Dull edges may have something to do with it.. but I NEVER have had and STILL don't have a good two-foot spin. In fact, when I took the test that needed it (Pre-Bronze?) I STILL couldn't do it (SHHHH, don't tell anyone.. but I had my right foot just hovering slightly above the ice and was way down the rink from the judges.. so it APPEARED both feet were on the ice.. but it was really a one-foot spin ).

And spinning is my favorite thing... I certainly do variations on one-foot spins better than any jumps or footwork and I've managed to pass up to Silver FS. I just think it's easier to spin when you only have one small spot on the ice (the sweet spot on ONE blade) to rotate on, rather than having two that are supposed to stay close, but may actually be fighting each other and creating more drag, so your spin isn't as strong as it might be on one foot. Good luck!

You to eh? My coach tried to teach me 2 foot spins first but anything I tried became a one foot spin so she gave up!

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

In School: Well, college started earlier this week. And I've decided to join BUFSC (my school's skating club) and am doing a comp next month!!! I've never competed before, so I'm super excited. I will be doing prejuv (I think) because I already have a prejuv program and music that I used earlier in the summer for my test. I can just tweak some things. However, for the next two comps, I think I'm gonna do juv because I plan on testing up soon and have a decently clean axle. Maybe I'll even do int. by the end of the year. You never know!

Unlearned: I haven't step foot on the ice since I left home. It seems like forever, but it's only been about a week and a half. Hope I didn't degress too much!

In School: First session with coach since Summer School - coach commented on improvement in back edges Hit a couple of upright spins properly (with coach watching!), Spiral almost good (which would be EXCELLENT for someone my age), otherwise same-old, same-old.....

Have a lesson tomorrow with an Olympic medalist - THAT ought to be interesting LOL!

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

In School
-Had a relatively good skate yesterday despite my broken toe and very, very sore hip. Landed all of my doubles, and did some good 1lt+2lo combos. I still don't like that combo at all.
-I landed my 2flip combo a few times in music-less program run-throughs. I couldn't get 2flip+2toe+1lo, only 2flip, single toe single loop, but I'm still glad I was doing that much, as I am most nervous about that jump.
-This should go half in unlearned...Anyways, my 2sal 1/2 loop 2sal sequence is pretty consistent, but I often have to muscle my way through the second 2sal. I lose a lot of speed on the 1/2 loop, but at least I can pull of a 2sal from almost a standstill. I'm going to work on getting more speed out of the 1/2 loop though.

Unlearned
-Secondary coach took one look at my skating/walking and said she wouldn't let me waste my money on a lesson when I was so broken down. I was grateful though, as I didn't really WANT to waste my money on a lesson.
-First program run-through was an absolute disaster. I forgot my first combo spin, and took up so much music on the footwork and first spin that I didn't have time for my last jump and spin! 6 jumping passes, 3 spins and a full-ice footwork sequence are a LOT to fit into a 2:10 program!
-Hip was really bothering me. I was nervous to jump. It was actually pretty funny--at one point I did kind of flip sideways on a fall onto the hip. I let out this "Ohhhh owww" noise, then went 'Oh, that didn't hurt!"

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Youtube Videos

Woohoo, Jazz! Glad to hear you will be making money again!!

I feel bad for not posting right away about my skate-I got busy then didn't have a chance....I'm also back in school and haven't had as much free time as I used to have (life? what life?)

Anywho....It was VERY SCARY at first. I took it easy and very slow, did a few laps of slaloms and sqizzles until I felt a bit more at ease.

The best part? For a drop-in session it was EMPTY!!!! I had the whole rink to myself for 1.5 hours! And it was very warm!!! I expected it to be cold and cranked down to about -20 like it normally is but with the new management, who knows?

I did edges (all forward, not chancing backwards until my balance is checked out); 3-turns, some stroking, jump run-throughs (at the boards) and 2-foot spins. I ended with some (ok, 3) very small shaky waltz jumps.

I txt-ed my coach that we have LOTS of work to do...(mostly on my part).

Glad I am not able to do HC this year-no way would I be ready...I have to get over the head games first, then the injury/compensation crap. But, eh, beats sitting on the couch!!!

BRING IT ON!!!

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

In School (haha...kids here started school back on Aug. 13!):

-Axel technique feels great! If I could just snap everything in faster, I feel like I could actually rotate this jump.

