Pardon my ignorance, but... what does "meh" mean?

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

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meh basically means not so hot, OK, whatever, etc.

want to remember
jumps were nice today
landed a beautiful double toe. the flow felt great. i really WANTED to put a hand down, but i didn't

getting closer to hitting the outside edge on the camel spin. its so hard! i'll hit it for like one rotation, but then its gone.

had a really good lesson today. worked reeeaaally hard. it took a lot out of me, but we got a lot done. worked on some new spins, one is especially crazy. my coach wants me to take a corkscrew and lower it into a sit-spin type move but with the free leg behind me so its like a hydroblade. she showed me what she wanted to do an i just laughed. i'm workin on it, but maaaaan its hard

after the lesson me and some of the other skaters just had fun. it was really crowed and the ice was terrible, so we just messed around.

hope to forget
ahh my coach was like "how about some camel jump camels? do you know how to do those" i was like "uhhh i think i learned like five years ago?" yeah soo not pretty. but i'll work on it.

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LOL the worst part is, I know a Korean girl about my age who has both and she's not even stretching to be that flexible. She's the new favourite toy of our ballet teacher, I think one of these days he'll put her in a double knot.
She'd never seen the "Kayla Catch" spin position, but when I explained it, she went and folded herself that way, though right now she doesn't have the balance to try it even as a bielman yet.

BTW something that maybe might help, our ballet teacher puts us against a wall (with the bum) standing upright, then take a step forward and put your hands on the ground in front of you, your nose kinda pointing to your knee, and the free leg stretched all the way up against the wall. Stretch both knees through, obviously, your leg will get pushed up along the wall stretching closer to a full split. The closer to a full split you get the closer you get to the wall. And here's the last trick, straighten your back and arms up to spiral position, then put your hands back on the floor, straighten again, and repeat a dozen times or so. SO heavy!!!

But okay then, when are you gonna be doing those fancy splits where people put one foot on one chair, the other on another, and then just hang their crotch inbetween those chairs, almost at floor level? LOL

hope to forget nearly taken out by a teenager whizzing round the rink wituout looking while I was in lesson with my coach

want to remember
survived the above close encounter and most of today's lesson was good.

Jumps not so good in practice but on second run through of my programme landed both the loop-loop and the flip well, which was nice especially as same teen happened to be watching at the time. It's nice to show the kids we 'oldies' can do some good stuff. When they work, both these jumps feel so easy but I still dont' seem to be able to get that consistently.

Also did one pretty good backspin at end of lesson. Might just get to put in for level 2 elements pretty soon. Would put in for level 2 free but havent' chosen any music for it yet and coach wants to make a seperate 'test' programme.

First rehearsal for our christmas panto on ice number tonight. I hope it will be fun - we get lovely costumes for a change - but the music is 'meh' as daughter would say (i.e not great)

From my group lesson yesterday evening! Heavy focus on crossovers, forward and backwards (every now & then coach likes to go "back to the basics!!) and then on to jumps - waltz, salchow and toe loop.

Want to Remember: Crossovers merited a "good!" comment from coach after some minor corrections. My weakest (front crossovers - left over right) were actually not too bad at all, amazingly. Finally muscled out a non-wimpy waltz jump after many attempts which fell under "hope to forget." Got some good salchows too, which were actually witnessed by the coach, which is a miracle in and of itself . . . and some NON toe-waltzy toe loops . . yay!

Hope to Forget: We didn't bother setting out cones to separate our class off from the public session, which led to quite a few "abort abort!!" moments for me on jumps.

Stupid free leg - still not coming through on waltz jump . . .grrrrr!! (I told the coach . . I KNOW what I'm supposed to do - my body's just not cooperating!!).

And why is it that I have to fight not to SPIN on Salchows, and then have problems with my spin entrance not spinning? Maybe if I just tell myself I'm doing a salchow and slack off, then I will have a good forward spin?? Is it too late to trade my body in for a more coordinated one?? LOL!!!

(hey, already forgot about it!) One more for "hope to forget" . . . managed to get a particularly spectacular bruise on the middle joint of left hand middle finger . . . not sure when it happened though! I guess it must have been on one of my falls (sat down on a sal and also on a toeloop). Neither was particularly bad and I just hopped up and tried again . . . I didn't even know I'd hurt myself until driving home and my finger kept hurting when I bumped it!


oh yeah, and one more that is totally "want to remember" . . . part time employee at work who comes in from time to time when we need her to work on special projects - was in yesterday and asked if I had lost weight . . . says I just look skinnier every time she sees me . . . hee hee . . . what can I say . . . "skating has been very very good to me!!"

