About time someone started the thread for this week, or am I the only person skating in the height of summer?

Barbed Wire: Didn't have as long to skate as usual as there were tests (mostly passed, thankfully), so I had almost no time to warm up before my lesson and was still slightly clunky at the start of it. Coach understood, though.

It turns out that I have a very bad habit of starting off the lap doing what I have been told to do quite well, but after two or three whatever-it-wases, relaxing and doing them badly! I think every single exercise I did in my lesson was like that. My biggest fault, my coach said, was not bringing my feet together all the time.

Velvet: Did manage to do some comfortable BO edges, not very fast and not very edgy, but strong and comfortable. Back chasses weren't too bad, either. Forwards chasses okay, but was reminded to keep my feet together, but then, I was in practically everything! We also worked on 3-turns and Mohawks, for a change of pace - haven't done waltz 3s for ages, except in practice, and was pleased that he wasn't too rude about them. Still have trouble controlling the BO edge though, and sometimes in pushing on to it. Only bottled one turn!

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

Nope, I'm skating too!

Velvet: Things are going pretty well, with some good improvements in some of my jumps. Good thing too as I am competing on Saturday and Sunday for the first time! My interpretive program feels good and my coach is being really picky about things, but that's good. My compulsory moves program is okay but a little less comfortable. There are a couple of moves that could go either way, but right now they're all working pretty well.

Barbed Wire: None of my coaches can be there on Saturday for my moves competition. We've asked a couple of other coaches, too, but no one seems to be available. So I guess I'll be putting myself on the ice . One of my friends will be there for moral support, at least.

The other Barbed Wire was in nearly killing myself in a run through with music yesterday, when a child stepped directly in front of me and a few feet away and started spinning as I was literally in mid-crossover. My right foot was already half way over and I had to shift and step really flat in order to not hit the kid. Scared me half to death and I literally shook like a leaf for 10 minutes after. My coach had to settle me down and from then on he skated right in front of me exactly in my path and literally moved people aside. And it wasn't even that crowded. How is it that these kids haven't been run over by cars considering the level of attention they're able to give to their surroundings?

Sigh. I hope to survive my next couple of sessions and then the competition!

Pat

For yesterdays group lesson for basic 7:

Velvet: Everything in the level. My pivots, BO to FO edge on circle, ballet jump, and back crossovers to BO landing edge were all great! My mohalks were better then ever I was so happy!! I also had really good watlz jumps and watlz-waltz combos!

Barbed Wire: The scratch spin still isnt working for me ... If i get the entrance good i can start to pull in but i always end up stepping out ... rrr

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~*~always, sonia~*~

Too funny!!!!!

Skated on Monday evening, but my coach was on vacation so no lesson. Haven't seen her in 3 weeks.

Spent most of my time just stroking slowly. My sciatica was acting up and the pain got steadily worse the longer I skated.

I'll be skating a couple of classes tonight and then leaving tomorrow morning for a long weekend trout fishing/camping trip with my twin sons. Time for some mental R & R.

I hear a trout in the distance softly calling "Gary...... Gary...... Gary".

Gary,
Sorry to hear your sciatica is acting up still! Maybe some R&R is just what you need.

I forgot to add earlier that I've now lost 17 pounds (since early May)! Getting lots of compliments and my coach says my new skating dress (for the competition this weekend) looks great.

How is everyone else doing? Gary? Dbny?

Pat

WAY TO GO!!!!!

I've fallen off the wagon in my quest for thinner. Although I can't say I've checked lately. Life has been so hectic I haven't had time to check. I've got a checkup with my doctor next week, so I'll find out then.

"Gary... Gary... Gary...." (Nope! I didn't hear anything...)

Sorry to hear about your sciatica too! SHEESH! First Annabel, then a friend of mine who skates with me... and I started having a mild case the last couple of weeks and now you... Must be something in the ice....

BIG PLUSHY Velvet: Not directly skating related but....

I GOT A JOB!!! I GOT A JOB!!! I GOT A JOB!!! I can afford to skate again!!! YAY ME!!!

