Nothing to report ....... just fancied starting the thread in honour of the Royal Gala last week


[img:457fa7a6fb]http://sc.communities.msn.com/tn/4A/E1/IceSkatingforAdults/9/59.jpg[/img:457fa7a6fb]


L x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

This is for yesterday. My first skate with my new blades!!

[b:edbef3a7e0]Regal:[/b:edbef3a7e0]

Coach said waltz jump is good (good takeoff and good landing)

Salchow and toe loop ok (they happened) but hardly mesmerising

Forward spirals on both right and left foot Did a left one first (I'm a leftie), coach said it was good and my leg is apparently above my waist 8) He asked me to do one on my right foot too (I never practice right ones because they weren't very good), he said that one was good too which I was surprised (and happy) about! Leg above waist there too. Just have to remember to turn out foot/hip on the right one.

1 foot spin - not exactly regal, but I'm making progress, even though it's not much faster than an asthmatic ant with heavy shopping. Did one or two slightly better ones though. Will take a while to get used to the blades - they ahve more of a rocker than I'm used to, and also a different size/shape toe pick. However, I'm getting there...

Back cross rolls a little better

When we worked on the Swing Dance, was told it was better. The mohawk was better in it too (apart from one which was [i:edbef3a7e0]terrible[/i:edbef3a7e0]), but the backwards skating in it felt a bit stronger and smoother.

Pivots (especially FI) MUCH better

[b:edbef3a7e0]Rotten:[/b:edbef3a7e0]

Mohawks in group lesson were a bit gross! I have come to the conclusion that an inside mohawk is one of the most graceless moves in the world.

Loop still not happening, although the turn on the toe is a bit better.

On one 1 foot spin in lesson, went onto the wrong place on the blade (ie. the back ) and avoided falling but hurt my back in the process. Hmph.

Still having trouble with the "hook" on spins.

Back cross cuts not great.

Came off 20 minutes early (meaning I had a grand total of 35 minutes practice time this week) because I was really tired (not much sleep the night before), had zero motivation and my ankle bone was hurting.

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

Regal:
Forward Crossovers are coming along very good. I was told to bend my knees a bit more, but other from that i think they are ok.
Backward Crossovers were ok but same with these, i need to bend my legs alot more cos i have to stay down on the legs.
Three-jump is very very very good! yippee! I now have to do the proper entrance to it, the LFO 3-turn, then pull up skating backwards, step forward and then jump. i am very happy about this jump!

Rotten:
2-foot spin was not very good, i managed 1 and then it sort of went. it wasn't too bad but not very good. i have to get the weight onto the ball of my left foot! I am also learning a 2-foot spin into a 1-foot spin. i managed to do it once today and it was the first time ever trying it! i nearly made it around once but then stopped! d'oh!
mohawks - i have to do it froma forward inside edge to a backwards inside edge. first time i ever did it. it is quite hard! when i do it i have to make sure that my right foot is turning out.
ok, i am going to practice tomorrow morning and see how i do.

[color=brown:5cbf2682c8][b:5cbf2682c8]Rotten[/b:5cbf2682c8]: Well talk about a bad hair day - himself was having a bad skate day, I think. All his swing rolls were kicking footballs, no hip or shoulder movements [i:5cbf2682c8]at all[/i:5cbf2682c8] and in his private lesson he looked as though he was letting his coach haul him round in the Golden Skaters' Waltz, not partnering her round like he should! The only swing rolls he did that were decent (that I saw) were the rondés in the Riverside Rhumba - and they are meant to be rondés, not swing rolls.....

So in our couples lesson we were made to work on the Dutch Waltz, this time focussing on nothing but the pattern (which meant Sir forgot every single thing he had been told about extension, knee-bend, timing, bringing his feet together, and I don't know what else....). We managed, but even our last run-through to the music was pretty dire. The coach said it was okay, but it was horrendously slow, I thought.

But bad skate days happen to us all; hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Oh, and before we got off, I made him try to do two-footed slaloms in hold, which we will need for the Cha-cha when we get round to working on it. [i:5cbf2682c8]Not[/i:5cbf2682c8] a success![/color:5cbf2682c8]

[color=indigo:5cbf2682c8][b:5cbf2682c8]Regal:[/b:5cbf2682c8] (Imperial Purple, you see!) Not a great deal, really. I did a lap of swing rolls while waiting for himself to finish his lesson which weren't bad. The Dance Champions had judges in assessing them, which meant that we had to give way to them all the time, but also meant we got to see their dances in full for the first time, and they really are great! It's lovely watching them improving year by year.

