Death Eater:
By the time secondary coach gets to me in the afternoon, she has given lessons to two hyper children, a lesson with one of the hyper children by herself, a cranky moody teenager, and a spacey little girl.
So by lesson time she had the whip out!
Skated the entire Bronze Moves test, with some patterns skated twice, then onto spins ("pull your arms in sooner, you'll spin faster" I was told on the scratch spin) then all of my jumps, then at the end of my lesson, my freeskate program! There is no emoticon for tired and sweaty !

Order of the Phoenix:
While today's lesson was a death eater, or it seemed to be, it gave me the confidence I needed after Tuesday's fall (see my post earlier in this thread for that one).
It was the major Order of the Phoenix that my power threes still exist!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Glad to hear you're OK after that nasty fall!

As for me, my backspin still existed today! Could it be that it's now officially part of my repertoire, after 3 years of trying? No, wait - I don't want to jinx myself! We'll see if it's still around next week.

Well, since according to my coach, I had The Best Lesson Ever last night, I guess the whole thing qualifies as a Phoenix. Which is totally amazing since I'm only skating once a week - split between my lesson time and about a half-hour of practice.

I know the spins were good; even the camel felt solid and I don't think I missed one attempt. Coach reflected that when she started with me (in 1989!) I couldn't spin at all and now it's almost the best thing I do. Some skills just take time, I guess.

Edge jumps were good, too. I'm getting the flex off the takeoff foot so that there's a lot of spring. I just have to remember to go UP and not OOOOUUUUTTT. I'm still two-footing the flip landing but they were better last night - just tiny taps - than they've been in a while. I decided that my problem is that Once I'm in the air, I have no awareness at all of where my free foot is until I feel my toe tap the ice. If I try to focus on the free foot, I screw up something else and end up on my butt.

Straightline footwork is now diagonal. I have the first half down pat but the second half looks "unsure" mainly because I'm trying to remember it so hard I can't think about anything else, like posture or arms. Now all I need to do is find some music to fit it.

So no death Eaters for me for a change.

Order of the Phoenix:

I landed a couple ok axels, and I really improved my back sit spin!!

Death eaters:

Yesterday was my last day skating this summer I have to survive without skating for a month!! lol

Order of the Phoenix: First full runthrough (with music) of the new pairs program today, and we were only about 2 seconds late on the ending.

Death Eaters: Dodging the kids on summer ice!

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Where are those knives when I need them?
----------------------------------
I need a detachable left foot!

Debbie, and other backspinners,
Don't worry if it goes away from time to time. I saw a senior lady (with some of the most beautiful edges I've ever seen) having "one of those backspin days".
The excecution of the skill may wander, but once you get that "feeling of the element", like on Wednesday night, you can draw on that and know when your spin is good.

Thanks, flo! That's good to know.

Death Eaters: We couldn't skate this morning, so Husband rushed off to work at the crack of dawn, saying that he'd come to the rink for 17.00 (Friday teatime teaching ice finishes at 18.00). So I got there at 16.30, when the patch starts, and did my warm-up, but he didn't come and didn't come, and when I rang him up to find out where he was, he said he couldn't get away. I might have done things differently had I known that earlier.... grrrrr.... plus I had to cart his skates home as well as my own!

Didn't really have a "great skate day", alas. Back edges were flat, back cross-rolls scratchy, back cross-strokes didn't happen (I do think they are physically impossible!), 3-turns slow and tentative - although I realised that on Wednesday, when I had been able to do the British Waltz with no hesitation, I had worked on the Level 4 dance moves first, so did them and then did the British Waltz rather better!

Order of the Phoenix: I'm discovering I'm enough of a level 4 dancer to be able to realise what I'm doing wrong on the level 4 dances. That's something....

Death Eaters: But not yet enough of a level 4 dancer to be able to correct my mistakes!

Phoenix, again: Nevertheless, "It's the first step!" said my coach. Managed a Fiesta Tango solo, to the music, without slowing down, so was rather pleased with myself, especially as I could feel where things needed to be corrected.

