It's raining outside, but at least the temperature is 5C! "Positively tropical", said the Husband.

Depths of Winter: It was a lot colder than that in the rink, though, at least it felt like it. What I feel is fat - I was trying on my skating dresses earlier, and although I weigh less than I did last summer, I'm wondering whether those dresses suit me as much as I thought they did! Ah well, we are starting our on-season training in earnest now, so maybe I'll slim down a bit.

We are going away this weekend, so tried to reschedule the Husband's solo lesson. Fine - until after he'd gone the coaches remembered there were tests next week! I shall need to reschedule our couples lesson, too. Plus he's going to Dublin tomorrow, so if I want to use the car, I'll have to get up at 05:00 to go to the airport with him to drive it back....

First Day of Spring: But the coach was most complimentary about our work this morning. Don't know what he'd been taking, but he was actually pleased with us! He said our step sequence, in our free dance, was the best he'd seen us do so far, and then, when we moved on to working on the Cha-cha, he said it was the best he'd seen us do that so far, too!

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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!

Depths of Winter
In fact very wintry. No skating for me at the moment as I'm laid up in bed with the flu. I forgot how awful this dreadful virus leaves you feeling. I've just dragged myself out of bed to make a cup of soup but am heading back up in the hope that total rest equals a quicker recovery. Not to mention every time I stand up I feel very light-headed.

Frustrating thing is I got new blades on Saturday and am keen to try them out. I asked the skate fitter to check my boots and blades. Boots still have about 2 years life left in them but the blades were knackered. The rocker had completely gone and he said it was a miracle that I was able to spin or do three turns on them in the state they were in. So I went for another pair of MK Pro's in the end since he didn't feel I would need anything higher. At least now I know the reason I kept on catching my toe on the back threes was the fault of the blade, so I'm looking forward to trying them out and hopefully finding them easier now.

Nicki

Poor Nicki, I do hope you feel better quickly. My old doctor was a great believer in total rest, and as much liquid (any kind, not just water) that you could cram down you to flush the germs out.

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

depths of winter: the flip and loop jump - if only i could consistantly pick up my left left

first day of spring: my changefoot spin is awesome and so much fun.

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the truth lies in between the 1st and 40th drink - tori amos

Depths of Winter:

Skated on a sand-base rink today. Man, am I loud when there's no crowds or music.

MITF: ran through the Moves tests a few times. They were okay, nothing superb, but not failing standard.

Split/stag jumps and a few salchows were okay. Simple combinations were okay, but didn't feel comfortable doing any real singles yet.

Upright spins were okay, along with the always-reliable sit spin. Change foot was excellent!


First Day of Spring:

Only had a half-hour to skate during lunch, so I scooted in for the last half-hour of a 1.5 hour session. Clerk only charged me $3! Best of all, I was the only one there!

Camel spins weren't good, even though I warmed up with spirals and lunges.

I was really afraid to jump, maybe because I was all alone and the sand base makes me sound really loud. Even jumps I do on my home ice felt awkward. Maybe I just have to get used to the ice.

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my double lutzes suck meh I have a new least favorite jump

I only missed one d/flip today yayayayaya

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dont eat me

Frozen Depths of Winter: I debated skating today, since I had bad news that a friend and colleague had committed suicide over the weekend. I'm pretty sad and broken up over it. I've known him for over 25 years and have been through the war (Desert Storm) together. But, since skating is such an outlet for me, I went. Got there and saw a crowd of kids (oh-no!) that was a homeschooled group there for their phys ed requirement!

First Day of Spring: Once I started skating, I did feel better, endorphins and all that. I tried to work on that stupid loop but it aint happening yet. But, did have some progress on the flip, cause I actually picked back and slid towards the pick before "vaulting" around. Did some nice scratch spins, then a few 1-revolution backspins. The kids behaved until the last 20 minutes, but by then, I was done.

