Scratchy - Ugh - this getting up in at 3 am is either going to make me strong or kill me and right now I'm thinking it's going to kill me. Thankfully it's only till June.

Back to basics - since freestyle coach got me started on improving crossovers, that's what we worked on with my dance coach who is now kind of my moves coach. She tried to get me to do this excersize for the underpush where you don't pick up your leg, just keep pushing and I just could not even close to do it and so she says "Well work on it" Um, okay. She's a little less experienced and I don't think she really knows what to do with people has helpless as me. My freestyle coach would have broken it down until I could do it. BUt that's what she gets the big bucks for.

I really want to have nice crossovers so I'm committed to working on these everytime I skate, even though it's not fun and doesn't feel good, I'm know it will be worth it when my crossovers don't give me away as a "low level skater"

Backward perimeter crossovers. I am just going to have to work on back inside edge excersizes first everytime I work on these because I tend to forget what that is supposed to feel like to get over on that inside edge right away.

Started on mohawks and ran out of time just as she was saying "you are rushing your left mohawk" Yup.

Tried to practice picking up my foot in backward crossovers and clicked my blades and went down. So much for that. Worked some more on the forward crossovers and quit 10 minutes early. Just too darn early!

j

Scratchy:
The part of the ice where I did backscratch after backscratch spin!
First program runthrough: the other rink that I went to this morning has this strange policy that skaters for the most part put their own music on . Doing this inables me from doing the first two elements in my program, which I refer to as "Hail Mary" elements (backscratch and loop).

Smooth:
Warmup spins were all nice and centered.
Second runthrough of program-one of the other skaters was nice enough to put my music on for me and I had the cleanest program I've had all week!
Doubletoe is right- after the nerves have been plucked enough, your body has a tendency to get so mad it cannot take it anymore and this morning that is exactly what happened!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Let's see...

VERY Scratchy: Rink is closing Sunday afternoon for the ditch repair!!! (But we need to get rid of that ditch! It's annoying not being able to warm up with my Bronze moves pattern. ) My next lesson with primary coach is at a rink across the Bay Bridge (Oakland) ... and I will make the best of it by getting some nice BBQ for hubby and cheap gas before I get home.

Scratchy:
Well, the footwork is smooth and speedy but primary coach still wants even MORE curve into the footwork (as in he wants BIGGER curves and strokes and such.) So more practice this week.

Smooth(er):

• He also gave me some arms for more of the footwork and it's helping me in getting better power into the move. NOW I'm starting to cook with gas here!!! (I could imagine when I get the bigger curves how I'm gonna look with the new footwork and it's a very pleasant look!)
• The "pose-pose" at the end of the footwork sequence is looking less like "I'm a little tea pot..." And at least I got the mechanics of it to work.
• Camels are spinning again and I can do this consistently... so now I have to work on the position to get this spin.
• Backsit - primary coach sees progress and he's all excited b/c he's seeing that I'm closer to getting the backsit. (But I will definitely work on my regular backspin so I get and STAY on the BO edge, b/c that's my weakness on that backsit.)

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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!!!

Wow sounds pretty serious!

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Proud to be one of the few black men out on the ice

Goals
Pass my Silver Moves Test
Finish Choreography for Silver Program
Land a Clean Double Toe and Double Lutz
Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

Scratchy> Well, add me to the injured list. Wed. I lasted 15 minutes, & got off the ice due to hip flexor pain; way too much! Cancelled my lesson, & haven't been on the ice since except to teach. So there goes my testing on the 19th, & possibly the pro-am in June, depending on how quickly this heals. I haven't done anything the past 2 days to let it calm down, & tomorrow I'll start some very gentle stretches & exercises. I actually have to take a student through his Rhythm Blues test tomorrow, but I should be able to get through that. 2 patterns of Rhythm Blues is a little different than 6 patterns of Killian!

Smooth>Nothing really.

Thanks you guys! I was getting so upset about all my bad luck with illnesses and injuries and this was really just what I needed to get me back in the happy zone. LOL.

Me too!

That stinks! I really hope it starts to feel better soon. Being injured is so frustrating, especially when you have something important coming up soon, like your test or your competition.(I got my stress fracture back in December, just two weeks before my first ever competition. )


Scratchy: I was supposed to get up and go skating this morning at 6, but I was so happy because I actually slept straight through the night, for 6 hours(haven't done that in about 8 years.) so I wanted to sleep for 3 more hours before I had to go to school. And now I'm regretting it, but it's probably for the best.

