This is for last night...I was pooped and it was late when I got home so here it is

Sparkly: Rink was fairly empty by the time of my lesson. I was mostly warmed up and the fog was gone (and the ice has gotten harder-no mush!!!). We went over "stuff" and it was mostly good.

3-turns: I'm to do them with the free foot tucked at the skating heel...only because my free foot likes to party and go wild!!!

Salchow: because of that partying free foot, I've been taught to salchow from a mohawk. It was weird but sort of cool! My coach likes the height! And the fact that I can really hold that back edge before jumping. This is my exercise from now on (along with the 3-turn)

Backspin: still doing these from the 2-foot glide, but making the transition/push more like a mohawk/push and gliding the free foot on the ice behind me a smidgen while staying reallly bent down; then when the free foot is in front, raising up. I'm also to do change-foot and scratch-backspin-scratch.

Dull: yeah I have something for this.

Back Spiral: I haven't done these in a while...it shows! Good thing my chiro fixed me up yesterday so my back wasn't in too much pain! I got good extension on my legs, they were just bent...ewwww!!! And I was on a flat because my shoulders were not square. yuck!

Overall, a good lesson! next week-choreography for my competition, I just don't know which routine!!!!

Freestyle: Rihanna "Unfaithful" only music not her singing
Spotlight: I wanna be bad (cant remember who sings it, but it's a 1920's song re-done and it's cool)

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

I have gotten in a lot of practice this week:

Sparkly:

Landed a lutz-toe!
Waltz-loops were cleanly landed.

Dull:
How is it that I cannot do a simple mohawk? The 5-step mohawk is hopeless.

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Happily defying the laws of physics when I skate...and not in a good way

If I could meet ole Axel Paulsen, I would kick him in the teeth

President and Founding member of the I hate Toe-Loops Club

Still a member, but trying to get out of the Pre-bronze peanut gallery.

Visit my skating journal

Is this really "I Wanna Be Evil" by Eartha Kitt? If so, have fun with this. I skated to it a few years ago and it was my breaththrough Interp. program... since I really got into the "cheating at jacks" and other "evil" things. It's great music and she was such a great singer. Oh, and if you want an idea of how slinky/sexy/sultry she was.. she was the original "Catwoman" on the old "Batman" TV show in the 1960s.

Yeah but I'm not an american skater, we just have the normal system and that's it. I'm not sure if it counts for anything under that? And it's really discouraged to even spend time on developing it over here, although I'm not sure of the reason...

And how would one do the transition anyway?

(and what's a l3/4 change combination?)

Would you have expected there to be????

No skating for me today - tests this morning meant no early ice.

As for the spinning - I prefer to spin clockwise, but have been taught to spin anti-clockwise (have to, with Husband) - coach likes me to do a bi-directional if/when I do a solo programme, but it seldom has more than 2 revs in each direction. And my solo backspin is non-existent, 1 rev at best, although our couples' backspin is arguably one of our better spins! Go figure....

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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!

Depending on the rest of her features under IJS and how long she holds them, her chnage combination spin has been called both L3 and L4. Sometimes one of her features isn't held for the requisite 2 revs.

Try pulling in your hips, I can do a 1-foot fine with my butt sticking out, but for the backspin I need to "pull my tail up" like a scared cat. Else I don't get more than 1 rev either.
Well probably that isn't the problem but you could try - or not. Just sharing

Dull: With my balance still a little impaired...
Sparkly: I was surprised to find my upright spin was back and the sit was as good/poor as usual
Dull: Unfortunately the nice 3-turn footwork from yesterday wasn't happening today
Sparkly: Coach gave me some great tips on my Toe Loop! I was so concerned about cheating the TL that I was making it way too difficult. Maybe I WILL have the TL for competition next month....
Dull: Did one run-through of the Freeskate program. Maybe once it "sets" in my feeble brain things will ACTUALLY get skated where they are SUPPOSED to be in the program!

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

Thanks for the compliment on Violet, Jessi!

Jessi is, BTW, doing a great job of fitting in on our team. I can't wait to get back on the ice...

Here's a recent pic for those of you who don't venture into the Parlor...

sparkly I thought I'd be without a lesson this week, but coach had a free slot at 9 today, and I was able to take a half day off.

dull wow did I get a lot of corrections

sparkly but some of them really worked wonders and we covered a ton of ground. I'm going to need a lot of practice before wednesday to get just half of those notes internalized.

