Griping: No lesson for Husband this morning, as the coaches are in Paris. He spent about 30 minutes working on his various elements and free, while I played around with my dance moves, with singular lack of success. It seems that the main problem is that if I bend my knees while trying to go backwards, I hunch forwards and end up, needless to say, on my toes. Need to get the coach to help me address this on Tuesday.

Reverse Kilian hold still giving trouble, and we did a really dire Canasta Tango. It needs work. As does our 14-step - Husband needs to slow right down so he doesn't get ahead of me. "You mean, practically to a standstill?" he said. "Yes, exactly!" said I, rather to his surprise - he'd expected me to be cross! But right now I am more concerned with being able to do the 14-step than how fast we do it!

Grinning: Work in ordinary Kilian is coming along, as is waltz hold. We did one of the best Swing Dances we've ever done - oddly better on the bit that I go backwards on, which is unusual. We also did a half-decent Dutch Waltz, which was just as well as someone was following us around trying to get the steps into her head!

Husband did a couple of really good spins, but like so many of us, he has trouble looking over the proper shoulder! When he does, his spins are super.

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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!

Griping:
Free skating: still the darn spin entry.
Dance: I'm getting more confident with my dances, but I still break at the waiste far too much

Grinning:
FINALLY it feels like my flip is improving. Today it really hit home the perhaps part of the reason for it's lack of height and general scrappiness was the fact that I've been doing the entry badly. Instead of doing a clean shallow RFI turn, stretching the picking foot back then 'vaulting' off the toe, I've been kinda scratching the toe-pick on the three-turn and jabbing the pick in the ice on a bent leg.
I think I'm getting...ooh, a whole exra inch in height lol!

S xxx

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There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness"

This is more coaching-related, but ...

Griping: One of my private students REFUSED to try out the half-done choreography of her program with the music on the loudspeaker. So I did it without her -- rather well, I might add! I really liked the spiral sequence I added, which she informed me that she "would not be doing." Too bad - her Mom's on my side!

Grinning: "Knee-slide boy" loved his music and his program. So far, he hasn't tried to put in any ice flops, but the ending calls for his going to sleep so there's always hope!

I'm getting better at that cross-foot spin and my CCW-to-CW spins. Fun, fun!

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Griping: My lesson today, less said the better - I guess some days are like that. Did pick up a few good things though.

Grinning: Better spins, though a slightly unorthodox entry at the moment...

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Skate Free

Too bad the lesson wasn't good.

Not to be a smart----, Sonic, but how do you do a flip from an inside three turn? Generally, it's an outside 3 or an inside mohawk since you have to be on an inside edge when you pick. Do you change feet after your 3? Just curiosity.

Griping: Double loop. Why oh, why, can I not just finish the rotation before I open up? Why when I do stay in, do I fall on the landing?

Grinning: Everything else. I love when the program goes mostly the way it's supposed to (darn double loop!).

Just guessing here, but since Sonic is from the UK, maybe she meant "cherry flip", which we call a toe loop?

Griping: Arrived at the rink yesterday morning, where I had a lesson that was rescheduled from Thursday, to find the doors locked and several people waiting outside. Someone tracked down the rink director, who was at a comp with her daughter about an hour away, and got the number of the guy who was supposed to open the rink, called him, and got no answer. Either he forgot and overslept or signals got crossed. I called my coach to let her know and then drove out to a rink further away to get there in time for their morning FS sessions. But no lesson - grrrr.

Grinning: The sessions at the far rink weren't crowded so I got the chance to practice moves and work on a lot of things. I also saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while, so it was nice to catch up. And I got to watch Pairman run through his 3:40 pairs program, sans Lovepairs, 3 times back to back.

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

Grinning:
Another great lesson! Coach praised my CW FXO's and had no criticism of them at all. I was able to keep my fear in check and do some decent FI threes in the lesson. These are better than my FO threes, but scare me more .

