Flying: Well, this evening I was unexpectedly invited to be a guest skater in one of the rink's I coach at ice show. That gives me...a week and two days to throw together a number. I'm not too worried though; I've already cut my music (Michael Buble's version of "Crazy Little Thing Called Love") and it's only 1:32, so I figure I'll do a bunch of footwork, a few spins, maybe a double sal or so and call it a night. It's supposed to be fun after all...and surely, this will be entertaining. Plus, I get to choreograph for myself for a change!

Flying: I did my program and it felt fine. And I could breath fairly well at the end. This was also the first runthru that had all my spins in it.

Falling: It only felt fine. And I have "paddle hands."

Flying: I landed most of my axel attempts today and a few 2sal. I think my 2sal is almost consistent again!

Falling: I'm leaving for the competition tomorrow morning and have a major paper due on Monday that I haven't started yet and some random homework assignments due also! Ugh. I have no clue when I am going to find the time to actually do these...

Coach PA and Fly and Crash - congrats! Sounds like a great day for both of you.
We had a really fun practice today. We've finished the program and are now really working on working it and making it our own.
Next step - costumes!

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

Falling: literally falling all over the place. My right arm is hurting quite a bit. I'm breaking in new boots and my jumps have suddenly become tougher (although I think part of it might be my sub-consciously trying to protect my right side)

Flying: not much.

Falling: In my 6th day of Nasty Respiratory Virus. Did a run-through of my show program yesterday and almost keeled over--felt so exhausted it seemed like waaaay too much effort to put my leg up behind me for the camel!
Flyingespite feeling awful still got 1 out of 2 loop attempts fully rotated and a half-loop with some actual air behind it!
Starting to seem as though Silver Moves might actually be testable someday. But I still hate them.

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

Flying: Spent some time on my session and half of my lesson working just on basics (stroking drills, etc). It was a nice break and a good workout.

Spent the rest of my lesson working on the Blues. Solo is getting stronger, I think competing it solo at DBNAI (where it did NOT go all that well but truthfully could have been worse) helped shake out the nerves for when it comes time to test. Partnering is getting much better, mostly we ironed out the choctaw/restart where my posture goes to crap and I tend to pull away from my coach.

Also went through my program, finding little places to add more bells and whistles (bracket before the mohawk going into my lutz, RBO 3 out of the landing position of my lutz rather than stepping forward into a crossover--which forces me to hold the landing position for a second rather than rushing into the next thing, inside spread eagle into my camel spin), etc. I'm really starting to like this program and with 7 weeks to work on jump technique, strengthen my spins, and get everything down, I should be in good shape for ANs. Especially now that handling nerves at competitions is getting easier.

Nothing really bad today, granted I didn't jump at all and didn't really spin.

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

Flying - fourth skate this week as I desperately try to make up for missing three weeks being sick. My strength is coming back, as are jumps and spins. I landed three respectable loops and a recognizable flip.

Falling - still working on choreography for my program, with barely a month to go. I will not know it. I am doomed.

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It's all about the dress!

Flying: It's been quite good not having lessons this week, as we really needed to consolidate the work we'd done on Sunday.

Falling: However, we've done that now, so we wish our coaches better and hope they will not come back too soon, but that they are better enough to teach us again next week.

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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!

Flying - Had my first lesson in a couple of weeks (have been out sick ), and we got through a lot of my choreography for a Pre-Bronze program AND I actually did a (teensy, itty-bitty but still) waltz-tap toe-waltz combination. We're putting it in the program!

Falling - literally. Caught an edge on my back spiral, typically one of my better elements, and went down hard backwards. Rejoined the Society of Headbangers. Thank heaven for the padded hat that I wear when I practice - people sometimes rib me about it, but today it did its work really well.

Flying:
I have no idea where this is coming from, except that I must have somehow reached a new level of comfort. FO threes are now excellent turns, but still not checked enough. The turns themselves, though, are like a knife thru butter. FI threes came back today all on their own. First spin of lesson was also first spin in the past 2 weeks, and was decent, maybe 4 revs. Second spin was so fast and so many revs that I was dizzy coming out of it. Coach said it was the fastest she's ever seen me spin. I was telling myself the whole time "just hold on, just hold on", and it worked! I then had to switch to backspins because of dizziness. By backspins, I mean backspin attempts, which, amazingly, were not too bad today. I actually got almost 2 revs. I just suddenly feel where I should be and the biggest obstacle is my fear. Went back to "forward" spins, and did another really good, fast, many rev spin from a T push. This time I actually snapped into the spin instead of sneaking slowly into it as usual. To finish up the lesson, I suggested waltz 3's, which I always bail on after maybe three of them because of the speed I gain. Well, today I just kept going, and they got better and more flowy as I went. Both directions too. I'm really thrilled with this progress, especially since it seems to be across the board, but I would also kind of like to know how it happened, as I haven't been practicing. Maybe my ice dance lessons are helping?

