It seems many of us have been spending time at airports lately.

On time: good pairs practice - started choreography and I'm beginning to look at dresses.

Flight delayed: trying another entry for throws. Always interesting.

Best to all.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Flight delayed: no practice tomorrow, I am scheduled to work...I should be able to hit the rink Wednesday, after class-once again it will be the mad dash from class in one town to the rink in another, hopefully I won't get held up by: traffic, harvesters moving across fields (it's corn harvesting time), or the train.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Flight delayed: I am very unmotivated this year. I'm skating only twice a week. I've had the summer off from ice skating, and that usually makes me anxious to get back to the ice again.

But not this year.

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Bill Schneider

On-time:
Got to go to a daytime public session since I'm off work today (yay for Federal holidays!). It was nice and not too crowded. Mostly figure skaters except for three clueless kids (I think brothers). Could've been worse.

It was a good practice day, for the most part. I'm starting to think I might need my blades sharpened though. May I admit that I haven't a clue how to tell when blades need sharpening? But I've noticed some skidding on crossovers and inside 3-turns, which is a recent development (I'd blame the 3-turns on me since I just suck at them, but I'm not so bad at crossovers, so...). At any rate I can take them in and see if the lady who does the sharpening thinks they're getting dull. Adding up it looks like I have about 22 hours on them...that seems like not much. So maybe it IS just me.

Anyway. I sort of "got" waltz 8s (which A was showing us on Saturday). I mean, I don't really get them...they're still inept and no good, but I get the idea and can sorta do a half-arsed version (are we allowed to say "###" here?).

I figured out that I do seem to drop my hip on my RFO 3-turns. Imagine that. Though I think there is also more at work.

Really, worked on everything. I feel like my bunny hops look ridiculous. Played with spirals a bit, which was fun, but I AM NOT flexible whatsoever (never have been, even as a kid). I can barely get my foot above hip height. Yeah, that's pathetic for my age. Played with shoot-the-ducks too. Predictably, they suck (I SO need to work on my squats!). But fun. One thing I learned, though: when knowing that you're losing your balance and won't be able to get up and figuring it'll just be easier to drop onto your butt...DON'T let the free foot down first. It'll just complicate things.

Back crossovers MAYBE improving a TINY bit?

Had a fun time at the end, first skating forward figure-8s, and then around the rink alternating crossovers on the long part. When I do that stuff and I'm "on" (usually have to be quite warmed up), I feel like I'm flying! Whee!

Honestly, this is the best practice I've had in a very long time. I'm sure tomorrow at class it'll be all discouragement again...


Delayed:
Spins still suck. Yay!

Also, I have a headache...I think in part from being in the cold so long, and in part from having my hair in a bun. Ow.

Found that I canNOT do catch-foot spirals, lol. My lack of flexibility means that to get my foot up very high I have to lean forward...and that means I end up flat on the ice! Oh well. Not a big deal as nothing but my ego was hurt, lol

On time arrival - Rockefeller Center is open again for the season. I spent some time with elder daughter. She had fun and got used to her new skates. I had one of those fabulous sessions - testing is over, new stuff hasn't started yet. I just relaxed, jammed to the music, and showed off a bit. Everything was on, loop and flip, even the lutz. We'll see if it shows up on wednesday for Winter coach to actually see it.

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It's all about the dress!

^Woot!

I wonder which is important...not messing up and looking dumb in public, or showing your coach that you really CAN do it? It'd be a hard choice for me. (but maybe that's just because I sosoSO hate looking dumb in public)

The guideline I was given (which seems to be very accurate so far) is sharpening about every 36 hours. But harder ice requires sharper blades, so it could just be that the temperature in your rink has cooled down and your ice is harder than it was. When skating on harder ice, you need to bend your knees and ankles as much as possible and really press your edges into the ice!

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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

Erm, I didn't mention the fall I took on BO3 turns. Bounced back up and kept going.

My lessons are at 0-dark-thirty, so while technically it's public, the only people around are rushing to work and hardly anyone is paying attention.

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It's all about the dress!

