according to someone last week!), changes-of-edge, and, before I left the rink, our run-through of our Artistic Couples, which went really well, except that Robert forgot it was a slow chasse and did a quick one, so was out of time.... men.... his coach says he simply can't hear it so it's no good getting cross. But it really is coming together now, and I think will work on the day. It'll have need to - it's a fortnight tomorrow!

Forgot to say that we got nearly 2 full revolutions on our dance spin - we'll have 3 revs by October, you wait and see!

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

On Monday night I went for the first time to skate at another rink - which is way too far from my home to be comfortable, but it's the only one still open in the area around Milano... All the others have closed before the end of may, while this one will work till the second weekend of July (10/11). Then, no ice till mid-september.

I had a lot of fun! Basically this is not a class - it's just a group of dancers renting the ice, we put on CDs music, and the couples can work on their dances, while the single girls can either work on specific elements or on the dances by themselves.... There's also my private coach coming, so I plan on asking him to give me a lesson too, next week.

I started by warming up a bit by myself, finding my edges, the 3s, the mohawks, etc.... then with a couple of girls I went through the sequences of a couple of dances - the American Waltz, the Starlight Waltz, and the very beginning of the Blues... The best part was that I actually had a chance to skate a few times at least part of the Starlight with a guy I know, that was there without a partner, and was patient enough to make me try a little... OMG it was fun, but it is sooo different than doing it solo, or from skating in a formation with the synchro team.... the positions are so unusual for me, it was really strange... but I loved that!! Now, if only I had a guy to skate with... why are they soo difficult to find???!!

Anyway, now I plan to focus on learning some of these sequences by myself, to be able to try some of these with a partner when the occasion may arise (it is usual in this dance club for the guys to some times leave their partner for a moment and take turns skating with the single ladies too, to give them the chance to try skating with a partner). I know I have several technical issues to fix which I hope to tackle with the dance coaches in the stage we'll do for a week in july and later in october when I'll start the class - with the team we just weren't that accurate with the steps we learnt/practiced - but for now the biggest gap I have to fill is my ignorance of the sequences of the various dances.... wish me good luck!

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Alhrayth's Kiss&Cry

GLUM

EVERYTHING. Nothing wanted to work right this morning (which was my last real lesson before Pro-Am).

I did do one decent pattern of Blues w/o music with a really nice choctaw, but then couldn't manage a single nice choctaw or 3-turn with the music on.

Then in the Paso, my feet were weird in my boots and we started the dance and both of us nearly went down because my weight was too far back on the blades or something. And then I brain farted on the steps after the back breakout again and we ended up with what can most kindly be called "the incredible shifting Paso pattern"

Glum: FO3s I was absolutely sucking at these on the circle, so my coach suggested I try them on a straight line and then I went from absoutely sucking to only sucking. I'm OK through the turn, but keep tapping my free foot down just after I turn, then picking it up again and finishing with a waaay too deep inside edge, which causes me to put my free-foot down and two-foot the runout. ARRRGGHHH! These darn things have me so frustrated. It's not the quality of my edge as my forward edges are strong and my backwards are getting stronger, it's literally the darn turn. If I ever get these things, it will be a miracle!!!

Gleeful: FI Mohawks. Somehow all practice I've put into these lately has paid off. My coach only had me do four of them on each foot before she declared them in "good shape: so let's work on something else.

Glummish: and that something else was the step behind from our synchro footwork (RBO with LBI stepping behind). When I do five or six in a row while using a spot the 4th-6th are right. Just cannot get the first and not really by myself, either. The good news is I'm barely touching my spot, so this appears to be a mental issue and not a technical issue. As are nearly ALL of my problems on skates, LOL!

I told my coach that I am absolutely flabbergasted at my lack of ability on the ice, even for "simple stuff" like 3 turns. I've see people way less coordinated than me do them, why can't I?? I know I'm coordinated and have good balance -- 15 years of dance lessons and 3 years of martial arts training prove that. But put the skates on and I'm a wobbly, bobbly wimp. One of these days a light bulb will go off and suddenly everything will make sense. I just hope it's tomorrow.

