I also love working on moves...it is more of a puzzle of proper placement and timing than jumps...it's been the axel that has held me back all these years (luckily, I am getting closer by the minute!), but I am working on novice moves...go figure...

[Sinking]
Ice was horrible this morning...they didn't cut it from last night...

Still not landing my axels...

[Floating]

But, coach said last night they are soooo close...she actually said that if I would just fight for the landing, they would be there...

Double sals are still not where I want them to be, but that's okay, they will get there.

Couldn't do a sit change sit last night, but laybacks were pretty good...I'm leaning to the right a bit, so I need to straighten out, but otherwise, they are good...

Moves are feeling good...did a lot of work on counters last night, I need to clean up the right outsides, and the insides, but it's all coming along...my secret hope is that they will be ready to test sometime before December...but who knows...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Floating: Had a good practice this morning! Did a good run-thru of my program, coach and I worked through places where minor technique points had kind of fallen away in some of my jumps. My lutz is back to feeling "floaty", let's hope it's that way tomorrow. Did a pretty good run-thru of my program (not my best, but one I'd be happy with if I skate it that way competing tomorrow). We fixed my step sequence, which is in both my free and interp so, provided I relax and stay down in my kees, it flows much better. Silver program is starting to settle in a little where I feel like I actually have time...unlike bronze where I constantly felt really rushed to get everything in. Now to just work in an axel and a more difficult change foot combo and some more "flair"!

Off to Grand Rapids! Wish me luck! Good luck, too, to Jen and everyone else competing!

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Sinking: I really miss the ice. This is one kind of failure that probably wouldn't happen on ice...



It cut short my practice at the roller rink last night. After the chunk broke from my wheel, another skater found it and scolded me for leaving debris on the rink floor. Something that size would topple a quad skater as soon as they hit it.

Yes, I know, but I had not even made it back to the bench to determine what had happened to my wheels (and think of that LUB-LUB-LUB sound a flat tire makes).

Floating: The skating I DID get to do was great fun, although it's hot in a non-airconditioned roller rink.

Soon, I'm going to have to take a road trip for some real ice regardless of transportation costs. I miss it.

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Bill Schneider

Sinking
- My program run-through yesterday. My left quad turned to rubber and buckled on the landing of my second axel, then I just skipped my flip-loop-loop combo entirely. I felt like a totally out-of-shape bum!
- Messed up the first axel in my program today because I was too distracted by the loud exchange between my coach and another coach. My coach had called out to the other coach to watch out for me (since the other coach was with a student and it didn't look like they were getting out of the way). The other coach said "You aren't supposed to do that!" (meaning, coaches aren't supposed to yell to other coaches or skaters to get out of their skater's way). Anyway, the distraction of wondering if they were about to get into it on my account nullified any benefit I would have gotten from my coach's attempt to clear my path.

Floating
- My program run-through today, with the exception of the distraction on the first axel. I completed every other element and had no endurance problem whatsoever. Go figure! For some reason, I always make several mistakes in my program on Thursday mornings but I always skate it clean or almost clean on Friday mornings. I guess I just don't like Thursdays.
- I think my updated spiral sequence is "there" already! I've got the new pattern worked out now, and based on today's ice tracings, I'm much more confident about the change of edge counting!
- Made good progress on the reverse camel and nailed the reverse sit-pancake for my coach on the first try. I need to keep working on those.

It's possible that your primary coach is remembering the back double 3's from the Gold test, where you exit the back 3 and then need to switch your arms so that you are hugging the circle for the forward inside 3 right after it. Sometimes it's easy to forget that there's a deliberate check before the switch.

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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

Floating: Bracknell Adult Open yesterday and today; good to see old friends again and make new ones.

Sinking: We didn't skate as well as we did in France; ended up 3rd out of 4 in the compulsories, and deserved it! Husband also skated the next level up with Other Woman, which was pretty tragic, and his solos weren't their best, either. Sigh.... and although I was pleased with our free dance he wasn't, and nor weren't the judges. Rethink time, I think.

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

Floating: Double sals were definitely the best they've been all week! My coach was right about just relaxing and "letting the jump happen." Makes a world of difference!

Axels, two double sal-double loops, and some double toes were also really good.

And, despite feeling kinda crappy (headache, etc.), I had a ton of energy.

Oh, and my freestyle coach and I are going to start putting together my program this coming week! Can't wait!

Sinking: The session was unusually crowded and therefore it was damn near impossible to dance! I was able to do one pattern of the Viennese to the music and got to work bits and pieces of the Westminster Waltz, so I guess I was still somewhat productive.

