Well, no one's started the practice thread, so I guess I will! In honor of the six additional inches of snow we received this weekend, grr! Schools are out for another Snow Day, but here I am at Work. I'd rather have the Snow Day, myself, LOL!

Snow Day: Had a lesson Saturday morning. Worked on elements from ISI Free 2 in case I opt to compete in April. Coach switched my 1/2 flip entry from a mohawk to a 3 turn because I do a better job picking in the right spot from the three. Which is crazy as I prefer mohawks any day... 1/2 toe was in good shape, now I just need to practice with more speed, which should translate to more height as timing is good and I'm picking correctly. We'll see... Scratch spin: I slowed the entry a bit so that the choctaw was less intimidating and that seems to have helped -- I'm not two-footing the entrance as severely and am starting to kick around into the spin better. FINALLY! I managed one where a almost got my free foot crossed over instead of pulling it directly to my ankle.

Group class -- more spinning. Got a few more with my free leg closer to correct. Jumping -- waltz jumps, blech. It's gonna be forever before I get these off the wall, but I was practicing them on the wall with crossovers and a mohawk entry, so they were moving faster on the wall, LOL! We practiced the entrance to salchow. I have no issue checking the three and the free leg action is correct, but I'm not jumping them (big surprise) I make a LOVELY BI loop on the ice, though -- super tight -- It would pass tests it's so good, LOL! So I switched to the 1/2 toe after a while and was feeling those landing consistently.

Work Day: Waltz-8 and PB Three Turn Pattern. Good timing on waltz-8, but RBO edge stinks to high heaven. Really. PB Three Turn Pattern: coach and I had big discussion about DECREASING the size of my turns. She said, "Remember, this pattern is supposed to be skated by skaters who don't have the power you do." Which made me LAUGH HARD. Because I typically don't consider my skating to be powerful. Anyway, I'm now using the mindset that if I keep the turns tiny and controlled and don't push at all on the crossover, I'll get the required number of sets down the ice. Now I just have to practice NOT PUSHING. Which seems oh-so-wrong.

Seriously, whoda thunk that if I backed off on power into a spin and into a three turn pattern I'd be better off. Whoda thought I had that much power to begine with???

Snow Day Well I was off for presidents's day anyhow- so thats good because the roads were awful and my work never closes! I went skating today and managed 15 minutes- this time it was my left knee that stopped me, not my right. I just got my blades sharpened and the ice was horrible, so it was hard to tell what was what. I did a lot of 3 turns down the ice, some crossovers, a few mohawks and tried one spin.

Although my ankle throbs all day long, when it's in the boots I can't tell at all- so that's a plus

At work The spin was a disaster- I think thats the new blades- I did one last tuesday. I couldn't even get 2 revolutions! My mohawks are gone. I am now extremely concerned about my ability to skate with synchro at the upcoming competition.

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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)

We don't get snow here often in Austin, maybe a couple of times a decade. however, if the roads get a little icy the whole area shuts down for days

We haven't seen snow or very much ice this year-it's currently about 75 degrees here. My daughter does have the day off for a teacher's workday, and has spent most of the day doing her dance DVDs. I still had to work though

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deannathegeek
"It's like trying to do a toe loop in hockey skates-you have to have the right tools for the job."

I had the day off from school so I skated when I usually don't and I think I did pretty well.. haha http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTvfMBNp06Q

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Totally at Work:
Back to work on the ice to prepare for Easterns in two weeks ( ) and got to the rink to find no boom box for freestyle and chewed up ice. Did manage to get some good sitspins in and work on portions of my freeskate as well as my CM, but the ice being crappy really sucks.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Not really on ice (except later to teach) but my off-ice class was good. We were in the harness for some jumping (I'm sure that I'm stretching the "no jumping" rule but it is in the harness so I'm sort of controlled so I won't fall).

Not only can I do a flip (as long as I don't mix it up with a toe-loop, doh) but I can still land a loop on one foot and do a clean check-out.

Of course, I'm still hacking and coughing my guts up....but the rink was warmer today....and I used my inhaler. I only did one session in the harness.

It's getting so much easier to actually make these things happen. finally.

