[Pleasantly Surprised]
I did my first axel since spraining my ankle on Thursday It wasn't good, but I jumped! but....

[Mad at my Skates]
My ankle got better just in time for me to be off the ice for 2 weeks for training I'm going to try to get my butt out of bed on Mondays and Fridays to get to the rink, but no promises!

[Pleasantly Surprised]
Temporary coach gave me a test form for Saturday, September 26th....we are definitely going to test my Juv free and we are going to reevaluate Junior moves before September 5th when the form is due. Regular coach says go for both...

My rockers are getting better. When I go in the mornings, temp coach wants me to layout some figures to help with the rockers.

[Mad at my Skates]
Power pulls have gone down the toilet I really can't stand them...grrrr....

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Pleasantly Surprised:

(and it really was a surprise) I PASSED JUVENILE FS!!! YAY.
My coach and I both thought my skate was borderline and not as good as normal. I was slow and tentative, finished WAY late, had a really bad flip-toe, camel-backsit, and landing on the axel, along with a trip on my footwork... One of the judges also commented that my layback was an attitude... lovely.

But I did manage to finish without falling on anything. That counts for something, right?

Mad:

My coach is going to be out of town for the next week. I might be testing moves at the end of the month, but I'm not sure. But I think my coach may be out of town between now and when the test forms need to be in, so we'll see...

Hey, a pass is a pass, right? That's all that matters! Congrats!

Congratulations!!

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

We had no clue if I had passed of not after my skate. It was one of those "well, you didn't get a reskate, so either that was barely too bad not to justify it or just good enough that you didn't need it" kind of skates. And I had to wait forever for my test papers to come.

Thanks for the congrats!

congratulations!!!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Congratulations ! I would take the pass, don't over-analyse.


Surprised
haven't skated for a week, so it was good to be back on ice today.
overall I am a lot more confident on my skates, so having a week off wasn't too detrimental.

Basic jumps were okay, though a bit lacklustre. Scratches were okay, backspins not.

Mad
lacking energy, still feeling really off. H1N1 (aka Swine Flu) is really taking hold in our city, don't know if I'm getting it, but really not feeling that good.

A crowded session as lots of sports were cancelled due to recent flooding rain. And Bunny Hop, if you're reading this - 2 sleds of death on the ice at once! Now that is scary!

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

WHOOOOOT!

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It's all about the dress!

Wahoo! Congrats!

Pleasantly Surprised: Passed my pre-juv free! (Ok, not pleasantly surprised, I knew I was perfectly capable of passing this test). I did manage to pinch my sciatic nerve on my R side on Weds night though, which kept me off the ice Thursday (had to cancel my lesson) and Friday, so I was happy to get through it. For the most part it feels better, landing jumps still hurt a little.

It was a decent run-thru, certainly happy with it as a warm-up for Peach (which is the reason I was testing).

I got a little shaky in a few places, forgot a change I made to my footwork the other day (oh well, no one knew but me). I just need to remember to take the time to relax and enjoy my program, which I think will come a little more in a competition situation versus an empty rink w/3 judges.

Had to re-skate the lutz and the spin combo. Lutz was flutzed in my program because my coach stuck in footwork going into it that I'm not quite comfortable with yet, so the jump suffered. But it was fine (footwork-free entry) on the re-skate.

Also had to reskate the camel-sit because I brain farted in my program. The spin normally in that place is a sit-back sit but I had to put a camel-sit there for the test. I was thinking the normal way in my head, then remembered (duh) on the wind-up, so the camel was yuck and I couldn't get the sit spin low enough.

Judges liked my music and the program, and the new dress felt good.

Now to put the program back to normal for Peach.

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

congratulations!!!!

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

Pleasant

Enjoyed watching some high level visiting skaters on patch this morning but felt a bit inadequate skating on the same ice!

Practised couples free dance and were persuaded to do a complete runthrough with the music. Skating was a little wild but got some applause for our lift from the watching skatemums.

