Touchdown--
I had a great lesson and edge class yesterday! I went home sweaty (and probably smelly) and utterly spent but feeling great!

Flip--I had an "inverse coach moment" in my lesson. I was trying to show him how I was having trouble getting the weight over the landing side, but I did it fine for him, lol!

Program is going nicely. It's a lot of fun to work on it! When I get back from vacation, I have to get into gear about getting my dress together.

Fumble--
No skating while I'm on vacation, unless I'm nuts and pack my old skates in my luggage (I've done that before).

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

Fumble: Todays practice sucked! One of my coaches keeps adding jumps to my program and my competition is friday!!!! On Wednesday my primary coach added an axel, which is ok I guess becuase I land it most of the time but then today, my second coach added an axel-toe! Im stating to get really stressed. Not that my axel is not cosistent but when im nervous, I have a harder time than usual landing it and this is my first competition!!! I wanted to cry today!!!! Oh well.
Touch Down: Well I did 1 clean run through of my program, landing both my axel and axel-toe.
I hope everything goes well friday!! Wich me luck!

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SKATING: It's the feeling you get at the end of a hard practice when you pushed yourself to the limit. It's a part of YOU, something you LOVE and HATE. A bond that NO ONE ELSE understands, but that's okay, because every time you get out on the ice it isn't just you; it's all the friends and coaches, all the practices, the pain, the tears, the memories,the laughter, the "off" competitions. It may seem, skating is really a team sport, it's more than just a sport. IT'S A WAY OF LIFE."

Good Luck TwirlGirl

Relax and enjoy yourself, you will do fine

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

Twirlgirl, how did you get on? Longing to hear all about it!

Fumble: Couldn't get the Husband out of bed this morning, and as friends were taking my skates to be sharpened, I had to get off the ice when they did, so had barely 45 minutes to skate. But we got quite a lot done, regardless. Husband is still spinning at every available opportunity, as I gather he wants to enter the Hop, Step & Jump competition..... little things please little minds (or could it be that I'm jealous because although his spin isn't very good, it is improving & mine isn't?).

In our free dance, Husband kept rushing the step sequence, to the point where I said "I think you're being Ukranian, if not Russian, this morning!" which made him groan, as it was meant to, but at least he stopped rushing! And then we were going to put on the music to the Riverside Rhumba, as at least two other couples were working on it, but made a complete nonsense of it and kept giving way to others.... sheesh....

Touchdown: The transition in our free dance is improving, although I'm a bit dubious about it still. However, it is better than what we were doing before, which is something!

In the Riverside Rhumba, I noticed that I was not straightening my free leg properly in the first rondé, the one where I might kick him if I did. So we did lap after lap of them, and noticed our free leg didn't match. So I decided that instead of counting "1, 2, 3, 4", I'd say "Back, back, side, front" and see if that helped. We had a quick consultation with the coach, who wasn't doing anything much this morning (two of his star pupils are going off to university this week, alas), and he reckoned it was better to go "Back, back...." than "Back, side, side, front", as it would make us stay back longer. I think it is helping!

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

Fumble: Had a practice session on Thursday, to work on stuff learned from my new coach, and I just can't seem to get that "long entry into the 3 then flip it" thing although everything else was good. The rink was cold; I was cold & tired...
Touchdown: Tried hard since Wednesday night to "stretch up like a string is pulling you up" to my posture will improve....sure is hard when you are 40+++++ but everyone else is commenting "did you lose weight" or "you look different" so it must be working, but my muscles between my shoulder blades are achy and tired.
Friday's Group Lesson: My group lesson and that went well-basic run through of edges and she was very pleased with everyone (she commented positively on my posture); crossovers were really good, even in my anti-good direction (see, practice does pay off) getting me another good comment. Next week: back crossovers (gotta work on getting off the toepick-that's what my other coach is trying to do) and landing positions. My husband was in my group and he went well-another woman joined us and they were fairly matched skill-wise so he wasn't alone.
PS-I left my skates to be sharpened-hopefully they just need that and I will be able to hold that "long entry...thing" (and remember to bend the knee....) although I reviewed a video from last year's lessons on spinning and I still didn't bend deep into my spin. Maybe I should work on some lunges as a warmup, then do some edges with a deep knee????? I sometimes forget to bend deep on my waltz (when I remember-I get lots of air-it's cool!)

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

Well, got my new blades, and they're great! The difference visually in the rocker between the new and old is really clear. So, I got on the ice and everything seemed like a touchdown: crossovers, 3-turns, mohawks, forward edges, back edges. I had a little trouble initially skating straight on my left foot but then that improved, and I think it was due to the new tongues not the new blades, since they went exactly into the same spot the old blades were in.

Then, I tried to step from a left back outside edge to right forward outside edge to do a waltz jump. Major Fumble. I nearly killed myself and felt like my foot was slipping far under me. I stopped and considered it, and tried again with pretty much the same result. Stopped and pondered some more and realized that I have always tended to hit my left toepick to slow down and then push off of, and so now, of course, my toepick is further away so I have to reach further! But my body was not prepared for that, hence the whole nearly-killing-myself thing. I did a lot of these for the rest of my practice and it seems to be getting better, but I never did manage to do a waltz jump yesterday. Hopefully it will be better tomorrow. Of course, my coach has always told me not to do that so I'm sure he will be happy with this turn of events!