Also did a Canasta Tango and Dutch Waltz solo - think my edges are improving, slowly. Both of those to the music. Without the music, tried to do a Willow solo - huh - also Swing Dance (far too small, but otherwise okay), Canadian Cha-cha (ditto, but I don't make the same mistakes in it that I do when skating with Husband), and Hickory Hoedown (sigh!).

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

Order of the Phoenix: After a horrible lutz-day on Wednesday, I re-grouped and got my jump back on Thursday. With the new entry, I had been leaning to the left, and pre-rotating my shoulders before getting up in the air. I worked on thinking of being on more of a flat heading into the jump, keeping my shoulders still, and keeping my upper body upright. Problem solved! Worked on lutz-loops for a while, too.

Improved height on my waltz, toe, sal, and flip on Thurs. Loop out of cross-overs is also more consistent.

I have a camel spin! It's just getting about 2-3 rotations at best, but that's 2-3 more than I was getting a week ago! Worked on a tighter entry edge and increasing momentum before going up on the toe-pick. Also remembering to keep my free leg back as long as possible, and not swing it around to get momentum. Did one really good attitude spin also!

Also very happy with one-foot change-edge rockers around the perimeter.

Death Eaters: Backspins. I have a very difficult time staying backwards. I'm always flipping to a forward inside edge, and haven't found the sweet spot yet. It's very frustrating, because everything is improving except this one element!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Death Eaters:

Was driving to the gas station earlier to put more oil into my car before heading to my weekend rink. Drove halfway to the weekend rink and I started smelling gas. I pulled over and ACK!!! My oil cap is gone and oil is spraying all over the engine!!! I called up my Honda shop to find out if they has gas cap for my old car. Thankfully, they did!!! But, the station is at least 5 miles!!! I can't have more oil spraying out of my oil tank!!! I need a stop gap oil cap until I get there!

No problem!!! I used the towel that I usually wipe my skating blades with as a stop gap oil cap and drove to the Honda shop. Bought the cap and put the thing on! All is resolved!

My one frustration: I still need my ice time, DAMMIT!!! (I was planning to go to my pilates session and had dinner plans afterwards. I guess I'll have to skip this one and go there tomorrow morning. *sigh* )

Order of the Phoenix:

Went to dinner at a restaurant and spotted the "Fire & Ice" show banner at the restaurant I was at. I pointed it out to my dinner guest and said "I'm in that!" Waiter seating us overheard me and said "Oh, REALLY!!?!?!?" I proudly pointed my name on the banner!!!

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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!!!

Death Eaters
Tuesday - didn't really achieve anything.

Friday - Had jelly legs and was really tired after a weeks work. Couldn't camel spin to save my life.

Order of the Phoenix (I'm a HP fan too!)

Coach of course decided we'd better fix camel spin, so of course, murphy's law i did 3 perfect ones in a row!!

Think I have finally clicked on the elusive salchow technique which has eluded me for years.... but will it be there next time i skate????

Axels were ok for a change.

Death Eaters: Don't you hate the month before a competition when everything is coming apart, or being taken apart for serious work, and you are terrified it won't come back together again in time? Got to that stage today - competition in 4 weeks, hockey school in 3..... yeah, like perfect timing, NOT!

Crashed into husband's coach during his lesson (I was going backwards & didn't see her, and she didn't see me coming!) and landed on the ice on my bum. Hit my tailbone slightly (not badly) and it is still a bit sore.

Got to go to the 2nd day of this competition in a minute, doing the announcing again.

Order of the Phoenix: Got our skates sharpened yesterday, and they are really lovely today!

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

Couldn't the cloth have caught on fire?!?!

I wish we had an emoticon for injury.

Death eaters: I think I only have my bum left. I was taking inventory of the old bod the other day, I've got maybe two places left that I could fall on that haven't been injured in the past six months. Right now both my wrists are on the disabled list (typing one finger here) and I need to learn to stop putting my hand out. Maybe I'll just use this one :


Order of the Phoenix: Everyone at the rink has finally read the latest Harry Potter so we can discuss it openly, or that's my excuse for standing around and chatting. I must give the coach the book so she can be in on it too, and quit giving us the evil eye for talking.

