Well, just got back from the shouting match that was my lesson today.... Actually it was all in good fun, but there was lots of swearing--hope the kiddies didn't notice

Forget: Coach did the choreography for the straightline footwork for my tango. Unbelievably hard, and INSANELY fast--most steps get a 1/2 beat w/ what is already very fast music. And when I asked "do you really think I can do that?!" (hoping for a vote of confidence--'of course I think you can--I believe in you!') But no--the answer I got was "I don't f-ing care if you can do it. You're going to f-ing have to, aren't you?" I think that was when the shouting started....

Remember: But after the lesson I worked on it, & I can actually do it faster than I thought I'd be able to (nowhere near up to speed, of course!). I'm just going to have to work really hard to get this pulled together; I have 8 weeks till the competition.

remember: First lesson in a while as our rink's Open comp has been on this week. Daughter skated and won her class - and then won the group artistic with her friend so she was very happy!

In lesson I tried backspin and camel spin and camel at least felt like it could be possible soon.

after lesson I landed what was probably my best ever loop jump with a bit of speed in, good height and nice flow out. If only these things were repeatable or I even knew what it was I was doing differently when they feel so good. Also landed several decent flips so am feeling more hopeful that this could go in my new programme and even managed a Flip-cherry ( but only once!)

forget: inter-bronze field moves - urgghhh! Also double 3's - tried these in all directions (inside, outside, forward, backwards) - back insides felt most doable but none of them are great.

REMEMBER THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Doing some off ice last night (at some ridiculous hour in my lounge room but anyway! )... and I got my right foot to turn out properly when extending back!! FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!! hubby was very excited when it happened!

Also, we've worked out the problems I have when leading with my left leg (I have trouble getting on my outside edge on that foot), and it was all based around my pelvis and bending through my hip.. I still need to work on my leg strength and my ankle flexibility to get my bend deeper, but hopefully this will all help with my edges and extension! hubby has also given me some exercises to do to work the inner thigh, which helps with turn out and staying out outside edges... so Im doing them religiously from now on!

SO, I urge everyone to pay great attention to their body and get someone to explain exactly how things should be in a perfect pose, and then practise with you and tell you when you get it (nothing beats the feeling of getting it right and remembering it! ).... It REALLY helps... if you dont have body awareness, you need to work on it!

Just had to share... Im very excited.

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-Erinna-
aka cassarilda

My Progress Report!
"Did I mention there is only ONE rink in Melbourne?!"
"If you're not flying, you're obviously not trying!!!" - courtsey of the guy who helped me up off the ice after my last spectacular and sore fall

Remember This: I did 3 consecutive patterns of Killian with my coach today. Probably at 85% to 90% of full tempo, and 50-60% full power. Starting from the intro...

Forget it.. Well no, don't forget. Bend my knees and flex my ankles more through the whole dance.

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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...

Forget it: since Easter my coach has tried a new tactic to show me how bad some of my skating is, she mimics me. Had me thinking I must be really hopeless and I was feeling quite depressed about my skating. I know I am a messy skater, sometimes lacking control and poise. Worries me that I might not be able to correct my faults at my age.

Remember this: today I went to the Aussie Skate session determined to skate with control, neatness, good posture, extension, and grace. And I think I pretty well succeeded. I think it was much better. Now I have to do it every time, and consider control and neatness before power and speed.

My spins were better centred today, even got in a couple of decent scratch spins. And started working on sit spins again - very bad but it's good to be working on them again.

Didn't get much chance to work on jumps, too crowded and too many littlies whizzing around. But I'm pretty happy with what I did do. In class we didn't do jumps til the end and I was too tired by then, never jump well after 2 hours of skating, so I didn't really attempt much.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

That has been one of my focus points lately too, & I've found it has helped a lot. I look up a lot more than I used to, & I'm really trying to get extension & toe point even as I grind to a halt on my toe picks!

Forget it:
Never mind the fact that I just got my skates sharpened, the freestyle session at my rink this morning was packed to zoo-like proportions!!
The reasons : Our rink is having a ISI In House Competition the same weekend that quite a few of us will be at May Day Open. In addition to that, our club is having a test session the following week after those competitions. So everyone is working on one thing or another.
To add insult to injury, the freestyle schedule for May just came out and the rink thinks it's perfectly okay to take 30 minutes away on Wednesday afternoons and Wednesday is one of the busiest days on the ice!

