Nova & Loops,

I don't know if you saw the sign at the rink (it was up on Saturday afternoon). The Wednesday night session is now going to be college night. This is just an FYI for you. Also, if you do skate tonight, you are free from my munchkins because both of them cancelled their lessons tonight. Happy Skating!

Ugh ... but I thought that wasn't starting till February, or am I confusing that inception point with the new evening freestyles (?)

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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.

edge noises: my lesson went well except for, my salchow, which was because i wasnt holding the edge long enough.

toepicks: my toe picks are almost always in the ice just ask my coach.

~kittie

To add to the snow reports:
It started to snow here in VB around 3pm, as light flurries, but then switched to a full tilt boogie snow around 3:30- 4ish. It's stopped since then
Of course this was the day that I work until 5 and driving home- well, maybe I need to dig out my old boots and blades- what is usually a 10 minute drive took twice as long.

Me work tomorrow- of course! I work in a hospital on a surgery floor, thus we never close!!! Skating is negotiable, as there is club ice on Friday!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I still don't understand the title. oh well

Edge noises: Learned a new jump today, the half loop. That brings the total amount of jumps to 4 now. My instructor says that I learn things well, which makes me feel good.

Toe scrapes: I've pretty much only mastered the waltz, and I couldn't spin if my life depended on it.

Edge noises = rips, the sound made by the blade in proper contact with the ice during a push.

Toe scrapes = scraping your toe picks

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Edge Noise: I'm skating better this week than I have in months (confidence issues) -- most of what I haven't been able to do since this summer showed up for all my ice sessions this week! Even managed to do loop/loops in all three sessions!

Toe Scrape: I had one of the worst falls I've had in YEARS.. while working on footwork -- caught my edge on a BUNNY HOP -- just like the "toe pick" sequence in "The Cutting Edge". I landed VERY hard on BOTH KNEES!

Edge Noise: I did NOT hit my chin or my head.

Toe Scrape: My knees are cut up, purple and red, and very sore to walk on. I'll have to skate again today to work out the soreness -- even if I can't walk without pain now!

Edge noises = I started new exercises to help my strength, however it is compounded by lack of stamina/strength (see comments below). BUT-have been working on 'pointing my toe' and 'pushing with the edge' when I skate during public session and had a couple come up to me and ask if I used to compete (I had to tell the truth before they asked for a jump).

Toe scrapes = my stamina sucks-I was sick on Friday and am still soooooo tired and can barely make it one lap around with gasping for breath!!! I also have a nick in my blade (but not on my spinning blade) but my coach said it would take some 'deep grinding' to get it out

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

Edge Noises: I am just so amazed by how much stamina I now have. My friend, who has been off the ice for three months and is only just venturing back on, and I were having a "play" this morning, so we did, virtually without stopping, a side each of forward outside swing rolls, forward inside swing rolls, forward cross-rolls, back inside edges, back outside edges, forward outside chasses, forward inside chasses, back outside chasses, and forward slide chasses. By the end of that, my friend was winded and gasping for breath - I felt as though I'd just warmed up!

Toe Scrapes: Someone put a Tango on, and I tried the Fiesta Tango to music, but funked the Mohawk every time. And although I was keeping up with my friend when we were doing our BO edges, I still had to concentrate very hard not to go on my toes, and I really didn't have the speed and flow I would have liked. Oh well....

Plus I have a really bad backache - it's muscular, and I suspect caused by a particular strength exercise, which I shall leave off doing for a few days. I bought a balance pad to do some toning on, but right now, just standing or even sitting on it is an adventure! Resistance training is going well, but I only started it yesterday!

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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!

Good photos! Mrs. Redboots, you've been slimming!

Edge noises:

I passed the Fiesta Tango test and did not get any of the dreaded "needs improvements". The only written comment was "Tidy Feet". I think I skate like a gallumping horse so I'll take it as a compliment.

Toe scrapes:

The ice was extremely hard as it is about -25 degrees outside, and I realized in warm up that I really should have had my skates sharpened last week before the test and I had put it off. I slid on several edges so felt lucky I didn't fall but peevish because I could have done it better. Lesson learned.

Next up is the Willow waltz. 3-turn AND mohawk. Aaaaaghhhh!!!

Mrs. Redboots - I missed your post with the pics; it was so small and at the bottom of the page. You do look quite svelte (don't you love that word?)!

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Thanks, DBNY & Slusher - I've lost a bit more since then.... but it will be several more weeks until I reach my target weight. Then I shall have to get new boots!

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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!

And of course a new wardrobe, you certainly deserve it, well done!!

Cheers
Grace

edge noises: Drove an hour to a rink that was open last night. The rink is a bit smaller than my home rink, but it's noticeably *warm* there (the home rink is always quite cold). I wore the jazz pants I bought for ballet and a black T-shirt, instead of my usual skating garb (nylon sports pants and a turtleneck sweatshirt), which I thought looked rather nice. No winter gloves either...so I actually looked like a true ice skater for once ;-). The ice was also....different. It was less hard I think, and while I used to prefer the harder ice at my home rink, I found it to be a real pleasure to skate on last night. I didn't trust it as much, but what I did skate I was able to skate rather well. I felt graceful *finally for once*, and the 3-turns I tried just came so easy and my body didn't do all it's normal contorting about to make it work...they just flowed smoothly. The clockwise worked as well as counterclockwise, and I found myself doing tons of 3-turns and pivots and turning this way and that and even though I wasn't moving very fast or doing anything exciting, I was having fun.

toe scrapes: stopped and tightened my boots. Came back onto the ice and wasn't expecting the lessened range of motion, did some crossovers around the edge and gained a bit of speed, then caught the right toe-pick and then my other foot that tried to catch me hit the first foot, and I fell directly on my side, scraping my bare arm and hand across the rough ice, and worse slamming my hip bone into the ice (it's really sore now, probably the worst thing I've done on the ice). I skated the rest of the session anyways.

