Love:
A very nicely centered scratch spin , the loop is still in existence a week after New Years Invitational, and just getting back to a regular practice schedule.

Loathe:
My sit and backscratch spins are still awful!!! Trying to do a complete pattern of MIF on a 4:30 freestyle is, well, ugh!

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

Love:
Am getting back my joie de vivre that used to exist everytime I skated. And in tonight's public session, I did 4 program runthroughs. The weird part is that about 40 high school kids showed up, and I was upset because I really needed to work on some basic skating and on program components (I have a club competition this Saturday). I asked God to please remove these locusts from my rink. Anyway, 30 minutes before the session ended, they all left, leaving about 5 people on the ice. I shut off the Pearl Jam CD I had been playing, slid in my program music, and hit the <Repeat> button. No one cared or minded.

Loathe:
No pair skating for about 2 weeks (as Loops is temporarily abandoning me). Oh, wait; this should go in the above category!
I had made a laundry list of things that we changed/fixed/altered in our program, and we really need to practice them. Oh, well. At least I get to concentrate on my singles skating for a while. And I'm hoping to maybe take a few spin lessons with an awesome coach in Maryland. <crosses fingers>>

My camel spin seems to have disappeared, but I'm sure it'll be back for this weekend. My updated program is still kind of a mess, but I'm hoping to skate on some early-morning freestyles this week and iron out the remaining wrinkles.

__________________
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.

[QUOTE=NoVa Sk8r] And I'm hoping to maybe take
a few spin lessons with an awesome coach in Maryland. <crosses fingers>>[QUOTE]

Don't tell me that it's Bobbe Shire ?!

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

[QUOTE=Terri C]Yes yes yes ... isn't she awesome? If anyone can give me those much sought after Lambiel-, Buttle-, or Jahnke-like spins, it would be her! I'm hoping to snag her for this Monday?

__________________
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.

Love: My Double loop is actually getting closer to me landing it!! Also got my showcase for fun club ready finally

Loathe: My axel.....gone again.... had it 2 weeks ago actually landed....now gone again. My pairs routine for fun club........we dont even have music

__________________
Hurrah for Desert Skaters! YAY for Jeff Buttle and Virtue and Moire!

Glad to hear your loop has *continued* its existence, Terri. Mine decided to cease existence at the competition and has resumed its existence beginning, oh, last Thursday. Actually, I'm really focusing on pushing my foot under and bending to get a strong edge for takeoff. It has been quite a revelation (oh, that's what a BO edge feels like! ) - lol!

You'll have to keep us posted about your lesson with Bobbe Shire, NoVa. She is going to be one of the coaches at my club's skater's workshop in June. Actually, we're opening registration to non-members starting on March 1 - I'll keep everyone here posted on that.

Let's see...

Love: Well, my loop has returned, but still needs improvement. Sit spin has returned, too. I was working on trying to get it lower today. Is it a good sign that my free leg kept hitting the ice? My coach has me starting work on a layback spin and an inside spread eagle. I think it's going to be a while for those. We also worked on forward and back crossovers (at high speed!) to try to resolve my stepping-over problem once and for all.

Loathe: Backspin, and power 3's - can't decide which is more frustrating right now.

At practice today, one of the skaters was playing the Eva Cassidy CD w/ "Fields of Gold" on it. As she said, it was good music to play during practice - mellow, to counteract frustration.

Good luck to everyone competing at Easterns/Winter Classic this weekend!

Edited to add that I forgot about the Wash FSC club comp this weekend! Good luck to NoVa and anyone else competing there!

__________________
Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Debbie- if your free leg is hitting the ice in a sit spin it means you are leaning forward from your shoulders and probably hunching over in your back to get that "feeling" of being lower, rather than lowering from the spinning knee itself. I used to do that ALL the time. It's quite a different feeling once you really start using your leg. It should feel like your leg is about to give, and you just have to hold it. And then get to the next lowest point when you feel your leg is going to give (it won't, most of the time). Also, turn your foot out, if you keep it with your toe pointing at the ceiling, the only way it won't hit the ice is if you are spinning completely parallel to it a la Jenny Kirk/Tara Lipinski. Turning it out will prevent it from hitting the ice (even if you hunch over).