I just hope tomorrow will be better.[/color:5cbf2682c8]

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

[b:5860187cc4]Regal[/b:5860187cc4]
I didn't skate today but went to watch my club's competitions, straight after a nightshift at 7.15am!

It was friendly, and quite informal.
My skating friends seemed more nervous than usual for some reason - maybe because they've not had a comp at their home rink for years!

I was sitting on the pop-up seats, and managed [i:5860187cc4]not[/i:5860187cc4] to fall on my butt as I did at the Gala!

It's given me a taste of what it would be like competing against my "friends" and I think I could handle that.
I'll have to wait till next year though........ :wink:

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

Regal: Well, the sit spin is alot better, the squats I have been doing (shoot the duck without the shoot) have really helped and I've been holding it a bit lower, though I still can't pull up into a scratch spin.
Scratch: slow but OK
Loop: Not bad, not bad at all. Pretty good flow overall, I know I'm in the right position.
Forward Crossovers: a little slow, but I'm using good posture.

Rotten: flip: didn't feel quite right today, I wasn't sure I was in the rotational position, so I laid of for today.
Camel: any advice? I'm quite bad at this spin. Where's Miss Indigo?

The lazy lazy college students who work at the MSU arena haven't even made up the schedule for the week of the 5th, (TOMORROW ), so I don't know how much ice I'll have. I like to go twice per week, so we'll have to see what happens. I'll have to look into club ice for the fall.

[quote:88cfaed11d="Hannahclear"]
Camel: any advice? I'm quite bad at this spin. Where's Miss Indigo?
[/quote:88cfaed11d]

Hey!

Let's see...first off, you must be sure you are stepping inside your circle on the entry. Then check for a deep knee bend on what will be the spinning leg. Once you can't hold that entry edge any longer, it's time to snap into the spin by straightening the knee and whipping back with the arm on the side of your spinning leg (left arm if you're CCW, right if you're CW). This is the real key to the spin, as it is during the whip where what was for simplicity's sake straight-line motion is translated into tight rotational motion. Tuck your abs in too--you become longer and narrower thus decreasing your moment of inertia about your rotating axis. Now I like to imagine that I'm an airplane that can rotate around each of my three axes. Be sure to keep your chin tipped up, as your head acts as the rudder that will control the pitch of your spin and counteract the natural tendency you'll have to tip forward once you lift your leg high (y-axis motion). At first, keep your arms out to the side and slightly back (birdlike, as you would when first learning a spiral) in order to control the roll of the spin (so you won't be falling to the outside or inside of your spin...x-axis motion). The spinning motion actually occurs around your z-axis, with control of your body around your other two axes determining the success of your spin.

One thing that makes this spin difficult to control is that you are no longer a narrow cylinder rod spinning about the z-axis...you turn more into a short, long rod spinning around the z-axis. The radii of two such shapes are very different. The cylinder's radius is short compared to the length of the rod. If I were to calculate my moment of inertia as a cylinder and the long rod, I would find my M of I as rod is 375 times that of me as a cylinder! This is indicative of more kinetic energy needed throughout the spin in order to keep its speed. Imagine the energy it would take to keep a camel as fast as a scratch! Oi!

Keep at it! You'll get it! Perhaps we could swap spins...my camel for your sit? :wink:

__________________
All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Regal:

Well, after I fell on my first toe loop attempt in practice yesterday (backward and hard!), I thought the day was going to be bad. But I landed it all the rest of the times I tried, and I can feel myself getting more height on it, and my arms feel more coordinated w/ the rest of my body. So good news to report there.

I think my scratch spin may be returning (I'm trying to careful not to jinx myself!) I even worked a little on the layback spin we're learning - now that's something to make you dizzy!

Waltz jump/toe loop combo is coming along.

I landed a half lutz, which we haven't learned yet, and I'm proud to report that I do not flutz! (After years of giving Tara L. and Sarah H. a hard time b/c of their flutzes, I better have the right technique!) I found it easier to make sure I was maintaing the BO edge when I did it on a circle.


