Lump of coal: Working Monday and Tuesday, which means no skating for me those days...

Diamond in the rough: I'm only coaching Wednesday and Thursday this week, which will leave plenty of time for my personal skating!

Lump of Coal

I haven't skated (no ice available) since last Sunday and I don't have a lot of energy Sunday night so I didn't feel like doing anything and I felt like I couldn't do anything.

Watched a couple of adult beginners do a one foot entry into a spin and felt like doofus cuz I can't get it.

Diamond in the Rough Things got a little better in my LTS Freestyle 1 class. I got so I could do backward two foot turns and I practiced setting up on an edge to prepare for the 3 turn. I'm just not going to think about the fact that I used to be able to do a back 3 turn!

Tried the spin entry from a T position. Coach said I was very close- I had a good edge, good position, just lean into it more and trust it. I actually did it once - of course she didn't see it but I showed her the tracings of my centered spin. But I think it was an accident that I got it. THere was no "ah ha!" moment.

Waltz jump. This was a sort of "ah ha" in that I finally was able to jump up for the waltz instead of whipping around. And it wasn't hard and it didn't feel scary.

I'm going to just have to be prepared for slow progress. I just could not afford to buy a lot of ice this summer and if I don't skate as much, I'm not going to progress as much and I just have to accept it.

j

Lump of Coal:

• Loop
• FO mohawks
• AUNTIE'S early arrival right after the session!!! It's not gonna be fun tonight! (Chocolate and lots of rest tonight!!!)

Diamond:
Everything else!!! WOW!!! I got a lot done today!!! BO3's were okay... Camels were spinning well. Back sit was sitting low enough to be "recognizable now." Flips were there! All the other jumps were there! My footwork was pretty decent!!!

Congrats to miraclegro on passing her Silver FS test!!!

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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!!!

I posted yesterday's practice/lesson under last week's thread, but I remembered that I forgot to say that Husband landed a salchow/loop combination in his programme run-through, much to his coach's surprise ("Where did that come from? He couldn't do that last week!"). So that was definitely a diamond, and he may even put it in on Thursday.

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

Almost done with my new skating dress! Only the arms are left to do (well and I need to take out a little piece from the back, but I always have with standard patterns) and to put the pants in it.
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/5585/11048224kt0.jpg

I made it out of an XXL sized skirt I bought at the market for 5 euro (6 dollar or so). What woman in her right mind with an XXL sized behind would put on sparkling skintight lycra? My point exactly, yet I'm happy enough, the material alone would've cost more. I was a *little* short for the skirt, I would've liked a circle skirt of course, but it's become this shape: /____\

Hmmm yeah I took one naproxen, one no-spa and one saridon all toghether, thrice a day, this weekend...

Wow, it looks pretty good!!

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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Try not to think of the entry as a 3-turn. Think of hooking the ice and swinging your leg around this hook synchro with the arm at that side and other than that to keep the shoulders rock hard in place (your upper body moves as one way down to your hips) and think about pulling - excuse me - the region between your bellybutton and your "hair" into the back of your spine, into your tailbone - whine tightening the bellymuscles.
That all really clicked with me last week in Heerenveen.
Also, get a deep kneebend. You can't get it off a straight leg.

Thanks Chow!




(edit: nevermind)

Diamond in the Rough:
Got another one of those phone calls from work this morning- I need to call in at 10 and will probably have to go in. But did go to the rink and skated for a hour.
Worked on spins and silver moves for the most part. Did do one good low, centered sitspin.


Lump of Coal:
Now why can I center the sit and not the forward scratch?
Ice was very hard, as it was cut last night.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

lumpy - I've been off ice for 3 weeks. I got all geared up for the ISI competition here, then needed a break. Today was my first lesson with summer coach. He's going after my form on 3-turns. Boring, but essential. I paid attention, took notes right after lesson so I can remind myself what I'm supposed to be practicing this week. I can't remember my own name at 5am if it's not written down!

diamonds - it felt sooooo good to be in the rink this morning. I love that cool skating breeze when it's beastly hot out.

I actually never did think of it as a 3 turn This is one of those moves that I know exactly what I am supposed to do but my body doesn't cooperate. It doesn't trust that the edge will get me round so I pull up too soon and try to force the spin. My coach keeps telling me that the fact I know in my head what to do is more than half the battle, but I'm dubious. Although it is more encouraging than say, a salchow where my head is as clueless as my body.

j

Hey Sessy I can't seem to get your image working!


Diamond:
Ok well coach likes what I did to the double toe after she asked me to focus on the turn out during the take off. but unfortunately didnt land any infront of her... so she can't check if they are full for me... still I guess... progress???

Double loop is still in the sort of ok mode, aka mostly under but seemingly "right" set up... now if only I can do the "lite" entry more consistently so that I don't freak out when I try and bend my knees a bit more before the jump to get more height for double...

Worked on spirals... realized I can do the first part of the shizuka spiral seq without hands at all... ahhaahh except it'd fail the 170? degree req for a split... still fun... and then we worked on spiral with 3 turn without coming out of it... its really really wierd... and I got a bruise from it

Change edge back sit is still more or less okish.... gotta keep working on it

empty empty empty rink at the end... went through almost every single edge practise thingy I could think of...including the hydroblading stuff??(which I seem to be able to sort of do on every edge EXCEPT my left forward inside edge... wow.. thats so random I don't understand why that would be my worst edge... but it happens to be... I can't even hold it for like 1 metre before it wriggles and changes) not sure if my version is a true one but its best done with fewer people on the ice given that i get low, i can't see anyone and I cover quite a bit of ice doing it....

oh and I sort of have a ina bauer that goes to the left now!!! :O:O:O it just worked out after coach went through with me that like two weeks or more back? I dunno and suddenly today it sorta works... its crazy... it feels.... wierd... but I am still scratching the ice quite a bit when i lose the turnout after a while, maybe thats why it feels wierd... need more expeirmentation.... well the one going to the right is still a struggle...

