Happy Leap Year's Day everyone! Hence the title of this week's thread.

Leaping: Finally got the steps to the Festival Quickstep sorted out, as our friends (and fellow-competitors) were there, and I know they know it! The ice was empty when we got on - not as many people as usual, and some folk were late - so we were able to get all our exercises "done and dusted" long before our lesson. Therefore, in our lesson, apart from one or two exercises, we focussed on some pairs work. My coach insists that a "pairs interpretive", even when known as "Small Group Artistic" or "Hot ice", has to have some pairs elements in it! Yeah, right - what he means is, he likes teaching pairs! Which, to be fair, is his first love.

Our spirals were actually okay - Robert was even impressed by mine. We have a couple of side-by-side spirals, one of which will (I hope) be made to look vulgar..... the other of which will end with him doing a 3-turn into a back spiral as I sink down into a teapot. We will have to see what the music wants.

Splat! He hadn't cut our music for us, but hopes to do so tomorrow. Our cross-rolls in Foxtrot hold were terrible! We can do a few, but not a whole length yet. As for pairs spins, let's not even go there..... And on one of our pivot spirals, he really did go "splat!"

All the same, it was fun!

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

~Leaping~ -Finally!, Im landing my jumps without putting my foot down at the end (not holding it)!!!!
It was a really bad habit but I got out of it and me and my jumps feel a whole lot better!

~Splat~ My camel spin wasn't the best today, not getting my leg high enough but my coach says it will still pass because its 5 revs!

First time I've replied to one of these threads in a looooooooooooooong time!

Leaping: I have been practicing on ice for 8 of the last 9 days. I had a competition yesterday at a local skating club, and won two golds and a silver! All of the medals were especially sweet:

Gold #1: Adult Artistic. I competed against my friend, who is a silver skater. She was superb, and I thought, what the hey, just go out out there and have fun, because there's no way you can beat that. We sweated out the results for a half hour, only to find that we TIED for first! One judge tied us, and we split the other two. WE bounced around the warming area chanting "we're #1!"

Gold #2: Compulsories. Wow, is it hard to go out there and skate in silence, where the judges can hear every scrape of your toepick.

Silver: freestyle. I was a happy second to my friend April, who is working on Silver while I'm still toiling in bronze. I was accepting of the fact I would probably get bronze: I was tired (skating on hour 9 at the rink), and ran out of time to finish my program, leaving out my half loop, spread eagle and final spin. But I received many compliments from people I hadn't expected to hear them from. I was told I had poise on the ice, looked elegant, skated extremely well with my music, and that my speed had improved dramatically in the last year. My coach was beside herself that I did 4 revolutions in my backspin, although I had to fake an exit out of it. I was pleased to have skated that well in front of other coaches from my rink and esp. my synchro coach. Good day!

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Champagne in 2005, 2008, 2009 - who's next out of the pre-bronze club...?

Wang chung!

Congrats on a great day, Mel !!!

Leaping: I skated at a competition today. I had three goals. 1 - to not pop either axel; 2 - to continue to improve my presentation; 3 - to have fun. I did accomplish all three, and they did give me the gold *** See fine print . We had a good talk with the judges, and got some very good feedback on the program - things we can use getting ready for sectionals.

Splatfest: That was my program . Fell 3 times. I landed a beautiful axel, and a beautiful double sal in warm up, but not in the program. At least I got into the air on all three - just lost my edge on the landing. Looking at the tape there was no real reason for two of the three falls (the 2sal had no chance). I'm not feeling too good today (I might be coming down a cold or something), and I think I used up most of my energy in the warm up. Oh well.

Kristin skated a very nice interp. She's brave - she was skating with the kids! She definitely held her own (I don't know where she finished, because I left before results came out). Yeah Kristin!!!

***Fine print: I got the gold because I was the only skater in my group LOL! It was actually an exhibition, but one of the competition folks said I could have a medal if I wanted one. I thought "what the heck?" It's a pretty one

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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

Leaping: Well, I'm not quite leaping yet, but I am FINALLY back on the ice again!!! And it IS GOOD to be back too!!! I managed to get back most of my moves (outside of forward power 3's, see below...)

Splat: Thankfully, no splats today, though I came close a few times. My leg is still not healed enough where I can jump (which is expected.) But I also found that it's also not healed enough to do LFO3 either! It's QUITE painful to do them in fact, so I didn't continue after the first try!!! The most I could work with on the forward power 3's is to do them on the side that isn't injured. WAAAAAH!!!!! Probably this won't be healed for at least another week.