Happy skating,
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

The last two days for me were all fumble:
Yesterday, couldn't get to the rink because of traffic tie ups and figured then that I'd have today to skate.
Arrived at rink today and Learn to Skate was going on, There was to be a ice cut then the freestyle session. Well, the skating director took one of her students on a lesson and when it was time for the ice to be cut, told rink management that the ice was fine and didn't need it!
The ice was horrible, as it was already chewed up from 2 hours of Learn to skate, plus those horrible consensation bumps in one corner. Most of the hard core freestylers that come were not that motivated to train and neither was I!
Needless to say, I only worked on spins and played around today. Even though the rink manangement added a extra half hour to the session, as s@##$ as the ice was, I refused to stay.
If this continues, I'll try to talk to the skating director- I've tried to voice concerns about ice conditions before, but she always "has a lesson going on".

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Aw ... best to your poor kitty and I'm looking forward to seeing the new and improved flip.

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

This happens sometimes at some of the rinks I skate at -- it is very very frustrating!!

Other rinks have clear cut rules and management that are strong enough to overpower these people -- they say, "Nope, time for the ice-cut" and that is it!!

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Any advice on how to get that implemented?
Really, I was mad because the skating director was sooo concerned about getting her lesson done and leaving and was not considerate of the fact that there were several of us who came to skate the freestyle.
In addition to that this is the first month in years that the rink has had a Saturday freestyle session and while I want to support it to keep it going, I will not if the ice is not cut when needed, regardless of who's giving a lesson!

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Touchdown: My skates were brilliant, I barely noticed they'd been sharpened until the start of my lesson, when I caught my toe-rake, nearly went over, and then realised. But they were simply glorious - I think our sharpener thought we all had the competition tomorrow....

Lesson went fairly well; I just wish we hadn't become so aware of how many mistakes we make, since it feels like we're making no progress when, in fact, I think we do improve!

Fumble: Widestep in the Golden Skaters' Waltz. Then when we got the extension right, I felt we didn't push. Knees too straight. Was told I was "like a sack of potatoes" in our free dance lift. Spin too slow..... and so it goes..... and the British Adults is in less than a fortnight.

Oh well, I'm not too despondent - we're almost definitely going to be 4th out of 4 in our class, certainly in the compulsories (probably not in the free dance, actually), but we'll have great fun trying not to be. After all, we've nothing to lose!

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

Touchdown

Landed my loop and flip today! At least a half-dozen times each.

Slow, lopsided and ungraceful, but at least they took off and landed on the same foot and I managed to keep my free foot off the ice for long enough (now I just need to make sure my skating leg actually skates on exit, not just balances in place).

Also, I think I've uncovered another secret of a good upright spin - it's "pull your abs in!". Started working on a sit spin as well.

My coach No 2 told me today how he was very impressed by my progress. Something tells me he's going to make me try lutz next time.....

Coach No 1 is sending out my application for Novice Moves Test - said I should be fine by the time it's scheduled. Scary!

We selected music for a programme - I really love the piece. She said it will show off my strenghths nicely (it's nice to know she thinks I have some strenghths to show off ).

Fumble

Ankle blisters. Finger blisters from lacing. Sore muscles. Couple of new bruises.

But the loop was worth it!!!!!!!

__________________
My other car is a Zamboni

Touchdown Group coach is insane - he had us start on consecutive brackets...or at least thats what I think they're called. It was fun trying to learn them but I can't remember when to kick out with the free foot so right now I look slightly retarded. Definitely a cool move when I did get it though, which was more than a handful of times. I also got big complements when we were working on our spirals (despite having to be continually reminded to lock my knees, gah, you think I'd learn by now.)

Public session was good. I worked on flips from a mohawk entrance and found them to be quite easy. I was going to brave split jumps but the session was kind of crowded so I'll wait until Tuesday to try them. At one point a crowd gathered to do the limbo at one end of the rink so I worked on my lutz and I nailed a few of them, sweet! I adore that jump very much. It's so scary and fun all at the same time lol.

Spins were pretty good yesterday. The camel still eludes me, but I've been told that what I DO have camel-wise looks good. I also worked on the backspin and now that I'm a little less afraid of it I'm actually getting 4-5 slow rotations...not consistently, but thats better than the negative rotation I was getting on Thursday. I wasn't whipping into it like I was on Thursday and that helped a lot. I did a couple of very fast centered scratch spins and some nice centered sits. I'd like to get more rotation in my sit though, I feel like I end it too soon. I'm getting closer on the Bielman (again, sorry Denise) but I still can't grab with the left hand. Gotta practice off the ice and continue to improve flexibility a little more. I didn't work on the layback at all yesterday. I was pretty busy with what I was working on anyway - there just isn't enough time lol.

