Today is Remembrance Day, so....

Want to Remember: Might have a new lift although we haven't tried it on ice yet. Really should have worn a skirt & tights, not trackie bums, if we were going to work on our lift. Husband's programme is going well.

Hope to forget: Husband had a nasty fall on a loop jump and winded himself. Neither of us was skating really well, as we both have colds. I do not like the coach's new exercise designed to stop me pushing him away!!!

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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!

Wait... do you have two remembrance days in a year? Is there somewhere a list of holidays in the USA available? I thought you had thanksgiving somewhere right about now? *confused*


Wanting to remember:
- The coach who kept telling me my spins were bad because they were slow, said my 1-foot looked good! (I pulled in as hard as I could, started spinning so fast it scared me and I stiffened up - this only helped to speed up and center the spin, it was *perfectly* centered, wow!!! Usually when I have to show a spin it goes worse than average.)
- I did some bunny hops and some *tiny* waltz-jumps landing on RIGHT! That's my injured ankle. And I think it's holding up!!!
- I figured out why my back inside edges were falling apart as soon as I was trying to point the toes. FINALLY, it only took oh a half a year or so. The 'funny' thing is, I was told about that error when I just started learning them already, except then I didn't understand what the coach meant.


Wanting to forget:
- Focussing on pulling in I started looking down again on the spin. Nasty habit, must quit!
- Backspin was totally gone
- Fell on every sit spin I tried

Well, they do in the USA, but I'm English! And even in the USA they celebrate Remembrance Day, which I believe they call Veterans' Day. In France, 11 November is a public holiday, or used to be.

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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!

Remembrance Day or Armistice Day commemorates the ending of World War I on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 and is observed by many nations involved in that war (Not sure if the losing side ever observed it however). A few years later, it was expanded to honor all veterans in the US so here it is Veterans Day.

j

Oh, okay.

Want to remember...what's it is like to skate without pain! I'm slowly getting there but I know it will take time! I did manage to skate in short bits today, 15 minutes then sit for 5-10 until the pain subsided. Did 3-turns, edges, and worked on that darn backspin! Managed to barely get one from a pivot. Not progress compared to where I was before, but, hey, I'm skating!!!

I had a therapeutic massage a few days ago and it was awesome! She hit so many areas that are bound in cramps/spasms....I can't wait to hear what the physical therapist says tomorrow when I go for my evaluation.

Hope to forget...jumps so shaky! I only kept to the waltz and toeloop and they were really bad! In show rehearsal those are the ones I do and I even managed a one-foot spin and it was ok. But not 3-turns on my left leg.

I weighed myself this morning and have gained 5 pounds. While that might not seem like much to most people...it's a lot for me. I've tried hard to maintain where I am and not being able to hit the gym like I want to is really killing me! I'm starting to lose muscle tone...

But I CAN FEEL MY TOES!!!! YAY!!!

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

Want to remember: Passing Bronze Moves, Rhythm Blues, and ChaCha in one day.

Want to forget: How poorly I skated Bronze Moves, especially Power 3s!!!

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

Congrats double3's!

As for me: Want to Remember: I skated today for about 30 minutes and felt pretty great. I hadn't skated in a couple of weeks, but my ankle feels the best it's felt since before I broke it, and finally I feel like I have just about all my strength back. Each time I skate, I try to add one thing and today I was able to do my normal jump entry (without the jumps, of course!). So, I skated forward then stepped on my right foot, extended the left, then pushed into the turn on my right foot and did the FO3. It felt totally normal, which really amazed me. I even checked properly. Hooray!

FO3's on my left foot are still weak, but coming along. Backward one foot glides are solid. So, I'm ready for another lesson and my coach and I actually talked today and I have a lesson scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving. In fact, he said I could have that slot weekly if I want. We'll see. I don't know if I need or am up to a weekly lesson yet, but we'll see!

So, a good day!

Happy skating everyone!

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August 22, back on the ice!

Congratulations Double3s -couldn't have been that bad if they passed you!

Want to remember - This just makes me think that I have to remember to keep my head over my skating foot and lean outside the circle for both crossovers and 3 turns

Tried to forget but we had to do them in our adult class today -- Alternating 3s. Ugh. They are the reason I took my pre-bronze FS way back so I could get myself grandfathered in back when these were in pre-bronze moves. If I hadn't done that and they hadn't taken them out of that test I might very well have quit skating, that's how discouraged I was.

