On a roll: Got my skates sharpened
Brackets were much cleaner and flowier
Double threes were very nice and controlled
Had some really nice scratch spins..I had like 10 revs on one causing me to become very dizzy.
Learned the way of the camel, pancake, and back sit and various combo spins involving them.
Actually did a camel-sit-back sit....without falling..
My coach said that of all my spins, my sit spin has definatly improved the most! I definatly agree.
Jumps in general were going very well today...especally loops
Landed one good steady flip which I believe I had nice height on
Worked out the kinks in my 'modernesque' programme
Very slowly started my 'Lady In the Water' programme and choreographed a couple of must-have chunks.
My camel is improving so much...I actually spun..instead of getting the hook and falling. I can actually say that I spun this time...hooray!!
Really feel that I worked hard today..muscels ache and Im at work extremely tired. Guess thats a good thing right?
Had a good office lesson..did some serious stretching, flexibility training, jumps and spin positions.


In Withdrawal: Trying to stop on newly sharpened skates...not so pleasant
Nearly crashed into my 'facebook buddy'...we both had newly sharpened skates and neither of us were able to stop fast...I took the fall..yet it didn't hurt or anything.
After a really nice flip, I tried another in which I got alot of height, landed it, then both feet went out from under me. GRRRR
Almost killed myself on my toe pick..not once but SEVERAL times
Chickened out once again with doing my 'moderesque' programme. Its just that there were so many people on the ice and I really did not feel like being run over. But the time I was really considering it, the session was over. Oh well, next time I guess
No ice tomorrow...BOO!

Overall great session, had some great things happen. I for one vow to never let my skates get that dull again. Sharpening does wonders and makes a huge difference BTW I was having way too much fun with these smiley things. Okay Im done.

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[i]Beauty May Be in the Eye of the Beholder
But passion is in the heart of a skater.[/I]

On a roll: Had a good practice this morning! I will be retrying my silver free in 10 days, so I got my program rearranged for that. Hopefully I'll pass this time, last time was such a joke that I didn't, my friends, coach, one of the judges on my panel (the one who passed me) still tease me about my strange, sudden inability to do a measly 3 revs in a camel spin the day I took it last time. I am holding off on my pre-juv free until after Buckeye. Even though the test programs are the same with the exception of one spin, that spin on the pre-juv program is not consistent for me yet. I have a hard time going from a front scratch to a back scratch and it's just not consistent--I always do it the other way around with the back scratch first. When I do it "my" way I can do it passable (not spinning quite as fast on the forward scratch so I'm not dizzy when I go to step to the back scratch), but my coach feels I need to attack all my spins more and doesn't want me wimping out.

However, my sit-change-sit was rather nice today--I think it's easier to control the change in that spin because I'm not spinning as fast and I'm already in a down position.

Also worked during my lesson on lutzes, my lutz loop was very nice in a few of my run-thrus today.

Overall skating a program is getting MUCH more comfortable and even sort of fun! Freestyle is so different from what I'm used to--in synchro every last step, arm movement, head movement and facial expression is set in stone, and obviously dance isn't much different--so being essentially able to do what I want has kind of been an adjustment. Elements of my program are flowing together much better and I'm getting comfortable adding more bells and whistles (more turns before jumps, upping single twizzles to doubles, having time to hold jump landings longer, etc).

In withdrawal: Between school starting, not having ice for a week, and getting ready for Wyandotte, today was the first day I've worked on axels in at least a month. Not good. Just spent about 15 min working on takeoffs into bell jumps. I *really* want to have it to the point where at Buckeye I can just go for it in my free or my compulsory (or both!).

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

Today was, shall we say, a disaster.

It was just bad. Really. My coach didn't get there until the end of my warm-up which was slightly stressful, and I skated first. The beginning went somewhat OK, but from about the halfway point on it was just terrible. My legs just stopped working. I fell on a double sal, got up, push to my left leg and immediately fell over. When I got up, my legs were so shaky that I actually thought I was losing my blade. After I got up I had to do stars into a flying camel and I was definitely tentative since I honestly thought my blade was going to go flying off into the bleacher. It didnt, but I got off the ice and burst into tears because my legs hurt so badly. I don't know what happened, but they just started cramping horribly and then the tendons on the outside starting burning really badly. I ripped my skates off, tried to get up to stretch and fell over. I know I've said this a few times already, but it was like my legs from the knee down just didnt' know what to do. I lost total control of them.

Needless to say, I got last. I just hope tomorrow is better and that my legs aren't on fire.

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Youtube Videos

ibreakhearts - It sounds as if you quit breathing from the minute you took the ice to skate your program so the lactic acid built up too quickly in your muscles causing your problems. (Gee. how would I know that? )

You have to remember to breathe and should even "choreograph" breaths in the program so that you are taking in O2 and pushing the lactic acid out of your system (or at least delaying the reaction). We had a kid at our rink who did the same thing (not breathing) who used to throw up at the end of her program.