Falling:
Not a thing.

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I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a pretty good week and lots of stuff going on, so it's as good a time as any to jump back in, I guess!!!

Flying: FINALLY got my pre-bronze program put together last evening - we had bits and pieces choreographed already, but we put in some things and took out others, and I finally have everything all laid out and "connecting the dots" so to speak so that they actually flow together and I don't just stumble around trying to figure out what comes next and how to get onto the right edge!! [to bring you up to date - I finally tested pre-bronze MIF in January and passed!! with some really nice comments from my judge, the success of which got me all fired up to actually sign up for the rink's competition (it's next Saturday) so I have been getting ready for that]. I'm skating to music from the Atlantis soundtrack, scored (another ebay find) a great royal blue (with silvery sparkles in the material!) dress to wear, and have finally figured out how to do a presentable salchow . . . and spins are . . . well, spinning!! so life is good.

And the best part - there is ONE other adult skater in my group - so I'm at least going to get a silver - and none of that "against the book" stress! LOL.

Falling: Not exactly related to my practice, but had to pull DS from the competition as he has been having back spasms which just kept getting worse and worse and we finally dragged him to the dr, who says NO jumps/spins for 2 weeks (or until everything settles down) - fortunately, x-rays looked OK, but they think he has pulled or torn a muscle. (and he says it's not an injury from skating, but he can't remember exactly HOW it happened - 10 y.o. boys, what are you going to do with them!! ). I'M sort of relieved though, he has been having trouble with his usually reliable axel, which was making things a little tense, but probably most of that was probably a result of the back pain.

Flying: I passed Preliminary MIF today! I'd passed most of the moves (except the spirals) on either the Pre-Bronze or Bronze MIF tests so I was feeling pretty confident. I ended up skating OK - it was frigid in the rink area and I know I didn't skate as well as I could have - of course nerves and an ankle injury (see below) played a role. But at least now I can say that I passed those moves on the standard track.


Falling: My right ankle starting hurting again over the past 2 weeks. I'd had issues with tissue/tendon inflammation in Sept, spent 5 weeks off the ice, and now it's flared up again. Actually, it never totally went away, so I have an appt with a (new) doctor this week. This morning, it started hurting in warm-up and never went away. The power 3's really killed it. Then I went out for the alt 3's and put my foot down on one of the turns on my bad ankle/foot. But the judge asked me to reskate at the end, and I did them fine, so I passed. I really don't want to have to take another 5 weeks (or more) off, since it took me a while to get back to where I had been before my Sept/Oct break.

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

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Congratulations on passing your PB MIF test - that's FANTASTIC!!!!! And best of success with your program. BTW, now that you have presentable Salchows, could you loan me one for MY (skating up) PB program 5 weeks from now? I can't seem to find any . . .

Congratulations to the test passers!

Flying: Coach really pleased with the way things had firmed up during the week.

Falling: Even if she and Husband did describe me as "a sheep ready for market".... that was actually the way Husband was holding me!

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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!

Testing was SO stressful even though I knew what to expect (from watching DS's test sessions). I calmed down, for the most part, for the actual test itself, but I fell during the warm ups (on EDGES, no less!!) and I was apparently so nervous about the backwards inside edges (my weakest) that I did TWO sets of those and no backwards outside edges (which are no problem at all for me). Luckily, they did let me reskate (or, I guess, SKATE) them at the end. I didn't even notice that I had left them out - my coach had to tell me!!

As far as the Salchow, my problem was that I was tending to "collapse" inward/around my takeoff leg (weak muscles - my bad) and I really have to make an effort to get my body straight up over that leg (not leaning forward, not leaning to the side, just straight and strong!) before I start bringing the free leg through. (making an effort just before takeoff to look UP/forward and to spot on something in front of me helps me immensely with this) Also, the free leg needs to be beside/a little forward on the take off leg before jumping (don't ask me how I was trying to do it before!!!). I just found on youtube a helpful video on the breakdown of a salchow (the poster is actually a skatingforums.com member - but I didn't know this one had been posted, it shows the different stages of the jump and a little bit of slow-mo so you can actually see how it progresses.

