Sunny: Awesome lutz many times over. Even coach number two said it was quite nice. Flip had great height but I was starting to overrotate it which let me fall out of it a few times

Worked on the AXEL. We did LOTS of prep for it and I scared myself silly doing that. We only tried a couple of axels and they weren't much to write home about. I just cant get the rotation faster. Coach says lots of prep work, over and over and over

Soaking: Wore dress shoes to work today and the poor feet hurt so bad. Couldn't spin because said feet were killing. Bad move!!!!

Sunny:
Told secondary coach of my intentions to test in July. That coach seems pleased with my decision. The forms are filled out. My primary coach will put me out for the session. My secondary coach will watch very closely though.

Soaking:
The first two moves!!! I couldn't concentrate b/c of the lack of sleep I got last night and I couldn't get it the way that she wanted. Plus I reverted back to a bad habit of not looking behind me when I do back crossovers. ( me!!!) And I almost had a major collision full speed with a skating buddy of mine too!!! EEEEK!!!

Alt. Forward Crossovers: She wants me to do closer to forward progressives, but she would "compromise" and let me do it by keeping the foot low.

Alt. Back Crossovers: She wants more curve doing the BI edges to the next set of back crossovers... AND she wants me to hold that BI edge LONGER. Couldn't do it with her putting cones as an obstacle course! (Guess I'm not doing it so well, huh?)

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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!!!

Soaking - Thought yesterday was Thursday for most of the day, and almost forgot about our private adult ice.
Sunny - worked on jumping the double sal like it's a three turn then axel, so when I start working on the axel again it will feel somewhat familiar. I was working on it in the harness last year, and throw double axels...next try it on my own. If I do freestyle again, it would be nice to have an axel, as I can't put the doubles in the program at silver.
Any news from the governing council?

I heard from elsewhere that the proposal for splitting the senior test into "senior" and "elite senior" did not pass the Board of Directors and will not get presented to the entire Governing Council.

I skated today. I don't want to put the "soaking" things, because I want to cheer myself up, so here's what was sunny:

Jumps! I practiced waltz jumps, toe loops and salchows. All three were consistent - after the first few, I was landing pretty much every single one. All three felt BIGGER and HIGHER. I started playing around with combinations and sequences - I did waltz-toe, salchow-toe, toe-toe, toe-salchow (stepping from landing into entry for salchow), waltz-toe-salchow-toe, waltz-waltz-salchow-toe, toe-salchow-toe, etc! They all came off too. It was so much fun. (If you'd told me a couple of weeks ago that I'd describe doing long jump sequences as fun, I'd have thought you were mad.) The rotation was easier to control than it had been when I tried some sequences AGES ago, too. I just couldnt' believe how consistent they seem to be now, after recently they've been so dodgy and inconsistent, really. Maybe I've really got the hang of it now. If this keeps up, I can't wait to show my freestyle coach when she gets back.

My stroking also felt very nice indeed for the most part (especially crossovers and runs, which were looooovely), I could still do the three turn field move sequence I practiced last time, and I did a few very nice LFO spirals.

There were obviously a few not-so-great bits too, but... I don't care.

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

Sunny: I skated 2 full hours, the last 25 minutes as the only skater on the ice. I think I made up for the Blizzard I had on Tuesday.
We spent a lot of time on spins today. My coach had me bring one of my husband's hockey sticks to keep my arms level and to work on keeping them apart and the right following the left on spin entry. It felt weird, but seemed to help me get the right idea. I even did a one foot that had 3+ rotations, speed, and it was centered! She was most pleased--so was I. After she left, I worked on jumps and both my programs, since I have 2 more competetions coming up in June.

Soaking: Today--absolutely nothing...well, all that time spent on spins. I can think of much more fun things to do on the ice.

Wednesday night I went up to Tashakat's former rink, as we tend to on the first Wednesday of each month. There was a group lesson, which was either the Blues or the Rhythm Blues - under normal circumstances Robert and I would have chosen to work on the Blues, but as we have the Mountain Cup LOOMING, we decided to do the Rhythm Blues class in the hopes of getting some tips. This may have been a mistake, as the class was very much aimed at beginners; however, we were called upon to demonstrate, which was fun. And the coach did help me with the trouble I have with the transition between the end of the promenade and the two inside swing rolls - I find it really hard to maintain full extension and not bend forward. She said to keep my right elbow forward, which will bring my right shoulder forward and help me stay on the line - which it does!

There were a few minutes at the end of the lesson so she started teaching the class the Riverside Rhumba - again, a dance I know well, but she did clarify exactly what one is supposed to do on those ruddy rondés.

The class was followed by social dancing, which is always good fun: an opportunity to practice competitive dances with one's spouse, and play with other dances with other partners, or solo, or even with one's long-suffering spouse.... His "other woman" was also there, plus several other women he seriously enjoys dancing with, so he was in the seventh heaven! Well, why not.....

Last night was Dance Club night at our normal rink, ditto and likewise, except that we have a learn-to-dance class during club ice, and until it finished, there were 3 women and 3 men, and only one of them women (not me) was capable of anything much more difficult than a Swing Dance. So she was much in demand!

I am not sure whether this comes under the heading of sunny or soaking, or just possibly both, but I have come off the ice these past two days really stiff, feeling the exercise I've taken in the tendons in my inner thighs, and at the back of my knees. I think it's good, because it means I'm pushing harder and making that much more effort (on the other hand, I need longer recovery, so I could live without it!). I suppose in an ideal world one should always feel a bit stiff after a practice.....