Spins were just all around bad, which is really strange. Perhaps because I wasn't feeling well; perhaps because my blades could use a sharpening.

Floating: I PASSED! I had a not so good skate this morning before my test session. We ended up tweaking more things and morking on my presentation more. However, it mostly went well during my test. I did trip during my footwork, and according to my coach and another skater, had a very twisted take-off for my lutz... I was pretty much with my music though (I do listen... despite my coach saying that I don't.)

Judge 1:
Technical: 2.7 - elements nicely skated; jumps big w good basic tech
Presentation: 2.7 - nicely skated to the music
*more outside edge on lutz*

Judge 2:
Technical: 2.8 - nicely skated jumps and spins; some good quality edge stems and moves in sl seq.
Presentation: 2.7 - music did not reflect the positive ability of the skater; looked graceful

Judge 3:
Techinical: 2.8 - good strong jumps; spins good, work on more revs
Presentation: 2.7 - good used of music; good presentation at beginning, carry out to the end
*work on make stronger camel*
*work on more revs on change foot*

So, some mixed reactions. I didn't pick, my music, so I really had no control on that aspect; my coach just handed me music the day after I passed my moves test. But, I'M DONE WITH PREJUV FREE!!! Unfortunetly, I think my coach is just using an expanded version of this music for my next test...

Sinking: I now have two new goals... I'm testing Juv moves at the end of July and FS6 around the same time! AHHH

Congratulations!!! You must be so relieved and excited! The other good news is that because of that comment from the judge, you have a good reason to insist on new music!

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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

But two judges liked my music... I'll just use whatever she gives me because I'm only going to be using it for one to two months.

Congrats FlyAndCrash!

Congrats to Fly and Crash!!!!!

Sinking: *sigh* the flip. Couldn't even do one good one today. Not only that, I couldn't even do them in the harness. I was having one of those skating days. I also quit smoking cold turkey and am an emotional wreck, so that contributed to my lack of flips. I really hate this mental block against flip and lutz. I don't have it with the toe loop. The flip and lutz feel to me like I have zero control, while every other jump feels to me like I have a lot of control, if that makes sense. So bizarre...

Floating: Coach confirmed this morning that I am finally doing a real toe loop, yay! Now to make them larger and comfortable. Totally different feeling than the toe waltz, haha

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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)

Floating:
Moves - totally getting better- and where I'm not better, I can tell what I'm doing wrong. The first step to fixing it!
Spins- Good sit spin day.

Sinking:
loop.
My crappy old skates.

SIGH.

Congratulations, Flyandcrash!

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

Kind of in the middle: Competed at Grand Rapids...skated ok, my goal was just to make it through my program (since it's what, my first time doing silver and second time competing individuallly in a zillion years), which I did...felt better than my performance in bronze at Adult Nationals. But watching the DVD (which, by the way, paying the extra little bit of $$ to have a DVD included in your registration fee? Wonderful.), my jumps weren't nearly as high as they are in practice...like hardly leaving the ice, when in practice I actually have really powerful jumps. I botched my flip-half loop-sal (normally my best jump), and it looks like I two-footed my solo lutz. Footwork needs to be edgier. Overall, speed was down, which plays into all of that. And I didn't hold my camel long enough in my combo spin. Basically, that will all improve with confidence, getting more comfortable with my program, and getting the "holy crap I'm out here alone...where is my synchro team...someone help! Everyone is watching me, I hate this!" feeling of panic to go away. There is plenty of time between now and ANs (and Buckeye, mids and maybe another comp along the way) to improve! Glad I made the trip!

Skated better in interp than I did at ANs, too...but def room for changes/improvement there, too! Like...um...not looking down so much for starters. Ended up placing 2nd though, so that was cool.

On the plus side, it was great seeing everyone and meeting new faces

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Sinking:

lesson this week for free skate was at 6am due to coach going to a competition. I'm not doing that again, I was barely awake.

floating:
programme was Ok and sit spin returned.

Competed at Bracknell while also doing the video for everyone which was an interesting experience. Now I have several weeks worth of work to edit it all down. I made it really cheap but still some people take advantage, so next time have learnt to be more specific about costs and making it per skater, as it takes a lot of work to edit and render the videos and people don't really realise what work goes in to it way beyond the actual physical videoing on the day. Still I hope everyone will enjoy watching their videos.