I know you didn't ask for advice but sit spins are my favorite so I wanted to try and help anyways, hopefully it isn't unwelcomed advice. Good luck working on it.

Love: Flips, most definitely.

Loathe: Camel-one foot spin-backsit-backspin. i *always* fall on the backsit or backspin. sigh.

Loathe: i drove all the way to the rink this morning, got up 2 hours earlier than i would have otherwise needed, only to find out my first private lesson was cancelled. i never got a call about it, but one of her other students said she's been sick. oh well.

love: since i got back to campus so early, i got an awesome parking spot, and i'm hoping to be able to drag my friend to the outdoor rink tonight.

[QUOTE=NoVa Sk8r]
WAHHHH!! WAHHH!!! One of the disadvantages of living in the sticks (skating wise).
Actually, I had a seminar with her once and she told me that I was a wimp when it came to the camel.
You DO NOT need a spin lesson with her- I do!!!

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

Loved: Think we've got our free dance sorted - we worked very hard on the bit that's giving us trouble today. But I think we'd better go on working on it, all the same..... Husband actually lifted me, off the ice - what a weird feeling!

Loathed: Half-term! Place was packed out... might go down tonight, we'll see. Forgot to practice our couples spins. Did work on solo spin and nearly fell over, but did manage one good one, I think.

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

Neither, really: Skated last night but piddled around a lot of the time. On the other hand, my new improved flying sit takeoff is starting to come together.

Loved: Looking forward to a lesson with a different coach tomorrow morning. Sometimes a change of pace/new perspective is just what I need.

Loathed: Going away tomorrow afternoon and will be off the ice for almost a week. No pairs for almost two weeks ! The first time back after that break should be ...interesting.

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

Hmmm ... I need to work on mine. How cool would side-by-side flying sit spins be?

You bring the crash pads; I'll bring the ibuprofen.

__________________
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.

Love: the nice bite of my brand new blades, fabulous run of the blade and just that rip.

Loathe: Relearning everything on those blades 3 weeks before mids. But--I did get the axel solid, the double sow and most of my spins are centered but only @ 1/2 speed.

Also love: learned 14 step today, did it w/ pro he said it was good, promptly taught the the Foxtrot to keep me in check.

such is life.

la

Thanks for the tips, fadedstardust. Yep, I tend to lean forward a lot so I'm sure it's the same with the sit spin. I also think my free leg doesn't have enough strength to stay up - at least it feels that way - it always seems to want to drop - essentially I'm fighting with my leg and the leg is winning.

Oh well, practice, practice, practice, I guess.

__________________
Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

Love: I am going to get love handles if I don't get to skate! Managed a few little axels on a public session at Cary Ice House Sat. Then it got too crowded to practice much else other than the easier spins.

Loathe: This morning I drove all the way to Raleigh and realized I'd left my skates at home. Relatives visited this past weekend and I'd taken the skating suitcase out to make room in my car. Paid my coach and got to work early, though traffic on 440 and I-40 wasn't too good. Didn't get to skate Sun. or Monday either due to relatives visiting. Maybe I'll get up early enough tomorrow to skate at Hillsborough!

Love: my new 5/8 ROH on my blades! The difference is very subtle, but nice-after getting them back and skating for 2 hours stopping was no problem and I could spin and do 3-turns and stuff.

Loathe: the flu! We have been passing it around at our house and though I haven't had it real bad, I've been so daggone tired! Haven't even done any public skating these past 2 weeks--only done enough to get by with rehearsals and such...

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

Loathe: I had an asthma attack 10 minutes before I was due to leave for skating this morning, and it's my last lesson for a week (Coach is going to Dallas ISI Winter Classic). Made it in time for my lesson, but my lungs were kind of sore from the attack, so I didn't run through any programs.

Love: Coach is a genius! We have been working very hard on edges, both forward and backward, so she made up some neat edge moves and footwork for me to work on without having my lungs work too hard. One was kind of a rocker jump from forward right over left crossovers - you just hop from a left forward outside edge to a right backward inside edge. At first I said "Are you CRAZY!!!!!", and then after about 10 minutes I was able to do it. Coach knows me, I will call her crazy, and then go ahead and do it - if she thinks I can, then I can.

