Terrible title but I want write about what a great session I had today! I woke up at 3 am and since I had to get up at 4 - I knew if I went back to sleep I'd be groggy after only an hour so I watched tv for a half hour and got up at 3:30 but I'm still PEPPED up from my great skating session

6 am Power class - We had lots of kids but I felt like I kept up really good.

Pooped out - had coach draw me a salchow on the ice but I still don't get it. Gonna take some more work on that...

Pepped up -- I DID A ONE FOOT LBO 3 turn!! Woohoo...and held it for more than half a second. Maybe a second :-) Also did a LBI 3 turn - held for half a second. I was so excited...when I did my moves program to music I did the back one foot 3 turn. now have to work on the RBO 3.

My structured list of things to do from my coach is SO SO helpful. I don't follow it exactly...but I do look at it. It makes me work on things I don't like to work like the 8 step in the direction I don't like. But I only have to do 3 patterns so I just do it. Same with my spin entry...just do 5 tries.

I went through my freestyle program. The knees have decided there will be no more lunges....so in my program I have a lunge after my half flip and I did another half flip instead...which is great that I can do a 3 turn and half flip without slowing down. It was just about the best I've ever done that program. Why can't I do that like that in front of the judges.

And ended with a few patterns of the cha cha to music with a fakey step behind.

j

Pepped Up - Kept working on Golden Skaters Waltz in our dance lesson, and finished learning the steps. Tried it with the music, which is much faster than I'm used to, and only missed a few steps (keep forgetting the lone normal chasse), so was pleased with that for a first attempt.

Pooped Out - Generally lacking in confidence today, and scared when we skated at any sort of speed. Refused point blank to do the rhythm blues as couldn't face the three cross behinds.

Pepped Up - Have the week off work, so can skate three times instead of one.

Like it! I was thinking of sworn in or sworn at!

Anyway - Pepped: Went to fs last night and really made progress on our pairs program. It's a very artistic piece and I love the choreography. The session emptied out at the end and we had the chance to work on death spirals.

We were definitely pooped by the end of the session.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Oh that would have been a good one!

j

JSkater: that's fantastic!!!!! I dream of the day that I can do a forward inside three turn, never mind a back three. Great work!
For me: Pepped up - maybe later this week, if I get to finally skate again.
Pooped out - I had planned to finally get back on the ice at a
morning session this morning - no joy. I woke up sick. Not good.
Maybe tomorrow.

Pepped up: Landed perfect double jumps on first try today!

Pooped out: When it came time to do my solo I fell really hard on my double toe and couldn't finish

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Goal:
Pass Gold solo
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Very passionate canadian skating fan && skater <3*

Pooped out: Coach's faith in our ability to do a pairs routine suddenly evaporated when I presented him with the music!

Our ability to do a pivot spiral suddenly evaporated when we had to do it in front of the coach!

Husband's ability to do the Mohawk/back 3 exercise from Level 4 moves suddenly evaporated the moment I drew the coach's attention to how well he was doing it!

Pepped up: So we have music, but whether we will do anything with it is another question. And when I was stretching out afterwards I got my free leg up into the spiral position. One day I will be able to do this on ice.

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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!

Pooped out: It's finally above 0 OUTSIDE the rink but I don't think it is INSIDE the rink! It's hard to do much of anything when dressed like the Michelin Man. That must be why my flip feels perfect--3 turn, pick jump and pull arms in, leg in backspin position, land on one foot--and then I look down and see that there is a "tail" (coach's polite word for it) about as long as an entire boa constrictor drawn onto the ice. I'm getting into the air but I must just be hanging around up there since the entire turn happens after I land!
Loop vanished when my skates got dull and came back after I got them sharpened but it is still so tiny and can only be done at the world's sloooowest pace.

Pepped up: Started working on competition program with one of my students--she looks SO CUTE doing it!
And I finally have an interpretive program and a bronze program. I choreographed the interpretive myself and the first time I did it everyone stopped to watch and said it looked great. I'm not working too much on the bronze program since I got it too late to be ready for the test session next month, and we'll be at my son's hockey camp during the test session after that, so no chance of using the program before next November. But at least I have it so I can work on it over the summer.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

My first ever morning freestyle session! And therefore my first practice thread post!