Remember this:
Nice sharp edges- jumps were easy today, the ones I could do with the massive crowd!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Remember It (I wrecked when I was 18 and damaged my knees. I had problems with my knees "going out" on me for more than 15 years after that.)

This morning’s session was good, reassuring. With the discomfort in my knees Thursday and Friday I was SO afraid that my knees were going to cause me problems again and the thought of not being able to skate was just too upsetting to comprehend. To get through 2 hours without a knee “going out” (which is what it felt like might happen) was a great relief and they actually feel better this afternoon than they did before skating (although MUCH more tired). THANK GOD!

Forget It! After skating for two hours and then doing an hour with my fitness instructor, I am BEAT! I think the only thing that will get done around here tonight is some TV watching and some Lazy-Boy warming - LOL!!

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

Remember: worked really hard for 2 hours today, almost exclusively on footwork. It's still not pretty at all, & way too slow, but I can do it! And in general I'm not that scared, which I'm also happy about. And best of all, you know you've made some progress when you think the power pulls w/ rockers is the easy part!

Here it is, if you care for a look:
http://phoenix.sk8rland.com/video/st...twk%204.06.AVI
Remember it's only one day old, & I just learned the rocker/choctaw yesterday. It's got a long ways to go. (& the tango playing in the background isn't my music--someone was working on their Argentine)

Forget: I'm not used to working for that long....I'm so exhausted I took a nap this afternoon & am going to bed early! Some days I feel OLD.

[QUOTE=phoenix][Here it is, if you care for a look:
http://phoenix.sk8rland.com/video/st...twk%204.06.AVI
[QUOTE]

Well, I don't know what it is supposed to look like- but you looked really good doing it- especially if it's new.

Great job!

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

Remember--
Skated in my club's spring show today. Dress rehearsal went horribly the other day and I was pleased to skate better. Backspin and sit spin sorta cooperated, and I enjoyed skating in front of the crowd of friends & family. It was great to see everyone perform. One number was really great--two gals doing a duet. They did an amazing death spiral.

Forget it--
Didn't do loop loop or flip loop in the program (was aiming to, or to do flip loop loop). Nerves got the better of me, so I stuck with plain loop and flip.

__________________
Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

Remember this: My new interpretive is finally beginning to come together. I did the whole program without the music several times this morning.

Forget it: Can't do it with the music the music is faster than I skate and I still can't keep up to it.

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

remember this- finally double loop is consistent...yess. I only fell on it once today and it didn't even hurt. Overall jumps are good, didn't have to back out much and was landing axel about 90% of the time.

forget it- stupid backspin...kept tripping on the exit. i seriously hate that spin

I decided that today would be my final regular Sunday class... its getting a little too repetitive, which the teacher cant help due to new people coming in, the littlies and restricted space.

Remember This:
BUT we did do something new today... inward 3-turns! YAY!!! I sort of got the hang of them, but they will of course need practise.

outward 3 turns, mohawks, stopping (tstops), backward glides, balancing etc are all good.

I also tried a few spread eagles today and hubby mentioned he was jealous because I did them better than he did... I think I have good turn out simply because Ive done dance for so long... I also tried some Ina Bauers... I'll get there eventually...

We also did a pattern of Canasta Tango, trying not to run into people... the rink was PACKED again...

PRACTISE THIS:
Then hubby tried to teach me choktaws, which was interesting... one of the girls at the rink couldnt believe he was teaching me them after I had only been skating about 2.5months... but I did ask him to teach me... the edges are bugging me again, and its hard but Im sure I will get it... I definately need to practise more.

Considering This:
As it was the last day, my skating buddy was a bit upset that I wasnt coming down anymore, but I was thinking I would go down occasionally to say hi to people... I approached her with the thoughts about getting a joint 30min lesson with our coach during the week sometime, and she liked that idea, but unfortunately she doesnt get off work until after the sessions finish. Which led me to wonder if it was worth me getting a weekly 15min lesson on a Friday when hubby goes down to skate...?? Is 15mins worth it? If I get time to warm up prior, we can work on specific footwork... the same coach takes the Wednesday Coffee Club and my weekend group lesson, so he knows where Im at and what I need to work on... hmmm $15 per 15mins plus $14entry = $29... I can skate afterwards as well tho... plus $20 Weds = $49 per week.... I suppose thats not too bad... I allow $50 per week for skating as it is... and 1 group lesson and 1 private is better than 3 lone sessions... hmmmmm

Remember This:
umm what else happened at todays session? I had someone tell me I should go into the Masters cup... its an annual Adults only national competition... I was shocked that someone said I should do it, so I will consider it.... its a good excuse to get out there in a dress anyway.

