SHOWTIME: Oh my goodness I had what must be the best skating session ever yesterday. I've had sessions where you have a great 15 minutes on jumps and the rest is ok, or specifically good moments, but yesterday it was the entire hour and ten minutes I was on the ice!

I warmed up with some moves and hit all the three turns including the evil back inside three turns, i still can't do them with any speed but the turns didn't feel quite so forced and i'm actually getting the knee bend action to iniate them.

Spind went pretty well so i decided to leave the backspin and not try it at all

Moved onto jumps and landed everything including several good solid loops which my coach who was giving a lesson elsewhere in the rink saw and jumped up and down for me as i was celebrating. Then i moved onto to the flip which since i first started landing it again about a month or so ago has had about a 1 in 10 hit rate. The first two i to footed getting the feel for it, then I must have landed the next 6. I decided to add a toe-loop to the back of it and it actually made the flip better! I sometimes end up jumping slightly out (I described it as crab jumping to my coach which made us both laugh) but nothing too serious.

So when it got to be time for my lesson i was flying high on the back of my practice and I managed to do combination i'd never even attempted on the first try - i landed a couple of pretty good waltz-half loop-flip combinations I also landed first time a flip-toe loop-loop combination!!! Who on earth would ever think the dread flip and dreaded loop would ever come out in a combination?!?!?!

Moved onto spins in the lesson and did really well with those too. I even managed a change foot camel - and just about sqeaked a rev and half, and similarly managed about the same when I tried the change sit (which i've only ever attempted a couple of times before.

I could barely sleep last night when i went to bed i was sooooooo ecstatic with how i'd skated.

Pulling the Plug: I know that next time i get on the ice I won't have the same time of session but i must remember not to let it demoralise me and hope and pray that i have another session like yesterdays soon!

Ant

^Oh wow, Ant, that rocks. Don't you love it when something just "clicks"? And then you think "duh, why couldn't I do this before?"

I do but sadly I've had those moments before only to loose it all again the next time i get on the ice!!

Still - coach is away on holiday so no lesson for two weeks but my goal is practice hard while she's away so that when she gets back i can show her that i've kept up and/or improved on that magical session!

Ant

Yay!! The important thing is that now you know you can do it!

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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

Showtime!
Backspin rocked today! There was one that must've been at least 10 revs plus reasonable exit. Yay! Until it Pulled the Plug late in the session, couldn't do it at all. Not from pivot push or inside edge. Sigh.

Overall though, it was Showtime today. A fairly busy public session and the ice wasn't great, but I enjoyed it. Worked hard on spins, but a lot on edges & 3 turns, and was rewarded with definite improvements. Footwork continues to improve heaps. Jumps, well I didn't flog them, but overall felt they were reasonable.

Looking forward to lesson tomorrow morning.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

This is for yesterday, by the time I got home I could barely eat I was so tired (8 pm and I'd been skating for about 4 hours).....

Show time: I'm ready for the season; I had fun helping out at skating camp, the girls (and the few boys) were nice.

Pulling the plug: fell twice, once on each hip then tripped over my untied skate lace and went kersplat.

stayed for the rink open house and got a free moves lesson; nothing new was discovered I know my stuff is under-par. But hopefully good enough for testing around Jan/Feb.

Renewed club membership, so I am once again, USFS material (already ISI). Now all I need is my ice time punch cards from my rinks and I'm good to go!

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

This is for Friday, Aug. 21, 2009.

Pulling The Pug:

Should say The Light had its plug pulled. There I was in the ladies wash room doing my business before changing into my skating clothes at the arena just before my skating session started and then total darkness for 10 minutes. Couldn't see a thing. Heard my coach asking if there was anyone in the bathrooms and if we were OK. I turned out to be the only one. I was stuck there.