Lumpy:
I still feel like i skate with zero power... sigh...

i fell all over the place on the spiral and double jumps and have bruises on my knee on both legs!!!!! at least they aren't huge... but well right now I have both legs on the table and icing them at the same time lol....

My right skating leg beilmann is horrible... coach asked me to try a back beilmann spin and I couldn't even catch properly... lol... something to work on off ice.

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Tidesong

Strange. Does this work?



BTW just came back from the hospital 2 hours ago: no fractures.

Diamonds: Had a good time at our social ice-dance session yesterday and skated with almost every guy at the session, including one of the young (intermediate-level) competitive ice-dancers! Still can't do most of the dances solo but was able to work on pieces and socialize, so that was fun. We have these great social sessions - almost equal numbers of "kids" and adults and the session are semi-serious and semi-fun -- it's really great to see the "kids" out there dancing with each other, dancing with adults, following each other on dances they are learning, doing the lower-level dances in groups of 3 or 4 and generally just having a good time.

Who would have ever guessed that dance would be so popular among the young people in our small city especially where we don't have any high-level teams (at least among the standard testers - the adults are another story altogether!). It's neat to see.

The ice was also nice, which is kind of unusual for this (mall) rink!

Lump of Coal: My right foot (the broken one) felt pretty good, but now my right hip, which acts up on occassion, really really hurt doing a RO 3 as in the Willow Waltz - yikes! I would kind of launch into it and then yikes - oh, another bad body part!!

More lumps but I can make them into diamonds: My regular weekday hockey rink is having "hockey camp" this week and so no public sessions in the mornings (sigh) BUT I may plan to skate at least one day at a nice adult session at another rink (which has great ice!) and also I'm going to do kind of a "yoga intensive" this week by going to the yoga studio a couple of mornings when I would usually skate and do a drop-in class. REally felt good this morning and I plan to go again tomorrow and I hope Wednesday.

Nice weather also makes the whole thing seem like diamonds...

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Is Portland the only city with it's own ice-dance website? http://www.pdxicedance.net/

Lump of Coal! Twelve days down, eight more days before the start of summer school and I am GOING NUTS! Gotta feed this addiction SOON!!!

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

Diamond in the Rough: Had lesson for the first time in ages it seems. Worked on moves for the first half hour and then worked on the axel. Or waltz-backspin to be precise. My coach says I almost have it, and I'm not even trying. I haven't technically tried attempting an axel yet, so I'm not really working on it.. but whatever. She showed me what was off with my layback, and with my camel spins. And I did a couple really nice spirals.


Lump of Coal:
But the price from all that waltz-backspin-ing is irritating the blister on my heel more, and ahh it hurts so much.

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Sessy, wow that works!! That looks really great!!!

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Tidesong

diamonds:

salchow is strong and landing is good, and i *wuv* it!!! yay!
toeloop is still good.
I passed everything on the passport except the backspin (1 rotation... come on!) and the full program.
It looks like I'm competing in September despite having 2 lessons, a big break, and 3 more lessons before the comp... yay!

coal:

we tried sitspins with my friend and I cut by hand on my blade! lol.
loop is still underrotated. flip is also barely there.
backspin... how hard can it be?
scratch spin. I can't get my free leg in the scratch position. <- any advice?

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Uhm... I guess it depends on who you ask. For me, it's three years and counting. I can finally get 2 revolutions about half the time. And I REALLY like spinning (but only on my left foot apparently!)

Thank you

Diamonds: Managed to do both our compulsory dances with no warm-up whatsoever! Could have been a lot worse!

Coal: If we get through our couples' interpretive without stopping to argue, it will be a minor miracle! Still.... who cares? At least it's technically choreographed now.

I had a wonderful idea for next year's a few minutes ago, and can't now remember what it was!

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

Diamonds:
Got a surprise lesson with Primary Coach this morning,and was able to fall on sitspins for her-- she applauded every one!
Jumps were good too, as was forward and backscratch spins.

Lump of Coal:
Lost a bit of silver moves mojo- no worries this test is not first priority right now.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

diamonds: skated three days in row... and its not competition season!!! :O:O haha

landed tons of underrotated double toe loops and two suspects

quite a few under double loops...

had the most amazing axels in ages... i think at least 2 of them kinda flew... it kinda really totally came out of the blue given that I've been doing basically just those 5 axels per session, but i was just thinking to myself... what if I bend my knee just a lil into the jump... and then it kinda proceeded from there

hit yet another one amazing layback. I could feel my free leg high and I was leaning back and I could just feel that centeredness (although my centeredness usually isn't really that good it probably did loops around a spot ya)... its amazing I need to do that a bit more... i dunno why it likes coming only once per session but yeah maybe it will visit more often

coal:

I wish my jumps were progressing faster.... well other than that its a pretty decent session.

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Tidesong

Sessy - your dress is gorgeous!!!!

Diamonds - Coach likes me to be creative, so I suggested adding a falling leaf - half loop - back pivot sequence into my pre-bronze freestyle program. I'm pretty good at the half loop to back pivot, but had never done a falling leaf in front of it. It only took 2 tries, is fun, and coach said it's gorgeous!

Lumps - Lots and lots of skaters on the ice this morning, I'm spoiled - I'm not used to crowded ice! It will remain this way all week since hockey camp this week has cut the daily available freestyles down to 3, and testing takes place on Sunday. Oh well.....