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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!

Sunny: Coach very happy with Paso cross-rolls in lesson today... we weren't doing them to music, but probably pretty dang close to the correct tempo. Worked on the swing mohawk... I DID It. Early. Twice. But I did it. And then we did almost a whole pattern (I chickened on the mohawk the 2nd time).

Blues... worked on the flare into the choctaw through to the repeat. Choctaw is getting better. Squeaked out the LFO3 into the intro twice. Once was really easy, the second time was a bit wonky but I was bound and determined to do it.

A new discovery last week or Monday... can't remember which. Coach was having me do CCW forward progressives, and he made the correction for me to Lead strongly with the left hip. Boy what a difference. Just leading strongly with the left hip through the CCW forward progressives made them SO much easier and made my posture so much better. So I've been applying that principle to other things... Like my cross-rolls and my Blues choctaw... and my LFO3s.

Soaking: Too many kids of too many levels on the ice. All the way from "can't stop, don't know where to go" to Junior Dance and Junior FS.

Sunny - Toe loop! I landed several of them OFF the wall for the first time. All the off ice practicing paid off. Scratch spin was also very good, along with back crossovers. Felt like I was flying along the ice.

Soaking - Loop jumps and salchows. Could NOT land either of them. I'm going to practice off ice tonight and see if that helps. Also sit spins. It looks so easy when the little kids do it. Why can't I???

I'm going to the figure skating club tomorrow morning, to see if I want to join. We'll see how that goes, I think part of it is ice dance.

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

Cara, Salchows etc, are not as easy as they look! Although I have a feeling sit-spins are easier than you might think, but wait until your coach shows you how to do them properly. And if part of your club ice time is dance - go for it. At your level, you really need both disciplines, as you will learn far faster if you do both, and become a more fully-rounded skater, than if you just do free skating. Time enough to specialise when you are approaching the elite levels of skating!

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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!

Sunny: Flips are poppin all over the place. One of the coaches in our club even commented that I did a really nice one. I feel more secure in my landings and am even pointing my toes and keeping my head up.

Am pushing a lot more than before. I used to almost walk through a lot of things but now I am concentrating on pushing through my cross cuts and getting down in the ice.

Am learning not to be in a rush so much. Everything is so much better when you hold and count and don't rush it. It's still tough but I'm trying not to be in such a hurry.

Had a really fun time at the rink joking with my coaches and the others.

Soaking: Reworking the salchow is hard work. We basically worked on that my entire lesson. I can't seem to get it right. I learned it wrong when I was a kid and never fixed it. After coming back 10 years later I have the old way engrained in my head. But as my coach says its better I struggle with it now and can't do it rather than go back to my old way and never be able to do a double.

No group lesson today. The rink had something planned, then it didn't go as scheduled, but the gap was already scheduled in. Oh well, I went at the ususal time and had plenty of space on the ice for about 45 minutes, then was invaded by a half dozen Wayne Gretzkey wannabes. Not much fun.

Sunny: Nearly 45 minutes of public ice with only a few kids that stayed pretty much together, so I was able to avoid them. I went through my entire warm up with out problem, then started working on my programs. This is the only time I had problems with kids getting in my way. I was able to run through my compulsary a couple of times, clean except for the spin at the end. I worked on scratch spin after that, and am getting the hang of it, but it will be a while before I actually do one. Jumps went well, once I found them--I didn't spend much time on them today.

Soaking: WG wannabes. And the scratch spin. And spins in general. Even though I feel like they are getting better, until I learn to not drop my leading arm, I will continue to struggle and not succeed.

On to Tuesday--Free style ice--no hockey players!

Sunny - Coach said there was a good chance we could get a homeschool number together for the show in June. It would be me (Basic 4/5), my cousin (Basic 4/5), a friend (Basic 6/7), my other cousin (Basic 2/3), and my sister (Basic 2/3). Now I just have to talk to my cousins and the other coach to see if we can do it.

Soaking - I was at the Figure Skating Club today to try it out. We did ice dance, figure 8s and a routine for the show. I had no clue what most of the other skaters were doing so I just followed as best as I could. Coach said I did great, but I felt like I had no idea what to do. I understood the figure 8s but that was about it.
Also found out from my coach that one of my skating friends fractured her ankle playing outside! I wondered why she wasn't at skating Wednesday or Friday, now I know. I can't find her phone number or I would call her. This means she won't be able to be in the show or skate for a month or more.

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Working on:
NOVICE! MIF
Juvenile FS
Bronze Dances

Not where I was either. I've just got back from Moscow of all places and having gone prepared for the worst, the weather was just gorgeous, blue skies and temperatures in the twenties the whole time!

What is soaking though is that I now havent been on the ice for 10 days and the mountain cup is only two weeks away. I also have yet to explain to my boss that I'm about to disappear off on another foreign jaunt!

Are you going to Tallinn, too? Or just the MC, like we are? This time next week I shall only have one more day at work to go..... can't WAIT!

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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!

Just the MC, I'm not doing the camp though, I fly into Lyon on the Wednesday, but I don't actually skate until Saturday and Sunday. I found out yesterday on my return from Russia that my class has been combined with the age group above which means I am going to be skating against a certain Lithuanian who is rather good!

John