Rockin: Loops! My coach said he would have given me 7.5 out of 8 on them. Back inside are the best, then forward outside, forward inside are getting better and better, and back outside are at least actually making a loop shape, even if it IS fairly large and uncontrolled.

Flying choctaws are also improving.

Reekin:
-Right forward outside spiral is hideous.
-Multi-turns have regressed. Every time I think they are getting better, I start to chicken out on some of the turns. It's very frustrating.
-Choreographers are hogging the sound system. The skills session is only half an hour long to begin with, and there is hardly time to get any skills music played.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Skatingatty--I grew up in Fairfax and Fairfax Ice Arena was the only rink I had ever skated at (the few times I was a kid, at birthday parties and the like). When I was in high school, I took a friend and her foster sister there, and the foster sister wound up accidentally cutting her off. My friend stopped so suddenly she fell and broke her ankle. It was her first and last time on ice.

I went back a while ago and I was surprised at how small the rink seemed. In my memory, it was a huge rink and took forever to get around since I didn't really know how to skate when I was little!

Did you live in VA for a long time?

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Rocking--
Had a great skate on Thursday--lesson, practice, and edge class. I always drive home with an endorphin high....

During lesson, my coach and I were working on alternating three turns. (Which I've been working at for quite a while.) On the spur of the moment, she had another coach take a look and give me some pointers. He's a very very good teacher and I felt very honored that he would take time out and help me.

Reeking--
While on lunch break from jury duty today, I somehow fell on the sidewalk. It happened so fast I don't know what it was. I think I must have caught my foot on a curb or something--and BAM, right on my knee and hands, as if I had dug a toe pick in to the ice! Luckily, a nearby ice cream parlor provided a baggie of ice and a band-aid for my bleeding knee. I had a nice mocha freeze while icing my knee. It doesn't even hurt anymore--I'm very glad I was able to ice immediately. (And get this--the band-aids were LATEX-FREE. Very conscientious of them to think of that. It's the first time I've seen latex-free band-aids)

Didn't post last week as I was suffering post-competition blues. I skated, but it felt like I couldn't do anything at all. Strange really as I did quite well in the competitions (I entered 5 events and won 3 medals!) and totally enjoyed it but I still couldnt skate for toffee the next week. Did manage to rechoreograph my OD programme into a Free dance though in preparation for the British Adult Championships in October.

This week was better and since there's no immediate competition coming up I'm spending a bit of time trying to work on improving my basics and adding a few new skills that I really, really want to add to my programmes.

The main things I've been working on have been twizzles and double 3 turns. I've got inside twizzles in my programme but I'm not that good at them. To make them seem easier coach decided I should learn outside twizzles. My main problem is finding the right spot on the blade and keeping from falling forward on to the toepick particularly on the left outside twizzle. I am not known for my control in skating so this is very hard for me.

To help this he decided I needed to practice double 3's. I have tried these before but not with any degree of success. This time I used one of the hockey lines and tried to do FO - BI starting from and returning to the line under control. Lots of concentration and and knee action meant that I was beginning to succeed (yay!) and also found the outside twizzles much easier afterwards. These are going on my 'regular practice ' list to do each time I skate.

Hopefully the control needed for those will also help me with my loop - I still have trouble holding a RBO edge particularly with the free leg in front which is of course essential for the Loop and pretty important for all other jumps too.

so rockin' was - learning the outside twizzles and start of success on double 3's. Sit-spin improved. Also discovered I can do a back lunge - I'd only gone into these from a forward lunge, then doing a LFI 3 in lunge position before. Now I can go straight down into back lunge.

reekin' - Loop as per usual and backspin

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'skating is not just a sport - it is an obsession'

Hey! It's been forever since I've posted here!

For the most part, things are improving. I'm sitting back farther on my blades and really forcing myself onto my BO edges on my back crossovers. I'm also getting my feet closer together when they cross. Finally. It's somewhat scary getting that far back on my blades, but I'm doing better.

My FO3s are FINALLY working. I still end up on a BI edge that is too deep, but now I'm actually turning all around and not dropping my free foot back on the ice at all on the left side and I'm only dropping it on the right side AFTER the turn, not during the turn any more. On to FI3s!!!!