Found out that there might be a new rink going up (or in a facility) in the Salisbury, MD area. That's only 45 minutes away!!!! And the beach traffic would be less! And it's only 45 minutes away!!! And they might have a better prices than places up north for public skate!!! Stay tuned!!

ps-I have to make the drive to get my blades mounted to my boots-my boots are so big it's driving me crazy! It's holding me back on the loop I know-I can't get over on that edge because my feet are wiggling around in my boots! I had to put socks on and put another insole in these puppies! I can't stand it anymore! I think I'll call tomorrow and see if either place the guy will be in on Saturday (skate club or Iceworks). Wish me luck!

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

(Down here we're scorching humidity of summer of first day of autumn...)

Scorching humidity - well, *last* week one of our practices was really good for us. I felt like I made some real progress and the skating gods were smiling. Problem is that when you have a session like that, you can wait weeks for the next one...

...and we've started the wait. The lunchtime session today had a senior lady (gorgeous to watch - sadly we have too few of them), us, another mature-age dance couple and a group, and we and the other couple ended up in one corner whinging. Not about the other skaters. Oh no. About *insert name of just about any basic skating skill* - none of which were working.

Example (1) - our coach is away at Jnr Worlds, and left us with these "easy" dance edge exercises to do in Killian. Easy. Huh. Why is it that when you do them on your own, it is easy, but put them with another person joined at the hip and they become downright impossible??

Example (2) - started with a few fast laps in hand hold. (Fast for us anyway). Then moved to Killian and slooowed right down. (Might it have something to do with the fact that I was a bit nervous because I kicked DH's skates out from under him last week, and he went down quite spectactularly? Nah. Not much! )

First day of autumn - old coach (who still supervises us while our main coach is away) taught me the Canasta Tango - which our main coach had skipped over saying that she wanted to work on other things. Fun dance! And I had edges (even he said so). And covered a lot of ice - and coach swore that I was doing all the pushing; he wasn't contributing anything at all.

That's gotta be good.

Depths of Winter - It's all bad. Lost my job yesterday = no money for private lessons or for new skates Skating (for me) postponed indefinitely until I have more cash flow!

First Day of Spring - At group lessons today my daughter did the most amazing back crossovers - the best I've ever seen her do!! (she's only 4!) she's training for her first comp on April 1st and I'm so excited for her.

Frozen depths of winter: Before my lesson, I went to the ice ot warm up while my coach was with another student. My coach was standing by the door. I was skating around the perimeter, and somehow tripped over the air, right in front of my coach. I didn't catch a toepick, no rut or volcano in the ice. Just some air got in the way. And then when I told my coach I was getting better at the tree turns, she asked me to show her, and of course it was all crazy.

First day of Spring: I was able to do 2 three turns of the alternating 3turn pattern! And I got complimented on my outside edge swing rolls!

She was telling me how she thinks the alternating 3 turn pattern is really too hard for the test it's on. But she was telling me when they revised the whole testing thing, they consulted with Scott Hamilton. For him, these things are easy, so they put them on the prelim test. Sure, for a world class skater, this stuff is easy. For the rest of civilization, it's not.

Since when did Scott Hamilton become the moves expert?

A moves coach in my area said the same thing to me about the alt 3's at an adult workshop I attended last summer. I was telling her about the changes in the adult moves tests and she was pleased that they took the turns out of Pre-Bronze (and the adult moves test structure). I assume you are planning to test standard track moves, Sue - at least through the Prelim level? If you are planning to test adult track, then you won't need to test the alt 3's. Of course, they're still good to practice - they are a good building block for the power 3's on the Bronze test. In fact, my coach was having me work on those for a bit in our last lesson to improve my BI to FO transition in the power 3's.

Aw, man! I just looked at the schedule for my daughter's Sr. High school trip next year (to Italy) and it just happens to be the same week as Adult Nationals in Chicago!
Aw, Man!!!!!! Sorry, guys. Italy wins, hands down. I've been waiting ten years to go back.



ps-I just wanted to add, why don't they run the moves by the actual skaters who will be skating them instead of expert skaters????

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

Because they just don't! I can't think why they think it makes them do-able..... {{{Hugs}}} to you for your sad news - skating does help because you can't think of anything else.

As for me, I ache all over! That's because I finally made myself do my off-ice routine when I got back from the rink this morning, and I haven't done it for rather too long! So I ache. Shows how I've let my fitness level drop over the winter....

