Roogu, thanks for the tips on the loops. I have been taught to do the forward outside loops with the opposite arm leading, and the inside loops with the same arm leading. I gave the inside loops a try this morning the way you suggested, but I have been doing it so long "my way" that my arms didn't really want to cooperate. I think I am being pickier about my loops than necessary. Even though I think they should be smaller and need more flow, my coach says they look fine because you can see the loop action.

Sparkling: Well, nothing was partiuclarly outstanding today, but I was happy to get through run-throughs of each exercise that I was satisfied with. There were things about each that could have been better, but if I skate the test tomorrow the way I practiced this morning, I will be happy with that. My nerves and my nemesis, so I just want to be relaxed and I know I can get through everything.

Shabby: I did feel tighter than I wanted this morning, even though I got through the exercises OK. Tomorrow my focus is going to be being really loose, bending my knees, and having my hips under me. When I'm nervous and tight I break at the waist. I need to keep my shoulders down and relaxed and my weight underneath me.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Sparkling: Loops and I fixed a lift that has been dogging us for weeks--and we even added an extra rotation! Also, saw Yoshie Onda skate this morning, and it was quite a revelation and exhilarating to see her land huge double axels and do very easy triple toes.

Shabby: Death spiral is not progressing as expected. Also, found out that at the next competition in 2 weeks, the warm-up time is only 3 minutes , which will be reduced to 2 minutes if we skate first. 3 minutes?! C'mon, now!

__________________
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.

After you left she did some harder jumps too. And quite nicely.

For whatever reason, the rain, going to bed late last night, maybe sleeping in too long this morning, I simply couldn't get my a#$ in gear this morning on the ice. Jumps were off and trying to do my program run through, well the beginning was fine, but once the music picks up and it's time for footwork, my body got that oh $%^& reaction.
It's all behind me now and I eagerly look forward to Monday afternoon for my "private at regular freestyle rate" ice time !

Sparkling: Overall, I had a really good afternoon session, and I feel ready for test day tomorrow! Multi-turns are fine; just have to stay relaxed. Power threes are really good. Loops were pretty good; just need to concentrate and feel them out. They seem to get worse the longer I work on them some days, so I think I just need to ride out the edge and not rush them. Spiral were REALLY good! Extension felt good, and the edges were more curved and controlled. Brackets weren't so hot, but I managed all 8 on each foot without touching down. Flying choctaws will be fine, also. Just have to remember to make them curve enough so I don't smoke the boards at the end.

Shabby: I can't quite get my three turn leading into the 3s/brackets in the right spot, so my 3s/brackets don't really end up going across the end. They sometimes start halfway across, so then I have to angle them or else I will run out of room. I don't think this is a major deal, as long as I can do them. But I would prefer if they were on the pattern a bit better.

Wiped out right at the end of practice for the first time in MONTHS doing a simple skid-stop, of all things. Banged up my elbows quite nicely. I'm just glad it wasn't on a difficult element, or I would have been playing major mind games with myself going into tomorrow. I won't fail for buggering up a stop.

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Sparkling - Tried a camel/back sit and flying camel. Haven't lost them!!!!

Shabby - Jumping is still too scary. I've totally lost them. Tried a flip and it flopped.

Perhaps you got the dovetail cut on your last pair? I thought they were on Phantom specials only, but maybe not. Dovetail tapers off and is much shorter at the end of the blade than regular phantom. That or the size of either the old or the new ones was mislabeled, but that seems unlikely.

That's normal for us - you get one minute longer than the length of your programme, so a 2.5-3 minute warm-up is normal. I don't even know how to handle a six-minute warm-up, finding it much harder!

Seriously, see that you are thoroughly warmed up off-ice so that when you get on you don't have to skate for long before you can run through the elements you need to warm up. And maybe, if you work that way, do a mental warm-up together.