Some of the kids have now officially labelled me crazy!

mad

Rocker has gone to pot. Definitely needs work.
Disappointed to find no other couples in our upcoming competition.

YAY!!! Congrats on the pass!!!

congratulations!!

Now on to Juvenile!!!

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Pleasently Surprised: That I didn't fall the other night after realizing my blades needed a good sharpening!

While at the rink today, I asked to have my son's skates sharpened. Our regular sharpener asked me if my son was outgrowing his skates. I said, he was and he told me they might have some used skates that would work for my son. We ended up doing a straight trade, so my son now has some new(to him!) hockey skates and I didn't have to pay a dime for them! YIPPY. Every penny we can save is another one I can spend on ice time for myself, dd or ds' hockey!

I enjoyed skating on freshly sharpened blades today and was happy the public session was light. I enjoyed the time I spent on the ice with my daughter and son. It was a lot of fun watching them both skate. My son enjoyed his "new" skates. I think the fact that his toes weren't smashed anymore made him feel like he was a speed demon! He said his new skates helped him to skate faster! (He's 8). It was cute!

It also felt good to be out on the ice again. I haven't been skating as much as I did last year. I've been watching the kids skate more then skating myself. A lot of it has been because I haven't had the money for me to skate(dh was laid off for about 5 months of this yr). It was more important for the kids to skate, then me! Dh is back to work now so I am back on the ice! I skated twice this week.

Mad At My Skates:

Not really mad... just sometimes wish I had more money to spend so I could take private lessons. I'm kicking myself for not signing up for the adult class this session. I'm planning on signing up for the next session tho!

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skating mom to 3 angels on earth and 1 in heaven

Congratulations to all who have tested and passed their respective tests.

Mad at My Skates:

It wasn't until Friday that I almost got my skates right and so most of the week, I was skipping over the ice whenever I had to go on an outside edge both forward and backward on the right foot. On the left foot, I simple was short of the amount of edge I needed to have a good spiralling edge for spirals and forward spin entries. It was down right scary bad until Friday.

Pleasantly Surprised Friday:

Did an extra adjustment with the shims between my blades and boots to almost get the job right and instantly my jumps improved 80%. Upright and sit improved 70%. Camel improved 60%.

Coach has my skates and will be working on fixing the warp on both boots this weekend. Hopefully it won't take long to get use to having actual edges again. Haven't had real edges since my coach did my Graf Edmonton Specials in which I was able to get up to a 2 Salchow until getting injured at work which eventually got me off of the ice for a year and half.

With the surprise this week of doing a clean Lutz and fixing my skate problems, I hope to be taking my Junior Bronze dance Fiesta Tango this summer. I do think it's a little much though to try for the Swing as I have to fix the timing of the Mohawk and work on the back swing rolls. I know the steps for the Swing but I'm starting to think that I should try to test that in the fall. I may however start working on the Willow in the fall after I've passed the Fiesta Tango. I like to work on learning the steps one dance ahead on my own before doing it with my coach to save time and well, to help me memorize the steps. After the Willow, I will be just stealing dance steps for my freeskate and interpretive programs until I can't jump anymore and then I'll go back to testing dance. After all, I'll need to have something to do on the ice when I'm 70+.

Played on the ice with my good friend Misty who skates CW (I skate CCW) on our Preliminary Skills (Waltzing Mohawks). I finally figured out the code to them when we practiced off ice the day before after skating. After that when I did them on the ice doing the RFI Mohawk side, it was a breeze for me but not for Misty as she's a CW skater. But then when we got to the second side, I was slow getting through the pattern (LFI Mohawk) but at least, I knew what to do this time. Misty? She flew through the LFI Mohawk side. The only thing we both don't remember is the end pattern between the RFI Mohawk side and the LFI Mohawk side. We didn't get to our Waltzing Three Turn Pattern because my coach wisked me away for a lesson.