Rotten:

I reverted to old habits/mental blocks with the salchow. But I rationalized by saying that the jump is a couple of levels above me, so no need to rush.

Sit spin is so frustrating. My problem is just getting my free leg to stay up - and I can do a shoot-the-duck, and the squats. Maybe it's just my general spin problems that are holding me back.

I still have problems w/leaning to far forward and scraping my toe pick when I know my turns, etc. should be smooth. Any tips?

The ice was terrible. I think it was too soft. In certain spots, my toe pick kept slipping out as I went in to my toe loop - that happened when I fell. In the lutz corner, you could see the huge chunks taken out by the people practicing lutzes. A couple of times, I felt my edges catching ruts/grooves and had to steady my balance - maybe it was the heat outside - about 95 degrees. We're finally supposed to cool down by the middle of this week, so maybe the ice at Wed. lessons will be better. Usually I like the ice a little soft, but this was scary.

[color=indigo:f16eafd0ef]Regal
Learned FO 3 turns for the first time on Saturday. They weren't very good and I just worked on them towards the end of my lesson. I had tried a FI 3 turn once, fell flat on my behind and scared my 6 yr old daughter to death. So, I was a bit scared to try 3 turns again. However, I spent about an hour on them on Sunday and I am proud to say that I can now do pretty decent left AND right FO 3 turns!!! [/color:f16eafd0ef]

[color=red:f16eafd0ef]Rotten
I can now do a decent RFI mohawk, but the left side of my body just refuses to cooperate, thus LFI mohawk is nowhere to be found. [/color:f16eafd0ef]

REGAL - I stayed vertical. That's all that was regal.

ROTTEN - EVERYTHING!!!
Had an hour to warm up before my lesson. Couldn't hold an edge, do mohawks, 3-turns, nothing. By lesson time I was distraught and very upset. My coach did everything she could think of to help (knees, shoulders, arms), but it just wasn't going to happen. We even went back to basic edge practice. Nothing worked. All of my moves were in some parallel dimension where I don't exist.

Maybe it'll be better at my lesson tonight.

I was just practicing yesterday. For a Sunday, the rink wasn't too crowded, but the ice was pretty bad. Fortunately, though, I stepped off the ice after about ten minuted to relace and then they called a break to resurface, yippee!

Regal: My stroking seems to feel more regualar and far less tippy than a few weeks ago. Taught myself right and left t-stops, discovered I'm far better at right. Worked a bit on spirals -- I can do an upright and now I'm trying to convince myself I can tip at the hips to help with amplitude and to hit a true spiral position. I can almost get my leg to my waist with minimal bending, so I feel like I'm cheating a bit. Guess this is one area where all of the ballet lessons helped out -- the arabesque was always my favorite move, so I am highly anticipating the day when I can zoom down the rink in a beautiful spiral!

Also worked a lot on backwards skating and stroking. I have picked up quite a bit of speed here in the last few weeks, yay! That's the first thing I did after the resurface and I felt terrific seeing the tracings from my backwards slaloms -- they were well spaced and very even all the way down the side of the rink, YAY! Tried a few backward glides, which I can hold for about 1 second, but that's 1 second longer than before, LOL! Did some backwards pumping in preparation for learning back crossovers, that felt pretty good, especially on the right-over-left (eventually) side.

Forward crossovers haven't left, though I did feel a bit of fear on the left-over-right again. Maybe that's a rotten. I pick up so much speed right over left now that I can barely stop, LOL! I must work on stopping from greater speeds, LOL!

Rotten: Fear on the left over right forward crossovers again. I still did them, and I was don a better job with the right outside edge than before, so that's good!

I'm getting ready for our learn-to-skate camp the week of the 12-16. It is adults only and right now there's not a whole bunch of people signed up, so I should be in a fairly small class, yay! I don't think that I'll have enough mastered to pass Beta, but it should be a good start for fall lessons, plus I might learn a few fun things, too!

[quote:b02e1fe4f3="Debbie S"]

Rotten:

I still have problems w/leaning to far forward and scraping my toe pick when I know my turns, etc. should be smooth. Any tips?