-Camels are still in a good phase. I did some good sit-change-sits tonight, too.

-Brackets were good. I think I did them a bit faster than normal.

Unlearned:

-Really, really bruised my knee falling on a 3-turn (yup. a 3-turn.). I usually hop right back up after I fall. This one took me a minute. Owwwww.

-Couldn't seem to stay up on flying camels.

-Power circles felt slow.

[In School]
We were back on our regular ice surface...the rink got the ice back in and we finally got to skate there tonight!

FINALLY found new music and cut it...coach approved and we started choreography tonight...I have a lesson tomorrow, so we will see what she decides to torture me with. The footwork in the program is going to be fun, but I'm going to have to work on it...and remember it

Axels are getting less cheated...but I need to remember to stay pulled in until I land...

Double sals were okay, but not as close as they were the other day...

Spins were spot on...

[Unlearned]
Moves just weren't happening tonight...

I can do the bracket-3-bracket pattern with no speed, all the way down the center line, but once I put speed with it today, they went to pot...ugh

Must be up by 4:45am tomorrow because I am getting picked up at 5:15 to be to coach's house by 5:30 to be to the rink by 6...that's freaking early...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

In School: Ran in to a couple aquaintences at the rink this morning, one of whom was Cecealias. (I'm glad to hear you had such a wonderful experience at Burning Man ) I landed one of my best double sals ever in lesson. Did a pretty good axel but landed it on my rear. Did a nice double toe right in front of coach.

Unlearned: My spins have been awol for 2 sessions in a row now. For some reason I can't do the entry right. If I can manage to get into the spin I can do still do it. My loops started out promising but ended terrible.

At school (Note UK usage here!): Wonderful, wonderful morning! Hardly anybody else on the ice, great ice, nobody else wanted the music. A total dream. So we ran through all six dances for Oxford, then Husband's free programme and the two dances for Dunkerque!

Unlearned: One or two issues with the end of our free dance, with arm movements for the Canasta Tango, and the stuff for Dunkerque is very rusty. Still, we know what to work on tomorrow, when it will undoubtedly be far more crowded!

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

At School: Had a lesson this morning from Liz Manley (Olympic silver medalist, 1988). My 15 minutes with Liz this morning was "notable". She asked what I wanted to work on, so I said back cross-overs - I have been TRYING to get those for MANY months without any success. She said "Lets see what you got" and immediately she had comments: get down in the knees, get MORE ankle bend, face into the circle, loosen up the upper body. Damned if she didn't have me doing CCW back cross-overs in like 8 minutes - LOL! We tried a bit the other way (CW) - not quite as good but still happening!

In the last few minutes, I asked her to look at my upright spin. Immediately she said I wasn't getting over my spinning side and told me to look over my right shoulder, then to bring my hands up to my right shoulder instead of centre (which forces me over my right foot more). Holy crap! What a difference. It will take a bit of getting used to.

Unlearned: After 3 weeks off and 3 days in a row of hard skating, my gawd am I STIFF!!!

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

That's so neat!!

At school: Got to the rink early enough that the ice was fairly empty. Two good runthroughs of our free dance, but the ending has got sloppy. Danced our Variation, the Prelim Waltz, a Canasta Tango and a Swing Dance.

Unlearned: Had to get up so early (weekend patch gets busy early!) that I am now sleepy!

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

This is for yesterday

Just an hour of ice - first half hour was my moves class, second half hour was a lesson

In School: We did the two foot back inside edges (like in the Bronze moves without the crossover just switching weight) and I really did those well. Probably better than I did it for the test.

We did the back edges down the side and then held the back edge for a full circle on the ends and I did those beautifully, no problem.

Unlearned:

Then outside 3 turns on a circle - she wanted me to ride the edge to the half of the circle, turn and then do a two foot backward turn (can't do backward 3 turns yet) on the other half. Well....I managed to hold the first edge to 1/4 of the circle but couldn't even hold the exit 1/4 of a circle. She laughed and told me she told me to do a half circle because if she told me 1/4 a circle I'd have only tried for 1/8 and she was right. I'm still working on stretching my arms and keeping my shoulders down and stretching back as far as I can...but it's really hard. She kept telling me "Put your shoulder down" "It IS down.' "No it's NOT"

Lesson--

She made me do the other 3 turns on the circle on the other foot since I didn't get to that in the class...same conversation


I showed her how I had figured out why I was two footing my swing rolls-because I wasn't finishing the edge. She said that was good but I had to be careful because now I was retrogressing.