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Okay, everybody, just STOP injuring yourselves, would you?!! . . . NOW!!

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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

Cool - my heartiest congratulations. I remember my first axel - Warinanco Park/Union County Skating Club 1986. I was so psyched! I lost it a few weeks later after a car accident and it took another month to get it back. Hang onto yours for me and be careful!Not so cool. Take the meds and be a good patient!
Okay, boss.

Scratchy: Didn't try anything fancy, in the interest of taking it easy and letting my back heal. Still, I couldn't afford to miss the pro practice for the show number, so I iced my back 5 times today before I went, then stretched gently before I skated. So far, so good.

I really have a mental block on doing back crossovers on a straightaway. I feel as if I'm going nowhere slowly, but I'm keeping up.

Smooth: Remembered all of the steps and I was (mostly) on time. I'm now on the end of the crossover line instead of the beginning because they changed the choreography. Yawn.

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Smooth - Had a decent lesson today. Managed to make real progress on the flip and the sit spin...though neither was completed cleanly.

Scratchy - Just watched the video from the figure skating competition I was in last month. Yuck! I barely leave the ice when I jump, have no speed, and am way heavier (weight-wise) than I realized. I have a lot of work to do.

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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

Liljen --So sorry to hear about your broken ankle! Ow, you broke both your tibia and fibula?! I only broke my tibia, but then the bones also separated a bit. How many screws do you have? Are you allowed to put any weight on that foot? {{hugs}} I just had my screws removed, so I'm in recovery mode (also from a nasty virus, blech). But in a couple of weeks I'll be back to the gym and hopefully back skating around the end of the summer. Good luck to you, and be sure to do everything the doctor and your physical therapist tell you to do! And be sure to move around as much as you can, you don't want to end up with blood clots like I did!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Scratchy: I was finally on the way to being injury-free... just a week or so longer for the muscle pull on my left leg to heal... and yesterday, I heard that dreaded pop in my right leg. I think it's my hamstring again,this time looooow in the muscle.

And yet, I'm STILL debating getting on the ice for my lesson tommorrow. I didn't work so hard on the backwards 3-turns and scratch spin entries all last week to sit out this class!

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Today, my jumps (toe, loop, flip, lutz with not much flow) were okay for the most part, except the salchow which feels very awkward. It is! It's like a... 3turn into a waltz; that's so messed up! Actually, at first I was like majorly freaked out that I couldn't do a sit spin and backspin. I had done it okay (sitspin) and rather centered last week, but this morning it's all over the place. Really inconsistent. Some times when I try, I do the sit spin okay (low position, like 5-6 rotations) but other times I just screw up, travel all over the place, and loose all my momentum. Back spin just stinks. I can never get more than 3 centered revs from the basic entry. However, from the scratch-change-scratch it is more centered, and slightly faster. But STILL. Haha, I was all devastated the fist hour, but then I was like "I can do this! " (Thanks to Laura, hehe) and by the end of the 3-hour session I managed to do a few good sit spins. Scratch spins were in bloom by the middle of the session, thankfully! But then I got tired and just did some spirals. I guess spins just don't come to me all that easily. Oh, yeah, my waltz jump got better, I finally fixed my technique (permanently, I hope)! Today was a good skate, especially since I stayed for the public session afterwards. I was very, very tired by the end!

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Smooth:
Wore the dress for my freeskating program that I will be taking my Bronze freestyle test in. I hadn't worn the dress since May Day last year, so felt that it was necessary to wear it to get used to it again. Forgot how much I LOVE this dress!
Second half of program on runthrough and the sitspin.
Found out about our summer ice: 7-9am and 4-6 pm Monday- Friday with some Saturdays. Will be able to skate mornings on my days off and when working evenings and I will not have to go to other rinks to skate this summer!



Scratchy:
The very beginning of the program- backscratch to loop jump. I practiced this over and over after runthrough.