[/quote:b02e1fe4f3]

Are you referring to three turns, or just turning in general? I'll try to explain as best I can using the three turn as an example.

On the approach to the turn, your upper body should be square, with hips and shoulders perpendicular to the ice. You should feel a small arch in your lower back and feel your seat tucked under you, in the same plane with hips and shoulders, if you're straight. Take care to stay relaxed--you want enough tension to control your move but not so much your legs and upper body freeze. If you're scraping your toe picks, sounds like you may be breaking at the waist a little, which will throw you forward too far onto the ball of your foot. So first off check your balance.

In the three itself, you want to think, "heel, ball, heel", as this is how you will rock your foot inside your boot to shift your weight properly to execute the turn. Also approach the turn with a soft, gentle knee bend, with your weight shifted toward your heel. Your knee will straighten at the apex of the turn as your weight shifts to the ball of the foot, and will return to its gentle bend upon exit where you will shift your weight back towards the heel. Check your turn to stop rotation. For LFO3 or RFI3 for example, I make sure my left arm is in a straight line with the base of my sternum and that my right arm is securely behind me, held in place my pressing my right shoulder back. If I were to liken this to the face of a clock, I'd say my left hand is at noon while my right hand and arm point toward four.

I can approach a RFI mohawk in much the same manner, only I do not rock my feet since this involves a weight shift from one leg to another. I keep my weight back toward the center and heel region of the boot, keep a gentle knee bend, and check the turn as I just described above.

Hope this helps! (I skate in boots with really high heels so I must stay conscious of not scraping my toes!)

__________________
All that glitters has a high refractive index.

Hi Miss Indigo
Those descriptions for the camel spin and three turns were great! Very detalied. I don't suppose you could help me too? I'm trying to learn a one foot upright spin from the proper entrance (backward crossovers, step forward etc). I'm having trouble getting the "hook", and getting the spin to be smooth and centred. A few tips my coach gave me on Saturday were to tense/tighten the body, and to press down on the area between my toes and ball of my foot. Any other advice?

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

Thanks, Miss Indigo! I do think my problem is pressing forward during moves. It may be b/c I like to watch my feet to make sure I'm doing it right, but you're right, I tend to break at the waist. I think another problem may be that I'm used to a rec blade (I've only had good skates for 6 mos.), and the toe pick now seems much lower than it did before. I sometimes scrape even during back crossovers, but I guess that's b/c of the lean. I also have a fear of falling backward - which I did yesterday - so I think that might be what compels me to lean forward. Got to work on that - and my posture.

W/ the inside 3-turns, I think I have a bad habit of using my toe pick to check the turns - I know, bad move. Got to use my arms/shoulders!

[quote:f8e52472a2="icenut84"]Hi Miss Indigo
Those descriptions for the camel spin and three turns were great! Very detalied. I don't suppose you could help me too? I'm trying to learn a one foot upright spin from the proper entrance (backward crossovers, step forward etc). I'm having trouble getting the "hook", and getting the spin to be smooth and centred. A few tips my coach gave me on Saturday were to tense/tighten the body, and to press down on the area between my toes and ball of my foot. Any other advice? [/quote:f8e52472a2]

Sure, I'd be happy to offer up some more advice! This is cool--kinda like having my own virtual skating school. 8)

Your coach is right about tensing the body. You especially need tension through your shoulders and abs. This helps keep your shoulders and hips square, a must for good centering. In fact, you should feel the most tension through your shoulder blades if your back is straight. It should be gentle tension, not so much that your muscles feel stressed in that area. You should also feel centered during the spin when pressing on the area between the toes and the ball of the foot, with the center running right between your big toe and second toe.

During the spin windup, make sure you have a nicely bent knee during your crossover--controls the deep running BI edge and makes it easier to step into a bent knee on your FO entry edge. Stay conscious of the circle created by the BI edge, as you will want to step into the circle on your entry edge. If you step outside this circle, your shoulders may be ahead of your hips, and your centering and snap will fizzle as your free leg would have to play catch-up with the rest of you. Concentrate on keeping your weight towards the heel upon entry, and a good knee bend which deepens that entry edge. When you can't hold that entry edge any longer, it is time to snap into the spin. You bring your free leg through close to your spinning leg, and whip the arm over your spinning leg back, and rise up into the knee quickly (no need to lock it like on a camel--a very gentle bend is ok for starters), That's your hook. Now before assuming any position, even if it's as simple as crossing my feet, I like to spin around at least once or twice, maybe even three times, in an open position with my arms positioned at ten and two on the clock face with my free leg directly under the arm at the two o'clock position (since your CW--am I right?--your leg will be lined up with ten o'clock). Once I'm sure I've found my center, I take care to pull arms and legs in at the same time to whatever position I choose. To start with, you don't need fancy positions; resting your free leg near the top of your spinning leg's boot is fine.

