(((bluemoon))) Hope you finish healing quickly. Could you skates have dried out? That would make the leather shrink, so the boots would be a little tighter than normal. I once heard Don Klingbeil tell a customer to "sweat them up" a bit after disuse. Good luck.

__________________

Thanks, but I can tell just by looking at them that my right ankle is still "thicker" than the left one, so the swelling is still there. My PT is using something called Graston Massage to break down the scar tissue and releive the swelling; it's incredibly painful while she's doing it but it is working, albeit slowly.

I'm just being a tad impatient. It just doesn't seem fair that I get to do all the work for the skating club (test chair, LTS registration, fundraising) and get none of the fun of skating itself.

I haven't skated in about two weeks, and now have to take lessons at a rink an hour away...bites a bit I guess.

Profit: Had an overall great lesson, once I got used to the rink. Here are the highlights:

Jumps: Waltz-good, no setbacks (only had to do it 3x); Salchow-good; Toeloop-good, try to make it less "spinny" on the 3-turn; Loop-again, still doing this one on the line, LFI edge into a right mohawk then loop...and I landed it on the right foot ONLY!!! and fell over onto my right hip!!! YAY!!! I got all the way around! My left leg was UP! I tried a few more but that first one was very aggressive with the edges and the others less so.

Spins: Scratch-we figured if I concentrate on squeezing my right thigh in a bit more, it closes and I am in a better position, less travel. Then we had me bring my hands in closer to my chest, much better. Backspin-ok, keep weight OFF that left foot, right? Wow it does work better! That finally clicked and I managed some decent backspins!

We talked a bit about "stuff" and me getting my spiral back. Thanks to someone elses post (think it was xoxobyfive?) on stretches for the splits, I can work on them.

I've been a bit depressed about things but I heard a song today that re-motivated me and now...WATCHOUT!!! I am going to re-focus and go for it! So I have to drive an hour each way, so what! I even had a friend offer to pitch in for gas $$$!!! What a friend!

Loss: the gas $$$ to drive over and back, and on the way back, it was dark I missed a turn (i guess) and got lost...almost panicked but utilized my gps and the compass on my truck to re-orient myself.

ps-yes I was polite at the new rink-did not yell "MOVE" at anyone...<g>

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

Profit - second practice this weekend, coach won't recognize me at my next lesson I had a lot of frustrations to work out so I put them into lots and lots of jumps. Somewhere I lost some fear recently and I'm willing to put more power into the spring - jumping rocks. I also worked out those aggressions on back power pulls - I've never done them so hard before, I was actually accelerating all the way down the rink, worked up to some serious speed on them.
Starting to feel the balance on the backspin, no miracles, but progress happens.

Loss - not so much to say for the sitspin or changefoot this eve

__________________
It's all about the dress!

Yay, we'll have you back dancing before you know where you are! That is such great news, even if you can only skate for a few minutes at a time just yet.

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

Profit AND Loss: When I arrived for patch (freestyle) this morning, the session had just begun but there was NOBODY on the ice. And I was the only one there the whole session.

Now, everyone is going think I'm nuts, but I didn't like it. I would have been happier if even one other person had shown. I know part of it is that I still feel like a bit of a fraud being on patch, so I kind of felt as if I was doing something wrong by being out there on my own, but it was also the silence! Usually someone puts some music on, but I didn't have any CDs with me, and I don't know how to use the CD player anyway. I dug an old MP3 player from my skate bag (normally I don't use it, but in this case I didn't need to hear if anyone was about to mow me down) but the battery was flat. Which meant I could hear every scrape I made on the ice, and as there'd been an ice cut before the session, the only tracings were mine, so I could see the marks where I'd toe pushed on every single stroke (this wasn't news to me, but it's still disheartening to see it!).

Loss: Now normally I like a nice quiet (quiet, not dead!) session so I can work on my (pretty much non-existent) backward edges without worrying too much about who I'm going to run into, but I didn't want to do that, because I was worried that if I went over backwards and hit my head nobody would actually notice! The rink staff all seemed to be congregated in the canteen, and the stewards are not that good at noticing people falling over even on the rare occasions they're actually on the ice!

Profit: Despite the above, I did get more done than I usually do on patch (albeit all going forwards), as I didn't have anbody to give way to (as I'm always the slowest, most nervous, and lowest level skater on patch I give way to everybody as a matter of course). So I didn't have to bail out of anything, which meant a rare chance to do complete dance patterns (without the music of course, so no doubt completely out of time!). Haven't done dances unpartnered for some time, so was pleased to find that my patterns are now somewhat larger than they used to be, though nowhere near as big as when skating with my husband, and can now do the slip (slide) chasse in the Canasta Tango without needing to hang onto someone!

Greater Profit: This will likely be the only time I'll ever be the best person on a patch session!

Loss: This should have been a good omen for the (normally very quiet) public session which followed, and indeed three skaters who probably would have actually appreciated the empty patch turned up, which was fine by me. Unfortunately they were shortly followed by a quantity of small children (do they never go to school anymore?). Now that can be okay if they're mostly hugging the barrier, but these were the type who liked to occupy the centre of the rink, falling, sitting, toddling and not looking where they were going when making their way between the centre and the barrier. There was a brief respite when they went to get food, so I seized the chance to practice some runs (progressives) and backward crossovers on the middle circle, but even then I seemed to be operating some sort of magnetic field so that the three little girls remaining were drawn to my path, whatever it might be.

So we had the kindergarten class in the centre of the rink, the three good skaters skating in the loop around them, leaving me as the one skating at the barrier, as the only available spot to practice. Fortunately I have a well-developed technique of doing backward edges close to the wall (much to the astonishment of my dance coach), but that was a habit it took a long time to break, and I don't want it back!

So what should have been a good session was kind of wasted for various reasons, part of it only in my mind!

I don't think you are nuts - I can't skate alone....I need people out there to motivate me. There have been a few times my daughter and I went to a freestyle session and we were the only ones and we just ended up goofing off and talking because we just could not be motivated without other skaters.

j

Wow, that's so cool!! I remember John Z. was trying to teach us the change-edge camel at the Hackensack camp in '07 but I didn't get it. I'm hoping the RFI loop will help me get a change edge backspin, though. . . Which loop did you learn? And can we start a double sal support group?!

__________________
"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I can't skate alone, either; one other person, fine - just me, not so good. I have been known to stay on longer than I intended just to keep one other person company while they were waiting for their lesson, as I know how miserable it can be trying to skate on your own.

When it's me and Husband, though - we revel in it!

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