Hot I am so ON with my turns lately- at least my right foot. Today I did more brackets, which were introduced to the "high" part of the group lesson today (me and one other lady) the other lady was floored when I "got them" right away- until I told her I had been working on them for a few months.

BUT THEN I was really floored. We were introduced to counters and rockers- and after about 5 minutes work, I was able to do both- multiple times. Now they weren't good at all- but I was amazed I could do them at all.

Now I've done all the turns- and while everyone SAYS counters are the hardest, my vote still goes to mohawk.

Had some great speed on my alternating backward crossovers, and did a good power 3 turn pattern,

Not I hate the alternating 3-turn pattern with a passion. The switch from right to left is impossible for me. Still haven't learned the 5 step mohawk, which will probably be my most difficult pattern. My feet don't hurt nearly as badly as they used to, but I have got to get new skates. I have bumps on both of my big toes which I'm scared are permanent- but they don't seem to be getting bigger, so maybe at this point the damage is done, and I can just keep these? Getting skates is such a huge decision because it's so much money...

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

I had the most difficulty with BO rockers. I could do the turn OK, but it took a while before I could hold the FO edge back to the line. I think the Blues choctaw is going to be a b!tch, too.

I did think of ONE way we could clobber each other. We could run into each other on warm-up! Now THAT could be entertaining.. or uh, something

See you Thursday & Friday Jazzpants! (I can HARDLY wait!)

Thin-Ice

Okay, that explains why I feel like I'm doing the "I've got to pee!" pose when I'm doing the backspin... Thanks!

Hot Someone pointed out on my livejournal- and I confirmed with the rulebook that there are NO alternating 3 turns on the bronze test! So while my coach is probably still going to make me learn the pattern, it doesn't "matter" if I get them or not.

I haven't tackled BO rockers/counters yet. So that may over take the mohawk as my least favorite turn. I only started them last night- so it's only been insides. I forgot about choctaws though- that's definetly harder than a mohawk. I can't do choctaws with any speed at all. At least ONE side of mohawks I can do with speed. (And back to forward mohawks are nothing...) So choctaw wins as least favorite turn for now.

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

I vote also for choctaws being a very difficult turn to master. I've got only one, and I don't even which it is. Even that is tentative - mostly because it scares me. I've splatted enough on those to give them great respect.

Hot: Got to skate this morning for the first time in 1-1/2 weeks. My strained back isn't back to normal yet, so I took it very easy. Essentially I went just for the exercise.

And I can walk upright again!

__________________
Bill Schneider

Last week I was on travel to a place with no rink (sob!), and a week off skating at my age really shows. So its about now that I'm starting to even be able to discuss anything good.

Hot - fast scratch spins today, and centered! Need to get lower on sit, and faster too. Camel is coming, I need to do those spiral stretches that were on another thread. Camel is hard to practice, as I feel so incredibly stupid doing it and dd laughs.

Waltz and sal doing really well.

Not So - I hate that 3 turn pattern on the pre-bronze test! yikes, I can't wait to get it over with. The bronze one is much easier (I'm sure I've said that before).

Coach took toe apart a few weeks ago and it has never quite come back together. I can't seem to get the timing, and the pulling back to the picking foot. My free foot ends up on the wrong side of the picking foot, making me stop before I jump.

Loop - still double footing. Sigh.

Back spin - 'nuff said.

Stone Cold Dead! (Leftover from yesterday) Toward the end of lesson, coach said "Ok, now move that Waltz jump away from the boards!" (my security blanket). OMFG! What Waltz jump??!! On open ice, it was GONE, TOTALLY!

My mood since yesterday was more miserable than the weather! (Cold, north wind, black sky, mix of snow and rain!) I would trade my right arm for a half ounce of TALENT! Baring that, I have to get by on stubbornness and pigheadedness!

I hadn't planned to skate today but to rest and recover from my head cold but with the Waltz jumps refusing to leave the boards I decided I HAD to skate.

Waltz jumps on "open ice" started out nonexistent, simply a step from RFO to LBO. I guess I am more stubborn than chicken-shyte 'cause I wouldn't let it go - one Waltz jump after another after another. I kept thinking to myself "JUMP or fall down! You're not going to kill yourself either way!"

Lukewarm: After about 30 attempts, they were actually becoming jumps - not nearly as strong and confident as they were with the security blanket but they are coming.

Cold:Toe Loop just wasn't happening ANYWHERE this morning so there were no Toe Loops on open ice.

Warm: Breaking up the Waltz jump marathon I did some spins and was very surprised to find that if I enter an Upright Spin VERY slowly they are amazingly strong, centred, and spin WAY more revolutions than if I spin faster. I would like to see those on video to see if they are as pretty as they feel!

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

Hot: Coach loved my salchow - I hit every one today! And my last loop was awesome for me, Coach was so happy.