Skating wise: I did dance today, first time in about four months. Mostly stroking in Killian position and reversed Killian and then a few of those fiesta mohawks. Wasn't bad, no, not bad at all!

Get well soon, Annabel!

I had a lot of fun yesterday, I started working on parallel spins and sit spins. One thing aggravates me though, I can do my spiral better on my left leg, raising my right, but I spin on my right leg, so it's my weaker spiral that is used to a parallel. Not good. I'm thinking of trying to teach myself to spin the right way... but a back parralel would be must more comfortable.

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http://www.yourphotoalbums.co.uk

Yeah, it's possible ... but it's a smaller chance compared to the oil that was spilling all over the engine of the car. In any case, I'm thankful that I made it thru w/o further problems...

__________________
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!!!

Yikes, I'm thankful for you too! Once, I got an oil change and they forgot to put the cap back on- it was laying in my engine the entire time...it wasn't until I saw dried-up oil chunks on MY FRONT BUMPER that I realized anything was wrong. Sears wouldn't even give me the name of the guy who did my oil change, and refused to pay for my car to get cleaned.

They lost my bussiness. Why wasn't too substantial anyways, since I always get my oil changes done wayyyyy after I'm due.

One time not long ago I got an oil change, and was driving down the freeway in the fast lane when some guy in an Audi who had been following pulls up beside me real fast, then starts making gestures at me with a nasty look on his face. I was like "oooookay buddy", guessing he was pissed off I was not going as fast as he wanted to go in the fast lane. So he gets back behind me, and then I pull over out of his way. He follows and stays in the same lane. Well my exit onto another freeway is coming up, so I change the like 4 lanes required and he stays right behind me. I'm getting a bit creeped out at this weird guy following me, so I slow down and he doesn't pass. Right. Creep. I get off at the next exit and pull into a gas station where there are plenty of people around. He pulls in too and parks beside me. I'm locking my doors and preparing to dial the police on my cell phone, when I notice some strange black streaks on my fender, and the smell of oil. Plus the guy I was worried about wasn't getting out of his car either, and looked rather unmenacing in business attire. So I pop my hood, and discover the entire engine and underside of the hood covered in nasty solid black ickyness (in a diesel engine, oil turns black right away, not just when it's old). Turns out the shop had not put the cap back on all the way,and it came off, fell onto the road, and then hit the car behind me, putting a hole in his grill and two big dents in the hood. So my insurance went up, and I had to spend hours with degreaser in a carwash cleaning my engine. I went to the oil change place and told them what happened and they just kind of shrugged at me - they couldn't care in the slightest. So yeah, check the oil cap when you get an oil change.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

And here I thought this was going to be an amazing, feel good story about this super concerned, super dedicated guy who just HAD to let you know your oil was leaking. No one would go through that much trouble lest there was money involved, hah. On his side though, I'll say that he was nice to follow you- he could've gotten your license plate number and report it as hit and run, which it wasn't, really, cause you didn't know, but still. Mechanics need to learn how to do their jobs.

Order of the Phoenix:
No car problems!!!

WOW!!! The Bronze MITF is pretty good today!!! Went thru two runthroughs of all the moves and except for the occasional dodging other skaters and the back crossovers on the ends (and NOT all the time either), I went thru the moves pretty smoothly!!!

In fact, a fellow skater came up to me and said that she "walked in the rink to see this one gal doing forward power 3's at a pretty good clip and thought 'Who is that gal skating so fast?'... only to realized that it's ME!!! (Yes, I care that I get the edges and the flow right, but I really want to push on the power too... just in case a judge goes and falls back to the old method rulebook emphasis on power. (And if the judges all do the new method, I'll get bonus points instead!!!)

Scratch, sit and backspins were pretty good!!!

More PURPLE skates comments!!! And maybe if I'm REALLY lucky, I might find a number where I can wear a bright purple shirt and have my boots match the shirt too!!!

Land one stinkin' wimpy LUTZ today!!!

Death Eaters:

Chinese spirals aren't high enough yet... I'm just too much of a chicken to try to raise it higher to where I was when I do them near the wall...

Loops, flips, lutz, all two footed landings except for maybe the first ones!!!

Camels...