(edited to fix a typo)

Love:

The jumps were awesome today- including the loop! Got good feedback from Coach as she watched my New Years Invitational video last night- but forgot to bring it back to the rink to give to me today- oh well!

Loathe


Still, my scratch and backscratch spins. I have a bad habit of snapping my free leg too soon on the sit, so I'll have to retime it, which is a frustrating pain! Backscratch, well, I'm too late snapping the upper body. UGH!
Oh and the ice was it's usual chewed up self at 4:30 when I got on today!

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

It's totally your call but I used to have a coach who did this to me periodically and I know how frustrating it is. It's NOT hard to call someone to let them know, especially if they let others know about it, and especially if this was your first lesson. If she keeps doing this to you, it might get harder to respect her and rely on her/trust her judgement (I know it was for me, eventually I ended up not showing up or showing up late just to get back at her for doing it to me so often), so maybe you'd be better off finding someone more reliable. Not calling and standing you up on your FIRST lesson is absolutely unexcusable unless she was rushed to the E.R. which she obviously wasn't since other students knew she wasn't coming. It's not a great sign of things to come, especially for you and your hectic schedule.

well, i talked to her later and she sounded so upset. i felt bad actually. she kept apologizing and apologizing. the other girl's mother who takes lessons from her said she's usually very reliable. if it gets to be a habit, then yea, i'll find somebody. but i things happen to everyone, no? it may have just been coincidence that it was going to be my first lesson. but she normally teaches during the freestyle session immediatly before the public when i'd take my lessons, so she should be there already.

Love: The beginning of the session!!! LOTS of free space!!! And I could actually practice stroking around the rink... Both my power 3's are at least consistent...not ready for testing, but consistent. I had one skating judge look (who's also a fellow skater buddy of mine.) He said "You just need to fix the FI mohawk on the 5 step mohawk and you're just fine..." YIPPEEE!!! Step 4 is FINALLY fixed!!!

Loathe: The end of the session. They put more cones around and there were more kids that showed up to warm up prior to the afternoon FS session... And my FI mohawks are still pathetic!!! Ball of my forward spin foot is hurting again after skating... Time to practice those backspins!!!

Well, folks!!! We'll see when this year I'll be taking that Bronze Moves test again. I hope it's soon though.

__________________
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!!!

Loathe: The step after the Fiesta Mohawk! I am off-balance, very slightly, and when I am in hold I simply can't control the foot, so it goes down far too early and I get no push into the next step. This was also happening in my waltz 3s in my lesson. Not that my foot was going down too early, but early enough that I wasn't getting a decent push. Coach wanted me to focus on speed, which is fine, don't mind that, but then he wanted pushes & checks as well..... I said he could have one or the other, but not both!

Also loathe: Husband's posture - wish he'd do something about it. Having a backache. Being so cold.....

Love: Well, tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, but I think I may have had a breakthrough on my back cross-cuts. Coach told me to focus on pressing down the heel of the foot I was on, and I was actually getting some flow out of it. Coudn't quite keep it up, but I think this may just be it at long last. Coach said back cross-rolls much improved, but I still can't really do them by myself.

When I got on the ice, it was really smooth & fast, and I did the fastest lap of back outside edges (well, sort-of edges) I've ever done, and was able to hold an edge longer than ever before. Back inside edges are even faster - it's so lovely to be able to go backwards fast at long last! When I was doing the Swing Dance with my husband before he had to go, I really pulled in my middle going into the intro-3, and was off at warp speed, with him running down the ice after me going "Where are you going?"

Coach says my skating is improving very fast now. "You were on a plateau for a long time, but you're off it now!"

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

Love: I can do a beautiful centered scratch spin, and am working on my sit spin.

Loathe: my toes always seem to be in the ice, especially on cross-overs, my coach is having me do a waltz jump over and over, and threatening to pull me out of competition if they dont straighten up!!!! help!

~kittie

I had a lesson today,
Love: I arrived like half hour early and did come practising that was ok, some camels and lutzes were not so bad.
Loathe: My eville coach had me doing some strange exercise were you go back wards and jump from one foot to another and then you have to do a double three, I had a very scary fall on my hands, I was really scared, I think I'm still a little scared right now,