I got the offer over the phone today. Salary is on the low end of what I was expecting, but beggars can't be choosers... and HEY! I can afford to skate again!!!

Barbed wire: With today's Velvet, who cares???

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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!!!

ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!

Back on the ice again. HOORAY!!!!!!!

Woo-hoo!

Barbed Wire:

Bad wreck on interstate that nearly made me miss my lesson! Grrrr!!!


Velvet:

Everything else! It was my day to run through my moves with my primary freestyle coach (she's interested in these too). Did really well with those.

Layback spins were great. They are laying back, but I just need to work on my toe point, and I'll have it!

Backspin slowly but surely improving.

I have felt an overall difference with my skating since I started taking MITF from a different coach. She really pushes me when I skate, and it's been very good for my work ethic and overall skating state of mind. I actually feel better even though she's pretty critical! She's very technical when it comes to the moves, which I find super helpful. I'm glad that arrangement is working out!

Overall, few words, but happy ones!

CONGRATS jazzpants on finding a new job! Here's a shout out to ya!!!

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Barbed: double toes .. ooo i hate the feeling of them oh and double flips

Velvet: mostly everything else!

__________________
beks~
"winning isn't everything... wanting to is."

" the only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary"

"It’s not necessarily the amount of time you spend at pracitce that counts; it's what you put into the practice."

Barbed Wire: I'm very tired today, lesson tonight was good but not great just because I'm tired and my knees are sore. My body's telling me I'm overdoing it- make a note of the date everybody, I'm actually going to LISTEN and take tomorrow afternoon off before the gental reminder turns into screaming

Velvet: I haven't had time to post, but basically the last week has been velvet. The team I train with has been working on the same dance I have for the competition next week, so I've been doing double compulsory run-throughs right along with them. Their coach actually looks around for me now and calls me if I'm not paying attention when he's going to put the music on! As a result, both my coach, their coach, and both of their moms have told me that my Paso looks good. I compete Saturday, test Sunday, take my next ISI dances Tuesday, and compete Wednesday and Thursday.

I must be crazy.

Oh, as for the weight loss group, keep going! I've lost four pounds in the last two weeks, which puts me at 116. Competition weight for me is 112-115, so I'm more or less there. I leave for the big competition Tuesday, so I may very well make it.

Velvet: For the first time since I started with my current coach (about 4 months), she remarked on my progress since the last lesson -- huzzah! Just goes to show what skating five days between lessons can do Specifically, my back crossovers are FINALLY coming together and in both directions, no less. The things that have made the most difference are (1) sitting down and staying down on that back outside edge before crossing over and (2) making sure to keep both feet on the ice -- albeit briefly -- after crossing over and before lifting the crossed-over foot.

Barbed wire: I continue to struggle w/my *#!** FO3s. Specifically, I have two fatal flaws: (1) I chicken out and stay too far back on my blade rather than shifting my weight forward before the turn and (2) I don't keep my free leg and hip back; instead, I tend to hurl them forward. My coach is trying to drill into me the fact that the skating side, not the free side, is what turns you, but my poor free leg must be deaf -- looks like I'll be spending a lot of time at the boards this week trying to tame it!

And why is it that sciatica and skating don't mix, when sciatica and walking seem to mix quite beautifully? I'd far rather skate than walk....

Oh I am so glad for you! That is truly wonderful news I do hope it turns out to be everything you ever wanted in a job. Do let us know....

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

I skated today on a practice session, but after half an hour of being the only one on the ice, and then some high-level kids coming on, a coach told me the practice session was on the other rink and this was an elite session! Eek. lol. Wasn't my fault though, the timetables were wrong.

Velvet:

Spins were ok - some had better centering too. They were better balanced and controlled, although on my CW ones by free foot wasn't in the right place - instead of being against my knee, it was behind it.

Waltz jump was good, pivots were good, and spirals were good (although I'm not sure what my amplitude and extension is like - probably not as good as I'd imagine).