I never dreamed that cleaning this stuff up would be so hard. Or that I passed out of these levels with such lousy basics.

I also started working on a one-foot spin two weeks ago. I can get 2 to 2 1/2 revolutions on a good attempt. It's fun and I like working on it -- it makes a good break from my back edges.

Synchro is going pretty well. We just readjusted our line-up to correct one issue and it's making our footwork circle a complete mess. I think it will be OK soon, but it's a disaster right now. I don't think it's a matter of people's feet, but of their shoulders and arm placement. We'll get it, I'm sure, but I think we'd all be more comfortable if we'd get it next week.

Fun lesson practice this week. My 12 year old niece has lessons with my coach as well so when she has her lesson, I practice. Nothing like being put in your place by a 12 year old!!

I am working on my prelim moves still: The crossovers in a figure eight pattern is actually pretty good now. My coach is impressed by how quiet they are now compared with the awful stratching I did before. Also my atlernating outside 3's are looking respectable. All-in-all, not a bad session.

Then the niece proceeds to have an hour and half lesson...first moves, which for her is her pre-juvs. Freestyle, she just about has all her single jumps....working hard on the axel. Though she skates circles around me, she doesn't mind me being out on the ice with her...yet she doesn't like her parents watching her from the stands.....guess I am lucky.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Rockin: Was lucky enough to hit the ice twice today! And my coach also had time for a second lesson. Made some more improvements on my loops and brackets. Also improved the flying choctaws and my power threes are really strong.

Reekin: Still too tentative on multi-turns. I need to be aggressive and shift my weight between turns more quickly. It's just a matter of not chickening out!

Rockin: Coach asked if I wanted to start learning the sr. silver patterns...guess that means he thinks I will be fine on test day with the jr. silvers! I said no, because I really want to do well on the jr. silvers. I want to be totally confident, and definitely don't want to test them twice! Still have two weeks left to perfect them.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Reekin: I failed my silver moves test. Boo hiss. And my coach was less than thrilled with some of my technique.

Rockin: I did have some good comments on the test, and I actually skated a bit better than I expected I would. This was my first moves test ever, and I came pretty close to passing (it was those darn back inside 3-turns ). I still think some of the judges were grading my performance on the standard--not adult--track.

Reekin: But I've got to pass silver moves and silver FS test before Jan. 15 so I can go to adult nationals.

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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.

Rockin':

• The blade alignment is better. Still a bit off on the right foot, but it's better.
• I can finally bend the new boots well enough to do a sit spin now!!!
• The rest of my Bronze moves are better.
• I'm happy to say that my forward power 3's are better. Not passing standard, but better. It's now a bit faster, and the intro 3's are coming more often.

Reekin'

• Still, I have about 3 weeks to get my act together. The forward power 3's are still not fast enough for my secondary coach, who wants the entire pattern completed closer to 30 seconds!!! (And the last time she timed me, it was 58 seconds.) (I'll work towards 45 seconds for this week. It should at least calm her down a bit.) Also, she wants speed and consistency on the intro-3's too!!! *sigh* More work to do!
• 5 step mohawks regressed b/c of the change in boots, but it is better today. Still want more speed going into it though.
• Scratch spin is non-existent b/c of the blade alignment problem, but I can wait on fixing this 'til after the Bronze Moves test is done.

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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!!!

Outside twizzles are evil, if you ask me! I can do them one way, but the other way I go all over the place and nearly fall over. Inside twizzles are coming along now, though. But when I twirl under Robert's arm in our free dance, I'm still not sure what footwork to do. I'm thinking a RFO twizzle (the one I can do!) followed by a LFI one, but I'm not sure. I might cheat and do the "easier" twizzles from the Rhumba Royale, if I can remember how to do them.

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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!

Mika - hope you're better. You could put a container of your home made sorbet on yur knee (but not the one you gave me - too yummy!)

Irina Chilova is my coach. I go to fairfax ice arena. She is going to coach me to the next olympics. I'm so exsided. And she just had her baby!!

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Hottie

I'm going to close this thread because it's really old and might confuse people trying to post their latest skating endeavors.

The lessons/practices thread for March 13 - 29, 2006 is here.

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