Okay I've never started a practice thread and my cat is purring next to me here....then I remembered that a growling edge is a good thing, but just think of a cat not your edges...


Purring...

Power class and I really worked...tried to catch up with one of the girls, never did, but she didn't get too far ahead of me.

Growling ...Then she had us run on our toe picks to the line and then run in place on our toe picks. Nope. There's just some things I won't push myself to do. I did side toe hops instead

Purring - I CAN STILL DO MOHAWKS . I think I've turned the corner on these. I did the five step mohawks and the mohawk in the swing dance. I even played the music, but I didn't like the music I chose, the beat was too hard to hear and I freaked out and rushed the mohawk with the music. We have a competition coming up in November. I think I will do the swing. Along with a freestyle and my artistic to Master of the House.

And I got a co-chair for the Spring Ice Show who actually knows what she is doing. YAY!

j

Thank you JS!

Growling: I haven't skated yet this week and this isn't skating related but chuckled at the title about "growling" since Saturday afternoon I had to shoot a bear, a 450 pound Black bear who was getting WAY too pushy with my neighbors. I didn't want to do it but the situation was getting way too dangerous. I love the wildlife but one must draw a line.....

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

Gee, I wonder if I can change your user title to "Great Bear Hunter?" Hmmm...

After being turned away at one rink (hockey clinic) I skated at Woodbridge yesterday. Is it me or does that ice surface seem smallish?

Made the guards push out the middle cones with the comment "My insurance doesn't cover this." Got nailed for doing back spirals (empty end of the ice) outside of the middle. The hockey player-guard couldn't explain what I did wrong, just kept repeating "Figure Skating In The Middle." Guess it's like porn - he can't describe it, but he knows it when he sees it. LOL

Spins were so-so. Got frustrated and removed my right blade, took out the lift leather, and reattached the blade. Much better. I think several people were in awe. LOL

Moves were pretty good - I even stayed on target with my axis. Yay me!

Jumps were weak - haven't really skated in a while. Ice was mediocre.

__________________

growling:
ankle still very sensitive
backward inside edges still not improving much

GROWLING:
the rest of the class got to practice axels under my favourite coach and I can't jump for like a year, ugh! although practically everybody in our group has now one injury or other that impairs some of what they're doing, with ankle injuries being the most popular ones seemingly, so I'm not feeling too bad. Besides I got some private MIF-instruction so it's all good.

purring:
rittberger-3turns (not sure if that's the English name for them or just the Dutch one) are working in both directions and pretty steadfast, hydroblade on right is working, camel spin is there. I'm falling a lot on the sit spin but I think it's still closer to "there" than it ever was. I'm sitting down now, I'm just falling after that.
Forward out- and inside edges are working fine, but I need to make them larger, since I'm expected to skate larger ones cuz I'm an adult and supposed to have more power than the kids to pass. Doesn't really help to practice in group class with the kids to achieve this, but in october there'll be public ice again.

I feel I have the right to enter these now I have an official private coach .

Growling -
Coach has to have a knee operation (after one lesson!!) - something about a cartilage I think - so she's gonne be off the ice for about a month, and I'm gonna be coachless. =[

Purring -
I have a coach!! Lol - we were just learning basic level 8 and 9 stuff (drags, mohawks, inside 3-turns, etc), but it was nice to be able to ask questions and not have to go at the pace of the rest of the group.

Growling: The rink cut back morning ice time by 1/2 hour. Instead of starting at 6 am, this year it starts at 6:30.

Purring: Because the rink starts later, I get to sleep in the extra 1/2 hour. It's a wash overall I guess.

Still Growling: Skated like the old man that I am. Three of us this morning each stated that we hadn't skated more than once or twice during the summer, but one young woman started out fast and then started doing double loops and salchows. Come on now, how can someone not skate all summer and immediately do doubles when starting back!?

Is it the enviable ability of YOUTH?

Sigh, ...where's my cane?