On Time
-nailed all of my combos first time, include 2flip+2loop! I don't even know the last time that happened!
-i think I'm finally starting to find perfect (for me) timing on 2flip. I used to tap almost immediately after the mohawk, resulting in not enough knee bend and some wacky jumps. Before, if I waited to tap, I'd end up twisting my upper body a bit. Now, I've finally got the control and confidence to wait, deepen my knee bend and then jump. They're more secure and SO much bigger.
-Worked on back sit variation. Now I can do a really solid twisty sit (reach across my body with my right arm and then up and to the right with my left arm). I've been able to do these for a while, but I'd often end up catching an edge. I can also do the head-to-knee variation (we call them shotguns at my rink) in the back sit and then pull up into a cross-rotated Y spin type thing (left boot in right hand).
-landed nice 2lutzes off a solid outside edge. I think I can finally say I've fixed that jump!

Delayed
-not too much. I was delayed getting to the rink bc of a doctors appt, so it was more crowded than when I usually skate.

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Youtube Videos

On time: I finally got off my lazy beehind and brought a camera to the rink with me today. Did a couple OK axels

This one had a swingy leg on the take off and the result was I was crooked in the air

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy0XRahyeN0

This one had a worse landing but was a better jump. I didn't swing the leg and was straighter in the air. I could have driven my free leg through a little further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP-U9suee_k

Flight Delayed: My toe loops were awol today for the first time in several sessions. I managed to do a few, including this squirely one. I was leaning WAY to far forward as I vaulted up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxgcrbkS-5g

All in all I wasn't feeling all that frisky so I wasn't too disappointed with todays effort

On time: Nice empty freestyle. Only one other skater with her coach.

Scratch spin and sit spin were the best they've been since my injury. Next time I'm on an empty-ish freestyle, I've got to remember to bring my cell phone on the ice and see if the sit is as low as it feels. I've got some decent clips from right before my injury and it feels close to that. But they always feel lower than they look.

Jumps through the flip felt nice and solid. Need to start working on doing them from a little more speed again.

LBO 3 turns - where did those come from? Did two nice flow-y ones without even thinking of putting the free foot down.

Delayed:Camel spin. Couldn't beg, borrow, or steal one. Just could not get balanced in anything remotely resembling a camel position today.

Lutz. I managed one good one, but couldn't find my timing on it after that.

Loop combos (loop-loop, flip-loop). Thought that since the flip and loop were cooperating on their own that maybe the combos would be a good thing to try. Not even close.

Ha ha ha this thread title makes me think of Stormy and all her competition flight issues

I got to pick up an extra 90 min session last night because I didn't have school

Flight Delayed: Note to self: When skating in the evening, DO NOT wear heels at work all day. My feet were KILLING me!

Laybacks. Traveling so far they need a passport, and my back was sore and I wasn't laying back much at all.

Didn't get to do the power pull-quick rockers on my moves test because the session was too crowded and there were little kids hanging out in the center, so I couldn't go at the pattern aggressively like I need to.

Flying camels. Better, but we haven't touched them on a lesson in a long time and I think we need to spend some time on them to get them to improve again. I either wait just a tad too long, fall off the toepick and cheat it a little but the spin is better, or I stay on the toe, the jump is clean, but the spin stinks. If they would both work together, I'd be happy.

On Time Arrival: Rest of junior moves--power circles, rockers good. Choctaws MUCH MUCH improved!!! As in real choctaws on proper edges, and not mohawky things that I'm trying to pass off as choctaws. I still have trouble on one side because my hip doesn't want to stay back and open. Starting to build some major confidence on this test, putting it out at Buckeye will def happen. (I'd probably rather wait until December or January to test it if I were just doing it here, but what's the worst that can happen if I put it out a little earlier at Buckeye...I fail but get some feedback from the judges? No big deal.)

