On the waltz 8, focus on keeping your feet close together (no wide-stepping) and not rushing the transitions. That will help you stay on your edges (and remember to lean on the edges as you step to them). That worked for me on the 5-step mohawk (I never had to do the waltz 8 on Pre-Bronze MIF, I had to do the lovely alt 3's ). On the LFI 3-turn, press to the ball of your foot as you do the turn and make sure your arms are staying close to your body and not flapping around (guess what my problem is on 3-turns? ). Also, make sure you're not rushing the turn - it should be at the top of the lobe - I know that the lobes are smaller in the PB turn pattern, but you still want to wait until you are at the top, otherwise you won't curve around afterward.

I had a lesson this morning, mostly focusing on the 3-turns on Silver MIF - my problems are 1)fear, and 2) arms and legs going haywire....and also not really using my ankle to stay on edges. My coach says that if I get my back 3's to the top of the lobes (instead of about 2 feet before the top), I'll pass those moves. Solution: she wants me to wait until I think I'm 2 feet past where I'm supposed to turn - hey, it sounds good to me - lol.

I think my new motto will be that thread title...."feel the fear and do it anyway" - lol. BI 3's still freak me out, as does bringing my feet close together on the 8-step.

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Terri C is a Bronze lady!
Gold Moves, here I come!

I have that problem on the Silver 3-turn pattern too. I'm either too early or too late. And my lobes start out big at the beginning and then get smaller as I go down the rink. I think I need to devote an entire session to fixing just that pattern!

Sizzlin':
-Camel spin is still good! On about half of the ones I do, I feel like I could keep spinning on and on in that position, except that I don't have enough speed.
-Did two very good sit-change-sits near the end of the session.
-Jumps were all good. Flip and loop were decent. I did a good loop-loop, flip-toe loop, and salchow-toe loop. Lutz is still two-footed, but it feels a lot easier than it used to. I tried a flip-loop for the first time. I two-footed the loop, but other than that I think it was good
-Did a good change-foot spin.
-Did a few one-revolution back camels.
-Did a good program run-through and worked on my choreography.
-Moves were all okay.

Fizzlin':
-Had a heck of headache today after my yard sale this morning, and then went skating anyway.
-Right as I got into an attitude spin, I caught a huge ice bump with my blade and went down. Got a nasty ice burn on my arm.
-My LFO spiral in my program isn't on much of an edge. Need to work on that.

Thanks. I'm really down about this. If I fail prebronze, I dunno. I just don't know. I thought I was a better skater than this. People usually think I'm a really good skater...but maybe I can't cut it in USFSA? (I'm having a feel sorry for myself moment...I mean come on, prebronze?)

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Revised Official 2010 Goals checklist
Skate __
New boots __
(lowering the bar for 2010 as I haven't skated in a year)

If you aren't ready to pass the test it just means you aren't ready to pass the test. If you don't pass the test, it doesn't even mean you aren't ready to pass the test - it just means those particular judges were not satisfied with what you did THAT DAY, THAT test. It doesn't say anything about what kind of a skater you are.

I failed the Dutch Waltz 3 times and I thought I was a better skater than that and I was. I just didn't do the Dutch Waltz as well as the judges wanted me to THAT DAY THAT test.

You can pass the test and you can cut in the USFSA. I'd tell you to relax, it's an encouragement test but that's what they said about the Dutch Waltz.

Just do the best you can, but don't let it dictate to you how you feel about your skating.

j

Sizzlin':
Picked up my new boots and blades this morning and went straight to the rink to try them out.

Fizzlin':
Nearly crashed the moment I stepped on the ice! I haven't skated on freshly sharpened blades for at least a year. I had to do very slow F swizzles to the wall on the other side. Then I stuck to the wall for about 15 minutes. Skated a total of an hour, if you can call it skating . More about this in the thread I started on it.

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Couldn't have said it better, so I will just say I SECOND THAT!!

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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

Doing some catch up on the Lesson posts...

Sizzlin':
NOTHING!!!

Fizzlin':

• Working on correcting my spin entry for the ENTIRE lesson!!! Still about it coming out of the lesson.
• CROWDS!!! I would have THOUGHT that no one would come in on the 4th of July!!! NOT!!! EVERYONE showed up! I almost didn't get on the ice too! FS was full and I had to plead with the guy up front to let me in there b/c I have a lesson on that particular FS session.
• Didn't really try jumping...

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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!!!

Fizzling:

• Primary coach wanted to go thru the runthru to the program. I am WAAAAY behind on the music currently. On top of that, he forgot that we made certain changes to the program for different reasons.
• I'd freak out when going into the loop at fast speeds, which is what the program calls for.

Sizzlin:

• Did a couple of relatively decent camels (though not well enough to do a camel-sit, but...)
• Loops when it's slower is good with the program's entrance.
• Flips are decent (probably b/c the entry IS slower... )
• The half a chocolate glazed donut I did have at coffee club.

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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!!!

Wow, jazz, the rinks around here all CLOSED for the 4th!!!! Would not have mattered anyway...I was in a show and had to be in place by 4 and the traffic would have slowed me down a bit-people were headed to the beach to get a spot for watching the fireworks.