I give you credit for getting out there and I know it can be hard when you hvae high expectations for your skating and don't meet them. ((BIGHUGS))

ibreakhearts - sorry you had a rotten skate. It happens; all you can do is put it behind you and carry on. You were out there and you skated - that is the main thing!

As for us, we are now definitely in withdrawal from our coaches - we need lessons. Luckily they are back on Tuesday, and not before time.

But we are on a roll in terms of our preparation for our next competition. We are where we hoped to be.

Which is more than can be said for Husband's toe loops, which are seriously bad right now - he is totally stepping to forwards even before he picks in. I videoed him, as he didn't believe me!

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

Thanks, and you are probably absolutely right. I wasn't thinking of breathing at all during my artistic. I do remember towards the end feeling like I was about to collapse. Oops. I do have some breathing choreographed into my fs. Well, kind of. There are moments where I can remind myself to take deep breaths. I'll try to remember to breathe today!

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Youtube Videos

Wow, I haven't posted in a while!

On a roll: love, love, love my new program music and new footwork sequence. It is TOUGH but that's how I want it...to make up for my iffy jumps. Just did it with a flip on the end...on my carpet (ha!)...if I can really get a flip on the end of that I think my skating dreams will have been fulfilled. Well, if I could put an axel at the end of it, but can't for bronze.

Sit spin is good right now...camel...I can't tell?

In withdrawal: no ice flips, just carpet. Can't get that sit/back sit combo for the life of me, just can't get into position for the back sit. Considering I want a camel/sit/back sit combo my work is cut out for me...

Mixed feelings: pretty sure moving back to Florida in January if I decide to keep my job - Love old coach in FL and love current coach in NC! Will really miss my rink, club and coach. Wish everyone could move with me and I could take lessons from both coaches! Hope I can afford to do easterns and nationals.

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

After such a long season without skating (and not being able to take advantage of my rink's expanded season) it's so nice to heal that nasty skating withdrawal!!!

Today was my 2nd lesson of the season and I was "on a roll" with it! Although the rink was FOGGY from hot outside/cold inside (it also made the ice weird) today was sooo good in so many ways!

Field moves: once again, we are back at these! We hit the forward crossovers as I really have confidence and stablity issues (not 100% on my left leg 6 months post-op). But these improved a smidgen with those reminders from my coach (hug the circle, bend you knees.....)

Waltz Jump: this has gotten bigger altho I'm at a loss to know why. So we added speed and it was good.

Toe-Loop: How I despised this jump!!! After one botched attempt (um, yeah check that left arm!) the rest were better. So coach had me tackle the waltz-toe-loop combo...and after one abort (yeah forgot the toe-loop part) the rest were ok.

1-Foot spins: we are still breaking these down...so I have to do them without pulling in...that's a very hard thing to not do! LOL!

Backspins: these were the best!!! After such a struggle last year and the year before that...these are finally clicking! I managed a few that had all the elements: rotation on the ball of the foot, arms "hugging the beach ball", and free foot crossing (altho sometimes more open than my coach prefers).

Now it's hours later and I'm VERY sore!!! But still very happy with today's skate!

Bill, I know your dilemma about scheduling! I ended up NOT attending my typical wednesday night club session...I'm in school and I'd have to travel 25 miles, haul my crap into the rink, change, off-ice warm up etc for a session all in about 30 minutes...I don't want that kind of stress so I'm skipping the session.

I also had to turn down a partner request from a fellow ballroom dancer. We met and hit it off great, but the nights he can dance I'm either in class or at the rink. Too bad as it would have worked out nicely for both of us (darn this school stuff!!! LOL)

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

[In withdrawal]
What am I going to do about these axels? I've been trying to do them off ice a bit so that I can get that snap going and really bring my knee through, but it just doesn't seem to be working. Back to my old bad habits on the ice. They are still not fully rotated and while I know what the problems are, I can't seem to fix them...I tend to look down and reach for the ice and I don't stay in long enough...I can do them off ice, but that doesn't translate for me to on ice success. I am beating my head against a wall here

[On a Roll]
Moves felt good today...coach wants me to test these soon, so I best get working on them...there are only 1.5 moves that I don't feel entirely comfortable that they will be there when I'm nervous...the CW rocker/choctaw pattern (#2) and the bracket/3/bracket patterns.

Footwork for my program is coming along when I do it in isolation...haven't really put it together with the music yet...oops Still struggling with the choctaw coach put in there (it's RFI 3/cross over/RBI 3/slip behind/swing wide, choctaw/bracket-bracket/ballet jump....etc...)

Need to be up early for the 6am session...I get picked up at 5:15am then it's on the ice by 6am, off by 7ish then back home by 8ish and at work by 9...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Well today was better than yesterday, but it wasn't great.

Warm-up wasn't good. I did a very strange double loop where I didn't even pull my arms in. It was quite odd. Double toes were off. Really, everything was off.

My program was respectable. The skating was terrible and slow and I knew it, but I didn't have the energy to do anything about it. I landed axel, double loop, double toe, double sal and other singles. I had never actually landed the double toe during all of my program practices, so that was really nice. The 2sal was supposed to be 2sal 1/2 loop 2sal sequence, but it didn't happen. I singled my loop on my lutz 2loop combo because I didn't have enough speed.

