I guess skating at 6 am on Monday mornings means I get to come up with the titles...I thought of this one during power when I skate forward at full speed, aggressive and the coach blows the whistle which means turn around and skate backward and I skid to slow down to turn and she says "Our goal for you in this class is to turn WITHOUT skidding!" Which means I will need to be brave...

Brave - other than that....this was a great practice session for me. I stayed the whole hour after my power class, lately I've been pooped out and quite 10-15 minutes early. Gee maybe the french toast???

Also having a lot to work on helps. I'm competing my freestyle, artistic and a spins program in about a month.

My half lutz LFO 3 turn, mazurka, half flip sequence is miles better - even the 3 turn into the half flip was really improved. I got so I hold the extention after 3 turn and then step right into the mazurka. I was getting off the ice for my waltz jumps. I prettied up my inside edge hold, LI mohawk, step to RFO 3 turn so I really extended and held the edge. Nothing fancy just pretty.

I felt so brave that when I was working on my artistic, I turned a two foot turn in it into a 3 turn. But I'm supposed to raise my arm during that turn and that's kind of tricky. I will get my coach to help me with that on Friday. And when I did it to the music I became cautious and went back to a two foot turn.

Cautious - well not cautious just not good - I skated the Swing totally to the music but my edges went out the window and was practically skating straight down the sides. I just cannot seem to put timing and edges together. :-(

I'm probably not going to Adult Nationals. It's just too much money and if I'm going to spend the money maybe I'd like to be a little better prepared. I dont' do well testing under pressure and if I try to test the Swing thinking I "have" to pass it to make it to Nationals...that's way too much pressure. And I qualify for a feature in this year's show but it's a week after Nationals and I won't be able to miss a whole week of rehersals the week before the show.

Maybe 2010. Hopefully they will still have solo dance and I'll be further along in dance.

j

I had a fun practice yesterday. Sunday nights are a quiet session so I can get full patterns in without too much trouble.

Another coach & I occasionally trade 10 minutes here & there--I help her w/ dance & she teaches me spins, which I suck at. But she has a gift for teaching them & I've really improved in a very short time because of her. Last night we started on camel, which I've never done before---and I actually got a couple revs in what she said was correct position! Woo hoo! There may be hope for my spins yet.

Passed level 3 field moves. Hurray!!!!

Though I let the nerves take over and managed to skate so badly that I was feeling really ashamed getting off the ice. What my cooach must have thought...

Does anyone has any tricks how to overcome nerves during tests?

CONGRATULATIONS!

I understand completely what you mean about having the nerves take over. My PreBronze moves test was a complete disaster. I was cool, calm and collected and then I fell apart with the shaking legs I could barely stand on. I passed, but came off the ice almost in tears.

What seemed to work for me this time around was to get so totally worked up 2-4 weeks ahead of time, and really really freak out. Then by the time the test came around I had already gotten it over with, and had a manageable level of nerves for the actual test- just a high heart rate during the test and a little shaking on the warm up. (Ask my coach- when I say so totally freaked out ahead of time, I mean it. I was flipping out.)

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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)

Oh wow, well done! That is huge - I can't even begin to do those 3-turns, and my coach and I reckon I will never in a million years get my knees high enough for the spiral exercise (he says I wouldn't pass level 1 on my spirals, so I'm just thankful that I don't have to!). I have the other two exercises more-or-less passable, though.

Congratulations!

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

Still working on that, but some things that help for me:

-skate earlier in the day, for about a 1/2 hour (don't overdo it!!)

-test/compete as often as possible, so you're more used to it

-have someone sit & watch you run through your test while you're practicing---for me, that "someone is watching" feeling makes me nervous. Again, so you get more used to it.

-do a big off-ice warmup before your short on ice warm up so your body is really ready to go

-totally agree with Skittl---really go for the freaking out ahead of time!! Sounds weird, but it does seem to work. Makes for a stressful couple of weeks leading up to the test though!

Had make-up lesson with coach yesterday on a public session. Luckily the session wasn't crowded, I even ran-through the moves test.

Brave:
1. Silver Moves ready to test soon. 8-step mohawk sequence is better now that I'm turning my hip out on the mohawk.
2. Gold Moves progress. Double 3's went great today....I'm still doing brackets on the short line, but they're getting consistent....
3. Did a camel-blur spin combination
4. Lutz combo went great!
5. Actually did a straight-line Ina Bauer (only for about 2 feet)
6. Most exciting!!! Did the Rocker-Counter combination (the one from Novice Moves) without putting my left foot down in the middle of it!!!!! I LOVE that move...it looks really cool.....Can't wait until I can do it really fast around the end of the rink.....

Cautious:
1. I'm still putting my arms down on the flip jump...it's driving my coach crazy. I had to do the jump 5 times grabbing my hands in the air and keeping them together through the landing.....uggghhhh
2. Sit spin today was blah.......

Thanks!

Lisa
Portland, OR

CONGRATULATIONS!

