This thread is in honor of Mrs. Redboots b-day!!! I'd imagined Mrs. Redboots got a LOT of presents -- some gifts, but probably at least one "white elephant" gift!!!

White Elephant:

• Loops. Not there yet...
• Forward power threes: My coach last Thursday gave me an exercise to work on. No dice so far... (And I need to get this exercise since this is part of the POWER part of the move.) The exercise has to do with getting enough power on the push after the FO3 on the BI edge. (Any hints outside of bending my knees but keeping my back straight, guys?)
• Backspin: AUUUGH!!! SOOOO CLOSE still!!! I was able to cross my leg ONCE...before going RIGHT BACK ON THAT INSIDE EDGE!!!!
• Can I return my toe loop and exchange it for a REAL toe loop?
• Flip NOT THERE either!!!

Gift:

• Forward power threes: So happy that it's finally stablizing to the point where I could work on my coach's exercise!!! (Well, that and the LFO3 from forward strokes. Still have to figure that part out...)
• Scratch and Sit spins okay
• First two salchow was decent.
• Flip ALMOST THERE!!!
• Camel there, though only for a short 1-2 rev.

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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!!!

Happy Birthday Mrs. Redboots! I hope your birthday was as great as mine was a few weeks ago!

Gift Backward perimeter crossover stroking is coming along, or so my coach says, as are the power 3's in each direction. THey're scary when it's the LFO3, but I'm sure they'll get better. Salchow has also improved thanks to some intensive work with both coach #2 and backup coach while my primary coach was away.

White Elephant My new interpretive program. I'm sure it will get better, but right now it's a struggle. I think my coach has delusions of just how fast I can skate without killing myself! But hopefully it will be more comfortable by the end of the week. It's still very new and that's part of the problem. Sigh..

Oh, not a gift but hard work: I've lost 10.5 pounds in about the last 5-6 weeks.

Happy skating everyone,
Pat

Gift - that I actually felt good enough to skate!! This allergy season is killing me. I tried a few jumps today out of curiousity and found they weren't bad. Did decent alternating 3's outside and inside. Tried to get a good LFI spiral and SPLAT!

White Elephant - spinning. I have totally forgotten how to spin. Will have to work on that with coach some.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Redboots!!

Jackie

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Happy birthday!!

I skated Sunday morning, and ran through my program, which went pretty well. My doubles were landed, but not pretty - now I need to work on getting them more reliable.

The schedule for the Chesapeake Open is out!

Debbie - then next time any hockey types or anyone does that on the sidelines, get the rink manager and coach and they will be removed immediately. We've done that before.

Saturday morning lesson. I think it was a white elephant -- don't know! I was too sleepy to tell. Summer sessions start an hour earlier (9AM lesson instead of 10AM). 7AM synchro -- I think I'll go next week to give it a try. I believe I should catch on quickly as I used to be part of a Rockette's style tap troup and with 15 years of dance I understand the patterns and rhythm and can remember choreograpy pretty easily. The skating is the only part that's tough, LOL!

First lesson, Delta:

Because there are no other adults at this level I'm in with three 8-year-old Delta kids. With an instructor I've never had before (who wasn't there this lesson). I'm looking forward to it -- maybe he can figure out what's up with my 3turns!

Our learn-to-skate director subbed for our class and we started with inside 3 turns. Same problem with outside 3-s: I drop my foot the minute I get through the turn.

Lunges: A-ok. No problem there. Did a cool one where my weight was slightly to the outside of my skating leg and I went completely around in a circle while still moving forward. Impressed the skate director, though, LOL!

Forward edges: I was wobbly for some unknown reason and my timing was off on the edges. Plus, the kids do nearly twice as many lobes as I do to get across the rink. I think I'll just have to be the first one in line each time so that I'm not screeching to a halt to avoid them. Was complimented by skate director on my pass-through, so I guess they weren't that bad for my timing being off.

