Oh well done! Is that the UK test - if so, could you - or someone - please help me how to do those expletive-deleted back cross-cuts!!!!! I am so-o-o-o struggling. I thought I might do Prelim Field Moves instead of Level 3 Dance moves, but now I can see that I will get the back cross-rolls (inter-Bronze Field moves) long before I get the cross-cuts, so I'll stick with Level 3! Husband, who has passed level 3, can't remember how to do them, nor can another skater who also passed her level 3. I sometimes think I'm getting there.....

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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!

Totally hard. Dance is very far from being a soft option - and if you think you spent hours doing that, wait until you start doing it in waltz hold for the Swing Dance! Make sure you practice your swing rolls in both Kilian and reverse Kilian holds (reverse Kilian is a bear), and chassés, and also progressive runs round the circle in both directions, both in Kilian and reverse Kilian (and it's harder than it sounds). And chassés, and if you get bored, try forwards cross-rolls!

Also, if you have time, try skating backwards in hold, which is surprisingly difficult - just plain vanilla back outside edges. You don't need it for the lower-level dances, but it's a useful skill - I don't know how soon you get into Variation, Original and Free dances in Australia, but here it's at once, along with the early dances.

It won't be long before you're allowed to step through the basic dances, and then you think "How hard can this be" - until you try doing it to music.....

It is, I am convinced, totally impossible to get through a dance, even the Novice Foxtrot, on decent edges, with decent extension and toe-point, correct posture, head up, smiling, in time with each other AND in time with the music! At least, I can't.....

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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!

Oh, but they make it look sooooo easy!!!! I was an ice-dance drop-out last year (couldn't remember the last half of the canasta tango to save my life!), and my instructors made it look easier than it was! I'm waiting for hubby's skills to catch up and we will sign up (hey, I told him there's no jumping!). My instructor was always telling me "point your toes-point your toes-why can't you point your toes?"

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

Flying Leaps
I'm back. Had first lesson with new coach yesterday. It was awesome. We just worked on basic skills that I somehow how managed to cheat my way through. Who knew you were supposed to use your toepick to jump? Apparently I have been getting around through sheer will.
Scarily, I expressed an interest in testing pre-bronze. I don't know where that came from. I was actually shocked when I said it. Oh well. I guess I'm hear for the long haul.

Have a great week everybody.

Crashing Falls
As of now, none. I'll keep you posted. They will come.

Flying Leaps:

Had a couple of nice centered spins - still not fast, still not too many revs but the tracing was textbook good - a few tight circles about my fist size at the end of a small curve with another curve leading out. I think I'm starting to get the technique

Crashing Falls:

I think I'm overrotating on Salchow take-off because I chicken out. I wait till I almost kill the speed and then do a really shy jump. The effect is quite comical - I do nice strong backward crossovers, step into a good bent edge, do a nice 3-turn and then instead of taking off keep holding the edge until I almost swing aroung on ice and then do a little hop. Total disaster. Will be trying to fix it on Saturday.

Crashing Falls Ugh, my lesson was cancelled today because of the impending hurricane. Stupid hurricane!!!!!

Flying Leaps Ah well, it'll give me some time away from the loop and it will give me a chance to practice it off the ice - it's not even good off the ice anymore so I know I need to start there.

Flying leaps: Spins were good yesterday, as were axel attempts. I think Kathy Casey's "loaf of bread" technique is really helping!

I also managed to get part of the novice backward double bracket pattern down, which I hope will help me develop more difficult footwork sequences.

Crashing falls: No lesson this week because my coach is on vacation and no ice for the next 2 weeks because the rink is closed for maintenance (and, boy, does it need it!).

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I've got mad salchow disease!

Flying leaps: Dance club tonight - nearly as many men as women. Why do all the men do the Festival Quickstep solo? Weird....

Danced as much as I wanted, and even had a go at the Foxtrot and 14-step, but it's kinder to draw a veil over that! Not a success!

Crashing Falls: Nothing, really....

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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!

What is the "loaf of bread" technique? And is it used for axels or spins?

This is for my week:

Flying leaps:
My backscratch and my straightline footwork sequence are back thanks to a blade sharpening. I also had centered scratch spins all week and jumps overall were fairly good.
Coach was pleased with the connecting steps I put in my Interpretive program- slide chasses to mohawk to power threes.