My bruised knee is getting better, but I still have a lump under the skin which is sore, so Im taking it easy for a bit longer.

Oh crossovers... Im doing crossovers, and trying to concentrate on getting the correct edges and pushing on the back foot after I cross over... I'll get there.. maybe thats what a 15min session would be good for with a private lesson.

Backward crossovers I did, and I felt comfortable enough, but there were too many people around, and it was very congested in the class... I could definately do one way better than the other.

Spins.. two foot spin, I managed 3-4 rotations... yay!!!

It was a good session really...

Forget This:
Then on the way home, trying to doing a u-ey to avoid bad traffic ahead, I scraped what I thought was my car along an unmountable kerb.. eeep! but the scrape was my hub cap (pheww!) and I didnt wreck my wheels (I hope)... poor Syrup... she didnt deserve it (yes, my cars name is Syrup... )

__________________
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-Erinna-
aka cassarilda

My Progress Report!
"Did I mention there is only ONE rink in Melbourne?!"
"If you're not flying, you're obviously not trying!!!" - courtsey of the guy who helped me up off the ice after my last spectacular and sore fall

Remember this: I have had a fabulous weekend of skating. Spins are starting to centre again, although only from a t-push, doing them from crossovers is still rather inconsistent. Backspins reasonable, actually got some tracings that look like spins rather than a series of 3 turns.

My coach was also at the public session, she gave me some extra tips on faults I need to correct on loops, toe-loops and salchows (does anything NOT need correcting ?? ). But she also gave me encouragement, I am not as messy as I feared, she said I'm doing alright.

I have realised how little I trust my edges; I always rush the turn, and then rush the jump afterwards. I know my blades need sharpening, but I think it is mostly I need to trust my edges more.

I again tried to focus on being neat and controlled, and am happy with how I skated.

Forget it: Work tomorrow. Back to the real world in a job I would rather not have to do and a job application to write for another job I would rather not have to do. Sigh! What I want to be doing is skating every day.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Remember this? When I posted about the stupid fall I had outside at my cousin's house about 6 weeks ago? Well, my finger has still been hurting me and so I finally caved in and went to see a doctor yesterday, and it turns out, I did break that finger! He showed me the x-ray and you can see the crack in a bone in one of the joints. I chipped it, but fortunately it has healed well and in place. So he guesses that it still hurts because of stiffness and so I have instructions from him on what to do, and a radiologist will look at the x-rays just to be sure... So, I don't break my finger skating, but I break my finger walking outside!

In spite of all that I skated today and did pretty well. I started wearing two gloves on the hand with the just-healed finger and that's actually helping, since it hurts a lot from the cold. I've never broken anything before, so it's a new experience!

Happy skating everyone!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Ouch, sk8pics! I hope your finger feels better soon!

Forget it: I'd been wearing the wrong shoes all the previous day helping the Daughter and her fiancé unload their van (they were moving back to London). So my bunion started to hurt, and for some reason, resting it overnight didn't help. I was afraid I'd barely be able to skate (plus I was very stiff, and also wanted to pace myself pending a long walk that afternoon). So I didn't do very much except watch the Husband have his lesson and practice my cross-cuts.

Remember this: However, it was skate-able, and Husband and I did a couple of dances together (Dutch Waltz, Fiesta and Swing Dance - to the proper music!) when the relevant music came on. We also worked on our spin, which was good, and our lift, which wasn't.

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

Remember this:
Nice sunny, warm day in my neck of the woods!!! Which means... the kids are out doing "outdoor things". Which means... NICE EMPTY ICE at my weekend rink!!! YIPPEEEE!!! I got a LOT of Bronze Moves work done this Sunday afternoon!!! I was also warmed enough that my joints allowed me the freedom of movement and I was able to go do crossovers like nobody's business!!! WOO HOO!!!

Forget it:
I did so much Bronze Moves work that I only barely had enough energy to do spins. My first few camels were duds. When I did finally get a camel good enough to do a sit, I couldn't do the sit part of the camel. I had nothing left in me to do jumps. And I still had to do my cardio at the gym afterwards so... Jumps? Forget it!!!

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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!!!