My skating was OK - 5th in free skate - though I have to agree with the judge who had me third Maybe my pre competition preparation of attending a Radiohead concert was not the most suitable since I didn't get home til 1.30am

Dance was good since I got two medals! We won't mention that one was second of two! Although I was pleased since she was a 21 year old level 3 free skater and one judge at least gave me similar marks to her so not bad for an oldie!
My Free dance could have gone better since I just blanked on some bits and had to improvise but I ended up where I expected - third of 4 so not too bad.

The best thing is that I think it's the first time that video of me skating has not made me cringe with total embarassment so I must be improving!

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Congrats FlyandCrash! Get well soon BreakHearts. Good going on quitting smoking, looplover, that will do more for your skating (and lots else) than a lot of things you could be doing!!

Sinking: Too out of shape, God if I don't go to the gym for a week its all gone. Hate getting old!

Floating, sharp skates again!! Woohoo! and had the heel of the blade moves slightly to the outside. Seems to be ok, but I think it needs to wait a couple of weeks to see if it is finally right. Moves were pretty good today. Can hook my spins again. Loop jump left though. I think that's the conditioning issue.

Congrats! What did you think of their rink in relation to hosting ANs next year?

I hope they'll do the same for DVDs of ANs! I was hesitant to pay the $50 for my DVD, but if I calculated out the cost for the amount of times I've watched it ... worth it!

sinking - spins. I'm just not going to describe it.

floating - It was so good to be skating after two weeks of no ice, jumps were big. I saw dbny and had time to chat. Great day.

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It's all about the dress!

Congratulations!


Floating:

I passed the cha cha today

CONGRATS TO YOU TOO!!!

I just went nuts looking for someone called "Floating" to see how I missed her post about passing the cha cha today ! Time to call it a night!

CONGRATULATIONS!

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Congratulations, Morgail!!!! I love that dance.

Floating: The first session of a non-competition break (at least one month, possibly two) is always fun, as you play with things. We played with twizzles in our lesson (husband played with sit spins and backspins in his), and then worked on speed in waltz hold, and played around with British Waltz, Rhythm Blues and lunges in hold.

Sinking: Coach2 wants to wait until she's seen the video to decide what to do about the free dance, but I expect we'll end up dumbing it down as for a test (and maybe even testing it, why not?) and then seeing how that plays out in competition.

Husband was not concentrating today and kept forgetting to do his 3-turn in the British Waltz!

My thumb is aching again, even though it wasn't tweaked or anything.

Sigh.

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

Rink was nice. 2 ice surfaces, one olympic-sized, with a large lobby area in the middle that sits above both surfaces (makes it easy to run back and forth to see friends on one surface competing right after friends on another). There was plenty of room for vendors to set up without feeling like they were in the way. More than enough locker room space. Ice felt really nice, too.
They were using both sides of the arena for events at GRO and the rink never felt crowded (granted there will be more people there for AN between those competing, family and friends, and those of us who just hang out there all day).

Both rinks are set up to where there is a wall on one side and stands on the other. Judges set-up is on the wall side. Seating will be tight for the champ events, especially if given that we're in MI, we'll have a higher turnout at ANs and probably more family/friends coming to watch. But honestly that's more fun than a big arena with everyone spread out and it feeling empty. Parking will probably get a little tight, too, but that's nothing we don't deal with every year.

Hotels I saw nearby: There is a Hyatt within walking distance (and a Super 8 or Motel 8 or whatever it's called right there, too, not sure if it's nice or not). I stayed at a Days Inn around the corner (less than a mile from the rink), which was just fine (bed was comfy and my room was big). There was an Applebees, Bennigans, and a few other full-service restaurants near these hotels, and a few good quick service places (Noodles & Company, Moe's), I think a Wendy's and also a Target.

sinking: Woke up today feeling really angry about how I skated yesterday...and how this is exactly what my coach means when he tells me to attack my program more and not back out/chicken out. And why I'm winded and dying after a run-thru during a lesson with him, but hardly broke a sweat yesterday. Oh well...next time. It's all a learning experience, right?

__________________
2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

(Risen from the depths and now...) Floating

Back on the ice today after *shock horror* 2 weeks off!! Had a problem with my eye Felt great to skate again even if I had to wear glasses to do so. I can't wear contacts with the drops I am taking at the moment. Brought some croakies so they wouldn't slip off while spinning. Felt a bit shakey at first but stuff came mostly back fairly quickly The rink was really crowded; for some reason we've got a bunch of skaters from another rink moment and there are tests very soon.

A couple of spins recorded just before time off -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWUmqxEmxik

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Skate Free