Thread title in honour of the British Championships which started today!

Gold Medal: Husband and I managed to skate round the rink in closer hold than we have ever done before! We were way pleased, especially as it really does seem to make everything easier (as we had been told it would), and improved the quality of our edges. We did one lap of chassés, which were "normal" (we change sides at the end so that it is one side of me going backwards, then one side of him), then a lap of swing rolls which were really close - so, of course, we had to do another lap of chassés to get them really close, too! Whether we can transfer this to the Swing Dance yet remains to be seen - we didn't have time to try. We also did a lap of just plain vanilla outside edges in Reverse Kilian hold, again, closer than usual.

Oh, and our spin worked!

Old Boot: Which is more than can be said for my back cross-cuts! Grrrrr... but I have realised why I can do them in my lesson and not in practice - my coach is following me around the rink in my lesson, so I must be using his body to focus on and keep mine in the right place! Hmmmm, I'll have to make him stand to one side next lesson, see if that makes a difference.

Next question - why doesn't our spin work in our lessons?

No lessons this week - he's busy putting our Primary Lady on the ice, probably as I write this.....

The dancers don't leave until after patch tomorrow - the atmosphere today was seriously tense, heaven knows what it will be like tomorrow!

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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!

Gold Medal:

Had a lovely time doing the Swing dance with my coach. Haven't skated dance for ages and rarely with a partner so I'd forgotten how much fun it was - and how scary skating that close. He expects his pupils to cope with his 'ex-Olympian' edges and I'm pleased to say that I very nearly managed it - just a slight problem with the RFO swing.

Landed some easy loop jumps (i.e they felt easy - which they dont normally) and also a couple of flips which surprised me as I haven't landed one properly before. Even the 3 jump /loop jump combo had a bit more speed going into it.

Old Boot
And the bad news is:
my coach is ...............leaving

I've known for a while but havent been able to tell anyone til it was official and I am devastated. I can't imagine skating with anyone else - he really has been an ideal Adult coach by taking it seriously but making sure it's always fun too. He's also been my kid's coach ever since they started 6 years ago. My daughter will probably move to her secondary coach but my son will give up altogether, since this coach is one of the reasons he has stuck with skating this long.

I dont even want to think about moving to a new coach..............

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

Gold Medal: Hubby says he is wants to sign up for private dance classes-damn the cost!!! MAJOR VICTORY!! Guess that lap of chasses and swing rolls in kilian won him over (he really like that)! He did very well skating that close! We will probably pick them up in January or so.

Old boot: no skating today as I'm too tired and I've gotta work on costumes (still...my list keeps growing).

Of course, if we take ice dance, that means I'll be skating even more than ever....but then so will he!!!! Maybe I'll finally start to remember those dang steps to the canasta tango

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

AWWWW!!! Batikat!!! I know what you're thinking too... It's already bad enough when I have to leave my secondary coaches b/c of my job changes in the past. And I am thankful my primary coach is still with me after all these SIX years! (And I *think* I have taken care of the rotating secondary coach problem by getting one at my home rink too. Also makes life easier for my two coaches to poke fun... ummm, "have discussions" about my (lack of) crossovers!!! )

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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!!!

((batikat)) I'm very sorry to hear about you losing your coach! Is there anyone else around who you might want to work with?

I'd be devastated if my primary coach moved, although I have a back up coach it would mean driving out of town several times to another club. Batikat, I'm sorry and don't know what to say.

Gold Medal and Old Boot:

Dance Boy gave me a compliment on my flow today, normally lessons with the partner is a stream of (polite) criticisms so this was a change. I think I'm being buttered up because I'm testing soon. Which leads me to this rhetorical question "why is the stupid RFO edge in the Willow Waltz so darned annoying?". This is the step of the moment that is driving me nuts. Timing, it's all about timing, aaargh!

I'm sorry to hear about your coaching situation, batikat. I hope everything works out for you and your kids.

Gold Medal: Well, the good news is that my LFO power 3's are now in good shape - my free leg no longer hangs. I also had some success with the salchow and loop last night, although I know my loop jump definitely needs more height. Between 2 FS sessions, I went to an off-ice jumping class the rink is now offering - I know I better improve my jumps if I want to be competitive in Bronze, if I ever get there.

I got a lot of work done in both sessions, b/c neither was especially crowded. I was able to get several moves run-throughs in and also worked a bit on the 8-step. There was an adult skater there for the 2nd session who is testing Silver MIF this week, so I watched her run through the 8-step - wow, will I ever get that fast? Unfortunately, at one point when I wasn't watching, she took a spill (fortunately, it was one of those sliding-on-your-butt falls and not a face-forward-on-the-knee one) - I think it was the "click of death", which I imagine is a common occurrence with that move - eeek!