Right now, I know I have a passing test in me. I keep telling myself over and over that I need to "settle" and take my time. I have a week and half to get my body and brain to cooperate!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Scratchy:
Lost 30mins of practice time Friday due to hockey tournement. Thankfully they combined Cardio/Jr. Cardio for this week or we would have missed a class.
My MITF class ended last week, it's not being run again till August. I loved that class.
Pre-Juv Power Pulls are not working - it doesn't help that the last set (Left Backwards) is my worst. I need more rip and knee bend.
Smooth:
Pre-Juv MITF are starting to feel really good. 5-step moehawk flows now, just need to remember to keep nice deep edges on the last two steps to keep the lobes even. Even the 3-turn patterns feel good. Now I just need to work on speed.
Backspin was surprising good this week, actually all my spins were. 2sal felt awesome in my lesson Tuesday, didn't actually land any but I actually felt the rotation in the air for the first time and I was almost the whole way around.

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

Smooth: Back on the ice. Mohawks are improving. Husband landed at least one really good flip that I saw, and I saw a very good spin from him, too.

Scratchy: Still not quite 100%, so not really fit for hard work. Mostly pottered today and helped Husband - who had forgotten he's supposed to be doing solo dance in Estonia as well as couples' dance and Free! Oops....

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

Get well soon, LilJen, Emberchyld, and (of course) sk8pics!
Good luck all you test-takers and show skaters!

It's depressing how empty the rinks are on weekends now that it's May. The communions/weddings/softball games just suck the skaters right out of the rink! One of my rinks had their skating show last weekend. Their last session was today - six kids out of 100 attended. None of them were mine, and I knew my private students weren't coming. What a waste of ice!

I know that, once my back has finished healing, I'll be happy that the "ice weather fans" are gone for the season.

Scratchy: Didn't try any jumps higher than a salchow, for fear of twisting that back muscle again. Waltz and toe loop were okay, salchow was iffy.

Smooth: Spins were okay, nothing too challenging. Spirals were steady, but not too high.

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Smooth: 4 out of 5 one foot spins were actually good! Also, my loops felt great.

Scratchy: Still way too much blade noise on the lunge. I will work with coach on that tomorrow.

Congrats to xofivebyfive for landing her axel! YAAAAAY! (BTW: I've seen your off-ice video and I knew from looking at the latest ones that you're gonna get that axel on ice!!!)

Terri C: remain focused on what you have to do skating wise for the program. Don't worry about the dress! Don't think about the fact that it's a test! Don't worry about the judges!!! Just the program, what you have to do in the jumps, the spins and footwork -- it's ALL about the skating!!!

Get well soon, LilJen, Emberchyld, sk8pics AND ISk8NYC!!!

This is when I really REALLY miss my weekend rink! If Berkeley Iceland were still opened now, the "cold weather fans" would be out and about and I would be enjoying nice open ice and starting practice with my FS program...

As it were...

I went to Oakland today. Obviously the "I'm not in a nice neighborhood" alarm went off... But it had a few advantages: 1) my friends from Berkeley Iceland are skating there... 2) I had an early dinner date and this rink fits the timing, 3) cheaper gas price and 4) since my personal trainer beat me up royally again last Friday night and my poor shoulders are paying the price, the hottub at the nearby branch of my health club comes in QUITE handy! (Don't know if it has Epsom Salt in the hottub but my shoulders SUUUUURE felt great coming out of the gym... )

Scratchy:

• Camel spins are still not in position, though I am definitely getting a better spin entry now!
• Backspin on a true BO edge...

Smooth:

• But still I'm starting to get the camel spin... so I'm hopeful that I will meet my skating goals for this year.
• Hmmm... whatever I'm getting on the back squat... er sit spin is still there. I am at least squatting now, that I know...
• The "Shhhh... don't tell my trainer I did this" dept.: (He told me Friday night that I'm not supposed to push myself by doing jumps. Then again, I didn't push much after the one hour mark and opted for doing edgework, so I wasn't totally bad... )
  • Loops and flips came for the party!!! YAAAAY!!!
  • Waltz jumps, Salchows are nice. Toe loop is still there.
• Footwork is getting there.
• I can't believe that I'm starting to get the forward power pulls on both feet. And even the evil back cross strokes are starting to come around too!!! (My forward cross strokes are already pretty good.)
• Starting to get RBO3's too, though they are still kinda clunky and scary!!!

__________________
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!!!