Then she looked at my forward perimeter crossovers and had not a word to say....that's good...then backward...I just had to hold the crossover and finish the edge so it would be easier to step on the inside edge

Then on the back crossovers. THis is the progress I have made on my backward crossovers. There was a time when I thought my crossovers were hot stuff. Now I know they are crap. I scrap and lean forward something awful. And it was a real struggle for her to get me to lean back and put my weight on the back of my blade. Then I can get on a really good back edge but then when I try to cross my foot in front, wham totally forward. That's going to take a while to fix.

Last two minutes she made me spin. Oh this is so discouraging I feel I'm getting nowhere with that entry. If I manage to hold it long enough, then I'm not leaning into the circle enough. If I do that I'm not leading with my knees enough. And if I actually manage to spin, I can't seem to cross my free leg in front.

I was glad to be done!

Ha ha I like these categories:

In school: ME. In law school, and between that, work and our ice schedule shifting from Summer to regular season and the week of horrible ice times in between, I hadn't been on the ice in almost 2 weeks, up until yesterday. Andddddddd I compete at Wyandotte today. Oops. Yesterday morning I was a big ol mess but I got in another 2 hrs this morning and a lesson, coach and I fixed a bad habit I picked up in my lutz and we ironed out a few things in the program, I did a good run-thru (well and a bad one at the end of the session but I wasn't putting in a ton of effort because my knee started to bug me) so I feel ready!!!!

I'm doing bronze rather than silver since no silvers signed up so I had to add 10 sec to my bronze program from last year (or shorten my silver by 20 sec and put it back to last year's version, whichever way you want to look at it). I can't tell you what a difference that extra 10 seconds in bronze makes. I felt so rushed and frantic last year, but now that I spliced 5 seconds into a place where I normally get rushed and added 5 sec to the beginning, I actually have time to finish my spins and hold my jump landings.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

In School-
Back to skating on a regular basis. Working on a program that is driving me looney. I love the music and the choreography but I cannot seem to do a single element.

Unlearned-
End pattern of CT is giving me fits.
Gained 10 lbs due to health issues and the extra weight is throwing off my recently consistent jumps

__________________
Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

In school - Coach videotaped me yesterday, and it was very helpful. Some stuff looks better than it feels, and I can really see what she's talking about. I also have a new jump - a stag jump from a falling leaf entrance.

Unlearned - Hubby has a bad cold and has not slept for 2 nights, which means I haven't slept for 2 nights .

Not a bad session today, though the rink was extremely crowded with five different coaches giving lessons. I had to pretty much worry about dodging them, but luckally no crashes

In School: I started off with my assorted moves. My brackets were actually good this time. I didn't fall on them and they seemed to have a better flow to them, then ever before. Double threes and power threes were definatly on today as well. My double threes had nice flow and speed and seem to be consistantly getting better.

Unlearned: Not much in regards to moves. They were actually going very well.

In School: Spins! Definatly all my spins have been improving and my leg didn't hop up in the middle of it. I had a really nice sit spin while running through my artistic and almost had to force myself out of it. Layback is getting closer and I took into consideration what my coach said about going into it. Flying broken leg went very very well. I was able to jump up and hold onto the spin for a good amount of revolutions.

Unlearned: My only spin that was taking a slight vacation was my backspin. It was inconsistant and at times I would get stuck and wouldn't get the hook.

In School: Definatly my loop!!! It is wonderful! I just feel so comfortable with it. Even doing it in combos. My coach was right about keeping my right arm pressed back..it got me alot of heignt. My lutz was also going very well today. I even landed a couple good flips which I nod in approval to because we all know I can't stand that jump and it can't stand me.

Unlearned: Heh, so after a couple nice flips, I attempted yet another. I actually landed it on one foot, the blade slipped out from under me and I landed straight on my butt. It hurt soooo bad. I mean that attempt was a pretty large jump so you could imagine how hard I fell.

In School: Had some good run throughs of my artistic programme and used my time very wisely.

