Well there wasn't much improvement on it, I've always had that inconsistently and its still inconsistent I realized that I find it really easy to rock all the way back and fall off the back, or get totally on the toe pick... so hard to stay in the middle and ON the edge... I keep getting my front back left right confused somehow hehehe. (like I think ok stay front, then I go to my left instead !!!)

__________________
~
Tidesong

Oh yes, it's one of the test dances at Level 3 Bronze here.

Bent: Not a lot, today. Too many rather good ice-dancers, but we managed to do everything we wanted to do.

Still faffing with choreography for our artistic; we need to get the props up and running before we can do much else.

Coach has the most evil exercises for me now - I have to skate with my hands clasped behind my back, like Prince Philip, only stretched out down as low as I can get them. It hurts!

Why is it that as soon as Husband leaves for work, someone has a lesson on the Westminster Waltz (music used for Golden Skaters'); we could so have practised it to the music!

Straight: Decent run-throughs of Golden Skaters' Waltz, Fiesta Tango and free dance.

Getting the choreography straight in parts of our artistic. I think. I hope.

Coach was complimentary in lesson - hope he isn't coming down with something.....

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

Nice and straight: I had a fabulous dance lesson with the coach. She's finally back from her vacation and I'm much more used to my new boots after a week in them. I did a million run-throughs of the Paso, which she said looked good (work on the crossrolls and slide extensions!) and finished learnign the second half of the Starlight Waltz, which isn't so bad. Overall, a great day!

Nice & Straight: My change foot spins were awesome - 3 times and all were good! Also, my coach brought her video camera and totally fixed the check on my salchow, hooray!

Bent & Twisted: Although I can finally pick up my feet on the Rhythm Blues end pattern, what I thought was a pointed toe still shows up on the video camera as a flexed foot, sigh.......

LOL! Hee hee hee....I hope he reads this.

Nice and Straight:

• Well, my posture anyway...it's much better now and secondary coach does not see any more "turtles." (i.e. my shoulder are down now so she can actually see a neck. Turtles don't show any neck b/c it's hidden in its shell...
• Landed clean loops AND loop-loops today!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Bend and twisted:

• Free leg needs to be straighted on stroking!!! Actually the free leg isn't so bad on the stroking but the hip is still not quite squared on one side. (Which tells me it's probably time for a chiro visit... )
• SPIRALS SUCKS!!! I HATE 'EM!!! Need to lock knees and free foot not turned out. (And at the same time I'm not supposed to open my hip either! It's gonna be painful to turn out the foot, I will tell 'ya!!!)
• Couldn't land flips clean w/o stumbling out. At least it's landed on the correct foot... it just won't glide out!

Additional Nice and Straight:

• Told secondary coach what my artistic piece is and she thinks it's KEWL!!! So much for the fun of shocking the secondary coach with scary music.

__________________
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!!!

Nice & Straight:
- only skater on the ice for the 1st 45 min.
- rink wasn't as cold
- newly sharpened blades
- fell trying the new fan spiral and learned something, watch the hip!
- remembered to stay down in the knees on perim stroking and forward x-overs/progressives

Bent & Twisted
- blades felt too sharp, stops were scary until end of session
- feel like a car going down the road sideways with right forward power pulls, alignment problems I think
- dropping off edge after turn on forward power 3s, me or uneven blade sharpening?
- RBO3, still getting on a too deep inside edge after the turn

There's an Italian no-neck joke that your instructor may someday spring on you....be forewarned!

Looop-loop combo, good for you! That combo is pure evilness to me....

Not Quite Straight! In lesson today we played with spins again, which weren't working as consistently as Monday but at least I hit a few. We talked about 2-foot spins but I actually find them harder than 1-foot spins - unless I cheat and have 95% of my weight on one foot I managed a few CW back XO's but just couldn't get the CCW going. Back edges and glides continue to improve - starting to get some good speed on the backwards now.

T'was the last session of "spring ice" for me - off now until July 3

At this time and on this auspicious occasion I couldn't help but reflect on the past 8 months (since I hooked up with my present coach) and some of the milestones. Eight months ago I could skate forward (scratchy stroking), do forward cross-overs, barely skate backwards, 2-foot turns at any kind of speed were scary, and I had all the grace of a baby moose! Five months later I had a 2:30 Interpretive program in front of the judges at the Adult Championships. Ok, it was nothing to write home about, but it was THERE and I had my first competition under my belt, a national competition to boot! In the three months since Nationals my backward skating has improved immeasurably, I have done back cross-overs, 3 turns, one-foot and two-foot spins (though none of them consistently). We have also worked on jump landings and takeoffs. Although my progress usually appears abysmally slow to me day to day, when I take a step back and look over a longer time frame, my rate of progress appears to be accelerating (which is a damned good thing 'cause I ain't getting any younger - LOL!) Considering that 16 months ago I couldn't stand upright in skates, I am, today, one happy camper!

See ya'll in July!

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

I passed it last year doing the push to BI edge on one foot and slightly lifting the free leg in front. The only other person I've seen test PB moves did it on two feet, and she passed also.

