Sparkling: Well, I'm glad we decided not to skate on Sunday morning, as it turns out there was no ice! So we made the right decision to have a lie-in. Our coach was a bit late this morning, which meant we only just had time to fit in our lesson before Robert had to go, but we did manage to fit it in. We did our dance through to the music! It is still pretty terrible, but you can see how it's going to be when it's finished - and an outside observer told us that our spin had done the required 3 revolutions!!!

Shabby: The coach has "dumbed down" the turn sequence (thought he would!), but at least I can do it now, which I couldn't before. And our twizzle sequence is terrible! We both do it wrong.... actually the whole end pattern is a bit disastrous still, but that's mainly lack of practice. The rest of it is coming nicely.

Once R had gone, I practised a lot of things on my own, some better than others!

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

Sparkling: The freestyle session was an extra 15 minutes. I feel like I am making some forward progress on my scratch spin, but it is so slow and disheartening. I actually did 2 or 3 that were centered, and that I managed to pull in. One was fast enough to make me dizzy. Of course, that was out of 20-25 minutes of spinning. But, it's getting better. At least I have jumps to cheer me up.

Shabby: Not too much, except all the time I spent on spinning. I'm not sure if I struggle because I don't care for spinning or if I don't care for spinning because I struggle so much.

Salchow was also swingy. I'm not checking the 3turn and swinging the free leg too much.

Shabby: Loops and brackets weren't that great today. My back inside loops were awesome, and I feel like I have suddenly lost them. Mild panic is setting in because test day is on Saturday, and I REALLY want to pass this.

Sparkling: Multi-turns are comfortable enough. Flying choctaws were really good today. They need to be a bit more curvy so I don't smoke the boards at the end. But my agility has improved a billion percent.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Since coach is on vacation this week, it was all practice today.

Shabby: My outside alternating 3s are still not up to snuff. I am still not waiting until the top of the lobe to make my turn which means I have to spend more time on my back inside edge back to the axis which means I usually reach for the axis to step out on the forward outside edge. One of these days I will do it right.

Sparkling: My crossovers in the figure 8 pattern. They now are much quieter and I have a pretty good lean too!!

We had a speed demon today in session. She was going a million miles an hour through everybody's pattern and almost took me as well as a few other skaters out. I was in a mid ice collision 3 years ago and I am still somewhat gun shy. Then I was in lesson and I was just starting to learn the Waltz 8 when this 8 year old girl hit me full bore. She was a big girl too which made the collision more jarring. Thank goodness no one was hurt but I sure was sore for about 3 weeks and my coach was a little "upset".

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Solo lesson today, after about 30 minutes' practice with Robert (we were rather late to bed last night, so didn't hurry down to the rink this morning!). The practice was really rather shabby, since we were working on the parts of the dance that we still find difficult and oh, it is disheartening when I'm trying to twirl under Robert's arm and can't do it easily and he can't keep steady easily, either, but tends to go round me, and then you see a senior couple doing it for the whole length of the rink, easily and well! R and I happened to be on opposite sides of the rink when that happened, and we just looked at each other and shrugged!

Lesson, however, was mostly sparkling, especially when the coach told me that my outside-to-inside changes-of-edge were "textbook"! He wasn't quite so complimentary about my inside-to-outside ones, alas..... oh well, you can't have it all. My back inside edges were flowing and fast, and nearly passed muster (not quite; I should, apparently, have been curving them in more at the end, but if I did, I rather lost flow), and I learnt a new skill: back inside loops (drawn on the ice, not jumped!). These are fun, and good for my flexibility. Sort of like back twizzles, but not quite.

Coach is now seriously working my back cross-rolls (progress! ), which are not yet good, but "much better".

I thought my back outside edges were dreadful (and I thought my FO ones, which I did for a warm-down at the end of the session, were, too, but the coach didn't see those), but he said they were vastly improved. They felt clunky, though.

I found myself promising to do some solo work with a friend tomorrow evening in dance club, and I do hate solo dance! Oh well, I suppose it is good for me - I did a Golden Skaters' Waltz earlier today when its music was playing, and really, it was hopeless. Ah well....

