Casey, at my rink there's a sheet posted on the wall with all of the rink's spin records listed... I checked it this morning and the current numbers are 70 revs for a forward spin (tie between a current nationally-competitive senior man a former nationally-competitive senior lady) and 60 for a backspin (a former novice lady who never had any triples but could spin like a top!).

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Where are those knives when I need them?
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I need a detachable left foot!

Cool, thanks for sharing that! I see I have <b>lots</b> of work to do yet!! Heck, if I can add on another 20 revs per year then I'll be caught up in just another two, how about that? Right now my goal is to get the average up to 25 - I got 24 in one yesterday, and am averaging just above 20. For being something so difficult to learn, spinning sure is loads of fun. (and it's always fun when there's some little kids who stop to watch and say "wow!" at ones awful spins, too )

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Victory: Two crossovers in a row, with edges. One two-foot spin this morning where I FINALLY got my feet right and kept going around and around.

Defeat: My little toe feels squished, has for several skating days. It is on my smaller foot, too, so I have no idea what's going on there...

Defeat: My darned double lutz and basically anything to prep for it.

My coach has me do sing lutz-double loop, and I always over pull with my left side. Guh.

The double lutz actually isn't so bad anymore, I just need to remember not to reach for the ground on the last half of the rotation.

Victories:

1. Novice Moves are coming along! My coach says we just have small things to tweak (one of which is my confidence, sigh).

2. Double flip is still there and we're working on getting the entrance smoother, which in turn helps the landing become smoother.

3. Spins. My flying sit is a piece of crap (I suppose this should go under defeats, but I just started working on it again yesterday so maybe it doesn't count). I really want to learn it, but it makes me so nervous.

My combination spin is getting better, though. It's a camel-sit-layback-back sit with a torso twist and the left arm reaching out behind the spinning side. It took me a good while to get from the forward sit up to the layback without just tipping over, but I'm quite pleased with myself.

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"Without Vision the People Perish"
שלום לעולם תמיד

And the training came to fruition in the artistic skate today where Terri won the bronze!!! (I missed the event because it took me 4 times as long to get to the rink! STUPID Beltway!!! )

And my coach was there--she didn't know I would be competing tomorrow (where once again, I pulled first draw in my event), but now she does!

And yowser, there are 8 silver ladies competing FS!

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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.

Congratulations, Terri! Way to go!

See you both tomorrow!

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

i'm already dreading tomorrow...I'm gonna be starting to learn my double lutz. I predict bruises lol. i really hope i can do it in the harness, I really hate lutzes


victory Had a good practice today, finally feel like I'm used to my new blades and can do everything i could before, and I feel way more stable with an 8' rocker. Still having trouble getting used to spinning in flatter blades, but its improving.

Defeat: Figure Skating Club has ONE session per week for "serious" skaters to have lessons, practise programs etc. You would think they could at least prepare the ice for that one session. I could whinge about rink management all day, but what is the point? There is only one rink, either we put up with it or give up skating.

Victory: I feel like I am getting better, nothing specific, just feeling like I'm skating okay at the moment. No great gains, but no great deficits at the moment.

I love my coach's approach to coaching. If I am not getting something, she finds another way to approach it without my even realising that it is leading back to that same thing. This tells me she really thinks about coaching and how best to help her skaters.

This morning I made my daughter a unitard with double circle skirt sewn into it. She just loved herself in it. As I expected, she spent more time admiring what her skirt did and showing herself off than thinking about her skating. So glad I decided to make her an outfit now, so she gets used to skating in a skirt before the competition in a few weeks.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

But I thought everyone did that when they got a new outfit!!

I even e-mailed a picture of my last dress to Mrs Redboots.

Bless you for going to all that trouble for your daughter, they always remember their first outfit, I guarantee you, she won't forget it and the love you put into it.