Misty picked her FS music for 2010-2011 when I was at her house until 1 AM in the morning. It's the music that Sasha Cohen had a few years back and some Andrew Lloyd Webber. I've yet to edit them together because I hae to wait for her coach to listen to them. I gave her a copy of the music to bring for her coach to hear.

I've got more music editing work coming my way this coming week. Yeah!!!

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

CONGRATULATIONS!! That reminds me of my Adult Gold test. . . It wasn't the axel that tripped me up, it was the plain sitspin and the plain loop--my two easiest elements, LOL! I had to reskate both of them because I had just dumbed my program down for the test and my feet started trying to go back to the version of the program they were used to!

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

yay! Congrats!!!

Mad: Not much here today. I did make a fantastic fall on some quick crossovers when I...I think clipped my toe pick...it was this great belly flop that probably didn't look as graceful as I hoped. Luckily I was the only one left on the ice, though I'm sure someone noticed as they took their skates off. Lucky for me, my pads saved the day (mostly, except a spot just below my left elbow where I hit where the pad WASN'T).

Surprised: I PASSED ADULT GOLD! Okay, no. But to me it's as big of a deal: OMG I TOTALLY SORTA "GET" BACK CROSSOVERS NOW GUYS! Or rather, progressives. I did not think that I ever would; I felt like the world's biggest backward skating dolt. I figured I was destined to be pathetic forever...then today I said to myself, "y'know what? F back crossovers. I will try back progressives since they're supposed to be what I"m working toward anyway, and because I won't have to take my front/outside ("crossing over") foot off the ice and maybe I won't lose my balance." So I went slow--first backward around the edge of the center circle with my outside-foot pumps, trying to get that outside foot close to the inside foot. Then trying to cross it to be right in front of it a bit. This is where I started losing it so I went to the wall to work on it. Eventually I figured out how I needed to be balanced to get it to cross in front and back (so sort of weaving the foot in front of/slightly to the inside of the other, then back). Then, still hanging onto the wall, taking some weight on it...then lifting the other foot while I did...

At this point I started running into the wall because, of course, it's near to impossible to do crossovers/progressives on a straight line, so I hitched my cojones and headed back to the hockey circle. And yay! I definitely still need to look at my feet to try to anticipate any "clinks of death" (which are still more numerous than I like but by looking at my feet, I can see when that front foot isn't going to make it and pull out long before I actually kill myself). Clockwise are, of course, still by far superior to counter-clockwise, but I'm getting there. And got a tip from fellow skater D on my arms and such (yeah, I know they're not proper...worrying about my feet too much to mostly notice my arms). But OMG! I can't wait to go to class tomorrow and show my instructor. She'll probably credit Substitute Instructor last week, and he did give me some pointers, but it was largely due to me woodshedding a bit, woohoo! so one more time: OMG!!!

3-turns also coming along (both FO and FI), as well as my 2-foot spins with the moving starts--getting a bit faster/more revolutions. Yay!

Dude, I am sososo happy about this crossover/progressive thing, you have no idea...I feel like I've turned a corner. This should help with my backward edges as well...I noticed that working on front crossovers helped my front edges far more than just trying to work on the edges did. Go figure.

Oh, and also: I tried riding my bike to the rink today because the rink is close to where I live and I'm tired of wasting gas/car miles/the environment driving there. I want to start riding my bike more as I am within two or three miles of a lot of places I go--doctor, dentist, church, grocery store, favorite pub, Secretary of State, rink, library, Farmer's Market, downtown, etc.--but am always nervous about leaving my bike unattended, even locked, lest it be stolen or vandalized, but it was still there and in one piece when I got out, yay! In future though I might ask them if I can bring it into the lobby and put it somewhere obscure (like way over by the second rink which is closed for repairs right now anyway).

Ha ha nooo, not for at least a year (maybe 2). Want to get my moves finished (testing JR @ Buckeye in Nov) and survive another year of law school before I worry about moving up to adult gold free, although I am staring to get my feet wet by doing gold compulsories. I was 5th in silver I at ANs last year so there is no "medal and move up" pressure.