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

Monday:

Snow Day
-everything

Work
-I was frozen and when I got off the ice I was crying

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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

Snow day: Did Senior MIF for the first time in ages and was pleasantly surprised to find everything but the inside double 3s/outside double rockers pattern intact.

Work: Bratty, spoilt 18-year-old yelled at a 12-year-old girl who accidentally got in the way during 18-year-old's program, making 12-year-old cry.

All Work, All Week:
No skating for me this week, not even lesson, because public schools are out and the public sessions are way too crowded. OTOH, I'm putting in 9 hrs of group instruction Tu thru Fri for special school groups, so at least I'll be making money. Pick-up lessons are also always plentiful on the holiday public sessions. Have to be careful to pace myself.

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Snow Day:

Got in a nice calm Monday night session (for once) and did all my spins and jumps nice easy and clean up to the flip.

At Work:
(Besides me... no, SERIOUSLY!!! I'm still working from home on a project and will be working late into the evening. I'm just taking a short break now....)

My lutz is still "a work in progress." I landed a couple but that's it. Nothing nice either. One was definitely royally cheated on the takeoff. The other had a scary but still clean landing.

And so goes the very last time I skate before taking my boots into Harlick to get it repaired. I have a feeling that my boots will be in at least for this week, so no lesson this week. I just hope that I don't have to end up getting new boots... well at least not 'til at least the end of this year. My foot is already starting to hurt a little bit even with the new foot cushion on the heel. (And my foot wasn't even hurting before that either.)

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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!!!

Snow Day: Got the choreography finished for the step sequence in our free dance. It now needs to be walked through and walked through to the music so that we can see if there are any bits that need tweaked.

I can now do a rocker - and in the programme, if all goes well, it will be a rocker, hold the edge, back 3 on the same foot! I am rather pleased with that! Couldn't do it solo, though.

Can, however, very nearly do a LFO rocker solo - worked on it in my private lesson.

Work day: Last skate for a week, as we go on holiday tomorrow morning. Not that this is desperately bad, mind you - just that it means no skating for a week.

Totally panicked when being lifted; I don't, somehow, think we'll have a lift in our dance this year. We'll see.

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

Work Day: Another cold morning (-31C) and cold rink ... and cold tired old body I didn't realize how much hard work I did yesterday (digging my truck out when it got severely stuck in my neighbour's driveway) until I got on the ice this morning talk about STIFF!

Nowhere close to a Sit spin (well, maybe one or two) and jumps were pretty mechanical and pathetic. Didn't even consider the jumps on open ice this morning - felt like the stiff old body would shatter if I fell so I worked on edges (forward and backward), forward cross-overs, and 3-turns - too stiff to move fast enough to attempt footwork!

Snow Day: Something strange happened to my Upright spins - I was hitting them just right about half the time and could keep spinning until I ran out of momentum - 4, 5, 6 revolutions - THAT'S NEW! I guess when you are stiff and cold, tucking everything in tight just comes naturally

Also on the plus side is that the ankle I injured last week is all better - ZERO pain before, during, or after skating.

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

Snow Day:
-Nearly empty session this morning!
-Spins were on today. I did some good camels, camel combos, sit spins, back spins, and sit-change-sits.
-Did two program run-throughs that were decent. I was completely out of breath at the end, but I got through them

Work:
-Jumps were so-so. I felt like I wasn't getting much height at all on loop and flip. Lutz was just a disaster this morning. I think I wasn't getting over my right side.

This is for Monday:

Snow day: sit spin was good...loops were decent (though I still don't think my screenname applies anymore, I don't love these jumps!). Got some more speed going into camel attempt though I don't think what I'm doing really qualifies as a camel spin! Two decent flips once I slowed down and counted out the steps to the jump (thanks to my coach)

At Work: Lutz. Yikes. I really need to get that jump, seeing as it's now in my program for a competition in April. I know how long it took me to get the flip, then lose it again, and get it back again...but I'm having the same problem with both so maybe once I get the flip consistent the lutz will follow (determined optimism here). Anyway I've only done one miniscule lutz once nearly a year ago - eek.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