And very nice it was (and is), too! I bought a new dress yesterday - the sort of cheap dance dress one wouldn't be seen dead in off the ice and absolutely perfect on it! Those of you who are going to the Mountain Cup will see it on Saturday morning, as I shall wear it for the Canadian cha-cha & Swing Dance (so okay, Samba, you'll see it when I wear it for the Fiesta the rest of the year!). And the red cheap dance dress will go back to being worn for our free dance. Oh, the wonders of a flesh-coloured leotard - I can wear dresses I'd have dismissed out of hand last year!

CONGRATULATIONS TERRI C!

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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!

Defeat: Started by landing a jump on my back

Victory:Checked my blades and they were so blunt I could run my bare fingers over them, so quickly run the skate-mate over them and hey presto, all jumps landed. New programme coming along fine, stamina much improved and all's well with the world.

Thanks for the compliment Mrs Redboots, you have some lovely outfits yourself, I know what you mean about getting dresses from a standard dress shop, the assistants always give me funny looks when they see me trying on these ultra short skirts, cant wait to see you, hubby and new outfits, gosh we are such girlies!!

Victory! I started this morning’s session with some perimeter stroking to warm up and then some alternating forward edges, which were pretty good (off and on), then moved on to one foot backward glides, which were also coming together once my backward balance came back. The backward glides were getting good enough I started working on weight transfer from foot to foot and that started to come together so I was actually doing some backward stroking - WAHOO! Backward skating AT LAST!!!!! Oh sure, I am not totally solid on my backward skating yet but it is actually the first time since my return that I have felt like I CAN SKATE!

I spent the last half hour with my coach, had a chance to show off my backward stroking (which of course wasn’t as good with her watching) and get a few more pointers, then we moved on to alternating edges and a bunch more “body position” coaching and finished up with learning a two-foot turn.

What a GREAT day on the ice!

Defeat There are only 4 more session left in "spring skate school" and then I am off until 4 July

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

More victories:

If my stamina was depleted at all due to a few months of no exercise, then it's been regained. If I've skated at all this week, I've logged about 25 hours on ice since Monday, including an exhaustive 8 hours today. If my skating was ever half-decent enough to please me, then it's better than ever now.

If all of this is true, I was so very tired last night that I fell asleep while typing this post and am posting it today when I've woken up instead! I have promised to try to go skating with a friend tonight too, so off I go!

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Victory:
Debued my new freeskate for the first time and had a blast at the competition! Had a quick recovery from the fall on the salchow. Managed to get a Bronze medal out of the deal, with Debbie S taking the silver.

Defeat:
Does it always have to be this difficult putting a new program out?
For whatever reason, I just could not get my feet under me today. Maybe it was the fact that the competition was running ahead of schedule and my coach had me put my skates on in case we were to go out early, I don't know.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

And you did a great job with the new program! And the loop at the end, too!

As for me, given the amount of time I have devoted to practicing the program (and freestyle elements in general) over the past few weeks, I think the way I skated was probably the best I could hope for. My great sit spin from Thurs run-through disappeared, my backspin was sorta there (I think I got 2 revs but the exit was on 2 feet ) and my loop was sort of a non-jump. Oh well - for this comp, my goal was to present the program better than at NYI, and I think I succeeded, esp the last part of the program. Oh well, lots of things to work on....on to the Chessie Open, assuming they actually have a Bronze FS comp.

The winner of Pre-Bronze FS did a lutz (WTF?), and a camel-sit that lasted for about 5-6 revs total. As we informed adult skaters know, a lutz is illegal in Pre-Bronze. The question is, did the judges actually know? Even w/o the lutz, I admit that she deserved to win based on the quality of her other elements, but really, if you can do a lutz and a good camel-sit, why are you skating in Pre-Bronze? Before anyone jumps down my throat, I know there's always the possibility that she and her coach didn't know about the rule change, but IMO, that's no excuse. And even when lutzes were allowed, how many were seen in Pre-Bronze? Is winning a comp at a lower level than where you clearly belong that important to you? Whatever.

Anyway, I had a great time. It was great to see Terri C, Loops, NoVa, and Ellyn, who all skated well, and Sk8pics, who did a great job keeping me calm before I skated and keeping track of my various belongings (why do I always forget to take my watch off until the last minute? ). Loops's footwork in her new program is amazing, and her axel landing did not involve any extra limbs or body parts - lol.

