GLITTER: Whoa, I had a really great lesson. The skating club realized that there were too many adults (I think there are eleven of us now) at too many different levels to all share one coach in a half hour lesson, so they gave us a second instructor! And one of the more advanced students that skates competitively is assisting also. So I got a lot more attention tonight than I have all month. I found out that there were some basic beginner skills that my original instructor never taught me. Like foward pumps or foward half-swizzles. I was taught foward crossovers without learning those first! So the new instructor showed me those. Then we did rocking horses, and back swizzles, then went to the back half-swizzles that the other instructor gave me last week. And she FINALLY taught me how to stop! I was getting nervous, that after four lessons no one had shown me how to stop. Is it me, or have I been learning things a bit out of order? But it was fun, because I was trying different things, not just spending whole lessons on foward crossovers for once.

Thanks--I definitely feel the test was worth a shot and even though I will have to retry it, still feel accomplished for at least getting out there. I reminded myself the judges are only human too, and they were very supportive of my effort and still complimented me.

Interestingly enough, another club that is within a couple hours drive of my home club tests their adults and kids separately, with the tests spread over two days, and with adults first. Another coach informed me of this, and it is definitely an option worth considering. She said that the adults felt more comfortable testing in that situation, without having the influence of other performances. Has anyone heard of any other clubs doing this?

Anyway, for something glittery and happy--I skated for pure fun today, and my toe loops are better than ever, and I'm holding the layback position for at least 3-4 revs now. Also had a fast, 20-rev scratch spin to start the day, so I cannot complain anymore!!! I just gotta go skate!!!

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All that glitters has a high refractive index.

But NOW I just have to get them to the point where there's power... which means I have to continue practicing it on both side until I'm blue in the face!!! I figured as long as I get the edges and the 3's right that the speed will eventually come with it.

Elys2... YAY!!!! You just discovered the other thing that I forgot to write about. (The knee bend.) Be very careful to keep your back straight going into it. If you lean too far forward, you will end up catching the evil toe pick and take a very nasty fall on the hip. (Guess how I know this???) Also, do not go too fast into it. Go for a nice controlled speed!!!)

One of my coaches (don't remember which one... maybe all of them??? ) had me doing a spin on a standstill. You stand at a T with your right foot behind and your left foot point straight ahead (but the foot is ever so slightly turn out so that you're on a LFO edge.) Now push on the curve and do a half circle turn, staying on the LFO edge. When you have just gone passed the half circle, THEN start doing the 3 and rise up towards the toe pick and (supposedly) instant forward spin!!! (This is of course, NOT an easy exercise too!!!)

Good luck with the spin... Elys2, you sound like you're well on your way of getting it!

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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!!!

Elsy2, you and me both on the Fiesta Tango, aka Fiasco Tangle! I have learnt that the only way I can possibly handle this dance is if we hold back a bit - if we go at things at Robert's usual bull-at-a-gate style, I'm never going to do it. But he has been working on it in his private lessons, and it shows - last night we did the best end pattern we've ever done, and apart from the fact that on the first pattern Robert rushed the change-of-edge slightly, and on the second pattern we had to grind to a halt because another rather slow couple were too close for my liking, we really didn't dance it badly. I hate and loathe that dance, it scares me rigid, but it has to be done! But the secret is to hold back and hold back and not rush.

Actually, all of last night's dance club was fun, although I found myself a bit breathless. We are getting so much better at noticing our errors - a couple of places where we rushed inside swing rolls in the Rhythm Blues, and Robert will dance the Golden Skaters' Waltz as though he were playing football, all kick and jerk, it's simply horrible to skate with him. AND he had a beginner skater over in the dance, so I told him precisely what I thought of him, especially as he was making a fuss over a grazed knuckle.... men! Husbands!!

But we did a couple of relatively decent Swing Dances - I couldn't hold the Mohawk at least once, but did hold it at least twice, and once his Mohawk wasn't quite curved enough, but it does improve, slowly. Although quite why our coach still says it's worse than our Fiesta is beyond me...