Extra stuff: Ran too late in the day yesterday, got really hot and shortened my run by about 4 minutes to 31 inutes. Ran 37038 minuted today earier in the morning. Drinking mucho water!

White Elephant: No ice. Off-ice. Brand new bike scrtached up by daughter throwing her's on top of mine in shed.

After doing a few of each jump off-ice in the front yard, I no longer can do a normal single jump. I'm over rotating and doing a rotation and a half on all my jumps (didn't do waltz jump). Toe, sal, loop, flip and lutz are one and half rotations now. Still not totally healed with my Achilles tendon but it feels much better. Have to work on checking out stronger or have to try to get the last half rotations on doubles. LOL

Gift:

Moved seat up on bike just a half inch and now don't get knee pain riding anymore. Knee was way above hip when riding before. Felt like a circus clown riding before. LOL

Off-ice jumping all jumps no probs until I tried a little harder. Just don't tell doc/physio guy I was jumping in my front yard. Just hoping that the off-ice over rotation works out on the ice to good single rotation in Sept. so that I can get my prelim FS test passed in the fall.

Question for a coach. Do you get docked in tests if you do a double instead of a single jump? What if I heal up really well, my bunions are fixed and don't cause me to lean inward on ice and give me stronger edges and I end up being able to do the axel and all the doubles, all the spins (scratch=corkscrew, sit, camel, backspin, combo spin, flying spin and layback), do you test prelim and then junior bronze at the same time? Or do you play it cool and only go for the prelim risking doubling jumps when they have to be singles during competitions? What should an adult skater do? This hasn't happened yet. I just guessing that it could happen to me since, for the last two years, I've been competing without full strength because of my Achilles tendonitis and because of severe bunions not being able to jump high but barely enough for single jumps.

Brigitte

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"It's not age that determines but the heart." "Skating is not just a sport for the young but it's a passion for the soul of the young at heart." Brigitte Laskowski

I am a nomadic adult skater who is a member of Windsor FSC (Skate Windsor) WOS SC again since Sept. 1st, 2008.

http://eastcastlemusic.tripod.com

Singerskates Sports Music Editing

i'm not a coach but i think that skate canada does require docking of marks for "restricted elements" such as doubles. I don't know if this applies to testing...but i'd play it safe and stick with singles on you're prelim test then add the axel for the jr.bronze then if you have the doubles you can add them when you test sr.bronze jr.silver and sr.silver hope i helped!!

Gift:
Had a great practice today (would have had lesson, but coach's baby was due yesterday - still haven't heard from her).

• Got some real F power pulls on R foot & first real B ones
• More one foot spins from wind up succeeded than not
• Completed a full Juv cross stroke pattern
• Got half the 5-step Mohawk done with OK speed and good pattern
• FI threes feeling better, still not in pattern, just doing them anywhere
• 8-step Mohawk pattern getting smoother, especially CW

There are twin girls with whose mother I occasionally chat a bit. Today, one of her daughters fully rotated her axel for the first time, right in front of me. I congratulated her on it, not knowing it was her first. Later her mom told me so, and also told me she had seen and noticed my power pulls and spins! No one ever watches me except my coach during my lesson, so this was a real pleasure.

White Elephant:
Tried one BO three on my own and scraped it so badly that I didn't continue. Just didn't feel right for them today.

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I think its quite unlikely that you would suddenly start doing doubles just because your injuries have healed. You need practice and timing for doubles, so you probably wouldn't be able to just get them like that. Even if you did, you would still be able to do the singles, so for the test you would just do the singles, just because you can do doubles doesn't mean its impossible to do a jump without doubling it.

When a test requires singles, then that's what you have to do, you're being tested on your ability to do the required elements in a test, not what the most difficult thing you can do is.

