Had a nice chat with a guy at our rink last night who was wearing the strangest-looking hockey skates. I had to ask after doing a double-take since they looked like strap-on blades - and big ones at that! They turned out to be goalie skates - very interesting: the blades are almost flat so that he can't rock backwards when protecting the goal. Fascinating. Anyway, his reply to me started with "You're such a figure skater." LOL So in honor of the continuing figure skaters vs. hockey argument, here is a new practice thread!

Divots/Ruts: (Figure skaters create divots/hockey players make ruts)

Finally starting to feel comfortable on my skates, but I'm really out of shape, lol. I broke at the waist on every half-hearted jump attempt.

Smooth/Shiny: (Freshly cut ice)

I taught loop jumps last night in both directions (two different skaters). I actually managed to do a decent CW version on the wall and a cheated one off the wall - not bad considering I jump CCW normally.

Spins were wonky, but I tried them before adjusting the blades. I think I need a sharpening to correct a blade dip that I noticed. Managed a few upright spins in the opposite direction - forward and back spins. Cooool!

Edges and spirals are much better since I think I've finally aligned the blades properly.

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Ruts:
Literally. I can't wait for the summer-long hockey camp to be over.

Smooth:
Landed loop, flip becoming more consistent. Like 50% consistency instead of 10%. Got the lutz takeoff, now just need the rotation, but haven't attempted rotation yet.

Divots:
Sit and camel are hopeless. Can't get the backspin exit, either.

Shiny:
Can almost land off-ice axel, double sal and double toe. Coach said something about axels in harness. I'd rather not.

Hockey vs. figure:
If they were polite, I would like them a lot better. The next one who cuts in front of me is going to be grabbed by the neck and shaken.

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Right Brain: In the distant future, I will land all of the doubles.
Left Brain: HAHAHAHAHA
Left Brain: You can't even do a backspin.
Right Brain: ...

figurekb on YouTube.

Divots/Ruts: (Figure skaters create divots/hockey players make ruts)

Smooth spins still aren't coming - feel like I've spent forever on them. And ever since I really bashed my knee landing forward after an over-rotated waltz jump (!) have remained petrified of edge jumps. Not helpful.

Smooth/Shiny: (Freshly cut ice)

A passable, if nowhere near perfect, backwards inside bielman spiral. Darn good backwards crossrolls after only a couple of attempts and getting ever closer on the Kilian choctaws - can actually skate a couple of lobes of the pattern (not too gracefully though correctly) before losing the control.

Smooth: Last minute of the lesson and I did a great spin (from a hook!). Coach said yay and started clapping. Everyone looked in our direction and I went red, if that's even possible.

Ruts: My Shoulders still have a mind of their own. Trying to control them is akin to being a Sumo Wrestler. Hard work, and it sure does weigh on you after a while :<

Excuse the pun XD

Ruts: August means limited ice time at insane hours or studio rink, all in addition to extended commute time. I guess I can practice lots of backspins on studio ice provided no one is jumping... Landing foot hates flip jump attempts, sigh. Will try more flips and loops on the carpet.

Smooth: sit spin getting fairly close. This is much more manageable than change-foot! Countdown to skating clinic, whee~

Smooth / shiny:
after a few weeks of problems with the ice, it is just about sorted. The lady looking after today's session scraped the ice as it had a few condensation lumps, and then resurfaced. Bliss! You had to have been there to understand my happiness.

Me, one other adult synchro team member, and two recreationals with a small child. A nice session.

Divots / Ruts:
My skating. Because I no longer have lessons, I don't work much on spins or jumps these days. Disappointing to realise how quickly I have lost these skills. I always loved jumping, but now I struggle to do a loop.

I work a lot on footwork for our synchro team, and that's improving, I guess.
So it's not all negative.

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Katz

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

Smooth and Shiny Coach decided that pre juvenile moves could be tested Aug. 27 I missed my goal of May, but maybe I'll get them in before the changes. Technically speaking, I know everything and am capable of everything. The question will be can I pull it out for test?

In general, all the moves felt faster, stronger, and more secure. And I'm not nearly as afraid of running into the wall as I used to be.

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~Always Dream!~

Check my progress at www.freewebs.com/sk8tegirl06

Smooth/Shiny: (Freshly cut ice)

After being knocked down in an unfortunate accident (him: backwards rockers; me: double 3s) I managed to shift my BO3 / FI double 3 mental block and went from scraping them on one foot and unable on the other to having actual flow 50% of the time, doing some satisfactory BI3s and FO double 3s, and even tried the FI3-BO3 turns in the field reasonably well - in less than a 30 min session

Divots/Ruts: (Figure skaters create divots/hockey players make ruts)

RIght hamstring still giving me a bit of trouble after pulling it months ago - making my change dge-position spiral v painful.

Divots/ruts/death cookies: Alas, some problem with the dehumidifier at the rink has made one sheet half unusable for the last several weeks (think drip, drip, drip in many areas on the ice, all day long). Apparently they'll be working on it this weekend. . .

Smooth/shiny:
Flip jump is coming and perhaps may even happen at the comp coming up in 3 weeks. . . (was working on loop and getting fairly comfy with it until I pulled my hip flexor on that leg--OW!). Figuring out my problems with waltz-toe loop as well. Now I just have to FIX IT.

A few decent sit spins, the fwd scratch is getting much better, and the change-foot will continue to be eked out for a while. . .

Divots/ruts:
After 20 minutes of jump lesson with coach 1 and 15 minutes of a LOT of sit spins with coach 2, my runthrough of my program SUCKED!! Methinks I need to spend some time at the gym working on stamina!