I'm wondering whether or not I should go back to taking lessons now, or wait 'til I'm well enough to do LFO3's again. I could do the other Bronze moves elements okay. (Slightly hesitant though...)

HOORAY to Mel and sk8er1964!!!

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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!!!

Had lesson Sunday late afternoon but spent some time catching up on rink issues, discussing our impressions of SOI we saw Friday eve, and coach's impression of a PSA MIF seminar by Ms. Tamares. MIF tape spurred coach to reword some information including description of rotation for 3-turns, etc. Sometimes it is the changing of a word that suddenly makes something miraculous happen. This change was a lightbulb for me.

Leaping: I have been looking at my ice tracings the past few weeks on my 3's as I work on getting my inside 3's smooth and effortless. New description is to think about turning shoulders inward and 'hips turn out of the circle.' That did it! Just that little extra thinking of turning my hips out cleaned up my tracings and made me more stable throughout the turn!

Splat: Still can't get my weight to stay over my skating leg when I start a spin and swing my free leg around. There is a fear factor that causes me to bend my free leg rather than swing it around and even then do not like bringing it next to my skating leg. Grrrrr!

Congrats to all those who had such positive competitions experiences this past week!! And to Jazzpants - starting up lessons might be a good idea (you can always focus on what you physically can do and buff it to a gleam)for your psyche unless you think the limitation will be too frustrating for you, and if your coach will abide by your limitations at this time.

WAY TO GO, MEL!!!!

I was there to watch Mel's freestyle. She was terrific!!!

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I skated on Saturday but only actually got on the ice for half an hour! It was a 1hr-long session and I arrived about 1 minute after it started - and then had to spend 20 minutes queueing up to pay. Oh well, half an hour was better than nothing I suppose.

Skated today too, for an hour.

Leaping:

LBO spiral (which I need for my silver Star test) was better. Coach just wants me to lower my upper body more, and it felt better today. I'm still not as 100% confident as I want to be on it, but I guess it just needs more practice to be more solid.

My stroking felt quite nice too. I ran through the dance moves for the bronze Star test, felt pretty ok. I have a dance lesson tomorrow.

Splat:

Splatted on a LBO3!!!!! Eek. Normally my most consistent and fave back 3. Got up and did some more though. Both LBO3 and RBO3 were being a bit screwy, but were behaving themselves by the end of the session. BI3s were ok too.

Spins were travelling again

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

Congratulations to Mel & Skater1964!

Splat
Another lonely day at the freestyle that I used to attend with hubby. I've got to get used to it. The ice had big bumps from the cleaning fluid they used to clean the glass. In spite of two ice cuts, it was still pretty bad. Had a long talk with my coach. She can finally sometimes come to the Monday freestyle again, but she does not consider it worth her while for just one lesson I understand, and may take some hour lessons in desperation.

One foot spin seems to be coming back, but I gave it up after I felt I was slipping getting into it from a pivot.

Leaping
I've skated on worse ice in that rink, and they let us skate for free today because of the ice!

I forced myself to do the prelim F crossovers 3 times because they felt so bad, and I'm starting to get scared of them. By the third time, I felt like I was finally really skating. Worked FO threes with the usual results, but less fear. Towards the end of the session, I got disgusted with my fear of FI threes and somehow managed to convince myself to do some small ones down the long axis, still close to the wall though. I actually got them going and did 7 or 8 of each R & L. This is a major improvement for me! Back power pulls were really smoking and F ones were better than last week.

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*Splat* Fell on something (don't even remember what now) and bruised more my already hurt right hand. The part just below my thumb is all blue and puffy now...driving home sucked because it hurt to hold the steering wheel.

I tried some BI3 and they seemed too complicated so I didn't bother with them. I'll try to work on them more next week.

Spins are getting a bit better, but I'm still having trouble finding the sweet spot and keeping my balance past 3-4 revs. Tracings show that my spins travel a mile too...blah

*Leaping*
I was the only person on the ice for the first 15-20 mins of the session! Newly mady ice and all....wish that happened more often! It's so weird when you can hear every single thing your blades do. It was just the sound of my blades (sometimes scratchy) and the noise the lights made.

Salchows were especially good today, only 1 or 2 forward landings!

Half loops have gotten better, but I wish I got more height. I worked on FI 3 half loops which my coach said would help me with my full loop.

BO3 are coming along. This was my second time practicing them and I got about 60% consistency. Just gotta remember to stay on my heel after the turn. Running 3s are desent on my right foot, now my left is a different story...