My feet!!! I was skating for 2.5 hours at the weekend rink, then about an hour's rehearsal for the Fire & Ice show tonight!!!

Update on show...
I just heard that the 9:30pm off ice seats are SOLD OUT!!! 16 off ice seats left on the 6:30pm show. NO MORE $15 CHEAP SEATS!!!

If you're in the SF Bay Area (or plan to be on August 27th) and want to watch this show, you can get discounted tickets thru me (since I'm a member of the cast!) Just PM me!!! "Live To Skate" Burton Powley will be doing a solo number too!!! (Probably could also go thru him too...)

If that's not enough... four words:

Rudy Galindo
Caryn Kadavy

Oh, I should also mention that this show will have a bar table too!!!

__________________
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!!!

I see from the website that there are loads of other adult skaters, most of whom are well known to the Adult skating community, in Jazzpants' show. Wish I could see it...

Thanks for the good wishes - my tailbone stiffened up during the course of the day, and today I ache all over. Not so much from the fall (although that does still hurt), but my arms are stiff.... has anybody else who has spent two days announcing at a competition ever found their arms hurt next day??? I'm exhausted, too... thank goodness today's Monday and day-off day!

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

Mrs. Redboots - have a nice soak in the tub with one of your wonderful soaps.

a FUN day....today (lesson on Monday since Wednesday I'll be in Lake Placid watching the competition...)

with Coach #2, worked on RFO-LFO Circle 8's and Waltz-8 Figures. Learned a lot in that 30 minutes. My RFO-LFO Circle 8's are pretty good (I can consistently find my center) except the 2nd side bulges a bit. Considering I've self-taught myself the figure until now, with no scribe and just plain eye-balling, if that's the worst part of that figure....

Then Waltz 8. And I remembered why I hate this as a MIF or a figure. And remembered that when I fix the 3-turns and the check, my American Waltz 3s will be much improved also. By the end of the lesson, though, the figure was showing some improvements.

With Coach #1, worked on bits of the end pattern of the American Waltz, mostly solo. Turns were improved but the check isn't yet where we both want it to be. When I did skate it with coach, the whole sequence was easier, so the figures work and the solo work on improving the check is helping, albeit slowly.

Tomorrow is Tango day followed by several hours in a car to drive up to Lake Placid...

--jsl

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American Waltz... Once, Twice, ???? ...

Q: How many coaches does it take to fix Jen's Dance Intro-3 Problems
A: 5 and counting...

Order of the Phoenix: Finally made it AND got to go onto the olympic side of the rink (I felt so special) AND got to play my CD's (yes, the soundtrack to Ice Princess)! Worked on moves with hubby (hey, ice moves) which he did well at and he even managed CCW crossovers! Then we worked on LFO 3-turns, which he ended up at the boards to work on....
The ice was nice (you were right Pat!), not crowded, no obnoxious hockey kids.... I skated well! Even my waltz jumps rocked !! !! Got gutsy enough for some combo jumps: waltz-waltz and then some waltz-waltz! (ha-ha-ha) and not once did I hit my toe-pick on landing! I also skated several laps around BACKWARDS!! I had never done that before! Ditched the sweater and skated in short sleeves! For once I didn't freeze! Yay!

Death Eaters: my spins are still on summer vacation. One of my skate buddies noticed a few things: I'm looking down (I was?), my foot was not turned out enough when I enter the spin (really?), my shoulders are hunched (yeah, that I know).... and I'm not bent enough in the knee (that's an ongoing battle with me). So, I worked on them for a while and then gave up...I also think there is the difference in the ice-their ice is harder than my home rink, but the season is almost over so I will be re-adjusting when we go back "home" again. Only about 35 days.....

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

Yes, yes!!! (And it sure smells citrus-y!!! AHHHHH!!!!) :-D

I recommend a HOT tub for you!!! Those jets will help the muscles and give a gentle massage. Also, get a "donut" for your chair. Your tailbone will thank you!!! And lots of arnica gel/spray too!!!

Take it easy, okay?

I don't know if there are any plans to videotape the show and sell the tapes, but it sure would be nice... then again, I'll be in a few annoying (but necessary) skating dresses so... *sigh*

__________________
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!!!