Funny thing, I was just thinking about them the other day, along the lines of "I'm so much better at 3 turns now I bet I could do those now" And then today we work on them. Guess what? I can't do them. Guess I'm not that good at 3 turns. I just don't have enough control of the exit edge to position myself to step on the next outside edge. oh well.

More want to forget --tried to do cross strokes correctly - I can sort of slide my foot over but I totally loose any speed. Frustrating frustrating frustrating.

But I will remember --on to mohawks and my goodness I have so improved on those. and in practice, I did them in the Swing dance - no music and I have slow down way too much to keep in time, but I did them! Progress!

j

Veterans Day is November 11th in the United States, as jskater posted it used to be called Armistice Day, and in the UK is called Remembrance Day. Veterans Day commemorates all veterans here. The other day you might be thinking of is Memorial Day, which is the last Monday in May. It commemorates all those who have died in military service, and used to be called Decoration Day.

Other holidays:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday..._United_States
(Many of the Federal holidays are not "days off" though. If today were a work day, I wouldn't get the day off for Veterans Day, though Federal employees do)

Skating-wise
Hope to Forget I have a horrible pain running down the side of my left leg. Like shinsplints, but on the side. Not happy.

Need to get my blades sharpened.

Want to remember I think the power class is helping. I'm definetly not the slowest anymore, and spend a lot of our christmas show number at half speed, as I'm "last in line". We were originally fastest to slowest, but I should be in the middle of the line. However since I have to remember to start a few things, the instructor asked me to stay there (he is the front of the line. Not sure if he will perform?) The routine is mostly follow the leader.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

Want to Remember: Brackets...went well tonight...actually, overall my moves were quite nice tonight. I wish I would have skated this way on Friday!!

Hope to Forget: Ugh...I need to work on my endurance...even just running through my program without music and no jumps/full spins, is getting me winded. I need to add some cross training somehow...maybe some running or something in the mornings before work, although, I do hate the treadmill/elliptical machine with a passion, and living in an area where it gets cold and it snows doesn't really allow me to run outside until, if I'm lucky, May...hmmm...maybe it's back to my old standby of climbing the stairs in the 20 story building I live in...

Want to remember:

MY DOUBLE SAL IS BACK
I had lost it for a while but I was able to land a bunch on saturday and they were really high!! I'm not sure if they were clean, but if they weren't, they were close enough for me lol

Hope to forget:

I...hate...brackets...

hehe, Jessi, he WILL perform. Always does with that group because he generally doesn't get to do a number of his own as he's not a club member.

Me? I'm happy to perform with our team and that's about all I need. I wouldn't mind helping the tots, but the extra rehearsal time is not good for me right now -- next year when Violet isn't nursing is a better option.

Congratulations double3s! That's a lot of testing for one day. Must feel good to be done with it all!

Hope to forget: Practically all of this morning needs to be wiped from memory. It was a disaster, and it started with my ongoing issue with my right boot. Because it's slightly too large (left boot is fine), a coach recommended putting a heel wedge in the boot to take up space.

I bought these:



I bought a woman's size because skating boots are fairly narrow. It fit inside nicely. but today I REALLY splatted doing things I normally take for granted.

Coming to the boards, I attempted an easy hockey stop. The right blade rolled under, and BAM!... into the boards.

Then I was attempting a deep CW turn, and somehow the right edge wouldn't hold. I slid out on the low side. I got up and tried it again. Slid out again. I don't understand the mechanism at work where a wedge in the heel would cause a deep right edge to slip where I've always had confidence.

OK, enough!!

Out comes the wedge. At least I didn't fall any more after that. But OW!.. I've got lots of sore spots now.

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Bill Schneider

Want to remember I passed my gold passport today


Hope to forget Will the shop ever be open so I can get my skates sharpened, they started sliding out a little today so the NEED doing!

Congratulations Caris

Want to forget - power class at 6 am. We have a new coach--same one who teaches my adult group class and so we did some of the same things. So in my adult class, I am so much faster, everyone else is eating my dust. In the power class with my daughter and another girl, I am definately eating their dust. It's good to be in different groups so you don't get a warped view of yourself compared to others. It's all relative.

Want to remember - I did the Swing to music. I was quite off in the time BUT I was able to do the mohawk in the dance, and keep going. This is major progress - a few months ago I would come to a complete standstill when faced with the prospect of doing a mohawk while moving.

j

Congratulations everybody


Todays' public ice was very empty, so I got to practice my camel spin a lot and the elements to the MIF I wanna take.