Want to remember - I've been pretty pleased with my skating recently, everything has improved so much. I am getting ready to test pre-bronze moves, and everything except the inside 3 turn move feels fine, coach says the inside 3's are fine, but I don't feel fine with them. Jumps gaining altitude. Camel has a couple of revolutions, maybe 3. Sit spin getting lower.

Hope to forget - but everytime I try to do my freestyle stuff for my coach, it stinks. I think I try to show off for him, and then I rush - not keeping leg back in spin entrances and rushing the takeoffs on jumps. I don't do that during practice. Very frustrating.

Really hope to forget my backspin still. I keep asking coach to work on it with me, but he never does. I hope he doesn't think I'm hopeless.

Really really hope to forget test anxiety. I know if I freeze up for that right inside 3, it is not going to work. Have to relax.

wanting to remember
great-feeling loops, at really fast speed! also did some from back takeoff.
one sitspin which rotated (wow!) for about 2 or 3 revs, then I fell... mehhhh
program! it is soo pretty.

coach's comment... (after he changed the intro for my program completely!) "i'm changing it because I know you can do a better and harder one..." (and also, we wouldn't want you to got to competition like someone from a village.. (it sounds better in russian, sorry))

hoping to forget
LOADS of sitspins on which I fell...and totally beat off my fingers with them...
scratch spins. dull blades. I got ONE good tracing in a session that lasted 3 hours. otherwise, it's drawing clouds for me... BUT,

wanting to remember
even though they travel, my scratch spins are soo fast now! all I see is a big blurrr of the rink.

also, catchfoot spirals. they feel so pretty and confident. thank you sessy, now I think of keeping my weight back on the blade every time I do these, and they are balanced perfectly, to the point of me being able to stretch them almost as far as when I have a barre.

waltz-loop combos from a standstill are working! in fact, my loops feel better in this combo than they do on their own?? sometimes, anyway.


and wednesday should be a great session, on newly sharpened blades!!

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To Remember: Had a good workout on the ice this morning, pushed FXO's to the limit, backwards, spins, and even Waltz jump and Toe Loop - actually landed a couple of almost full blown toe loops in front of my coach

Had a short lesson and worked on footwork and a couple of program run-throughs.

Better Forgotten: With only 3 skater and 2 coaches on the ice, how come everybody congregates in the one corner where my program takes me right to the boards?

Two more practices/lessons before competition.

To Remember: At the end of the session, as she was leaving, my coach turned and said "Good job!" Sure it was, I know it! (And I am modest to!)

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

Want to Remember: Not a lot. We ran through the Willow Waltz, the first one of which was poor as Husband flattened off his Mohawk too much and was in the right place which I didn't actually expect, so that threw me! Then we did the Fiesta, and the first one was dire as I two-footed our start pattern to avoid a passing 7-year-old. It got better after that, and we worked on placing the pattern slightly better on the ice, but I don't have the power to get those back edges more than between the red hockey dots. Husband can, but not when he's dragging me along behind him (or, more properly, pushing me ahead!).

Hope to forget: Dreary exercises to finish with, but we did them okay in the end. But I do not like plain vanilla stroking in Reverse Kilian very much, especially when I'm supposed to be on an edge.

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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!

Great to hear about your spirals Peanuts! You'll be making video's wont ya?

So the coach switch was successful huh?
You're right, it sounds best in Russian - crawling out from under a rock is the closest English synonym I can think of, "looking like a village idiot" the only approximation involving a village...
Although I could totally see where some Russian expressions might be funny for figure skaters... "Tebe pamiat' otshiblo?", "Nu ti zhe ne s luni upala!", or, "Koniok-gorbunok!" if someone's not keeping their back straight...

(Note to self: Sessy, stop hanging out at forums, you have work to do...)

Want to Remember:
Jumps were good, even the wandering salchow. lol
MITF patterns were better, but my FO threes are klutzy.
Forward and backward power pulls are much stronger and even.
Crossovers are so much stronger now that I'm not falling to the inside.

Hope to Forget:
Can't get used to spinning on these revamped blades-and-boots. I keep rocking onto the toepick and double-tracking all my spins.

Right ankle is kind of stiff during crossovers and three turns .
All my stops, except for the t-stop, are awful now that my blades are level.

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ROFL!!