Leaping: i *almost* landed a double flip today i was totally around, and on the right foot, but i was in a shoot the duck position for landing (i wasnt expecting to land fully around!!)
also, leaving on thursday for nationals!!!

splat: no more freeskate sessions for quite a few weeks now. DARN too! now that my double flip is soooo close!

Leaping My coach has cut our pairs interpretive/artistic pairs/small group interpretive/hot ice - in other words, Robert's and my "funny". I have played it over once at the rink, and plan to go back there tonight to work on choreographing it with Robert.

Splat Only skated for 30 minutes this morning, and didn't do much! That's because I plan to skate this evening, though. Coach still hasn't cut my solo funny yet, but I know what I'm doing, and have the costume 3/4 planned.

Forgot to buy batteries for my Walkman, which is a bore, but I can get some on my way down to the rink this evening.

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

Leaping:

I landed some really good axels today! No double salchows... i cramped my left leg while trying them... because i rested my ankle (which got slightly worse after nationals)
I also did some good toe-loops... which i have been working on forever.
Spins were ok... but i coudnt do much after cramping the calf muscle

The highlight of the day was watching this incredible skater skate... being in singapore... its like figure skating desert... so even though she wasn't a world class skater but it was really exciting to see good skating live

Splat:
Well just had to cramp up the muscle so I didnt accomplish much after that. Fell on my knee on one of the earlier axels... hope the bruise wont be too bad.

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~
Tidesong

Leaping:

I passed all 4 elements on the Bronze Star dance test and one of the ones on the silver! (Didn't have time to go through the other silver moves). Woohoo! (And on my back serpentine chasses, coach told me my BO edges were good )

RBO3 a bit better after not being that great earlier in the session. I couldn't seem to hold the BO edge for very long before turning, but I did a few just before my lesson and they were better. BI3s were alright too.

LBO spiral was better. Still not sure if my upper body is lowered enough - I checked in the glass, and it was above parallel, but didn't look too bad. My free leg height looked alright too, slightly above parallel, and the edge/control was better. (Apart from on one when I felt like I was about to tip over forwards! Eek.)

Splat:

Spins. Also didn't do any jumps.

My left knee has started hurting a bit again. It was fine while I was on the ice, but has started to hurt since I got off. The pain is just above and to the side of my kneecap, on the right hand side.

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

Hee hee, when I first glanced over at this thread I thought it said Learning to splat!

Splat: Which is what I've been doing lately. I had a huge one on my double sal today. My feet flew out from under me and I landed right on my stomach. Boy did that hurt.

My axel hates me. Even my friend comfirmed it. Maybe I'm just working too hard on it to get it consistant. Because it has gone back to being two-footed. But I think that part of the reason is just because I was dead tired today.

Leaping: We finshed my program today! It's so pretty. Really. It is.

Leaping

I made it back on the ice for the first time today since my rib injury three weeks ago. I had a lesson with my coach as I needed to have someone there with me for the first time back, just to help me with my confidence. She didn't make me do anything too tricky so I was let off my dreaded bronze field moves, but I did some of the lower level ones instead. I managed to land each jump through to lutz and did all my spins with no problems.

Splat

Nothing much was bad about my skate other than the fact that it felt a bit weird to be back on the ice. However by the end of the morning I could feel my confidence return.

Nicki

Leaping:

Paso cross-rolls to the music. Well I did them. I kept up with the music but they probably weren't spectacular. OTOH, first time I've done the cross-rolls solo to music, in lesson, so I guess that's progress. Right now, coach has me doing the cross-rolls down ice, then doing the swing and holding, not yet venturing into the change-edge mohawk alone.

Some of my leg lifts in the Blues are getting better...or at least more comfortable...even solo.

Bronze MIF were pretty good today. The run-throughs are getting better although I am still mentally exhausted at the end of the 5-step. I stumbled about halfway though the right side of the forward power 3's (probably right in front of the judges) but picked up and kept going. But that's part of the training... Coach probably should have had me go back out after finishing the 5-step and skate the forward power 3's again, to simulate a re-skate.

Splat:

Literally. Caught an edge doing the flare in the Blues before what should have been the LFI for the choctaw. Went down on my backside. Luckily I had enough momentum that I slid a bit, so no jolting of the back up through the spine.