I also spent time practicing edges and crossovers - all felt nice, and I've been concentrating lately especially on pushing with the whole blade on forward crossovers, as my old coach told me I had a tendency to toe-push a little bit (even if it was just a little flick at the end of the push). Felt good today though.

Barbed wire:

I tried to practice toe loops but I kept chickening out! Don't know why but it was annoying. . Salchow's were somewhere else too - I did manage a few, but they were hardly stellar. Mental note: if you don't practice your jumps, you can't expect them to stay consistent! Didn't try loop or flip. I probably should wait till I'm in lessons again for those jumps, otherwise I'm bound to do it wrong.

I practiced some circular step sequences - they were ok, but not fantastic. I keep getting dizzy!

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

Hola, all! Just returned from vacation. At 1 AM Last night and in the office bright an early at 9AM today! Zzzzz....

These are from last week, but since I was on vacation I didn't really have tome to update.

Velvet: I had a make-up lesson with a coach I adore since I was going to miss this past Saturday's lesson. She helped me see that my first two lobes of my forward edges are more than passing, but the second two are not so I worked the transition and all seems well now. YAY! So now I'm pretty confident that my forward edges and lunge will pass my Delta test this Saturday. I think the bunny hop, too, but we really don't practice them too much. Maybe tonight?

Then I stayed on since there was a pretty uncrowded public session afterward. I got off the ice and relaced my skates and, on a whim, decided to use the top hook for the first time since I got the boots a year ago.

OH MY GOSH! I hadn't realized my skates were broken in enough to require that top hook, but after lacing it I WAS ACTAULLY ABLE TO DO MY FORWARD THREE TURNS!!!!! INside and outside!! Here I was, struggling for months and feeling very insecure in my backwards glides, but I lace that top hook and the added stability makes it so that I can do the freakin' 3 turns! Mind you, there weren't many and I tended to get very excited about them when I did do them, thus stepping out quickly, but they were rotated and the exit edge was held long enough to tell it is an edge and I'm not falling out of the turns!!!

Unfortunately, since I was on vacation I did not have the opportunity to try out my new turns for a week. So I'll go down an practice tonight. Let's hope they're still here!

Velvet: EVERYTHING! Oh, what a wonderful lesson I had today. I wish I had a picture of my coach's face when he saw my FO3s. He was so impressed, he even said so himself. And he isn't one to heap on praise when it isn't deserved. I guess all my practice this past week paid off. I learned progressives, rolls, and chasses (umm...not sure how that's spelled) today and had a lot of fun with them, trying them out at different tempos. Coach had me do them in different sequences, which was fun.

Well I was thinking of having a rest after our rinks recent adult Opens but then I found out we were having a British Adult Championships after all and it will be the end of September - which means if I don't want to make too much of a fool of myself I will need to keep practising through the summer. It is going to be a bit more interesting for us low level skaters this year (last year we only got to do a single compulsory) as they are including two compulsories and an Original Dance. The only problem is that they have chosen a March as the OD rhythm which unfortunately is
a) not the same as the OD I have just done for our Adult Opens (Rock'n'Roll - great fun) which would have been a lot more useful.
b) not the most inspiring of rhythms
c) my coachs' least favourite of all the dance rhythms

and we don't have a lot of time to prepare it. I just hope it doesnt put people off entering, as with the summer holidays it is going to be tough to get anything presentable by the end of September.

Anyway we spent today finishing the basic choreography - though it will need a great deal of polishing and rearrangement before it is any good at all.

The only real velvet is that despite it being school holidays the rink was very quiet and I was able to practice the OD a bit.
Velvet moment from my other lesson this week was my upright spin - I managed a few with 8+ rotations and minimal travel.

barbed wire - don't know where my sit spin went.

Velvet:

Got 1 and 3/4's rotation on a double toe today. Getting more used to the feeling of trying to cross my feet in the air...when I originally learned my doubles some 25 years ago, we did them with our feet parallel to each other, not crossed. So it's a case of an old dog learning new tricks. My coach says my takeoff is really good now, which I've been working on correcting for the last two weeks or so (I was wrapping).