Snow Day:
-On Vacation!!!!
-the last two times I ran my program, I landed the first axel!
-axels have been consistent since I got a sharpening! Before I have another breakdown next time, someone should remind me of this! (My sharpener told me about how a male skater at Skate America came to him because he was all of a sudden struggling with his 3A, and it was fine after the sharpening!)
-getting through the program with stamina
-flying camel has been strong
-may have figured out how the double salchow works!
-might obtain the biellman position sometime this century

Work: (but not really)
-camel and layback weren't the best today
-still ending too late and after the music!
-really need to work on the choreography and SKATING the program
-still have no clue how the double toe works
-getting nervous for Easterns!

[At work]
Busted my knee during my lesson doing the footwork in my program...I just hope it doesn't stiffen up tonight...there is going to be an amazing Technicolor bruise there eventually

Program sucked today...can't seem to get everything right IN the program. I need to start getting the program to be fluid and not element, element, element...so much to work on and not a lot of time...

Loops were crappy...in general, my skating wasn't were I wanted it to be today...

Because of my knee, don't know if I'll make it to the rink tomorrow...plus, I start my week of duty tomorrow, which means that I may or may not be able to go skating on Thursday/Friday/Sunday/Tuesday at my normal rink.

[Snow Day]
My flip was huge, lutz is getting better (for now...as I knock on some wood! Although my arms are still going up and not in...one thing at a time though...one thing at a time...)...possibly found a solution to my problem with my camel spin...we'll see...

Snow Day!!! Group lesson with the jump & spin kids was awesome . . . nice bonus of hearing myself referred to by one of the kids (she was telling the coach who was there for lesson today - she had seen me earlier while I was putting on skates) as "that tall girl with the brown hair" (I am 40 so nice to hear I can still pass as a "girl" ).

Anyhow . . . did lots of comfortable waltz jumps, and then tacked on a toe loop and actually landed the combo with the instructor watching (we have a running joke that I never do anything right while she is watching!! regardless of how many times I have done it right when she is turned away ).

And then we switched to spins, I started out with the forward scratch which, amazingly, centered on most of my attempts . . . so got brave and tried the backspin which was .. . eh . . but then the instructor encouraged me to pull in and stand up tall and lo and behold . . . a backspin emerged!! Of course I immediately freaked myself out and stopped with a toe pick instead of doing the exit, but wow! that was cool!

And then it was time to zam the ice, but I snuck in a long spiral to the exit . . . just cause I could!! After being so unsure about the spiral for so long, it's kind of exciting to be secure enough to do it just for fun!!

Work, work, work . . . Things are going really well in lessons, but at some point I really need to get some good solid PRACTICE time in . . . work/home schedule (with sick kids) has just not been very forgiving in that respect! But both kids are actually back to school now, so maybe Thursday I can get back to the rink. . . I will keep my fingers crossed!

Snow Day: Everything was firing on all cylinders except for the waltz/axel. I decided to try picking up the speed on my loop and it turns into a completely different jump. The cashier let me skate for free for some mysterious reason. I've had 3 good sessions out of the last 5. I think that's a record.

Work Day: My waltz/axels were terrible. It was raining when I left the rink and I got soaked on my way to the car.

Sorry but I absoulutely REFUSE to see a "snow day" as a good thing. I've shoveled my driveway and walk, daughter's car, my car, TOO many times, called the tow truck to get dd out of the the ditch, gotten cramps from nervously grasping the steering wheel going 30 miles an hour in sleet, snow and blowing snow and gone by too many cars in the ditch that literally looked like King Kong had come by and picked them up and tossed them aside to see a Snow Day as good. Ask me again next year if it's closer to Christmas and MAYBE I'll be predisposed to more favorable towards it.

Nope a Work day is a good, thing when you get a lot accomplished because you aren't STUCK HOME in a blizzard like Sunday....(yes this is a sore spot for me because I AM SICK OF WINTER and let's not even talk about my $650 heating bill)

Anyhooo I had a good work day lesson today. Coach said she can tell I've been working hard on my Moves. She did say she'd wished she had me in Basic Skills so I wouldn't have this bad habit of going up on my toes on my back crossovers. She had me at the wall working on bending both knees and making sure I lift the leg behind up and to the side and not behind because that's what is drawing me up on my toes.