Old Boot: Unfortunately, my RFO power 3's still need work - instead of bringing my free foot to my skating leg, I'm bringing in my knee - an improvement from hanging out in space but the wrong body part - lol. And my alt BO edge glides have gotten a bit sloppy on the crossover part - I'm not extending enough on the first push and am rushing the crossover. Again, the motivation and focus problem, since I passed this move the first time - got to snap out of it and get in gear!

The trouble with no lessons and no immediate test or competition is that you end up standing around not doing anything - although, technically, I "skated" for two hours yesterday, I don't really think I had much exercise!

Gold Medal: Yesterday evening, in Figure Club, Husband and I choreographed the first three seconds of his free programme for next year, and the first five seconds of our free dance (assuming, that is, that NISA doesn't specify we mayn't have a combination spin in it, which they might since you aren't allowed them at O'dorf, nor yet at Primary level here. But they never said last year, so unless they actually say, we are doing our change-foot, because we can!).

Spin worked beautifully, both last night and again this morning (so why won't it work in our lessons????). Husband and I spent a long time this morning doing chassés in waltz hold with him going backwards and me going forwards, since there's something not quite right about it. He points out that I keep looking over his left shoulder on the LFO/RFI chassé, which is true, but if I don't, I can't get the edge, which I think is his shoulders, not mine.... don't know.... we'll have to get the coach to check when he gets back.

After he'd gone, I had nearly two hours of nearly empty ice (we saw the dancers off to the British with great cheers and waves and cries of "Good luck" and "Skate Great" at about 8.45), so decided I'd really do some hard work. So I did lap after lap of edges of various kinds, "Evil eights" round the circle, circles of chassé/closed chassé and chassé/slide chassé. To finish with, I did a seriously evil exercise that Jimmy Young gave us in his workshop, which was four cross-rolls followed by a cross-roll held into a circle.... repeated down the ice (hullo, DBNY!). I could sort-of do that, but when it came to four inside edges followed by an inside edge held into a circle, I kept doing an inside 3! Didn't have time to try them backwards.

Old Boot: So I'm tired and stiff now! And my cross-cuts still aren't working too well. Confirmed last night, and again this morning, that the presence of a warm body in front of me is still necessary to me, it seems to enable me to get my body position right. And I'm now wondering if that's why I turn so much better with a partner - or, indeed, when I'm close enough to the barrier to orient myself to it. Sheesh...

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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!

Hmm. Sounds romantic, too! I'm envious: my husband is quite happy toddling around the rink by himself v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. He learned enough to do a one-foot glide and said "That's it. I've learned enough." Good thing he has other redeeming qualities!

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Gold Medal
My daughter won silver in our club field moves competition last night out of a class of six. It was totally unexpected given the ability of her fellow competitors and also the fact that she was (and still is) unwell with a urinary tract infection.

I had a good skate myself this morning and the big achievement of the day was that I managed to run through my programme to the end for the first time in three months and landed all my jumps in it.

Old Boot
I may have got through my programme but my general skating was poor as the whole thing felt quite shaky. Also my level of fitness is still lower than usual so it made it that bit harder to get through the programme!

Nicki

I must be crazy... Secondary coach offers to teach loops this morning... and I asked to do BACK CROSSOVERS!!! Am I NUTS or what?!?!!? (Actually, my lower back was stiff this morning and I didn't want to take a chance at doing loops...)

Old Boot:
Had trouble initially trying to get my torso and head to turn. And unfortunately the video NEVER lies!!! She showed me a video of me doing back crossovers and I was NOT looking behind me. She had me hold a 2lb ball (the weight resistance balls you see at the gym) on the BACK hand and my job of the day is to look straight at that ball with my nose facing that ball... and to make it more interesting, I'm supposed to close one eye (forcing me to watch the ball with the other eye by having to turn my head.) My face looked really weird when I tried that...

But at the end....

Gold Medal!!!
I did a couple of good back crossover laps and a few fellow skaters and a coach did noticed I was looking behind me on my back crossovers!!!

Now we'll see if I keep it for tomorrow for my primary coach's lesson. (Ha HAH!!!!)

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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!!!

Not quite as romantic as it sounds-he has a "fear factor" thing going and I think he just wants someone (me) to hold on to....however, I have been known to let go if I feel shakiness on his part.

So, he has to learn to be a better skater, cause I'm bailin' if he's fallin'!!!!! (he out-weighs me by 80+ pounds)

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

I thought that I would get a reprieve from Bronze moves, since I'm not testing next week, but NOT!

Gold Medal:
Was on edges for the five step mohawk and had good power with back crossover to back extension.