If you are having trouble finding your center, I'll suggest this little exercise. Stand perpendicular to the thick blue or red hockey lines (if no lines painted, make one yourself by scratching one in the ice with the heel of your blade that's at least your height). Scratch a starting point on the line. Move over about 4 or 5 shoulder widths and scratch another point. This is the target you want to aim for--you want the three turn that will begin your spin as close to this point as possible. If your three turn is way away in your case to the left of the line or your mark, your entry edge was too far removed from your imaginary setup circle and most likely the free leg was rushed around too soon also. Of course if you miss the mark or line was far to the right, your entry may have been too shallow, and you waited too long to snap into the three turn that gets your spin started. The entry edge should be about a perfect semicircle if you hit near your target. I find this exercise useful on my off-days just to check my center and edge control, then go back to spin entries from back crossovers.

Hope this helps! Once you get your spin, enjoy it!

[size=9:f8e52472a2]Edited for spelling.[/size:f8e52472a2]

__________________
All that glitters has a high refractive index.

[b:bc9dce30b0]Regal[/b:bc9dce30b0]
I had a really good skate this morning. The children came with me to watch.
Everything went well: loop, flip, lutz, parallel, sit.
The field moves and steps were ok.

In my lesson, I got the steps changed a bit - just as I had mastered the other one!
I had a dunmmy run at the test and coach made me reskate (guess what) the flip-toeloop, the backspin AND the parallel, which she says she's seen much better from me.

The not so regal is the backspin. But on the 2nd attemot she says I got 5 revs before I pulled out, so that was great!! (For me).


I was trying change foot parallels, which are still laughable, and change sits which I may have got sussed, but I'll see tomorrow when I try them again. :wink:

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

[quote:568ebcd54b="Hannahclear"] Camel: any advice? I'm quite bad at this spin.
[/quote:568ebcd54b]

I don't know if this helps, but this is the way I do it, and sometimes it works!

On the entry, take a wide step - aim for the direction that you've
just come from - on a deeply bended knee.
Hold the edge, with bended knee, until it's almost ready to 3turn
itself.

Sweep your left arm round in a big arc (CCW), at the same time,
straightening the skating knee and lifting the free leg in to a spiral
position.
Keep your chin raised at all times.
Hold the position when you get it.
Fight to keep it - you need plenty of tension to maintain the spin.
My coach said to feel like you were a dog chasing your tail!

Arms:
The arm that does the "sweep" to lead you into the spin easily settles
backwards right beside the free leg.
I find it helps to keep my other arm raised upwards towards the back,
with my shoulder pressed forwards.

Keep the free hip turned out, toe pointed.
Keep a slight arch in the back, with chin up.
Sweet spot for camel: the weight near the middle to back of blade.
Does any of this help?

__________________
MEL
Absolute Skating

REGAL - My edges are back from their visit to the parallel dimension. I don't know what was wrong over the weekend, but last nights skate/lesson was much improved. Still a little shaky, but better. Worked on 3-turns, BO & BI edges, and that darned hockey stop.

I learned what rockers, brackets, and counters are. Not that I attempted them, but at least I'll know them when I see them.

ROTTEN - I will probably kill myself trying to learn the proper blade pressures and angle of attack on my hockey stop.

Forward and backward snowplows, no problem.
T-stop, I can do it.
Hockey stop, I might as well gain a lot of speed and run headlong into the boards. It'll save time.