Crashing falls:
My sitspin has hidden itself from any practice or program runthrough whatsoever. May take it out of the program for Peach and do a attitiude spin instead.
Still no lesson with secondary coach- thought I was going to get one today,when another skater was late, but then the skater showed up.

Neither, but a funny story nonetheless:
We had two sisters that skate at UD this week here on vacation and they skated a couple of morning sessions with us. Yesterday, when the oldest, a Junior level skater wanted to play her program, I offered to push play on the CD , saying that I'd be doing my program next. Well, she took position and when the music started, I wanted to die. She has the same music for her long program that I have for my Pre- Bronze free!
Yes, I still did my program afterward, and told her, "Great minds think alike!

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

Hi!

I'm pretty new to the forums and I have enjoyed reading a lot of the posts. I am starting to skate again to help get strength back after a non-skating related injury. I skated when I was younger and I still love it. I'll be starting lessons in a couple of weeks! Just no jumping yet until I get stronger...

Flying leaps: I got my new Jackson Elites this last Friday and they are so great! The rocker on my Phantom blades got fixed too when I took them to be mounted and sharpened (I bought them used with some SP Teris, and the rocker was too curved). My edges are better and some of my 3s have been found again! I started to learn one foot spins on Wednesday, so far 3-5 revolutions, not too bad for the first day...

Crashing falls: CW back crossovers, myself does not want to balance right that way... Oh well... more to practice!

Flying leaps--
Had the ice completely to myself today! And it's been fixed, so it no longer has speed bumps at both ends. I put on music that I'm going to be using for a program and just improvised a bit (nothing's choreographed yet).

Crashing falls--
Wished I'd had more music with me, just to put on as background music.

Have to go car shopping this weekend, ecchhh.

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Ask me about becoming a bone marrow donor.
http://www.marrow.org
http://www.nmdp.org

Dance is the hardest easy thing to do. I've tested and passed the Dutch Waltz, after about three lessons and got goods and excellents, but really, a year and a half later, I wish I could test it again because it would be so much more better! In other words, I learned dance quickly enough to make it look passable, but only now is it competition ready. That's two different things.

A lot of dance is about getting power from the edge. There are a multitude of basic boring stroking exercises to do, and if you stick with them, they do help. I did skills for a long while, having had a hissy fit over dance and swore I would never dance again, but when someone put music on the other day, I did the Willow Waltz, remembered all the steps and had a 10,000% improved RFO 3 turn in it. It was okay before, but just working on boring 3 turnsthrough the summer improved one step in that dance. that was my flying leap for the day So since that was fixed, I spent 20 minutes doing progressives around the circles, yup, those two silly little forward strokes before the mohawk and down again I go through the rabbit hole.

So, dance can drive you crazy,but I'll tell you one thing. Doing dance makes you a better skater. Stick with it.

Oh the other thing? The man is always the problem.

crashing falls Spins. I've forgotten how. Someone else's arms seemed to have gotten attached to my body, strange alien things.

Well, at our rate that's the next three years of ice time taken care of...now, about that synchro program for next season...

Crashing falls:
The kids aren't back at school yet!!! (Just one more week!!!) No moves lesson yet... GRRRR!!!

Flying leap:
Not a total waste though... we worked on 3 turns today! And I surprised my coach with... a wimpy (and inconsistent) but technically a BI3's!!! He's quite surprised that I'm working on these. I told him evil secondary coach made me work on them b/c of an exercise she wants me to do which involves BI3's...and I had to be honest to her and tell her that I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DO BI3's!!! (Hopefully by the time I see her again... that statement won't be true!!!) He was also surprised to see my FI3's ... OMG ....STABLE!!! (I don't dare tell him that was NOT the case two months ago!!! )

Also (and I know Thin-Ice would want to read this), my weekend rink dodged another bullet from the City! WHEW!!!

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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!!!

Yes, and what a relief THAT is! Now we have until 9/23 for the rink to put in a new temporary refrigeration system that uses less ammonia than the current system. And once that is signed-off, the rink has until mid-April to find a permanent refrigeration system the city approves of. (For those who just LOVE bureaucracy, here's the background: The city just discovered the 65-year-old rink uses ammonia in its refrigeration system.. and horror of horrors, THAT presents a "potential hazard to life and property to the surrounding community" -- which has built up around the rink in the last 25 years! Currently Freon is the only alternative, and since Freon will not be usable/legal after 2006 -- unless laws change-- a lot of other rinks are switching BACK to ammonia. But the city keeps saying it's committed to providing recreational facilities for the community... it just doesn't say it's committed to keeping this historic skating rink open. GRRRRRR!!!!!!) Sorry, this is a really sore topic for me. Jazzpants' weekend rink is my secondary rink, the closest one to where I live (still 30 miles away) and where I work with my moves coach. It's where I practice.. but not where I work with my primary coach.