Depths of Winter: I'm not allowed to do my 3-bracket-3 in my Interp, because the coach says it looks like I'm flailing around trying to keep my balance. So that's two moves banned, 'cos I'm not allowed to do my change-foot for similar reasons. Oh well, maybe next year - I wasn't allowed to do a back spiral 2 years ago, and now I'm doing my back-spiral-cherry-flip combination without question!

First Day of Spring: Which it practically is; 3 layers was one too many this morning, and it's much, much warmer than it's been recently. It's even stopped raining!

Anyway, I am allowed to put my twizzles in, "even though they're not really proper twizzles". Except "You must pick your free leg up, otherwise they'll think you're on two feet. Which you mostly are!" Which is as usual - coach said he didn't mind what steps I did as long as I was on one foot while I did them. Having said that, I may well put a 2-footed slalom in there somewhere.

Coach complimentary about my back cross-rolls, except edges aren't deep enough to satisfy him. Cross-cuts pretty dire today, I think I'm beginning to get the hang of them and they promptly disappear. Sigh! That's skating!

Husband didn't skate today - he's gone to Dublin for the day, and had to take the car to the airport as public transport hadn't started up that early, so I had to go to/from the rink on the bus. I'm getting spoilt, using the car so much these days!

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

There is a logical progression of the placement of the various 1-foot turns across the different MIF tests...

Prelim has the Alternating 3's and Forward power 3's... If a skater can only minimally check the exit edge of the turn in the forward power 3s, and plops down the free foot instead of rebending and doing something resembling a proper BI-BI transition (resembling being useful here since it is a Preliminary test), it will probably be noticed and commented upon. Power generation in the forward power 3's comes from sources other than the back crossover.

Pre-Juv has the 3's in the field. A skater who can't properly hold entry edge for the turn and check a 3-turn (FO or FI) and hold the exit edge back to their axis will have great difficulty with the 3's in the field. One of the very frequent comments on the 3's in the field on tests is "needs more check" with another common comment being "entry edge not held to top of lobe."

Juv has the forward double 3's and the smaller circle back power 3's.

Intermediate introduces the counter-rotated turns with the brackets in the field, plus the backward double 3's.

Novice has the counters (bracket style entry, 3-turn style exit)

Junior has the rockers (3-turn style entry, bracket exit).

Senior tests the integration of all the various types of turns.

Back when figures still existed, 1st test figures included the "3's to center" figure which is similar to the alternating 3's, but done on a full circle vice a half-circle lobe. Thus requiring more control of the entry edge and more check and control of the exit edge returning to the starting point.

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

I'm not too sure what I'm testing, to be honest. I never really thought too much about it until recently. This was an idea my coach put into my head. Right now, I"m 20, so not old enough for the adult. I might do both though when I turn 21, which will be in June.

why the heck can't i land a single flip double toe combo when I can land a double flip double toe combo. That made my coach laugh...I can do the harder stuff better
welll...i have a competition tomorrow so i didn't do my program today but I'm pretty happy with my skating this morning

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dont eat me

Depths of winter: Interbronze field moves - urghh!! if they weren't changing the system I'd not be in any hurry to test these but having seen some of what's replacing them I think I need to get these and I have a year to do it in, which seems a long time but these moves are tough. I used to like FO3's til I started having to do alternating 3's on a line for this test. That is so tough and as for the mohawk to back outside 3's in a circle - I think this may be the move that defeats me.

thawing slightly - coach decided to make me do alternating waltz 3's then alternating 3 jumps which I can just about cope with, but then he decided I should do alternating salchows , followed by alternating toe-loops.

My mind was in such a spin by the end that when he wanted all my jumps followed by a toe-loop I went to do toe-loop/toe-loop and accidently did a Flip instead (and I can't even do a Flip normally! ). I guess it shows how much of skating is mental as I had happily launched into it at the speed I normally do toe-loops whereas if i'd known I was doing a Flip it would have been real slow and probably not landed, or two -footed!

Spring: Anyway I landed a few more Flips after that and then had fun with seeing how many toe-loops I could do in a row. Ran out of room after 10....