Quarkiki - your 3-turns sound like the way mine used to be. Take heart, they will come, and in the meantime call them "Drop 3s" (which dancers need), and practise pushing off on to the back outside edge of the foot which you have, willy-nilly, put down! My back 3s are in a very similar state, but I know that is because I am too chicken to get my weight far enough back as I turn. I still consider I can do the 3s, though probably nobody else would agree with me....

Gooey: This was the last Monday of the "old regime", and from next Monday, that evening is devoted to hockey. I felt very sorry for all the teachers, frantically trying to reschedule their Monday lessons to other days of the week.... And of course, trying to prevent our crowd from grumbling too much at the change of evening (and increase in price, which we ought to have done at the start of the year, but didn't). We're in for a rather hairy couple of weeks until things settle down....

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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!

Not bad. Foot still hurts ofcourse but ice and advil really help.

Glittery - we learned the rest of our "program" for our adult group skate that we are doing in the spring show. It was fun and challenging to actually do things to music and remember what comes next! I'm great with improvising to music but having to remember the moves is harder.

Goo - Foot still hurts and I stupidly jammed my toe too hard for a toe loop.

DANCIN DIVA - I'm the worst stopper!! I have been taught how but I'm just too lazy to practice. I learned things in round about ways too. Congratulations on getting more attention and feeling like you're learning something.

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

glitter: had a good skate at club, and then the next day in my lesson. The flying camels are better, and the doubles are improving. I'm the responsible adult at club this weekend, so I think we'll have a Valentine's party!
Goo: had to cancel my pt appointment because of emergency at work. But I did get a balance ball and will give it a try.

Wow, about time they fixed that situation I'm so glad you had such a great lesson

I'ts not you, you have definitely been learning things out of order. It should go like this: forward swizzles, snowplow stop, rocking horse, back swizzles, F half swizzles then F crossovers, B half swizzles, then B crossovers. Now you can see how great you really have been doing to have gotten F crossovers without all the usual preliminaries. BTW, I sent you a PM.

Glitter
Not much Back cross strokes this morning were amazingly easy, and I did get a few pretty good one foot spins, but only from a pivot. It was sunny this morning and I could see my shadow as I practiced certain moves. There were only four of us on the ice, all adult women, and I knew one and am getting to know the others by showing up in the mornings. Love it

Goo
I have caught Elsy2's bug and haven't been able to step into a spin since I got my new blades. I can feel that my weight isn't in the right place. I think maybe it's the deeper radius I'm on with the fresh sharpening, and I'm a bit afraid to commit to that deep FO edge. My F cross strokes are also suffering. They were pretty good, and all of a sudden, I'm having trouble with speed. I've been making an effort to cross my axis at 90' and it's harder to push from that angle. I find it ironic that my B cross strokes are actually better and easier than my F. Guess this is just going to take lots of repetition, like everything else

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No, can't STAND Field Moves ...... and I can't really tell you why! I suppose it's a bit like 'eating your greens' as a kid .... you KNOW that they're good for you BUT!!!

I think that PART of my reluctance with Field Moves is that they used to be marked so harshly in the UK! I think that they've eased up a bit now but I remember seeing perfectly adequate skaters go out and fail field moves! Not a good introduction to them!

L x

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The best whisper is a click

dbny: I answered your PM!

Ditto, ditto, and ditto again. No real reason. I just don't enjoy working on them.

Glitter this week - spins. Very unusual. I have a video of a camel spin that looked stable and actually spun. It could use more extension, but that's true of everything I do in skating.

Taz Jr., competing this coming weekend. First time out at Pre-Juv. Historically her first time out at a new level has not gone well. She gets intimidated by the kids who have been at that level longer and have harder and better stuff, and usually melts down by this time in competition week. So far, so good, though. Two clean programs today.

Goo - lutz has taken a bit of a vacation.

More goo - clueless little ones at the rink. There is a teeny-tiny set of twins at our rink, very low level. They have NO concept whatsoever of staying out of the way of the person whose music is on. Had to completely bail out of my program in order to avoid taking one of them out. This wasn't the first time, either. Their coach doesn't seem to interested in teaching them the rules of the road, either. Very frustrating.

