Hey, I do that too, LOL! Maybe we should just raise that left arm up with flair and explain that we are doing "a more difficult variation, Brian Boitano's famous 'Tano lutz."

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

Jazzpants... Just tell them "Hey, I am a 30-something year old woman, not a six year old child... and if I want to skate in the Christmas show, then I WILL skate in the Christmas show! And you will like it!" That's what I do anyway... though I say I'm a 20-something year old woman. Because I am. Hope you had a nice lesson today.

I'm kind of surprised, too, Jazzpants. My coach wants me to get in front of an audience as often as possible, even if it's just a recital!

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

Getting you up is the guy's job, getting low enough that you don't stick your face in his rear is your job

The timing that works the best for us is wife skates up and pushes me on my back, I rise up straight pretending to be suprised then bend down with the back of my hands touching but thumbs pushing out. Wife uses this time to back away a little then take 2 strokes at me and goes down on a LOW shoot the duck while grabbing my hands. Thumbs are the most important part - hers up, mine out. Now here is the flexible part - she has to arch her back as I pull her through, face goes UP, then I pull her up as she puts toepicks in a little to scoot up. THe lifter can't do it if your hands are even a foot forewards from his chest, he must pull you up like you are rising from a backbend right up his front. As you come up you pull forewards with your toes - if they shoot out - down you'll go.

Try it on a wood floor - guy in sneakers you in socks. we've been playing with our stuff on the hardwood and it really helps
Lyle

AHHHH!!! But you see... my primary (your secondary) coach's thing with performance is... unless you're competing, you NEVER, EVER PAY to perform. You either do it for free or they PAY you to perform! My secondary (your primary) coach's thing is... ehhh, you go ask her why she doesn't want me to do Christmas shows. (Said something about allow other skaters get their turn to do the Christmas show...ummmm, I haven't had a turn at doing solos at Christmas!!! I only did group numbers!!! )

Wish to remember:
I had a good lesson overall. Primary coach properly pushed and tortured me with LOTS of jumps and spins and just playing around to see what I could do and what he could *get* me to do... We're still working on my loop, my flip and now my LUTZ!!! EEEEK!!! We also played around with fallin' leap... which is more like a falling STUMP in my case...

I've been spared doing back sit for competition for now, though I'm still NOT spared from practicing them!!! He is now thinking "back scratch to an attitude spin" for me for now, though he'd prefers I get a camel-sit spin.

Hope to forget:
How primary coach would have me do a RFO spiral and then grabs me and tries to spin me around like a top so I would do a camel spin and almost lost balance and face planted on it??? EEEEK!!!!

How I still don't have a stinkin' loop and if anything it's getting WORSE!!!

That I really don't have much energy in me this afternoon b/c it's cold and rainy and foggy and my muscles are all stiff....

My frustration when my coach says "Where's your music for your new program?" (he didn't ask for it!) and then when I suggested a piece he immediately shot it down. (Alright! Agreed! Forrest Gump is way overplayed!!!) He then said "Something LIVELY this time! Let's get out of the slow New Age-ish theme!!!" GREAAAAAT!!! Just GREAAAAT!!! (Sorry! No John Tesh either!!!)

(Okay, I'll pick something else... I do have something I've been holding off for when I actually HAVE good footwork!!! TOP SEKRET 'til either I perform it or Jay shots that deal down too!!!)

__________________
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!!!

Thank you so much, Jazz! You are totally right. That is just what I needed. I can always count on you for a little nudge of encouragement.

I am going to Seattle early tomorrow to see the Pac Coast Sectionals this weekend. I am taking a little break from skating on my own to watch other skaters perform. That too may be enough to give me a little more inspiration. Plus getting to see Casey and some of my other skating friends will make the trip all the more merrier.

Oh right! Who is going to pay a couple of bronze adult skaters to perform??!! Champions on Ice hasn't exactly been banging down my door anytime recently! I just like to perform... WITHOUT the stress of competition. So if I have to pay a little to have some fun with low stress, I'll usually do it. That's what you can tell him!! Or I will. Maybe over Thanksgiving dinner after he's too stuffed to argue. I'll just get that irritated eye rolly thing he does. We should definitely do the Christmas show next year. Just sayin'

LOVED this typo... ALL my "leaps" are fallen... when I get enough air underneath me to consider a jump a leap, I have a hard time controlling the landing and end up sitting on the ice. And who in his/her right mind thought ANYTHING to do with skating should have the word "fall" in its name????