Stayed for group dance class which was fun but think I may have overdone it since I normally only spend an hour max on the ice and today I spent 3 hours and legs are aching!

very springy ; was talking to a newbie skater (trying to persuade him out of hockey skates and into figure skates) and mentioned how long I'd been skating and how old I was when I started and he looked shocked and said he couldn't believe I could be that that old as I didnt' look it!!!!

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Newly sharpened skates are so nice. I went to practice on Monday and they were a little *too* sharp, but the 2 hours there made them JUST right for today. Plenty of grab, but still able to stop (somewhat).

Well, I didn't really work on moves in practice on Monday so I decided to launch right into them today on my own before my lesson. They were okay...definitely coming along, but not quite where I need them to be for my own self-satisfaction. I also worked on some jumps and spins, but didn't dive into anything too crazy before the lesson.

And man oh man, it's a good thing I saved some energy. I dunno what Beth had for breakfast, but it must have been Nazi-crisps. She said since we worked on the new 3 turn pattern (don't know what else to call it?) and the waltz 8 last week, this week we'd work on the other parts of the test. Sounds easy enough.

Bah!

On my forward perimeter stroking she got pretty pissy that I still wasn't grasping the whole inside edge concept. So she told me, again, how to fix the problem. And then I did the pattern, and then repeated the pattern oh, 5-6 times without stopping. I wanted to die. I'm SO out of shape aerobically. Every time I did the pattern she'd nitpick something else. By the final pattern though - by George, I think she got it. Not only the whole inside-edge concept (the brain understood, but the body only just caught up) but also crossover placement. On to forward crossovers.

If I wasn't going to die after the stroking, I certainly felt like it after the forward crossovers. I lost track of how many times we did the pattern. When I would try to speak up about feeling uncomfy about something she'd adopt a "less talk, more skating" stance and I scurried away to do yet another pattern. I was sweating buckets - never have I been breathing so hard during skating. But between you and me, I loved it. Actually, I told her I loved it too and she said good, because that's how it's going to be.

We moved on to back crossovers, I did two patterns and she stopped me there and said that I knew what to work on for them (read: less scratching. At that point she was lucky I was still relatively upright) and then she wanted to see the new 3 turn pattern one time all the way through. I did it, not well, but did it. My "other side" needs a lot of attention - not on the 3 turns, but on the transition. Then we reached the end of the lesson, and I brought up a couple of issues that I felt were pretty important to my mental health.

The primary question of "Um, when will I get better" was addressed. When I asked Beth she stared at me like I had 3 heads. I explained what I meant - doing the same stuff for a while and now seeing ANY improvement? She still stared and then finally said that I'm crazy for thinking that way, and that I've not only improved, but I've learned her technique which was TOTALLY different than my last coach's technique. She said that things will just naturally get better with time, and gradually the tentativeness will start to fade but it takes people different amounts of time to get comfortable with certain elements. Okay, I'll buy that. She also mentioned in that mix that I've lost weight, noticably, since we first started together so that made me feel pretty good. I suppose I just needed a good ego fluffing?

I also asked her about the format of the semi-private lesson. She told me that she doesn't think it's necessary to drill the waltz jump, or scratch spin, or whatever it is that we cover for a full lesson. She makes comments on what we need to work on and then we're expected to work on it. No need for "supervised practice" as she called it. Well okay. I was just expecting her to be a little more picky, like how she is with moves in the field. She said that she would be pickier if I wanted and I told her to eat smore Nazi-crisps for tomorrows lesson and that was that. I stuck around until the end of the session just to work on some more jumps and spins and such. I caught a glimpse of one of my "working" camels and ew... bad body position. Sit spin is slowly improving. Scratch spins were "okay". I didn't do too many jumps because my boots are REALLY breaking down now. I'm starting to get worried about my right boot (landing foot) in particular because when I land a jump it completely collapses and creases. Not good. I didn't bring it up to Beth because I don't want her to think I'm complaining. I really hope I can snag those Grafs for 100 bucks because right now I can't pay much more than that for new boots and I'm looking at about 400 bucks easy for a brand that would suit me, not including waterproofing and mounting and such. I'm going to go on Friday to try the Graf's on again if they still have them. God willing they do, and god willing they fit.