Griping:
I've been so hung up on getting the crossing foot smooth on the CCW FXO's that I let everything else go to pot, which resulted in catching my toepick on the under push and barely avoiding a fall. It was a wake up call that I was getting lazy with my under foot, and coach saw that in lesson and reminded me to point the toe, which reminder I also needed on BXO's. FO threes still improving but not yet properly checked. I quipped after an especially good one that I just needed to do a hundred of them every time I skate, and coach laughed and nodded yes.

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Gripe: Worked mostly on LFI Mohawks and turn sequences. Improvement? I don’t know - not as much as I would like.

Grin: I took my iPod and started working with my music, figuring out what works well and what doesn’t, so coach and I can start on the choreography for my Interpretive program Wednesday.

BIG Grin: I can see the potential for a very pretty and smooth routine if I stick with what I do well. It wouldn't be something that would make people "Ooo!" and "Ahhh" but maybe think "Wasn't that nice."

(After 10 months of busting my britches trying to learn to skate, it feels like it's on the verge of turning into something )

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

Isk8NYC: I imagine the patience you must have to be able to coach despite adolescent attitude. So glad that "knee slide boy" is yours too to help balance things out!

Rusty: Very exciting to be to the choreography stage!

Grinning: Feeling more confident with my jumps and reflectively am able to go for some height and a bit of speed too! This week started shaky but by the time my lesson hit the moon, stars and planets aligned or something. Even other coaches teaching at the same time had nice comments and I felt great about it. By the next day I was not going so well but today they were back and so much bigger than I am normally capable of. I just don't quite see what the difference to the days but was delighted to really feel height and speed. Will continue to work on these to see if I can get consistent with having more good jump days than not! Seems Wednesdays and Thursdays are my worst skating days, Fridays are Ok and best day are Sundays! Maybe because I get to skate more?

Going to try to take the pre bronze MIF and Freestyle in January....exactly one year from wall hugging starting! We will see!

Griping: Oh this silly little Christmas recital ice show! It is for LTS and is the most unorganized mess. I was so frustrated that the coaches had prepared nothing or coordinated nothing prior to taking the ice. They were barking out orders that were contradicting each other. I am trying to just go with the flow and keep my attitude in check. Not easy as I do not do well with chaos! Because I am in Bridge, we will be in all three nights of the shows. The freestyle one is slightly better than the bridge one but is only one of the nights and also very messy. So many of my friends and family want to come see it but I fear that to allow them would only confirm their belief that I am spending too much of my time and money on this. I would prefer they wait until I am doing a program or something more interesting than this! This is going to be a just smile and get through it kind of thing!

Grinning:
Finally made peace with Bronze moves, with a little over 2 weeks to go until test day. We'll see how nitpicky the coaches can be this week.
Started re-visiting my freestyle program (sans music) and worked on the first 5-10 seconds of it. I managed to hit the loop twice then. We've moved the loop to the beginning for testing reasons.

Griping:
Arrived at the rink to find a full parking lot. Apparently, there was a HUGE Girl Scout group skating again today and they had our regular rink, so we were placed in what I refer to as the "meatlocker rink" or "the dungeon."

Could not spin today at all- I think I'm catching a cold.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Grinning:
Practice at sky rink today wasnt the best, not only my left boot was feeling loose now but also my right. I could pick up my heel within the boots. So the more I skate I did not feel any support whatsoever. I tried spinning and I was all over the ice traveling. Sigh Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I will be looking for something to stuff into my boots tonight, a thin piece of cardboard most likely.

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Tim David's Website

WOW! That's impressive! I started in January as well and am nowhere near any jumps! You're doing GREAT!

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

Grinning: coach tested me on ISI freestyle 2....and after asking for a reskate on my 1/2 lutz, she passed me. Now I'm ready to skate up in my competitions.