Jumps good yesterday. Did some huge flips, a few nice lutzes, some big, clean loops. Axel still not clean but the scraping of the free foot is ever so slight most of the time now. Decided to work on doubles (ha ha my coach doesn't know this, we've never worked on them in a lesson), got some double toes almost fully rotated, I'm surprised that it wasn't that hard, I wasn't even pulling in or getting great height. Granted I was landing them on two feet. Did some sals 1.5x around and landed forward. Also worked on getting my sit spin lower, it got down really good a bunch of times but then I ended up sitting down on the ice.

Also spent 45 min on my program, mostly working on cleaning things up and running sections. Worked on a few transitions and changed up my step sequence a tad (the last 2 lobes are 2 power 3s and a RBI double 3, I changed it to 2 quick rocker choctaws and a RBI loop).

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

On Time:
Worked through most of my program and are 3/4 of the way done putting it together. Its really fun! At the end of my spiral sequence, I do a fan kick into a 3 turn then flip jump and did it with ease yesterday. Added some more foot work at the end after the flip.

Practiced my ballet jump and split jump (just learned them Saturday). I don't have splits at all, but my ballet jump is getting more and more height as I practice. I really like that move.

Spins were good and are more and more centered as I now focus on keeping my right shoulder back and lean on my pinky toe of my entrance foot. It really works on keeping me more centered and a better arc into the spin.

Beyond Delayed:
Camel...meh. Still a long way to go. But I continue to work on it. I want to be able to do a nice camel eventually. I have no speed in my spin. Blah. Some things are coming together with this and others, not so much.

Nice clean 2Toe! Not pre-rotated either!

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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

On time: AFter 5 months off the ice due to a broken ankle, I'm ready to start skating again,

Flight delayed: Contacted my coach and told her I was ready, and she told me that she had retired in September and no longer has privileges to coach anywhere.

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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

On Time:
My dance coach suggested a lesson today in preparation for the test tonight, so I went in for just 15 minutes. Got on the ice and felt great right away. We warmed up with F stroking once around, which coach said was good, then ran through each dance with very little corrective comment. In particular, my coach was happy with the Dutch Waltz end pattern, which has been a struggle. I also felt less clunky on the progressive following the second swing roll, which is one of the spots where I have trouble changing directions with the FO to FO transition. After the dances, I asked to do some FO swing rolls in killian and reverse killian, and we were both surprised that the reverse kilian were better than the killian because I was doing the switch of who is in front very smoothly on them. Went back to killian and did better with those. All in all a very good and positive lesson.

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Congrats on being ready to skate again, so sorry about your coach, hope she could at least put you together with someone.

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It's all about the dress!

Dbny, !!!!!!!!:d

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Since I'll no longer have a figures coach, I guess I'll switch to dance. As I get to 60, having to pay a man to partner me doesn't seem as bad anymore Unfortunately, the Big Guy *will*not*dance*. He's afraid of falling on his partner--also as he's 6'3" and I'm 5'2", our skating together might be more suitable for "Light Entertainment".

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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

Flight Delayed:

Had to do a few chores before heading out the door to drive all the way across the city to skate at South Windsor Arena with South Windsor Skating Club (I only do this on Tuesdays because I bought a partial package from Sept. to the end of March.) and was a half hour late for my hour and a half StarSkate 2 session (everyone with at least 2 complete tests passed if an adult or Senior Bronze and up).

Camel only appeared 2 times with only 2 revs at most out of the 4 times I tried it. Need to speed up the spin after getting in. It's like I'm in slow mo in the Camel.

Flip was leaning over to my left side and breaking at the waist again.

On Time Arrival:

Waltz Jump was the highest that I've done in the longest of time with a fast flow in, no skidding on take off edge, lots of distance and a fast flow out. Hope I can repeat this for my coach tomorrow.

Salchow didn't give me any problems and was automatic again.

Loop is getting good height and is close to being clean but I have to work on keeping my free leg infront until I touch down and I have to check harder when I'm landing because when I do land on one foot, I can't stop spinning.

Lutz was all the way around but somehow, I was having arm issues on the landings but at least, I'm going into them much faster than before.

Uright (forward) it took one spin to fix the centering but the rest of them were drilling a hole in the ice.