Depths of winter:
It is still cold in my rink!!!

First day of Spring:
Started on new program today and I'm picking it up quicker than I thought I would. Now the real test will be next week, to see what may come out of the footwork ( I might try a loop- loops from a standstill days are now over)

We now have a test date for March 29. If Coach says I'm ready then I'll have a appointment with Bronze moves.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

This is the first time I can post in here and be inculded with everyone. This is so cool. I'm not sure how this is done so give me a break if I suck.

Depths of Winter - So i was nervous going into the lesson. I was scared to death I was going to find out I had no skill at all. I had a bad cold also and wasn't feeling 100%, but I gave it my best.

Went skating Tuesday (after my lesson) to the outdoor rink in the city. It closes on Sunday and I wanted to go one last time. Big mistake. It was packed and the ice sucked. My ### fell on a two foot spin, which is usually easy for me. kind of brought me down and made me feel blah. (Has anyone had this happen to them or am I being emo?)

First Day of Spring: Within five minuets of the class Coach Kim moved me to the side of the rink with the people who had been in the class for a while now. That gave me a lot of confidence in myself and boosted my self-esteem. Next week I will be working with this girl Amanda and possibly getting ready for our spring ice show.

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Check out the sites I run
http://www.joelisi.net
http://www.charlieday.net

I had a spare few hours to kill.. and I thought I could either waste them away in front of the computer, or head down to the rink and practise.. there was a midday - 3.30pm session, and I figured that unless there was a school there, it would be pretty quiet.

Depths of Winter: I was right.. there was a school there... and my god where they noisy!!! Screaming everytime someone touched them... and they just couldnt comprehend that all I wanted was my center circle, and to stay out of it!!! They had the entire rest of the rink to themselves.. I just wanted a little bit! They left after about an hour though, which was kewl.

I fell over once, attempting a 3turn, and landed on my already bruised knee... MY GOD it hurts!!!! Its turned yellow/black now.. ouchy

First Day of Spring: I practised some edges, hence the desire for the centre circle.. and Im gettting the hang of the outside edges now (I should probably start practising the inside edge glides now as well)... My mohawks are getting better... and thats all I really managed to do until the school left at about 1.30/2pm...

THEN! there was only about 4-5 people on the ice (the ice was shitty from the start anyway), but its so nice not to have to worry about people running into you!!

I did some more outside edge circle glides, and Im getting the hang of it...

I then practised my 3 turns.. AND I GOT THEM!!!!!! YAY!!!

AND a coach who was there saw me.. so I have a witness!!!

They werent fantastic, but they were there.. and I even managed to finish them off with a glide.. and I was trying very hard to keep my back foot close to the back of the other one... trying to keep it neat ... wasnt really working, but at least Im attempting to keep good habits.

So THAT was the highlight of the session. When I first got it, I stopped, cheered, jumped up and down on the spot (probably not good for my blades ), and did a little dance... which the other 5 people in the rink found hilarious!! Oh, its such a nice feeling when you FINALLY get it!!

I also practised some crossovers.. Im fine going anti clockwise on the rink/circle, but clockwise sucks! But I still practised them, and Im sure I will get better.

Other thing I did was practised my lunges.. trying to get my back leg to stay behind my leading leg, and to put all my weight on my front/bent leg... It was getting there towards the end. Again, did both sides, and again clockwise was the problem.

I practised my stroking when there were only one other person on the rink... practising turning my back leg out, and pointing the toes, then bringing it up flexing the toes so not to dig the toepick in, and it was all good... Im still trying to remember to push off with the outside edge, but I think its going to take time... and I also think I need to just stop one day and practising my pushing techniques until I get it correct.

Ummmm what else...?

My posture is improving, and I found that my 3 turns, outside edge circle glides improved a lot because of I remembered my posture...even my lunges. Remember the basics of ballet and I should be fine.

Depth of Winter (again): The only major problem today, is that when I took my skates off, the outside of my right foot KILLS!!! I cant put much weight on it, and it really hurts! I think it was because I initially did my skates up too tight... I did loosen them.. BUT they are still new and not broken in, so I'll probably have to grin and bare it for a few more lessons.