I felt extremely embarrased when I did this on a public session, but it comforts me to know I'm not the only one who does it!

I hope you're okay!

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Haven't we all tripped on forward crossover like that at one time or another? I did that on my first day in new skates...I fell so hard, I had to get off the ice for a while because I got so dizzy.

Btw, I actually have a picture of my most embarassing (so far...) skating moment. We were taking a picture for a local newspaper, everyone in the audience was watching.... TADA

That's a cool photo nonetheless
Edge noises:
Anyway I think I'd like to say something in terms of how my paradigm has changed in the past couple of months.

I've gone from merely trying something I though was interesting, to doubting myself a lot, to becoming and really satisfied with who I am. Right now I I'm really glad I found this sport, and that I'm unlike so many other people that have tried it. So I'd realy just like to thank all of you for being so cool. It's really quite encouraging.

(I hardely ever post smiley's)
- Reika

Hey AstarZ41--

At least you can laugh about it.. and since you were doing a spiral.. you did achieve one thing I would LOVE to do at least once in this lifetime: your leg is WELL above your hip in that spiral!

Toe scrapes: Failed Novice moves again on Monday. One judge had me passing by .4 over and the other two were .4 under. I didn't skate as well as my first test so I'm not surprised, but disappointed in myself for not training the test as much beforehand.

Edge noises: Landed a double sal on one foot with like 1/8 short of rotation in my lesson! My coach kept saying, that was REALLY good, hee hee. Axels much better this week. I've resumed doing weight lifting in the past week and I think it's really helped. Yay!

I totally missed this the first time of asking (a bit self-absorbed just now, sorry!). Many congratulations! The Willow isn't just so bad but get your coach to walk you through every edge so you know where you need to be and where your weight needs to be. I find the Mohawk a lot worse than the Fiesta one, as you have to hold each edge for 3 beats - my coach can make that happen, when he dances with me, but my husband can't.

Vesperholly, my commiserations on having to retry your Novice moves.

AstarZ41, I would commiserate, but I'm laughing too hard at that photo to do so.... sorry, but it really is funny!

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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!

Toe scrapes: Went back to the home rink tonight after 2 days without skating. The ice felt hard, unyielding...for the first hour or so I was having a bad day, not able to do anything properly or well. Of course I was pushing things a bit more, as I just got my skates finished (waterproofed, siliconed, and blades permanently mounted), but I was really disappointed in myself. Even my crossovers had gone on holiday, and 3-turns had too much Valium. Blehhh...

Edge noises: Then I don't know what happened, I just started pushing a lot harder, and found all my skills returning. I toyed around, and was having fun again. My hip was still sore to the touch, but was feeling pretty much okay since my landing on it on Tuesday (couldn't lay on that side though). I even relearned the waltz jump a bit (though it's rough after a week and a half without doing it).

Toe scrapes: After a bit, I thought I'd have another race around the rink for a few laps, so I set about it, but after a few times around, I put my foot down wrong on a crossover, toepick first. My body pivoted over my feet, and I landed on the exact same bloody hip bone spot as the last time, only this time, it really hurt. I thought the last time really hurt, but this time REALLY hurt. I sat there for a minute and finally limped my way off the ice. Some people came up and asked if I was okay...I said I was, but it must have looked as bad as it felt because usually people don't come up and ask after I leave the rink.

After a few minutes, I went back out on the ice, and resumed skating around the rink at good speed as I was before (not one to give up). But the pain in my hip just kept bothering me and I was worried about losing my balance because of it, so I decided to call it quits for the night, even though there were still another 20 minutes left (not one to quit early). Now I'm at home a couple hours later, and have realized that it certainly was a worse fall...I can barely walk around the house. Blehhh... I'll certainly be taking it easy on the ice for the next week or so.

Rotten luck about the fall, as it might put you off - and this sport, alas, is like riding a bicycle. The faster you go at first, the easier it is. Control comes later.

Take homeopathic arnica tablets (available at your health food shop, or any pharmacy that does homoepathic remedies) and rub arnica cream into the bruise. And rest it for a couple of days.

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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!

Ouch! Unfortunately, we've all been there, so you know you do have our complete sympathy.

I suspect you may be catching the toe pick of the under foot, rather than the one you are crossing over. This is the most common cause of toepick! on F crossovers. To resolve this problem, as your under foot leaves the ice, lift the toe up and try to get the outside ankle parallel to the ice. This should really be a push, but initially it's enough just to lift the toe. This under push is hard to describe, so pick a more advanced figurer skater and watch for it.

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Now that sounds familiar. The purple bruise on MY hip is now about 4" long and 2" wide. I still can't sleep comfortably on that side. It's been 6 days since I hip checked the ice for a second time in two weeks.

My wife has no sympathy...I skated the very next day, so she tells me it can't be all that bad. Hmmmmph. The reality of it is, if I fall on that hip again too soon it will be very painful.

Well...to balance things out, here's my recent edge noise: I am started to be able to snake backwards on one skate. Not well yet, but definetly doing it. I can do it forwards on either foot, edge noises and all.

Now is "snake" anywhere near the correct term? My instructor is from Russia, and while I'm impressed that he is multi-lingual, he doesn't always have accepted western terminology on the tip of his tongue.

Edge noises: Exactly.
I can remember the dutch waltz (hurray!) and have aqquired an invisible stick, to help me with my cross rolls. Go me and my invisible stick.
I had a half hour lesson which was really good, I enjoyed it lots. I did edges which have improved significantly since last week.

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