Well, I was supposed to have a lesson yesterday, but my coach had to cancel, because her mom went into the ICU. I was it was because she was having her baby! lol

I went and skated at Mt. View yesterday because my rink is closed for a rink for the darn Rose Festival. I mainly worked on double sals the entire time but I only landed the last one I tried. Oh well. I know what I was doing wrong so I hope to fix it today!

__________________
- Ashley

Gleeful:

Had a freestyle lesson, and PASSED the 1 foot upright spin (4 revs, proper entry & exit) on the gold Skate UK test! Woohoo! The first one I did was the best one I've done for ages, and the second one, although it travelled a little bit, wasn't bad either. Coach said my teapot (shoot the duck) and backspin are getting there too ("nearly there" with backspin, yay!).

Waltz jump was fine - one of them felt very big! Salchows were fine too, though not as consistent as I'd like. Also did a 2 foot spin that, although not perfectly centred, wasn't bad.

Turns were all fine I think. I also practiced some outside open mohawks (both ways), which were ok.

Glum:

Toe loop was crap, on the whole.

Spins in practice, later in session, weren't as good as those I passed the test with. But hey, at least I know I can do it.

Lots of people in the ice (mainly little kids), so it was hard to practice stuff (there were also a few fast higher-level skaters). Lost a bit of motivation, and my feet didn't feel quite right in my boots.

__________________
"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Gleeful

I had a great lesson this morning. I ran through all my jumps and spins then proceeded to skate my programme through twice. Both times were good but the second time my coach told me I skated it my best ever ! Also did some good figure work in our figures class and had my own set of circles as there are now only three of us doing it. For the first time I got round the full circles on my back inside edges! Since we are losing our Friday morning patch when I'm due to have my next lesson, my coach is very kindly coming in especially to coach me tomorrow morning. Also got my skates sharpened so I have two weeks to wear them down before our Open competition.


Glum

Nothing really this week other than the fact that I had to get off the ice half an hour early in order to leave my skates with the coach who sharpened them. Didn't really mind but I was having a great skate today!

Nicki

I haven't been able to post here for a few weeks so I'll sum up :
Gleeful: I have all of my half jumps back, They aren't real strong, but I can do them! My edge work is starting to get better. it almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

Glum: I can't center my scratch spin, I also discovered I can't do a 2 foot spin at all (I need to in order to advance from the level I'm on). I have worked the past 2 weeks on my 2 foot spin, and I still can't do it right UGH!
I have 2 more lessons before the end of this session. It would suck if I get held back on this level because of a lousy 2 foot spin.

Cid

Gleeful:
quite a good skate day today even though my motivation levels are pretty low. Did a couple of run throughs of the Dutch Waltz which I am competing in two weeks and the second one at least was fairly reasonable "you should at least try to have some control", says my coach and the second one was a lot better when I put some effort in to thinking about what I was doing. (Still dont really enjoy these low level dances but am not motivated enough to bother working on the next levels - I'd rather do jumps and spins but am not much good at these )

Did a couple of lovely fast and centred upright spins - just wish I could do it like that every time.

Ran through the OD also for the upcoming competition. I'm a bit worried as I now reckon I only have one good performance of every programme I do, in me and I skated this really well at our recent club competition - does this mean it will be bad at the Opens???????? I'm hoping it might mean that my freeskate programme might be OK then, as I skated that really badly at the club comp

Worked on some of my elements and for the first time my 3 jump was deemed to be exactly right the very first one I did.

Glum: still cant' do the loop although I almost had it yesterday - today it has sneaked off and left me

salchow-toeloop combo seems to be gettign worse rather than better - help!

Sit-spin: what is the secret to gettign this lower - other than a degree of flexibility I don't appear to possess. I'm off to do some stretching!!!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'