Then the lights went out again when we were on the ice. Total darkness again. Many of us were in a jump mid air. I was just about to take off for a jump when the lights went out and I ended up screeming "Stop!" Then the coaches ordered us to the boards, waited a few minutes and then told us to take a break. We then got to go back after 4 minutes. 10 minutes later it happend again, lights out. Found out later that we had a severe storm. I must have just beat the storm by about two minutes by the time I got in the arena. When I left the arena, everything outside was soaked.

Still having trouble with landing on one foot on some of my jumps and the jumps I do land, I have to over fight to get to an outside edge. Coach hadn't had the chance to fix my warped boots yet because of a club meeting when I had left my skates with him on Tuesday. Thursday I had to keep them so that I could skate the next day. He has them again this weekend. Hoping they are finally fixed.

Oh, it's a good thing that I pulled the plug on my Junior Bronze Fiesta Tango test because my skates are still not fixed and they moved the test day forward to his Monday because the judge wanted to leave early to go on vacation. Coach wasn't too pleased because of test day change.

Dispite all that I still had some Showtime:

Camel spin in practice was making some progress. Free leg was finally staying behind me. That hasn't happened in a long time.

In my lesson, I did a couple camel spins with 2 revs (coach only counted the revs once I was in proper position) in combination with upright spins (corkscrews) with at least 4 revs.

Then did sit spin (6 revs) that actually would get points under CPC for a change with the broken spin (4 or 5 revs) which was more centered than my coach's attempt. (coach was cold and hadn't had the time to warm up)

Did a forward corkscrew (scratch) spin that impressed my coach. Have no idea on how many revs it was. All I know is that I was dizzy getting out because it was faster than I'm use to doing. Oh, it was centered too. Coach did one that had quit a few revs but it was travelling a bit. I told him that it was Novice level. LOL I was teasing him.

Then I did a spin to prep me for the layback spin (I'm working on getting my neck and upper back to heal up. Have herniated discs in my upper back and I pulled a muscle a few weeks back there. Anyway, I got my coach interested in getting me to do the layback again because I had the forward lean of the hips, my free leg up behind me and a perfectly centered spin that was fast. I think I did 6 revs in position. I just didn't lay my head back. Then coach tried one and he couldn't get his body to do what I did.

We also did catch foot upright spins. Once again, because he was standing around not moving from the previous lessons with his other students, his body was cold and stiff but he didn't get some revs before falling out with a cramp. Hardly fair.

I started off the jump competition between us with a waltz jump that had a good landing. Then he did his with a second waltz jump and then a 1 Axel following it. Then it was the Toe Loop. He didn't do the 2 Toe. Then the Salchows. Then the Loop where I was stuck for a while because my stupid freeleg won't stay up in tight during the air portion of the jump through to the landing. I had the slightest touch downs but I was fully rotated. I then progressed to the split + Flip which surprised the coach because it was straighter in the air and fully rotated with only a very slight touch down. Lutz also took my coach by surprise.

Had to wait to do a second Lutz for the coach so I show him a little surprise. I had been working on a flying spin. Not a flying sit or a flying camel but of all things a Forward Flying Upright Spin. When he saw it, coach uttered "What was that?" I said "a Forward Flying Upright Spin, under CPC/IJS/COP the spin is listed as a FUsp. Not too great of a code. Oh, my! What were they thinking when they coded that spin? Anyway, Level 1 is worth 1.7, Level 2 2.0, Level 3 2.4 and Level 4 2.9. I wonder if this spin is allowed for the Junior Bronze test or does it have to be either a FSsp or FCsp?

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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

Showtime
another 1 hour lesson today, though in a public session, had to be alert.
Backspin was on again/off again, but there mostly.

Pulling the Plug
Worked more on 3 turn and mohawk step patterns. Sigh. I find this sort of thing far harder than jumping or spinning. Sweating & out of breath doing consecutive 3 turns. Camel spin, well, 'nuff said.

Didn't do any jumps in lesson today, but the ones I did before the lesson felt good.