__________________
Bill Schneider

Come on Bill! I can still do a full set of doubles and combinations (in my head)

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

purring
got a new coach
landed loop (4 times!!!!)
scratch spin feels pretty near perfect
sitspin is way better
backspin is ok-ish, 2 revs, 3 at a big push...

growling
nothing because the purring is so loud it blocks everything out!! teehee. I'm HAPPY can't ya tell?

__________________

(Sounds like you have the double-barrel part down pat (from your earlier post!) )

I'm also an optimist when I've been off the ice for a while, but reality sunk in hard today. It's going to take a while for me to regain what I had when I left the ice in late March.

I've done a double sal once though - in a lesson with my coach about two years ago. Got VERY lucky for a guy my age with that one. She had been pestering me to pull my arms in closer during the jump. However I believed that the arms were where they should be for a single rotation and pulling them in closer would speed things up too much. Still she MADE me do it, and when I did pull them in, I really pulled them in tight in a kind of 'grrrr' moment. I went around twice. Coach looked on in disbelief when it happened and said "you just did a... DOUBLE!"

I guess it's things like that keep you going. It's fun to remember.

__________________
Bill Schneider

I almost spewed the coffee out of my mouth when I saw the title of this week's thread! My friggin' CATS are the reason I didn't skate this morning, making it the 6th day in a row that something or other has interfered.

10:00pm - Went to bed just in time to get my minimum 7 hours of sleep
10:30pm - Amber wants out of the bedroom. I get up and let her out.
11:00pm - Amber wants back in the bedroom. I get up and let her in.
11:30pm - Mia meows and scratches under the door and I ignore it because Mia and Sasha are not allowed in the bedroom at night. Blast it! She somehow managed to open the door! Boy is she proud of herself. I must not have closed it all the way when I let Amber back in. But I'm too tired to try to chase Mia out of the room so I get up and close the door and before long she joins us on the bed.
12:00 midnight - Sasha starts crying outside the bedroom door because she's separated from her sister Mia. I get up, pick Mia up off the bed and dump her outside the bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.
1:00am - Mia starts meowing and scratching under the door, certain that she can open it again if she just keeps at it. This repeats at least once an hour for the next 4 hours until my alarm goes off at 5:00am.
5:00am - Alarm goes off. I debate with myself for 10 minutes, curse the cats and go back to sleep.

Gee, the BEAR story is MUCH better!! Can I borrow that one?

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Oh, GREAT BEAR HUNTER, Rusty Blades. Don't shoot me... but I think doubletoe's cat story is better!!!

__________________
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!!!

Or, we could just let Rusty Blades end doubletoe's story her way.
(Sorry, DBNY - she hates cat-violence remarks.)

ROTFLOL!!!

__________________

OOOOOH!!!!

(Now, now, ISk8NYC!!! We at skatingforums.com do not condome violence towards ANY animal other than for self protection there... )

__________________
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!!!

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

growling
started out popping axels as usual. i finally get myself to do some, and they are fine of course (i pop jumps i can do perfectly and have been doing perfectly for years). do another one, and i guess i was crooked, because next thing i know i slam the side of my face/head into the ice. i haven't done that in years. i guess it was audible, bc everyone (all 5 people) on the ice at the time skated over. lemme just say...OUCH.

get off for a few mins, come back on to spin, see stars, get off. then i come back on to do illusions. my whole ankle gave out and i just kinda crumbled to the ice, whacking my knee.

work on some double loops, but on on the checkout of one, i got my left leg stuck in my right boot, and landed hard on my butt, sending shock-waves up my already almost broken back.