[color=darkblue:ffe6278d7e]Just a thought ...... why don't we start a monthly 'how do you do a ?????' thread and ask Adrian to make it 'sticky'? I can then archive all the stuff to Yahoo Rinksiders so that we don't lose it! We all have different 'tips' on things (I, for example, found that the sweeping the arm back on the camel just threw me off balance but it works for other people ....... ) and that way we can see the different techniques and pick what suits us [/color:ffe6278d7e]

TUESDAY

Blades STILL wonky but practised bits of Free programme anyway. Camel has disappeared AGAIN but backspin is better than ever! Jumps are all ok INCLUDING the axel BUT the piggin Lutz has gone and done a runner!!!! It doesn't help that my landing knee hurts more on this jump than any of the other jumps ........ I HAD IT ...... GIVE IT BACK WHOEVER HAS PINCHED IT

Darling, wonderful coach moved my blades in the break ......

[img:ffe6278d7e]http://www.wincom.net/~lwillan/Heaven.gif[/img:ffe6278d7e]

To PROVE that I was right about them being wonky both my BO & BI3's were instantly better!!! Unfortunately I've been compensating for the bad positioning so my spins were a bit off but the backspin reared it's ugly head enough to show me that I was right

Dance lesson was on the European and was fine. Once I'd stopped trying to use my butt to turn the 3turn it flowed well, we managed more sequences than ever before today

Free lesson varied ...... camel is a bit off but nothing to be worried about, backspin was ok and is spinning better, I just need to 'fight' for the 'bad ones' now apparently

Ran through step sequence and got about 6/8 of the BI3's and 7/8 of the BO3's in my programme .......... WOOHOOOOOO .... even to music!!!!

Programme was ok the first time but a got a bit of a dressing down about my 'in between' skating (don't know about you but the minute the music goes on my basics go to pot ). Got the lecture about 'you shouldn't be skating like that at your level, do you think that you look good out there when you skate like that?' ...... LOL, I've learned not to say YES to that one The final run through (after 3.5 hours on the ice) was fraught with obstacles! A coach came and stood next to me when I was stood in the middle waiting to start (I start with a pivot, RBO double 3 ......) and started teaching her pupil PIVOTS!! just where I wanted to skate!! Camel was a bit screwy but as I turned to forwards from it the SAME COACH AND PUPIL were stood slap, bang, behind me because a) I wasn't expecting it (my music was on and I, therefore, supposedly had priority) and b) I was in the middle of turning, I nearly fell over the back of my blade trying to avoid them (I wasn't happy). As I then came around for my loop ( I start with a couple of back crosses, step to a RFI, LFO cross, LFO 3 and into the loop) a young girl skated merrily across my path and then it was a few steps up to my step sequence ........ guess what? a dance couple were right in my way! It threw me because I was twisting around watching where they were going and missed most of the steps out By the time I got to the toe-toe combination my legs had died and I just COULDN'T even begin to attempt them ....... I did, however, manage to get it together for the flip (which I landed but with my nose about 3 inches from the ice), missed the backspin but went in for another and just about pulled it off! [color=indigo:ffe6278d7e]Coach pointed out that she KNEW that I was tired but that it was much more difficult to get my body back from head down than to have landed the damn thing to start with[/color:ffe6278d7e]! LOL, she's all heart Anyway, she WAS pleased with my efforts even if my last run through was crappy. My legs are KILLING now

Dance coach has got the new Freedom blades, he just started using them today

[size=18:ffe6278d7e][b:ffe6278d7e][color=violet:ffe6278d7e]
QUOTE OF THE DAY

Don't skate any faster than that ......... you might cause a draught[/color:ffe6278d7e][/b:ffe6278d7e][/size:ffe6278d7e]

L x

__________________

The best whisper is a click

eh? how did I manage to post it twice????

__________________

The best whisper is a click

I almost landed a double salchow! Just started on it last week, but I got one completely rotated and landed on my toe pick (feet were crossed but only the right one touched down at first). It surprised me so much that I didn't even check out; unfortunately I wasn't able to get another one nearly as close. Also made a bit of progress on flying sit.

Program was very messy...almost fell twice because of overrotated jumps. Is that good or bad?

My coach has the Freedom blades too. Actually a number of coaches at my rink are playing around with them. (I skate at Fairfax Ice Arena, where Nick Perna, who invented them, teaches.)

Went to Slough last night, for their Dance Club, which was only 15 minutes' social dancing, but 30 minutes' workshop on the Riverside Rhumba.