I've also got my music cut for my FS3 program. She wants me to switch to the USFSA track but we agreed not to change focus till after this year. I want to pass FS3 and compete at that level at the spring ISI comps, and not be distracted by a completely different set of requirements.

Maybe this time next year I'll have a shiny new "pre-bronze for life" card to show off.

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It's all about the dress!

Oooh, what a cutie! That's a bigger accomplishment than a triple axel.

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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

Violet is CUUUUUUTE, quark! (I looked at the picture before I got into work. My work blocked a bunch of websites, including flickr and photobucket. )

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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!!!

For a change-direction spin, you can do either a forward-forward or a backward-backward:

- Forward-forward: Do a CCW forward upright spin, exit on LBI edge, Step out to RFO entrance edge and go into the CW forward spin. When you step down onto the right foot, it must be the entrance to the opposite direction spin (no step-down or change of edge in-between).

- Backward-backward: Do a CCW backspin, exit on RBO edge, step down forward onto LFI edge which becomes the entrance to your CW backspin. Same rule about no step-down o change of edge in-between)

Of course you can also do the CW spin first, then the CCW spin. Some people prefer it that way if they are CCW spinners, since the CW spin will be the slower spin and the CCW spin the stronger, faster spin.

A level 3 or level 4 change-foot combination spin is one with 3 or 4 features. Spinning in two different directions counts as one feature, so the skater would also have to have 2 or 3 other features (such as difficult variation of position, change of edge, etc.)

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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

Awww - Violet's so cute.

Tried another new rink; think I'll stick with the other one. Ice was hard and a very chopped up and it seemed a bit too small for the building. Other facility was nicer and easier to get to; same amount of time commuting, though.

The public session had about 25 kids on a class trip and I have to say, they were the most well-behaved and respectful kids I've ever shared the ice with. I went out of my way to compliment them to their teacher/chaperone.

Dull -
Did a few toe loops and weak little loops (mostly half-loops.)
Couldn't hold the back scratch spin in place, in fact almost every back spin was sad.
MITF - meh. Choppy ice makes for crappy edges and turns, but I practiced anyway. Skipped the tango stops today; too choppy to be safe.

Sparkly -
Great, long scratch spins and forward sit spins.
Very good waltz jumps, but not too much height; three jumps and half-walleys were easy.
Great spiral patterns, even the inside spirals. Realized that I always do RBO spirals, but never the others - onto the list.

Best part of the session: at the end, they played every version of the "Cha-Cha Slide" and almost every one of the skaters (all kids but me) bopped along and tried to keep up with the song. My heart was in my throat at the "Criss Cross" part - I was sure someone was going down. Lots of fun. LOL

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Violet is (as my kids would say) "ah doe able"!

Sparkly:
Well, I've had another week of no practice, and yet had a very good lesson today. I'm sure this is the result of being on the ice for hours each day teaching, now if I could only add some practice to that, I might make some significant progress! FO and FI threes were better than last week, and I did the best Prelim alt FI three pattern I've ever done, touching my free foot down on only two of the four RFI's, instead of all. One foot spin was ON today, and showed coach my new approach to backspin, which we discussed and she doesn't mind my doing at all. I didn't really work the backspin, but was able to get the free foot crossed and maybe one rev. Prelim power threes were amazing - for me, that is. The R side was almost fast enough for Prelim testing, and the L side was faster than I've done it before, actually picking up speed as I gained confidence on it. I haven't done this move in two weeks . Did the BXO's to BO edges in my lesson for the first time, and coach's only suggestion was to get more extension, which is what I expected. B power pulls were their absolute best ever, with a nice rip and deep edges. I even did a whole length on L leg only and picked up speed.

Dull:
Was going to do Prelim spiral pattern with just free leg extension, but R knee gave me a very sharp tweak when I bent it in entry strokes, so I had to bail. I've had no knee pain from last week's toepick splat until yesterday, when both started acting up. I think it's just the wear and tear of the week's work.

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Sparkly: the Lutz and the Lutz-Loop made a reappearance...now I just gotta' work on my arms, seeing as they are not exactly where they need to be...Finally got my spins centered, and I have been able to get up after a very low sit spin...camel spins are getting better. Maybe I will try a flying camel...hmmmm...