Today we are having a "day off", as we are off to France for the afternoon in about an hour. So didn't hurry down to the rink - couldn't hurry, as some [expletive deleted] had parked in front of the exit to our garage! And then another one was blocking the road making a delivery..... Still, we got there in the end.

Robert had a lesson on figures with our male coach, and then it was my turn. Did my Dance Moves change-of-edge - the outside-inside are fine now, but the inside-outside are still not quite right. Then worked on figures for a bit - got a wonderful running edge on one foot, but not on the other - on my Mohawks, on waltz 3s, on back edges and finally back swing rolls. Kept getting terribly frustrated with the back edges, as it's largely technique now - I was on one beautiful edge, and suddenly lurched forwards.... Gack. One of these days.... and, of course, the faster I was going, the better.

After the lesson, Robert and I worked a bit on our back swing rolls together, first him going backwards, then me, then him again. I made myself push at him when he was going backwards and was amused to note that he still couldn't maintain the hold...... "You're supposed to be holding me!"
"I am!"
"I can't feel your hand anywhere!"

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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!

Lesson
Almost finished the programme - it'll take months and needs to be scrubbed and polished.
Backspins have made a slight improvement, but nothing like how I want them.

Got my car fixed (at garage at back of rink)...handy!

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Annabel - Lucky you! France for an afternoon, have fun!

Glitter
Had a lesson today on a pretty empty public session and my step into the spin is back, even with the windup! Daughter did tell me last night that it really could have been the new sharpening.

Worked on FI threes in lesson, and coach suggested watching myself in the glass while doing them at the boards (which is the only place I can do them ) That worked so well, that I finally have some confidence that these will happen in this lifetime.

Coach has me doing F and B fig eight crossover pattern with more and faster strokes. Faster is more fun, but also a bit scary. Slipped on a F, caught my toepick, and kept going, while coach called out that I still would have passed I really have to work up to speed on the B as I'm not comfy with it at all.

I wanted to show off my B cross strokes and had a terrible time getting them started and was bent at the waist till coach shouted to "look up." Then I realized that they were so good when hubby was watching out for me because I was "looking up" at him. It fixed my posture right away.

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This is for Tuesday afternoon...

Goo:
Why, oh why can't I get my loop consistent IN FRONT of my coach? (Hmmm? Maybe this is a "Glitter???")

Moves are sucky today... not that much energy in me to skate. There is one exception to that and that's in "Glitter"...

Lower back is complaining afterwards... Uh huh...

Glitter:
Loops made an appearance today!!! WOO HOO!!!!
Backspins also made a small appearance at the end of the session too. (Unfortunately NOT in front of my coach!!!)

Flips also made an appearance... ONCE!!! :p

Alt FO3's are fairly consistent...I could do power 3's with about 80% consistently (though not with a lot of power...)

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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!!!

db, it could definitely have been the sharpening!
(And I saw your coach at my rink the other day.
Had a very nice chat with her - she looks great!)

I just had my blades sharpened over the weekend and
then had my lesson on Monday. When will I learn?

Everything felt weird, from the threes in the field, to
the spins. Jumps up to flip, ok. I nearly killed myself
on a back inside three, and that's when I got very
frustrated. Then a skating friend mentioned how my
spins used to be better - I seemed tentative. Total
goo, but that comment did it - I just started doing
everything with more force, and managed some really
good, centered spins. I need more negative comments!

Went back again yesterday - absolutely glitter. It was
all there. I just needed to get used to the sharpening
because these are new blades are very different from
my old ones. Any little change seems to throw me off.
But even back double threes were working yesterday.

We'll see what today brings.

Ok. I coudn't jump today. I landed jumps but they were all barely inches off the ice. And my competition is on saturday. Arrghh... I can't believe I still have to go to school on friday.

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Tidesong

I am still keeping my skating to a minimum because of my foot and ankle so no skating on Wednesday. I'm bummed but I'm trying to be a good girl until I see the doctor on Friday and get some professional input, he's a sports injury doctor so I'm hopeful!! My foot and ankle do feel better the less I do.