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

Smooth/Shiny
Mohawks are BACK! (and very apologetic for going on a 14 month vacation without permission) Although I have to do them with some serious knee bend to get my feet turned out, they're back, smooth, and solid. First time to do them successfully since the broken ankle.

So coach had me doing the following today: Drop 3's, power 3's, back cross, forward cross with chasee, two foot turns forward and back (he was pleased I can do these at speed), back edges (sucky, but not godawful), five step mohawks, swing rolls.

Told coach that I wanted to pass adult pre-bronze within a year. I can do everything in some form except the 3 turn pattern now. I've done waltz 8's in the past, so that should come back.

In a rut: Coach assisted me today with stuff I can't do with any speed or confidence: forward and back cross rolls (just can't trust myself on that outside edge but I can feel occasionally that I've got it right), crossed step behinds(?) alone and in killian position (something from some ice dance), power pulls.

Fell once on the 5 step mohawk. Rolled across the ice like a ninja.

Amusing Stepped off the rink and someone said "Well, your coach really wrung you out today."

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

I've been unable to practice or have lessons since the end of April, but I do still give private lessons, so when I had an hour cancellation yesterday, I decided to go anyway and just skate a bit.

Divots/Ruts:
I did three LFO threes and three RFO threes and was so out of breath I almost had to sit down. My anemia from chemo is the cause, so it's not alarming, just annoying.

Smooth/Shiny:
I can still do the FO threes, and they weren't so bad either. Today I did some F & B cross strokes to demo them for a student and they felt pretty good.

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Here's a rose for you @};---

I'm glad you're skating again just for yourself.

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Great forum quotes:
On Falling: '...it doesn't matter, it's what you do AFTER you fall that's more important' ISK8NYC

HERE HERE!!!! And you still can do FO3 and cross strokes!!!

I'll give a summary of this week's lesson:

Smooth/Shiny:

• My cross strokes (both forward and back) are better... Hopefully, dbny... you'll see a difference from last year's when I come and visit this year!!!
• I have been showing up twice for weekend sessions where I do nothing but FO mohawks and back 3's. Well, I can say the back 3's are better now. At least they are a bit more stable.
• My secondary coach got back my loop jumps when I lost them earlier this week. (She also added "If I have to fix this again, I will be VERY PISSED!!! Ummmm... )
• Secondary coach is insisting that from now on... I am to do the ? (well, in my case, ? flipped backwards, entry into a waltz or salchow jump and she wants the speed to be FAST FAST FAST!!!

Pivots/Ruts:

• FO mohawks STILL sucks!!! HATE THEM!!! HATE THEM!!!
• Earlier this week, my loops, flips and lutz are ALL gone!!! Flip and lutz are still in progress. Still a bit down in the dumps about it since I really want to eventually start working on a program and maybe slowly get back into competing again. (Despite the fact that I initially had the goal of passing my Silver Moves BEFORE I go back to compete again... well, I'm still far from being ready to test. Why? Back 3's and FO mohawks (for the 8 step mohawks.)
• Other Notes: My regular NYC coach won't be able to coach me this Christmas!!! He is visiting his family in Sweden. "First time since early 1990's," he said. So my NYC coach made some suggestions for coaches. When I brought the list to my secondary coach, she did not like ONE of the choices and did not know the other two. Her team coach suggested someone NOT on the list. My primary coach does recommend him too, so I'm gonna bring this up to my NYC coach and see if this coach is available this year. (Crossing fingers and toes...)

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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!!!

Ooh! Teach me!

Smooth: Got one revolution on the sit spin! Scratch spin seems to slowly be getting better, was more centered, but spin circles too big. Did humongous waltz jumps too.

Ruts: Only three weeks till comp, backspin has been getting better and better, and it just took a major nosedive. It's back to what it was like three months ago- double threeing, no speed, no crossed-leg pull-in.
Oh, and attempts at lutz rotation ended with me tangled up, windmilling my arms to keep balance.

Neutral ice: I know what I'm doing wrong with my salchow (spinning, not bringing leg through correctly) but it doesn't translate to my leg movement. So I dug up videos from May and April, and watched all of them trying to catch some of the more advanced girls in the background doing their single or double salchows, then compared their entry to mine in slow motion. I can see exactly what I need to do to fix my entry now

Agnes & Jazz, thanks, but that's probably all I'll do until I'm done with chemo and the neuropathy goes away.

Jazz - I sent u a PM about a NY moves coach at Sky Rink.

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I had a good skating weekend!

Smooth/Shiny: Had a "eureka!" moment with my power 3's that is also helping out with other areas of my skating - not quite sure how to put it, but I was not getting a good check with the right shoulder & therefore my upper body was just drifting off and causing me to get off balance at critical points (i.e., the RBI edge to the LFO 3-turn to start the next lobe). Now that I am really engaging that shoulder blade and holding a good upper body check, it is making things so much easier!

Of course, after working hard on MITF in practices all week, my private on Thursday focused on Freestyle but that was fine because I actually landed some decent loops and some (slightly-cheated-on-the-landing-but-one footed!) flips. Yeah!!

AND, I have new skates on the way!! (actually 2 pairs - not keeping both though.) Our rink doesn't keep much stock on hand and certainly not any upper level boots, so we just have to order and hope for the best. I was agonizing between 2 different boots (Riedell 875 vs. 1310 LS). Finally hit on the idea of just ordering both and see which one I like best - there is a small restocking fee, but I'm willing to pay that to have the opportunity to try both and see which one will work better for me.

Divots/Ruts: just lots of slipping and sliding in the old boots . . . ouch! but that will hopefully be taken care of before too long.