Terri, Sk8pics, and I had a nice dinner at a diner near the rink and then Terri and I headed back to watch some of the evening events. Novice Ladies had just finished (that was about 8 p.m.) and when Terri and I left at 9:30 or so, they were still waiting for results. We saw the Senior Ladies SP (3 skaters, one of which skated to "Rhapsody in Blue" - my program music) and Senior Men's SP, which consisted of Shaun Rogers doing an exhibition. His choreo and spins were great, but he singled or doubled all the jumps.

I've never done this comp before and would definitely consider doing it again. There were a few moments of disorganization, like (as Terri posted) not being able to tell us just how much ahead they were running and when our events would be starting, but overall, I thought the event was well-run. Plus, it's so close, it's hard to pass it up.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

CONGRATS to Terri C for getting the Bronze for both her two programs and Debbie S for her Silver in her freeskate!!! Pre-Bronze FS Peanut Gallery rule!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!!

Congrats also to sk8pics for skating well! And Loops for putting out a good effort on that axel landing!!!

Ummm... Nova... how could your coach NOT know that you're competing at May Day. Or maybe the question I should be asking is "Were you NOT supposed to be competing at May Day???" (In any case, BUSTED!!! )

Was she (the coach) upset?

Actually, my very FIRST Pre-Bronze FS competition was with a gal with had a lutz in her program. She two footed the landing but was otherwise vertical. The gal WHUPPED my @$$ real good!!! There was one other comp where a skating friend of mine just turned 25 at the time of the entry for the comp and only managed to pass her Pre-Bronze FS tests at that time (and she easily could compete at Bronze.) She skated Pre-Bronze with everything up to a lutz (her favorite jump... hate her!!! ) as well as a camel-sit-backsit (which she did during the warmup and everyone yelled "BOOO!!!! SANDBAGGER!!!" and I'm half trying to duck my head quietly away since I'm rooting for her and half laughing my butt off thinking "You go, girl!!!" (to the "sandbagger friend") )

BTW: it's also possible the person who won might not have done what you've just recently done... passed the BRONZE MOVES TEST!!!

Do I think it's fair? No! But can you do anything about it? Probably not! The only thing you can possibly do is to do your best and let the chips fall where they may... and you got a Silver out of it!!! Be proud of that Silver medal!!!

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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!!!

How can someone perform an illegal element and still win? Or were the judges not looking or something?

It is possible that even though she had to take a deduction for an illegal element that she still did well enough to win. But w/o seeing the scoring, we'll probably never know.

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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!!!

Victory:

• Nice empty session again this weekend... well sorta empty... I did have kids in the way, but towards the end, Mr. Weekend Rink Ice Guard was keeping the kids entertain again by spraying LOTS of ice at them!!! (Poor guy! He can't get a moment's peace from the kids! )

Defeat:

• My power 3's are still sucky... it's faster, but not fast enough to make it look like power 3's on the LFO3's side still. The RFO3's side's choctaw is still crappy and I really need to get that side down right.
• 5 step mohawks at times are still a bit "hoppy" and noisy and I'm not happy with that. I've been working on extension, but now I have to go back to working on smooth, quiet and with deep enough edges...
• Was too tired towards the time I was working on back crossovers to BO edge to go fast, though they were stable. Plus, at that point, I was busy dodging whatever skaters were left that were NOT targets of our ice guard's "ice shower."

I'm worried now. The moves should be pretty much perfect now and it's far from it. I'm tempted to call in my skate sharpener tomorrow to make sure my edges have some amount of grip so I wouldn't fall during the test, but part of me now is thinking maybe I should leave things well enough alone now.

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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!!!

Victory:
Today finally I managed to do a really good mohawk. So I tried it again, and again and again until I am now confident in doing them - actually 9 out of 10 I was really happy with.