Luna_skater and/or Roogu, which is the hardest loop? I'm learning back inside loops, and they are quite hard enough, but I have a feeling they're the easiest, no?

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

I'm not exactly sure which one would be considered hardest. I am tempted to say back outside. It took me forever to get the hang of those. However, once I did, they are better than my forward inside ones. I learned forward outside first, then forward inside, then back inside, then back outside. The back inside ones came easiest to me. I would say my best are my back inside, then forward outside, then back outside, an forward inside. My back outside ones are a bit larger than I would like them to be, but they tend to have much more flow than my forward inside.

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

I've only played around with loops a very little bit, but I think back outsides are the hardest too. Makes sense- back outside brackets were always the hardest for me too.

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Shae-Lynn and Victor: We knew you were champions, and on 3/28/03 the whole WORLD found out! Thank you for twelve wonderful years!

Shabby:

• Got stuck in flood traffic, so I was 30 mins. late for the session. Fortunately, the schedule had been changed (I forgot) and I was actually on time, sort of.
• Those horrible "three's on the line" are killing me. Not that I've ever had decent footwork, but these are much more difficult than they should be.
• My coach thinks I should have the blades checked and reset again (for the third time.) Important tip: If you buy new boots, get the blades at the same time. Switching blades just makes life too difficult.
• Took a footwork clinic with a different coach this week. Nice guy, very artistic skating. Waaaay beyond my dance and presentation talent, but had a great lesson.

Sparkling:

• Using DBNY's Rule of 10, I've strengthened a bunch of weaknesses in crossovers and MITF maneuvers.
• All of my spins were outstanding, except for the finish. (It still hurts to get up out of the sit spins.)
• Jumps are coming along, but need more work. Starting to feel more natural again.
• If I master the MITF, I'll pass the Freestyle tests easily. Man, I miss patch.

Based on my experience, I'd have to disagree with this. I switched brands of boot and models of blade at the same time. It was awful! While it did mean I only had to go through relearning how to skate just once, it made it virtually impossible to tell what problems were caused by which piece of equipment. E.g., is the "pulling" on my right foot because the blade isn't in the right spot, or is the boot not fitting properly, or is the boot defective (happens more than you'd think), or is the blade warped, or some of the above, or all of the above? It took forever to get it all worked out. (The final solution was to make flower vases of the boots and get another pair. They were torqued, unbalanced crap.) If I'd only switched boots, it would have been much easier to troubleshoot problems.

Of course, some people want to go through the agony of The Switch only once.

I'm used to the normal 6-minute warm-up that USFSA dictates (or am I wrong about USFSA mandating a 6-minute warm-up?). Luckily, I will be skating my freestyle program an hour earlier, so only Loops (the strongest link in this pair team ) has to warm up. We have a few stall tactics planned. Also, the schedule lists 15 minutes for 2 pair teams with a 3-minute warm-up. Uh, that's 12 minutes for 2 teams to do a 2:40 program. I think they could have adjusted to give more warm-up time. But every event (from no test thru senior) gets either 2 or 3 minutes. So I'm happy to see it's not a "we're-short-on-time-let's-screw-the-adults" type of deal.

We've also gotten into the habit of arriving at the rink, doing off-ice exercises, putting our skates on, leaving off our gloves and sweatshirts, and stepping onto the ice as if it were game day. But cutting our warm-up in half makes it a different game altogether. We'll manage; it's not like we're doing star lifts or impossible death spirals (don't get any funny ideas there, partner).

__________________
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.

Loop^2 and NoVa Sk8r: So jealous you got to see Yoshie Onda... Good luck to you two in a couple of weeks!

Sparkling:
Not much... except to say the rest of my moves are fine... well, what I could practice anyway...

Shabby:
Couldn't practice forward power 3's in its entirety b/c I was at a public session and it was PACKED!!! In addition to the general public session group, I had at least 3 really good skaters I had to compete again for space. Two of them are Junior level skaters and I don't know the other one, but she has all her singles at least and a really good hydroblade!!! (Man! I want speed like THAT!!!) Kinda hard to push yourself on speed and power when you keep getting stopped by other skaters who are in your way...