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

This is for Monday...

My goal for the summer (and beyond) is to work on my dances solo, so that I'm contributing adequate power to the pattern... having realized that I don't want to look like a chubby middle-aged woman being pushed around by her coach.

Shabby: Coach would like a bit more attack on the forward power 3's... although I am getting the turns on both sides at top of lobe consistently.

Am touching down slightly to steady myself before doing the swing closed outside mohawk in the Tango... this when doing it solo. But last week and week before I wasn't even wanting to try the mohawk solo, so I guess that's an improvement. I can do the mohawk solo slowly, but not yet at full attack after the promenade of the dance pattern.

Sparkling: 5-step mohawk... coach liked the flow and that I'm able to finally hold my bugbear RFI edge longer before doing the mohawk on that side. (I would like to hold it longer still...)

Tango cross-back chasses. Started doing them solo to the music up and down the rink. After the first couple lobes, got the hang of it (I had been doing them slower than proper tempo...) and the lobes had a nice feel. Still need to work on more crispness.

Forward cross steps in the Tango. Coach had me do these down the rink to the music also (even though in the dance, I only have to do one sequence in the corner before the cross-roll 3). These were a bit more challenging to the music and I realized that I'm not really controlling the edge well.

Shabby: Felt like everything. Only half an hour of ice this morning. I really need to find an effective off-ice warm-up that works for me. I feel like it takes me way too long to warm up on the ice so that I feel comfortable doing the exercises. But for test day, I have very little time to warm up on ice before the test starts. If I don't get a good warm-up, I am shaky, tight, and nervous.

I am nervous about the loops. They aren't as consistent as I want them, and I think I will pass or fail based on what type of mood the judge is in...and how picky she wants to be.

Sparkling: I guess my flying choctaws were pretty good. *sigh*

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Shabby: On Monday night, while showing someone how to do a lutz, I drove the back of my left blade into my right shin. I was skating slowly so that the woman could follow me closely. I quickly told her, "Make sure you don't do THAT!"

Sparkling: I learned this morning that I can do a decent sit-change-back camel (the camel-change-back sit was not as good). And Loops and I are excited and slowly getting ready to debut our pair program at Hershey. Here's hoping we don't embarrass ourselves. (Let's not even talk about the tight, purple velvet shirt that I will be wearing.)

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Sparkling: Everything felt way better than this morning. As soon as I stepped on the ice I felt ready to go. I really think I just need a more effective off-ice warm-up so I am loose when I hit the ice. Brackets were better on the first try, and loops improved by the end of the session. Power threes feel awesome. Multi-turns were ok, too. Back outside loops have really come a long way.

Shabby: Forward inside loops stink. Back outside used to be non-existent, but now I have gotten the hang of them and the forward inside ones just suck, plain and simple.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Aw, too bad I won't be going to Hershey! But some of the skaters from my rink are going!

Sparkling: Monday afternoon ice is like skating a private session at a regular freestyle rate- I get the whole surface to myself! So, my practice went like this:
Moves for 30 minutes (yes, I'm no longer afraid of power threes! )

Spins/ Jumps for 20 minutes. Did jumps that are already in program in program pattern.

For 40 minutes , worked on my program, which meant playing my program music to get used to doing that footwork sequence,again, and again and FINALLY GOT IT!!

Yesterday, showed it all to Coach and she was pleased with that as well as the program run through.

Shabby:
My goal for this program is to can that loop from stand still take off position that I've been doing and actually do the loop with a RFI3 with speed. While I had a couple of good efforts yesterday, this will lots of work, Not to mention the fact that I have a hunch that there will be more footwork added to my program!

Shabby:
Skated a freestyle session after show rehearsal on Saturday morning and realized my blades were DULL AS BUTTERKNIVES! I wasn't expecting it because I had gotten 40 hrs. out of the previous sharpening and they didn't feel as dull then as they did this time after only 30 hrs. of skating.