Gift - I wore a skirt for the first time skating!! It actually did feel different, I could feel the "wind" and the speed more. I think as it get's warmer I'll wear more skirts. Hmmm, what went well last night, I figured out some of what was going WRONG with spins. :-)

White Elephant - we focused on spins not dance and we broke it down bit by bit and found I rushed certain parts, too slow on swinging my leg around and straighten my leg too fast. Made some improvements now I need to practice these Wednesdays as well as alternating 3's, I promised to test Pre-Bronze in August. :-)

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

Gift After 4 weeks off the ice due to a sprain ankle I can skate again I'm rusty but pain free and cannot complain.

White Elephant Last fall/winter I spent 4 months learning how to do the backward outside/inside edges. They are now gone.

GIFT: I've been skating for almost two years and it's been one of the most wonderful experiences of my life.

WHITE-ELEPHANT: I think I've peaked in my skating. I've really been pushing hard to try and learn new things, but physically it is starting to take it's toll.

Tried learning a two-foot spin a couple of weeks ago and my knees ached for several days after. I tried to practice back brackets last night and the left knee locked up painfully. Had to get off the ice early. Ice packs and NSAIDs.

I've been trying to skate with the synchro team for the past two weeks, but my shoulder (where I had the rotator cuff repaired) gets extemely sore and irritated. Also, I've glitched my lower back. I'm not sure I'll be able to withstand the push and pull.

Getting old, I guess.

I may have to be content with the things I CAN do.

You have my total understanding and sympathy. I'm not as old as some people on this board, I'm 38, but I have some "old" people problems, bursitis in my left hip (can be VERY painful) problems with my left knee and neck issues from a severe car accident. I am incredibly flexible but due to the bursitis I can't hold my hip open to do an Ina Bauer (sharp stabbing pains) which breaks me heart and my left knee gets really sore when I work too much on spinning. It is interesting that two of the main things I wanted to learn to do well have so far eluded me but I can jump and do mitf fairly well. But, I've learned to limit my time on the ice, 15-20 then a 5 minute break, I stretch, do yoga and pilates and when need be I cut back on skating. I feel your pain.

You may not have peaked though, do you do off ice training, work with personal trainer or therapists? There may be excercises to strengthen some of the problem areas.

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter

I skate Monday and Wednesday nights. Pilates on Tuesday night. Yard work and home repairs Saturdays and Sundays. I've skated the last couple of weeks on Thursday night with the synchro team (although it appears I may have to give that up). Plus 9 hours a day at the office/warehouse.

There is loads more I could probably do to get some of these joint areas into better shape, but putting that time and effort into something that I consider recreational might not be worth it to me. Although I'm not old at 49, "a man has got to know his limitations". Having had polio as a child which left some muscle deterioration doesn't help either.

And then there's always the possibility of post-polio syndrome.

Basically, I don't want to slave away at exercising so that I can skate for a couple of hours every week. Then it wouldn't be fun.

I skate for fun!!!!!!!!

Gift : Coach loved my cross-roll step on the Fiesta. I think I do it well because I like doing that step so much. Better flow on all the dances in general. RFO threes are getting stronger; focusing on checking my shoulder more and getter a deeper inside edge after the turn. Have all the patterns pretty much down now. Swing felt great when coach partnered me.

White Elephant : The session was PACKED with free-skaters. I'm really the odd one out, because it's not a dance session, but it was nearly impossible to get one whole dance completed around the perimter of the rink. Thankfully, I'll be on an actual dance session in July. At the start of the lesson, the WE was without a doubt the RFO threes! But they improved drastically by the end of the hour.

Gary - hang in there! I look at my off ice physical therapy exercises (as much as they are a pain in the a** and are inconvenient to boot) as something I must do to be able to do something I love - skate.

Gift: Worked on the Intermediate MIF's for most of the lesson. Coach has shown me the proper exits for the power circles, which tells me that I'm doing the body of them correctly. He's quite happy with my power 3's around the end.