So that was today

Next session/lesson = Saturday morning, and then Sunday morning as well

Oh and I worked it out.. if I give myself a budget of $50 per week for skating, thats 2 classes + 1 public.. or 3 publics with money left over... We shall see.. I should be getting paid some extra tomorrow, so hopefully I can continue it ...

BUT I must remember...uni work comes first.. end of 2nd week and I have no shoots organised or anything shot.. NOT GOOD!

I had a very productive day Im on a high currently Just think how kewl it will be when Im on non-dead ice!!

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-Erinna-
aka cassarilda

My Progress Report!
"Did I mention there is only ONE rink in Melbourne?!"
"If you're not flying, you're obviously not trying!!!" - courtsey of the guy who helped me up off the ice after my last spectacular and sore fall

This is for last night's lesson, I was too tired to type this up when I got home.
First day of Spring: Received good input from coach about my program EXCEPT the jumps (of course) which were "tentative" and we will work on that. Everyone loved the spiral, and they thought my program was "graceful" which I still have a hard time believing. I also received word from another girl in the club that people commented that my skating at the competition was "good" and people were surprised that I skated so well Hey, not bad for an ole' chick!

Depths of Winter: Worked on the scratch spin again...tweaking some pieces that have been getting lazy. The understroke was missing on my back crossovers, my shoulders needed to open up more, and my step-out needed more aggression. Then we worked on the sit-spin. I need to bend on the spinning foot to the point that the crease of the boot hurts my ankle. I did about 10 and hit it about 2 times. This needs work. (as always).

Then she had me do a "nice" salchow that was checked and not 2-footed (or looking so like my competition one), which I did; and we worked on getting the free foot to come through in a scoop with the foot turned out more intead of leading with the toe (which is a problem I've been having) and could cause a hold-back in the double-sal (can you believe she is talking about a double-sal already???) I need to work on this also.

She said part of my "problems" are from my boots being too big for my feet. I believe that, I can't do certain things as I should because I can't "feel" my edge-my feet are rolling around inside of these monsters. I'm going to try to get my new blades mounted on my new boots this weekend.

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

^ I love when my coach refers to axels and doubles like I'll be doing them next week.

Today in the semi-private we warmed up and I did perimeter stroking - Beth commented that my stroking is much improved. Still not great, but getting better so that's always good. Then we moved into power 3 turns around the circle. Beth wants my three turns to have deeper edge quality. Of course she does! Then we moved onto a mohawk sequence - inside edge right foot, left foot slip behind to outside edge, outside mohawk, cross in front, step forward, slip behind to outside edge etc. etc. I got the one way relatively easily, the other way not so hot but after working with it for a while I was able to do it without a problem. Of course, it had no speed because I was afraid of the "slip".

Onto jumps. Waltz jump is still suffering from the same problems. Salchow had similar problems from both mohawk and 3 turn entry - namely the left back inside edge leading into the jump is virtually straight - I'm not on the edge nearly as much as I need to be. I tried doing a couple from the line instead of crossovers and they were better, and then this improved my salchow but it still has problems. Toe loop - well, aside from missing my toe pick the one time I was actually able to get UP in the jump. I finally felt what it was like to really jump on a toe loop - I thought I was jumping before, but I wasn't because this time when I jumped I felt myself continuing to go UP instead of coming back down. Imagine that! The we moved onto loops. I had no problem doing from right forward inside 3's - Beth asked to see from back crossovers and it was a no go. Don't know what happened - I used to be able to do it SO much better from back crossovers instead of the 3 turn, now it's the opposite. Grrr. That was pretty much the end of the lesson, although Beth mentioned working on the backspin next week. Lol. She's funny.

After the session my skate buddy and I stuck around to practice random stuff. We worked some more on jumps and then I moved onto spins. Scratch spins weren't BAD, but I think my entry is too off and I'm fighting to save the center so it's slightly travel-ly. I moved onto sit spins - I'm centering the spins and spinning pretty well if I go all the way down. But - if I go all the way down I'm not able to come up yet. Gotta work on leg strength. If I do the fake half sitting thing I can get up, but it's just not a good spin. I then moved onto camels. I actually had ONE great camel spin, one decent camel-sit combo, and a bunch of mediocre camels and a handful of "the heck???" camel attempts. I'll take it though, it's improving ever so slightly.