A whole lesson on spins? Sounds like one of my lessons....Summer is half-way over and I'm counting the days when I can pick up lessons again!!! I'm sure we will spend ALL of September just in review!

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

Not my rink!!! It's definitely open. Okay, maybe there's no hockey but the FS sessions, the Sr. Skate and the afternoon public session was definitely going on. Heck, the rink is open Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day. AAMOF, I think the Thanksgiving coffee club session is the most CROWDED of all the coffee club sessions. Given that, I doubt that the July 4th Wed evening session was going on though. It wouldn't have mattered anyway, in my case, since I was watching the fireworks from a very fancy restaurant with a great view of the firework (but enough of a distance to make a quick getaway after the fireworks before the crowds block traffic... ) in San Francisco.

Yeah, my secondary is VERY nit-picky on those spin entrances. In fact, she's very nit-picky on just about EVERYTHING and tends to make you beat up on a particular skill until it's beaten to total submission!!!

For those who are interested, this is off-ice but still related to my skating -- here are my notes for my first interval training session! Well, sorta related... it's so I would look good in a skating dress!!! But I think it will be good cardio training for when I do my program too!!! This is probably not all that grueling for some of you but... (Also, keep in mind that I'm almost 40... )

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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!!!

By the way, am I the only one who's confused with the dates in the title of this thread?

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~~~~~
Blog: http://chowskates.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/chowskates
~~~~~

No, I just noticed them, too. So as it's Sunday, and arguably the start of a new week, I'll start a new thread!

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

These are from Thursday and Friday-- thanks to vacation time, I was able to take lessons on Freestyle ice on my weekend rink, so I sucked it up and took an hour long lesson a day. (Yay, no watching out for little public skate goobers skating into me!)
Fizzlin':
After reporting on my toe-waltz diagnosis from the Hackensack camp, most of the lessons have been remedial work on my toe loop-- they agreed with Adam Rippon on my timing (apparently, I hold the three-turn too long ), and then it was about 45 minutes of picking, stepping, and then checking out the look of the pick in the ice-- turns out that I also pick with a turned-turned out hip. Friday, I jumped a few, and they apparently look much better... whew.

We're working on a drill for my loop entry, and I'm fine while my coach is around to catch me if I fall (which I don't), but as soon as he's gone, I tumble off of the back of my blade. Had two really nasty falls right after the back three, and the whiplash is back.

Moves. My coach has fianlly agreed that I won't be ready by mid-July, so we're working for later this summer. Everything is there, one way or another, but nowhere clean enough to test.

Sizzlin':
Thanks to Sylvia Fontana's insight at Hackensack, my CW scratch spin is actually looking like a real scratch spin. CCW is still sketchy because my timing with my leg and arm are wrong, but it has also improved a bunch.

Backspin! 2.5-3 revs with more, according to my coach, if I didn't keep bailing out from fear. I'm just happy to REALLY be backspinning.
I do need to work on checking better, though, because right now, I practically go into a camel spin

And we're going to start on my freestyle program today, if we can decide on the music. Team Emberchyld is torn-- I love two pieces, my main coach loves the slower flowy-er music (so does every female I ask for an opinion-- from my ballet teacher all the way to my sisters), and her husband/coach #2 loves the second choice (so does every male, including the male skaters at my rink. He's convinced he can get the rest of us to love it if he can recut the music... so he;s going to present it to us today ). We've decided to adapt the program as needed to my test level.

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When asked what his "secret" to success was, Wayne Gretsky said: "Skate to where the puck is going and not to where it has been."
Is the figure skating version of this: Skate as if you're doing an axel and not just learning how to hop?

Sizzlin':
On Friday, no one was on the adults only public session but me! I practiced some nice senior moves all to myself which made me feel a lot more confident about them in general.

On Saturday on the same ice (with more people this time), I landed a double lutz-double toe combo, the first I've done since I was a young teenager! It was so exciting.

I also started working on my loop-double loop combo (in preparation to do double-double jumps with the double loop being the last jump). At first, I couldn't get the second jump to rotate even to a half loop, but then I realized I was jumping on a flat. As soon as I made sure to land on more of a RBO curve, the double loop on the end just popped right up into the air with ease.

Fizzlin': My stupid skate shop seems to be sharpening my blades much too hard. I've only had them for a year, but they've already died (at least the blade on my left foot has no more edge anymore). I had to fork over $450 for a new pair. I know this'll help my jumps, but geez, I didn't want to spend that money right now so close to my move.

I also just realized how bad of a wrap I have on my axel, double loop (although this one is getting better), and double flip. I'm not too concerned about the flip, because I don't plan on attempting triples anytime soon, but the axel is a huge problem, because I'm nowhere even close to getting a double axel because of the wrap. The loop's wrap is only a problem if it hinders doing double-double combos with the loop on the end. We'll see when I actually start trying them.

==
If anyone has any tips on some warm-up exercises for the double axel, I'd greatly appreciate it. All I can think of is doing an axel-back spin, and axel-loop combo, and attempting double axels on the floor. I'm trying to figure this out without a coach to save myself some money.

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"Without Vision the People Perish"
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