BAHHHHHHHHH

shockingly, there was still some purring

my split falling leaf looks really good. it looks like a full split in the air. i know its not, because i don't have a full split, but i guess the timing of my legs gives the illusion of a full split.

my double sals were big. now, this wasn't the best news, because i couldn't quite absorb the impact of the landing, but when i'm in my new skates and my ankle is a little stronger, it'll be great!

finally--new skates are in! now, i haven't skated in them yet as they're getting waterproofed, but at least they're here! they are gonna be a b**** to break in--custom klingbeils, "very strong" ankle support, but with my ankle, thats better than "very broken down" ankle support. now i just need new blades, another 400 bucks or so

__________________
Youtube Videos

Somehow posted twice instead of intended edit. Deleted the dup.

__________________

Congratulations!



doubletoe - Why is Amber allowed in the bedroom, but Mia and Sasha not? This is really the source of your problem. Just let them all in and out as they please . My own doofus Cat goes in and out of the bedroom so many times a night that I hung a curtain in the door and if the AC isn't on, we just close the curtain and leave the door open. That way he doesn't wake us with his opening maneuvers or piteous meows when that doesn't work.

growling:
At Isk8NYC for her horrid idea! Skating? Bah, didn't get much of it in today. First it took me forever to get out of the house because I had procrastinated some important insurance business so long that I finally had to take care of it, and second because work got in the way. Coaching is a mixed blessing. I get all the free ice I could ever want - but not the time to use it for myself!

purring:
This was one of those rare days when I stepped onto the ice and felt great right away. I did get to skate for a few minutes and was able to warm up with F and B power XO's, cross strokes, and B power pulls. I usually have to start with two or three laps of power style alternating half swizzles and several circles of FXO's.

__________________

Purring
Worked hard on spins in my last lesson and was trying desparately to get my shoulders parallel to the ice on the camel and finally when i managed it i got around 5 or 6 revs out which completely thrathes my personal best of 2 and three quarter revs!

Also new coached made me do the uproght spin crossing my free leg over in a different way than i'm used to and i managed to get it after a while and it felt much more secure.

Also actually managed one revolution on the backspin which is progress...not alot but still progress

Growling
Jumps!!!!

Try as i might i've worked some of the drills that people helpfully provided in my two footing the flip take off thread and i can do ok with the drills but as soon as actually try to jump - i sweep that LBI edge right around the toe pick AAAARGH!

The rest of the jumps were ok but the "grown up" loop (in other words not doing a RFI three turn into it to generate the rotation) was not happening at all. It is very hit and miss but i think i understand the jump a bit better.

The attempting to stretch the free leg out on all my jumps has really thrown them off, especially what used be my most reliable jump - the toe loop. Stretching the free leg out on that jump feels completely counter intuitive and like it would force me to toe-waltz.

Ant

I really want to hear more about this bear story. Woman blasting bear sounds pretty amazing to me.

Growling - my coach told me to pick earlier on my toe loop and then wait and draw my foot back before jumping. dang. can't get that timing at all. My body is so used to waiting a half beat before picking and then jumping right away. growl indeed.

Purring - MIF hooray! finally feel some "continuous flow and strength" coming on.

Dang! I've been out hunting a few times...but have only seen squirrels and foxes...Luckily, no bears! But, then again, no deer either

This is for last night:
Growling: my lower back is strained/pulled...and it still hurts. I stuck it out during the off-ice class. I am able to move around, which actually feels better than sitting.

Purring: We did scratch spin, backspin, spiral positioning, then flips (duh! I haven't DONE these yet) but managed to get most of the way around (with free leg in the right position for once), and leaps (sort of like grand jete's in ballet). Then it was teach for an hour, which was mostly GROWLING as I am either a bad teacher, not quite getting it across to these kids (3 yrs old and no attention span and 7 years old and a fraidy cat)....

After which, power/moves class (on-ice)...where we realized that i am one of the fastest skaters (among the top 5) in the class (of 15). I had to keep slowing down so I would not run into anyone in front of me... by the time I got off the ice, my back was GROWLING!!! So it was go home, hop in the whirlpool with some epsom salts. then ice it in bed....man, it hurts!!! I don't go back to the chiro till Friday. This bites!