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D643YGbUHs0

Good luck with your program!! I don't know if I'm considered "skating up" or not, because I've only passed PB MIF and not the freestyle (I just didn't want to worry about taking both tests on the same day). The other adult skater has already passed the PB freestyle and Bronze MIF, but I don't think we're too awfully far apart, as far as I can tell, if I can skate a clean program I should at least be competitive, I hope, but really I just want to get my first comp under my belt.

You will be absolutely wonderful!!! Enjoy the competition - adult competition, I've discovered, is very, very supportive - we're all just glad to be there and are genuinely cheering one another on. It's fun! Your program is going to be marvelous. Post it for us when you can!!!!!

Mimi

I second the pat on the back to those who passed tests this week! Any test is always a huge accomplishment and takes so much effort!

Flying: The team qualified for nationals!!! YAY!!! I'm so excited. We're going to Colorado Springs mid-April! Also, I got third in pre-juv (for the second time - I also got 3 at Cornell in the fall) and am felt that my skate was decent. At least I didn't forget to do my footwork and finish last like I did two weeks ago.

Flying some more: I got the day off tomorrow. I still might go because I feel that if I take a day off, my endurance will disappear on me and I can finally do my whole program well again.

Falling: We need to do endurance training for nationals because it's in Colorado. The high altitude is going to make programs that much harder... Double run-through torture here I slowly come.

Flying: The trip back from Philly only took 7 hours compared to the 9 hour drive down there Friday.

I'll post my program on youtube and put a link here when I get a copy from the girl who taped it for me.

Congrats to all passing tests!

Debbie - MP is freezing, and the ice is crunchy.

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Recycle Love - Adopt a homeless pet

YAAAAAY!!!! CONGRATS to you, DEBBIE S!!!



(Debbie in the middle doing the happy dance... )


STAY OFF OF THAT ANKLE TIL IT HEALS!!! You got the test done! You've EARNED the rest!!!

How old are your boots? Maybe you need new boots?

CONGRATS to you too on passing your Pre-Bronze MIF test!!!

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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, sorry I missed that.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO Laura H. & Debbie S. and FlyAndCrash's team and EVERYONE with HAPPY news! Sounds like a good weekend for SFers!

Congratulations to all those that have passed tests!!! yay for you!!!!

This is for yesterday, when I had to drive HOME during the SNOW!!!

Flying: made it thru my program with SYNCHRO GIRL on the ice, who was showing her friend some moves (he was off ice)...so she wasn't trying to kill me (LOL). Again, a centered scratch spin. AND LANDED TWO LOOP JUMPS IN A ROW before they got sloppy. Oh well.

Better backspin too-had one that went round and round. Then I did my routine, which was better and we added some arm stuff (we are ALWAYS adding arm stuff).

Falling: remainder of jumps were sloppy, I'm pitching forward (bad posture from too much time studying I'm sure).

I do 2 knee slides in my routine-which means my knees are bruised. Man they look awful! They are so boney...can't be helped.

The drive home was interesting, 35 mph and it normally takes me an hour, I lucked out and made half the drive behind a snowplow so he paved the way. The remainder of the way I was on my own. I'm ok with driving in the mess-have a 4-wheel drive truck and I don't freak out as long as I have a radio.

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

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Thanks, everyone! I did get a rest from skating tonight, thanks to the snowstorm that closed the rink. Oh well, at least I got a snow day from work, too.

The boots are 3 years old but are not even remotely starting to break down (I don't jump that much and I only skate 2-3x a week). I've had the tongues replaced twice (most recently in Sept when I was off the ice), but I think if it were the boots, the other ankle would also be having problems. My problem started after getting a mosquito bite on that ankle - even after it healed, the ankle still hurt when I skated - no more itching, just pain. The first doc I saw said the bite probably triggered inflammation (possibly infection, but it wasn't swollen or red) in the tissue surrounding the tendon on top of the ankle. So I was to put on a walking boot and rest it. After 2 weeks, it still wasn't completely better, so the doc told me to rest it for a few more weeks and then I could gradually reintroduce activity. So I started back skating slowly (and no jumping for a while) but when I started pushing it again (particularly on the Prelim power 3's and the Gold power circles) it started hurting.

I was talking to a coach at the rink who is a PT, and she said it's a tough area to treat. Indeed, the doc told me you can't inject anything into it b/c the tendon could rupture, and it's not something that gets drained. I really hope the doc I'm seeing this week has better ideas - I'd hate to think that I wouldn't be able to skate b/c of some mosquito bite.

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