For Jazzpants & Thin-Ice: When our rink was threatened with closure, they formed an action group, representing all the interested parties - figure skaters, dancers, hockey players.... and okay, we aren't out of the wood quite yet, but it is 90% certain a new rink will be up and running next door before the old rink is closed, and there will be continuity of skating.

Wonderful day today!

Flying leaps: In our Compulsory dances, I made the same mistake in the Golden Skaters' Waltz that I made in Scotland. Which sounds as though it ought to be a crashing fall, but it isn't, because I now know exactly what we did wrong, and can concentrate on not doing it next time! Husband said "Yes, I thought I noticed you doing that before.....".

In our free dance, we actually managed to bring our free legs in front during the spin. We hadn't actually tried before, I was too chicken, but this time I tried, succeeded, and told Husband to do it, too. He hadn't actually realised one was meant to, so it will take a bit of remembering, but if we remember, it should improve our spin no end, and also make it look more "Scottish Dance-y". Also, I managed to get lower than ever before in the "dip", although I still think that bit of the dance is weak - I did quite good work on it solo after Husband had gone, though.

Also did a run-through of the Canasta Tango solo to music, and was pleased with myself. I think I see how to improve the pattern, too, which is good.

Crashing falls: It was co-o-o-ld this morning! And I am still having problems staying off my toe-rake when going backwards and, especially, when stepping from backwards to forwards. And the ice was horrid - although it was fairly clean when we started, it was a bit corrugated, and horrendously hard.

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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!

Crashing Falls....all the way

So I've been away for two weeks and been off the ice for three (well two weeks and six days to be precise), and I now cannot skate to save my life. I had my first lesson on Wednesday and second today and I daresay Wednesday was bad but today was even worse. I have totally lost confidence on all my jumps. It took my coach and I about ten attempts to land my lutz-loop, and even my easier loop-loop felt awkward though I did land it. I managed to get through my programme but without the loop on the end of the lutz and with a very dodgy lutz landing. My coach says it's all in the head, and I'm sure she's right, but that doesn't help me. I'm meant to be competing in the middle of September but if I can't get things together, I may well withdraw. Has anyone else gone away and lost it when they got back from a holiday? It's strange because normally I skate better after a break.

Nick

Flying Leap: Heh, well, I begged my coach go give me something new to work on, as I've been doing the same set of exercises all summer & I'm getting bored! He gave me a look of pure evil and said, "are you sure?" I sqeaked out a "yes".

He proceeded to give me 2 new step exercises that involve Insane Turns I've Never Done Before, followed by fast multiple 3 turns, followed by more insane turns......well, I did ask for it! (example: starting on FI edge, 4 consecutive rockers, step down onto other foot, 1 back crossover into back inside triple 3 turn, cross over front to left FI edge, repeat. Yah.) The other one has counters out of swing rolls into BI 3's........

But the flying part is I can actually do them! Not well, but cleanly, so I do have something new to work on, which when I get up some speed on them, will look very cool.

Crashing Falls: Dog broke my little pinky finger last night in agility class--decided he needed to go play w/ another dog & bolted out of the blue, ripping the leash out of my hand, & snapping the little bone at the very tip of the finger. Didn't go to the doctor because I can splint it myself (it's broken like this once before) and it will eventualy heal, but it hurts like he** and I have a partner tryout tomorrow!! So it will be something like, "hi, can't wait to skate with you, but please don't touch this hand!"

Also, Nicki, I've found that while a week off sometimes can improve skating by "resetting" everything, a break longer than that will make you lose some ground & it will probably take a few days to a week to put it all back together again. But it will come back.

Phoenix - you got that right!!! There were two and a half weeks when there was no ice available anywhere within three hours drive this summer. More than a week off is a DISASTER! We just got the ice back last weekend. (ps hope your hand gets better fast!)

Flying leaps: I have been able to skate every afternoon for an hour and a half this week. The most people on the session was five on Wednesday, The rest of the week there were two or three of us. I even had the rink to myself for 35 minutes this afternoon.