Tuesday - Want to Remember
Umm. . . Nothing? Can I just go back to bed and start over? Where's the Haitian to wipe my memory clean for my own good? (apologies to those of you who don't watch "Heroes" and are going "huh?").

Hope to Forget
I hope to forget what sheer mental and emotional torture it was stepping back onto the same ice I tested on last week and actually having to have my weekly MIF lesson this morning! My confidence was shot, I was haunted by the failure and these moves were the last thing in the world I wanted to do today. I was a mess, and it showed.

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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

Monday Night

Want to Remember:

-My double loops are finally back
-My death drops were super high and beautiful
-My artistic is outragisly funny with my expresiens and funny yet creative moves (wish everybody could see it)
-My Paso it awesome but I'm not testing it next month
-My solo is finally back after my skates getting sharpened

Hope to Forget

-Had a bruise on my right leg and did a double flip and fell on it and it hurt so much
-I did something to my finger that made numb for the last 15mins of skating

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2014 and 2018 Olympics here I come!

Skating, skating all day long, skating, skating all night long! May seem tiring to some people but not me, it's my life!!

Goals: Triple Loop, Novice Competitive, Sr.Silver Dances, Gold Artistic, and top 3 at Sectionals

Want to remember: OMG, the American Waltz is a zillion times easier with a partner! I fairly floated around the rink for two patterns. Solos make me want to die by the time I reach the restart. My coach has been all over me to present the dance and smile, so I started grinning and saying, "Shut up!" and "Go to hell!" from behind the grin. She approved.

Hope to forget: I'm having trouble controlling some of the choreography in my program - rush rush rush. I like going fast, what can I say? Plus, with two dance lessons today, I didn't have time to run through my program with the music, so I just did it in sections, which is no good for practicing stamina. Tango was a bloody mess, too.

Want to Remember:

All my freestyle elements, especially when done in my freestyle program.
Coach says now I need to "present" the program and not look scared shi#$less when I do my elements.


Hope to Forget:


Last week, we received word that one of the judges for our test session next month had to cancel, as they are having cataract surgery at that time. While there is about one month to go, our test chair is struggling to secure a replacement judge with no luck so far. I want my Bronze free damnit!!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Want to remember During group class today we did moves. I got complimented on my back crossovers to back outside edges (but need to work on my posture). I think that might have just been in comparision to the class, rather than as a master of the move, but I'll still take it. I also got complimented on my forward outside spiral pattern. They are really improving. But I always feel like my leg is so much higher than when I see it in the glass I love doing moves. It was a really nice change.

Hope to forget But it was difficult to do in this class. The other kids didn't have a good understanding, so we spent a lot of time waiting for our turn while listening to "no your outside. That's your inside. You should know the difference by now. NO, your outside" And it was more like "dodge in the field", still it was nice to have the moves be seen by a different coach.

The last 5 minutes of class we did scratch spins. All the progress I had made is completely gone. I'm traveling like crazy. Makes it easier to count the 10 rotations I'm now able to get I guess. The worst part- for the first time ever, I'm getting dizzy. It's been 45 minutes and my head is still spinning and I am so naseauted. I think I might have an ear infection, because this vertigo is excessive.

Fits neither category So our instructor introduced change edge spirals, which was a bit suprising seeing how bad the spiral pattern went for the class. With my leg in more of an "ugly airplane" position than a spiral, I'm sort of able to do inside to outside, but I can't do outside to inside at all. Still, these are pretty neat and I hope to add them to my skill list soon. We started at the wall where he told us about how to swing our leg behind or open to control the edge, then to demo the instructor built up speed starting all the way across the rink, came on an outside edge, switched to an inside edge and then while going VERY fast almost rammed into the wall. At which point he swung his leg quickly to deepen the edge to not hit the wall. After he stopped and we started on it, he gave me a look and said "wow that was close", I nearly went down on that one. It was an EXCELLENT demonstration on how to use your leg to control the exercise, but I think repeating it might be too sink or swim for me (Okay students, head straight for the wall. If you are able to do it, you won't end up in the hospital)


Teaching went really well today too. We sang lots of new songs, and the kids had fun. I had my SS1 kids doing one foot glides, which was fantastic!

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Sunday:

Want to Remember:

Trying out secondary coach's flip drills. I had an added incentive to learning this. When I brought up the subject of "Hmmm? Any chance I migh actually land a LUTZ by the end of the year?" to both my coaches (via email), secondary coach's response was "That's one of the reasons I've been working you on the flip this week..." (No response from primary coach...)