We met up with a coach/sharpener that we had met before - he's very knowledgable about the skating world and gives great advice. He helped Kerri work on loops and gave me some tips on the waltz jump.

But the BIG news? He was showing off doing outside spread eagles and I showed him my inside since that's all I can do and he said okay do an outside. I laughed at him and said there's no way I can do that and he said YES you can you have great turn out. Me? Really?! I've always thought my turnout was poor but he strongly disagreed. He showed me that the easiest way to train the outside spread eagle was to start from an inside and switch to an outside. I didn't DO an outside, but I DID get on a straight line. He brought me to the boards and showed me plie en seconde and I told him I did dance in the past and showed him my plie and he said see? why do you say you have poor turn out??? I shrugged and said I just don't think I'm strong enough to hold the turn out and he rolled his eyes and said if you can do it on land or at the boards you'll be able to do it on the ice. He said my hips are very open. REALLY??? That's fabulous news! Just when I was looking for a challenge I learn that an outside spread eagle IS possible for me. Awesome! I'll have to work at it to get it of course, but the fact that I know it's within reach - incredible!

I realized something today - working on certain elements over and over is the only way to improve. I know that's kind of a "duh" statement, but the reality of it only set in just now lol. After watching a young lady do her single lutz (she can do triples) no less than 10 times in two different corners before moving on was proof to me that I'm not spending enough time trying to fix elements. My attitude was to work on something, try to fix it and when it didn't happen move on. Now I'm going to plug away at something, especially when I KNOW what I'm doing wrong. How many times do I have to tell myself to kick through on the waltz jump? Nothing anyone can do to fix this except having me practice it on my own.

Yay! I'm happy about skating again. It was a great lesson today followed by a decent practice and then learning that my turnout IS good enough for outside spread eagles - victory!

Depths of Winter: Wish the coach had sorted out the exact placement on the ice of the starting steps of our free dance, as we ended up squabbling over it, yet again! Ah well....

After Husband had gone to work, I was working on my Artistic/Interpretive and was getting in a total muddle at one stage, wondering why I was finding it so hard.... I was only putting in the wrong steps, wasn't I! When I realised I was actually putting in steps I'd already done far better in an earlier part of the programme, I changed them to what they were supposed to be, and magic!

First Day of Spring: I've discovered (shh, don't tell anybody!) that if I bend my knee more going into the 3-jump (waltz jump), I get more height, even if I don't go any faster. Hope my coach doesn't spot this, he might want me to do it in my programme! At that, I plan to..... It seems that the lower I bend, the faster I go, well, duh, I knew that in theory but.....

Cross-cuts worked well, for a wonder, but didn't manage a full lap of cross-rolls today. Not far off, mind..... Cross-cuts aren't on steep enough edges yet, though; cross-rolls almost are.

On Wednesday I had done my full off-ice work-out routine for the first time for months and months, and afterwards I was exhausted and stiff. But today I did it again when I got home and, although I know I've taken exercise, the whole routine was a lot easier to do! And I'm not nearly as tired. Need to start doing it again regularly as I need to tone up before the competitions start.

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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!

Spring:

Well, I'll let the following dialog between my coaches and I speak for itself...

Secondary coach: So... when did <primary coach> say you're going to test Bronze Moves?
Me: LOL!!! He was thinking May or June.
Secondary coach: Okay, let's take a look at those 5 step mohawks first!

(Towards the end of lesson)

Secondary coach: Well, I still have to see your 3-turns (power 3's) but, I think May/June is very realistic!!!



Then yesterday...

(Toward the end of lesson)
Primary coach: Okay, NO DELAYING!!! You are gonna take the Bronze Moves test in MAY, not JUNE!! MAY!!!
Me: Not June?
Primary coach: I want this out of the way before the summer so you won't have to worry about running into the kids in the summer!!!



Winter:

Have a lot to work on to get it ready for May... YIKES!!!

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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!!!