Griping: I am still tired from this stupid cold, so I got off the ice about 45 minutes early. Just didn't feel like skating. I was warm enough, just didn't have "it" today. Ate some lunch and felt a bit better. I will be glad when I've caught up on all my sleep....

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

Rusty: You are doing well too. I pushed myself by taking a ton of classes in addition to the coaching. I don't think I gave it much pre thought but there is really no reason to rush through.

Skate@ Delaware: Congrats on passing! The 1/2 lutz is not my favorite either. I tend to pick weird on it and get off the edge a second before take off. I really need to do more of them but since it is not my favorite, I tend to leave it out of my practice! eeek! Fantastic that you can now skate up and do some of your other skills!

Thanks, Dallas! I don't know if I like the 1/2 lutz, but I also had to do a 1/2 toe walley and a ballet jump, which I really liked!!! I didn't like them before but now I do.

I had to reskate the 1/2 lutz because I was on the inside edge on takeoff...how she could tell from halfway across the rink I'll never know!!!

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

Congrats to Skate@Delaware and DallasSkater - way to go!
S@D: FWIW, I really enjoyed skating Freestyle 2. Hated FS3, so I tested through it to get to FS4.
Did you have to do a program for the test, or was it elements only?


Griping:
I had NO STUDENTS today (1 sick, 1 cancel, 1 no show, 1 empty slot ) and a crowded public session. Sk8pics - they must have called six birthday parties for pizza! I was so happy since everytime they announced a birthday, fifteen people left the ice!

Practiced all my jumps, but I'm not landing flips or loops yet. Couldn't try a lutz-way too many people. Didn't bother with MITF, other than practicing the CW patterns when they reversed the skater traffic direction.

Grinning:
Since I had no one to teach, I decided to skate! I put on my iPod (one ear only) with a headband and worked on the choreography for my students' solo programs. Added a knee slide in at the end of one program for the boy mentioned above and it worked really well, so that skater will be happy! One of the guards was funny - he asked me if I was "all right." Manic gestures, erratic skating patterns, and frantic writing - the poor hockey boy must've thought I was ill! LOL

I also started working on a freestyle program for myself. Not sure what I'll do with it, but it was fun and I looove the music.

Waltz jump, salchow, and toe loop are all fine, even in various combinations. The flip and loop will take time and practice, but they feel correct. More height and alignment will help.

Maniacal Grinning:
My spins were excellent today, for some reason. In chatting with one of my (former) students, she made a statement that it was "too crowded" for her flying camel. Let's just say she's a bit delusional. Once the crowd got really thin, I walked through a flying camel, just for laughs. I did a little jump, landed it and spun. The tracings were perfect! You could have knocked me over with a feather, I was so surprised that I could still do a FC! I was overjoyed and finished the session by doing one after the other, along with a few camel-change-camels and camel-sit combos!

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This is entirely off-topic, but only AOSS sufferers would appreciate the story.

At one point at today's session, I was working on jumps. Very difficult because of the crowd, so I decided to do my entry through the middle and jump on the outside of the cones. As I went through the first time, I thought I heard someone say "Stay out of the middle!" Decided I was hearing things, yet there was the voice again on the next jump! Bizarre.

On my third jump, this little punk skates up and tells ME to stay out of the middle. I asked him who he was and his reply was that he "works at the rink." HE WAS (MAYBE) TEN YEARS OLD! I gave him a lecture about the center being for figure skaters and coaches on lesson. Then I pulled rank since I've been on staff at that rink for years. (My best line: "I didn't see you at the Staff meeting!")

He apologized and took his sorry *** out of the center.

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Congrats S@D!!!

DallasSkater: Go for it on the Pre-Bronze MIF and FS test if you feel ready for it. (Pssst... we got to figure out a way to trick SpaMama to come out on the ice with 'ya...)

Terri C: WOO HOO!!! Keep going!!! You'll be a Bronze Lady soon, so hang tight!!!