Sparkling:
Was able to get them sharpened in a hurry before the next show practice instead of having to drive an hour to my usual pro b/c a fellow at my rink sharpens skates (and does a great job). Five minutes before the next practice, he said to me "You're just NOW getting on the ice?! Watch out, those are sharp." He was right!! I went to do a 2-foot turn during our number and nearly toppled over right there! I wasn't expecting it because during warm-up, I hadn't had trouble stopping or doing 3 turns.

Well, the outfit will get even better: Loops and I are adding rhinestones! We're hoping to have "magpie judges"; i.e., ones that get distracted by small, shiny objects.

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Shabby:

• My secondary coach told me that she won't be able to coach me for the rest of this month. (Or should that be a ? Just kidding...) She will make up for those lessons in August though. (*GULP!*)

Sparkling:

• My primary coach was kind enough to take me in her place until then, since he knows that I'm testing in less than a week from now... Luckily for him, he's also teaching another one (or two) of his other students on that day as well. (He keeps an eye on me while I'm take my lesson with the secondary coach and often joins in on the fun of torturing me along with the secondary coach.)
• My forward power 3's are better still today. Primary coach still thinks it's too slow (compared to my better side.) But now he's confident that I'll probably pass Bronze Moves. (I'll believe it when it happens...)
• All of my other moves are fine.

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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!!!

Don't give away all our secrets yet!

I'm just trying to whet our audience's appetite!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Shabby
My own fault really but I tried to skate today even though I'm recovering from a stomach bug that I suffered on Tuesday. Normally I'd pass on a lesson but with losing masses of ice time over the next four weeks due to summer skate school and hockey camp, I felt I had to make the effort.

Well I learned my lesson - that skating after such an illness isn't a good thing to do. I did a few field moves, a few jumps and then I promptly felt very unwell and thought I was going to faint. I gave my poor coach the fright of her life as she could see she was losing me - so much of my lesson was spent sipping hot chocolate in the cafe and trying to come round again.

Sparkling
Despite my ill health I landed some nice jumps and did some of my best spins - weird, huh? My coach reckoned I did one of my best camel spins ever, I did a decent camel/sit combination and managed a good change foot sitspin.

Nicki

Nova - ouch!
Shaby - got held up at work so I missed my Tuesday night skate and lesson. My calf muscle is still a bit tender, so I cut my new music,and was looking forward to working on the program.

Sparkly - I was able to skate yesterday - the muscle felt better,and I could do a couple small jumps - a waltz and loop.

Something interesting - I just got my new boots (custom Harlicks) and blades (phantoms), and noticed that the blades were longer than before, although the size was the same. I contacted MK asking if there had been a change in design, and they replied that there had been no change. I'm going to take them back this weekend an see what the fitter says.

Sparkling: T-minus three more on-ice practices until test day, and I feel pretty confident! I tried to do sort of a semi-simulation this morning, doing an extra jogging lap to warm up, and then doing a warm-up on ice faster than usual. The extra off-ice warm up did help, so I think for test day I will just have to make sure I am able to get really warm off-ice. All the hard work I put in yesterday after being so frustrated really paid off and I managed good run-throughs of each exercise of the first try. I was ecstatic to get through the bracket turns across the end of Snakes and Ladders (8 in a row on each foot) without touching down, because these gave me a lot of grief yesterday. Flying choctaws have much better agility every time I do them. My loops weren't perfect, but I was satisfied with them. I think they would have passed.

Shabby: Not much! Just the loops, I guess. They improved since yesterday, but I would still like them to be more stable. This afternoon I plan to start with a little simulation again, then work the loops quite a bit.

I also had an interesting revelation this morning. I know that when I get nervous I tighten up in the shoulders and come up in the knees. But I also discovered that I apparently ball my left hand into a tight fist. When I realized this and relaxed my hand, it brought my shoulders down and relaxed my whole upper body. It also distracted me a bit from my feet, which is a good thing, because my feet know what they are doing...my head just gets in the way sometimes. So I'm hoping this little trick of thinking about relaxing my hands will hold up throughout the weekend and will help on test day!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Sparkling
Finally I feel like I'm able to rotate around the right side of my body and keep my legs crossed on the axel. I've changed my technique on the take-off and it seemed to work last night. If this continues then I'll try 2axel again later in the summer. Landed 2sal, 2toe, and 2loop last night. Whohoo Forward camel was decent.