So Not: I locked my keys in my car this morning. So, my wonderful Coach loans me her cell phone to call husband (purse, AAA card, and keys were locked in my car). Wonderful husband tells me to go ahead and take my lesson, and he left work, drove home to pick up the extra key, then drove to the rink to unlock my car, then drove back to work - almost 2 hours driving, I really love that man.... I was so upset, but I tried really hard not to let it affect my skating and was mostly successful.

Blues choctaw is way easier than rockers or counters! I can only really do a rocker when partnered, and even then it's more of a 3-turn-change-edge. And I can sort-of do the man's counter in the Arge, but only sort-of. Brackets.... let's not go there....

Today we were working on 3-turns, focussing on the check and the free leg position after the 3. And on cross-rolls and I caught my toe in what I am convinced was something on the ice (another skater had fallen in almost exactly the same spot a few minutes earlier) and landed on hands and knees. Didn't hurt, but jarred my current injury, which was then sore for a bit.

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

Sorry to hear that. Getting into a car accident is so much hassle.

Hot:
Without knowing there was one, I had an evaluation this past group lesson. The instructor put me on LTS-FreeStyle 4 and I passed! She was very lenient though. I learned backward Chasse sequence, one of the test elements, on the spot and she passed me.

So not:
One-foot spin was travelling from the East coast to the West coast. It seems that the more I practiced sit spin, the worse I travelled on my one-foot spin. Fell just skating on a deep forward outside edge... unbelievable. Maybe time to sharpen the blades.

Thanks Yea...it's been quite the hassle....and now the student who hit me is trying to get me to not file with my insurance....but, the good thing is, the damage isn't all that bad....

Not HOt -been up late every night getting ready for a competition we are putting on (late nights not for me competing, but going through the schedule, preparing the program, ect) and it is taking it's toll on the early morning skating.

So we just reviewed a few things - I was not doing my mazurka sideways, I was sort of turning forward and coach got me back doing a sideways kick and it's actually easier that way and I jump bigger. Half flips. So when I do them from a stand still, away from the line, I do a very nice 3 turn, stretch my arms, get my leg back, very nice half flip. In my program I'm back to muscling it. Coach said not to worry about the program this Sat so much, just keep working on it, only now start from a two foot glide and then do the 3 turn. Then in my program, she just turns me around so that I'm actually skating away from a line like I practice and it was much better. I think my coach is a genious to have figured that out.

But after my lesson I just didn't have the energy to skate more. There's a session tonight and I cancelled my confirmation class because our high school has a play off game so I might go skate tonight.

Not hot at all - Coach is pregnant. She had a student in the harness and wasn't paying attention when another girl skated backward into her and they both went down. Everyone went into panick mode, though it was not a bad fall. "Don't tell my husband - he'll take my skates away!"

j

Not Hot:
As usual... more changes to the artistic program with secondary coach. I got the general idea of things, but there's no way in hell I'm gonna "have the look" for Skate SF. I'm just waaaay too "geeky" for that.

Hot:
Ditzy blond section at the end has been fixed and I'm no longer doing that "booty shaking" thing at the end. I'm back to my old footwork at the end, but with some adjustments on the arm positions, so there will be something going on there. (Sorry, Jay... but I really REALLY REALLY hated that booty shaky thing yesterday and you've always said that I'm way beyond "two foot skating!!!")

Secondary Coach is now jokingly calling me "Skinny Cow." She's now noticing the changes in the face. Nice to know that at least the weight loss is successful. (Ah, the things I do to look good in a skating dress.)

ETA: Secondary Coach also gave me an interesting test -- at our FS session, we all have to wear a bring orange belt to signal that the person is doing a run thru and has the right of way.

Well... today's runthru was weird and slightly . She said "You are NOT to wear that orange belt and just go out there to run it." I said "But how would anyone know that I'm doing the runthru?" She said "That's the test! You are to present yourself in such a way that ANYONE would know that YOU are doing the program that's on the loudspeaker. If people figured it out and get out of your way for your program, then you're presenting yourself!"

Very VERY And thankfully, I passed!

Cuppa cool water on this hot: She had OTHER gripes about this program though... but nothing too bad!

__________________
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!!!

Hot: ran through FS1 program to music for the first time.

Not so: very out of breath after running through program to music.

Hot: Then did it four more times and only fell down once (on BI edges, oy vey!) and got up right away, feeling like "this is what they do in competition and performance."

Not so: Dissatisfied with entrance into half flip. Feel like I'm not getting my picking leg solidly straight behind me for the pick.

Hot: Learned a good key to FI mohawks that produced nice scrapeless ones if I do all the steps carefully: prepare glide, turn shoulders inside, tighten the curve for the step, check strongly including the head.

So Not:

The ice never got zambonied today. It was hard with ruts all over the place.

Laces keep coming undone after 3 or 4 jumps.

Hot:

Hardly anyone on the ice today (Wednesday).

Jumps are getting higher off of the ice.

Luke Warm:

Only loop I did wasn't not landed on one foot.

__________________
"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

Hot Synchro we got some good practice on our footwork sequences.