However, once you get to Bronze Moves, there are two patterns that require that same push onto a BI edge, and you have to do it with both feet on the ice. So it might be good to learn that edge with your other foot on the ice now - one less thing you have to learn later

This is from last night:

Nice & Straight:
-8-step mohawks were much improved from last week
-back cross rolls and back power pulls were good
-spirals were strong and (for me) high
-flip was on!!
-I skated my program decently 3 times.

Bent & Twisted:
-camel, aka the hardest spin EVER
-Silver 3-turn pattern was flat

nice n straight:
landed 4 toeloops in a row
still landing toes and sals
forward spin is improving even more
I am beginning to get a hint of a backspin
loop entry is very good. now for the rotation...
ooh, and my new skates are broken in! much better...

bent n twisted:
my foot... has 2 blisters on the heel (from new school shoes+skates)
toepicked myself on a spiral. whatt??

__________________

Nice & Straight:
Was back at the rink again after missing two days of skating do to very bad infection.
Did one corkscrew spin that was just about centered (I'm picky and like all the circles to either be on top of each other or start outward and then go inside the beginning one.) I barely travelled on the spin with only two of the rotations not as centered. This means my sinuses and middle ear are clearing up.
One of my students is almost finished her level 4 CanSkate and then will be getting an official private coach. She has just 3 things to get; two foot spin picking up alternating feet, two foot sit spin and one foot three turns.

Bent & Twisted:
The weird feeling I got when I went back on the ice for the first time after being so sick that I thought I'd either die or have to be admitted to the hospital with the infection I had. It all felt so surreal.
The lack of energery I had to do basic stroking around the rink to warm up was a bummer.
I was too weak to do any of my own skating so I had to opt to coach instead.

Here's hoping I feel much better than Tuesday on Thursday so I can get back to my skating again as well as coach.

__________________
"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

Nice and Straight:
Forward scratch spin and backscratch after a few tries!

Bent and Twisted:
Auntie took what pitiful sitpin I have and convinced Primary Coach to send me back to sitspin kindergarden. In other words, for the time being, instead of doing a plain sit, I now have to do the sitspin entry and then spin on two feet as low as possible. Now I'm really worried whether I'll ever get to Bronze.

__________________
Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Yes, definitely. Especially since I'm a CW skater, and kids don't seem to understand that a person doing CCW xovers in the middle of the rink is about to enter a spin! They all think I'm heading down the rink for a jump! yikes! At least 4 almost ran into me yesterday.

Nice & Straight - I've done salchows adequately, but I never could see how anyone could have enough control to do a double. My coach had me wait, wait wait, before I jumped, and now I get it!! Not that you'll see a double jump out of me anytime soon.

Bent & Twisted - back spin - why can't I just get that thing? I can not do more than 3-4 revs. Mostly because I don't trust myself and I keep checking out.

Nice and Straight After a year of trying to find someone who could stretch my boots- I finally have! She is going to stretch the toe box, and then lightly punch the spots I taped to show her the pressure points (she doesn't want to completely punch them out until she has my feet in the boots, and she thinks stretching will solve the problem anyway.) I am so thrilled at the possibility that my skates might not hurt me anymore.

Bent and Twisted She's in another city and I sent my skates to her by "courier coach" who is from that city as well. I don't know this coach (just by name) so I am so scared he forgot them or something and my skates just got left at the mall and will disappear.

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

Nice and Straight

First time on the ice since last Sunday and I knew I had a power class after an hour of skating, so I just took it easy, few patterns of the forward and backward crossovers from bronze moves, power 3s, then I just worked on chasses and swing rolls forward and backward. My backward chasses especially needed work since I don't pick my foot up enough and I have these in my freestyle as well as dance so I concentrated on picking up my foot. Worked on keeping my leg straight behind and turning out my foot on back swing rolls. Did a few patterns of the Swing, even though the mohawk was mostly two footed, at least to help me remember the dance

Then a 15 minute lesson, we worked on the entry edge from a t position for a spin. We got as far as me holding a good edge, keeping my knee bend, keeping my arms straight and then putting my foot down for a two foot spin. She drew the pattern for me to do a RFO edge, RFO 3 turn, 2 crossovers and then the LFO edge into the spin. She said to work on that and try to wean myself off of putting my foot down so it's a 1 foot spin. Once I get it I think that shouldn't be hard since I have no problem with a 1 foot spin with a two foot entry.

Since I'm working on FS 1 in LTS, we reveiwed FO and FI consectutive edges which were fine.

Then onto POWER class. Do any of you take power classes? It was me, my daughter and another teenage girl who pretty much goofed off until she decided to race my daughter in backward russian stroking and they both scared the beegeebers out of me. Other than that 5 second race, I worked harder in this class than the two of them!

The coach had us skate as fast as we could to the other side and jump. Both the girls start whining "I don't want to jump" and just stand there. "O fer crying out loud" I said and I went off and did my half lutz, then half flip and then waltz jump. I am very nervous about jumping with any speed. Coach said to just push myself a little, which I did and I think I did the best waltz jumps I've ever done, they were high and had good flow and I didn't die!