Anyway, was feeling left out so I had to post. :-)

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

Lots of Alternating Forward Crossovers (aka Bronze MIF aka PreJuv MIF) today. Coach was working on my pattern placement and other stuff. But it was work well needed. They still have a long way to go to be testable, but the end will be worth the work.

The last minute of my lesson we did a bit of Austrian Waltz for fun.

My axel came back today! Its not my best but it will do for the competition... Hope I land it clean tommorrow! So excited!

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Tidesong

((Tidesong)) Lucky you! Hang on to it! Mine hasn't come back, because I haven't attempted it!

No lesson, but practised Interbronze field moves.
Has anyone seen the proposals for NISA Level 3 field moves test?
I don't know why I'm bothering trying to perfect Interbronze (which is equivalent to level 4) because it'll take me forever to do spirals on continous changes of edge - like Interbronze changes of edge, only in spirals.
I don't know what else is proposed, as I stopped looking after seeing the spiral one!

My spins were a lot better today.
I could get right down to bum/buttock/buns/butt level on the sit and get back up again.
My camel was moving faster.

Shame about the lutz which is acting all scary again.
Practised bits of my programme (it's not quite finished yet).

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MEL
Absolute Skating

Enjoyable Friday morning skate. Didn't do much of what I'm supposed to do, but Robert and I did do some exercises together - and we were encouraged to find how much better our swing rolls in Kilian hold felt. We also worked on swing rolls and chasses in waltz hold (so what day don't we?), and on the end pattern of the Swing Dance, which we both still have awful problems with. When you think we've been competing that dance for two years already, and it's still ghastly..... Solo worked a bit on my back edges and waltz 3s, and just mucked about. Forgot to do my changes-of-edge, oh well.... Still can't do decent back cross-cuts or back cross-rolls for the Level 3 Dance Moves, but at least I move over the ice while doing them badly, even if I do run out of steam!

Last night I sent in my entry for my first competition of the year, in April, which is an artistic/interpretive programme. I'll come last, but who cares?

Melanie, no I haven't seen the Level 3 test yet - I'm not allowed to take Level 1 because of lack of spiral on left leg. Maybe one day.....

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

Leg still hurts so no jumping . I want to work on my axel and doubles so bad I can taste it. Sigh.

Worked on crossovers. Yes, crossovers. Forward and backwards in both directions. Made the mistake of complaining to coach about how I really need to bend my knees more (got this from watching the video) - so now I have crossover drills. Coach tests, so I won't be able to get away with not practicing them.

Started polishing up the program. Made some minor changes to things he didn't like and things I didn't like. This program is going to be so terrific - some day .

First off, had my first real lesson in a while... nice to skate on a real rink. (been practice outside on our little local rinks which are fun, but aren't exactly smooth!)

Practiced swing rolls down the rink for a bit. Then learned the begining of the dutch waltz (up until the second progressives). No music though yet, but that's okay! Pratice that mainly... was a bit hard 'cos I skate at the same time as CanSkate and I think it was test day 'cos there was about 6 different groups and they were all over the ice. So mainly practiced it in parts or in whole in odd directions. LOL.

Ankle is hurting a lot though, and by then end it was throbbing so I had to stop and just do stroking...still sore now... on the outside of the ankle... Yuck yuck... and now my knee is starting to act up... I think its the (really) cold weather... I'll see...

Laura

Mel, where did you find the proposals for new field moves tests?
And when do they come into force?

I've just passed my inter-bronze, hopefully I can also get my bronze before the new ones start as they're not too bad now.

My coach had the NISA booklet with all the proposals in it.
She's to go down to Nottingham (or is it London) to discuss them with the team who developed them (the only coach invited to attend from Scotland).

She had one of her better pupils running through them all to see what they were like. They go right up to at least level 8 (at least that's all I looked at). They looked really difficult...the level 6 pupil struggled with some of them, but he was doing the level 8 ones, so I suppose he did quite well.

My coach told me I'd hate my level (level 3).
I have to pass Interbronze before the new ones are brought in, otherwise I'm going to be stuck on level 3 field moves forever.

I'm sorry I have no idea when they'll come into force but I will ask my coach and get back to you.

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MEL
Absolute Skating