We went on to the forward peremeter crossovers and she had to remind me to pay attention to where I was - I got off pattern and it was just inattention, when I pay attention, I get nice edging lobes and stay on pattern.

On to the back crossovers and held outside edge...my back edges are better but I tend to tighten the circles for my crossovers and I need to hold them better to make bigger circles but that was actually a pretty easy fix and I was back on pattern.

Snow Day : If I coud do a freaking mohawk I'd be ready to test Bronze Moves. The plan is to pass enough over on everything else to make up for the mohawks but they at least have to be close for that trick and I'm still not close.

And dd is going to be Sleeping Beauty in our spring show and is learning a solo to "Once Upon a Dream" and I CANNOT get that melody out of my head!

j

At work on breaking in the new boots. I skated just over an hour in them since Monday, and they seem to be coming along fine. I can do my MIFs, but have not had the courage to try a jump, and my spin is missing (boo hoo, it was sooo good last week). Don't know if that is because of the stiffness in the new boots, or the blade needs to be moved. Guess I'll have to try to figure that out.

Snow day: The skates don't hurt! yeah!

Well, this is actually for the weekend of the 15-17th. My synchro team did a competition in Ohio, and my coach thought of COURSE I could do some events. I did a compulsory & a FS program (FS1 in ISI). Nothin' flashy and I did okay--a few stumbles but that was pretty much what I expected, given nerves and such. I did feel kind of like an old whale next to the 8-year-old pixies who were also skating at the FS1 level, but after the ankle break & subsequent surgeries, I'm just glad to be on the ice and relatively pain free. And hey, my daughter was really excited that her Mommy came home with GOLD MEDALS (ha, as though this were the Olympics!)

Highly revealing photo (not really) of me from the back

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Good:
Camel is gaining consistency, its all about my core strength really
Did 1 good biellmann out of 5 (as in, it spun on and on and was reasonably centered and the free leg was reasonably high) and it seems to be more a matter of not over-thinking it on the entry edge and also of lifting the leg higher before reaching to grab for it.

Bad:
I'm able to practice back spins again (after that ankle twist in december following the ankle fracture and cast last summer), well that's good, but I've almost completely lost them. Change-foot is working a little better than backspins. There's certainly a fear component involved there, seeing as both the fracture and the twist occurred on spins, the twist even on a backspin actually.

Snow day (If a snow day is a good thing- I'm undecided because I'm still freezing from my dog walk in the stuff): I'm back on the ice after being sick. Dance coach thinks I'll be ready to test my canasta tango and dutch waltz at the next test session.

Work day: Still not 100%

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Snow day: Went to the rink where PCAS will be held in 2 1/2 weeks to try my figures out there. The ice was AWESOME!! I went for the end up the public (no one had shown up for public so the ice was clean) and did 2 sets of serpentines and two sets of 3s. My friend came out and skated some figures and edges and we were on for about a half-hour. Then in was time for coffee-club.

I figured they wouldn't clean the ice, but nope, the zamboni driver opened the doors - I said, "You're cleaning it, it's almost perfect, and he said, "Well, you're doing figures, right? And you have to have really clean ice for that, so I'll make you new ice." I was completely astounded - I've been scrambling for ice for weeks and months now and then I just go over there and they are aware of people needing clean ice for figures?!!! Anyway, I guess they've had it drilled into them because of having figures at their facility for Sectionals (plus I think the zam guy is the husband of one of the figure skating coaches...) anyway, how great!

So they cleaned the ice and I did another two sets of each figure - AGAIN and it felt pretty good. Every time I go out there they look and feel better - especially that BI3 (which is nowhere near really good, but still...)

At work: Me and the BI3 (and the FO one), that's for sure!! Someone who used to coach gave me a few tips (nothing my coach hasn't said, but still it's nice to hear from someone else) and it's still not pretty but I aim to get it better by next week! After that I'll just have to basically coast until the comp.

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Wow, nice! They only have one ice surface there, right?

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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