Our goal is to get me to pass my juv freestyle by next year so that I can teach LTS Which would make me VERY happy!

Dull: Must work on my single loop. I know they could be so much bigger! The Intermediate back double 3s and brackets in the field are getting better, just some small kinks to work out. The pre-juv scratch spin change back scratch is making me mad

Ooh, yes, adorable indeed!

When do you expect to get back on the ice? I already want to plan when I should get back on, even before I get off!!

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Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
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Hey, Chowskates -- how's it going?

I'm planning to get back on the ice next week -- 5 weeks post partum. I'm in much better shape *down there* than I was after DS's birth. Honestly, the biggest reason I've not been back sooner is that I'm breastfeeding and it hasn't been until the last week or so that she hasn't been eating every 1.5 to 2 hours. Now she's going 2 - 2.5 hours and that's enough time for me to get to the rink and practice for an effective amount of time.

After DS, I had a bunch of stitches that made sitting and walking uncomfortable, so I wasn't even keen on TRYING to skate until 7 or 8 weeks post partum. If you have a c-cection (I didn't, but had many stitches -- he has a big ol' noggin), that time will be more reasonable.

I don't know if it made a huge difference, but this time I did NOT have an epidural and have found my recover to be faster. Seriously -- I bounced out of the bed after having her, LOL!

Definitely a sparkly day today, as I finally passed my Bronze Passport

Already practising for the Silver, but I don't expect any rapid progress soon.

Dull - my coach has been trying to organise a group session on Monday mornings, but it is proving difficult to fix the students into that slot. Hence my lesson will have to remain on the Saturday session, getting more challenging on public ice ! On the upside, I did approach one of my coach's other students, suggesting that I would be happy to engage in a shared lesson (or a longer one) if that was agreeable - the suggestion seemed well received. Anything to amortize the cost of lessons !

All in, a lovely day.

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UK Passport (figure)
Bronze : PASSED 13-Oct-07 Woohoo
Silver: PASSED 08-Dec-07 Yippee
Gold: Backspin PASSED One Foot Spin ____ Toe Loop ____ Programme ____
The impossible is just a journey away ...

Sparkly:
Practiced at my mother's skating club today, in a lower-class group, but it's good to refresh the basics sometime. I also practiced some 1-foot spins, here's a tracing, I think it's pretty sparkly, don't you?


Also I did a little extra paying attention on my mom, and noticed a very weird thing about the way she skated - technically it wouldn't be possible to happen, but it did. Turned out her heels were hanging by her ankles in her skates (that's why I refused to wear her skates a year ago, I had the same problem except I didn't think that was normal and got my own skates) and her heels were never touching the bottom of the skates... Dragged her to the skating shop, had them dented out, now she's happy as a bunny with them. I think maybe she will be able to stretch through on spirals now. I also suspect her blades are incorrectly mounted, but we didn't tackle that yet today.

Overall we've come to the conclusion that we're never, ever buying skates in the Netherlands again, and going to Belgium instead.

Ahhh thanks!

sparkly
axel landing is getting better
double flip was okayish

dull
double toe is so hard!
my i-spin was really slow & uncentered

some stuff from practice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT59y5ZtVMw

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The epidural does make a huge difference. Any anasthetic that affects half your body will do that.

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Today we joined our local skating Club and skated on the Club ice time. It was great, but my kids were a bit spooked by the higher-level skaters. We spent a lot of time covering "Safe Skating" and having them cling to me for safety. (Assuming, rightly so, that the skaters would be more likely to see me than the little ones.) I'm sure they'll get more comfortable on the session after a few sessions.

Dull:
Did a few traveling spins. The trips weren't planned; I still need my skates sharpened. lol
Due to the kiddies hanging off me like monkeys, I really didn't skate a lot.
Still working on pulling my feet back together on transitions, not a pretty sight.

Sparkly:

A few good waltz jumps, scratch spins were eeked out, along with some spirals.

My twins are really starting to skate. One of the coaches they had at summer camp corrected a lot of their posture and positions. It really showed today. One of them did a cute little fake sit spin and the other had gorgeous spirals! I was impressed.

We all worked on back outside threes - the twins on two feet, me on one.
They really like my fan double back threes, glad I impressed them, too!

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Doesn't an epidural go into your spine? I've heard from a gynecologist who said this apparently put lots of extra work on muscles that normally would have to do less work pushing. I imagine that makes a difference too.