I'm doing axel combos now - coach introduced me to an axel-toe loop-loop at my lesson. The first one I did was too funny - arms flailing. But I've done a couple of decent ones now (with at least some flow out). Axel is definately home to stay.

Intermediate MIF's are moving along slowly, but still improving.

Injured hip flexor is giving me absolutely no problems any more. It feels soooo good to skate without pain.

Barbed Wire:

Skating has been going fairly well for me lately. The 97 million or so falls I've taken on the double toe have been an ouch. I cannot find anything I like for next year's AN program . Spins aren't doing too well, mainly because I'm not practicing them a whole lot lately.

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"The only place where success comes before work is in a dictionary." -- Vidal Sasson

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." -- Unknown

Just hang in there and don't give up! Maybe your doc will give you some motivation! Thanks for the congrats!

And Congratulations to Jazzpants!!

As for me, a Velvet lesson today with my secondary coach, who commented on my weight loss and my improved back edges. Then a good lesson with my primary coach and we spent a lot of time working on my compulsory moves program, which really helped. Then 2 run throughs of my interpretive program. In the first, my second toe loop was a little wobbly, but the last runthrough felt really good and coach was very happy! I was, too!

Have fun everyone, and hope I don't have a nervous breakdown putting myself on the ice for my first competition ever!!!

Pat

*sigh* Me too, but you do run the risk of your legs buckle b/c it's weak at that point. And it's no fun if you're just stroking around. (Unless you're a speed skater or you're trying to build up your speed...)

Thank you!!! I am SOOOOO relieved now!!! (At least for now...) It's been a very rough six months and both hubby and I were EXTREMELY STRESSED about money and stuff. We're still stressed about money, AAMOF, b/c HE is STILL unemployed and he doesn't seemed to have any job prospects. I came close a couple of times of having to lose skating too, but hubby reminded me that skating is my sanity now... and hey, I'm not gonna argue about THAT!!!

And wouldn't you know it. I had a dry spell (except for my new job) for the beginning of July and on the day I sign my offer letter and sent it back I get email from about 3 companies who want to interview me!!! SHEESH!!! I better interview though...just in case this job falls apart on me, since I've read too many job horror stories of this happening...

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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!!!

Velvet

• Bronze Moves: Except for power 3's, everything seemed to be okay. Five step mohawk good on the second run.
• Loop: Landed ONE!!!
• Amazingly: I churned out passing sit spins and scratch spins w/o a warmup!!! WHEW!!!

Barbed wire

• Bronze Moves: The first run for five step mohawk SUCKED!!! (I crashed into the walls!!!) Power 3's need a lot of work!!! WAAAH!!!!
• Loop: Loops are still two footed landing... though coach keeps telling me that I'm THISCLOSE to landing them!!!
• Flip: I need some work in keeping the back straight (and not bent forward) and free leg straight during the entry.
• No backspin still!!! Edge was more on the flat and towards the inside edge than the outside... and the times where I did spin on the outside edge, the coach says that I "give up" (i.e. stop spinning) after the first good rev. and fall on the inside edge again.

__________________
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!!!

Velvet Clean short for singles with triple toe double toe and double axel and footwork into double flip... Clean short for pairs...sbs triple toes throw triple sal and so on...

Barbed Wire Not a clean long from singles...landed 6 doubles in total...no double axels or any triples...

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Mme.PairsChica

Oh, I don't know; one does need to improve technique - I've spent quite a lot of my last two lessons doing just that, with my coach running along behind going "Finish that edge" and "Feet together" and "Change your weight now" and so on and so forth!

Last night was dance club, which Robert and I were running in the absence of the usual officials. He was the only man, and there were five women, two of whom went off to the "Learn-to-Dance" club when it got under way. When - nobody seemed to have a key to the music cupboard, and it was nearly 7.15 before we could get any music playing. Deep sigh! But it was fun, all the same, and I enjoyed doing some dances solo and impressing the you-know-what out of the learners.....

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