I'm another one who likes this technique. Imagine yourself out there testing every time you run through the moves. I think in addition to getting the level of nerves down somewhat by test time, you also know that you can skate with those nerves when the time comes.

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cautious - missed my train, and thereby the first twenty minutes of practice this morning

brave - me on my BO3 turns, picking up speed and confidence, spins suck way less, even back spins (not good mind you but much less bad) and it was a middling jumpy morning. Didn't land a loop but getting closer.

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It's all about the dress!

Brave: Learning my new free skate program, since my jumping is limited, coaches focus is on second mark. Needless to say, this will be a very difficult program for me to perform well. Hopefully, I can overcome my lack of jumping prowress with better skating skills.

Cautious: Jr Choctaws, new program at speed.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

Well, even my coach commented on your good center while spinning last Friday. We were both watching you, and both impressed - even with the backspin. It's better than you think!

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Congrats on passing level 3 field moves!!!

Try to concentrate on doing the elements and walking thru what you have to do in your mind and NOTHING ELSE!!! Do NOT think "Oh, this is the real test session!" If you have to bring music to listen to to help you to focus on those elements, do it!

Think of it as another work task that has to get done! You got thru your household tasks before... so think of it as just another household task, KWIM?

liz_on_ice: Are you going to be at our Aviator version of our meetup up in a couple of weeks? (Tuesday late afternoon, early evening or whatever time people can make it?) I would like to see those backspins!!! I have a hunch they aren't as bad as you say they are!!!

Cautious:

• I am really REALLY sore and my muscles are really tired!!! I barely had enough juice for my lesson tonight.
• I was not able to land ALL my loops cleanly, especially towards the time of my lesson (which happens to be towards the end of the hour that I was skating!!! LOL!!!)
• I drove my primary coach CRAZY trying (and at first unsuccessfully!) trying to do the new footwork that he just gave me!!! He was like the entire lesson!!!
• Playing it safe on the flip combo jump for this comp. I'm just going for a flip-toe loop! I will work towards a flip-loop for AN though.

Brave:
Going for the lutz in my technical program this year!!! YES, I AM!!! (If the flip-loop comes together, it will be a lutz-toe loop. ) And yes, I did land a few tonight 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!!!

After my normal stop at Tim Horton's for a breakfast sandwich ....

Brave: Started the choreography for my new Interpretive this morning. After her initial reluctance, my coach is starting to get into this!

Let's just say my new program is "strange". One of the young competitive skaters was working on her program when my music was playing and she had to break it off - she couldn't skate for laughing. Nuff said.....

Cautious: Still have no idea if my ankles/knees/hips are going to allow me to continue with freestyle. Physiotherapist says I need 4 to 6 weeks to build up my quads and it has been three weeks .... only time will tell.

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

Were you "on time" or did they chime 'ya for being 5 minutes late today?

You know... we will eventually ask you what the new program skating music is...

Ummmm...you are skating??? Therefore, you ARE building up your quads!!! (Okay, it's not as simple as that! You have to stroke around the rink, bending your knees and get a full push on the blade to get the full effect... )

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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!!!

I was right on time!

Yes, and I am no good at keeping a secret so I will eventually blab!

That's the idea. Ever since I did a lesson with Elizabeth Manley 3 weeks ago, she got me REALLY "down in the knees" and made a RADICAL difference to my skating - huge improvement in both pwer and "form" - my coach commented that I now look like a "serious skater" LOL! but I found muscles I didn't know I hadn't used..... just going to take some time to figure out whether I will soar or crash - right now I am just sore!

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

This is for yesterday, but hey, that's still this week!

Brave: I did a good runthru of my program. I hit all the elements and added some more artisitc stuff. It's working out pretty well, but I am completely out of energy at the end. I'm planning on taping it tomorrow morning with the help of another girl. Hopefully, it'll look better than I think it does.

Cautious: I had the coach look at my sal-1/2loop-flip seq and she says that I'm landing my 1/2loop forwards about 50% of the time... BOO! I'm working on it and hopefully it'll be fixed soon. If not, I'll need to change that pass into a sal-loop-loop or sal-toeloop-loop. Except I hate toe-loops...

Brave: The coach talked my into doing an axel-toeloop-loop and axel-3turn-axel! It was really different because the only combos I've done with the axel is the axel-1/2looop-flip. I managed both, but they were both super sucky.

Cautions: I have stiff hands... Sometimes they are pretty, but not usually!!! There is so much to think about, that my arms and hands just kinda stay in the basic uphelp position. I guess I need to work on skating with graceful hands and maybe put more gestures into my program. Ugh.

Brave
Today was moves day, and instead of doing our usual Novice MIF work, I had my MIF coach start teaching me (figure) loops. She started me with back inside loops and by the end of our lesson I had a LBI loop. By the end of the FS session I also had a RBI loop. Now I just need to make the loops bigger, which will involve staying more towards the middle of the blade instead of right on the ball of the blade (a little scary!).