And now my coach is away for 5 weeks, Wah! I told her that this time she has to check her suitcase, and if my backspin had decided to go with her again, she has to make sure to send it home to me.

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Katz

Saved by Synchro!
I was over it, now I'm into it again !

Show Time:
Just got off the phone....my skates have been shipped!!! I have my appt set up for the fitting/heat molding/blade transfer!!!!!

Now I just need to txt my daughter and make arrangements for Lodging at the Navy Lodge and borrow a GPS for the drive! Yay!!!!!!!! And it's a 3-day weekend, so maybe the boy wants to come with me!

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

Eek! How did you even find how to get off the ice?? I'd have to hang onto the boards and go around the edge until I found the door, lol!

Pulling the plug: didn't end up going to the rink today. I biked out to one of my fav. restaurants for lunch. Left there later than I'd meant to, so had about an hour before the session started. Got caught in the rain on the way back...and also realized that I had no cash on me. Arrived home 15 minutes before the session started and knew that I did not have time to change clothes, go to the bank to the ATM, and get to the rink in time, even if I took my car. Grr. I think it's definitely time to get the 10-pack of skating passes from the rink (which will also be cheaper. Not much cheaper--will save me five bucks, but still). I'm tired of trying to dig up cash (I try not to carry it otherwise--if it's in my wallet, I tend to find little things to spend it on).

Showtime:

Well I have been the only person aside from my coach at the 6:30-7 am freestyle slot...so I get to hog the sound system Skating to MY favorite songs. And it feels like I have my own personal rink, a la Cutting Edge. The other kids don't pour in until after 7 am, and of course if they have a program to run then they just disconnect my ipod and put theirs in, but if they are done with that and working on regular practice stuff they just put the ipod back in afterwards.Not my fault no one else wants to put in their ipod I guess, coz I wasn't about to stop them...

Coach mentioned that we'd be filling out the paperwork next week or so, for me to be a member of our skating club because i guess it takes about a month or whatever, so I can test in October. Yay!

Wacky 3 turn pattern is improving, even on my left side. Coach was amazed and said, "Wait, was that your bad side?" "yeah" "Wow it really looks good! Have you been working on it?"


Pulling the Plug:
Well, I hate the two foot spin, I find it awkward after not having to do it for so long and of course it's in the pre-Bronze freestyle test. Coach said mine's ok though and it'll be passed, but I just wish it wasn't such an....EFFORT for me. Man who knew I'd be saying I like the one foot version and it's way easier than two foot!

Working on back 3 turns, they're non existent at the moment. Same for the backspin. I'll have to do a search on "backspin tips" on this forum sometime this week.

Showtime: I skated at Squaw Valley at lake Tahoe yesterday. It's an outdoor rink at about 8200 foot elevation. My jumps traveled about a foot longer than normal. It was awesome! (even if it wasn't quite fair). I also skated at South Lake Tahoe the day before and had a pretty good skate. Landed everything and did a nice spin.

Pull the plug: I skated at Dublin on my way home from Tahoe today. It was my 3rd skate in 3 days and I could barely stand up. My toeloops are getting worse and worse. Why can't progress be sustainable in this frustrating sport?

Show time: I should be healed in time to skate tomorrow-muscle aches are not as bad, I didn't take anything stronger than Tylenol yesterday and did a lot of stretching and some ice. Bruises are so pretty!!! LOL!

Pulling the plug: It doesn't look good as far as figure skating in the evenings, grrrr! there have been NO freestyle sessions added so if you are IN SCHOOL or WORK you cannot skate if you can't get there by 3pm. I don't believe this is a good "compromise" for "more" that we were promised. All the good evening ice time is full of hockey, either Learn-to-Play or hockey game/practice. UGH!

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

Any fly spin will count. It has to FLY. If they have to ask what it is, Fail.

Must let eveyone know that I just started working the FUsp, so I'm sure it isn't all that great.

__________________
"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