Sit Spin is almost at 90 degrees again. With more sit ups, stretching and getting well (finish fighting sinuse/ear infection) I should be able to get down to just below 90 degrees again. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to add a back cross/catch foot variation after the broken position like I use to do.

Camel/upright combo has improved but still has a way to go before I will be worth any points in CPC. I would like to be able to do Camel/sit/upright combo this year for testing and competition.

Played chance with my friend Misty. I called out the move/element(s) that we would attempt so I had the upperhand. If I made a mistake, I had to do my Waltz Jump and she had to attempt her Axel. Also, when going into the next move/element we weren't allowed to do more than one 3 turn or Mohawk into the next move or element, and no crosscuts in between elements either or it counted as a mistake. In this game we started out with Back Spirals. Both of us moved up to the next level; Spiral of our choice into spin of choice. Misty forgot to not do extra turns and did a couple of crosscuts and so she had to do her Axel as a penalty. Then the next level; Spiral/Spin/Jump. Misty again forgot not to do crosscuts in between elements so; Axel again. I on the other hand did a nice LFO Spiral straight into a Forward Scratch Spin and then from the spin's exit edge I set up for a Waltz Jump and landed it even though I was dizzy coming out of my Forward Corkscrew. And so , Misty tried this again but kept forgetting not to do extra turns and/or crosscuts in between elements. Well, it was Axel time and Flying Sit time for Misty.

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"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

Oh, gosh. Worst flight experience ever. Spending 10 hours in the littlest, dingiest gate concourse at Logan Airport. I still blame the President.

Well, I'll chime in on this thread.

On Time Arrival: Axels! The takeoff is much better, and I am landing them. However, they still get no distance and I can't do them in the program yet. We changed the takeoff in the program to match the one I do when I do them alone and hopefully that helps. We also worked on double sals and those were good too. I can defintiely see it being a strong possibility putting one in the program for Easterns.

Flight Delayed: Not many delays, just realizing I need to work on sections of the program more, getting more speed and attack and flow will be the focus of the next few practices.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Flight Delayed Didn't get to practice Monday morning, because of the *snow*. The news said that the traffic was all snarled up so didn't want to ended up stuck somewhere and miss skating anyway. I have a punch card for that session so am not losing any money by not going.

Tuesday - sit spin. I am not as close to 90 degrees as I was. Coach wants more than 3 revs and says - it is what it is - for now. So I can do 5, but not as low as it should be. I'll keep working on it and keep on with the squats and lunges.

On Time Arrival Tuesday - Had my lesson. We finished up the footwork for my Bronze test program. So my program is done! I love it! Coach was happy with both run throughs - with and without the footwork part. My spin at the end was right on time with the music. The dress that I ordered for that program came in the mail...so of course I had to wear it to the rink. It was so much more fun to skate my program in my new dress.

After my lesson, I had a 45 minute practice session. Backspins were on! I could even get from the H position down to the D. I couldn't hold the D more than a rev or 2, but still pretty happy with that. Loop jumps were good. I worked on the flip a lot. I am determined to change the 1/2 flip in my program to a regular one. I kept running through that part in my program. When I concentrated on the entrance I learned at the G2C seminar, I almost always got it. They were tiny, but they were landed. Yay!


I got a competition announcement for one that my DD did last year. Coach and I decided that I will be skating in my very first competition there. They had 2-5 adult skaters in each category last year (got up early to go watch). I am nervous, but excited about that. Our rink is also holding an exhibition for test or competition programs on November 1st. That is a little more nerve-wracking than the competition, because it will be all kids and me. I know all their parents and they know me. It just feels a bit weird.

You'd be surprised! My husband is 6'4" (193cm) and I am 5'4" (163cm). Not only do we manage to dance together (well, he dances and I pretend I know what I'm doing), but his competition partner is only 5'2" (157cm) and they look fine dancing together.

Yay!! Send a clean axel my way, would ya? You're supposed to be my friend and share and all that stuff. I'd share my Starbucks if you were here right now. (It was a Venti kind of morning...)

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

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Starbucks. Are you a Gold Member? I am because I am pathetic that way (plus its a 10 percent discount everytime)! LOL!