Bent & Twisted

Then we had to skate and do 20 jumping jacks. Okay I don't jump on my toe picks. I don't even really know how. "Just jump up and down" I couldn't even really get on my toe picks to do that. "Do bunny hops" "How do I do those again" Finally I figure out to do side toe taps but we were done with that by then.

During the cool down, they were doing back cross rolls and maybe I was distracted by trying to decide what I would do instead since I can't do back cross strokes and I caught an edge and fell backwards, hard on my head, but fortunately my elbow caught most of it before my head slamed on the ice.

Of course that sent everyone in a panic. And even on easy falls, I just can't get up that easily, this time, I needed to lay there and get my breath but I was afraid they were going to call the paramedics! I did mangage to get up and prove that I was not going to black out. This was an hour ago and my head does not hurt and I only have general soreness and a big black and blue mark on my elbow to show for it.

j

Oh gosh! I'm so sorry about your bad fall. Glad to hear your okay and hope the soreness goes away soon.



I am so amazed at those of you who take power skating classes. I am still pretty much jumping from a standstill (well I've progressed from slow glide). The idea of jumping jacks on ice makes me FREAK out. I had to excuse myself from LTS for about 5 minutes the day we learned ballet jumps because just doing them at the wall scared me so much my legs were shaking and I knew I was going to start crying. (Oddly, I had no problems doing them the next week and ballet jumps aren't so bad.)

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

Nice and straight:

Whohoo!!! Today I landed a few of the nicest double toe loops ever in front of coach so ok theres some progress again... I'll need a while before I'm convinced that it won't go the way of last year and last last year but its starting to feel a little better.

Double loop was landed underrotated still, I tense up too much on double loop need to relax, calm down and remmeber its not the end of the world.....

Worked on double flip which was very cool, got the entry straighterened up (was looking forward to this!) and its very fun! But of course I didnt get close to landing yet. Much nicer than my crazy attempts a long while back

Tried one back sit change edge, change edge back then upright side split spin /I spin /sasha spin whatever you wanna call it lol

Double salchow and axel per usual

Bent and twisted:

uh... well this was a pretty good session

__________________
~
Tidesong

Back in 2001 in a rhythm and edge class I took a fall on those back cross rolls. I had plenty of rhythm, just no edge! I know what it feels like to take a fall on them, I landed hard on my middle/upper back and my feet were above my body when I was falling.

My head felt like it was millimeters from the ice, but didn't make contact. Scary, to say the least.

Nice and straight: Started my new freeskate program. I always enjoy working on choreography. We have a husband/wife team that works with us - he choreographs, and then she works with on-ice presentation. The only problem so far is that he's put in so much choreography that we can't fit in all the elements - she's already ripped out most of it, and we're only halfway through the program so far! At the moment, I'm not really sure what's still in, and what's been removed. The goals for this one are to increase the technical content so I can hopefully finish higher at ANs than I did this year, and to capitalize on my natural classic style. At least, I hope it will look classic by the time we're done - things are pretty rough at the moment!

Bent and twisted: What is WITH that cross behind step in the Rhythm Blues?! Just started that dance, and could do it pretty well already if it weren't for that! I've been doing laps around the boards, and by the end yesterday could sort of do it without holding on, so I guess there's hope. No way to do it at tempo yet, though. I'll be all right with my coach supporting me, but I want to be able to compete it solo someday.

Heh. Does your coach let you do the one foot option? You can pass the test with that, but I suppose if you want to compete, doing both feet will get you more credie. Wait till you do the cross behind for the cha cha. I tried that again today as well but it was not happening.

j

I haven't done the Rhythm and Blues, but do the cha-cha in our synchro program. I'm a dork, because I normally hate cross-behinds and panic about them whenver they come up infootwork, but I love the cross behind in the cha-cha, LOL!

I think about sliding the back foot down my skating leg, then sitting on it. Of course, I love to point my toes, so i concentrate more on pointing my front toe than actually stepping on my back foot. I love to practice things that make me feel pretty and the cha-cha is one of those things, LOL! Like I said, I'm a dork!

I love the cha cha...makes me feel sexy! Except for that $$*%@ cross behind!

j

Yes, she showed me the one-foot option, but I'm being stubborn and refusing to use it unless it becomes absolutely necessary. She says I do the foot that would get left out better anyway, so I might as well try to do all of them. I wanted to pass this dance yet this summer. We'll see...

Aaahh, I remember that fall well. . . Back when I was taking group classes we were doing back cross rolls and I let my weight get too far back on the foot I was pushing onto. My foot slipped out from underneath me and I went straight back onto my head. The little pool of red blood on the ice was very dramatic, like one of those suicide scenes in Japanese movies (which always seem to take place on a blanket of white snow), LOL! It only required two stitches, but I guess the visual was pretty dramatic because my instructor still remembers it years later!

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