Shabby
1Ltz still doesn't feel right. Can't go for double until I get the 1lutz correct. Sit spin is still blah.

Hey Luna,

When I did the inside loops, i always found what helped me was when you start it, of course, have your opposite arm in front ...... so if you were doing the RFI loop, you start it with your left arm in front and right in the back ..... and once you get past the top of the loop, you switch arms and bring your right arm in front right away .. it usually helps your edge come around and complete the loop. Also make sure that your arms aren't too high on those.

Another tip for the back 3's/bracket sequence ..... is to keep your arms low ..... so when you start the sequence on the left foot .. keep your right arm in front and left arm behind just maybe 6 inches from your hip or so ... and flatten your hands so that your palms are facing the ice .... that always helped the balance for that sequence for me. Of course, make sure that your arms don't swing back and forth as you do the turns.

keep in mind that you're allowed to mess up 2 of the 8 loops and pass. Also the judge isn't looking that you do absolutely perfect sized loops .... they can be bigger...the judge is looking that you have the ability to get back around. hope this helped!

Shabby: I couldn't land any of my jumps today and my solos were so bad I didnt do any of my goals.

Sparkling: I then found out that my skates needed to be sharpened really bad so i just brought them in to get sharpened. Hopefully their better tomorrow.

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~*Sammi-Sasha*~

I skated on Tuesday aswell but this is for today.

Shabby:

I forgot my skating trousers, so I had to skate in jeans! It felt very strange. Funnily enough, I didn't bother attempting any spirals

Sparkling:

Although my spins travel, I actually did some that were a bit better today.

I got a really nice compliment from one of the other skaters. You know when you get one of those genuine, totally random comments? Well I'd just been practicing something like crossovers (can't remember), and one of the ladies I skate with said "You look good on the ice, even in jeans", and said my legs were nicely extended. It was very nice to hear!

Although there were parts of my skating that could have been better today (like my salchow), on the whole it was pretty good. And I was in a good mood anyway so I felt great!!

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"It’s never too late to skate at any age." - Alexei Mishin.

Hi, flo--
I just had a thought--maybe the blades you have now are genuinely Phantoms and the ones on your old pair were mislabeled?

Did you measure each blade to see if it matched the length that is marked on the blade? Maybe they are both Phantoms but one set's length is mismarked on the blades?

Very strange! Let us know what you find out!

I skated a public session with 60 kids today--but it wasn't too bad. Then I did a Freestyle for my lesson. My poor aching muscles are reminding me that 2 1/2 hours is tooooo long!

Sparkling: My coach wants to know where in the world my back inside edges came from! If I knew, I could tell her. They just showed up today. Now, she's talking about testing in November--that's way too soon, considering we don't even work on alt. 3turns yet, and I can't do back inside edges. Forward edges are ok, they just need work. AND, the rink is changing moves time to power time. I also did one salchow that felt so good that it must have been wrong.

Shabby: Crowded ice? The extra hour I skated? Not too much. I even had fun with the little girl that glued herself to my side--and I let her, at least part of the time.

Sparkling: Mostly last night was for dance club; I didn't spend much time on the ice before it, only enough really to warm up and do one lap of Russian stroking and one of forward cross-rolls. Dance Club was fun; at one stage there was just me and three men available to dance! That didn't last long though, alas - by the end of the session, as usual, there were more women than men. One young lady, who we thought had given up, reappeared saying she had been on her French exchange which is why she'd been away, and another woman was back after illness, but then someone else is away for the next few weeks, and so it goes.....

Shabby: Didn't get a chance to do the 14-step with Robert, as the first time it was played he did it solo, much to my irritation, and the second time he grabbed someone else! Couldn't remember the steps of the Tango across the end of the rink, which annoyed me. Stood there like a lemon at the start of the Willow Waltz, with my hand held out for a partner, and these three men all stood there and didn't take a blind bit of notice! Eventually Robert came and we danced it. Chickened out of dancing the Fiesta Tango, which I hate, although I can do it, but had fun trying to invent a new "easy" dance to do to the Viennese Waltz.

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