Hope to forget:

After one loop, the rest of then went bad!!! My lower back and hip on my landing side started hurting again and I ended up doing anything BUT jumps afterwards!

Monday:

Hope to forget:

Lower back STILL hurts! MUST...GO...TO...CHIRO.... NOW!!! (Even the flip jump sucked now!!!)

Want to remember:

My camel spins!!! They were pretty good "for me" anyway!!! I got up to 3 rev. and I did try for a camel-sit and ended up with a decent 3 camel-2 squat combo.

I've sent my team over to cheer doubletoe up to keep at those Intermediate Moves... ready???



(And when you feel better, you can show my team your new splits too! LOL!!! )

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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!!!

Awwww, SWEETIE!! Thank you, I'm all better now! And I'm doing a cheer here for your camel combo! Don't forget, even a camel for 2 revs into an upright spin for 3 revs counts as a combination spin! Woo hoo!

ROFLMAO! I should try that when I re-test my MIF next month. . .

Thanks for the details on that wall split. I've seen girls doing it but wasn't sure the exact process. It sounds like the same general process I use when doing the split on the ballet barre, i.e., chest down to thigh of standing leg, push back, then bring torso up and push pelvis down/back. I think that will be the next thing I try, but not until I'm more confident that I won't land on my head, LOL! And curse that girl who's flexible without even trying. I secretly take comfort in my physical therapist's claim that people who are overly flexible are more prone to spinal injuries. . .

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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

Want to Remember: I passed my Gold Moves and Free tonite. It was a long day, but it ended on a perfect note!

want to remember
double toes were nice today. haha they must be so funny to watch tho. i am still so surprised when i land a jump that i kinda look around and i'm like "wait, am i standing? really?" and want SO badly to put a hand down

axels were pretty nice today too. i think i may finally be getting over that mental hump

me and two other skaters were playing the "add-a-spin" game (one person does a spin, next person adds a spin, next person adds another, first to fall loses). first was camel, second was sit, and i added a broken leg. i didn't expect it to be very nice, but all of a sudden two of the moms were calling me over and telling me how nice the combo was! they even asked me to do it again

ah and i got the ultimate compliment from one of my friends. she said my camel spin looked like our coach's

oh and i'm getting better at the crazy hydroblade-corkscrew-like spin my coach wants me to do

want to forget
more pathetic attempts at hitting the outside edge on a forward camel. its so hard! took a really nasty fall out of one of those, reeeally good thing i was wearing my diaper. i mean, butt pads.

oh the drama! one of the coaches has been saying not-so-nice things about my coach's skaters (team tard, don't ask lol). so apparently before southwest, she asked one of the skaters if she was competing, then told her not to expect to place much better than last in her group. well, she came in fifth and almost made final round...but then, yesterday i guess, she told one of her students how stupid our (team tard's) group number was and yada yada yada. she was also talking sh** about that same south west girl. understandably, her mom, and all of us really, is pissed! so yeah, that was the drama for the day

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ahh congrats!!!! that's amazing!!!!!

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Congrats to you, SK8RX!!!! TWO GOLD PINS for 'ya!!! (So do I assume that you'll be making your first Championship Adult Gold debut this year at Lake Plastic? If so, I will watch for 'ya live... cuz I'll be there this year too making my Bronze debut!!! We'll be Rock Stars in our own rights!!! )

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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!!!

Tuesday: went to the public adult ice session.

Want to remember:

Most of the ice was not chewed up except for the edge where the edger was run sometime before the session.

The ice was pretty much empty. Only two other skaters were on the ice.

Warmed up my spins that I have in my program and they were for the most part what I call centered (circles ontop of each other).

Warmed up only the waltz, toe and salchow before going into my program.

Was able to skate my program 80% of the way even though I didn't take my inhaler without stopping. Last Saturday, I could only make it just past the half way mark. My stamina is improving even when I don't take my inhaler.

I had the last half of the session to myself.

After fixing the inside of both of my skates, I'm now able to get better outside edges, I can do my forward 3 turns on all edges even in footwork. I can even do double threes inside and out on right or left. My landing edges are much much better.

I actually got a forward scratch with 16 revolutions and it only felt like 8. I counted the markings on the ice afterwards.

Hope To Forget:

I had no energy to get the flip or lutz up into the air today never mind fully around.


Wonder?: Why is it that after landing a jump correctly I do a RBO3? I just don't understand why my body does this? It doesn't matter how long I hold the landing edge, at the very edge of the landing I do a RBO3.

singerskates

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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.

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