Axel is improving - in practice they are feeling better. We only got to waltz jumps today (ran out of time), but I know that his corrections to the entry will help my axel. I've had some problems with it (mostly pre-rotation), but because I was so gung ho to compete at Adult Nationals (injured no less), we never had a chance to work on improving my 21 year old muscle memory . Didn't do any doubles - ran out of time.

Oh - most important of the Gifts - I am in week 2 of being able to jump and my injury isn't hurting. A bit sore at times, a bit tight at times, but not that stabbing pain I had before Adult Nationals .

White Elephant: My world's worst brackets (on the MIF test). Ugh - they were terrible. Most of them are ok except for the backward outside ones. We discovered something about them - if he lightly held my left hand (on the right BO ones), they were extremely easy. When I do them regularly, I am tensing up something terrible and it is throwing the whole thing out of whack. So he wants me to practice them 2-footed to get the more relaxed feel of them. Hope this works - I knew they just felt wrong but didn't know how to fix it.

All Gifts...

Waltz jump is really nifty now. The speed is picking up and the height and distance is really improving.

Salchow, while still in it's infancy is getting it's act together. I am pulling it all together and actually showing some consistency.

Toeloop. Today we started the toeloop and actually I seem to have gotten it down quickly. I think it is easier than the salchow.

Funny sidelight. I am usually the only male and the oldest person out on the ice. I noticed that a few of the younger ladies were watching my efforts, especially when I did a waltz jump/side toe hoop/waltz jump combo together. Maybe they found it fascinating to watch an old guy do jumps.

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Keeping School Figures Alive!!

Gary, I know exactly how you feel, being on round the clock ibuprofen myself for arthritic hips. I'm not sure, though, that you have peaked. It's possible that you were going at the two-foot spin incorrectly, and that is why you had knee pain. That happened to me the first time I tried power pulls, so I gave them up thinking I would never be able to do them. Maybe a year later, my coach started me on them again and I told her why I had quit. She said my knees shouldn't hurt if I did them right, and now I am just beginning to be able to do them - with no pain at all. I had to start over learning them, but it was worth it. The same thing goes for brackets. If your weight is in the right place, it shouldn't hurt. One thing you can do is go back to two footing them until they feel like a knife through butter.

I do think it's likely that synchro won't work for you because of your shoulder injury and because of the additional forces of the push and pull.
OTOH, you just may need more time before you are ready for synchro. When your own skating improves, you will feel less force from the other skaters.

Whatever you decide to do, you are echoing what my pre-pre moves judge said to me after my test: "Always skate for fun!", and you can't go wrong there.

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Last night's skate doesn't count, as I fell asleep and ended up with only 45 minutes of very crowded ice, so did very little except basic skating and chatting to the friend I'd gone to meet (she had her 50th birthday a couple of weeks before mine, so we went out together afterwards to celebrate).

This morning, for the first time in ages I don't take a sweater down to the rink, and guess what? I'm too cold! Sod's law, that is. But skating hard helped that. My lesson was 20 minutes late as the coach had the harness out to try to encourage one of his other skaters to land her triple loop. She so obviously could if she only believed in herself, but I could see from her body language going into it that she didn't really think she'd land it and, sure enough, she sat down every time! But she is very close now, and I'm sure she'll do it within the next coule of weeks.

So my lesson was a bit late, but there was a good reason for it. Spent most of the time working on my rock-and-roll OD; I was wearing the skirt I've bought for it, which is too big (yesssss!!!!!), but it sits nicely on my hips. I think it's going okay now; we've taken out one of the chainé turns so I'm better balanced going into the two-footed turns section. Also ran through my Free Dance, which is okay but still a little tentative in places - I'm going to keep it for another year and try to get it really good, I think, before I lose it.