I was worried about my spin combo, but it went really well. It's back camel, back sit, forward camel, forward sit. It was a big relief to do that well.

But then ending. Oh man, the ending. I hit my ending pose, took a step forward and started to throw up. I hadn't been feeling well all day, but didn't really think about it. Instead of bowing, I gave a little wave of the arms as I went rushing of the ice for the trash can. I barely made it off the ice before puking I just hope the judges didn't think I was rude for not bowing.

I didn't place well, 4th out of 4, but three out of five judges gave me 3rd. It was a good experience and I now know that the program has the potential to be really good.

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Youtube Videos

ibreakhearts: Sorry to hear about your competition sick story!!! I definitely would hate to be in your shoes on this. Yeah, sounds like it's time to "program in" spots for breathing so at least you delay the inevitable need to puke long enough to bow to the judgesl

On a roll:
Had my first lesson with primary coach since the rink closed... this was at least two weeks ago. We went to my second alternate rink, where the first hour of the public session is okay and drastically goes downhill from there into kiddie hell!!! (No ice monitor... and they didn't do the 3pm ice cut too! Trust me! They are asking for liability lawsuits at that rink...)

kander: You should know which rink I'm talking about based on that description, right? (Don't post it online... PM me...)

Let see...

Spins:

• One foot: okay;
• Backspin: okay, not great. I have to be more on the BO edge. Nothing I don't already know...
• Sit spins: Bad on the first try but got better and better as the session wore on.
• Camel: REALLY sucky but again, got better and better as the session wore on... and my last one was probably my best one.

Jumps:

• Waltz: Could be better but the last one was probably the best one.
• Salchow: Good
• Toe loop: Toe waltz!!! Ironically when I do a toe loop-toe loop combo, he thinks the combo toe loop is better. Go figure...
• Loop: Good. Arms need to be in more when I'm up in the arm and to my chest but otherwise okay.
• Flip: Same as loop.
• Flip-loop: (I landed the last one clean but it didn't glide out after the loop.)
• Lutz: Two footed landings on all but the last one. Landed that one clean to primary coach's "that's a good one" and a Gold level guy's cheering. (He's one of my fellow skaters that has been watching me skate for YEARS from when I was a wimpy Pre-Bronze skater.)

In withdrawal:
Only one thing... my runthru of my artistic program (this is on my own w/o primary coach...) Remember I mentioned about the session being KIDDIE HELL after the first hour??? Why the heck am I a kiddie magnet during my program runthru???

And I have a non-existent back-sit as of now too!!!

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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!!!

On a roll - salchow, BO3s, spirals

In withdrawal - my loop, which has been missing since I did the first handful last winter. I did some at the wall and almost did some away, so I'm back to almost there. Also the ice monitor - where the heck was he when the snowball fights broke out?

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It's all about the dress!

I'm proud of you!! You never gave in, even though your body was "off." You also singled or skipped jumps instead of risking a bad fall, which was smart both in terms of your score *and* your injury-prevention resolution! And once you hit your ending pose the judges are done, so don't worry about what happened after that, LOL!
I'm really glad Techskater brought up that breathing issue. It sounds like it must have helped you get through your technical program (whew!)

So are you feeling any better today??

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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

A little. I'm still feeling a little queasy, so I'm being gentle to my stomach.

I just can't wait til I'm under IJS because I think I'll do a lot better. All of my jumps are clean whereas all of my competitors on Sunday cheated theirs. The technical elements are my strength, so that should help me. I definitely need to work on my artistry and the like though.

I'm glad Techskater brought up the breathing issue, but not the girl who would throw up issue lol. Maybe that's where my body got the idea from.

ETA: Heres a video of my skate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuu6MrVc0QM

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Youtube Videos

OMG, if you're that suggestible, we'll just have to start talking about the double axels you're about to land, LOL!

I think you're right; your technical score for that program would have been pretty good under IJS because you fully rotated all the doubles you actually went for and the others would get credit for singles with no -GOE's (which is more points than underrotated doubles). You also got enough revolutions in position on each of your spins. This is a pretty new program, right? As you keep skating it throughout the season, you will definitely get more speed and flow, especially on the footwork (which looks like it's got some pretty tricky stuff in it!)

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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

Oh you'll have to tell me about some other person with a similar history to mine that lands perfect double axels

Exactly. That's what I'm counting on. And yes, this program is like 2 weeks old. I mean, parts of it are like 9 months old, but the program as a whole? Brand new.

And my footwork is quite tricky, and that was the shorter version! The Pasadena rink is only 150 long, so I had to cut out quite a bit. There's supposed to be a double rocker in the beginning, but I messed up the counter, so I knew it wouldn't work.

Also, as I get more fit, the flow should increase. Towards the end I knew I needed to push more, but there was no way it was gonna happen.

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Youtube Videos

Oops! Wrong thread

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