ISk8NYC: I love it when you can "pull rank" on snotty little brats!!! Tee hee hee... Okay, I have to ask... how come you don't like skating ISI FS 3??? Is it that dreaded change foot spin that drives most skaters crazy???

Griping:

• Jumps!!!! Just don't have it in me today. I think I'm also coming down with a cold or something. Feel heavy! Just don't have much energy.
• Camel spin: Still struggling along with it, though it was better once the ice was resurfaced.

Grinning:

• Starting to get FO mohawks, well, barely! It's a hoppy one but it's a legit one. Now to make it a smoother one.
• I played around with 8 step mohawks b/c of that and it's not bad for a start.
• Backspins are actually better now. I was playing around with a drill that secondary coach had me do and it actually made it a bit better spinning wise.
• Back sit still sucks though... I'll continue working on backspin from a BI pivot to get used to the change foot part.
• Trying for BO pivot per my last lesson and it's starting to take shape a bit. I hope to get this one since I could always use more neat footwork tricks!
• Finally home and resting!!! I *REALLY* need the rest!!! AHHHH!!! (Boy, am I *BEAT*!!! )

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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!!!

Nah, I've had good spins since my flip/loop debacle when I first started taking lessons.
I hated the pivots and the dance step sequence on FS3. Not that FS4's footwork was pleasurable. Plus, I had to do it for two years until I mastered the axel. That FS5 footwork really sucks, but I have an absolutely lovely RFI bracket to show for it!

The bonus was that I avoided competing against a good friend for an entire season because I was on a different test level. (We had had a bit of friction on FS1 because we were constantly against each other in competitions.) Friends are more important, right?

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You go Girl! We shall be seeing you in the Gallery soon!

Jazzpants, yes it is that Da** change foot spin that is FS3 Hades! I would pass the darn thing if it weren't for the "backspin" part.

Grinning:
Great skate yesterday (19th here in Oz, so it qualifies for this week's thread). The ice was perfect - smoooth, not too hard, not too mushy. Such a rare occurence it was bound to put me in a good frame of mind.

Did some decent scratch spins for a change, reasonable sits, and even a couple of better than usual camels - but only while carrying on a conversation with another adult skater.

Jumps weren't too bad. Loop is actually improving, and I did some okay
toe-loop/loop combos. Yay! Salchows, well, they only vary in their degree of suckiness really. Flip, @$*#*&^# but made some progress at last.

Griping:
Nah, for once it was all too good to gripe, though I could find something to gripe about, I'd rather remember it as the one day of 2006 the ice was perfect for me.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Thanks! Yes, I had to do a "program"....so we ran through the elements all slapped together, then put some music on.

Not sure if I will skate ISI Freestyle 2 or Artistic 2....

Now for my griping:
I am going to be "stuck" at this level for a zillion years now...I don't have a decent backspin at all. We tried working on it and it's just not there yet. Not sure what the problem is. She says my hips and shoulders are "blocking" my rotation.... It would be so nice if things would just HAPPEN! I know what to do but my body isn't listening-I WANT to backspin and I've done it before (gotten about 4-6 revs); I WANT to land the loop on my right foot without putting my left one down but I'm having issues with that; I WANT to get the 1/2 lutz but it's just too weird right now; I WANT to have a sitspin that sits but I can't seem to get lower

...I work really hard but sometimes it's frustrating to look back and not make any progress on these things (yes there's progress but it's on other areas). Ok, I'm done.

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

Griping: Showed up at the rink this morning for the usual 6 am freestyle session, but the schedule had been changed and the rink was closed. My fault though, I should have checked beforehand.

Grinning: Good public session yesterday although it was very crowded. I had good RBI brackets skating around at speed in the crowd during the CW half of the session. These brackets are becoming a regular part of my public skating without even thinking about it. Last year I couldn't have done that.

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Bill Schneider

Love that story! In some ways, he's now looking out for your interests, keeping the middle clear of clowns
Lyle