Finally danced the Swing Dance with my coach to see if my problems with the end pattern are anything to do with my partner - still a bit rushed, but less so. Actually, I think that dance is so nice with a really good partner! But even with Robert, I enjoy dancing it. I asked the coach whether he thought I'd pass a test - he sucked his teeth, rather, and said that if I were a mainstream skater, then definitely not, but as an adult it depended on the judges and the day! So still iffy - well, I don't intend to test Level 4 just yet, anyway.

Did some off-ice work with one of the skating mothers who teaches that sort of thing as her day job, and nearly overpaid the coach, forgetting we hadn't had our Sunday lessons this week..... oh well....

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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!

I'm sure you're right, but I'm not sure my knees will hold up long enough for me to learn them correctly.

When I started skating, I promised myself that I would learn new things until it wasn't fun anymore. As much as I would have loved to jump, I knew going in that it wouldn't happen. Bad knees.

If I incapacitate myself, it's not just my skating that will suffer.

I think I'll take a week or so off to try and heal my current injuries, then see how it goes. I'll not give up skating, though. Too much fun!!!!

Healing injuries is good, and I think we all have to learn to listen to our bodies and take a break when we need one. But Gary, I'd suggest that your own statements mean you should add some sort of physical therapy or strength training with some appropriate guidance. That would probably help you not just with skating but with any of your other activities, and I really think it's even more important as we get older. I have had knee problems in the past, but have none now thanks to the strength training I do. Sure, there are problems that can't be improved and have to be worked around, but there are a lot of things that can be helped. I think if you want to have fun skating as a, let's say maturing, adult, a certain amount of strength training and cardio work is necessary, unless somehow you're already in great shape. It is a pain to have to make time in a busy schedule, but the rewards can be worth it.

Just my 2 cents.
Pat

Gift: Today I showed my coach my new Adult Gold FS program in it's absolute entirety, and he was actually very pleased--even with the minor changes I'd made to it (which just helped me to more easily fit all the maneuvers to the music. I also showed it to a friend of mine who is a Master skater, and she loved it!

White Elephant: I still can't land my axels and doubles as well as I'd like whilst skating my program. Seems to me every time I set one up, someone is standing like a post right in my jump path. I try shouting, "Heads up!", but they can't seem to hear me over the music.

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This space has been put on hiatus for retuning....

Very diplomatically said. I'll have to remember this one.


Actually, what you said is a million dollars worth. You're quite right. Thanks.

Gift:

Got in another full pattern of the Juv cross strokes today on totally empty ice (except for the old guy in hockey skates who moves along, but sticks to the wall ).

I've been trying to get my shoulders and arms to move opposite to my hips for the B power pulls, and really cannot do it, but today when I went to one foot from the two footed slalom lead-in, it just happened and the power pulls (all 6 or 7 of them ) were so easy, it was like a good spin. Can't wait till I can do the whole pattern correctly, it's so much fun.

I'm doing the prelim spiral pattern every time I skate now, as my coach told me she thinks this will be my most challenging prelim move and I intend to prove her wrong (it's the alt threes, both O and I). Of course, my free leg is still only about 3/4 height at best, but the pattern itself is shaping up and I'm getting the leg up before the top of each lobe.

I actually did a whole pattern of the 5-step Mohawk! Those FI Mohawks still scare me, and I was going a bit fast for comfort on the second half, but I'm thrilled with it.

Finally, once again, someone saw me skate and complimented me. This time, it was one of the coaches and also the proprietress of the pro shop, which is on the upper level with a great view of the ice.

White Elephant:

Oh happy day! None in sight today.

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Gift - actually did some spins where I wasn't crunching on my toe pick the whole time!! Got some help from a fellow poster here on my waltz jump, I never really understood HOW to take off on my toe pick and I did last night finally when she explained. Alternating 3's are getting better, less arm swinging.

White Elephant - nothing really, had a low key practice. I did notice I was having a tendency to lean forward some rather than get the knee bend from squatting down, bad girl!! Gotta focus on that.

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Too many people miss the silver lining because they're expecting gold.
Maurice Setter