Most of the team didn't show up (I assume because of Halloween) so we never ran the program, but we ran the footwork a lot and it really helped. I'm faking the back lunge better, everyone is faking the turn lunge so I'm good there.

notThe right to left mohawk is still SO scary though. I just can't make myself turn over my left shoulder going that fast. Even on two feet
I skipped freestyle to hand out candy- DH doesn't get home until 6:30. I wish I hadn't only 1 ! set of kids came to the door during that time, and only 4 other people showed up for freestyle! The kids who I did give candy to were super cute, so I'm glad I was there- but almost empty ice would have been so nice. When I got to syncrho there was only ONE person on club ice, with her coach. I was 30 minutes early, so if i had six bucks on me I would have RAN onto that ice to work on moves. Alas, no money here.

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

With the realization that I have been pushing myself WAY too hard for WAY too long it was time to reevaluate what the heck I am doing.

Two years ago January I stepped on to the ice for the first time and found out I couldn't skate AT ALL, I couldn't even stand up on skates, but I determined to give it my flat-out best effort to enter an Interpretive program at the Adult Championships the following year. I did that in March this year, but I have kept pushing myself ever since. I know that I can give something my complete dedication for a year or two but then I have to ease off and take the time to enjoy myself - if I don't, I "burn out". With the frustration of trying to learn enough moves for a Freeskate program in only 10 weeks I began to recognized the first signs of burn-out.

I met with coach this morning and discussed my thoughts, feelings, and frustrations and told her I need to stop pushing myself so hard and fast. She agreed, so we are going back to work on the Interpretive program for this month's competition and let the Freeskate slide - if I am not happy with the Freeeskate by competition time, I will withdraw it and continue puttering with it for February's competition. There is still lots of time to have both programs for Nationals.

Hot: You might say I cut myself some slack

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

Hot: Loop is tiny, but working. Change foot spin was great 2 out of 3 times, and okay the other time.

So Not: The first edge on back inside edges is still pathetic. The 2nd and onward are good, but that first edge .

Not so Hot: Back pain persists. I won't push myself skating until this clears up. Hmmm, it's been almost two weeks. Normally I'm over it by now.

Hot: Skated carefully again last evening. I limited it to just edges and moves.

Because it was Halloween, there were only a couple other skaters on the ice. One was the new, talented freshman woman from Cleveland tossing double axels around like Halloween candy. She has a couple triples too, and a leg-held-straight-up-beside-the-head spiral you usually see with just TV skaters.

Who needs TV when you can watch live?

__________________
Bill Schneider

Hot: backspin and changefootspin are working well - no idea if they're centered, the ice was so bad I couldn't find the tracings.
I did a really lousy, tiny, biellmann change-foot spiral (and saw stars on it for some reason) but I did it
I can do change-edge spirals! Okay the change of edge is really reluctant and scrapey and I do shift the arms a tiny bit but for now, I'll take it!

Not:
sit spin is gone again (it was sooo close last sunday!), I'm raising the free hip, dropping the shoulder. *SIGH*
was too busy a session to really practice camels, but I come up on my toepicks too much for some reason, maybe I was just rushing in to it

I love this sort of thing, but it tends to be very distracting as I want to watch more than skate myself

__________________
Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

How many did you catch, Bill? Bet your candy bag was full! lol

Went without a practice list, but I covered almost everything I wanted to today at Coffee Club.

The Good:
Power 3's were very good, even the LFI had a bit of speed today.
FI>FO change edge spirals were good, but the changeover was slow and my back wasn't arched.
Twizzles - I can do them well with my arms over my head, but yuck otherwise. LOL
Tango Stops - Finally figured out how to hold my shoulders/arms. Still working on the forward stretch of the stopping foot, though.

Several outstanding scratch spins with my arms pressed up over my head.
It makes such a difference on my centering. I must be dropping a shoulder when I press my arms down.

The Bad:
Still fighting that back-to-forward turn in the MITF.
Started working on the CW backspin on my left foot. It's hard to do!
Spins - Decent few camels, sits, and camel-sits. Back sit spin was awful.

Toe Loops were passable. Only kicked myself once.
The Half-flips are fine, the split jumps are almost recognizable, but the full flip is giving me trouble still. (Hurting my right knee.)

The Ugly:
Back Spins. Yuck. Loopy, couldn't hold them, all edge and toe picks.
Went back to my normal entrance for the loop, but I'm not completing the rotation anyway. Sigh. Back to the drawing board.
Threes-on-the-line are evil. Still.

Dropped off my skates for sharpening. Think good thoughts - I'm taking a risk here.

__________________

Hot:

I entered a competition. Oooooh fluttery nerves are already starting! My coach reworked my old preliminary program and I now have a silver program. My salchow is nice and I'm pleased with it.

So Not:

I don't have an axel, or flying spin or camel or back sit or lutz for that matter and the flip is >interesting< and the loop is even more awful but I'll be skating Adult Silver due to having my junior bronze freeskate. I want to wear a sign that says don't hate me, my test level made me do it.

and,

Half-lutz. Stupid jump. I laugh every time I do it. Good thing my back is to the judges.