I also discovered I can do a... What's it called? Right forward inside edge with the left arm front, then sort of a 3-turn like thing except not to the outside edge but to the right back inside edge, stepping out onto the left back outside edge after a moment? I can't do it in the CW direction though. And for the first time in my life I WASN'T looking down while trying something new!
I also discovered I can do all mohawks and 3-turns without looking down. I don't know where that all came from and when.

I did *one* good sit spin today (good as in, not raising the right hip and keeping square) and it went deeper and faster right away. It's just those two mistakes that make me fall out of my sit spin before I even do one basically, but they're SO hard to fix! *sigh* (well and then there's a million small mistakes)

My backspin is still meh.

Oh! I forgot to add to last night's post...

I was able to do a scratch/back scratch combo!! I was soooo excited!! Especially after them not being very pretty on Friday...

Congratulations!! What did you do differently on Saturday that made you start landing them?
Trade you my brackets for your double sal, LOL! (Disclaimer: brackets should not be mixed with nerves)

Hope to Forget:
- How many aborted and/or failed attempts it took just to land 2 axels yesterday. How embarrassing.

- " " " " just to do two decent back sitspins " " . I don't know why I have so much difficulty with that RFI edge entrance. On the rare occasion when I get the entrance right, the spin itself doesn't seem to be a problem. Aargh.

- The way I can consistently do everything perfectly on my double sal except land without pitching forward and putting my hands down on the ice. I'm suspecting the problem is that my landing leg isn't straight in the air, but when I try to think about straightening it, it makes my brain go haywire and I spazz out in the air. It seems that I can't think once I've left the ice; my brain just goes blank.

Want to Remember:
- My spirals are still there after 2 weeks of not doing them.
- " pancake spin " " " "
- When coordination fails, there's always flexibility. . . In hopes of achieving something that would allow me to leave the rink with a sense of accomplishment, I decided to finally try doing the splits on the floor (I have only been doing them on the ballet barre, since I pulled a hamstring last time I tried it on the floor, about a year ago). I went into it very slowly and methodically, making sure to keep my hips squared this time, and I ended up actually doing the splits on the floor in both directions for the first time in my life. Yay! I feel like I can finally try out for the cheer leading squad now, LOL!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

want to remember - my program, as in what goes where, after we made changes. Couple of public skate practices this week. I haven't been to a freestyle in weeks, my cold has me sleeping in. Actually remembered things coach told me to do and landed a couple of nice sals today.

Hope to forget - this blasted cold. I'm tired of it, tired of coughing myself awake, feeling blah, spinning like crap.

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It's all about the dress!

Congrats on the full splits, doubletoe! When you gonna try a charlotte spiral?

Next lifetime, I think! I understand now that there's a very big difference between doing a split very gradually with gravity helping you and just pulling your leg all the way up by yourself. I'm not even anywhere close to doing an upright split using my arm to pull my free leg up in front of me. Noooowhere close, LOL!

Still, I think if we had your back and my hamstrings, we'd have a serious Biellmann, LOL!

doubletoe, your double sal might be off from dropping your shoulders forward. I know my legs are slightly bent in the air on the axel, which while not technically the best, doesn't seem to pitch me forward on the landings at all. Usually when I have one of those, I call them illusion-style landings , it's because I did something wrong with my shoulders on the takeoff, like yanking the left shoulder back too early.

Hope to forget:
Landed the first axel I tried very nicely, then biffed the next four or five before I got another one off. Gar. Couldn't manage the last camel spin in my program.

Want to remember:
When done in sections, program is pretty strong. American Waltz also felt better today.

Thank you! I felt like I was keeping my left arm/shoulder checked forward on takeoff, but we all know how wrong those feelings can be, LOL! I"ll have my coach look at it carefully in my next lesson.
Hey, your axel sounds like mine! I landed the first one I went for, but then took forever to land another one.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

Hope to forget...getting clipped today while teaching! I was teaching a raw beginner and was taken out by a kid in a neighboring class! I went down on my lower back and it knocked my breath out-I could not breathe and it was scary as I started graying out.

This happened on the same day I started PT for my previous back injury, have shoulder/neck spasms, AND having a migraine. Well, grandma always did say things come in threes. Now I have to ice my butt crack....luckily I don't think it's broken!

It must have looked spectacular because EVERYONE was looking and asking if I was ok.

want to remember...off ice class was jumping-leaping and stag jumps (simulated mohawk entry). It was nice and I'm feeling the "right" position more. We also did some rotations into landing positions and altho I took my migraine meds and was somewhat off-balance, it wasn't that bad!

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