Crashing falls: The flip and the loop - literally
I have decided to take the pressure off myself by taking these two jumps out of my program for Peach and begin working on them again when I get home.

Jazzpants - have a great show tomorrow

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If you keep your eyes on God, you can walk on water.

Thanks for the encouragement -- but I really don't think the city of Berkeley cares about a few hockey players/speedskaters/figure skaters, etc. City officials there pride themselves on being SOOOO politically correct. And on the bright side, we can't really complain... we do have a dozen ice rinks in the San Francisco Bay area... so it's not like we will go without ice. We are VERY fortunate that way. We may have to drive a bit farther to get there. The saddest part about them thinking about closing that rink down is it is so historic, big, old but well kept, and the people who skate there are for the most part VERY nice. But as I said, no matter what happens, we will still have plenty of ice in the Bay Area. And if they shut it down, I shall take the politically correct action -- and BOYCOTT the entire city of Berkeley (although they do have a few wonderful fabric stores that I would miss).

Where I live, there was no ice rink unless you wanted to drive 2 hours north or 2.5 hours west, so skating was never an option (except for pond skating in winter which I did 5-6 times as a kid; but it never gets cold enough anymore). When I moved back here a few years ago, imagine my surprise when they put one in-down on the farm (ok, on the fairgrounds but we are in the sticks). Unfortunately, it closes for the summer, so you either do without from April to September, or you drive.

When hubby retires, I'm hoping for a move to where there are at least 3 rinks within a 10 minute drive of each other, at least 2 must be figure skating friendly-not just hockey rinks (I try to tell him there is a big difference). And, it must be in a warm climate; no further north than where I am now (I can't take the cold!)

And, it must have several malls, and several fabric super stores!!!! I'm tired of shopping for fabric via mail-order-I gotta touch the stuff!

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

Flying Leaps:

Spins are improving! They even feel different. Now it's more "step -> pause -> swoosh!" than "step -> turn -> crap!"

Worked on salchow entry and got a few nice tries with a "textbook" trace: long straight edge with a sharp bend at the end.

Crashing Falls:

Even falls were good today. I had a couple quite bad ones and both times landed on my back really softly, almost slid along the ice without hurting anything. If only all falls could be like that I would be much more adventurous on ice!!

Flying Leaps

1. My loop is coming back! I still need to work on it more, but I figured out what I was doing wrong and now it's just a matter of getting the height back along with better arms and flow out of the jump. Man, was that ever a struggle. The best part was that we didn't spend too much time working on it today either!

2. My coach is impressed with my basic sit spins so he's having me move onto variations, including tucking the head down between the arms. I haven't figured out how NOT to get dizzy on that spin and come up from it, but it sure does feel cool.

3. My flips were AMAZING today. Actually, ALL of my jumps were HUGE. I literally felt like I was flying through the air on some of them. My coach was amazed with the height I got, and people around me were gawking. That tells me something! I gotta get out that video camera to see what the fuss is all about, but I can feel that they're good. I smell doubles in another year or so.

4. I had a good group lesson today too. We had a sub coach because our regular one was "trapped" in his house by a downed tree from the hurricane. The sub coach gave me no corrections and complimented my speed and good line.

5. I've been trying to drop some weight, and I stepped on the scale this morning and I've lost 8 pounds. My coach noticed today too because he said I looked really really good. Sweet! Only 20 more to go!

Crashing Falls

1. The one time I actually fell was on the FIRST thing I did in my group lesson. The coach had us take ONE push and do a one foot glide from one side of the rink to the other. The good news is that I was the ONLY person in the class that could do it (assisted by a breaststroke swimming motion lol) but on my first attempt I took TOO hard of a push and went down. Ah well, it's good to get the first fall out of the way early.

2. I'm still having problems with the backspin. I decided to leave it alone until my coach can help me with it so I don't ingrain any bad habits. Maybe next week if his wife doesn't go into labor.

3. My camels just aren't right. I'm not dropping my chest low enough (stoopid ballet background) and my knees are bent. I had it consistently at 3-4 revolutions but somehow I've regressed back to 1 rev with good position, then 1 or 2 revs with really poor body position. Meh.

4. I went to do a toe loop and slipped off of the toe pick. Didn't fall, but it sure was funny. The next toe loop was one of my best

5. I'm pitching forwards on my loop landings and not getting good arm position, but I'm pleased to just be jumping!

That's it from me for today. I'm sitting here using my foot spa then it's off to the showers. Woohoo!