Yeah, I know what you mean. Neither has Stars On Ice for me either...never mind the people who PRODUCES our Christmas shows either! Maybe my skating sucks too much for a skating show and I'm too old and not cute enough to go wigglin' around on ice with my coach!!! LOL!!! (Just watch! There's always at least a toddler or two in the show doing that with!!! And of course, that kid has to be ADORABLE!!!)

It's okay though... this year, after running thru two major skating tests in one year, I think a break from ANYTHING is well deserved (and needed...)

Oh, THAT look!!! LOL!!! Don't worry, I gave him that look back this afternoon! You tell him that... I sure would LOVE to hear about his response!!! LOL!!!

Totally OT: He's making Thanksgiving dinner and you're invited??? I'm jealous (considering I know how good a cook he is!) Then again, I already had plans with some old friends of mine too and their spread is pretty decent too. Tell him to wrap up some of his leftover turkey and stuffing and bring some for me for Monday night!!!

__________________
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!!!

Stars, Stripes and Skates is 9/11 charity that hosts an huge annual skating show. They have open auditions for skaters, charging a $50 audition fee. Selected skaters have to raise pledge monies as well. The show is held in an arena, there are some big-name skaters in addition to the kids who audition.

Maybe anyone who auditions gets in, I'm not sure. I just can't imagine "donating" $50 for an audition and then having your skater get turned down, though.

__________________

Yeah, and that's the hard bit! And it's not my face in his rear he worries about, but the top of my head somewhere else....

Hmmm..... that would have to be in the corridors of our building, and it echoes..... I can see faces popping out the door of all the other flats on our corridor to see what on earth was going on! Might try it, though, and thanks for the tips.

Meanwhile, the issues today were mainly about hips.

Wish to remember: Good practice with Husband, especially doing swings and chasses to the Golden Waltz music, which was great fun. Plan to do that a lot, in various holds.

Hope to forget: Couples spin pretty dire, as were runs round the circle in Reverse Kilian hold. Also Fiesta Tango end pattern still not working right.

In solo practice, I could not get my left hip underneath me to do clockwise back crossovers. Nor could I do my cross-cuts. A passing coach yelled, "No wonder you can't do them, you're not bending your knees!", but when I try to get down low enough, I lurch forwards and straight on to the toepicks. I think I have problems bending my knees when going backwards, full stop.

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

Back on the ice last night for the first time in three weeks - bronchitis is still an issue but not as bad as I feared it would be, probably because the warm weather made the rink air not so frigid as is the norm.

So all things considered, I did fine. A little shaky and there was no spring in the jump leg at all but I'm content to just be able to move without gasping. And the spins were surprisingly centered. I wonder where that came from?

Bad bronchitis ripping through our rink too. Glad you are back at it.

FWIW a new study just came out - other than hand washing the only thing ever proven to prevent headcolds is exercise atleast 3d a week. (Yeah us!)

Another study was trying to prove that Iceskaters were abusing inhalers because 8% of skaters self report having asthma where only 3-5% of age matched general population has asthma. Study found that on any given day 30% of ALL people ON the ice were having asthmatic bronchoconstrictions.
No wonder its so hard. Basicly if you hear someone have a persistant dry cough while skating then that person very likely is having bronchoconstriction and may benefit from an inhaler. (Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now)
Lyle

Never mind where the money is really going to... if the audition fee is strictly going towards the show's production, I probably wouldn't be happy about it. But if it was going towards the 9/11 charity, then I probably would be okay about it.

__________________
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!!!

I can't get this image out of my head
Lyle

What do I wish to remember? My axel, landed in the harness on one foot. Just a tad cheated. Getting stronger and stronger. I want to remember to TRANSFER that feeling to when we take the harness off. My coach worked on it for a good 20 minutes today, alternating between on and off. I landed a cheated one foot axel right as the buzzer went off, so that was good.

Hope to forget......missing two out of three spins in my program. Stepped out of back camel without back sit and fell out of forward sit on the change to back sit. Blah. Rest of program was fairly respectable though. I did land all of the jump attempts and footwork is much better.

Wish to remember:
- my spins were a little better this week. Camel spins and sit-change-sit were spinning a little bit rather than turning.
- Single jump combinations felt ok. Especially flip-half loop-flip-half loop-flip.


Hope to forget:
- attempts at axels were dire! I think that I have forgotten everything that I have ever learnt on this jump. The timing has gone, the entrance is too round, I am swinging my free leg wide, not crossing my legs tight enough or pulling in. All wrong! I don’t think I have the motivation to work on each of these things again.
- Change foot walley the wrong way – to me this feels impossible. I cannot comprehend how I am supposed to jump from that inside edge. I have a bit of a mental block with this.