Old Boot:
Coach nitpicked on my forward power crossovers... I kept changing edges on the step onto the inside edge in between crossovers.... too bad there's no COP involved in these tests!
Then she had me do, three, yes three patterns of the back power crossovers to get the weight shift right.
Then was told to bend the knee on the skating leg when coming out of the three turn on power threes. It made all the difference in the world in power, edge quality and a sore right knee and aching back!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

lol!

Jeepers, three patterns?! That's a lot! I've only ever done two in a row, and I'm pooped after it for a good part of the session! Let me guess, if you do an FS program, your coach makes you do laps of stroking afterward, too....

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

Yeap! One lap each forward and backward, followed by five waltz jumps.
That's the standard and it becomes five axels when you get the axel!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

gold medal:
started my chridtmas exibition program! its fun because I do it with my sister,axels were ok.and my coach was yellin at my sister not me! hehe

old boot:
dance coach was sick,didnt get a lesson

~Cutie

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Skating is suppose to be fun , no PRESSURE at all

~*Courage*~*Confidence*~*Consistance*~

Gold Medal
FI&O figures getting much more accurate. Did a few really nice jumps even though I have injuries. Axels are back (only just) with a terrifically horrible skid on the entries and very bad landings... but they were still axels and better than any other attempts/splats I have done in the last few weeks.

Old Boot
Have just started loops (figure type) with coach and they are unrecognisable as such. The mess of tracings I left on the ice did not look anything like what another skater had left down the other end of the ice I can get the loop bit... sort of, but certainly can't get the exit. Worst thing at the moment is that too many injuries are affecting my skating... I could stop skating, running, cycling and gym for a while I guess - on second thoughts, nah!

Thought for the week:
It's important for the healing process to ice your injuries after training......
You know you have too many injuries when you don't have enough ice packs in the freezer to cover all the injuries at once!!

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Mark Twain

Well done, both of you!

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

Well done Nicki and daughter!!

Thanks very much to both of you

Nicki & daughter: Well done!!
Batikat: Sorry to hear about your coach

This is for last night's coaching session:
Old boot: skated with bronchitis/pneumonia (yes, the drama continues) so I had to stop and gasp for breaths.....not a pretty sight....So, to pace ourselves we worked on the Waltz 8....not a pretty sight...not waltzy and there were no 8 counts anywhere to be seen!

We ran through bits of my program and changed a few things and I messed up on the toe-loop (I hate that jump) then she made me take my gloves off and skate with "Barbie" hands because my fingers were spreading out ; then we worked on the loop, which we realized I was afraid of falling on (Dr. psychiatrist coach saw me lean OUT of it instead of getting onto the edge....darn! I really do want that jump but I don't want to fall-guess I can't have it both ways!)

Gold Medal: Coach likes the height I'm getting on my salchow and she likes the consistency of my spins (finally!) and, contrary to the opinions of some people (like snotty daughters), she thinks my mohawk is fine in the program.

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

Old Boot:

My 3 days per week are currently Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, due to rink ice time changes. It's only for about a month, but I do wish it was spread out just a bit more. Oh well, better than going down to 2 days per week, so I can't complain too much.

I had a nasty case of lutzitis on Tuesday. Inconsistent when working with coach and completely blew both lutzes in the program run through.Combo? Fuggedabdit...... Just not good at all. I think it's mental.

Gold Medal:

At least I'm getting through my program with regularity. I'm not ready to collapse at the end and I complete most of my elements. It's still slow and clunky, but I feel good overall about where I am two months before competition.

My backward perimeter crossover pattern is improving. I'm getting on the right edges easier now and the pattern is tightening up.

I think I *detected* progress on Power 3's, but I'm not sure yet. More details next week.

Actually you don't want any 8-counts on this... The waltz-8 is done in three (-- or six) counts, hence the "waltz" part of the name. The "8" is for the pattern left on the ice.

Stroke forward 1-2-3
3-Turn on 1, then hold 2-3
Change feet (but still going backwards) on 1, then hold 2-3
Rotate forward on 1, then hold 2-3
Step forward on 1, hold 2-3-4-5-6

To get the rhythm right before I tested my coach actually had me do these to (slow) waltz music so I didn't rush the 3-turn or the rotation at the top of the circle. It made the test seem soooo much easier when I could use any tempo I wanted to!

Old Boot

It's the second time in the row when I drive 30 min to the rink only to find that there's no ice! And by the looks of it I'm going to have my Novice Field Moves test on the 12th. If it goes on like this, I swear, I'll start going to public sessions at Christmas open rinks - at least those won't close for a wrestling event or a hockey match!

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My other car is a Zamboni

Thanks for the tips! I was actually trying to be funny....guess I should leave humor to the professionals!

Did good on the 3-turn (once we determined that I needed to aim more out), however, I was getting messed up after that

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