Unlearned: Had this really pretty fall...Im not even sure how it happened but I was trying to choreograph alittle more of my artistic and I was going backwards and for some reason my legs got all caught up and I fell on my butt(again It was just a really weird fall and I was happened to be right in the middle when mostly everyone was standing near the boards. I also was taking off to do a waltz..yes a waltz and I did one of those things where I kicked one leg up, but the other didn't want to leave the ice. So that resulted in another pretty stumble. And now for some reason I have a cut on my left hand and Im not exactly sure where it came from.

Overall, despite the amount of falls, I defiantly had some highlights and really pushed myself. I did not do my programmes with music due to the amount of people on the ice. Not just people, but elite skaters from another club who are doing triples. But nonetheless it was a pretty good session. Im back on the ice tomorrow so hopefully great things will happen then

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

Very Unlearned:

My home rink is STILL not reopened yet. Neither is the club's other rink since it's still going thru a long renovation process too. I may be traveling to either Oakland or San Jose, depending on my mood tomorrow. (kander, are you skating tomorrow? If so, where? I may join 'ya...)

Well, ummm... this picture on this page is QUITE depressing!!!

(Assuming that it's the picture of the rink melted down)

Don't worry though!!! I doubt it would impact the ISI comp! I'm confident that I will be back skating on that ice by late next week.

In School:

Ummmm... after over a YEAR (yes, OVER A YEAR!!! ) and being sick and tired of having weird slips on a strong edge, I finally drove my lazy @$$ over to my skate sharpener!!! It's nice and sharp again and I will feel more confident trying for those deeper edges again!!!

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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!!!

This is for yesterday:

At School:
Had to get up at 5.45 for patch; it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be actually. I was worried I might have been a bit sleepy and uncoordinated but I was fine.

Unlearned:
It was a lot busier than I thought it would be though!

At School:
Started work on back cross rolls; need some work but they should start pulling together with a bit of practice. 3-jump was good, salchow wasn't as first but it came back eventually.

Unlearned:
Cherry's done a runner . Back to the barrier...

Lunch Break:
Coach didn't work on any spinning with me...

Got to the rink last night to practice:

In School:

I had a real eye opener on my not-yet backspin. DH had videoed some of my lessons last spring. He showed me a clip with a few failed backspin attemts followed by my coach doing tight B half swizzles (almost a B pivot) into a two foot spin. I did the half sw with her, and in the video is it quite clear that her weight is over her R foot (CCW), while mine is slightly off to the L. With that video in mind, I worked on using the B half sw to get my weight to the R and had some success. I also taught a teenager the backspin and in doing demos of the starting move I use in teaching, was able to get at least one rev pretty much every time. The teen, of course, got a real backspin out of it .

Much to my surprise and delight I found that I can enter a one foot spin from a T push at the line to a deep FO edge, spinning on return to the line. I did several and got some decent spins. I teach this, so I really do need to be able to do it!

Did a few rounds of Prelim power threes and Pre-Bronze three turn pattern. Not fast enough, but happy that they haven't deserted me over the summer.

Unlearned:
Threes are sooo much better, but still not sufficiently checked. Spiral stretches - nothing to say about these except OUCH!

__________________

In School:

I finally got back into skating...

Unlearned:

...even though it's in OAKLAND and on a crowded public session. (AND there's NO ICE MONITOR THERE TOO!!!

And oh, dear!!! I will not let myself slack off like I did on skate sharpening again. I swear I feel a HUGE drag on the blade! Loops weren't as easy as usual. It's just AWFUL, if anything. Same with the flip...and I don't even want to try the lutz either. *sigh*

In School:

The only good part is that I could feel safer going into a spin again... since the edge is now gonna HOLD instead of slipping from under me!!!

And I'll guess I'm gonna have to SKATE SOME MORE 'til I'm used to the blades again, huh?

Unlearned:

It will be quite interesting how I'm gonna managed my ice time given that our home rink is closed for at least a few more days. This will definitely impact my lessons for this week at least!!! Practice-wise, I should be okay. I'll just skate at whatever rinks I can get to. But lessons... EEEEK!!! (My primary coach has already cancelled for this coming week. My secondary coach will have to think of a rink to go to. And who knows with my choreographer.)

__________________
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'll probably be at SJ. It depends on whether my skating friend is also going there. If not then I'll be at Wacko (Vallco) If I were you I'd definetly go to San Jose. Crossing the Bay Bridge is a pain in the ***! There is also a group of skaters that sometimes goes upstairs after the session for pizza and beer (nothing like pizza and beer at 10 pm )