Wish to remember
My compulsories felt a lot better today. There was no feet kicking or shoulders in the wrong place. And teacher said it felt like we were skating together

Field moves felt a lot better too. Teacher said I will be fine. If only I could believe that too. I think they will be fine as long as I concentrate all the time!

And we decided on tango music

Hope to forget
Axels are funny. And annoying. And I am not driving through and going up! Grrrrr.
Need to make sure I don't leave my hips behind me on the double forward inside 3s.
Was doing turny drag thingys with arm movements and that really showed up my inability to coordinate arms and feet AGAIN. Will I ever beable to do this?

Exactly - I'm going for difficult variations!

I've been shown jumping exercises where you are supposed to lift your arms above your head - supposed to be harder or something - but I need no encouragement to do that - I need exercises to stop doing that.

Wish to Remember:
-I got my loop back! I actually landed several without touching down with my free foot
-Salchows felt nice, controlled, and big today
-I think I have the timing & arm positions down for the power 3s.
-I did the Canasta Tango on count (at least to the count in my head).
-I did two sit spins where I went so low that I ended up on my rear Hoping that will help with having nice low sit spins sometime in the future...

Hope to Forget:
-the bazillion kids at the rink today
-my very stiff 5 step Mohawk pattern
-the transitions in the power 3s
-my traveling scratch spin
-my wild, two-footed flip jumps
-all sit spin attempts after the first two

Hope To Forget: I still have to work on left foot glides to get them as solid and pretty as the right and to keep that #%$@% right hip back!

Coach says I NEED my LFI Mohawks for my footwork sequence (translation: GET TO WORK ON THEM!)

I decided my current music wasn’t “right” for me this week so I went through all the music I had considered and listened to them all again and again.

Wish To Remember: About the 4th time through my music collection, one piece started to choreograph itself in my head and I could get the flavour of how it could be done. Ok, the tempo is slow enough for me and my primitive skills but it has a bit of a swing, which is good, it’s a bit corny (but so am I) so I can include a little silliness in my routine, and it fits the venue and it fits my personality. I suggested it to my coach, expecting a bit of a negative reception, but she liked it, said it fits. WAHOO! Going to put it on a CD and we start working with it Wednesday to see how it develops.

I didn’t work on anything new today but spent the 2:30 trying to smooth and polish my existing repertoire (such as it is), working for smooth flow, nice body position and smooth transitions from move to move - basically focusing on everything EXCEPT my feet. Also the forward stroking sans toe pick is working nicely.

__________________
Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Me, too--I noticed it on video--my arms were way up in the air for my loop jump. I had never realized it, either, until seeing that video!

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

Hope to forget:
Entry for November 18, 2006

I went to my birthrink today. I skated from 10:35 to 11:25. Thankfully I found an insole lying around and stuffed it on my left skate and things started to feel normal again. I got through all my jumps including the lutz/loop/loop that eluded me at halloween!

{Off note: I felt like I was back to square one jumping at halloween, even my maneuver event when I had to do an easy loop/loop, I felt so wobbly. All my landings during my program felt weak and insecure, ugh, I wish I can do it all over again}

Anyways, back to skating today, I tried to do a camel spin and nothing worked out. I couldnt feel my body getting into position for the camel. It had a mind of its own. I figure tomorrow will be better. My second planned session at 1:05 my left skate was bothering me again. I was able to bite it up the a flip jump, but my left foot kept getting numb. So after tying and re-tying for 3 times, I gave up at 1:25 and decided to go home.

__________________
Tim David's Website

I haven't really be able to practice much and all. I've been on the road for work.

Though today i did get sometime in. In a place I have always dreamed about. I skated at Rockefeller Center. It was crowded and I really couldn't do much. But when i took the ice I got all teary eyed. I have wanted to come here for a very long time. This was y first time and OMG.

I also went to Bryant park. I got to skate with New York ranger Adam Graves, of the '94 Stanley cup team. That was cool.

So that is my skating joy for this week I had to share with someone.

__________________
Check out the sites I run
http://www.joelisi.net
http://www.charlieday.net

Hope to forget: I failed my Junior MIF on Friday.

The crossovers and rockers went well, but then I put my foot down on the power pull-quick rockers (my most unsteady move) and they lost a lot of speed. The choctaws weren't as smooth as usual. I was pretty nervous because I really wanted to pass on the first try, I had been working my butt off and I really thought I could do it. I had an awesome warmup, too.

I was disappointed I didn't get a reskate, but oh well - the power pulls just came together a few weeks ago so a little more time wouldn't hurt. I'm going to try them again in January.

Wish to remember: Er...nothing from this week.