Leaping: I've skated twice since I last posted, last night and this evening. Last night was mainly me and Robert trying to choreograph our new funny. We have the first three bars done, anyway! And a highlight, but we need to find out where it goes - there is a place for it, I know! It's rather good, actually - I turn away from him so I'm standing directly in front of him, then he does a back hydroblade clockwise round the circle, and I do a forwards one anti-clockwise, and we meet again 180 degrees round the circle and come upright, possibly into a pairs spin (not if I can help it!!!).

Lesson this morning was great - everything worked well, and the coach showed me what I was doing wrong in the Festival Cha-cha 3-turn, which actually may go a long way towards explaining why I can't do 3-turns at speed!

Splat: Splat, what's splat???? I'm much too happy right now..... Oh, perhaps skating again tonight is a splat, since I'm rather tired, but I'll manage, and enjoy, an hour or so!

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

Leaping: Being back on the ice after about a 10 day break! I've been skating well this week, too. Sometimes a break helps! My coach has been deconstructing all my crossovers to get me to the next level with them (which means in some cases just doing them more correctly ) and I think they have improved. The biggest thing was yesterday doing a left forward inside Mohawk out of a forward crossover into a back crossover out in the middle of the ice. It was fun and not as scary as doing a 3-turn with the same sequence. I know for most of you Mohawks are no big deal, but it took me a loooonnngggg time to get the hang of them. Stepping from a back outside edge to a forward outside edge is way easier for me than forward inside to back inside.

Also Leaping: I gave my coach two song choices for my new interpretive program and he liked both of them at first listen. I think tonight we will pick one and he said we'd start working on it next week. So that will be fun. And I did a great job cutting them, too, if I do say so myself. Coach was pretty impressed.

Splat: My toe loop and salchow. Not literally, but improving them is hard. We're going to do them in the harness tonight.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

Leaping: As always, the dance club session at Alexandra Palace was enormous fun; in the class, we worked on the Starlight waltz. I do wish I could do that dance, but it really is, sadly, too hard for my ability level just now. But I like to do the steps, and practice them. Am really working out where my posture needs to be to be able to do a combination of cross-roll-swing following by a 3-turn; this was something my coach pointed out yesterday morning, that I was allowing my left hip to drop, and I reckon that if/when I get it right, I may even lose my fear of turning at speed. We shall see.

Splat: Realised about half-way through the evening that a major problem right now is stamina. I can do everything exactly the way I want it for maybe 3/4 lap, or 1.5 patterns of a 1/2 lap dance - and then it all goes splat. This is going to be nasty work, I can see it coming!

Am horrendously stiff today; not sure that I really want to dance tonight.

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

Leaping:
Managed 2 revolutions on my backspin Sunday. I also did a correct exit (usually I put down my other foot and stumble out of it - Terri C and others who saw me compete at Ashburn know what I mean)

Got about 2 revs on my camel spin, and in the correct position too - with my legs straight and free leg at hip level.

Getting closer to the loop - any year now...

Got a little bit lower on my sit spin than usual, but it's still got a ways to go.


Splat:
On my breakthrough backspin exit, I gashed my spinning leg with my skate blade as I pushed my free foot back.

I thought I had a breakthrough with my alternating FO 3s, andmy coach says they look a little better, but I still can't stay on the inside edge on the right foot for the entire lobe. I wanted to be able to test pre-Bronze MIF at the end of the month, but my coach wants my elements to all be at passing level by the entry deadline, and they're not. I could have a breakthrough by next week, but I'm not counting on it. I'm feeling very frustrated - it seems that all I ever do is practice 3 turns these days, and I'm not seeing great improvement. And my goal to compete in the Chesapeake Open is in jeopardy. Maybe I'll shoot for Wilmington.

Splat - saw one of my group lesson teachers at the mall and screamed rather loudly. when i saw him at the rink on tuesday i had to go and hide.

Leaping - getting closer on axels. i still can't cross my legs over eachother but i have the rotation. camels and camel-sits are getting good. lutzes are consistant. um... thats about it

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<333

You are allowed a brief touch down of the free foot before stepping forward on this move. If that's what you are doing, then you are ready.

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Nope, no such luck. I drop my free foot almost automatically about 2 seconds after the turn. It's only the right turn, though - the LFOs are fine. I was thinking it might be b/c I do LFO 3s more often in practice and in my program as a transition move. So in practice yesterday, when I got tired of doing 3s along the line, I started doing RFOs into spins and crossovers, just to get more comfortable with the turn. Hey, I'll try anything.

That's my problem on the 2sal and 2toe. It drives me nuts!

__________________
"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