Defeat:
As always, I cannot seem to master the other way. I can go left - right but not right - left. I am still waiting on my new skates and am so annoyed over it but I don't think there is anything else I can do about it now. I so want to go to private lessons again because maybe now I will start to get somewhere.

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AW1
mum to Miss Lil (6yrs old)
mum to be to #2 due in March 08

More Victories!!! :
This morning's public session was deserted. Me, my daughter, my coach, another figure skater with her mum and brother. My husband came, but only to watch as he hurt his back. The ice was - for once - smooth. And the final miracle, NO music. Just us and the sounds of our blades. Heaven.

I did sit spins! Given that I'm fat, 46, with knee problems, this is something of an achievement. I checked with my coach who was there doing her own practise, and she showed me how low I get, and it is lower than I thought, although nowhere near as low as it needs to be. But it's a good start. Apart from still struggling to land flips and centre spins, it was a great weekend for me.

My daughter had to have her unitard washed and dried so she could wear it again today to show off for her father. This afternoon I made her first competition dress, and it looks really cute. Next weeked I'll get stuck into the hot-fix crystals to jazz it up some more. I have discovered I am good at making skating clothes.

Defeat?: Husband came to watch us. Even though I talk incessantly about skating, and what I'm working on, yesterday it turned out that he had no idea I was doing jumps.
After the session, I asked him if I look graceful or like a baby elephant. His response: You look like a graceful baby elephant.

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Karen

I skate - therefore I am

Defeat:
Well it was bound to happen eventually, a crappy skating day! I drove waaaay across town to get to my old rink. The friend I was supposed to be meeting up with didn't show up, so it was just me and the ice. Crappy ice that is, in a too-cold rink, with zillions of little kids pushing white buckets around (who liked to dispose of them randomly into the center of the rink, where their white color made them blend in with the ice).

My skating was horrible, probably more because of my sleeping too much prior to going than the bad ice, and then I somehow managed to run into a little girl. She was fine though, at least. I was really frustrated then, so after channeling my frustration into one final loop jump (must admit, it actually seemed to help ), I left early.

Debating the idea of skating tomorrow or just taking a day off to rest up. Intending to skate every weekday again this coming week, though I'm interviewing for a job tomorrow which will interfere with my schedule desires. I'm kind of hoping I don't get the job, simply because while the extra money would be handy, having all my daytime hours consumed by it wouldn't be very nice (I've grown spoiled, used to having all of my time open to doing whatever I choose). Then again, extra money would mean things like being able to buy new skates in really short order, and then getting more lessons...

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Victory: Husband did the best run-through ever of his programme in his lesson, and actually landed his loop jump! Let's hope he can repeat it on Friday.

We ran through everything, mostly all okay. Mostly.

Defeat: Flocks of dancers.... various friends told us in great and gory detail of No 1 Adult Couple, who apparently had a rather gory accident yesterday, with him dropping her on her head..... Think she's okay, though - coach2 said she thought it was more blood than anything else.

Just realised we didn't run through the Fiesta Tango, which we don't need next week but will in June. Oh well.

Husband says his knee is beginning to feel the jumps, so he didn't work on them too much in his practice.

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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!

The loop jump was by far the most strenuous on my knee when I was learning it. Part of it is simply that it takes off and lands on the same leg so that leg is doing all the work, but another was simply wrong technique of some sort...I'm not sure exactly what but I know the knee strain went away when I got better at the jump, so I hope the same happens for your husband.

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Casey Allen Shobe | http://casey.shobe.info
"What matters is not experience per se but 'effortful study'."
"At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable" ~ Christopher Reeve

Actually, um thanks, but I didn't skate! I was the official sweater-holder and gave moral support. It was all fun to watch and Terry, Debbie, and Loops all were great.

As for the person who won pre-bronze, I had the thought watching her that she might be relatively new to pre-bronze, only because she was a little wild on everything. But she really attacked her jumps and had good speed. So, let's not assume she's sandbagging right away. Could be she hasn't had time to test up, or she's getting ready to test, or that there's something holding her back from Bronze.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun to watch. I was very relaxed since I wasn't skating!

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August 22, back on the ice!