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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!!!

Aren't all death spirals impossible? They are for us!

Yes, indeed. But we had a revelatory experience on Friday. Though Loops is far braver in this move than I am. I wish I had more compunction bailing out of the move and letting her splat on the ice.

But she insists on learning it, come what may. Maybe I'll call it the death-wish spiral.

__________________
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.

Shabby:

• No motivation to skate or do much else. i had a raging headache coming into the rink. No change from last week on the power 3's.
• Forward power 3's are okay but I could do a lot better. I just don't have it in me to push myself today. Maybe getting some sleep tonight will help. But I'm definitely SICK of working on the Bronze Moves and I hope one of these days I'll pass the $#&*@ test!!!
• And did I mention the test is NEXT WEEKEND!?!?!?!
• Being that this was a public session, I had to dodge quite a few rugrats who were skating ALL OVER THE PLACE!!! Nearly killed on doing back crossovers at the ends of the rink. And yes, I WAS looking behind me!!! I had to abort most of my moves instead of skating thru the entire moves!!! And where are the parents? Out chasing the rugrats on the ice, that's where!!!!
• 5 step mohawk went funky today! Weird...

Sparkling:

• I got in some good practice on forward power 3's...
• Someone commented that I look really good out on the ice. Of course, my thinking is that if you're skating in a public session, chances are good that you're gonna look better than the majority of the skaters. Nevertheless, I appreciate the compliment!!!
• Said headache went away once I skated for about a half hour!!!

__________________
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!!!

Sparkling: I passed my Junior Silver Skills!!! This is by far the most challenging test I've taken so far; I feel more excited about this than getting my gold dances! All of my loops were there. They weren't textbook, but they showed up! I had one of those weird moments where I pitched forward on one of the forward sculls, which I have NEVER done before. Judge had good comments about my spirals, which was nice because they have never been very strong for me. I got a little excited about the flying choctaws and was going so fast I ran out of room and almost creamed the boards. But I stayed standing, and was soooo happy to get that "pass" at the end of it all. I can't wait to start Sr. Silver on Monday!

__________________
~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~

Oh, I am so glad for you! Many congratulations!

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

This is for Saturday--(%^#$ DSL was down all day.

Sparkling: We worked on something kind of new in my private/group lesson--power 3s. I had forgotten how much fun they can be, even if they aren't good. I just like the way they feel. I just have to even them out. It seems like we focused on 3turns, because we did salchows after that. I did one that my coach laughed at because I did the 3turn at speed, then lost my momentum and did the jump in slo-mo. I told her it was so she could critique it.

Shabby: Not much--we laughed throught the lesson. We only did a couple of spins, but I couldn't get off the deep inside edge. I had to run errands and pick up my husband, so I didn't get to skate long as I wanted to, and the rink was empty!!

Hey, I'm close to the ice anyway... I don't mind splatting from down there.

But that's not as much fun as me thinking that I get to pay you back for your tart tongue. (Of course, perhaps I deserve your invective and vituperation )

Vim, vigor, and guts ... that' my Loops!

2 weeks till Hershey!!!

__________________
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.

Hi,
The death spirals are my favorite. They do take lots of practice, and just going for it. Fortunately if you do splat, like loops said - you're close to the ground, and you also naturally bend at the waist at the first hint of a splat, so your butt hits and not your head. I think I really only hit my head once.
I prefer the forward inside over the back outsides. The thing I remember my coach telling us most is drop fast for a back outside, and slowly for a forward inside. Also keep the tension up between you two.
Have a great time!

The tension is always very high. Oh, you mean in the arms!

__________________
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.

Oops, posted in last week's practice thread by mistake!!

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~No thinking, breathing, or hesitation!~