Pepped Up: It snowed last night, about 1", which in NC is enough to shut the world down, so I don't know if that means Tuesday mornings usually have more than 2 skaters on them, but today at least I was one of only 3 on the ice, which was very nice. I've had a hard time getting up the nerve to skate on freestyle sessions, as I'm definitely lower level, but it was soooooo nice this morning . I worked on back 3 turns, 5 step mohawk, double 3's, then spins (which are terrible, but they do seem to be improving ever so slightly) then did a bunch of waltz's (waltz is getting much more consistent) and toe's and tried putting the toe on the end of the waltz... toward the end I was kind of getting it, but mostly:

Pooped Out: I just can't do that toe loop from ANY speed, including the speed coming out of a waltz jump. I can do it after a sal, but only cause my sal's have zero speed, and usually zero jump too. I just can't find the timing of when to actually leave the ice. Occasionally I get it by accident, but that's it.

Pepped up: Program is finished! Not to just drill it into the ground....or ice! I just need to do a zillion runthroughs. I like it much better now. It has a lot of nice transitions and better footwork. I even get to do a Charlotte into a lutz. My spins are much more solid going into them with the 3 turn entrance and I can consistently get a lot more revs on them. I am tentatively hopeful for my two upcoming competitions next month, I defintiely don't feel like the program lacks anything anymore.

Pooped out: Double sals didn't make an appearance last night, but I was a little tired.

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"Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?"

Pepped up: Generally feeling strong in today's practice. New FS program layout isn't ideal, but I think it will work. Gaining more courage for the half lutz.

Pooped out: Just like last year, the spins are suddenly gone!! I did what I call a flying butt spin--got leaning back a bit, the feet swoop out to the front, and boom! hard on the rear end. Coach will not be happy. But, seeing as I am supposed to be doing this for FUN, I'm not going to stress about it too much--I'll just do my best and see where the chips lie. Not entirely happy with footwork program yet--it still needs a bit of tweaking--and I need to REMEMBER what the heck I'm doing!

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"Go wash an elephant if you wanna do something big." -Baby Gramps

Pepped up - another gorgeous crisp day for outdoor skating. Jumps springy, Spins coming along.

Pooped - except the camel. let's just not go there.

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It's all about the dress!

Pooped: is what I am today after a bad night! No reason for said bad night, just one of those things. Net result a very low-energy skate, and spins were just not happening.

Pepped: However, bracket-3-brackets happening, especially together with the coach, so very pleased about that. And am stretching more in my spirals.

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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!

Pepped Up:

Made it to the gym every day this week so far...diet hasn't been completely strict but good and so far I'm down 2 pounds.

Pooped Out:

Haven't made it to the rink yet this week (since Saturday)...didn't have class Monday night but wasn't able to take advantage of the extra time in my day to skate because stupid hockey tornaments took all the ice.

BUT been drilling jumps off-ice more (see other thread about axels).

I'm freakin SORE!!!

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2010-2011 goals:
Pass Junior MIF test
Don't break anything

pepped up - lesson this morning. Coach taught me a bunch of footwork steps that she plans to put in my program, so I can start working on them now. There's a travelling mohawk, something she calls 'drunken sailor' and a side step thing that has me spiking both blade tails into the ice. This is going to be, um, interesting. My change-foot spin actually showed itself for inspection today, and coach pronounced my layback and sitspins 'good for just starting' which is fine, since that's where I am.

pooped out - ran out of time before working on the camel, I'm still too chicken to land the flip on one foot.

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It's all about the dress!

Pooped Out - Yesterday I was so excited to show my coach my back 3 turn and then today during the lesson she asked after we worked on the salchow...What else do you want to work on? And I was like...uh...I dunno...then after the lesson it struck me DUH! Why didn't I say back 3 turns???? That's one of the disadvantages of a 5:45 am lesson...


So we worked on the salchow...I think I get it now...but I really have to work on bending my knee and not leaning forward so I'm in a position to jump...and keep my shoulder stretched back.

Pepped up - Worked on forward power pulls and I finally got the rhythm - bend..pull..bend...pull...I would get one pull and wouldn't bend so then I'd be out of steam....

May have been a good thing I didn't try to show coach back 3 turns - they were not so good today.

j

Pooped Out:
Alright! WHO has my loop!!?! It's MIA!!!

And secondary coach and I worked on spin entries again. It's a slow and painful process and I have to learn to undo my bad habit of stepping and then turning on the spin entry too.. kinda hard when you don't have much of a turnout.