Thanks all

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Surprised: continued working on all my stuff tonight. Also learned a side toe hop. I feel ridiculous. I'm consoled by the fact that everyone there tonight likely knew why i was hopping across the rink in a weird way, but I dont' think this is something I"ll be working on at public sessions...lest they insist on a psych eval before they let me on the ice next time!

Instructor says I'll learn more jumps next week, but I honestly just don't feel ready. The side-toe-hops and bunny hops, fine, but anything more than that...I don't feel I'm good enough on the basics yet. And I'm definitely in no hurry.

Mad: Backward CCW crossovers largely non-existent. I know they'll come, but I WANT AN OOMPA-LOOMPA NOW!!!

Congrats to you!!!!

And hey, a pass is a pass is a pass!!! (Yeah, I know what you mean! I was amazed too when I've passed my Bronze FS test! Of course, I then got totally clobbered by my fellow Bronze FS Ladies III skaters at competition... )

Congrats to you too!!!!

I was gonna say... I've seen you skate!!!

I haven't posted one of these in a while, mainly b/c I haven't been taking lessons b/c I don't (and still don't) have a job yet. That said, I did take a lesson the end of July and have been working on two things during that lesson: a back power pull and BI3's.

Pleasantly surprised: I am starting to *get* my BI3's consistent. I'm not "fighting the turn" that much either. I'm just . I am getting up the courage to keep working on them to the moves pattern so we'll see.

My BO3's are thankfully stable for the most part!!!

Spirals are definitely at hip-level and STAYING at hip level!!! Thank goodness for all that off-ice training!!!

Mad at my skate: Well, my back power pulls is still wimpy!!! There's this certain "back kick" that I was supposed to be doing and when I'm supposed to be kicking (it's to help me to get more edge and more power) and I'm not coordinating it right! *sigh*

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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!!!

Surprised:

My left side split is verrryy close to the ground now and since I've been stretching the hip flexors more, the back knee is straighter and looks nicer. From afar it even looks like i'm all the way down to the ground. Right side split is all the way down the ground now i've always been more flexible on the right side...center split is still about 160 degrees maybe...but i can probably open up wider if i try more since it's not as comfortable anymore to be sitting in that position. I turn 28 next month and I can't believe that at this "ripe old age" I'll have at least my side splits by then I'm a BELIEVER. People used to tell me that some bodies are just not "built" for splits and since I never had a good ballet turnout, I always thought I'd be one of those people.

Getting the wacky pattern for pre-Bronze MIF down now...I actually even got through it on the left side (i used to be terrified of LFI 3turns even as a FS3 skater, wonder how I ever passed gamma? ). It's choppy now but I'll keep plowing through it. Right side is okay just needs more flow. Coach said I'll be ready to test in October.

Mad:

Procrastinated into turning in my fall contract at the rink across the street so I decided to take a walk in the pouring rain (got an umbrella tho)...and they were closed! Usually they have hockey events at night and someone's usually there until 8, and I went at 6:30. Grr. So i'll stop by tomorrow and tell them I was there yesterday...they better accept the contract and honor the price since today was the last day to turn them in.

Coach wants me to test pre-bronze FS the same time as moves, so i guess me and the dang two foot spin meet again. I've been so used to the one foot spin and now that I actually get at least 6 revs, it's hard to go back and do two foots again....ahhhhhh.....

A lot of people know how long it took me to get a decent 1 foot spin (I'm still working on crossing my leg for an actual scratch), so it's a super big deal for me when my coach was looking at the FS elements list and said, "1 foot spin at least 3 revolutions, oh you can do that".

LOL....I understand I generally end up focusing on one or the other...but, I think this next test session I may end up testing both junior moves and juv free...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

My worst falls came from bunny hops, head hitting on the ice and all that... I just find them so awkward!