Fumble Loop....again...I did land some good ones, but I also landed some not so good ones. And on some of the good ones they weren't "great" because my free leg was doing something...strange, or at least it felt like it was, like I wasn't lifting and opening the hip, I was keeping everything tucked and closed in. This is definitely my nemesis jump and I know it's a timing issue. I'm wondering if jumping from a three turn pattern would help - maybe a couple of back power 3's into the jump...because as it stands right now I'm doing crossovers into it, setting, and jumping...but I'm either waiting too long to jump or taking off too fast it seems and slipping off my edge. I desperately need my skates sharpened but since I did manage to do a couple of good loops I don't think I can blame it on the skates. A girl I was working with said on my not so good ones that I was almost cheating it which tells me I'm rotating too much before take off...man, I hate this stupid jump - but at the same time when I do it well I love it.

I ran out of time today to work on stuff - I really need to start managing my time at the rink more effectively, or maybe I should just add an extra skating day? I dunno...all stuff to consider, especially now that I'm almost 100% committed to doing the show in December, which will ultimately take away from my individual practice time.

TOUCHDOWN: Yaaaay I'll have my program finished next week, I lurve it, my minidisc worked and everything, it's simply fabulous! YAAAY!

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Well done Mel, so do you know when you will be using it? Sorry if you have already said so. Did you go to see the auditions by the way?

Cheers
Grace

I don't think I'm actually going to use it, it's just so I can pass my passport, my instructor never mentioned using it anyway, I doubt I will.

The auditions are in 10 days time, and I can't go because I'm at college! Oh well, nevermind!

__________________
http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Fumble:

Weekend rink is getting crowd and I'm back at my pilates sessions, but only for a short time, which most definitely would cut into my skating time too!!!

Touchdown:

• Went to watch Skate St. Moritz and...
• ask8ngcat did well coming back after a bit of a break from skating with a Silver for her Silver FS. (YAAAAY!!!)
• Thin-Ice came thru with a Bronze for her FS program. (YAAAAAY!!!!)

Other stuff...

• Seeing Rudy and Laura (yes, that Rudy and Laura!) putting out a skater on the ice. (I didn't know they were coaching...well, Laura, yes, but I thought it was just Rudy.)
• Watching primary coach turn a skater's hair from flat to glam (and competition ready) in 10-15 minutes... and NO HAIRSPRAY too!!!
• Watching Rudy walk up the stairs from a distance, me going "OMG!!! That's Rudy Galindo!!!" ... and then watching my primary coach (who's sitting next to me at the stands) yell out "Hey, Rudy!!!" and Rudy waves back and smiles like they're old friends!!! (Okay! How does he know all these elite skaters? First MK, and now Rudy!)
• Had a jazzpant moment -- primary coach and I watched a Sr. Ladies skater doing a short program with a pair of JAZZPANTS on.

Me: "I thought that was just for the adults."PC: "The rules have changed recently and they can wear pants too.
Me: "Oh, good! That's means I'll compete in my jazzpants outfit at our next competition.
PC: "Errr... NO!!!" (So much for the jazzpants persona at competition...)

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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!!!

Does the skating club at your rink have exhibitions or skating shows for its members to skate in? Perhaps you could skate your program then? (Even if you're not a member, perhaps you could skate it as a guest?) My club and also flo's club often have guest skaters in their shows.

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

You have to be a member in the skating club to skate in their show. And I can't join, due to lack of money and the expensiveness.

__________________
http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Wow, your coach does hair? Too bad you guys aren't on the east coast! But if I get to AN.....


Sk8pics, glad to hear things are going well with the new blades! I'm sure your waltz jump will be back in no time.

Does your coach realize that he could make extra money at AN just doin other skater's hair?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Touchdown: Great practice today and good lesson, too, although it was cut short by 5 minutes because the zamboni driver was late because he thought it was a good idea to give some other people "a few extra minutes because they were late getting on the ice." WTF? I guess it doesn't matter that I lost 5 minutes of my lesson. But, I digress. My jumps came back, and in fact, my salchow was better and easier than before. My primary coach saw one while he was teaching someone else and thought to himself, oh good, that's better with the new blades! He was mightily disappointed in my lesson when they were only very good and not quite as excellent as the one he'd glimpsed before. I was happy about it, though! Waltz jumps were still a little scary but doable. Toe loop was as close as it's ever been to being really correct.

Fumble Only the aforementioned late ice cut... and I'm tired now, but it's a good tired.

Guess I will be doing the Halloween Classic after all! (Debbie, are you doing it, too?) Have to decide on exactly which events, but I have until Friday!

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

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August 22, back on the ice!

Are you back? Or posting from vacation?

Fumble: The kitty has a big bandage on his leg and is not a happy boy these days.

Touchdown: Careygram was down for a visit this weekend and we had a fun skate this afternoon. I managed one of my coach's crazy spin ideas and even had her as a witness... I did a forward sitspin and changed to the outside edge! and kept the speed of the spin up too.

__________________
Where are those knives when I need them?
----------------------------------
I need a detachable left foot!

Yup, I'm back from vacation, and I think I gained at least 20 lbs ...
am not looking forward to skating, but the Halloween event is coming up!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Fumble.

Ice rink ain't letting us have our morning sessions till October.