Pepped Up:
At least the spins are centered...

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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!!!

Pepped Up - Squeaked out three revolutions on a two foot spin for first time ever. Admittedly the last half revolution was really me pushing round rather than spinning, but given that I've always been spin-challenged, that's actually progress.

Pooped Out - Dance lesson was disastrous. Coach was getting us to do fairly simple exercises to music, but the music was so fast that moving the feet in time made me constantly feel like I was on the verge of a major face plant. By the time I'd been dragged around the rink a couple of times it was all I could do not to burst into tears from sheer terror. It's times like that which makes me wonder if it is actually good for me to go through that sort of stress. Went home feeling miserable, despite having been able to skate three times this week instead of one.

Been there, done that! It's very

I have a student with this exact problem on the sal. If you find something that helps, please LMK!

I am about 2 degrees of fear ahead of you. My dance lessons are exhilarating because of that fear and the fact that I am really flying like I want to. Take heart! You just have to improve a little bit to start enjoying it. I can't skate like that on my own yet, but yet is the operative word.


My schedule this week has suddenly become insane with absolutely no time to practice, therefore when I showed up a the rink yesterday to give the two remaining of five lessons (three cancelations earlier), and got two more cancelations, it wasn't all bad.

Pepped Up:
I did a few more FO threes that got back to the line. I can feel how much better they are, just a little way to go now. F power pulls have really started to become more consistent. I can feel how it is the change of weight along with the knee up and down that creates the push. I'm still not putting everything into them, for lack of confidence, but they do accelerate now. RFI threes were very smooth, and was even able to do some double threes.

Pooped Out:
LFI three is simply refusing to work. I cannot get my weight forward enough. This has always been easier and better than the RFI three, and now it's just gone !!! I'm going to two foot it very, very slowly to feel the shift forward for about half an hour the next chance I get.

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[QUOTE=liz_on_ice;383295]pepped up - lesson this morning. Coach taught me a bunch of footwork steps that she plans to put in my program, so I can start working on them now. There's a travelling mohawk, something she calls 'drunken sailor' and a side step thing that has me spiking both blade tails into the ice. This is going to be, um, interesting.
[B]

Oh, please, please, tell me what the "drunken sailor" is!!!!

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

You may also know this move as a mohawk-cross, as some skaters call them. I've always known them as a drunken sailor. It's not nearly as fun as it sounds!

Yes, it's a circular thing, my notes say LFO-RBO mo, XF onto LBI, reverse mo to RFI. I haven't had a chance to practice since she showed me so I'll have to see if that makes sense or not.

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It's all about the dress!

Thanks - I'm hoping one day it will feel less like I'm about to die, or break every bone in my body, or something like that!
Ah! That's the mohawk exercise on the bronze passport (dance) in the UK. The one I'll probably still be working on after I've passed the rest of the passport! Why it's at bronze when the inside mohawk is on the silver passport I don't know!

Pooped: I skated for the first time since the first week of December yesterday (well... I skated one day last week, but I didn't do much).
- My spins are GONE! HELP!!! I think I will have to change some of the spins in my program to reflect my degrading skill level. However, the coach wants me to change my scratch-back scratch to a catch-foot!
- For some reason, my single salchow is is gone too! I managed to land two doubles on the line, but I could barely manage a few singles on the circle. And that's my move for team moves...

Pepped: I manged to get up the courage to play my music. I skated through the whole thing and did most of the elements.
- Most is probably stretching it, but it sounds better than half.
- I remembered my program and footwork! I have not done my program since the competition since last October.

Pooped: There are two competitions in February!
- I am nowhere near ready!!! And I have no stamina. Ugh. I foresee the next few weeks as being very painful.

Pepped: I joined a step aerobics and abs class at school. It hurts! But hopefully, it will help my endurance.

Oh, and about salchow exercises, have you tried doing multiple 3turns in a row? The first one is the same as how you would do it going into a salchow, but the following two (or however many) are done with the free leg at 3 o'clock (for CCW) slightly bent and arms braced at about 12 and 3. It should replicate the take-off position for a salchow. Once this is done without rocking/falling/bending, a salchow can be added to the end. This really helped me feel the position and improve my timing. Hope it helps!

That would be helpful if I could visualize what free leg at 3 o clock looks like - which I can't. Can you try to explain the position in another way? thanks!

j