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

No bears today just a thick fog in the country that slowed down travel. After a good restful weekend, most things were working today though it took awhile to loosen up.

Purr! Did practice time working on deeper back edges and stronger BO glides (to become a back spiral one day).

PURR!!! Coach referred to my upright spins as "awesome" She said when I do the "slow entry" they're gorgeous

Growl:Sit spins are getting closer but still not happening.

We worked a bit on choreography (both Interpretive and Free) but my "creative juices" were at a low ebb this morning. Still, we came up with some ideas.



Ya'll must be a city girl? When one lives on the edge of the wilderness, ANYTHING showing up in the yard is possible. When a bear is no longer afraid of or cautious of humans, there is danger of it seeing people as food. Since I do not intend to be lunch for a 450 pound bear and would rather keep my friends in their "undigested" condition, the bear had to go. I never faced a bear before and had never been close to one that size! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I became a redhead Saturday afternoon but it was my will or the bear's and the bear lost

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

(I will never think of ice guards telling me to skate in the middle the same way again!!! Thanks, ISk8NYC!!! LOL!!!)

BTW, this is why I like Monday nights also! Our regular ice guard usually doesn't care if people jump and spin outside the middle. If anything, there's usually several lessons going on and they HAVE to do jumps and spins outside as part of their runthrus. Also, our regular ice guard (who sadly hasn't been here in a while, but I understand he's on a nasty project at his REAL job and will be back in a month...) knows a LOT of us regulars on the ice and one thing he knows about me is that when he "reverse direction" for 10 minutes, I will be practicing my waltz and salchows (and lately even my loops.)

During the weekend, the "skate in the middle" rule applies and I have been stopped a couple of times by an ice guard to stay in the middle when I jump. (One of them actually was telling me to help him look like he's doing his job by staying in the middle and telling me that if I jump slightly outside the middle towards the cones that he'll "let me slide by.")

I was wondering about that too.

FWIW (of course, this doesn't apply to cats but...) when I was growing up, my Pom puppy had to learn to sleep in the garage at night along. Needless to say, the dog keep whimpering all hours of the night. It was AWFUL the first week or so b/c she keeps whining, scratching the door, and keeping us up. Sadly, it had to be done. Eventually, the dog learned to sleep when she's sent downstairs (except when there's strange things like rats and people going by.) Of course, we had to replace the door eventually b/c of all the scratch marks.

You have a whirlpool in your home?!?!?! I SOOOOOO envy you!!! (It's one of those things that I really really want in my home. Maybe someday when we remodeling the bathroom, I'll try to get one of those whirlpool bathtub. If only I could find something that I can attach to a regular tub and turn it to a "whirlpool". I've seen it once at the Sharper Image but they don't sell it anymore.

I'm definitely a city gal... thanks for the story! That makes total sense 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!!!

Purring: A freshman student showed up to yesterday evening's freestyle session and put on quite a show. Double axels, etc.-those Cleveland-area skaters can really skate! Almost all of my former coaches have been trained in Cleveland.

She's going to be coaching at our rink, and quite a few of the local skaters have already asked for her. I was holding off on getting a new coach to save a bit of money this year, but I'm afraid that if I don't ask soon, she'll be completely booked.

Got in another hour of practice yesterday evening myself, but spins are definitely on vacation.

Dianne - we don't have too many black bears around, but we still get visits from all sorts of other wildlife. I like living at the the rural edge, although your wilderness is certainly wilder than mine.

Our visitors are smaller than yours, and I don't fear being eaten...



These guys look like they are purring.

__________________
Bill Schneider

You can get them on Amazon very easily.

As for us:

Purring: The coaches are back! Lessons again. And he has been able to reschedule us so I can still pop home to change and drop my stuff before work, which is great.

Growling: The coaches are back! Lessons again. Which means corrections, corrections and more corrections! All the same, he liked our Rhythm Blues overall....

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