Cautious
I only made myself do one LFO counter (my #1 mental block turn), and the exit was really wimpy. I'm also still sore from the fall I had on Sunday (I got distracted just as I was about to get on the ice and forgot I still had my guards on. Ugh!)

My theory about the half loop is that the only reason we all struggle with it so much is because it has the wrong name. I was suddenly able to do it once my coach finally explained that what we call a "half loop" is actually a fully rotated loop where you just land with your left foot instead of your right. Just like the regular loop, you stay backwards with your hips closed and left foot in front of the right shin until you are all the way backwards, then just put the left foot down and extend the right foot way back on the landing instead of landing on the right and extending the left leg way back. You need to check rotation and try to ride the edge straight back just like a regular loop landing, and that will make it much easier to do the flip afterwards (although that is an inherently awkward flip entrance!)

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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

Caution to the wind: The morning skate was a power session for the most part. Stroking strongly and aggressively occupied much of the morning, especially after the kids left at 7:15 am to attend school. I had the rink mostly to myself.

In my exuberance, I'm sometimes finding myself in a bind when I'm REALLY down in the knees so far down I can barely muster enough strength to keep from collapsing. It takes a mighty push to keep going. I keep in mind that if I do go down, I'd slide a good 1/3 way down the rink. (That's actually kind of fun in a strange way, but still, I don't want to do that.)

I left with sweat running down my face, soaking wet hair, and looked forward to a shower before I taught my class. (The students would be glad too.)

A young coach here offered to teach me for free, but I declined. By university decree, all of our coaches are college students. I told him that even though educators don't earn that much, I'm still rich compared to most college students.

We negotiated, and he will coach me on Monday mornings... and he will be paid for his work. He deserves that.

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Bill Schneider

thank you - but three revs on the backspin (or to be specific, backspin stage of changefoot) is still only a dream, and I'm not passing FS3 without it. sigh.

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It's all about the dress!

I'm not sure, work is upside down crazy these days. I might be going to KC again for a couple of days, so squeaking in an extra day off is dicey.

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It's all about the dress!

I am quite certain I saw you do 3, and on the correct edge.

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I got hurt I pulled my hamstring pretty badly yesterday doing Victory/Y-Spins. My coach insisted I was flexible enough. It didn't feel too bad when I was doing it, but I can hardly even walk today. I still skated though Really, jumps didn't hurt too badly. Axels and double sals hurt (it's my left hamstring), but I didn't notice too much pain in my other doubles. That might have been endorphins starting to kick in, though

Brave
-Had my second lesson with my new jump coach today. It went quite well. He's very picky, but he actually complimented me on my double flip. I also managed a double lutz for him.

Cautious
-I couldn't do anything except for jump today. Just skating around hurt, spinning was out of the question, and my attempts at left footed powerpulls sent me onto my butt (when my hamstring refused to do anything to support my body).

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Youtube Videos

This session of classes has been great! There are only 4-6 adults in my class (each week has been different) and we have one instructor with two helpers! It really makes for alot of individual attention.

My forward crossovers are coming along quite nicely. Last night one of our helpers said that my crossovers looked better than hers. Wow! What a compliment

We also started backwards crossovers. It took me quite awhile to actually lift my foot. I was suddenly terrified. By the last few minutes I was able to do a few. They were definately not pretty, but at least my foot left the ice.

Stopping is still somewhat iffy. I can do it if I really think about it, but if I am just skating and suddenly need to stop, its not going to happen yet.

Brave Actually made some progress on my camel- what the instructor was saying has finally clicked. I was raising up too early, so I was looping around on my inside edge, and then I wasn't bringing my shoulder and hip "together" so my leg was drifting. I actually did one that meritted a "good"- and another that got a "that's exactly what i was wanting". Of course, I have no idea whether these actually look like camels. I am going to try to tape on Saturday.

Cautious Even though my head is saying "bend bend bend" while I do the three turn, I still end up raising too early. My brain makes all the corrections I'm given, why won't my body?

Very Cautious Why can't I do a backspin?

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

Brave -

One of the girls on my session just on her own commented to my coach about me "She looks so much more comfortable on the ice now!"

My lessons are usually on Friday but coach is going out of town so I had a make up lesson today. We went over my artistic...we were able to turn a two foot turn into a 3 turn complete with an arm movement. It has to happen very quickly and I get a little behind in the music but I can do it and I think I'll fix it by the time I compete this in exactly one month.

Then I had her help me with my 3 turn before my half flip...what she did was have be glide on the edge a while, do a step behind and then step forward for the 3 turn...I think it just slows me down enough to give me time to set up the 3 turn, it made a big difference. I really feel good about my freestyle program. It's not going to win any points on technical difficulty but it's a very pretty program.

I brought a CD with music I downloaded and played that so I didn't have to listen to all the talking on the radio. Of course it was all music I liked - but I think the other girls liked it too....I enjoyed just skating around, doing turns and spirals and edges to the music.

j