[color=indigo:11069ded56][b:11069ded56]Regal:[/b:11069ded56] Himself was having a [i:11069ded56]much[/i:11069ded56] better skating day - of course, unlike Gary, he refused to admit anything had been wrong, but just to watch him, he was a totally different skater! The workshop was great fun; didn't really learn anything I didn't already know, but got some valuable practice in. There were a lot of people there, which was good.[/color:11069ded56]

[color=olive:11069ded56][b:11069ded56]Rotten:[/b:11069ded56] Our slaloms in hold just don't work! Mine are lighter and faster than his, and we can't seem to get them to match. They'll have to be worked on sooner or later, as we need to compete the Cha-cha in December.

We were playing with one-footed slaloms, and I made my knee hurt (again) and had to strap it for the rest of the evening. But as someone pointed out, it's like doing a press-up on one leg, so not surprising you hurt.....

The motorway was closed coming home, and the journey took forever.... Grrrrr. I am [i:11069ded56]not[/i:11069ded56] going on Thursday, as it's roadworks, so I suspect will be closed then, too.[/color:11069ded56]

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

Madam coach is on vacation this week so it was practice...

Slowly getting the strength back from my bout with that Lyme Disease nonsense...All the tests came back fine so I should be rid of this thing for once and for all..

Regal: Waltz jump..still got it though not as high and as far due to diminish strength, but that will come with time.

Rotten: Salchow and toeloop...going to have to work on those at Lake Placid...I was so woefully uncoordinated on those today...

Note to Gary: I do not do hockey stops since they really seem to aggravate the rebuilt knee. I do either a modified snowplow or T-stop.

__________________
Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Rotten: My mood. Hubby couldn't sleep well on Sunday night, and when he don't sleep, I don't sleep. Tired all day yesterday. Then I wake up at 2:00 AM last nite and take forever to get back to sleep. Arrive at lesson out of sorts and achy. Almost forget to take glasses today when I get ready to drive to rink. Then I promptly leave them on (I don't use them when skating) when I go out onto the ice. Wonderful. Little Miss Wifty Uncoordinated Crank.

Regal: Two foot spin. Nice centering, mutiple revs, much improved according to coach.

Resuscitating (Gradually): We had major forward three turn clinic today (at my request, no less). Really worked on lengthening edges both initial and backwards. LFI3 still is forced--but I was better today on trying to do the edge, open up the hips, keep the free hip up and turn naturally. Emphasis on trying to make the turns natural, which at least showed some progress.

Really not close to there yet: One foot spin. Today I asked her to break it down. Spent a lot of time at the boards learning to do the three turn and then bring the free foot around with the skating foot (while holding on with left hand to eliminate fear of wiping out). Jeez, this is a bear!!!! I will be accumulating a lot of "wall time" this week.

Overall the session was good and helpful, and it was very worthwile and I definitely made progress; However, I came out of it frustrated, pissy and feeling low. WHY IS EVERYTHING SO HARD FOR ME????? Why can't I just EVER do anything naturally? Its always struggle, struggle, struggle for every skill (save the half toe walley, which came quickly). I know, I know, its not that bad, I've made major progress this summer, but sometimes I just HATE the fact that my learning curve for most skills is so long. It just gets really annoying sometimes.

I'm crawling back in my cave now...growl, snort, mutter...

Miss Crabby

[quote:084c774a0b="Yazmeen"] I came out of it frustrated, pissy and feeling low. WHY IS EVERYTHING SO HARD FOR ME????? Why can't I just EVER do anything naturally? Its always struggle, struggle, struggle for every skill (save the half toe walley, which came quickly). I know, I know, its not that bad, I've made major progress this summer, but sometimes I just HATE the fact that my learning curve for most skills is so long. It just gets really annoying sometimes.
[/quote:084c774a0b]

It's hard for all of us and a constant struggle to maintain what we already know while trying to develop new skills. If it was easy, anybody could do it. We are special because we keep trying.

[color=red:084c774a0b]"Turning points or milestones always occur whenever a decision is made to defy the insurmountable. What matters is making a deliberate choice not to back down, not to relinquish ambition to fear, not to be discouraged - even if everyone insists that you should be."
-- Matt Ghaffari, 1996 Olympic silver medalist, Greco-Roman wrestling[/color:084c774a0b]